The Duran Podcast - The Empire Strikes Back w/ Larry Johnson (Live)

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

The Empire Strikes Back w/ Larry Johnson (Live)

Okay, we are live with Alexander Mercuris in London, and we have with us once again on the Duran. We have the great Larry Johnson. Larry, how are you doing? Where can people follow your work? They can find me at sonar21.com, and I just want to wish a happy new year to all of the Duran community. You know, I follow, I'm a daily, I have to get my daily addiction from you guys. so you don't. Fantastic.

I have the link to the excellent Sonar 21 in the description box down below. And I will also add it as a pinned comment. So a quick shout out and hello to everyone that is watching us on Rockfin, on Odyssey, Rumble, YouTube, and the duran.com. This is our second live, isn't it, Alexander? for the year in 2000. Yeah, I think so. Absolutely.

But interesting fact is that Larry is our first guest of 2020. And he was also our first guest last year as well. So I guess this is becoming a tradition then. Tradition, yes. All right. Fantastic. Well, an excellent tradition in that case, if I may say. Let's continue it.

Yeah, yeah. We did the live. It was an urgent live for the breaking news of Venezuela. going to discuss Venezuela in this in this show. But before I pass it off to you, Alexander and to Larry, a quick thank you and shout out to our moderators as well in the chat. Thank you to our moderators. And Alexander Larry, let's get started. Indeed, let's indeed get started. Now, we are extraordinarily fortunate and very privileged to have Larry with us today because this is an area where I absolutely feel that he is one of the most expert people, one of the most knowledgeable people.

I don't mean that he has all the facts. We don't all have all the facts. But this is covert operations. This is the United States doing something in a Latin American country. This is the CIA on the ground, no doubt. This is all sorts of people on the ground from the CIA and from the United States. And there is absolutely no one, no one anywhere, in my opinion, better qualified to discuss these things. than Larry has been, and Larry, by the way, has been talking brilliantly about these things on Sonar 21 and many other places.

So let's get straight in. We have had an extraordinary sequence of events in Venezuela. We've had the abduction. We are not allowed in Britain. The BBC tells us we mustn't call it a kidnapping, which is quite amazing. But anyway, it tells you that that's what within the BBC, by the way, they've been calling it. just to say, but we've had the kidnapping, I'm going to call the kidnapping, of the president of Venezuela. We've had a press conference given by the president of the United States, which is, I think, one of the most extraordinary press conferences I have ever heard from any world leader, especially, dare I say, the president of a president of the United States. We have what looks to me a very unresolved situation in Venezuela.

It was clear to me that it had been some kind of a job assisted from the inside because I couldn't see how else it could work. I'd assumed that the entire government of Venezuela was in some way behind it. I've increasingly developed doubts about that. I know Larry, based on what I was reading yesterday on Sonar 21, that you have some things to say about that. and I'm having my doubts. Let's first start with that. Let's start with the mechanics of this kind of this operation, how it was carried out.

And perhaps you can tell us a little of what you think and of what you believe and what you know. Yeah, it's very strange. And let me caveat that, you know, I spent 23 years scripting counterterrorism exercises for Delta Force and SEAL Team 6. So the number one oddity is why did they choose to launch an operation on a moonlit night, full moon? Because normally they prefer to go in complete darkness because they've got the advantage of night vision goggles.

Now, you could make the case that, well, there was a necessity. They had to go then, you know, like somebody's life depended on it. But that wasn't the case. I mean, you know, as Trump said, they could have done it earlier in the week, but bad weather prevented. So the whole timing of it is odd, number one. Number two, the fact that so many helicopters were in the vicinity, flying into that area and didn't encounter a single anti-aircraft system. You know, anybody that's been to Caracas, I always called it,

a city d'entre an odoro you know a city inside a toilet toilet bowl because it sits down and it's surrounded by mountains so it's not easy terrain to fly in so that speaks that there was

there was some inside assistance that this was this was planned with you know there are elements within the Venezuelan security services i'll put it at that i i know i've been given the very specific name of the person involved

very senior and in a position to actually help arrange this so this was all arranged but again why the urgency uh and the only thing i can you know conclude is based upon the events of the last week you know, last week with the meeting with Zelensky on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, followed by the meeting with Bibi Netanyahu the next day. And B.B. Netanyahu's meeting coincides with the eruption of protests in Iran that then the Western media takes and is declaring it's like, oh, my God, Iran's teetering on the brink. They're going to collapse, followed by this operation against Maduro.

I don't believe all of that was just coincidence and unrelated. I think it was all related. Let's just talk about this because it seems that Venezuela, the government in Venezuela is still in place. I was suspicious about the government altogether, but it seems that in fact the government is continuing mostly to follow the political line that Maduro and Chavez had followed. It doesn't look as if it's been,

replaced. The American officials, the senators and the Congress people have met the American officials, the Trump administration, and they've come out saying that there's absolutely no plan at all, that it's all been made up on the fly. There doesn't seem to be very much sign of any structured plan to take over Venezuela. The president is talking about taking over Venezuela. What has actually been achieved here, apart from seizing, abducting, kidnapping Madero himself, and bringing him to before a court in the Southern District of New York, the same place, by the way, where all those court cases against Donald Trump abroad, which I find an irony that nobody has pointed to.

But anyway, what have they actually achieved so far? Well, let's just say that the U.S. is at least consistent, because I, was in the Central American branch back. I left the CIA in October of 1989. Two months later, Noriega was taken out by the United States in a similar kind of operation. And I had watched when I was in the Central American branch, one of my colleagues, an analyst, female analysts, in an unusual move, the Directorate of Operations was informing her about their activities, what they were about so she could help with, if you will, slant the analysis and present a narrative. That went on for more than a year, but there wasn't any planning for what comes next, what's after.

The same thing happened with Iraq, 2003. Another one of my CIA colleagues who was involved with the Iran Task Force, when they got down to talk, talking, and this was around 2007, the other members and task forces and interagency group, but the other members are talking about, you know, okay, we're going to invade Iran, and we're going to overthrow the Islamic Republic. And my friend said, okay, what next? And he was told, I don't worry about it, it'll work out. So, you know, when it comes to these kinds of military operations, the United States,

States is like a bad jazz band, you know, just improvising in the moment. And you're right, what did they accomplish? Well, they've created a potential legal embarrassment as they try to prosecute Maduro. I read Simplikius's piece overnight. And he indicated, he was sort of shocked that they didn't come in and bring all these drug charges. They brought stealing oil. And you're going, okay, that's going to really excite the jury. So then when they announced that Rubio and HECSeth were going to be sort of running Venezuela, you know, and I liken that to putting Cheech and Chong in charge of a pot store, it's just, it's ridiculous.

