The Ben Mulroney Show - A techies insight into Venezuela incursion/Freeland playing both sides of the board?

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube --... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at mike.drolet@corusent.com Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Is now really the right time to make the change? Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Is our tax research tool actually leaving us? Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Why does my team keep turning to search engine? With BlueJ, you can help your firm stay ahead
Starting point is 00:00:34 by giving your team a tax research tool they'll actually want to use. Get better answers to tough questions. BlueJ, AI for tax experts. Rooney Show, are you ready to go? All conversation, no cancellation, all across the nation. Well, thank you very much for that fine intro. This is the Ben Mulroney Show, all conversation, no cancellations, all across the nation.
Starting point is 00:01:28 and thank you so much for joining us today on day two of this new adventure across the country. We are live in most of the country right now, speaking to as many Canadians as we possibly can. And my intrepid producer, Mike Jolet, is here. Well done with that intro, my friend. I warming my voice up all day for that. Because I just felt I felt I had to give it my all.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Now you did great. That's a great way to get up. I'm not going to lie to the people at home today. I guess, I don't know what it was, but new schedule, I've been tired all day. I've been tired all day. The two things that got me ready for the show, that music and a breakfast burrito that I just had,
Starting point is 00:02:05 shout out to the lazy barista across the street. But it's not a breakfast burrito anymore? It's always a breakfast burrito. Breakfast burritos are great burritos. I think if we're socially acceptable, I'd have breakfast three meals a day. Three meals a day. I guess you could do whatever you want.
Starting point is 00:02:20 I can. I'm an adult. I can have cereal. Just like Jerry Seinfeld, I can eat children's cereal all day long. and I can order off the kids' menu of room service anytime I want, and I don't care. Just because the chicken nuggets are shaped like dinosaurs
Starting point is 00:02:35 doesn't mean an adult can't enjoy them. Dino nuggets, baby. That's all I got to say about that. Yeah. All right, well, listen, we start the show with a little bit of levity because, of course, we've got to move into some pretty serious conversation. And it's the story that's dominating the news cycle around the world. And, of course, we're talking about what happened over the weekend in Venezuela.
Starting point is 00:02:56 And one of the great things about doing our show at the time we do is we can leverage the great conversations that our colleagues here at our Toronto Radio Station, 640 Toronto, have been having all day long. And we can look back at the conversations they had and bring them to you during the Ben Mulroney show. And my colleague, new to the radio station as a full-time host with No BS with Brad Smith. Brad Smith was speaking with Astrid Villarro. She's a Venezuelan Canadian. And it's important to always remember that these big stories have human implications. This woman is Venezuelan Canadian. Here's what she said about what's happened over the weekend.
Starting point is 00:03:36 The first reaction was happiness, to be honest with you. Obviously, after so many years, 26 years, fighting for this, we were so happy to see justice, right? And the second reaction is anxiety, of course, because you don't know what's coming next, right? Yeah, the anxiety. We don't know what's coming next. And what we did see yesterday was the swearing in of the new president, Delci Rodriguez. And she was the right hand of Nicholas Maduro, right? She was there for all of it. And you'll remember over the weekend, she was pretty flagrant in her rebuffing of American imperialism and the kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro. And we will fight back. And then all of a sudden, she sort of struck a more conciliatory tone. I think it had something to do with her realizing that Donald Trump had said if she doesn't fall in line and help us get this country back on track
Starting point is 00:04:30 a fate worse than Maduro's will befall her and you know it's easy to be the number two when the number one is taking the shots and Maduro has a lot of a lot of flaws but he had the confidence to be able to say the things he did and do the things he did but a number two, a great number two does not make a great number one and she may just be, does that make sense?
Starting point is 00:04:52 Yeah, great number two does not necessarily make a great number one. And just because she worked well as his number two, given worked well, I'm due that in air quotes because relative, doesn't mean that she has the confidence to be a number one, which I think is exactly what Donald Trump wants. Yes, he prefers a number two over a number one. Oh my God, that's not where I was going, dude.
