0:02Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the gray zone. It's been a while since we've had a live stream, but we've been doing putting out a lot of content in the meantime, and a lot has happened since our last stream. Um, we're going to talk about the calls to investigate me from three Israel first backbenchers in Congress.
0:30what I call the Tel Aviv 3 released on congressional letterhead but by the person who one of the people who seems to be actually running the Trump administration from the outside, Laura Loomer, and disaster is looming for this administration as the Iran war continues to fail. The economy is in shambles. The deficit is above $40 trillion.
0:54Trump's approval rating is historically low, including among Republicans.
0:59Over 50% of Americans report that they cannot afford groceries and the strategic oil reserves of the US are lower than they've been at any point since 1983.
1:13In order to replenish those oil reserves, the US with a gun to the head of Venezuelan quote unquote vice president Deli Rodriguez, an unelected figure who is actually running the show on behalf of Trump's crony network has struck a historic deal for 60 billion barrels of oil to be taken out of Venezuela.
1:43by the US under some very suspicious terms.
1:48Uh let's let's take a look at how Deli Rodriguez herself is framing this historic day after a meeting with the energy secretary, Trump's energy secretary, Chris Wright, who comes straight out of the oil industry. She's calling it a historic day for Venezuela.
2:03The energy secretary Chris Wright accompanied the signing of important agreements with energy giants like Chevron and ENI to bo boo boost our oil industry.
2:19We're going to develop justice and social equality produce more jobs. the salaries of public employees and you know improve the health sector and hospitals. She's going to make a massive reinvestment into the Venezuelan social system and that's how she's selling this deal.
2:50Um the reality is quite different and I personally think it's this is a very tragic moment in the history of Venezuela. Uh that may really represent the end of the Venezuelan national project itself, the end of Venezuelan sovereignty. That's my opinion, but I want to bring in someone who has a much more expert analysis of what's been taking place, what just took place in Venezuela. It is a I I really think this is a historic turning point in Venezuela's history um at the end of the Chavista movement entering a colon a new a neoc colonial period and to better understand what is taking place there and and really what what the
3:41plan for the entire Americas under the Donro doctrine is. I want to uh welcome to the gray zone Francisco Rodriguez who is a senior fellow at the center for economic and policy research and a professor the University of Denver who has done I think some of the most important work on understanding the impact of US sanctions on Venezuela the distortion of the Venezuelan economy under sanctions and now um how Venezuela's economy is being reshaped since the uh abduction of Venezuela's President Nicholas Maduro and Celio Flores. Welcome to the Grey Zone.
4:18Francisco Rodriguez.
4:19>> Hi, Max. Uh, thank you very much for the invitation. Uh, delighted to be here.
4:26>> Uh, great great to have you here. People are complaining about uh noise that I need to increase my mic volume. This is very weird.
4:34So, is this any better everyone? Uh, some are saying the volume's fine.
4:45Um, yeah. I don't know what the problem is. Um, Francisco, you have a you have a new book out. Um, tell us about that before we get started, just so everyone has a good reference point.
4:56>> Sure. Uh, well, I published two books last year actually. Uh, one of them, uh, is the collapse of Venezuela's court politics and economic decline 2012 to 2020. Uh, it's with the University of Notre Dame press. Uh and this book is essentially about Venezuela's economic collapse, which is the largest ever uh recorded economic collapse to occur outside of wartime. It's a decline of more than 71% in per capita GDP. That's the equivalent of three consecutive great depressions. Uh and what I do is that I explore uh the role of political conflict in that collapse. uh my story and that's why the the the concept of of the book
5:40is the concept of scorch earth politics.
5:42It's the idea that political actors uh will decide at times that it makes sense to target the economy as a result of their struggle for power. And when you have both sides of a political confrontation doing that, then you get a phenomenon that that I describe as economically destructive political conflict. And that's what that's my explanation of what happened in Venezuela during this decade. The other book is uh called the Elgar Companion to the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. Uh it's an edited volume. It has contributions from prominent scholars um around Latin America. Uh it has uh case studies of more than 20
6:18countries in the region uh as well as uh thematic essays and it essentially tries to grapple with the issue of why why can't Latin America catch up? Why actually why has Latin America continued falling behind uh the um uh the US and and and advanced industrial economies?
6:36Uh why hasn't been been able to converge for example like uh um like like many countries in Asia have been able to close their gaps uh with industrialized countries. Uh so there's a a wide variety of uh explanations uh among different uh authors. uh but generally they emphasize uh the themes of um of state institutions kind of inequality and entrenched power of elites.
7:06>> Great. Well, let's let's talk about the the deal. uh walk us through the details of this historic agreement between the US and the Venezuelan government of Deli Rodriguez and tell us why you've been saying that this deal represents not gunboat diplomacy but gunpoint diplomacy.
7:29>> Well, I don't think that any reasonable independent government would sign this deal. Uh I mean, let's start out with the following. uh Venezuela um in through this deal is giving 100-year concessions to uh a firm that's majority owned by uh an investor a somewhat shady figure Alejandro Bit Lopez uh for that those 65 billion barrels of reserves which are approximately 20% of Venezuelan oil reserves. uh the longest concessions that Venezuela ever gave uh were given in 1907 and were for 50 years. So this is double the length of those concessions. Then the dictatorship of Juan Bisente Gomez gave 40-year
8:14concessions and that was se that that is something that was felt to be scandalous by the standards of just about uh you know all the Venezuelan public opinion.
8:26So, so what happened is that the democratic movements that arose around the 20th century uh in fact arose they converge around the idea of uh invalidating eliminating reverting these concessions. Uh Axion Democratica uh the main social democratic party that uh that that was leading party during much of the 20th century uh its its slogan uh was no more concessions and in fact they nationalized the oil industry in 1976.
8:53They left some space open for private sector participation and that uh was used in the 1990s uh to uh to effectively sign some contracts with foreign oil companies. Those were contracts that Ugo Chavez thought were too um uh too generous. So when he came to power he actually restricted them and renegotiated them into joint ventures.
9:15And I mean the reason that I'm telling this story is that it's you know there there were differences in among Venezuelan political forces as to uh whether you wanted to fully nationalize you wanted to leave some scope for private participation. You wanted to have joint ventures but there was an overarching consensus from the right to the left that you should not give concessions. And all of the sudden now we have being announced the longest concessions ever. uh concessions that in length are similar to those that were given uh by Panama when it uh built the Panama Canal, which people that know that story know that uh the Panameanian
9:53independence movement was financed by the US uh essentially so that it could split off from Colombia and and and build the canal that the US wanted to build. So, so there's a lot that's wrong about this deal. And let me explain a little bit about the the economics here.
10:09Um because what what you have you know what what what Deli Rodriguez is saying is look you know this deal is going to be great because it's going to bring investment and and it's important to distinguish because she made two announcements and and I think that they were deliberately designed to be confusing.
10:27uh Secretary Wright actually uh came to Venezuela uh and uh there was an event at which uh there was an announcement of investment by other companies. Chevron uh any Repzole these are companies that actually have been in Venezuela for many years that are now taking advantage of the fact that sanctions are being lifted to increase production. Uh but that's very different from the deal with the US. That has nothing to do with the deal with the US. The deal with the US are those are these 65 billions and what Deli Rodriguez is selling. She's saying look uh we're going to get a hundred billion dollars of investment and that's
11:04what we need to raise oil production to 1.5 million buy 1.5 million barrels uh and that's going going to generate significant uh revenues. Okay, fine. I mean you know that I I can see that that argument makes sense in practice. But here's the problem. Um the President Trump is saying uh this is not going to cost taxpayers a dime. Uh so uh so okay, wait a minute. So there's a deal between the US and Venezuela. Deli says we're going to get a hundred billions of dollars of investment. Trump says I'm not going to pay a dime.
11:39Going to pay this money. Who's come up with these billion dollars? Well, if you look at the memorandum published by the White House, it's actually a a firm that's being created. That's the firm headed by Mr. Alejandro Bettincort. Uh this is uh that that is going to come up with the money. This is a firm that essentially didn't exist until a few years ago that has never operated outside of the Venezuelan uh oil sector.
12:02Uh it's this is uh a guy who uh is essentially best known for getting kind of billions of dollars in no bid contracts to build electrical plants some of which were never built actually.
12:14So uh where's he going to come up with?
12:16I mean Chevron said that they're going to put $7 billion. So you know if if one of the largest companies in the world of the largest oil companies in the world is saying we're going to put $7 billion.
12:29Can we really believe that Mr. Betton Court is going to come up with a hundred billion dollars. So the reality is that nobody knows where those hundred billion dollars are going to come out of. So this is just like a vague promise.
12:40There's no commitment. There's no and nowhere in the deal does the US say we're going to put that money. But what does Venezuela do? Venezuela has to start sending 20% of the production of these 17 fields. Uh it has to be sending it to the US at cost. at cost essentially means that when Venezuelan oil sells for $65, you're going to be selling it, you're going to be giving it to the US at around $30. So, you're going to be gifting the US $35 per barrel and that starts today with 40,000 barrels that are starting to be to be shipped that Trump has already announced are going into a strategic petroleum reserve as of
13:17November. Uh so this this is around $500 million a year which a country that has gone through a massive economic crisis, a country that is reeling from destructive double earthquakes that needs money for reconstruction. Now it actually has to send oil as a gift to the US. uh and it has to sacrifice resources that it could use to rebuild its economy in exchange for this vague commitment that somehow someone is going to come up with a hundred billion dollars at an undefined moment in time >> and and and explain the the discrepancy in what the White House has said about 100 billion dollars of investment versus
14:02the Department of Energy which is now saying there will only be 10 billion of investment. Is that kind of a tell that they're never going to cough up the $100 billion that Deli Rodriguez is pro promising her constituents?
14:15>> Yeah, I I mean actually, you know, it's interesting. That's why you have to learn to read things carefully and you know the first thing that when House memo came out when it actually came out I was 100 billion figure and that's where it's at two things. One of them is that it's not a US commitment. It's a commitment of of NAB which is the name of the firm uh that is owned by Mr. Bettonort. Uh and the second thing that it said is up to 100 billion. So up to 100 billion is a big range. Up to 100 billion includes zero uh and it includes 10 billion. So so yes, I'm not surprised that the department of energy is already putting
14:51out smaller numbers.
14:55>> And there there's another component to this.
15:01Um the the Pentagon has an was it an office of strategic assets which is run by Stephen Fineberg who's the deputy secretary of war and is the guy really running the whole show. Um, I I know Biden, this was set up under Biden, but Fineberg is really expanding this office's remit and doing something that I I just don't understand how it's legal where through this office, the Pentagon is taking a 35% equity in the profits from Venezuelan oil in this deal. Is is that correct? How is that legal? And can you explain um what this means where essentially the department of war after kidnapping the president of Venezuela is
15:51now taking an actual stake in the country's oil sector.
15:55>> Yeah. Well, uh yes. I mean that's the other thing. The other thing is that you know in uh as part of this deal uh this uh firm that's being created uh in order to manage these 17 fields that hold the 65 billion uh barrels in reserves this is going to be owned uh 65% by uh Mr.
16:16Betang or his his firm and it's going uh and there's going to be a 35% stake that is owned uh by uh the the department of war. Now, uh the thing is that um the um the this office that you're referring to does not have a legal mandate that allows it to own ownership stakes. Uh so the way that the White House is [clears throat] interpreting it is uh well, we're not allowed to use money to buy them, but we can uh you know, if we get them for free, then we can hold them. That's essentially what they're doing. Uh so they're use using an instrument called penny warrants which are essentially worthless. So since they
16:59since since it doesn't they're not appropriating funds to buy then they say that they can uh have the investment.
17:04That's a very contentious uh kind of legal interpretation. Uh and I guess if somebody's going to decides to take it to court at some moment I don't know who would. I mean you know the Venezuela is not going to take it to court. I mean that's the issue. uh the uh I think you know the broader problem here is that uh Venezuela is doing exactly what it's ordered to do by the US. I mean there's no question my mind this is not a deal that an independent government would sign. Uh this is a deal that is being signed at gunpoint. I mean the the reality is that the US uh invaded Venezuela. It kidnapped Nicolas Maduro uh and it you
17:46know put a gun to the head of the people who are leading the Venezuelan state uh and said well you know either you comply or and I mean you know you see I'm not making this up. President Trump has said it. I mean he said that he threatened with even worse consequences uh for the Rodriguez and and her team if they did not comply with US demands. Uh so so that's why I believe that we've moved from the tradition of US gunboat diplomacy to gunpointed diplomacy.
