The Duran Podcast - Q & A: Populism and the Deep State

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Q & A: Populism and the Deep State

All right, Alexander, let's answer the questions from the live stream with Robert Barnes. And let's begin with Nikos. This is a four-part question, Alexander. You've expressed that Putin is taking risks by indulging Trump. Now Trump has once again insulted Putin. Is there a danger of a Brezhnev-style coup? I say this because Medvedev's last speech felt like a... pre-election speech. Medvedev is a liberal who was at one time chosen by Biden to run Russia.

His term was Putin running thinks. I've always said that he is not the right person to govern Russia, but it seems now he is trying to take power. That's why I ask how plausible a coup is. Instability is not good for Russia. Putin needs this term to end the war and his next and final term to find a worthy successor that isn't Medvedev? There's absolutely no possibility of a coup in Russia at the present time. I mean, I think we can dismiss that possibility entirely, certainly not at the moment. In fact, I'm going to say something. I think over the last two weeks or so, things have been going very much Russia's way,

and I was recently in St. Petersburg and the overwhelming sentiment that I got the sense of there was that there's huge support of Putin pretty much in every section of Russian society. By the way, and for the record, I do not agree with the view that Medvedev was a liberal. When he was president, I argued and pushed back strongly against it. I think the medvedev we see now is the real medvedev. The problem was that some people in the West, back at that time, We're talking about 2008 and during the period after developed this idea of Medvedev, the liberal, based upon the fact that he wasn't Vladimir Putin. And it's absolutely correct that Obama and Biden, but it was basically Obama,

tried to play Putin and Medvedev off against each other. And it failed disastrously because Medvedev wouldn't play that game. He was very, very loyal to Putin himself. So I think I should say that. I mean, I've been following Medvedev for a very long time. I didn't think he was a liberal before he became president. I didn't think he was a liberal when he was president. And as we can see now, there's no sign of liberalism about him at all.

And absolutely, I do not think that speech, which I am sure was drafted and approved by Putin in advance, was a Medvedev bid for power. Put those ideas completely to one side. Matthew says, thoughts on Mertz staying, saying, thoughts on Mertz saying, no restrictions on long-range weapons. Has America even confirmed this? Will this cause a wider war? No, it hasn't confirmed this. And in fact, Matt has now, to some extent, walked this pack, because he's now said that this is a decision that was made long ago. And that must mean that he's now referring back to the decisions that the bond.

administration put, took back in November, when as we know, they did lift restrictions of the use of missiles by Britain, Germany, United States, everyone. So it's a good example of Mets and the Europeans pretending that Trump has agreed to things, which he clearly hasn't. From Nikos, a two-part question. Ukraine is hitting Russia with drones nonstop. Tucker Carlson said they are trying to do an atrocity in Moscow so that Russia reacts and drags the U.S. to the war. Now Trump will sell weapons to the EU, with Trump's insults, his willingness to sell weapons. Europe approving a $150 billion package for them and Ukraine.

This war is truly never ending. But we in the EU will suffer. Just look at Greece. Well, it is not a never-ending war. We are losing the war. And I think this is a key thing to understand. We are losing the war every single day, despite all of the weapons we have already supplied to Ukraine. There has never been any restrictions on sales of American weapons to Europe.

So the Europeans have always been in a position to buy weapons from the United States. And they have previously bought weapons from the United States, specifically artillery shells, to sell on or to supply to Ukraine. So there is absolutely nothing new here at all. Again, it's one of those announcements that it's endlessly repackaged to make it appear that there's something new going on. Now, at the end of the day, none of this is going to make the slightest difference. The war is not going to change its trajectory. The US intelligence community has admitted as much.

So, yes, they can buy weapons so the United States, they can provide them to Ukraine. They have a major budgetary crisis in Europe, right across Europe. It will make the situation for the people in the EU worse, exactly as you say, but it will not change the outcome of the war. It might prolong it a little, but only to Ukraine's detriment and that of Europe. Daniel asks, why did Turkey occupy Cyprus? This is a colossal topic. This is a huge, huge topic of one.

which I think we need to do a program about. Suffice to say that, of course, Cyprus before the 1870s was an Ottoman province. I mean, the Ottomans, the Turks, ruled Cyprus for hundreds of years. And it's a, again, a huge story. As a result, there was a section of the Cypriot community that spoke Turkish and speaks Turkish, and which were Muslim. And the British. And the British during the period of their rule, starting from the 1870s until the 1950s, played a usual classical imperialist game of divide and rule setting the two communities, the two parts of the Cypriot community, off against each other. And this culminated in a further political crisis in the early 1970s, in which the Greek government at that time, which was a NATO-backed military

dictatorship, by the way, just to say, played a significant role. Now, to go into this more deeply would take a very, very long time. But that was what set the scene for the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, which took place in 1974. From Sparky, always great to hear from my fellow southerner Robert Barnes, who is full of information and insight. Carlos Gasper, thanks for that super sticker. Tired looking for name says thanks for your work. And Zisi Karayannis, thank you for that super sticker. Enem, too, says, thanks, Barnes, you remain objective and able to criticize both sides and don't reward Hamas's human shield tactics. You're unlike Professor Sacks, to whom everything is a war crime and the two Alexes who only criticize Israel, not Hamas, Katzka.

