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March 10, 2022 - The Ben Shapiro Show
01:01:18
The Democratic Propaganda Media Come For The Children | Ep. 1450
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Time Text
The legacy media parrot Democratic talking points about a bill banning indoctrination of children into left-wing sexual and gender values.
Biden claims that Putin is responsible for high gas prices, while the media cheer along.
And the Biden administration kills a Polish offer to ship jets to Ukraine.
I'm Ben Shapiro.
This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
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So, if you just watched Legacy Media, if all you consumed was Legacy Media all day long, you would think that it is now illegal to say the word gay in the state of Florida.
And apparently every left-wing celebrity you know thinks it is illegal to say the word gay in Florida.
Mark Hamill?
Luke Skywalker, he just tweeted out yesterday a giant tweet that just said gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, like a thousand times.
You see every celebrity that you can think of tweeting out the word gay because somehow this is a blow against the evil, repressive state of Florida, which of course does have a fairly significant gay population living within it.
There are a bunch of people who are tweeting out yesterday that they were being silenced and erased from Florida life because of the so-called don't say gay bill.
Again, if you thought that there was a bill called don't say gay that had just passed Florida legislature and that have been signed into law by the governor.
Number one, that would be violative of the First Amendment.
And number two, you might think that there would be a punishment for doing any of these things.
There is not because there is no don't say gay bill in the state of Florida.
Instead, there is a bill that says that teachers are not allowed to sexually or gender ideology indoctrinate children K through three.
And then they are not allowed to do any of that stuff in a non-age-appropriate fashion beyond that age.
5th, 6th grade, you're not supposed to be teaching kids about hormone treatments that change your sex, for example.
That would be non-age-appropriate for kids who are maybe 11 or 12 years old.
The bill does not say the word gay.
The bill says the word parent about 30 times because the entire bill is about how parents ought to have the chief decision-making power with regard to how their kids are taught about controversial sexual and gender issues.
It is not up to the schools to indoctrinate kids into the belief that all forms of sex are morally equivalent.
It is not up to schools to instruct kids on different types of sex.
It is not up to schools to instruct small children on the lie that men can become women and women can become men.
But the entire legacy media just took what the left called this bill and then they repeated it and pretended that that was the name of the bill.
Now, this would be the equivalent of if Democrats passed some sort of bill in, say, the state of New York and enshrined abortion up till the ninth month, which is what the New York legislature did.
And the Republicans had termed this the Kill Babies Bill, which would be a much more accurate take on the bill than, for example, Don't Say Gay.
But let's say that they had named it that because, obviously, they opposed the bills.
They called the Let's Kill Babies Bill.
And the entire media had immediately started using that language.
Every headline has started using that language.
That would demonstrate that the media were just lapdogs for the Republican Party.
However, in this particular case, they have done that with the Democratic talking point with regard to the so-called Don't Say Gay Bill.
It is not a so-called Don't Say Gay Bill.
It is a Democratic propaganda labeled Don't Say Gay Bill because the bill, again, does not say that.
I've explained this 1,000 times on the show already.
Protecting the innocence of children and granting parents the authority to actually raise their children as they see fit with regard to sexual mores.
This seems like baseline decency.
And yet this has become the most controversial issue.
The left has decided to embrace this issue.
This is the issue.
This is the hill they want to die on because their idea is that if they do not get to indoctrinate all the children on their particular values, then a small fragment of kids who may be suffering from gender dysphoria are going to kill themselves.
The idea is That they are the sympathetic ones and all they need in order to promote their sympathy is to override your parental values and destroy your relationship with your child.
That's all they need.
All they need is to just take your kids and put them in some sort of platonic school where they get to indoctrinate their kids, your kids, in their values.
And then the world will be a utopian place.
I mean, sure, your kids may believe a bunch of lies about gender.
Sure, your kids may believe a bunch of things you believe to be immoral about sexuality.
But at least they've been able to create a utopia of their own making.
They need your kids as tools in this mission.
That is why they are fussing about this bill.
Again, this is not a bill that says you can't say gay in the state of Florida.
It's not even a bill that says that you can't say the word gay in school.
It says that you are not allowed to indoctrinate small children into your sexual values, and the left is having a bleep fit over it.
Which demonstrates where they are.
And the fact that the media just reflect whatever the propaganda point of the day is, is truly astonishing.
Let me just show you some of the media headlines that have used the Don't Say Gay labeling.
Because there are a lot of them.
There are a lot of them.
The media universally adopted this language because the memo went out.
So, for example, the AP.
This is just a straight headline.
It's not an opinion headline.
From Anthony Izaguirre, who I assume didn't write the headline.
It says, Don't Say Gay Bill Passes in Florida Goes to Governor.
That's not the name of the bill.
This is like if Republicans had labeled Build Back Better, Giant Waste of Money Pork Barrel Spending Bullcrap Bill, and that had been in the headline of an AP article.
Don't Say Gay Bill.
Axios said, Florida Lawmakers Pass Don't Say Gay Bill.
That is not the name of the bill?
The word gay does not appear in the bill?
That is not the topic of the bill?
You have other headlines.
Don't Say Gay Bill Passes Florida Senate.
All of these headlines just over and over and over again.
Every single outlet that you can imagine labeled this thing the quote-unquote Don't Say Gay Bill.
Every single one.
It's incredible.
They went along with it.
We're talking about Axios.
We're talking about ABC News.
We're talking about NBC News.
We're talking pretty much every outlet you could possibly imagine.
The White House calls it the Don't Say Gay Bill because they are all on the same page.
They get the talking points from the Democratic Party and they walk directly in line with it.
And this is coming directly from the White House.
Make no mistake.
This started ground up from a bunch of Democratic activists.
And now, because this White House is run by Democratic radicals, it is not a moderate administration, it does not even pretend to be a moderate administration anymore.
Jen Psaki yesterday suggested that this bill was quote unquote horrific and said that if you don't teach a kindergartner that boys can be girls and girls can be boys, or if there's a bill banning you from doing so, if you don't teach a second grader That all forms of sex are exactly morally equivalent.
And that all lifestyle choices are exactly the same and deserve equal respect and acceptance.
All of them.
If you don't do any of that stuff, then this is actually a form of bullying.
They're protecting your kids by indoctrinating them in their values.
By taking your kids and turning them against your values.
This is how they avoid bullying.
Because you're the bullies.
