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Feb. 15, 2022 - The Ben Shapiro Show

01:03:42

Justin Trudeau Declares Tyranny In Canada | Ep. 1434

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	Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is definitely not Fidel Castro's son, invokes the Emergencies Act to fight the Freedom Convoy.
	And confusion continues over Russian intentions in Ukraine.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
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	We'll get to all the news in just one moment.
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	Well, overnight, Justin Trudeau, who is definitely, definitely not Phil Castro's son, stopped that right now.
	I know, they look exactly the same.
	And I know mommy was hanging around, apparently, reportedly, maybe in an unspecified Caribbean country, just around Nine months before Justin Trudeau's run, and I know Justin looks nothing like his actual dad, Pierre, but he's definitely not Fidel Castro's son, so stop that, you.
	Anyway, Justin Trudeau has now declared that he is invoking emergency powers in order to stop the truckers from clogging up the traffic in Ottawa.
	According to the Wall Street Journal, In a highly unusual move, the Canadian government on Monday invoked a series of emergency powers that include limits on public gatherings, and a bid to end disruptive demonstrations in the capital city and along the Canada-US border.
	The measures announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau represent one of the most striking responses by a Western government against protests by those opposing COVID-19 vax mandates and social restrictions in response to the pandemic, and immediately drew fire from some Canadian leaders and civil liberties groups.
	The government also said Monday the country was extending laws targeting money laundering to capture transactions including crypto, On crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe.
	Okay, this is insane.
	It's just crazy.
	Now, law violation is typically met with law enforcement response.
	This has been true with regard to every protest that has ever taken place that violates the law, and that includes peaceful protests.
	When MLK and others marched in Selma, there was an assumption that some people were going to get arrested for violating whatever the laws were that they were violating.
	The fact of the matter is that when you engage in civil disobedience, there's an expectation that you will probably be arrested for this.
	This is why during the 1960s, it was sort of a badge of honor for civil rights protesters to be arrested by Southern authorities.
	But there's a large-scale difference between being arrested for clogging up the traffic purposefully in Ottawa and attempting to confiscate the money of people who are trying to give money to protest movements.
	There's a large-scale difference between protesting in the streets and, for example, committing acts of violence.
	And the kind of language and activity that has now been invoked by Justin Trudeau in Canada is actual tyranny.
	The use of the Emergency Act in order to clear protesters from the streets of Ottawa is something that in the United States would have resulted in large-scale consternation.
	You'll remember that Tom Cotton, the senator from Arkansas, when he actually wrote an op-ed for the New York Times suggesting that rioters be cleared from the streets via the use of the U.S.
	military, if need be, the entire left went so insane that the op-ed editor of the New York Times, James Bennett, was fired from his job for the crime of having printed that idea.
	And he was talking about rioters.
	He wasn't talking about protesters.
	He wasn't talking about peaceful marches.
	He wasn't even talking about civil disobedience.
	Tom Cotton.
	He was talking about people who were burning down storefronts.
	And people on the left went nuts for that.
	The vice president of the United States in this country actively funded bail funds for people who are arrested while quote-unquote protesting, very often meaning rioting, in Minnesota.
	But up in Canada, the entire left is now fully on board with the idea that they have to invoke anti-terror measures in order to stop people from, what, parking their trucks?
	In places where sometimes they're even allowed to park their trucks because it's causing too many disruptions.
	It is amazing to see that the Canadian authorities who have spent two years locking down their citizens in unprecedented ways and helping to quash small business and helping to prevent people from living free, that those people are now very concerned about the economic impact of people clogging up the arteries of the roads.
	Trudeau's move to invoke emergency powers comes after police on Sunday already reopened access to the Ambassador Bridge.
	They were already able to do this.
	The police already reopened the thoroughfare for trade between the United States and Canada.
	But that's not enough for Justin Trudeau.
	He wants to go further than this.
	Officials said these extraordinary measures were necessary because of the damage done to the economy with the blocking of US-Canada trade.
	Further, said Canada's Public Safety Minister, Marco Mendicino, we've seen intimidation, harassment, and expressions of hate.
	There we go.
	We don't like what they're saying.
	Therefore, it's hate.
	Therefore, we need to invoke the Emergency Act.
	This is insanity.
	Here is the Minister of Public Safety saying we have to invoke the Emergencies Act because protesters are using hateful language.
	If this doesn't sound like tyranny to you, I don't know what tyranny sounds like to you.
	Imagine this in the United States.
	You say something that the federal government does not like and the federal government suddenly takes action under some sort of emergency power to shut you down because they don't like your message.
	Core violation of basic freedoms here in the West.
	I mean, the idea of the West is falling is not particularly far off.
	And then if you declare emergencies, a lot of people will go along with it.
	Here's Marco Mendocino, the Minister of Public Safety in Canada, which again is a pretty Orwellian title.
	Minister of Public Safety.
	By public safety, he means shut the hell up.
	I think it's difficult to overstate the impact of those scenes, the conduct that has unfolded by those who are participating in illegal blockades.
	It is not just an inconvenience.
	It is not simply a matter of A trivial interruption.
	We've seen intimidation, harassment, and expressions of hate.
	And at times, the scenes on the streets of Wellington have seemed completely lawless.
	And that is one of the reasons why we've had to take the very careful and deliberate step of introducing the Emergencies Act today.
	It's not a careful and deliberate step.
	This is only the third time in Canadian history that it's been invoked.
	The simple fact is that the failure to distinguish between, for example, acts of actual violence or acts of actual lawbreaking and quote-unquote hateful speech is one of the biggest problems in the West right now.
	The left likes to say that hateful speech is violence.
	Meanwhile, violence apparently is not even hateful speech.
	In some cases, it's just regular speech.
	The differential treatment of protesters by message on the left is totally crazy.
	I'm perfectly consistent.
	If you violate the law, you will end up in jail and you should end up in jail because there is the law.
	However, we have to make sure you're actually violating the law before we start invoking emergency measures, especially because this is not an emergency by any state of the imagination.
	Alrighty, coming up, we'll get to Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act.
	Does he even have the legal power to do this?
	First, if somebody relies on you for income, you need to make sure that, God forbid, something should happen to you.
	They are still taken care of.
	I mean, let's say that you are walking down the street and suddenly Justin Trudeau repels from the side of a building and decides to, you know, You know, just spirit you away.
	Well, as you are being carted off to prison, some dark gulag site where something horrible could happen, I'm just saying this is theoretical.
	I'm just saying this is theoretical.
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	Head on over to PolicyGenius.com slash Shapiro Leah West, a national security expert at Carleton University in Ottawa, told the Wall Street Journal that the current protests are not necessarily meeting the legal threshold of a national emergency.
	She said invoking the Emergencies Act, if that threshold isn't met, sets a precedent that unpopular dissent against the government is enough for the government to take these extraordinary powers into its own hands.