18:15>> Well, and I I completely agree. I broke the story that the US had a secret indictment of Deli Rodriguez, which they were holding over her head. Unless she did what they wanted, they could have also I mean given the ruthlessness of the Trump administration and how they've behaved across the Americas, kidnapped her as well. So they certainly have a gun to their head. But what about Alejandra Bettin Court? Um this is someone who had faced uh investigations at the very least in Switzerland. Um there was one other country for money laundering and we you know the New York Times has a new report out that uh Marco
19:02Rubio had been recruiting Bettin Court as the kind of economic middleman for the US to cut this deal ultimately and that Rubio and the State Department were actually putting pressure on Swiss prosecutors to bury the investigation and potential prosecution. So, do you think that the US favors Bettton Court because they have so much legal leverage over him and could easily just send him back uh sent to being prosecuted if he doesn't do what they want?
19:36>> That's a good question and that that that I think is a very reasonable hypothesis. Uh I mean the thing about Betsen Court is that Betsen Court um is somebody who became immensely rich uh overnight uh as a result of government contracts to build electrical plants during the government of Fugo Chavez. Uh these were no bid contracts. Uh they uh and you know some of these plants didn't even get built. Uh so it it was really um you know Venezuela goes through bit of massive electricity shortages uh in uh currently and of course there there's many reasons and it's a complex and sanctions have also played a role but
20:16certainly the country does not have the infrastructure uh that uh Mr. Beten Court's firm um committed to providing.
20:25Uh there are indictments against uh many of Mr. Beton court's collaborators. His cousin Francisco Convit has been indicted in the US. He's a fugitive from US justice. Um the Betton Court uh according to the best of my understanding uh is uh an unnamed co-conspirator uh in the indictments related to uh the embezzlement of $1.2 billion in Venezuelan funds. Uh that's also what led what's led to the order of arrest not only of of his associate Hinto sorry Francisco Kumvit uh as well as of um uh of the Venezuelan media mogul Rahul Gurin. Uh so he's very you know involved in in all of these uh dealings and uh as as you say it's it's
21:15I mean he he hasn't been formally charged according to what um some news media have reported uh mostly as a result of US pressure. Uh so um so yes I mean there's some there's something very uh very dark about all of this. So you know interestingly enough uh Betan Court actually uh during one period became very close to some leaders of the opposition uh and in fact uh there was a meeting uh that was widely reported on uh with uh the brother of Hang Do at Mr.
21:51Bettonort's castle. Uh so um so he also tried to finance the opposition. I mean he's very well connected uh among a number of circles and that in fact was sort of Marco Rubio's argument when he defended Bethort in a in a recent interview that he gave to a Venezuelan reporter. Marco Rubio's argument I I I mean he made two arguments which I thought were kind of bizarre. You know one of them is uh well you know there's there's no cases against Betton Court in the US. Uh so almost like saying well then you know we can ignore what's happening in Switzerland and that's irrelevant. uh the uh and um and and his
22:28other point uh was that Bettonort had been working with the opposition and trying to help the opposition. Uh which I mean doesn't really answer the questions about about corruption. Uh the I mean it just it just basically means that this is a calculating figure who is willing to take whoever's side. But but you know I mean the problem you see this is really something quite quite remarkable that you take somebody who is kind of as tainted uh as as Bethort is and and you hand them of the country's reserves. Uh it you know I mean it's just to get a bit of a dimension of 65 billion barrels of oil.
23:12The whole Russian oil privatization that led to the rise of the Russian oligarchs uh was 20 billion barrels. So Bethort is getting three more than three times that uh and and somebody who has you know essentially no merits. I mean, you know, if if [laughter] if there had been a a a concession uh that was made uh for this amount of oil uh kind of to Chevron, to Exxon, to an established company, it would be highly controversial. Uh the but but here it's like you can't even begin to elaborate on what's the rationale and uh you know and and and here is important to go back to to the following. Look, if you look at major
23:54oil privatizations around the world, um they almost invariably with very few exceptions which are not good ones, uh they're done through competitive bidding. In fact, uh Venezuelan law establishes in article 39 of the hydrocarbons law that was approved by the national assembly in January uh that the contracts for uh development of primary activities which is the figure under which Mr. Mr. Betton Court's contract is uh have to be carried out through competitive bidding. Now there is a sentence in that article that says that under special conditions exceptions can be approved to that. But come on 20%
24:32of the country's reserves is not an exception. I mean it is the rule. This is the largest concession that Venezuela has given essentially in all of its history is a concession proper. Uh so I I you know this is something that is very hard to understand and I think that there's um you know there are some hypotheses going around. I mean it's very difficult uh for me to adjudicate between them. One of them is look you know there's Pentord is somebody who was working with Del Rodriguez. He had this concession kind of the Trump administration has taken this decision that they're going to work with the
25:07people who are there and this is part of it. The second hypothesis is look, you know, they they needed this deal. Uh, and why does Trump need this deal?
25:16Because the only thing that Trump cares about is being able to say, I'm getting Venezuelan oil for free and I'm putting it into a strategic reserve and he wants to do that before the election. So, the problem is that no oil major would go for this deal. That's why they had to do it with Betang Court. Uh, you know, that's a second hypothesis. A third hypothesis is much darker and it's just that you know this is a a simply a mechanism for rent seeeking. It's a mechanism for corruption, for extracting resources from from the V Venezuelan state. And you know, I'm I'm not going to make any accusations, but I would say
25:49given given the the state of the rule of law in Venezuela, I would not be surprised uh if years from now uh we find out that there are major corruption scandals that involve not only Venezuelan figures around, you know, the use of resources uh generated by this deal.
26:07>> Yeah. So I think um hypothesis two and three hypotheses two and three could both be true. And you have said that handing over 1if of Venezuela's oil reserves to Alejandro Bettin Court is like making Jeffrey Epstein school commissioner. But it does seem to be of a part with the most corrupt administration in American history in the Trump administration. I I mean you can't even call it an administration.
26:36and I just call it like Trump incorporated. Um they're running it like a business for themselves. So I wanted you to address the corruption that we're seeing. The Financial Times has a new piece out about um so many corrupt deals being cut uh a as sort of backroom deals, no bid contracts being handed out as a part of this deal. Can can you discuss the the the the provide us with a kind of lay of the land of corruption?
27:06>> Yeah. Well, that's a big task. I mean, for Venezuela. Yes.
27:11>> As much as you can >> and for Venezuela and for the and for the US currently. And let me let me say you know and you know obviously I think that uh you know one has to be uh both careful and responsible in terms of you know uh the uh not accusing specific persons of corruption if if there's no proof and there's and there's an issue of presumption of innocence and all of these issues. it. But we're seeing things that are very murky uh in Venezuela and in the US. Well, let me start with the US because uh the um so one of the things that the Trump administration has done that we've seen over the course of the past year or so
27:50uh is the dismantling of a number of safeguards that used to work as impediments uh for uh funds of of illegitimate or unverified origin uh to come into US politics.
28:07So uh for example the the Trump administration uh has paused all enforcement of foreign corrupt practices act. Uh so what that means is that >> is that if you bribe a foreign official that's no longer a crime in the US. It it used to be FCPA was about that at least you know if you used of US bank accounts it's no longer a crime. I mean it's no longer a a prosecutable crime.
28:35So you can do whatever you want. And then uh the the financial crimes enforcement network Fininsen actually ended beneficial reporting which was you know a whole set of of of guidelines that have been set up and of requirements that have been set up. Uh so that whoever has a firm has to actually report who the real owner of that is. Uh that essentially means that they've legalized uh the the building and listing of shell companies uh that are registered in the US. you don't have to now kind of go to the Bahamas or go to another place to have a shell company. You can establish a shell company in New York now under the
29:12current guidelines. Uh and and what we've seen, the New York Times had a had a very interesting story on this about a week ago. What we've seen uh is a significant growth in the amount of money that is going into US political campaigns. uh that is that cannot be traced that is untraceable that you know its origin is unknown and at the same time we're actually seeing that the Republicans are building a huge advantage in fundraising uh relative to the Democrats so that uh you know even though uh there's a lot of political specialists who are uh projecting that the Democrats are going to do well as as
29:50they usually as the opposition party usually does in the midterm elections.
29:55uh you know those people who who look at the impact of money say you know be careful with that because the Republicans are going to be a lot better funded right so then so so you have that and then then you have you know multiple reports some of them are clearly verified about US officials who are making money uh out of dealings that involve the US government uh about people close to them about their families including the family of uh President and Trump being being involved. uh the uh and um and well I mean this all of this starts to paint a picture and then what the financial time reveals today uh which is not surprising
30:37uh is that uh you're you have the political operatives who are close to Trump administration former administration officials uh people who have contributed money to uh Trump's campaigns and to the Republicans uh who are among the first that are going into Venezuela and are getting some lucrative contracts in Venezuela and Let's go back a bit to the role of of of m Mr. Bethort and and NAB his firm. So this firm doesn't have the money and it doesn't have the capacity to produce at any level. I mean not the it doesn't have the the the machinery.
31:12It doesn't have the personnel to uh to exploit 65 billion or 17 oil fields. So what we're going to but he has a concession now and something that you can do with a concession is that you can turn around and sell the concession. So what I think that we're going to now is these concessions uh being uh endorsed or being passed over being sold by Mr.
31:38court to other people and and I think that there you know court to a certain extent I think will end up becoming the front man in this because the problem is that when at least him we know who he is but when uh his firm decides to sell these concessions uh to other investors we might not know who those investors are uh they will be these will be shell companies that will be extremely difficult to trace and then then what we will see is that those hundred billion dollars are never going to turn up. I mean, you know, Mr. Bon Court, for all we know, might probably disappear without coming up with the money and
32:13then Venezuelans are going to be left on the hook uh with uh their oil wealth being owned by even by by who knows uh because we're not even going to know probably the identity of the people who are going to end up with these concessions. Uh so it's it's it's yes, I mean I I my sense is that look, you know, there's everything is wrong with this deal. uh and if you wanted to do I I am in favor uh of opening up the Venezuelan oil sector to private investment. Uh I believe that the country needs to attract funds uh in order to be able to develop its capacity to produce oil and I think that if you can design reasonable deals uh where as
32:58part of that partnership uh you offer to foreign investors ownership stakes in the in the oil industry. I think that that should not be controversial, but why not do do this through a public auction? That's that's the normal way to do it and that's the way in which you can guarantee that what the nation is receiving is the most that it can receive because you have kind of bidding among different participants and and you get the maximum price. Uh this is the complete opposite of this. This this is a giveaway. Uh it's it's there's there's no reasonable explanation for this uh except a that the Venezuelan government
33:34has a gun to its head. Uh and b that that it's designed to be uh opaque and to hide the transfer of the resources of Venezuelans uh to particular people who are uh politically connected either with the government of Del Rodriguez or with the government of Donald Trump.
33:56It it really does resemble the mass privatization of Russia in the 1990s, but as you point out, I mean, you can quantify that this will be much more extreme based on the amount of oil that is going to be extracted and placed [clears throat] in completely nebulous opaque cans, 65 billion barrels versus 20 billion barrels. But what happened in Russia was a disaster for the average Russian. I mean, you had three to five million excess deaths in Russia in the 1990s.
34:30>> Um, everybody just lost everything. The money went out. Uh, oligarchic class was created and it resulted in Putin coming in to sort of restore order with what he calls a managed democracy instead of the kind of wild west neoliberal democracy of the 1990s when there, you know, at least was a truly free press in Russia.
34:52Do you see Venezuela going the same way with just sort of more disaster, more migration outflows, uh, no relief for the Venezuelan public, and then ultimately um, authoritarianism, which is which which is what we were told to oppose.
35:10And I you know what I was demonized for when I you know went and interviewed Maduro without uh treating him like uh he was uh you know a terror suspect or something where I saw this all coming. I saw this as what would come after Maduro if there was some kind of US intervention but many others didn't. I see this Venezuela becoming more authoritarian but under US management.
35:34Uh do you see the same scenario?
35:37>> Yeah. Um I think that there's a strong risk of it and um you know to go back to the Russian example for for a moment uh you know there there were a number of uh of elements that played out there uh one of them uh was that of these uh oligarchs who who received this massive transfer uh and you know interestingly to go in the Russian privatization the way in which it was handled um it was very clearly a sham But I would say at least they had the decency to rig the auctions. Uh so at least you know they carried it out in auction. I mean there was nothing and then yes they rigged it but they didn't just say hey you know
36:21we're going to give this to these people. Uh they at least they didn't announce it publicly. So um now at that moment it was uh you know some people defended it with the idea that it was kind of necessary and there was uh this big fear uh that um that Yeltson would lose power and that and uh at that moment uh actually the polls were indicating that the communist party uh that was being led by uh Jadani Shuganov was actually uh quite popular. So So there was this concern that Yelson was going to lose power. Now we know that actually Yelson was essentially um basically drunk all the time at that and
37:08you know he was very much under the influence of alcohol. he wasn't really governing uh the uh and however so so part of what happened is that these oligarchs uh were the ones who uh using uh the money that they were getting through these handouts from the state uh actually ended up fueling Yelson's presidential campaign that allowed him to uh to to be to be reelected. Um now >> and the CIA I mean the US rigged that campaign in 96.