Starting point is 00:05:14 I'm saying he prefers the VP over the former president. That's what I was saying. I apologize to new listeners and viewers. of the Ben Mulroney show, that sort of, that sort of humor is not where I'm going with this show. He'll get a talking to during the next commercial break.
Starting point is 00:05:32 A lashing. Yeah, a lashing, if you will. But right now, there's sort of a, there's a back and forth between those who think that having this woman, Delsey Rodriguez, in this position, makes sense
Starting point is 00:05:46 because she knows where all the bodies are buried, right? Literally. I mean, in a lot of cases, though some people think she knows where they are because she helped put them there. And she can always add and put more in there. On that one side, you've got that on one side and on the other side, you've got the allies of
Starting point is 00:06:02 Maria Correa Machado who is the duly elected winner of the last election who is in hiding. She won the Nobel Peace Prize. She was feted as the person who should be leading Venezuela back into the light and instead she is in hiding, waiting for her chance
Starting point is 00:06:20 to return. Here's what she said to, I believe, Fox News about Delci Rodriguez, and is she, in fact, fit to lead this transition to democracy? Delci Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, Narto trafficking. She's the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be, you know, trusted by international investors. And she's really rejected that repudiated by the Venezuelan people. So we move forward.
Starting point is 00:06:56 And as you mentioned, and we won an election by a landlide under fraudulent conditions in free and fair elections, we will win with over 90% of the votes. I have no doubt about it. Yeah. And look, I don't doubt that she is a force. I mean, in those elections
Starting point is 00:07:16 where she was, I'm sure, scared for her life, she had the confidence to go in there and present an alternate vision. for the country and despite the sort of having the wind in her face and having fighting against the authoritarian regime
Starting point is 00:07:30 that had no problem putting their thumb on the scale everybody knew she won that election and she did so in a way like a lot of people would have run away from that fight and she didn't she deserves credit for it. However is she the right person today
Starting point is 00:07:45 what I think is happening is I think Donald Trump has probably told this woman look we've got you dead to rights. You are as guilty as Nicholas Maduro. But we need you and your team because you know how this country operates. We will be lenient on you. Watch what we do to Maduro. We are going to throw the GD book at that guy. And keep that in mind if you do not give us what we want here, which is free and fair elections, and we need to de Chavez and de Bolivar this government and this country. But we can't do it without the people who baked the cake in the first place. So keep an eye on
Starting point is 00:08:21 Maduro, because that could happen to you or worse. Or you could play ball with us, help us get you out of the mess that you started, and you may, may have a chance to live out the end of your days as a free citizen in Venezuela. In Venezuela. In Venezuela. You will not have to live in exile. Well, actually, but I don't know if they would be able to live in Venezuela. Like, but people have long memories.
Starting point is 00:08:43 But doesn't matter. But the point is, you would be alive and you'd be alive to taste freedom again. And honestly, as they watch. this play out with Maduro and they think this could be me, that's pretty compelling to get these people to play ball. Right? Yeah. And especially considering
Starting point is 00:09:01 this, he was, you can't forget that Maduro was staying in the middle of a fortress. Yeah. The biggest in the largest military complex in Venezuela. And as we'll learn later through our tech Oh yeah. Guys, we've got a story for you coming up a little bit later. Carmi Levy
Starting point is 00:09:17 for those of you who are new to the show is our tech expert. And we put the question to him, talk to us about the tech implications of this incursion into Venezuela. And what he came back with is going to floor, our jaws were on the floor in terms of how what the cyber aspect of modern warfare represented in this case. And would they have been able to pull this off in the way that they did without that wing, without that investment in cyber? And of course, we're then going to ask the question, is the Canadian government asking those questions? as they rebuild our military. They need to rebuild it for the 21st century and beyond, right?
