Shaun Newman Podcast - #928 - Alex Krainer

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Alex Krainer is a Monaco-based market analyst, author, trader, and former hedge fund manager with over 25 years of experience in financial markets, starting in 1996. Born and raised in the socialist regime of former Yugoslavia under communist rule, he brings a unique perspective to his work on global economics, geopolitics, and investment strategies. He founded Krainer Analytics and has written multiple books: Mastering Uncertainty in Commodities Trading, The Grand Deception, and The Killing of William Browder. We discuss Trump, different systems of trade and the idea that the answer to the problem is really simple. Freedom of expression on campus study link:https://aristotlefoundation.org/study/freedom-of-expression-on-campus-a-survey-of-students-perceptions-of-free-speech-at-canadian-universities/Tickets for the Prairie Rising Forum:https://prairierisingforum.ca/To watch the Full Cornerstone Forum: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastGet your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: [e-mail] Money SummitWebsite: ExpatMoneySummit.com

This is Viva Fry. I'm Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Tom Lomago. This is Chuck Pradnik. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is J.P. Sears. Hi, this is Frank Paredi.

This is Tammy Peterson. This is Danielle Smith. This is James Lindsay. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Thursday. How's everybody doing today? Well, the price of gold and silver is going up.

And when it comes to precious metals, Look no further than Silver Gold Bull. They have a wide variety of the best value. Silver and gold for every budget. Simply text or email Graham down in the show notes for details. Of course, he can answer any questions you may have around buying, selling, storing, or using your retirement accounts to invest in precious metals. You can go to silvergoldbull.ca.orgia or dot com.

And on any purchases, just make sure to reference the Sean Newman podcast. Guardian plumbing and heating, these guys have been keeping homes, farms, and businesses running smoothly since 2010. And for all you farmers out there, Guardian's efficient grain dryers and Guardian power stations aren't just available here. They're available all across Canada. The power station is an absolute game changer, giving you two-for-one utilities, heat and electricity from the same reliable system.

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You can get a hold of them. 780842-3433. Talk to Shane Stafford. It doesn't come much higher than Mr. Stafford. He is an absolute beauty, and he'll get all your problems solved. I'm quite certain. And this weekend coming up is the expat. Money Summit. It's free to attend.

And if you care about your liberty and the right to control your own future, you'll enjoy the group that McKell Thorpe is putting together, of course. That is October 10th to 12th. So that is this weekend. McKell Thorpe hosted the Expat Money Show and was a speaker at the first Cornerstone Forum here in Lloyd Minster. He's bringing together top experts from around the world for the Expat Money Online Summit, and it's completely free to attend. I'll say that again. It's free to attend. You learn how to legally protect your wealth, secure, second residences and citizenships, reduce your tax burden and home property abroad,

all to safeguard your freedom. And this year's focus is in Latin America, whether you're looking for an exit plan now or want to secure your offshore plan B as political insurance, this event is an absolute essential for you to attend. And it's all down on the show notes, but go to expatmoneysummit.com to get your free ticket now. Some events coming up, October 14th. So that is next week.

The Health Charter Tour is in town. world's greatest health show, Sean Buckley, at the Legacy Center 7 p.m. October 18th, you only get a couple days here. October 12th is your final day to get your tickets for the Prairie Rising Forum in Regina. That's also down on the show notes. That is going to be bringing in Martin Armstrong and Tom Marazo, who is just on the podcast, Tiana Truth Seeker, Wayne Peters, Bryce Wade. I'm missing a whole bunch of names, but you get the point. I'm going to be there as the host for it. So the prairie rising forum, October 18th and Regina, get your tickets before October 12th. October 25th and 26th, Rod Giltack is in town on the 25th. He's going to be at

Prophet River's Customer Appreciation Day. And then October 26th, we're shooting guns with Rod Gilta Chuck Pradnick and Jamie Sinclair at the Lloyd Minster and District Fishing Game Association Indoor Range. So if you're interested in that, shoot me a text. Profit River is going to be supplying the ammo. It's going to be 20 bucks to anyone wanting to attend. It's going to go from one to four o'clock, so three hours. It should be an interesting day and hopefully a lot of fun. Quick Dick McDick is live November 22nd in Lashburn. All the funds for that are going to the Lashburn Elementary School for the fundraiser building a new playground. December 20th, the SMP Christmas party for the fourth year in a row. We're bringing back, I guess it's fourth year. It's gone on, but for the second year in a row,

We're bringing back the dueling pianos. So if you're interested in the table, I've got a couple left. We'd love to have you there. And that's going to be December 20th. The mash spiel, January 17th in Kalmar at the Kalmar Curling Club. There's less than 16 teams available. I know we've sold a couple now. So if you're interested in getting involved in that community event,

that is the mashup at the, well, the Mash Spiel, Curling Bon Spiel, that is. Calmar just west of the Emmington Airport. I would love to have you there. And as Alex is going to talk about at the start of this thing, the Cornerstone Forum returns March 28th at the Westing Calgary Airport, and we'll have tickets going on sale soon. And I guess I can say it. Alex Criner is going to be, is the first speaker announced.