37:38>> Exactly. Exactly. supporting >> but but but I just want to point out something. They the whole promise at that moment was that you know this was necessary. This was going to be good for Russians. I mean this was if anything like the necessary evil of creating these oligarchs because this was the way in which he could you know protect the transition to a market economy. And don't get me wrong I I do think that the transition to a market economy was necessary. But I don't think that in order to make a transition to a market economy uh you have to kind of create a corrupt oligarchy because two years
38:11later Russia went through a massive economic crisis. So banking sector collapsed its currency collapsed. So Russians did not benefit from the privatization. They lost and then they created this oligarchic class which was these oligarchs were the ones that were precisely that that were trying to that that ended up blocking any type of reforms that would bring about democracy or that would uh improve the rule of law.
38:40Because if you've gotten these handouts uh through you know these contracts that were really opaque, the last thing you want is for there to be independent courts that are going to look at your contracts again. So, so that so I think that we're going down that route in Venezuela. Um, combined with the fact that you also have an imperial power which is the US uh which is now governing the country. So, this is starting to look a lot like Cuba in 19 after 1901 between n you know in the 1900s uh like Haiti like the Dom Dominican Republic. These were the countries were you know at the beginning of the 20th century uh particularly
39:21during the the presidency of of Teddy Roosevelt uh there was this idea which was it became known as the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe doctrine uh which was that the US essentially had the right and the responsibility according to Roosevelt to intervene in Latin America when the governments of these countries weren't able to maintain order in their countries and that is what justified all of these interventions. Now what happened in these countries? Well, what happened is that you ended up with a political class that was completely subservient to US interests. And that's what you have right now in Venezuela. What you have is
40:00a government which is that of Rodriguez and an opposition.
40:07None of which dare to criticize Trump because they all believe the way that we get to power, the way that we stay in power is with the support of Trump. So you have this. So, so you have I mean the country is being looted and its politicians from the left or the right are saying absolutely nothing because they are all waiting to see if they can convince the Americans to put them in power. That is exactly the same thing that happened in Cuba in the early 20th century. all of the polit so Cuba was forced to adopt something called the Platt amendment in its 1901 constitution which gave the US a standing right of
40:46intervention and the US uh used that four times uh in the first two decades of the 20th century to intervene militarily in Cuba whenever there was a government that was doing something that they didn't like. So what ended up happening is that the whole political class of Cuba ended up instead of trying to build their power base in the country by responding to the needs of their constituents, they ended [clears throat] up sucking up to the US, trying to spend time in Washington and in Florida trying to convince US politicians to support them. And that's why you had the rise of a movement that was so antagonistic to
41:24the US because the US was seen precisely as the instrument through which the country was being run in the interest not of Cubans. Uh so uh so so so I mean I think that this is intensely damaging to the future of Venezuela at many different levels. I mean the country's natural resources are being looted. you're creating an oligarchic class uh and you're creating these incentives for the politicians essentially not to respond to the needs and preoccupations of Venezuelans.
41:57>> Yes. Uh, I always go back or I for the last week or so I've been going back in my mind to the scene in Godfather 2 where the figure playing sort of a dramatized version of the Cuban dictator Venio Vhensio Batista is meeting with the heads of US industry and the mafia uh the Corleone family to basically just cut a series of deals as his regime is quickly collapsing and the rebels are advancing from the countryside. It really reminds me of this deal. Um, but the stakes are even higher here. Uh, one more question before I bring in Aaron Mate, who's um, allegedly waiting uh, in the wings here, which is um,
42:50World War II.
42:53The US can't wage World War II right now. um not just because of the munitions crisis but because of the strategic oil reserve uh the the closure of the straight of Hormuz has obstructed at least 20% of petroleum and liquid natural gas and that h is costing the US its strategic reserve but now it can replenish it through Venezuela so this goes to hypothesis number two that you put forward is this going to uh enable the US and specifically Trump to continue the war on Iran. Could that be a motivating factor? Or to uh do another pivot to Asia and begin uh putting military pressure on China or to extend the
43:39Ukraine proxy war and to continue to put military pressure on Russia? How much of this is motivated by fueling the kind of US global military machine?
43:49>> Yeah. So, uh it's an interesting question. I mean, I think that um the the where where we should look for the answer to that question is not in the actual oil that's being extracted. Why?
44:01Because Venezuela produces 1.2 million barrels. That's 1% of world production.
44:06Uh it's not that big and it and and it doesn't have the capacity to ramp up production very rapidly. Uh so I think you know the all of the plans are and and for that the money has to materialize, the investment has to materialize. But but in order for that to happen I mean even if it happens uh production is going to increase gradually over the next decade. So you might have an increase of 100 200,000 barrels uh per year but you know this is not a huge deal and it's not it's not you know it's not like invading Saudi Arabia where you can then just grab a lot of oil and and and start using it.
44:41Um but but I think that the logic is a bit different. I mean I think that that's the electoral part. the electoral part is that Trump wants to be seen doing something about oil prices. Uh and uh and at one level I I mean you know the problem is that you take Venezuelan oil is being sold in world markets. So if you if you take that oil and bring it to the S and put it into the strategic petroleum reserve then you're taking it out of world markets. So, uh, unless what they're deciding to do is just basically take the 200,000 barrels that Venezuela is using to run itself for domestic production and send that to the
45:15US, which again it will be a pittance and then then we'll have a massive blackouts in Venezuela just like you you're having in Cuba right now. So, I think that that um I I think that actually what they're what what Trump is trying to do here aside from just electorally saying that you know that there's oil coming into the reserve. I think that what he's trying to do uh is is something different. It goes back to this idea of the Monroe Doctrine and of the or Donroe or the Trump Corollary, however you want to call it, which says um he's trying to send a very strong signal to governments in the region that they have to be on
45:54his side. He wants to establish US dominance over the whole region, over the Western Hemisphere, and he wants to essentially say to the rest of the world, to Russia and China, this is my territory. So in in order to do that and that's why Deli Rodriguez is so important to him because if he can show that he can achieve like total compliance then that raises the bar for the other presidents who want to curry favor with the US the other leaders in the region who want to curry favor the US.
46:25You know, Deli Rodriguez announced that Venezuela was leaving the International Criminal Court less than a week after Marco Rubio launched his campaign against the ICC. You know, it was like, you know, the the I mean, the first Latin American country ended up being the one that's being run by supposedly by by a socialist party. So, but but then this means that kind of Rubio can now go to all of the other leaders in the region that they and you know some of them are trying to curry favor with Washington. Some of them uh have opposed Washington uh the and some of them are kind of you know trying to handle it in
47:05different ways but he can use this to essentially try to extort and to extract compliance uh from from these others. Uh so I I think that that that generally it's a way of the US like showing its really strong arm and that's and when this happens then uh then it's almost like you almost have to get that country to get that leadership to do humiliating things because that's the way in which you will show that the US is powerful enough to get them to do whatever it wants.
47:35>> Yeah. And and of course Rubio did that on behalf of Israel, which >> and that's the other decision that Rodriguez took, which was reestablished ties with Israel.
47:45>> Yep. Which is the program for all Latin American countries under the banner of the Donroe doctrine. Francisco Rodriguez, thanks so much for joining us at the Grey Zone and for your excellent analysis of a of a really historic and I would say tragic agreement between Venezuela and the US. Um, and there should have always been an agreement between Venezuela and the US, a historic agreement that could have and should have benefited both countries, but this isn't it. This is a colonial one that continues. And in my opinion, uh, the collapse of Venezuela, which is the title of your last book, and here it is,
48:28The Collapse of Venezuela: Scorched Earth Earth Politics and Economic Decline 2012 to 2020 by Francisco Rodriguez, who has been our guest today at the Greyzone. Pick it up. Uh, it's pretty authoritative. It's 500 pages.
48:45[laughter] And, uh, this is what sanctions can do to a country. So, uh, thanks again, Francisco, and we hope to have you back.
48:53>> Thanks very much, Max. Pleasure being here.
48:55>> Take care.
48:57All right.
48:59Well, um, I could have kept going for another hour. That was fascinating, but we have other things to talk about in a short amount of time. And here's everyone's asking for a a mate.
49:15>> Good to be here. Max, if we have time, can I ask you a few questions about Venezuela? What you just discussed?
49:20>> Yeah.
49:21>> So, I have two questions. First of all, what is your read on the uh intravista movement discussion around all this?
49:29Like to me, it's like being in a zombie movie. The people who I've always followed from Venezuela. I see some people who, you know, were disciples of Ugo Chavez now cheering this on and and mocking those who are questioning Deli Rodriguez. So, is everyone just held at gunpoint? people been bribed like or are they just in an impossible situation where unless they play ball as you guys discussed they're you know they they Vene Venezuela could suffer an even worse fate. The other question I had is um and I'm sorry if I missed this if Francisco discussed this but it's my understanding that has Trump lifted a
50:03single sanction on Venezuela yet?
50:06>> I feel like you should have asked these to Francisco but uh >> but he hasn't as far as I understand he hasn't lifted any of these sanctions. So Delta is making this huge deal with him without getting any >> he hasn't he hasn't lifted any sanctions >> no sanctions right so this country is they >> they want to keep the leverage and you know to your first question it it really um reminded me the deal with Alejandro Bettin court reminded me that there was another figure who loomed large within the chavista world who was the energy minister who was practically disappeared his name is Tarak al-Assami and he's the
50:41guy he's of Syrian heritage who the US was constantly saying, "Oh, he's connected to Hezbollah. He's, you know, involved with all of the, you know, with Iran." And Alisami was the he he really represented the strain of Chavismo that wanted to look east, uh, to form new relationships, uh, to make Venezuela a center of the mult multipolar world and to use Venezuelan energy to do that. In 2022, he kind of like disappears. I don't even know where he is. And then Alejandro Bettincort comes in. And that to me seems like the work of the Rodriguez faction, the Deli and Jorge Rodriguez faction that were a
51:25really like a power base within the Venezuelan government. Maduro's out.
51:30Benton Court comes back in with Rubio's help. um there are lots of rumors um about uh whether this was all foretold well before January 3rd when Madura was kidnapped. The Miami Herald which is not a reliable publication which is collaborated with the CIA reported that Deli Rodriguez had a meeting with the CIA in Qatar in October 2025.
51:56So, uh, very there are a lot of unanswered questions and for the, you know, the true Chavista base, um, you know, I think they're next on the chopping block. The the collectivos, the cooperivos, maybe not, but the the collectivos for sure, the US wants to destroy them. That means, you know, the neighborhoods in in Karacas uh where you have where where they still hold sway, they could face a security crackdown soon. Um and this is after the country just faced a devastating earthquake. And even in the aftermath of that, they can't even get Trump to lift a single sanction even while handing him the keys to their oil industry, even
52:44after a massive earthquake. And there also was recently, you remember the, you know, Alex Saab?
52:50>> Yeah.
52:51>> Who was initially kidnapped by the US, he was freed under a deal with that Biden broke or return of Venezuela. And then after Deli comes in, she deports him back to Trump.
53:01>> Yep.
53:01>> And what was his crime? He was trying to basically evade US sanctions on Venezuela's food program, trying to feed its people. And I'm remembering all the people, you know, that we met when I came there with you to Venezuela back in 2019. I mean, all those people who are never interviewed on corporate TV, who believed in Shaveismo, whose lives have been materially improved by Shabismo, you know, who are never interviewed, like they don't speak English, they're not light-skinned, um they're not the favored uh version of Venezuela that we're shown here. Uh I just wonder, you know, where they're at
53:33with all this and just how much more they have to endure because the US set their sights on their country's oil.
53:42Uh, Alex Saab, he had to go because he was close to Celia Flores. I mean, I have many sources on me, many sides who told me that. So, he was basically um, Deli was handed the order to extradite him. Uh Celia Flores was seen as an obstruction. That's the wife of Maduro to what is currently taking place where Venezuela's simply handing over their oil uh with no guaranteed returns. Uh I was told by sources that had interactions with through throughout the whole negotiation when the US was besieging Venezuela and was, you know, right ahead of the kidnapping of Maduro that she was opposed to cutting a deal with the US because she
54:32thought they were going to screw over Venezuela as the US did to Iran uh during the 12-day war when it used negotiations with Iran as cover to allow Israel to attack them by surprise. She didn't trust them. So, she was kidnapped with Maduro. Then, Alex Sab was next.
