Judging Freedom - [SPECIAL] - Pepe Escobar : The 28-Point Theater of the Absurd.

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

[SPECIAL] - Pepe Escobar : The 28-Point Theater of the Absurd.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.ca slash Wondery. That's audible.ca slash wondering. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. Pepe Escobar will be here in a minute from Moscow on the 28-point Theater of the Absurd. You know what that is? But first this. History tells us every market eventually falls. Currencies collapse.

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I know, as always you weren't traveling, the best-known pilgrim in the world, as Maria Zakarva referred to you in that interview we did about, which we'll speak in a few minutes. You have a couple of terrific pieces out. One about the death of clear thinking in the West and the other about the 28-point theater of the absurd before we get to either of them, particularly the theater of the absurd, which purports to be a peace plan. Let's talk about another failed peace plan. Aren't the Israelis still killing people in Lebanon and in Gaza, notwithstanding the ceasefire they ostentatiously signed for President Trump?

There's never a ceasefire for the death cult in Tel Aviv judge. They killed a top Hezbollah commander. There will be a heavy response, not only from Hezbollah, and even the IRGC Interim said they will be involved in the response. There is no ceasefire ever. And this is a no borders war by Israel against literally everybody, Gaza, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon. And, of course, they're still dreaming of their repeat 12-day war against Iran,

where this time they're going to see the real deal. But it's, that's Israel in motion. Presupposes no borders and presupposes never abiding to any ceasefire promise. This past weekend, the Israelis denied entry of an American surgeon. into Gaza, a surgeon who had been there twice before. He has a very unique specialty bowel reconstruction, and there were hundreds of mainly children who need the surgery, and he just does one after another, after another. Then one let him in.

First they said, we're not sure your license, and then he reminded them that they admitted him twice before. Now he's in Tel Aviv because he's filed a lawsuit against the Israel, at least to force them to admit him to Gaza. So the same nonsense, the same horrific anti-humanitarian behavior continues. Absolutely. And they kill doctors. They killed health workers.

They bomb hospitals. They bomb humanitarian workers. They bomb journalists who are documenting their bombing. There are no limits. And they get away with it over and over and over again. Like, no, world public opinion, especially all across, of the global south, everybody is appalled, but there is a consensus to say, how could they get away with this over and over again? Many people know the answer. We know the answer, but try to

explain this to an average citizen in an African country or in Southeast Asia, who doesn't understand the intricacies of politics and how this Zionist international access controls the key nodes of dissemination of information, of suppression of information, and why they can get away with the genocide, an ongoing genocide in the 21st century. And obviously, the responsibility is the collective West, which fully supports the genocide, the no borders, and the indiscriminate bombing everyone. Where is the collective West and where are the Zionists on Trump's plans to invade Venezuela. That's a very good question, Judge. I haven't sought under this angle. For the moment, no, they are not saying anything about Venezuela. Of course, the

few, the usual Zionists suspect in the U.S., of course, we know that, because they're neocons. And a lot of neocons are hardcore Zionists. So it's more or less the same thing. But obviously, at the moment, this past few days, everybody's concentrated. on the 28, 21, 19, two-pointer. Right, right. But now appears there are many versions of this thing out there. Who's writing these things? Who wrote the original 28 points that when you and Larry Johnson and I asked Maria Zoccarova about it?

She said she didn't know what she was talking about. And that turns out that that was true. She did not know this thing existed. None of us know it existed at the time. But where did it come from? Absolutely correct, Judge. And when we talked to Maria, that was middle of last week. Right.

It was last Wednesday. It was 18th. Right. Yes. So she, the Minister of Foreign Relations had not received anything. And a few hours after talk, PESCO, Kremlin's spokesman, said exactly the same thing. The Kremlin didn't receive anything. They received later an unofficial version that was not directed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Kremlin.

