Part Of The Problem - Dave Smith - No Fly Zone Means War
Aired: 2022-03-19
Duration: 01:07:57


=== Blaming Russia For Propaganda (14:22) ===

[00:00:00]  Fill her up.
[00:00:02]  You're listening to the Gas Digital Network.
[00:00:08]  We need to roll back the state.
[00:00:10]  We spy on all of our own citizens.
[00:00:12]  Our prisons are flooded with nonviolent drug offenders.
[00:00:16]  If you want to know who America's next enemy is, look at who we're funding right now.
[00:00:22]  Every single one of these problems are a result of government being way too big.
[00:00:26]  You're listening to part of the problem on the Gas Digital Network.
[00:00:30]  Here's your host, Dave Smith.
[00:00:34]  What's up, everybody?
[00:00:35]  Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
[00:00:38]  I am the most consistent motherfucker you know, the libertarian Tupac, Dave Smith.
[00:00:43]  He is the king of the caulks, COVID Jesus, Robbie the Fire Bernstein.
[00:00:47]  What's up, my brother?
[00:00:49]  I'm swell, my friend.
[00:00:50]  I'm ready to preach COVID Jesus.
[00:00:53]  Swell.
[00:00:54]  I like that.
[00:00:56]  It's boyish and innocent.
[00:00:58]  And that is not at all when people actually get to know you, what you're about.
[00:01:03]  But I do appreciate that you give off that image.
[00:01:08]  Okay.
[00:01:08]  I do my best, you know, just try and bring the childlike demeanor, the wonderment, the joy.
[00:01:14]  There you go.
[00:01:16]  There you go, brother.
[00:01:17]  All right.
[00:01:18]  So there's a few things that we got on our plate to talk about for today's episode.
[00:01:24]  Of course, the war in Ukraine is still raging on and doesn't look good.
[00:01:34]  I don't know from what you've been following in the news, but it looks like this thing is still going and it's still pretty ugly and it's horrific and innocent people are dying.
[00:01:45]  And it's, yeah, it's bad.
[00:01:47]  The Americans are sending over us.
[00:01:49]  I don't know why I said the Americans.
[00:01:50]  We're going to send over drones.
[00:01:52]  So that way the Ukrainians can start killing Russian kids too.
[00:01:55]  Yeah, well, there you go.
[00:01:59]  Then it's a real win.
[00:02:00]  That's real government logic for you, right?
[00:02:03]  There's always just a few more innocent kids that need to die.
[00:02:06]  And then we can say, hey, we've done enough.
[00:02:09]  Well, I will say, so there's this video that the great Scott Horton, who is my foreign policy guru, and if I do say so myself, I think the best guy on foreign policy that libertarians have.
[00:02:27]  And there's several of his books here in my shelf.
[00:02:33]  So he's mentioned this video a few different times.
[00:02:37]  And I just found it today online.
[00:02:41]  And it's a video from the old Colbert report and the Colbert Rapport, which I believe is what it was called.
[00:02:49]  It was such a funny show, man.
[00:02:51]  God damn it.
[00:02:52]  This was, it's funny to go back because this was like a different time.
[00:02:57]  This was in 2014.
[00:02:59]  It really feels like not only was this eight years ago, you know, but this was in a different timeline.
[00:03:08]  This isn't the world we live in now.
[00:03:11]  This is a different world where Barack Obama is president and Stephen Colbert is funny and like nothing that you think you know is real.
[00:03:21]  It was a whole different time.
[00:03:23]  But he had an interesting guest on who was Gideon Rose.
[00:03:29]  And Gideon Rose is, he was at the time, I believe at the time, he was the editor of Foreign Affairs, which is like the big foreign policy publication.
[00:03:42]  And he's a guy who's interviewed presidents and all this stuff.
[00:03:46]  He's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
[00:03:48]  This is like a very, you know, well-connected guy.
[00:03:55]  And of course, as people who listen to this show, I hope know, in 2014, this was the year later in this year.
[00:04:03]  I mean, it was, I guess, already ongoing at the time of this interview.
[00:04:07]  This was the year of the coup in Ukraine, the US-backed coup in Ukraine, which overthrew a pro-Russian government and installed a pro-Western government.
[00:04:25]  And anyway, it's just kind of interesting.
[00:04:27]  So like after the last couple of weeks, while people, you know, like myself, who have been kind of have been bringing this up, you know, are often kind of dismissed, perhaps even smeared or ridiculed or labeled as, you know, spreading Russian propaganda or whatever else it is.
[00:04:52]  It's funny to go back and watch this video.
[00:04:54]  And it's really interesting to see that the people who were, and there's many of them, you know, it's not like, I'm not saying it's me or it's libertarians even.
[00:05:04]  There's many people who at the time and since then and well before then have been like warning against this, that this was going to be an absolute disaster and this was a really dangerous game to play.
[00:05:16]  But anyway, all the people who bring that up now, it doesn't matter.
[00:05:19]  Now, like you can't, you can't talk about that because Putin is Hitler and anything short of that is anything short of saying this is all Vladimir Putin's fault and Ukraine is perfect and good and all of that.
[00:05:31]  I had someone today, I was arguing again about this on Twitter who said that, you know, I tweeted something.
[00:05:40]  And here, let me pull up the actual tweet, Rob.
[00:05:43]  And you tell me if you think this is unreasonable or if this is a reasonable thing to say, because I said it.
[00:05:50]  So obviously I'm a little bit biased.
[00:05:52]  But okay, so I said, I have loyalty to my country, but absolutely none to my government.
[00:06:02]  I view both the U.S. and Russian governments as criminal organizations.
[00:06:07]  So if U.S. officials want to call Putin a war criminal, okay, let's objectively look at who has committed more war crimes over the last 20 years.
[00:06:21]  That sounds reasonable to me.
[00:06:23]  Now, other people said I was guilty of this very intellectual term, whataboutism?
[00:06:31]  Which, as I've mentioned before on the show, anytime anyone uses the term whataboutism, they're always dumb.
[00:06:39]  That's the Dave Smith law of political arguing.
[00:06:43]  No one who ever says what aboutism is not making a dumb point.
[00:06:49]  But then people were saying they were like, well, it's very different because Vladimir Putin is committing war crimes against a democracy.
[00:06:59]  I was like, oh, okay.
[00:07:01]  You're killing people.
[00:07:02]  Well, right.
[00:07:03]  Isn't that like a weird stand to take?
[00:07:06]  Like, wait, so if it's a democracy, then it's, it's not okay to kill innocent people.
[00:07:12]  So in other words, if the regime that the people live under do not allow them to vote, then those people lose all rights.
[00:07:21]  You know, like then screw them.
[00:07:23]  But if the regime allows them to vote, then you have to, then those people, all of a sudden, those kids, their lives matter.
[00:07:30]  You know?
[00:07:31]  If anything, if they can't vote, then they should be less responsible.
[00:07:34]  Well, right, exactly.
[00:07:35]  Yeah, really.
[00:07:36]  I mean, that's actually, I mean, like, I don't want to 100% agree with it, but if anything, yes, you're right.
[00:07:43]  Like, if anything, you'd say, if there is a democracy, then at least like some percentage of you motherfuckers are responsible for the government that's in there.
[00:07:53]  Whereas, if there's not a democracy, you could argue none of you are responsible for the government.
[00:07:58]  But it's like, okay, so even like that standard makes no sense.
[00:08:03]  But even by that standard, the idea that like, what Ukraine is so funny how, like people will talk about Ukraine now as if Ukraine is this perfect democratic country, totally free of corruption, and all of this like, go research Ukraine a little bit.
[00:08:20]  It's not exactly the situation anyway.
[00:08:23]  Back in two, in 2014, Ukraine was in chaos and they were in the middle of this uprising, where there was this uh movement um, in part, consisting of Nazis um, and I I don't say that like in the term that it the way that it's used in America meaning like a right-winger who you don't like, I mean like actually, you know actual Nazis um the,
[00:08:53]  the grandsons of guys who were literally fighting for Adolf Hitler um so, but this is what's going on in 2014.
[00:09:02]  And here you have.
[00:09:03]  I don't know, did you ever watch the old Colbert Report?
[00:09:07]  I was too dumb okay, I didn't watch the daily show.
[00:09:10]  I didn't watch.
[00:09:11]  I was just a drunk college kid.
[00:09:12]  That's fine um, but I was.
[00:09:15]  I was too, but I did watch the show and uh, Colbert used to be really funny.
[00:09:20]  The show was great uh, just for the record but um okay, so here's Gideon Ray um the, the uh editor of uh foreign affairs at the time.
[00:09:30]  I believe I used to read Foreign Affairs though.
[00:09:33]  Okay well he yeah, you were too dumb for the Colbert report, but you would read Foreign Affairs right, different years.
[00:09:38]  Yeah, you ever read.
[00:09:40]  That's the.
[00:09:41]  Yeah, I've read it before.
[00:09:43]  Um now, I don't know he was either the editor.
[00:09:46]  This might have been right after he stopped being the editor, but I believe he still was.
[00:09:50]  Um, but anyway here's here's, uh, Gideon Rose on the Colbert report.
[00:09:55]  Let's listen to a little bit of it.
[00:09:57]  This is how they were talking in 2014.
[00:10:00]  Pretty interesting to see Donald Reagan we're still alive to fix this mess.
[00:10:07]  Here, to tell me how to reanimate Reagan is the editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, Gideon Rose.
[00:10:12]  Mr. Rose, thank you so much for being here.
[00:10:16]  There's the magazine Foreign Affairs now.
[00:10:20]  Now no no Gideon.
[00:10:21]  Uh, help me out doing.
[00:10:23]  We've got a.
[00:10:24]  We've got a battle.
[00:10:24]  The Ukraine some of them want to go into the EU, the European Union right uh, and some of them want to stay with Russia.
[00:10:31]  If the Ukraine's not in Europe right now, what continent is it on?
[00:10:35]  Well, it's part of Eurasia, but it's part of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc.
[00:10:39]  It's basically Robin to Russia's Batman, and the challenge here, the challenge here is to try to attract it to the West, to get it to flip sides.
[00:10:49]  So the the rebels in the streets, what are they fighting for?
[00:10:52]  They're fighting for a better future.
[00:10:53]  Countries have a development.
[00:10:55]  Sounds like a political speech no, but it's actually.
[00:10:57]  Countries have to develop over time, and Ukraine basically.
[00:11:01]  Let's pause already, just to Be clear.
[00:11:06]  Okay.
[00:11:06]  So back in 2014, editor of Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations guy is just straight up like the challenge here is to pull Ukraine away from Russia.
[00:11:19]  That's the challenge.
[00:11:21]  And this is what I love about watching this clip: you can like just take my word for it, Rob, if you didn't watch him back in the day that I'm telling you, Stephen Colbert used to be funny.
[00:11:32]  He was really, really funny.
[00:11:34]  And so even in this clip, he is, you see these little moments where he goes, his character used to be like an all-in on the wrong take guy.
[00:11:46]  That was kind of his thing.
[00:11:48]  But like, even he goes when he goes, well, he goes, so what are the rebels in the street fighting for?
[00:11:53]  And he goes, they're fighting for a better life.
[00:11:54]  And he goes, that sounds like a political speech.
[00:11:56]  Like you can already see where he's kind of like, his angle is, yeah, well, that, I mean, that doesn't seem objective and neutral, that one side is good and one side is bad.
[00:12:07]  But right away, Gideon is letting you know that it's like, well, what we're trying to do here, what we are doing, is bringing them over to our side, stealing them away from Vladimir Putin.
[00:12:23]  Just to be clear, that if you say this now, a lot of people are like, well, that's kind of like a wild conspiracy.
[00:12:30]  This is, oh, you're going back and thinking, what?
[00:12:33]  We were trying to do this.
[00:12:35]  This was not a secret at the time.
[00:12:38]  Okay.
[00:12:39]  Let's keep playing.
[00:12:41]  Develop over time.
[00:12:41]  And Ukraine, basically, after the end of the Soviet Union, faced two tracks.
[00:12:46]  It could stay a sort of stagnant, corrupt, authoritarian country tied to Russia, or it could essentially join the West.
[00:12:53]  It could modernize, liberalize, become a democracy.
[00:12:56]  At the last minute, when it looked like it was going to trade up from its sort of abusive relationship with its boyfriend from the hood to a nice yuppie.
[00:13:05]  You're not loading these choices in any way whatsoever.
[00:13:08]  It's actually true.
[00:13:09]  When it looked like it was going to trade up to a better environment, at the last minute, Putin offered a bribe.
[00:13:15]  How much?
[00:13:15]  15 billion.
[00:13:17]  That's a lot of cash.
[00:13:17]  It's a lot of cash.
[00:13:18]  And the president, who himself was tied to the old elites and the eastern part of the country ties to Russia, decided to back off the change and go.
[00:13:27]  Do you know how many pirate-themed restaurants you can buy with $15 billion?
[00:13:31]  The problem was the western parts of the country and the younger parts of the country and the more modern liberal parts of the country basically knew that they had no future being Russia's vassal.
[00:13:40]  Do we?
[00:13:41]  So they took to the streets.
[00:13:42]  Is America taking sides in this in any way?
[00:13:45]  If these people, the rebels are winning right now, right?
[00:13:47]  Yes, just recently.
[00:13:48]  Why isn't Obama spiking the ball in the end zone and calling Putin and saying, hey, you might have won the medal count, but we won the country count, Bianch?
[00:13:58]  It's actually a very good question.
[00:13:59]  And the answer is that we don't want Russia to intervene and kick over the table like a gamer risk and take Ukraine back.
[00:14:07]  Would they do that?
[00:14:07]  Could he send in troops?
[00:14:09]  Yes, he could.
[00:14:09]  So we are choosing.
[00:14:10]  So does Ukraine have any troops of their own?
[00:14:12]  Would they fight back?
[00:14:13]  Yes, but we don't want this to escalate and we don't want Russia to crack down.
[00:14:16]  So we want to basically distract Russia.
[00:14:18]  Oh, look, you have the highest medal count.
[00:14:20]  Oh, you did really well.

