Kitbag Conversations - Proto Kitbag 2: Chase Baker's "The Filthy American"

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

Formerly a resident of Iraqi Kurdistan during the Iraq war, The Filthy American (@thefilthyamerican2.0) is the online persona of Chase Baker, a college student based in the American Southeast. In his own words, “I write about conflicts, culture, geopolitics and anything I think a reader will find worth reading.” During this episode, we talk about: - The current state of socialized media based conflict journalism - Prelude and current situation in Ukraine - And the an individual's call to action to be a volunteer in Ukraine

Hello everyone and welcome back to ProAtoin Report, a podcast dedicated to delivering quality information to the community level. We had a little issue before, but this week I am joined by the Filthy American who I've been a fan of for a while now and I'm really looking forward to the conversation we're about to have. How are you doing, man? I'm doing a lot better now that I'm back in my dorm room. For the listeners out there, we got maybe two and a half minutes into the first recording and someone pulled the fire alarm or burnt their mac and cheese.

So we had to postpone this for about an hour. Yeah, I was just out there staying outside waiting for I was like, come on, man, all the times when the fire alarm was gonna go off, it's gonna go off right now. But the good news is the city I live in is very fashion forward. And the firemen pulled up brownies these dudes look like something out of a movie man they all had those gigantic just absolute like mustache like absolute dog mustaches, bro. And I was like, you know, if anybody was gonna be saving my life as a fireman, they better have an amazing mustache. So that didn't make my day. I'm gonna be honest with you. But I'm incredibly excited to be back and get into this man with you. Okay, so I've been a fan of the Filthy American

for a while now. I first got notified of his existence essentially back when Afghanistan was collapsing and the US withdrew from Kabul and out of all the members of I guess our community like Rose Warfare, our worst day, the filthy American was the first to get nuked by Instagram for doing what we do today. So can you elaborate a little on that? Yeah, so it was a real gut punch, really, really disheartening. I was, what I was saying before, you know, a fire alarm thing, we were about to get into this.

My page was, it was kind of big, it was relatively small though, around 6,000 followers, I believe. And the unfortunate thing about what we do is that, you know, we always want our pages to grow and to grow our audience. It's just part of how it works. You know, we want to be able to reach more people with our work. But the unfortunate thing is that that generally happens whenever there's some type of horrific crisis in the world. And that was an example of that. So when Afghanistan started happening, I already had some pretty decent sources and I was able to report very quickly on what was going on. And I started doing that and the page really grew.

I was really excited. I obviously wasn't excited about what was going on in Afghanistan, but I was excited that the page was growing. And then, I don't know, I guess I just had enough I was excited that the page was growing. And then, I don't know, I guess I just had enough, enough, you know, black marks on my account that it was, I'm not exactly sure what it was. I was just on the account one day, on the page,

on it, while I was on it, I was logged out. At first, I thought that I must've been hacked by somebody. When I tried to log back in, I couldn't log back in, so this account didn't exist. So I then realized it was banned. And I went through the appeal process and there was, I reached back out to the community, some of the other pages that have gone through this,

they gave me some advice. Big shout out to Atlas News. He really he reached out and it meant a lot to hear from him because he's the kind of the OG of all this, in my opinion, like I really got me going. So he reached out and he was he was sending me links, kind of went through what's happened to him before in terms of being banned. And you know, I did about everything you can do everything that I was told to do all the advice I was given. And it was like such a little circle, man, because it was like, because you go you the one link there was like, this is the one that actually works to actually gets your appeal in there, I would do it. Problem was, whenever you got to the final step, I believe it's how it worked, you would you would say,

oh, this is the account. And then it would say would say okay Well, you need to confirm that this is the account by clicking a link that Instagram is sending you via your account like three DMs Or something along those lines Well, how are you supposed to do that if you can't access your account because it's banned. It's it makes absolutely no sense But yeah, I was banned first counting it down September of last year and I don't exactly know what it was. I'm assuming it was just a culmination of, you know, kind of just stepping over Instagram's guidelines. You know, I never really, I never was a page that posted incredibly horrific combat videos

or gore. That was never my thing. Like I tried to tread lightly. For example, whenever the bombing occurred outside of the airport in Kabul, I acquired a censored version of the aftermath, intentionally, because one, I don't really think my audience

necessarily wants to see, you know, horrific video. And two, you know, I want to stay within Instagram. It's good graces, but you know, despite all my efforts I did ended up getting the big old band hammer. Now you had some actual members of the MSM coming out and asking you where you're getting your footage who your sources are, because like we've seen, I've seen it on my end that myself or you

or our wars or Atlas will post something. And then three days later, five days later, mainstream media is going, hey, there was an 11 year old kid that walked from Ukraine all the way into Slovakia. Can you believe that? When we were talking about that last week. So I remember that, I think it was you who said,

people reached out to you and were asking what your sources were. Yeah, it was I was contacted by a low level person at CNN. I forgot her name. She was I forgot. I forgot what exactly her position was. But I had, I made a post about, I want to say it was a prison break in, I forgot exactly where it was in Afghanistan, but it was some prison break and there were some high level, I forgot what, what extremist organization they were connected to. And the post was so long ago, I don't want to get it wrong. What it was, it was a prison break, and this lady, she reached out to me and she said that she was from CNN and everything.

And I talked to anybody that messaged me essentially. And so I was like, oh, well, that's really interesting. If you want to give me a call, you can. I was actually, I don't know what just happened, I was at the bar and I was like, I was with my friends, I was like, yo, y'all aren't gonna believe this. Somebody from CNN just called me,

was about to call me, like give me one second. So I stepped outside and I started talking to this lady and she was, she got on the pestering me about my sources and I was like, well, if you want my sources, you can, I mean, I don't mind sending them to you, but you know, I you want my sources, you you can I mean, I don't mind sending them to you. But you know, I didn't want to know my thing was, I was like, I mean, how is it that this huge media organization has all this funding isn't picking up on the

things that I am when, you know, I'm just a college kid that's into open source Intel. And it was really jarring. And you know, the conclusion that I came to is that, you know, this mainstream media is, is they're lacking in that sense of, of going through and sifting through various sources. I think with this with the Ukraine conflict, though, I do think that they really stepped up their game in terms of paying attention to open source Intel. I have seen a lot of mainstream people, people that you wouldn't really think to be in his old stuff talking about,

things like Telegram chats and things like that. I'm like, well, yeah, that's been going on for a while, man. I'm glad you mentioned Telegram because for a while that seemed to be the wild west of the information community where anyone from the Wagner group could post all of their proliferated information or RT News who is now banned can post whatever they wanted.

And so it seemed like that was outside of the MSN zeitgeist, but which was like I just said, the kind of the area of whoever wants to post on there. Now it seems like that telegram itself was found out by mainstream and is now like RT News's band where initially that wasn't supposed to happen. So it's really, like you said, it seems like the bigger companies

are really getting dialed into where smaller communities like yourself and I get their information. Yeah, it is interesting. And I think that it's only natural. I mean, they would do that. But at the same time, I personally believe that going forward in the future, that a lot of, especially the younger generation, I would say people that are probably 35 and younger, or just around that age, they're not gravitating towards mainstream media anymore. You know, the way that our information works for us is we're looking for, you know, very, very direct and quick information that's accurate.

And we're not really necessarily looking for, you know, someone's opinion. Because like, for example, if you turn on any mainstream media, news generally, I don't know, MSNBC, CNN, Fox, whatever, what you're going to do is you're going to sit there for like an hour while, you know, you know, on the uncouple Tucker Carlson is going to like go up there and do a bit for like an hour, you know what I mean? Like he's going to like, it was like this thing is like for the longest time for the past like 20, 30 years, it was all about, you know pundits and you know, oh, I like this guy's take on the news.