Starting point is 00:09:57 And so these are questions. I hope they're paying attention to the Ben Mulroney show. God knows the liberal government does not come on this show, but you're always invited, always invited. So yes, we're going to hear from another Venezuelan expat very soon during the show. But first, coming up, all right, Christia Freeland. She's done something that the left, the right, and all points in between are concerned about. Why are we paying for tax tools?
Starting point is 00:10:34 Is now really the right time to make the change? Why are we paying for tax tools, our team doesn't even use? Is our tax research tool actually even is? Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Why does my team keep turning to search engines? With Blue Jay, you can help you. your firm, stay ahead by giving your team a tax research tool they'll actually want
Starting point is 00:10:55 to use. Get better answers to tough questions. BlueJ AI for tax experts. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us. We're talking about Christia Freeland. The Christia Freeland Chronicles as we're calling it because we were
Starting point is 00:11:13 a little taken aback a couple of days ago when it was announced by the president of Ukraine that he had hired, he said, I have hired or I have appointed Christia Freeland as the, an advisor on the reconstruction of my country. Now, a lot of us found that interesting for a number of reasons. One, she's a sitting member of parliament.
Starting point is 00:11:37 Two, she had already accepted a job as with the Rhodes Scholarship in the UK where she said she was going to live. She also had a job as, as the, as an advisor to the, for the Canadian government. like an envoy to Ukraine. So this was a really weird decision and choice, especially because she's still a sitting member of parliament. I was always saying, I said, look, I get that you need to know where you're going to land before you jump,
Starting point is 00:12:09 right? Before you retire from something, you should probably have a few things lined up. But to announce all of them while you're still collecting a paycheck, that on its face is problematic. But when you throw in the fact, some of the facts that we are going to lay out for you here, it becomes more than problematic. It becomes a real issue that could, and I say could, warrant an investigation.
Starting point is 00:12:33 There is a cooling off period for MPs, especially the closer you are to the proximity to power, the more important it is to have a cooling off period because there's this implication that if you're close to the decision makers, if you're one of the power brokers, you need to distance yourself from the time you were in power to the time. that you are in you are trying to influence power and here's what lisa rate former cabinet minister former member of the former member of the conservative government said uh she said on the vashy capillow show she said she's got three different things at play she's got a code of conduct as a member of parliament she has obligations as sitting parliamentary secretary she also has obligations as a former
Starting point is 00:13:09 cabinet minister before anybody starts screaming at me saying this this is because you're both conservatives and if this were conservative doing this uh you'd have no problem with it the former leader of the NDP, Tom Mulcair, was equally gobsmacked by this, I mean, this odd behavior, this lapse, I think, in judgment. Former MPs, certain other public office holders, and that includes ministers and parliamentary secretaries, they're subject to a two-year cooling off period under the lobbying act before they can lobby federally. During this period, they can't communicate in any attempt to influence federal public office holders on behalf of a third third party in relation to government decisions.
Starting point is 00:13:52 We're talking about grants, contracts, contributions, regulations, or legislation. Let's go back to our friend Brad Smith's show, and he had former MP Kevin Vong on to talk about this cooling off period. As a former MP, we actually have, we're required within the lobbying act. So by law,
Starting point is 00:14:11 to have a five-year cooling-off period from lobbying. But her job is literally going to be a law. As a dumb-dum, though, Kevin, the five-year cooling off period. period. Yeah. So, you know, after, while you're a member apartment, you're, you're what they call a designated public office holder. But basically what that means is, you know, you're in a privileged role that comes with certain responsibilities and duties. And once you leave that role, the reality is people know that we still know people within the system. You know, you're supposed to have five
Starting point is 00:14:43 years of a cooling off. And yet, she's going to jump right into a role. to lobby on behalf of Ukraine? Yeah, so I don't know if that five years is accurate. It might be less than that. But the point is the point is made, right? You still know people that you can call. And at one point, now the former minister, Christia Freeland said she will be resigning in the next few weeks.