=== Distracting From The Real Goal (03:00) ===

[00:14:23]  And also, here's a shiny object.
[00:14:26]  We'll just take an entire country away from you.
[00:14:29]  How's it right there?
[00:14:34]  Listen to that.
[00:14:35]  Here's a shiny object.
[00:14:37]  We'll just take an entire country away from you.
[00:14:40]  What a fucking idiot Vladimir Putin is, right?
[00:14:44]  What a dummy.
[00:14:46]  I mean, as Gideon Rose says here, he goes, Yeah, like, you know, we don't want him to overthrow the whole board.
[00:14:55]  So that's why Obama shouldn't spike the football and brag about how we've taken this country away from them.
[00:15:02]  And then Colbert chimes in with his comedy, which is, by the way, I think kind of funny.
[00:15:07]  But here's a shiny object.
[00:15:09]  We'll just take an entire nation away from you.
[00:15:11]  And ha ha ha.
[00:15:13]  Laffity, laugh, laugh.
[00:15:15]  What could possibly go wrong?
[00:15:19]  I just thought this is like really interesting to remind people that this is, at least to me, this is the hubris of the war party.
[00:15:32]  Like that they really never thought while they were doing this that maybe this isn't worth it, or maybe this could go really bad and might result in Putin not just saying, okay, I'll play that fucking chump role that you all seem to think I'm playing.
[00:15:52]  And I'm actually going to do something about this.
[00:15:54]  Now, by the way, to be clear, he didn't do this in response to the 2014 coup.
[00:16:02]  But, you know, again, as Gideon Rose says at one point, he goes, they have a choice between embracing democracy or, you know, whatever being, you know, embracing, you know, going with Russia.
[00:16:18]  But then you're like, of course, what you're talking about here is these rebels overthrowing the elected government.
[00:16:25]  So really, I mean, it's not exactly embracing democracy as much as it is embracing a violent coup.
[00:16:34]  But yeah, I don't know.
[00:16:37]  It's just pretty funny to see this, see how this was described in 2014 when it was all fun and games.
[00:16:44]  It's also odd for the guy to go, yeah, we're going to distract him so he can take the, well, you're on TV talking about it.
[00:16:51]  I mean, that doesn't seem like it's so secretive if you feel comfortable being like, hey, look at that dumbass.
[00:16:57]  We're just going to take this.
[00:16:59]  It's just so like the what stands out to me is just the unbelievably arrogant, you know, attitude to just be like, yeah, look, we're going to be like, hey, here's a shiny thing over here, you big dumb retard.
[00:17:15]  Well, we take a country away from you.
[00:17:17]  It's also a pretty blatant admission to the fact that we were involved and that we were trying to take the country.