54:49Alex Saab was also attempting to continue to export Venezuelan oil [snorts] in violation of the US imposed sanctions regime after January 3rd. So, that was another one of his sins. But another thing that's been happening, prisoners are being released. These are not, you know, just peaceful protesters.
55:07These are like the rent a riot color revolutionary guarimo figures who are being led out day after day from Venezuelan prisons under orders from the US and the justice minister Tar William Saab who spent years uh indicting these figures to prevent uh more violent guarimas like the kind that rocked Venezuela and just nearly wrecked its economy leading up to 2018. 18 and the constituent assembly. They're back on the streets. They're out there. So, they can be activated at any time. Um and and anyone could be prosecuted at any time.
55:48All Marco Rubio has to do is just give the order. So, that's the situation they're in. It's a per it's sort of a perfect arrangement. Whereas if Maria Karina Machado were in power, the the open neoliberal kind of vendatria, you know, right-wing pinocha in a skirt kind of leader and she had cut this deal and Francisco pointed this out.
56:10Francisco Rodriguez, our guest that we just had on now. He pointed this out.
56:14The Chavistas would be crying bloody murder. They'd be out in the streets if she cut this deal. But it's it's it's their deal now. They own it. I don't even even know. We can't even call them the chavistas anymore. We can call them the delistas or or whatever. Um, but huge tragedy. I think this, you know, really represents the end of the end of Venezuela as a sovereign nation.
56:41And it happened [snorts] almost instantly after the kidnapping of Maduro. And this is what I was always warning about, what I was opposed to. And everyone said, "Oh, you're just Maduro's mouthpiece. You're just like an authoritarian. You love the authoritarian Venezuelan government. No, countries should just be sovereign and not be politically and economically raped by Washington. And that's what's happening. And that's what happened in Syria, too.
57:08>> And when Trump set this in motion in his first term, Democrats cheered it. Nancy Pelosi gave standing ovation to one, the guy who Trump was trying to install. uh AOC basically deferred to the Democratic leadership when you asked her about it in Congress. I remember there was, you know, and then eventually there was finally some push back, people opposing the sanctions because they were causing so much predictable hardship, including millions of people fleeing their country because what else do you do when a foreign government destroys your economy is you leave for better opportunities and safety elsewhere. So, Democrats
57:43cheered this on from the start. And in fact, you know, when Obama declared Venezuela a national security threat when he was in power, that actually is is when you can start start the clock.
57:56When and uh even >> they said they thought it was about democracy. That's why they cheered Guyaido. They said, "Oh, he's going to restore democracy."
58:04>> Yeah.
58:05>> And anyone who was behind Guyaido knew that it was about this. But Guyaido and the Venezuelan opposition behind him would have reaped the rewards of this precisely and it probably wouldn't have would have been Alejandro Bettin Court as the economic middleman or frontman.
58:22Uh he also supported the opposition.
58:26Then Trump comes in and he says it's about drugs. We're going to attack the boats. We're going to move the navy to the shores of Venezuela because uh Nuro Maduro is a narot terrorist. But that was just cover for kidnapping Maduro.
58:40And it all came down to this oil plunder, colonialism, economic privatization.
58:48That's all it's about.
58:51That's what the whole thing is about.
58:53And now the mask is off. Trump is just the more honest steward of US empire. He is uh like a McKinleyike figure, but with a much more powerful military.
59:07Marco Rubio is certainly an ideologue here, but he's willing to have he understands that Deli Rodriguez would be the more efficient steward of colonial theft and plunder.
59:18And everyone who uh is associated with this, who still, you know, is like a holdover from the Chavista period, uh I don't know. I don't know what what it's like being in their position.
59:33>> It must be tough. I mean, they're at least staying in their country that they were born in. They're not fleeing. They might have to flee if they oppose this and they start organizing protests or they could be shot. I don't know what could happen to them, but at the same time, uh, stop pretending like this that like this actually is going to uh represent anything that Ugo Chavez represented on the world stage. and stop treating all your international supporters with so much contempt for calling this what it is, which is colonial plunder. It's just not going to work. Uh you should just start calling yourselves something else. Deli
60:11is already, you know, asking people not to wear the red shirts from the Chavista time. They're wearing white shirts. They look like they're a activist from Axion Democratica. Like everything's centrist.
60:23They've removed the Simon Olivar signs from Karacus. They've rem They're removing the Chavez signs. They removed all the free Maduro signs. Um Maduro's son is going to like synagogues with pro-Israel rabbis. I don't know what's going on with him. It's just weird. And as I've said a million times, I'm not going to, you know, demean them and denigrate them all, but I'm not going to defend them. And uh I don't think anyone who believes in the just the the basics of national sovereignty, let alone a multipolar world should.
61:01Um yeah, sorry for for all of that uh authoritarianism and uh Marxism right there. Communism. Communism. [snorts] How's how's communism going in America? Trump said communism is the greatest threat to America. the White House introduced a uh tweeted out that communism is the the greatest threat to freedom.
61:24You know, it's it's it's horrible living under communism right now where we have a $40 trillion debt.
61:30You know, this communist country of America.
61:34If it wasn't for that, we'd be just so free. There'd be so much economic freedom in the US.
61:40We're so we're so free. This we're not talking about capitalism. We're not living under capitalism. This is not capitalism we're talking about.
61:48It's like it doesn't exist. It's invisible.
61:52Um, yeah.
61:58More good things for Venezuela. We'll we'll keep following it.
62:03Uh, how are you doing?
62:07Well, I'm I'm depressed uh thinking of the state of the world, especially after that last segment, but uh otherwise uh I'm just put putting the finishing touches on my forthcoming book, Their Blood, Our Bullets, about the Ukraine Proxy War, which is available for pre-order now at or books orbooks.com.
62:26>> What's the deal? When is that coming out?
62:28>> I don't know. Uh you know, but the the book is done and uh we just have to get it out. But that's not up to me.
62:38>> There it is. Their blood, our bullets.
62:41It's blurbed by Sai Hersh, Katrina Vannon, Whovil of the Nation, John Mirshimer.
62:48There's no need for me to blur it. It's like everyone knows I blurbed it.
62:54[laughter] Um, yeah, Ora books needs to get this out right now because it's very relevant. This is one of the most important books that needs to be on the shelves right now. And it's like a booklength answer to all of the stupid arguments that your liberal neighbors who have like Ukraine flags on their homes and Palestine flags in their Twitter bios uh put forward. It really just this is just setting the record straight, but it's incredibly relevant as Trump escalates the Ukraine proxy war. Uh we'll hopefully have time for that. I wanted to just cover um the impending demise of the gray zone. Randy
63:38Fine is going to sit on the gray zone and so it's just it's over, folks. Uh we're just going to have to fold.
63:47Um he declared that I am an IRGC agent based on um nothing. I don't know. Israel handed him some dossier based on nothing. Uh released a statement through the Twitter account of the top Trump adviser who doesn't operate inside the White House, Laura Loomer, and they called for an investigation of me because my because Israel didn't like my reporting.
64:21That's pretty much what it comes down to. Uh, this is the exclusive with all the like sirens from Laura Loomer calling for Todd Blanch, the attorney general and who was barely confirmed um only confirmed because he agreed to um suspend the Trump uh slush fund or or Trump immunity for any future um corruption investigations. and uh Marco Rubio to investigate me for um to uh what I mean it just names a bunch of journalistic projects I worked on and then they say I'm an agent of the IRGC based on nothing. There never will be anything that they have for that and that I should be um looked at as um you
65:11know someone who's connected to foreign terrorist organizations. This is perhaps this is the beginning of the end for Max Blumenthal and his publication the Greyzone News. Perhaps perhaps perhaps it was signed by three Israel first backbenchers who I call the Tel Aviv three. Randy Fine, Randy Weber, and Keith Self.
65:33Everyone watching this knows who Randy Fine is. They generally know who Laura Loomer is. I I don't really know much about Keith Self. I just know his uh pronouns are Apac self.
65:48Randy Weber actually replaced Ron Paul, which is really sad.
65:52>> Wow. Really?
65:53>> Yeah.
65:54>> Wow.
65:56>> Huh. Um, and what this is is an attempt to deflect from and retaliate against me for a lawsuit that I'm filing or that I've filed uh alongside or or with uh the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee led by its president Janine Eunice who is a real free speech warrior.
66:23And this is a lawsuit which is alleging which is calling for an injunction against the further theft of my phones by the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection because they never had uh suspicion of any criminal activity to do that in the first place. A federal judge has called the confiscation of my phones a fourth amendment violation and suggested that it was a first amendment violation as well. Casting it in terms of in the con wider context of Trump's attacks on the freedom of the press which get worse and worse every day. I'm being retaliated against for my journalism from from Iran
67:07as they say in this letter. They they attack me for uh producing a documentary uncaptured Jews in the Islamic Republic of Iran about Jewish life in Iran. They actually there's a whole paragraph in that congressional letter dedicated to that documentary which we did inhouse at the Greyzone along with an Iranian filmmaker whose work is in festivals around the world. um Maria Mavati and then they attack me for uh challenging Israel Israel's lies about October 7th and for demolishing those lies in clinical methodical fashion about the Hannibal directive about Ham the Hamas mass rape hoax about 40 beheaded babies
67:51all the lies they deployed to justify committing genocide in Gaza that's all in their letter uh they they and there's no evidence of anything else that I've done. So, I have the So, the lawsuit has been served. The DHS has been served. They have a month to issue a response, which would be like their motion to dismiss or it goes forward.
68:15And it's simply an injunction. And I think it will apply to other journalists or could at least be a powerful precedent against the constant seizure of journalist phones just because the Trump administration doesn't like them or or that Laura Loomer who has boasted of reporting thousands of people to law enforcement uh tells Trump that they should be arrested as she said I should be. I mean and who she acting on behalf of? She represents a whole collection of Zionist billionaire crime bosses sporting Meendevid gold chains from Washington to Tel Aviv to Kiev.
69:03It's not as though she's some independent actor. This is obviously an Israelun campaign to punish journalism that exposes their crimes and their manipulations. And that's what this letter is about. And they could only recruit three of the biggest Israel tools in Congress. Uh including this guy, Randy Weber. He doesn't get enough attention for like his antics. This is him on the floor of the House wearing the flag that he represents as a tie.
69:41This is the guy they found to call for me to be investigated along with Randy Fine who I've, you know, confronted before.
69:49He he he like ran away from me in Congress when I just asked him some basic questions about whether uh he'd be a what what what whether he'd be able to survive in Gaza on the kind of diet that Gazins have have been that's been imposed on Gazins after his calls to starve the people of Gaza. He's also said, you know, he wants blood to run through the streets of Gaza.
70:17This is a guy who routinely lies and recently said in June that he beat a man to a bloody pulp on Capitol Hill for calling him an effing Jew. Um, and that he went to the hospital 19 times in junior high for getting in fights with anti-semites who called him a Kentucky Fried Jew. Uh, he can't stop thinking about food. Also, he grew up in Arizona, so I don't know why they called him Kentucky Fried Jew, but there are no reports that he beat a man to a bloody pulp.
70:52There there's no evidence that that took place. He's a complete fraud who's been filmed rumaging through the mailbox of a constituent while he was campaigning for reelection against Dan Bilzerian. That's a federal crime.
71:08He's been filmed voting, casting votes for absent lawmakers in Congress on votes that were really important for Apac to pass. That's a federal crime.
71:18What's not a federal crime is doing journalism from Iran like I did and they want me to be criminalized for it.
71:29And they're committing defamation in the process. Like the letter says that you've been cultivated as an agent of influence by a foreign terrorist organization and current military adversary of the United States. It's just outright defamation.
71:45>> Yeah.
71:45>> And you know, members of Congress have immunity in certain contexts, but I don't know if that applies here in a letter to Marco Rubio if that qualifies as um under the laws of immunity for members of Congress. It's just outright defamation. And of course, these are people who are all serving as agents of influence in a de facto way for Israel [laughter] um as Laura Loomer has repeatedly shown.
72:10And by the way, as part of that, she recently went to Ukraine and suddenly declared her support for the Ukraine proxy war and renounced her previous criticisms of Ukraine. And this comes as Ukraine and Israel have become increasingly closer. Zilinsky recently put out that letter >> basically expressing a solidarity with Netanyahu and wanting deeper ties.
72:31>> So yeah, that that project is coalesing.
72:34And when I read this letter, you know, I was thinking of I was thinking of, you know, like this is also horseshoe theory. Now you have members of the extreme right >> paring so many of the smear tactics that have been used against us by like liberal outlets. Um remember that article in the Washington Post a few years ago?
72:50>> Yeah. Yeah. basically that that lied and claimed that like the leadership of the grrey zone was paid by Iran and Russia.
