 The radical, fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, and individual rights. This is The Iran Book Show. All right, everybody. Welcome to Iran Book Show on this Sunday night. I'm back. Took a little break there while I was in Austin, Texas. Hopefully you guys managed without me for, what was it, four days. But now I'm back for a very short period of time. I'll be doing shows this week and then, basically, I'll be on the road for three weeks. So starting on Saturday, I travel to Europe. I'll be all over. I'll be in Europe. I'll be in Israel. Those of you who are listening from Israel, come and see me in some of my events. I will be in the UK for a whole week doing a bunch of events, like nine events or something in four days. So something nuts like that. So I just don't know how I'm going to do shows while I'm on the road. We'll try to do them. I'll try to do shorter shows, just updates of where I am, what I'm doing. So we'll call them the travel log. I don't know if I can do one every day. Sometimes I'm doing two talks a day and there's just no time. They will be in odd hours for you in the US, because I'll be in Europe in a completely different time zone. But I will be doing, I'll try to do as many shows as I can. Oh, and the other consideration is, will the Wi-Fi signal be strong enough? But we'll do what we can. We'll try to get as many of these. So I think I'm doing 19 talks or something like that, something like that over the three weeks. So that should be fun. For those of you interested, I will be posting on Twitter and Facebook my itinerary, so you'll be able to see where I'm going to be. But for those of you in Europe, just quickly, I will be speaking in Amsterdam, in Ghent, in Vienna, in Reims, outside of Paris, and in Edinburgh, in Scotland. From there, I'll be flying to Israel, where I'll be speaking in Berchewa and in Tel Aviv. From there, I go to a conference in Lisbon, and then I'll be speaking at the University of Bristol. I'll be speaking at a high school, I'll be speaking at the University of Sussex, I think, then another high school, then at the University of Exeter, then another high school. Then I'm going to be doing an event for Einmann Center UK in London. And then, hopefully, I still haven't heard a final word, I'll be speaking at King's College, which is, of course, the place where Antifa attacked me. So it'll be interesting to see if they let me speak there or if I'm banned from campus, because Antifa attacked me. You'd think they banned them. No, but I think they'll ban me. And then I'll be speaking at the Einmann Institute Conference in London, which I hope many of you are coming to, particularly if you live in Europe. Ryan asked, is the Edinburgh talk open to anyone? Yes, it is. It's definitely going to be interesting. The Edinburgh one, I'm going to be talking about why modern art is not art. So I'm going to be talking about what is art, and I'm going to be talking about why modern art doesn't qualify. And that should be, it's sponsored by the Classical Art Student Association. So that should, well, people up a little bit, that should be exciting. Jonathan, thank you for the support. I really appreciate it. So that's kind of the schedule. Most of those events are open to the public, and not all of them. Some of them are private. But most of those events are open to the public. So if you live in Amsterdam, or if you live in Vienna, or close, or if you live in Edinburgh, or if you live anywhere in the UK, gazillions of events. Unfortunately, in the UK, other than Edinburgh, everything is going to be south of London. London and south. There's nothing north of London. But all the universities that have asked me to speak are south of London, but Bristol, Sussex, and Exeter. But hopefully, southeast, I guess. But southwest, sorry, southwest. Hopefully, some of you guys can comment. It should be a lot of fun. Yeah, I hope you guys can join us at some of those events. They're going to be happening all over Europe. Eastern Europe, who knows what's going to happen. I'm scheduled to be in, I think, in Budapest, in Bodislava, in Prague, in Kiev, and in Tbilisi, in Kiev, in April, at the last week in April. So right now, certainly, Kiev is off the table. And the rest is on hold. We'll see. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to make it to Romania. If somebody was asking this trip, maybe you can come to Bodislava or to Prague or to one of these other places. Of course, if you want to organize an event for me in Romania, that might be a possibility. But so let me know. Generally, if you're in Europe and you'd like to organize an event, if you're in the UK and you'd like to organize additional events, then please let me know. I will be at Oxford in May 4th. May 4th, I'll be in Oxford. May 3rd, I'll be in Estonia, very close to the Russian border in Estonia. So if you want me to come, you've got to organize an event or find a student group or some other group to organize an event and invite me over. All right, we'll start. So it was in Austin. Just quickly, it was in Austin for an event, a conference on progress organized by, I'll talk about it, by the kind of people in the progress movement. And it was about the moral foundations of progress. So I'll talk about that in the second half of the show after we talk about Ukraine and Russia. I'll get to that. So before we get to Ukraine, of course, let me remind you, Super Chat is open. You can ask questions. Ali and Michael have already asked some questions. Using Super Chat, we've already gotten to like $62. But we need to 10x that because the goal always is to reach $600. And Catherine Mendes is here. And she almost never, ever, ever, she's got a hit rate of like 99% of making sure that we make a goal of $600. So don't disappoint her tonight. You can also support the show. And this is my preferred way. I'm a little worried about March and Super Chat because there are going to be so few shows. Or if there are going to be shows, they're going to be short. And they're going to be from all over Europe. And it's going to be hard for me to manage the Super Chat. So I'm a little worried about Super Chat in March. And that's why it's so valuable to me for you guys to become monthly supporters. And you can do that on Patreon. You can do it on Subscribestar. And you can do it on uranbrookshow.com slash support. So please support the show. I know many of you listen to this not live. Can't do Super Chat anyway. You're listening on a podcast. You're listening on YouTube afterwards. Just go to uranbrookshow.com slash support and make a monthly contribution. It can be $2 a month. It can be $500 a month. It can be $1,000 a month. But those contributions really, really, really help because they're foreseeable. They're steady. They're constant. And even if I'm traveling, spitting the word all over Europe, all over the world, I'll be traveling in the US in April. I'll be in New York, by the way, giving a talk in Connecticut, giving a talk. I'll be in Dallas, probably giving a talk. So I'm covered even when I'm traveling, even though we don't have as much Super Chat. Finally, what did I want to say? I want to say something, finally. And it slipped my mind. Yeah, I'm getting to that point where it's slipping my mind. Anyway, don't forget to use the Super Chat. Don't forget to come on my events in Europe. If you're in Europe or if you want to fly out for one of them, that's great too. And of course, once I have some events lined up for the United States, feel free to come and join me in those events. Quickly, I will do a show on Tuesday at 8 p.m. And on Thursday at 8 p.m., those will be my two shows for this week. And then who knows what happens after that? Because I'll be flying on Saturday. Alex, thank you. Really appreciate that. He says, great commentary in the war and covering Ukraine. Great job and thank you. Thanks for the support. Oh, yes, I wanted to say you can become members on YouTube. Didn't know there was such a feature, but there is. You can become members of the show on YouTube. We will be posting exclusive videos on the member channel. You can just click below to join. I think it's 5.99 or something like that. And you can join and become a member. That's another way in which you can support the show. So I appreciate those of you who are doing that. Thank you and keep it up. And again, this appeal is also for those of you who have not, who are not listening live. So Ukraine is still standing. Kiev is still in Ukrainian hands. The war has not gone the way many thought it would go on those first few days. The war has not gone from all indications the way the Russians anticipated. If you remember in the first couple of days, I anticipated that this would not be a quick and easy victory for the Russians. That even though they might win in the end, this would be very expensive. This would be very costly in blood and in treasure. This is not a cheap war for the Russians. It's a war that they're going to have to manage for months and then they're going to have to occupy for months. This is only going to get worse for them. It is, and while, and of course, it's getting much worse for the Ukrainians. We'll get to that in a minute. But Russia is bogged down. Russia is advancing in some areas, bogged down in other areas. But Russia doesn't have, you know, is now stuck in a war that's going to take a long time. Russian troops have low morale. They have no motivation. Most of them have no clue why they're there, what they're doing there, what they're fighting for exactly. I'm sure there are exceptions to that, but many of them have no clue. They are completely bewildered. Many of them are surrendering. Many of them are dying. Many of them are injured. Thousands of Russian troops from all indications have already been killed. You know, equipment has been destroyed. Replacing that equipment for Russia is super expensive. They've already launched 600 missiles into Ukraine. Those 600 missiles, at some point, Russia runs out of missiles. How are they going to build more? Where does the money come for building more? So the Russian military is challenged. Not to say they can't win. They still very much can win. They still have the upper hand in terms of numbers, sheer force. And the Russians are willing to do something that often wins you wars. And that is they're willing to make the civilian population suffer