Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning, Brownie and Dragon. Hey Brownie, your comment about Amazon
trucks being scanned going in and out of their facilities
looking for damage. For years, Swift had been considered one
of the worst trucks on the road for safety, but
now Amazon Prime is considered to be the new Swift. Oh,
(00:21):
by the way, Swift stands for sure. Wish i'd finished
training or sure, we're ensued for that.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Have a great day, can you? Growing up, I saw
Swift trucks all the time because obviously you know, branching country,
feedlot country. But I don't. I just can't think the
last thing I saw. Do they still exist? Are they
still around? Sure? Which I finished training? That's great? Ford
(00:50):
fix your repair daily? Found on the road dead. I
like the rooster in the background. The rooster was fantastic,
Absolutely fantastic. I mean, between a Swift truck hauling cattle
somewhere and you know, getting a talk back from Green
Acres with the rooster in the background just made my day.
(01:11):
We haven't talked about Ukraine in a while, but something
I think fairly substantial happened yesterday, so I want to
talk about Ukraine for a little bit. In an ideal world,
you know where Dragon Iron charge of everything NATO, including US,
the United States and all the member countries of NATO
(01:34):
would have properly backed Ukraine, and as I said numerous
times on this program, this open ended will be with
you as long as we take which is what Biden
said all the time, was the wrong message and it
was the wrong attitude. It wasn't here, we're going to
(01:57):
assist you so that you can win. Now, why did
Biden not do that? Because Biden was scared to death
of Putin. He was scared to death of it escalating
into some you know, greater conflagration between Russia and Eastern
Europe and spilling over into Western Europe. Or I don't know,
maybe Biden was just maybe I don't know, maybe Biden's
(02:17):
just or was and still is an idiot. I really
think it's the latter. But in the in the ideal world,
NATO would have properly backed Ukraine and said we will
give you what it takes to win because it's in
Western Europe's best interest. Well I shouldn't say Western Europe.
It is in Europe's best interest, and that's in our interest.
(02:45):
We would provided the necessary weaponry to repel Putin in
twenty twenty two and would have driven a chase in
Vadimir Putin back to Moscow to lick his wounds. But
this is not twenty twenty two, and that did not happened.
And we've talked a lot on this program about how
(03:07):
Joe Biden, but particularly Barack Obama, led us to this moment,
and it doesn't require any sort of rehashing. So and
I apologize for the cliche, but we are where we are,
and now how do the good guys win you. I've
(03:29):
read an awful lot of articles, had a lot of
discussions with friends about what should happen, and it almost
invariably turns out to be, well, if only Donald Trump
were somebody else, And I'm like, well who. And it's
(03:50):
fine to engage in alternate histories, but this is history
that's being played out right now. And if you can
say one good thing about Donald Trump, which a lot
of people can't say one good thing about Donald Trump,
remember remember where we started this program out Today I
(04:11):
didn't finish. I think I played less than three minutes
of that video of all these people calling for the
assassination of Donald Trump, and the one brilliant person there's
only one really smart person on there that said, look, listen,
we need to You know, I dream of the day
(04:33):
that I wake up and I wake up to the news.
The day seems brighter for some reason, and then I
read the news on my phone and I realized that
someone finally did it. But guys, we need to think
another step ahead. We still have vance, so we got
to think about what we're gonna do advance too. Well
(04:54):
for everybody that says if only Donald Trump were a
different person, well that's the fantasy land that those people
live in, all these endless laments for what might have
been if only the president understood putting Putin's evil, if
he only understood Zelensky's greatness, I guess, or if he
(05:14):
understood the value of democracy, or if he understood the
implications of a Russian win, if the only understood history
or NATO or euro blah blah blah blah blah blah whatever. Yeah,
it would be simply amazing if Donald Trump were not
you know, Donald Trump, or somehow what's the alternative, Kamala
Harris or Nikki Haley or someone that the establishment doesn't loathe,
(05:40):
Because that's what's really going on. Here. But here's a
news flash. He is Donald Trump, and for the next
you know, X number of days, for this year, and
for the next three years, after the next whatever it
is to finish out this year, and then another twenty
days after that, he is the president of the United
(06:00):
States of America, and god forbid. I don't think that
any of those yahoos on TikTok are going to be
able to accomplish what they want to accomplish, but there's
no doubt in my mind that they would like to
try to accomplish what they want to accomplish. And so
people talking about how the world would be a better
place if it just wasn't Donald Trump, it was just
(06:21):
anybody else. But I guarant damn tee if that anybody
else was a Republican, all the people on TikTok and
all the Democrats would all still be saying the same thing, unless,
of course, it was such a horrific rhino that the
Democrats will might as well as be one of us.
Here's a fact. Are you ready sit down because this
(06:43):
may just blow you away. Donald Trump is the president. Wow, Brown,
you're pretty smart today. Well, I think it has to
be stated. He's what we've got. So if you're on
that group that wants to save you, well, then that's
the guy you're going to have to work with. Period.
(07:04):
Now here's some more facts, many of which I want
to review with the idea that maybe I mean the
master of the obvious. Today. One, Ukraine is not losing
to Russia right now, but Ukraine is not winning either.
(07:27):
This is a stalemate. It's two steps forward, three steps
back on both sides. That's number one. Number two, Russia
is expending tens of thousands of lives on those minuscule
gains that they do make, and then they lose, and
(07:48):
then they expand tens of thousands of more lives to
regain that territory they lost and maybe gain a few
more yards. But here's the fact about that that most
people ignore. That's perfectly okay with Vladimir Putin. He doesn't care.