72:57They had to correct that. They had to put a giant correction at the top of their article which still contains false falsehoods but >> at least that contention was was corrected. And that think tank New Lines which works with the Pentagon. They published this demented rant complaining that like supporters of Palestine are listening to us and they were and and it there was they they suggested that we're also backed by Russia which is another lie. So this is like horseshoe theory.
73:23Now you have someone on the extreme right like Laura Loomer paring the same smear tactic that I'm used against this by like the more centrist establishment who didn't like the fact that we were challenging so many foreign policy deceptions.
73:37>> Absolutely. Uh the Washington Post is like the the that they provided the fodder for this anti-democratic Israel directed attack on the press. I glad to hear I was glad to hear though the author of that completely bogus smearpiece Joseph Men is no longer employed. Um maybe you'll [clears throat] find gainful employment somewhere like Palunteer.
74:03But this letter was released by three of the biggest tools of Israel. Randy Fine, who I actually watched once strut into a Republican study group meeting filled with like the conservative pmpkin village press. Um, and he was going to go put on a show for the cameras and I watched him put his Keepa on as he walked into the room to do his his performance as the Uber Jew. It's all a performance. It's all fake.
74:33He uh they released this letter on Shabbat on Shabas and okay, maybe it was already ready and they just needed Laura Loomer to serve as the Shabas to release it. But the whole thing seemed geared towards a meeting that was coming up that Monday, which was Miriam Aden, Israeli warlord Miriam Aden's Republican Jewish Coalition meeting where Randy Fine's going to hold out his keepa to panhandle from the Ads and the Zionist genocidal billionaire class. And here he is just uh 48 hours after they dumped that letter on Shabbat.
75:17>> Jew hatred is simply the gateway and companion drug to a broader societal collapse.
75:24In your Republican party, though, since I last spoke to you in October, we have had some extraordinary wins. One year ago, I told you I served with two anti-semites in the US House of Ren representatives. And today I am proud to tell you I will soon serve with none.
75:46We ran the quitter Marry Taylor Green out of Congress.
75:55And if Thomas Massie needed a real reason to hate the Jews, well, we gave him one in May when we kicked his ass.
76:04So it Massie was called like a conspiracy theorist when he said that the Israel lobby drove him out. I mean it was what $20 million from AD and the in the lobby to drive him out.
76:20Randy Fine is claiming credit for that and saying we gave them a reason to be ant to hate the Jews. In other words, he's boasting of increasing anti-semitism, increasing anti-semitic attitudes among the public and among his opponents by re by manipulating elections on behalf of Israel. And so, you know, I think that part part of the reason they dumped that letter 48 hours before calling to investigate me was pressure from Laura Loomer, who herself was acting on behalf of Zionist crime bosses who wanted me to be targeted. And so that letter, you know, cha, you know, $7,000 deposited or $7 million
77:04deposited, it was it was basically a fundraising letter. That's how it works on that side.
77:10>> Yeah.
77:11Yeah.
77:12>> Um, and then you mentioned Laura Loomer uh going to Ukraine. I don't think this can be emphasized enough.
77:22You know, I'm being accused of going to Iran on behalf of Iran or something.
77:28Like, no one paid me to be there. It was my initiative.
77:34Every those of you watching this right now who supported the gray zone, you you're the ones who supported that trip.
77:40Okay, which allowed me to expose from the ground Israeli and US war crimes and show what it was really like at the largest funeral in human history.
77:50Here's Laura Loomer. I mean, it's just so ironic to be accused of this by someone who is just uh operating as a paid propagandist for uh the DTEK group. That's what it appears to be. What's she doing at the DTEK substation in the Kev region on Sunday to witness the impact of Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy system? No one took me to some like plant in Iran like of some billionaire Iranian oligarch who was like sponsoring my trip. But that's what appears to have happened here. DTEK is the company of Reinat Akmet who is like a mafiodon billionaire in Kiev. And here she is. She looks like Evelyn Farcus when she went to tour
78:44Barisma with the Berisma jacket and the Barisma helmet back when Hunter Biden was on Berisma's board and all of the Democrats were getting getting recruited by Berisma.
78:57Now it's DTEK and they're recruiting her because Ukraine, as you said, Aaron, they want to unite the Iran, the war on Iran with the war on Russia in order to draw the US in directly, which is why they attacked Iranian shipping in the Caspian Sea soon after Loomer's trip.
79:17During this trip, she called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin. That's something that would directly draw in NATO if it took place. And here she is.
79:26She's giving away the game. She's just basically being pimped out by a billionaire crime boss in Kiev, Renad Akmatov. That's why else would you go to his factories and go to all of his stuff. They they and they made some Laura Loomer like uh [snorts] monument to her inside that factory. It's also rumored that Andre Bletki, the so-called, you know, white warrior, the leader of the neo-Nazi faction in Ukraine, who she went to Kharkov to interview and to softball and promote, someone who said that he will lead the white race in the racial holy war against the semileled unmention who helped found the Azovv battalion.
80:10Uh, there they are. Yeah, I'm gonna really put my hands around a Nazi and then pretend to be uh defending America against anti-semitism. That that makes a whole lot of sense. It's rumored that Akmat has supported him as well.
80:26So, it all adds up. And then, you know, she says she hates communism. They all hate communism. They hate socialism, right? I mean, so why then was Laura Loomer opposed to US intervention in Venezuela under Nicholas Maduro and an ostensibly socialist government.
80:55This is one of her many posts, like many, many, many posts, uh, attacking Fox News for hyping up intervention in Venezuela. She has since called for uh, you know, lifting sanctions on Venezuela, you know, and by the way, I mean, yeah, I'm on the same side, but that's for that's because I I believe in what I'm saying.
81:17She was recruited by a coalition of businessmen, including, I it looks like, Florida oil magnet Harry Sergeant and his crew, who wanted sanctions to be lifted on Venezuela. so they could collect on the debt that they were owed.
81:37So she's objectively assisting a socialist government because some businessmen paid her. [snorts] And then more recently, she offered her services to flock cameras. Everybody hates flock.
81:52Republicans hate it. Democrats hate it.
81:55Left, right, and center. They're all coming together on their hatred of flock cameras. So she offers her services to Flock. It's unclear if she believes in anything.
82:05And this is all and so this is what it comes down to.
82:09Everyone who believed in something, who believed in what Trump campaigned on back in 2016, they don't have anything to do with MAGA anymore. That's Tucker Carlson. That's Marjgerie Taylor Green. That's Joe Kent.
82:24That's Thomas Massie. That's uh millions and millions of people who voted for Trump who are now completely alienated.
82:34There's nothing left of MAGA except for political prostitution, corruption, vile hatred of anyone who gets in their way.
82:47You're either with us or you're against us mentality and a failed war on Iran along with the plunder of Venezuela. there's really absolutely nothing else left of it.
82:58There's nothing left to believe in. And that's why Laura Loomer, who has remained so loyal to Trump and commands this vast client list of MAGA cronies and Zionist crime bosses and maybe Reinad Ahmed, who actually happens to be Muslims. She said there were no Muslims in Ukraine. Well, uh I don't know if she even knew who he was. She h she has all those behind her. That's why she's gained so much influence with Trump. And now they have until like November, assuming the Democrats are going to actually win a majority, to get everything they want. So, she's calling for everyone to be deported and everyone
83:37to be investigated, her entire enemy's list, to be taken out by then. Uh, and meanwhile, Israel's trying to get all they can until then because that's who's in control right now. And there's literally nothing else left to believe in.
83:54Disaster is looming.
83:56Looming disaster.
83:59And they're getting they're they're trying to grab as much as they can and jail as many as they can before then.
84:11Um the Democrats have finally talked about Laura Loomer, but it wasn't because she called for um what she celebrated the mass shooting uh in the mass shooting at an American mosque a few weeks ago.
84:26Uh of course she's been calling for my arrest and you know trying to get me investigated for journalism.
84:35It's a clear attack on the press, a clear attack on the First Amendment when you have members of Congress signing on.
84:41Jamie Raskin, constitutional lawyer, Democrat. He's not rushing to my defense.
84:49Um, she said so many horrible things about Muslims and Palestinians. She's she's I've never I've hardly seen anyone celebrate genocide more than her. But finally the Democrats are saying something cuz she just took it too far and said regarding Angie Nixon who won the Democratic primary in Florida against Vindman, your friend uh one of the Vinman brothers, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Presley, representatives from Minnesota and Massachusetts, Corey Bush who lost her race, Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, she said you can call me racist. I don't care. These women are all ghetto, entitled, race obsessed,
85:36destructive black who are completely unfit to for the power they hold. Um, and she previously called Angie Nixon a ghetto black So now the Democrats are finally denouncing her, someone who is so close to Donald Trump. But up until now, mainstream Democrats and especially the pro-Israel Democrats have been focused primarily on Hassan and denouncing him. Um, and some of them really haven't even said anything about Loomer and won't. And remember, uh, when Dan Bilzerian released this AI campaign video attacking Randy Fine, Hakee Jeff rushed to Randy Fine's defense to denounce it.
86:17He hadn't said anything about Loomer until she finally just went way too far and used this vile, overtly racist language that didn't relate to, you know, the enemies of Israel. So, they finally are free to denounce her. It says so much about the Democrats as well that it took them to this point to finally get their backs up and actually say something.
86:39>> Yeah. And just to stress that like they misinterpreted something Hassan said where Hassan pointed out what everyone else pointed out which is that if Israel is going to call itself the safe the self-proclaimed Jewish state that represents all Jewish people then Israel by carrying out all the horrible atrocities it commits every single day including a genocide is going to endanger Jews everywhere. That's something that's obvious and everyone's made. So Hassan pointed that out and then Democrats all insisted that Hassan was saying the Jews are bringing on violence on themselves that he's calling for and he's even calling
87:13for violence against Jews. It was insane. And all these Democrats that King Jeff, Cory Booker, basically everyone who gets a lot of money from Apac, they all lined up to trash him over something he didn't even say. And finally, it took after so much bigotry from Laura Loomer, it took her saying the most obscene thing about a Democratic candidate for them finally to to speak up. And but but by the way, they're still speaking out and condemning Hassan and trying to make him the issue because they'd rather lose and you've pointed this out. They'd rather lose the Senate seat in Michigan.
87:48>> Yeah. than allow the Muslim guy who opposes genocide to come and join them in Congress and keep this and have a Senate majority.
87:56>> Yeah. Um they've done this before. The Democrats and Republicans have converged against ideological threats for generations.
88:05uh going back to the congressional race following World War I when one of the leading opponents of World War I named Scott Nearing who was a pioneering socialist ran against Fiorella LaGuardia in New York who was a World War I hero and Nearing had been prosecuted under the Espionage Act for opposing World War I.
88:29the Democrats and Republicans converged against him to defeat him um and to allow LaGuardia to win. We saw the Democratic establishment converge uh against Bernie Sanders. We saw the Labor Party establishment in the UK under the watch of Morgan Mweeny and you know bring out Kier Star Dmer after they worked to destroy Jeremy Corbin working with the Tories. I mean, it's it's it's happened it's happened across the Atlantic. Um, and I I think they'll do it again because they don't want the president of this DSA backed, Hassan Pikerbacked candidate who gained so much momentum with his opposition to the Gaza genocide, winning
89:17a Senate seat in a key prime swing state.
89:22um that will bode very negatively for all of the mainstream establishment Democratic candidates who are lining up for the presidential nomination in 2028.
89:34I got to take a I want to take like a really quick break, so I wanted to watch this hilarious video of a reporter uh Prem Talker asking Republicans to denounce Laura Loomer. Um and then I'll be right back. This is something that I've been wanting to do.
89:52This this really just shows you what MAGA is today. It's pretty funny.
89:55Starting with uh Uncle Ruckus.
89:59>> Do you have any comment?
90:01>> I'll be right back.
90:02>> Has advised on the past her comments calling some of your colleagues. I apologize for this language. I'm repeating what she said. Ghetto black witches.
90:11>> I have no idea.
90:13>> You know Laura Luma of course, right?
90:15>> Yes. So she had been repeating these comments. I haven't I have no comments.
90:18I don't know.
90:19>> Would you condemn such comments though?
90:20>> I have I have no idea what he's talking about, buddy. I'm not >> This is someone who's advised Donald Trump advised him on staffing changes.
90:27No comment.
90:30>> I haven't heard those.
90:32>> She's been saying them all over the place. Would you condemn such comments?
90:34Generally, >> I'm not going to comment on anything that I've not heard correctly.
90:40>> I have not seen this comment, so I wouldn't be able to comment. Who is she referencing? uh Corey Bush, Ilan Omar, Katanji Brown Jackson, Angie Nixon. So, not even just congressional flags, but also the Supreme Court justice, a candidate.
90:54>> I obviously don't uh agree with those.
90:59>> I don't comment on stuff I didn't see.