There is no thought through of who's going to pick up the trash, who's going to make sure the water runs, that the electricity. I mean, there are some certain facts about governing that regardless of what you think of Maduro, good, bad. At least the government seemed to provide services to the Venezuelan people. And then on top

of it, they carried out this operation within 12 hours of Maduro hosting the Chinese diplomat that was in charge of Latin America. And that didn't make the Chinese too happy. So I think

they just ended up creating more of a mess than accomplishing any specific goal. If we go back to Iraq, I mean, the assumption was then, if you remove the leader, Saddam Hussein, somehow everything will work out. In fact, what actually happened was that the regime collapsed. The police disappeared from the streets. Everything fell apart very, very rapidly,

and the whole country descended into chaos and spun out of control. Right. What appears to be happening, in Venezuela is something different, which is that for the, at least for the moment, I mean, it might actually turn to the same course that erected, but they've removed the leader. Again, they seem to assume that everything else will fall into place. But all that's happened at the moment is that the leader has gone, but the rest of the regime, the government is still there and continues to function and is not a, actually so far following orders.

Now, this is what I thought was interesting because you said on Sonar 21 that Delci Rodriguez does not seem to be one of the plotters who was involved against Maduro. And that is consistent with what we've seen from her. And it was very consistent with the presentation the Venezuelan ambassador made to the UN Security Council yesterday. Yeah, you know, this, the person that I was told that was, you know, the primary contact in dealing with the United States,

it was, you know, she wasn't mentioned. She wasn't, she wasn't part of that. So what we're, you know, unless you've been to Venezuela, you don't appreciate how big it is, number one, and how difficult to control that terrain. And frankly, it's a similar picture in Colombia, next door. You know, Columbia's, they've been fighting the FARC for, let's see, it started in 1964, so that, what, 62 years? And they've gone after them with counterinsurgency programs. They brought in U.S. Special Forces have been in Colombia to help them. And so if we can eradicate, you know, we'll call it this insurgent movement or guerrilla movement or whatever you want to call them in 62 years, that same capability exists.

Venezuela. This fellow Dios Diozado, which I guess in Spanish means God-given. You can imagine your parents naming you, God-given. But he is more of a Chavista. You know, he's more in the tradition of Chavez. Similarly, you know, Delci Rodriguez, she's you know, her father was tortured

in prison by the CIA. back to Venezuelan security services and died. So I can't imagine that she's sitting there harboring warm, fuzzy feelings towards the United States. Yeah, so it's just there's a division, but there is a division in Venezuela. There is opposition to Maduro. And so the possibility that's fracturing the society and or a coup, an actual coup to take over,

is still a viable prospect. The other thing that is astonishing about this is the way in which it has been explained by the administration in the United States. I mean, we've now had Stephen Miller making more comments on top of the ones the president himself has been making. You know, this basically might is right. We have to have the oil. It's our oil.

It's not clear how it's our oil. But anyway, they say that it's our. oil that Venezuela must basically be run by the United States and guided by the United States. And it seems indefinite. I mean, I remember the Panama affair very well. But that was not the rhetoric the United States used at that time. It was never the rhetoric that the United States used in any previous conflict in South America. There was always some attempt to justify it on the basis of some higher moral or strategic purpose.

This time, it is unalloyed predatory imperialism. And again, is this remotely realistic? The people who talk in this way seem to think it is realistic. But I don't think it's realistic. I think all it's going to do is provoke much more resistance in the long term. No, you're absolutely right. Look, again, I was involved with Panama back then. but subsequent, you know,

Burger Associates, we did a lot of, you know, product counterfeit money laundering investigations, the tobacco case that we developed against Philip Morris. The, you know, Panama at the time was, it's a small country, but they still had military, U.S. military bases at the southern part of the canal,

which is Panama City, Corey Heights. And then at the northern end of the canal, in the city of Cologne. And, you know, I remember even then there was no high, there was nothing urgent driving this. This is just the United States made the decision by God, we're going to get rid of Noriega, and they spent more than a year trying to provoke Noriega into taking some action so we could justify it. And that's exactly what we've seen here with Venezuela. You know, first we're told it was narcotics.

And, you know, I'm scratching my head because, yes, yeah, listen, there were drugs transiting Venezuela and being shipped off to the United States into Europe and Africa. But that, it wasn't, they weren't producing it. They were simply transporting. It was being transported. And is it likely that Maduro got a taste of that business? Oh, absolutely. But the reality was that the heart and soul of the narcotics industry is, between Mexico and Columbia, and has been for the last 40 years.

So if the issue was really dealing with narcotics, those would have been the two countries to be targeted, but we didn't. And just as a side note, if the U.S. is really serious about disrupting the narcotics industry, go after the money that's here in the United States, because that's what feeds and drives this beast across the board. Then we saw also, though, there was another attempt by a former CIA officer Gary Bernson and a former New York Times reporter Ralph Pizzulo, but they're pushing the story about,

oh, no, Venezuela in the 1990s got aligned with this company Dominion, and they were embarked upon stealing elections around the world. I'm thinking, God, that's rich. You know, somebody from the CIA complaining about a country stealing elections. You know, we run the United States, has run the master class on that. And then, you know, we get this narco-terrorism angle. And, you know, I do try to follow terrorist incidents pretty regularly.

And, you know, it wasn't, fentanyl wasn't coming out of Venezuela. And then ultimately, then we get the, oh, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas. They're all over there. And really this is more, I think, one of the key objectives of this operation was to try to eliminate influence of China, Russia, and Iran in terms of Venezuela choosing to have relations. And this is the bastardization of the Monroe doctrine. I call it the Polk doctrine because the Monroe doctrine was basically saying, look, Europe should not. interfere. We don't want to have Europe come in and try to impose new governments in the Western Hemisphere, and the United States will oppose that. But at the same time, the United States

pledged non-interference with existing colonies. So like the Spanish colony of Mexico, the United States was hands off until Mexico declared independence in 1810. And then then comes President Polk, you know, and 36 years later, and decides, hey, we should have a part of Mexico that's now called Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. We provoked a war. So from President Polk, I point to that time, 1846, is when the United States basically abandoned the Monroe Doctrine, because it was not one of us getting involved militarily. Instead, we've now turned it into a doctrine that the United States can be the final arbiter and have the final say over who, what country in Central and South American can have relations with any other country.

That was the purpose. Exactly. You've written very well about this. The Monroe Doctrine of the original one of the 1820s, the one set out in that statement by James Monroe, was an anti-interventionist doctrine. Anti-interventionist by the European powers. in the Western Hemisphere. Anti-interventionist by the United States, too.

That was its purpose. Anyway, let's move on, because you brought up the Iranian angle. And in fact, we are now hearing a drumbeat of words about new, further action against Iran. Now, way back at the time of the 12-day war and its aftermath, we said on the Duran, I believe you said too, that there was a high probability that there would be another attack on Iran before very long. And sure enough, there is lots of talk about this now.