You, the parents, are the problem.
Again, this is so deeply ingrained in left-wing thinking right now.
That parents are the obstacle to a better tomorrow.
This is why you saw Terry McAuliffe say in that Virginia governor's race that parents should not have authority to determine what their kids learn.
Because parents are the enemy.
Parents are the problem.
Those little platoons, those families that represent the most valuable And the most durable form of human connection that we have.
They are an obstacle to the government being the great unifying glue in American life.
They want to be able to take your kids away from you and then turn their values against your values.
This is their goal.
They want it.
And they will call it a form of bullying if they don't get what they want.
So you must be bullied.
You must be silenced.
Your kids must be told stuff that you don't even have to know about it.
What this bill does is it says that if your kid starts being indoctrinated in this stuff, parents have to be notified.
Democrats object to this.
They don't want parents notified.
They want to be able to tell your child that he can be a she in first grade and not tell you about it.
They want to be able to teach your kids About myriad forms of sexual exploration when the kid's eight and they don't want to have to tell you about it.
Otherwise, what the hell are they objecting to?
So they have to lie.
They have to call it the Don't Say Gay Bill because that's not what the bill is.
And the entire media picks that up and then uses that as the propagandistic talking point.
Here's Jen Psaki leading the charge.
A bill like this, a bill that would discriminate against families, against kids, put these kids in a position of not getting the support they need at a time where that's exactly what they need, is discriminatory.
It's a form of bullying.
It is horrific.
It's horrific.
Now, get this straight.
It's horrific if you don't get to indoctrinate my kids.
That's horrific.
If I teach my kids my values, that's horrific.
Because parents are the problem.
They are the problem.
Again, there is an entire group of people on the left, and all they wish to do is indoctrinate kids into these sorts of values.
They want kids to learn these sorts of values.
Now, it's the worst in public schools, because there you're actually hijacking kids against their parents' wishes.
There are a whole group of parents who consensually, for some odd reason, decide that it's a good idea to give activists free reign over their children, to turn them into widgets on behalf of radical left-wing sexual morality.
Which is why you end up with a sex education summer camp for children in grades 3 to 5, In Indianapolis that teaches kids as young as seven about sexual education, including a condom demonstration for children.
According to the Daily Wire, there's a flyer for this particular sex-ed summer camp for kids in northern Indianapolis.
It says, at this age, kids are prime for level-headed learning.
They are information gatherers.
There is no shame or ickiness associated with using band-aids.
That same philosophy is applied to condoms and other barriers in this body-positive curriculum.
In addition, kids will not be separated by gender when learning about puberty, bodies, and sex because, quote, gender is a spectrum and everyone needs to learn about all bodies, according to this flyer.
And there are parents who will delegate their kids to places like this, which is how you end up with video of Chase and Buttigieg, Pete Buttigieg's husband, teaching small children, I mean these are kids, these are like 10, 11, 12 year old kids, to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the gay flag.
Now, parents presumably gave their permission to this sort of thing, but imagine for example, and I'm not going to go into what I think of parents who do this sort of thing, but Assume that this were not happening, for a second, at a place where parents gave permission.
It were just happening at your school.
And teachers were doing this with your kids, and not informing you.
Shouldn't that be illegal?
Wouldn't you imagine it should be?
But again, the folks who believe that these are the best values believe that you should have no say in whether these values get taught to your kids.
Here is Jason Buttigieg, Pete Buttigieg's husband, an ardent opponent of the bill in Florida, teaching small children To pledge allegiance to the gay flag, which, by the way, just on a moral level, you probably shouldn't be pledging allegiance to any flag that is just about where you wish to put your genitals.
That just seems like a... I don't care what we're talking about.
If there were a straight pride flag, I don't believe that you should be paying homage to it.
It's a ridiculous notion.
Clearly.
The idea that the center of your personality should be who you wish to have sex with, or how you are oriented, and that this is something you should pledge allegiance to, is a very bizarre one.
And it's meant in opposition, presumably, to other values, which is why you do it in the first place.
Here is Jason Buttigieg teaching small kids about this.
All right, I pledge my heart.
I pledge my heart.
To the rainbow.
To the rainbow.
Of the not so typical gay camp.
Of the not so typical gay camp.
One camp.
One camp.
Full of pride.
Full of pride.
Indivisible.
Indivisible.
With affirmation and equal rights for all.
With affirmation and equal rights for all.
Watch your heads.
Remember, for the left, pledging allegiance to the American flag would be indoctrination.
Pledging allegiance to the gay pride flag, that's just raising your kids in a healthy and decent way.
So, the left has decided that Disney has to sound off on this, because this is the shtick.
If you're a corporation, you must listen to what the left wants from you.
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Meanwhile, the propagandistic efforts...
of the left have now reached the highest levels of corporate America. So woke capital rules the day right now. If you are a corporation, you can be pressured into doing just about anything by a bunch of people shouting at you. So what the media do is they play this game. Remember, they're democratic activists. They're not actually out there to just objectively cover the news and then provide good information. They lie, which is why all of their headlines include the overt lie that this bill is the don't say gay bill. So they then go to corporations and they say to
to these corporations. Why aren't your silence is deafening?
Your silence on this topic is deafening.
Now, you never see them do this on the other side.
You never see them say, OK, well, you know, a law just passed in the state of New York that allows killing up to the point of birth.
What does this corporation located in the state of New York have to say about that?
Are they on board with that?
Or this particular area has embraced defund the police.
Or this particular area believes in the mandatory indoctrination of children into these values.
Do you as a corporation believe in that?
By the way, it just shows you how far left our culture has moved.
At Disney, a corporation designed to create entertainment for children is now being called on the carpet for not embracing the indoctrination of small kids into sexually leftist ideology.
I mean, that just shows how far left the culture has moved.
Is that a company designed to preserve the innocence of children and provide them good, wholesome entertainment is now being shamed into embracing an agenda that says boys can be girls, girls can be boys, and kindergartners should be taught about gay sex.
Like, really, that's... We've moved in fascinating ways in our culture.
We certainly have.
So, Disney decided they had to respond, and the reason they decided that they had to respond, of course, is because they were being pressured by the left.
The left said over and over, and Disney is a left-wing company, run by left-wing people, and staffed by left-wing people, predominantly, and they were pressed by the media, and they were pressed by their employees, presumably, to do something about Florida.