significantly. And you're seeing that. You're seeing an escalation from the part of the Russians. You're seeing attacks on civilian targets. You're seeing massive civilian casualties on the Ukrainian side. A million and a half Ukrainians have left the country and are now refugees in a variety of different primarily Western European countries. Well, Eastern European countries, really. Poland, Slovenia, sorry, Slovakia, the Czech Republic. Some of them are moving further into Europe. Romania, Moldova, and some into Russia. They're escaping the fighting by go to Russia. There's certainly a percentage of Ukrainians that want to see the Russians win. There's no question about that. But it is a small and I think shrinking percentage of Ukrainians. Jeff says, I like using the thanks feature on YouTube when I watch after hours value for value. Thank you, Jeff. Really appreciate it. $100 Canadian dollars is going a long way to getting out to our goal today. So what you're seeing is a war that's going to last for a long time. What you're seeing a war that is going to be unbelievably costly to Russia and is going to be completely devastating to the Ukrainians. God, some of you are just ridiculous. You know, some of you are, sorry, so this is going to be massively expensive. The economic damage to Russia is hard to imagine. The extent of poverty that is going to afflict Russia, they lack of money to pay people. Wages is coming in the months to come. You will see companies not being able to pay their workers. You'll see massive strikes. If the Russian central banks tries to inflate their way out of this by printing a bunch of rubles, then you will see dramatic inflation. In a sense, you're already seeing it with imported goods going up in price by dramatic percentages. oligarchs close to Putin are probably egging him on. They need victory. They need a quick victory, a slow victory. Huts them. oligarchs that are a little more distant than Putin are probably suing for peace, but they have no influence. They have no influence on Putin. They have no influence on the thugs that's around Putin. And the sanctions are devastating. The cutting off of all trade is devastating. The next step, I mean, what the West needs to do, should do, must do, is start buying oil and gas from Russia. That is the only thing that will, you know, that is the thing that would truly devastate Russia fast. Everything else will devastate Russia, but slowly. The United States should be engaged in massive production of oil and gas at an ever-accelerating rate to compensate for the disruption in oil markets caused by the war. It probably won't do that, unfortunately, because of the Biden administration's greater commitment to BS environmental causes than they are to actually defeating Russia. But that's what should be done. We should be dramatically trying to expand our resources. I'm really happy to see European countries accept these refugees, integrate them into their societies. So they're going to be granted work permits and going to be allowed to start working as soon as they can find jobs. I think that's a boon to these countries' economies. And I think it's the right thing to do, and it's a win-win for everybody, for everybody involved. And it's good to see, in spite of the fact that a million and a half refugees are crossing the border, these countries will be able to integrate them. And jobs will be, you will see, that suddenly there are enough jobs to provide them with work. And again, this will be a boon to the local economies. This is not a net negative. It's a net positive for everybody involved, except the fact that the Ukrainians have been chased away from their homes at the threat of being killed by the fact that Putin's thugs are targeting civilian population areas. And that is happening, by the way, in the South. But it's also happening in the Kiev area. Today, I had a family of four killed trying to evacuate their home and open. And they were explicitly targeted. There was nothing there except them. There was nothing there except civilians. And they were explicitly targeted as they tried to make their way to Kiev. And so the next step, just in terms of the West support, the West is providing, as far as I can tell, large numbers of these missile systems, both anti-tank and anti-air. The Russians are losing aircraft every day, at least one aircraft. Sometimes more helicopters are being shot out of the air. The Ukrainian Air Force is still flying, although Russia today took out one of the Ukrainian airports that I guess they were using to fly out of. So we'll see the consequence to the Ukrainian airport. But the Ukrainian Air Force is still flying. It's still attacking the Russians. It's still going air to air with Russian jets. Ultimately, the oligarchs are all Jewish. That's just not true, St. Louis. I don't know where you get that BS from. They threw me off there. All right. So Western Europe is supplying huge amounts of weapons, particularly the Stingers and the anti-tank missiles. The Ukrainians are getting American and UK-based and other European anti-tank missiles. They're putting them to good use. I've seen a lot of T-72s, T-80s, and T-90s destroyed, all on the side of the road having run out of fuel. The Ukrainians are also now asking for airplanes. It looks like the United States has kind of deal with the Poles. The Poles are going to give the Ukrainians their old Soviet-era MiG-29s, which the Ukrainians know how to fly, because that's basically the airplanes that they had in their Air Force. And the Americans will supply the Poles with F-16s, which for the Poles is a massive upgrade, like the F-16 is a far superior plane to the MiG-29. So I think it's win-win for everybody. If the Europeans can actually resupply the Ukrainian Air Force, if the Air Force is allowed to fly, then again, it's going to be very, very, very expensive for the Russians to keep doing what they're doing. I think this war is a huge indication of how poor the Russian army is, how ill-equipped they are. I told you from day one that Russian equipment is not good. Russian soldiers are not motivated, and Russian strategy sucks. They should stick to playing chess. But in the real world, when you actually fight a war, the Russians are now very good. They never have been. So as I said in day one, everything's playing out the way I said it would play out. The Ukrainian president is still exhibiting the courageous attitude that I think both of us have admired since day one. It's truly amazing to see a political leader as brave, as courageous, as explicit. He doesn't seem to be playing political games. He doesn't seem to be lying. He is saying it as it is. And I give him a lot of credit for rallying the Ukrainian people, for motivating them, for getting the Europeans on his side, in some way, shaming them. I guess my view is, and I said this in the beginning, my view is that while this is not America's war, this is NATO's war in a sense of it is Europe's war. I think if America could extricate itself from this, it can't, but if it could, then yes, the Europeans should provide a no-fly zone. Yes, the Europeans should actually be penalizing Russia much more than they are. It's just not something Americans should be fighting. America should not be in Europe. This is clearly European war and the Europeans should be fighting it. I have to answer this. Edward says, why aren't people celebrating the Ukrainian civilians taking up arms but they didn't support Iraqi civilians doing it when the US invaded? This is the kind of moral equivalency that drives me nuts, that exhibits complete irrationality and a dropping of context. Ukraine is fighting for freedom. Ukraine is fundamentally a free country invaded by a dictatorship that wants to subjugate it, that wants to make it a part of it, wants to conquer it. Iraq was a dictatorship being liberated by a free country whose soldiers, sadly, were being sacrificed, and this is my objection to the Iraq war, being sacrificed to liberate the Iraqis. The Iraqis should have been celebrating the US invasion that got rid of a brutal dictator, a horrific monster by the name of Saddam Hussein. The Ukrainians are being invaded by a horrific monster by the name of Vladimir Putin. To equate the two is not to understand anything about freedom, not understand anything about dictatorship, not understand anything about state sovereignty, not understand anything about what and how motivates people, people who fought against the Americans. Saddam Hussein killed terrorists. Saddam Hussein was a terrorist. He terrorized his own people. He was a monster to his own people. So yes, I'm not sure America should have gone over to kill Saddam Hussein, because it was none of our business, but the Iraqi people should have been celebrating the fact that somebody was willing to rid them of the monster and the fact that they did not indicate that they are collectivistic, tribalistic, and want to be ruled by a dictator, and therefore they shouldn't be celebrated. Saddam Hussein killed terrorists. Saddam Hussein facilitated terrorism, funded terrorism. He harbored terrorism. There were terrorists in Iraq and Baghdad when the invasion happened. And Iraq was a terrorist state, terrorizing its own people, terrorizing its neighbors, terrorizing Israel, terrorizing the West when it saw the opportunity to do so, terrorizing Kuwait. It truly, I know I get a little upset, because it truly is shocking to me that people don't see the difference, and I know it's the same people who like Donald Trump who couldn't see the difference between America and Putin's Russia who thought they were morally equivalent. This idea of moral equivocation all the way is what is destroying the West. And many people who make them moral equivocation think they're fighting for the West. But it's why, again, Donald Trump was not pro-West and why Donald Trump did not represent America, why Donald Trump was horrible, because he equivocated between Putin and America, thought it was the same, just like Iraq and Ukraine are the same. Everything's the same. No difference. Can't tell differences. There's a valid, legitimate, absolutely positive reason for why we so admire the Ukrainians and why we despised the Iraqis. It's much freer than the Russian government. He says Ukrainian government is not free. It's much freer. And it was overthrown because it was shooting its own citizens. It