He's going to be back in Canada, March 28th in Calgary. Pay attention, mark your calendars down for when that's coming. If you haven't subscribed to Substack, please do. It's free to subscribe. to you get the week in review every Sunday and uh that just breaks down you know the guests that have been on the podcast in a nice quick little video you can become a paid member to support what I do and it helps uh you know well offset some costs on this side for sure and then you get some behind the scenes of i don't know the new studio or some thoughts we were talking to the 10th man this

week and i'm always curious your thoughts on that if you're watching or listening on spotify apple youtube rumble x make sure to subscribe make sure to leave a review make sure to share friend. All right, let's get on to that tale of the tape. Today's guest is a former hedge fund manager, author and contributing editor at Zero Hedge. I'm talking about Alex Craneer. So buckle up. Here we go. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Alex Craneer. Alex, great to have you back on. Good to join you, Sean. Always, always great to be on your podcast. And warm greetings from Monaco to all your viewers and listeners in Canada, which I look forward to visiting again in March.

March 28th, the Cornerstone Forum returns. And I guess I can announce Alex Krener will be in attendance. I wouldn't miss it for the world. My favorite event of the year. Well, I tell you what, this year is going to be interesting because we decided on a new venue. I don't know if I told you that, Alex. We did it at the Winsport last year. And this year we're going to be at the Weston Conference Center and Hotel right beside the Calgary Airport.

So we're making, yeah, we're, we're, what is it? You know, when we looked at the, the two different venues for where we wanted to go, one of the things that, I don't know how many people know about, but, you know, stressing over getting Alex and others from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel to the, to the venue and everything, that's, it weird on my mind. And with the wind sport, or sorry, the Weston this time around. they got 24-7 shuttle service from the airport. It's like a three-minute drive.

So you can get off your plane. We don't have to worry about an Uber or getting you picked up or anything. It's like you hop on the shuttle and you're right at the hotel. And once you're at the hotel, everything's there. I have to say, I was also concerned about heating because that sporting arena, it was cold in May. I thought in March, gosh, I think I need to come with my ski boots. Well, I tell you what, we're going to make it comfortable for you, Alex.

You're not going to have to worry about that this time around. No, no, but honestly, you know, there's also the thing of like, if it's warm months, I can come over with my carry on, right? If you need to pack a warm coat and boots and wool socks and all this, then maybe I need to check in the luggage. And then the whole trip is a bit more, yeah, you know, I don't want to sound like a prima don't know, but West is a prima don't know. We get it, Alex. You're a bit of a prima don't. We get it.

We get it. Either way, we're looking out for not only yourself, but myself and all the speakers that are coming this year. But yes, March 28th in Calgary, Alberta at the Weston. And tickets will be going on sale shortly. But I was telling you before we started, I threw my back out. And I've been talking about it on the opening ad reads. And people have been texting me some funny stuff. You know, because I'm like, is this 40?

Like, is this what happens at 40? Like you're doing a garden project for the wife. And, you know, I'm inching closer to being done. And then, you know, it was six in the morning. If somebody was driving by Alex, they would have been laughing because I'm like, sitting there and I'm shoveling. They're probably going, man, that guy's getting an early start. And then if you would have drove by five minutes later, I was laid out in the lawn.

And I'm like, that didn't feel good. And I'm just like, what do I do now? So I'm like trying to get myself up. And I'm sure I walk back in the house looking hobbled and like something. seriously gone on, which it did. And Mel was like, you okay? I'm like, no, don't think so. Don't think so at all. I think I'm going to sit down for a second. I had to have my nine-year-old and Mel finished shoveling it out before she went to work and the kids went off to school. So it was a sad day. And that has set me back this week, sitting in this chair. As soon as I get

up, I start walking like an old man again. So that has been, that has been an interesting experience to have. Because, you know, I've never had any back problems before. Like, this wasn't anything that I saw coming. And it's funny. It's like the algorithms new. They probably heard me talking because now all I get is like, what is it? Robaxis said or whatever those commercials are. Everything talking about back pain.

I'm like, uh-huh. Okay. Get out of here. I'm not, I'm not dealing with all this stuff. So it's been a new chapter on this side. Well, it's life, but it'll get better. 100%. Well, that isn't what we're here to talk about today.

Let's start with Trump. Okay. I am curious your thoughts. I was very pro-Trump because he had talked about ending wars. Like we're going to get out of all these different things. And I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm seeing, you know, I'm curious what your thoughts are. You're sitting over in Europe.