	The measures come into effect immediately, but Trudeau must present his reasoning for using the Act to Parliament and hold the vote within the next seven days.
	And the leader of the New Democratic Party, Yagmeet Singh, said he would support the move, thereby giving the incumbent liberals enough votes to ensure passage.
	Trudeau said that the military would not be deployed against the protesters, and the government wasn't suspending rights guaranteed under the country's constitution.
	So then what exactly is he doing?
	What exactly is he doing?
	So the BBC has a breakdown on what exactly the Emergencies Act allows Justin Trudeau to do.
	The law grants Trudeau's government extraordinary powers for 30 days, including the power to prohibit public assembly, travel, and the use of specific property.
	You can prohibit all public assembly under the Emergencies Act based on the fact you don't like these protesters?
	Again, remember, Justin Trudeau is fine with protests that clog up business.
	In the middle of a pandemic, by the way, You'll remember that in June 2020, Justin Trudeau literally took a knee at a BLM rally in the middle of the pandemic, like the first wave of the pandemic, the most dangerous wave of the pandemic.
	Here was Justin Trudeau taking a knee at a BLM rally in June 2020.
	People took to the streets in multiple cities, thousands really, denouncing racism, not just from what they've seen in the United States, but systemic racism that they say exists right here in Canada.
	Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unexpected visit to the Ottawa protests, even taking a knee, which was a very powerful image on the streets.
	Now remember, he was actually criticized over this at the time.
	People said, wait a second, isn't COVID running rampant through our country?
	How are you attending rallies?
	And he said it was very important for him to attend the rally.
	Here was Justin Trudeau.
	Remember, this was just like less than two years ago.
	He said it was important for him to attend the BLM protest.
	Despite public health advice, he has personally delivered to Canadians about avoiding large groups to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
	So some protests are worthy of being treated as legitimate.
	Some protests, you invoke the Emergency Act.
	He says, as best I could, I followed social distancing measures, wearing a mask, keeping distance where possible.
	But I recognize this two years ago, that it is a difficult situation where we are trying to balance very important competing interests.
	It's so difficult that the Prime Minister of Canada went to a BLM rally in the middle of the first wave, in the middle of COVID, to protest that we're shutting down streets, and took a knee, and then defended it.
	But here, when you have people who are protesting his authoritarian COVID rules, the Vax mandates on truckers who sit alone in the cab of their vehicle for 20 hours at a time, the essential workers we used to cheer, who are now being put under the thumb of the government for no reason other than the vanity of Justin Trudeau.
	Because let's face it, Canada is one of the most vaccinated countries on planet Earth.
	Omicron has already swept through Canada.
	People generally have either natural immunity or vaccine immunity at this point.
	And he is still maintaining this.
	So what exactly does the Emergency Act do?
	The Emergencies Act, according to the BBC, passed in 1988, bestows the government with added powers in times of national crisis.
	The situation is supposed to meet a high bar, specifically an urgent and critical situation that seriously endangers the lives, health, or safety of Canadians.
	I have a question.
	Do trucks idling in Ottawa amount to endangering, seriously, the lives, health, or safety of Canadians?
	Truly?
	And the Cabinet is only allowed to invoke the Emergencies Act if the emergency can't be addressed by any existing federal law, and if it exceeds the capacity of the provinces to handle it effectively.
	But there's only one problem, which is the provinces have the capacity to arrest people.
	They have the capacity to clear the Ambassador Bridge, which they already did.
	The Emergencies Act outlines four different types of emergencies.
	Public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies, and war emergencies.
	If the legislation is invoked, it will likely be under the public order category.
	Again, the criteria here is strict.
	Lawful protests do not qualify.
	Instead, the situation has to be considered a threat to the security of Canada, as defined by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act.
	This law outlines four possible scenarios.
	Espionage or sabotage, which this is not.
	Foreign-influenced activities, which this is not.
	Threats or use of acts of serious violence for political, religious, or ideological objectives, which this is not again.
	How many people have been injured in the trucker protests so far?
	My understanding is zero.
	I've not seen any reports of injuries, and you know the media would blow it up if there were some, because the media hates the truckers.
	Covert unlawful acts intended to undermine or overthrow the constitutionally established government.
	No, they say they want to negotiate with the constitutionally established government.
	None of the four scenarios have been clearly present in Ottawa, in Ottawa, Ontario, says the BBC.
	OK, not a right wing outlet.
	On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would support the federal government and any proposals they have to bring law and order back to our province.
	The premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, told reporters he did not want to see the act applied in his province.
	Under the Emergencies Act, the government has a number of far-reaching powers at its disposal.
	The government could bar travel to or from specific areas.
	It could order the evacuation of people and personal property from certain areas.
	It could direct individuals and companies to render essential services.
	So if tow truck companies say, listen, we're not going to tow this stuff for you because we object, you can force them to do so.
	And Trudeau says he's not going to call the military, but this is You know, what's the point of doing it otherwise?
	Except that they're going to crack down on money.
	We'll get to that in a second, which is truly scary.
	The Emergencies Act apparently has never been applied in Canada.
	It was considered in the early days of the pandemic under public welfare, but was ruled unnecessary.
	We'll get to more on all of this in just one second.
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	So just to get this straight.
	Early days of the pandemic.
	Massive casualties from COVID.
	People getting seriously ill.
	Hospitals on the verge of being overwhelmed.
	No emergencies act.
	Truckers arrive in Ottawa.
	Emergencies act.
	Justin Trudeau's father Maybe.
	Used this earlier law in 1970, the War Measures Act, which was the predecessor, to suspend civil liberties and send in an armed force to respond to political kidnappings by the Front de Liberation de Quebec.
	Okay, so that was the last time this was used.
	It's an amazing, amazing moment in the history of the West that we are now having the Prime Minister of Canada invoke an Emergencies Act, which clearly does not apply to the situation on the ground in Ottawa, in order to crack down on basic freedoms, including the right to dissent and the right to protest.
	Here was Justin Trudeau announcing it yesterday.
	The federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act.
	to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations.
	Hey, he actually called this reasonable and proportionate.
	So just to get this straight, trucks idling in Ottawa, the reasonable and proportionate step is for the federal government of Canada to declare an emergency that allows them to shut down things like public assembly.
	If you think that the left in the United States would have any remorse about doing something like this, you have another thing coming.
	The left across the world, whether we are talking about in Canada or Australia or New Zealand, they are more than willing to use these sort of emergency powers.
	Once the government starts, remember, the history of democratically elected governments using emergencies powers in order to seize more power is long and very, very inglorious, ranging from FDR interning Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans, named Japanese citizens, Japanese Americans during World War II under emergency powers, to, of course, you hesitate to invoke it, but Hitler obviously invoked the Emergencies Act in order to garner more power, the Enabling Act in 1933.
