 of freedom, rational self-interest, and individual rights. The Iran Book Show. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Iran Book Show on this, uh, this camp on this Thursday, February 23rd. Good morning, I guess. Noon over here already. Uh, thank you for joining me. I know that probably not a lot of you are live right now, even the hour in, uh, in the United States. It's 7, uh, no, it's actually 6 AM on the East Coast. It's 2 AM in California. I'm not sure who is actually on here live. Probably a bunch of Europeans would be my guess. Jonathan Honing is on. Jonathan, it's like, what time is it? It's 5 AM. What are you doing? Um, uh, Justin is asking who is the guest this week. There is no guest this week. While I'm traveling, there are no interviews. Uh, it's impossible to do. So, uh, no interviews while I travel. So no guest this week, no guest next week. I'm not yet sure who the guest is when I get back to Puerto Rico. So, uh, we will see. Um, let's see. We've got, uh, Sasha says, hi, I'm from Ukraine living in Silicon Valley. Thank you for voting, rational thinking about capitalism, Ukraine, et cetera. It's 2 in the morning. Aren't you asleep? What's going on here? Um, Apollo Zeus is up. Jonathan is up. Justin is up. Vlad is up, but Vlad is in Australia. So, cool. All right. This is going to be an international show. Where are my Europeans? It's like middle of the day. I guess this is the difference I think between Europeans and Americans. I think Americans watch YouTube during the work day. I don't think Europeans do. This is a test. This is a test where Europeans are willing at 11 a.m. UK time test is here. Uh, or 12, uh, 12 p.m. Um, mainland Europe time or whether they're listening. I don't, I don't see the Europeans on. We'll see. Luke is on from Germany. Okay. So we got some Europeans. All right. Um, I am in, uh, in Slovakia. Uh, I, uh, flew into Prague. When, when did I fly into Prague? Uh, excuse me. Hey, sorry. That must have been terrible sounding. I apologize. Anyway, I flew into Prague Tuesday morning. Uh, I gave a talk, uh, two talks in Prague. One at several and one at the Anglo-American University. Um, one was on free speech and the other one was on, um, uh, in equal, uh, equal, uh, equals unfair. Then yesterday, uh, I got a ride to a Burno. Burno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic. And I gave a talk at the university there, a morality of capitalism. Both the talk in Prague and the talk in Burno were recorded. And I hope to have video of that up, um, uh, up and available for you guys, uh, uh, later today. Uh, well, not later today, but probably next week or the week after that. So we'll, we'll be releasing those. Um, then I've got, uh, then, uh, last night. Oh, so that was yesterday, right? I was in Burno. The talk was at 10 a.m. So we had a very small audience, but, uh, 10 a.m. at the university. Uh, then I got a train from Burno to, uh, Bratislava. Bratislava is in the, um, uh, in Slovakia. So this is a Czech Koslovakia split to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Global Balkanization. Those of you who've read Iron Man's brilliant essay, um, Global Balkanization Manifest. Anyway, in, uh, Slovakia in, uh, Bratislava gave a talk last night, um, on the morality of capitalism. I actually streamed that talk using my latest and greatest technology. So, uh, my computer, my camera, everything I have right now to do the show, I just took and, and my new mic, my new wireless mic, which is so cool. I'm so happy I got this mic. It, it, it really is amazing. It's, uh, you know, I can walk around. It will go up to, I think, 100 feet. It will still broadcast the sound. So it's perfect for lectures. It's a wireless mic that I clip onto the shirt. Um, super happy with it so far. The sound is great. I'm talking on it now. The sound is great. Uh, the, um, uh, the, what do you call it? Uh, yeah, it worked perfectly yesterday. We, uh, you know, we taped with my camera. Now I'm thinking I don't even need to bring the camera because the reality is the camera on the iPhone is pretty good. It might be the case that I can just use an iPhone on a, uh, on a, uh, on a tripod, uh, to record my lectures. So that would reduce the weight and reduce space if I could do that. So that's kind of the next step, I think, in the evolution. And for that, you know, well, I'm definitely going to buy, I think, an iPhone, uh, 15 when those come out. So, uh, I think now if I start doing that, I'll be really interested in the evolution of, uh, the video camera on, the video camera on the, uh, on the iPhone. Is the volume too low? Erhard, uh, Erhard who's here from, not sure from where, uh, is saying the video is, the volume right now is too low. Please let me know if that is the case. I can increase the volume, um, and, uh, let me just see. Uh, I can't, I know I can increase the volume somewhere here. I don't think that increases it. Yeah, let's see it again. Uh, let me know if the volume is too, or it was to you say, and, uh, I can, I can increase it here. Let's let me know if that is better. Uh, let me know if that is, whoops, that is better. Luke says the volume is good. So, uh, you might want to check on your thing. I did increase the volume. So hopefully that'll, uh, help. But, but certainly let me know if, if the