You're looking at these things going on. You're seeing the different posts that Trump does and what he has and has not done. What are your thoughts on the U.S., Trump, World War III? Yeah, I think that we're at some kind of an inflection point where things could go seriously right or seriously wrong. And Trump himself, you know, full disclosure, I haven't been a fan at all for many, many years, you know. Probably some 30 years ago somebody talked me into reading his art of the deal. they were like oh you have to read this book I learned more so good yes but from the business courses and so on and I thought what a joke I did read the book

you know it's like three hours that I'll never get back in my life but you know like the book is like okay so I've been I've been a commodity trader for you know my adult life my my business career and the book would be if I maybe chose my top 10 trades in life and then I wrote about those trades and presented myself as like, what a genius trader am I. And so I thought, what a joke. And I, you know, I didn't leave a good impression on me. And then I also remember 2013 when Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown. Trump went out and made some really tasteless statements about that, not him getting killed, but how when Gaddafi was in New York for UN session, I guess, he needed to pitch his tent, right? And so Trump rented him

the land in somewhere that he owns, I guess Central Park or something, I don't know, and completely screwed him over, like charged him an extortion. at price. I thought that's really shitty and low class. So that has been my, let's say, the way I looked at Trump until he got elected president. And well, now he's the president of the United States. He's the choice of the American people and you have to respect that. If not the man, then the office. And, you know, looking bad, looking over his first term and the first, whatever, 10 months of his second term, I am supportive of Trump. You know, I see that, well, I have to put this into context because it's very important, you know,

this is not just this policy move and then that policy move, you know, like it's not random stuff. It's all going somewhere. And so you basically have the choice between two systems of governance, both in the economic sense and in the political sense. So in the political sense, you have the Western oligarchic, neocolonialist imperialistic. I don't know how to put it in one package, system of global. governance, which is always beholden to the money-lending oligarchies in the city of London on Wall Street and other satellites, which are all over the place, Tokyo, Paris, Stockholm, Berlin, not Berlin, Frankfurt, and so forth. And this is the system of governance that has given

us climate change, LGBT, pandemic, forever wars everywhere, you know, because they are always looking to take control of colonies, right? They treat other nations, particularly resource-rich nations as colonies. It's not like in the 18th century that they, you know, come in with the military and take it over, or they installed their viceroys, as the British did in the 19th century. It's more like we install puppet governance that then do as we do as we. tell them like Vladimir Zelensky in Ukraine, like Boris Yeltsin in Russia during the 1990s and so forth. And so now there's pressure to overthrow Maduro in Venezuela and install somebody else.

You know, this is the neo-colonialist system of governance where you're constantly in conflict with other nations and you're constantly at war. And then from the economic standpoint, it's the choice, again, between the British system of free trade, which is same thing with this neo-colonialist approach to governance. And the other choice is the American system of political economy, as, you know, formulated by the German economist Friedrich Kleist, but as practiced by the United States since independence, you know, under Alexander Hamilton and so forth. And this system has made the United States the most prosperous country in the world in the 18th century.

It's also been applied in Germany in the second half of the 19th century, and it is what has created the absolutely spectacular German economic mirror, which then necessitated World War I because the British couldn't tolerate arrival on the continent. So they orchestrated World War I to destroy Germany, which they did successfully. And then the same system of governance, the same economic system of governance has been applied in China, which has turned China into, from the poorest country in the world, actually, in the 1970s to an economic superpower. with the world's largest economy on purchasing power parity basis. And so what is the difference?

The difference between the British system of free trade is that you basically, you're constantly depressing the prices of commodities and the prices of labor. You're turning every country that you rule into a, you're impoverishing them deliberately. You open every market. to unrestricted free trade and imports from anywhere.

So there's always this race to the bottom. You know, the only people who are competitive are the ones who will work for nothing at slave labor wages and the people who will underpriced their rivals. The American system of political economy, by contrast, uses domestically produced resources at home. It seeks to build up advanced infrastructure, it seeks to industrial donation, it seeks to create high-paying jobs for the local

population, and basically lift the whole society towards higher levels of prosperity and standards of living. And to do that, you have to fence off your markets from cheap imports. Because, you know, like if I want to produce a widget in my country, and by the time I paid all the bills, my widget costs $10 to produce. And to be profitable, I need to sell it for $11. And then widgets from China arrive, and they cost $5 a piece. I have no chance, right?

I'm done. I'm finished. So in order for me to be able to build a business, and to create production of my widgets and pay my people and pay my suppliers and everybody, the government has to come in and impose tariffs on imported widgets so that they wouldn't cost less than the production cost domestically. And that allows me, that gives me a, let's say, maneuvering space to develop my business, on my own domestic markets. Well, you know, that's going to make me prosperous, right?

It's going to also allow me to employ people and give them good salaries, right? It's going to allow me to buy materials and contract out domestically with... So it kind of lifts the whole economy. And so long answer full circle. I see that this is what Trump is doing. he's going with these tariffs because this is his objective. And, you know, in doing so, he goes straight into the conflict with the moneylender classes in London and on Wall Street. And so, this is what he's deliberately chosen to do.