	This isn't Hitler, obviously, but the garnering of enormous centralized power under guise of emergency is a commonplace thing in democracies that make a turn toward the tyrannical, which include the abuse of human rights.
	Here is Justin Trudeau saying, however, this is reasonable and proportionate.
	I want to be very clear.
	The scope of these measures will be time-limited.
	geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.
	The Emergencies Act will be used to strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country.
	Oh, I believe him.
	This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people's jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions.
	Restoring confidence in the institutions.
	Nothing says confidence in the institutions quite like invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in its inglorious history in order to clear some truckers from the road.
	As opposed to, you know, doing what all of the other provinces in Canada apparently are beginning to do, loosen all these restrictions.
	We'll get to that in just one second.
	By the way, Justin Trudeau then says, it's reasonable in proportion, remember, but there will be the ability to compel.
	If tow truckers don't want to move these trucks, we can just force them to do so at the point of gun, because that's what the government is, a giant gun pointed at people.
	Here is again, Justin Trudeau, who's definitely not Fidel Castro's kid.
	This illegal occupation needs to end, and that is where we have now given the specific tools necessary for that.
	Now, with these measures that we've put in place, there will be an ability to compel, for just compensation, tow truck owners and operators to actually do the jobs for which they have contracts with various orders of government to keep highways and roads clear.
	Smiley face NPR fascism.
	In very soft language, we'll discuss how we can compel people or just pay to do things they don't want to do and how the right to free assembly will be temporarily revoked.
	Don't worry, it'll be reasonable. It'll be nice.
	Don't worry, they'll enjoy it.
	By the way, Trudeau assures people that his fourth Vax program isn't dividing Canadians, which is weird because the vast majority of Canadians, even the people who voted for Trudeau, don't like Trudeau.
	A couple things are true.
	By polling data, the Canadian people are not wildly opposed to the Vax mandate, which of course makes sense considering the vast majority of Canadians are already Vax.
	If you're already Vax, you don't care about a Vax mandate.
	However, the vast majority of Canadians also do not like Justin Trudeau.
	Going all the way back to September, there's polling showing that people don't want Trudeau in charge of the country.
	Even people who voted for this Liberal government are not interested in Justin Trudeau as the leader.
	Here is Trudeau, however, saying that his forced vax program is not dividing Canadians, which is weird since this is the first time you've ever had to invoke the Emergencies Act, so that seems a little divisive.
	The impact of social media and illicit funding of Concerted activities designed to destabilize a country that has the highest vaccination rate of many of our peer countries, Canada, around an issue that is not dividing Canadians.
	Canadians are united in having been there for each other through this pandemic, and they're even united in being sick and tired of this pandemic.
	But the way to get through it is not to shut down our economy and hurt our neighbors.
	Oh my god.
	The way to get through it is not to shut down our economy and hurt our neighbors?
	What do you guys think you've been doing with supply chains?
	What do you think you've been doing with mask and vax mandates?
	What do you think that does?
	Seriously, right now, by taking, what, 10% of Canadian truckers offline, what do you think that's going to do to the supply chains?
	And when he says we are really, really vax and we've gotten through it, then what are you doing?
	Why are you maintaining this?
	Trudeau concludes by saying, you know, it's time to go home.
	It's time to go home.
	Weird.
	I don't remember him saying this anytime during the BLM protests at all.
	Because again, for the left, only certain types of protests are the types of protests that are worthy of being heard.
	Here's Trudeau.
	We'll always defend the rights of Canadians to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression.
	No, you won't.
	But these blockades are illegal.
	And if you're still participating, the time to go home is now.
	Oh, well, I mean, now that, if he says it in a nice voice, then that, also, if you don't go home, then have the Emergencies Act.
	By the way, the freedoms that are now being violated, the most obvious ones are financial freedoms.
	You wonder why people are investing in crypto?
	You wonder why people are trying to skip financial institutions?
	The reason for that is because of what Canada is attempting right now.
	What Canada is attempting right now is unprecedented.
	It's crazy.
	So it used to be, in tyrannical countries, that you didn't want to keep your money in the bank because the government could just take over the bank and then grab your money.
	Instead, you actually kept cash in your mattress.
	Tyrannical countries did not offer you the inviolable guarantee of the safety of your property.
	Well, that's what Canada is doing right now.
	Canada's Minister of Finance, a woman named Chrystia Freeland, ironically, she is now suggesting that without court order, without legal basis, Financial services providers are going to freeze or suspend accounts.
	Financial accounts.
	If you wonder again why people are a little bit nervous about the idea of a Fed coin in the United States or centralized banking via the Federal Reserve in the United States, this is the reason.
	Because if your money exists at the tolerance of the government, the government can take away that money at any time.
	OK, we're going to get to the finance minister and her Full-on tyranny talk in just one second.
	First, as you know, Justice Stephen Breyer recently announced that he was retiring, leaving Joe Biden the opportunity to get the most left-wing person he can find a seat on the Supreme Court.
	What you might not know is there was a ton of money put into dark money efforts to force Justice Breyer to retire.
	Our friends over at the Judicial Crisis Network are raising the alarm about the role dark money groups are playing in the effort to get a radical appointed to the Supreme Court.
	At the very top, there's a group called Arabella Advisors Network.
	They fund a bunch of far-left-wing groups, including Demand Justice.
	The New York Post reported Demand Justice ran a bullying campaign against Breyer, using their considerable resources to force him into retirement in advance of the 2022 elections.
	They even went so far as to drive a mobile billboard around the Supreme Court that said, Breyer, retire.
	It's time for a black woman Supreme Court justice.
	There's no time to waste.
	Well, this did work because Breyer actually did it, right?
	Now they're pouring a ton of money into getting a radical left-wing Supreme Court nominee who's going to serve as a rubber stamp for their unpopular far-left agenda.
	Judicial Crisis Network is calling them out with a big ad campaign designed to shine a light on left-wing dark money groups and their plans to transform the country.
	You can find out more on Twitter, at Judicial Network, or at judicialnetwork.com.
	Okay, so here is the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, announcing that financial services providers will be able to freeze or suspend accounts without corridors if they back the protest movement.
	The government is issuing an order, with immediate effect, under the Emergencies Act, authorizing Canadian financial institutions to temporarily cease providing financial services where the institution suspects that an account is being used to further the illegal blockades and occupations.
	As of today, A bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order.
	In doing so, they will be protected against civil liability for actions taken in good faith.
	Okay, this is insane.
	That's an insane provision.
	Just to explain what she is now saying.
	This would be the equivalent of Bank of America thinks that you are giving to, for example, the NRA.
	And the NRA has this group of people who might be associated with, might not be associated with it, who may engage in activities that the government doesn't like.
	And maybe the money ends up being traced all the way back to the bank and to your account in the bank.
	The bank can now prevent you from accessing that account.
	They can freeze your account or suspend it with no court order to do that.
	They can just remove your property from you and they are shielded from liability from you.