volume is too low. I am speaking a little softer, both because I'm tired, but because, um, it's hot in my hotel room and I can't get the stupid air conditioning to work. It's also, you know, the biggest problem of traveling in the winter, and I will get to Ukraine in a minute. I apologize, but the biggest problem of traveling in the winter is the, the heating in the hotels dries the air out and you, I just get completely dried up and it's, so my, my voice is not completely right. I don't have as much energy because I'm not sleeping as well. And, uh, every, every day I'm basically traveling. Uh, so tonight, uh, I'm flying. I have to get a car from, uh, from Bratislava to the Vienna Airport. Vienna Airport is about, it's not even the dry skin, it's dry mouth. It's, the Vienna Airport's about an hour from here and then from Vienna Airport I get a, a plane, uh, to Georgia. I'll be in Tbilisi late tonight. I might do a show from Tbilisi, depending on what happens, um, later tonight. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, hydrate, hydrate, you drink water, but it doesn't change the fact that the air is super dry. Um, so I'm going to be in Tbilisi tonight. I'll be in Tbilisi over the weekend and then, uh, then Poland. A funny thing happened in Poland. You've got to hear this. So I've, I've supposedly giving a talk in Poland, in Poland, uh, on, um, Monday. I was supposed to give a talk in Poland on Monday. I hope I'm still giving a talk on Monday, but right now we're not sure. Um, and the university told the organizers that I couldn't come. And, you know, which is weird. And so the organizers, what's the problem? And they said, um, I'm, oh, and the talk I'm giving in Poland is about the war, about the war with, uh, the roots of the Russian war. That's, that's the title of the talk. And the university basically said, he's going to give, he's going to be pro-Russia and we don't want a pro-Russian talk here. And, um, you know, the organizers sent them a bunch of evidence to show that I'm the exact opposite. I'm anti-Russia. I'm pro-Ukraine and so on. Didn't make one eye out of a difference. Um, they decided I was pro-Russia and that was it and they were not going to allow me to talk. Which says a lot, and this is a good intro into a discussion of Ukraine. It says a lot about the attitudes, I think, here in, um, in Eastern Europe regarding the war in Ukraine. Uh, much more so than I think in England, much more so than I think in Western Europe. Eastern Europe is solidly, for the most part, is solidly behind the Ukrainians. Um, and solidly committed to helping Ukraine in whatever way they can and solidly antagonistic to Russia. I'd say this is even true in Eastern Europe of many of the libertarians. So, um, whereas in much of the West, libertarians have been pro-Russia and conservatives have been pro-Russia. I'd say that in Eastern Europe, um, the Eastern Europeans totally get it. They get the threat that Putin poses. They get that Ukraine here is the victim. They get that if Ukraine fell and that, uh, that, uh, Putin actually succeeded. Russia actually succeeded. And, you know, I hate this idea of Putin's war. We'll get to that in a minute. But if Russia actually succeeded, um, then, uh, you know, they would be next. He's clearly once Moldova. Uh, and once he's in Moldova, why not? Romania, why not? Uh, Slovakia, why not? Poland. These were all parts of the Soviet Union, well, all parts of the Soviet Union bloc. But they were all parts of, uh, they were all under the influence of Russia. And his goal is clear. His goal is to resurrect the Russian Empire. His goal is clear to resurrect the great of Russia. Uh, I think that goal is dead now, but, but that, that certainly was the goal in the beginning and his success would have only spurred it on. Just like the fact that he was successful in 2008 in taking a province, two provinces from, um, from Georgia, uh, then encouraged him in 2014 to, uh, to take Crimea in the Donbas, parts of the Donbas, uh, and the fact that he got away with that, then encourages him, um, then encourages him to, uh, to take over more. Tezi seems to be very concerned about free speech. I mean, the reality is a university can decide who to invite and who not to invite. It's not an issue of free speech. They're not a government institution. They invited me and then they rescinded the invitation. I think it's a mistake. I think it's unfortunate. I think they should be allowed, they should allow for a debate and a discussion about these issues and, and, and speech. But in terms of the right to free speech, there is no, um, there is no violation of a right here. There is no censorship here. There is just a private entity deciding not to work with you. Um, so, uh, anyway, so, uh, uh, Valdrin says libertarians are split here as well. A lot of pro Russia and some pro Ukraine. I'm not sure where this is, Valdrin. Where is Valdrin? Valdrin in the U.S.? Anyway, libertarians seem to be split, but I'd say that in the U.S., at least the vocal libertarians seem to be pro Russia. And in Eastern Europe, the libertarians I've met, and maybe it's our self-selection, with one exception in Prague, the libertarians seem to be pro Ukraine. So it seems at least anecdotally, granted anecdotally that there's more. But I think, I think Eastern