=== Creating A Power Vacuum (03:10) ===

[00:17:24]  And so for all the when, you know, Putin was basically saying that this was, the areas were contested or this was a part of Russia.
[00:17:33]  And whatever, I'm not familiar with the history or anything for that matter.
[00:17:36]  I just kind of bullshit while I'm on the show.
[00:17:39]  But this is pretty clear that it was not cut and dry.
[00:17:45]  Like at the very least.
[00:17:47]  Yeah, we're our own Ukraine.
[00:17:49]  We've always been our own Ukraine and now we're just being invaded.
[00:17:52]  Yeah, that's not exactly the case.
[00:17:54]  All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is BetterHelp.
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[00:19:52]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:19:54]  All right, let's uh let's keep playing.
[00:19:57]  There's a power vacuum right now, there's a power vacuum.
[00:19:59]  The opposition is all together, which everybody it's easy to agree on getting rid of the bad old regime and much harder to create a stable country in which everybody compromises and moves forward.
[00:20:09]  They need a strong leader to move the country forward.
[00:20:12]  Do you know who's always good at a moment like that?
[00:20:14]  It's Vladimir Putin.
[00:20:16]  Do you think he might volunteer to come in and help Ukraine?
[00:20:20]  The reason we don't want we don't want we don't want Putin to get involved in this, and so we are basically we want to try and involve him in this decision so that he allows Ukraine to go.
[00:20:29]  We actually want to not we want to say we want a non-exclusive relationship with Ukraine, you can have a relationship with it too.

=== Stealing Ukraine Away From Them (11:09) ===

[00:20:35]  You're the only one making this into a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship.
[00:20:38]  Ukraine is basically choosing its future between two completely different courses of action, and we're trying to blur that choice so the old boyfriend doesn't get too upset when it makes the right choice towards us.
[00:20:50]  He might punch us in the face.
[00:20:52]  Pause it right there, pause it.
[00:20:55]  Oof, oof.
[00:20:58]  So, Ukraine is making a choice between the bad boyfriend and the good boyfriend.
[00:21:04]  And we, that's that is the end of the video.
[00:21:06]  And we just want to blur that choice so that they make the correct choice.
[00:21:11]  And then Colbert prophetically says, We better hope that other boyfriend doesn't punch us in the face.
[00:21:20]  Because in the analogy that you're using, that would be the concern, right?
[00:21:26]  Like, if you're like, hey, we're blatantly trying to steal your girl from you, what would the next like thought be?
[00:21:38]  Shut him up, Buster.
[00:21:39]  Yeah, I hope that guy doesn't come me up for trying to steal his girl.
[00:21:44]  So there it is.
[00:21:45]  Pretty clearly, as they said earlier, it's Robin to Russia's Batman.
[00:21:51]  We're trying to steal them away.
[00:21:54]  And, you know, that's great.
[00:21:57]  Everything's going to be fine.
[00:21:58]  Then Colbert's like, yeah, but you know, this might piss them off a little bit.
[00:22:01]  And it's like, no, I'm a foreign policy expert.
[00:22:04]  So don't worry about any of that.
[00:22:06]  Because I'm telling you right now, everything's going to be fine.
[00:22:09]  And, you know, anyway, I just think it's pretty interesting to hear that, to hear that clip and hear the way they were talking about this.
[00:22:17]  And the part that they're not telling you about is that there's a lot of countries that we don't seem to like, we don't, they didn't care about the people of Ukraine.
[00:22:24]  You're actually only trying to flip it.
[00:22:26]  Like he's trying to say, hey, we're trying to make a better future for the people of Ukraine.
[00:22:30]  No, you're trying to piss off Putin.
[00:22:31]  That's the only reason why you're invested in Ukraine.
[00:22:35]  So like while he's saying, hey, we're just trying to move this thing along and hope that Putin, you're actually only doing it to piss him off.
[00:22:42]  It's like a girl that you're not even interested in and you just don't like the boyfriend.
[00:22:46]  You're like, all right, I'm going to steal this guy's chick, but I also don't want him to realize I'm doing it.
[00:22:50]  So I don't, no, you're doing it just to piss him off.
[00:22:52]  That's the whole reason for it.
[00:22:54]  Well, he's kind of claiming like, well, we're doing it because it's better for this chick.
[00:22:59]  But A lot of chicks in the world, you know what I mean?
[00:23:04]  And you're choosing the chick who happens to be like right near and very close to this one dude.
[00:23:11]  Like, why are you choosing that chick?
[00:23:14]  You know, and that's kind of the essence of this thing.
[00:23:18]  It's like, there's so many countries in the world, yet you're telling me it was so important that we make sure that Ukraine is a pro-America country.
[00:23:29]  And again, there seems to be no real argument there that, well, it's not as if he's saying, and this is what I appreciate about the clip: the honesty.
[00:23:42]  This is why I kind of wanted to play it and share it with our viewers and listeners.
[00:23:48]  Is that it's not as if he's saying, Look, the people of Ukraine have decided this, and we don't want Vladimir Putin to overturn their will, right?
[00:24:00]  That's not what he's saying here.
[00:24:02]  He's saying, Look, here's what we got to do: we got to steal this country away from them, we got to kind of make them come on over to our side.
[00:24:14]  And just, I'm just saying, if you're being honest and you want to take an honest look at this, and this doesn't, oh my God, please don't resort to being one of the binary thinkers that I have to deal with on Twitter all day long.
[00:24:27]  But if you're just looking at this honestly, it doesn't mean that you're saying, well, therefore, everything Putin does is okay.
[00:24:35]  That's not what I'm saying.
[00:24:37]  I'm just saying that it's like, you know, Joe Biden called Putin's invasion of Ukraine in his State of the Union, quote, unprovoked.
[00:24:49]  And go just look at this interview, and you'd go, That seems like a provocation to me.
[00:24:56]  It seems like you're going the country right on his border.
[00:25:00]  You're like, aha, we're going to steal this country away from you.
[00:25:05]  You know, we're going to sponsor this coup, this colored revolution, and fucking haha, now they're with us.
[00:25:13]  Well, oh, were you focused on the Olympics, you dumb motherfucker?
[00:25:17]  Well, look, we fucking took this nation away from you.
[00:25:22]  And I mean, if someone else was doing that on the country that bordered your country, ah, geez, like, you know, think about it.
[00:25:31]  Try to put it in like some form of an analogy.
[00:25:35]  Like, if you were like good friends with your neighbor and there was someone halfway across the world who wanted to kill you, and then they were on TV bragging about how they went in and stole the house from your neighbor and installed someone who was friendly to the people who wanted to kill you.
[00:25:57]  I think you would see that as a provocation.
[00:26:01]  You know, like you're like, fuck, they're not halfway around the world anymore.
[00:26:05]  Now they're right next door to my house.
[00:26:08]  Oh, and then they were going to like send them a whole bunch of weapons and shit like that.
[00:26:13]  Yeah.
[00:26:14]  That might be something that would concern you a little bit.
[00:26:16]  I don't know.
[00:26:17]  I feel provoked right now.
[00:26:19]  Yeah, there you go.
[00:26:20]  I'm ready to cross that hall and give that neighbor a peace of my mind.
[00:26:23]  And Rob very rarely feels provoked.
[00:26:27]  Okay.
[00:26:27]  So fast forward to today, to the present day.
[00:26:32]  Yesterday, we're recording right now on St. Patty's Day, by the way.
[00:26:35]  Happy St. Patty's Day to everybody.
[00:26:38]  Yesterday, the day before St. Patty's Day, Tucker Carlson had on representative Salazar, and they sparred a little bit over the Russia-Ukraine war.
[00:26:52]  So let's play this video.
[00:26:56]  I thought this, you know, I just wanted to keep that past video in mind, I suppose, but let's jump into where we are in 2022.
[00:27:05]  So things are changing very fast.
[00:27:07]  For weeks, leaders in Washington told us that an American-backed no-fly zone in Ukraine would be unwise because it would amount to an act of war against a nuclear-armed Russia.
[00:27:16]  As you can see, those views have evolved a lot.
[00:27:20]  But in fairness, Congresswoman Maria Salazar got there first.
[00:27:24]  Salazar is a longtime news anchor from Miami who a little over a year ago was elected to Congress as a Republican.
[00:27:29]  She now sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
[00:27:31]  A week ago, a reporter from the Gray Zone asked Salazar what she thought of a no-fly zone.
[00:27:36]  Here's what she said: Do you support a no-fly zone in Ukraine?
[00:27:40]  I support everything that has to do with punishing Vladimir Putin and helping the Ukrainians.
[00:27:46]  Wouldn't that mean direct conventional warfare with Russia?
[00:27:49]  I don't know what it will mean, but you know, freedom is not free.
[00:27:51]  So you don't know what a no-fly zone will mean if you do have to shoot down Russian planes.
[00:27:56]  I mean, of course.
[00:27:59]  I don't know what that is.
[00:28:00]  But you know, freedom is not free.
[00:28:01]  Now, we made fun of that answer last time.
[00:28:04]  I believe Cuban, by the way.
[00:28:06]  I'm not sure about that, but I believe Cuban.
[00:28:08]  But just to be clear, that is exactly what a no-fly zone means: you're saying that you will shoot down planes in the area.
[00:28:15]  And to go into an active war zone and say you're going to start shooting down planes in the area would be an act of war against Russia.
[00:28:23]  I mean, what you're saying is that you support war against Russia.
[00:28:26]  Now, let me just remind people, by the way, that, and I think this is something that's important to remind people, because oftentimes with these military conflicts, and this was true.
[00:28:39]  You know, I remember I used to argue this with Essie Cup when I was a contributor on her show that she used to say, you know, that this would be in like 2017, and they'd be talking about regime change in Syria and whatever it would be.
[00:28:58]  McMasters would come out and say he supports regime change in Syria.
[00:29:02]  And then it was like a week after Trump said he didn't support regime change in Syria.
[00:29:06]  And I was like, well, what the hell are someone who works for Trump doing saying he supports it when the president just said he doesn't support it and all this stuff?
[00:29:13]  There's some fun clips on that show.
[00:29:17]  But she would say, well, we support regime change in Syria because Assad started killing all of his own people in 2013 or whatever it is.
[00:29:29]  And I'd go, okay, but if that's why we support intervention in Syria, then how come we were intervening in 2012?
[00:29:37]  And how come we were talking about intervening in Syria in 2007?
[00:29:42]  Like there's news reports about it here.
[00:29:44]  I can show them to you.
[00:29:45]  I'd pull them up, but this is like in the green room, like, but not in the show.
[00:29:48]  I'd pull them up on a phone.
[00:29:49]  Look, why was there an article about this in 2007?
[00:29:53]  If the reason we're supporting it is because of what he started doing in 2013.
[00:29:57]  And then why is like General Wesley Clark talking about how he saw plans of doing this in the Pentagon in 2003?
[00:30:05]  You know what I mean?
[00:30:06]  Like this doesn't make sense.
[00:30:08]  Was he like fucking 10 years like ahead of his time?
[00:30:12]  Could he see the future?
[00:30:13]  Why were we doing it then?
[00:30:15]  And so also with this situation, you see kind of the same thing.
[00:30:21]  It's like, all right, well, so we're talking about a no-fly zone in Ukraine now to shoot down Russian planes.
[00:30:28]  But I'm just wondering, like, if it's because Russia invaded Ukraine, why is it that Hillary Clinton was running on a no-fly zone in Syria in 2016?
[00:30:40]  And by the way, so was Marco Rubio and a couple of the other Republicans.
[00:30:44]  They were all saying we should have a no-fly zone in Syria where Russian planes were flying, invited by the government of Syria.
[00:30:55]  all these things kind of relate, you know?
[00:30:58]  And so it's like, I don't know.
[00:30:59]  I just find that interesting that now all of a sudden this, this conversation and, you know, no fly zone is a real nice way to put it where most people don't like it.
[00:31:07]  You know, like even as this guy asked her just there, it's like, oh, do you support a no-fly zone?
[00:31:11]  Of course, I support a no-fly zone.
[00:31:13]  So you put, so you support shooting down Russian planes?
[00:31:15]  And she's like, well, I don't know what that would mean, but, you know, but it's like, oh, okay.
[00:31:20]  Okay.
[00:31:20]  Because that's just a nice way of saying it.
[00:31:22]  Like you could say, we're going to declare Ukraine a no-troop zone.
[00:31:26]  So what are you going to do?
[00:31:27]  You're going to put troops there and then go to war?
[00:31:30]  No, it just means we're going to kill all the troops that are there, right?
[00:31:33]  Yeah, because it's a no-troop zone.
[00:31:34]  We're just going to put down our tanks to make sure that, well, won't you being there be troops in that zone?
[00:31:40]  Yeah.
[00:31:41]  No, I don't think that's not the way it works.
[00:31:43]  Right, exactly.

