April 25, 2025 • 35 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- An oustanding edition of The China Cabinet...
- A significant milestone...
- What's happening with the Ukraine/Russia ceasefire...
- An unfortunate end.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Gatti
and no He Armstrong and Hetty.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Major questions about Trump's trade war with China and what
is really going on. The President claiming that his administration
is meeting with Chinese officials to try to get tariff's lowered,
but that's not what the Chinese are saying.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The Chinese are liars. Back to China in a moment, Yeah, yeah, exactly,
always have been, always will be. I's just reading Ian
Bremer's analysis of the whole tariff China thing. Is this
is gonna cause China a great deal of pain short term.
Ian says they're gonna benefit from a long benefit from
(00:57):
it long term. But I don't know if there's gonna
be a lot long term.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So yeah, well, I tell you what. Let's go ahead
and play the groovy theme first. It's uh, look inside
the China Cabinet, Jack, cleverly.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
China, China.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
It's a series of stories about our greatest geopolitical adversary.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Don't trust China. Oh I see that, don't I see?
You're talking about the nation of China as opposed to
like the uh. It is commonly referred to as China.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yes, you've caught on Yes, and it's quite a number
of stories.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Jack. Feel free to comment as you like. We can
digress on anyone or just zip through either way. I
thought this was interesting, and we'll begin briefly at least
with tariffs. You know who's gonna get hit the hardest
with the China tariff thing if it continues, which is
al of a big if. Who knows is young parent.
(02:01):
Everything strollers, cribs, toys, baby products is made in China.
An astounding amount of the stuff I bought my Target
stock after Sam was born. It was just like, how
many times a week are we going to Target to
buy things with a baby? But practically everything I'm sure
(02:22):
was made in China. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So there are a few countries beside China, with their
manufacturing prowess which is undeniable, that can efficiently meet the
strictest baby product safety standards on Earth, the American safety standards.
China's really good at building strollers that conformed all that stuff,
and you know, you can get some crappy toy that
(02:46):
will break the first time your kid plays with it
from virtually anywhere you know.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And I don't want to name any countries. I'm not
here to disparage anybody, but Malaysia. You want, We're looking
at you, Malaysia, oh boy.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
But if you want something sturdy and past the safety standards,
you're probably going to look to China. So we shall
see how that develops. Now onto more serious fair Clearly
nobody knows about kin Men Island's island.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I think it's an archipelago. It's several islands.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Kin Men a Taiwanese archipelago about two miles off the
Chinese coast. I'm reminded of recently reading The Cane Mutiny,
which is about World War Two, in which a number
of the battles and campaigns they referenced are familiar to
any history buff And there's an old saying that war
is how Americans learn geography. Well, we all might learn
(03:36):
about kin Men, this series of islands between China and Taiwan.
As the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard is getting increasingly
belligerent about practically pulling onto their beaches.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I know you weren't here a couple fridays ago when
your nation needed you. You were watching a golf contest somewhere.
But that's when I had Mike Liones on and his
his take was, China goes to take Taiwan, They're just
gonna take it. We're not a positioned to stop them.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I'm reminded of a big brother bullying a little
brother and bringing his fist right up to the kid's
face and doing it again and again and again, and
all it's going to take is for China to go
ahead and slug the kid, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
They're absolutely poised and ready. Well, part of it is
our lack of appetite for an actual war, which I
completely understand and share. But he was talking about, well,
if we did this and then China would probably attack
the West coast, Like whoa, I mean, that's just so
mind blowing as an American, the idea of California, you know,
bombs falling in La or San Francisco, and she's just
(04:44):
what the hell? But you know, look at the news
in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It happens in various places around the world, right, So wait,
there's more. So China claims its Coast Guard is carrying
out routine law enforcement, but the real purpose is clearly
to challenge Taiwan's your stiction over its own islands. The
patrols create opportunities for escalation if China wants to send
a message blah blah blah, it's a dangerous game, especially
(05:09):
with American special forces stationed right now on kin Men.
So China could demand that the US and Taipei demilitarize
the islands, betting that mister Trump would withdraw the troops
and urge Taiwan to give away the island rather than
less risk a larger confrontation. So we have some of
our best and brightest there right now as China is
(05:31):
menacing the very beaches of ten Men.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I don't want to get sidetracked on this completely, but
can you imagine the cultural change that would happen in America?
I think for generations if bombs were falling in La
San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, wherever from Choh. Yeah, I
mean that would be so it'd be a wake up
to me and I expect this sort of thing in
(05:56):
my lifetime. For most people who just can't even imagine
that ever happening, it'd be holy crap. We're we're vulnerable too,
just like every other human on earth.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well, yeah, really since the War of eighteen twelve, I
mean it's I mean, the Civil War, it's hardly been
an issue we think about it all other than a
couple of fairly minor submarine incursions in w W two.
But yeah, the idea of the fighting being on our
homeland or the bombings or whatever, Yeah, it's crazy. Moving along,
China has moved to formally end all Christian missionary activities.
(06:28):
The Chinese Communist Party is imposing severe restrictions on Christians
in the country because they are godless commis and utterly
evil to their core Chinese in short.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Sir, Yes, yes, that's true. That's true.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So in lighter fair, because virtually everything's lighter fair. There's
Coffee has become incredibly popular in China in the last
few years.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
There's a giant coffee craze. Did they not drink it before?
Did the Chinese just discover coffee?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
They're all about tea, that's right, all the tea in China.
Perhaps you've heard the expression, so they mentioned these coffee wars. Now,
between all the coffee shops that have sprung up, what
they're trying to do is come up with the latest
hot flavor, and they open the article with this Beijinger
(07:20):
drinking Starbucks mochas to power through the day.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Today she downs Americanos doused in pineapple juice and lattes
blended with French butter. What a pineapple coffee or a
butter latte? But wait, jacket made with French butter? I
would try that.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Roasted duck plums cheese, the bizarre bruise feeling China's coffee
war crowbeeks you just get You get an espresso shop
and you stir it with the crow beaks. Wow, roasted
duck flavored coffee Niac, Let's see you got phizzy Americano
(08:05):
made with Apple's lime, butter, latte, grapes, butter.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I didn't know. I guess I should have assumed that
there were Starbucks in China, but duck flavored? Dude, put
back the duck coffee. I would like to know. Does
the Starbucks in China have unlocked bathrooms? Do they have
a civilized enough society where you can have a bathroom
like every business in America was until a couple of
(08:34):
years ago. What are you?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Tucker Carlson now praising totalitarian regimes because their bathrooms are cleaner.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Please. It's an interesting question though. Moving along.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
There, it is finally, thank you, Michael, better late than ever. Huh.
Chinese students on US campuses are ensnared in a political standoff.
Some say their visas have been revoked. In recent weeks.
