 Russia is amassing troops in the Ukrainian border, everybody is panicking because this could lead to war in Europe. The statists on every side are pretending to be tough and are pretending to be strong. So Biden sends 3,500 troops to Europe as a show of strength as if 3,500 troops could do much and everybody is making noises and everybody is trying to figure Putin out and everybody is shaking their muskets and showing their muscles and pretending that they understand the conflict, that they have anything to add or that they are going to make any difference and of course Putin is just sitting back and watching the West just grovel and give him attention and play with him and he will get whatever concessions he will get, he will get a bunch of concessions and that's what he wants. I don't think he wants to go to war, I don't think he wants to occupy Ukraine, maybe Eastern Ukraine but not all of Ukraine, it's too costly, the Russian economy is too weak to sustain a war, he knows it but he's playing a great game and he's bluffing brilliantly and he will keep playing this game and he will keep getting the full attention and the full respect which he does not deserve of Western leaders and of course Macron represents the French, the French that are always looking to be relevant and always looking for attention and always want to everybody to look at them and think that they are contributing and add any kind of value and that they are still important on the world stage and that anybody gives a damn about what the hell they care about with regard to Ukraine because nobody really does but the French want to be relevant so they are going to be the peacemakers and so Macron flies to Russia to meet with Putin, Putin accepts a meeting with him and they have a five-hour meeting and all you need to know about the meeting between Macron and Putin is one photograph, I don't know if you guys are ready for this photo, this is the photograph of of Macron, I mean this is not, this is real photograph of Macron and Putin meeting, I mean what do you do with that? They could play tennis, I don't know, I don't know what, that is an amazing table, that is the kind of table that you seat a guest at if you basically want to tell him he's irrelevant, you're not listening to him and you don't give a damn about what he's going to say, I mean look how far away he is, this is like the most non-intimate meeting you can imagine, I mean why not just do it over Zoom, I'm just being laughing all day from when I saw this photo, it's just so perfect, Putin is basically saying to Macron, you're irrelevant, you're small, you're at the end of the table, nobody cares what you have to say, you can't yell at me because I can't hear you anyway and you know this is the kind of thing that you know this is like a scene, this picture is like from a comedy, like I don't know the great dictator or something, a comedy where the authoritarian wants to make fun of the other opposing party and puts in a table like this, this is what happens, so Macron went there with a lot of bluster and a lot of things, he came there, Putin basically ignored him, told him to go shove it, they did a press conference together in which Putin basically reassured it, everything is always said, said stuff in front of the press and in front of Macron, that Macron in Europe has rejected in the past like said that Crimea is part of Russia and Macron just stood there and said nothing and pretended he didn't hear and just folded and Putin is just, he is a strong man who knows what he wants and knows what he aims at and he is basically making fun of a weak pathetic West that has no clue, that has no standing, that is not willing to fight for anything, that is not willing to fight for its cause or anything like that. Yeah, Jennifer says this looks like a Mel Brooks movie, it does, it's exactly like a Mel Brooks movie. Now if you really want to see a real table, now what happens when two authoritarian leaders meet and they're trying to outdo each other in terms of the size of the table, right? So this is Putin putting Macron down, but what happens when Putin goes and visits China and has a meeting with Xi, now it's not exactly the same comparison because Xi and Putin are with their advisors, but look at this table, I mean, God, this isn't a table from communication, this is a table for alienation, the same phenomena, what's going on? I mean, who are they talking to? I know they're talking to a little microphone they have on the lapel probably and somebody is translating into the ear of the people across the desk, but again, why not just zoom if you're going to be like not arms length away, but a massive table away? I mean, this is the Chinese putting you in your place again, you want to play big table politics with us, we can do big table politics, this isn't formality, this is nonsense, right? So this is a, this is a, this is, this is what diplomacy is. This is disgusting, ridiculous and pathetic. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening, you get value from watching, show your appreciation. You can do that by going to Iran book show dot com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. 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