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=== Washington Consensus On War (11:23) ===

[00:34:07]  Made fun of that answer last week when we first showed you that clip.
[00:34:10]  But now what we mocked is the consensus in Washington.
[00:34:13]  We don't know what's going to happen.
[00:34:14]  We've got to do it immediately.
[00:34:15]  That's the argument you're hearing.
[00:34:17]  At this point, no one wants to say it out loud, but it is true.
[00:34:20]  At this point, a shooting war with Russia seems inevitable.
[00:34:24]  How could war with Russia not be inevitable?
[00:34:27]  Virtually everyone with power is for it.
[00:34:30]  We remain against it.
[00:34:31]  We think that joining a war in Eastern Europe will hurt this country.
[00:34:34]  Though to be clear, when and if that war starts, we will be praying passionately for America's total victory.
[00:34:41]  Unlike so many in the foreign policy establishment, we love this country above all, and we mean it.
[00:34:46]  But in the meantime, while the United States is still technically at peace, we thought it'd be worth asking people who are calling for war if they have considered in detail what a war would mean for this country.
[00:34:55]  Can I just say what was gracious enough to accept?
[00:34:59]  And the congresswoman who was making this point comes on his show.
[00:35:03]  So I want to play that.
[00:35:04]  But I just want to be very, very clear about this because obviously I'm a libertarian.
[00:35:09]  This is a libertarian show.
[00:35:11]  And I'm a member of the Libertarian Party.
[00:35:14]  And I've, you know, I've never kept that a secret.
[00:35:17]  I've always talked about that quite a bit.
[00:35:18]  But much like when there was the initial buildup of the COVID regime, and there were some libertarians who were sympathetic to the COVID regime and even supported it in some ways.
[00:35:36]  And even you had people that like that writing articles that Cato published, you know, making the libertarian case for vaccine mandates or something like that, or the libertarian case for lockdowns or whatever it might be.
[00:35:50]  And I know, I remember I said on this show that I don't care if you call yourself a libertarian and you say that you believe in liberty and the non-aggression principle or that you've read Murray Rothbard or like any of this stuff.
[00:36:07]  I was like, if you're opposed to the COVID regime, you're on my team.
[00:36:12]  And if you're for it, you're not.
[00:36:15]  I don't care.
[00:36:16]  Like this was the biggest threat to freedom in our lifetimes.
[00:36:21]  And if you're for freedom in this situation, then I'm with you.
[00:36:24]  And if you're opposed to it, then I'm not with you.
[00:36:27]  That's how I see it.
[00:36:29]  And I feel the same way about this.
[00:36:31]  So let me just be clear about this.
[00:36:32]  All of the people who refer to themselves as libertarians who would support any of these interventions in Ukraine, whether it's sending in weapons or a no-fly zone or even, you know, a more blatant call for American direct intervention into this region.
[00:36:54]  I don't care what you call yourself.
[00:36:56]  Tucker Carlson's on my team and you're not.
[00:37:00]  Period.
[00:37:01]  And this has been a real, just like the COVID stuff, this has been a real litmus test for a lot of people to see where they're at.
[00:37:10]  And a lot of people, like I watched Bill Maher on Ben Shapiro's show the other day, Ben Shapiro is goddamn garbage on this.
[00:37:18]  He's not on my team.
[00:37:20]  You know, and like Tucker Carlson is.
[00:37:24]  He's been great on this.
[00:37:26]  And right in the middle, right on the prime time hours.
[00:37:31]  When Nazis start working together with Jews, then that's the side you got to take.
[00:37:35]  Well, it's like a 1950s.
[00:37:37]  No, I mean, he won't even address the fucking Nazi thing because all of a sudden he doesn't care about Nazis.
[00:37:42]  You know what I mean?
[00:37:42]  Like all of a sudden, but he will say, he will be like, well, I think the example here is that we haven't used enough strength.
[00:37:49]  And you need peace through strength.
[00:37:50]  And we have to use even more strength.
[00:37:51]  And strength and strength will give us peace eventually.
[00:37:54]  And that's basically basically all these neocons like Ben Shapiro, they become communists when it comes to American foreign policy.
[00:38:01]  Or at least like, but it's at least the worst leftists you've ever encountered.
[00:38:08]  You know, like a thing where it's like, well, what's the problem with education in America?
[00:38:11]  Well, we haven't spent enough.
[00:38:13]  What was the problem with healthcare?
[00:38:14]  Well, we haven't spent enough.
[00:38:15]  And you go, well, we've spent more than anybody ever.
[00:38:17]  And they go, yeah, still not enough.
[00:38:20]  You know, so that's always the problem.
[00:38:21]  And what's the problem with Russia?
[00:38:23]  Well, we haven't been aggressive enough.
[00:38:25]  We haven't demonstrated enough strength.
[00:38:28]  You're like, but we're the most powerful military with thousands of bases around the world in hundreds of different countries.
[00:38:36]  And we've been at war with, you know, whatever, seven to nine different countries in the last 20 years.
[00:38:42]  And we've dropped more bombs.
[00:38:43]  We've run out of bombs and dropped more bombs and more bombs.
[00:38:46]  And we've started wars that have led to the deaths of millions of people in the last 20 years.
[00:38:52]  And it's like, well, it's just not enough.
[00:38:55]  If we had done more, then yeah, maybe it's that.
[00:38:58]  It's like this unfalsifiable theory that we just should.
[00:39:02]  It's the same as the vaccine shit.
[00:39:04]  Oh, well, what did you have?
[00:39:06]  Three vaccines and everyone's still dying.
[00:39:08]  Well, you should have had four.
[00:39:09]  Oh, you had four and everyone's still dying?
[00:39:11]  Well, you should have five.
[00:39:12]  You know, it's this.
[00:39:13]  I heard if everyone gets six, Fauci will come back.
[00:39:16]  It will.
[00:39:17]  That's what we need.
[00:39:18]  We all, if we get six vaccines and we all think happy thoughts, Fauci will come back.
[00:39:24]  He'll be able to fly.
[00:39:26]  But so that's the thing.
[00:39:27]  But I will say, anyone who's like talking common sense on this shit is more on my team than anyone who's not.
[00:39:34]  So good for Tucker Carlson.
[00:39:36]  And okay, so here he has this Congress lady who is actually in Congress on his show.
[00:39:43]  Accept our invitation to come on the show.
[00:39:45]  We're grateful she did.
[00:39:46]  She joins us tonight.
[00:39:47]  Congresswoman, thanks so much for coming on.
[00:39:49]  Morris, thank you for inviting me.
[00:39:51]  Well, yes.
[00:39:52]  So since you have called for war with Russia, how do you think that war, once it begins, would play out?
[00:40:01]  I think that's a hypothetical question.
[00:40:04]  I think that we should concentrate, Tucker, in what Zelensky asked Congress today.
[00:40:10]  I'm sorry, I can't, no, and I'm and I'm in no way trying to cut you off, but I can't let you allot over that.
[00:40:17]  You said we should shoot down Russian planes.
[00:40:19]  That's, of course, war.
[00:40:21]  Since you've called for that, you are a member of Congress.
[00:40:23]  I think, yeah, but that was taken out of context because I said, of course, that I know what that means.
[00:40:33]  That interview was not very well conducted.
[00:40:36]  And that's why I'm here because I want to clarify my position.
[00:40:40]  And my position is that we should not take the no-fly zone off the table.
[00:40:46]  But before that, that's two.
[00:40:48]  We need to do one.
[00:40:49]  And one is to give Zelensky exactly what he's asking for.
[00:40:52]  No troops on the ground.
[00:40:54]  Let's give him the mix and the S-300 what he needs to defend his own airspace.
[00:41:01]  So he will create his own no-fly zone.
[00:41:04]  And that's what I think we should have done months ago.
[00:41:07]  It's embarrassing that this guy, this president, who is under the bullets, has come to Congress to beg for us to give him something that we should have done a long time ago.
[00:41:18]  Let me be clear.
[00:41:19]  When you say we should give President Zelensky what he's asking for, he demanded today, I think you were there, that the United States enforce the no-fly zone.
[00:41:27]  So you are for denying him that.
[00:41:30]  Well, but he also said, and then we can give you alternatives.
[00:41:34]  So since we know that that should not be taken off the table, and I repeat it, I do believe that we should go to plan A, which is to give them all the military weapons that he's asking for.
[00:41:46]  Because I think that's a good question.
[00:41:47]  So let's just pause it and leave it right there.
[00:41:50]  So this woman's position is that, okay, first of all, she said she supports a no-fly zone.
[00:42:00]  And then Tucker asked her, well, what are the implications of that?
[00:42:03]  And she's like, well, I'm not going to answer that.
[00:42:06]  That's crazy.
[00:42:08]  And then he goes, okay, so what?
[00:42:11]  What are you saying?
[00:42:12]  And she goes, well, we should give Zelensky whatever he wants.
[00:42:15]  And then Tucker says, well, what he wants is a no-fly zone enforced by the USA.
[00:42:20]  And she says, well, we can't take that off the table.
[00:42:23]  But the plan A is to give him everything except for that.
[00:42:29]  But it's like, okay, well, if you won't take that off the table, then what the fuck are you talking about?
[00:42:36]  What does that mean?
[00:42:39]  You're like, okay, what do you think's gonna happen if the United States Of America shoots down a Russian plane in the Ukraine?
[00:42:52]  In Ukraine what?
[00:42:54]  What do you think that's gonna lead to?
[00:42:57]  Like, are you not, are you not even concerned about that?
[00:43:01]  Is that not something that maybe we should think about?
[00:43:05]  And she has no answer for it?
[00:43:08]  We should just give him the weapons to shoot down the planes himself.
[00:43:12]  Okay, how would we feel about that?
[00:43:16]  Would you think that that was an act of war?
[00:43:20]  If someone like, if someone was um, let's just say whatever it is.
[00:43:25]  Let's say, in in 9-11, you know, you found out that it was.
[00:43:30]  Well, it was Egyptians and Saudis.
[00:43:32]  Who um who, you know?
[00:43:34]  If you think about 9-11, where we, we went to war in Iraq based off 9-11, you know, of course, based off nothing, but there were these like really loose lies.
[00:43:47]  Let's say, we found out that Iraq supplied the planes.
[00:43:52]  Do you think that wouldn't have been the perfect justification?
[00:43:55]  We'd have been like, well yeah, obviously they attacked us also.
[00:43:59]  That's that's what she's talking about.
[00:44:01]  Well, if you even think about the uh well we, it was propaganda and you brought this up, but we were claiming that Russia was going to pay people in Afghanistan for American debts.
[00:44:12]  That's not even handing them the supplies, it's just handing them the money after the fact, and think about how eventually we were.
[00:44:18]  That's a very good point, Rob.
[00:44:20]  That's right.
[00:44:21]  That was the propaganda of how evil they are and we're going to incentivize soldiers, and now we're talking about us actually giving the supply.
[00:44:28]  I mean, I guess it's different because they're the invader.
[00:44:31]  Well, it's all.
[00:44:32]  It's also different.
[00:44:33]  Well, I mean, America was the invader uh, in that situation.
[00:44:37]  So no, that's not really.
[00:44:38]  That's not a big difference.
[00:44:39]  I guess that the big difference is that one was a complete lie, and this is an actual proposal by a sitting member of Congress.
[00:44:49]  You know, like you don't have a tape of a of of a Russian uh, you know powerful politician actually advocating to put bounties on U.s soldiers heads.
[00:44:59]  But that's a really good point.
[00:45:00]  I didn't even think of that, Rob.
[00:45:02]  That is an excellent point.
[00:45:03]  I mean, they weren't even giving them the weapons, they were just throwing them a few bucks for every time they did it with their weapons.
[00:45:11]  Oh, so I guess that wouldn't be an act of war right, if we could go back in time and let them know the propaganda you're going to try and spoon.
[00:45:21]  Six months from now, you guys might not want to try this piece.
[00:45:25]  I mean, Jesus Christ, did these people not realize how dangerous this game they're playing is?