Now, Disney, I will remind you, just produced a movie in China, right?
Mulan was produced in the Zhangjiang province, where they are actively holding a bunch of Muslims in captivity.
No words from Disney about China.
Disney has bases all over the world in actual repressive countries.
Disney is never asked by the media about any of those things.
Disney is only asked about Florida in the same way that Major League Baseball and Coca-Cola were only asked about Georgia after a voting law passed that was still more liberal on voting than the state of Delaware.
The media play this activist game.
There is no distinction anymore between the media and the folks over at Media Matters.
There's no distinction.
They're part of the same echo chamber.
They're staffed by the same people.
They're an activist group.
So what the media do is first they lie.
They say there's a don't say gay bill in Florida, which there is not.
Then they move on to the corporations and they say, why won't you do something about this?
Aren't you doing something about this?
So they guise it as journalism by phrasing the question thusly.
There's a bill in a state where you're located.
Do you have an opinion on that?
Of course, the threat is if you don't have an opinion on that, they're going to print a story about how you don't have an opinion on it and silence is violence.
If you don't forcibly and overtly reject that particular piece of legislation, this means you passed it.
You must agree with it.
Your silence is a scent to such legislation.
So presumably that means that the company, Disney, agrees with every value in every place that it is located.
Every single value.
It is both a communist country, it is both a communist company because it's located in China, and it is a capitalist company because it is located in America.
It is both a very left-wing company because it's located in California.
It's a very right-wing company because it's located in Florida.
Alternatively, it's just a company that produces a product and a service that people like to use.
But the left can't leave it at that.
So the journalists pretend that Disney has some sort of obligation to sound off on issues like this.
Now, this has been the way that the media worked this crap for a while.
For example, when the state of North Carolina passed a bill that said that public bathrooms should be separated by men and women, which seems pretty obvious.
The media went to places like the NCAA and they said, dude, do you have an opinion on this?
And what they meant by do you have an opinion on this is if you don't do something here, we're going to run a story about how bad and terrible and nasty you are.
So this is what the media did to Disney.
They said, don't say gay over and over and over.
They know that Disney is a very gay friendly company and that a lot of its employees are gay.
A lot of the people who use its content and like its content are gay.
And Disney is, as I say, on pretty much every issue, ranging from critical race theory to sexual ideas.
Very, very left-wing.
And so they go to Disney, and they say, what are you gonna- don't you have an opinion on this?
Don't you have an opinion?
So for a while, Bob Chapek just shut up, which is what he should do.
That's Disney's CEO.
What he should say is, we are located in a bunch of different polities all over the country and all over the world.
Just because we are located in these polities does not mean we agree with the policies of those places.
Done.
End of story.
But, Bob J. Peck's a coward.
Just like everybody in corporate America is a coward.
And they are deeply afraid of the left-wing.
Now, what they really should be afraid of, what Disney should be afraid of, is that it caves so far to left-wing values that parents stop consuming its product.
Because guess what?
It is my kids who consume Disney product.
I have three children.
They all know in canto.
The minute that Disney starts putting woke into its actual content, that is content I will not be consuming.
Okay, so they're playing a very dangerous game here.
They're siding with a bunch of left-wing radicals who, frankly, are not their chief market over the parent body at large.
And I would guarantee you that 90-95% of parents don't want their kindergartners indoctrinated in sexual values of any sort by the schools where their kids go.
Guaranteed.
But Disney, because they were suckered into doing this, they decided to speak out.
So Bob Chapek He was criticized for speaking out about, but not directly condemning, Florida's controversial Don't Say Gay Bill.
Again, that is how CNN characterizes it.
The Don't Say Gay Bill, because they're a propaganda outlet.
You can always tell who the propaganda outlets are.
On Wednesday, Chapek agreed with the criticism.
He said, I understand our original approach, no matter how well intended, didn't quite get the job done.
He said this during the company's annual shareholder meeting.
He took a stronger stance against the bill on Wednesday, telling shareholders he called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Wednesday morning to convey the company's disappointment and concern.
Chapek said if the legislation becomes law, it could, quote-unquote, be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, non-binary, and transgender kids and families.
The governor heard our concerns and agreed to meet with me and LGBTQ plus members of our senior team in Florida to discuss ways to address them, said Chapek.
He added the outcome in Florida was not what many of us were hoping for, especially our LGBTQ plus employees.
And then he said he went on, he wanted to say Disney tried working behind the scenes to denounce the bill.
This drove a response from Governor DeSantis, which is exactly right.
His office says Governor DeSantis has always been open to hearing from Floridians and having conversations about legislation, as long as those discussions are grounded in fact, not false media narratives.
Anyone who has questions or concerns about the Parental Rights and Education Bill is encouraged to read the bill, rather than the distorted coverage in mainstream media, which regurgitates false partisan talking points.
Disney contacted our office today to speak with the governor.
This is the first time we have heard from Disney regarding HB 1557.
The governor did take the call from Mr. Chapek.
The governor's position has not changed.
No in-person meeting has been scheduled yet.
Disney is a family-friendly company that creates wholesome entertainment for kids.
The same Florida parents who take their families to Disney also support parental rights and education because they do not want their young children exposed to inappropriate content about sex and gender theory at school.
Correct.
So Disney is playing a very dangerous game pushed there by a media that repeats democratic lies and talking points for political purposes.
So if Disney wishes to embrace this, man, go for it.
Really, if you wish, you want to reap the whirlwind, come out against parents being able to teach their kids what they wish about sexual mores at young ages.
Seriously, do it, Disney.
Pull the trigger on that and see how it goes for you.
You're playing a suicidal game here.
Disney's, again, Disney's money comes from people like me.
Disney's money predominantly does not come from left-wing social activists on Twitter.
Or the morons who write for the Associated Press and term a bill that is not a don't-say-gay bill a don't-say-gay bill because they take their talking points directly from Jen Psaki and the White House.
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This White House is now attempting to blame the gas price increases over the course of Joe Biden's presidency on everything except for Joe Biden.
And they're actually attempting to blame oil and gas companies, which is quite incredible.
So Jen Psaki, yesterday, she came out and she said, well, the reason that oil and gas companies are charging high prices is because they're greedy and terrible.
And when she was asked about the fact that this administration has been extraordinarily unfriendly to the natural gas and oil industry, she responded by saying, well, they have, you know, they don't need permits.
We gave them their leases.