So I'm gonna watch his and they're all reporting the same stuff, you know? But you know, now you have different people that are individuals that are, you know they already had an interest in the world and you know, the things that are going on and they were like, like us, we just, you know, they already had an interest in the world and you know, the things that are going on and they were like us, we just, you know, for me, I just have an interest in the world

and you know, I wanted to be able to share that interest with people. And so that's really why I started the page. And we have all these different accounts that, you know, some of them are a lot more, they show their bias a lot more than other ones. And that's fine, I have no issue with that at all. But I think at the end, each one of us kind of has,

altogether we all end up collecting, we all have generally the same information. It's just that it's up to the person running the page in terms of what they find interesting. I think that's where the big difference is, is you know it's not necessarily about the personality of the person reporting anymore. It's more about you know the information they provide which I think is a good thing. I think a great example of that is jay canterhan and popular front where you can say whatever you want about their community but their bio has been too cool for for J school. I don't give a fuck what you think.

I'm on the ground. You're behind a computer. So it's the most raw in your face, the weight of taking the Instagram Twitter community. Yeah, I would, I'm completely with you on that one, man. They popular front do that. Jake, what Jake's like going on. It's really, it's really interesting, man. I, you know, I dig it. I don't necessarily agree with all of his, you know, takes on everything, but regardless, I still respect

him. He's a very accomplished journalist and he's doing some great stuff. He's doing really good things. When was it Corsica started popping off last week? He was there within 24 hours immediately on the scene. Maybe Luke Pierce was there as well reporting on what was going on. And it's really cool to see those guys who have their own platform, Popular Front running around

doing what mainstream media wants to do, but they're just gonna cut right to the basics. It's not the Uber conservative Fox News or your leftist CNN. It's just, this is it. It's very the uber conservative Fox News or your leftist CNN. It's just, this is it. It's very unbiased. And you could, like you just said, Jake has his own direction but he doesn't put that into his work.

It's just, here it is. Yeah. And I think that you really saw this come about, I wanna say with Vice News, in my opinion, you really saw people enjoying journalism that wasn't like, so let's say, like, let's say if mainstream media, they go to Ukraine right now. All right, they're gonna, for the most part, they're gonna like stand on the balcony and like, you know, be in front of a camera

and all that deal and they're gonna be like, well, I am on the ground right now and you have you create like that type of stuff. You really saw journalism change is more focused on the individuals in the story or the world around like what you're reporting on. It's not necessarily about, hey, I'm in front of the camera now and I'm going to tell you what you're reporting on. It's not necessarily about, hey, I'm in front of the camera now

and I'm going to tell you what's been going on. Like you more long lines of let the story that you're reporting on or the people that you're reporting on speak for themselves. And it's not necessarily about, you know, you interjecting yourself into the story, which I think is really, I think is quality. I like that.

Okay, so we have the established mainstream when it comes to conflict reporting and then we have the little guys like us. What is the future of this? Because Instagram's certainly not in because if big pages like Atlas can get nuked and little guys like us can get nuked, what is the new direction of an interested college kid

in the world? What avenue does he take? Well, as of right now, I found a safe haven, which is the Atlas news app and website. And, you know, I've been posting my work on there. And, you know, I think I'll always have an Instagram. And, you know, I think I'll always have an Instagram. And I'll try and continue to push my work there. But, you know, like you said, you there's no certainty there. So you want to have some type of contingency plan if if things go south, I mean, they're almost guaranteed to.

And I guess the only thing you could do right now, the only thing I can see, the only only thing you could really do is just try and stay at Instagram, it's good graces, hope for the best and find somewhere else for your work. And so that way with the things, things go the wrong way and you lose your account, you'll be able to reach your audience

and continue producing what you do. I think someone like OAF nation has done a really good job of tip towing through the tulips around the Instagram sensors, but providing real dialed in info because all they do is have a little picture or a video. They have a quick caption. They're like links in bio. If you want to check it out, the full story and there's no war porn, there's no gore. But they're like, hey, if you want to see that or want to know the full story, please check out our

safe haven. But they're using threat, you know, 465,000 followers on Instagram, that's, that's a pretty sizable base. So they're just using that to help build their network. And Instagram is love it or hate it. It's the tool everyone uses. Well, that and Twitter, but. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Totally, man. Yeah, I do think that that's probably the best way to do it.

It would be to tiptoe the best you can and then have some other platform where you kind of go all out, so to speak. Yeah. But I want to ask you, man, like, what are your thoughts? I mean, obviously there's a big thing going on in the world right now. Russia hasn't been in Ukraine as of, we're going on almost a whole month now. Oh, it's been almost a month and they still haven't seized anything outside of Kyrgyzstan? I don't know.

But yeah, it's, you know, my thing is, is, is I still haven't been able to fully reconcile Russia's invasion of Ukraine, because hear me out. Okay. Now I'm posing this question to you. For the question, let's say that Putin is objectively an intelligent person. I think that that's something that it's reasonable to say. He's objectively an intelligent person. How does this go so poorly for him? How did he not see this?

I'm assuming, how did this not see this? I mean, I'm assuming the, like, how did this go so poorly? The conclusion I've come to is that it was a combination of a couple of things. It was him believing that he could quickly seize Ukraine in less than, you know, a week. And so by the time the international community was going to react, it would already be over. And everything would kind of go back to the status quo. And there would just be sporadic guerrilla fighting in Ukraine every once in a while. And I'm assuming he came to this conclusion through being yes manned into it by the people around him.

Because if you think about, you know, the current regime in Russia, from my understanding of it all, you really become a wealthy and successful individual, like truly wealthy, successful and powerful by being close to Putin or close to those who are close to him. So what your goal is is essentially

to keep him happy, right? So you tell the big boss we want us to hear even if it's not necessarily true. And I guess over time he thought that his military was a lot more capable than they seem to be. My answer to this is gonna be a little long-winded and I've definitely mold this over since 2014, just kind of a linear line of notes here.

But let's dial it back to 1999. And Putin was the then prime minister and became president after Yeltsin stepped out. And so there was a book that was written about him. The only authorized published biography of Putin, it's called First Citizen. And it's just a conglomeration of interviews that Russian journalists had that just happened to get a hold of Putin at the time when he was just getting into his presidency. And so it opens up, it's like, Mr. Putin, very nice to meet you. Can you please tell

me what it's like to be president? And he goes, did I tell you that my grandfather survived the purges of Stalin? And they were like, no, that's interesting. He's like, yeah, he was one of the chief members in Stalin's community. They're like, okay, okay. So can you tell me about what it's like to be president? And he goes, did I tell you that my father was in St. Petersburg, a lot of Germans? And they were like, no, that's interesting. They were like out of 120 man company, he was one of 10 to survive. And they're like, okay, okay. And he's like, did I tell you that I single-handedly pulled every Soviet document out of East Berlin when it was collapsing?

They're like, no. And he's like, okay, anyways, what would you like to know? And so when just reading that introductory paragraph, it's just Putin's painting himself as I am Russia, essentially, where he goes, yeah, I am the future. I know what I'm doing. So you could look at Putin's. There was the Kursk incident where the Russian Navy was doing their big naval exercise. I think it was to that it was like September timeframe 2000 I want to say I could be wrong, but the submarine went out there and was a flagship the Russian Navy and it sank and disappeared and immediately Putin's like, yeah, NATO came out and sunk our ship. And everyone's like, that's not what happened at all.

We could get your guys. And he's like, yeah, out of the crew, I think they'll be happy to know that they didn't have help from the West. And so the entire crew died when the US and all those NATO nations could have picked it up and off the sea ban and the Barents Sea, but nothing happened. So picked it up and off the sea ban and the Barents Sea, but nothing happened. So this is in 2000, within the first year of his presidency. And he was like, yeah, it's, I think we're okay. So that should have been the first indicator. And then he invaded Georgia and Oh, eight. And so in Georgia, because Georgia and Ukraine in 2006 wanted to join NATO, they're like, we're considering this. And then if Georgia, the most rapidly advanced or advancing military and Ukraine in 2006 wanted to join NATO. They're like, we're considering this. And then if Georgia, the most rapidly advanced or advancing military and economy

and the former Soviet block wants to start militarizing and joining the West, can't have that. So what you're gonna do is start doing what they did in Crimea and pumping in those ethnic Russians and quoting exactly what Putin said with his declaration of war against Ukraine of, yeah, they got these Nazis running around persecuting and killing our people. We have to go save them. So you go in, NATO didn't do anything. Couple of sanctions, but that was around election time for the US because Bush was

on his way out, Obama's on his way in. They're like, yeah, we're going to do it. We're going to do it now. And then from there, it goes over to Ukraine. So right after Georgia got invaded, the Ukrainian government said, we're next and we know it, but say what you will about that. it goes over to Ukraine. So right after Georgia got invaded, the Ukrainian government said, we're next and we know it, but say what you will about that. Did they prepare? Maybe, but so revolution starts, pro-East government gets ousted.