I don't accept that we did criticize Hamas. In fact, I made it fairly clear that various times that I do criticize, we do criticize her mass, an awful lot. But about what you say about Robert, I would agree. Nico says, Mr. Barnes, I'm sorry, but Trump had to end the Ukraine war. He insulted Russians, and believe me, I've seen comments. They are furious with him today. I was in Russia.

I didn't get the sense that they were furious at all. In fact, the thing that really struck me, whilst I was was there was how very, very little anger over all the wars. I was surprised about it, actually, to the extent that they're angry with anybody. It tends to be with the British, and there is a certain sense of antagonism and anger and disappointment with the Germans as well. But about the United States, very little, and about Donald Trump, if anything, a recognition that he's trying to do what he can in incredibly difficult circumstances in the United States. So, that that was my own sense of it. I mean, and, you know, I spoke to quite a lot of people. I got a

fair sense of the sentiments there. I didn't get any sign of great anger on their part. Just saying. Andrew Piscad. Piscalo says, I'm thrilled to see my three favorite intel sources. Rich Beres, you're all amazing, and the daily updates helped me move families out of Sunni. Thank you for that. Real fraudulence says, seeing Brigitte slap macaron earlier Today, I've never been more proud of being a woman. Nikos, a two-part question. I want to talk about Romania and Simeon. I am very good recognizing someone's character.

It took me two interviews with Mario Nafal to see that Simeon is an Uber, pro-EU, pro-Nado, anti-Russian guy. If you'd give him the choice, Simeon would attack Russia. He just didn't want to take orders from the EU, but he agrees with them. Drogescu understood diplomacy and forgiveness. Simeon is full of hate. I have been saying this for a long time, that Simeon and Jorgheseco are profoundly different people with very, very different perspectives on many, many things.

I am not sure that Simeon is quite the person that you say. Bear in mind that he gave this interview at a time, you know, political crisis and personal crisis in terms of a presidential election which he was trying to win, and which she wasn't in the end able to win. But, you know, Seymion may have gone further in that interview than he actually thinks, I'm afraid politicians often do that, or at least weak politicians often do that. I don't think your guess could have done it.

But fundamentally, I tend to agree with you. I don't think Simeon is that different from the... the rest of the Romanian political class. And I think that was one of the reasons why he lost at the end of the day. I don't think he won over everybody who had previously been indicating that they would vote for Jorgiasco. Because they saw Simeon and they saw Simeon as somebody who is not really different from many of the other political leaders who have been in Romania and who've run Romania ever since the fall of Chachescu. Willem, thank you for that super sticker.

Michael Flyer says the sooner Trump understands he and Zelensky can't exist in the present. They are incompatible. Zelensky empowers a threat to Trump's mandate. Well, I would agree, actually. I think Zelensky is a major problem. And I think that it is long overdue for people in the West to actually somebody in the West to start talking about Zelensky honestly, and explaining to people what he really is. By the way, I think a lot of people would be receptive to that, including in Europe. I mean, people have seen quite a lot of Zelensky by now.

This constant attempt to prop him up and make him out to be some kind of, you know, great hero is just, I mean, it's ridiculous and it insults people's intelligence. It's very similar to what they were saying about the last president of the United States. You remember, it was dynamic, full of energy, incisive and all of those things, when, of course, we now know that he was nothing of the sort. And I do think he is ultimately a problem for Trump and for everybody else across the Western political system. Unfortunately, the forces that support Zelensky, because they are still committed to Project Ukraine are very, very powerful. And as Robert says, Trump simply can't ignore them.

From Andrew Kisodlowe, how about getting Rich Barris people's pundit on? The two Alexes are unbeatable in their robust intel breakdown, but have an information gap when it comes to Trump, to Trump world, American populism, no better source of accurate intel. Well, maybe, yes. We'll try. Okay. OMG Puppie says, is the Ukraine conflict a civil war between the Galatians and the Malo Rosu, Catholic versus Orthodox, on different sides in World War II?

I don't think it is quite as simple as that, but there are increasing numbers of people on the Russian side who are indeed saying it is a kind of civil war within the people who, make up, you know, the nation of Rus, if you like. So that theory does exist. And if you see Ukrainians and Russians, if you meet them in person, they're very, very similar. I won't say there's absolutely no difference, but they're very, very like each other. And in London, they, you know, until recently, at least, they mix together perfectly easily. from RKB. According to some reports, Trump does not attend or listen to the Daily Intelligence report from Tulsi Gabbard.

Where does he get his information then? Perhaps he listens to an astrologer like Mr. Reagan. This came, this story about Trump not attending to the Daily Brief goes back to his first administration, when in fact he did say that he wasn't particularly interested in listening to the intelligence community what they were telling him. simply because he knew perfectly well that they were behind the various attempts to remove him, which resulted in Russia gate and the political crisis that we all know. I haven't heard anything like that about this second term when he's got people in the intelligence community much more trustworthy as far as he's concerned than was the case previously.