was overthrown legitimately in a legitimate revolution. Again, it's a government that was shooting demonstrators, not freezing their accounts, not putting them in jail, shooting them in the streets. And in response, that was a peaceful revolution that demanded the oust of the president which they achieved. So yes, Ukraine is free. The current president of Ukraine was elected in a vote. 70%, 70%, 70% of Ukrainians voted for him. Nobody said that Trump was saddam. Nobody even implied that, not even close. I said, Trump was like the people making the moral equivocation because he made the same moral equivocation. So they've learned from Trump that the West is nothing special, that freedom doesn't really matter, that dictators and free people are all the same. Dictatorships and free people. That's the sense in which I was talking about Trump. I wasn't comparing him to Saddam. All right, you got me excited. That's good. You woke me up a little bit. It's always good to get me excited. So this is gonna be a disaster for Russia. But the thing about Russia is I don't think they mind disasters. This is a disaster for Russia. They're gonna get only poorer, but Russians are used to suffering. They're used to suffering quietly. There is a younger generation in Russia that is going to object and is gonna not suffer quietly. And it's the freedom loving Russians that I really feel for. But that is truly sad. And I want to say something. Yeah, and the only chance Russia has to get out of this, I think, is deposing Putin. And that is completely up to people in the Kremlin and the oligarchs that are close to Putin. They're gonna have to decide at some point to get rid of him. But that is the only hope Russia has of escaping the trap that they have laid for themselves, a trap that puts them into a situation where they are going to be poorer. I don't know if you saw, but thousands of people today were arrested in Russia for protesting against the war. This is who you guys are defending. You guys would love Putin. Thousands of people today were arrested and put into jail. I guess that's what some of you want to happen in the US. As long as it's left is put in jail, you're probably okay with it. You know, Russia is gonna become a police state. It is gonna become more totalitarian. It's gonna become more dictatorial. And I think it's gonna be really, really interesting. Really, really interesting to see how it plays out. You're not calling it how it is, Edward. You're making up stuff. You're provoking and distorting reality. It's not that each side had different facts. It's that one side has facts and the other side, the other side makes them up as they go along. They reinterpret history to suit their version. You are no different than the nemoxis and the leftists and the CRTs, the 1619 project who are making up history as they go along, who reinvent history to make it appeal to their vision of reality. Both sides do not have facts. One side has facts, the other side has fantasies. You're talking exactly like a leftist. And this is what's shocking. The right and the left, the radical, the extreme right, the extreme left, are both converging. They're both becoming the same. They both have their own set of facts that are different than reality. They both redo history. They both reinvent what is happening in the world. They pretend like your facts are not my facts as if reality is not absolute. They make stuff up. And then they have a whole policy agenda. They run with policy based on these complete made up facts. Friend Harper, thank you. I like it when people send me dollars because of my rent. All right, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go through, I see there are a lot of super chat questions that relate to events in Ukraine. So we're gonna go over those quickly. So I'm gonna go do those. The ones that are not directly related to Ukraine, Russia, I will delay until later in the show. All right, just a quick one. I wanna remind, we've got over 200 people watching. I wanna remind you before you leave, just click that like button. It really helps the algorithms. It helps with the show if you do that. Ali says, I contacted Daniel Bonovak. I don't know who Daniel Bonovak is and asked him if he's okay to be in your show. To my surprise, he actually met you before. I submitted all this contact information and he'll ask you on page. I'm willing to sponsor the segment or show. I'll look into it. I haven't seen that, but I don't remember who Daniel Bonovak is, so you'll have to forgive me. Okay, Michael asks, why hasn't Russia been able to crush Ukraine already? They must be completely incompetent. Yes, I told you from day one. I mean, people don't listen to me. You don't listen to me, it's your own, right? Russian equipment is pathetic. Russian soldiers are unmotivated and Russia's strategy is useless. It always has been this way. This is not new. And they are used to fighting significantly inferior forces. They're used to fighting people who are not motivated and they used to be able to kill civilians like they did in Syria without any consequences. This time, they've come up against the force of Ukrainians that have a state of the art Western equipment, at least in the realm of anti-tank and anti-aircraft and they have Turkish drones. They have six really, really, really good Turkish drones that are wrecking havoc on Russian equipment. They've come up against the force that's highly motivated that since 2014, since Russia to Crimea have in a sense been planning and ready for this. They still might win, the Russians still might win but it's gonna take them weeks and it is gonna take them many, many more lives than it took them. Remember, we're ready into day 11. I remember people right here on the chat telling me that the Russians were gonna take care of within days, none of them apologizing or none of them are, and calling me names and ridiculing me, none of them apologizing for ridiculing me and all of that when that happened. But anyway, so yes, Russia is pretty incompetent. Ukrainians have fought bravely. Again, I think the president of Ukraine, you cannot overestimate how important what he's done is, he is inspiring, and if he inspires us in the West, imagine what he's doing to his own people, was often won by the party that is most motivated, that is most committed, and the Ukrainians are defending their homes, they're defending their civilians, they're defending their families. There's no bigger motivation, selfish motivation to defend your home. What is the selfish motivation of these Russian soldiers? None. I don't always get it right, Taisy, and everybody said that, right? I did not think Putin would attack. So, I don't always get it right, but sometimes I do, sometimes I do. So, yeah. Michael says, we accuse Russia of being extremely mystical and barbaric, but isn't there a ton of mysticism still baked into the West? Yes, it's just a matter of degrees of mysticism, and Russia is a far more mystical culture, a far more mystical people, not just in their Orthodox Christianity, but also just in their superstitions, in just their whole attitude towards life and the world, it is a mystical attitude, and while there is mysticism in the West, while there is mysticism all around us, certainly in America, it is an issue of degree, just like, unfortunately, freedom in this context is an issue of degree. Is Ukraine a bastion of laissez-faire capitalism or Republican government? No. But is it freer than Russia? Is it basically overall trending in the freedom direction? Yes. That's why you should've given them your support. It's a matter of degrees, whether that is the reality in which we live. We live in a gray world. We live in lots of grays, let's see. So, yeah, I mean, Zelensky is being truly amazing, truly amazing at every level. He is a hero, is the greatest politician of life today, in my view. There's nobody in the world today in politics who comes even close to this guy. He is articulate, he is smart, he is motivated, he is brave, he is a true hero. I don't know of any politician you can say that about in anyway, certainly in the United States, but anyway, so my hat off, I don't wear hats, but if I had a hat, I'd say my hat off is, Michael, repeating the same stupidity over and over again does not make it true, but go ahead. I'm sure people won't block you as a consequence. Michael, I'm gonna leave that for later. I'm gonna leave that one for later. Uh, Jeff, thank you again for the generous support. Leave that one for later. Okay, Frank says invasion of Ukraine seems to be like 1914, German invasion of Belgium. The Belgians were sitting ducks and outnumbered by the Germans, please comment. No, I think it's very different. I mean, the weapons are different. You know, the whole invasion of Germany in 1914, you know, there were no mobile armies really. It was a static invasion. You had these trenches, of course, to the Belgium's aid, immediately the French and the British joined them, so it wasn't just Belgium up against the Germans. It was all these other countries. So no, I don't think it's the same. I think it's a very different war and the fact is, Ukrainians are alone here and the Belgians were not alone. Were not alone. I don't understand this one. Hoppe Campbell says to be a true fighter, you have to be the hammer and the nail. That's an interesting idea. I have no idea what that means. Chris says, do you think Putin may resort to using nukes out of desperation and if so, will the West take more active role? I don't think Putin will use nukes in Ukraine because, you know, remember, a lot of Russians have family members in Ukraine. One of the shocking things about the war is Ukrainians are calling up their family members in Russia and telling them what's going on in Ukraine and the Russian family members won't believe them because they completely, like I guess some of the people in this chat, they've completely bought into Russian propaganda, completely bought into Russian propaganda. So they don't believe that Ukrainian children or cousins or uncles or whatever, they just think they're lying to them. But a nuke you can't hide. Radiation could easily drift towards Russia. Radiation could also drift towards the West. So I do not believe that Putin would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The only time Putin would use nuclear weapons is against the West. And this is