 All right everybody, welcome to Iran Book Show on this Tuesday, May 9th. I started the show early, I have no idea how that happened, somehow I clicked the button so I figured I'd just roll with it and go with it early because otherwise I'm just leaving you guys sitting there waiting a bunch of you showed up so we are starting early and you know again thank you everybody for joining me and thank you for just jumping on when I went live I know this wasn't this wasn't I didn't give you a lot of advanced notifications so thanks thanks for being here thanks for joining I see there's quite a lag between me talking and when it appears on on YouTube but hopefully hopefully you guys will catch up. All right let's see we good everybody out there just asking you can hear me you can see me sound is good video is good we're getting everything lined up we've still got five minutes before the formal start but we're going to start anyway and so today we're going to do a news roundup we haven't done one of those in a while although I kind of did one a few days ago but we'll do a formal news roundup of course you can ask questions about anything whenever you want on on the super chat or and of course you can use the super chat and to also support the show so again thanks for everybody who does support the show all right let's let's take a look at the topics we have lined up today yeah today was victory day victory day has become a super crucial day in Russia Vladimir Putin really for the last 20 years has really made a big deal out of this you know this a lot of kind of the the the self-confidence the steam that Russians get particularly post-Putin I'd say Putin has really emphasized this I come from this idea that they won World War two and they were the ones who defeated the Nazis and credit goes to the Russian people for winning World War two the world of the Allies the world of the Americans in particular is diminished and really this is all about a Russian victory and and they are parades and and they are speeches and a big deal is made every single year around victory day and really there is this revisionist history that that credits coming out of Russia but I think that the nose but others that really credits Russia with everything when it comes to when it comes to World War two to really winning that war and giving them for credit for that for that of course I doubt that that is true I'm not a military expert but but it's without without the help from the Americans without the weapons without the land lease programs yes maybe the Russians will they held the Nazis back maybe they would have prevented the Nazis from taking Moscow ultimately in advancing but there's no way Russian could have beaten back the Germans it's no way Russia could have moved as quickly as they did throughout to retake parts of Russia and then retake Eastern Germany it's just a it's just a false narrative the victory and of course without the invasion on the day Germany would have devoted a lot more resources to the Russian front the fact that a second second front was open was a big deal but but I say mainly it was it was the military support provided by the United States that ultimately led Russia to have a to the speed in terms of the speed of the victory in terms of the extent of the victory and their ability to take Eastern Europe indeed even given everything that happened the Allies could have taken much of Eastern Europe or a lot of Eastern Europe that landed up behind I couldn't could have been taken by the Allies if not for the DLF DR Strock was stolen to let him have Eastern Europe I've told the story many times I learned it from Victor Davis Hansen and really it's in it's also in the movie the movie pattern but it's reinforced by Victor Davis Hansen you know pattern could have taken chair the Czech Republic in Czechoslovakia and and maybe much else in Eastern Europe if he had not been held back by Eisenhower and Bradley indeed if the war by the Allies would have been put a persecuted prosecuted differently pattern could have taken much of Eastern Europe even with the help of the US helping the Soviets and the Soviet advance against the Germans anyway Russia takes credit for much of that this year victory day celebrations are being significantly muted because of the war in Ukraine they are stories are that Putin was worried about attacks by the Ukrainians drone attacks Putin was always also worried about protests within Russia because of the war is that is that is at least among certain segments in Russian population are very popular and was worried about a victory day parade when there's no victory in Ukraine he might not be currently losing but he certainly isn't currently winning so so clearly all the other plus you know so much of the military is dedicated to the Ukrainian war that there wasn't that much of the military to march in the parade and to make a big deal so in at least 20 cities around Russia victory day parades were canceled in Moscow the victory day parade is quite muted as compared to past years and generally you know the the the hype around this has been subsided there seems to be a lot of fear over Ukraine's a potential spring offensive also a lot of fear around Ukraine attacking Russia in within Russian territory whether that is justified fear or not I don't know but there is fear but Putin is afraid Putin is a fearful guy all right let's see oh yeah one other thing a Putin during the victory day parade you know basically blame the West for the war claimed that the West is engaged in an