	So in other words, in order to shield them from quote unquote civil liability on the other end, The government would shield the bank from civil liability from you.
	They don't need a court order.
	They don't need to tell you even that they're freezing your account or suspending your account.
	They certainly don't need to go through a legal process.
	This is what Canada is doing.
	That's nuts.
	That is nuts.
	So if you keep your money in a Canadian bank right now, and you want to give your money to any part of the protest movement, Not even members of the protest movement who aren't using their trucks to impede traffic or anything.
	You just want... This would be the... It really is the equivalent of, in the United States, you know, companies spent some 21 billion dollars on the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
	21 billion dollars.
	Imagine if banks could have been held civilly liable for any act attached to the Black Lives Matter movement And then banks were told that they could freeze any account money that they thought was going to be spent on any part of the Black Lives Matter movement that could have been fungibly moved over to criminal activity.
	You know what a violation of the First Amendment that is?
	You know what a violation of basic financial privacy that is?
	And basic financial freedom?
	This is why people are investing in crypto.
	Because crypto goes person to person without any sort of intermediating entity.
	It doesn't require the government's approval.
	It doesn't require bank approval.
	When the governments can go to the banks to shut down your ability to actually transfer money because they tell the banks that those banks could be theoretically held civilly.
	You never know, you might be held civilly liable.
	If you give money to the Freedom Convoy, you might be held civilly liable, you bank.
	And so why don't you just shut down that account right there?
	And don't worry, if you do that with no court order, with no actual court order, with no due process, if you do that, I can't even sue you.
	If I've got money in the bank, and I just want to give some money to the Freedom Convoy, and you shut down my entire account to prevent that from happening, with no court order, I can no longer sue you under the Emergencies Act in Canada.
	That's totally insane.
	This is treating people as though they are funding terrorism.
	That's what it is.
	Now, the current terrorist laws in Canada do not cover things like funding the Freedom Convoy, because why should they?
	These are not terrorists.
	So what are they doing in Canada?
	They're expanding the terror financing rules to cover the Freedom Convoy.
	So now it's Al Qaeda and the Freedom Convoy in Canada.
	This is truly frightening stuff.
	Here's Chrystia Freeland, again, the ironically named Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
	We are broadening the scope of Canada's anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules so that they cover crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use.
	These changes cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.
	So now they're going after a crowdfunding platform.
	So if you try to transfer crypto via a crowdfunding platform, they're going to go after the crowdfunding platforms.
	Totally insane.
	Again, you want to undermine trust in government, this is the way to do it.
	The left seems to think that the less people trust the government, the more the government should exert its authority in order to force the trust.
	That is not how that works.
	In any sort of human relationship, once trust begins to wane, Attempts to reestablish trust through authoritarian force and tyranny are likely to produce precisely the opposite result.
	People are going to trust the government less because now they know what the government is willing to do.
	And again, they're only willing to do this because they hate the cause.
	That's all.
	They're only willing to do this because Justin Trudeau personally despises the people who are doing this.
	He's made that very clear.
	I mean, last week, Justin Trudeau ripped the truckers as racist without any real evidence.
	We are not intimidated.
	By those who hurl insults and abuse at small business workers and steal food from the homeless.
	We won't give in to those who fly racist flags.
	We won't cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonor the memory of our veterans.
	What a douchebag.
	I mean, seriously, this is how he characterized the entire Freedom Convoy movement, stealing food from the homeless.
	Flying Nazi flag.
	Show me widespread evidence that this is what's happening at the Freedom Convoy.
	Please.
	Widespread evidence.
	Again, with Black Lives Matter, you had some $2 billion in insured property damage done by people associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
	And we were told that it was peaceful, but a little fiery.
	Mostly peaceful, but fiery.
	Here, you have like one guy who's been seen waving a swastika flag and was told immediately by people on the ground to stop that crap.
	And Justin Trudeau's like, they're all racist to Nazis and stealing food from the homeless.
	It's incredible.
	By the way, Trudeau has still refused to meet with any of these folks.
	So he's going down and kneeling on the ground about Canadian racism, but he's refusing to meet with people who are saying, let us keep our livelihoods if we don't want to vax because we, for example, already have natural immunity.
	Or, by the way, if we don't want to vax because we are driving alone in the cab of our car for thousands of miles.
	According to the Daily Wire, new exclusive report, Canadian protesters are unbowed by any of this.
	David Paisley says he has been protesting for weeks now and, as a street captain, helps organize protesters and direct those who wish to support the cause with funds, goods, or services.
	Paisley told the Daily Wire Trudeau's announcement, which made headlines across major news organizations in the U.S.
	and Canada, went off barely noticed by the protesters on the ground.
	He said, no one really cares about the new announcement.
	I mean, the police have been breaking the law long before any emergency power.
	They were taking our fuel away.
	They were arresting people for purely having jerry cans or emptying tanks of fuel.
	They've already been doing these emergency powers.
	All it does is make people dig in their heels even more.
	The irony is that these very powers and threats are exactly why we are here.
	This, of course, is exactly right.
	And it's no surprise that this is coming from not Fidel Castro's son.
	Not Fidel Castro's son has always had a certain warmth toward authoritarianism.
	Look on back to 2013 when he was openly praising the Chinese regime for their effectiveness in being able to swivel on policy.
	Even with Sun TV watching for any slip, he was asked which country he most admired and referred to China.
	There's a level of admiration I actually have for China.
	Because their, you know, basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say, we need to go green as fast as we need to start, you know, investing in solar.
	I mean, there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about of having a dictatorship that he could do everything he wanted.
	That I find quite interesting.
	Um, so he's saying Stephen Harper was an authoritarian while he's praising China.
	Dude.
	Yeah, but that's true.
	I mean, for the left, authoritarian power, centralized authoritarian power is a good.
	Thomas Friedman used to praise the Chinese economic model because he said it was great.
	You could turn things on a dime.
	It was wonderful.
	The left always has these fantasies about having centralized power so they can do anything they could possibly want.
	There's an entire article in the CBC, from the CBC, the Canadian broadcasting company, titled, why the word freedom is such a useful rallying cry for protesters.
	Experts say the word has become common among far right groups.
	According to the CBC, and I believe it's a government-funded entity, as demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions continue across Canada, the word freedom is on the lips and placards of many protesters.
	Often associated with protests and rallies in the United States, the term has taken hold among protesters who are part of the freedom convoy.
	For many, freedom is a malleable term, one that's open to interpretation.
	That flexibility, in part, has fueled its growth among certain groups, says Barbara Perry, director of the Center on Hate, Bias, and Extremism.
	At the Oshawa-based Ontario Tech University.
	It's a term that has resonated.
	You can define it and understand it and sort of manipulate it in a way that makes sense to you and is useful to you, depending on your perspective.
	She trolled a cross-country checkup.