So putting in his initial reaction, which was, if I'm not mistaken, last Friday at the meeting of the Security Council, he was responding to an unofficial document. It's seen here in Moscow, in informed intel, military service. and academic circles as basically a set of talking points. The talking points elaborated in the beginning, the famous three-day locked in a Miami house, a congregation between Dimitriyev and Whitkov. But then there was input from Rubio, maybe from Vance, that's not confirmed, and from Jared Kushner.

What the hell does Jared Kushner know about Ukraine? Well, that was going to be my next question, but before I asked you, here's General Kellogg, who apparently is leaving the White House, who knows why, in January, but listen to that name in General Kellogg's response to a question put to him at Fox. By the way, the questioner is the president's daughter-in-law. But you can't make this up, but watch this. Chris got a memory. we have to put in supporting documents probably an annex that would be security guarantees and i talked to jared Kushner just recently and i think we'll get those on the on the plan but it's like a framework there are 28 positions on there that if you read them you know it really does count what words are said in this because words do matter you know when you look at what santiana who said in the past those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

We don't want history repeat itself. We don't want the Budapest memorandum to come back. We don't want the Minx one or two to come back. It's the United States that's going to guarantee part of this. All right. Aside of my joking, that that was Lara Trump. Why is General Kellogg reporting to Jared Kushner? Exactly.

But now he's out of the picture, completely. the new guy is Driscoe, Secretary of the Army. The guy who went to Geneva, by the way. So Kellogg is total of his bad history. Right, Driscoe, I believe, is a good buddy of the vice president, right? Yes, Drisco is very close to Vance. So, okay, if we want to be really, really sarcastic, the Palantir connection is going to solve the war in Ukraine.

Okay, right, okay, let's give Driscoe the benefit of the Dowell. for the moment. Let's say, from yesterday to today, the mood here in Moscow, still there's nothing official. Peskov has said, look, there are hundreds of different pointers. We cannot simply examine what the media is. These are media plans. These are not official plans.

When we have a final document sent officially by the Trump administration, then we can consider analyzing it. So for the moment, we have a spin-war, but completely out of control, including, Judge, the 19-pointer by the European shoe-outs, which is even worse and more childish and completely out of proportion compared to the 28-pointer. All right. This will aggravate you, but I have to play it for you.

talk about the Europeans. Watch this. Chris, cut number seven. Any credible and sustainable peace plan should first and foremost stop the killing and end the war while not sowing the seeds for a future conflict. We have agreed on the main elements necessary for a just and lasting peace and Ukraine sovereignty. And let me highlight three of them. First, borders cannot be changed by force.

Second, as a sovereign nation, there cannot be limitations on Ukraine's armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attack and thereby also undermining European security. Third, the centrality of the European Union and securing peace for Ukraine must be fully reflected. Ukraine must have the freedom and sovereign right to choose its own destiny. They have chosen a European destiny. It starts with the country's reconstruction, its integration into our single market and our defense industrial base, and ultimately joining our Union.

We will continue our work together with Ukraine, our member states, the Coalition of the Willing and the United States, to make real progress towards peace. What is important is that we move forward as partners on a single track. Does this crazy lady represent the collective wisdom of the Protestant, northern European leadership? Absolutely. This is exactly what Emmanuel Todd, I included in my latest column. This is exactly what Emmanuel taught in a wonderful lecture in Japan.

He was drawing the direct parallels between Protestantism, especially North and Europe, and Russophobic. Well, first of all, on a practical level, first of all, the toxic Pfizer Gate Medusa, she does not have any cards. Euro chihuahuas are not even at the table. They can yap as much as they want. From the point of view of US and Russia, they don't exist. So let me just jump in here. For all of his faults and all of the criticism we've heaped on Donald Trump, he gets that.

He understands, I think, that the Europeans are irrelevant to the resolution of this war in Ukraine. Absolutely. Not only to this, and NATO as a whole, NATO, from a Trumpian point of view, NATO only exist and should continue to exist as this gigantic amorphous syndicate buying a lot of American weapons and paying in euros that they don't have, by the way. That's it. In terms of hardcore geopolitics, Makinner-Brizynski style, everything has to be sold by the two superpowers, U.S. and Russia. And, of course, as Emmanuel Todd was the first to explicitly detail the judge, when he published his book in France early last year, he basically said that Trump's job would be to manage the strategic defeat of the empire vis-à-vis Russia.