Beijing is warning other nationals to reconsider study plans in America.
This is a topic I would like to hammer over
and over again. How and we're gonna get into it
(09:09):
more later and if not today, next week. How major
universities are absolute.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It's a harsh word, folks. Forgive me absolute sluts for
foreign money, specifically China and cutter the Chinese communists and
the Katari Islamists.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They are Islamic supremacists. They just wear Western suits and
go at it a different way. They have so thoroughly
addicted some of our major universities to their money.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
They dare not teach against them. Their lap dogs.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And one in four one in every four international student
comes in the US comes from China, one in four.
And the US has been running a large service surplus
with China for years, partly because of the billions of
dollars that Chinese households spend on schooling in the US.
It is an enormous like hairin pipeline cash, they pay
(10:09):
full freight. And yeah, so anyway, both the young Chinese
communist boys and girls and their overlords are panicking a
little bit, and their university overlords. Because it's been such
a mutually beneficial scam, China gets to import a lot
of would be spies, whether willing or unwilling. The universities
(10:31):
get to piles and piles of money, and.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
We get to you know, cash into our system. I
don't know why you had to drop the S bomb,
but to make your point spies.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Slut Oh oh it was I thought it was a
powerful metaphor.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
No, a couple more the universities be doing the walk
of shame here in a couple of years and happened.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
To a well, yeah they will. But instead of wearing
last night's.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Clothes and questioning their lives decision, life's decision again, they're
infiltrated with Chinese spies and they're addicted to the cash.
There's no way to be It's more like being a
crack hoe than a shame. Yeah, yes, shame lady.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
It's more like being a crack hoe than you know,
a coh heed who got a bit loose last night.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Walking down the street carrying your shoes, make up a
mess looking for more students, and I will keep this brief.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Chinese scientists in America come under new wave of suspicion,
FBI scrutiny and visa revocations are worrying STEM researchers as
China looks to recruit them to come home.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah. Well, a lot of the researchers are either spies
or they're going to be spies the minute Beijing calls
and says, hey, we need you to send us a
copy of that paper you're working on. That's the problem.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And finally this there are strong indications that you remember
the doge thing when they're laying off a bunch of people,
and that was the biggest problem in the world for
about a cup of duck flavored coffee.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Set the duck back.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Chinese intelligence maybe trying to recruit fired US officials. An
advisory says that foreign agencies are posing his consulting firms,
think tanks, and other organizations to connect with former government
employees who may or may not be disgruntled and looking
for some sort of work.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So the Chinese equivalent of the CIA is saying, hey,
you know.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
What, we really we've admired your work for a long
long time, or starting a think tank, we'd love to.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Have little of your expertise. And I've read about this
study this for years. How they get you.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
They have you doing completely innocent stuff, and then they
have you doing stuff that has just the tinge of
I'm I'm sure I'm supposed to well, and then they
ask you to do something a little more improper, and
then you're a full on espionage agent and you have
such a trail of oh my god, did I do that?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Behind you? You're on the hook. That's a look inside
the China cabinet. I didn't realize you're just coming around
to call feed there in China. That'll be a big
deal for you know, a lot of your big coffee
companies around the world. You know, Colombia has got to
be excited about that. You're comb peruse. Yes, yeah, maybe
(13:14):
you were into the NFL draft. I'm into the pope draft,
the cardinal draft, uh for who's going to be the
next pope? Among other things. On the way, stay here, Hey.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
The telephones in this city will be changed to dial service.
And all telephone numbers will be changed. Before calling any number,
first secure the number from your new directory, Then remove
the receiver and listen for the dial tone. It sounds
like this with the receiver off the hook, dial the
desired number. Be sure to allow the dial to freely
(13:50):
return to its normal possession. And this is the ringing segmental.
If the line is busy, you'll hear this busy signal.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
That's from nineteen thirty six. What I was just trying
to figure out in my head what age would you have?
What's the cutoff for having had that experience? Michael, you
just turned fifty. Have you used a rotary phone?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I did, Like you're a little kid. Yeah, so I'm thinking,
like forty five and under, you've probably never used a
rotary phone.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I can still remember our first push button phone.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Is that what you'd call it? Right? And I was
kind of thinking that's about the time Chinese crap came
into our lives, or foreign crap anyway. I mean, man,
those old timey phones were a piece of happy duty,
indestructible equipment. As I've said many times, those old AT
and T phones, you could beat an ox to death
with it, and then call your grandmother Barbara. They were
(14:49):
solid man. And then like you get into the nineties
and you had cordless phones, just the cheapest, lightest, thinnest,
crappiest plastic on earth. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Oh boy, Mike, Green was the phone in your kitchen
when you were a teenager hoping a girl might call
you or call you back? I can picture it because
I stared at it so much.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I never had any hope of that. But yeah, by
the way, green, any kind of yellow, mustard yellow was ours.
But uh yeah, if you're gonna have a phone conversation,
it was going to be in the kitchen because that's
where the phone was on the cord. Well, that was
your problem. No girl's gonna call a mustard yellow phone.
(15:38):
Oh if only that was my only problem? How much
time I got, Michael, Did I use up all my
time already? No, you're still fanciful, None of no stock.
It's easy to be. Nostalgia's an interesting thing, trying to
separate things that may have actually been better from it
(16:00):
just feels better because it's what was happening when you
were younger, and separating those two things is difficult. But sure,
there were many advantages to the there's a phone, you know,
in the center of our lives. That's where everybody's going
to have their communication. I mean, your wife isn't who's
she been texting for the last half hour. I mean,
(16:21):
there's none of that going on. Everything was just more
easily controlled there, Yeah, I suppose so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
On the other hand, the advent of the answering machine
reduced stress a.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Lot changed everything. But just from some of the stuff
we were doing yesterday about marriages and contempt and all
these different sorts of things. Pre how did people have
even have dalliances back in the day where you couldn't
call on the phone, you couldn't send a message or again,
send a letter meet me. It's a little more carcasome.
(16:58):
But it had to be better, right, I think it
had to be better.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But harniness and bad decisions still found a way to
win jack even back then.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Trump some interesting things to say about Russia and Ukraine.
That is coming to a head possible. We've got a
lot of that coming up, Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
The Trump administration has put forward a peace proposal that
would prohibit natal membership for Ukraine and force Ukraine to
give up land that Russia has see since it's invasion,
in addition to giving up CRIMEA. Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky
has rejected the current proposal, saying we will negotiate, we
will not surrender.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, we got a lot more on that. There's there's
a tremendous amount happening around Russia and Ukraine. It's it's
gonna go one way or the other, like now, like
this week, or this weekend or maybe today. Trump has
an interview in Time magazine whatever that is now that
we can talk a little bit about. But here's some
(17:56):
from Trump and asked a variety of questions about this yesterday.