=== Ignoring Dangerous Game Risks (03:10) ===

[00:45:31]  Okay let's, let's keep playing with that.
[00:45:33]  Let me just say I think a lot of people who saw president Zelensky speech and today, and who've seen the atrocities in Ukraine, feel deep sympathy for the Ukrainian people and want this to end.
[00:45:45]  I'm certainly among them, but i'm wondering where you are?
[00:45:51]  Okay, all right, so when?
[00:45:53]  What should we do then?
[00:45:54]  Always and everywhere, especially for the U.s government or one of its elected representatives, act on behalf of the core interests of the United States government.
[00:46:01]  It's really super simple.
[00:46:03]  So if the United States is providing, let me let me just tell you how that hold on okay.
[00:46:08]  If the United States is providing weapons to one side in a war, how is that not participating in the war?
[00:46:16]  Listen, now let me just backtrack and say that you say that we're supposed to be representing the American people.
[00:46:21]  I represent district number 27, where you have millions of Cuban Americans, and i'm representing what we think.
[00:46:27]  We know that we we acquired peace through strength.
[00:46:32]  Look at what happened in 1960.
[00:46:34]  Fidel Castro and John I love the pivot to, all right, I got two points.
[00:46:40]  Well, I'm a lady and I'm a Cuban-American and I know the feelings of us and I know, wait, what else am I supposed to say?
[00:46:46]  Oh, yeah, strength.
[00:46:47]  As long as we get peace through strength, it's like, that was a question.
[00:46:51]  I don't know an answer.
[00:46:52]  So I'd like to remind you, I represent the Cubans.
[00:46:55]  Yep, basically.
[00:46:57]  And peace through.
[00:46:57]  And peace through strength.
[00:46:59]  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:46:59]  That's okay.
[00:47:01]  All right.
[00:47:01]  That's Tranny Liam Nielsen.
[00:47:03]  She's attractive.
[00:47:05]  All right, guys, let's take a second and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Zippix.
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[00:47:36]  I just got a box of them and I'm excited to use them.
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[00:47:42]  And on an airplane, you can't smoke, you can't vape, but you can sure put a toothpick in your mouth.
[00:47:47]  And for people out there who are addicted to nicotine, you know what I'm talking about.
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[00:48:26]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:48:29]  Let's keep playing.
[00:48:30]  I can't, I can't, I'm not going to, I'm sorry.
[00:48:32]  I'm not going to I'm not going to take the anti-communist lecture from anybody because, of course, I agree with you.
[00:48:36]  No, no, I hope that you're not speaking for, quote, Cuban Americans, but for all Americans, because it's not a racial question.