And it must be very, very careful in accepting these reports that are circuit. about Trump, I've come to realize that most of them are just inventions and should be ignored. From Studio Rayner, I was the, I view the deep state as the mass bureaucracy managerial class. Incompetence is always far deadlier than competent malice. Absolutely true. I mean, I don't disagree with any of that. Mike Watts says the EU is only. using Ukraine to amplify the threat of Russia to consolidate more control and increase the grift machine, treacherous bunch? Well, absolutely. I mean, I agree with that completely,

and I think we've been discussing this many times in many parts of our programs. I mean, they've used the Ukraine crisis to enormously extend their power over the last three years. And by the way, look at the results. And we're all poorer. From Sparky, Alex drew parallels between pictures of Macron, Stammer, etc. In Kiev to Friends, what came to mind were the promotional style walking news crew scenes in the movie Anchorman? What can I say in response to that? It's all propaganda. Prologging photos of these guys everywhere.

It's just propaganda. Sticky Mark says, given the daily mixed messaging from the Oval Office, does it's all propaganda. Does it seem a little too random? And do you see an M.O. And whose thanks from Yorkshire? An M.O. Modus operandi, yeah. Motus operandi.

Yeah, I think that this is a complex political struggle that has been playing out in Washington. It's been playing out in Washington for a long time. This didn't begin with Donald Trump. And it's going to continue, I'm afraid. So this is what makes following and tracking American policy so complicated and so difficult, especially when you have a president who comes from outside the system, who is what Russians would call a non-system politician, which Trump is, by the way, despite attempts by certain people to deny that fact.

From Nikos, did you see Fidias' interview with stunning and brave Soya-Boyd, Kellen, it was bad. He saw his English was worse than Zelenskys and he cornered him by using the children card. It will cost Fidias. Well, I didn't see it. I didn't see the interview. Yeah.

Yeah, I didn't see the interview either. But I'll check it out. Tish M says, hey guys, who exactly is providing the leadership to the EU and Ukraine-Nazi vassals from the US regime's deep state? because we know it ain't 47. Well, there's an awful lot of people involved in this enterprise going all the way back to 2014 and before. And if I was able to give you actual names, I would, but I don't have them because an awful lot of these people, I suspect, work in the shadows. But, you know, we can see the obvious people, you know, Ursula there, Mautz Macron himself.

and, you know, we can perhaps guess at some of the other people. This goes back a long, long way. Spock 23 says, thank you both. Alex walking and talking makes me laugh. Alexander should be on ballot for prime minister. People always say this. I have no desire to be prime minister in Britain. I mean, anyway, I'm not going to say more.

Okay, from Studio Rainer. I've seen so many theories about Israel Zionism. The simple reality is that Israel helped control the petrodollar. Zionism is a relic from the British Empire. The fact they don't just admit this shows their incompetence. No, it is not a relic. I mean, especially in Britain, where I live, you have people who are very, very committed to it and who express the bad fact.

very, very eloquently and very forcefully and sometimes very angrily in the pages of our media. So I wouldn't agree that it was a relic. Clearly, this is a relationship between the United States and Israel, which goes back very far. Undoubtedly, it has some elements of that that you say. In fact, a lot of elements of that. I would say that, in my opinion, the major, the biggest player in the Middle East over the last 70 years has been the United States, contrary to what most people say. I'd say that it's neocon policies that ultimately have brought the Middle East to this crisis point that we're going

through today. But no, to repeat again, I mean, I think there is a genuine political program. and I think it's been there for a long time, and I don't think it's disappeared at all. Commander Crossfire says the U.S. had seven years of peace in its 300-year history. I think the idea that the U.S. wasn't always an imperial globalist state is a little disconnected from reality. Banana Republic's opening Japan, Barbary pirates, etc. When do you think that these wars were? Because if I, I mean, I studied American history. and, for example, between the American Civil War and the conflicts in the Spanish-American War of the 1890s,

I am not aware of any great wars that the United States was involved in at that time. Certainly, there were wars against the Native Americans within the United States. There were some extremely ugly operations against places like Hawaii. But if you compare what the United States is. States at that time was doing with what the European colonial empires were up to. The contrast, I would say, is stark. From Nikos, on the plus side, the Sultan won't seek re-election. Go to Hell Erdogan for constantly threatening Greece and Cyprus with destruction, for turning Turkey into a dictatorship before destroying Syria, will remember that.

Well, in truth, but are you sure that you understand for re-election? I'm sure that that's what he's – well, it is what he's saying now. But Erdogan has said lots and lots of different things at different times, and they haven't all necessarily turned out to be true. So why assume that this one will be? Just saying. Studio Rainer says, make no mistake, our current U.S. managerial state is absurdly incompetent,

and competent elites is how every empire falls. Yes, absolutely. And can I just say something that is the nature of bureaucratic systems is that they generally do decline into a competence. Because if there's no external accountability and no clear lines of responsibility, then failure gets rewarded, as we see all the time. In Europe, of course, we've taken that to a whole different level. From Chili Pepper, Trump just took ownership of the Ukraine war. so much opium from Mr. Barnes. Well, let's wait and see.

I mean, I will say this. I think he acted quite deftly over the last couple of weeks. There was a major drive to try to get him to impose massive sanctions on the Russians, and he stepped away. He's still got room to maneuver, and I do think he really does want to take responsibility for the Ukraine war. So at the moment, I think it's still in the balance. My info says thanks.