And I have it from first-hand testimonial from one Susan Cocaine. who is a very active member of the Republican Party in Michigan. And she told me that she was at this event in Chicago, which was during his presidential campaign in 2024. It wasn't a campaign rally with thousands of people. It was a smaller event for the party members. And during this event, Susan Kokinda told me that he invited the people,

the people who are present there, he said, like, I'm inviting you to join me in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, the, the world money lender classes. And so that would be, you know, like, that would be a very random thing to say if you didn't actually mean it and you didn't think it through. So, you know, in all this, it seems to me, and, you know, like, the, the, the choice between two systems of governance is exclusive. You either, you either choose one or you choose the other. you can be halfway. You know, it's kind of like you can't be a little bit pregnant. You're either on one side of the divide or you're on the other side of divide. I think that Trump has definitely and deliberately chosen to be on the side of the, well, the American system of political economy and to end the post-World War II global order in which the United States, was the financial and military enforcement arm of the Western Empire,

which is why everybody pretty much thinks that it's an American Empire, but it isn't really. America is just, the United States has just been co-opted to serve as the Global Cup, you know, enforcement of the empire's dictat. But the empire in reality is really a thing of the very narrow set of vested interests, which are mostly European and American money-landing oligarchies. You know, the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Morgan's, Fairchilds. I don't know all the names, but there's a, there's a limited set of names.

It's a small club. and they are they're pretty much in a in a it's a it's a feudal it's a feudal type organization where somebody is the sovereign and the other ones are the vassals but they all work together um on this same colonialists on these same colonialist projects and so i basically i um i think that if trump manages to advance his agenda uh that that the world will be in a better shape. And so in that sense, I do support Trump, even though I see that a lot of the situation looks like a mess. Like it almost looks hopeless. But as they say, you know, it's darkest before dawn. And I think that because you cannot choose halfway between these two systems of governance,

There's necessarily going to be a conflict. There's going to be maybe a civil war. Because the people who have been the most privileged and most prosperous members of the American system in the post-World War II period are the ones who have benefited the most from the imperialistic system, from the British free trade system.

And now they're being challenged and their privileges are being jeopardized. So they're going to push back. They're going to fight Trump. They're going to use the media to demonize him. You know, the siops are very, very clever. They're very sophisticated. And they're trying to turn everybody against Trump.

And I think they're, you know, they've been reasonably successful at that. And Trump has probably helped them himself by being a brute, by being like a moron. about the way he communicates. And so all of this has come to a head now, you know, and some kind of a conflict is taking shape, not just in the United States. It's affecting us all, you know. It's going to impact Canada.

It's going to, these other battlegrounds are going to open up in Europe, in this conflict. But, you know, the whole very long answer, is because it's extremely important to understand the context in which all of these events are happening. So it's not just one policy measure randomly after another because, you know, somebody pushed Trump's buttons and then he said like, oh, well, I guess we're going to be doing this. There's a, there's a context that's very important to keep in mind to try to understand whether Trump is actually trying to accomplish something. something and I think that he is. And I absolutely think he deserves full credit for picking up the phone and calling up Vladimir Putin because that took us like a light year from the precipice of World War II.

Because these other, the globalists, the city of London, Wall Street, these European money lending oligarchies, they're absolutely desperate to escalate the war on Russia to World War III level. And Trump has said, thank you, no, I'm not interested. I'm not going to be doing this. And he called a Vladimir Putin. And so far they had, I think, at least nine long, substantive telephone conversations. And they've appointed more than one team to be regularly in contact with each other so that they can talk to each other. Because that's extremely important to avoid accidental escalation to war. So I think in that sense, I feel cautiously optimistic about where things are going,

but we have to remember that Trump is a man. He could be killed. You know, he could be assassinated or he could be overthrown somehow, you know, or we don't know what might happen. So we'll have the full measure of the man, I think, at the end of his term. Then we'll know. but I would say so far so good. He's only been in office about 10 months now.

So not a very long time to tackle a system that's gotten entrenched for 80 years, you know, since World War II at the very least. So obviously it's going to be messy. But I'm let's say I'm not pessimistic about things that are happening. You think we're running closer to world? well no world war three you know and how that breaks out it feels like there's a lot of different areas in the world right now that are close i think that at this point it would take a very very convincing false flag attack to get world war three going trump is not on board he's not

interested and without the United States you know the Russians could wipe their boots with the European powers they you know that that could be a very quick job basically Russians are not interested into invading Europe but if World War III broke out I think they would dump a whole bunch of their hypersonic missiles on NATO military bases in Europe on their ballistic missile defense installations in Romania and Poland, on the major decision-making centers, Germany, Brussels, London and so forth. Not, I mean wiping out the cities themselves, but, you know, dropping an Oreshnik on British military of the British Ministry of the MOD, Ministry of Defense, MI6 headquarters, MI5 headquarters, some of their air bases and naval bases.