Starting point is 00:15:12 And she also said she's resigned the post that she had originally taken in the Canadian government to essentially be an envoy to Ukraine. Now she says she's going to be working for the Ukrainian government. There's so much at play here when you put that in the context of this cooling off period. She's essentially gone from being the seller to the buyer, right? She's gone from one side of the equation to the other immediately. She says she's not taking a salary.
Starting point is 00:15:38 But she not only went, she didn't go immediately. She went before she left the other job. Yeah, yeah. She had them both for a moment. She was the seller and the buyer. In other words, I don't care if it's for one second, one day. If you're in conflict for even one second, you're in conflict. And you owe people an explanation.
Starting point is 00:15:57 And the explanation that's been given, sadly, is not enough. It is not enough. Christia Freeland has built a wonderful and proud reputation as a staunch defender of Ukraine, which is, you know, her family comes from there. And this goes all the way back to her early days in the House of Commons in 2015. Let's listen to her standing up for Ukraine way back. in 2015. The formal trade deal between Europe and Ukraine goes into force at the beginning of 2016. But the EU actually understands Ukraine's pivotal role and has therefore preemptively
Starting point is 00:16:29 and unilaterally lifted tariffs for Ukrainian companies. In contrast, despite much rhetoric about Ukraine, Canada has held back. Why doesn't the prime minister do as much for Ukraine on trade right now? Now, here's what sucks. I used to hear stuff like that. from her, and it filled me with pride. I loved that she was laser-focused and was very, very adept at making the case for our ally, Ukraine, as a representative for in Canada. However, unfortunately, because of what she's done now, because of the choices that she's made, she's opened the door to asking questions about her motivation.
Starting point is 00:17:11 I mean, think about it. She is now taking a position as somebody who's advising on the reconstruction. I'm sure billions of dollars are going to be at play in the reconstructive, not hundreds of billions of dollars at play in the reconstruction of Ukraine. She is a special advisor in that role. She is still a sitting MP. She knows everybody in cabinet, including the prime minister. If I'm not mistaken, they have almost a family relationship.
Starting point is 00:17:38 Isn't he the godfather or one of her kids? Something like that, yeah. I think something like that. So she's got his cell phone number. and she says she's not taking a salary. I'm sorry, not good enough. And given how opaque this is, we all have to put our cynical caps on and say,
Starting point is 00:17:53 okay, well, you said you're not taking a salary, but you didn't, that's not necessarily the full answer. Are you taking some other form of compensation? Like you did, I'm sorry, because you've done this and you've literally in a hot minute switch sides to the buyer side, Canada could be the seller. and you know everybody who's the seller. Do you see, this is not right.
Starting point is 00:18:20 This does not look good. Heck, you could even go even farther and say, this position looks like a gift for something you might have done for them in the past that we don't know about. And again, I'm saying this as somebody who, I went to law school, didn't learn a lot in law school, I'm sorry, learned a lot, didn't remember a lot.
Starting point is 00:18:41 But one of the things I remember, as I said before the break, the appearance of propriety is as important as propriety itself. If people don't trust that the system is above board, then it doesn't matter if you get to the right conclusion. They will not believe that the process that you followed was right. And this sort of shenanigans and a cavalier playing around with the rules, one rule for thee, one rule for me, doesn't sit right with people and it makes them doubt the system. And because of that, we have to ask questions about how we got to this part.
Starting point is 00:19:16 What did you know and when did you know it? That's this, this is, this, this is a self-inflicted wound on an honorable member of parliament who has, I believe, she's made some decisions I am not happy with. But I do believe she's been governed, she's been governed by, by her beliefs. And I would, if I, if I ever, I have met her before, I have find her to be a wonderfully charming woman. This is a boneheaded decision that she has to answer for. And we want to put this to you coming up after the break. We take your calls, Canada. Is this a tempest in a teapot?