a real fear, I think. I think the probability is very, very low, but you know, I've been wrong about Putin before, right? But if Putin is so desperate and he thinks that the only way for him as an individual to get out of this is an all-out war with the West or a preemptive strike against the West, then he could conceivably launch nuclear weapons. But I just don't think he or the people around him or the generals in Russia are suicidal. I just don't see any of them committing suicide because that's what it would mean. If he used nuclear weapons in Ukraine or anywhere else, it would be the end of Russia and certainly the end of him and the end of many of the people surrounding him and the end of the people. I mean, in today's world, that one act is completely and equivocally unforgivable and the world would not forgive it. And he would lose, well, we would all lose a nuclear war, but certainly he would lose, but he would lose a conventional war against the West. Any attempt by him to attack the West and get the West involved in this war would mean that he would be crushed within days. People don't have a conception of how powerful Western armies are and to the extent that it took America, I don't know, three weeks to conquer Iraq, that was only because the whole thing was slowed down by every possible attempt made by the Americans not to kill civilians, even at the expense of getting Americans killed. The Americans placed a higher value on the lives of Iraqi civilians than they did on the lives of their own soldiers. But if it was all out war with Russia, forget it. Russia wouldn't survive more than a few days. Okay, I'll keep that one. Keep that one. Is it right for the West to punish innocent Russian civilians with sanctions to defeat Putin? Are they just collateral damage in war? Yes, they're collateral damage in war. And look, most Russians are not innocent. Most Russians are not innocent. Most Russians support Putin. Putin has a large number of Russians vote for him, large number of Russians adore him. There are pictures now of Russian cars and Russian civilians wearing Z's, flying Russian flags with Z's on them, all in support of the war in Ukraine. So one has to ask a question about how many Russian innocents are there? But in a war, innocents die. In a war, innocents are harmed. And in order to defeat or at least punish Putin and his people around him and the leadership and Russia, you're punishing Russia. Then innocent people who object to Putin's regime are going to suffer. That's just a reality that there's just no way to escape. There's no way to just punish some people. You can't win a war that way. You can't do anything that way. I will wait for that one. Have you heard of Dr. Frederick Kagan, lately PhD in Russian and Soviet military history, Yale? Yes, I've read some Kagan's work. I have not seen anything he's done on this. I should probably look him up because he's quite smart and quite thoughtful, but I'd be curious what he has to say about Russia. But yes, after 9-11, I read when I was doing a lot of research on foreign policy and reading a lot of foreign policy, I read a number of his papers, Frederick Kagan out of Yale. Let's see, Landon says, shockingly, everyone left and right has seemed to condemn Russia except Trumpists and Libertarians. Libertarians are really bad about moral equivocations. Yes, they are because the thing that animates Libertarians more than anything else is hatred for America. They despise the state. And as a consequence, they despise the American state, the most successful state ever, more than anyone else, more than anyone else. Great, let's see. Anonymous user says, are the Baltic Scandinavian or Eastern European countries at any risk of further Russian aggression? I don't think so. Not anytime soon, not in the next couple of years. Putin is gonna be licking his wounds and trying to absorb Ukraine. I don't think he's gonna have time for those countries. Plus, they're all members of NATO and any attempt by him to invade them would lead to a crushing, overwhelming, and very quick defeat of his forces. So he doesn't have a chance. Chad says, you indicated environmental regulations are creating dependence on Russia enabling war. The left has benefited from its blood money slogan and few argue against it. Could we tie something like that to the environmentalists? Absolutely, I mean, Russia has been actively funding groups that fight against fracking in the UK, that fight against fracking in Ukraine and in other parts of Europe. He has been funding environmentalist groups all over the world to restrict the extraction of resources so that the world is more and more dependent on him, on Russian resources, on Russian natural gas, on Russian oil. Yes, we can definitely tie Putin to segments and parts, of the environmentalist movement. There's no question about it. I've seen stories about it. It's just a matter of somebody needs to do the research and needs to raise that banner and make a big deal out of it. Capitalist Nick says, do you think that Europeans will carry on their threat to boycott Russian oil and gas? Brent Crude is at 130 right now and it would drive it north of 150. Politically, its suicide as inflation would go north of 10%. I don't know if Europeans are gonna do it. They certainly haven't yet. I mean, even the Biden administration hasn't done it and of course, we are a lot less dependent on Russian oil than Europe is. We are somewhat dependent because as I think I've told you in the past, Russian oil is heavy oil. Our refineries in Houston and in Louisiana, that we have a number of refineries that need to mix that heavy oil with light oil in order to produce, I think it's things like jet engine fuel. They cannot do it with American oil. American oil is too light. The only other place that has, the only two places that have heavy oil are Venezuela, which we're not buying Venezuelan oil. And Canada, and that was the whole point of the Keystone project of the pipeline, was to bring that Canadian heavy oil to the south. And so the reason we import Russian oil is not because we don't produce enough oil in the US. It's because we don't produce the kind of heavy oil that the Russians, Venezuelans, and Canadians produce. And that is why we're dependent. You know, oil is going up in price. The only remedy for that is to produce more. Even if we said to people, go produce as much oil as you want, we're gonna lift all barriers. It takes time. But prices will come down once you start pumping oil because prices reflect anticipation about the future. Charlie says Marco Rubio basically docks Zelensky, despite them telling him not to show its location. During the video call, the line between evil and incompetence is really blurred indeed. Yeah, it was Rubio and one other senator. It's pathetic, pathetic. Talk about the difference between political leaders with courage and bravery and articulate and inspiring and losers like Marco Rubio and the rest of our senators, Republicans and Democrats. Okay, we'll do that. Jacob asks, what is the greatest force multiplier in modern war? Is superiority, good logistics, real-time communication a motivated army? Look, I think a motivated army is always the multiplier. Modern war, old-style war, you cannot replace a motivated army. There's nothing that can compensate for having no motivation. So that would be number one. Beyond that, I think it really depends. I don't think you have to have a superiority necessarily. I think the most important thing probably of the ones you've listed, well, you didn't list any of them. I think the one, you didn't list the one I'm thinking of. The one I would think of is technological superiority. And that means across the entire spectrum of weapons systems. So to dominate the A, you need the best aircraft. To dominate the land, you need the best anti-tank missiles, or you need the best tanks. And you need tanks that allow your crews to survive. That's one of the reasons people are motivated. If I'm on a T-72, I'm not staying in the T-72. I'm running for the hills because the T-72s, I'm gonna die. They're not built to protect the crew. American tanks, Israeli tanks, German tanks, are built to a large extent to protect the crew. So you can hit, you can do a direct hit on an Israeli-Milk Kavai, you can do a direct hit on an M1 Abrams, and the crew will survive. Now think about the motivation of the crew to fight when they know that the people who are buying and designing weapons for them are designing weapons systems that protect them versus the Russian system, which is designing boxes for their own people to die in. So motivation and technology, I'd say are the two things. Technology is what will get you good logistics. Good logistics are less important if you can fight a quick war. And for example, if you dominate the air, logistics are less important, right? Because the air superiority will buy you time. If you have great technology, again, you could buy time for the logistics. And of course, real-time communication is crucial, but at another one which relates to technology, night vision, I mean, it is astounding. I've said this before on a show. It's astounding that the Russians have such poor technology when it comes to night vision. From all indications, they don't like fighting at night. Whereas the Americans and the Israelis love fighting at night because they have a clear advantage. They have better technology. They can see the enemy in ways because they have all kinds of technologies to be able to see the enemy. The Russians don't have it for some reason, which is shocking. It's not that hard. We had really good night vision technology in the early 1980s. So they're 30 years, no, 40 years behind. So night vision, you know, the tanks should be equipped with it. The tanks should all be able to operate smoothly at night. It's truly shocking how, you know, the whole idea that the Ukraine war was launched at daybreak, at dawn, right? That's how wars were fought 50 years ago. It's not how wars should be fought today. So technology at all levels. Danks, danks, right? So American media is consisting anti-Russian for years at the same time NATO expanded. What do you expect? Of course, Russians felt threatened. Of what? From what? Who is invading Russia? NATO expanded by not shooting one shot. NATO expanded by not being aggressive to anybody. American media has been consistently