Thank you, my info from locals. Sage Warrior from locals says whether coming from the right or the left populism means the same thing of by and for the people. Well, yes. The word populism is a very interesting one because populace, of course, is the Roman word for the people. So saying that somebody is a populist in a democracy or to be a compliment, the fact that we've it round and made it into a criticism, tells us an awful lot about the political system that we're living under today. Yeah. Sparky says, Robert, should a sequel to Zoolander be made involving Ukrainian fashion

models, Kirstammer, Macron, and his wife with a large dose of international intrigue. That's an interesting idea. Trevor Max says, in my estimation, no meaningful U.S. revival will happen until there are arrests, prosecutions and sentences, not MS-13, but SOTOS 13 at all. Well, I wonder whether one day we will come to that, actually. I mean, political systems which have become very decayed, they often do find their way to those kind of events. We'll see.

Game of chair says, great work, guys. Keep it up. Rumor has it that Zelensky will be performing a piano recital for Trump's birthday. Oh, dear. Life of Brian says Trump doesn't have the stones to call out the Uniparty by name, but that is absolutely necessary to affect the MAGA agenda. Can't even sack Kellogg. Well, indeed.

I would agree with Robert, by the way, that this, I mean, again, having worked in government, admittedly, on a fairly peripheral level of government, I can see signs of fractionalism all over the place. and factionalism is very difficult to break through because if you say the wrong thing, there's always people who are there to take advantage of it. So there are problems. Now, you can argue maybe Trump ought to be more forthright

and he does have a critical mass of support from his own electoral base. But he is there. He is dealing with these people every day I can't come forward and say that, you know, a more radical approach than the one he's taking is the right one because I don't know and he's in a better position to. From Studio Renner, Russia should embrace U.S. sanctions. Reopening their economy to incompetent multinational companies would be disastrous.

Sanctions were a blessing. Well, so many people in Russia were saying it, including President Putin himself. I mean, just to say, what you're saying is not controversial in Russia at all. Life of Brian says, is there a way the MAGA Press, Barnes, Kirk et al, can coordinate to make sure. Trump hears his base. Otherwise, it's all Lindsay all the time. They're not coordinating because they don't need to. They are actually very, very vocal. And I believe that Donald Trump does listen and attend to them. So absolutely, they are there and they're speaking.

They don't need to coordinate because on these issues, these specific issues, they tend to agree with each of. Sparky says, Robert, there are many more social media sock puppets pretending to be Trump supporters. Does President Trump realize this? They may give him a false idea. His supporters are behind him on certain issues. This is a very good point, actually. And I'm not sure that Trump does. I mean, there are all kinds of people out there who, you know, have suddenly discovered a huge admiration and loyalty to Donald Trump, which wasn't very visible before and who were trying to, you know, basically use Trump or manipulate him or try to persuade him to follow their particular courses.

So, and I think one of the things about Trump is that he tends to look at those who basically went to his son. over Russiagate and assumes that they tend to always agree with him on other matters. There were many people on the left who were horrified by Russiagate. I don't mean that they are, if I say, many people, in percentage terms, very small. But you had people like Matt Taibi, you had people like Aromate, you had people like that, who are very, very skeptical and critical of Russiagate right from the start. They're not supporters of Trump today, just to say. Similarly, there were many people on the right who were part of the political establishment,

who are also very critical of parts of Russiagate, Andrew McCarthy at National Review, for example. That doesn't make him a Trump loyalist or a MAGA person by any stretch of the imagination. And I think Trump needs to stop using what side you picked over. Russiagate as the test of who actually is Maga and who is his friend and who is not. Martin Middle says, why can't Trump simply withdraw from Ukraine? Does he believe the lies of the deep state? No, I do think he believes, necessarily believes the lies. I mean, I haven't spoken to Trump myself. So, I mean, I don't know what he believes and what he doesn't believe. But he's got a massively complex and elaborate program to put forward.

And, of course, he's faced with all sorts of people who want to keep him committed to Ukraine and who, for the moment at least, he seems to feel that he needs to appease. Lindsay Graham being one of them. And I think that is part of the problem. I am not fully sure about what Trump really was all about. I tend to lean more to Alex's view, by the way, which is that at the beginning, Trump did believe people like Kellogg and Rubio and Waltz, especially Kellogg, who told you, look, it's really easy. All we need to do is to get this ceasefire.

And the Russians are bound to agree with it. They're suffering heavy losses. Their economies in a bad, bad way. And it'll all be over within 100 days. and then you can move on to the rest of your agenda. And I think perhaps probably my senses, Trump really did think that was the case. I don't think he thinks that anymore, by the way. But I also think that he has to worry about, or rather he thinks he has to worry about the various factions,

about the pressure from people like Lindsay Graham, about getting confirmations through the Senate, about getting the Senate to back his various bills and things of that kind. Whether he is right to do that is another question again. And I'm not going to discuss that in this question because that would take a long time. From Studio Rainer, I've seen a lot of pro-Russian propaganda advocating for Russia to reopen trade with the U.S. The sanctions in reality is reversed. U.S. multinationals want back into Russia. Who sponsors Lindsay Graham?

