 Russia. So today was revealed that the government suspects that Russia is hacked into the Homeland Security, into Treasury, and into a number of other government agencies. Hard to tell what they got, what they took, but this is a long pattern of Russia intervening, Russia hacking, stealing. I mean I know there's no question in my mind the Russians intervened in the 2016 election. They tried to intervene in 2020. I think we better prepare it. There's no question Russia undermines the United States everywhere and anywhere that it can. Russia is no friend of the United States. Putin's whole philosophy of governance is the opposite of the philosophy of governance on which this country is built. Russia is a bad player in the world. It is the aggressor in Ukraine, and it has ambitions. Putin has ambitions, although I don't think they'll be fulfilled, to retake, if you will, the Soviet Union, to remake the Soviet Union. He calls the Soviet Union dismantling of the Soviet Union the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. We're talking about the 20th century where you had a Holocaust of World War II, World War I, World War I. You had a lot of tragedies, but the greatest according to Putin is not the creation of the Soviet Union and the enslavement of hundreds of millions of people, but the breaking up of the Soviet Union. Russia has always wanted to dominate. It is no friend. It is an enemy. Luckily, maybe not luckily, maybe because they're so autocratic authoritarian. Russia is pretty weak. Russia's cassettes in their labs, in their computers, in Russia and hack, but they can't deploy a serious army in the field. They can't present a significant threat to the United States in any real dimension other than they have good programs. But one should not diminish the threat that Russia represents. Yes, Putin is an ex KGB thug and one committed to Russian supremacy. Luckily, I mean, again, a consequence, I think of Putin's rule, a consequence of bad rule from a lot of different Russian leaders. Russia's economy is not, is not a healthy economy. It's not a good economy. It's not a growing economy. It's not a prosperous economy. So he doesn't have the resources to engage in more disruptive activities. And one of the things, the many things I disliked about Trump was his attitude towards Putin, his friendly, almost groveling attitude towards Russia. And yeah, Russia has nukes. But it's not suicidal. So it's unlikely Russia would ever use the nukes if it feared that nukes would be used against it. And I'm always, I'm also have to admit, somewhat dubious about how well they would work. Would they hit their targets? Would they reach their targets? Would they blow up when it happened? Michael asked if for $500 I'd review them show the man in the high castle. Yes, I would, but I've only watched the first season. So my review would be based on the first season. I've not watched the other two seasons. So if you want a full review of all three seasons, one that'll take time because I have to watch them and it'll probably take more than 500 bucks. But for 500 bucks, I totally review the first season. We need allies. We don't need allies. And our allies, in this case, our allies are NATO NATO's far better ally than Russia. Russia's clearly anti the US is committed to an anti US agenda. And Hillary is no closer to Putin than Trump is. Trump indeed is much closer to Putin and much more immersed with Putin. So I don't get, I don't get any of these explanations. I mean, I have a theory about why Trump and Putin is so close. And it has both to do with Trump's general adoration of authoritarians. But it also, you know, we won't know until we see more about Trump's finances. But I wouldn't be surprised if some Russian oligarchs have over the years invested in Trump projects. And I thought that for, since before the 2016 elections, because Americans, I mean, Wall Street wouldn't deal with Trump. No American bank would deal with that's why he had to deal with Deutsche Bank. And where does Deutsche Bank get on? So I'm not scared of Russia, but I'm also realistic about Russia. Russia is an aggressor and actively pursuing an agenda that's anti American. They pursue it in the Middle East. They do whatever they can to go against the United States in the Middle East. And they pursue it globally, including, you know, things like hacking into our servers and things like that and disrupting anything American that they can in any kind of way that they can. Russia is no friend of the United States and should never be treated. Well, let's see, unless they change, never say never should not today be treated as a friend of the United States. And I thought I thought the Trump administration was way too cozy with the Russians. All right. What we need today, what I called a new intellectual would be any man or woman who is willing to think, meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, wins or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist roads. All right. Before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I think at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it. But at least the people who are liking it, you know, I want to see, I want to see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I want to see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know, the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So you know, if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. Let's see your actual views being reflected in the likes. But if you like it, don't just sit there, help get the show promoted. Of course, you should also share and you can support the show at your own book show.com slash support on Patreon or subscribe star or locals and show you support for all for the work, for the value, hopefully you're receiving from this. And of course, don't forget, if you're not a subscriber, even if you even if you just come here to troll or even if you're here like Matthew to defend marks, then you should subscribe because that way you'll know when to show up. You'll know what shows are on when they're on, you'll get notified, right? So yes, like, share, subscribe, support, like, share, subscribe, support. There you go. Easy. Do one or all of those please.