There's been the protests in Iran, which, by the way, for the record, I believe have died down. I may be wrong here, but that's what I've heard. But there is a sense that the regime, as it's called, in Iran is supposed to be tottered. that it's about to break down. There's been this worry that it might close the strait of Hormuz as part of any conflict, and that might shoot up the price of oil.

There's been suggestions that the events in Venezuela are all connected to this, and that we are indeed moving towards another confrontation with Iran. Can you tell us, can you explore all that for us a bit? Sure. Yeah, when I saw the news reports first coming out about these protests, I was fortunate that, you know, I appear on another podcast regularly, a kid. I'll call him a kid. I mean, he's 40 years old, but he's the age of my son, okay? So he gets to be a kid. Nima Al-Kashid. Neema is an engineer, lives in Brazil, was born in Iran, went to school, engineering school in Germany. And so he went back to Iran two weeks ago. for the first time in 12 years. And then I also talked to Professor Morandi. And I'm going, guys, what's going on?

And they were like, you know, because I was sending them the news reports out of the West and said, is this what you're saying? And a completely different picture. That it is clear that what is being run, that all the reports, yeah, there are protests. That's true. There are people who are unhappy with the hyperinflation that is in Iran. But some of the blame is being pinned upon Pajshkian.

In fact, some of the protests are by people who thinks Posseschkin is too accommodating of the West. And there was not much with respect to overthrowing the Ayatollah. And then it turns out, so I sort of see all these news media reports, and they were sourced to this group called the National Council of Iranian Resistance. Well, it's a legacy of the Mech, the Mujahideen al-Calc, a terrorist group, at least the United States, it designated a terrorist group until we decided, hey, they're not so bad, we'll use them to attack Iran, which starting about 2009, actually became the case. So this is an example of an intelligence operation and information operation,

designed to shape the battlefield or prep the battlefield as the term used to be with this propaganda not so much to weaken Iran but to prepare the West for what's to come because there might be

an inflation crisis in Iran which there is but that doesn't mean that there's a military crisis in Iran it doesn't mean that Iran is not capable of defending itself if it is attacked but why attack Iran I mean, is it not the case?

And this is my point, that just as the Venezuelan situation seems unsorted, unresolved, nothing has been achieved. The war against Iran in June, that hasn't resolved anything from an American and an Israeli point of view either. Iran is still there. It's still militarily powerful. Is this what this is all about? Is this an attempt to finally finish the unfinished business of June? And if so, why the assumption that is going to be successful this time? Well, it's actually, it's a breakdown and corruption of the intelligence process or the intelligence community.

And it is not just confined to Iran. It's also with respect to Ukraine, the same kind of where where actual falsehood, actual lies, actual misrepresentations are presented as fact. So I'm sure Trump and the entourage around him, they're being told that, hey, we just a little more push. There's a large resistance movement in Iran. We just need to give them hope and that it will overthrow the Ayatollah and the society will collapse.

They really believe that. Just they're told that Russia's, losing a million men, losing far more men than Ukraine, and the Russian economy is on the edge. It's just, it's hollowed out. All we're getting to do is destroy a couple of refineries and their economy will, you know, it's nonsense. And yet this is actually being told. And I've written about this in terms of what happens is when you put analysts together with operators. that the operators prevail. Because when you're doing, if you're doing honest analysis,

at times, you're going to be undermining what is a covert action or perceived as undermining simply because you're telling them it's not working. And the operations officers are actually sort of financially invested. They get promoted by how successful they are. So once you put the analysts under the operators, And, you know, for example, they're told that the Iranian suffered a terrible devastating loss to Israel, and they don't have the capability to harm Israel. And so that's the storyline that's being put out.

And policymakers believe it. And then, lo and behold, here's Iran who they now know they're going to be attacked. And since June 25th, when that 12-day war concluded, they have taken very common. concrete steps with both Russia and China to shore up their defenses and to cooperate militarily and diplomatically and politically in a way they did not do before. So, but yet the Israelis have convinced themselves that Iran is behind. If it weren't for Iran, there'd be no Palestinians protesting running their land back. I mean, just, just sure nonsense.

So what is the agenda here? I mean, you mentioned in one of your articles that there is this idea that if you gain control of Venezuela and its oil resources, if the Iranians close the Gulf of Hormuz, then you've got all of the Venezuelan oil that you can flood the world with. I can tell you for an absolute fact, that isn't going to happen. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is, and I think that is actually what some people. believe, but if that is what they believe, then they are flat out wrong. I mean, it doesn't work like that. Industrial processes and oil production is an industrial process. Don't work like that.

You can't just pull a lever and get oil flowing from the Arinoco Basin in that kind of way. But is that what this operation in Venezuela was all about? Because you mentioned that there was this rush to carry it out that it happened on a moonlit night. And things of that kind. It happened directly after Trump met Netanyahu and after the meeting with Zelensky, which didn't go well. So is this all about getting oil to put pressure on the Russians to safeguard against the risk of a closure of the state of Hormuz?

Is this, do you feel that there is something, that this, is something of what is being played out here. Yeah, no, I think I think that's definitely part of it. In fact, you know, we've seen Scott Bessent, as Secretary of Treasury, make comments, you know, in the last two or three months that believing that they can sanction Russia, if they cripple, there is the real belief that if they cripple the oil industry in Russia, that Russia won't be able to continue the war, not understanding that over, you know, the course of the last 20 years, Russia's gone from where the oil exports accounted for like 25% of their GDP down, it's down to around, last I heard was 12%.

So, you know, yeah, yeah, it's an important part of the economy, but it's not a critical important part. Also, the belief that, and you talked about this yesterday, that there is this abundance of oil and that it's really easy to extract and that the United States can grab it and fill up its strategic oil reserves is not the case. In fact, there may not be as much oil as people think, and the kind of oil that's going to come out of the ground is difficult to extract.

But do not discount the fact that there are those within the intelligence community that are telling the other narrative. That's not true. But here we are faced with this situation in which the U.S. government is taking action on bad information. And there's not a good outcome to that. And at the same time, the Trump administration, it's out of control.