Europe generally, I think the most solidly pro, it seems to me that the most solidly pro Ukraine element today in the world, maybe, is in Eastern Europe, certainly places like Poland. Um, of course somebody who's pro Russia still has the right to talk, but they don't have a right to use somebody else's facility to talk. That is the principle of free speech. The principle of free speech allows me to decide who can talk in my auditorium, who can talk in my university. Now universities are supposed to be open to everybody, and it would be nice if Polish universities allowed people who are against the war, against Russia to talk, but it's not a violation per se of the principle of, or the legal principle of free speech. It is of the cultural element of free speech. All right, let's see. So tomorrow is one year since the war broke out on February 24th, 2022. I think to many people's surprise, certainly to my surprise, this is one I did not predict, I did not see coming. I definitely thought that there would not be a war. But on February 24th, 2022, to my surprise, and I think to many people's surprise, Russia invaded Ukraine. It invaded Ukraine from a number of different locations. It invaded Ukraine from the south. It invaded Ukraine dramatically from the east and northeast all the way to Kharkiv, north of Kharkiv and northwest of Kharkiv, and then down from Belarus. Russian troops staged in Belarus invaded Ukraine and made pretty strong progress in the first couple of days on their way to Khiv. If you remember right off the bat, there were significant battles just outside of Khiv at the airport there where Russian special forces were flown in. The first real indications that Russia was going to have a hard time was how difficult it was and how quickly they had to retreat from that airport and how many casualties they took and it seemed surprising to them. I think the Russians expected to be able to control the airport very quickly then to fly in airplanes with troops and supplies and use it as a base of operations against Khiv and basically to take care of within a week. I think generally the expectation of the Russian forces was that Khiv would fall, that they would control Khiv and that the rest would be irrelevant, that Ukraine would basically surrender at that point. At that point, remind me to tell you why I don't like the term Putin's war. By the way, Super Chat is on. I would appreciate support over the Super Chat while I'm traveling. I know it's not as many people are listening, maybe not the same people are listening, maybe people who don't have quite the means, but those of you watching after the fact, you can still support the show by pressing like a donate button on YouTube after the fact. It doesn't have to be live. And of course you can support the show on youronbookshow.com. But I would appreciate the support while I'm traveling it's not like I don't have to bring an income while I'm on the road. It would be great. And I am trying to do as many shows as I can. So in reflection of those shows it would be great if we got some support, realizing it's not going to be the normal levels. Let's see. So on that first week, I think almost all commentators out there, I saw a lot of former generals, a lot of military commentators basically tell everybody the same message. Russia is going to win this. Just a question of time. They might have said back here, said back there, but there's no question this is going to be a Russian victory and it might take longer than people expect. It might take longer than the Russians expect, but Russian overwhelming force is going to win this. And I have to say I was one of the few people who said, I think it was day two, wait a minute, slow down. I'm not sure this is going to go that way. And my main point was that both the Russians had no motivation. Russian soldiers had no motivation. Russian weapon systems were primitive and unsophisticated. And on the flip side, the Ukrainians were heavily, strongly motivated. And they were using very advanced western weapon systems, particularly anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft weapons. And they were achieving massive success in the battlefield because of these things. And I think there were, and I said from personal experience, because I have personal experience, about T-72s and Russian weapon systems and how primitive and how behind they were as compared to the West. And I have to admit, I didn't even realize how behind they were relative to the West. And I think that has all played out during the war, the fact that the Russians are unmotivated and that their weapon systems suck. I think a third element which I did not realize, but which has become real, very, very real, and is becoming real every single day, is just the, I don't know what the term, how to call it. I don't know, maybe strategic decadence. The fact that Russia has no strategy, the fact that Russians still fight wars like they do, like they did 80 years ago, the fact that Russia's way of fighting wars is just to throw troops and tanks and weapon systems at a problem and just frontal assault. And the way the Russians are fighting this war is just shocking and horrific. It lacks any sense of strategy and certainly lacks any sense of caring about casualties and caring about how many