It's just run through these in order. Michael. Right after that,
he used the words Vladimir stop.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
That seemed like a slightly different message of personal message.
What is your level of frustration with President Putin at
this point?
Speaker 7 (18:14):
I wasn't happy with it, and we're in the midst
of token peace and missiles were fired that I was
not happy with it.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Will you consider additional sanctions towards Russia?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Or what will you.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Do if President Putin does not respond?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Were a week?
Speaker 7 (18:28):
I want to see what we get.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Happy deal? Yeah, and then then the New York So
Trump tweets out yesterday Vladimir stop and all capitals with
exclamation points. This is not helping. The New York Post
characterized that as Trump blasts putin, ah, that's uhou. I
wouldn't say that's exactly what happened now, I mean it
(18:51):
was all caps. I'll give you that. That was one
opinion piece yesterday. There Cover Today insinuates that Trump's Vladimir
stop was basically the same as Biden's don't with no
teeth behind it, which was, and the Wall Street Journal similar.
Here's a little more Trump when you.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
Say, crimea that was handed over during a president named
Barack Hussein Obama that had nothing to do with me.
Crimea that was eleven years ago with Obama and they
made a decision. There wasn't a bullet fire, there was
no fighting, there was no anything. They just handed it over.
Now they say, well, can you get it back? I
(19:33):
think that's going to be a very difficult thing to do.
That was given by Barack Obama when he was president,
not by Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Not why sure what he had to throw in the
Hussein with Obama noticed that, Yeah, at this point, but
Bob Woodward, his book that I read about the Biden presidency,
said Joe Biden, when Joe Biden was try trying to
talk Putin out of invading, like the day before he invaded,
(20:05):
and he became it became obvious that Putin was going
no matter what Biden said. Biden got off the phone,
hung up the phone and said, ef ing Barak. It's
his fault. He didn't do anything when Putin took crime in.
It caused all of this. So Biden's belief was Obama
not pushing Obiden got a hold of or Obama got
Hood a hold of whatever the name of the president
(20:26):
was at the time, back then in Ukraine and said,
don't do anything. We're not backing you. Don't do anything.
We'll take care of this basically, and then nothing ever happened,
right very Obama. Yeah, Well, Trump wasn't wrong in what
he said there. Yeah, we're gonna get to that in
a little bit with David Ignatius Washington Post piece, which
I think you're going to agree with. Let's roll through
(20:49):
the rest of the Trump and then we'll be done.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
What concessions has Russia offered up thus far?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
To get to the point where you're closer to peace.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
Stopping them or stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concession.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I don't know what I think of that. Russia's concession
is not taking the whole country.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, what is the inducement for that, whether carrot or stick.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
That's the part that mystifies me a little bit.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
If I'm Vladimir Putin, I'm thinking all I'm getting is
Vladimir don't and I'm gobblin up territory.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Not very fast, and it's bloody, but I don't mind
young men going off to their death for the Russian motherland.
I'm on the front foot here. We're making progress. I'm
gonna keep going. Thank you. Ah man, you gotta find
a different way to couch it. It just doesn't let's
play the last trump one there.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
I have no allegiance to anybody. I have allegiance to
saving lives, and I want to save a lot of lives,
a lot of young people's, mostly young people. It's the war,
it's so and if we can do that also, as
you know, I get started because the money that's been
spent on this war is insane. It's a killing field.
(22:09):
Five thousand soldiers a week on average. Can we want
to stop that.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I heard some of the numbers yesterday. Russia's approaching a
million men take it off the battlefield dead or injured
since they started nine hundred and seventy thousand. A million men,
I mean, we have hundreds of thousands more fled the country.
For what it's worth, we have giant monuments in Washington,
(22:39):
d c. For tiny fractions of that in various wars
we've been involved in because we think it's so horrific
with a much bigger population, right, I mean, it's just well,
it's a different culture for sure. God, I'd say the
history of Russia being willing to lose lots and lots
of young men. It's just astounding. Russia has lost one
(23:01):
hundred thousand men from the battlefield this year. It is April.
It's just it's stunning. Anyway, So some of the North Koreans,
by the way, which is its own story, did you
watch that video came out yesterday? No, Eight Ukrainian commandos
killed twenty five North Koreans in their trench. They had
(23:24):
GoPros on their heads and you could watch it and
it's just like those poor freaking North Korean dudes and
they don't even know where they are, certainly don't know
why they're fighting, and why would they. That's one interesting
thing about this war is the peace process as opposed
to the Middle East or I'm reading about past Middle
(23:47):
East peace process, where you've got, you know, you've got
to massage your own people so much because they're so
into the war. There's nobody in Russia happy that this
is going on. Happier in hell to have this end.
Putin doesn't need to calm a population that wants to
keep going because of everything Ukraine has done to us.
(24:09):
I don't think it's just they'd be happy to have
it come to an end.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, there's a reason he's passed all of those draconian
laws about against breathing a word in opposition of the war,
because he knows where the public sentiment lies.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Anyway, I was kind of surprised by this writing in
the Washington Post today from David Ignatius. There's movement, if
not yet agreement, towards the Essential Land for Peace formula
that would frame any pact. Under a US plan, that's
the basis for discussions. Russia would continue to administer the
five regions that occupies though Ukraine wouldn't formally seed sovereignty
(24:42):
in any of them in the United States, because on
the other side, Zelensky does have to satisfy his population, who,
according to Poles, pretty willing to fight to the death
to keep Ukraine together, and and he can't have anything
formally seeding sovereignty and keep people happy. I don't think
(25:06):
I'm thinking of the book I'm reading about the late
seventies pe process under Carter and with Began and Sadat,
and they actually they wrote up two different UN resolutions
which was unknown at the time, one for the Egyptian people,
one for the Israeli people to feed to their own people,
(25:27):
ah to make them feel like they didn't get jobbed right. Right.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
As I've pointed out many times, you must look at
country's foreign relations through the lens of their domestic situation,
because that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Obviously, just like the US, so Russia would continue to
hold the five regions that it's taken, Ukraine wouldn't formally
seed sovereignty. The United States might implicitly recognize Russia's hold
on CRIMEA, Ukraine wouldn't. Security guarantees would be finessed too.