Well, I don't know who's – well, I mean, Lindsay Graham is backed by all sorts of people in South. Carolina, we discussed over the course of the program, who some of them were in an old, very wealthy plant of families, the military industrial complex that is located there in a big way, all kinds of things of that kind. As for what you described as pro-Russian propaganda that wants Russia to, you know, throw open its doors to trade with the United States, what do you mean by that exactly? Do you mean pro-Russian propaganda people who are not Russian? Do you mean Russian propaganda or what exactly do you mean?

Because again, I've been to Russia. I follow the Russian media. I do not get the impression that there is a great number of people who advocate that at all in Russia itself. I would say that on the contrary, the general sentiment there is that, you know, you need to keep your distance and that getting too close economically to the United States might not work out at all to Russia's advantage. And Putin has basically tried to reassure that very, very widespread, I would say almost mainstream sentiment there. There are some people,

like Kirill Dimitriyev, the head of the Russian Investment Fund, who says, look, there are opportunities that Russia could take moving forward with this, in this respect. And Putin has shown some interest in these matters. And of course, coordinating on energy policy with the U.S. might work to Russia's advantage. But I've never come across people in Russia who talk in the way that you said. From Daniel, does Mr. Barnes know Trump rallied for Graham. I'm sure you does. In fact, I remember discussing it during the election, and it was

partly because I said at that time, he felt he needed Trump support, Graham's support both in the election itself and even before the election and primaries and things of that kind. Of course he says. Sparky says the great analyst Garland Nixon says not to go by what Trump, by what President Trump says, instead go by what he ends up doing. Well, that's absolutely true. Richard Hughes says, thoughts on King Charles making a throne speech in Canadian Parliament, as well as your opinion on Carney in general, is Canada in trouble? Well, first of all, I don't think that Canada should have the king as his head of state.

That's my own personal view. As for Carney, I've already said many times that I think he's essentially a continuation of Trudeau, but giving the impression of greater normalcy than Trudeau did. So he's not perhaps as, you know, extreme and up front as Trudeau was, but I don't think there's going to be much difference. And as for Carney's economic management of Canada, as for Carney being a safe pair of hands, and all of that, he was a complete failure as far as I was concerned.

as Governor of Bank of England, and I suspect that he will be a complete failure managing Canada, and he shows no sign of any real understanding of the nature and depth of Canada's actual problems. Studio Rainer says America's looking for a solution. It's not going to be voting. Information the Duran shares is useless if you don't act on it. Vote locally, create parallel structures. The U.S. has a great constitution. Well, I would agree with much of that. We can't make other people do what we want them to do. All we can do is we can give our analysis and provide our information. And it's for others to make use of it if they choose. You can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. From chili pepper, U.S. been invested too much in Ukraine to just get out. There were always people say this. They said that about Vietnam. They said that about Afghanistan, and ultimately the United States did go out. So don't assume that because they've invested so much,

they will stay. It doesn't follow. Katarina 19 says, what are Trump's plans for Gaza and Ukraine as far as gaining natural resources from these areas. I do that there are any natural resources to be gained in Gaza, to be honest. I say that. I mean, there's a lot of talk about natural gas and oil and all of that, but to be frank, I think that you don't need to control Gaza to have access to it. As for Ukraine, he's signed off this deal.

I don't think it does what perhaps he thinks it does. I do think it provides a mechanism for extracting wealth from Ukraine. I think what it will do is create a mechanism to enable further wealth, in other words, tax dollars to be funneled into Ukraine. We've discussed that at length, and I'd like it to go to the programs that we did and also the programs that Alex did on his show. Life of Brian says Trump doesn't get that trying to crush the system while playing by its rules leads to the Dems, taking power and going full Lenin? There is a very, very good argument there, and you might very well be right, is the strategy he has taken, and it might not be the right strategy, and it might end up badly for him.

But, you know, sometimes, let me repeat again, he's the man there. He's the man in the Oval Office. He's the person who has to deal with the bureaucracy, with the Congress, with the donors, with the financial system, with the economic lobbies, with all of that. He is, by definition, therefore, in a better informed about all of this than we are. And it may be, it may be, that, you know, he has a better sense of what is possible than we do. I think it was Bismarck, who once said, the famous expression, it's actually French, politics is the art of the possible. And it may be that this is what Donald Trump would say to us if we were able to get

into one side and talk to him. And if he was, you know, frank with us in a way that he tends not to be with most people that he comes across. Elza says, no one here saw that coming. Footage of Brigitte slapping Macron is seized on by Russia and far-right accounts, The Guardian, a threat to democracy. Yeah, Guardian being, of course, a tremendous source of reliable information. Why would the Russian media not publish, discuss, and in fact even enjoy something like this? I mean, why not, why wouldn't they? I mean, in what way does that undermine the fact that this incident actually took place? I mean, it's just, because the Russians are commenting about it, it doesn't mean it isn't

true. So, you know, let's just put all that nonsense to one side. The Associated Press took the images, took the video, most likely they're the ones that published it. Blame the Associated Press. Absolutely. Right. That well-known Russian propaganda organization.

