 So, tonight, we have two terrific guests, Lawrence Wilkerson, who was the Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and is now a critic of U.S. foreign policy and militarism. And we also have Reiner Braun, who will be joining us from Europe, who is the head of the International Peace Bureau and very active in the No2NATO network. And Cole is in a minute going to introduce another guest who will speak just for a few minutes, an intern, a Russian intern with Massachusetts Peace Action. But for now, let's go to our updates. Cole, before I do that, excuse me, I just want to point out that Shay will be posting if she hasn't already done so. In the chat, our Code Pink statement on Ukraine, which is, in short, Russian troops out, No2NATO expansion, negotiations, not escalation, negotiations without preconditions, and no weapons, no more weapons to militarize this conflict. And we do not want to see blanket sanctions that only harm the Russian people. We want to stand in solidarity with both the Ukrainians under attack. We condemn this invasion in the strongest of terms. And we want to stand in solidarity with the Russians and all the Europeans who are marching in the streets opposing this war, this invasion, this attack. Cole, tell us about Massachusetts Peace Action. Firstly, Amar is going to introduce us from Apple. Amar, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Cole. And thank you, Marcy and Code Pink. And thank you everyone so much for joining us tonight. We are all deeply concerned by this war, by human suffering and by loss of human life. We hope for peace and diplomacy. Massachusetts Peace Action has also just put out our full statement which our executive director Cole Harrison will share in the chat. At Massachusetts Peace Action, we're all processing these events in our own ways. And all of us are deeply concerned and worried. We urge our members of Congress to not escalate the war by sending weapons into this region, into Ukraine or Eastern Europe, and by imposing sanctions on Russia, which will harm ordinary citizens. We are joining a coalition for an international day of action on Sunday, March 6 to say yes to peace and no to war. If you're in the Boston area, please come and join us at 1pm at the steps of the Massachusetts State House. We understand there's a very complex historical context to current events. So we have organized and engaged in events of public education, such as what we're doing tonight. So everyone again, thank you so much. And with that, I'll pass it to Cole to introduce Elizabeth. Yeah, we hit Elizabeth, Elizabeth at Coprianova is a Northeastern University undergraduate and she's a Russian national from Moscow and an intern with mass peace action. The spring so I want to introduce Elizabeth it to give us her perspective on the situation. Hi everyone, and I just wanted to start by saying that this situation is unacceptable at any level in the 21st century. And yes, I'm a Russian citizen but I'm also a regular person, just like any of you so I don't have the full information in order to have a concrete position therefore I don't want and don't have one at the moment. All I want to say is that I'm very sad and devastated to see that this is the way the world approaches and handles conflicts in the 21st century. We're living in a modern developed world where diplomacy and negotiation should be used as a resolution and not arms and bloodshed negotiations and talks are already happening and taking place and we should be supporting and pushing them forward. Also, I think it's crucial to add for me that not all Russians are responsible for what the government does and in fact the majority of us are for peace and against war. But at the same time people in Russia are threatened by even saying no war because this is seen as betrayal to the motherland, and you can be sentenced for 20 years to prison and today. An hour ago I learned that even kids from age seven to 11 have been put in cells for overnight just because they came out with posters no war. Also I have many Ukrainian friends and we are utterly worried about the conflict and taking any steps we can to be a part of the resolution, even if the war ends tomorrow the consequences of it will still take decades to normalize. So everyone in Russia understands that young people around the world are now taking and will later have the to take the most sincere and active part in resolving the consequences and normalization of relations between Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world. So, all I want to say is that right now diplomacy and negotiations is the path towards the resolution. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. It means a lot to us, you know to hear from you and that's really tragic about the silencing of the anti war voices in Russia. Before we get started with our program I would like to go to media now for an update also on Ukraine and Afghanistan. I think in terms of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the emphasis and the momentum we had to start unfreezing those assets, they over $7 billion that the US is holding has been so overshadowed by the Ukraine tragedy. I also have learned that the money that the UN has asked in an emergency appeal for $5 billion for Afghanistan humanitarian aid. Many countries are now switching that to go to Ukraine refugees. And so once again, it's Afghan people who are suffering from all kinds of things that go on in the world that are not of their own making. In terms of Ukraine, I'm going to put in the chat the new website that we have created where you can go to see if there is a an event being organized in your area for this Sunday, March 6, or you can post one there. We just put it up today so events are really streaming in now. So check it every day and there should be a lot more coming on board. We're excited to be working with our friends in Europe, the Stop the War Coalition UK, the campaign for nuclear disarmament in the UK, and the no to NATO network, as we build up this global movement to stop this war. And with that, Marcy, should I go ahead and introduce Reiner before Reiner and we are looking for hearing from him. Cole was going to update us on the Yemen war powers resolution. Yeah, just to say a word on that is that, you know, it's day six of Russia's unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine and over 600 have died. It's day 2555 of the US Saudi UAE war on Yemen and 377,000 have died or been starved as a result of the war in Yemen. And yet there's no discussion of it on the media. Most Americans don't even know where Yemen is don't even know that we're at war in Yemen. So it's an unacceptable situation. It's racist. It's been commented by several commentators that some of, even though the situation in Ukraine is absolutely unacceptable, the extreme attention being given to it and the extreme ignorance of the many other wars started by the US, it reflects a racial bias. And so anyway, it's going to be the seventh anniversary of the start of the war in two weeks. And so today there were nationwide rallies and a number of cities calling on Congress to pass a war powers resolution to end the war in Yemen. So Congress did that three years ago. It both houses of Congress the House and the Senate passed a war powers resolution the first time when has ever passed by the Congress, telling President Trump to cut off support for the Saudi UAE war in Yemen. Trump vetoed it. So the war did not end. And Biden on his campaign trail said he was going to end the war in Yemen, but he hasn't ended it. He's doubled down on it and escalated it further. So it's time for another war powers resolution. So we need to ask for Congress to introduce those resolutions in both houses, you know, war powers resolution is has to be brought to a vote. So once it's introduced there will be a vote in the House and hopefully also in the Senate, if we can get one brave senator to introduce that resolution. So that's, that's what's going on with the Yemen war. Thank you so much call Harrison with Massachusetts peace action executive director. I hear that Congressman defazio is expected to introduce that war powers resolution on Yemen in March well here we are in March, but our attention is turned elsewhere and we understand why media. Go ahead please introduce our guest who's coming to us I think it's 2am in Europe. Yes, I'm really delighted to introduce a good friend of mine Reiner Braun who is a German journalist historian a peace activist. He's been the director of a number of wonderful organizations, including scientists for peace and sustainability, the international network of engineers and scientists for global responsibility. The Max Planck Institute for the history of science, the International Association of Lawyers against nuclear arms, the German pug wash group, and now he is the co president of the International Peace Bureau. He's also also the author of several books including Einstein in peace, and I have had the privilege of working with him in numerous campaigns, such as the campaign against the US air base in Ramstein, the campaign against killer drones, and the no It is over past 2am in Berlin right now. So we are really really so honored that you have stayed up till very late to join us tonight we have over close to 400 people joining in this call and we're really anxious to hear from you Reiner thank you. Thank you media. Thank you dear colleagues and dear friends. Good morning. And it's really a pleasure to be with you in these horrible times. You know, the war is for us around the corner. There is absolutely needed to say first, there will be there is no reason for these aggression of Russia against Ukraine. We condemn deeply the war against Ukraine and our solidarity with the people in Ukraine. Our solidarity is also with the people in Russia, which are fighting against the war. And it is great to say and to see that thousands of Russian people are going on the streets, and they're very repressive conditions. The first time yesterday, we had a protest manifestation in front of the Lomonosov University University by students of this university. We had many many people in many cities of Russia, which are going on the street, like in our country. We had more than 100,000 on the streets in Berlin last Sunday. We're preparing with you the protest action next week. We have protest action days in Germany, in many cities and countries of Europe. And this is absolutely necessary. Let me say it in one word sentence. The period, the 30 years period after the Cold War is over. We are coming now in a new period of a very aggressive politics. And definitely it is absolutely needed to condemn the Russian aggression. But it's also necessary to say the conditions that these aggression happened was developed by the Western countries above all by NATO. The NATO enlargement, the NATO expansion to the east, and not to take care of Russian security interests is the main reason for this war. And NATO is now using the chance not only to become even stronger than as the military alliance of the world, but start with a dramatic intensive new arms race. And my country, Germany is definitely in the forefront. We never had an enlargement of the military budget. Then it will be in the next year. We have a special fund now for 100 billion US, 100 billion Euro we never had. And the enlargement of the weight of the military budget from 1.25% to more than 2%. This means instead of 50 billion every year, we will spend 80 billion. And this is such a situation where the poorest in the world become more poor and where the climate crisis is absolutely not solved. We all were listening to the new IPCC report, which dramatically underlined in which big danger the world is. And when I'm looking to these conditions, I can only say the way of armament race, the way of wars is the wrong way. And let me underline that we are opposing these war and are fighting on the street, but we are also absolutely against these double standards or official politics and our governments. The government say, okay, we want to peace in Ukraine, and they are doing wars all around the world. They are happy that you mentioned Afghanistan and Yemen. We need to say these politics of double standards condemning these war and preparing all the other wars in the world in Africa and Asia and other countries, even in Central Europe. These are really double standards. And we said no to these double standards. We want peace. So they are strongly against more weapons to the Ukraine. We are strongly engaged sanctions, because sanctions are against the poor people, poor people, the normal people are suffering by sanctions. So what is needed is a peace process. First of all, stop the war, cease higher in reduction of the Russian troops. But we need in Europe and I think not only in Europe, and new policies of common security as the alternative of war and arms race. Common security means I'm only secure. I'm only safe, but my partner is also safe. We have to work together. Securities, you can only get security in a double pack, new security and the security of your neighbor. And that is the alternative to these brutal war in Ukraine, but also for the alternative for the arms race and for further NATO expansion. It will lead us to more wars. So my call tonight is please go on the street, protest against the war. Let us unite in a worldwide peace movement for peace and design for common security and to stop these brutal war in Ukraine. Peace is the alternative. And to follow with the last sentence of the German Nobel Peace Laureate, Willy Brandt, he said in his famous speech when he got the Nobel Peace Prize. War is the top of irrationality. Rational is only peace. Let us fight for peace. And thank you so much for the invitation tonight. Thank you so much, Rainer Braun. Coming to us at 2am in the morning in Europe to save no more war, no more weapons. We need an international European regional security agreement that will address the stakeholders that are involved and ensure their safety and security. So thank you so much for joining us. I hope you'll stay on. We're going to have a Q&A. And I just want to let everybody know we have well, almost 400 people on the call right now that we will be taking action during this call. After we hear from our next speaker. So I believe Cole you're going to introduce our next speaker. Okay, right. So, I want to welcome Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. He is an adjunct professor of government and public policy at the College of William and Mary. And he was the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005. Let me say thank you to everyone here here, Braun, Massachusetts peace action code peak. And let me say also that when I was listening to the objectives that were being expressed, I was thinking those are all the right objectives. Couldn't say that I disagree with the single one of them. But they're not realistic. And that's the problem. It's a huge problem. And let me just sites and history here for a moment. And I know everyone probably is familiar with this history but they might not be familiar familiar with the aspects of it that I'm going to point out. One is that one of the people who knew Russia probably as well as anyone in the world certainly anyone from North America from the United States. Famous for the long telegram from Moscow that sort of commits to the US posture in the Cold War. But Kenan would say many times later that we didn't do all the things that he recommended we do. His essential point was all we had to do was be ourselves and demonstrate to the world who we were and why we were who we were and Russia would collapse eventually. He was really advanced years. I think he was about 98 or 99 when he came to visit Secretary Powell at that time. He wanted Powell to know that one of the things that was probably the greatest strategic era. In fact, he called it that