So I think that you wouldn't get a whole lot of World War III out of European members of NATO alliance without the United States on board. and Trump isn't interested in participating in another European war. So to get Trump to join, you'd have to do like in World War I and World War II, you'd have to conduct a very convincing false flag attack. You know, World War I couldn't happen. You know, that is, the United States wouldn't join World War I until the Lusitania, right? Right? Because before 2014, before 1914, 90% of all Americans were like, we're not interested in a European war. And Woodrow Wilson promised that he would not get the United States involved in a European war.

And then boom, Lucidania, a lot of media hype, propaganda. And next thing you know, the Americans are going in. Same thing with the same thing with World War II. it took Pearl Harbor and then again they do the propaganda and the mass formation psychosis mass formation psychosis

building up the hype and then the United States again joins the war that they didn't want to join they didn't intend to join the American people were not interested but you know these people know how to engineer these things and put them together And so at this stage, we have the same situation.

You know, the Europeans are desperate for World War III. That is, not the Europeans, like me, like ordinary person on the street. The oligarchies that are actually in charge, they're desperate for World War III. And they know that they stand no chance unless the United States is on board as well. So what do they have to do? They have to stage again some kind of a major. false flag attack and then try to again do the whole mass formation psychosis propaganda hype and all of it to get everybody on board and to exert so much pressure on

Trump and his government that they would not be able to keep out you know they were like oh look at what the Russians are doing to us you can't just stand back and watch them destroy us, you have to come and help us. And of course, you know, Trump could tell them, no, you know, go pound sand. But the media, the Congress, the, you know, the pressure would be unbearable. So we could get again the Lucitania effect, the Pearl Harbor effect. What kind of a false flag attack could happen? I don't know, but it would have to be something quite spectacular. And, you know, I've been for about a year now, I've been wondering if they're not going to blow up like a nuke

or a dirty or a dirty bomb in London. And the reason why I suspect that is because last September, so more than a year ago now, all of the webcams in London went dark, all at once. And then they've remained dark to this day. I don't know. Last time I checked maybe about two weeks ago. and they were still dark. Why? You know, why would one of the world's major metropolis is,

yeah, one of the world's major cities, all of a sudden some 200 plus webcams go offline all at the same time and they're dark. Why? I can't explain it and there is no explanation. You know, Sadie Khan, the mayor, didn't give a coherent explanation of why did all the webcams go dark all of a sudden. And I think that the reason is because, you know, they don't want there to be any footage of whatever happens. Because, you know, like 9-11 happened. There was a whole, all kinds of footage about that that doesn't make sense and that in the aftermath, you know, people say like, well, I have questions about this. I don't, I don't quite buy the official narrative. Same thing with the same thing in London, except, you know, maybe to avoid

this in the first place, they switched all the webcams off. And it's not all of them, all of them. I think there's one or two that are still active. One of them is on Abbey Road, you know. So when I say all of them are dark, somebody will inevitably come back and say, like, oh, look, you know, you can see the Abbey Road right there. But I think that something like 260 or so are dark. And so then, you know, then we could find ourselves in World War III, but it's not going to, I don't know if that can be done anymore, you know, because one thing that didn't exist in the times of Lucitania and Pearl Harbor is the Internet. We didn't have the Internet. And so people were caught of guard completely. And when those things happen, all the information they got about it was from the newspapers and from

radio, right? And so the people who were orchestrating the war had full control over the narrative. And so it was much easier to engineer that consent for war and the willingness for men to enlist and go and fight in Europe. I think now in the age of social, media and the internet and YouTube and Rumble and all of these platforms, it's much, much more difficult, especially because they, we had that COVID pandemic in 2020. And I think that a lot of people have a lot of questions about that one. And so whatever the ruling establishments do next, people are going to be very cautious. And they're going to say, like, well, gee, you know, that's convenient, isn't it? I'm not buying.

it. So, you know, maybe I don't know if, you know, if you stage mass formation psychosis event five years ago, I don't know if you could stage it again and be successful with it. Do you remember 2020? We were, you know, most people were, had no idea what was coming their way. and most people were still under the illusion that, you know, our public health authorities are actually concerned about public health. And that the expert class were actually trying to improve the situation and make things better. And then when they unrolled the treatments, that that would be a legit, you know, treatment that would help us and so on. And then all of this kind of fell apart. So if you try a spectacular false flag event today, for whatever reason, I think it's not going to be as effective as they hope that it will be.

So I think to my mind, the odds of us going into World War III are probably less than 50%. I wonder if there isn't more setting of the table they need to do. The reason I put it that way is, you know, here in Canada, you got Bill C8 coming in. Well, I shouldn't say coming in. They're trying to get it in, which could remove people off the internet, off of telecoms, right? So you think, well, who's that going to be? Well, it's trying to control the narrative, right? It's trying to limit discussions like these.

And now whether I'm the guy on the sites for that bill or it's somebody else, else much larger than me. I have no thoughts that, you know, it's me. I just think it's people in this group of, you know, podcasts and talking about certain things. And if they get that through and then they start to, you know, remove certain things over the course of what is it going to be months, years to where they have a bit more control of the narrative, then they get back in a position where the table can be set where they could do something and they've limited the information that's coming out. I don't know how impossible or probable, I guess, maybe that idea is because I haven't really thought it fully through when it comes to, you know, trying to control a narrative again.