=== Trump Impeachment And Quid Pro Quo (15:15) ===

[00:48:41]  It's a question of what I'm saying.
[00:48:46]  I understand, but I'm just saying, Raga, and I'm as against communism, I think, as anybody.
[00:48:51]  But my question is, if we are providing weapons to one side in a war, I think it's fair to ask.
[00:48:59]  Maybe the other side would say that's an act of war against us.
[00:49:02]  And if that happens, then what next?
[00:49:05]  And to not think about that seems negligent.
[00:49:07]  But since you're on the Foreign Affairs Committee, I know that you have thought it through.
[00:49:09]  So tell me your views on what would happen next.
[00:49:12]  Tucker, we have been providing javelins and stingers and ammunition, and we're providing a lot of military armament.
[00:49:20]  So what is the difference between that and the MiGs and the S-300s?
[00:49:24]  What's the difference?
[00:49:25]  I mean, you have to understand that we are, unfortunately, the United States has fallen into Vladimir Putin's trap.
[00:49:33]  He is the one dictating what we're going to do, what we're not going to do.
[00:49:36]  He said, we do not want, we are imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
[00:49:41]  And we are going to be able to do that.
[00:49:42]  So we're letting Putin control our behavior.
[00:49:44]  Okay.
[00:49:44]  So that seems like a loss right there.
[00:49:47]  Right.
[00:49:47]  Okay.
[00:49:47]  But let me just ask you, because we believe we don't need more evidence that Putin has bad intent, that he's evil, a lot of people believe he's crazy, including some informed people, including many Russians.
[00:49:59]  So we know he's volatile and we know that he's heavily, how many nuclear weapons, by the way, does Russia have?
[00:50:04]  Do you know?
[00:50:05]  Many.
[00:50:06]  Many.
[00:50:07]  About 6,000 is the guess.
[00:50:08]  One is of that.
[00:50:09]  And that's a fair enough.
[00:50:10]  That is enough.
[00:50:11]  So are we concerned at all?
[00:50:13]  So just pause it.
[00:50:14]  Pause it right there.
[00:50:15]  Let me just say, first off, to her, the point that this Congresswoman makes, where she goes, well, I mean, we're already sending in all these weapons.
[00:50:25]  So what's some more weapons?
[00:50:27]  You know?
[00:50:31]  First off, just to make this clear, that the Obama administration wouldn't even send in the weapons that Ukraine was requesting after they backed the coup.
[00:50:46]  Even the Obama administration, who backed the coup, the video that we played at the very beginning, even they wouldn't send in these weapons.
[00:50:55]  And the reasoning was that they thought it would be a provocation of Putin.
[00:50:59]  And they go, look, we just overthrew the fucking government.
[00:51:03]  We just sponsored this color-coded revolution.
[00:51:07]  Let's not go like crazy and provoke him.
[00:51:10]  Even though now Joe Biden will say this was an unprovoked invasion, then the Trump administration came in and sent those weapons in.
[00:51:19]  And if you might remember, Donald Trump was impeached over holding up this weapons deal with Ukraine.
[00:51:27]  But what a lot of people don't remember is that then he caved.
[00:51:31]  If you remember back when we were talking.
[00:51:34]  Yeah, if you remember back what we were talking about when Donald Trump was impeached for the quid pro quo in Ukraine, one of the things that I harped on quite a bit of why I thought this impeachment had no legs on it was that he didn't get anything and he gave them everything.
[00:51:52]  So they were saying a quid pro quo basically just means you give me something for something, right?
[00:51:57]  And what Donald Trump was trying to say to them, which was a little bit of a faux pas, it was a little bit of like, you're not really supposed to do that.
[00:52:03]  Just nothing to be impeached over, was he was saying, look, I want you to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, or I won't give you this weapons deal, right?
[00:52:18]  And so that was kind of the what Donald Trump said to Zelensky.
[00:52:25]  And they had this whole fucking, you know, like thing.
[00:52:29]  And then they ended up not investigating Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.
[00:52:33]  And Donald Trump cave and gave them the weapons deal.
[00:52:36]  And the reason why I said there's not really a quid pro quo here is because it's not as if Donald Trump said, let me get something for what you get.
[00:52:44]  He didn't get it.
[00:52:45]  And they didn't not get it.
[00:52:47]  What ended up happening was he caved and he gave them the weapons.
[00:52:51]  And these were the weapons that even Obama wouldn't give them.
[00:52:55]  Now, by the way, it was also completely legitimate for him to ask them to investigate Hunter Biden, at least, probably Joe Biden too, because basically what happened was that the Burisma company was real in with the old government.
[00:53:13]  And the Obama administration sponsored this coup and they overthrew this government.
[00:53:22]  And Burismo was like, fuck, we were in with the old government and now there's this new government.
[00:53:27]  So instead of trying to buy off the new government, they just put the vice president's son on their board and paid him whatever, an ungodly amount for someone who didn't speak the language and had no experience in all this.
[00:53:41]  That's what that whole thing was about.
[00:53:42]  It was about this, this company, this energy company, trying to gain favor with the new government directly.
[00:53:50]  Instead of going right to the new government, they tried to just gain favor with the fucking sitting vice president.
[00:53:54]  So it would be cool.
[00:53:56]  Yeah, exactly.
[00:53:58]  So, but anyway, but Donald Trump, the point of this all is, is that he fucking ended up selling them these weapons that even the Obama administration admitted would be a provocation of Russia.
[00:54:09]  So there's no argument here from their perspective that Russia was unprovoked.
[00:54:14]  Anyway, so for her to say, well, we're already sending them some weapons.
[00:54:19]  Why not send them more weapons?
[00:54:21]  Is, I mean, like the logic just doesn't exist.
[00:54:27]  You know, it'd be like if you slapped some guy in the face and went, Well, I don't know, he hasn't punched you yet.
[00:54:35]  You go, uh, you go, Okay, well, I'm gonna kick him in the face, and you go, Well, I mean, you kick him in the face, he might punch you, and you go, I already slapped him, like, okay, but you're still taking it a step further, and that seems, well, I don't know, that seems a little bit risky, a little bit risky.
[00:54:54]  Um, however, after that, for her to continue on this line of thinking is, I don't know, just pretty goofy and insane.
[00:55:08]  All right, let's let's keep playing.
[00:55:09]  Oh, sorry, go ahead, Rob.
[00:55:11]  No, there's a slightly funny dance that's going on here, which is uh, America's trying to make Putin look as evil as possible, and it's hard to do that without people looking at the situation going, Well, if we don't do anything to help out, aren't we kind of shitty too?
[00:55:27]  So, like, normally they kind of wouldn't cover these things, you wouldn't see children's death.
[00:55:31]  There's a lot of things that you just wouldn't see, kind of like the Yemen situation.
[00:55:34]  Because if we saw the Yemen situation, the American public would be like, Well, why aren't we doing something?
[00:55:38]  Well, it's because if we oppose Saudi Arabia, we're going to have an issue.
[00:55:41]  In this case, they're trying to make Russia look as bad as possible, but then, like, we also don't want to get involved.
[00:55:47]  It puts them in a weird, it puts them in a weird spot.
[00:55:50]  And then there's this other game going on where it's like, We still kind of work with Russia, but at the same time, we sanction them.
[00:55:56]  So, it's like we can buy some things, we're not going to buy other things.
[00:56:00]  We have a plate, we have a space station together, but we still sanction them.
[00:56:04]  Like, you know what I mean?
[00:56:05]  Like, planes over there would be an act of war, but sending gear isn't an act of war.
[00:56:09]  It's like a weird dance going on on both sides.
[00:56:12]  Yeah, and just here, take it, Brian, take it back like a few seconds in this video just to see what she said because I wanted to go over that last part real quick, but I got caught up on the other stuff.