anti-Russian for years because Russia is a, what is the technical term? Shit whole country, I think Trump defined it. It's a terrible place. It's an authoritarian place. It's a corrupt place. It's a terrible place. So yes, I've been anti-Russian. My whole life was anti-Russian when they were Soviet Union. And I was pro-Russian for a brief period in the 1990s when I thought they'd be free. But once they abandoned freedom, rejected freedom, embraced Putin and embraced authoritarianism, embraced dictatorship, embraced thuggery, then I'm anti-Russian. I've been to Russia and going to Russia only reinforced my anti-Russian. So I don't have anything against the Russian people, but I am surely against Russia as a political entity is a threat to the world. It's done nothing but be aggressive. What did they have to invade Georgia for? I mean, Georgia is a wonderful country that I really love. What did they have to invade Ukraine for in 2014? What did they have to get intervened in Syria? And in none of those places was there motivation to bring freedom and liberty to the people of the country or to kill enemies of Russia because Russia has no enemies. Nobody's threatening Russia, Chechnya maybe, but nobody's threatening Russia. Nobody's attacked Russia. Nobody's ever said, we're going to invade you, just you wait. Russia is the aggressor. Russia is the unfree, Russia is the villain. And being anti-Russian for so many years is the right rational moral position to have. It deserves it. So again, Russia's never been free in any sense. Again, there was a short period in the 1990s where we thought maybe it would happen there. And I've been to St. Petersburg, I've spoken twice in St. Petersburg, I've spoken in Moscow, and they're good people in Russia. They're wonderful people in Russia, but they have no influence. They have no power. Russia is dominated by culture of mysticism, collectivism, tribalism, and warmongering. Russia has had nothing to fear of NATO. It could have joined NATO for all I care. If Russia was a free country, why didn't it just join NATO? Why would it care if Ukraine's a member of NATO or not? Now, I don't believe the United States should go to war with Russia because Russia is not a threat to the U.S. But the Europeans, they should be fighting Russia right now. Anonymous users says, I've read books, listened to intellectuals, and watched documentaries on Russian Nazi military technology. Why is it that it is always depicted as omnipotent and indestructible as opposed to Western? Because the people who write about it, I mean, there is a mythology that central planning is a beautiful, efficient, amazing thing. And that even though, you know, even though the Nazis were evil and communism was evil, the way they organized industry was somehow an ideal and that manifested itself in their weapons. And the fact is, the fact is that none of that is true. The central planning is a disastrous way to build anything. That weapons systems build under central planning and by authoritarian regimes in collectivized situations are lousy. They're not good. In World War II, the weapons systems that the American build were far superior to the German systems. The radar was invented in Britain with American scientists' help, not in the Soviet Union or in Nazi Germany. The weapons systems, the West developed were far superior to the Soviets, to the Russians, to the Germans because they were free. There's a good book now, I think it's by Victor Davis Hansen, showing the vast superiority of the West weapons versus the Nazis in spite of all this mythology. But it's the fact that too many of intellectuals enamored by, enamored by, authoritarianism, enamored by collectivism and centralized planning, enamored by forms of socialism. Answer that in a minute, let's see. Fendt Hoppe says, have you seen a US army striker? I used to work in one as a medic and really want one. I know I haven't. I'm curious now what it is. DanksDanks asks, comment on John Mersheimer's take on Ukraine. He's wrong. He was wrong in 2015. Not wrong in assessing what Putin would do. He was right about assessing the madman Putin's motivation and so on. But he was wrong in taking, in justifying the Russian take on things. Russia has no legitimate grievance against the West. None, zero, zilch. It is not threatened by NATO troops in Estonia. The only threat NATO troops pose being in Estonia against Russia is the fact that Russia cannot take Estonia whenever it wants. Russia can't bully Estonia whenever it wants. Russia can't reestablish the Russian Empire. So if you think that the Russian Empire is legit, then yeah, yeah. But the Russian Empire is not legit. Russia has borders, stick with those borders. Nobody's threatening. Nobody is threatening Russia's borders, except maybe some Muslims in Chechnya and some other in the Caucasus region. Nobody is the threat to Russian borders. China's more of a threat to Russian borders than NATO's. Russia, China has some disputes about borders in the East. Nobody disputes Russian borders in the West. Nobody. Russia just bullies collectivistic authoritarian bullies. And instead of an academic like Marshaima saying, yeah, this is what Russians think and they're wrong. Spheres of influence comparing it to the Monroe Doctrine. The fact is that in spite of the Monroe Doctrine, the United States did not invade Cuba. Yeah, we supported the Bear Pigs, but not much. We obviously didn't invade Cuba. In spite of the fact that Cuba was a Russian satellite, Soviet satellite. Yeah, we supported rebels in Nicaragua and so on, but we did not invade Nicaragua. Police not in the 20th century or the late 20th century to make it us, to rid it of the communists. Communists were there, in spite of the Monroe Doctrine. Communism, by the way, is an ideology of expansion. Communism is actually a threat. So having Cuba as a neighbor to the United States was actually a threat to the United States. But Western countries for the last, since World War II, have no ambitions of expansion. Have no ambitions to use force to expand. Mershima is wrong on the whole approach, on his evaluation, primarily in his moral evaluation, on his political evaluation. And it's people like him that give Putin cover. Look, even people in the West think I'm right. It's sad, sad to see American intellectuals buy into this idea that Russia's threatened by NATO. Yeah, Putin is threatened by NATO, because it upsets his expansionist ambitions. Well, that's the point of NATO. It's to protect Europe against Putin's expansionist. Now, again, I don't believe the United States should be a NATO. But exactly because of what's going on in Ukraine right now, they could get U.S. involved in a war that is none of its business. Darius asked, do you think America should ally with Ukraine and supply them, go to war with Russia, or just stay out of it completely? I think we should supply them. No reason not to supply them. But we should not go to war with Russia. This is not our war. It's Europe's war. Let Europe deal with it. We should be on alert. We should be ready to defend ourselves in case Russia does do something to attack us. But we should supply the Ukrainians and let them fight it out. Maybe NATO cannot exist without the U.S., and it doesn't deserve to exist. It's very simple. There's no reason, NATO, objective reason why NATO can't exist without the U.S. Europe is very wealthy. Both the United Kingdom and France have nuclear weapons. They could provide an umbrella to the rest of Europe. And they have the money to build weapon systems. They build good weapon systems. They could buy weapons systems from the United States. But NATO, there's no reason in the world why NATO cannot exist without the U.S. Other than you say the Europeans are pathetic. Okay, but that's the problem is them being pathetic. Not the problem. There's no actual reason why they can't overcome their pathetic nature. They're acting more better now than they have in a long time. All right, what else do we have? I think we're done. Woo, we haven't went over an hour. All right, we're still, we did Ukraine with over an hour. All right, let's turn to the question of progress. Ragnar of the Desert, thank you. Really appreciate that. Corey, thank you. Corey says, where do the accusations of Ukraine being controlled by Nazis fascists come from? Is there any element of truth to this claim? By that I mean, are there actual fascists within the Ukrainian government whether they are actually in control or not? So to answer the second part of the question, no. As far as I know, there are no fascists in the Ukrainian government. I mean, obviously the Russians have a government full of fascists. It is a fascist government. By definition, Russia is fascist. But as far as I know, there are no fascists in the Ukrainian government. There's certainly, the president of Ukraine is no fascist or certainly no Nazi. He's Jewish after all. They are fascists, neo-Nazi elements within Ukraine. Just that they are fascist neo-Nazi elements within the United States. They are neo-Nazi groups within the US. They sometimes march. They sometimes go to Charlottesville and do little torch ceremonies where they declare that Jews will not replace them in blood and soil. They are in the United States. They are present in the United States. And they are present in Ukraine. And around 2014, Russian propaganda dug up some of them and found that some of these neo-Nazis had formed like kind of a brigade within the Ukrainian resistance in eastern Ukraine fighting against the Russians. And there was the Ozov brigade, I guess, was primarily these fascists and Nazis. And since then, I think there's very little evidence that that brigade today is dominated by Nazis or fascists or that it is grown dramatically. But yes, there were some neo-Nazis and fascists associated with that brigade. They have been politicians in Ukraine that I think are fascists. But they're fascists because they're Putin's cronies. They're fascists in the sense that they're pro-Putin. I can say to anybody pro-Putin, pro-fascists. So they are Nazis in Ukraine. They are Nazis in Germany. There's a whole political party in Germany that used to be a neo-Nazi political party. They're Nazis all over Europe. As I said, they're Nazis in the United States. And in Ukraine, because there was a war, because basically they were fighting the Russians for survival in 2014, anybody who