the greatest strategic era at the beginning of the 21st century was the expansion of NATO. And he essentially predicted what is happening today, what happened with Georgia, what is happening now with Ukraine. And what's been happening for some time since the wild abandon of the United States and its NATO partners took NATO into 30 countries. Imagine if you will for a moment what Article 5 means with regard to 30 countries. Imagine if I were to go out to, let's say, somewhere in West Texas and find me a cattle rancher and say, do you know where Montenegro is? The first thing he would probably say is after he laughed, no, where is it? And I would tell him where it was. And I would then acquaint him with the fact that he is willing to risk nuclear war to defend Montenegro. And I'd ask him how he felt about that. Well, I can guarantee he wouldn't feel too content about it. And yet that's what we've done. And at the same time we did that, we made Article 5 itself a ridiculous consideration when in fact it was probably the most important part of the political and the military alliance. By going into out of area operations, everything from Libya to Syria to Afghanistan and so forth. How is that an Article 5 political or military alliance? And then the second thing I'd bring to your attention is what was said by both the head of delegation for Russia and the head of delegation for Ukraine. As the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose support came out on the 28th, as was previously mentioned, what they said in respect to this conflict. The head of Ukrainian delegation essentially said, we should be working on reducing fossil fuels, which is what this conflict is all about. She had a point there. Don't have time to go into it, but she had a point there. And the head of Russian delegation condemned the invasion. He condemned his own leader, Vladimir Putin. I don't know what's going to happen to him when he gets back to Moscow. But those were brave remarks coming from these two people. But they were remarks that are unlike what I was saying before about unreality. They were remarks that face a stark reality. And that is, if you look at the technical section of that report, even in the summary, which has to be approved by every nation, but the technical section in the body of the report tells you the real nitty gritty. If you look at that section, you can conclude that you do not want to live in a 1.5 degree world. You probably can't live in a two degree world, and we are very likely headed for a three or four degree world. That's the end of life on this planet as we know it. And we're doing these things like invading Ukraine, or in the case of the United States, fomenting a coup in 2014, and having its CIA support neo-Nazis inside Ukraine as one of their arms, so to speak, and all manner of other dastidly deeds when we should be looking at the two really serious threats in the world today. One staring us in the face since the United States, abandon the ABM Treaty, abandon the Open Skies Treaty, abandon the INF Treaty, and was about to abandon START too until Vladimir Putin said, no, let's probably keep that one, and we managed to keep that one. Nuclear weapons. We have a new lease on life for nuclear weapons. I'm waiting eagerly to see President Biden's nuclear posture review, because he promised to take some of this life out of the renewal of nuclear weapons and their tactical utility on the battlefield. I'm not sure he's going to do it. I hope this Ukraine crisis doesn't motivate him to not do it. But at any rate, even if he does do what he said he's going to do, we're still way behind the power curve on nuclear weapons, and there is big a threat in the looking us right in the face as the climate crisis. But ultimately, the climate crisis is going to make even them not mean a thing, because we are going to be like the dinosaurs. We're not going to be here anymore. The earth will go on. It'll have no problem. It'll go another four and a half, maybe five billion years before it burns out in the sun, but we won't be on it. And that's the truth. And I'm glad to see that we finally have a report that begins to go into the kind of detail necessary to get people's attention. My question is, will it get their attention? It certainly won't get their attention as the two heads of delegation at the IPCC, one for Ukraine, one for Russia, made a point of if we keep having these distractors. It's tragic what's going on in Ukraine, but it's a transient event. It is an event that shouldn't have happened, and it's a bit that's distracting the world from the things that should be doing. The kind of cooperation, the kind of comity, the kind of peace, as Herr Braun said, that we need in order to tackle this threat and continue to live on this planet. So that's the thing that bothers me about this crisis. There are other aspects of it. I could talk to you all night about this is all about weapons sales. Let me give you an example. Ukraine was the fourth or fifth biggest weapons merchant in the world. Well, look what both Moscow and Washington, the top two, have done to that. Now Ukraine is selling all of its weapons to itself. The motivations for this conflict are just criminal, absolutely criminal. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Grumman, and a host of other defense contractors, I call them merchants of war, are going to make a fortune off this. And that's the reason we're having this conflict. That's the reason we started spreading NATO out so we could sell arms to more and more countries. This is utter insanity, and yet we're practicing it. We've been practicing it since the end of the Cold War in particularly badly. And I don't see any end to it unless we get enough people like you have a symbol here tonight that have generated enough power and enough political oomph to begin to make people take notice of what we're saying and to begin to do something about it. I'm really proud of those Russians who I got a report today that there are more of them now actually defying the rules that have been set out for them in the ring environment of Moscow, and they're coming out and they're coming out in other cities too. They are truly brave citizens to do that because they probably know pretty much what's going to happen to them. So that's the essence of what I have to say. This is all bad, and it's bad in some serious ways that we've never confronted on this planet before. The most alarming of which is the fact that the climate is getting ready to throw us off. And we're doing too little about it, too late. We have all the science. We have all the scientists. We have all the data that we need to begin to do amelioration and adaptation and to keep us down by mid-century to two or under in terms of degree temperature rise. But we're not going to do it. We're not going to do it. And that's the biggest challenge we've got in front of us right now. Thank you. Thank you very much. Laurence Wilkerson. We're going to speak more with Colonel Wilkerson and with Reiner Braun after we take an action tonight. And we're going to bring back Amar Ahmad from Massachusetts Peace Action to lead us in this Capitol Hill action. So tell us about it, Amar. Thank you, Marcy. Thank you so much. And thank you to our speaker. Thank you again to Code Pink and MAPA and everyone here tonight for being here tonight. Colonel Wilkerson just spoke about political power, and we have 400 people on the call right now. That's a significant number of people. And I'm putting in the chat right now. People can click to send a message to the member of Congress. We have 400 people here on the chat. If everybody clicks the link, not only do you send one message to a member of Congress, it goes to both senators and your representative, your congressional representative. So each person who clicks on, they send three messages. And there's these mechanisms for war that Congress could use to escalate war right now. So our message to Congress is to not do that, to not escalate war and to say yes to peace. And thank you again so much to Colonel Wilkerson, Reiner Braun, our speakers, everyone for very passionate remarks and very important historical context, historical context and motivations to this conflict. So thank you, Marcy, and I'll pass it back to you. Marcy, you're muted, Marcy. So now we're going to do. I just want to encourage Massachusetts Peace Action, if you can post that link in the chat again, and we can encourage everybody. Right now in the chat. Excellent. So we're going to take action and maybe just to summarize the action is to ask our Congress members to, of course, condemn the Russian invasion, but also to oppose more weapons to Ukraine. We don't see further militarization as an end to this conflict, but rather an escalation and also opposition to blanket sanctions. Some of us feel that sanctions against the oligarchs are warranted. But certainly these blanket sanctions that will hurt the people, the Russian people who oppose this war, as we're hearing are not appropriate. Marcy, can I say one thing really clear. The receiving end of these messages in Congress and what they look at is how many people send. They look at the raw numbers of how many people send the messages in. So it's really important that as many of us send click this message as we can. Thank you and I see that Vicki posted done so thank you Vicki yes if you can post done in the chat that will motivate others as well and we ask that you take this action beyond this call and share it on social media and with your allies and networks as well. Okay, now we're going to go to the. One more comment. Sure. Just because you, you brought it up and it is such a serious issue I was on the phone with Rokana's deputy chief of staff cake Google before we we met here. And I just got off the phone with two other individuals who had come back from the hill on Yemen. It's, it's overshadowed by Ukraine now. No one wants to talk about Yemen. They can't even get a meeting. That's, that's bad. That's really bad because Yemen hasn't gone away, as you well know. So I would just say make sure you keep that in the forefront too. Thank you so much and at this point I, I do want to encourage others who are on this call to join our code pink Congress liaison group and shake and post the link in the chat. We are working to build point people in every congressional district and we have, I don't know, I think about 75 to 100 at this point we need more, we need more of you to join us in that. In that regard. Okay, so let's have some Q&A and then I just want to let people know that at the top of the hour I believe when the state of the union address is delivered by a president we will go to that and we will be joined by the code pink youth police collective we have another individual from Europe from London, Aiden Cross from the code pink youth police collective will be joining and commenting in the chat and maybe later on what we hear the president say. So, Cole, perhaps you'd like to kick off our Q&A. I'm going to take the privilege of the first question and I like to ask Larry and Reiner. If there were a negotiated settlement of this conflict in the I'm not I don't mean in the ideal world but in the real world. What would it look like. You know, Larry you are first, because I was starting the first round. You're too kind. I would go back to the men's agreement. Well let me back up for a second. A few door who've been off a couple of weeks ago in a webinar with me and a couple of other people he's a Russian journalist suggested that we need a new Helsinki Act, the final act, or a Paris Accord. It's time to alter the architecture of transatlantic security. Again, for the third time since 1940. And what we ought to shoot for you know people say that Helsinki a lot of my Republican Party anyway thought the Helsinki final act was just a utopian move. Well it helped Gorbachev with perestroika and gloss knows it had a lot to do with what happened with the thinking and the philosophy of Gorbachev. So, I think few doors got got something there we need to have a new security architecture in Europe. Her Braun mentioned that we need to get rid of NATO and we need to have a different kind of security approach. I don't think that's a road too far I think we should do that. I think that's the ultimate solution that might get this whole business into a different can where it's not so difficult to deal with on a on an ongoing basis. If you're going to solve this present crisis, at least temporarily so you can begin to do some serious talking and as edge of delegation at the IPCC said, get on to the really serious issues and nuclear weapons is one you need to get on right away. And you need to bring in Israel you bring in India and Pakistan and China we don't need these bilateral agreements anymore we need multilateral nuclear arms control now. If you're going to do this, then you probably need an interim solution that looks something like this. Okay, you've got the whole referendum in the two O blasts that you really covered. And if they vote for autonomy and association with Russia, give you back to accept that. And you know that channel you just carved out down to Odessa because that's really what the Russian Navy wants. They, you know, the ports in Crimea are not key. The port in Odessa is key. They need that port. They need it for the same reason the Chinese need to dash online to have room to get their fleet out in time of conflict. That's the only way the Russian Navy is going to feel comfortable. So that's, that's I think what he's going to wind up doing eventually, in addition to the other things he's doing. So you have to come to some interim solution that recognizes that and says, okay, now let's sit down and talk about it. How long do we let this last? Can it last if the people have voted for it? Should it last if they voted for it? Probably it should. And Ukraine will look a little bit different at the end of the day, but we'll have peace. And we can do things to build this new architecture in Europe where everybody can be a part. Russia included. I remember the Halcyon days of 1992, when Colin Powell was so ecstatic that Russia might in the future be a member of the NATO Alliance. That the cooperation was so tremendous at that moment that he was lecturing former Warsaw Pact generals on how they should live in a democracy and this sort of thing. And they were listening to it. And then we just made mistake after mistake after mistake, all basically motivated by money and by who's really running this country now. The oligarchs in this country who are running this country. What a shame. I know what's your take. What is their deal possible. You know, definitely I have not to oppose Larry, you know, but let me underline two points. First of all, I think we need a very quick short term answer. And this is the warmest end. And this means ceasefire and bring the troops home. Because, you know, when you are looking to the day to day situation and see how the people in Ukraine are suffering under the wall, the day to day killing, the day to day destroying of the country, we have to stop the wall. And I'm saying this knowing that Ukraine in the Soviet Union was one of the richest part of the Soviet Union. Now Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe. It is even poorer than Moldavia. We have to stop the wall and hope that the life of the people will become step to step better, even knowing that a better life in Ukraine absolutely need to overcome the oligarch dictatorship in Ukraine. But saying this, I absolutely underline what Larry was saying, we need a new European peace architecture. It means for me, we have to go back to Olaf Palme. We have in some months, we have the 40th anniversary of the first Olaf Palme report, which was a background for the security system in Europe of the 80s and the 90s. We have to come back to this, to a new Olaf Palme report. And