[00:56:22]  And let's get back to the video.
[00:56:24]  A lot of people believe he's crazy, including some informed people, including many Russians.
[00:56:28]  So, we know he's volatile and we know that he's heavily, how many nuclear weapons, by the way, does Russia have?
[00:56:33]  Do you know many?
[00:56:35]  Many.
[00:56:36]  Oh, about 6,000 is the guess.
[00:56:38]  And that's a fair thing.
[00:56:41]  And just to be clear, I mean, on this, that the woman who he's talking to, when asked how many nuclear weapons does he have, has no idea, right?
[00:56:53]  Like, doesn't that in itself just really bug you?
[00:56:57]  Like, in my world, in my world of like libertarian, you know, whatever, anti-government, anti-war people that I talk to, no one is this ignorant about something they're advocating for.
[00:57:14]  There's, there's not anyone who's like, it's not like if I, you know, if I were talking to Scott Horton or something like that, and I went like, you know, I go, so you're against the American wars, and how many wars are there?
[00:57:26]  He'd go, well, one is too many.
[00:57:29]  You know what I, you know what I'm saying?
[00:57:31]  Like, if like if you were talking to Bob Murphy and you went like, um, like you went like, well, how many boom busts have there been in the last 40 years?
[00:57:43]  And he went, well, any is more than you can, that's too many.
[00:57:47]  Like, wouldn't you immediately go like, wow, I don't, shit, I'm kind of losing respect for this person.
[00:57:53]  I don't think you really know what the fuck you're talking about.
[00:57:55]  Like, here is a woman, a sitting member of Congress who is advocating for a no-fly zone in Russia.
[00:58:03]  And they go, Hey, have you thought about what that will lead to?
[00:58:06]  And she goes, Well, I'm not even going to talk about that.
[00:58:08]  You go, how many nuclear weapons does Russia have?
[00:58:10]  And she goes, a lot.
[00:58:13]  Well, how many?
[00:58:14]  Well, one is one is too many.
[00:58:16]  Like, okay.
[00:58:19]  You don't even know.
[00:58:20]  You're not even in the ballpark.
[00:58:22]  She can't even say hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands.
[00:58:25]  Like, you don't, I don't know.
[00:58:27]  For whatever reason, I found that really, like, as something that stuck out to me is like, wow, that's really crazy.
[00:58:33]  That's really crazy that you don't even fucking know.
[00:58:37]  All right, we'll play one more minute of this lady and then we'll call it quits.
[00:58:43]  Concerned at all that he might use a nuclear weapon against the United States.
[00:58:49]  Is that a concern?
[00:58:50]  Is that something that you consider as you recommend these policies?
[00:58:53]  Of course.
[00:58:55]  Of course, that we're very concerned.
[00:58:57]  And we're also concerned that he may be throwing a biological weapon against the Ukrainians within the next few hours because he cannot take Kiev or Kyiv as he thought he was going to.
[00:59:09]  So of course that we are confronting a dictator.
[00:59:14]  But I think that we should put this into context.
[00:59:17]  And I thank you very much that you're giving me the opportunity.
[00:59:19]  Of course.
[00:59:19]  If we believe in the free world that this is just going to be the first or the last confrontation with a bad actor, we're in for a very big surprise.
[00:59:28]  Because if we do not confront bad actors with strength, then we're going to have China and Russia and Iran and Fidel and Venezuela and Nick Raw.
[00:59:38]  They're watching.
[00:59:39]  Hold on, let me pause it right there.
[00:59:41]  I've got good news for you.
[00:59:44]  Fidel is dead.
[00:59:46]  So don't worry about it, lady.
[00:59:49]  I just took one of those off the table for you.
[00:59:51]  So we're okay.
[00:59:52]  We're okay on that on that front.
[00:59:56]  But like, holy shit, dude, this is really a member of Congress.
[01:00:02]  This is real.
[01:00:03]  This is her real go.
[01:00:04]  Like, this is her.
[01:00:05]  Well, we, of course, yes, we're worried about nuclear war, but if we don't, you know, attack every strong man, then there'll be lots of strong men and all the strong men will be very strong against us.
[01:00:16]  And here's a list of men who are strong.
[01:00:21]  Oh, all right.
[01:00:23]  Well, how about this particularly one, this particular one we're dealing with who has more nukes than any of the other guys you're talking about?
[01:00:31]  Seems like something to think about before you advocate for a no-fly zone.
[01:00:38]  Anything, Rob?
[01:00:40]  Lady's a dumbass.
[01:00:42]  Yeah, okay.
[01:00:42]  All right.
[01:00:43]  I'm sorry.
[01:00:43]  A couple more seconds and then we'll take her off of your screen forever.
[01:00:49]  And needless to say, I've made that argument, you know, for 30 years on television.
[01:00:53]  The question is, are we doing it with all available risks known to the population in whose name we're doing it?
[01:01:01]  So I'm asking you, what do you think the chances are?
[01:01:03]  And I'm sure you've gained this out as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, that Putin uses nuclear weapon against the United States in response to this.
[01:01:10]  What would you calculate the chances of?
[01:01:11]  He can sure that we are taking that into consideration.
[01:01:16]  But what do you think the likelihood?
[01:01:17]  I mean, our viewers are, I'm sure, supporting you.
[01:01:19]  I think most conservatives are on your side.
[01:01:22]  But I just think they should know what the informed view of the likelihood of a retaliatory nuclear strike from Vladimir Putin is.
[01:01:31]  What would you assess it as being?
[01:01:34]  And I repeat, that's a hypothetical question.
[01:01:36]  And I think that he will not take that step.
[01:01:42]  It's just so funny.
[01:01:45]  I mean, that's so funny.
[01:01:46]  He goes, all right, so you're on the committee that thinks about these things.
[01:01:50]  You must have assessed the risk.
[01:01:52]  And so what do you think the chances are?
[01:01:53]  Well, that's a hypothetical.
[01:01:54]  Yeah, that's the hypothetical.
[01:01:56]  Yes, it's a hypothetical question because you would think about what might hypothetically happen.
[01:02:01]  And you might, even if you were really doing that, have done the math and come back with a very good risk assessment.
[01:02:08]  Like every single financial person ever, hey, hypothetically, if oil went to this tomorrow, what's going to happen to my positions?
[01:02:16]  And you would assess that.
[01:02:17]  Like, I mean, Tucker actually fucks up when he goes, no, it's not.
[01:02:21]  No, it isn't.
[01:02:21]  And it is a hypothetical.
[01:02:22]  Yeah, you're right.
[01:02:23]  You should probably think about it because it's something that can hypothetically happen.
[01:02:27]  Isn't that your job assessing what might hypothetically happen and then evaluating it?
[01:02:32]  Yeah, like the positions you're advocating for, like a no-fly zone and sending in more weapons are also hypothetical, you know, like situations.
[01:02:40]  They haven't happened yet.
[01:02:41]  So, yeah, sure.
[01:02:43]  But what a crazy thing to think.
[01:02:46]  Like, if you, if you were to go, hey, I'm advocating you go punch this dude in the face.
[01:02:53]  And you go, okay, but like, if I punch him in the face, like, he might swing back at me and you go, I'm not going to answer hypotheticals.
[01:03:00]  I'm not going to, I'm not going to deal with your hypothetical questions.
[01:03:03]  It is really something to watch.
[01:03:06]  And anyway, that's why I want to play it.
[01:03:07]  We could stop the video there, but it's just, I don't you realize I'm pretty people don't ask me these things like, but this is this is really how crazy things are.
[01:03:17]  And that she's even, and you even saw, like, again, her, her, um, when she reverted back to this identitarian nonsense.
[01:03:25]  Well, I represent the 21st district, and there's a lot of Cuban Americans who do not like the Castros.
[01:03:32]  And then she invoked Fidel Castro, who I guess she's very concerned about, who could come get us all at any time now.
[01:03:40]  But yeah, this is this is really pretty crazy.
[01:03:42]  Now, I understand, you know, and she keeps going off on the anti-communist thing.
[01:03:47]  And Tucker's like, yeah, but you know, I know.
[01:03:50]  But anyway, I mean, what he doesn't mention is that there are no communists in the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore.