all-out war against Russia and that Russia is defending itself and defending the homeland and in a sense defending its civilization I mean the rewriting of history is extensive the idea that this is a war launched by the West the idea that this is a war responsible that the West is responsible for all of that is is part of the Putin propaganda all of that is part of the attempt the attempt to portray again Russia as the good guys and Russia's innocent and and really the West is as guilty of everything and this is a war of the West and so you don't really it's not a war between Russia and Ukraine it's a war between Russia and the West and NATO that that can explain when Russia is defeated that it can explain Russia's defeat it really fought all of Europe and there's an element of truth to that in a sense that certainly the weapon systems coming into Ukraine but it you know if NATO was fighting this war this war would have been over a long time ago and Russia would be defeated thoroughly and very very quickly luckily for Russia NATO is not fighting this war now of course if NATO was fighting this war maybe this would have escalated into a nuclear war and then all bets are off but if in a conventional war between Russia and NATO Russia's basically wiped out it's not even close all right one other kind of Russia related story one of the big mysteries has been why is it that Russia is not suffering more from all the sanctions that were placed on it I mean they've been export restrictions and Russia is not being able to import a lot of goods and products and so how is as Russia being able to find replacement parts how is Russia's economy being able to sustain itself in reasonable manner I think I think a lot worse than what people are saying but in reasonable manner how is Russia gotten around the sanctions or is Russia didn't get around the sanctions it's just a Russian economy so strong it doesn't need to import stuff from Germany for example it can sustain itself just with domestic production and it turns out of course no it's not the strength of the Russian economy that has allowed it to survive the sanctions it is the Russia's ability to get around the sanctions that have made it possible for Russia to survive as an economy and and you can see how Russia's gotten around these sanctions by looking at the countries that are Germany is exporting to while German exports to Russia are plummeted have gone down dramatically Russia's exports to many other former Soviet republics have gone through the roof interestingly enough since sanctions were put out so for example exports to Kazakhstan Armenia and Georgia have more than doubled since the start of the war exports to Tajikistan some of you didn't even know there was a country called Tajikistan but anyway exports to Tajikistan I could actually point to it in a map not to brag I've gone up by 150 percent I can't even pronounce this one Kajikistan Kajikistan Kajikistan I know what it is but I can't pronounce it exports to Kajikistan which is far in the east on the Chinese border have risen by 994 percent so what's happening Germany indeed is not exporting to Russia Germany has cut export to Russia by huge numbers and all its industry associations and all its have all yeah we don't export to Russia but what is happening is Russia is using its relationships in Kazakhstan Armenia Georgia Tajikistan Kajikistan to basically import German goods into those states and then it goes from there to Russia and therefore for Russia you know there is almost no change it's just maybe more expensive because it's going around about way but it's getting to Russia it's just getting to Russia through all these stands in Central and Eastern Asia all these all these nations are part of the old Soviet Union all these nations are almost other than with the acceptance of Armenia Islamic nations that are secular they were secularized by communism for give you some examples right exports of cars to Armenia Armenia is a very small country exports of cars from Germany to Armenia have gone up by 761 percent now that is not because Armenians are driving more German cars it is because Armenian entrepreneurs are buying cars from Germany and then selling them into Russia let's see Armenia and Kazakhstan account for the lion's share of export growth in chemicals computers electronics wood rubber plastics metal products enclosed Uzbekistan is seen a dramatic increase in imports of raw materials and drinks for some reason so the different stands of basically are specializing in particular goods that they are bringing from Germany and moving to Russia so you know this is one of the reasons it's very difficult to impose a trade embargo while trade embargoes are rarely very effective goods find their way in if there's a desire particularly a big country like Russia with such a long border that borders so many countries and that we Russia has so many relationships with those countries and those countries can buy from Germany and just if exported directly to Russia easily and and nobody's gonna stop them and nobody's gonna care nobody's gonna make a big deal out of it and those countries have not joined the sanctions against Russia so the mystery of how Russia has survived in spite of all the sanctions is the sanctions are basically completely ultimately unequivocally ineffectual and basically have no no no status all right we talked about Israel when I was there we talked about the fact that a few days ago or about a week a week and a bit ago a one of the terrorist an Islamic