And if you've watched Donald Trump, Judge Napolitano put up a great mashup showing Trump now talking about the regime change. And then what he was saying five years ago where he was like the most strident anti-regime change guy you could imagine. and also just the way he talked five years ago in terms of he seemed lucid and coherent, whereas now he's sort of, you know, he's got sort of the rainman effect, you know,

the Dustin Hoffman movie talking in a monotone and slurring some words. But then they turned around. They're threatening Colombia. And Trump just said, we're going to do the same to, we'll do the same to Colombia. Panama, Greenland. I mean, it's like, you know, they're trying to pick a fight with everybody at a time when the U.S. military power has been

demonstrably, despite, you know, all the hype that came out over the weekend, they still forget the Houthis beat the U.S. Navy. I mean, the whole rhetoric had, as far as I could sense of kind of teenage quality. I mean, it was like playground people. People on the playground. You know, I'm big and strong. You must do as I want. And, you know, it really did come across this way. And again, if they really think that they can, as I say, pour out the oil from the Orinoco,

and that will somehow counter Iran's ability to close the strait of all moves, that again is the kind of thing that adolescents say to each other. I mean, it's not what happens in the adult world. And it does make you wonder very, very much about the kind of people, not just Trump, by the way, the kind of people who are in charge in the United States today. I was listening to Stephen Miller again, talking straightforwardly might as right and all of this. I mean, this is not how statecraft is done. This is not how serious governments work. comparisons have been made with Russia and what the Russians did in Ukraine. But the Russians were very careful to construct a legal case in advance of what they did.

And in all of their announcements, in February 2022, they were very careful to cite the UN Charter, which we've just seen it absolutely trashed. I mean, you know, a child that doesn't matter. It doesn't come for anything. So, I mean, it's extraordinarily dangerous, and it does break the question of what kind of a government does the United States have at the moment, not just what kind of a president, but what kind of a government altogether? Well, the Cold War may have ostensibly ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but ideologically, it's still alive and well in the United States. and there is this narrative.

I can't emphasize enough how deeply ingrained it is in the consciousness of Americans that Russia and China they're plotting to surround us because they're plotting to destroy us. We are using projection because that's exactly

what the United States has been doing over the course of the last 60 years and has not given up on that agenda. You know, I've been fortunate over, you know, the last two years. I've been in Russia seven times and had extensive discussions with a, I mean, a vast array of people. Everyone from Ganadi Zuginov, the head of the Communist Party, and three of his associates, as well as members of the Duma, Alexander Babakov, who's like the number two guy in the Duma. And, you know, what you find is the Russian mentality is so different from that in the West,

from that of the United States. The United States is very, we come at it from a defensive, paranoid approach that we believe everybody's out to get us. And therefore, that's why we're justified to go out and get everybody else. There is not, there is not this built-in sense of, hey, what can we do to work together? It's like we look at China's, quote, involvement in Central and South America. And, you know, when Trump came out and made that his theme at the start of the, you know, his second administration, just scratching my head because the Chinese were all over Panama 25 years ago. They've been running the ports up north.

And the only kind of activity that Chinese are engaged is not subversive in Panama. They're in the casinos. They love to play Bacarad. I don't understand that, but they do. What the Chinese come with the Belt and Road initiative, they're actually building up. And they're not doing it like some mafia protection game. We're here, you know, we're going to do this project,

and then you're going to owe me. No, I mean, they genuinely see a benefit in improving the economic being welfare in these other countries. Similarly with Russia, I was fortunate I had one of the most memorable chats I had was with this hockey legend, Vietchislav Fethasov. And, you know, he played hockey in the United States with the Detroit Red Wings where he won two Stanley Cups. And for people that don't follow hockey, but if you follow basketball, Fetisov is sort of like the Michael Jordan of hockey.

And one of the things he talked about was how, that when he got to the United States, he says, you know, this mentality about this individual focus. There was not a cultural approach of how do we actually work together as a team? How do we, how do we for the collective good? And we're not talking to communism, collectivism, but we're talking this mentality about genuinely how do we cooperate instead of how am I going to rape that person or steal from them and get a benefit?

And that is, unfortunately, that mindset is still reflected in U.S. policy, which is why we see this constant intervention and meddling in the affairs of other countries. But it is not something that American society has ever deeply supported as far. So I can tell it. Maybe that's too strong to say it's never supported it. But it doesn't seem to be keen on it at the moment. but there are many problems in the United States. We've discussed them in the past, in programs we have done together with you.

There are, there is problems in the education system, the health system, the industrial system is not doing especially well. Lots of problems. Trump was elected to solve those problems. Why is he messing around in Venezuela and Iran? How does that help with these problems? And it is taking up, as far as I can see, all in his time. He's playing these very complicated games against the Chinese and the Russians in places like Latin America,

against ignoring the fact that the Russians and the Chinese aren't really even there. So it's a game he's playing. The Americans are playing in their own mind more than anything else. But they are allowing their own problems in their own society to compound. and their actual power, their true power, to atrophy. You don't want oil from Venezuela. You want to develop the energy complex in the United States, which can be developed in all sorts of ways,

much more cheaply and much more efficiently. Why is it impossible for people in the US government to understand this? Yeah, well, because it's financially beneficial to pursue these foreign wars. It is, you know, particularly at the CIA, hey, if we are focused totally on domestic affairs, they'd be, you know, they'd be sitting around like the Maytag repairman with nothing to fix, nothing to do.

And so it's really sort of creates a very twisted incentives. It is, the United States' entire national security policy is built around as Eisenhower warned, a military, industrial complex that becomes its own self-licking ice cream cone, that you've got to have an enemy in order to justify a certain defense budget. You know, what we should have seen, if it was acting in rationally in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, was to say, hey, we no longer need to have a hundred bases scattered throughout Europe.

You know, we can close down Stuttgart. you know, Panzer and Kelly. We can start with drawing and draw down our troops. We didn't do that. No, no, no. We all said, oh, no, we've got to fight terrorism. And, you know, now increased evidence

that the West has been involved with collaborating with these very terrorists. You know, they create a reason for being. And so the United States has refused to separate itself from that. And you're right, if you went out and interviewed the average American, they're not, you know, they don't even know where their own state capital is in their state, much less where some of these other countries are. However, when they are presented with a narrative that is, it paints these foreigners as threatening us, like Gulf, you know, Maduro

with his drugs, he's killing Americans. And yeah, there's, there are well over a hundred thousand Americans, I think every year, dying from fentanyl overdoses. And, you know, my own nephew died in my house here two years ago from a fentanyl overdose. Self-medicating, great kid. And, you know, it's awful. But Dural didn't do that, you know. And yet once that is, it's painted in that way, there is, ends up being support for it. So it's very, it's not just perverse.

It's evil. this narrative that's being constructed to encourage the United States to figure out how we can fight, how we can defeat, how we can contain Russia and China, as opposed to saying, can we all work together? Is the United States going to become more heavily involved in Venezuela? Are we going to see boots on the ground and attempts to reshape the government there and to achieve regime change. We've been told at the moment

that they're not perceived regime change in Iran. I mean, Speaker Johnson tells us this isn't regime change. You know, arresting the president, seizing the president is not regime change, apparently. But anyway, I mean, is the United States going to be more sacked into Venezuela? Are American soldiers going to be sent there?