Isn't that enough?
Nearly 60% of leased acres remain non-producing.
That's a lot in the range of 20 million acres.
So there are 9,000 unused approved permits to drill in.
That should not require us inviting them to do that.
They should do that themselves.
But you said they can't get the additional permits.
So what additional permits do they need?
The leases are there.
The permits are there.
I don't think they need an embroidered invitation to drill.
They are oil companies.
Okay, that is a lie.
So, according to Katie Pavlich, she tweeted out the regulations from the Bureau of Land Management, the bureaucratic nightmare that has to be approved by the government.
She says, leases for drilling are not the same thing as permits.
You can have tons of leases.
The White House claims 9,000 and no permits.
Permits can take ages to get approved by the government, federal and local.
And it's true if you look at what the Bureau of Land Management has to say.
They say once a leaseholder, operator, or designated agent identifies an oil and gas deposit on a federal lease, they can file an application for permit to drill.
The Bureau of Land Management posts these APDs on its 30-day federal public posting report page.
The Bureau of Land Management governs the APD process.
The BLM cannot improve an APD until the operator meets the requirements of certain laws and regulations, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act.
Upon receiving an application for permit to drill, the Bureau of Land Management typically conducts an on-site inspection with surface or mineral estate.
It goes on like this for paragraphs.
Okay, so no.
All these places that want to drill are not being able to drill because they have slow walked all this stuff.
They are purposefully taking forever because that's part of the plan.
Joe Biden said it in 2019.
This is not a shock.
Here is Joe Biden circa 2019 overtly saying in the middle of a presidential race that there is no more drilling on federal lands under his presidency.
I've argued against any more oil drilling or gas drilling on federal lands, and to stop that.
Now, we could pass national legislation, but I don't think we'd get it done in terms of getting the votes to get it done to say all fracking that's going on now ends unless you can show there's some physical security need or worried about explosions, etc., which is a legitimate thing to worry about.
But I would not allow- Okay, so he was just saying it.
He was just saying it right out in 2019.
We're not going to do any more leases.
We're not interested in boosting the natural gas and oil industry.
This is during a climate town hall in 2019.
By the way, even the transformation of Joe Biden from 2019 when he wasn't all there to 2022 is astonishing.
He looks desiccated in 2019.
He looks not alive now.
He looks like something from Tales of the Crypt.
He's just, it's horrifying how decrepit the President of the United States is at this point.
By the way, literally yesterday, Joe Biden said, we are moving away from fossil fuels.
So just to get this straight, gas prices are seven bucks in some places in the United States.
Here's Joe Biden yesterday talking about how we're moving away from fossil fuels, which makes perfect sense.
If I went to the store and milk was $10 a gallon, and the President of the United States says, well, you know, we're trying to move you off of milk to rice milk.
That's our solution.
I might say, well, actually, I would just like the milk cheaper.
But here is Joe Biden pledging that he will keep the prices high because if you don't invest in the increased production of oil and natural gas, you're not going to get cheaper oil and natural gas.
As everything changes, there's a fundamental shift to the reality that we can't we can't keep the combustion engine the way it has been.
It's even, you see what's happening in locomotives now, you know, and you see what's happening just across the board.
And so, and I think it presents an enormous opportunity.
Okay, it's an enormous opportunity, guys.
High gas prices that are costing you your paycheck, that's an enormous opportunity, says the even more decrepit president of 2022.
Okay, just go back to last year, Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, She was saying the solution to all this is to drive an electric car.
After all, this is when gas prices were already high last year, because if you look at that chart we showed it to you yesterday, gas prices under Joe Biden look kind of like this.
They're rising, they're rising steadily, rising steadily, and then boom, they sort of pop in the last three weeks because of what's happening in Ukraine.
But that rising steadily means that when there was a cutoff in supply, the prices were going to skyrocket, which is exactly what happened.
When you prep the ground for a bad thing and the bad thing happens, that's what happens.
Here's Jennifer Granholm, Circa 2021, saying we are going to move away from gas-powered vehicles and toward electric cars.
We obviously are all in on making sure that we meet the president's goals of getting to 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
And, you know, if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you.
Well, you know, if you just spent that 60 grand on the Tesla, then this wouldn't... Elon Musk is more in touch with the people than these morons are.
It's incredible.
I mean, literally, yes.
And then fast forward to yesterday.
They haven't changed their message.
Here's Jennifer Granholm yesterday saying, well, you know, we're working on this energy transition.
Good luck with that.
For me, Putin's actions and the resolve of the Ukrainian people Give me even more determination to get this energy transition right.
Oh, so on behalf of the Ukrainians, we need to invest in solar panels and windmills.
Not nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy is bad.
Solar panels and windmills.
On behalf of the Ukrainians, I am sure that as the bombs fall in Mariupol, they are just thanking their lucky stars that Jennifer Granholm is trying to subsidize solar panels on your roof.
That was their highest priority.
And you can see what this administration's priorities are.
John Kerry, who is just a terrible human being.
John Kerry.
He was traveling yesterday.
And he explained that while Ukrainian refugees are having it hard, climate change is... Don't take your eye off the ball.
We don't need additional energy.
We need to worry about sea level rise in a hundred years.
There's Easter Island head John Kerry.
We're already seeing climate refugees around the world.
If you think migration has been a problem in Europe from the Syrian war, or even from what we see now, wait until you see 100 million people for whom the entire food production capacity has collapsed.
Okay, I mean, first of all, let's make the point that over the course of the next hundred years, the climate will change gradually.
What's happening in Ukraine right now is bombs are falling on cities and people are leaving immediately.
They always make it sound like the day after tomorrow.
Really, they always make climate change sound like it's going to happen immediately.
Like, snap of the fingers, tomorrow it's just going to be 10 degrees hotter, all the food's going to go away, and you're going to see migrants all over the world.
That is not how climate change operates, according to anyone, including the IPCC.
But they've got their priorities straight, guys.
Their priorities are not getting your gas prices lower by increasing production or making us independent of Russian oil or Venezuelan oil or Iranian oil.
Their priority is this green push.
And they're going to use the high gas prices right now as an artificial way of pushing green energy.
After all, these are the same idiots who suggested a global carbon tax rooted in the idea that if you artificially raise the price of gas, then people will be incentivized to use green energy.
There's only one problem, which is that you'd have to raise the price of gas so extraordinarily high that it would wreck your economy.