91:02>> It's been all over the place. He's been repeating.
91:05>> Like I said, I didn't see it.
91:07>> Sure. Would you condemn such comments?
91:11>> I just told you I don't comment on stuff like that.
91:14>> Okay. Okay. I was wondering what did you make of uh Laura Loomer's >> first I have no idea who you are >> Tucker with Sato News >> what's news >> uh US-based political outlet >> okay no comment I'm not going to interview with you but thank you >> not nothing on Laura Lumer's comments calling your colleagues black ghetto >> an adviser to Donald Trump >> who are you >> uh Prem was zateo >> with who >> uh Zateo >> and what is Zateo >> Zateo is an American news outlet.
91:45Congressman uh it's just an American news outlet.
91:50>> That's Mike Lawler who's completely owned by Israel >> I mean, and they all know what it is.
92:02>> Um but it would, you know, be funny to ask the pro-Israel Democrats, including the 33 pro-Israel Democrats who supported the Republicans on basically ending free speech on college campuses to ban BDS.
92:20Uh if they would condemn any of her remarks on Palestinians, but none there there's so many angles to approach this from.
92:39This is uh CBS News on Abdul say CBS News under the control of Barry Weiss. As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since September 11th, 2001, Abdul Elsed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, may be facing the risk of renewed scrutiny and fresh political attack.
93:01Apparently Barry Weiss, self-proclaimed Zionist fanatic who spent her Colombia years trying to get Palestinian professors fired, who is an uh just one of the biggest threats to free speech in the United States, wrote this tweet.
93:22And one doesn't necessarily follow from one point doesn't necessarily follow the other. Like if you think about it, what does him facing the risk of renewed scrutiny and fresh political attack have to do with the 911 anniversary?
93:39Just that he's a Muslim.
93:41>> Just think he's Muslim. And then they tried to justify this by saying, well, he had deleted some posts about 911.
93:46Well, yes, because he deleted a bunch all of his posts prior to 2023. So which means if he posted about 911, those posts were deleted, too. But then those posts were totally uncontroversial. All he said was in one of them he was like I'm thinking of the victims of 911 and also I'm thinking about the victims of everyone who's killed in the post 911 so-called war on terror which is exactly the right note I think to sound. I mean, and also if you wanted to point out that on 911 for Chile, uh, that's also when the US orchestrated the coup that brought in Pinish and led to the death of Salvador Yende of a suicide, but
94:25that's probably an assassination by the CIA. But anyway, you know, but not he even he didn't even say that, but that's just a tangent. But the point is they're just using the fact that he's Muslim >> and he supports Palestine to try to smear him. It's It's the sleaziest tweet by a news organization, if you can call CBS News out anymore, uh that I've ever seen.
94:46>> Yeah. I mean, and and you would think that the Democrats could come back with an easy attack uh on on Trump and the Republicans about Donald Trump's relationship with the most important senior al-Qaeda figures in the world. I mean, the official story is al-Qaeda is responsible for 9/11. That's what everyone's going to be observing. I know, you know, truthers in the chat aren't going to like that, but it's just like objectively that's the official story, whether you agree or not.
95:20So, going with that, probably the most famous al-Qaeda figure in the world is Ahmed Alshara. And here he is in the Oval Office with Trump.
95:33>> Men's fragrance.
95:39>> That's a $250 bottle of Trump cologne.
95:42>> Best fragrance. Come here.
95:48>> Okay. So, what we'll do is just take that, put it in, and then the other one is for your wife.
95:54>> How many wives? [laughter] >> The other one is for your wife. How many wives? one >> because I never know. [laughter] >> I mean, that's not only the founder of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, Jabet al-Nusra, that was one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia that staged the insurgency against US troops in Iraq.
96:27You know, I I I want I'm just imagine being a veteran of that and then, you know, fighting in the Anbar province and then coming back to the US and watching that video. And he was the co-founder of ISIS, right?
96:41>> He was I think technically he he was the deputy leader of ISIS. Yeah. And then after that split, he was the founder of al-Qaeda.
96:49>> They split in he split with Baghdadi in Raqqa. But where was Baghdadi killed? in Syria in Idlib >> which he was which Galani aka al-Shar was controlling uh and in fact Baghdaddy was killed by Trump I believe that was under Trump when >> Baghdadi was killed >> yeah uh in Trump's first term but yeah regardless it's extraordinary and not just a veteran who fought uh al-Qaeda ISIS in Iraq but also a Trump voter in 2016 when Trump was saying that like Hillary Clinton and Obama were behind ISIS and al-Qaeda and that we're arming al-Qaeda in Syria and we should stop doing that. He like that was part of his
97:28thing. And then in his first term, he when he shut down the CIA program, that was his rationale. He said like a lot of our weapons are going to al-Qaeda.
97:37Fast forward to a second term, he's greeting the founding leader of al-Qaeda and Syria in the Oval Office, giving him his cologne and removing him from the terror list because it's mission accomplished. The whole point of the Syria dirty war was to take out a rival of Israel, cut the land bridge between Iran and Lebanon.
97:55>> Yeah.
97:55>> Which allows Hezbollah to resist Israeli aggression. And now that's mission accomplished. And just this week, there was an article in the Washington Post about how Syria now wants to sort of uh take the place of Iran, like sort of help ease the burden of the blockade of the state of Hermuz and offer Syria as a transit route for goods. And Trump shared that and said, "Yes, this is a great idea." Just after he also said that Syria, if he wanted it to, was going to go fight Hezbollah on Israel's behalf inside of Lebanon. So yeah, that's how Trump is is marking 911. So yeah, on I think it was August 25th,
98:35Donald Trump announced that he would not be attending the ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at ground zero because they don't allow presidents to speak there and he has to claim the moment for himself and speak.
98:54So, a day before that, and for some reason, no one picked up on this.
98:58Certainly not the Democrats who will do anything to attack Trump, like no Democrats talked about this.
99:06Donald Trump's State Department and Treasury Department removed the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and all of its affiliates from the Office of Foreign Asset Controls list of terrorists, specially designated terrorists and from the State Department's list of designated terrorists. That includes all of the key al-Qaeda figures who fueled the Syrian dirty war. Top al-Qaeda financeers from Kuwait were removed from that list. Top al-Qaeda commanders from like Macedonia and from uh top propagandists from Australia who helped recruit al-Qaeda for al-Qaeda in Australia and then fled to Syria were removed. They had
99:52sanctions removed on them by the Trump administration.
99:56and the probably most influential al-Qaeda cleric in the world right now who studied under a Saudi cleric who himself instructed one of the 9/11 hijackers Abdullah Muhesani that's him right there sending off a Saudi boy to a teenager to commit a suicide bombing in Syria he had sanctions removed this is my report Trump lifts sanctions on top al-Qaeda recruit recruiters, finance years, days before 9/11 anniversary as the US prepares to mark 25 years since September 11th, 2001. I'm just kind of like aping Barry Weiss's tweet right there, except mine is relevant.
100:40Donald Trump has removed top al-Qaeda figures from the US list of designated terrorists. Among those he delisted was Abdullah Muhesani, a Saudi cleric who recruited child fighters and teen suicide bombers to wreak havoc across Syria.
100:54Um, here's a photo. Here's here's um one of the many crimes of Muhesini where he's this is 2015 and he's blessing the massacre of 56 captured Syrian conscripts captured by al-Qaeda in Idlib at the Abu Dhur air base. He declares, "They're not Sunni Muslims and therefore we can just massacre them all as they're captive.
101:22just killed them in cold blood because they fought for Syria's Alawite government. So, kill them all. I mean, he was personally involved in hideous atrocities. Uh here's a scene from this is this is the Jihad Caller Center, which was the TV network of Muhini throughout the Syrian dirty war. And they're recruiting children for combat.
101:43Uh, and then you can see, I mean, there are just countless videos like this of um, is it on screen? No. Let's get it on screen.
101:57of Muhesini calling for young people to basically kill themselves in combat or in this case he's going to go commit a vehicle born IED attack be a human bomb against a Syrian army position and he's saying this hero will be in paradise tonight >> Trump's removing sanctions on him the same almost The same week that the State Department sanctioned Palestine Action as a designated terrorist organization, a group that has killed and wounded no one because it is a threat to Israeli weapons factories in the UK.
102:44They even sanctioned as terrorists an Italian collective for providing encrypted web services to leftist activists. But they're removing these guys. Aaron, this would be such a potent attack for the Democrats except that they were participants in the same program of destroying Syria. So they they're pretending like this isn't even happening.
103:05>> Everyone just totally ignores this. Uh everyone ignores the complete hypocrisy of uh calling everyone terrorists, calling Abdul Assad a jihadist, Hassan while welcoming the founding leader of al-Qaeda in Syria into the Oval Office, giving him Trump's perfume.
103:21And they can't call out the hypocrisy because as you said they cheered on the dirty war and they this was their policy. In fact the the dirty war began under Obama. So they've neutered themselves uh in and denying themselves a really you know powerful talking point in countering Trump's Islamophobia uh and his hypocrisy because they cheered on the policy that he's now basically taking to a new level. And also, I mean, look, by the way, on the issue of the sanctions, I mean, I'm not arguing the sanctions shouldn't be lifted. The point is those sanctions should never have been imposed in the first place. Uh, and they were used to
104:01bring about the exact outcome we're seeing now, which is Syria being ruled by the fighting leader of al-Qaeda.
104:06>> Yeah. The Caesar sanctions should not have been imposed on Syria. It was designed to they were designed to destroy the lives of average people, to starve them. produced a 90% food insecurity rate by design. Uh people like Abdullah Muhesani and uh Muhammad Golani figures who especially the foreign fighters, the foreign fanatics who are infesting Syria. Uh every government should go after them. I have no problem with governments going after them.
104:36>> Yeah. I wasn't saying I'm saying like the sanctions that Trump is now lifting on the country of Syria which helped bring Galani into office in the first place because you wouldn't have al-Qaeda ruling Syria if you didn't have not only a decade long dirty war where the CIA and their allies poured in billions of dollars worth of weapons uh without also these crippling sanctions that destroyed the economy and then finally when Galani and his forces made their offensive in late 2024 the soldiers of the Syrian army weren't ready to fight anymore. more because they were everyone was just desperate
105:08and broke and they they they had nothing to fight for. So, it's those sanctions that should never have been imposed. And now that it's mission accomplished, now you can see the utility of these sanctions. It's nothing to do with anything but trying to destroy a disobedient government. And uh but yeah, but that's separate from the sanctions that are on these al-Qaeda figures, which um yeah, of course, it also just speaks to the hypocrisy of like of the so-called war and terror. And meanwhile, who's Trump now going after? activists.
105:37>> Yeah.
105:37>> Uh Fergie Chambers because he gives his his wealth to Palestinian charities uh and and other activist groups who speak out now. They're the targets of uh of of the justice system.
105:51>> Yep. Uh Fergie Chambers is in prison in Spain.
105:58He is being the US is attempting to extradite him. Has he ever harmed anyone?
106:08No, that's not what this is about. But it's the same reason I mean it it's the same reason they're going after they've implemented national security policy memo 7 where they're declaring that anyone who upholds a similar ideology as an anti- capitalist ideology, an anti-imperialist ideology could be deemed a domestic terrorist. Uh opposition to data centers has been flagged by the Department of Homeland Security as a warning sign of domestic terrorism.
106:45Meanwhile, al-Qaeda leadership, like the leadership, the cream of the crop in al-Qaeda has all been blessed with sanctions relief. And here's Megan McCain on the threat to America. [sighs] >> Very, very, very concerned about the rapid rise of Islamic extremism happening in the country. I'm very concerned.
107:13>> And Ted Cruz, Tel Aviv, Ted, >> of course, >> candidates. I had a conversation with someone.
107:18>> Weirdly, like Clarence Thomas is just glowering over his shoulder. They just threw him in there for good measure. I don't know. Maybe maybe they could put Van Jones over Megan McCann's shoulder.
107:27That would be perfect.
107:29I work with recently that why is it that socialism always comes with Islamic extremism? We are a Judeo-Christian nation. I feel much more defensive and protective and much more extreme than I ever thought I would be on this issue. I am very scared and I hope this doesn't sound alarmist, but there's an attempt to make this country no longer Judeo-Christian. I don't believe I believe that we these two things cannot cannot stand. I'm sorry. In your faith, women have to be covered up and you believe in Sharia law. In my faith, you do not. They're just things that cannot coexist in the United States of America.
108:05This is a big question, but what is to be done of it? And why is Texas such a ground zero? That's a terrible anecdote, but why is it such a a point, a state that so much of this is happening?
108:15>> Yeah, look, it's a great question. It is hugely important. You are right. We are seeing this massive surge. Um, if you look at what's happening in Democrat primaries right now, we are seeing a Marxist and an Islamist takeover of the Democrat party and the two are coming together. There is a green red alliance.