Will this be a sustained operation carried out over a long time? Or are they going to say to themselves, Now, well, we got Maduro, we got him before the court. Things are not turning out quite as we expected. The government there is still intact. It's not cooperating. Let's move on to other things.

It's possible. I mean, so if we follow what I call the Houthi route, remember where Trump declared victory, oh, the Houthis have capitulated. We're done here. Let's go. If they do that, then the United States, is not going to get bogged down. But if Trump lets his ego get in the way and decide that, you know,

we're going to determine the outcome of what, of who Venezuela can talk to, you know, if we try to disrupt their ability to have relations with the Chinese or the Russians and with Iran, and then we decide to put American personnel in there, then in that scenario, I see, you're going to see a, well, U.S. will call them terrorist attacks, The Venezuelans would call it attack against foreign occupiers. And so once you start killing Americans, then there's going to be great pressure on Trump to put more Americans in. Then we get into sort of the Vietnam scenario where we have to bring more into, quote, pacify it. And the more you put in, the more they get attacked.

And, you know, it starts that escalation that is tough to back off of until you reach a point where you say, okay, we can't afford to continue this. So I think that is a definite possibility. But as you said at the outset, and you precisely identify the problem, the United States hasn't put together a coherent plan about what is trying to accomplish. I mean, what's the goal?

If Venezuela is not going to go well, if it might not go well, go well, if Iran is going to be very, very difficult, What about the other wall that might be a very easy one, Greenland? I mean, there's a lot of talk about Greenland at the moment. There's talk that it might become American before the 4th of July. Fredrickson, the, I can't, I don't like her at all for all reasons. We don't need to dwell on.

The Prime Minister of Denmark says, you know, hands off Greenland. And if Greenland is taken from us, that's the end of NATO. I mean, might the United States nonetheless, in spite of her warnings, nonetheless come after Greenland. I mean, there's, what, 25,000 people there? There's no real military there. I thought it was just, you know, put on. But when Stephen Miller came out yesterday

and his wife putting out that, I don't know if people have seen it, but it's basically the island of Greenland painted as an American flag, that it is, I think the Trump administration is going to do it. And again, they're creating this notion that Russia and China are our enemies. And therefore, as enemies, we have to treat them in a combative fashion. And I've not been to China, but I know from the Russian standpoint, Russia's not sitting around saying, yeah, the United States is an enemy.

We've got to figure out how to destroy her. But they're trying to figure out, you know, it's like you see an angle. You got to make sure is it rabbit or not. The Russians would prefer to have a friendly relationship with the United States. But they're also realistic enough to understand that the hostility is coming at Russia. It's not Russia directing it at the United States. And so if the events of this last week by going into Venezuela really, I think, damaged the relations with Russia and China, because they're really going to have to step back and reincest,

say, these Americans really are crazy. I mean, they are not going to follow international law at all, and they've made it quite clear. They're going to do whatever they think that they can get away with. And it's dangerous. One very last question. If the Americans do get Greenland, is that the end of NATO? Fredericksson says it is.

I have my doubts, by the way. I think that all sorts of people in Europe, mounts, Stahama and co, will want to keep NATO going, at least in some form. But what is your sense of this? And is that something that would even worry this lot in Washington now? I mean, would they really care of NATO when? Well, it wasn't, didn't Friedrich should also say that she would seek to enact Article 5 if the United States did it? So, go, oh, my God, what a, what a, what a. a mess that is. No, listen, NATO is lived, its expiration date is come and gone. It's no longer

relevant. It is a potentially malevolent force, but in terms of actually being a viable military organization, it's not, it's as dysfunctional now as the European Union, only they do have guns, they do have tanks. But it's not clear that they all work, to work coherently. I think the end of the war in Ukraine is going to be another major crisis for NATO. Because as is being demonstrated, NATO is in no position to challenge Russia. And the decisions made by NATO and the United States over the course of the last four years have led Russia to build up its military to a level that it had not planned to do four years. the West is now going to complain about the potential military threat for Russia.

Well, hello, you know, if I keep driving past your house and shooting at your bedroom windows, and then you go and arm yourself and you put in protective glass, I can't complain that you're trying to be aggressive. I'm the one that provoke that. And that's the same thing that's going on here, this provocation. And Trump's, if he pursues this with Greenland, I think it's going to call us some real riffs that will make NATO no longer functional. Larry Johnson, thank you. As always, first guest we've had on the Duran in 26.

And as it says, it's a star performance. Thank you again. Now, if you can just wait a little because I'm sure Alex has some questions for you. and then we'll wrap up afterwards. Sure. The rest of the live stream. We've got a lot of questions, guys. So let's get started.

From Benny Hill, my question is as follows. What if the U.S. decides to take Greenland? Would that warrant the U.S. being removed from the U.N., NATO, or both, seeing as Denmark is a NATO country, thank you in advance. Yeah, if you've got a friend or relative who's a raging alcoholic or a drug addict and they're doing self-destructive things, you have an intervention. We need an intervention with the United States. I mean, you know, I love my country, but my God, we can't keep our hands to ourselves. And we are constantly interfering, meddling in the affairs of others. And yet,

we turn around and have a complete meltdown on the fact that some Russians purchased $50,000 worth of Facebook ads. It's absurd. Benny Hill asks, will the EU fold and roll over if the U.S. take Greenland is my final question, thanking you. No, I'm not sure they'll fold and roll over, but there will be some in NATO that'll say, well, yeah, the United States has a point. And there will be others that will say, wait a second, this is not what we signed up for. And that's what I mean, it'll create a rift despite, you know, the narrative that was pushed by Biden and still a little bit by Trump about, oh, we got NATO as united as ever. It isn't. Matthew asks, will Europe get fed into the wood chipper as the next U.S. proxy against Russia?

I think Europe is feeding itself into the wood chipper. I have never, and I'll defer to you gentlemen, because you know, you live there and within the continent. I have never seen such a disconnect between the leaders of countries and the populace. you know, what public sentiment is. I mean, it's, it's astonishing that there is such a, a divorce from reality on the part of, you know, where we're talking, Starmer or Macron or Merckes in particular, you know, when we're left with Orban being, you know,

the leader in terms of the voice of sanity. But, you know, this, again, you're not seen within Europe and coalescing around any one idea. is they keep trying to figure out how can we hurt Russia and every sort of every decision they make ends up hurting them more in Europe okay I just wanted to say about Starma which is that and and this isn't just my own opinion I I have never encountered a prime minister in British political history who is as actively hated as Stama is. And I understand from people who still work in the Labour Party, whose job it is to knock

on people's doors in order to try to get them to vote in elections and by-elections and local elections, that the language they're getting about Stama from the people they do is just unprintable. I mean, to an extent that has never happened before in modern British electoral history. Just saying. And these are Labour supporters who are talking about it. Yeah, and let me just add, I think you're starting to see a similar phenomenon here in the United States with respect to Trump. Trump supporters or what were MAGA supporters and supported Trump are now just furious, particularly with what happened to this guy who said regime changed wars are stupid. Well, and that's what he's doing.