jihad terrorist died in an Israeli prison after doing a hunger strike you know if you go on a hunger strike you're probably gonna die if you'll if they'll thought he's let them that's you and I guess the Israeli authorities let him die he died and as a consequence Islamic jihad launched from inside Gaza a hundred and four hundred and five rockets into Israel Israel responded pretty mildly and there was a big crisis in the government where the right-wing parties basically said this is pathetic this is ridiculous and this you respond properly we're not gonna come and vote with the coalition so the coalition has almost no ability to pass any laws because they don't have these votes anyway was it yesterday or the day before yesterday Israel launched an attack at 2 a.m. in the morning yeah in Gaza involving you know several dozen airplanes helicopters and my guess is special forces teams where they basically launched attacks on on three different sites well on several different sites three of those sites were homes of commanders of the Islamic jihad so very senior people within the Islamic jihad they managed to kill all three senior commanders and and some members of their families the children and women was a killed in this at the same time they also launched a number of attacks on factories and on warehouses storing missiles the kind of missiles that was sent into Israel depleting the ability of the Islamic jihad to launch another attack against Israel significantly this was done the other night and since then of course there being condemnations of this coming in from throughout the world particularly from the Gaza Strip itself you know Israel Israel is standing by and and it now anticipates retaliation and another barrage of missiles dropped and basically involved in attacking in attacking Israel the key is going to be whether Hamas wants a war right now with Israel or not where the Hamas feels powerful and strong enough to take on Israel it probably also involves whether is whether Hamas thinks that he's by line Lebanon will join in and maybe the Iranians of Syria because just launching an attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip Israel can handle pretty easily but if they also attacked from from Lebanon in Syria now it's a multi-front war and it's much more difficult for the Israelis to handle so far you know usually the counter-attacks happen after the funerals so everybody's waiting kind of with a baited breath in Israel for the funerals to happen and to see what kind of response there is the two main terrorist organizations in Gaza Strip Hamas and Islamic jihad Hamas is the dominant Hamas runs the political and the kind of the military of the Gaza Strip it really controls the Islamic jihad is in the minority and as I said the Israeli Air Force has really taken out much of the capabilities of Islamic jihad jihad to launch an attack so it's going to be interesting to see what Hamas does it will be interesting to see if there is an attack and of course sadly Israel really since it left the Gaza Strip in the early 2000s early to mid 2000s as for pretty weak wars against Hamas you know what Israel has refused to do but would ultimately is necessary for it to do is to retake the Gaza Strip destroy thoroughly destroy Hamas's military capabilities from inside create such a barrier that Hamas and Islamic jihad cannot bring in weapon systems whether that is locating it's border with Egypt whether in and locating it from the from the ocean I don't know if you know this I've mentioned it a few times on the show over the years but Israel actually provides the Gaza Strip ie Hamas with the water and electricity you know Israel should at the very least use that fact to put massive pressure on Hamas not to intervene cut off the electricity the world will go nuts because people claim that you know that the people in the Gaza Strip are starving they don't have an electricity they're all gonna die whose fault is that that is the fault of Hamas anyway that is that is you know Israel is feeding and providing power and providing electricity and providing water to people committed to Israel's destruction to people committed to destroying and and killing Israel so it's just unbelievable this is the ultimate example of altruism one can imagine in a military context in an existential context you know you're basically feeding and and funding and clothing and making possible your enemies people dedicated to killing you it it it's hard to imagine doing that and yet here it is alright so we will probably return to the Gaza Strip as we learn more and as we see how the Palestinians and the Gaza Strip decide to respond to Israel's precision attack and very successful attack killing Palestinian leaders unfortunately just killing leadership never works you've got to go in you've got to dismantle you've got to take apart you've got to you've got to thoroughly defeat them so that they know that they have no chance that's the only way you'll get peace in the Middle East is when the Palestinians and the rest of that world realize that they never will never defeat Israel they don't have a chance at it and all we will bring is death and destruction to themselves the only way to win a war is to win a war and until you win it you can't win it you think that was pretty straightforward and pretty easy but having stalemates where you pretend that it's all over and pretend to win where the other side still thinks they can win where the other side still is dedicated to destroying you that's just evasion that's