the International Peace Bureau together with the ITUC, the World Trade Union, and the Olaf Palme Center is working on a new Olaf Palme report as the background for a new European peace architecture. And it sets the rules of Olaf Palme. Security is only possible when both sides are secure. This is the background of this report. And we need this because of the situation in Europe and in the world, but we also need that to solve the global problems of the world above all the climate problem. Can you imagine we will solve the climate problem on the top of wars and rockets? It can only be solved in the period of cooperation when people and companies are working together. And that is the sense of the new Olaf Palme report for both. And this is the question to be realistic or not realistic. You know, I'm on the way, I'm in favor of Einstein, who said, never be a realist. When you are a realist, you're always on the side of the powerful people of the world. We must be unrealistic. We must ask for what is needed. And needed is a peace process and a disarmament process. And how to get to this in these awful times? I think the only forces we can rely on, and I know that it's very difficult, it's a long term process, are the people on the street in Moscow, in Ukraine, hopefully, and in all countries of the world. So we have to work on a peaceful, worldwide peace coalition of moving, acting people. That is the key point. And then we will find partners. When you have a movement, we will find partners in the parliament, we will find partners in the churches and the trade unions and other societal parts. And this we have to bring together for a new coalition. You know, you know better than me, the Vietnam War was not one in the first round. It was a long term process. And without the people on the street, it would never happen. So let us go back to the situation and do the best to create such a peace coalition, which we need. That is the only alternative. And let me answer two questions, which I saw in the chat. First, neutrality of Ukraine. Yes, that would be a great step forward. That would be a vision. Because Ukraine is a country between Europe in the middle of Europe. And the best way for Ukraine is to be a partner to both sides, to the European Union, to the NATO countries and to Russia. That is the historical role of Ukraine as a country between the two parts of Europe. But also it's a country between Europe and Eurasia. This makes these countries so important. Look to what Brzezinski was writing in his book, Ukraine is a keystone on one side for weakling Russia, on the other side as a country between Europe and Asia, which can bring together these two continents, these Eurasian continents in peace and further developing of both continents. So yes, the neutrality of Ukraine would be a big step forward. And the same small step would be the Nord Stream 2. You know, I am personally not very much in favor of the Nord Stream 2 by ecological reasons because we have to overcome the fossil fuel period. And this includes gas. But now it could be a part for bringing Russia and Europe together, solving the energy problems in Europe. And the energy prices are rising. The poor people cannot pay their energy any longer because the costs are so high. And for this term time, we need as a part of a common security process of the politics of the taunt. We need also this Nord Stream 2. To overcome Nord Stream 2 means to go to the sun on both sides of Europe. But this is a longer term period. Yes, I'm in favor of Nord Stream 2. And I'm definitely against these stupid horrible fracking gas from the United States, which on one side is more expensive. And then the other side is more destroying the environment. So stop these horrible fracking and better for a short term period to have Nord Stream 2 than fracking. That is my answer for the Nord Stream 2. But again, for both, we need a new security architecture in Europe. And this is the key challenge. And this is we have to work on for the next future, when we are overcoming this horrible, brutal war. Yes, hopefully that will be the silver lining and new security agreement. Far more inclusive. Okay, I'd like to ask a question. I'd like to ask a question. Just in the short term, do you see either of you any possibility that Putin will be forced to step aside? I could say I see that happening if the oligarchs who are mostly around him to protect him and whose money incidentally is in US banks. I don't know what they're going to do now with the sanctions. We supposedly have frozen their money in those banks. But if you listen to people like Misha Glinney, it's about two thirds of their fortune is in US banks and US banks are making lots of money off of it. In fees alone, they're making millions, hundreds of millions. If they get dissatisfied with him, he'll go fast, really fast. That's the reality of the situation. He's riding the tiger and they're the tiger. They will eat him. Then the question becomes, which one of them becomes the new dictator? So it's not a solution necessarily. Might get rid of the worst one, but. You know, I have not to add to the question when big parts of the lead want to change the leader, they can change it. And one part is the oligarch and the second part is the army. And you know, have in mind that there are a lot of victims in the army by this war. We don't know exactly the numbers, but they are quite high. And all these dead people are coming home, brought home. And what are the mothers saying? And the fathers? We will even have in Russia much other climate than now. We have the opposition of the liberal part of the society. We have the opposition of many, many young people. The young generation of Russia is deeply against the war. You know, I had two meetings with students of the Lomonosov University discussing about the war. None of these was in favor of the war. But don't forget Moscow and the liberal elites are not really Russia. When you go to the Russia, to Siberia and many parts of Russia, they are only listening to these horrible TVs in Russia and they know nothing else. So to change the atmosphere in the whole society, it will be done when people are seeing how horrible is the war, how many victims are in the war and their own soldiers and officers are the victims. So these will come quite soon. And I absolutely agree when the oligarchs want to change it, they will change it. But I'm not so sure what will happen then. And be very careful only to demonize Putin. You know, never forget that the Putin of today is not the Putin of 2001. When he was speaking in the German parliament, getting standing ovation for his offer for cooperation solutions in Europe, for a cooperative system. For this war, Teutov-Radi was stuck. And it was the West. It was the NATO countries. We said no to these corporations, which were going to the East and accept more and more countries in NATO, which were militarizing the politics, which were blaming Putin day to day. So the Putin of today, this horrible nationalist, chauvinistic guy was made to such a guy also by the politics of the NATO countries. So the key point for getting cooperative relations to Russia is to change the politics of our government. That there really go for a policy of common security, for cooperative relations, for integrate Russia in an inclusive European system. And at the end for overcoming military alliances above all NATO. I think this is the answer. You know, the new leader of Russia could be even more worse. So be careful that we have to change the politics in our countries for a more peaceful way. That is the only solution for coming to a more peaceful world in this area and maybe in other parts of the world too. Thank you Reiner. I just want to remind everybody that we will be watching the State of the Union address if you want to stay with us. We will be posting comments in the chat and suggestions for tweets. So do stay with us if you if you can't. It's not too late and we will be joined by the Code Pink Youth Peace Collective as well. Medea, did you want to ask a question? No, Cole, go ahead. Oh, you're fooling me. Why are you thinking, Cole, let me add something to what our bronzer said. We're doing the same thing to Xi Jinping and China. So, you know, this is acting on. I like to ask, you know, a little bit about the military situation. There's a Biden has asked for 6.4 billion of aid, a new military appropriation or whatever that's apparently going to be rolled into the continuing resolution or whatever they call the next bill. You know how much difference will this military aid matter to the outcome of the conflict. In my view, not very much at all. It will just intensify and deepen the profound tragedy that it has become and might become even worse. Of course, the Pentagon is salivating over this. They have the best of all possible worlds. They're not in it as it were directly and they are going to get a monstrous plus up in a budget that is already bigger than any budget since 1945. That's how huge their budget is right now. It is so huge as polluting the thinking over there. All they think about is more, more, more. So in that sense, it's going to do us irreparable damage if it's not already done it. The all volunteer forces on its rear end. They can't find enough people to serve in the force. I suspect you're going to have a lot more of that and other people's military here shortly. I like what Finland and Sweden and Norway have done or are in the process of doing. They've reintroduced conscription, but their conscripts don't have to go overseas. Only the professional force goes over like went to Libya. Did you know Libya? Norway led the air attacks in Libya. There are some people in Norway who are not very happy about that. But that's what getting closer to NATO will do for you. For my point of view, when the war starts, the military industrial complex in the United States and in Europe opened many bottles of champagne. This was the best gift they could get. For starting an arms race, we never had since 45. We have touched a lot of military budget in all NATO countries. That is amazing. We have a deep change of that in all NATO countries. So we know what to do and the way our politics answer to this war is absolutely on one side double standards. And on the other side amid an arms race, which will bring us really much nearer to a big international war. We have in the discussion now to have European nuclear arms under the leadership of France and Germany. We have a discussion now about new drones in Europe. We have the discussion about putting 50 to 100,000 troops to the border of Russia. We have in Germany the discussion of revitalize the job for the army to have an army for 400 or 500,000 people which we stopped having after the Cold War period. That is the situation and that makes the world much more unsecure and that is absolutely the wrong way. So that is the consequence of this war is a totally other world we are coming in and this makes the situation so dangerous and so difficult. Thank you. I have a question for you, Reiner. Do you think that once the German people start feeling the economic effects of these sanctions, might there be more questioning of following the US? You know, the conflicts between the United States on one side and Europe on the other side, including Germany, are now a little bit under the carpet by the wall. They are not officially discussed, but they will come back because our interests are different. And Europe cannot have for a long term the interest in being totally opposition to Russia. We need the context and the development of Russia because, you know, we have a common history. We have so many common. We need the economic, the political, the ecological, the social relations to Russia. And so this will come back and for me, the main point is when the people see what are the consequences of the war for the militarization of the society, I'm very sure that we will have even more protests in the future. When the people see what are the ecological consequences of these war because we don't have any money for the social ecological transformation of our society. We have no war to start fulfilling the obligation of the 2%. I'm not speaking about the 1.5%. For me, the 1.5% discussion is over. We will get this 1.5%. The question is, we can stop it after the 1.5%. So when people see all these consequences, I'm quite sure that we will have in more countries in Europe much broader movements of the all societal forces, not only of the peace forces, in the same direction for the change of politics. That is the consequence. We need a political change in Europe and hopefully this will start when the people are seeing the consequences of the militarization in Europe. Thank you very much. We have about five minutes before the State of the Union address. We ask everybody to stay with us. We'll watch it together. Some have posted in the chat, how are Ukrainians supposed to defend themselves if we don't send them weapons? When you put more oil in the fire, you will not solve the fire. So we have to finish the fire. And this is we have to come to negotiations, ceasefire reduction of the arms troop and not to put more weapons in these fires. Rapids, I know, create more than enough. What the people need is peace. It's a negotiation for peace process and for the alternative security structure. Otherwise, we will go even deeper in the war. We will come to a situation where we have Afghanistan in the middle of Europe. And to stop this, you have to go for an alternative political way. And these starts with ceasefire. I'll take another, another shot at it and say that Hitler put about 40, 42 divisions in the region that Tito was more or less in charge of by 1943. And Hitler got roundly beaten. And Tito didn't have a lot of weapons. Tito's motto was, yes, they have tanks, they have lots of tanks and the tanks roll in, but they have to get out of the tanks. And when they do, we're going to kill them. And he did. We're reading reports about people in Ukraine giving soldiers the wrong directions, changing street signs and, you know, seeking alternatives to violent response. They did, they did that to Hitler's divisions when they flowed through Ukraine headed for Moscow. They have seen a lot of war. Well, that will be our message, you know, this weekend when we protest this invasion, we also want to protest the, the expansion of NATO and any sending of arms. We know that the United States is in the process of sending millions of dollars farms to Ukraine and Congress. The legislation that we just looked at is for $500 million more in weapons. Isn't it strange? I mean, just incredibly strange. You get Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate, standing up in the floor of the Senate and saying that he's with the president of the United States for the first time in God knows how long. And what he's with him on is more war. You know, we have the same in Germany, the opposition is supporting the government saying, please make more war and buy more weapons. Yep. It's just astonishing. Before those Reiner, maybe you could tell us a little more about that like the Green Party in Germany. Many of us are pretty astonished to see their position. You know, I'm absolutely not astonished. The Green Party developed themselves through the last 10 years to a party of war. These starts with supporting the Yugoslavian war in 98, 99, and it continues about all the last years. And when you are looking to the decision of the German parliament during the last 15 years, when there were decisions to send troops all around the world, none of these decisions was meeting without the support of the Green Party. So the Green Party in Germany is, I have to say, it is brutal, but I have to say, is the most war-oriented party in the German parliament, much more war-oriented as the social democrats and even more war-oriented than the conservatives. Don't trust and to