Sparky says, Larry, wouldn't it be more in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine for the U.S. to change the Dutch Antilles to the Trump Antilles? than to mess with Venezuela Bolivarian Republic. We've got to get his name and address. We're going to send the CIA for him. He's putting ideas into Trump's head. I mean, you're talking, you know, Curacao and Aruba.

And I've, those were actually, particularly Curisal, was a major smuggling route for tobacco and liquor into Columbia. Nico says, Mr. Johnson, Listen, why aren't Bricks united as the West? Why couldn't Russia, China, and Brazil put their egos aside and help Venezuela? Bricks is failing.

Well, I actually think they're smart not to try to get involved with this militarily, because none of those countries have a tradition of using military force around the world. They are constantly, particularly Russia and China, are constantly portrayed in the U.S. media is these voracious imperialists and intent upon, you know, invading Europe and taking over Africa and Central America and South America. And yet, historically, they've never done that. And so to gear up to go confront the United States militarily over this, it does risk nuclear war. And so, you know, I understand why they're acting with some caution there. But I also think there's as a way the options, they recognize that the United States is doing great damage to itself.

And maybe it's that old aphorism that, you know, when the person's digging a hole for themselves, just throw them another shovel so they can continue. Right. From BBWIO, any chance this has more to do with China and or military CIA to embarrass Trump? An explanation for Maduro's smugness doesn't seem to be worried. Well, I'm not sure necessarily what it has to do with China, but I think it's more of the broader issue. United States wants to limit, you know, try to erase the influence of foreign countries, China, Russia, Iran. But have you watched the different photographs of Maduro?

He looks like he's been doing a runway at a fashion show. I mean, one time, you know, he's in, you know, Nike joggers. And then the next thing he's got, I've seen five or six different photographs. I think he's got more clothes than I do as a prisoner. And he's sitting there going, what's going on with this? I mean, it's very odd. And if you've watched also Maduro's demeanor, you know, he's sitting there with these guards and going, yay, a few thumbs up like he's the Fonz. Or one guy is actually, you know, sort of giving him a hug.

Very, I'm not sure we got the full story about what exactly. actually is going on here. Right. Mark Kewitt says, never mind the three bigger members of Bricks, why did, why did Brazil allow Venezuela to happen? Brazil doesn't have the military force to stop. And again, think through. What are they getting to do? You're going to shoot down U.S. helicopters? Then what? The U.S. is going to react and start preparing to attack Brazil. Now, again, the lack of thinking and planning on this also is on part of the U.S. because did the U.S. planet, if Brazil attacked us, what would we do? Well, we'll figure that out when it happens. So, but it wasn't up to Brazil. There are ways that Brazil

can undermine, if the U.S. goes in and establishes a presence, Brazil can easily help undermine that U.S. presence in Venezuela. The border with Venezuela is uncontrollable. I mean, you're a triple canopy jungle, rough rural areas, and the United States simply doesn't have enough personnel to control it or control it. Nicos asks, Mr. Johnson, my fellow Greeks think that Putin isn't assertive enough. Unless Russia uses nukes at the U.S., how can they stop the intelligence operations? Well, well, let's go back to a point that Alexander was making earlier, that the U.S. approach is, If we just get rid of this one guy, just get rid of the one guy.

Everything will be okay. So get rid of a DM in Vietnam, get rid of Muammar Gaddafi, get rid of Saddam Hussein, get rid of Manuel Noriega, and everything will be okay. But the craziest one is, let's get rid of Vladimir Putin. Let's get rid of the guy who is a calm, rational analyst, who doesn't get emotional. Yes, at times he can demonstrate emotion, but he tries to think very unemotionally and strategically. And let's get rid of him so we can replace him with medvedev. Now, I like medvedev.

I'm sort of a similar personality type as he is. But again, this shows how short-sighted that the Western narrative is, God, if we just get rid of Putin, everything will be okay. And that just highlights the ignorance, the stupidity of the Western approach to this, because it's not only just simplistic thinking, it's fundamentally wrong. Fuzzy Ball says, does Larry think that Russia and China had knowledge beforehand because China was allowed to break down and remove all their mining and refining equipment? Russia and China ended up with almost 99% of Venezuela's silver reserve.

Yes, I've seen that story circulating. I don't think it's true. There is a lot of information or misinformation being put out. I posted a video last night at Sunar-21, someone named Scott Lucas, who reportedly was saying that there's this Chinese money man that was arrested by Venezuelan intelligence at 347 in the morning on January 2nd. about 22 hours before the US invaded. And then when you really look at it, it is a number of predictions made. It was an AI fake. And yet it was creating a very, it sounded like plausible narrative. So there is a lot of disinformation being put out.

And some of it's being done by intelligence organizations of countries, I'm sure. Others may be done by just pretty creative folks who have time on their hand and are frustrated script writers. Mama Alaska says thank you, Duran and Larry, for all you do. Happy New Year. Thank you, Mama Alaska for that.

And from Fuzzy Ball's question for Larry, what was the last number of total KIA and MIA that he has heard? Yeah, in Venezuela. I imagine in Venezuela. Yeah, the last number I heard was 80. And again, the lack of information, the only one who's actually, you know, I've seen that RT's been pretty good. They've got one of their correspondence who normally covers the war in Ukraine. He's there.

And he's showing a lot of the damage that was done to non-military targets, which again highlights. It calls into question, you know, the U.S. claims about high precision strikes. but we have not seen the images of grieving relatives. You know, I've heard two different stories. Eve Smith flagged to me that there was the, that she had been hearing that there was Wagner group had been sent in to provide security. Then we hear that it was Cubans,

and we've heard there were 32 dead Cubans, then 40 dead Cubans. So we still don't really have a good picture of what went on. All we know is that Maduro and his wife were taken ultimately to New York City, and they were arraigned, and they both pleaded not guilty. And, you know, I think Pepe Escobar's had the best observation on this. He says that the North Americans don't understand how much that's going to resonate throughout Central and South America. And I think he's absolutely correct.