that's fantasy and Israel's engaged in fantasy extensively over the decades okay some good news out of Chile so here's the story you know Chile took the shop turned to the left in two things one in a referendum to rewrite it its constitution and basically a mandate to rewrite the Constitution a year or two ago and then by electing a radically leftist Marxist president in spite of the massive success that market reforms have led in to in in Chile they elected this this radical left president but then you know there was an attempt to pass there was attempt to confirm a a super leftist Constitution and an assembly that would write a super leftist constitution and that in a in a referendum in Chile and one of the best things to happen in Latin America in a very long time that was defeated thoroughly by a you know by a what do you call it by referendum in in in Chile and so so so again that happened now the push to rewrite the Constitution continued because the fact is that that you know that had been that had been that was voted on and determined that it needs a new Constitution one second oh yeah so anyway yesterday Chile elected a right-wing council to draft a new Constitution in spite of the fact that they elected a very leftist president not that long ago as a consequence of the stock market in Chile went up with anticipation that the new council that's going to draft this Constitution is but will basically draft a Constitution that's going to maintain maybe even make stronger the country's market-based economic model now this was a big blow to the president Gabriel Borek and again you know the the the I think voters in Chile really scared off by the the the left-wing constitutional assembly that came into being and that was voted down last year you know Chile is in a recession it's expected expected to contract 1% this year you know it has not gone well as this leftist president has tried to roll back the market market programs in Chile of course previous presidents Chile have not exactly a fought for market reforms so it's going to be interesting to see you know a this conservative this constitutional council is I guess 50 people 51 people where they have 34 are conservative 16 are left-wing and one indigenous delegate and you know it's going to be interesting to see the right wing here has a significant majority I mean they could write what they want and it's going to be really interesting here's an opportunity for conservatives or the right to actually do the right thing you know we'll see we'll see what happens we'll see what happens you know what what this will actually look like and what will actually be be proposed my guess is they'll probably design something very similar to what Chile already has and then the question is will they focus on economic liberty will they focus on expanding market the market economy or will they focus on social issues and will they put into the Constitution you know issues related to kind of social programs abortion immigration and other issues like that so you know there's a real if there's a real left to legalize abortion and you know we will see if the conservatives try to reverse that in these in this constitutional process so it'll be interesting are the conservatives interested in economic freedom are conservatives interested in you know in diminishing social freedoms and expanding the world of religion in the state that that is of course the question all of the world and it's a question that Chileans are gonna have to deal with here in the in the near future but it's good news in the sense that we've escaped the possibility of a horrible leftist constitution which looked like the fate of Chile just about a year ago okay finally just a word of you know we've talked about this on on the news roundups before but it's it's worth talking about again what's going on in Pakistan is very very scary it's very very scary because the country architecture of the country has like a dozen different terrorist organizations it's it the country is not really country it's just a conglomerate of tribes there's massive political and suddenly there's economic collapse the country is a complete and utter disaster and what makes this important what makes us relevant to the rest of the world is the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear power it has a significant stash of nuclear weapons and it's in a conflict with India and who knows what it does in addition Pakistan is you know which has had an on-and-off warm cold relationship with the United States is now in a period of turning cold against the United States and is seriously considering you know much closer relationship with China now whether China wants a much closer relationship with Pakistan where the China wants to inherit this this unbelievable mess that is Pakistan where the China wants to get involved in in a in a place that is that has significant Islamist forces is hard to tell but but Pakistan is is a real basket grade right now they just arrested the opposition leader the former Prime Minister Khan who was the opposition leader he was Prime Minister had a resign again a complete mess he was just arrested on on corruption charges there's a chance of a kind of a civil war but civil war in Pakistan would just be a tribal war it'd be interesting to see how or if and how China would intervene would get involved if at all anyway Imran Khan is the name of the opposition leader anyway this is a complete another disaster and again nobody would care and I wouldn't care that much if this