He doesn't care how many people it takes. He probably
(08:10):
worries a little bit about having to implement enforced conscription
that might be redundant, but conscription, because that might have
some domestic blowback. But on the other hand, he doesn't
really worry about that because, after all, he wins his
elections with one hundred percent of the vote. Say, and
(08:32):
no matter what he does, he still will win the
elections with one hundred percent of the vote. Here's another point,
and a lot of this comes from a lot of
the different international podcasts that I either read transcripts of
or actually listen to. The Russian army, the Russian military
(08:52):
is low on arms and munitions. Do you know they're
actually using golf cards right now. Yeah, they're actually using
some gold carts, but that's being backfilled by North Korea
and the Iranians. Ukraine is manufacturing drones and AMMO, but
obviously not enough, and it needs the United States for
(09:15):
air defense Europe. Just like Europe can't even supply enough
electricity to keep the lights on in Spain and Portugal,
or Germany or Fans for that matter, Europe can neither
arm Ukraine sufficiently to prosecute the war successfully against Russia,
and Europe cannot provide the necessary intelligence to prevent devastating
(09:40):
attacks on civilians, which is what Putin's now doing an
act in acts of desperation. Now, Zelensky is I think
he's a horrible diplomat, but he is. And I've got
(10:04):
two words with question marks after them. He's a crappy diplomat.
He doesn't know how to deal with Trump. He doesn't
really know how to even, for that matter, deal with
Macron or Starmer in the UK. He doesn't really know.
But he is either a brilliant wartime leader or he's
(10:30):
a lucky wartime leader. I'm not sure which it is.
The skills that won. He had lots of praise in
twenty twenty two. He was stubborn, he was humorous, he
was acting. That's not serving Zelensky as well anymore. In fact,
I think they're hurting him, and in the process of
(10:52):
it's hurting Ukraine too. And Steve Whitkoff, the President's emissary,
his special envoy for Ukraine and these other hotspots, is
I think becoming a disaster. He's got a few wins,
(11:14):
but he's got a lot of losses. But the bottom
line is Trump still trusts him, and as long as
Trump trusts him, as with any presidential appointee, that's really
all that matters. So you may disagree, but I think
those are facts, at least in my mind, those are
(11:34):
facts right now. But here's some more. Ukraine is the
supplicant because Ukraine needs us now. That might be frustrating
and it might be annoying, but it's both the military
and political reality right now if Trump wants to stop
the war. And here's another fact. Zelesky is the one
(12:01):
that blew his political capital with Donald Trump in the
Oval office during that meeting, and Vance probably piled on.
I think that's neither here nor there. Did Trump pile on? No,
I don't think so. I think Trump reacted as Trump
(12:22):
would be expected to react. I think the only thing
about that scene that from from someone who's lived inside
that world, is that there were that was not planned.
It just happened to play out in front of the cameras.
(12:42):
I think that would have just as easily played out
behind the cameras, behind the scenes. In fact, probably was.
And I think on both sides of that of the
President's chair, both on the couch where Vance and the
others were sitting and in the chair where Rasilinski is sitting,
I think they were both expecting it. Both sides expected it.
(13:06):
They just didn't expected there. And that's just again I
think that's those are just facts. And here's another fact.
Ukraine's out of options now. If Ukraine wants to continue
to prosecute this war, it's going to have to have
(13:28):
sufficient weaponry, and unfortunately the only place a nearly good
source for that is US. Ukraine can can screen damn
the torpedoes and then just watches more and more of
its soldiers. And now as we're beginning to see civilians
(13:48):
are murdered and little by little, inch by inch, foot
by foot, yard by yard, as even more of its
territory is beginning to get swallowed up. But and here's
the conclusion I've come to this. If if there is
a path to victory for Ukraine, now I do believe
(14:10):
there's a path to victory for Russia. And the path
to victory for Russia is Putin will just continue to
kill his own people, and for that matter, North Koreans
and Iranians without it, or in Chinese without any regard
for their lives whatsoever. Now, at some point, even Kim
(14:32):
Jong un may be less so than Shi jing Ping.
But shi jing Ping at some point will say, you know,
enough is enough, and I can't because Chi jing Ping
wants to fight his own wars. So Hijing Ping at
some point will say, you know, no, mos, no more
of this Kim Jong Un. I might, I might be
willing to admit that he didn't care and in fact,
(14:55):
the fear of his army that he allows to be
uh on the battlefield. He doesn't really care because well,
nobody's going to touch him, and he's got you know,
shigen Ping protecting him, and he's got nuclear weapons, so
you know, he's he doesn't care. The Iranians they do
care because they they've got other battles to fight too.
(15:17):
So there is a path to victory for Putin, although
it might get weaker and weaker the more people he
continues to kill. But what he will do is the
more soldiers he kills, the more he's going to go
after Ukrainian civilians. And at some point I think even
Americans will look at that and say, we got to
(15:39):
stop that. In America in the person of Donald Trump,
I don't think any of us want the war to continue.
I don't you know. I think this is something that
I agree. I'm tired of hearing Trump say it, but
(16:02):
I agree that had Trump been president for the past
four years, that Putin would not have done the invasion.
I believe that Putin did the invasion solely because he
saw the demented old fart in the White House, and
he knew that nobody would take him on. So I
do think it occurred simply because Trump wasn't in the
White House. Now Putin is now concerned because Trump is
(16:26):
in the White House, but now in this country, in
the person of our president, and I think in the
minds of most Americans, we just don't want this war
to continue. We can jump up and down, we can
say that it's wrong, but what really counts as Trump's view,
and I don't think anbody's going to change that view.