Ukraine wouldn't join NATO, but it would keep the language
in its constitution declaring that goal. Russia would accept Ukraine's
(26:05):
right to a post war robust security guarantee, which would
be understood by all to mean European troops. European troops
in Ukraine. And there's no mention in the document of
Russia's old demand for a neutral, de militarized zone in Ukraine,
so that's gone by the wayside. Europe would provide the
(26:25):
military side of the security guarantee. The US plan also
envisages an American role on the ground through its operation
in the whole nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which
supply power to both sides. So we would be involved
in the power plant, which remember Trump brought that up
a while back, because that would be as David Ignatius
says here, this would be an American trip wire. If
(26:47):
Russia tried to take the power plant, you'd be crossing
the line with US. And the same holds true for
the proposal that the US share profits from the minerals
another natural resources. It's an economic power play and gives
America a stake in the post war piece that Russia
would have to watch out for So that was a
pretty clever thing that they came up with, and it
(27:09):
might be the absolutely vomit worthy, unpalatable best thing you
can get.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Sometimes things end that way, sometimes the world goes that way.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Now, just to see it, it's frustrating, and that's your point,
I guess. But it didn't have to be this way.
Ukraine could have been provided armament that would have helped
them push Russia back further earlier, and it would be
a completely different negotiating situation. Correct.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, you know, I haven't appreciated some of the things
Trump has done and said, but he was handed a terrible,
terrible situation by the feckless, senile mummy Joe Biden and
his administration, which made his maneuvering room considerably tighter.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well, I'll just leave that there for now. One thing
is in a that I'm really interested in.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I hope I live long enough to see it is
the Russian Empire, whether it was under the Tsars or
the Soviet Union or the current deal under potent who's
attempting to reassemble the Great Russian Empire. It's been held
together with brutality and bribes for like, you know, the
last century and a.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Half thousand years.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm more familiar with the last century
and a half. But anyway, what happens when Putin goes
will be really really interesting to watch because, yeah, you've
got Ukraine, which is ethnically different. Mostly they do have
Russian folks there, in Russian speaking folks. Everybody's got a
cousin in both countries. It's a close association, but not
(28:42):
close enough that Ukraine doesn't in overwhelming numbers, want to
be a completely independent country. Same can be said for
a lot of so called Russian provinces that they're Muslims.
They're absolutely not ethnic Russian. They hate Putin, They're just
again being held together by brutality and bribes. And where
(29:02):
all that goes, I mean, Russia will continue to be
unstable for the rest of our lives and your kids
and grandkids too.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah. I've been more on the side of MSNBC's take
on this particular story for a while. You're a liberal,
it's an interesting position. So would the left be into
this war if it had started under a Republicans? What
(29:33):
I and I remember the left last time the left
was so into I mean yesterday on MSNBC with a
lot of great guests. They were actually talking about US
ground troops to push Russia out. I mean, that's how
far they were going. Democrats, Yeah, your question is a
super interesting one. First, Blush, I'd say no, they'd be
(29:55):
staunchly against it if a Republican had been in office.
That's what I'm under. They're just knee jerk tribalists. And anyway,
a lot of the talk of this is Trump being
Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler. Well, the big difference was Hitler
had built the biggest war machine in all of Europe,
and everybody knew he had the most powerful military in Europe.
(30:18):
Russia does not. They have been decimated, so they're not
going to march across Europe if they're appeased, right, right,
do you think ugly as hell? Before we take a break?
Do you think you do it a piece deal and
then Russia violates it at some point and tries to
take more.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Eventually, one hundred percent of Putin lives another five years.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
But you think he'd wait out Trump to the next person. Ah?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, and or make this sort of small incursions kind
of sowing seeds for bigger incursions down the road.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But yeah, he'd start on that project right away. I
keep forgetting to talk about the pope. And we've got
a bunch of other stuff too. We're gonna break down
the second round to the draft, but.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Stay with us.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
One clip. We didn't play Trump yesterday. He's asked about
you know, what are you what pressure are you putting
on Russia? And he said things you don't know about. Basically,
he said, we're doing things you don't know today. And
I don't know if this has anything to do with it.
Oh Whitkoff arrives in Moscow as one of the very
top Russian generals who is in charge of the battle
plan for Ukraine. Blows up. His car blows up. I've
(31:36):
seen the picture. I mean his car just disintegrated him
in it. Probably a clogged fuel filter right right, He
must have had one of those lithium batteries you're not
supposed to have or something. The check engine light was on.
He ignored it right here, blowe right, need to do
brake pads. And so I don't know if that has
(31:57):
anything to do with any of the things were you
don't know about behind the scenes putting pressure on Russia.
But one other generals blew up.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, speaking of warfare, one of the biggest hawks against
Iran in Washington is a big bald headed democrat. Plus
conservative professor tells us how to save Harvard. Apparently there
is a conservative professor and he wrote something stay with us.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I've been keeping track of how many days in a
row the Pope's death leads the evening newscast and so
far every day since Saturday since.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
The idiot David Muir and his idiot newscast on ABC
last night devoted like six minutes to it.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Right and they're traveling there and gonna be live from there.
The funeral is tomorrow. Trump is on the way to
Italy right now with a lot of other world leaders,
So it's gonna be at least a full week of
it being the lead story. And it's not like we're
during a news lull right at all. And it's still
the lead story, which is kind of interesting to me.
(32:57):
You said their audience is old. That's true, they're centered
in New York, higher per percentage of Catholics in the Northeast.
All that stuff is true. I'm still I'm still kind
of surprised by it. Well, and it's it's like uncontroversial
and easy. It's like a killer storm is crossing the Midwest.
There's that. I missed that part. That's the thing. Cheryl
(33:18):
Atkinson after she left say CBS News says, those stories
are because there's no pushback weather stuff like this. They're
just nobody pushes back, so it's just easy and still
line people standing in line for seven, ten, twelve hours
to walk by the dead pope and see them with
their families or whatever. They're in Rome. And that's that's
(33:39):
its own interesting thing. Do you have any opinion on
who the next pope is?
Speaker 4 (33:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Zero zero, don't care. I do, And this is what
I'm hoping for. I think this would be good for
First of all, I've always been fascinated by the idea
of all of these in theory selfless men, and they're
all men, because that's the deal, selfless men, choosing someone
(34:05):
to be the biggest job you could ever have in
your life. And in theory, you know, not having any
ambition toward it, it's just like you know, trying to
let God speak to you and make a decision that way,
what's best for the Catholic Church, what's best best for
(34:27):
And I wonder how much of that is true, and
how much ambition slips in and all that sort of stuff.
I've always been fascinated by that. I would love to know.
Do you ever read the Da Vinci Code. There's your
answer right there. Ah, that's funny. I loved that book.
I don't know how accurate it is. I'm hoping. I
think it would be good for the world to have
(34:48):
the first African pope, somebody from that that's a god
forsaken continent. I think some African pope because the pope
gets so much attention, as we've seen this week, being
able to call attention to the wars, just all the
problems they've got in Africa. I think that'd be helpful
for the point's interesting take. Yeah, I don't care, not
(35:11):
because I don't think anybody should care. I just don't
have the bandwidth. There are other things I'm more interested in.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
I wish the Catholic world good luck and choosing a
great new pope, a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Next Hour. If you don't get Next Hour, you got
to go somewhere.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Subscribe to the podcast Armstrong and Getting on demand Armstrong
and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Gatti
and no He Armstrong and Hetty.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Major questions about Trump's trade war with China and what
is really going on. The President claiming that his administration
is meeting with Chinese officials to try to get tariff's lowered,
but that's not what the Chinese are saying.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The Chinese are liars. Back to China in a moment, Yeah, yeah, exactly,
always have been, always will be. I's just reading Ian
Bremer's analysis of the whole tariff China thing. Is this
is gonna cause China a great deal of pain short term.