Yeah. What's all the blame? What's all the blame with Russia? The Associated Press that decided to take the video. Anyway, let's move on. N plus fold says Alexander, yes, constitutional crisis in our broken judicial system, strong infiltration of the apparatus itself since 2013, extreme ultra-vires acts by clerks who write and sign judicial orders.

Well, I would agree, actually. I'm going to go far back before 2013, in my opinion, just to say. From Studio Rainer, Brian Berletic does a great job presenting a hopeless situation. Promoting apathy is no different than approving U.S. foreign policy. Well, yes, sometimes, I will say this. I mean, looking at the political system in some countries, you are at a loss to ask yourself, Who are you going to be voting for? And I'm a person who does say that sometimes making a decision to abstain is actually a principled one.

Just to say, I do think the situation is hopeless. I think if you give up to despair, and hopelessness is despair, if you give up to despair, then nothing good can ever come of that. As I always say, counsels of despair are bad ones. John Black says, why didn't the Americans pushy crank do a World War I type general mobilization to combat the initial Russian invasion? Why has everything been so piecemeal? Love your content.

Keep up the good work. Well, because they assumed that what they were doing back in 2022 would be more than enough to win the war. I mean, they imagined the sanctions would cripple the Russian economy. They imagined that the mobilization which Ukraine conducted in 2022, which was enormous and gave Ukraine a very, very big numerical advantage throughout 2022 and going on into 2023. They imagined also that the weapons that they were supplying to Ukraine in very, very large quantities in 2020, 2020 and 2020, would be more.

more than enough to win the war. They never imagined that Russia would be able to absorb all of that and still go on to win. That was where they failed. And the reason they didn't give more in 2022 was because they knew or believed that they didn't have to. And they also knew that if they started giving even more beyond what they were giving, they would start to deplete their own arsenals. and given the fact that their plan ultimately is a showdown with China back in 2022, they didn't want to do that. Now, of course, they got themselves caught in a very difficult situation. They've discovered that the Russians can adjust to any amount of mobilization that Ukraine conducts,

to any amount of re-arming that the West helps, assists Ukraine with. So what do they do? Do they continue re-arming and deplete their arsenals? them more vulnerable to China. And that is the reason for the tension and much of the argument that you're seeing in the West today. Sparky says, Brian Berletek says trying to sort out what goes on in government with what's publicly said is like measuring how well pro wrestling business is doing by watching front office behind the scenes segments. I don't agree actually quite with that. And I think you have to do this to some extent. Because all

governments around the world need to do that. They need to study what the other government is doing. They need to get a sense of what the factions are like so that if they do decide to have communications with another government, they get a sense of where the dialogue and where the discussion is going. I'm sure the Russians do that to a very, very sophisticated degree, and I'm sure the Chinese do it to a very, very sophisticated degree. And it helps their decision-making. If you just retreat from doing that and just say to yourself, well, you know, the other side is consistent in its policies, firstly, you're likely to be wrong. I mean, that's the first thing to say. And secondly, you run the risk of creating precisely the problem that you might be, you know, expecting that you already have.

You might lose opportunities when those opportunities were there all along. Iranian kiddo says ever since USAID was gutted, many anti-Iranian foreign-based Persian-language channels have stopped operating such as Voice of America, Persia, on Radio Free Europe, Persia, version, etc. I've heard that. I've heard a lot of people tell me this, that apparently Iran was the target of more of these things than almost everything out of the country, and now they've all gone silent. which tells you an awful lot. Studio Rainer says, 1919 Ford versus Dodge established shareholder primacy, worst decision made by the Supreme Court in U.S. history. Since 1919, we have had a pseudo-communism.

I know what you're referring to, and I think you're probably right, actually. Studio Rainer says the guest talks too much. Sparky says, Robert wouldn't watching Brian Berletic of the New Atlas clue President Trump in on what deep state continuity has in mind, so he'll know what to look out for. Well, I think this is where actually is a good point, because this is where the problem is, because if you go to a channel, which basically says that you're already part of this system anyway, I mean, what is the benefit of going to it if you want to be influenced? I mean, you're not going to be influenced by a channel that says that you are the same as all the others. Now, I mean, you know, let's not overstate our importance in this. I don't know how much influence any of us actually has.

But, I mean, I think that is something to be brought in mind as well. I mean, we have a conversation that we need to undertake both within our own societies and, you know, for the benefit of other societies. And just as I said, other governments consider and look at what goes on within our own political systems. We are part of our political systems in the West, and we need to conduct dialogue within them too. Mark Hewitt says, what does Robert think is going on with? Dahmer and the Ukraine boys. Very good question.