=== Tucker Carlson Audience Arguments (03:18) ===

[01:03:57]  That's not what we're up against.
[01:04:00]  But I did think that there was something that I really appreciated there that Tucker said.
[01:04:05]  And this is kind of like the thing that I, you know, I try to, I guess, I try to do as well on this show, on a smaller level.
[01:04:14]  Of course, Tucker Carlson is the biggest show in cable news, and we're not.
[01:04:19]  We're not a small show either.
[01:04:21]  We got a little bit of an audience.
[01:04:22]  And I liked that he went, Look, he goes, I'm sure a lot of my viewers agree with you.
[01:04:30]  And I'm sure there's a lot of conservatives, you know, because he's recognizing.
[01:04:34]  He's going, look, my viewers are the conservative Americans.
[01:04:37]  This is a Republican that he's talking to, you know, and they're going, a lot of them agree with this whole peace through strength, Reaganism, you know, bullshit that's fucking ruined the country, but whatever.
[01:04:48]  But a lot of them agree with this.
[01:04:50]  And he's going, I just think they should know what's the likelihood.
[01:04:55]  What do you put it at?
[01:04:56]  You know, 2%, 5%, 10%?
[01:05:00]  Like, what, what do you, because whatever that is, understand that you're talking about that's the percentage chance of like hundreds of millions of people dying.
[01:05:12]  So, what do you put that at?
[01:05:14]  And, and that's a really important question, you know, and just in the same way that you said right there, Rob, that like anyone who was giving like financial advice or something like that would have to have an answer for this.
[01:05:24]  So, whatever your answer is, it's a really important thing to know.
[01:05:28]  Because if you were going to say that you're like, hey, it's only a what 2% chance, just for the sake of argument, right?
[01:05:37]  If you were going to say it's a 2% chance that if we, you know, you know, institute this no-fly zone in Ukraine, that there, that Vladimir Putin drops nukes on America.
[01:05:50]  It's like, okay, well, that's a 2% chance that New York City is destroyed or Los Angeles is destroyed or Washington, D.C. is destroyed.
[01:06:00]  2% is not that low, you know?
[01:06:04]  Again, I know I'm just pulling this number out of my ass.
[01:06:06]  I'm just like saying, for the sake of argument, think about a number like that.
[01:06:09]  Like that, that would probably be more than enough to justify not doing it.
[01:06:16]  You get my point?
[01:06:17]  Like, we shut down the country for 0.000, whatever change.
[01:06:22]  Exactly.
[01:06:23]  Exactly.
[01:06:24]  So the idea that if there was like a 2% chance that tens of millions of Americans could die over whether Vladimir Putin controls Ukraine or not, I think most Americans, if they really thought about that, would go, yeah.
[01:06:38]  And so that's like, yeah, we don't want to do that.
[01:06:41]  So that's the point Tucker's trying to make.
[01:06:42]  He's like, hey, look, my audience would probably be for what you're doing, but I want them to know what the risk is.
[01:06:50]  And I feel like I try to do that a lot.
[01:06:52]  Like I try to go like, look, I know my audience is a lot of libertarians, but here's why I think libertarians should think about things this way.
[01:06:58]  And this is why I think they should be on this side.
[01:07:01]  And so I just appreciate that he's trying to do that.
[01:07:04]  I think I appreciate that he fucking had this congresswoman on.
[01:07:08]  And, you know, at least to the intelligent viewers exposed, fucking dumb she is.

=== Upcoming Podcast Tour Stops (00:41) ===

[01:07:15]  All right.
[01:07:16]  That's going to be our episode for today.
[01:07:18]  We'll be back very soon.
[01:07:20]  Well, I got some plugs.
[01:07:22]  Oh, yeah.
[01:07:22]  Yeah.
[01:07:22]  Yeah.
[01:07:23]  Robbie the Fire Bernstein.
[01:07:24]  What do you got?
[01:07:24]  First is check out Run Your Mouth.
[01:07:26]  Also, follow me on social media, Robbie the Fire.
[01:07:28]  I post clips.
[01:07:29]  So even if you're not listening to the little shows, check out the clips on Instagram.
[01:07:33]  I got Colorado next weekend, Ski Gig, and then Connecticut at the end of the month doing the LP thingy thing.
[01:07:40]  There you go.
[01:07:41]  Should be fun.
[01:07:42]  I'll be in Minnesota and in Dallas, Texas at the Mises Caucus event there.
[01:07:50]  And then I'll be at Reno for the big national convention.
[01:07:54]  A lot of fun stuff coming up.
[01:07:55]  All right.
[01:07:56]  That's our episode.