rely on the Green Parties. They are nothing else than a liberal war party. Of course, here they have no power and nobody in Congress, so we don't have to worry about it. But you know, we have the discussion not only in Germany, but you know, we have the Greens in several governments in Europe and in all these governments, they are supporting the war. Somebody wrote in the chat here, we call them Democrats. That's a longer story of how that happened, and it sounds like an interesting story. I'd like to know more about it. You know, we can have a long discussion about the development of the Greens from Peter Kelly to today. It is a highly interesting, but also a very, really horrible story. And it's definitely nothing for three o'clock in the night. Otherwise, you cannot sleep any longer. We just have maybe a minute left. Perhaps you'd each like to say a couple of words about what you would like to see people do on this call. The only point for me is, please go on the streets, mobilize your friends and partners, everyone you can get in touch. We need a really big mass movement of peace activists all around the world, united, and then hopefully we will stop the war and we will come to what we are discussing to a new peaceful architecture in Europe and hopefully in the whole world. I think the most effective thing I've seen back here in the last decade, the only thing I've seen that was effective to the extent that it got a senator or representative to change his or her mind was people going to their office 3040 at a time and refusing to not be heard, especially constituents, because normally they will not refuse to listen to a constituent and certainly not 40 other. I saw FCNL do this and just bombard them from all across the country. They brought people in. They gave them workshops and what to say and how to say it. They put a guide with each group of six or seven and they went to see that senator that congressman from that place where they were. And so they were their congressman their senator, and they got to listen, they've got to listen and if you do it enough, repetitively and in numbers. They can change their minds for, you know, self licking ice cream cone reasons. I want to get reelected. Thank you so much. Let's all unmute and thank our guests before we go to the State of the Union. If you can unmute everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the truth. And the best Larry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Larry. Now is the time to plug the code. We have a meeting coming up on Tuesday, so you're interested. Let Shay know Shay at code pink.org or she can post a look in the chat. We want to be able to organize. Like Larry said, 3040 people at a time going to our representatives office demanding hey sign on to this Yemen more powers resolution or stop the flow of weapons to Ukraine. This is not the answer. So with that, I thank our guests and I want to now introduce Aiden cross I think Aiden's on the zoom with us. Yeah, Aiden are you there he's coming to us from London. He is the co host now okay and there you are it maybe introduce yourself a little bit tell us about the code pink youth peace collective. You're muted. Good evening everyone or afternoon or morning I am speaking from about 2am currently. So that's a lot of joy. So yes my name is Aiden cross. I am a member of the code pink peace collective. And from my memory it is effectively kind of sort of organized by young people who are of the who also kind of share concerns with the situation both with consistent wars and also focus on sort of researching and act and in activists. Sorry, my apologies and sort of activism in the same line as code pink. Now unfortunately I'm not the best one to articulate the peace collective but that's a brief sort of summary. But you may have come across it several through other people such as Danica or Sam or such. Thank you Aiden. And thank you so much for staying up late into the night to join us or into the morning. If people want to get involved with the code is the code pink youth peace collective for people under 30 is that the cut off. We had a discussion yesterday as we don't actually know what the catapace but usually I under 30 seems to be the leaning. But I support you wholeheartedly. And please, those of you who are with us let others know who are now in their 20s and the 30s that code pink has this youth peace collective right. Okay. So shame, perhaps you can give us an update on where we are with the State of the Union. Yeah, it looks like it just started streaming so I'm going to share my screen now. Okay thank you and feel free to post in the chat your responses as we watch. I think Biden is often late for speeches. I tweeted today why doesn't Biden meet with Putin and that really generated some discussion. Well, you know the US was telling Ukraine not to go to the negotiation with Russia so they don't want to settle the seams terrible. Let me audit your calling for de-escalation and then you're subsequently providing more weapons for the conflict doesn't really make sense as well. And for during the State of the Union, how are we going to set our message up? Well, we're going to ask people to check the chat and there will be suggestions for messaging representatives either. President of the United States. The back slapping phase. So what are the hashtags for the speech? First of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States. Thank you, thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you. Please. Thank you so much. Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman, members of Congress in the Cabinet, Justice of the Supreme Court, my fellow Americans. Last year, COVID-19 kept us apart. This year, we're finally together again. Tonight, the night we meet as Democrats, Republicans and Independents, but most importantly, as Americans. With the duty to one another, to America, to the American people, to the Constitution. And an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny. Six days ago, Russia's Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined. He met Ukrainian people. President Zelensky, to every Ukrainian in their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, literally inspires the world. Groups of citizens, blocking tanks with their bodies, everyone from students to retirees to teachers, turned soldiers, defending their homeland. And in this struggle, President Zelensky said in his speech to the European Parliament, light will win over darkness. The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States is here tonight, sitting with the First Lady. Let each of us, if you're able to stand, stand and send a non-mistakeable signal to the world, to Ukraine. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. He's bright, he's strong, he's resolved. Yes, we, the United States of America, stand with the Ukrainian people. Throughout our history, we've learned this lesson. When dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And the cost, the threats to America and America to the world keeps rising. That's why the NATO alliance was created to secure peace and stability in Europe after World War II. The United States is a member, along with 29 other nations. It matters. American diplomacy matters. American resolve matters. Putin's latest attack on Ukraine was premeditated and totally unprovoked. He rejected repeated, repeated efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and NATO wouldn't respond. He thought he could divide us at home in this chamber, in this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe as well. But Putin was wrong. We are ready. We are united, and that's what we did. We stayed united. We prepared extensively and carefully. We spent months building coalitions of other freedom-loving nations in Europe and the America to the Asian and African continents to confront Putin. Like many of you, I spent countless hours unifying your European allies. We shared with the world in advance what we knew Putin was planning and precisely how we would try to falsify and justify his aggression. We countered Russia's lies with the truth. And now, now that he's acted, the free world is holding him accountable, along with 27 members of the European Union, including France, Germany, Italy, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, even Switzerland, are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine. Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been. Together, together, along with our allies, we are right now enforcing powerful economic sanctions. We're cutting off Russia's largest banks in the international financial system, preventing Russia's central bank from defending the Russian ruble, making Putin's $630 billion war fund worthless. We're choking Russia's access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come. Tonight, I say to the Russian oligarchs and the Krupp leaders who built billions of dollars off this violent regime, no more. The United States, I mean it. The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of the Russian oligarchs. We're joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We're coming for you ill-begotten gains. And tonight, I'm announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights. Further, I say to Russia and adding additional squeeze on their economy. He has no idea what's coming. The ruble has already lost 30 percent of its value. The Russian stock market has lost 40 percent of its value, and trading remains suspended. The Russian economy is reeling, and Putin alone is the one to blame. Together with our allies, we're providing support to the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom. Military assistance, economic assistance, humanitarian assistance. We're giving more than a billion dollars of direct assistance to Ukraine, and we'll continue to aid Ukrainian people as they defend their country and help ease their suffering. But let me be clear, our forces are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight Ukraine, but to defend our NATO allies in the event that Putin decides to keep moving west. For that purpose, we have mobilized American ground forces, air squadrons, ship deployments to protect NATO countries including Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. And as I've made crystal clear, the United States and our allies will defend every inch of territory that is NATO territory with the full force of our collective power, every single inch. And we're clear eyed. The Ukrainians are fighting back with pure courage, but the next few days, weeks, and months will be hard on them. Putin has unleashed violence and chaos, but while he may make gains on the battlefield, he'll pay a continuing high price over the long run. And a pound of Ukrainian people, proud, proud people, pound for pound ready to fight with every inch of energy they have, they've known 30 years of independence, have repeatedly shown that they will not tolerate anyone who tries to take their country backwards. To all Americans, I'll be honest with you, as I always promised I would be, a Russian dictator invading a foreign country has cost around the world. And I'm taking robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at Russian economy, and that we use every tool at our disposal to protect American businesses and consumers. Tonight, I can announce the United States has worked with 30 other countries to release 60 million barrels of oil from reserves around the world. America will lead that effort, releasing 30 million barrels of our own strategic petroleum reserve. And we stand ready to do more if necessary, unite it with our allies. These steps will help blunt gas prices here at home, but I know news about what's happening can seem alarming to all Americans. But I want you to know we're going to be okay, we're going to be okay. When the history of this air is written, Putin's war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger. While it shouldn't have taken something so terrible for people around the world to see what's at stake, now everyone sees it clearly. We see the unity among leaders of nations, a more unified Europe, a more unified West. We see unity among the people who are gathering in cities and large crowds around the world, even in Russia, to demonstrate their support for the people of Ukraine. In the battle between democracy and autocracies, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security. This is the real test, and it's going to take time. So let us continue to draw inspiration from the iron will of the Ukrainian people, to our fellow Ukrainian Americans who forged a deep bond that connects our two nations. We stand with you, we stand with you. Putin may circle Kiev with tanks, but he'll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people. He'll never extinguish their love of freedom, and he will never, never weaken the resolve of the free world. We meet tonight in an America that has lived through two of the hardest years this nation has ever faced. The pandemic has been punishing, and so many families are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to keep up with the rising cost of food, gas, housing, and so much more. I understand, like many of you did, my dad had to leave his home in Scranton, Pennsylvania to find work. So like many of you, I grew up in a family when the price of food went up and was felt throughout the family. It had an impact. That's one of the first things I did as President was fight to pass the American Rescue Plan. Because people were hurting, we needed to act, and we did. Few pieces of legislation have done more at a critical moment in our history to lift us out of a crisis. It fueled our efforts to vaccinate the nation and combat COVID-19, delivered immediate economic relief to tens of millions of Americans. It helped put food on the table. Remember those long lines of cars waiting for hours just to get a box of food put in their trunk. It cut the cost of healthcare insurance, and as my dad used to say, it gave the people just a little bit of breathing room. Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefited the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people and left no one behind. Folks, and it worked. It worked. It worked. We created jobs, lots of jobs. In fact, our economy created over 6.5 million new jobs just last year. More jobs in one year than ever before in the history of the United States of America. The economy grew at a rate of 5% to 7% last year. The economy was strong, but the economy grew at a rate of 5% to 7% last year. Right, I think the video is just in the process of being brought back up. So take this time to collect yourselves after the joy of listening to the first few bits of his speech. And I'm just going to assume, yeah, so it's just being dealt with, so apologies for the sort of delay. Look, Vice President Harris and I ran for office. We had fundamental disagreements on this, but ran for office with a new economic vision for America. Invest in America, educate Americans, grow the workforce, build the economy from the bottom up in the middle out, not from the top down, because we know, because we know, because we know when the middle class grows, when the middle class grows, the poor have a way up and the wealthy do very well. America used to have the best roads, bridges and airports on earth, and now our infrastructure is ranked 13th in the world. We won't be able to compete for the jobs of the 21st century if we don't fix it. That's why it was so important to pass the bipartisan infrastructure law. And I thank my Republican friends who joined to invest and rebuild America, the single biggest investment in history. It was a bipartisan effort, and I want to thank the members of both parties who worked to make it happen. We're done talking about infrastructure weeks. We're now talking about an infrastructure decade. It's going to transform America, to put us in a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with the rest of the world, particularly China. I've told Xi Jinping, it's never been a good bet to bet against the American people. We'll create good jobs for millions of Americans, modernizing roads, airports, ports, waterways, all across America. And we'll do it to withstand the devastating effects of climate change and promote environmental justice. We'll build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations. Begin to replace the poisonous lead pipes so every child, every American has clean water to drink at home and at school. We're going to provide affordable, high-speed Internet for every American, rural, suburban, urban, and tribal communities. 