	It's also a term that has thrived among far-right groups, said Perry.
	One of a number of experts who say the presence of far-right groups in Canada is growing.
	If you use the word freedom, it means they're probably a terrorist.
	She said, I think it resonates very much with what we're seeing and maybe take some inspiration from what we've been seeing in the United States over the last year and a half, leading up to the last election and the events of January 6th.
	Yes, freedom itself is bad now.
	Evan Balgort, Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says, quote, when they're yelling they care so much about their freedom, they're taking freedoms away from other people who don't have the same kind of agency and choice that they do.
	See, you have to shut down their freedom so that they won't act freely.
	And then people who have pre-existing conditions can't walk around without a mask.
	Why are they walking around without a mask anyway?
	Since that's not effective.
	This is the key.
	Elizabeth Ankar says to see the word freedom bandied about as part of these protests points to a broader circulation of what Elizabeth Ankar called violent forms of freedom.
	Freedom is a slippery concept, says Ankar, an associate professor of political science at George Washington University.
	On the far right, individual freedom is often translated into somebody who refuses to be bound by norms of equality, treating all people equally, Or norms to remedy inequality while that's trying to remedy racial discrimination or gender discrimination.
	So in other words, freedom can be used to fight equality.
	And we need to make you do what we want you to do.
	Freedom is bad.
	So if you say freedom, this means that you're a far-right extremist crazy person because you haven't bought into the communitarian identity politics that we promote.
	This is what it comes down to.
	Ankar says the concept of freedom as displayed in the anti-mandate protests is something more often attributable to the United States.
	Freedom is often used, almost as a national entitlement, as a claim for what people have, she said.
	While some in the United States may see mask mandates as a violation of individual rights, for example, citizens in many other countries wouldn't consider such rules to be an intrusion.
	In those places, it's likely there's a general consensus that wearing masks is for the benefit of society's most vulnerable.
	Yes, but it is a violation of freedom.
	But this is the new left-wing talking point.
	Paul Krugman over at the New York Times, maybe it's not a new left-wing talking point, maybe it's just the left-wing talking point.
	Paul Krugman at the New York Times has an entire article today titled, When Freedom Means the Right to Destroy.
	When Freedom Means the Right to Destroy.
	It's amazing.
	So it's, they are, they're evil and they are destructive as opposed to Black Lives Matter.
	Black Lives Matter was good.
	Because obviously when they were burning down stores, what they were fighting for was equality, not freedom.
	Says Paul Krugman, the BLM demonstrations were a reaction to police killings of innocent people.
	What's going on in Canada is on its face about rejecting public health measures intended to save lives.
	Of course, even that is mainly an excuse.
	What it's really about is an attempt to exploit pandemic weariness to boost the usual culture war agenda.
	These people, they really despise individual freedom.
	They really do.
	And here's the thing.
	In Canada, they've been loosening restrictions in a wide variety of places.
	Why?
	Because we're done, okay?
	Omicron has been on the downslope everywhere.
	Everyone knows this.
	This is why European countries have been getting... Norway, Denmark, Sweden.
	They're getting rid of all their restrictions.
	And in Canada, they're tightening up just because Justin Trudeau has a pole up his ass.
	It's incredible.
	And now they're invoking emergency powers.
	In just one second, we'll get to the extraordinary irony that as Justin Trudeau is trying to cram down tyranny on his country, more and more provinces are opening up.
	We'll get to that in just one moment.
	First, rates are rising sooner than a lot of people thought.
	I cannot stress this enough.
	You need to call American financing and lock in a lower mortgage rate like right now.
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	All righty, we'll get to more on Justin Trudeau's tyrannical crackdown in just a second.
	First, the second gathering for my book club kicks off this Thursday, 8 p.m.
	Eastern, 7 p.m.
	Central.
	So, unless you're a very fast reader, you should have already joined the book club at thirdthursdaybookclub.com and signed up as a Daily Wire member to get my notes and guide for Thursday's discussion.
	February's book of choice?
	Adventures of Huck Finn, a classic by Mark Twain.
	So remember, sign up for the book club at thirdthursdaybookclub.com.
	It makes a great gift for yourself if you have made a resolution this new year to read more.
	Great gift for yourself, or if you know a high school, college student, or somebody who you just know loves to read and wants more on these books, check it out.
	ThirdThursdayBookClub.com.
	Dailyware members get my full notes.
	We're talking like 5,000, 6,000 word essays.
	And then, on the third Thursday of each month, I join all of our All Access members online for an in-depth lecture and discussion.
	You can ask me questions directly.
	By the way, it's beautifully produced.
	I am pumped to hang out and discuss Huck Finn with you this Thursday, 8 p.m.
	Eastern, 7 p.m.
	Central.
	Also, if you missed the world premiere of Shut In this past weekend, well, you didn't miss out totally.
	You just need to go get a membership.
	Head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe, get a membership today.
	The film is now exclusively streaming for Daily Wire members.
	It currently has an overwhelmingly fresh rating and an audience score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
	We are creating more and more great entertainment without an agenda that punches you in the face.
	It's all thanks to our Daily Wire members.
	Here's the thing.
	Hollywood has billions of dollars to back them.
	We have you.
	We need your help.
	If we're going to take on the left, we need you to back us.
	So, head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe today so you can watch Shut In.
	We have a new movie called Hyperions that's coming out soon.
	Gina Carano's new movie is out this summer.
	Go become a member today.
	Also, when it comes to understanding how the world is run, there's always more to uncover.
	Introducing one of The Daily Wire's newest projects, The Enemy Within, our new series featuring acclaimed journalist Lee Smith, author of The Plot Against the President.
	In his newest project, Smith uncovers a political coup orchestrated by America's ruling elites to generate their own wealth and power at the expense of the American people's safety and freedom.
	From Anthony Fauci to our educational system to Hollywood and everything in between.
	Each episode will take you deep behind the scenes to expose what those who are supposed to be protecting you don't want you to know.
	The Enemy Within starts streaming this Friday exclusively at The Daily Wire.
	There's even more!
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	you're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.
	♪ I mean, so, in Ontario, for example, This is happening in Ottawa.
	As of March 1, according to the New York Times, the province of Ontario will no longer require people to show proof of vaccination to enter any indoor spaces, says the premier, Doug Ford.
	In a call with reporters, Mr. Ford said the change in public policy to rescind the so-called vaccine pass was based on the diminishing number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations and was not a concession to the demonstrators.
	It's very important to point out that it's not about the demonstrators.
	It's that we have been following the science all along.
	It just so happens that it coincides exactly with the protests.
	Ford said, let me be very clear.
	We're moving in this direction because it's safe to do so.
	Today's announcement is not because of what's happening in Ottawa or Windsor, but despite it.
	Starting February 17th, indoor capacity limits in the province will be loosened.
	Outdoor gathering limits lifted entirely.
	He said mask mandates will remain in place a little while longer.