That is exactly where we are now. And obviously, Trump, even if he's not a strategist, he must be terrified because, he saw the talking points, the Witkoff-Dimitri of talking points, as an opening, maybe an opening that he could sell to the Russians, okay, let's start discussing based on these points. The problem is he's facing Republican senators, Democratic senators, neocons, most of the American media, the Euro Chihuahuas, and the criminal organization in Kiev, these are words of Vladimir Putin. quoting verbatim, Putin sees Kiev as members of a criminal organization. All of this combo is against the Trump idea of the possibility of starting a negotiation with Russia.

So the Russians from here, from the Moscow point of view, they look at the internal, the domestic situation in the US, they understand that. And that's why they are giving Trump the benefit of the They're playing along. But what are they actually doing? Look at the battlefield. Look at the glide bombs. Look at the destruction of the Ukrainian army in the 1,200-plus front line all the time. Look at Ukraine plunge in the dark literally.

The SMO continues to roll on. Is Zelensky free to accept any terms that would, in, involve the recognition of Russian dominance over what the nationalist claim is eastern Ukraine? Or does he do so at the peril of his own mortal existence? Absolutely, Judge. If he recognizes that, he's got a bullet in his hand in less than 24 hours. Because, don't forget, Zelensky is an actor. He doesn't run anything.

He doesn't know anything about military science. He is controlled by shady oligarchs and neo-Nazes of the Pravi sector and Azov Battalion kind. He is hostage to these people, the criminal organization, the really hardcore members of the criminal organization. If he deviates from the script that they gave it to him and that he plays essentially as a lousy actor, by the way, he's dead. And he knows it. Foreign Minister Lavrov has said several times that not only does Russia demand the recognition of the Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine, formerly Ukraine as Russia, which now appears to have happened and can't be reversed, and not only does Russia demand some guarantee that Ukraine will never apply for and never be admitted to NATO. but Ukraine has to rid itself of the bandarists, the supernationalists, the Nazis. How are they going to do that?

This is an ideology. How can you rid a country of an ideology, even if it's only held by a minority? Absolutely. And this is something that will take, what, two or three generations at least? Because this is a deeply entrenched cultural problem. Historical because of the historical ties with Bandera. And cultural because the brainwashing of younger Ukrainians, especially for the past 10 years, has been absolutely massive. You cannot get rid of that in a manner of, okay, a few months, a ceasefire, and then a few months everything is going to be back to normal.

And what was the normal? Was Ukraine during the Soviet Union? No, it's impossible. But the top demand by Russia on Ukraine, which is demilitarization, which is demilitarization of the Ukrainian criminal gang and of NATO at the same time. This is beyond a red line. So the long term of denazification, as is framed by the administration here, That's a much longer process, but it starts with the militarizing. So the Ukrainians in the new 19-pointer from Geneva, they force the negotiations.

We want an army of 800,000. The Russians will look at that, and obviously they will laugh. Completely absurd. They would support maximum 150,000. So Fox News has just reported, Ukraine agrees to a deal to end the war with Russia. A U.S. official tells Fox. Here's the person you were talking about a few minutes ago. I don't know if it was accurate.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and his team met with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi Monday and Tuesday. That's yesterday and today to discuss a potential Ukraine peace framework. with the U.S. remaining optimistic about the deal. The diplomatic flurry follows the leak of the 28-point peace plan, which many European leaders and U.S. lawmakers view as largely favorable to Russia. Boy, the Russians don't view it as largely favorable to them, do they? Of course not, Judge. And this is in the middle of this absolutely crazy Spain war,

the number one argument all across American mainstream media is that the 28-400 is a Russia plan. If you actually read the 28-pointer, you see that maybe there are three or four provisions that the Russians would agree, like, no, ending, you know. But everything else is the losers are declaring victory. Right, right, including the size of the military, which, you know, In 2022, before Joe Biden and Boris Johnson interfered with that agreement, had the Ukraine military at 50,000. This thing, there's one version that says 600,000, another version says 800,000. The Russians will never agree to that. They'll never agree to European peacekeepers.