They have that little coup, boom, Russian state Crimea, Russians start that war in Donbass, and Ukraine says, I'm not gonna do anything because they didn't wanna do what we're doing today. But then NATO didn't do anything. They just said, Hey, we'll do sanctions. We'll do, we'll, we'll try to stop the Russians, but Putin goes, okay, hold on. Nothing happened.

All I have to do is wait. And if you wait two weeks, the American intention span specifically, they'll just forget what just happened. So just look at Afghan when we left. It's within a week while it was still going on, no one really cared. So from there, we just trace it forward to the US withdrawal of Afghanistan. So US comes out and says, hey, we're leaving. We're going to up and get out of here." Completely falls apart. The NATO members themselves, where it was the US and the Brits at first, sent guys into the country and said, hey, we need to get all the people out of here. You had countries like France and Germany saying,

no. So while it was going on, I remember thinking to myself, like, hold on, this is just showing the whole world how fragmented NATO is, how they don't like each other, how they don't like to talk to each other, communicate. And you had a country like Germany saying, no, I'm not going to help you. And the US went, I remembered you went into country with me 20 years ago, get your shit and get out of here. So I think the Russians were watching that very carefully going, yeah, they don't like each other. And if any push comes to shove, they'd rather fight, fight amongst themselves instead of dealing with the issue at hand. So then there you go to say the migrant crisis in Belarus from a few

months ago back in November when you had a country like Poland who was very anti-immigrant, very kind of doing its own thing in the European Union but based base its 10 year economic plan around the European Union's money pot of, yeah, I don't like to take in immigrants, but I want to build my economy around this new plan. So the European Union comes out and said, you're going to have to start taking in immigrants. So once those headlines showed up, I'm not saying that 5,000 immigrants were dumped on the border to test the will of the European people, but it did. And Poland was essentially forced to take an immigrant, shovel them over into Germany, and they had their own little

internal issues. And that was a big headline. I remember you were talking about it a lot. So I think the Russians looked at all that and then watched the US leave Afghanistan and understood that there was going to be a power vacuum in that part of the world. And so when Kazakhstan started to fall apart back in what, January, they had that little 5% increase on gas and the whole country goes into revolution overnight.

Then you have all these Russian VDV guys in the Spetsnaz seizing airports, almost like a dry run of something had to happen inside Ukraine. How fast could their military mobile? So everyone gets dumped into Kazakhstan, state gets stabilized, and then everyone goes, okay, remember that document that was floating around back in December? Yeah, the Russians invading in February. Remember that? And so Ukrainian people started getting ready to their government. And then Putin started coming out with these like, oh, there's Nazis in the country. Oh, they're killing our people. The whole same rhetoric that he used against Georgia and Ukraine in 2014.

But I think a major issue he had is, I think he's an intelligent guy. I'm not gonna call him like a brain surgeon, but I think he's smart enough to understand his capabilities. But like you just mentioned, I think he was yes manned into this position because you're

going to tell the one guy who controls your entire life, no, like, and if you look at it today, a lot of the FSP guys or the old KGB were put under house arrest within two weeks of the invasion because maybe they told Putin he was going to lose or it wasn't going to go as planned. And they were just essentially told to shut up by the military staff who are looking to keep their position or be a hero when the war is over. So I think Putin was, he underestimated the West's ability to support Ukraine as well as he overestimated his own military because if there's corruption at the top level, you know it's starting at the bottom. So there's a 18-year- old tank commander who's supposedly a sergeant, which is absurd anyways, but that

kid saying, yeah, I know how to drive this tank. I know what I'm doing. Who tells his officer, who tells the brigade, who tells the division, who tells the army, yeah, we're good. So it goes all the way to the top and you can't say no. So yeah, that was a long winded answer. But I think it was this combination of things of overestimating the quality of his military and underestimating NATO in general, because as we've seen, anti tank weapons and anti aircraft, weapons like man pads, and those end laws, and then just flooding in through Poland. And it's not the guy with the AK stopping tanks. It's all these NATO provided weapons to the Ukrainian people. So I think now the Russian military is sustained. I think 30% of their military is a casualty at this point inside

Ukraine. So out of 200,000, you got 75,000 that are combatant troops. And if 30% of those guys are down and out, that's combat inefficient for any, but like in the division aspect, it's combat inefficient. So maybe the Russians initially wanted that shock and awe, go balls to the wall method, saw it's not really working. So they went, okay, let's just take the nuclear reactors and choke hold the nation because it's, I think they're building their strategy as they go because they didn't have

one to begin with. They were doing really good with their asymmetric little green men doctrine where you can't really get around that. If you just take off your Russian flag, you could be anybody. But force on force, I think they're planning it by the day. But yeah, he was definitely yes man in this position. I agree with you. I agree with you. And this is, this is, I think that how we've seen this conflict play out. This is likely to be the worst scenario in terms of the cost for human life. Because the Russian military, and I'm not saying this is a bad thing, the Ukrainians are putting up a fight, I'm not saying that at all,

but they really put up a hell of a fight. Obviously, they're able to do so because of native support. But the point is that as the Russian military becomes more and more inefficient in the country, which it seems to be the case, it's pretty clear that the Kremlin is gonna start acting more and more erratic

in terms of their attacks, especially on civilian areas, in just any attempt to gain ground. Because here's the thing, no, this is just my opinion. I think that Putin at this point has put everything on the line in terms of his power. And if this war ends poorly for Russia, or if it drags on for a very, very long time,

I think that it would be likely that he would end up losing power. I think that's a possibility. How that would happen, I don't know. But the thing is, don't get me wrong, the Russian people are very resilient. I think that these sanctions are going to, they're going to affect the average Russian, but I think they're gonna be able to withstand it for a fair bit of time. It's just, the question is, how long can the rhetoric put out there by the Kremlin to justify this invasion? How long can that stand? How long can people in Russia can you divide that and be like, okay, yeah, this is why we're suffering and it's worthwhile. You do it forever. It's just because the entire international community cuts off all supplies to Russia. They kick them off Telegram, Instagram,

Pop, or OnlyFans, everything. So every instance of outside support into Russia or the connection to the outside world is Russians are bad. So if Russians are, on one hand, had been told since they were little kids that, yeah, Ukraine's ours. They're just this kind of breakaway state that wants to do its own thing. They're gonna come back someday.

Just like Putin wrote in his essay in July of 2021, he was like, on the strategic reliability of the Russians and the Ukrainian people, where he called them one people, one single whole, where he's like, yeah, if the average Russian is being told this every day, and they're also being told that they're Nazis, they're killing the ethnic Russians inside the country, and then they're also cut off from the outside world, they're only getting pushed one

message and it's, yeah, it's them versus us. And it sounds a lot like they don't like us. So it's very true. Very true. Um, yeah, there's definitely, I would say there will definitely be some polarization or a good bit of polarization and unity within Russia over this. And I think that, you know, speaking of Nazism in Ukraine, our neo-Nazism in Ukraine, I think that you might see the same thing over there. If you look at the since this conflict truly started in 2014, the Ukrainians who have always been

putting up a really decent fight against the Russians are, for example, the Azov battalion and the neo-Nazi groups. I mean, if you think about it, and I'm not trying to justify anything. I'm just saying if you think about it, you know, and I'm not trying to justify anything, I'm just saying, you know, if you think about it, let's say you're just an average Ukrainian person, you're young, and Russia invades, and you see these guys going around, and you know, they're really kicking ass, and you know, they're neo-Nazis. I think that it would be very appealing for

a good bit of people in that country to start siding with them more and more. Now I'm not saying that's gonna be like a big thing, but I think that it is something that is interesting that I could see start playing out. We could also say the same thing about the Russians where you saw all those Soviet flags being flown around in the South where if I was a Russian 18 year old

and I saw the former country, which was supposedly the best, flying over territory that we want back. Hey, if I was a young Russian soldier, I'd be like, fuck yeah, that that checks out. And so it's the same thing. Doesn't matter how what side you're on. It's the iconography of this is strong. I like this. So it's more of a morale boost. And if Putin can, during his declaration of war kept talking about like, yeah, the Soviet Union, that was our thing. The Russian empire, that was our thing.