(16:46):
If Ukraine accepts that it doesn't have any path to
victory without this country, and therefore has to go along
with Trump's plant in the bloodshed, then Ukraine must also
accept that it doesn't have the leverage to make changes
to the peace plan that's being offered. Now for some
(17:07):
of you, that might be, that might be a lousy situation,
and yeah, it may it may be, but ideal in reality,
and I think that's the reality. And I think that's
why yesterday, surprisingly at least surprisingly to me, we got.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
This thanks to President Trump's tireless efforts to secure a
lasting piece. I am glad to announce the signing of
today's historic Economic Partnership Agreement between the United States and Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Now, what's in that? And what does that have to
do with only Ukraine has to have us to win
the war? That's not.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Donald Trump has exactly one thousand, three hundred and sixty
days left and his presidency.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And it's glorious.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Alexis centasen and I've got it filed away in a
folder somewhere, an Excel spreadsheet.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I think she was counting up to one hundred, though
I don't know if she was counting out.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Oh no, you didn't look at it, did you. I
didn't look at it counted down every single day between
now and January twentieth of twenty twenty nine. Okay, I
missed that part. I knew she was counting up. I
didn't see this. I thought, well, I'll just print that
out and throw it over there on my desk and
every day just kind of you have the date, and
(18:40):
I realized I don't use it. I don't want to
use it, even though I didn't even want to use
a ring of company paper. Every single day it's the date,
and then it's the day of a cumulative date. And
then it's the number of days remained me. Somebody is
(19:04):
either very good at excel or has too much time
on their harry board, or both. Back to stop affent.
The Treasury Secretary announcing this yesterday.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Thanks to President Trump's tireless efforts to secure a lasting piece,
I am glad to announce the signing of today's historic
economic partnership agreement between the United States and Ukraine establishing
the United States Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. This partnership allows
the United States to invest alongside Ukraine to unlock Ukraine's
(19:44):
growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital, and governance standards that
will improve Ukraine's investment climate, and accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery.
The Development Finance Corporation will participate and help to establish
this fund in collaboration with the Government of Ukraine. Today's
(20:05):
agreement signals clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration
is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign,
and prosperous Ukraine over the long term. It's time for
this cruel and senseless war to end. The killing must stop,
and both the United States and the Government of Ukraine
(20:28):
look forward to quickly operationalizing this historic economic partnership for
both the Ukrainian and American people.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Well, there you go. If Ukraine accepts, which I think
this is a signal that they have that there is
no path to victory without the United States and therefore
really does need to go along with Trump's plan to
end the bloodshed. That it's got to that it doesn't
(21:00):
have the leverage to make all the changes necessary to
the peace plan being offered, and I think boom, that's
the first signal that they acknowledge that now is that lousy, Well,
it could be, but it's the reality. So Ukraine can
continue to try to play hard, but it risks the
Oval office problem again and again and again, and they've
(21:23):
got to recognize that they're going to have to play
ball with Trump. I also think this as a footnote
that I think Trump's beginning to realize that Putin is
not going to In fact, Putin has by attacking civilians
after Trump claiming that, you know, I think we're getting close,
(21:45):
but I think it was Rubio that said we're close,
but not close enough. I think Putin attacking civilians, particularly
in Kiev, was basically to show that yeah, you know what,
I'm going to keep moving forward. For example, the one
page plan that was profited by the United States to
(22:08):
Kiev as a takeul to leave it includes our recognition
of Russian sovereignty over Crimea. I don't I happened to
agree with that. That ship sailed Obama and Biden. Let
(22:29):
that occur. Was it aggression yes? Was it lawful?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
But it's one of those things that do you want
to start World War three over that? No? I don't
think it's worth it. And I think that's why in
terms of our offering of a peace plan, that's a
token to Russia that yeah, you know what, you did
(22:56):
that under somebody else, and it's not worth trying to
push that out because that's a non starter for Putin.
And one of the things you have to do in
negotiations is recognize what are the non starters for the
other side. Now, a non starter is not always a
non starter. A non starter is only a non starter
(23:16):
until it's not. But right now it is.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And Trump's not asking Ukraine to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
It's just basically saying that we're recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
You can take it or leave it, but it is
what it is. You know what's interesting is it's now
been what at least eleven years. I think it was
(23:45):
either twenty thirteen or fourteen. It's been at least eleven years,
and I don't think you'll find a single expression of
genuine outrage from any Western leader about CRIMEA. It's one
and done. It's over with. So notwithstanding this fact, and
yes it is a verified fact, crime is not on
track for eastort of liberation, Zelensky did up and announced
(24:08):
that he was damned if he would recognize Russian sovereignty
over Crimea. Now, never mind that nobody was asking him to,
he just threw that out there, which gets to my
point about him being a crappy diplomat. Keep your mouth shut.
What was the point of even saying that anger at
Russia outrage? Well, yeah, I get that, but there's a
(24:29):
lot of things that I might be mad about that
I keep quiet about because one I know it's not
gonna change anything, and two I want to save that
outrage for when they outrage might actually accomplish something. So
the problem is going back to my point that Zelensky's
got to recognize, and I think yesterday he did that
(24:50):
he's going to have to deal with Trump. Trump was
watching and proclamations like that by Zelensky persuade him that Zelensky,
maybe he doesn't want piece. Now. I can hear you
angrily muttering that it's Putina doesn't want peace. Well, I
(25:10):
agree with you. You're right, I'm not sure that's the
perception on the White House. And I don't have access
to the intel that Trump's getting briefed about by both
the State Department and the CIA, both both human intelligence
and other sources of intelligence. But if Zelenski wants something
(25:34):
from us, and obviously he does, then the smart players
remain strategically silent and let Russia refuse the deal that
Trump is offering. Let Russia play the obstructionist. So the
best option for Zelensky sit down, negotiate the most important
(25:56):
thing of all security guarantees. There's no victory option right now.
There's no retaking all of all these different oblosts that
Trump or Trump, that Putin has taken lance, that Donnat's
the Zypraziah. That no, it's just not going to happen,
(26:19):
at least not in the near term. And you know why,
let's not forget this. Why because of Joe Biden's foot
dragging and Joe Biden's just open endednness. They just dribble
out dribs and drabs of weaponry instead of just saying here,
here's everything you need and we'll just be there as
long as it takes well. Then that's why I think
(26:41):
that that territory might be a little bit negotiable, but
it's not. It's not a given. And remember, the Menska
Cords did not save Ukraine after twenty fourteen, and words
alone are not going to save them in future years.