4,000 projects have already been announced. Many of you have announced them in your districts. And tonight, I'm announcing that this year we will start fixing over 65,000 miles of highway and 1,500 bridges in disrepair. And folks, when we use taxpayers' dollars to rebuild America, we're going to do it by buying America, buy American products, support American jobs. The federal government spends about $600 billion a year to keep this country safe and secure. There's been a law in the books for almost a century to make sure taxpayers' dollars support American jobs and businesses. Every administration, Democrat or Republican, says they'll do it, but we're actually doing it. We'll buy America to make sure everything from the deck of an aircraft carrier to the steel on highway guardrails is made in America from beginning to end. All of it, all of it. But folks, to compete for the jobs of the future, we also need a loving playing field with China and other competitors. That's why it's so important to pass the Bipartisan Innovation Act sitting in Congress that we'll make record investments in emerging technologies and American manufacturing. We used to invest almost 2% of our GDP in research and development. We don't now. Can't China is? Let me give you one example why it's so important to pass. If you travel 20 miles east of Columbus, Ohio, you'll find 1,000 empty acres of land. It won't look like much, but if you stop and look closely, you'll see a field of dreams. The ground in which America's future will be built. That's where Intel, the American company that helped build Silicon Valley, is going to build a $20 billion semiconductor mega-site. Up to eight state-of-the-art factories in one place. 10,000 new jobs. And in those factories, the average job about $135,000 a year. Some of the most sophisticated manufacturing in the world to make computerships the size of a fingertip. The power of the world in everyday lives from smartphones, technology, the internet, technology is yet to be invented. But that's just the beginning. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who was here tonight. I don't know where Pat is. There you go. Pat, stand up. Pat came to see me and he told me they're ready to increase their investment from $20 billion to $100 billion. That would be the biggest investment in manufacturing in American history. And all they're waiting for is for you to pass this bill. So let's not wait any longer. Send it to my desk. I'll sign it and we'll really take off in a big way. And folks, Intel is not alone. There's something happening in America. Just look around and you'll see an amazing story. The rebirth of pride that comes from stamping products made in America. The revitalization of American manufacturing. Companies are choosing to build new factories here when just a few years ago they would have gone overseas. That's what's happening. Investors investing $11 billion in electric vehicles creating 11,000 jobs across the country. GM is making the largest investment in history. $7 billion to build electric vehicles creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan. All told, 369,000 new manufacturing jobs were created in America last year alone. Folks powered by people I've met like Jojo Burgess from generations of union still workers in Pittsburgh. Who's here with us tonight? Where are you Jojo? There you go. Thanks buddy. As Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown says, it's time to bury the label Rust Belt. It's time to see what used to be called Rust Belt become the home of a significant resurgence of manufacturing. And with all the bright spots in our economy record job growth, higher wages. Too many families are struggling to keep up with their bills. Inflation is robbing them of gains they thought otherwise they would be able to feel. I get it. That's why my top priority is getting prices under control. Look, our economy roared back faster than almost anyone predicted. But that pandemic meant that businesses had a hard time hiring enough people because of the pandemic to keep up production in their factories. So you didn't have people making those beams that went into buildings because they were out. The factory was closed. The panic also disrupted the global supply chain. Factories close. When that happens it takes longer to make goods and get them to the warehouses, to the stores and prices go up. Look at cars last year. One third of all the inflation was because of automobile sales. There weren't enough semiconductors to make all the cars that people wanted to buy. And guess what? Prices of automobiles went way up. Especially used vehicles as well. And so we have a choice. One way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poor. I think I have a better idea to fight inflation. Lower cost, not your wages. Folks, that means make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America. More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America. Instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let's make it in America. Look, economists call this increasing the productive capacity of our economy. I call it building a better America. My plan to fight inflation will lower your cost and lower the deficit. 17 Nobel laureates in economics said my plan will ease long-term inflationary pressures. Top business leaders, and I believe most Americans, support the plan. Where's the plan? First, cut the cost of prescription drugs. We pay more for the same drug produced by the same company and American and any other country in the world. Just look at an insulin. One in ten Americans has diabetes. In Virginia, I met a 13-year-old boy, the handsome young man standing up there, Joshua Davis. He and his dad both have type 1 diabetes, which means they need insulin every single day. Insulin cost about $10 a vial to make. That's what it cost the pharmaceutical company. But drug companies charge families like Joshua and his dad up to 30 times that amount. I spoke with Joshua's mom. Imagine what it's like to look at your child who needs insulin to stay healthy and have no idea how in God's name you're going to be able to pay for it. What it does to your family, but what it does to your dignity, your ability to look your child in the eye, to be the parent you expect yourself to be. I really mean to think about that. That's what I think about. You know, yesterday, Joshua was here tonight, but yesterday was his birthday. Happy birthday, buddy, by the way. For Joshua and 200,000 other young people with type 1 diabetes, let's cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month so everyone can afford it. And drug companies will do very, very well their profit margin. While we're at it, I know we have great disagreements on this floor with this, let's let Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs. They already set the price for VA drugs. Look, the American Rescue Plan is helping millions of families with affordable care act plans to save them $2,400 a year on their health premiums. Let's close the coverage gap and make these savings permanent. And second, let's cut energy costs for families. An average of $500 a year by combating climate change. Let's provide an investment tax credits to weatherize your home and your business to be energy efficient and get a tax credit for it. Double Americans clean energy production in solar wind and so much more. Lower the price of electric vehicles saving another $80 a month that you're not going to have to pay at the pump. Folks, third, the third thing we can do to change the standard of living for hardworking folks is cut the cost of childcare. Cut the cost of childcare. If you live in a major city in America, you pay up to $14,000 a year for childcare per child. I was a single dad for five years raising two kids. I had a lot of help though. I had a mom, a dad, a brother and a sister that really helped. But middle-class and working folks shouldn't have to pay more than 7% of their income to care for the young children. My plan would cut the cost of childcare in half for most families and help parents including millions of women who left the workforce during the pandemic because they couldn't afford childcare to be able to get back to work, generating economic growth. But my plan doesn't stop there. It also includes home and long-term care, more affordable housing, pre-K for three and four-year-olds. All these will lower costs to families. Under my plan, nobody, let me say this again, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in new taxes. Not a single penny. I may be wrong, but my guess is that we took a secret valid in this floor that we'd all agree that the present tax system ain't fair. We have to fix it. I'm not looking to punish anybody. Well, let's make corporations and wealthy Americans start paying their fair share. Look, last year, like Chris Coons and Tom Carper and my distinguished congresswoman, we come from the land of corporate America. There are more corporations incorporated in America than every other state in America combined. And I still want 36 years in a row. The point is, even they understand they should pay just a fair share. Last year, 55 of the Fortune 500 companies earned $40 billion in profit and paid zero in federal taxes. Now look, it's not fair. That's why I propose the 15% minimum tax rate for corporations. We've got, and that's why in the G7 and other meetings overseas, we're able to put together, I was able to be somewhat helpful, 130 countries degree on a global minimum tax rate. So companies can't get out of paying their taxes at home by shipping jobs and factories overseas. It'll raise billions of dollars. That's why I propose closing loopholes for the very wealthy who don't pay a lower tax rate than a teacher and a firefighter. So that's my plan, but we'll go more detail later. We will grow the economy, lower the cost of families. So what are we waiting for? Let's get this done. We all know we've got to make changes. Folks, and while you're at it, confirm my nominees for the Federal Reserve, which plays a critical role in fighting inflation. My plan will not only lower costs and give families a fair shot, it will lower the deficit. The previous administration not only ballooned the deficit with those tax cuts for the very wealthy corporations, it undermined the watchdogs, the job of those to keep pandemic relief funds being wasted. Remember we had those debates? But whether or not those watchdogs should be able to see every day how much money was being spent where it was going to the right place. In my administration, the watchdogs are back. And we're going to go after the criminals who stole billions of relief money meant for small business and millions of Americans. Tonight I'm announcing that the Justice Department will soon name a Chief Prosecutor for Pandemic Fraud. Look, I think we all agree. Thank you. By the end of this year, the deficit will be down to less than half of what it was before I took office. The only president ever to cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion in a single year. Lowering your cost also meant demanding more competition. I'm a capitalist, but capitalism without competition is not capitalism. Capitalism without competition is exploitation. It drives up profits. Incorporations have to compete. Their profits go up and your prices go up when they don't have to compete. Small businesses and family farmers and ranchers, I need not tell some of my Republican friends from those states. Guess what? You've got four basic meat packing facilities. That's it. You play with them or you don't get to play at all. And you pay a hell of a lot more. A hell of a lot more because there's only four. See what's happening with ocean carriers? Moving goods in and out of America. During the pandemic, about half a dozen or less, foreign-owned companies raised prices by as much as 1,000% and made record profits. Tonight, I'm announcing a crackdown on those companies overcharging American businesses and consumers. Folks in these Wall Street firms take over more nursing homes. Quality in those homes has gone down and costs have gone up. That ends on my watch. Medicare is going to set higher standards for nursing homes and make sure loved ones get the care they deserve and that they inspect and they will look at closely. We're also going to cut costs to keep the economy going strong and give your workers a fair shot, provide more training and apprenticeships, hire them based on skills, not just their degrees. Let's pass the Paycheck Fairness Act and pay leave. Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and extend the child tax credit so no one has to raise the family of poverty. Let's increase Pell Grants, increase our historic support for HBCUs and invest in what Jill, our first lady who teaches full-time, calls America's best-kept secret, community colleges. Look, let's pass the Pro Act. When a majority of workers want a former union, they shouldn't be able to be stopped. When we invest in our workers and we build an economy from the bottom up in the middle out together, we can do something we haven't done in a long time. Build a better America. For more than two years, COVID has impacted every decision in our lives and the life of this nation. And I know you're tired, frustrated, and exhausted. I don't even count the close to a million people who sit at a dining room table or a kitchen table looking at an empty chair because they lost somebody. But I also know this. Because of the progress we've made, because of your resilience and the tools that we have been provided by this Congress, tonight I can say we're moving forward safely back to a more normal routines. We've reached a new moment in the fight against COVID-19, where severe cases are down to a level not seen since July of last year. Just a few days ago, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new mask guidelines. Under the new guidelines, most Americans and most of the country can now go mask free. And based on projections, and based on projections, more of the country will reach a point across that point across the next couple of weeks. And thanks to the progress we've made in the past year, COVID-19 no longer need control our lives. I know some are talking about living with COVID-19. But tonight, I say that we never will just accept living with COVID-19. We'll continue to combat the virus as we do other diseases. And because this virus mutates and spreads, we have to stay on guard. We'll work common sense steps as we move forward safely in my view. First, stay protected with vaccines and treatments. We know how incredibly effective vaccines are. If you're vaccinated and boosted, you have the highest degree of protection and will never give up on vaccinating more Americans. Now, I know parents with kids under five are eager to see their vaccines authorized for their children. Scientists are working hard to get that done and will be ready with plenty of vaccines if and when they do. We're all ready. We are also ready with antiviral treatments. If you get COVID-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by 90%. I've ordered more pills than anyone in the world has. Pfizer is working