people on your side are killed. A complete disregard for Russian soldiers' lives. I mean, I've always known the Russian weapons systems, at least Soviet weapons systems. You know, there was no real concern about protecting your own soldiers. But I would have expected in the 21st century in Russia and no longer Soviet Union that there be some concern and some rethinking of strategy and some thought about how to strategize here. Nothing. I mean, a complete ignorance of military strategy and a complete inability to adjust strategy based on what's happening on the battlefield. Basically in Bakhmut right now, I mean, Russian soldiers are fighting trench warfare, World War I-style trench warfare, to try to recapture town. They've been fighting for it for six months. They have lost thousands and thousands and thousands of troops killed and maimed on this one battlefield for this one little village or one little town. They made almost no progress. I mean, they've made some progress, but very little progress at the cost of thousands and thousands of lives and they just keep coming. No reconsideration, no change of strategy, no trying to find a weakness in the Ukrainian front line, no attempts to go around, nothing. Just head on straight. Boom. And just complete and utter disaster consequences to the whole thing. So, you know, Russia here is losing tens of thousands of troops by some estimates in terms of killed and injured. The numbers of Russians is over well over 200,000. Remember that when the war started, Russia invaded with 200,000 troops. Today we can say there are 200,000 casualties. What Russia has been doing over the last few months is sending untrained young recruits who know very little about war and have very little training to the front lines. It's why so many Russians are dying and so little progress is being made. This is a barbaric way of fighting a war and it's, you know, this is a mentality of suffering, a mentality of uncaring about human life that is, I think, in the world in which we live right now, uniquely Russian. And, you know, maybe the Muslims, Islamists, the radical Islamists, share this attitude towards complete disregard for individual life. But it's truly rare in the modern world to see people just throw the lives of tens of thousands of people and not care, just not care. And let me just say this reminds me of this issue about Putin's war. This is not Putin's war, this is Russia's war. This is not one man launching a war just for his own ego. His own ego plays a big role in this. But this is a whole system, a whole system of government, a whole system, a whole regime. A whole regime that is basically being supported by the Russian people if only by their own acquaintances and the fact that they have not rebelled and not argued against it and not, you know, stood up against Putin over the last 20 years as he has solidified his power. You know, what has happened, what has happened in the consequence of the Putin regime is not new, it's not a surprise. It's not, and yet the Russian people have allowed it to happen. You know, this is a war of the entire Russian elite, the oligarchs, the generals, the Politburo members, the rest of the business and military class that allow Putin to do this. This is not, this is not. I don't care how scared they are. If they're scared, they deserve it, right? If they're paralyzed by fear, they deserve it. This is Russia's war, Russia is to blame. The Russian people are to blame. 200,000 of them are dying and being maimed. They can't rise up against Putin. They can't destroy Putin. Of course they can. They lack the will. They lack the will. And many of them, and maybe a majority of them, buy into, you know, Putin's illusions. Now, you know, indeed, you know, it's again, it's a year to the war to get back and we can see the extent of Russian really defeat. Yes, they took a lot of land in the first few, the first week or so of the conflict. Since then, Russia has basically been in retreat. They retreated from Kiev, and they retreated from the northeast. They were then completely pushed back from areas of Wuhan's province, and recently they were pushed back out of Gerson, out of the city and much of that province. Russia still occupies big swaths of Ukraine, and the Ukrainians certainly are struggling to put together the forces, both in terms of the numbers of troops and in terms of the tanks and weapons systems that they would need to reoccupy, to retake all of the land taken from them by force by Putin. But they are building towards that. They are Ukrainian troops being trained in Poland, being trained in the UK. Indeed, the British king visited the Ukrainian troops being trained in the UK. Weapon systems are flowing into Ukraine, whether those are weapons of long-range artillery, more long-range artillery, more ammunition. Tanks, the tanks are not the greatest tanks in the world. There are a lot of Leopard 1s. Unfortunately, some Leopard 2s, those are super duper, really good tanks, but Leopard 1s will do the jobs certainly against Russian tanks. Leopard 1s are the older generation of tanks that the Europeans are supplying. But Leopard 2 are the new generation tanks that are also being supplied. They're going to get some Abrams tanks down the road. Who knows when that will happen exactly, but