Starting point is 00:19:52 Is Freeland okay because Ukraine is an ally? Or is this a problem requiring a real investigation? Welcome back to the Ben Mauritia. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of your day with this. We're in a new time slot, which means we can open up the conversation to even more people across the country. And the lines are open for 16-8-8-0-60400 or 1-3-8-2-25 talk. That second number, 1-3-8-2-25 talk, is really especially if you live in all parts beyond Toronto. We don't want you a pain.
Starting point is 00:20:40 We don't want to pay in for long distance when you give us a call. But we're talking about Christia Freeland and we're talking about has she put herself in a pickle where we have to ask some questions about her that we otherwise would not have had to ask had she followed the protocols in place when pivoting from a public service job as high up as she was to servicing the interests of another country. She did not wait at all, in fact, for a moment, still today, occupying both of those spaces simultaneously.
Starting point is 00:21:08 So let's start with Bobby. How do you do, my friend? Welcome to the show. Ben, thanks for taking the call. And congratulations on your new spot. I'm genuinely happy for you. I wish you the best of luck. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What do you think of this? I think this is a big, smelly, stinky bag of corruption, Ben. You want to know what questions I have? The question I have is, why for the reconstruction of Ukraine, with the of billions of dollars that you cited, and all the work that has to go into advising the leaders of that country, and all the brilliant economic minds in the world, why is a failed journalist, master of Russian literature, going to be responsible for providing insights on the purse of a foreign country? Well, can I, can I add to that? I mean, it's a good question, assuming that you hold that view of Christia Freeland. But the way I see it, she has been at the center of global power, as it really, she's, she's met everybody in Washington, she's met everybody in Europe, she knows everybody in business because she's been, she was part of the free trade renegotiations. She knows everybody.
Starting point is 00:22:23 She is a super connector. She knows everybody and she knows Ukraine and she's, she is well versed in all of that. But that's one of the problems here, Bobby, is one of her superpowers is her proximity to power. And the fact that she has ignored, at least it looks like she's ignored, this cooling off period, speaks to a problem of perception. Would you not agree? Absolutely. And we add one more highlight to her resume. Very, let me put on my tinfoil hat for a minute, Ben.
Starting point is 00:22:55 She's a very high-ranking member of the World Economic Forum. She's a globalist. She's corrupt. Just like most liberal city members of parliament, she has no morals. she has no ethics she doesn't respect the rule of law and absolutely nothing and I mean nothing is going to be done to her
Starting point is 00:23:13 she's not going to be held accountable okay and I think again's got to give their heads a shake and really think about the people that they've invested with the power of their land because I will tell you once they come into power Ben it's very very hard to get out
Starting point is 00:23:29 Bobby I gotta let you go you're going on a Ben Mulroney style rant and I appreciate it thank you very much my friend friend. Look, let's all remember that Bev Oda, formerly of the conservative government, got kicked out of cabinet because of a, what, $13 or $14 glass of orange juice, all right? Like, that happened. That actually happened. It was front page news that this woman on a business trip paid for, used her stipend to get room service. And despite her paying what it cost, that was a bridge too far for people. She lost her job.
Starting point is 00:24:05 job. So let's just remember, again, one rule for the one rule for me. Let's go to James. James, welcome to Ben Mulrini's show. Hi, Ben. How are you doing? Well, thanks. Longtime listener, first time caller. Well, thanks for calling in. So I was telling your screen that this is, the optics here is just flat out treason. You cannot, you know, these people are, are very well-versed in politics, more so than you and I, way more than me. They know what the rules can, what rule can be bent and what cannot, and the optics on this is very, very bad. So I almost see this conspirators as treason. This should be investigated to the highest point.
Starting point is 00:24:43 Yeah, so let me just pump the brakes for a second because, like, I don't have that information. I don't have it. But what I will concede to you is she, because of this flagrant ignorance of the rules that are put in place for a reason, she has opened up the. door to us asking these questions. And she's broken rules. Yeah, well, if I assault you, it's assault.