So if it happens by accident, hey look, we get to do what we wanted to do anyway.
Here was Nancy Pelosi yesterday talking about the importance of accomplishing environmental justice.
Again, we're seeing gas prices 7 bucks a gallon.
These people, they are just cruising for a 2022 bruising.
With this president, this Joe Biden, this president with justice, environmental justice, economic justice.
So much has been accomplished that some of the governors are complaining that they're getting some of their money while many of them are enjoying slush funds in all of this.
Unreal, unreal.
Okay so this administration, I do love this, this administration simultaneously is saying we need to move toward green energy and also they're saying you know what would be great is if they produced oil in Iran brokered by the Russians and maybe the Russians will even be given away out of their sanctions.
So simultaneously while we are telling American oil producing companies that we are not going to build Keystone XL or loosen up the permitting process, get rid of the red tape, we're not going to do any of that stuff.
We are, however, cutting a bunch of red tape so that Iran can get its money and develop nuclear weapons.
Yesterday, the Russian negotiator in Iran, he came out, Mikhail Ulyanov, and he said, you know what is going to be part of our deal?
Part of our deal with Iran, in order to broker it, is that we are going to be able to exempt all of our trade with Iran from any international sanctions, meaning Iran will be able to sell its oil on the world market.
In fact, it's wider by the score.
money to Iran, Iran will then give the money to us. Right.
So we will be able to trade with Iran, Iran will be able to trade with the world. And by the transit of property, you'll be paying us. Here is the here's the Russian negotiator.
In fact, it's wider by the score. We believe that all our trade and economic relations with Iran should be exempt from.
It's difficult to understand what he's saying. What he is saying is that all of the trade between Russia and Iran should be exempted from international sanctions. And Jennifer Her grand home, our energy secretary, she's like, yeah, sure, maybe Iran will sell its Sure, maybe Iran will sell its oil.
So, just to get this straight, no producing oil in America.
Let's get it from Venezuela and Iran.
These people.
But don't worry, the gas price spike, all of the increase in gas prices that's been happening over the course of the last year and a half, that's purely due to Vladimir Putin.
Here is Jennifer Granholm exempting Iranian oil from her consternation over natural gas and oil.
Is it your expectation that the Iranian barrels do come back online if there is a deal here?
The reason for the deal is a denuclearized Iran.
That's the reason for the deal.
If there is a byproduct of increased supply, so be it.
But the deal is all about making sure the world is safer because Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon.
Okay, that is not what the deal is about at all.
And she's like, yeah, sure, Iranian oil and gas might hit the free market.
Maybe we'll buy some of that.
These folks.
Okay, so, all of this is obviously creating some pretty massive inflation, right?
All of this is creating massive gas price spikes.
And we all know this.
So, the White House started trotting out this phrase over the past 48 hours.
Putin's price hike.
You saw Sacky use it.
You saw Biden use it.
It's Putin's price hike.
It's not us.
It's Putin.
Right?
There's not much I can do about it because it's Vladimir Putin.
Okay, well, so the good news is they have stenographers in the media.
So the same way that if Joe Biden says, drones my car, the entire media immediately says, that's what we'll call that bill.
And let's say it over and over.
Now you have Joe Biden saying, it's Putin's price hike-a-do.
And the entire media snaps to attention.
ABC News headline yesterday, Putin's price hike, and they put it in quotes, will be borne by American consumers.
So the scare quote is the new way that the media just laundered Democratic talking points into their headlines.
If they put it in quotes, that means they didn't say it.
Somebody else said it, but it's the only thing you're reading.
It doesn't say Biden says Putin's price hike will be borne by American consumers.
It just says Putin's price hike.
Putin's price hike will be borne by American consumers.
Amazing, amazing stuff.
They'll just, they will repeat whatever the White House tells them to repeat.
The inflation statistics, by the way, popped today.
Plus .8% on headline inflation in February.
Almost 8% year over year.
So that inflation continues to escalate.
Solid stuff there.
The Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, she came out yesterday and she said, yeah, inflation is very real.
Here she was yesterday.
You are right.
You know, inflation is real.
And it's, you know, many Americans are obviously seeing that in their daily lives at the pump or the grocery store.
President Biden has directed us in his cabinet to go industry by industry and figure out everything we can do to increase supply of goods to bring down costs.
Okay, and so the media, the good news is that they will just pick up whatever the Democratic talking points are.
As always, the theme of today's show, legacy media will say whatever Democrats want them to say.
So here is CBS Evening News yesterday saying that inflation is not in fact created by the inflationary, monetary, and fiscal policies of this administration.
The inflation is not created by the foreign policy crises bred by this administration.
Inflation is all about corporate greed, which is the Democratic talking point.
Here is CBS Evening News just doing stenography for Nancy Pelosi and Company.
The biggest food price hikes are in meats, with pork and beef up 14 to 20 percent from a year ago.
Food companies and some economists say pandemic disruptions, inflation, and high demand are to blame.
But others question whether there's more at play.
Ricardo Salvador is with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit advocacy group.
You're seeing just orders of magnitude greater profit that are not justified by the actual rate of inflation or their increased cost.
So they're just running full-scale reports on how it's corporate greed that's causing all of this.
Whatever is the talking point Democrats need, that is what the legacy media bring to the table.
Okay, in just one second, we'll get to the latest in Ukraine, where the Biden administration is... I am astonished at how deep the blade of the Biden administration went between the shoulder blades of Ukraine yesterday.
It is amazing.
The Biden administration supposedly unified the world in support of Ukraine and then just shoved a knife directly between the shoulder blades of Ukraine.
It's pretty astonishing.
We'll get to that in just one moment.
The economic situation in the United States is complete chaos right now.
You know that the Fed is talking about raising those interest rates and raising them pretty dramatically, which means that if you are looking to refire your house, you need to do it right now.
Not later, not a month from now, not two months from now.
Right now, as you listen to this, pause whatever you're doing, and you need to contact my friends over at American Financing.
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Alrighty we will get to the situation in Ukraine in just a moment, but tonight is the night!
It is the premiere of our next big hit, The Hyperions.
The pre-show begins 8.30 p.m.
Eastern.
Make sure you head on over to The Daily Wire's YouTube channel.
Set a reminder to catch the live showing.
I promise you won't regret it.
It's not woke.
It's not going to slap you in the face with a left-wing agenda because it doesn't have an agenda.