I don't know. I'm not going to speak for Robert there. I just don't know what I think, but I don't think I can say it. Because if I do, I think all kinds of people are going to, well, let's put it like this, I might have trouble getting back into prison when I next arrive at Heathrow Airport. Tish M. says, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't mass murderers, genociders dealt with judicially? So why does the U.S. regime and company get a pass? Well, the fundamental problem is that for the moment the judicial system in the United States

is not working in that kind of a way. You're perfectly correct, by the way. There are laws in most countries, certainly there are in the United States which ought to and can punish these things. But of course, the judicial system doesn't work there. And I think during the course of the program, we explain why already is Robert did. Uttis 4321 says Robert. supports Israel and its crimes. He doesn't care about the starvation of Gaza children. I will not

listen to this man. Well, I don't think he does, and I think he made his position clear enough over the course of the program. Yeah, I think he made his position very clear. Yeah, that's not true. Okay. Where are we? Chili Pepper says, sorry, Robert, under U.S. Constitution, we can't just remove people without deportation order by the judge, even if they are illegals. Well, I'm not going to get into a discussion about the illegal, what is legal under the Constitution and what is not. Robert has argued cases in the Supreme Court within the Constitution, and I believe won them, actually. So I would have thought that on what he thinks about the Constitution and its powers, he's probably pretty authoritative.

K. Trimbach, thank you for that super chat. Tisham says, I'll ask again, what is the ROI for the American people, the plebs, not the billionaires, who to date have been the only ones to benefit going back several decades? R-O-I. Return on investment. Return on investment. Well, there isn't one. If you're talking about the political system and the economic system that we have in the

United States, for at least 50 years, I would say that it has not been delivering for the American people, and that is why we have the political crisis in the United States that we have now. We have basically a hegemonic group which has been running the United States in its own interests, which it has conflated with Americas, which is, by the way, not uncommon in human societies. Studio Reiner says, you should have Willie AOM as a guest. He's been doing a great job at reporting the front lines, on the front lines. Okay. We'll look him up. Sparky says, Robert, does President Trump realize USAID is alive and well under the State Department and along with National Endowment for Democracy and other NGOs is continuing regime change operations,

especially in Asia? Well, I'm sure he knows some of what is going on, whether he knows all of what is going on. I don't know. Elza says, let's say there will be a golden dome. If Canada was covered by that, wouldn't it become the 51st state in a kind of way? Yes. Communism Incorporated says, if trends hold in 10 years, China will be the largest economy. In nominal terms, too, its military will potentially have three to four deep sea aircraft carriers.

What happens to the US when its economic and military leverage? Because if it plays its cards right, it goes on, becomes rich. more prosperous, more happy, and more equal. The United States and China, I mean, this is, I mean, who is ahead in GDP is not a full measure of power? Who is ahead in terms of happiness, overall society? That is much more important. The United States, there's two oceans that surround it. It's an enormously rich country. It has tremendous entrepreneurial. skills and abilities. It has technological and scientific assets.

It could prosper and be happy and it would be strong and it would remain a great power. And a great power that China would not be able to overcome, just as the United States cannot currently overcome China. People are overly obsessed with this just because, you know, somebody's GDP, by some Benches, he's ahead of somebody else's. People spent all of their time worrying about it, and it is not as important as people believe. Eric Hatchett says, never graduated high school and I could have ended the war. No more money. Why can't these idiots see it? Got us all under the sword of Damocles.

Well, I mean, this is the straightforward comments. As you know, sometimes too much education can muddle the mind. I've seen it many times. Studio Rainer says, Alex, you should have less boomers on this program. 30 minutes, about 500 different topics. Dr. Neva Parvini would be another great guest. We've had many times. We've had Dr. Parvini many times. Yeah, Studio Rainer says GDP doesn't mean anything.

The British Empire had better economists. We've regressed. I blame Tony Blair. He's the head of the snake. You just made the same point that I've just made. I said people are fixated with this measure of GDP, which the person who invented it says you shouldn't use any way in the kind of way that people do. Just say.

Empire Weir says, why do they get a pass? English is the most spoken language on the planet out of every 100 words. On the internet, 59 are English, five are Russian, laughable that any language other than English could win the propaganda wars. Well, I Putin himself said that very thing. To Taco Carlson, impossible to win a... information battle with the United States because the U.S. has so many structural advantages. I don't, by the way, agree with him fully about this. I think the Russians could do an awful lot more than they do. And I think, again, Putin is subscribing to a Council of Despair on this.

But yes, English remains and will continue to be, certainly for our lifetimes, the predominant language of the world. Chili Pepper says, Alexander, please stop making excuses for Trump's mistakes over and over. He willingly took ownership of the war. I don't know that that is true, actually. He tried to end the war. He might have gone about it in completely the wrong way,

and it is not the way I would have advised him to go. Sparky says, Robert, is President Trump against Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso? Is it because Truare may charge too much for gold, which could then be used in the Golden Dome? Is it better than the Iron Dome or just shiny? I don't know what his views about Trouret actually. I'll be interested in now, actually. Iranian Kido says Daily Telegram is a genocidal rag, as Alexander said it perfectly on small towns.

Yes. G-Dog says nobody has a comment on Trump's Gaza plan. Oh, discussed it. We've discussed this extensively in previous programs, exactly. And towards the end of this live stream. Absolutely. Thank you for that. Martin says, where are the checks and balances in the US Constitution intended to limit the power of judges?