They need a peacekeeping force, a buffer, a wall, and
(27:06):
the arms necessary to repel the Russians from the United
States in order to guarantee peace. You and I both
can all wish that were blue in the face that
Europe hadn't spent the last four decades disarming, but they did.
They took all of their money, They completely demilitarized themselves,
They completely destroyed all of their military manufacturing capability so
(27:31):
they could to go chase the stupid green energy dream.
Look where that got them. Got more info than that too.
The point that we're at is, if you really want
something let me just throw out one word two countries
(27:56):
Korea an armistice. Just okay, this draw line, this created
demilitarized zone, and we just like we're doing South Korea
right now. We have troops there. I'm not advocating for
troops immediately, but we've got troops there. But we're certainly,
(28:16):
by this agreement that was reached yesterday, are going to
have companies from all over the world that are willing
to trade and do business with US Americans, and we
will have American companies in there doing all of those
economic things that will mean, oh so putin risks hurting
(28:42):
American men, men and women, workers on the ground, or
workers from oh I don't know, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan,
wherever they might be, all working to rebuild that infrastructure. Sure,
all working to extract all of those rare earth minerals,
(29:03):
working to do all of the things they can to
start reconstruction and rebuilding. Black Rock is going to show up,
you know, black Rock's going to show up. They're going
to show up. They're trillions of dollars and hell's bells. Yeah,
we just start rebuilding these cities and towns and we
can make a s word of money load of money
out of that too. So it seems to me that
(29:24):
we're I would say brilliantly, but I'm not sure it's
brilliant as much as it is just the way it
is dealing with the reality on the ground. We're working
toward a North and South Korea demilitarized Zone and an armistice.
(29:47):
You know, the North three and wars, they're still at war.
There's just an armistice, and there's a DMZ, and there's
a lot of American companies, there's a lot of American
trade between South Korea and US. And we have troops
on the ground and everybody's at a standstill and the
(30:08):
killing is stopped. We might be reliving the nineteen fifties
all over again.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Michael, What are the odds or chances that every single
one of those crazy people making those ridiculous statements get
a visit from the FBI or the Secret Service. I
sure hope every single one of them do, because this
has got to stop. I do.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I really don't know what to say to that, because
I don't think it is going to stop. And the
reason it's all going to stop, which is kind of interesting.
I wasn't planning on playing this, but don't have much time,
but let's listen to as much of it as we
can do. You hear about how bad Trump is and
the poll numbers are so bad. CNN this morning.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Had this who would be doing a better job as president?
Guess who comes out on top? Within the margin, Herbert
comes on top. This looks a lot like the election result,
right Trump forty five percent, two points ahead of Harris
at forty three twelve percent say they'd be doing about
the same. But this is the key nugget here. It's
not just about regretting that vote. It's literally saying who
would be doing the better job right now? And Trump
(31:19):
continues to score a higher percentage of the vote than
Kamala Harris. This looks a heck of a lot like
the election result. We have just seen this in poll
after poll after poll. Despite the fact that Trump's fable
ratings aren't too hot to trut when he's matched up
against who who's matched up in twenty twenty four, he's
still across the polls scores a higher percentage than Kamala
Harris does.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
Even if they don't know exactly what she would have done.
They still went for Donald Trump. Okay, what about when
he's matched up against congressional Democrats, who we know have
had some pretty rough numbers.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, they have had some pretty rough numbers.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
So Kamala Harris obviously as it doesn't hold elected officer.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Now you think those numbers are bad for Democrats? Wait
for this, this right now?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
But Democrats in Congress, sure do so? Who do you
trust more on the US main problems, the main problems
in the United States?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, what do we have here?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
It's the same exact picture, folks, It's the same exact picture.
When you mentioned much Donald Trump against his actual competition,
donald Trump comes out ahead. Look at this forty percent
to congressional Democrats thirty two percent. Going to make a
big circle here, But the bottom line is, when you
look at Donald Trump in a vacuum, it's one thing.
But when you actually match him up against folks in
(32:26):
the real world, all of a sudden, his numbers look
considerably better. And when you match him up against his
main competition at this point, Democrats in Congress, he is
more trusted on the main problems facing the United States
right now. In fact, it's not even close. It's an
eight point advantage, which in this politics, well that's so
a wide.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
Ocean, it's huge, and maybe tells the Democrats that their
messaging is not working at the right point in time.
All right, speaking of the.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
She's so wrong. Yes, they're messaging. Sucks, But you can't
if your message is about a pile of pop. Your
message is sell about a pile of poop. No matter
how no, I don't care how many focus groups or
marketing firms or anything else you it's still about you're
trying to sell a pile of poop. And that's all
the Democrats have as a pile of poop, and that's
all they're trying to sell. It's not they're messaging, they're policies.
(33:18):
This Well, while Trump's approval rating may not be the greatest,
oh it's the worst than seventy five years for the
first hundred days in office, that doesn't mean squad signer
days in office. He's just getting started. And and if
he keeps the pace up, holy crap o, who knows
what's going to occur, And some of these tiff slash
(33:38):
trade agreements actually get resolved. Holy cow. I mean, you
talk about a redistribution of wealth back into the United States. Uh,
stock market will go crazy. Uh, the economy itself will
go crazy.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
And that takes time. But in an ADHD world where
we expect immediate results, I think most Americans are like, hey,
because now they don't talk about this in this SoundBite.