Because right now, after COVID, you're right. Like the narrative gets confused when you have so many people opening up discussions around. It doesn't matter. Take your pick of any of the big events over the course of the last couple of years, Donald Trump being shot, Charlie Kirk being shot, those two specifically, or anytime anything happens over in Russia and Ukraine, the amount of discussion you can find is, well, there's a ton of it. And it all makes us sit and pause and go, wait a second, it doesn't all add up. I'm not saying it's all nefarious, but at the same time there's questions to be asked. And right now, they don't have control of that.

And here in Canada, they're certainly trying to put things in place that would give them more control of what is being talked about on the airwaves. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And this is why, you know, in case of Israel, for example, you know, they felt compelled to buy TikTok because they were losing the battle for the control of the narrative. And I think that I don't know if they can put that genie back in the bottle,

you know, because once you've seen something, once you've lost your illusions about Israel, you're not going to get it back because somebody is going to give you these contrived snippets and soundbites. They're going to try to make you feel warm and fuzzy about Israel.

Same thing with Ukraine. And I think same thing with the governments of places like the United Kingdom and Germany and France, everybody hates them. And you're not going to turn that around whatever you think you can control. And also, you know, I think there's something about genuine dissent versus control. You know, because you're like take control of some platform. and you seed it with your own army of bots. They just seed these, they spread these sound bites and these memes,

but they're never genuine. And if you react, they don't respond because they don't give a shit. They're just like copy pasting and pushing stuff out. And they don't, you know, on the other. other side you have people who hold genuine convictions and they kind of advocate them passionately and that comes across as real and genuine whereas the other side it feels very very hollow and weak and i think that this is part of why they're losing even though they've been doing everything they could to you know take control of google and youtube and facebook and

and TikTok and everywhere, I think they still end up losing, and I think that they will continue to lose. Maybe it will take, maybe they'll have to scrap the internet altogether and put us back on, you know, on the ration of TV news and newspapers. Because, yeah, it's, it's, they're not,

I don't see that, I don't see that they're going to be able to turn this situation around at all. And so when you see what happened to the pandemic, to the new normal, even if you look longer term, what happened to their projects for the new American century, you know, that's more than 20 years old now. And it was kind of like a nicely packaged up version of the Walfowicz, Walfourwitz doctrine. They were supposed to run the world.

They were supposed to have this full spectrum. dominance over everyone and, you know, bludgeon any Apity nation back into submission and and keep control over everything in the world. Well, you know, look around. How well is that going? They got their asses kicked out of Afghanistan by the Taliban. They had to beg the Yemenis, the Ansarala in Yemen, for a truce because they couldn't subdue them. And then you have Iran there with hypersonic missiles. You have Russia with hypersonic missiles. You have China with hypersonic missiles.

And none of the Western militaries have them. And none of the Western militaries have any means of defending against hypersonic missiles. Which pretty much amounts to a strategic defeat, basically. So all you're left with is trash talk. trash talk and make-believe. You know, like, oh, we're going to, we're going to take Venezuela. We're going to take down Maduro, the damn drug smuggler. Well, let's see. I wouldn't bet my money against Maduro at all. And I wouldn't bet my money for the U.S. Navy taking down Maduro. Curious your thoughts on

We've been having this discussion I guess all week But it's been going on and off You know the civil war idea You know like whether that is you know It is probable And then if it were probable Where it would kick off

And my brain continually goes to the UK I just Lots of different reasons I keep pointing to the size of the country The population density And the fact that you know There seems to be a ton of civil unrest Now, obviously, I'm not sitting in the UK, so I'm sitting over here and I'm watching and listening to a bunch of different commentators talk about it.

Do you think that's a reasonable conclusion to draw that if it was going to kick off, it would be in the UK? Or do you see other spots where you're like, oh, you've got to be paying attention to this country because this country is on the verge of it as well? I would say France, maybe. I think France has a richer heritage of revolutions and beheadings of people they don't like, you know, and French are much more prone to protesting and to demonstrating. And I think that in the UK, you haven't had really a revolution or a civil war since, was it since Oliver Cromwell's days? And you have this royal family there.

You have the whole, you know, pomp and circumstance with the royal institutions as some. some kind of a guarantor of stability and continuity, that I think a lot of British people still respect and revere and wouldn't dare overthrow. You know, it's just like not even anywhere on their mind. And then also I think that the British establishment has been preparing itself for the social revolts.

And I think that this is the reason why they imported so many illegal immigrants and you can see what they're trying to do with it. They're trying to pit the indigenous population against the immigrants. And then if you got major conflicts between the two sides, then that would give the government the pretext to crack down really hard and to possibly introduce lockdowns again, perfuse, pen people, to 15-minute cities, you know, all for our own security.