wasn't a nuclear power but it is a nuclear power in a in a very dangerous part of the world and it's something to watch and of course the Afghanistan Taliban that we have basically handed Afghanistan to on a silver platter both the Trump and the Biden administration have done that the Afghani the Afghans are just stirring it up and making it worse and you know they want to see a Pakistani collapse they they would love to see Pakistan turn into an Islamic Republic like themselves and they would love to be able to have their hands the Taliban on the nuclear arsenal that the Pakistanis have imagine a nuclear arsenal in the hands of real committed suicidal crazy Islamists that is the risk in Pakistan now I've always assumed the United States had a secret plan of using special forces teams to go in and take all the nuclear weapons facilities the Pakistanis have in case of fear that they would fall into the hands of Islamists I used to have a high opinion of the US military and use strategic thinking about these things I now I'm not convinced there is such a plan but I would certainly if I were in a commanding position in the US military have a plan to take over the nuclear facilities in Afghanistan to keep them away from Islamists even if it meant putting American troops on the ground in Pakistan and defending them by whatever means necessary and ultimately dismantling Pakistan's nuclear program maybe the United States should initiate that anyway just initiate the dismantling of the Pakistani nuclear program if that's at all possible don't know if it is who would have to have access to intelligence information I do not have all right that is my news roundup in terms of the topics I have we have a bunch of super chat questions we'll go over those we've done pretty well on the on the on the super chat generally we're about 77 a dollar short of what we need to be a dollar for everybody listening right now would get us to where we need to be so it's definitely doable hopefully some of you will consider doing some stickers again value-to-value those of you like the daily news updates this is your opportunity to to contribute to that those of you alive those of you of course not live can do so by joining as members of YouTube or by applauding which also has a dollar facility or by supporting the show on a monthly basis at your on bookshow.com support that's PayPal or using Patreon okay patreon.com let's jump into the super chats and of course hopefully we'll have a few additional questions. Remo asks can you mention some essays works or authors that deal with the history of our articles it's hard because I don't unfortunately don't hold these things very well in memory Marilyn really thank you really appreciate the support but you know Jennings Jennings was a finance professor out of out of Rochester University I think he's now at Harvard but but he wrote a lot about the the White House d'Otto goes actually do while they're good why one benefits he wrote a lot about this in the 80s and 90s Jennings and Meckling I think but Jennings generally if you look him up he also wrote a book about how start takeovers the economy economics of us that goes and it covers some of the history of it you know my favorite book is a book on on Michael Milken God but I let me just see if I can find the name of the book payback payback is one of my favorite all-time books you know you might have to buy it used because it might not be in print but payback the conspiracy to destroy Michael Milken talks a lot about the history of hostile takeovers and I think is is one of the best books on business that I've ever read and I think it does objectively goods I payback anything by by Jen can't buy Jennings let me just let me see if I can Jennings agency maybe it's not Jennings maybe it's I don't think it's Jenkins maybe it is yeah it is so so Jensen God I should know this okay Jensen it's Jensen is his name and I'm trying to think of the book that he wrote he wrote a book he wrote a famous essay on the theory of the firm and a juror behavior agency cost and ownership structure with I think is really really good and really really interesting let me see if I can find his the book that he wrote but anyway there yeah that's not it okay you start with with looking for Jensen and looking at issues around agency costs and here's an interesting one called the the corporate financiers with Diani Miller Coase Williamson Alken Jensen Meckling which will give you a good history of kind of finance and finance thinking about all these issues but yeah that is some of those are some of the I think the hit you know directions to go in in order to find the books I have the Jennings Jensen's book at home but I you know it's on my shelf and I can't know what it is okay remorse asked thoughts on shorting positions of Hildeburg on thoughts on shorting positions of Hinderberg on call icon I don't understand I mean call I can have shorted a lot of the meme stocks he had the courage to short the meme stocks I've read some of the Hindenburg stuff they do real research and trying to figure out which companies you know deserve to be shorted on not well run or committing fraud or misleading investors in terms of their finances from what I've seen it's good work whether once those studies are published whether in the market response to them almost immediately whether there is more to more money to make after that after the market is already responded you know I don't know I you know I don't know I haven't looked at any studies around that I haven't