they will get them at some point. And they are building up a military, and they will build up their military capabilities so they can take on Russian forces and kick them out of the rest of Ukraine. And I think that's very doable, and I think the Putin knows that, and I think the Russian knows that. At the same time, I've said this many times on the show over the last year, but Russia's lost no matter how you... what happens from now on. They're not going to take Ukraine, they're not going to conquer Ukraine. They might still put up a fight. I mean, the latest reports suggest that the Russians are massing troops from the Belarus-Ukrainian border to the north of Kiev. They might take another shot at trying to take Kiev. I do not think they have the capabilities of doing that. The forces that would try this out of Belarus are even less well-equipped and less well-trained than the troops that tried to do this last year. But you could see another front in the north of Ukraine, which would be really tragic, but could nevertheless extend the war and make it more difficult for Ukraine, but it could very well happen. It could be what Putin is hoping for as a resolution for all of this. So all of that is true, but look, Putin's lost. Sweden and Finland, in spite of Turkey and in spite of everything, Sweden and Finland will become members of NATO. That opens up a new NATO border with Russia that is longer than the Ukrainian border. It is a massive defeat for Putin to have Sweden and Finland as members of NATO. Sweden and Finland are both... not only have a long border with Russia, but they are both countries that produce actual weapons systems. They're both countries that are industrialized. They're both Western advanced countries and they've got very, very well-trained militaries. They would be very motivated fighting on their own border. The Finns have a history with the Russians in terms of fighting and holding them back. So yes, I think just that is a massive blow to Russia, not something the Russians expected, not something at all the Russians expected. I think the fact that Western Europe or Europe generally has stuck together in opposition to Russia, and we'll see if that holds, the Germans always seem to be tempted away, but it seems to be holding so far. The French seem to be getting more committed rather than less committed. You've got Germany. I mean, Western Europe seems to be so far united in support of Ukraine, and that is a massive achievement that nobody expected. And all these weapons systems flowing into Ukraine is a tribute to that. And then, so that is massive. And then finally, Russia is defeated by the very fact that it has been shown to be a paper tiger. It's super vulnerable, super weak, you know, super pathetic, whiny. I don't know if we'll talk about Putin's speech in a minute. So, you know, Russia is now by, you know, I think there's no question that Russia is today a third-rate power. It is not a multipolar world where Russia stands opposite the United States. There's another pole that can move the world in one way or the other. There's only one viable alternative to the United States in terms of the geopolitics, the world politics, and that's China. Russia has taken itself out of the running completely. The only chance that Russia has to continue this war in Ukraine and not to give up territory and to keep fighting and to is for China to start providing it with ammunition and with military technology. If China did this, Russia would then be basically a satellite state of the Chinese. This would be a Chinese world, an American Chinese world, and Russia would be a non-entity and it would be very clear to the Russians. Russia alone cannot sustain a battle against the West. Russia has to have China. I'm not sure that China has to have Russia. The advantage that China has in having Russia is that Russia can keep Europe and the U.S. occupied in Europe and China can work to try to dominate Asia and that's why China would like to have Russia. But Russia becomes then a satellite state. Putin becomes a satellite of Xi. Xi becomes the dominant player in the world outside of the United States of America. So Russia loses no matter what. Even if it gets Chinese support, Russia as a power, Russia as a force, Russia as an entity that needs to be dealt with in the world, is finished basically. And one way or the other, the era now is an era of the United States. Again, from a kind of global politics perspective, this is now an era of China in the United States and Russia has no part of it. Russia has no part to play in many respects. Russia was already a non-entity, but I think this Putin's mistake in going to war basically is going to make Russia completely irrelevant and completely non-entity and completely irrelevant to world politics in the years to come. Finally, Putin did give a speech last, I think it was yesterday, or the day before yesterday, I can't keep track of the days anymore. The way he laid out kind of the reasons for invading Ukraine and all these grievances against the West, the grievances keep shifting. You know, it used to be... I'm just looking for something. Anyway, Putin's speech with all the grievances against the West, you know, the West is this, the West is that, the West is decadent, the West is... Yeah, I