Tapato Matato says if Rodriguez is not. one of the plotters, and maybe even if she is and doesn't plan to be completely compliant to the U.S., she desperately needs to find some way to remove those who were. Yeah, I mean, well, number one, she is the natural choice as vice president to succeed Maduro. So they've at least, if you will, I think are following the Bolivian constitution, or excuse me, the Venezuelan constitution. There is, there are people still in the Venezuelan government

that are, let's call them, intelligence assets of the United States. And it's going to, and she's going to have to figure out who to trust. I mean, it's, it's, so, all of this argues that there's going to be some more chaos out of Venezuela, not less. Vincent says,

Hey, Larry, what do you think about the saying once in the CIA, always in the CIA, what is the process like to actually lead? Surely they must put some sort of restrictions on you, thanks. Yeah, well, so when I left 1989 and moved to state and counterterrorism, I had to sign, you know, they gave me at the time a description of what I could say I did, what my jobs were. Well, over, but this once in the CIA, always in the CIA, I'm not sure what that means. Does it mean that I am, you know, supporter of the policies the CIA is pursuing? Well, I've been pretty vocal and outspoken over about it for over 20 years.

You know, so, and I'm still, I didn't stay at CIA long enough to get a pension and you know it's one of those things that there are a lot there are a lot of honorable people that have served at the CIA to get out and and they're able to talk about the problems you know I don't I don't get into specific sources and methods but by God I can I can talk about the bureaucratic process and how you know human frailties end up playing a very important role in a lot of decisions and how the process works. So if I'm a tool of the CIA, I must be doing a pretty bad job. Can I just quickly say something here? I mean, one of the most important sources of analysis and information that exists in the United States now is an organization called Veterans

Intelligence Professionals for sanity, which brings together people who have worked in the U.S. intelligence community. I believe, in fact, I can say, Larry is one of those people. And it is been enormously educational and instructive to me to read their analyses. They have been stellar. I remember them from before the Iraq war when they strongly advised against it, for example. And if you really want to get good analysis, go there. And that will certainly refute any assumption that once in the CIA, always at the CIA, whatever. of that means. Zareel asks, Larry, I hear that silver is also a reason.

Is this true? Yeah, you know, and hi Zareel. We had to chat with him yesterday. I don't think so. Again, that's one of the storylines that's been put out. But I think this, I think really this has more to do with the U.S. trying to both send a message of it's not going to tolerate any. interference by China and Russia in the Western Hemisphere and in preparation for going after Iran.

This is, you know, I frankly, I think the Trump administration is out of control and is in need of an intervention to stop it. But J.D. Vance, at least, has been trying, and he's been one of those lone voices trying to speak out. but I think he understands the kind of damage Trump is doing to the MAGA movement right now, that it is deeply divided. And if they're counting upon them to go for an election, they're going to be in trouble. Sparky says, Larry, seems like Richard Grinnell had the details worked out,

except Maduro wouldn't step down immediately. By abducting Maduro and keeping the government in place, Maduro didn't step down. and President Trump gets one over on Maduro, a Trump-style win-win. Maduro's tied up in court for two years, wins, returns to office, then retires. Like FDR saying, I agree, but you have to make me do it.

Well, if, from the sounds of it so far, and we'll wait and see if she, Delci Rodriguez, the acting president, if she continues the policies of the, the Maduro regime. There was, in fact, I think it was actually Alexander was commenting on this the other day, that Delsey has actually been one of the ones doing something substantively in trying to improve the economy and that there have been significant improvements under her.

So she continues that and continues cultivating relations with Russia and China. I'm not sure what Trump is won here, except angering a significant segment of the Venezuelan population. This outside interference never works. You may have a Pyrrhic victory early on, but ultimately it ends up rallying people who otherwise might have opposed Maduro, particularly if the United States ends up killing some people.

Look, I saw that back in Panama. That is like 2001. And we were doing an investigation of products that were being smuggled out of a little port called Cocoa Solo in the Cologne, free zone area. And I got talking to this one woman who worked at this little port. And she began telling me the story of how the United States had killed two of her children in 1989. You know, and, you know, what was interesting, she didn't, she didn't have anger towards me as an American. But the pain and suffering that that caused, you know,

this was, you know, 12 years after that event, it was still fresh for her. And that's always stuck with me. Because in these kinds of, you know, we do this raw, raw military operation, oh, look how great we were. I'm sure we killed some civilians. And there's no justice.

for that at all. But, you know, the United States, unfortunately, we've, one of the my big motivations for speaking out is when you look at the history of the United States, starting with Vietnam, in the ensuing now 66 years, we have been a malevolent force for hurting people, not helping people. And we always do it in the name of it, that we're trying to uphold democracy or whatever. But the human cost,

the blood that's been shed. It was entirely avoidable, but we do it just recklessly. And it's not just Trump. I mean, let's emphasize, this is not an anti-Trump's greed. Barack Obama did it. Joe Biden did it.

George W. Bush did it. Bill Clinton did it. George H.W. Bush did it. Ronald Reagan did. in it. It has become a nasty American habit, and I'm hoping we can break that. Sparky says, Larry, don't forget Paul Singer, the big Trump donor who bought Venezuelan debt for pennies on the dollar. He needed to get paid. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm always a big believer. Follow the money.

Look at who's getting paid. Look at who stands to profit. Yeah. From Jeffrey Brown, the whole thing makes me sad for the world, but mostly for the U.S. Yeah, I show that sentiment. And from Gundy regarding Greenland, Europe's NATO Article 5 threat is about ripping apart the illusion of NATO's unity, not about armed conflict between the U.S. and Europe. If Greenland is taken, then NATO will end. Well, I think it's going to be tough to make the case for NATO unity after that. Sparky says, Larry, make Ukraine, Russia again, don't leave a rump state called Ukraine, at least it remain a NATO playground, a carpetbaggers money, laundry, and a black rock property.

Well, look, that's what Trump and his team, and actually the intelligence community has failed to understand that Russia, this is not about territory for Russia. This is about securing Russia's borders and its own intelligence. internal security against a voracious NATO that have been expanding to the east with one intent. They did, they created the Ukrainian military establishment for the express purpose of attacking Russia, hoping that they would defeat Russia and then the West could take over and get back to, you know, what it was like in the 90s when Western oligarchs could control Russian resources. Lisa says the CIA and DEA control the drug supply.

and demand plus the weapon supply in Latin America. They know well is a huge business, but U.S. likes blaming others for problems they created themselves. Yeah, now, DEA doesn't control. I know that for just my own, you know, my two partners that I've worked with over 30 years. And one of them, you know, what was the DEA attaché in Costa Rica

when there was smuggling by the contras, the aid and Postera crew of smuggling cocaine into the United States. That did take place. It wasn't a CIA plan per se, but the CIA did interfere and prevent, you know, my former partner from taking action against those shipments. So, yeah, the CIA doesn't have clean hands in this.