overtime to get us a million pills this month and more than double that next month. And now we're launching the Test to Treat initiative. So people can get tested at a pharmacy, and if they prove positive, receive the antiviral pills on the spot at no cost. Folks, if you're immunocompromised or have some other vulnerability, we have treatments and free high-quality masks. We're leaving no one behind or ignoring anyone's needs as we move forward. On testing, we've made hundreds of millions of tests available and you can order them for free to your doorstep. And we've already ordered free tests. If you're already ordered free tests tonight, I'm announcing you can order another group of tests. Go to covidtest.gov starting next week and you can get more tests. Second, we must prepare for new variants. Over the past, we've gotten much better at detecting new variants. If necessary, we'll be able to develop new vaccines within 100 days instead of maybe months or years. And if Congress presides the funds we need, we'll have new stockpiles of tests, masks, pills, ready if needed. I can't promise a new variant won't come, but I can't promise you we'll do everything within our power to be ready if it does. Third, you can end the shutdown of schools and businesses. We have the tools we need. It's time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people. People working from home can feel safe and begin to return to their offices. We're doing that here in the federal government. The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person. Our schools are open. Let's keep it that way. Our kids need to be in school. The 75% of adult Americans fully vaccinated and hospitalizations down by 77%. Most Americans can remove their masks and stay in the classroom and move forward safely. We achieved this because we provided free vaccines, treatments, tests, and masks. Of course, continuing this costs money, so I'm not surprised we'll be back to see you all. I'm going to soon send a request to Congress. The vast majority of Americans have used these tools and may want again. We may need them again, so I expect Congress and I hope you'll pass that quickly. Fourth, we'll continue vaccinating the world. We've sent 475 million vaccine doses to 112 countries, more than any nation on Earth. We won't stop because you can't build a wall high enough to keep out a vaccine. The vaccine can stop the spread of these diseases. You know, we've lost so much in COVID-19. Time with one another. The worst of all, much the loss of life. Let's use this moment to reset. So stop looking at COVID as a partisan dividing line. See it for what it is. A God-awful disease. Let's stop seeing each other as enemies and start seeing each other for who we are. Fellow Americans, look, we can't change how divided we've been. It's a long time in coming, but we can change how to move forward on COVID-19 and other issues that we must face together. I recently visited New York City Police Department days after the funerals of Officer Wilbur Mora and his partner officer, Jason Rivera. They were responding to a 9-11 call when a man shot and killed them with a stolen gun. Officer Mora was 27 years old. Officer Rivera was 22 years old. Both Dominican-Americans who grew up in the same streets that they later chose to patrol as police officers. I spoke with their families, and I told them they were forever in debt for their sacrifices, and will carry on their mission to restore the trust and safety of every community it deserves. Like some of you that have been around for a while, I've worked with you on these issues for a long time. I know what works, investigating crime prevention in community policing, cops who walk the beat, who know the neighborhood, and who can restore trust and safety. Let's not abandon our streets or choose between safety and equal justice. Let's come together to restore our communities, restore trust, and hold law enforcement accountable. That's why the Justice Department has required body cameras, ban choked coals, and restricted no-knocks warrants for its officers. That's why the American Rescue Plan that you all provided $350 billion that cities, states, and counties can use to hire more police, invest in more proven strategies. Proven strategies like community violence, interruption, trusted messengers, breaking the cycle of violence and trauma, and giving young people some hope. We should all agree. The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training. Resources and training they need to protect our communities. I ask Democrats and Republicans alike, to pass my budget and keep our neighborhoods safe. And we'll do everything in my power to crack down on gun trafficking, of ghost guns that you can buy online, assemble at home, no serial numbers, can't be traced. I ask Congress to pass proven measures to reduce gun violence, pass universal background checks. Why should anyone on the terrorist list be able to purchase a weapon? Why? Why? Folks, ban assault weapons with high capacity magazines for 100 rounds. You think the deer wearing Kevlar vests? Look, repeal the liability shield that makes gun manufacturers the only industry in America that can't be sued. The only one. Imagine had we done that with the tobacco manufacturers. These laws don't infringe on the Second Amendment. They save lives. The most fundamental right in America is the right to vote and have it counted. And look, it's under assault. In state after state, new laws have been passed. Not only suppressed the vote, we've been there before, but to subvert the entire election. You can't let this happen. Tonight I call on the Senate to pass. Pass the Freedom to Vote Act. The John Lewis Act, Voting Rights Act. And while you're at it, pass the Disclose Act so Americans know who's funding our election. Look, tonight, I'd like to honor someone who dedicated his life to serve this country. Justice Breyer, an Army veteran, constitutional scholar, retiring Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Justice Breyer, I'm nervous. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I mean it. Get up, stand up and see me. Thank you. And we all know, no matter what your ideology, we all know one of the most serious constitutional responsibility a president has is nominating someone to serve on the United States Supreme Court. As I did four days ago, I've nominated the Circuit Court of Appeals, Katanji Brown Jackson. One of our nation's top legal minds who continue in Justice Breyer's legacy of excellence. A former top litigator in private practice. A former federal public defender from a family of public school educators and police officers. She's a consensus builder. Since she's been nominated, she's received a broad range of support including the fraternal order of police and former judges afforded by Democrats and Republicans. Folks, if we are to advance liberty and justice, we need to secure our border and fix the immigration system. And as you might guess, I think we can do both. At our border, we've installed new technologies like cutting edge scanners to better detect drug smuggling. We've set up joint patrols with Mexico and Guatemala to catch more human traffickers. We're putting in place dedicated immigration judges on a significant larger number so families fleeing persecution and violence can have their cases heard faster and those who don't legitimately here can be sent back. We're screening. We're securing commitments and supporting partners in South and Central America that has led the generation of immigrants to this land. My forebears and many of yours provide a pathway to citizenship for dreamers, those with temporary status, farm workers, essential workers, revise our laws so businesses have workers they need and families don't wait decades to reunite. It's not only the right thing to do, it's economically smart thing to do. That's why the immigration reform is supported by everyone from labor unions to religious leaders to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Let's get it done once and for all. Folks, advancing liberty and justice also requires protecting the rights of women. A constitutional right affirmed by Roe v. Wade standing president for half a century is under attack as never before. If you want to go forward, not backwards, we must protect access to healthcare, preserve a woman's right to choose and continue to advance maternal healthcare for all Americans. And folks, for our LGBTQ plus Americans, let's finally get the bipartisan Equality Act to my desk. The onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families. It's simply wrong. And I've said last year, especially to our younger transgender Americans, I'll always have your back as your president so you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential. Folks, as I've just demonstrated, it often appears we do not agree and that we do agree on a lot more things than we acknowledge. I signed 80 bipartisan bills in the law last year from preventing government shutdowns, protecting Asian Americans from still-to-common hate crimes, reforming military justice and will soon be strengthening the Violence Against Women Act that I first wrote three decades ago. It's important. It's important for us to show, to show the nation we can come together and do big things. So now I'm offering a unity agenda for the nation. Four big things we can do together, in my view. First, beat the opioid epidemic. There's so much we can do. Increase funding for prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery. Get rid of outdated rules and stop doctors and stop doctors prescribing treatments. Stop the flow of illicit drugs by working with state and local law enforcement to go after the traffickers. And if you're suffering from addiction, you know you're not alone. I believe in recovery and I celebrate the 23 million 23 million Americans in recovery. Second, let's take on mental health. Especially among our children whose lives and education have been turned upside down. American Rescue Plan gave schools money to hire teachers and help students make up for lost learning. I urge every parent to make sure your school, your school does just that. They have the money. We can all play a part. Sign up to be a tutor or a mentor. Children were also struggling before the pandemic, bullying, violence, trauma and the harms of social media. As Francis Haugen who is here tonight with us has shown, we must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they're conducting on our children for profit. Folks, thank you. Thank you for the courage you showed. It's time to strengthen privacy protections. Ban targeted advertising to children. Demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children. And let's get all Americans the mental health services they need. More people can turn for help and full parity between physical and mental health care if we treat it that way in our insurance. Look, the third piece of that agenda is support our veterans. Veterans are the backbone and the spine of this country. They're the best of us. I've always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip those we send to war and care for those in their family when they come home. My administration providing assistance in job training, housing and now helping lower income veterans get VA care debt free. And our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan face many dangers. One being station the bases breathing in toxic smoke from burn pits. Many of you have been there. I've been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times. These burn pits that incinerate waste, the waste of war, medical and hazards, material, jet fuel and so much more. And they come home. Many of the world's fittest and best trained warriors in the world. Never the same. Headaches, numbness, dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-drake coffin. I know. One of those soldiers was my son, Major Joe Biden. I don't know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near, that his hooch was near in Iraq and earlier than that in Kosovo is the cause of his brain cancer and the disease of so many other troops but I am committed to find out everything we can. Committed to military families like Daniel Robinson from Ohio the widow of Sergeant 1st Class Heath Robinson. He was born a soldier Army National Guard Combat Medic in Kosovo in Iraq, stationed near Baghdad just yards from burn pits the size of football fields. Daniel is here with us tonight. They love going to Ohio State football games and they love building Legos with their daughter. But cancer from prolonged exposure to burn pits ravaged Heath's lungs and body. Daniel says Heath was a fighter to the very end. He didn't know how to stop fighting and neither did she. Through her pain, she found purpose to demand that we do better. Tonight, Daniel, we are going to do better. The VA The VA is firing new ways of linking toxins and exposure to disease already helping more veterans get benefits and tonight I'm announcing we're expanding eligibility to veterans suffering from 9 respiratory cancers. I'm also calling on Congress to pass the law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and the comprehensive health care they deserve. And fourth and last let's end cancer as we know it. This is personal. This is personal to me and to Jill and to Kamala and so many of you. So many of you have lost someone you love. Husband, wife, son, daughter, mom, dad. Cancer is the number two cause of death in America second only to heart disease. Last month I announced the plan to supercharge the cancer moonshot that President Obama asked me to lead six years ago. Our goal is to cut cancer death rates by at least 50% over the next 25 years. I think we can do better than that. Turn cancers from death sentences into treatable diseases. More support for patients and their families. To get there I call on Congress to fund what I call ARPA H. Advanced advanced research projects agency for health. Pattern after DARPA in the Defense Department projects that led in DARPA to the internet and to the US and so much more to make our forces more safer and be able to wage war more with more clarity. ARPA will have a singular purpose to drive breakthroughs in cancer Alzheimer's and diabetes and more. A unity agenda for the nation. We can do these things. It's within our power and I don't see a partisan edge to any one of those four things. My fellow Americans tonight we've gathered in this sacred space a citadel of democracy in this capital generation after generation Americans have debated great questions amid great strife and have done great things. We fought for freedom expanded liberty debated totalitarianism and terror. We built the strongest freest and most prosperous nation the world has ever known. Now is the hour our moment of responsibility our test of resolve and conscience of history itself it is in this moment that our character of this generation has formed our purpose is found our future is forged well I know this nation we'll meet the test protect freedom and liberty expand fairness and opportunity and we will save democracy as hard as those times have been I'm more optimistic about America today than I've been my whole life because I see the future that's within our grasp because I know there's simply nothing beyond our capacity we're the only nation on earth that has always turned every crisis we faced into an opportunity the only nation that can be defined by a single word possibilities so on this night on our 245th year as a nation I've come to report on the state of the nation the state of the union and my report is this the state of the union is strong because you the American people are strong we are stronger today we are stronger today than we were a year ago and we'll be stronger a year from now than we are today this is our moment to meet and overcome the challenges of our time and we will as one people