It doesn't care about your pronouns.
It is just good, solid entertainment because having fun is what you're looking for.
Check out the trailer.
My name is Vista Mandelbaum.
My brother and I have taken four hostages.
Everybody against the wall!
We've come for one thing.
Our Titan badges.
Is this real?
Yes, ma'am, this is real.
Is my sign this?
Well, I want that, too.
It's the police.
They want to talk to whoever's in charge.
This Titan badge can grant an individual superhuman power.
Perhaps it's time for someone else to take on the responsibility.
Meet Apollo.
I'd recommend next time using your power.
Yeah, if you think so.
Calling all Hyperions.
On my way.
You're making such a mess in here.
We've got a Hyperion en route.
Not a good time to look stupid.
Shots fired!
God!
Come on!
Give me my gun!
Suit up for adventure!
She's trying to destroy me!
Next question.
How's the family?
The family is, um...
Gosh, what is it?
Marvelous.
I'll fight for the right to do what I want!
Hyperion's is a blast.
You're really going to enjoy it.
The look of the film is unlike anything I've ever seen.
It's sort of halfway between Wes Anderson and a 1960s Disney film.
We'll be streaming the film once tonight at 8.30 p.m.
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Head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe so you don't miss any more of the growing cache of content we have to offer.
Also, as if we didn't have enough amazing content for you, I'm excited to announce this weekend we have a new interview on the Sunday Special with Bill Maher.
It is one of the best interviews that we've ever done on the Sunday Special.
It's just a blast.
He's a really interesting thinker, and you'll be fascinated to hear his thoughts on left versus right, and why he's sort of an expatriate from the left at this point, why they hate his guts.
This is, without a doubt, I think one of the best conversations we've had on the Sunday Special.
It's available early to Daily Wire members only, starting Saturday morning.
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So meanwhile, the situation in Ukraine continues to get worse and worse.
Ukraine is now accusing Russia of genocide after the bombing of a children's hospital.
The footage coming out of Mariupol is absolutely stunning.
Ukraine's president accused Russia of carrying out genocide after officials said Russian aircraft bombed a children's hospital on Wednesday, burying patients in rubble despite a ceasefire deal for people to flee the besieged city of Mariupol.
Putin is ratcheting up the military moves and the attacks on civilians in order to put pressure on Ukraine to come to the table and give him a lot of concession.
Because what Putin is realizing is that he has, in fact, been able to crack that Western show of support for Ukraine to a certain extent, which will provide him an opening to make some gains that will allow him to end this war with some sense of having won something, despite the fact that it was a botched attempt.
The current casualty statistics from Russia are really, really bad.
We're talking about like thousands of troops, somewhere between four and six thousand Russian troops probably dead inside the last couple of weeks, which is a massive loss for the Russian military.
But if they're able to cudgel Ukraine into, for example, giving away the Donbass region, acknowledging the loss of Crimea, Formally stating that we'll never attempt to join NATO or the EU, then you might see Putin sort of get what he wants because and also have demonstrated to border nations, nations that are bordering NATO, that unless they are members of NATO, that the Western alliance has no interest in protecting them.
And so they better make some overtures toward Russia.
This would be directed at places like Moldova.
You could also see Putin making a gain in terms of being able to show even sort of border NATO nations, the politics, that they better take a more pro-Russian stance because if they don't, then he might invade and then actually attempt to break NATO outright.
Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, yesterday he took a look at the devastation.
He said, the humanity is being lost.
You guys need to help us some more.
He tweeted out, Mariupol direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital.
People, children under the wreckage.
Atrocity.
How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?
Close the sky right now.
Stop the killings.
You have power, but you seem to be losing humanity.
And he's calling for a no-fly zone.
Nobody in the West is interested in a no-fly zone at this point.
The problem is that the West isn't even interested in providing the baseline level of support necessary for Ukraine to continue fending off the Russian military power.
Despite the fact that the West is fully acknowledging the human rights violations of the Russian forces at this point.
So, for example, the Pentagon acknowledged yesterday that Russia had used dumb bombs Those dumb bombs would be non-targeted ordnance that hit civilians.
Apparently, there was talk that they were using thermobaric weapons, which have extraordinarily high danger to civilians.
These are weapons that are non-indiscriminate in their killing capacity.
We're used to seeing the United States fight wars, or the UK fight wars, or Israel fight, or NATO fight wars.
All of these first world countries, when they fight wars, they're extraordinarily targeted in how they go about hitting the bad guys.
That is not the case with the Russians.
So Jen Psaki yesterday, she even suggested that Russia was setting up a pretext to use chemical weapons, is what Jen Psaki said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki lashed out at Russian claims the U.S.
was developing chemical weapons in Ukraine, warning it was actually a pretext for Moscow to use such weapons itself.
A senior NATO official said there are serious concerns Russia is setting the stage to use chemical weapons in the war-torn country.
And why not?
Bashar Assad got away with it in Syria, when the Obama administration just handed control of the country over to the Russians.
Saki wrote in a series of tweets late on Wednesday, it's the kind of disinformation operation we've seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries.
They've been debunked, an example of the type of false pretext we've been warning the Russians would invent.
She also accused China of parroting Russia's claims and said, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or to create a false flag operation using them.
It is a clear pattern.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington alleged the U.S.
has 26 biolabs and other related facilities in Ukraine.
According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, he said there are no U.S.
chemical or biological weapons labs in Ukraine.
Apparently the real story is that there has been an attempt by the West to shut down or convert over old Soviet biolabs in Ukraine for the past couple of decades.
Kamala Harris just came out and she embraced a call for a war crimes probe in Russia, but here is the problem.
It's all a split message.
It is all a split message.
So Kamala Harris, who's terrible at this, she went over to Poland where she was speaking alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda at a press conference in Warsaw.
Harris expressed outrage over the bombing on Wednesday.
She said, absolutely there should be investigation.
We should all be watching.
Duda said, it's obvious to us in Ukraine, Russians are committing war crimes.
He added that in his view, the invasion was bearing the features of a genocide.
It aims at eliminating and destroying a nation.
And then Harris said, I've been watching or reading about the work of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
And so I bring you thanks from the American people speaking only in truisms.
Because she's just a truism pull string doll.
You just pull a string on the back of Kamala Harris.
And she says things like, It's been extraordinary reading about the work of extraordinary people.