108:35Comrade Mondami in in New York >> where where I >> the Islam Mauists are taking over. The Islamo Marxists are taking over. I mean, of course, these were both major supporters of the al-Qaeda takeover of Syria. And I mean, it's not just that.
108:54Like, Megan McCain, she's trading off her father's legacy. She pretty much has nothing else to offer. It's not as if she's telegenic and charismatic or particularly intelligent. She could barely form her question to Ted Cruz.
109:08And this is this is what she represents.
109:10I mean, remember this is John M. This is her dad with Sunni sectarian al-Qaeda tied kidnappers who had kidnapped Shia pilgrims when he went into Syria hosted by you know CIA backed FSA leadership.
109:27So I mean they're all they're all part of this this program which produced the worst refugee crisis in the world. I think in that picture is also Muaz Mustafa of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, which >> lobbyed aggressively for the crippling sanctions that impoverished so many Syrians and helped pave the way for regime change and works with members of the Israel lobby that are on its board and uh once tried to have me canceled from a Palestine charity event that I was doing. Um, and of course receives a lot of money in US government funding uh through USA through or or they did at least through USA ID.
110:04>> He's a spook. Uh, it's always great to be canceled by spooks.
110:11The this the US government is more under Israeli control than in any time in history. And the US public is more opposed to Israeli influence over US policy than in any time in history.
110:29A majority of Americans are done with the Israeli special relationship.
110:35And yet you have figures in Congress like John Federman who are who is almost a literal cyborg whose brain is controlled by the Mossad.
110:49I mean, it sounds crazy, but that's basically what he is and has been exposed as again and again and again. I don't know what they did to him when he was like in Walter Reed, but he came out as like a cyborg for the Mossad.
111:04And now the Wall Street Journal has a piece out on John Fedterman, which doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know. But here's an excerpt.
111:19One morning in June, three paralyzed military veterans in wheelchairs from rural Pennsylvania arrived at the office of Senator John Federman for a long-awaited meeting to discuss legislation that would improve their care. Fedterman's staff greeted them with bad news. The Pennsylvania Democrat had to cancel. He told his staff he may have eaten something bad and wasn't feeling well, according to people familiar with the matter. Less than an hour after his staffers met with the veterans in his place, Federman walked into his office showing no signs of illness, he told an appointment he didn't he he had an appointment he
111:53didn't want to miss. He told staff an interview with Fox News to discuss Israel and the war on Iran.
112:02And then there's this where literally he uh was going to write an op-ed based on talking points supplied to him by the Israeli government. Uh he it says this that Federman agreed and told the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yakil Lighter, that he would write his article based on any points the Israeli ambassador sent over. A few days later, the Israeli embassy sent over drafted points for Fedaman to consider. Federman staffers decided not to tell him about it out of concern that drafting an op-ed based on suggestions from the Israeli embassy under Federman's name risked violating the Foreign Agents
112:41Registration Act.
112:43I mean, it's incredible. I I'm not sure like which anecdote is more extraordinary. standing up three paralyzed veterans to go on Fox News to promote the US-Israeli aggression against Iran or agreeing to basically publish under his own name an op-ed drafted for him by Israel. It's extraordinary.
113:03>> Yeah. Uh, usually what happens in Congress is you go to get your you go to your um legislative aids and then they go to Apac or like your Apac handlers in the office and they are your legislative aid in most cases and they tell you what Israel wants you to say. But in this case, he just went to the ambassador.
113:26He's just like, I'm going to just go straight to Israel because I love them so much and they're going to tell me what to say. and it almost got him a Farah investigation. Not that that's really uh being enforced by the Trump administration.
113:43So there are more anecdotes in this piece, but I think we're going to be hearing more about Federman in the coming days because he's alienated so many people, so many former staffers. Remember Bernie was the one who endorsed him and got him over the top and and Jacobin was hyping up Fedterman and I I could just see this guy was a complete fraud. I never thought he would go in this direction but I was like he's he's he can he can barely uh form sentences and you know that's not that's that's discrediting. But he also like when he was mayor of Bradock he just seemed like an op. They just brought him into this town that had been
114:25completely depopulated. He'd never shown up to council meetings. He showed very little interest in governing there. And he had this fake workingclass guy image even though he came from Harvard and lived off his parents into his 40s. So I always thought it was kind of fake. I didn't think he would go this far. But a lot of people kind of came apparently went to work for him who believed in something. And now they're coming out, former Federman staffers, declaring, "We're a group of former campaign and Senate staffers for John Federman who are disgusted with what he's become." If you were troubled by yesterday's Wall
114:59Street Journal story, trust us, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's even worse than you thought. So, set your calendar for September 14th, the day the Senate is back in session for our first drop. So, I suspect we'll be hearing more. Um, there was this big gathering at Sun in Sun Valley in Idaho. I don't know if you saw this, Aaron. I'm looking for the photo where like the the billionaire class, the tech billionaires all went to uh have this sort of Illuminati meeting [laughter] and Cheryl Sandberg and Barry Weiss were filmed together. One of Barry Weiss's big funders is puts this on and Cheryl
115:38Sandberg was holding a copy of John Federman's book in her hand in that photo. [laughter] [gasps] Like the the the the icon of lean-in feminism.
115:50Obviously John Federman didn't write that book and some Israeli operative did. Cheryl Sandberg's holding it. She's the lady who did the whole like Hamas rape hoax documentary.
116:03Barry Weiss, we know who she is. John Federman, you know, he's gonna get exposed relentlessly in the coming days, but we have to take we have to look at this, I think, in a more uh we have to look at the big picture.
116:23John Federman is sort of an embodiment of what the American government has become as it's just simply a receptacle for the oligarchy.
116:38And the oligarchy, the capitalist class is substantially controlled and influenced by Israel because Zionist billionaires are a major dominant incip like increasingly dominant part of the elite. And so they found someone in John Federman who was clearly vulnerable, who was suffering from emotional distress, who had, I think, gone into a coma, was hospitalized for depression, refused to wear a suit in in the Senate and had to dress like Jimbo from the Simpsons with a hoodie on and shorts in order, he said, to prevent him from experiencing spasms of depression. For some reason though, he started wearing a suit when Netanyahu
117:29would show up for his regular visits and they basically recruited him and they sent an operative into his office who he spends all of his time with even though he's not on staff. So John Federman is sort of the perfect embodiment and encapsulation of the crisis in American governance today. uh where essentially a foreign country, a foreign apartheid state which is committing genocide before our eyes and its proxies are able to take over entire Senate offices. It's not just John Federman, it's also Ted Cruz, Tel Aviv Ted. His office is run by an Israeli fanatic whose sister worked for the Israeli Defense Ministry.
118:13Um it's it's not just Ted Cruz. There are so many members of Congress. Josh Gottheimr, who's a Democrat in New Jersey, all he does is advance Israel first legislation, most recently the bipartisan bill to basically ban BDS, boycotting Israel on college campuses.
118:34There are so many of these figures. And then there are other figures who may not be putting as Israel forward, but their corporation forward. And anyone who opposes this agenda, particularly in the Republican party, well, they're going to meet the fate of Thomas Massie.
118:49So, no one who actually believes in anything, who's idealistic, will even throw their hat in the ring. John Federman is just this ogre-like cyborg whose brain has been chipped by Israel, but he's a he who is the most extreme incarnation of the wider phenomenon which has poisoned American government and which is leading to a real crisis in the consent of the public. And I think that's going to play out in the Democratic primary in 2028 in a much more dramatic way than we're seeing right now.
119:27>> It's just extraordinary. And uh I'm sorry to be a broken record, but like think of how much time and energy was wasted flooding liberals with propaganda about mythical imagined Russian interference, Russian bots, Russian hackers. Like this was a thing for years upon years. It dominated liberal politics in Trump's first term. It culminated in Trump even being impeached um for soliciting uh like foreign interference and and because he was pressuring Zalinski to investigate Biden blanwhile all this is happening before our eyes.
120:06You have politicians owned by Apac, including a senator with serious mental medical problems, caring more about serving Israel than even meeting with paralyzed veterans. It's just it's absolutely extraordinary. And and none of these Democrats who made so-called Russian fake Russian interference their central thing, like Adam Schiff, have anything to say about any of this. In fact, Adam Schiff recently was asked if he would rule out taking money from Apac. He said no, he's happy to take Apac money. So the guy who made his career, his political brand out of combating fake Russian interference, openly welcomes Israeli interference,
120:44and it's a bipartisan issue.
120:47>> And who who recently bragged about it and bragged about his ability to influence US government, but Benjamin Netanyahu, and not for the first time.
120:56>> Here he is. This is in Hebrew. Netanyahu always tells the truth in Hebrew.
121:01Remember in 2001 leaked video he was speaking to some settlers and he said the US is a thing that is easy to control. Well now he says it even more explicitly.
121:10It's time. It took a long time to get I I I won't ne I don't need to replay the clip. It's an this was an election event on channel 14 which is the genocidal pro- Netanyahu channel in Israel. And he declares, "It took a long time to get the US to come to its senses, but I finally got to attack." And and he's, you know, but I spent a thousand hours on American television to influence the leadership in both parties. But of course, he's referring to Trump. And where did he spend a thousand hours on TV?
121:46>> Whatever.
121:48>> You don't need to you don't need to hear that. It's Fox News. He was on Fox News for a thousand hours again and again and again. I I I pointed out that um when Netanyahu wanted Trump to really go in during the 12-day war back in June 2025 when Israel was starting to get hammered by Iran and they were frightened. They said they they they were caught on the back foot. They didn't realize Iran could retaliate that hard. The war wasn't working out. They needed the US to rescue them from the consequences of the wars they start but can't finish.
122:21Netanyahu does his big interview with Fox News with Brett Bear. You know, Brett Bear's the the credible one.
122:29And you know, prime time. He said Iran was responsible for the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump's life. He goes like straight to the most vulnerable point of Trump's psyche and just straight up lies. And Brett Bearer said, "Where did you get that from? How do you know that? And he said, uh, intelligence. And he said, which intelligence? Your intelligence.
122:49And that, you know, he said, proxies. We have proxies. But he just made it up.
122:54So thousands of So he's just boasting about manipulating the US into war right there.
123:00And I I see all these analysts saying, well, we'll be a day there will be a day to debate how we got into this disastrous war. One day we'll know the real reason. But what we can say is this war was even more disastrous than Vietnam for US economic and political interests and it's destroying the dollar. But we just don't know why it happened. Netanyahu just told you why it happened.
123:25The Trump administration is controlled by a foreign government and its fifth column inside the United States. Fifth columnists like Miriam Add who's an Israeli warlord. Trump has even said he doesn't she doesn't even care about America. He said that when he was praising her in his speech in the Knesset.
123:45Bill Aman, Irake Pearlmutter, Bernard Marcus, Randy Fine, all these figures. That's why it happened. And Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, and Pastor John Hegy.
124:02I mean, it's right in and right in our faces. The American public's done with it. Donald Trump's approval rating is historically low. This is horrible for Donald Trump.
124:16Only 14% of Americans approve of his agenda strongly. Four out of five Americans say the war in Iran has worsened their standard of living, raised the cost of living, raised their gas prices.
124:33And this is what, as I said, this is what happens when you turn your administration into a cow pastor for Randy Fine, Laura Loomer, Miriam Add, and the Lood Party. Even Republicans are pissed off. Only 34% strongly approve of Donald Trump's agenda.
124:51Um, 13% or 24% disapprove of Trump. 24% of Republicans disapprove of Trump. That's really bad. And 66% of independents. So, it would stand a reason that they'd get demolished in the midterms, but they've gerrymandered so many districts uh that we don't know what's going to happen.
125:16But from Israel's point of view, they have till November to get everything they can.
125:25Here's Trump just today.
125:28This is someone who's flailing.
125:39>> Mr. President, the vice president said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war, but the US resumed strikes for the first time in recent weeks. Can you explain to the American people if this is not a war?
125:51What exactly is it?
125:52>> Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing. We did Venezuela and we did this.
126:03In Venezuela, we lost nobody. In this, we lost 18 people. Uh, and uh, in Vietnam, you lost a 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people. Uh, I would say that it's intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes. So, I I heard what he said and it was interesting because I think that there's a lot of truth that we're not fighting right now. There's no fighting. We're taking out a lot of oil.
126:28We control the harmos strait. Uh we control it very strongly. Uh we did a hit on certain areas around the harmon.
126:37We took out their radar as you know you know that very well. We took out some aircraft. We took out some other things that protect for them. Used to protect the harm straight when they had it under very tight control. But now we control it and we're taking out last night. We took a lot of boats. A lot of ships came through and they come through every day.