mean, it used to be that last speech he gave, the speech before this last one, he said, yeah, the West is decadent, they have parent number one and parent number two. You know, he's big on this woke stuff, and then he says... So this speech, he didn't use parent number one, parent number two, this speech, the West is evil because it is decadent and Russia stands up against this decadence and Russia is the savior of Western civilization, although he doesn't use those terms, that's Jordan Peterson's terms, because, you know, because woke culture is normalizing pedophilia and promoting the idea of a gender-neutral God. That's what really offends Putin, is that the West is promoting a gender-neutral God, which is somewhat true at the Church of England. I talked about this on a previous show, but who cares? God should be gender-neutral, it's bizarre to have a gender for God. Does God have sex? Does God have a sex? So he did his usual thing, you know, Ukrainian Nazis and neo-Nazis, and he's purifying Ukraine from the Nazis. You know, it's fascinating how, you know, the left and right have to use these extreme labels in anybody who they disagree with in order to delegitimize them and in order to be able to say and do whatever they want against them. So many times, if anybody's on the left, they're a communist, and that, you know, communism is clearly evil, and therefore it's okay to do whatever with them. I've seen many people do that. If you're on the right, you're automatically a Nazi. Of course, for Putin, Putin who's considered like a fascist more than a socialist, so he needs to create, he can't call the Ukrainians communist, he calls them Nazis, they illustrate them. He's the good guy. Nazis are a great term to use because everybody knows Nazis are evil. That's unequivocal, that's easy. What makes the Ukrainian Nazis? Nobody knows, right? All the supposed atrocities of the Ukrainians against Russian speakers in the Donbass while, I'm sure there were some really bad actions that the Ukrainians took towards Russian speakers in the Donbass, most of what you hear about that is Russian propaganda. Most of the damage in the Donbass was at the Kremlin's instigation and the support of the Kremlin and it was done by the pro-Russia element in the Donbass attacking Ukraine. So while I don't think Ukraine is an innocent, far from perfect and certainly not a free, pro-capitalist free society, it is light years better as a society and is light year more innocent than Russia is in this entire conflict. At the end of the day what motivates Putin and what motivates the Russian elite is a mystical notion of a greater Russia is a mystic, you know Putin said in his speech the other day he said explicitly that Ukraine is part of Russia that it is an artificial it's completely artificial that Ukraine was separated from Russia Ukraine is a part of Russia Ukraine is Russia of course so is Moldova so is other places around Europe parts of this great Russian empire you know and there's absolutely no reason to believe that if he was successful in Ukraine he wouldn't try to take Tbilisi in Georgia he wouldn't try to he wouldn't try to get Kazakhstan back under the umbrella of Russia it is under the umbrella but under explicit rule of the Russians so look I mean this is a Russian war of aggression a war of expansion this is Russia's fault from beginning to end that has been clear from the beginning it becomes clearer and clearer as we move as the war is evolved and the reality is the more the more Putin talks the more he tries to explain himself the more he explains what's going on the clearer it becomes that everything we have said others have said about Putin's motivations about Russia's motivations are true Russia are the bad guys here unequivocal alright let's see let's take some of these questions I'll start with questions specifically on on the war this is from Vlad it is clear by now that there's no military purpose in whatever Russian army is doing after initial failure near Kiev the goal is political to keep the appearance of a war as unwinnable by Ukraine as long as possible I think that's right I still think there is some and I think a self delusion among Russian elites I think as we know politicians and bad people can delude themselves for a very very long time you know how long did Hitler think that he could still somehow pull it out and somehow still win or at least somehow still maintain power and stay you know keep the allies away it was obvious it was obvious from the success of D-Day that his days were numbered and yet he kept on going and the Germans kept on fighting so accepting accepting defeat acknowledging defeat is something that requires of a of a nation at war in battle is something that often you know leaders cannot accept and cannot get their arms around and will not recognize and again since they don't value since Putin and his thugs don't value human life they are basically playing a game now of dragging it out Putin once in a while will threaten use of nuclear weapons just again to cause the west to pause I do think Putin can rationalize saying well western support will crumble well my threats of nuclear using nuclear weapons will ultimately will ultimately get them get the west to stop supporting the Ukrainians I don't think it's the case