was willing to carry a gun, as is right now, anybody willing to carry a gun, was given a gun. And these guys organized into a brigade. There's no evidence that that brigade is still Nazi or fascist or growing or significant. Of course, Kyle says, Ozov is a militia controlled by Poroshenko, who isn't in power anymore. Small minority that are a number of Nazis in the Russian Fed. Again, this is Poroshenko, if I remember right, was pro-Putin, was pro-Russia. So if anything, the Nazis and fascists are going to more likely be pro-Russia than they are going to be pro-Ukraine that is run by a Jew, whose president is a Jew. So this whole thing is, again, it's stunning to me, people buying into Russian propaganda and just getting it fed to them and just buying into it. And it's not an accident. Yeah, that's good. I like that. Valkoron says, not Russia's business if Ukraine has Nazis. Unless Canada should declare war on the United States, because Idaho has some Nazis waiting around in the hills. There are a lot of Nazis, and neo-Nazis and fascists and white supremacists in the mountains in Idaho, a lot of them. It's like the bastion in the US. So I guess Canada should declare war to take them out. That whole thing is just, Western propaganda is easy to check up on. You can figure it out. And for the most part, for the most part, the Western news is pretty accurate versus Russian news. You know, this is the thing, Edward. You guys, Edward and those who agree with Edward, you're basically advocating for authoritarianism. You're saying there's no difference between propaganda that comes out of authoritarianism and propaganda that comes out of media in the West, where there's competition, by the way. There's no difference between freedom and slavery. There's no difference between fascism and, you know, a mixed economy. There's no difference between Russia and Ukraine. There's no difference between Russia and the West. We're all the same. That makes, you know, that makes you worse than authoritarianism. I mean, you are the fifth column. All right, I don't think you guys are gonna let me talk about anything else today. I'm at it to talk about the science of progress next time. Dario says, do you think the draft of men 18 to 60 in Ukraine violates the individual rights or is the Ukrainian army justified given the crisis? It violates individual rights, no question. It's a violation of individual rights. But it's what almost any country, every country does. It's a violation of rights that happens all the time. Now, remember that many of the soldiers in the Russian army are conscripted. They're not volunteers, right? So it's a violation of rights that Israel does, that Switzerland does. You have to go into the army for a year and Switzerland conscripted, and Ukraine has done it as well. And I think it's sad that it did it. It should have relied only on volunteers. And it's not that they drafted them. They basically told them they couldn't leave the country. And I think that's horrible. But, you know, I think a lot of things that mixed economies do is horrible. It doesn't make them the moral equivalents of Russia. Daniel says, late to the show, all right. So he says, have you talked about Elon Musk and what he has done lately? I think he is atoning for his sins. We need more Elon Musk. All right, so Daniel, so Thursday show, Thursday show, 7 p.m. East Coast time. We'll be all about Elon Musk. So we'll be at the tire show dedicated to Elon Musk. Good and bad, but primarily to the kind of sense of life and the spirit of Elon Musk. So I have talked about, I talked about last week on the show about the internet that he provided Ukrainians and how that, I think we put out a short video on that on how that represents the American spirit. But I will do a whole show of Elon Musk looking at old videos of his and catching up and talking about his latest tweet about the oil and gas. So we'll do the good, the bad and the ugly of Elon Musk. But the focus is gonna be surprisingly for me because I've moved on this. The focus will be primarily on the good. Because I think at this point, he's a hero. So I've forgiven him for most of his sins. So we're gonna do a whole show on Elon Musk. It would be nice to get a lot on the show. Probably won't come, but it would be amazing to get a lot on Musk on the show, yes. All right, let's see. Okay, OMG Papi says, a popular theory is the conflict between nationalist fascist Russia, China, Iran versus globalist fascist like World Economic Forum. I'm skeptical that the World Economic Forum really is that powerful. It's not. It's clearly not. World Economic Forum is powerful intellectually. It's powerful in trying to set an agenda. But nobody takes it actually fully seriously. Nobody actually executes what they're actually advocating for. And there is no globalist fascist fascism in the world that has political power. There's no globalist fascists with political power in the world today. So yes, the right, the ultra-rights, the new right, the nationalist right would like you to believe that there is a vast globalist fascist conspiracy to take over the world if there is the pretty incompetent and pathetic about doing it. Nathan asked, what is censorship like in Russia? Can the Russian people not access the internet from outside of Russia to get accurate news can Russians leave? A few things about that. One, Russia has blocked Twitter and blocked Facebook and many other websites have been blocked within Russia. So many Russians do not have access to news from outside of Russia. It's very limited. Not only that, Russia just passed a law that if you have found, what do you call it, disseminating misinformation. This is the country by the way that these people are defending. If you have found disseminating misinformation about the war in Ukraine, which they don't call a war by the way, and that means if you talk about casualties of your anti-war, if you talk about Ukrainian resistance or you say anything about the war, you will go to jail for 15 years. Yeah, not too different from censorship in the US. That's right, I'm being censored right now. The US government has blocked YouTube from doing the show and the Twitter has gone off air. I can't be on Twitter, nobody can be on Twitter. And so is Facebook, you guys didn't know, but America is as sensorial as Russia. This is what makes you look like an idiot, Edward. It really does. So censorship is really bad in Russia right now. Only government organs are providing news. Russians have very limited access to outside of Russia. And can Russians leave? I think they can leave, but they can't take any money with them. Not that they have any money at this point, given that the ruble is completely collapsed. I don't know private VPNs are illegal in Russia. You'd have to look that up. It's possible that they are illegal, but it's also possible that even if they are illegal, you could still use them. I'm not sure if it's easy to track them. Yeah, YouTube blocked RT. That's right, not the American government. YouTube can block anybody they want. That's not censorship. But when the Russian government blocks all socialism media other than their own, all social media from the government, not private media companies deciding who they carry and who they don't, that is not on the same scale. That's not the same thing that is not censorship. You guys are still morally equating what YouTube does to what the Russian does. In Russia, you can, for doing this show in Russia, I would go to jail for 15 years. How is that the same as what happens in the United States? How is that the same? Let's say if YouTube decided not to monetize my show. Those are not the same thing. They're not on the same scale. They're not. And if you can't see that, you know, there's certain people I can't help. It's not even, it's not 15 years in jail. RMG puppy says, the globalist theory is where I see most contrary viewpoints. Not people being pro-Putin, but they see Ukraine conflict as a conspiracy to destroy sovereign states that refuse to join the globalist cabal. Who's being destroyed? Who's doing the destroying? Ukraine wanted to join Europe. It probably wasn't gonna join NATO anytime soon, but it wanted to join Europe. It was a sovereign state, a sovereign state choosing to ally itself with Europe. The president of Ukraine won the vote by 70%, the legitimate leader of Ukraine, wanted to join Europe. Most Ukrainians want to join Europe. Who is destroying their sovereignty? Russia is. Russia is invading to prevent them from exercising their sovereignty, from exercising their will, from preventing them from doing what the Ukrainian people as a sovereign people want to do. There is no globalist invasion of Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine. Nationalist fascism invaded Ukraine. Nobody forced Ukraine to join Europe. If you've ever been to Kiev and you've talked to young people, you would know they just want to be European. They want to dress like Europeans. They want to drink like Europeans. They want to hang out with Europeans. They want to listen to European music. They want to be European. They don't want to be Russian. Have you ever been to Russia? It's stiff and cold, cold not in the temperature, cold in the culture. And what Putin is doing is preventing young Ukrainians from doing what they want to do, from exercising their values. Free trade, thank you. Seymour Lee, thank you for the support. How can Ukraine be neo-Nazi when it's run as president by a Jew? It's just God, the misinformation, the ignorance of people is astounding, simply astounding. Shazba says, where is Yakov Smirnov when you need him? Remember him? He could set all of the Russian supporters straight. Nobody is going to be able to set the Russian supporters straight because they're not thinking. And if you don't think, then you can't get straight. You're just mouthing propaganda, mouthing propaganda. And that's all they're doing. And I don't know, and it's coming out of certain elements in the alt-right and certain elements in the right and the libertarian alt-right are mouthing this stuff and then they've got an army of people that just go out there and they repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Troll, troll, troll, troll, troll. How can Russia no detect their information as censored, propagandized if they government blocks any source of truth? Well, I think in a world