one America the United States of America God bless you all and may God protect our troops thank you go get him it seems like Representative Tlib's comments have not started yet oh at this point I just want to thank you so much She is one of our Codepink congress organizers she's organizing the Codepink congress liaisons and she navigates the tech for us during our Zoom sessions and does such amazing work thank you Shea please now is not maybe Shea while we're waiting you can tell everybody about the Codepink congress liaison program yeah absolutely now seems like a great time for that so we have a fairly new program within Codepink congress it's our district liaison program and it is a chance for folks who are really passionate about leveraging their power as constituents to advocate for peace and demilitarization legislation we have found that one of the most effective ways to create change and to move our representatives on important issues is to develop individual relationships with them and have phone calls which I am forgetting who is saying this earlier tonight on a call but it's a lot harder for reps to say no when there's a representative in their office and definitely a lot harder when there are 40 so that is kind of our that's our leverage that's our theory of change we have been working with constituents in different states to move forward the Yemen war powers resolution we have been talking about the national defense authorization act when that was up earlier last year this is just a really good chance to get involved we provide trainings resources I can help you set up meetings and now is a really great time to get involved because a week from today next Tuesday at the time when the Codepink congress capital calling parties are taking place we will have a quarterly call for all the district liaisons where we'll provide a brief training on how to set up these meetings and we will discuss the peace and demilitarization legislation that we're focusing on for this quarter so I urge you all to join for that I will drop the link in the chat briefly and yeah I'll also put my email there feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have great thank you so much yeah because we're going to be lobbying and asking our representatives to be cosponsors of the Yemen war powers resolution once that's introduced and we need everybody on board for that anyone want to respond to what you've heard tonight Cole are you there Aidan I'm not sure if I'm still with us I know it's late back east I want to say something about Lydia think I didn't hear and let me know if I'm wrong I didn't hear Biden say anything about we need to demand that Putin sit down and talk we need negotiations let's get the whole world community and all the UN countries together and demand talks so I didn't hear that I didn't hear I had asked did he say anything about Afghanistan and I don't think he did that he just mentioned the Afghan vets but to not even make a mention of all the people who are going hungry in Afghanistan is so sad and I don't think I mentioned about Yemen and of course not a mention about while we're upholding democracy we continue to sell or give weapons to Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Israel and so this whole you know US exceptionalism and US defending democracy of course he doesn't bring those kinds of things up those are some of the things that I felt were totally omitted yes I was not surprised but you know once again it's made to not hear any any overtures for negotiation diplomacy we got esters in Russia we're going to cut off all ties with Russia nobody will be able to travel here blanket sanctions a lot of nativism but some of this is language about the Russia conflict in the beginning it sounded to me I thought are we at war with Russia that's what it sounded like to me with some of his rhetoric and then later on it was just like like an ode to capitalism and cheering for the suffering that we're causing to the Russian people is something that makes me very sad and I didn't hear correct me even acknowledgement or thanks to the Russian people who are getting out on the streets to protest that would have been nice nothing about that and you know and he cut off commercial air travel to Russia I don't think that was even done in the Cold War so that's new height of hostility it was a brief comment sorry just to interject there was like a very very brief comment he said even in Russia but it was so minuscule that it wasn't really it was obviously trying to like put a sort of point there to then say if you ever got brought up on it he would say no I did say it but he focused so much on the sort of cutting and isolating Russia that it effectively invalidates any sort of point he made with that thanks for clarifying I've seen somebody else that wrote that the protesters were highlighted and appreciated I also thought it was really strange how he went on about all the toxins related to war and the suffering of veterans and then in the next breath he starts talking about DARPA the defense agency that's developing all sorts of new weapons systems and talks about leading us with the greater clarity on how to wage war and it's just so bizarre and then you know part of it his speech sounded like almost like he was taking on big pharma right and trying to galvanize the labor movement behind him I don't know how he's going to ask the pro out but Kristen said yes I mean we should acknowledge there were good things in there and talking about the people's right to vote and you know I like when he talks about how we have to get corporations to pay their fair share but then he doesn't really do anything about it and he talks about how we need competition but what has his administration done to break up the monopolies so at this point we're just waiting for to hear from Rashid Tlaib to hear her response I would you know urge people to write the White House and say when are you going to meet with Putin what are you doing for diplomacy negotiations all we heard was nativism and America first and how we're going to isolate Russia and it sounds like we were at war with Russia so it doesn't leave us any room I wonder while we're waiting if people want to raise their hand if they'd like to say something are we able to do that it looks like Chuck O'Neill has something to say yeah I just like to say I think we're getting from Biden exactly what I expected during the election I expected him to be reasonably good on domestic issues and another hawk to get us into war and that's what we're getting very disappointed that my prediction was right I see we have Joan and Sheila both with their hands up can somebody put it in the chat can you hear me hi nobody brings up when we talk about immigration about what the United States does to cause people to want to come here so could I say something sure I was very impressed with the talks earlier I'm not in reference to Biden but the talks earlier in the conference there were such a stress stressing of the importance of common security and I always remember this Olof Palmer and he said and this was cited by Brune as well that no one is secure unless all are secure and this is what Russia has been trying over and over again and I remember I was looking up the Paris Agreement which was supposed to be a security agreement between Russia and NATO and in it it said that there was an agreement that there would be no combat troops in no combat troops in the territory of any of the new states that had become part of NATO so it was again another violation this has been a violation all the way through and it was mentioned earlier about the Minsk too which was the security agreement so Russia has been trying to engage and I had a personal experience when I was at the U.N. and I went to a conference by Sergio Lavrov and I spoke to him after and I said this was just before the invasion of Iraq and I said I asked him if he agreed with Bush that serious consequences you know in the 2002 agreement the serious consequences would justify war and he said in no way I did not veto it because I had assured me that he would not use serious consequences from the 2002 Security Council resolution which was unanimous and it was the only reason it was unanimous is because Bush had promised that he would not use it and I remember being one of your rallies the wonderful code pink rally just before the invasion and I went around I should do something with the video because I went around to all the members the whole group said if I could send this to Bush what would you say to them and I couldn't believe how wonderful the comments and powerful the comments were but I still have it and I haven't edited it yet so I should do something with it but that was a wonderful wonderful rally I remember I think it was in front of it was in front of it was in front of it was just across from the UN anyway I can't remember in front of in front of Clinton's Clinton's office I think thank you for sharing that Joan just a reminder to everybody who's on we are encouraging you to organize or join protests this Sunday March 6 to say Russia out of Ukraine but also no to NATO expansion no weapons to further mobilize this conflict no blanket sanctions to hurt the Russians and also one thing if I may say one more thing I became very concerned after I heard a clip on Der Spiegel from Lavrov when he was talking about how often that they had been deceived by the US over the years that was very powerful and I remember congratulating Der Spiegel for putting that clip on and then I looked to see what they were saying after that and they completely ignored Russia but this I was wondering if there wasn't much discussion of the role of the media in exacerbating the whole thing I mean especially in Canada I'm from Canada and well in the US as well I mean it's just been so constant and our public broadcast has been just completely violating all principles of fair comment it's just been terrible up in Canada and also the government is just exacerbating it too just whatever it can do it just is demonizing Russia and making it and I feel that Russia is I mean all Russia wanted initially was to be and I can imagine how the US could feel if the OAS decided they would put together all these different countries and Latin American move right up to the border of Mexico and enter into something called defend Latin America well this is what's happening with NATO right up to the border have you all seen Defender Europe they're just boasting about all they have you all seen that it's just terrible I haven't seen it but unfortunately this invasion will only I fear empower those who are for expanding NATO and arming to the teeth and so forth Aiden I'd love to hear what's going on with you in London and what you're hearing and what people are saying about this right well I'm for context I'm a student at LSE which is like 70% international so I get a lot of different opinions and also there's a lot of rallies going on in London if you may have seen in the news and now there is an issue in there's many things to discuss one if for Russian students there's a lot of focus kind of saying if you don't come out immediately and criticise the conflict or become anti-putin or anything you kind of get accused of being sort of complicit in the conflict which also has bad terms in Europe as a whole we're already seeing situations where Russian students are being expelled from universities we also have the situation with Russian media being blocked and such in the UK or not so yet in the UK but in Europe sort of because of the Brexit situation the sort of Europe-UK things problematic and I will not get into that currently from a UK standpoint obviously as the UK effectively wanting to be the 51st state of the United States is sort of trying to lead itself in the sort of Europe policy the UK has had a long history of disliking Russia having a rivalry with Russia and so a lot of that for the politicians here is still very very clear you know we've had a rivalry with the Russian since the Russian Empire then the Soviet Union and so there's a lot of hostility and a lack of sort of willingness to consider more than one viewpoint that's provided by Washington and then that also permeates a lot in the universities very problematic there is a lack of discussion we what the LSE was meant to have the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK come and speak yesterday now but he was no longer able to do so but yes it's sort of it's still quite crazy at the moment there's very very little I can say about the protests obviously they were outside of number 10 for a bit on Saturday or Friday and then they've been outside sort of other areas but I believe there's a protest usually every day at 6pm in the UK but as for general policy I cannot comment so far at the moment I just want to comment on some of the things people have been saying about this this like blockstep narrative coming from Washington and then the media also amplifying those messages and just having a deep skepticism of the mainstream media and this desire to educate ourselves and understand what's going on in historical context so what we did is we started a book reading club and we're reading War with Russia by Stephen Cohen so I'd invite people to read that if they're interested a few of us started reading it and it blew up like many people started to join because Stephen Cohen provides a somewhat different perspective and we think that in such dangerous times and worrisome times it's important to be able to consider different perspectives and use our critical thinking to think about the mainstream media and our political and media institutions aren't going to do that for us they're not going to help educate us so it's really on us to be informed I just want to mention that I posted in the chat a video that Jeremy Corbin just did the Member of Parliament from the UK who used to be the Labour leader who's being pro-Putin now because he's pro-peace so he just wanted to clarify his position in that video he was also on the webinar that we did, the global one that was on February 26th and he gave a great talk there as well so I'll put the link to that because there were many people from different countries on that who gave very great perspectives yes, thank you so much Medea what are the most chilling moments I think in the speech tonight as Cole referenced earlier was Biden saying that he's cutting off all air travel from Russia to the United States so I'm wondering what's going to happen to the Russian students who are in the United States that seems like the next step is that they'll be ushered out I hope not how do you build a relationship throughout absolutely and we've been trying some of us to send our delegation to Russia to meet up with the peace activists there and because of the cutting off of these flights now you can't get in there and another thing to remain conscious of during all this time for all of us is I've heard Russian people concerned about anti-Russian xenophobia here in the States during these times it's very important to be conscious of that and Katie you keep asking us what are we doing to support the survivors in Ukraine we're not I think we're all for as much humanitarian aid as we can give them we want to support the people inside Ukraine the ones fleeing from Ukraine what we're saying about not being anti-Russian against the Russian people doesn't mean that we are not pro-Ukrainian people and I see that Edwina has her hand up to kind of follow up with the discussion in the last few minutes it's not necessarily related to the conversation or the presentation by the president it disturbs me and I'm seeing it obviously more conservative than many of the states or some of the states in the United States but lots of comments on Facebook even from other people a real kind of anti-Russian perspective and this is supposedly a peace activist and