that Putin and the Russian elite know they've lost and now you know they just want to keep up appearances I think I think if they you know if they were honest then yes but I don't think they're honest so I think they keep diluting themselves they keep evading they keep rationalizing and keep coming up with new things now Russia has exited a treaty with the United States and they think that's going to put pressure on even though let me do this hello I had a late check out I'm an ambassador so I thought I had a late check out but I will be checking out at 1.15 I've got a call coming to pick me up at 1.15 yep okay thank you thank you hotel thought I was checking out Russia is exiting the last nuclear treaty it had with the United States it was going to exit it anyway these treaties are meaningless Russia doesn't abide by them anyway so that is again just a little threat to try to influence the west it seems to be going nowhere but yes I think the Russian elites are still diluting themselves and as long as they can throw more troops in they will continue to do so there is some limit to recognize and that's why they're not doing mass call up of new troops because they realize there is a limit to what they can do internally in Russia there is a limit to how many young men they can send into the battlefield to be killed both from an economic perspective and a political perspective but they will drag this out as long as possible and they will use as many threats as possible to try to get the West to waver in its support of Ukraine Shazbot the Russians train their generals by showing them Blackadder goes forth God that is one of the funniest and saddest shows you will ever see Blackadder the fourth season which is set on the trenches of World War 1 is both hysterically funny and really depressing to think of that kind of warfare and what they did and how stupid that war was World War 1 was the dumbest war ever alright let's see okay Adam Campbell says morning from the United States thanks for doing videos while traveling by the way many bedside humidifiers that use simple disposable water bottles are easy to pack and a game changer for hotel air for example superior rest and technology hey I look for that that's interesting although the way I pack I really don't have any room okay Kira asks Michael Schumer had a tweet where he said that regulated capitalism has been one of the biggest drivers of human progress while unregulated capitalism led to bank real estate failures like 2008 he cited Turkey as being the former Turkey I don't get that Michael Schumer is wrong and confused and mistaken the whole thing is bizarre Michael Schumer should know better and he's friendly with a lot of good economists who could straighten him out unregulated capitalism before the financial crisis give me a break 2008 2007 banks were not regulated mortgages were not regulated real estate was not regulated I forgot that's right we didn't have a central bank before 2008 we just established it's just a waste of mind boggling how smart people can hold such stupid views Justin who is the okay Matthew thousands of Russians are at war so it's Russia's war not Putin's yes but thousands of Russians and millions of Russians support the war and maybe tens of millions of Russians support Putin so this is Russia suddenly Russian elites and Russian you know the people who govern and run Russia are responsible here and I think it's a complete mistake to attribute the atrocities of this war just to Putin and give the Russian people and the Russian elites a pass Kirol sorry I meant the latter he thinks unregulated capitalism is the cause of Turkey's death count due to the earthquake yeah that's a pretty standard that's a pretty standard accusation that is the reason the buildings collapse in Turkey is because there wasn't enough regulation and building codes but the fact is there were regulations of building codes in Turkey that's why some buildings didn't fall you know but what happens in a system like Turkey where there's no rule of law and no consequences and there's no insurance and there's no monitoring of quality of building except by the government what happens is the government bureaucrats are easy to bribe and so you bribe the government bureaucrat and you build whatever building you want so yes systems undeveloped systems of property rights and systems that are not developed with respect to human life don't protect human life and government regulations they are building codes in Turkey earthquake building codes in Turkey and they're arresting people right now who built those buildings that collapse but because government bureaucrats bureaucrats they are open to bribes and they open to bribery more so in poor countries than in rich countries but they're still open to bribes even in rich countries I would trust a private building inspector who works for an insurance company much more than I trust a government bureaucrat who works for the government and we don't have an unregulated true free market capitalist unregulated building code environment and if we had what you would see was that you would have alternatives to government regulations or building codes you would have building codes that were privatized through insurance companies and banks and other entities that might have a