Well, again, Rob, is the person to discuss all of this at length. I think that if you look at the Constitution of the United States is clearly based on the separation of power. separation of powers, and obviously Congress has the right to impeach broad judges, not that it exercises it to any very great extent. Iranian Kido says, didn't Jack Ma? Didn't Jack Ma Yun recently say China needs more imports than any time before? I have heard, as I said, to go back to what I said in my program, I can see that there is a big discussion underway in China about the future.

direction of the country, which the events of the last couple of weeks, by the way, has intensified and accelerated. So, yes, I'm sure there is a dialogue about this and about imports, but it depends what kind of imports you mean. If you're talking about imports of manufactured goods, of finished goods, China makes them and makes them cheaply and well. So why would it import things that it makes itself and makes better and at lower prices. And that is, I think, the thing that many people around the world just will not confront. It's not, what you want to do, what you demand that is you want China to close down successful industries in order to facilitate your industries in some other places, a kind of reverse mechanicalism. And I just don't think

that's going to happen. But what you could see and probably will see over time is the Chinese themselves spending more money, buying more things, absorbing more of their own production inside China. And I think that is going to happen. Sparky says, Robert, shouldn't President Trump require nations to switch from the metric system to the US customary system to trade with the US and also require them to call the game soccer instead of football. Well, I'm sure that's a very ironic question because I'm sure Donald Trump is no intention of asking any country to do this, extraordinary things. Warlock Lander, thank you for that's super sticker. Vincent says, would you guys be open to having Brian Berletic back on? It would be great to see,

it would be great to see a convo around whether everything in the U.S. government is just theater or if the U.S. foreign policy will actually change? Of course. Of course we would. I would say, by the way, and just again to repeat, if you were following American foreign policy in the 1960s during the Vietnam War, say in 1964, 65, 66, you might get the impression that the entire U.S. political class was united in supporting Vietnam. In fact, we now know that that was absolutely not the case and there were major.

Fishes and disagreements. And of course, after basically 1968, these cracks and divisions surfaced and became public. And they were ultimately instrumental in deciding U.S. policy to withdraw from Vietnam. Andrew Piscadlo says, if you're guessing what Trump or the feds will do without talking to Barris, you're flying blind.

he hears from insiders daily and more importantly, he knows what the people actually want. Well, of course, I mean, it's always important to get to listen to people who've got sources. What I would say is that sources are very difficult to manage and you can be easily manipulated by them too. Now, I haven't followed him. So, you know, I'm not sure. I don't want to comment about how he manages his sources. But certainly, I mean, I would certainly, you know, keep an eye and ear out for him. in future.

We'll see more of the third, says PSA news tips, believe it or not, world teacher, a.k.a. Masa. Makdi Krishna will soon be by all and not as a religious figure. A huge cover-up, UFOs. Search Benjamin Kreme plus wiki quotes. Well, I'm afraid I can't comment on these matters. They're well beyond my humble knowledge, so just to say. Tony Nevis says, why does Trump mention being angry at Putin for striking Kiev but doesn't yell about Zelensky attacking Russian cities or trying to assassinate Putin? The Russians have made that point. The Russians were making that point all over this week.

I mean, Medved have made it. Sparky says, Robert, will President Trump begin to trade with Iran so we can have more yogurt, caviar, and less expensive barrels of oil? Well, good question. I mean, who knows? He's floated the possibility. I mean, he's talked about it. Andrew Piscadloss says war is a racket, Smedley Butler, major general USMC. As US pulls out of Ukraine, all the imaging and e-warfare data will justify military contracts for decades.

My own personal worry is that the deep state and its various apparatuses will take the wrong lesson from the Ukraine wall. They will say that the reason we didn't win is we didn't do even more. we weren't even more ruthless and more aggressive. And that will lead the United States. They will try to lead the United States into another crisis to which they will apply all of these wrong lessons. And that will result in an even bigger disaster going forward. Andrew Piscadlo says, I'm out of SLC, UT and can't make your local streams.

Do you both have emails? We can send information too. Yes. We do have emails and telegram channels as well where you can send messages. And from one second, from Rumble Alexander, we have from Sudo Biden, none of his trade policy is going to achieve the goal of shifting production out of China or back to the U.S. Or helping improve the standard of living. It's only going to make inflation worse.

My own view is that the test should not be trying to. to get production from China and India. It is about creating conditions for homegrown production in the United States, which is what the Russians have been doing, by the way, over the last 10 years. And, well, maybe there are plans about how to do this, but I would like to know an awful lot more about them. And that's when I said that there's a whole huge body of economic thought which could be drawn upon from the 19th century. That's where I think it might come in useful. Sudo-Biden says Teddy Roosevelt is responsible for Wilson getting elected. He didn't like the Republican runner. So he ran for another election with his progressive party and got his ideological

friend Wilson elected. You're making a very strong point there and you might be right. It certainly didn't work out well. I mean, the rift, the rupture within the Republican Party between Roosevelt and Taft almost certainly was the single factor that led to Wilson's election. But whether Taft was ever an effective alternative to Wilson, Kroonis. Sudo Biden says, Theodore Roosevelt went to war against Spain. He started the American Empire. No, he didn't go to war against Spain. I mean, William McKinley went to war against Spain. There was an old group of people who agitated and pushed for it.

And the United States got itself into a war against Spain. And many, many people in the United States afterwards had very severe bias remorse about it, which did influence the development of foreign relations in the United States. the United States in the decade that followed. Okay, that is everything. Thank you to everybody for all the great questions. Take care.