They're, you know, they're obviously already rolling out the digital IDs, you know, for the whole population, and they're pushing very hard to try to convince everybody to consent to digital IDs. And then after digital IDs, probably is going to be CBDCs, the the central bank digital currency and they're probably going to still try with their 15-minute city so that nobody can go anywhere that everybody is penned into their respective feudal landlord village and i think that the preparations for a violent and decisive crackdown are been taken much more seriously in in the uk france is all over the place it seems to be that French government, Emmanuel Macron, has been so very obsessed with Ukraine, that he's

practically neglected administering France. And he's losing a government after government. The last one lasted 27 days. And so I think it would be much more difficult for Macron to crack down on French protests. And there's no king. There's no king. There's no. no royal institutions. There's no reverence for any such institutional government. So I would say that revolution might be more likely in France than in the UK, even though the social revolt is maybe boiling much hotter in the UK at this moment. How about Germany? Just to curious your thoughts, you know, like the AFD has had seven members die since August.

You know, I think it was a period of, Aaron, let's see, from late August to early September, they had seven AFD candidates, four primary and three reserves, you know,

heart attacks and different things. Yeah. Does that even raise a red, like I say, like I know I'm sitting here. I'm like, well, that's not curious at all.

Do you think, well, I don't know, do you hear any rumblings from Germans or from anyone over there like, well, this isn't strange at all anymore? From some, but not many, actually, no. I don't know why, but Germans are, well, actually, maybe we have this in common with the Germans, because Croatians are the same. they're very reluctant to rock the boat. You know, it's a very conformist society where, you know, people keep to themselves, they do their thing and they don't like to raise a fuss about anything much. And, you know, Germans have been aggressively brainwashed with all this war guilt over World War I and World War II, even though they absolutely do not deserve it.

And I think when it comes to politics, they like to keep away. And then the German Secret Service and the courts and the police are all working in cahoots very aggressively to stomp out dissent. And one of the groups that has been at the receiving end, that very right, receiving end of that repression has been exactly the IFD. So, you know, I think about the time in 2021 when, I think it was in February maybe 21, when Olaf Schultz was in Washington, D.C., standing next to Joe Biden. and Joe Biden was saying like, oh yeah, if the Russians attack Ukraine,

we're going to blow up the North Stream pipelines. They didn't say blow up, but they said like, those pipelines are finished. There's not going to be North Stream anymore. And, you know, the journalist would ask like, but how could you possibly do this? This is a German, this is a German project under German control. And Joe Biden said, like, I promise you we'll be able to do that.

Olaf Schultz was standing right next to him. This was an absolutely vital piece of industrial infrastructure for Germany that Angela Merkel went to Moscow in 2015 to beg Putin to build that pipeline and to double the amount of gas that they were delivering to Germany because they needed it for their industrial development, right? And so here you have the German prime minister, sorry, chancellor of Germany, standing right next to the American president

who's telling them that we're going to blow up your pipeline if Russia attacks Ukraine. And he didn't say a word. And when he was given a chance, when he was asked, they were like, oh, well, you know, we do everything together. We're allies and we do everything together. The United States and Germany, we're like, you know, like that.

To this day, you can't really talk about Nord Stream pipelines in Germany. It's a taboo subject. That's how, you know, that's how unwilling the Germans are to actually tackle controversial subjects and to raise their voices. and to say this is bullshit enough of this, we're not taking this anymore. The same social pressures are building in Germany, but I think that the German people are still mostly swallowing them. And yeah, the farmers protested, and the farmers might protest again.

But the ordinary Germans, definitely less than the French. Well, it's interesting to me to hear of different countries, taboo subjects, right? Every country seems to have them where you're not really allowed to, there's very uncomfortable to go into certain topics. And your Nord Stream pipeline, you know, that delivering gas to your industry being blown up is interesting from a Florida, because, you know, like, obviously I don't have any problem talking about it. And I, and you know, and yet the closer you get to the actual situation, yeah, they're not really that interested. They're a little bit nervous to talk about.

That's interesting to me because we're finding out, I think, the more I talk to different people from all over the place, that there's taboo subjects that are very difficult to bring up because of social implications. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we all have this problem, but there comes a moment where, you know, the glass. overflows and you know the history is the history teaches us that you can't you know you can't oppress people infinitely without getting some kind of an effect and usually when people finally revolt it's it's the is the people who win and the governments that end up losing or at the very least they have to they have to radically soften their stance they have to make nice with the people that's a

it's a very optimistic look at where we're heading you know when you talk about global or digital ID CBDC um different control mechanisms you know here in can the bill C8 where they're trying to take away um a lot of the personal autonomy and centralize it and then push the um societal pressures down on those control mechanisms yeah but you know our our Our ruling oligarchies are not the first generation that had the fantasy of total control. This happens every generation practically, but they never succeed. And the fact that there are these digital tools and technologies that might help them control us, that's not really a game changer. In one way it is, in the other way it also helps us fight back.