Ukraine keeps trying to leave. They were a part of us because we are the single whole. So if he kept referencing the Soviet Union and then the Soviet flag started to pop up across those now seized Ukrainian territory, I think a lot of the Russian soldiers looked at that one. Yeah, that's it. So. Oh, dude, I'm with you, man. That's not a to say every single one, because there's always those leaked messages coming out of Russians conscripts going, I have

no idea what's going on. I didn't even know I was in Ukraine until I was a weekend. So, yeah, right. It I'm with you on that, man. When I saw that Soviet flag flying, I was like, oh shit, they back. It was a sight to behold, really was. Now, what do you think? Okay, so I want to get your thoughts on this because you know who Tim Dillon is? Of course, I know who Tim Dillon is. He's funny as hell, man. Are we going to sacrifice our summer over Ukraine? Yeah, exactly. Why would you not be able to go to the beach on 4th of July because we decided to implement a no-fly zone in Ukraine? It cracks me up. He had this bit talking about how

he had this bit talking about how the American, like the celebrities in the West are gonna be the ones that push us into nuclear annihilation because they're gonna be like, oh, I'll stand with Ukraine type deal, like implement a no fly zone. It's just like everything kind of goes south from there. But what I'm getting to is I wanna know, like, do you think that in the US,

obviously, I mean, we're both from the United States, do you think that that's a possibility that the celebrities end up pushing the average person into supporting a decision that is not in the best interest of the world as a whole in terms of escalating this conflict? interest of the world as a whole in terms of escalating this conflict. It's definitely a political move on their part where you have someone like Benedict Cumberbatch promoting his new movie wearing a yellow and blue ribbon on the red carpet saying like, yeah, and Russia, we got to stop this whole war in Ukraine. I didn't even know what Ukraine was till two weeks ago, but yeah, we got to get this over with. It's really bad over there. So I don't think it's not the it's not some, you know, some gas station worker pulling the trigger. It's politicians in office and they really, regardless if they watch movies

or really dialed into entertainment, I don't think celebrities have anything going on with that. It's a completely separate entity. They could have all the influence on Instagram as they want, but they're not the ones running the show. Without a doubt. The problem is that the stakes are just so damn high right now. You know, it's, it's, it's really, we're at a, a huge tipping point in terms of global society. I think I mentioned it a few episodes ago where maybe the future is really boring and it's just globalism forever

because if Russia is doing this really just an old world idea of, yeah, securing the borders, nationalism, go out there, be proud to be Russian, we're going to do this because we want to, it's at the last gasp of a nation doing what it wants because let's dial back to the 1950s, Britain and France invaded Suez without the blessing of the US and were told to go home by the US and they did. So it's like that was a huge shift because that was the age of the empires where this new state called the US and Russia were like, no, no, no, no, we're doing our thing. Now you guys are done. Like go sit down. Yeah. Post cold war where it's the Russians are like, yeah, remember the Soviet Union that kicked ass, let's bring that back. Oh, by the way, step number one, we're going into Ukraine.

If they get absolutely shut down, that's like the last gasp of independent thought essentially at a national level. Yeah, I do agree with you. That's very likely. And that's why this conflict is so fascinating from just not trying know, not trying to make it seem like, you know, I want to have this after anything, but it's just, it's very,

it's very interesting because this is, this is some World War Two type shit, man. Like this is something that, you know, we, you haven't seen in the world in a long time, in a long time. And it's very likely that something like this one will never happen again in, will not happen again in the near future or in the next 100, 250 years. I would say though, in terms of the future being very boring that there's a possibility and everything could kind of just go back to the very kind of brave new world that we seem to be entering.

But I think that what could happen is food scarcity in the future. I think that nations themselves could be destabilized just because of economic collapse. And I think that if there would, I think what is likely in the future is that there would be conflicts inside of countries themselves over, you know, like economic collapse, for example, and everybody's kind of calling it quits. I wouldn't even go that far. It's just South America had water wars in the early 2000s. Like natural resources, basic needs are maybe taken for granted, but if for some reason the Middle East ran out of oil and everyone stops caring about that, it will implode because they don't have any natural water. It's the whole thing. Mesopotamia, or the Tigris and Euphrates, that's in Iraq and that's pretty much owned by

us anyways, or the US. So it'll get interesting soon. I can't put a timeline on it. I'm not too dialed in on every single nation's current standing, but. Yeah, yeah. So what do you, okay, let's say hypothetically there is some serious escalation with the conflict in Ukraine in terms of what NATO is doing. How do you, what would you see that likely? Because I did read something today and I'm only, let me pull it up. It was something to do with, I want to say, I got it right here. Let me pull it up. It was something to do with, I want to say, I got it right here. Let me pull it up.

So mess this up. Okay. Okay. So apparently the Danish minister of defense has announced that Denmark is willing to send forces to support NATO or Polish led peacekeeping mission into Ukraine. And the Danish military has begun preparing for this operation. I mean, I was reading stuff saying, the Poles are all gung ho about all this stuff. I mean, how likely, but what do you make of all that? It's difficult to address because the Poles are very confident in their abilities to take on the Russians.

But then they say, yeah, Ukraine, we got you. You just have to, we'll give you some planes. What we need you to do is meet us in Ramstein, Germany, where we're going to hand our stuff off to the US. And then you drive there and fly your planes, our planes back to your country. And so it's, polling can be all talk of, yeah, let's go fight the Russians. And I'm sure they have a thousand years of being considered Europe's punching bag. I'm really sure that they really do not like the Russians, but it's. They could keep saying that, but without, unless they do a false flag attack in their own country and be like, yeah, Belarus did it. I don't know.

It's. That would be awful. 100%. And it's like, is this, uh, is the government of Poland strong enough to act independently? Because if the U S keeps telling them no, and if England and France in Germany, keep telling them, no, it's, I'm not sure. It seems like all these smaller states too. It's like the Baltics, Poland, I guess the Danes, they are the ones saying like, yeah, we got this. But it's, I don't know. I'm trying to put this to words of how we can go because.

Yeah, this is what our station happened, right? Let Poland, listen, let them leave NATO, all right, so they know Article 5 to worry about, and then let them boys punch it out. Right, just let them go in there. They aren't far in there no more. And then after it's all over, they can hop back in, all right? That is, that timeline's way too long, man. That's 15 years of work.

Yeah, true. Just go full Yugoslavia. Just let everyone duke it out, and only the strongest survives. Yeah, yeah. Well, also, that's another angle Just go full Yugoslavia. Just let everyone duke it out and only the strongest survives. Like, yeah, yeah. Well, also that's another angle we could look at that because Yugoslavia was a mess and we still have guys, NATO still has guys in the former Yugoslavia as peacekeepers. And so I remember a few months ago, about six months ago now, the Serbians and who was it? Kosovo? those two guys were shooting at each other and they were like, hey, there's still a war there.