in which we live today, there are many ways to get information. And the fact is that there are Russians out there demonstrating in the street that know what's actually going on. They know that Putin is the villain. There's still enough openness. There's still enough availability out there of information for honest Russians to actually figure out, if not the whole truth, elements of the truth. But they don't want to know. I told you the story earlier where Ukrainians are calling up their relatives. Some cases, children and their parents in Russia and saying, we're being bombarded by Russian forces. They're blowing up our buildings. Civilian population centers are being hit. And the Russian parents are saying, no, you're lying. You're just feeding us Ukrainian propaganda. They go, like, you know, here, like, show you on my phone. Look, this is what's happening. They won't believe it. That's, you know, they're being purposefully ignorant. Sometimes you want to say, you know, I don't know enough on that topic to speak authoritatively. Sometimes I do say that on this issue, I know enough to speak authoritatively. Yeah. This is not a hard issue. This is an easy one. This is an easy one. Let's see. Actually, I said that at the beginning of the show when Ali asked me about Daniel Bonovak and I said it into who that was. So, anyway. All right. Are we done with, done Ukraine and Russia? I think so. Oh, I'm mouthing propaganda. Catherine sends $50, great rant, Iran. I completely agree that if the Europeans will not defend their own self-interest by fighting Putin's aggression and ceasing to buy his tainted oil, nothing the United States can do will help them. Absolutely. It's on Europe. This is where, you know, it's great to see the Germans actually stepping up and doing something. But the doing will be actually meaningful when they start buying Russian natural gas. You know what? I'm not supportive of what Big Tech does, but to make the equivocation between what Big Tech does and what going to jail for 15 years for misinformation, something's wrong there. And if you can't see that something's wrong, you really screwed up. OMG Puppies is an old Soviet joke. The new Brezhnev stamp was a failure because half the people spit on the wrong side, and the other half licked the backside until the glue was gone. That's still how it is. It is how it is. But you know what's sad about that, OMG Puppies? And what I never thought I'd see in my lifetime is that Americans, there's a segment of the American public that is just as bad. And there's a segment of the American public that treats politicians exactly the same way and treats ideas exactly the same way, that is propagandized to and buys it completely. And they're on the left, they're on the extreme left and they're on the extreme right and they're hopeless. But their irrationality is, and the mentality is a very similar to mentality of those in the old Soviet Union that would either spit or lick. Particularly the lickers. Capitalist Nick says, a Russian assassins tried to eliminate Ukrainian president Zelensky three times. If he is assassinated, does Ukraine resistance fold like a house of cards? Is there anyone else to step in his place? I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know enough about the Ukrainian government, but I will say that I think the spirit goes beyond just this particular president. Again, I've met a lot of young people from Ukraine over the years in Ukraine. And I think they want to fight. The last thing they want is to be under the Russian boot. And I think they're willing to fight for it. And so, whether he's alive or isn't alive, I think at this point you're going to, I think Ukraine is going to continue to fight. All right, let's see. Unrelated questions to Ukraine. Let's go through these. Michael asks, when people say you've got your ego in check, they mean you have self-esteem. So you don't take to toot your own horn. Is this a good term or a package deal? You know, I think it's a package deal. Ego is a package deal. Ego is a good thing. Egoism is a good thing. So ego is a good thing to treat. Ego, putting your ego in check as ego there, representing emotionalism or exploiting other people or things like that, that is a bad phrase. That is a bad phrase. Okay, Brian has another question about Russia. In your opinion, is it justified to use sanctions or embargo on Russia because they're attacking a free country, even if that country is not us? Yes, I think it is. Particularly given that the country doing the attacking is a country that is potentially our enemy, maybe not our enemy potentially such. That is, it's not just some region of the world or two countries involved in a dispute that has no impact on us. Russia impacts us because they have nukes. So the fact that a nuke holding country is aggressive in this kind of way is definitely a concern to the United States and the US should get involved, not by going to war, but at least I think with sanctions. And I don't think we should embargo Russia in a sense of put our fleet together and stop trade with them, right? I just think Americans should stop trading with them. And I think to the extent that the government is involved in certain trades, it should stop trading with them. I would also close my embassy in Russia, I would bring my diplomats, I would send the Russians packing and I would do all those things. But nobody in the US government is willing to do those kind of things. Nobody in the Western government is willing to do those kind of things. Ali says, is it a good way to judge philosophy by, well, let me just, sorry, I thought that was a Ukraine question. Let me copy it over. I'll get to that in a minute. All right, only $20 questions for now on. It's getting late and I'm tired. So let me try to do these quickly. What are your thoughts on the Rothbard book anatomy of the state? I'm looking for a book that systematically presents the moving parts that make up the US government. Objectivism only has presentations of the ideal. I would look elsewhere, I'm not sure exactly, I don't have a recommendation for you, but I don't trust anything Rothbard writes. I just, particularly when it comes to factual stuff, I don't trust it. His history of banking that he wrote of the 19th century is full of distortions and manipulations in order to present his biased view with regard to banks. So I would be skeptical about any book that Rothbard wrote about history. He's a decent, he's a good economist, sometimes economic observations are very good. And I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff in anatomy of the state, but how do you differentiate between what's true and what's bullshit? Brie says, Putin is a sociopath. He gets a kick out of watching people suffer. Yes, he does, including his own people. In an authoritarian system, the most ruthless always comes to the top. The people who defend him know this and will defend him in order to hide it. Yes, and what's shocking, Brie, is the number of Americans willing to defend him. The number of Americans intellectuals, like the guy we talked about earlier, who everybody thinks is justifying Putin, who think he's rational, think this is all okay. Harper Campbell says, students are taught that capitalism prevents history from affording utopia, yes. So you, as a young person, must become an activist against the system. But now it's become more about using race Marxism instead of class Marxism. I don't like the term race Marxism. I think it's philosophically and historically incorrect. I don't consider critical race theory Marxism. It certainly takes elements of Marx, but it doesn't take what I consider the important elements of Marx into account. I don't actually think you can separate Marxism from a class. I also don't think you can separate Marxism from the dialectic. I don't think you can separate Marxism from his utopia. I don't think you can separate Marxism from, what do you call it? The tomb was on the tip of my tongue. Anyway, Marx is, as an entire philosophy. And, yes, some of it is being adopted by the critical race theorists, but I do not think it's right to call them race Marxists. I don't think it's just a Marx, if you will. I think they're much worse than Marxists. I think they're race nihilists. I've said this many, many times. The extreme left are not Marxists, they're nihilists. And these are race nihilists. They want to destroy, they want to pull down. They're uninterested in any kind of utopia. They don't have a utopian dream, like Marx did. And they don't have any kind of, their philosophical foundations are built on the post-modernists and the, God, that German school. Who are critics of Marx, because they identify the fact that Marx had failed. And they were presenting an alternative to Marx. So they are race nihilists, nihilists, however you want to pronounce it. Oh, there's a Ukraine question. Assuming that Belarus' presentation was true, is Moldova morally justified to attack Russia or Belarus? Well, I mean, it would hard for Moldova to attack anybody. Moldova's a tiny little country. It's as far as I know, it doesn't have much of a military. And it certainly can't reach Belarus without going through Ukraine. So that would be problematic because it doesn't have a border with Belarus. But Moldova is certainly justified in helping Ukraine defend itself. It's completely justified in aligning itself with Ukraine because it could easily be Putin's next target because it lies geographically and because how weak and how small it is and because it's not a member of NATO. So yeah, Moldova is, should, I think, alights up with Ukraine and go fight the Russians. Belarus is too far and Belarus is just too insignificant. Seth asks, how do you think the conflict will end? Seems Putin is backed into a corner, how will the West get him to back down without nuclear war? I really don't know. I mean, there are kind of two possible ends here. One is Putin occupies Russia, sorry, occupies Ukraine and has an insurgency on his hands, but since he's brutal and is willing to be brutal, he just crushes the insurgency. Insurgencies can be destroyed. And he suffers the economic damage that he suffers and the Russians becomes poor and poor and goes through massive economic decline and Russia is crushed. It's not crushed militarily, but it's crushed spiritually, materially in any of the form from within. That's the