tonight I was kind of laughing at some of the chats statements that were being made but it's really been distressing how polarizing people are saying well I'm going to unfriend you if you don't denounce Putin and I'm just wondering as a counterpoint not to go on about that because I think all of you are aware of that and talked about that but maybe if we support a ceasefire I don't know what's wrong with that that everybody couldn't support in addition on Sunday to talk about that as an issue where we can all come together and everybody stopped fighting for a couple of days and I think it was mentioned earlier and I've talked about it to bring all the NATO countries together to bring Russia together these representatives and to say how are we going to solve this thing you know why are we making the Ukrainian people victims of the circumstance so anyway I don't know if you have comments besides the book club or other things to be said but it's concerning to me because we need to be unified a lot of Americans are listening to the Jingo statements and it's very disturbing so that's my two cents thank you for sharing that yeah I just posted a few suggestions for signs if you are organizing something this weekend Chuck you have your hand up we can't hear you though can you unmute Chuck we can't hear you I know you're talking I noticed about a year ago the United States started a very slick, convincing propaganda campaign against Putin and Russia and it continued to get worse and worse and worse and we've been bombarded time and again with how bad Putin is slide little comments when I talk about Putin oh well of course he's an evil guy kind of thing when they mention him those aren't the right words but something like that and they were doing it China now same time actually and it just really was upsetting me for the whole past year and that's why so many people make comments and I saw a webinar I think today or yesterday Russian students were talking and they said why do people hate Russians so much they were getting a lot of negative comments and stuff it's not just the as one of the comments said and I can't remember it it's not just about the wealthy powerful Russians that people are making comments it's spread to any Russian is a bad guy and we should hate him and I hear that over and over and over again not only on the news media but with friends and people that I see and it's really disturbing to me I thought a lot of my friends were pacifists and so on to hear so many comments about how terrible Russia is and we gotta fight Russia and well and it's really disappointing I guess that kind of went on during Vietnam hey Chuck I'm sorry to cut you off but Rashida started we should opportunity to thrive in the richest country in the world it shouldn't be this hard for so many to have a good life tonight I am proud to deliver a response on behalf of the working families party the working families party is a voice for the multi-racial working class fighting for a nation that cares for all of us I'm a lifelong Democrat I'm also part of the working families party because I believe that our government must put the needs of working families first in difficult times we must never lose sight of each other's humanity two years ago we couldn't have imagined a pandemic that has taken nearly a million lives here at home in nearly six million across the world it also threw tens of millions of Americans and neighbors out of work and it exposed our inhumane profit-driven healthcare system as our essential workers were pushed to the breaking point and hospitals ran out of beds when president Biden took office just over a year ago he took action he started getting shots in arms he acted quickly to deliver emergency relief congress approved direct relief checks we helped our working parents we stopped evictions we set resources to our schools in our local and state governments we showed the potential of an administration and congress that can act together at the scale of the challenges we all face we showed how our government can be in the service of the working class majority not just the wealthy few and it worked president Biden and congress stopped what could have been an economic freefall not a single republican not one voted for the relief package we created six million new jobs and I am inspired to see empowered workers demanding fair wages stronger benefits and human dignity after the emergency response we had a chance to do so much more so when president Biden laid out the visionary billback better agenda to create an America where we all have an opportunity to thrive people got excited we had a chance to begin to dress decades of rising inequality and injustice president Biden's billback better brought people together we saw for the first time people who want to see childcare in the same room with those combating climate change folks working on housing justice in the same room as those working on healthcare president did that billback better did that billback better increases access to healthcare and lowers prescription drug cost it funds home and community based care for our elders and people with disabilities each of these investments would be life changing it also fights climate change with major investments in clean renewable energy green jobs and clean water that would transform our communities it would uplift our nation by preserving and building affordable housing and investing in our children and families with affordable childcare universal pre-k paid leave and free community college and these are popular investments that would be paid for by making the wealthy and giant corporations pay their fair share no one no one fought harder for president Biden's agenda than progressives we rallied together with our supporters held town halls in our communities engaged new people and we even played hardball in congress but two forces stood in the way a republican party that serves only the rich and the powerful and just enough corporate back democratic obstructionist to help them succeed some important parts of the president's agenda became law with the infrastructure bill but we campaigned on doing even more roads and bridges are critical but so are childcare and prescription drugs and we shouldn't have to choose people like india beckham a mother of seven children in my district who is the sole provider for her family the expanded child tax credit helped her catch up on bills and meet her family's basic needs but now that life line is gone and we can't give up on her and millions of people like her with the majority of the billback better agenda stalled mr president our work is unfinished we are ready to jump start our work again we still have time to lower costs for working families and preserve a livable planet for our grandchildren but we must act now the super rich got richer during the pandemic while miss beckham and others face higher costs and new barriers that will forever alter their children's future I want us to imagine just imagine a government where corporate donors don't drive healthcare climate education and poverty policies where the working families of our nation really call the shots it's time we had a majority in congress to fight for us a working families majority no matter who you are where you're from most of us want the same things a good paying job a safe community, clean air and water, good schools a greater future for our families enough to thrive not just survive so what would a working families majority do we'd work with president biden to deliver for you and your family we'd guarantee healthcare as a basic right because after two years of this pandemic we can allow corporate profits to determine who lives and who dies we'd stand up to big pharma and insurance companies we'd make drug prices for life saving medicine like insulin actually affordable and we'd make abortion care a fenomenal right so that no supreme court could ever take it away we'd pass the in child poverty act that representative mandir jones and i introduce so that parents like india beckham and millions more could provide for the basics that every child needs to thrive we'd fight together for respect for all of our workers that means a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour that rises with inflation the freedom to join a union without harassment or intimidation in paid and family medical leave for our workers from the baristas at home in my home community in great lakes coffee to the teachers in minnesota to the amazon workers in alabama workers are speaking up for a voice in dignity on the job i saw what a union met for my family growing up as my father was a member of the united auto workers this smile this smiles because of the ua w they ensured that our family had access to dental care so this is our time to take on corporate polluters who get rich poisoning us and we fight for environmental justice with the green new deal we rebuild our country by creating millions of union jobs in the clean energy industry of the future imagine turning the rust belt into a green belt that is a center of american jobs and innovation for the next century and we'd ensure clean air and water because i know we can't build back better if our children can't live healthy lives a working family's majority would take on skyrocketing housing costs which have left to half a million americans homeless on any given night and millions more struggling to pay the rent that means building millions of accessible new affordable homes and providing long overdue rental down payment and home repair assistance we would provide a real path to citizenship for our people who want nothing more than to contribute to our nation we would transform our broken immigration system into one where immigrants are welcomed not vilified over the past few days we have all watched in horror as Russia launched an illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine we stand with the people of Ukraine the united states and our allies must work together towards an immediate ceasefire and a diplomatic resolution to help save lives we must pursue targeted sanctions that put pressure on Russia's billionaires not the everyday russians who have no choice in this conflict and are courageously protesting the war as we speak we need a humanitarian response to this crisis we must welcome Ukrainian refugees from all walks of life to the united states and I know we can't seek peace by continuing to spend three quarters of a trillion dollars every year on weapons of war making defense contractors and companies wealthier we must put human rights in dignity first and prioritize cooperation and diplomacy to address the challenges that no one nation can confront alone like pandemics and climate change nothing is more important in keeping the people we love free from harm we all deserve to be safe in our neighborhoods the path to community safety is investing in what people need to thrive like access to jobs, quality education and real opportunities we can't police away homelessness poverty or mental health crisis in our country care care not more criminalization is how we ensure lasting safety for all and we should end the war on drugs, fund legal defense and enact criminal justice reforms like ending qualified immunity that would transform our risk-minutary legal system and we should add a justice for working people to the Supreme Court by confirming Katanji Brown Jackson without delay over the last two years the richest people in America doubled their wealth as profits skyrocket corporations have the nerve to blame inflation while increasing prices on essential goods and services this is more than simply corporate greed it's extortion we need to tax billionaires and mega corporations that dodge their fair share and we need to fight back against unchecked corporate power that increasingly shape our lives those policies I named they are popular but we have a system that makes it too easy for elected officials to answer to donors instead of their constituents disproportionate representation in the senate distorts the democratic will of the people the filibuster a tool perfected to defend Jim Crow continues to be used to black progress we must abolish it in the senate like the house did more than a century ago republicans are trying to destroy our political power of working class families and they're willing to tear down our democracy to do it they say the violent insurrection on January 6 is quote legitimate political expression and that corporate super PAC spending dominating our elections is just free speech the republicans act like the real danger to our democracy is having enough voting booths in black neighborhoods fair district lines if we really want a democracy that responds to the will of the people then we need voting rights protection and democracy reforms immediately while we continue building supporting congress president Biden can use his executive power now to take action to deliver for the people he can cancel federal student loan debt which would be a lifeline for millions of americans in the formative economic stimulus and he can ban federal fossil fuel leasing drilling director federal agencies to reject permits for new fossil fuel projects and regulate carbon emissions he can fix our labor rules right now to allow more workers to access over time pay and he can change how we calculate the poverty line so that more americans become eligible for saving federal benefits and he can take action to break up pharmaceutical monopolies that make life saving medicines affordable the midterm elections are coming up fast and this year we can elect working families majority we all need we know what happens when the republicans take power they protect the rich target and target the rest of us they attack and undermine voting rights immigrants people of color and our LGBTQ community and they block progress on climate change so if you voted or knocked on doors or donated in 2020 to defeat Trump I implore you pay attention because this year is just as important and we need everybody to help blocking the far right is just not enough we also need to elect the next generation of working families champions it starts with staying engaged and voting in every election and every primary for candidates who will put working people first I know that we can get closer to the world we all deserve when we build a bigger movement bring people in not cast them out I was taught by a pastor in Detroit that we aren't a country that is divided we are disconnected we must connect on the dreams we have for our children the hopes we have for our communities and so much more when we connect with one another building our solidarity we can outwork the hate and show that the very people show them that who basically want to ensure that we never have a seat at the table we can show them that we aren't going anywhere so I want you to think of the people you love the place you call home for me it's my two boys my family the communities I represent who is it for you that's who you're fighting for and I want for them what we want for all Americans the opportunity the thrive and flourish a country where no one person's dream is too big to become a reality I know it's possible when we all come together so if you're ready to be part of our movement join us and win to 30403 working families are the majority together we will win a nation that can truly stand up for all of us thank you thank you so much for joining me this evening have a wonderful night well what a difference huh between her message and Biden's message on foreign policy I heard her say ceasefire now diplomacy, non militarism negotiate good for her she's critical of the size of the military budget yeah she didn't say cut it though I guess it's hard to say that right that was the implication I didn't catch the exact phrasing yeah I think she got as far as she thought she could go that was wonderful yeah