And the US, well, not just the US, but like NATO fumbled that so bad that I don't think they really want to get involved too heavily in Ukraine outside of indirect support because anything kinetic can lead to Russia saying, oh, I'm threatened, I'm going to use a bomb. So. Yeah. And I mean, honestly, I think that it would be interesting to see, let's say there's some some accidental attack on, you know, Polish, Polish soil

from Russia, if something just goes haywire and there's an accidental missile launch that hits like some just anywhere in Poland. It'd be interesting to see if things would actually kick off from NATO. If the Russians were like, yo, our fault, my bad type deal. Because obviously that's not in Russia's best interest if they want to continue this conflict. And it's not in anybody's best interest, in my opinion, unless you want a global annihilation. But it's just, it's just, it's a stalemate right now. It's like, it's, it's, I mean, right now, the way things are going, in my opinion, I think, I think Russia is going to, if everything continues,

Russia is going to end up looking like North Korea almost in terms of the isolation. Almost- The international pariah. That weird guy that you're like, yeah, he's there, but I wouldn't trust him. Yeah, he's a little school shooter, kind of goes, pulls us up to school in like a-

Listen to a lot of Radiohead and goes to school in a trench coat. Yeah, little too much M&M for my taste. Yeah, for sure. That's interesting. Yeah, it's the whole war in general is so much a mind boggle because it hasn't happened in so long and I'm sure you've seen it there's a lot of pages on Instagram and Twitter saying, this is just like the war in Afghanistan. It's not. It's nothing even close. It's the U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan, 20 years long, were asymmetric. It was a different kind of war. It was small. It was isolated and compared to tanks on tanks, friction on conventional forces on conventional forces. It's not even comparable. So I think a lot of people are jumping to that like,

oh yeah, Russia's lost maybe 10 to 15,000 people in a month. That's five times more than the Americans lost in Afghanistan. You're like, yeah, that's cool. But if all we have is Afghanistan, like let's just dial it back to this at 50s or the world war two, like an actual conventional war. Yeah, it is. I mean, just to give you just like to go off what you're saying, I mean, like,

since Maru Maru pool has been under siege, there have been more civilian casualties in a little over three weeks that it's been going on, if the Ukrainian reports are correct. There have been more civilian deaths in Mariupol already than were in both battles of Fallujah combined. And that doesn't illustrate the scale of destruction and how truly conventional this war is, I don't know what does. I mean, like we've been saying for the past 10 minutes, like this is something that the world hasn't seen in a long time.

And that's what makes it interesting. And I understand the talking point to say, oh, you know, the world's only really caring about this because this is about white Europeans or something along those lines. Whoa. Yeah. I don't, I'm not saying that I'm sure

that maybe that does play a factor, but I mean, this is, no, I mean, I think this is just something on a totally different scale objectively. I mean, that's my take on it. Well, yeah, if someone like South Africa started throwing blows against Botswana. You're like, yeah, I can see that. But because if South Africa wanted to pull the same idea of like,

oh, yeah, remember the apartheid? That was pretty cool. We were a lot better off then. What if we went against this state that broke away? They used to be ours. Let's go take it back. I think it would be a completely different narrative in mainstream media specifically of, yeah, I can see that. But it's because it has been so long since there's been conventional war in Europe, it's taken a different direction. But it's been about a month now. And it seems like it's not really in the zeitgeist anymore. Everyone's like, oh yeah, I'm gonna drop a yellow and blue flag on my Instagram. And then just talk about how, you know, my neighbor's cousin's boyfriend met a Ukrainian once on a Metro in DC.

So. Yeah, I do. I definitely has kind of, it's boring now. It's not as cool as it was when it first happened to the average american um hey but listen um you know something i do want to i do want to talk about you know i this is just completely unconfirmed reports right um but i have been hearing over the past four or five days and again I cannot confirm this to be legit, but if it is, I think it's incredibly interesting

that a lot of the Western volunteers have, there are two things here. The first thing is that there are a lot of Western volunteers going over there to volunteer in Ukraine, and they're claiming that they aren't getting the equipment they want, not necessarily they want, but they aren't getting the equipment they want. They don't necessarily want, but they, you know, they need to even fight. And it's essentially a massacre and they're using me, being used as cannon fodder.

And if they desert their, their, uh, they're killed. I know what video you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then I had, I have a, I have a friend who's in Poland right now. And he said that, uh, he's on the border with Ukraine and he was telling me that he's been hearing things from people who have been to Ukraine and

like this and again this is unconfirmed that if you're a fighting-aged male and you're in Ukraine even if you're a foreigner there's a possibility especially if you're a foreigner, there's a possibility, especially if you're not connected to some type of bigger organization to justify why you're there, there's a chance that you'll end up getting conscripted into the Ukrainian forces. Now, how true that is, I don't know, but it will be interesting to see the stories that

come out from these volunteers and if this stuff that we're hearing is actually true. So the Ukrainians came out and said, we want people with combat experience. We don't want liabilities. So if you have all these, they call them the red battalion. If you have all these essentially war tours pulling up going like, yeah, man, I'm going to go to Ukraine and I'm going to fight. And then they're told to go home because their only experience is paintball. They're like, yeah, man, I'm going to go to Ukraine and I'm going to fight. And then they're told to go home because they're only experienced as paintball. They're like, no, get the fuck out of here. You're going to get our guys killed because

at the end of the day, the Ukrainians only care about the Ukrainians. They're like, yeah, thanks. We're in the green for total numbers because we have 25,000 volunteers showing up to help us. But of that 25,000, let's be generous and say maybe 15 know what they're doing. So you have 10,000 showing up either a being turned away or giving nothing, saying like, yeah, just, just watch the supply dump. If just our guys will do the fighting, just stay back here and make sure no one steals our stuff. So on one hand, like it would be crazy to hear that Ukraine is only handing out either a magazine with a few rounds in it,

no weapon and no helmet or no body armor to the volunteers. But on the other hand, it would just make sense to go like, yeah, I'd rather protect our guys and give the fighters what they need rather than these tourists. So yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that one. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that one. Um, yeah, I mean, here's the thing I understand why you would want to go over to Ukraine in and and do humanitarian work. I get that. But unless you have like a chip on your shoulder for some reason why you just really hate Russia and this is like, yo, this is my opportunity to like, you know, get back or Russia. I don't, I don't see why. I don't see why. Why does this is

like happening? Why there's so many internet dudes that, you know, have never seen combat like, dude, I would just show up like that. That is that some crazy stuff. I mean, everybody's drawn comparisons to the Spanish Civil War. And I think that's very true. But it is it is interesting, man. And it's it's unfortunately amusing to a certain extent, but you know, it is it is very dark because these are human lives and you don't want to make light of that. But at the same time, it's like, come on, man, like, if, like, if you if you never if you've never seen some shit like this before,

don't put yourself in that position. And like, don't don't endanger other people that are having to fight for their own country. Do you know what I mean? Well, I have seen a lot of reports of mainly British and American, and this is just because I'm not dialed into like French or German telegram channels, but American and British volunteers are going over our combat vets from the war on terror. They're like, I know, we can have nothing going on. And so they're showing up and they're doing, they're doing good things. I'm sure you've seen the videos, but it's maybe it's those,

what did you call them? Internet nerds just showing up. They're like, yeah, we have no great depression and we have no great war. We have to go find our own because it's a spiritual war. So they're going to go out and be cool for, you know, hinge or something. But yeah. And that's, you know, I understand that man.

I mean, I do, I do see, I do see that's, you know, and I understand that, man. I mean, I do see that if, I think that to a certain extent, you know, I've always thought this, and I kind of learned this because of my childhood and where I grew up, that I think that people generally, not, no, it sounds kind of weird weird to say but I think that to a certain extent people do not necessarily crave crave um you know difficulties or or uh certain issues in

their life but there's something there's something to be to be said about when when somebody's able to have a a a uh in a fight that seems very black and white, where it's like, I'm the good guy. And I have my my my partners here. And you know, we are fighting a just war. And there's a conflict like that. Like, you know, you don't, you know, it's it's this is like the past, you know, since the Second World War. Well, you know, okay, now there are some exceptions for sampling, like, you This is like the past, since the second world war. Okay, now there are some exceptions for sampling, like Korea and Vietnam, the draft was still a thing in the United States.

But for the most part, people that live in the West, you never see conflict. You don't really see combat or anything like that. If you think about it, that's pretty rare in human history. or anything like that. And, you know, that's, if you think about it, that's pretty rare in human history. You know, generally it was a part of your life at some point.