They'll never agree to long-range missiles. Not to mention paying for the reconstruction of Ukraine with the funds that the Europeans are trying to steal from Euroclear, 24-7. If this is an American proposal, then I'm sorry to say that the President of the United States is in favor of stealing $100 billion in Russian assets from European banks. Well, Trump would never agree to that because he knows that. I can't imagine. The businessman and him couldn't countenance that.

Exactly. And Ursula von der Leyen got an official. she'll communicate from the Belgians. If you do this, we're going to sue you. Because we, in Belgium, where Eroclear is stationed, we'll be responsible for everything. The Russians will come after us, you know, no holds bar. So Euroclear is the bank transfer.

Yes. Can Eurclear stop all the theft, even if the bank is in France, in Paris? No, it's in Brussels. No, I know the Europe player is in Brussels, but where is all the cash? I don't think all the cash is in Brussels banks. theoretically, most of the cash is in Brussels, Judge, as far as we know, as far as we know. But you can find it in other European banks. I'll give an example, maybe BNP Paribati in France, for instance, or German banks, certainly, Deutsche Bank, certainly.

Okay, if the money is in Deutsche Bank, and who knows if the money's still there? You know the way the banks? Nobody knows. Show it in their books. Does it still have to go through Euroclear? It's stated differently. Can the Belgians prevent this theft altogether, or can they only prevent the theft from Belgian banks? From Euroclear, from the mechanism Euroclear in Belgium.

They would not have any jurisdiction over individuals. individual European banks in national states. Last question, and this is back to where we started because I'm so fascinated with this piece that you wrote, why has the Catholic South in Europe, Italy, Portugal, been silent on all of this? Do they not suffer from Russia phobia the way the northern Europeans do? Exactly. This is Todd's thesis. It's a very complex thesis. And because it, basically, he was talking about it in a lecture, he couldn't flash it out in detail. This is not a long essay, for instance, because he will have to account, for instance, to Romania. Romania is Eastern Orthodox,

but there is a national sport in Romania of hating the Russians. It's not Russophobia, but it's by the line, let's hate the Russians because they're evil intrinsically, you know. And, of course, there are pockets of Germany which the DDR. The DDR is not, the former DDR is not rusophobic. But I think he was basically thinking about Habsburg, Germany, the Brits, and the Scandinavians, because Sweden tried to conquer Russia in the 18th century,

the Norwegians, the Danish, of course, and the Dutch, because the Dutch have a beef with the Russian Empire for a long time. But I would love thought to flash it out later on, taking account of the contradictions. And the beautiful thing, the most beautiful part of the argument, in fact, is aesthetic. He says, basically he's saying that southern Europe, and especially Italy, because they are surrounded by many beautiful objects that in Protestantism were considered, you know, irrelevant, they are less prone to nihilism and a metaphysical void.

and he makes a direct comparison of the metaphysical void of, he's talking about people like von der Leyen, for instance. She's the embodiment of nihilism and the living work of art, which is Italy, which all of us who love Italy instantly can recognize. Fascinating, fascinating thesis. Pepe, thank you very much. I know you'll be traveling. I don't know if wherever you are they celebrate things.

Thanksgiving, but we always give thanks for you. And thank you very much. Guess where I'll be on the road next week? I'll be surrounded by beautiful things. You pick the perfect background, and Chris will zoom in on you. Thank you, Pepe. God love you. Thank you so much. God bless.

Thank you. Thank you. Coming up, what a Pip. Coming up later today, at 1 this afternoon, Aaron Matae, at 2,000. 15 Eastern Mat Ho, at 3 o'clock, Colonel Karen Kutkowski. Long day, full day for you tomorrow. More about that later. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.

Thank you. Thank you.