And then she smiles creepily into the camera.
Okay, but here is the thing.
We keep ramping up the rhetoric with regard to Russian human rights violations.
And then when it comes time to actually provide the support that the Ukrainians need, we're not there to give it.
That doesn't mean we should give them all the support they're asking for.
Nobody's calling for a no-fly zone.
But even stuff that we have already approved, we're now backtracking.
So this is the big Ukraine story of the day.
You'll recall that just a little while ago, just a little while ago, the United States basically said that we would allow NATO to send warplanes into Ukraine so that the Ukrainians could fly them against the Russian MiGs.
In fact, Nancy Pelosi came out yesterday and she said, Vladimir Zelensky, he keeps asking us for planes, he wants planes.
There was Nancy Pelosi yesterday.
She said, quote, he wants the planes, the planes, the planes.
You know that.
Well, on Sunday, you'll recall that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated clearly that the United States had given a green light to NATO countries to provide planes to the Ukrainians.
Here is Antony Blinken on Sunday.
Okay, I will just remind you that today is Thursday, so it has not been very long at all.
Here is Antony Blinken saying, yeah, you know what?
I think it's a good idea to get those planes into Ukraine.
If, for instance, the Polish government, a NATO member, wants to send fighter jets, does that get a green light from the U.S., or are you afraid that that will escalate tension?
No, that gets a green light.
In fact, we're talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if, in fact, they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians.
So we're talking about backfilling it, we're working with the Poles, all that stuff.
Okay, so then, Poland comes out, and they make a public announcement, because they obviously weren't getting cooperation from the Americans.
And what they said is, we would like to use the American airbase, the NATO airbase, I should say, in Germany, in order to ship those planes into Ukraine.
Now the reason that they want to do this is because what the Poles are afraid of is that if they ship directly into Ukraine, then the MiGs The Russian MIGs will start shooting down Polish pilots in those planes.
Or they'll use this as an excuse to attack Poland.
Whereas if it is shipped in from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, if it is shipped in from there, then the Russians will be dissuaded from making a direct attack on Germany.
Because they'll know that then we'll eviscerate them.
So what the Poles are really saying here is we don't trust you as far as we can throw you.
You're saying, yeah, go ahead and do it yourself.
But we've noticed that every time you say this to a country, go ahead and do it yourself.
We'll have your back.
The minute we turn around, you're gone.
Whether it is your Afghan allies, whether it is the people of Hong Kong, or whether it is the Ukrainians in Crimea, or in the Donbass region.
Every time you keep saying that you'll have people's back, we turn around and you are gone.
Like Batman, you're just missing.
So how about this?
How about you are our open accomplice in sending these planes to Ukraine?
And that way you have skin in the game.
We're not going to send it direct from Poland because we believe that if they start shooting down Polish pilots and this brings Poland into direct conflict with Russia, you guys will be standing off to the side being like, well, you know, I mean, we said you could do it, but we didn't say that we were going to help or anything.
And even if we did say we're going to help, we're really not going to do anything right now.
So.
The polls announced that they want to do this with the help of the United States.
And the United States, five days after saying publicly via the Secretary of State on national television that they would green light the shipment of jets into Ukraine, they're like, nah, we're not going to do that.
We know, you know, we got to stop this.
It's too high risk.
So yesterday, John Kirby at the Pentagon, he said, no, we can't do this.
I'm sorry.
We can't do this.
We're too afraid that we're too afraid of the Russians.
Now, let's be clear about something.
There is a very large difference between the United States setting up a no-fly zone in Ukraine, which would involve us basically saying we control all the skies above Ukraine and we are going to shoot down anything we don't like above the skies of Ukraine.
That's what a no-fly zone is.
There's a large difference between that and allowing the Russians to establish a no-fly zone in Ukraine.
Which is what we are now allowing them to do.
We are now allowing them to, without any sort of resistance, take over the skies in Ukraine by refusing to ship in the military armaments necessary to shoot down Russian jets by the Ukrainians.
So we're now saying we're going to allow Vladimir Putin to get away with his threat.
So Vladimir Putin is saying, well, you know what?
If you guys even, if you even ship in jets, you take this as act of war.
And instead of us saying, okay, fine.
All right.
Do it.
Because we didn't set up a no-fly zone.
We're not shooting down your jets.
We're just rearming the people you're invading.
And pretty obviously, we've been shipping all sorts of weaponry, including Javelin missiles, into Ukraine at this point.
So this is just a broader expansion of that.
A deeper expansion of that.
And by the way, we already said we would do it earlier this week.
It would be one thing if they never said they would do it.
They already said they were going to do it.
And then they backed off of it.
Here's John Kirby backing off of it.
The intelligence community has assessed that the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in a significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO.
Therefore, we also assess the transfer of the MiG-29s to Ukraine to be high risk.
So any transfer, now announcing any transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine would be high risk.
So basically you suckers, you're on your own.
Which is an amazing statement.
By the way, notice the language there.
It could be mistaken by Russia to be escalatory, therefore we won't do it.
If you're Vladimir Putin, you're just laughing into your sleeve right now at how weak the West is.
Seriously.
Because we're not talking about even going to wreck conflict with Vladimir Putin.
But again, we've been shipping all sorts of weapons into Ukraine.
And we just said that we would OK the shipment of jets into Ukraine.
So, I mean, couldn't that have been seen as escalatory by Vladimir Putin?
And yet NATO is so all fire feared of anything happening that has NATO's fingerprints on it.
That they're not even going to do this.
It's really amazing.
So if you're in Ukraine right now, you know there's only so far the West is willing to go.
They won't set up a no-fly zone.
They won't even give you the armaments necessary to prevent Russia from setting up a no-fly zone.
Once Russia has total air superiority, which everybody assumed was going to happen inside the first 48 hours, but the Russian Air Force just has not done its job.
But if you give them an inordinate amount of time, they will do the job.
The only thing that prevents that from happening is some sort of air force boost to the Ukrainians, obviously.
In a separate statement, General Todd Wolters, head of the U.S.
European Command, labeled the prospect of sending additional jets to Ukraine, quote, high risk and low gain.
I mean, this is amazing stuff.
According to the Pentagon, the Pentagon quashed a Polish proposal to put its Soviet-origin MiG-29s in Germany to be used by the United States in aiding the Ukrainian war effort.