Ian says they're gonna benefit from a long benefit from
(00:57):
it long term. But I don't know if there's gonna
be a lot long term.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So yeah, well, I tell you what. Let's go ahead
and play the groovy theme first. It's uh, look inside
the China Cabinet, Jack, cleverly.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
China, China.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
It's a series of stories about our greatest geopolitical adversary.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Don't trust China. Oh I see that, don't I see?
You're talking about the nation of China as opposed to
like the uh. It is commonly referred to as China.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yes, you've caught on Yes, and it's quite a number
of stories.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Jack. Feel free to comment as you like. We can
digress on anyone or just zip through either way. I
thought this was interesting, and we'll begin briefly at least
with tariffs. You know who's gonna get hit the hardest
with the China tariff thing if it continues, which is
al of a big if. Who knows is young parent.
(02:01):
Everything strollers, cribs, toys, baby products is made in China.
An astounding amount of the stuff I bought my Target
stock after Sam was born. It was just like, how
many times a week are we going to Target to
buy things with a baby? But practically everything I'm sure
(02:22):
was made in China. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So there are a few countries beside China, with their
manufacturing prowess which is undeniable, that can efficiently meet the
strictest baby product safety standards on Earth, the American safety standards.
China's really good at building strollers that conformed all that stuff,
and you know, you can get some crappy toy that
(02:46):
will break the first time your kid plays with it
from virtually anywhere you know.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And I don't want to name any countries. I'm not
here to disparage anybody, but Malaysia. You want, We're looking
at you, Malaysia, oh boy.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
But if you want something sturdy and past the safety standards,
you're probably going to look to China. So we shall
see how that develops. Now onto more serious fair Clearly
nobody knows about kin Men Island's island.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I think it's an archipelago. It's several islands.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Kin Men a Taiwanese archipelago about two miles off the
Chinese coast. I'm reminded of recently reading The Cane Mutiny,
which is about World War Two, in which a number
of the battles and campaigns they referenced are familiar to
any history buff And there's an old saying that war
is how Americans learn geography. Well, we all might learn
(03:36):
about kin Men, this series of islands between China and Taiwan.
As the Chinese Navy and Coast Guard is getting increasingly
belligerent about practically pulling onto their beaches.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I know you weren't here a couple fridays ago when
your nation needed you. You were watching a golf contest somewhere.
But that's when I had Mike Liones on and his
his take was, China goes to take Taiwan, They're just
gonna take it. We're not a positioned to stop them.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I'm reminded of a big brother bullying a little
brother and bringing his fist right up to the kid's
face and doing it again and again and again, and
all it's going to take is for China to go
ahead and slug the kid, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
They're absolutely poised and ready. Well, part of it is
our lack of appetite for an actual war, which I
completely understand and share. But he was talking about, well,
if we did this and then China would probably attack
the West coast, Like whoa, I mean, that's just so
mind blowing as an American, the idea of California, you know,
bombs falling in La or San Francisco, and she's just
(04:44):
what the hell? But you know, look at the news
in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It happens in various places around the world, right, So wait,
there's more. So China claims its Coast Guard is carrying
out routine law enforcement, but the real purpose is clearly
to challenge Taiwan's your stiction over its own islands. The
patrols create opportunities for escalation if China wants to send
a message blah blah blah, it's a dangerous game, especially
(05:09):
with American special forces stationed right now on kin Men.
So China could demand that the US and Taipei demilitarize
the islands, betting that mister Trump would withdraw the troops
and urge Taiwan to give away the island rather than
less risk a larger confrontation. So we have some of
our best and brightest there right now as China is
(05:31):
menacing the very beaches of ten Men.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I don't want to get sidetracked on this completely, but
can you imagine the cultural change that would happen in America?
I think for generations if bombs were falling in La
San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, wherever from Choh. Yeah, I
mean that would be so it'd be a wake up
to me and I expect this sort of thing in
(05:56):
my lifetime. For most people who just can't even imagine
that ever happening, it'd be holy crap. We're we're vulnerable too,
just like every other human on earth.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well, yeah, really since the War of eighteen twelve, I
mean it's I mean, the Civil War, it's hardly been
an issue we think about it all other than a
couple of fairly minor submarine incursions in w W two.
But yeah, the idea of the fighting being on our
homeland or the bombings or whatever, Yeah, it's crazy. Moving along,
China has moved to formally end all Christian missionary activities.
(06:28):
The Chinese Communist Party is imposing severe restrictions on Christians
in the country because they are godless commis and utterly
evil to their core Chinese in short.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Sir, Yes, yes, that's true. That's true.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So in lighter fair, because virtually everything's lighter fair. There's
Coffee has become incredibly popular in China in the last
few years.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
There's a giant coffee craze. Did they not drink it before?
Did the Chinese just discover coffee?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
They're all about tea, that's right, all the tea in China.
Perhaps you've heard the expression, so they mentioned these coffee wars. Now,
between all the coffee shops that have sprung up, what
they're trying to do is come up with the latest
hot flavor, and they open the article with this Beijinger
(07:20):
drinking Starbucks mochas to power through the day.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Today she downs Americanos doused in pineapple juice and lattes
blended with French butter. What a pineapple coffee or a
butter latte? But wait, jacket made with French butter? I
would try that.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Roasted duck plums cheese, the bizarre bruise feeling China's coffee
war crowbeeks you just get You get an espresso shop
and you stir it with the crow beaks. Wow, roasted
duck flavored coffee Niac, Let's see you got phizzy Americano
(08:05):
made with Apple's lime, butter, latte, grapes, butter.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I didn't know. I guess I should have assumed that
there were Starbucks in China, but duck flavored? Dude, put
back the duck coffee. I would like to know. Does
the Starbucks in China have unlocked bathrooms? Do they have
a civilized enough society where you can have a bathroom
like every business in America was until a couple of
(08:34):
years ago. What are you?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Tucker Carlson now praising totalitarian regimes because their bathrooms are cleaner.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Please. It's an interesting question though. Moving along.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
There, it is finally, thank you, Michael, better late than ever. Huh.
Chinese students on US campuses are ensnared in a political standoff.
Some say their visas have been revoked. In recent weeks.
Beijing is warning other nationals to reconsider study plans in America.