126:55So I can understand what he's saying.
126:57It's a military conflict, but it's it's very intermittent. I could see.
127:02>> So, it's not even a war. Uh, go ahead.
127:05>> Yeah, it's small potatoes. He like he references the deaths of 18 service members and he says it's small potatoes.
127:11I mean tell that to their families and tell that's the families of all the people in Iran who have been killed including people at a wedding this week which he hit and which of course they you know the administration claims oh like we're looking into that just as they're looking into that attack on the school man that killed well over 100 school children which Trump won't even take responsibility for.
127:34>> Well also oil is at $92 a barrel now. He says that the US controls the straight of Hormuz. That's not true at all and it's going to go up. He keeps saying that just to drive down oil prices because the war has been such an economic catastrophe and it's played a major role in driving US debt above $40 trillion.
127:55A major role. I mean, the war itself is going to cost more than a trillion dollars down the line when you factor in inflation, the rising cost of weapons, pay to uh service members over the course of the next decade who served in the war. It's going to cost over a trillion, but the current cost is like 125 billion, but that's massive. And then to pay for that, you just what what is the solution? How are they going to keep paying for it? just doing what Alan Greenspan said, print more money, which means the US economy, the dollar becomes increasingly worthless.
128:30And this is why investors are selling US bonds because there's no confidence in the US anymore to be able to pay back Treasury bonds.
128:41This is Trump's legacy. And then the Treasury yields keep going up, which is driving inflation. Trump's now threatening the Fed. He's saying he won't trade with certain c countries unless they lower interest rates.
128:55Scott Bent, everything he does fails.
128:58This is a guy whose whole career was just about shorting markets. He has no idea what he's doing and he's he's trying to stop the bleeding. But that's really like the real legacy of this war will be the death of dollar hegemony. I think Scott Besson spends more time working on ways to destroy the Iranian economy than he does on trying to address the US economy because he's every day he's out there just bragging about how he's crippling Iran. He's raising prices as if that's a good thing to make life harder for ordinary people inside Iran. How that benefits anybody and what right the US has to do that. Of
129:34course, no one ever addressed that question. But he's so proud of it and he's threatening constantly people. He's threatening China with sanctions, even though of course the US can't afford to follow through on that. That's it's like they're all obsessed now because Iran's humiliated them with making the people of Iran suffer even more.
129:53>> Yeah. That that that it's become a an obsession. But then when Trump is asked if it's a war, he says, "Well, uh, no, it's a military conflict and we're because the war the militarily the war is such a colossal failure that Iran is now going on the offensive." And as he was saying that, Iran attacked the Muafakti base again in Jordan uh by surprise. I don't know what what the result has been, but Iran is hammering away at what's left of US bases. Uh the debasification campaign has been a smashing success for Iran and has caused supply problems for the US in you know they had these um you know the
130:38n the navy was relying on bases in Bahrain to supply them with food and the Abra US we've seen the USS Abraham Lincoln the aircraft carrier in the region uh face practically a mutiny from its crew because they were rationing food and what they were eating was disgusting. The living quarters were disgusting. The New York Times has done an investigation on the US supply lines uh for the Navy. You know, the US empire is based on, you know, this archipelago of bases. It's based on the US being a global maritime power, which no other country is. And it's based on the dollar being the world currency, like the g the
131:23the the global reserve currency. This is a summary of the New York Times investigation telling us kind of what we already knew, which is the US Navy's facing a serious logistics problem in the Middle East. Around 20 ships carrying roughly 20,000 sailors and marines need more than 420,000 meals and about 8 million gallons of fuel every week. The situation became much harder after Iran destroyed a key Navy logistics base in Bahrain and made other nearby ports too dangerous to use.
131:54Supply ships now have to travel about 22,000 miles to Diego Garcia. That's an island in the uh and base in the Indian Ocean or even farther to Singapore before returning to the fleet. So to get to shore the and also this is because of Iranian standoff weapons. US but but mainly to resupply US ships have to go to Singapore.
132:20This is pathetic.
132:22The hits keep coming.
132:26And so Trump is just saying, "Oh, that's small potatoes.
132:30Small potatoes." And they're just going in circles. They have no way of defeating Iran.
132:36militarily. Uh what did JD Vance say about this?
132:44He said, you know, he he he he said in an interview like about his Catholic faith that he's okay with the end times.
132:53The US struck Oh, yeah. This is a point in in that in the Trump comments that I kind of missed. He talks about um attacking areas in Iran's south near the straight of Hormuz, but he bombed a wedding, right? I mean, the US, they're the ultimate wedding crashers, you know, every time there was there were so many weddings that where the where attendees were massacred in Afghanistan and now they're doing it again in Iran. I think 56 people were wounded, three were killed. Here's JD Vance.
133:27The Iranians say that an attack on celebration earlier this week killed several people, injured dozens of others. I know SenCom says it's investigating, but have you been briefed on that attack? And what's the US response? So, I've been briefed to the extent that I know that we're investigating. I've seen the same public media reports um everywhere else. I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far. So, I'm extremely skeptical of this. What I can say with 100% confidence is that unlike the IRDC, the United States never targets civilians in combat. We never
134:04will do that. We never have done that.
134:06And unfortunately, obviously sometimes things happen, but in this particular case, I unfortunately obviously sometimes things happen.
134:16>> Yeah. Sometimes things happen like I don't know, MAB.
134:20>> MAB where there was a double tap and maybe even a triple tap strike. So when he says that the US doesn't target civilians, like what is the value of that when not only do you have a school being bombed once, but then repeatedly bombed as people are are fleeing um and trying to protect themselves.
134:39>> Uh and is he and everyone knows that that happened. I mean, it's it's been confirmed by so many open source investigations, witness accounts. It's only Trump who keeps pretending is that Iran fired the weapon on itself, but everyone else knows exactly what happened. and and the Pentagon's been delaying the results of its investigation because they don't want to formally admit it.
135:01They won't they won't admit to one of the biggest crimes since the Meli massacre. And there were so many other attacks on civilians like Lamar on the first day when an entire volleyball practice of 12y olds was massacred with a Lockheed precision strike missile which released 80,000 small pellets of tungsten. Sometimes things happen. We don't do that. Uh what's the strategy here? Like how are they going to do regime change in Iran?
135:34Uh Tel Aviv Ted has a a real scenario which has never been tried before >> of being effective fighters. If we arm them in of being effective fighters, if we arm them and let them, it's not our business to determine who the government of Iran is. But it is our business to say the government of Iran should not be a radical theocrat who hates America and is trying to kill Americans. And President Trump is acting as a strong commander-in-chief to keep the American people safe. What I've been urging is for >> it's not our business who the government of Iran is, but we should arm who we like there to have a new government. I
136:15mean, on top of being totally uh just hubristic, colonial, illegal, it's also totally incoherent. He contradicts himself within one sentence. But yeah, that's what they're left with is essentially they're so desperate for regime change that now they're going back to the Syria scenario >> of flooding the country and trying to have a civil war.
136:40>> It it reminds me of also Syria. I mean, like back in Syria, you know, the the Obama administration would say, you know, we don't have a policy of regime change, but they also would say Assad must go. [laughter] It's like they can't even they can't even commit to their own goals uh because they know how insane it is, how insane it sounds, but yet they proceed anyway. Well, the longer they keep pushing for regime change, the more that Iranians unite behind their leadership and they get leadership that is willing to go on the offensive against American empire as we've seen today with Iranian attacks on a US base
137:23in Jordan and the new IRGC leadership under Mosen Razi is going to be more aggressive than before, just like Iran's leadership in general is going to be more aggressive before they've been burned in negotiations again and again and again.
137:43They're, you know, they're just they're not going to have it. So that's that's the result that Israel has produced.
137:50>> Israel and its proxies in the US like Ted Cruz have produced and they have no solution to it. They wouldn't even know who they could put in power. The clown prince has been totally discredited.
138:06There's nobody else. There's no Deli Rodriguez for Iran. But that's what Trump was told at the beginning of this whole catastrophe.
138:15He was told that by the Israelis. He was told that by the Mossad director, David Barnea, who by the way is now, I think in charge of a US weapons corporation.
138:25He was told that by Netanyahu that after a few decapitation strikes, uh, we'll have a Venezuela-like scenario. Trump even invoked that in his comments on Iran. Well, we've we're doing great in Venezuela. We won in Venezuela.
138:40So, this is the this I mean, just to kind of summarize the discussions we've been having today.
138:48You have Venezuela on one side and Iran on the other. Venezuela had experienced the equivalent of three great depressions under US sanctions and the wind in the sales of chismo had been knocked out and from within and without it was being undermined.
139:06Um the youth of Venezuela were no longer interested in it. It wasn't producing any economic gains and so many of them were just trying to go to Miami.
139:15They didn't have a strong ideology uh in Iran.
139:21They did. They did. And they do. And what I would see in Iran at the [clears throat] rallies that they hold nightly, the patriotic rallies were squares filled with young people chanting in support of their military and their leadership in this war.
139:38They weren't trying to leave. They had a strong They have a strong ideology. They have they have millions of people that are willing to die. They have a military that had been preparing for this for decades.
139:52They have missile cities that had been hardened and constructed underground to withstand US strikes.
140:01And they've done it. They have managed to hold off a joint US and Israeli strike. The alternative for them was what is happening in Venezuela where they would have been absolutely plundered and economically raped. And that's what is waiting for Russia and China as well if they do not defend themselves. That's the message that the US sent after 9/11 when George W. Bush said, "You're either with us or against us." That's what it means. Venezuela is with the US now. It gets raped like Russia did in the '90s. Iran is against the US. So they get their children massacred in schools, they get bombed occasionally, they get economically put
140:43under siege, but they get to hold on to their national sovereignty and their resources and hold their heads high. And it's coming for Russia and China next or it's happening to Russia.
140:55Um Netanyahu has even said, you know, the the blessing and the curse. The blessing is the Abraham Accords like the United Arab Emirates. The curse is uh Syria, Lebanon. I'm just Gaza. We'll just destroy you. We'll genocide you.
141:10We'll just blow up your villages unless you become part of the blessing and join Israel and normalize. And that's the fate awaiting all the countries in Israel's near abroad.
141:22And that and and and that's the future.
141:25And it's a very terrible future that we have opposed at the gray zone, which is why we tried to build bridges, why we've done the reporting we've done.
141:35And I think we've been proven right again and again that it's just bad for the majority of humanity to operate on in in such a manachean dynamic.
141:48Anything you want to add or cover, Aaron, before we go? I got to go because I uh got to go.
141:56>> Yeah. No, no. Uh thanks thanks to everyone for joining us. Check out my book, Their Blood or Bullets available for pre-order from Orbooks.
142:04>> Let's get that on screen. One more time.
142:08This book has to come out. [laughter] This and this.
142:14>> I'm going to organize like a letterw writing campaign to or books if it doesn't come out soon. [laughter] >> We have to do an event around this. We absolutely know. It's time. We got to do a lot of events around. By the way, you know, speaking of issues that we've been right on, I mean, like when the Russian invasion began in independent media, the amount number of people willing to say that this was provoked by the US, that there were peaceful options and that this was going to be a disaster uh unless there was diplomacy. There was only a handful of us. And now, of course, so many years later, so many
142:50hundreds of thousands of deaths later, now more people are saying it. But again, you know, independent media would be so much better if people could apply their principles consistently. Uh, and one way to do that is to listen to the gray zone and support the gray zone and uh on this topic, >> buy this book.
143:10>> Buy this book, Their Blood, Our Bullets >> and make sure and and force them to release this book.
143:21[laughter] Yeah. Um, well, we'll we'll be back soon. I don't know when, but if you're watching and you want to see more of this kind of content, uh, there's going to be a great live stream tomorrow at a from a great event, uh, the Ron Paul Institute. I'll be speaking there briefly.
143:43Uh, Daniel McAdams is going to be speaking there. Joe Kent will be speaking there. I think Tucker Carlson is making a remote appearance.
143:54There will be other uh great speakers there, but I'll be one of them. It'll be brief, but I think it's worth watching that live stream. So, check that out tomorrow. Um it goes from like 9:00 a.m.
144:07Oh, Dennis Cusinich, our friend Dennis Cusinich is speaking there as well. and it goes from like 9:00 a.m. till 3:00 PM. So, you should probably be able to find that at their YouTube channel. Check it out. Thanks for joining us. Like this stream, subscribe to the Greyzone, subscribe to our Substack newsletter, and get everything in your inbox for free.
144:32And support us however you see fit. Uh you can support us through Patreon and there's a support button at thegrazone.com or just send us your moral support. Uh we're really happy to have you here and we'll look forward to seeing you again and hopefully crossing paths in the near future unless you are one of the trolls who has sent in to infest our chat.
145:03Peace.
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