looked at it personally so I can't tell you but obviously they shorted him they should have called icon I haven't read that I haven't seen that but I haven't seen Hindenburg shorting icon I don't know how you would short icon so shorting one of his businesses one of his entities let me look into that I I haven't seen it so I'd have to read up about it to understand but I'm a I'm a fan of icons I think he's done amazing maybe there's a particular firm but Hindenburg has also done really good work but what they would short of call icons I just don't know and so I can't comment until I actually go go and read it Hindenburg's like his port alleges that icon enterprises has inflated the value it's asked that and funded its dividend okay it's it's quite possible you know I don't know how icon enterprises call icon used to be just a private investor he didn't have a public a public company but I guess I guess maybe now now he does you know so yeah hard to tell hard to tell I'd have to I'd have to read up about what they're saying about it but it's certainly it's certainly possible and it looks like icons the shares have already responded as if the Hindenburg research is true and is accurate so they're arguing that it inflated the value of its asset of funded its dividend with proceeds from seller shares to unwitting investors cause mr. icon to disclose the terms of personal low-secure against the majority holding of icon enterprises I don't know I you know all I know that icon has been a brilliant investor I cannot vouch for his corporate dealings with his own firm and I kind of vouch for their for the accounting of that own firm and whether that's accurate I haven't looked at it hadn't studied it but it is interesting that they're taking him on I have been a fan in the past Tessa thank you for the support really appreciate it by the way we're only $36 short of our goal our goal is pretty simple for these use roundups only $250 okay Paul asks considering the Dominion settlement of over 700 million against Fox their annual revenues around 20 million per year how did they demonstrate so much damages in the lawsuit well they actually sued for 1.6 billion and since there wasn't we you know we never saw the trial I don't know how they how they claim that but my guess is that they basically claimed revenue into the future and economic growth and penalties and all kinds of other stuff and look defamation lawsuits are very very very hard to win so the fact that Fox settled suggest how strong of a case Dominion probably had against them and how embarrassing the whole thing was to Fox but yes they had very small revenues I saw that from the beginning of the case so you know 1.6 billion into 20 is revenues for the next what hundred years you know but with penalties and and but think about Dominion whoever owns Dominion never had a particularly profitable business never had a particularly big business suddenly gets his windfall of $700 million it just shows you a desperate Fox was to settle this I don't know even if they'd won the defamation what lawsuit how much a court would have granted Dominion you know based on these numbers it's hard to believe they would have given them 700 million or 1.6 billion they probably would have given them a lot less Bree says is it possible that tyrants born in free countries just have better options than government jobs what if a lawn and Putin was switched at birth would we be talking about a lawn invading Ukraine and Putin's electric cars no I mean but this is a fallacy this is a massive fallacy that says that dictators are born and innovators are born I don't believe that I don't believe people are born that I don't believe that dictated genes I don't believe the innovators genes I don't believe you're shaped by your environment I believe you're shaped by the choices you made and those choices don't have a primary genetic makeup so there is no Putin in a free society Putin in a free society makes different choices you know and and and Putin in Russia could have made different choices and being a different person so there's no the world is not deterministic so that you can't you can't have these kind of exercises or thought experiments because they're completely invalid everything is different clearly your environment has some impact on you but the most important thing that has an impact on you are the choices you make and the choices you make are determined by you and they're going to be determined differently differently there's no necessity that they be determined the same way particularly if you're given in a different country and you're facing different consequences different questions different issues a different environment different choices so it's an invalid question on the leeway what are your thoughts on troubles in Ireland it seems clear the UK has violated rights but the Irish freedom movement seems to be clearly socialist Catholic and rights deny are they good guys in the struggle this is a Northern Island I assume you're talking about well I mean I think the British are the better guys clearly I mean Britain doesn't want to segregate Ireland based on religion and based on tribal affiliation Britain is about establishing the rule of law over Northern Ireland and allowing Protestants and Catholics to live under British law equally so Britain clearly here is in the right I don't think liberation movements that are going to make a country less free are legitimate or valid so I don't think the Irish Liberation Army in the sense is a is a valid entity