This is a topic I would like to hammer over
and over again. How and we're gonna get into it
(09:09):
more later and if not today, next week. How major
universities are absolute.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It's a harsh word, folks. Forgive me absolute sluts for
foreign money, specifically China and cutter the Chinese communists and
the Katari Islamists.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They are Islamic supremacists. They just wear Western suits and
go at it a different way. They have so thoroughly
addicted some of our major universities to their money.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
They dare not teach against them. Their lap dogs.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And one in four one in every four international student
comes in the US comes from China, one in four.
And the US has been running a large service surplus
with China for years, partly because of the billions of
dollars that Chinese households spend on schooling in the US.
It is an enormous like hairin pipeline cash, they pay
(10:09):
full freight. And yeah, so anyway, both the young Chinese
communist boys and girls and their overlords are panicking a
little bit, and their university overlords. Because it's been such
a mutually beneficial scam, China gets to import a lot
of would be spies, whether willing or unwilling. The universities
(10:31):
get to piles and piles of money, and.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
We get to you know, cash into our system. I
don't know why you had to drop the S bomb,
but to make your point spies.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Slut Oh oh it was I thought it was a
powerful metaphor.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
No, a couple more the universities be doing the walk
of shame here in a couple of years and happened.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
To a well, yeah they will. But instead of wearing
last night's.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Clothes and questioning their lives decision, life's decision again, they're
infiltrated with Chinese spies and they're addicted to the cash.
There's no way to be It's more like being a
crack hoe than a shame. Yeah, yes, shame lady.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
It's more like being a crack hoe than you know,
a coh heed who got a bit loose last night.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Walking down the street carrying your shoes, make up a
mess looking for more students, and I will keep this brief.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Chinese scientists in America come under new wave of suspicion,
FBI scrutiny and visa revocations are worrying STEM researchers as
China looks to recruit them to come home.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah. Well, a lot of the researchers are either spies
or they're going to be spies the minute Beijing calls
and says, hey, we need you to send us a
copy of that paper you're working on. That's the problem.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And finally this there are strong indications that you remember
the doge thing when they're laying off a bunch of people,
and that was the biggest problem in the world for
about a cup of duck flavored coffee.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Set the duck back.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Chinese intelligence maybe trying to recruit fired US officials. An
advisory says that foreign agencies are posing his consulting firms,
think tanks, and other organizations to connect with former government
employees who may or may not be disgruntled and looking
for some sort of work.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So the Chinese equivalent of the CIA is saying, hey,
you know.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
What, we really we've admired your work for a long
long time, or starting a think tank, we'd love to.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Have little of your expertise. And I've read about this
study this for years. How they get you.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
They have you doing completely innocent stuff, and then they
have you doing stuff that has just the tinge of
I'm I'm sure I'm supposed to well, and then they
ask you to do something a little more improper, and
then you're a full on espionage agent and you have
such a trail of oh my god, did I do that?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Behind you? You're on the hook. That's a look inside
the China cabinet. I didn't realize you're just coming around
to call feed there in China. That'll be a big
deal for you know, a lot of your big coffee
companies around the world. You know, Colombia has got to
be excited about that. You're comb peruse. Yes, yeah, maybe
(13:14):
you were into the NFL draft. I'm into the pope draft,
the cardinal draft, uh for who's going to be the
next pope? Among other things. On the way, stay here, Hey.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
The telephones in this city will be changed to dial service.
And all telephone numbers will be changed. Before calling any number,
first secure the number from your new directory, Then remove
the receiver and listen for the dial tone. It sounds
like this with the receiver off the hook, dial the
desired number. Be sure to allow the dial to freely
(13:50):
return to its normal possession. And this is the ringing segmental.
If the line is busy, you'll hear this busy signal.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
That's from nineteen thirty six. What I was just trying
to figure out in my head what age would you have?
What's the cutoff for having had that experience? Michael, you
just turned fifty. Have you used a rotary phone?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I did, Like you're a little kid. Yeah, so I'm thinking,
like forty five and under, you've probably never used a
rotary phone.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I can still remember our first push button phone.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Is that what you'd call it? Right? And I was
kind of thinking that's about the time Chinese crap came
into our lives, or foreign crap anyway. I mean, man,
those old timey phones were a piece of happy duty,
indestructible equipment. As I've said many times, those old AT
and T phones, you could beat an ox to death
with it, and then call your grandmother Barbara. They were
(14:49):
solid man. And then like you get into the nineties
and you had cordless phones, just the cheapest, lightest, thinnest,
crappiest plastic on earth. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Oh boy, Mike, Green was the phone in your kitchen
when you were a teenager hoping a girl might call
you or call you back? I can picture it because
I stared at it so much.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I never had any hope of that. But yeah, by
the way, green, any kind of yellow, mustard yellow was ours.
But uh yeah, if you're gonna have a phone conversation,
it was going to be in the kitchen because that's
where the phone was on the cord. Well, that was
your problem. No girl's gonna call a mustard yellow phone.
(15:38):
Oh if only that was my only problem? How much
time I got, Michael, Did I use up all my
time already? No, you're still fanciful, None of no stock.
It's easy to be. Nostalgia's an interesting thing, trying to
separate things that may have actually been better from it
(16:00):
just feels better because it's what was happening when you
were younger, and separating those two things is difficult. But sure,
there were many advantages to the there's a phone, you know,
in the center of our lives. That's where everybody's going
to have their communication. I mean, your wife isn't who's
she been texting for the last half hour. I mean,
(16:21):
there's none of that going on. Everything was just more
easily controlled there, Yeah, I suppose so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
On the other hand, the advent of the answering machine
reduced stress a.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Lot changed everything. But just from some of the stuff
we were doing yesterday about marriages and contempt and all
these different sorts of things. Pre how did people have
even have dalliances back in the day where you couldn't
call on the phone, you couldn't send a message or again,
send a letter meet me. It's a little more carcasome.
(16:58):
But it had to be better, right, I think it
had to be better.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But harniness and bad decisions still found a way to
win jack even back then.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Trump some interesting things to say about Russia and Ukraine.
That is coming to a head possible. We've got a
lot of that coming up, Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
The Trump administration has put forward a peace proposal that
would prohibit natal membership for Ukraine and force Ukraine to
give up land that Russia has see since it's invasion,
in addition to giving up CRIMEA. Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky
has rejected the current proposal, saying we will negotiate, we
will not surrender.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, we got a lot more on that. There's there's
a tremendous amount happening around Russia and Ukraine. It's it's
gonna go one way or the other, like now, like
this week, or this weekend or maybe today. Trump has
an interview in Time magazine whatever that is now that
we can talk a little bit about. But here's some
(17:56):
from Trump and asked a variety of questions about this yesterday.