	He said he made that decision in consultation with his minister of health.
	Hey, by the way, it's not just Ontario and Alberta.
	Hey, this is Last week, Alberta announced that it will lift a number of COVID-19 restrictions, including ending its vax passport program among residents.
	So just to get this straight, in Ontario, right now, where the protesters are, there is no longer a vax mandate to enter indoor spaces, but there's still a vax mandate if you want to be alone in the cab of your truck driving.
	In Alberta, they've relieved a bunch of their vax mandates.
	Their vax passport program is now done.
	Starting Wednesday, capacity limits of under 500 for venues, libraries, and places of worship will end, according to the Edmonton Journal.
	On Monday, Alberta said it would end its mask mandate for school kids and kids under the age of 12 in a particular setting.
	So that's in Alberta.
	In Saskatchewan, the proof-of-vaccine mandate is over.
	According to the CBC, as Saskatchewan lifts its proof of vaccination or negative test requirements to enter businesses, Premier Scott Moe says now is the right time to begin to end restrictions.
	As of Monday, people will no longer need to provide vax proof to enter many facilities, including restaurants, liquor stores, or theaters.
	But federally, they're now invoking the Emergencies Act to continue to try to cram down a federal rule that truckers have to vaccinate or be fired.
	So Quebec, same thing.
	Quebec Premier Francois Legault had one message for Quebecers Tuesday.
	It is time to learn to live with the virus.
	Quote, the population is fed up.
	I'm fed up.
	We're all fed up.
	The reason we resisted easing restrictions until today was because there was too much risk.
	Right now, we can take a calculated risk and finally turn the page.
	So, a huge number of the provinces of Canada have now been relieving these restrictions.
	And yet Justin Trudeau is doubling down and the reason that Justin Trudeau is doubling down is because the left must maintain control and they must maintain the lie that everything they've done so far was a good idea.
	That's the thing.
	In order to double down on their own idiotic policies, they've determined that it is necessary to now invoke an Emergencies Act that allows them to completely violate the financial freedom of their own citizens.
	The freedom of protest of their own citizens.
	It's truly incredible.
	The death of individual freedom in our neighbor to the north, over nothing, over truly nothing.
	This is one of the most vaxed countries on planet Earth.
	These truckers aren't a danger to anyone else.
	Truckers in the cab of their truck, driving thousands of miles, the people who are allowing the supply chains to run.
	People who are disproportionately middle or lower class driving these trucks.
	You don't see a lot of billionaires driving those trucks.
	These are the people that you have to crack down on if you're Justin Trudeau.
	The party of the people.
	But this is the key.
	For the elites, it was never about the people.
	For the elites, it was always about the idea of control.
	And if they could control you, at the beginning, by praising essential workers, they would do so.
	But you're not an essential worker.
	You're not.
	You're a small business person.
	And what does it matter if you lost your life savings?
	What does it matter if your dream is dead now?
	None of that matters.
	Not one way.
	But then the essential workers are the problem because they're not getting vaxxed the way I want them to.
	So now the essential workers have to be punished.
	By the way, this is happening in the United States as well.
	New York just fired something like 1,400 workers over the vax mandate.
	Completely unnecessarily.
	According to the New York Times, New York City has fired 1,430 city workers for failing to comply with its vax mandate, a figure that represents less than 1% of the city's workforce, but likely the nation's largest mass termination of municipal employees in response to a COVID vaccine mandate.
	So New York is doing this.
	In Los Angeles, students are still being banned from class if they've not actually taken the VAX.
	All of this is completely unnecessary.
	And yet they continue to do it.
	They continue to do it.
	And the only reason to continue to do it... When they're telling you the science changed, by the way, which is why they're relieving all the restrictions.
	Even after they say that, they must continue to do this because the opponent really is freedom.
	Not the quote-unquote faux freedom that they suggest it is.
	The opponent really is the idea that people have individual rights, and those individual rights come before the collective ability of the government to quash those individual rights.
	It's scary stuff.
	It really is, and it should scare you, if you're in the West.
	Because if it can happen in Canada, why can't it happen in the United States?
	If it can happen in Australia, why can't it happen in the United States?
	I mean, it has happened in a bunch of different states in the United States.
	And if they had federal power, To do this?
	They would do it.
	No, I mean, Joe Biden tried to do it, right?
	Joe Biden tried to do it with the VAX mandate crammed down on private businesses, which would have forced some 85 million people to VAX or be fired.
	He tried to do this.
	It's just because we have a court system that still upholds constitutional rights.
	It's why the constitutional system is such a necessity.
	But it's truly frightening.
	And I think maybe the most frightening thing, after all, is that as soon as you say emergency, so many millions, hundreds of millions of people are willing to grant centralized power to anyone who claims emergency.
	And the left is not shy about this.
	That's going to be the battle in the future.
	The battle for the future is going to be Whether you have a citizenry that is self-confident enough to say that we deserve to make our own decisions, or whether elites perched at the top of our institutions get to make those decisions for us so long as they claim that they are helping us in the process.
	So long as they claim they are saving us, we will give them ultimate power.
	And COVID should have been the moment that everybody woke up to what a lie that was.
	Because we did.
	We gave them ultimate power.
	We allowed them to spend $7 trillion.
	We allowed them to shut down every business in the United States, except for the giant businesses that helped out many of their political friends.
	We allowed them to mask children uselessly for two years.
	We allowed them to do all these things.
	And you know what happened?
	Almost a million Americans died.
	This is what happened.
	So that should be case one in the lexicon of failures of government.
	The one area where the government was supposed to save you, they couldn't.
	And we did give them ultimate power.
	And many of us were willing to go along with that at the beginning.
	This was not all about resistance.
	The truth is that large-scale sort of resistance to the left's preferred policies really only cropped up maybe three, four months into the pandemic and didn't come into full flower until well after the vaccines were available.
	Levels of masking in the United States mirrored the prevalence of the virus everywhere, including in the South, throughout the pandemic.
	So this should have been a wake-up moment for members of the West.
	For people who still believe, supposedly, in liberty and freedom, this should have been a wake-up moment.
	That the government can't do all the things it promises you.
	That the government lies to you.
	And instead, the people who are invested in that lie, that they can solve all your problems if you keep giving them power, to prove it, they're going to centralize even more power to themselves.
	They're going to aggregate even more power to themselves.
	They're going to declare emergency after emergency from here on in.
	This is the direction the West is moving.
	That's why the Freedom Convoy is important.
	And that's why its message needs to spread.
	Because if it doesn't, then the collectivists will win.
	And the way they define freedom is as, you don't have any.
	They have the freedom to tell you what to do.
	You don't have the freedom to say that you are an individual with different priorities.
	Okay, meanwhile, the situation in Ukraine continues to be extraordinarily confusing.
	So now, it seems that the Russians are backtracking a little bit.