By the way, we are shipping in like old planes to Ukraine to not be escalatory.
That was going to be the idea.
We're shipping in Soviet-era MiG-29s, so Russian planes to fight Russian planes.
We're not shipping them F-22s.
Even that was seen as too much of a provocation by us.
Kirby said there was no desire to see them in our custody.
We didn't even want them in our custody.
The transfer of MiG-29s would not appreciably increase the effectiveness of Ukraine's air force, according to Wolters.
Weird, because that's... I assume the Ukrainians are asking for it for a reason.
The United States has already shipped Ukraine a number of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles alongside shotguns and other materials useful for fighting in urban areas, the Washington Post first reported last week.
A senior U.S.
defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules established by the Pentagon said earlier Wednesday that Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and Mykolaiv, a possible staging ground to attack Odessa, appeared particularly vulnerable.
So, again, we approved it, and then we backed off of it because Vladimir Putin batted his eyelids at us.
That's amazing.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board points out how pathetic this is.
They say, untenable how?
After a NATO no-fly zone, which the alliance has refused, the MiGs are Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's top request.
The jets won't decide the war, but its generals must think they'd help, if only to deny Russia control of the skies.
Any Russian artillery batteries or jets taken off the battlefield could save Ukrainian lives.
What happened between Blinken's endorsement and the Pentagon's rejection?
It's hard not to conclude the White House blinked for fear of provoking Putin.
I mean, they're not to conclude.
They said it.
They just said it straight out.
NATO countries are already sending all sorts of weapons into Ukraine.
Is a Polish MiG with a Ukrainian pilot somehow more provocative than a Turkish drone or an American anti-tank missile?
Transferring planes isn't the same as NATO aviators directly shooting down Russian jets.
Mr. Putin calls anything beyond Western acquiescence and Ukraine's surrender a provocation.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg felt obliged to warn Mr. Putin on Tuesday a Russian attack on supply lines in Alliance territory would trigger a collective response.
He said we're removing any room for miscalculation, misunderstanding about our commitment to defend every inch of NATO territory.
Poland doesn't want the transfer of planes directly to Ukraine from its territory to be perceived as a unilateral provocation.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morecki said on Wednesday the decision must be unanimous and unequivocally taken by all of NATO.
Again, they're saying we don't want to be left here holding the bag.
And U.S.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin then nixed the MiG transfer to Ukraine.
I mean, we do have higher priorities, like taking Navy ships offline because the captain hasn't been COVID vaxxed.
That is a thing that's actually happening right now.
There is risk of escalation in any war, says the Wall Street Journal.
Needless provocations should be avoided.
But the risk of giving Putin a veto over NATO actions is that it undermines the credibility of deterrence.
Well, yes, that is obviously true.
And by the way, it is worth noting here that as this war goes on, a few things are happening.
Our allies in the Baltics, our allies who are not formally defended by us by treaty, they're becoming more and more wary.
They're starting to draw a middle course between the Western Bloc, meaning the United States and Western Europe, and China, Russia, Iran.
And China is strengthening its position dramatically in all of this.
And China is buying up Russian assets at bargain basement prices, knowing that in the end, probably there is some sort of negotiated settlement where a lot of these sanctions are removed.
China is going to continue to solidify its relations with the Russians.
Meanwhile, playing the West by pretending that they are somehow anti the Russians, the Russian invasion.
If they just keep silent, the West will leave them alone.
Meanwhile, they will arm up for the possibility of taking over Taiwan when they feel the time is right.
Good piece in the Wall Street Journal today by Seth Cropsey, who is a founder and president of Yorktown Institute, served as a naval officer and deputy undersecretary of the Navy.
He makes a good point.
He says, That the external economic dependence of the Soviet Chinese bloc is inevitable.
That bloc is naturally brittle.
The Communist Party has to have absolute dominance.
Assuming Russia's collapse is not imminent, China will use Russia's increasing isolation to transform Moscow into a petrochemical satellite, taking advantage of Western sanctions to secure Russian energy flows indefinitely.
In turn, China hopes that Russia, humbled or emboldened by its Ukraine adventure, with or without Putin at the helm, will occupy Western attention as Beijing gobbles up the choices Pacific possessions and extends its economic and diplomatic tendrils into the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Far from accepting independent Russian action, China is counting on Russian failure to accelerate the satisfaction of its boundless appetite.
So China wins either way.
Either Russia gets away with what it's doing here, and China enriches itself by drawing closer to Russia, or Russia loses, in which case China buys up all of the assets.
All of this could have been prevented by a strong West.
But the West keeps not learning the lesson.
They keep demonstrating no strength on the world stage.
They keep demonstrating that a backwater, second-rate dictatorship with nuclear weapons can blackmail the entire Western world into not sending MiGs over the border with Ukrainian pilots in them.
That's an incredible statement.
And if you think China's not taking notice, they're definitely taking notice.
Because, you know, we don't have a formal defense treaty with Taiwan.
We do not.
And so China is looking at Ukraine, and they're figuring, okay, what's the worst that happens here?
They rearm?
Fine.
We have a billion and a half people who live here.
Okay.
All right.
Like, what you gonna do?
And those economic sanctions?
You know, you guys are the ones who have always said that you have a policy of strategic ambiguity about Taiwan, so we really don't see the problem.
You've always said that Taiwan could, may be part of China.
You refuse to label Taiwan independent territory.
Again, Western pusillanimity in the face of aggressive and concerted action over long periods of time means the West loses.
One of the big problems with foreign policy in the West is that all foreign policy horizons in the West are about the length of a presidential administration.
Foreign policy horizons for dictators are decades long because they know they'll be in power 10, 15, 20 years from now.
What that means is that you have to have actual real moral backbone in the West in order to stand up for any length of time against the predatory countries on the world stage.
The West doesn't have it.
And so we are easily split.
We are easily manipulated.
And the likely outcome of what's going to happen in Ukraine is Putin will at least get most of what he wants, I think.
I think in the end Putin will get most of what he wants.
Because if you're Zelensky, and you've seen that the West will provide you just enough weaponry to stave off a full-scale Russian takeover, but not enough weaponry to stop the killing fields in your own country.
You might start cutting that middle line and a lot of other countries are going to take notice.
Alrighty, we'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.
In the meantime, go check out our podcast, Morning Wire.
On today's episode, they report on Biden announcing an executive order addressing the growing crypto market.
That episode is available right now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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