It's just run through these in order. Michael. Right after that,
he used the words Vladimir stop.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
That seemed like a slightly different message of personal message.
What is your level of frustration with President Putin at
this point?
Speaker 7 (18:14):
I wasn't happy with it, and we're in the midst
of token peace and missiles were fired that I was
not happy with it.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Will you consider additional sanctions towards Russia?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Or what will you.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Do if President Putin does not respond?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Were a week?
Speaker 7 (18:28):
I want to see what we get.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Happy deal? Yeah, and then then the New York So
Trump tweets out yesterday Vladimir stop and all capitals with
exclamation points. This is not helping. The New York Post
characterized that as Trump blasts putin, ah, that's uhou. I
wouldn't say that's exactly what happened now, I mean it
(18:51):
was all caps. I'll give you that. That was one
opinion piece yesterday. There Cover Today insinuates that Trump's Vladimir
stop was basically the same as Biden's don't with no
teeth behind it, which was, and the Wall Street Journal similar.
Here's a little more Trump when you.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
Say, crimea that was handed over during a president named
Barack Hussein Obama that had nothing to do with me.
Crimea that was eleven years ago with Obama and they
made a decision. There wasn't a bullet fire, there was
no fighting, there was no anything. They just handed it over.
Now they say, well, can you get it back? I
(19:33):
think that's going to be a very difficult thing to do.
That was given by Barack Obama when he was president,
not by Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Not why sure what he had to throw in the
Hussein with Obama noticed that, Yeah, at this point, but
Bob Woodward, his book that I read about the Biden presidency,
said Joe Biden, when Joe Biden was try trying to
talk Putin out of invading, like the day before he invaded,
(20:05):
and he became it became obvious that Putin was going
no matter what Biden said. Biden got off the phone,
hung up the phone and said, ef ing Barak. It's
his fault. He didn't do anything when Putin took crime in.
It caused all of this. So Biden's belief was Obama
not pushing Obiden got a hold of or Obama got
Hood a hold of whatever the name of the president
(20:26):
was at the time, back then in Ukraine and said,
don't do anything. We're not backing you. Don't do anything.
We'll take care of this basically, and then nothing ever happened,
right very Obama. Yeah, Well, Trump wasn't wrong in what
he said there. Yeah, we're gonna get to that in
a little bit with David Ignatius Washington Post piece, which
I think you're going to agree with. Let's roll through
(20:49):
the rest of the Trump and then we'll be done.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
What concessions has Russia offered up thus far?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
To get to the point where you're closer to peace.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
Stopping them or stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concession.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I don't know what I think of that. Russia's concession
is not taking the whole country.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah, what is the inducement for that, whether carrot or stick.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
That's the part that mystifies me a little bit.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
If I'm Vladimir Putin, I'm thinking all I'm getting is
Vladimir don't and I'm gobblin up territory.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Not very fast, and it's bloody, but I don't mind
young men going off to their death for the Russian motherland.
I'm on the front foot here. We're making progress. I'm
gonna keep going. Thank you. Ah man, you gotta find
a different way to couch it. It just doesn't let's
play the last trump one there.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
I have no allegiance to anybody. I have allegiance to
saving lives, and I want to save a lot of lives,
a lot of young people's, mostly young people. It's the war,
it's so and if we can do that also, as
you know, I get started because the money that's been
spent on this war is insane. It's a killing field.
(22:09):
Five thousand soldiers a week on average. Can we want
to stop that.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I heard some of the numbers yesterday. Russia's approaching a
million men take it off the battlefield dead or injured
since they started nine hundred and seventy thousand. A million men,
I mean, we have hundreds of thousands more fled the country.
For what it's worth, we have giant monuments in Washington,
(22:39):
d c. For tiny fractions of that in various wars
we've been involved in because we think it's so horrific
with a much bigger population, right, I mean, it's just well,
it's a different culture for sure. God, I'd say the
history of Russia being willing to lose lots and lots
of young men. It's just astounding. Russia has lost one
(23:01):
hundred thousand men from the battlefield this year. It is April.
It's just it's stunning. Anyway, So some of the North Koreans,
by the way, which is its own story, did you
watch that video came out yesterday? No, Eight Ukrainian commandos
killed twenty five North Koreans in their trench. They had
(23:24):
GoPros on their heads and you could watch it and
it's just like those poor freaking North Korean dudes and
they don't even know where they are, certainly don't know
why they're fighting, and why would they. That's one interesting
thing about this war is the peace process as opposed
to the Middle East or I'm reading about past Middle
(23:47):
East peace process, where you've got, you know, you've got
to massage your own people so much because they're so
into the war. There's nobody in Russia happy that this
is going on. Happier in hell to have this end.
Putin doesn't need to calm a population that wants to
keep going because of everything Ukraine has done to us.
(24:09):
I don't think it's just they'd be happy to have
it come to an end.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, there's a reason he's passed all of those draconian
laws about against breathing a word in opposition of the war,
because he knows where the public sentiment lies.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Anyway, I was kind of surprised by this writing in
the Washington Post today from David Ignatius. There's movement, if
not yet agreement, towards the Essential Land for Peace formula
that would frame any pact. Under a US plan, that's
the basis for discussions. Russia would continue to administer the
five regions that occupies though Ukraine wouldn't formally seed sovereignty
(24:42):
in any of them in the United States, because on
the other side, Zelensky does have to satisfy his population, who,
according to Poles, pretty willing to fight to the death
to keep Ukraine together, and and he can't have anything
formally seeding sovereignty and keep people happy. I don't think
(25:06):
I'm thinking of the book I'm reading about the late
seventies pe process under Carter and with Began and Sadat,
and they actually they wrote up two different UN resolutions
which was unknown at the time, one for the Egyptian people,
one for the Israeli people to feed to their own people,
(25:27):
ah to make them feel like they didn't get jobbed right. Right.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
As I've pointed out many times, you must look at
country's foreign relations through the lens of their domestic situation,
because that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Obviously, just like the US, so Russia would continue to
hold the five regions that it's taken, Ukraine wouldn't formally
seed sovereignty. The United States might implicitly recognize Russia's hold
on CRIMEA, Ukraine wouldn't. Security guarantees would be finessed too.
Ukraine wouldn't join NATO, but it would keep the language
in its constitution declaring that goal. Russia would accept Ukraine's
(26:05):
right to a post war robust security guarantee, which would
be understood by all to mean European troops. European troops
in Ukraine. And there's no mention in the document of
Russia's old demand for a neutral, de militarized zone in Ukraine,
so that's gone by the wayside. Europe would provide the
(26:25):
military side of the security guarantee. The US plan also
envisages an American role on the ground through its operation
in the whole nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which
supply power to both sides. So we would be involved
in the power plant, which remember Trump brought that up
a while back, because that would be as David Ignatius
says here, this would be an American trip wire. If
(26:47):
Russia tried to take the power plant, you'd be crossing
the line with US. And the same holds true for
the proposal that the US share profits from the minerals
another natural resources. It's an economic power play and gives
America a stake in the post war piece that Russia
would have to watch out for So that was a
pretty clever thing that they came up with, and it
(27:09):
might be the absolutely vomit worthy, unpalatable best thing you
can get.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Sometimes things end that way, sometimes the world goes that way.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Now, just to see it, it's frustrating, and that's your point,
I guess. But it didn't have to be this way.