	According to the New York Times, the tone of the crisis over Ukraine shifted on Monday as Russia's top diplomat endorsed more talks to resolve its standoff with the West, and Ukrainian officials hinted at offering concessions to avert war even as Russian warships massed off Ukraine's Black Sea coast and Russian ground troops appeared poised to strike.
	In stage-managed televised meetings, the Kremlin sent its strongest signals yet that it would seek further negotiations with the West rather than launch immediate military action.
	State TV showed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling Vladimir Putin there is still a diplomatic path ahead.
	Minutes later, it showed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu telling Mr. Putin what he characterized as large-scale drills around Ukraine were coming to an end.
	Lavrov said, I believe our possibilities are far from exhausted.
	I would continue proposing and intensifying them, and Putin responded ambiguously, good.
	Now again, this is Kremlin TV, so this is the message that they want to put out there.
	I've been suggesting for a while that I think the possibility of direct war with Ukraine has been growing a little bit more remote, and that if you're Vladimir Putin, there's actually too much attention on you right now.
	You're going to wait for a little while, and then three months from now, you're going to do something.
	According to the New York Times, it was a sign that the Kremlin was still holding out the possibility it could use its troop buildup to achieve key objectives without military action.
	The prospect for that scenario was bolstered in Kiev, where Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky left open the possibility of dropping his country's ambition to join NATO, a move that would help fulfill one of Putin's key demands.
	At a news conference, Zelensky emphasized that NATO membership was, quote, for our security, with the goal of joining the alliance written into the country's constitution.
	But he acknowledged the difficult place the country found itself in, nearly completely encircled by Russian forces and with partners like the United States insisting they wouldn't help Ukraine if the Russians invaded.
	How much should Ukraine go on that path, Zelensky said?
	Who will support us?
	He said the prospect of joining NATO could be like a dream.
	Now, what Russia actually wants is for Ukraine to foreclose the possibility of ever joining NATO.
	Ukraine is not going to join NATO in the near future.
	There's a possibility back in 2007-2008 that Ukraine might join NATO, and then that was dropped, and it really hasn't been brought up since.
	Ukraine has instead taken a position of strategic independence.
	Where they sort of play the West against the Russians.
	They say to the Russians, listen, anytime we could theoretically attempt to join NATO in order to enshrine our independent status.
	And then they say to the West, listen, we really don't want the Russians breathing down our necks and we're really not going to attempt to join NATO.
	If you say to the Russians that we're not joining NATO, then that's an invitation for Russia to either invade or to try to take over the government from within.
	Obviously.
	Because then you've foreclosed the possibility of the West ever coming in to intervene on your behalf or even help you out in any serious way.
	Zelensky spoke alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, the latest Western leader trying to shuttle diplomacy to avert war.
	The flurry of diplomacy came as fears of war have caused oil prices to spike, pushing well past 90 bucks a barrel.
	Scholz said, if Russia violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine again, we know what to do.
	In the event of military escalation, we are ready for the very far-reaching and effective sanctions in coordination with our allies.
	Now here's the thing about sanctions.
	Historically, wildly ineffective.
	Historically, all that sanctions do is actually make states, in many cases, More territorially aggressive, because when you undermine their economy with sanctions, they tend to invade surrounding countries in order to demonstrate to the domestic population that they are still very strong.
	What Russia is attempting to do is gain enormous sway over Ukraine without actually having to fire a shot.
	And it looks like they may actually be able to do that.
	Because if Ukraine drops the possibility of ever joining NATO, then they don't have to worry about what the West has to say about any of this.
	Lavrov said that Russia had prepared a 10-page response and it's written back and forth with NATO and the United States over the Kremlin's security demands.
	Ambiguity about what comes next has been central to Putin's strategy in the crisis set off by his troop buildup.
	Now there was this weird situation over the last 24 hours in which Zelensky suggested that there would be invasion as of Wednesday.
	He had suggested that February 16th will be the day of the attack on Ukraine by Russia.
	But that was walked back yesterday.
	The presidential advisor, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Zelensky was not being literal when he said the attack would be on Wednesday, but was being ironic.
	I'm not sure why that's kind of weird.
	That's an odd thing.
	Zelensky wrote that the Ukrainian government was told Wednesday would be the day of the attack, as he announced a new decree to establish a national day of unity, increase funding of military service personnel, accelerate the development of defenses, and create an information system to apprise citizens of the security situation.
	Now, Russia has been stopping some of its operations on the borders.
	They say that they are pulling back some of their troops from around Ukraine.
	But other large-scale military drills have been continuing, again, in an attempt to get Ukraine to offer them some sort of face-saving concession, or maybe a real concession.
	Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday appeared to characterize Russia's enormous troop buildup around Ukraine as part of large-scale drills being carried out by the military.
	On Tuesday, It was said by the Defense Ministry spokesperson of Russia, Igor Konashenkov, that some of the troops of the southern and western military districts had completed their tasks and were now heading back to base.
	Russian state television aired footage of tanks being loaded onto rail cars describing it as images of troops headed back to their garrisons.
	Konashenkov said, a number of combat training events, including exercises, have been carried out according to plan.
	As the combat training events are completed, the troops, as always, will march in a combined way to their permanent deployment points.
	So this means they're still pretty close to the country, even if they're pulled back to base.
	There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine or the West that a Russian pullback was in fact occurring.
	Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmitry Kuleba, said there was reason to be skeptical of Moscow's statements.
	He says when we see the withdrawal, then we'll start believing in de-escalation.
	Obviously, a lot of other foreign countries don't believe that the Russians are fully de-escalating because Russian units are apparently moving into attack positions.
	According to a U.S.
	official.
	According to CBS News, some Russian units have left their assembly areas.
	The bumper-to-bumper formations seen in satellite photos are beginning to move into attack formation.
	That movement marks a change since Sunday, when some of the units had left the assembly areas but had not yet taken what could be viewed as attack positions.
	If a Russian attack begins, U.S.
	knowledge of what is happening dramatically will decrease.
	The U.S.
	will have no troops on the ground, no reconnaissance planes over the air.
	Russian cyberattacks and electronic warfare will blot out communications.
	U.S.
	officials say that Russia has 80% of the forces it needs to launch a full-scale invasion, and the rest are en route.
	There's a lot of mixed signals that are being sent by the Russians at this point, and strategic confusion would be the best way to describe it, probably.
	John Kirby, the spokesperson for the Pentagon, he says that Putin could strike with little or no warning at this point.
	We have said for a while now that military action could happen any day.
	And you heard from the National Security Advisor making it clear that it certainly could happen before the end of the Olympics.
	Maybe even this week.
	I won't get into a specific date.
	I don't think that would be smart.
	I would just tell you that it is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning.
	Okay, well, that obviously is alarming.
	Meanwhile, the State Department announced That they would be moving the embassy in Ukraine away from Kiev and toward Lviv.