There wasn't some long piece. And, you know, the question is, is like, in some dark way, is that somehow attached to the natural human experience of like, you know, it kind of allows you to feel completed to have people next to you that you could count on in the life or death situation. And I think that that's honestly a reason why

a lot of combat vets feel detached from society when they return. I mean, and look, I'm not a combat veteran or anything like that, but like, you know, for those listening, they don't know, I grew up as a kid in Northern Iraq and Kurdistan. My parents were relief workers during the Iraq War. They do humanitarian aid.

So I was in Iraq from 2003 to 2013. And I do know that I grew up in the Curtis St region, so it was a lot more peaceful than what was going on in the south and the central of the country. But nonetheless, you know, I did see some things and, you know, there, and there was some real camaraderie between the humanitarian workers, you know, they're like, we have a common goal here. And to a certain extent it's life or death. And that really brings us closer together. And what I'm trying to say is that you don't, you never really have that in the West anymore.

You don't really, you don't really, you're never in a situation where you have to rely on somebody to such an extent like that. I don't know if that makes any sense, but yeah. Yeah, you were definitely typing or touching, you know, psychological issues. So it's like just the West, that makes any sense. But yeah, yeah, you were definitely typing or touching, you know, psychological issues. Yeah, it's like just the West, as the West for sure, as

always, maybe been working, they've been doing their own thing, but it's since essentially World War Two, it's not really a lot has gone on. And so you little off topic, but I'm sure you've seen those, you know, mighty masculine Western ideal pages showing up. They're like, yeah, we got to get back to eating elk meat and bow hunting.

So it's. Oh my gosh, man. Like just some edit with like little dark age in the back. Oh yeah. That's how you win award. The best little dark. Oh man. That's a good ass song. I'm going to be honest.

I think, I think that that's a good ass song. I'm going to be honest. But I think that that's a thing. I think you can also look at it as it seemed like around 2010, a lot of people in the West out of nowhere went, yeah, I really like Russia. You know, might is right. And because they're running around doing whatever they want and they don't have anyone else to tell them, no. So it's, and I think that's also why we've seen a lot of like sympathizers for the Russian cause of like,

yeah, these guys are, they're being men. Back when men were men, remember that saying? So it's interesting, but I think it is just a lot of people wanting to do something and feeling more accomplished than working at Harris Teeter, you know. can you imagine only on a first date and you're like, yeah, man, I work at Harris Teeter. That's it. Like, yeah, I went to school and I graduated and I have a

dog and you know, I'm unique. Like, no, I went to Ukraine and I fought a war like I'm very unique. So yeah, the the search for adventure. Yeah, I think that's a big thing. And because I mean, life in the West, it's it's it could be very monotonous. It's not there's nothing really in that. That's the weird thing is that, you know, objectively, we live in a society that's that should be, in theory, the most enjoyable to live in. But we have some, we have a lot of mental health issues that are in Western society. And of course, you could blame social media for that, for being like a big player in that. But I think that something else is that, you know, people don't look at their

lives as being something as a, as like a romantic or worthwhile thing of engaging in. It's not, it's very monotonous. It's very day in, day out type deal. And, you know, I think that's because to a certain extent, society has become so predictable in the West where you're not able to have any type of that you can have obviously a spontaneity. But like, you know, it's not a constant thing going throughout day to day where it's like, you know, you know what your life's going to look like in the next year. For the most part,

this could feed directly into what you were saying earlier with Tim Dillon of, yeah, people idolize celebrities because, and if celebrities are very much anti-Russia right now, because it's the new fad, I think a lot of people are going to be anti-Russia. So, yeah, yeah. And it is interesting how during the first week of this conflict It seemed like there is just full unity like there ain't one there wasn't one person That you could find it would be like hey, I mean obviously you could but like for the most part you would hear I was just like yeah, you know

Yeah, do stand with Ukraine, like Russia's, they're just the Rena bully and all that stuff. And like, you know, Ukraine is a little bit and everybody loves the underdog story and look how they're fighting for their land and their sovereignty and all that. But like now, it's like, I guess it's because like you said earlier, it's not the zeitgeist anymore. You're seeing people take different stances on this whole thing and people are not, you know, politicians are out here, you know, not going with the whole, you know, pro-Ukraine

narrative completely anymore. And I try and keep my ear to the conspiracy side of American society. I'm just see what they're saying. I keep trying to get my ear to like pretty much all, you know, political. Yeah, there's not necessarily just them. But man, they're they're saying some crazy shit, bro. Like, like I was into the Alex Jones podcast the other day, just whatever he does, like, because don't get me wrong. It's some funny stuff to listen to sometimes it's just like, you know, pretty funny. But anyway, oh, he was going on man about he, I mean, he was saying some stuff, like that was just real out there, man. And I was just like, this

is blowing me away. I can't, like, I would have thought that like, especially if anybody was going to be pro Ukraine, it would have been, you know, the conspiracy side of, you know, American society. But like, you know, I guess it's the it's like, it's like the generally the QAnon group, like those types of people that are the ones that are saying things like, Oh, the war in Ukraine is actually not even real. It's all just staged. Like, can you even prove it's actually going on? Or it's like, you know, that you don't even know, man, they're like, you know, they're bioweapon labs and stuff like that. And like, yeah, I think they're I think that is confirmed. There are actual bio labs in Ukraine that

are funded by the US. But, you know, the real question is, like, are they are they producing like biological weapons necessarily, you know, you can look at it like, if most people get their information from mainstream media, where you have your uber conservative guys who are anti globalists, who are like, yeah, Russia's sticking it to the man. They're going against the globalists. And so they might sympathize with the Russians. And then you have your hardcore leftists who are like, yeah, dog, I hate the West. Anything West is bad.

I support the Russians because they don't like the West. So it's really hard to find a middle ground of like, I see where the Russians are coming from, but it's fucked up. So it's Yeah, yeah. And that's another thing is that, you know, there there is there is to a certain extent, some justification for not justification, but you can see where the Russians are coming from with the whole native expansion thing. I mean, if you think but you can see where the Russians are coming from with the whole NATO expansion thing.

I mean, if you think about it, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Gorbachev seceded East Germany to allow it to be unified again. And the deal was, all right, well, we're gonna do this. And the USSR is done for, everybody's gonna get their independence, all these states but you know NATO don't come walking our way you know like you know you stay over there and you know over time it's just been like a slow roll towards Russia

and which I personally think was was a mistake I think that, and I'm not saying that this war is the West's fault, is the fault of the West completely. I'm not saying that at all. But I think that those countries, in Ukraine in particular, should have been left as this kind of no man's neutral zone in between the West and Russia, and just to kind of keep the peace type of deal.

Yeah, but it comes down to the individual state. Like what do they want? If they want to join the West, because they see East Germany rapidly modernized in 10 years, I think a lot of those smaller Baltic states or Eastern European states that just got out of that Eastern block are like, yeah, that's good. We need some of that.

We need to build any buildings more than five stories because we want elevators. Like it's, Yeah, that's true. That is true. Yeah. And it just helps reinforce why NATO is a thing. And this war definitely did because if Afghanistan showed how weak it could be,

this has definitely shown how strong it could be because it's like, oh, we're here because of the Russians. So it's, you know, secured're here because of the Russians. So it's You know secured their job for the next 50 years. So yeah NATO was a was a joke before this like was even around like Like right thing about like but they might do Germany wasn't even Germany we footed the bill for their the United States for the bill for their for everything militarily for them for like ever. And now, right, it's like 1934 over there, bro, they cranking out everything. Which is

crazy, man, like, like the the unity that this conflict that's that's something that's really interesting is the unity that this conflict has brought to NATO is definitely remarkable, I would say. Yeah, definitely. Because it's hard power, it's not soft power, where the West is very much a soft power fan of, hey man, I don't see, we just got a McDonald's in Hanoi, like it's been 50 years. But there's McDonald's in St. Petersburg, there's McDonald's in Moscow. They're like, yeah, let's just win the people's hearts and minds. And then the government will follow suit because in a generation or two, those people that enjoyed Big Macs are now in the country. They're running around. So it's that soft power mindset.