Starting point is 00:25:11 Now, whether, you know, whether I feel threatened or whatever the case may be, at the end of the day, that's assault. Yeah. So these rules are, you can't negate rules. You cannot, oh, you know, well, this is pro on the side. No, no, no. You know what can be bent and what cannot. If the rule is that you serve Canada's interest first and foremost, you can't take a job
Starting point is 00:25:28 or another country. See, that's what I don't get, man. I don't get how the PMO allowed. her to do this. Like she's still a member of the caucus, right? You can't just take a job and not something like this as important as this and not tell your boss, the prime minister. How the PMO let her get away with this makes no sense given the uproar by everybody left, right and all points in between. Hey, thanks so much for the call, my friend. I appreciate it. We got a lot of calls coming in. So let's go to Sarah. Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi. I don't think that this is a hard
Starting point is 00:26:01 answer. Canada's in the business of building building homes, right? So like, yeah, sure, she's not collecting from Ukraine, but she's a direct line to Brookfield. Well, look, listen, I've got to say prior to this last election, the words Brookfield never, I may be heard that once every six months. Now I hear it six times an hour. It's too much Brookfield in my life. There's too much Brookfield. But it's true. She has a direct line
Starting point is 00:26:30 to Karni and Karni like they are family you're correct he is he is one of her kids god fathers um there's there's a marriage family relation and and we're we're she's going to be collecting something and they're in the business of rebuilding right yeah like that's Canada is yeah but again like look and Sarah like all these points you bring up at this point all we are doing is speculating but the point is when you run a foul of the rules, you open the door to such speculation. Everything we're doing here, you and I didn't wake up yesterday and say, hey, let's start besmirching the reputation of Christia Freeland. That certainly wasn't on my vision board. I didn't put that on my
Starting point is 00:27:16 Pinterest board. But when I see stuff like this, my critical thinking kicks in. And I have to ask these questions. And so it's not on me. I look to others for the reason why we're doing it. Thank you very much for the call. What do we have? Let's go to Rob. Welcome to the show. Thanks for calling. Hey, Ben, Rob, the Angry Electrician.
Starting point is 00:27:35 Long time, no talk. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. All right, what do you think about all this? Well, so first off, I think we need to, like, stop all funds transfers to Ukraine. And the reason, I was telling your producer, like, CRA rules for me. If I take Ben Mulrooney out for a cup of coffee to discuss some business and I submit that expense, I have to specify. Ben Mulroney, Tim Horton's coffee, and the dollar amount, business development, or I get audited.
Starting point is 00:28:01 Is this your way of asking me out on a coffee date, my friend? Absolutely, man. I'd love to take you out and chaw the fat a little bit. Remenance about our great fathers. You know, it blows my mind how small-minded liberals actually are. They can't handle more than one narrative at any given time. They're too busy trading in. They're pro-Palestine flags for Moderno support flags.
Starting point is 00:28:25 And this is okay. Come on. Like, it stinks, man. It stinks really bad. Rob, I don't mean to cut you off, but I've got time for one more call. So I'm going to say goodbye to you. And I'm going to welcome Ted. Ted, welcome to the show.
Starting point is 00:28:37 Thank you very much. Our last call this segment. Okay, Ben, I listen to you a lot. It's great to talk to you. Well, thank you very much. I was telling the screener that I actually had Christopher Freeland serve me an ice cream phone on, on College Street. I was walking before the election.
Starting point is 00:28:52 Oh, yeah. And actually got to talk to her about, you know, a thank her for causing the government to fall and get rid of getting rid of Trudeau, but I wanted to bring up the point that he, she is in a paid position, that we taxpayers are paying her salary while she's in all these other positions, you know, like, and, and when I, when I heard that she was going to be giving financial advice or advice to Ukraine, it felt like, what did she do for Canada that was so extraordinary? Well, you know, financial advice.