But, you know, I think that the farthest they ever got to realizing total control was probably Soviet Union. And Soviet Union had its day. You know, it lasted 70 years and no longer. And even in Soviet Union with time, where you went from a very harsh tyranny, it all kind of over time softened and dissipated to, more or less normal life. The same was the case in former Yugoslavia where I grew up, you know, so in the 40s and the 50s, it was a very, you know, hardline government, very repressive. And then by the 1970s and 1980s when I was growing up, I can tell you, I felt a lot freer living there than I ever did living in the United States. States, you know, the land of the free. Because, you know, people are not made for slavery. And every system that attempts to enslave people will eventually be cracked apart. It's not going

to hold. And, you know, it needs people to make it work. And even people who are staffing the police and the courts and the, you know, the prisons and so forth, there's still people. And they don't, you know, like they don't wake up thinking like, how can I, how can ensure that, you know, our government is safe and that we can stomp out or all the same. They wake up and they think how they're going to make love to their wives, how they're going to invite their friend over to for barbecue over the weekend, where they're going to go for vacation. That's what they think about.

And they can see that the people they're meant to brutalize are just like them. So, you know, after the, you know, after the, maybe initial period of zealous support for the government, for the revolution, for whatever it is, people lose the zeal and everything kind of goes back to the old normal. It still doesn't mean you don't get decades of... Yeah, that's right. It doesn't. But, you know, if we allow ourselves to sleepwalk into a digital gulag, if we accept the CBDCs, if we accept the digital IDs, if we accept lockdowns, 15-minute cities, social distancing, if we accept to wear masks and carry vaccine passports, well then, you know, that's the equivalent of taking our children by the hands and leading them into slavery.

And then, you know, it could be a generation or two or three of crap life that we will give to our kids if we just go with the convenience and the ease and, oh, let's not rock the boat. Let's just go get along to get along and shit like that. No, I think we absolutely have to push back. And if we do, they fail. I think the only way for us. us to fail is if we just surrender and give up. That's probably, yeah, I agree with you out. You know, like you have to draw your line in the sand and go, you're just not going to go past here. Yeah. That's that. That's what each and every one of us has to do. And we have to get smart. We really have to get smart. We have to pay attention. We have to read. We have to listen. We have to share what we know. because one of the ways in which they're successful is by keeping us down.

And you can see that they are absolutely desperate to keep us dumb, to keep us misinformed, uneducated, semi-illiterate, and so forth. So I think that the best way we can fight them is to try to get as smart as we can and try to understand as much as we can about what they're doing, what they're up to, how they do what they do, and what their agenda is. And then they have a really hard thought about what our agenda should be. You know, how do we really want to live?

What would a better life be? Or how would we want our children to live their lives and their children? And then just demand that and push in that direction. That's what we have to do. This place is our birthright. You know, we don't, we're not here by the courtesy of the government and by their indulgence. We don't have to ask for the right of free speech. We just have to use it.

We just have to use what we feel is our birthright. That's it. Claim it by using it. You know, that thought, that's an interesting thought. So much of day-to-day, it feels like, is on the defensive. It's on trying to defend instead of, I guess, offensive, which is like, actually, this is where I'm going to live and I'm going to do this and this. When you talk about, like, creating the world you want to be in, I assume you've given that some thought of the world you actually want to be in. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yes, yes, I have. I have. And it's not complicated. You know, we all want to be prosperous. We all want to have high standard of life. We all want to feel secure in our homes, secure in the cities of our, in the streets of our cities. We all want our children to be, to have rich lives full of varied content and, you know, sports activities and play and adventure. and feel that they're safe and secure, whatever they do,

nice places like theaters, libraries, restaurants that serve delicious food that's affordable, right? It's not complicated, really. I agree. But it's funny, we put more focus on the defensive than actually just going out and doing what we want to do. and where we want to go. Focus on what, I'm sorry?

We put more focus on defending, on like trying to undo or stop what they're trying to do instead of just going and leading the way. Like point, no, that's where we're going. All this other stuff, no, I'm not interested in that. And a lot of that has to do with just yourself. And, you know, I go back to lots of conversations

I've had with you and Tom, where it's like, build your community you want. Just build it. And then when the storm comes, you have the strong community and the convenience just because no we're not interested in that. And there is a lot of confidence, power in just being able to say no, we're not interested in that and just keep moving on. Correct. Alex, appreciate you.

You give me some time today. And look forward to having you in Calgary, March 28th. Yeah, me too. Can't wait. Look forward to a few more conversations, I'm sure, between here and there. and we'll try and get you and Tom scheduled back in together. Because, you know, the last one was Tom and Murray and now you solo. And I'm sure there's going to be some people that are hoping for Tom and Alex.

And we'll make sure we get that on the docket sooner than later. But either way, thanks for giving me some time today. And look forward to March. Yeah, excellent. Thank you for the invite, Sean. And until the next time soon.