And it's like, yeah, just no war for a while. You could look at it however you want, but it's like passivity breeds and complacency. Yeah, it's like, yeah, we're NATO, who's gonna stop us. But it's, they've definitely beefed up. Where before it was, it seems like it was always just NATO, but it was just parentheses, United States, United Kingdom, Canada. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and yes, the McDonald's and Big Macs, McDonald's is the real US embassy in countries, bro. 100%. You see all those videos of those Russians freaking out because

they didn't get Big Macs. They're like, end this war. I want to eat my McNugs. Bro, I mean, I can't blame them. That's the future of how it works. There was like, yeah, all we have to do is just, well, I mean, the East does that too. They're like, let's just tap into the American education system. We'll win them that way. And Americans are like, I'll just sell them fast food because it's exportation of cultures are biggest export. I remember when I was in Bulgaria,

no sorry, I was in Romania, this was before COVID. And we were in this small town, when you get to Eastern Europe and you see, like, and you get started into the real sticks out there, and you see like those former Soviet apartment buildings and everything, it's like, and you get started into the real sticks out there. And you see like those former Soviet apartment buildings and everything. It's like, Whoa, like that, that's crazy. Like that, you know, you never really, you always saw it kind of videos. You know, like, yeah, you know, the East, like, you know, the iron curtain, everything passed. That was real depressing. But like you

get over there, it really is still like that to this day in certain places. We were in this town called Deva in Romania. And I remember there was only one hotel and it was like mad expensive and I was backpacking. I was like, no, I'm not going to pay that. I just was trying to be in Deva for a day. And so we literally just chilled at the McDonald's for like the majority of our time there. And it was so interesting because they didn't, they had a Big Mac. Yeah. But they had other, all the other burgers were named after American cities. They had like the Chicago and the Detroit. And I was like, this is so odd, man. I mean, I don't even remember. I want to say like the, like the, the Detroit was like a quarter pounder with cheese or something. I don't know. I mean, it's like you export McDonald, no, it's like you export McDonald's and like,

it's ours, but let's make it yours too. Hey, Italy, you're gonna get your own spaghetti at McDonald's and then Japan has pizza or sushi or whatever. So it's like, yeah, you still have the Big Mac and you're not getting rid of it, but you can have your own. So it's, that's a whole other conversation, but yeah, it's really interesting

to see the different mindsets working. But yeah, it's back to hard power of like, oh yeah, it's really interesting to see the different mindsets working. But yeah, it's back to hard power of like, oh yeah, we need to have a strong military to stop the Russians to justify why we're in this military alliance. So I agree. And here's the sad thing, you know, going back to the, to the, to the, uh, to the conflict itself is that I see right now, and this is my opinion, I think that the likely outcome is that, I mean, even because Russia wasn't able to take Ukraine rapidly, it is increased

the fighting spirit of the average Ukrainian, in my opinion. And this is like, you know, we got you know, we can, we got a shot here. We could, we could really do this. So even if let's say Russia takes Kiev, even if they install public government and, and most of the big cities are taken and all that good stuff right now, this, this conflict is going to still dissolve into a guerrilla war. Like it's going to be,

because I don't see the Ukrainians stop in the fight. I don't see it. I think it's, there's gonna have to be, there would have to be like a withdrawal. I mean, maybe, yeah, Russia can keep, you know, some of the separatist states, but like, you know, I don't think they're gonna let up, which is really unfortunate because,

I mean, if that's the case, then it would be very likely that Ukraine is going to become like a European version of Syria, which is really sad, really sad. That's interesting. Yeah, it's, I don't know. We've already seen footage and heard reports of Ukrainian special operations forces

or just individuals in the countryside blowing up tanks or driving around in cars, whipping Molotov cocktails at BTRs or BRDMs and just doing their thing because they're like, yeah, I'm doing my part. I'm just gonna go burn out this tank. You got that funny report of that Babushka throwing a pickle jar at a drone and destroying it. So it's like, I haven't heard this one. Yeah, it was in a, it was in Kiev, supposedly this is, you know,

this is rumored, but yeah, it was in Kiev and this old Ukrainian woman was like, I've had enough and like walked outside with a pickle jar, cucumber jar, and just whipped it at a drone and took it out. She's like, yeah. And then there was another one. There was another one. I want to say it was in Harkov, where this Russian BTR was just sitting on the side of the road.

And supposedly there was like 16 guys in it. She walked up with a Molotov cocktail and just threw it at it. And the whole thing lit up just like right on the gate. It was insane. And it was like, yeah, this, this 87 year old woman who remembers the Soviet union's doing this. I don't think the Ukrainians are going to quit anytime soon.

And Zelensky is a folk legend now. You could say whatever you want about him a month and a half ago, but right now that guy is, he's a hero for the Russian or the Ukrainians. You know, you made it in terms of an international icon. If the president of France is copying your drip, bro, if Macron is out here trying to copy your look, bro, then you know.

Oh, he's just looking to get reelected. Come on. That's fair. He's to defeat Marine Le Pen again. That's fair. Hey, but seriously though, another thing I want to mention, I think, I think Russia in terms of strategy, and I kind of touched on this briefly at the beginning, they're going, it seems like they're going to start taking more of a scorched earth policy towards the war. And it's going to make the human,

the toll of the civilian casualties so high. It's gonna be horrific, man. I mean, I think that in terms of the zeitgeist and the average person talking about this conflict, if the Russians successfully surround Kiev and they whenever they do if they if they end up doing it, initiate a full assault, like when that really kicks off, that's going to be that's going to be something that's gonna be really bad, man, in my opinion. It's good because if the Russians do what they did to Grozny during the Chechen Wars, which they seem to be, you see

glimmers of it in Mariupol and in Kharkiv. Um, it, it's going to be, it's going to be really horrific and it's just going to be really sad, man. Yeah, it's true. It's, you know, your Russia could say they've blessed off these humanitarian corridors all day, but I talked to Kyrsten info a lot I've had three or four or five interviews with them, and we are helping the Ukrainian people, but they just pump in their own ethnic Russians from Crimea or wherever in Russia. They put them in Kyrgyzstan. They're like, yeah, they're handing out humanitarian supplies and bandages and the locals are turning in their weapons to make sure the city is safe. And they're like, no, these are all Russians. The narrative is completely false. So, yeah.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. The civilian toll, which is who are always caught in the middle of any war are just, the numbers are gonna keep soaring. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that. Now, let me ask you, what do you make of this internal purge that's going on? In Russia? Yeah. What do you make of this internal purge that's going on?

In Russia? Yeah. It seems that Putin is attempting to get ahead of some attempted coup, not saying that it's likely, but he's obviously trying to keep everything airtight over there and make sure that he's always the big guy, which he's done very successfully since he's been in power. But I think that that's something that I thought about

is that what are the chances that there is some, there is some coup from the leadership and they- But you had, let's just use Turkey's president Erdogan as an example, where there was a supposed coup inside Turkey. And he just rounded up all the suspected sympathizers who were essentially just people who were vocal over his administration and sent them to jail. And so if you have 150 members of the Russian government coming out day one saying, we don't like this war, you have 150 political prisoners

that are gonna be in jail soon. So if they're the ones who have any remote sense of power in Russia, and if Putin's like, yeah, let's just get rid of them. Like he's already arresting some of the FSB guys. Why can't he do it? And who are the chief of police? Like that's your Stasi, that's your number one guys. What's stopping him from just going after political individuals who he put in power in the 90s?

So yeah, and that's another thing is like, you know, Tom, I am his, his, his, his seeming, like Putin's like how he, he couldn't, he couldn't see what was going to happen if he made you crazy. It's just so, it's just so odd when you think about it because this is a guy like, yeah, he's the president in all, and he's supposedly democratic, whatever. But he came up in that system. He came up during the Cold War.