Starting point is 00:29:20 Listen, you know, that is their solution. And those are, listen, that I could find somebody. come on and talk about all the great things Christia Freeland did. I would say how much time has she spent actually doing the job she was elected to do if she's out there getting all these other jobs? That would be a concern of mine. But Ted, thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:29:37 I hope the ice cream was very good. A chick walks by you. I wish you could sex. All right, welcome to the show. Come on. I mean, come on. That was good. Start to dance. But then you ate so much, you'll split your pants.
Starting point is 00:30:06 A girl starts walking, guys start gawking, sits down next to you and starts walking. That's a young MC, right? All right. Okay, welcome back to this show. You need to stop busting a move. I mean, so my brother, my brother Mark has incredible talents on so many fronts. and he's hyper successful and he's a great dad
Starting point is 00:30:27 and an incredible friend but paramount at the top of the pyramid of success in his life is his ability to learn every single hip hop song and all the lyrics and spit them
Starting point is 00:30:40 in front of a massive crowd like perfectly he's incredible incredible and also he's a banker he's like he's great a lot of stuff that's the thing he's the best at that's the thing he's the best at Welcome back to the show.
Starting point is 00:30:56 We promised yesterday when we started this that we were going to try to share the story of Venezuela what happened over the weekend and what's going to happen moving forward from as many angles as possible so that we could get this. This is such a complicated story and the only way to truly appreciate it
Starting point is 00:31:13 is to drill down in so many different places in the hopes of I don't know, zooming out and just seeing the whole picture, right? And one of the stories that we want to do is we want to look at this from a technological point of view. Because what the Americans did, the incursion and how they orchestrated getting in, getting Maduro and his wife and getting out, I mean, it was, they're going to be talking about this for years.
Starting point is 00:31:41 And we asked our tech expert, Carmi Levy, who normally comes on to talk about consumer tech and, you know, the latest Elon Musk invention. We asked him to take a look at this for us and tell us what he thought. And what he sent back to us, our jaws were on the floor. I believe the word is agog. Yeah, I think so. So let's welcome, Carmi, Levy, to the newest version of the Ben Mulrini. So, Carmi, welcome to the afternoon show.
Starting point is 00:32:07 Oh, so great to be with you. Perfect time for a nerdy chat, thank you. All right, so talk to me about, so we asked you. We said, tell us, tell us what happened from a technological point of view. How much were they relying on, you know, that next generation? tech that maybe the Americans are the only ones to have? I think the outcome of this operation, again, we can separate out the politics, right? Just looking at it through a strictly technological lens, the reason that there were no
Starting point is 00:32:35 American service people injuries or fatalities, we know that they were on the Venezuelan side, but the fact that all American people and all American vehicles, aircraft, all that came back in one piece, no damage, is remarkable because essentially what they did, got a hint of it during the initial press conference when both Donald Trump and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Kane, were speaking. You know, Donald Trump said that they had, it was dark. The lights in Caracas were dark and they were turned off due to, in his words, a certain expertise that we have. And then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs kind of went in and he kind of explained that they were, they used layering different effects provided by the Space Command and Cyber Command and other members. of the interagency force to create a pathway.
Starting point is 00:33:25 So essentially, and they didn't share any more details for obvious reasons. Wait, hold on. I want to just, I want to paint the picture for the audience. So, so essentially they helped chart the course through Caracas or whatever region they were in. And all these, like the, the guy in the chair to take the line from the Spider-Man movie, the smart guys in the room found a way to turn off all the power so that the chopper. could make their way in undetected?
Starting point is 00:33:54 That's pretty much it. So long before any of the aircraft, the helicopters, American personnel, long before they even got to their target, they had essentially ensured that the Venezuelan defenders were absolutely blind. This is sort of, it's reminding me of like back in the day when they had to clear minefields. They would just send in a whole bunch of animals first. And that's gross and terrible. But this is the cleaner, more technologically advanced version.