pessimistic outcome. The optimistic outcome is that any day now, maybe any week now, somebody within Russia will decide that Putin has to go. There will be a coup, somebody, they will kick Putin out and then they will sit down with the Ukrainians and cut a deal and Russia will leave. They will get out of there. They will blame all the problems on Putin. They will make this not Russia's war, but Putin's war. They will try to get the, once they leave Ukraine to get the West to re-engage with them. And so I think that is how it happens. Ali says, some people, including me, don't support Putin, but at the same time, we don't want Ukraine to fight an unfair war, a proxy war. I don't know what that means. I saw Arab fighting proxy war on behalf of USA, Iran and Russia and Arabs were the biggest losers. I don't believe Arabs fought a US proxy war, but we can talk about that another time. I don't believe that happened. I don't think Ukraine is fighting a proxy war. Who's that a proxy of? I mean, Ukraine was invaded by somebody. I just don't understand, I don't understand where this is coming from. Ukraine was invaded. They're defending their land from an invader. That's not a proxy war. They're fighting for their land, for their families, for their freedom, for their liberty. There's no if, but or anything. It's clear cut unequivocal Russia invaded Ukraine and Ukraine's defending itself, doing a pretty good job at it. They're not a satellite of the US, they're not doing it because the US asked them to do it. Indeed, I think the US thought they would fold. I think the US thought that Russia would overtake overrun Ukraine in five days and the war would be over. It's not a proxy of the United States. Again, I think that is unbelievably ignorant. Ukraine is a sovereign country invaded by another sovereign country. Well, I don't consider Russia a sovereign country because I do not believe a dictatorship is a sovereign country. Russia is an unsolven country, an illegitimate country. A sovereign country has been invaded by an illegitimate country. A sovereign country invaded by an illegitimate country. Russia is an illegitimate country because it is an authoritarian country. Putin is the Nazi. How is he gonna denotify anything when he is the Nazi himself? He's close to the Nazi the world has today. OMG puppies, perception that bar... Yeah, different one. Okay, Liam says, what happened with your epidectomy when you were a kid? The doctors thought you had a obscured Nazi Jewish disease and didn't want to operate. How do you know this? Where do people get these stories from? Wow, it's a true story. Happened in Mass General, the best hospital in the United States, supposedly one of the best. A Mass General and where my father was a doctor. My father knew I had, what do you call it? Bursting appendix. I had an infection in the appendix, and, but these doctors wanted to impress him. They wanted to be cute. They wanted to be smart. They wanted to show off. And they decided that what I had was this disease that only a schkenazi Jews get or a schkenazi Jews get at much higher rates than everybody else. And they argued and they claimed that, no, this wasn't an appendicitis. This was this obscure schkenazi Jewish disease. And I'm withering in pain on this bed. I mean, it was awful if you've ever had an appendix you know what I'm talking about. And my dad had to go up and get his boss, the chief of medicine and he came down. And I remember this vividly. He literally walked up, touched my stomach and he said, get this kid to an operating room. His appendix is about to burst. And you know, to him it was unequivocal. There was no question in these idiots, idiots. Delayed in as a consequence of that my appendix actually leaked. And so I had to stay in hospital for a week with antibiotics, antibiotic drip. So, yeah, it's unbelievable pain. And I had it because of these idiots way longer than I needed to have it. Okay, John says, knowing you can't give advice, what indicator would warn liquidity issues? The volume is high and markets are very interconnected and leveraged, looking for a short opportunity. It's very hard. It's not just that I can't give advice. It's that I think it's very difficult to predict these kind of opportunities. I don't try to time the market. I think it's almost impossible to time the market. So I would not do it. I would, you know, it is very, very tricky and of course, a short because of the asymmetry of the risk you take on the risk of losing much more than you have of gaining. Markets are very volatile right now. It's hard to tell from day to day which direction they're gonna have. Most of it's gonna depend on what the Fed does and that's really gonna determine liquidity. How fast do they shrink their balance sheet? How quickly do they raise interest rates? Those are the determinants. Let's see, other $20 questions. Ali says, is it a good way to judge philosophy by how individual who adopt act and if they show bias or not? Does this apply to Marxist, Objectivist? I try to judge if people apply it equally regardless of their bias like freedom. I don't know how they can be a bias around freedom so I'm not trying to stand. But I think you have to be careful in judging a philosophy based on how individuals practice it because which individuals? There are lots of people who claim to be Objectivists who are not, who don't know how to act as Objectivists, who don't know how to apply it to their own life, who don't know how to live it. So do you judge it by those people or do you judge it by people who do? You have to judge a philosophy based on it's adherence to reality and based on your ability to use it, your ability to live by it, what it does to you, how much it contributes to your life and whether it's internally consistent or whether it's consistent with the world as you see it around you, whether it explains the world or doesn't. OMG puppies, a perception that Marx failed spawned two even worse ideas. Mussolini thought the state could nullify class conflict, that's right. Gramsci Frankfurt thought class conflict could be generalized to many social divisions, race, gender, et cetera, that's right. But Marx did fail, it wasn't just a perception and it spawned these two ideas but nobody goes around saying Mussolini is fascist Marxist or something, although he was in a sense heavily influenced by Marx and was a socialist, evolved into his, he invented fascism, the centrality of the state. Frankfurt School took class conflict and generalized it but it's not the only thing they did. They changed other things about Marx and in a sense they're far more pessimistic than Marx is. They don't have a utopian outcome, a utopian solution. They are. All right, Liam, who is Isabel Patterson? Isabel Patterson was an author, a female author, I don't know a lot about her biography. She wrote books that Ayn Rand really admired, they became friends, they later had a falling out. She, if I remember right, she was the one who actually inspired Ayn Rand to come up with a name, Atlas Shrugged. And yeah, she was a very important libertarian, female libertarian thinker in the 40s and I think 50s. Let's see, Elon Musk commended American fossil production. He didn't commend it production, he encouraged more production in order to defeat Putin. Good for Elon Musk. We'll talk about that Thursday. Mark Thomas says, hello, Iran. First time able to join the show live. How often do you stream here? Four times a week when I'm in town and how do you like it? I like it. Good platform to ask about objectivism. Yes, absolutely, this is a great, this is a super chat. As you can see, people ask questions about all kinds of things. Cobb asks, did you meet Pinker and Deutsch? I didn't meet them, they were video-conferenced in, so they both gave presentations and we got to ask them questions. I have to say, I came in really excited about listening to Deutsch and skeptical about what Pinker would say and Pinker was excellent and Deutsch was not. So I came away super impressed with Pinker and very disappointed with Deutsch. So, but I'll talk, maybe I'll talk more about that if I talk about the science of progress and data this week. Cobb says, Ron Paul has talked about US proxy was, yeah, and I'm sure Ron Paul is taking Putin's side and I've despised and hated Ron Paul for a long, long time. A lot of people stopped following me in 2012 when I was anti-Ron Paul's run for president in the Republican primaries. I've never been a fan of Ron Paul, never will be a fan of Ron Paul. Neither Deutsch nor Pinker said anything about Iron Man. So, yeah, and look, United States has had proxy was. I'm not saying that they don't exist. I'm just saying Ukraine, are you guys insane? You guys don't know what you're talking about. All right, everybody, thank you. We almost reached a thousand bucks. We're like 14 bucks short. So thank you for everybody who participated in the super chat and made it so lucrative. Thank you, really appreciate that. Let's see, as I said, Tuesday there'll be a show, 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Thursday there'll be a show, 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Thursday show will be about Elon Musk. So if you're interested in Elon Musk, don't miss it. Don't miss it. Donald Trump loves Iron Man. Donald Trump doesn't know who Iron Man is and wouldn't know an Iron Man idea if it hit him and they had. Jeff, thank you. Wow, now we're over a thousand bucks. John, thank you, really appreciate it. Let's see, don't forget to support the show on your onbrookshow.com slash support. Thank you, Mark. That's great, thank you. You guys all try to get us over a thousand and you all kind of got us significantly over a thousand. Thank you. Yeah, Trump built skyscrapers, so did hard work. Therefore, hard work and Trump are the same. There's thinking by essentials. Maybe he's a hank weird or not a hank, not a, not a work. God. What do we say? Yes, so don't forget to like the show before you leave. If you like the show and don't forget to join us on Tuesday. We've got a fun announcement on Tuesday that we're gonna make early in the show. So try to join us at 7 p.m. Eastern Coast time and I'll probably do a quick update on Ukraine, although there's never a quick update on Ukraine. You guys just continuously ask questions about these things, but Thursday we'll be alone, Mosk. Bye everybody, I will talk to you.