He was in the KGB. He knows the game. You know what I mean? Like, he's not like somebody that got elected into the government and he has to then learn how to navigate the intelligence side of the government. No, he understands it fully. And if he understood that,

and especially knowing how much corruption there was in the 90s in Russia, I just don't see don't see I mean, I can see but it's just it's mind boggling to think that he didn't he didn't have a total he didn't have his he didn't have a his finger on the pulse of what was really going on in terms of his military. Like, if the Russian if those in like, you know, in like middle admin position in the military, where, you know, constantly skimming off, you know, the budget to like go and like, I don't know, go to the club in like St. Petersburg or whatever, you know, whatever it was, if that's been happening for so long, and to especially to the point where it's deteriorated the Russian military

and their their effectiveness, and if Putin didn't see that, that's that's very, it's very interesting to me. I think that's very mind-boggling. He also has a lot of political power too. Remember a few years ago when he walked into Parliament and said, I'm going to rewrite the Constitution. Can you guys leave for a little bit? They were like, yeah, I'll be right back. Everyone just broke for recess for 24 hours.

He rewrote the Constitution that presidential elections are now six years long instead of four, and he can run indefinitely. They're like, all right, yeah, you guys can come back inside. And so the entirety of the government went, yeah, I can bless off on this. And so I don't know if you have ever read anything about his mentor from St. Petersburg, but Anatoly Sobchak was the his mentor in St. Petersburg when he left East Germany. And this guy, he wrote a book and it essentially says like, if you want to run Russia after the Soviet Union collapses, this is how you do it. And so it's like, Putin took that and ran with it and he was like, yeah,

you just need to have the right friends. And the KGB owns everything. And you got to work with the Vory and the mafia because they own everything inside Russia. They are the ones who seize all the all the assets of the Soviet Union collapse. Now they're the oligarchs today running around with, you know, $7.6 billion because so it's Putin has a lot of political weights. And I think if he comes out and is arresting his top guys, and if that rumor is true that he fired his number one general because the war was going so bad five or six days in, which I haven't heard anything else

since. But yeah, it's like, what are you going to tell this guy? No, if the reports are true that 80% of the Russian population support this war, it could go either way, because I don't think he's announced a successor. and there's nobody like method of from 2008. He didn't really do it. So yeah. And that's another thing, man, is that that's the big question is what happens when, when Putin's gone, because he is held, he's held this country together for a long time. He's always been, he's always been a big man. And he is he's he. And look, I'm, I'm, this is not trying to praise Putin, because I'm not trying to do that at all. But if you really think about it, for a long time, he has done a lot of good things for Russia, I think I think that, you know, for what

he took over, you know, in the 90ss and what he ended up doing in Russia, I think he did a pretty good job. I think that a lot of Russians, they grew up with him as having them. He's always been a leader. He's always been the person to look up to. He's always held the country together. That's the question is whenever he's gone, however it happens, you know, whether it's old age or something else.

What happens when he's gone? You know, like, is it is it going to be total chaos? Is it going to be a lot of internal conflict and a power grab for multiple different people who already have power? You know, it's just going to be very, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens when he's gone. It could go the way after Stalin left. And so he left and then the Soviet Union had their own little internal turmoil. And then who succeeded Stalin? Hold on. Hey, give me one second. Yeah. Yeah. That's something interesting. Because the next guy showed up.

God, one second. What was his name? Nope. Why, why can't I think of this? Crucifix, yeah, Crucifix, the hero from Stalingrad came up. He's like, yeah, nobody liked Putin or nobody liked Stalin. And let's be honest. And then that really ruffled a lot of feathers with the deep state, but

everyone's like, yeah, I can see that he really wasn't a good guy. And he had these things called purges that were not really nice. So maybe it could go that way. But how many generals do you know that are publicized in the Russian army? Because as Americans, everyone's like, yeah, I know General McChrystal.

I know Mad Dog Mattis, but I don't know of any Russian officers outside of Dorad's mob who could be even considered a worthy successor. Yeah, that is true. That is true. And it is also odd. I think that, well, actually, I don't think it's odd. I would say that it would make sense if Putin has behind closed

doors made it known who he would want to take the reins whenever he's gone. I would think that would make a lot of sense actually, just, you know, he doesn't obviously it's not been made public yet. But it's a, it will be quite the thing whenever he moves on. And, you know, yeah, it's a... I think that's a big question for a lot of Russians as well, because, you know, they don't want any instability in their country. I mean, a lot of them remember what happened in the 90s in the Soviet Union and how crazy it was and the uncertainty. It's just like how it is in Ukraine. You'll just get

propped up by one of the mafia families. And they're like, yeah, we need someone we can control. Putin was a little unorthodox. So I just want to say that this is already the longest podcast I've had so far. And I've genuinely had a good time. It's more laid back, not so much question and answer, but conversation is nice. I'm glad you had a good time. I did too. This has been a lot of fun. I hope those listening ended up enjoying our conversation.

Yeah. We'll have to do it again sometime. Yeah. I'll hit you up once this is over. And then we can plan a follow up. So maybe like a regular thing. But there's definitely some topics I want to address here soon. And then essentially build out the crow tone report because it grew legs. So I have to keep building. So. Yeah, man. You got, I was looking at that.

I mean, how long has your page been around? Since it's, I started in July, but I really didn't get serious until mid to late October. Oh, okay. Well, very impressive, man. You definitely, you definitely have done a lot of good work and you've grown, I mean, and your audience is definitely a reflection of

the quality of your work, man. Seriously props to you. Oh, thanks so much. And I'm really glad to see that your second page is doing better than your first. And even though about the same amount of time too. And I'm sure that Atlas sponsor is 100% helping. Yeah, I think it is. For some reason, I do think that my name, for some reason, probably turns some people off. I thought it would be kind of like a cool neutral name where certain people would see it and they're like, oh, even if they're left like, yeah, you know, the filthy American, that's kind of interesting because Americans really are kind of despised sometimes in the global society. And then people on the right would be like, Oh yeah,

filth American like that or something like that. But I don't know. Huh? Yeah. I have immediate. I mean it for sure. For sure. I just get a lot of people asking me if I'm Croatian. I'm like, no, I wasn't going to ask that. Yeah. That's not Croatian. It's a, so Croatoan like a little history lesson, I guess, was from the lost colony at Jamestown in when the English, the English first settlement in the new world was propped up in the North Carolina coast. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So Rolto Raleigh went away for a little bit and he came back after like a year and went, hold on, where the hell is my, where's my colony. And so there was only one indication of anything that happened and it was a single word cropped into a tree that said crow towing. So, and my idea, it's the meeting point between new world and old world which is like mainstream media, and the little guys like us, or it can mean everything and nothing at the same time. It's ambiguous, which is on one hand, I could look at it and go, yeah, I can talk about whatever I want, because I could say I'm information and that could range from, you know, how to get a 405 squad to what is Putin thinking? So it's, yeah, yeah, that's a that's really, that's, I didn't

realize that, man. But that's a, that's pretty, pretty realize that man, but that's a that's pretty, pretty, a pretty clever name. I like that. Yeah, there's not a lot of pages running around with that name. And I thought it's like, I need something original. And like, like, yeah, I know exactly who this is with some context and history behind it. So I thought it was cool. But all right, I am going to let you go. It has been a pleasure having you and yeah that was a great being here I hope you enjoy this one would you mind if I plug my my page real quick oh yeah absolutely yeah so if anybody's interested in uh following what I my work and my uh everything that I'm doing right now uh Instagram uh Instagram account it's you guys to type it in exactly because I am shadow ban currently. It's the filthy American 2.0 is all one word. And then I am posting longer or publishing

actually longer form articles on the Atlas News app website. So if you guys are inclined to check that out, it'd be really cool. He also has a podcast with our worst today called militant muck rickers, which is, which is a pretty good listen if, uh, if he has some time. I enjoyed it myself. Yep. Yep. I'm also over there. Hey, listen, it's been a real, it's been a good time. And I was like, this is a great conversation. We really got into a lot of things and I appreciate you having me on.

Seriously. Absolutely. Thanks for coming out. You take it easy. Yep. Cheers. Cheers.