But when you do the pulling about right track, wrong track,
whether the country is on the right track or the
wrong track, it's still overwhelmingly Oh, we're finally on the
(34:19):
right track, where throughout the entire term of Biden it
was the wrong track. So to your point, the the
poll numbers, while I still just kind of fluff them
off because I'm more interested in what's actually happening. The
Democrats are going to continue to They're going to continue
(34:41):
to want to assassinate Trump because those people in TikTok
Man that's all they got because well they're publicly educated
and they're a bunch of nuts, And unfortunately they got
a they got a platform of
Speaker 6 (34:57):
The big issues, which party is better trusted way it
comes to things like the economy and immigrations,
Morning, Brownie and Dragon. Hey Brownie, your comment about Amazon
trucks being scanned going in and out of their facilities
looking for damage. For years, Swift had been considered one
of the worst trucks on the road for safety, but
now Amazon Prime is considered to be the new Swift. Oh,
(00:21):
by the way, Swift stands for sure. Wish i'd finished
training or sure, we're ensued for that.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Have a great day, can you? Growing up, I saw
Swift trucks all the time because obviously you know, branching country,
feedlot country. But I don't. I just can't think the
last thing I saw. Do they still exist? Are they
still around? Sure? Which I finished training? That's great? Ford
(00:50):
fix your repair daily? Found on the road dead. I
like the rooster in the background. The rooster was fantastic,
Absolutely fantastic. I mean, between a Swift truck hauling cattle
somewhere and you know, getting a talk back from Green
Acres with the rooster in the background just made my day.
(01:11):
We haven't talked about Ukraine in a while, but something
I think fairly substantial happened yesterday, so I want to
talk about Ukraine for a little bit. In an ideal world,
you know where Dragon Iron charge of everything NATO, including US,
the United States and all the member countries of NATO
(01:34):
would have properly backed Ukraine, and as I said numerous
times on this program, this open ended will be with
you as long as we take which is what Biden
said all the time, was the wrong message and it
was the wrong attitude. It wasn't here, we're going to
(01:57):
assist you so that you can win. Now, why did
Biden not do that? Because Biden was scared to death
of Putin. He was scared to death of it escalating
into some you know, greater conflagration between Russia and Eastern
Europe and spilling over into Western Europe. Or I don't know,
maybe Biden was just maybe I don't know, maybe Biden's
(02:17):
just or was and still is an idiot. I really
think it's the latter. But in the in the ideal world,
NATO would have properly backed Ukraine and said we will
give you what it takes to win because it's in
Western Europe's best interest. Well I shouldn't say Western Europe.
It is in Europe's best interest, and that's in our interest.
(02:45):
We would provided the necessary weaponry to repel Putin in
twenty twenty two and would have driven a chase in
Vadimir Putin back to Moscow to lick his wounds. But
this is not twenty twenty two, and that did not happened.
And we've talked a lot on this program about how
(03:07):
Joe Biden, but particularly Barack Obama, led us to this moment,
and it doesn't require any sort of rehashing. So and
I apologize for the cliche, but we are where we are,
and now how do the good guys win you. I've
(03:29):
read an awful lot of articles, had a lot of
discussions with friends about what should happen, and it almost
invariably turns out to be, well, if only Donald Trump
were somebody else, And I'm like, well who. And it's
(03:50):
fine to engage in alternate histories, but this is history
that's being played out right now. And if you can
say one good thing about Donald Trump, which a lot
of people can't say one good thing about Donald Trump,
remember remember where we started this program out Today I
(04:11):
didn't finish. I think I played less than three minutes
of that video of all these people calling for the
assassination of Donald Trump, and the one brilliant person there's
only one really smart person on there that said, look, listen,
we need to You know, I dream of the day
(04:33):
that I wake up and I wake up to the news.
The day seems brighter for some reason, and then I
read the news on my phone and I realized that
someone finally did it. But guys, we need to think
another step ahead. We still have vance, so we got
to think about what we're gonna do advance too. Well
(04:54):
for everybody that says if only Donald Trump were a
different person, well that's the fantasy land that those people
live in, all these endless laments for what might have
been if only the president understood putting Putin's evil, if
he only understood Zelensky's greatness, I guess, or if he
(05:14):
understood the value of democracy, or if he understood the
implications of a Russian win, if the only understood history
or NATO or euro blah blah blah blah blah blah whatever. Yeah,
it would be simply amazing if Donald Trump were not
you know, Donald Trump, or somehow what's the alternative, Kamala
Harris or Nikki Haley or someone that the establishment doesn't loathe,
(05:40):
Because that's what's really going on. Here. But here's a
news flash. He is Donald Trump, and for the next
you know, X number of days, for this year, and
for the next three years, after the next whatever it
is to finish out this year, and then another twenty
days after that, he is the president of the United
(06:00):
States of America, and god forbid. I don't think that
any of those yahoos on TikTok are going to be
able to accomplish what they want to accomplish, but there's
no doubt in my mind that they would like to
try to accomplish what they want to accomplish. And so
people talking about how the world would be a better
place if it just wasn't Donald Trump, it was just
(06:21):
anybody else. But I guarant damn tee if that anybody
else was a Republican, all the people on TikTok and
all the Democrats would all still be saying the same thing, unless,
of course, it was such a horrific rhino that the
Democrats will might as well as be one of us.
Here's a fact. Are you ready sit down because this
(06:43):
may just blow you away. Donald Trump is the president. Wow, Brown,
you're pretty smart today. Well, I think it has to
be stated. He's what we've got. So if you're on
that group that wants to save you, well, then that's
the guy you're going to have to work with. Period.
(07:04):
Now here's some more facts, many of which I want
to review with the idea that maybe I mean the
master of the obvious. Today. One, Ukraine is not losing
to Russia right now, but Ukraine is not winning either.
(07:27):
This is a stalemate. It's two steps forward, three steps
back on both sides. That's number one. Number two, Russia
is expending tens of thousands of lives on those minuscule
gains that they do make, and then they lose, and
(07:48):
then they expand tens of thousands of more lives to
regain that territory they lost and maybe gain a few
more yards. But here's the fact about that that most
people ignore. That's perfectly okay with Vladimir Putin. He doesn't care.