and I don't think it's a valid cause just to be ruled by people that are more similar to you the only legitimacy for Liberation Army is true freedom and true liberty and clearly the IRA is not that's not what motivates them Zack Zion 50 bucks thank you Zack I'm starting a new job in a new company should I feel obligated to provide a two-week notice before transitioning my employer is very crooked so I'm not sure whether to give them notice I mean if you're not obligated contractually to do it and and and and you think your employer is crooked and you don't feel like you owe them anything morally or legally then then don't I mean it really depends on on your relationship with them and to what extent you are morally or legally obliged to give them that notice usually it's a legal obligation usually it's part of your employment contract but if you feel like you've been mistreated by these people or that they're crooked you don't owe them you know giving them notice Robert says like share please that would be great guys if you like the program if you shared the program that helps an enormous amount in getting us exposed to new people my class is there a point where Israel gets really fed up with Palestinians and implements with Rabbi Mirka Hannah wanted well Mirka Hannah was that was a nutcase and a really really bad guy he wanted to kick out all the Palestinians or kill them I mean clearly wanted you wanted to cleanse Israel from the Palestinian Palestinians one way another very bad guy very very bad guy I don't think so I don't think Israel would ever do that I don't think Israel is ready for that I don't think Israel is corrupt enough to implement Mirka Hanna's of you there are other ways in which one can pacify the Palestinians without going to the kind of nutty nutty and evil extremes that a Kahana program would entail colts colts we know how how do you feel about the upcoming Ukrainian counter-attack will they do well and with what they have hope you're doing well p.s. Tucker Carlson sucks yes he does I'm feeling pretty good about the counter-attack I think they're taking their time I think they've trained on Western weapons systems I think they've managed to distract and hold the Russian steady at Bakhmurt and and bleed the Russian military quite a bit in Bakhmurt you know there isn't any consensus about where the Ukrainians are going to strike which is good because nobody's there's no clear anticipation of where that's going to be although there's some anticipation that it's going to be this province whose name I can't pronounce in the south not Gershon but the one next to it Carlson but the one next to it but but they could very well attack in Luhansk in the north which is what I anticipate or they could they could just decide to go right through Bakhmurt and attack head-on in in in in that area you know which would which would attack the core of the Russian of the Russian offensive I don't know what they will do I have a feeling that they will try to go around so they would attack from the north and attack from the middle south but we will see I'm feeling pretty good about it they've got good training they've got excellent weapons systems and they really bled the Russians so and I don't think that I again I as I've said before I do not think I do not think that the Russian troops are motivated and and when you have to defend and the Russians have a lot of very solid defensive positions when you have to defend and you're not motivated it's going to be very very interesting to see you know expectations are being said very low but of course I you know other people setting those expectations the day the day you see the defensive Kiev the day that they predict that they see the offensive in the last year in the early fall when when Ukraine took much of the northeast did they see in the Hans province and they see and in in God I can't for the names anymore they're not coming to me but did they see all that so you know past performance is an indication of at least legitimately taking seriously somebody's future performance Marilyn thank you really appreciate it and dubby took said asks found a wallet with a passport in a stack of cash that's 20% of what's on my bank account couldn't find him on social media do I keep the money or do I hand a wallet over to the police the money would be huge for me you hand it over to the police you don't you know it's not your money you did not earn it there's a passport in it so the police could find this person it's not that hard probably to find a person once you have a passport for the police to do it and it's it's the right thing to do it's the just thing to do it's the thing you would want somebody to do if it was your passport and if it was your money you have no right to this money and again given there's a passport in it if you'd found a wallet with no identification fine but there is identification clear identification you know who this money belongs to give it to the police let them let them find it maybe you'll get a finders fee but for it but yeah you have no right to the money absolutely hand it over I think you'll feel a lot better about yourself or you'll think a lot better about yourself it doesn't matter how much money is in the wallet if it's a lot or a little that should not be a determining factor you either live by principles or you don't live by principles and if you live by principles egoistic principles it's egoistic for you to return the wallet if those principles are true if they really are good for you then follow them