	They say that they don't want to be in eastern Ukraine or even central Ukraine.
	The Ukrainians, for their part, they're like, guys, you're not going to be safe no matter where you move.
	If they come into Kiev, they're coming into the whole country.
	Here is Ned Price, the spokesperson for the State Department, announcing the move of the embassy.
	Since no one has full visibility into President Putin's decision-making, and there hasn't, as I said before, been any tangible sign of de-escalation, we have taken the prudent steps of updating the Travel Advisory for Ukraine to urge U.S.
	citizens to leave Ukraine immediately using any available mode of transportation.
	And now, most recently, as you saw just a little bit ago, we are in the process of relocating our diplomatic staff from Kyiv to Lviv.
	Okay, now there's one problem.
	There's no air flight out of Ukraine.
	So if you're an American citizen in Ukraine, good luck to you, is the view of this administration.
	Meanwhile, apparently Russian legislators are now considering the proposal to urge Putin to formally recognize separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine, which would precipitate war.
	Because if Russia recognized those parts of Ukraine as independent states, then presumably Ukraine would have to fight that, and you would end up with a war.
	The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament said Monday, it would consider draft resolutions submitted by the ruling United Russia Party and Russia's Communist Party, calling on Putin to acknowledge the sovereignty of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine's Donbass region.
	Those are areas that had largely been invaded in 2014.
	The Communist Party is appealing directly to Putin to formally recognize those areas as independent states and to negotiate with local leaders on issues like security and guarantee the protection of their peoples from external threats and the implementation of policies of genocide.
	And so that way they could declare that Ukraine is the aggressor in these particular regions.
	Meanwhile, the White House response is pretty discombobulated, according to the Washington Post.
	They have a piece on the inside of the White House response.
	They say, as fears grow of potential Russian aggression against Ukraine, a Tiger team led by the White House is quietly gaming out how the United States would respond to a full range of jarring scenarios, from a limited show of force to a full-scale mass casualty invasion.
	The White House team has staged two multi-hour tabletop exercises, including one with Cabinet officials, to bring the scenarios to life, and assembled a playbook that outlies an array of swift potential responses, starting with day one, extending through the first two weeks of an envisioned Russian invasion.
	Well, as we all know, if they have a plan, it'll work out great.
	They had a great plan in Afghanistan, and look how that worked out.
	It was spectacular.
	The effort, senior administration officials said, has not only helped them anticipate possible complications, but has also prompted them to take actions ahead of time, such as exposing Russian information warfare before it's carried out to blunt its propaganda power.
	Jonathan Finer, Deputy National Security Advisor to Biden, said, Our hope is there's still a diplomatic path, but this is about making sure we're ready to go if and when we have to be.
	The Tiger Team, which sounds like a very bad cheerleading squad from Podunk, Texas, was created after National Security Council officials last October detected troubling signs of a massive Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border.
	NSC officials readily admit they may be unable to precisely anticipate the moves of Putin and his military leaders.
	But they say that, you know, if they have some planning, then maybe the magic will happen.
	Yeah, we will find out.
	I have less faith in this administration than they do, because it's filled with incompetence, frankly.
	By the way, Joe Biden has no response when asked, like, what is even going on.
	He was asked about this yesterday, and his response was, Happy Valentine's Day!
	say blah, blah, blah.
	Bye.
	Now, here's the reality.
	If the Russians didn't view Biden as weak, this wouldn't be happening in the first place.
	This is all the predictable result of surrender in Afghanistan.
	You surrender to a bunch of cavemen from the 8th century in Afghanistan.
	And the Russians say, hey, look, there's Ukraine.
	That looks good.
	And if Russia were to take Ukraine, which would impact oil flow all over Europe, it would impact the future stability of NATO.
	Because if you're now a bordering country, you do have to worry about the possibility.
	Well, like, do you think NATO is going to go to full-scale war over Latvia or Lithuania?
	That's a real problem.
	Putin is going to be looking down the road at, can I just break NATO outright?
	Meanwhile, China is looking at what the United States and NATO does here, and they're saying, okay, well, if I just take Taiwan, what are you going to do about it?
	What are you going to do?
	The possibility for real war grows every time the United States looks weak in the eyes of the world.
	And this is why, you know, there's some people who are sort of isolationist on the right, like, why do we care about Ukraine?
	Focus on Canada.
	Why not both?
	What resources are we expending in Ukraine?
	We have no military troops on the ground, by the way, in Ukraine right now.
	What resources are we expending in Ukraine that should be expended in Canada?
	Are we supposed to be sending deadly weaponry across the northern border exactly?
	Like, what exactly are you talking about here?
	In fact, it seems to me not only are these not mutually exclusive, if you wish to fight back against tyranny, fighting back against Russian tyranny and preserving the independence of Ukraine with what resources we can is a good idea.
	Fighting in favor of Taiwanese independence is a good idea and fighting against the tyranny that is now being Evidenced in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand.
	That's a good thing too.
	None of these things are mutually exclusive.
	Sort of isolationist attempt to suggest that Ukraine is a distraction.
	Distraction from what?
	Distraction from what?
	I don't understand.
	Is the assumption here that the media is attempting to ignore what's happening in Canada so they can pay attention to Ukraine?
	Let me give you a hint here.
	The media are going to obscure what's happening in Canada anyway.
	They've been doing it in the United States for two years.
	They pretended that Andrew Cuomo was a good governor for a full year while he was grabbing ass and killing old people.
	So they don't need the excuse of Ukraine.
	The sort of attempt to backfill paleo-conservative isolationism into the Canadian issue is very bizarre to me.
	You can make the argument that we shouldn't be involved in Ukraine, but make that argument.
	Don't make the argument that the reason we can't be involved in Ukraine is because we have to focus on Canada.
	The entire issue of foreign policy is called, like, you have to walk and chew gum at the same time.
	And this, this retrenchment ideal in foreign policy is invariably followed by massive aggression by our political opponents on a global stage.
	Whether you're talking about the 1930s isolationism of the United States, which led to World War II.
	As economic blockades of Japan in the absence of serious military buildup by the United States that led to Japanese aggression in the Pacific.
	It is America slashing its military so that we were the 19th largest military on planet Earth by the beginning of World War II.
	It led to aggression from Germany and Europe, at least in part.
	And the fact is, aggressive countries that require territorially exogenous acts All those countries that require aggressive invasions, they look to hegemonic powers like Britain or the United States, Britain historically, the United States now, and they say, are those people going to defend freedom?
	And if they're not, that makes the possibility of outright war more likely.
	No one wants to go to war, but the best way not to go to war is peace through strength as we have known for literally generations at this point.
	Alrighty, we'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.
	In the meantime, go check out our newest podcast, Morning Wire, on today's episode.
	The report on Whoopi Goldberg's return to The View.
	That episode is available right now on Apple Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, so make sure to tune in.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
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