He doesn't care how many people it takes. He probably
(08:10):
worries a little bit about having to implement enforced conscription
that might be redundant, but conscription, because that might have
some domestic blowback. But on the other hand, he doesn't
really worry about that because, after all, he wins his
elections with one hundred percent of the vote. Say, and
(08:32):
no matter what he does, he still will win the
elections with one hundred percent of the vote. Here's another point,
and a lot of this comes from a lot of
the different international podcasts that I either read transcripts of
or actually listen to. The Russian army, the Russian military
(08:52):
is low on arms and munitions. Do you know they're
actually using golf cards right now. Yeah, they're actually using
some gold carts, but that's being backfilled by North Korea
and the Iranians. Ukraine is manufacturing drones and AMMO, but
obviously not enough, and it needs the United States for
(09:15):
air defense Europe. Just like Europe can't even supply enough
electricity to keep the lights on in Spain and Portugal,
or Germany or Fans for that matter, Europe can neither
arm Ukraine sufficiently to prosecute the war successfully against Russia,
and Europe cannot provide the necessary intelligence to prevent devastating
(09:40):
attacks on civilians, which is what Putin's now doing an
act in acts of desperation. Now, Zelensky is I think
he's a horrible diplomat, but he is. And I've got
(10:04):
two words with question marks after them. He's a crappy diplomat.
He doesn't know how to deal with Trump. He doesn't
really know how to even, for that matter, deal with
Macron or Starmer in the UK. He doesn't really know.
But he is either a brilliant wartime leader or he's
(10:30):
a lucky wartime leader. I'm not sure which it is.
The skills that won. He had lots of praise in
twenty twenty two. He was stubborn, he was humorous, he
was acting. That's not serving Zelensky as well anymore. In fact,
I think they're hurting him, and in the process of
(10:52):
it's hurting Ukraine too. And Steve Whitkoff, the President's emissary,
his special envoy for Ukraine and these other hotspots, is
I think becoming a disaster. He's got a few wins,
(11:14):
but he's got a lot of losses. But the bottom
line is Trump still trusts him, and as long as
Trump trusts him, as with any presidential appointee, that's really
all that matters. So you may disagree, but I think
those are facts, at least in my mind, those are
(11:34):
facts right now. But here's some more. Ukraine is the
supplicant because Ukraine needs us now. That might be frustrating
and it might be annoying, but it's both the military
and political reality right now if Trump wants to stop
the war. And here's another fact. Zelesky is the one
(12:01):
that blew his political capital with Donald Trump in the
Oval office during that meeting, and Vance probably piled on.
I think that's neither here nor there. Did Trump pile on? No,
I don't think so. I think Trump reacted as Trump
(12:22):
would be expected to react. I think the only thing
about that scene that from from someone who's lived inside
that world, is that there were that was not planned.
It just happened to play out in front of the cameras.
(12:42):
I think that would have just as easily played out
behind the cameras, behind the scenes. In fact, probably was.
And I think on both sides of that of the
President's chair, both on the couch where Vance and the
others were sitting and in the chair where Rasilinski is sitting,
I think they were both expecting it. Both sides expected it.
(13:06):
They just didn't expected there. And that's just again I
think that's those are just facts. And here's another fact.
Ukraine's out of options now. If Ukraine wants to continue
to prosecute this war, it's going to have to have
(13:28):
sufficient weaponry, and unfortunately the only place a nearly good
source for that is US. Ukraine can can screen damn
the torpedoes and then just watches more and more of
its soldiers. And now as we're beginning to see civilians
(13:48):
are murdered and little by little, inch by inch, foot
by foot, yard by yard, as even more of its
territory is beginning to get swallowed up. But and here's
the conclusion I've come to this. If if there is
a path to victory for Ukraine, now I do believe
(14:10):
there's a path to victory for Russia. And the path
to victory for Russia is Putin will just continue to
kill his own people, and for that matter, North Koreans
and Iranians without it, or in Chinese without any regard
for their lives whatsoever. Now, at some point, even Kim
(14:32):
Jong un may be less so than Shi jing Ping.
But shi jing Ping at some point will say, you know,
enough is enough, and I can't because Chi jing Ping
wants to fight his own wars. So Hijing Ping at
some point will say, you know, no, mos, no more
of this Kim Jong Un. I might, I might be
willing to admit that he didn't care and in fact,
(14:55):
the fear of his army that he allows to be
uh on the battlefield. He doesn't really care because well,
nobody's going to touch him, and he's got you know,
shigen Ping protecting him, and he's got nuclear weapons, so
you know, he's he doesn't care. The Iranians they do
care because they they've got other battles to fight too.
(15:17):
So there is a path to victory for Putin, although
it might get weaker and weaker the more people he
continues to kill. But what he will do is the
more soldiers he kills, the more he's going to go
after Ukrainian civilians. And at some point I think even
Americans will look at that and say, we got to
(15:39):
stop that. In America in the person of Donald Trump,
I don't think any of us want the war to continue.
I don't you know. I think this is something that
I agree. I'm tired of hearing Trump say it, but
(16:02):
I agree that had Trump been president for the past
four years, that Putin would not have done the invasion.
I believe that Putin did the invasion solely because he
saw the demented old fart in the White House, and
he knew that nobody would take him on. So I
do think it occurred simply because Trump wasn't in the
White House. Now Putin is now concerned because Trump is
(16:26):
in the White House, but now in this country, in
the person of our president, and I think in the
minds of most Americans, we just don't want this war
to continue. We can jump up and down, we can
say that it's wrong, but what really counts as Trump's view,
and I don't think anbody's going to change that view.