Michael says are we at a point where every US presidential candidate has to take a position on Iran where they all seem to take a position on Iran and it's usually an incredibly uneducated position you know Obama took a position and I don't know Bush ever took a position but and I don't think Biden ever took a position Hillary Clinton did Trump I don't care you mentioned something about the fountainhead but yeah she's part of the culture people have opinions and they will probably express Michael says why is quasi socialist countries like Canada so much more friendly to banks in the US hard to tell part of history it evolved in a healthier way American banking system because of the conflicts between Hamilton and Jefferson evolved in a very negative way I think then the Canadian system was pretty stable so they saw no reason to really change it that much they kept it and it just stayed stable so I think it's just just a matter of the history of in particular banking the United States in spite of its history of liberty and freedom when it came to banking was never respected liberty of freedom so it was always overly you know it was always regulating and intervening and putzing around where the Canadians just left it alone they never had an agenda around it which Hamilton and Jefferson both did both negative both not good Gale understand Gloria Alvarez as a libertarian who follows objectives and whether she find attractive in the libertarian movement she actually doesn't find the libertarian movement attractive I don't think that's it I think she struggles with completely integrating objectivism and getting a firm grip on it philosophically I think what's attractive about libertarianism is it's easier it doesn't require a deep understanding of the philosophy but Gloria is great and I think she has and she basically considers herself she's very critical of the libertarian movement very critical of it I've seen her lamb last a libertarian she rejects anarchy and she rejects the conservative kind of the right-wing libertarians a libertarian conservatives the libertarian the paleo libertarians the kind of people who took over the libertarian party in the US she's very opposed them she's very opposed to religion but she she but she's also struggling with how to present a free market agenda as a political agenda and and libertarianism is more appealing because it it it doesn't have to take a stand on a lot of issues that alienate a lot of the kind of people I mean if Gloria for example made a big deal of separation of church and state and made a big deal out of religion running for president Guatemala she would never ever win because of the religiosity of Guatemala so it's easier to take a more libertarian position which is more it doesn't take a strong view on religion or philosophical issues per se even though I think she's much closer to objectives and to traditional libertarianism Michael says is the reason Jews Chinese and Indians perform so well economically in Western countries is because they aren't shackled with Christian altruism they can plan and think about making money to some extent I think that's absolutely right I think Judaism is a much more and Chinese and Indians are far more this worldly that they're less attached to and other worldly philosophy like Christianity they're less altruistic they're less mystical in some deep sense they're less concerned about an afterworld there's also because of the altruism that there's an element of more individualistic and so on there's also historical issues there's a particular issue about you know Jewish history and the fact that they had to become moneylanders for a variety of reasons which I talk about in my essay on money-lending but Chinese and Indians particularly when their minorities and go into other countries first of all the Chinese and Indians who emigrate are the ones who are more ambitious and the Chinese and Indians who emigrate they have to be entrepreneurial in order to survive in their new countries and therefore they land up making money so they are historical particularly historical reasons but it's also philosophical in a sense that they're not encumbered by Christianity I think it's a huge advantage Chinese civilization has of Western civilization is that I don't have Jesus on a cross looking down at them Marilyn says thank you thank you for information analysis I couldn't get elsewhere such a value to me thank you Marilyn really appreciate that thank you to all of you thank you to all the superchattas like you to everybody participated today I'm not sure when the next show will be I'm hoping to do one again tomorrow at about the same time we'll see but thank you for the superchattas we made our goal we surpassed it by a little bit and I will see you all maybe tomorrow we will see and you know have a great rest of your day it's evening over here it's already almost 8 o'clock 8 p.m. so have a great day have a great rest of your week oh by the way I'm in Valencia Spain if you're interested Valencia Spain a third largest city in Spain a very nice old city and a beautiful beautiful kind of city of the future that they built these I guess public buildings a science museum a aquarium and a performing arts center which are all amazing architecture I bought a book about the architect amazing beautiful spectacular grandiose inspiring architecture so Valencia I'm here tomorrow and then off to Rome so I'll either be talking to you again for Valencia tomorrow or from Rome once I get there thanks everybody see you soon bye