interest in the quality of the building and maybe people who are putting down payments on buying their apartments might hire inspectors there are all kinds of ways to do this in a free market mechanisms would evolve to make sure buildings are built well plus just in a place that respects human life builders and builders who build reputations build good buildings because they don't want their people dying they don't want to kill people Bash Bandigan says what might be the implications be if in actuality most of the entire Russian military is destroyed in Ukraine so they're only left with a nuclear force well I think as long as Ukraine does not invade Russia as long as Ukraine does not cross into what territory is recognized as Russia and I don't think the west of the United States would support them doing that and I don't think they want to do it as long as there wasn't an attempt to occupy Moscow I don't think there would be consequences I do not think that the Russian elite as bad as it is a suicidal I do not think that they would start a nuclear war unless they believe they were dead anyway so if the west attacked Moscow yes but if the west left Moscow and just allowed the Ukrainians to push the Russians back to the 2014 border get the Russians out of Crimea I don't think there would be any consequence the consequence would be a weakened horrified Russia that would have to find ways to rearm itself but probably wouldn't for long long long time for decades to rebuild its economy to rebuild its society I mean imagine how many hundreds of thousands of men would have been lost society, cultural wise it would be a decimated country and that could happen I do not think Putin would use nuclear weapons again unless Russia itself mainland Russia was threatened Michael says when is your next long-form show? I have a ton of great questions I'd like to ask I don't know, maybe tonight Tbilisi time, so I have to name for your time if not Friday, Saturday, Sunday I'll try to do a show each one of those days today is a short show because I do have to go catch an airplane Daniel, thank you, I appreciate the support and Alejandro says I'm still waiting for the WTI team inevitably hit $300 as Rabbi Jordan Peterson predicted it's going to happen any day now if you remember Jordan Peterson I made fun of him a little bit for this I think he deserved it Jordan Peterson if you remember at the beginning of the war or late into the war predicted that oil would be selling at $300 a barrel because Putin was all-powerful and that this war was for the West and Putin would use nuclear weapons if he was going to lose and on and on and on Jordan went and of course Putin for Jordan and this is the thing that and I don't understand I don't know if other people at the daily why I think this as well but Putin is the representative of western civilization Putin, this is a civil war within western civilization with Putin being the good guy because Putin's anti-trans and Putin's anti-gay and Putin's anti-the decadence of western culture so therefore Putin is on Jordan Peterson side so it's sad that Putin went to war that's not really the way friends resolve disputes but for Jordan Peterson's perspective Putin is fighting neoliberal decadent west and this is what you hear also from other people on the right Europe is and white administration is decadent and Putin is fighting it's good for Putin we support Putin alright Ariel says good night from New Zealand watching with my cat I don't know what time is it in New Zealand right now no idea what time it is New Zealand is like that way it's it's ahead of me right so it's yes it's evening so it's Thursday evening whereas in New York it's very early in the morning alright everybody thanks I have to run to get a car to the airport to get my flight to Tbilisi I will probably oh it's already after midnight wow it's already after midnight in New Zealand alright yeah I love New Zealand so Ariel I hope to visit you guys one day it would be great to give a talk in New Zealand I love New Zealand is just a beautiful place maybe the most beautiful place I've ever been to was the southern island of New Zealand alright thank you for all the super chat supporters thank you for all of you don't forget to just keep an eye out on your YouTube feed because I will be doing more shows from the road and I will be broadcasting some of my lectures live so thanks oh it's almost 1 a.m. Friday morning alright Kuro says Michael Schumer cited a book called The Big Myth by Nomi Osekas and Eric Conway which is about how American business taught us to load government and love the free market I don't know if you know this book I don't it's a new book but it's basically a book that supports regulatory you know the idea of we need to regulate business we need to regulate and the whole idea of free markets is a conspiracy led by businessmen to try to convince us to reduce regulations on them regulations are great regulations allow us all the wealth and prosperity we have today according to the book the book is a big lie but I haven't read it yet so I can't review it and can't give you info but just from the little life scene of it it's awful alright everybody I do have to run so again thank you for the support thank you for being here and I'll see you maybe later today