Ukraine could have been provided armament that would have helped
them push Russia back further earlier, and it would be
a completely different negotiating situation. Correct.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, you know, I haven't appreciated some of the things
Trump has done and said, but he was handed a terrible,
terrible situation by the feckless, senile mummy Joe Biden and
his administration, which made his maneuvering room considerably tighter.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well, I'll just leave that there for now. One thing
is in a that I'm really interested in.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I hope I live long enough to see it is
the Russian Empire, whether it was under the Tsars or
the Soviet Union or the current deal under potent who's
attempting to reassemble the Great Russian Empire. It's been held
together with brutality and bribes for like, you know, the
last century and a.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Half thousand years.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm more familiar with the last century
and a half. But anyway, what happens when Putin goes
will be really really interesting to watch because, yeah, you've
got Ukraine, which is ethnically different. Mostly they do have
Russian folks there, in Russian speaking folks. Everybody's got a
cousin in both countries. It's a close association, but not
(28:42):
close enough that Ukraine doesn't in overwhelming numbers, want to
be a completely independent country. Same can be said for
a lot of so called Russian provinces that they're Muslims.
They're absolutely not ethnic Russian. They hate Putin, They're just
again being held together by brutality and bribes. And where
(29:02):
all that goes, I mean, Russia will continue to be
unstable for the rest of our lives and your kids
and grandkids too.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah. I've been more on the side of MSNBC's take
on this particular story for a while. You're a liberal,
it's an interesting position. So would the left be into
this war if it had started under a Republicans? What
(29:33):
I and I remember the left last time the left
was so into I mean yesterday on MSNBC with a
lot of great guests. They were actually talking about US
ground troops to push Russia out. I mean, that's how
far they were going. Democrats, Yeah, your question is a
super interesting one. First, Blush, I'd say no, they'd be
(29:55):
staunchly against it if a Republican had been in office.
That's what I'm under. They're just knee jerk tribalists. And anyway,
a lot of the talk of this is Trump being
Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler. Well, the big difference was Hitler
had built the biggest war machine in all of Europe,
and everybody knew he had the most powerful military in Europe.
(30:18):
Russia does not. They have been decimated, so they're not
going to march across Europe if they're appeased, right, right,
do you think ugly as hell? Before we take a break?
Do you think you do it a piece deal and
then Russia violates it at some point and tries to
take more.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Eventually, one hundred percent of Putin lives another five years.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
But you think he'd wait out Trump to the next person. Ah?
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, and or make this sort of small incursions kind
of sowing seeds for bigger incursions down the road.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But yeah, he'd start on that project right away. I
keep forgetting to talk about the pope. And we've got
a bunch of other stuff too. We're gonna break down
the second round to the draft, but.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Stay with us.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
One clip. We didn't play Trump yesterday. He's asked about
you know, what are you what pressure are you putting
on Russia? And he said things you don't know about. Basically,
he said, we're doing things you don't know today. And
I don't know if this has anything to do with it.
Oh Whitkoff arrives in Moscow as one of the very
top Russian generals who is in charge of the battle
plan for Ukraine. Blows up. His car blows up. I've
(31:36):
seen the picture. I mean his car just disintegrated him
in it. Probably a clogged fuel filter right right, He
must have had one of those lithium batteries you're not
supposed to have or something. The check engine light was on.
He ignored it right here, blowe right, need to do
brake pads. And so I don't know if that has
(31:57):
anything to do with any of the things were you
don't know about behind the scenes putting pressure on Russia.
But one other generals blew up.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, speaking of warfare, one of the biggest hawks against
Iran in Washington is a big bald headed democrat. Plus
conservative professor tells us how to save Harvard. Apparently there
is a conservative professor and he wrote something stay with us.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I've been keeping track of how many days in a
row the Pope's death leads the evening newscast and so
far every day since Saturday since.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
The idiot David Muir and his idiot newscast on ABC
last night devoted like six minutes to it.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Right and they're traveling there and gonna be live from there.
The funeral is tomorrow. Trump is on the way to
Italy right now with a lot of other world leaders,
So it's gonna be at least a full week of
it being the lead story. And it's not like we're
during a news lull right at all. And it's still
the lead story, which is kind of interesting to me.
(32:57):
You said their audience is old. That's true, they're centered
in New York, higher per percentage of Catholics in the Northeast.
All that stuff is true. I'm still I'm still kind
of surprised by it. Well, and it's it's like uncontroversial
and easy. It's like a killer storm is crossing the Midwest.
There's that. I missed that part. That's the thing. Cheryl
(33:18):
Atkinson after she left say CBS News says, those stories
are because there's no pushback weather stuff like this. They're
just nobody pushes back, so it's just easy and still
line people standing in line for seven, ten, twelve hours
to walk by the dead pope and see them with
their families or whatever. They're in Rome. And that's that's
(33:39):
its own interesting thing. Do you have any opinion on
who the next pope is?
Speaker 4 (33:43):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Zero zero, don't care. I do, And this is what
I'm hoping for. I think this would be good for
First of all, I've always been fascinated by the idea
of all of these in theory selfless men, and they're
all men, because that's the deal, selfless men, choosing someone
(34:05):
to be the biggest job you could ever have in
your life. And in theory, you know, not having any
ambition toward it, it's just like you know, trying to
let God speak to you and make a decision that way,
what's best for the Catholic Church, what's best best for
(34:27):
And I wonder how much of that is true, and
how much ambition slips in and all that sort of stuff.
I've always been fascinated by that. I would love to know.
Do you ever read the Da Vinci Code. There's your
answer right there. Ah, that's funny. I loved that book.
I don't know how accurate it is. I'm hoping. I
think it would be good for the world to have
(34:48):
the first African pope, somebody from that that's a god
forsaken continent. I think some African pope because the pope
gets so much attention, as we've seen this week, being
able to call attention to the wars, just all the
problems they've got in Africa. I think that'd be helpful
for the point's interesting take. Yeah, I don't care, not
(35:11):
because I don't think anybody should care. I just don't
have the bandwidth. There are other things I'm more interested in.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
I wish the Catholic world good luck and choosing a
great new pope, a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Next Hour. If you don't get Next Hour, you got
to go somewhere.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
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