Starting point is 00:34:22 of that. Yeah, now you're using technology to give your enemy what's called the fog of war so that they don't know what's happening around them, they don't see what's coming at them and just as importantly, they can't make decisions about how to defend themselves. So if you're looking at some of the video
Starting point is 00:34:38 from that night, there was some anti-aircraft fire, but it was just being randomly shot into the sky. Similar to it almost reminded me of Operation Desert Storm where they knew there was something in the sky because they could hear it, but they certainly couldn't see it. Yeah. Because their radars were being jammed because the networks that they were
Starting point is 00:34:56 using to communicate with each other had been compromised long before the Americans even got it. Ah, so they didn't even know. And do you think they didn't, did they know they had a problem or or was, or was that, were they in the system and they were messing with it and the Venezuelas didn't even know? Yeah, all they knew was that, oh, my stuff doesn't work anymore. My, my, my radar screen is blank. When I send a, when I send a text message, uh, to my, you know, to the full in my command, I don't see that it's arriving and they're not answering, so I can't communicate. You know, if I'm trying to, you know, move a weapon somewhere or target a weapon, well, guess what? The GPS isn't working because that's been jammed, or in some cases, you know, I'm seeing an aircraft over there, but it's on the total of the
Starting point is 00:35:42 scope. Are you kidding? They've been using fake information to fake them out, so look east, not west. Wow. And one of the things that you wrote to us was analysts warned Venezuela could seek retaliation. with the help of Russia, China, and Iran, but can they? I mean, we're in this question mark of a moment where, yes, there is, in fact, a new leader at the top who was right next to the old leader, but my contention off the top of this show,
Starting point is 00:36:07 Karmie, was the Americans have told her, we need you because you know, you know how this garbage dump of regime works because you made it this way, you know, you lit the garbage dump on fire. We need you to help us put out the fire. But keep an eye on what's going on with Maduro in New York, because unless you help us, that will, that fate will befall you. So something tells me that she's going to fall in the line pretty quick. I don't know if she's going to be taking the calls from Russia, China, and Iran. She might not be, but Russia, China and Iran will still operate in their own death interest.
Starting point is 00:36:39 And if they think that this is an opportunity to get under Donald Trump's skin and use kind of like this sort of tacit, you know, subversive cyber war, you know, beneath the surface. poke around the edges of American infrastructure, find those vulnerabilities, which we know they have been doing for years. They are the world's largest sponsors, the state-sponsored cyber warfare, that this is an opportunity for them to up their game. So, you know, looking at sort of all the other cyber analysts around the world,
Starting point is 00:37:07 they've all been increasing their threat level analysis, saying regardless of what happens politically, the threat landscape has become that much more frightening in the past couple of days. You sort of have to make sure that we hunker down over the next little bit, because, yeah, those threats are going to come at us. Who in the world hold is supreme in cyber warfare? Because it sounds based on what we talked about today that the Americans know what they're doing.
Starting point is 00:37:30 Yeah, certainly the U.S. is going to be beating on its chest saying, you know, this is an example of our dominance in the cyberspace and sort of this sort of parallel using digital power to leverage actual military power. But, of course, you know, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, and those are sort of the four other sort of digital adversaries on planet Earth. they would beg to differ, and certainly they have been engaged in kind of a constant, you know, back-and-forth war with American and Western and European digital forces for years.
Starting point is 00:38:01 And this just gives, it opens up another chapter, and it's probably never going to end. It's, you know, it's sort of one of those things where you achieve actual power through digital power. And we've seen a significant increase in infrastructure-targeted attacks in the U.S. and elsewhere, even here in Canada, and we've got to have our eyes open because things just got even more scary. Well, Karmie, we thank you. We gave you a task, and boy, did you deliver. We look forward to talking to you again soon. My mind is trying to tell me something
Starting point is 00:38:50 With gripping new cases If it doesn't work, you'll kill him It will work They're gonna make you the fall guy for this I just don't want to fail any one ever again As her fight moves forward To recover what was lost You can't undo what was done
Starting point is 00:39:03 Just let it go, please, no And rebuild her life I'll do whatever it takes I'm here if you need me I know Doc returns Tuesday January 6th on global Stream on Stat TV

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.