(16:46):
If Ukraine accepts that it doesn't have any path to
victory without this country, and therefore has to go along
with Trump's plant in the bloodshed, then Ukraine must also
accept that it doesn't have the leverage to make changes
to the peace plan that's being offered. Now for some
(17:07):
of you, that might be, that might be a lousy situation,
and yeah, it may it may be, but ideal in reality,
and I think that's the reality. And I think that's
why yesterday, surprisingly at least surprisingly to me, we got.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
This thanks to President Trump's tireless efforts to secure a
lasting piece. I am glad to announce the signing of
today's historic Economic Partnership Agreement between the United States and Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Now, what's in that? And what does that have to
do with only Ukraine has to have us to win
the war? That's not.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Donald Trump has exactly one thousand, three hundred and sixty
days left and his presidency.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And it's glorious.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Alexis centasen and I've got it filed away in a
folder somewhere, an Excel spreadsheet.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I think she was counting up to one hundred, though
I don't know if she was counting out.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Oh no, you didn't look at it, did you. I
didn't look at it counted down every single day between
now and January twentieth of twenty twenty nine. Okay, I
missed that part. I knew she was counting up. I
didn't see this. I thought, well, I'll just print that
out and throw it over there on my desk and
every day just kind of you have the date, and
(18:40):
I realized I don't use it. I don't want to
use it, even though I didn't even want to use
a ring of company paper. Every single day it's the date,
and then it's the day of a cumulative date. And
then it's the number of days remained me. Somebody is
(19:04):
either very good at excel or has too much time
on their harry board, or both. Back to stop affent.
The Treasury Secretary announcing this yesterday.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Thanks to President Trump's tireless efforts to secure a lasting piece,
I am glad to announce the signing of today's historic
economic partnership agreement between the United States and Ukraine establishing
the United States Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. This partnership allows
the United States to invest alongside Ukraine to unlock Ukraine's
(19:44):
growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital, and governance standards that
will improve Ukraine's investment climate, and accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery.
The Development Finance Corporation will participate and help to establish
this fund in collaboration with the Government of Ukraine. Today's
(20:05):
agreement signals clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration
is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign,
and prosperous Ukraine over the long term. It's time for
this cruel and senseless war to end. The killing must stop,
and both the United States and the Government of Ukraine
(20:28):
look forward to quickly operationalizing this historic economic partnership for
both the Ukrainian and American people.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Well, there you go. If Ukraine accepts, which I think
this is a signal that they have that there is
no path to victory without the United States and therefore
really does need to go along with Trump's plan to
end the bloodshed. That it's got to that it doesn't
(21:00):
have the leverage to make all the changes necessary to
the peace plan being offered, and I think boom, that's
the first signal that they acknowledge that now is that lousy, Well,
it could be, but it's the reality. So Ukraine can
continue to try to play hard, but it risks the
Oval office problem again and again and again, and they've
(21:23):
got to recognize that they're going to have to play
ball with Trump. I also think this as a footnote
that I think Trump's beginning to realize that Putin is
not going to In fact, Putin has by attacking civilians
after Trump claiming that, you know, I think we're getting close,
(21:45):
but I think it was Rubio that said we're close,
but not close enough. I think Putin attacking civilians, particularly
in Kiev, was basically to show that yeah, you know what,
I'm going to keep moving forward. For example, the one
page plan that was profited by the United States to
(22:08):
Kiev as a takeul to leave it includes our recognition
of Russian sovereignty over Crimea. I don't I happened to
agree with that. That ship sailed Obama and Biden. Let
(22:29):
that occur. Was it aggression yes? Was it lawful?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
But it's one of those things that do you want
to start World War three over that? No? I don't
think it's worth it. And I think that's why in
terms of our offering of a peace plan, that's a
token to Russia that yeah, you know what, you did
(22:56):
that under somebody else, and it's not worth trying to
push that out because that's a non starter for Putin.
And one of the things you have to do in
negotiations is recognize what are the non starters for the
other side. Now, a non starter is not always a
non starter. A non starter is only a non starter
(23:16):
until it's not. But right now it is.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
And Trump's not asking Ukraine to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
It's just basically saying that we're recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
You can take it or leave it, but it is
what it is. You know what's interesting is it's now
been what at least eleven years. I think it was
(23:45):
either twenty thirteen or fourteen. It's been at least eleven years,
and I don't think you'll find a single expression of
genuine outrage from any Western leader about CRIMEA. It's one
and done. It's over with. So notwithstanding this fact, and
yes it is a verified fact, crime is not on
track for eastort of liberation, Zelensky did up and announced
(24:08):
that he was damned if he would recognize Russian sovereignty
over Crimea. Now, never mind that nobody was asking him to,
he just threw that out there, which gets to my
point about him being a crappy diplomat. Keep your mouth shut.
What was the point of even saying that anger at
Russia outrage? Well, yeah, I get that, but there's a
(24:29):
lot of things that I might be mad about that
I keep quiet about because one I know it's not
gonna change anything, and two I want to save that
outrage for when they outrage might actually accomplish something. So
the problem is going back to my point that Zelensky's
got to recognize, and I think yesterday he did that
(24:50):
he's going to have to deal with Trump. Trump was
watching and proclamations like that by Zelensky persuade him that Zelensky,
maybe he doesn't want piece. Now. I can hear you
angrily muttering that it's Putina doesn't want peace. Well, I
(25:10):
agree with you. You're right, I'm not sure that's the
perception on the White House. And I don't have access
to the intel that Trump's getting briefed about by both
the State Department and the CIA, both both human intelligence
and other sources of intelligence. But if Zelenski wants something
(25:34):
from us, and obviously he does, then the smart players
remain strategically silent and let Russia refuse the deal that
Trump is offering. Let Russia play the obstructionist. So the
best option for Zelensky sit down, negotiate the most important
(25:56):
thing of all security guarantees. There's no victory option right now.
There's no retaking all of all these different oblosts that
Trump or Trump, that Putin has taken lance, that Donnat's
the Zypraziah. That no, it's just not going to happen,
(26:19):
at least not in the near term. And you know why,
let's not forget this. Why because of Joe Biden's foot
dragging and Joe Biden's just open endednness. They just dribble
out dribs and drabs of weaponry instead of just saying here,
here's everything you need and we'll just be there as
long as it takes well. Then that's why I think
(26:41):
that that territory might be a little bit negotiable, but
it's not. It's not a given. And remember, the Menska
Cords did not save Ukraine after twenty fourteen, and words
alone are not going to save them in future years.
They need a peacekeeping force, a buffer, a wall, and
(27:06):
the arms necessary to repel the Russians from the United
States in order to guarantee peace. You and I both
can all wish that were blue in the face that
Europe hadn't spent the last four decades disarming, but they did.
They took all of their money, They completely demilitarized themselves,
They completely destroyed all of their military manufacturing capability so
(27:31):
they could to go chase the stupid green energy dream.
Look where that got them. Got more info than that too.
The point that we're at is, if you really want
something let me just throw out one word two countries
(27:56):
Korea an armistice. Just okay, this draw line, this created
demilitarized zone, and we just like we're doing South Korea
right now. We have troops there. I'm not advocating for
troops immediately, but we've got troops there. But we're certainly,
(28:16):
by this agreement that was reached yesterday, are going to
have companies from all over the world that are willing
to trade and do business with US Americans, and we
will have American companies in there doing all of those
economic things that will mean, oh so putin risks hurting
(28:42):
American men, men and women, workers on the ground, or
workers from oh I don't know, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan,
wherever they might be, all working to rebuild that infrastructure. Sure,
all working to extract all of those rare earth minerals,
(29:03):
working to do all of the things they can to
start reconstruction and rebuilding. Black Rock is going to show up,
you know, black Rock's going to show up. They're going
to show up. They're trillions of dollars and hell's bells. Yeah,
we just start rebuilding these cities and towns and we
can make a s word of money load of money
out of that too. So it seems to me that
(29:24):
we're I would say brilliantly, but I'm not sure it's
brilliant as much as it is just the way it
is dealing with the reality on the ground. We're working
toward a North and South Korea demilitarized Zone and an armistice.
(29:47):
You know, the North three and wars, they're still at war.
There's just an armistice, and there's a DMZ, and there's
a lot of American companies, there's a lot of American
trade between South Korea and US. And we have troops
on the ground and everybody's at a standstill and the
(30:08):
killing is stopped. We might be reliving the nineteen fifties
all over again.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Michael, What are the odds or chances that every single
one of those crazy people making those ridiculous statements get
a visit from the FBI or the Secret Service. I
sure hope every single one of them do, because this
has got to stop. I do.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I really don't know what to say to that, because
I don't think it is going to stop. And the
reason it's all going to stop, which is kind of interesting.
I wasn't planning on playing this, but don't have much time,
but let's listen to as much of it as we
can do. You hear about how bad Trump is and
the poll numbers are so bad. CNN this morning.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Had this who would be doing a better job as president?
Guess who comes out on top? Within the margin, Herbert
comes on top. This looks a lot like the election result,
right Trump forty five percent, two points ahead of Harris
at forty three twelve percent say they'd be doing about
the same. But this is the key nugget here. It's
not just about regretting that vote. It's literally saying who
would be doing the better job right now? And Trump
(31:19):
continues to score a higher percentage of the vote than
Kamala Harris. This looks a heck of a lot like
the election result. We have just seen this in poll
after poll after poll. Despite the fact that Trump's fable
ratings aren't too hot to trut when he's matched up
against who who's matched up in twenty twenty four, he's
still across the polls scores a higher percentage than Kamala
Harris does.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
Even if they don't know exactly what she would have done.
They still went for Donald Trump. Okay, what about when
he's matched up against congressional Democrats, who we know have
had some pretty rough numbers.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, they have had some pretty rough numbers.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
So Kamala Harris obviously as it doesn't hold elected officer.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Now you think those numbers are bad for Democrats? Wait
for this, this right now?
Speaker 4 (31:59):
But Democrats in Congress, sure do so? Who do you
trust more on the US main problems, the main problems
in the United States?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, what do we have here?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
It's the same exact picture, folks, It's the same exact picture.
When you mentioned much Donald Trump against his actual competition,
donald Trump comes out ahead. Look at this forty percent
to congressional Democrats thirty two percent. Going to make a
big circle here, But the bottom line is, when you
look at Donald Trump in a vacuum, it's one thing.
But when you actually match him up against folks in
(32:26):
the real world, all of a sudden, his numbers look
considerably better. And when you match him up against his
main competition at this point, Democrats in Congress, he is
more trusted on the main problems facing the United States
right now. In fact, it's not even close. It's an
eight point advantage, which in this politics, well that's so
a wide.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
Ocean, it's huge, and maybe tells the Democrats that their
messaging is not working at the right point in time.
All right, speaking of the.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
She's so wrong. Yes, they're messaging. Sucks, But you can't
if your message is about a pile of pop. Your
message is sell about a pile of poop. No matter
how no, I don't care how many focus groups or
marketing firms or anything else you it's still about you're
trying to sell a pile of poop. And that's all
the Democrats have as a pile of poop, and that's
all they're trying to sell. It's not they're messaging, they're policies.
(33:18):
This Well, while Trump's approval rating may not be the greatest,
oh it's the worst than seventy five years for the
first hundred days in office, that doesn't mean squad signer
days in office. He's just getting started. And and if
he keeps the pace up, holy crap o, who knows
what's going to occur, And some of these tiff slash
(33:38):
trade agreements actually get resolved. Holy cow. I mean, you
talk about a redistribution of wealth back into the United States. Uh,
stock market will go crazy. Uh, the economy itself will
go crazy.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
And that takes time. But in an ADHD world where
we expect immediate results, I think most Americans are like, hey,
because now they don't talk about this in this SoundBite.
But when you do the pulling about right track, wrong track,
whether the country is on the right track or the
wrong track, it's still overwhelmingly Oh, we're finally on the
(34:19):
right track, where throughout the entire term of Biden it
was the wrong track. So to your point, the the
poll numbers, while I still just kind of fluff them
off because I'm more interested in what's actually happening. The
Democrats are going to continue to They're going to continue
(34:41):
to want to assassinate Trump because those people in TikTok
Man that's all they got because well they're publicly educated
and they're a bunch of nuts, And unfortunately they got
a they got a platform of
Speaker 6 (34:57):
The big issues, which party is better trusted way it
comes to things like the economy and immigrations,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!