And, you know, John Kyriaku has testified that, on a trip once to Afghanistan, he was talking to a poppy, farmer and the poppy farmer said, hey, you know, you Americans told me to keep this up because they wanted, wanted us to produce heroin who could ship into Iran and Russia in order to hurt those countries. So, you know, on that front, the CIA doesn't have clean hands. Sparky says, Larry, the scourge of fentanyl was released upon America by the FDA when they changed it from clinical use only to take home drug. Mere absent-minded accidental overdose is huge.

F the FDA. I'm not sure it was ever cleared as a take-home drug. You know, my wife is a nurse, boy, you know, over 40 years, and she worked a critical care unit where they use fentanyl. Ventanol would be used, but you had to be very, very, very careful with, you know, how much, because it can easily kill people. So I don't see how that could be a take-home. I don't think that's true.

From Samuel Maroney, was the famous question. Quantico meeting about Venezuela. I'm not sure which meeting. I don't know if Larry or Alexander, you know. Yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah, what Quantico? I wanted to see Matt Mar-a-Lago. Or Mar-a-Lago?

Yeah, maybe Mar-Lago. Samuel, if you can put it in the chat, which meeting you're referring to, and we'll get back to that question. From, let's see here. from Lao Lao Levi is it possible that Maduro will be released yes yeah um particularly you know if if they were going to go after him on the drug charges um the existing and uh alexander and i are the same mind the existing indictment that was put out there's just a joke i mean

it's a guilt by association the kind of thing you'd expect to see in an indictment about drug trafficking is that on December 15th at 9 a.m. in the morning, Nicholas Maduro met with X, Y, and Z. And there was a X amount of dollars of money was delivered and then deposited in this bank. You know, you'd get that kind of evidence. Instead, it was like, oh, he knows these guys from Park and ELN. Okay. That's not proof. But then when they got into the arraignment, Again, I have not seen the full arraignment, but if Simplicius is correct, they dropped all the narco-terrorism nonsense and then said, oh, yeah, we're charging you with stealing oil. So now the U.S. government is carrying oil for Exxon, not the first time in our history. Well, they've admitted that the whole cartel thing was bogus as well.

I don't know if you guys saw that announcement. Yeah, no. Cartel de los solas. They changed the indictment. Yeah. Yeah. There's no, there was no, like, cartel that was existing today. So they won't.

Let me just change things up. My wife just passed me a note. She said, there are fentanyl patches that are used by patients so they can get, but those are by prescription. And so the, you know, the fentanyl patches, they help people control pain and such. Yeah, she keeps me. straight. All right.

From fragments of the USSR, Trump, we will control Venezuela. Venezuela elites. Hold on. We agree on Maduro only. The country and oil will cost extra. Well, it's important. Look, it's important to understand. CIA has had a long relationship.

You know, when I was at the agency, I was told, I didn't see any classified document to this effect. But, you know, when you're at lunch with people and they start talking, the time they're saying, hey, Carlos Andres Perez, he's on the payroll. And so he was the former president of who was then the active president of Venezuela. Well, it was the CIA asset, I was told.

Well, when one of the things that led to the rise of Chavez was the terrible state of the economy, because at the time, whatever oil Exxon was taken out of the country, it wasn't getting reinvested in Venezuela. It wasn't being used to improve the lives of the people. I mean, look, at least the Saudis, they get all this oil wealth. They spread the wealth among the people of Saudi Arabia. They don't just keep it for themselves. But that didn't happen in Venezuela and has created some real economic challenges. One more for Larry from Sparky.

Larry, maybe I'm misremembering about the FDA's reclassification of fentanyl. Dad was a pharmacist worth checking into in any case, F the FDA. Yeah, well. Thank you, Sparky for that. All right, Larry Jotson, once again, on the Duran. And once again, Larry, where can people find you? I write at sonar21.com, and from there you can find links to other places. Larry, Larry, thank you very much for coming.

And it's been a wonderful program and happy new year, by the way. Well, you guys just saved me an hour today because, you know, normally I'd be spending that hour watching you doing this. It's good to do it from the front row. Always a pleasure to have you on. Larry, let's get together again real soon and do another show. Larry, thank you so much for joining us. The links to Sonar 21 are in the description box down below,

and I will land them as a pit comment. All right. Thanks so much, guys. Happy New Year to all. Happy New Year. Take care. Alexander, are you with us? Oh, absolutely.

Great show, by the way. and excellent questions, and I'm sure there's more. Yes, we have some more questions to get to. Fragments of the USSR says, Hello, Duran. Would you consider having a stream with Alexi Pilko from the Filipowski 13 YouTube channel? He's an amazing political analyst.

Okay, yes. I don't know this person, but absolutely, I'm prepared to look into it. Send us Alexi's info, and absolutely, yeah. Let's go to Heroku. Thank you for that super chat. From Nikos, you talked about deterrence, but as I have told you, there was never a deterrence. It is people who are willing to do anything to win, even nuclear war.

The elites need Russia's resources. As Alistair Crook has said, if they can't rule the world, they are willing to destroy it. Putin is afraid of that. Well, again, I think this is a point. I do need to make Nikos. I mean, Russia has shown that it is fully able to deter that kind of attack against itself. It's got very, very powerful military. It's got nuclear weapons.

It's got a stable political system. It's got extremely well-organized intelligence services. It's got a big and very strong economy. one cannot say that Russia doesn't have deterrence. Maybe, and I think this is a good point, and it's one that Alex has made and that I agree with, maybe Vladimir Putin did drop the ball in November 2024 when the Biden administration launched missile strikes against Russia. And because Putin thought at that time that he was going to be able to get something sorted out with Trump, he didn't react as strongly as he should have done.

But in other respects, the Russians do have deterrence, and they've shown that they have deterrence. And that is why they are in contention. If we're looking at the last 25 years, every year, they become stronger. So I absolutely think the Russians have deterrence. I absolutely think the Chinese have deterrence. They've shown that they have deterrent abilities, where economic warfare is waged against them as well.

When there was the trade clashes last year, the Chinese basically brought the Americans into line by cutting off rare earths and doing those things. A country like Venezuela, far away from the Eurasian landmass, far away from China and Russia, does not have the same kind of deterrence as they do. And that, I'm afraid, is the reality.

and that is the reality or small powers or small countries must face if faced by a predatory confrontational great power. Now, Venezuela could have done things, in my opinion, that might have strengthened its deterrence further. But the problems that Venezuela faces are general to the region, to Latin America, altogether. and perhaps one shouldn't be too hard on Venezuela specifically, given that no part of the Latin American region, apart perhaps from Cuba, has been able to show that kind of deterrence against the United States up till now.

Nico says Putin knows the U.S. is behind all the attacks because of their greatest weapon, intelligence network and money, but be realistic. What can he do? Russia cannot hurt the U.S. They are too far and conventional weapons can't stop their intelligence grid and basis. So there's only one option. Well, can I just say something? I think the Russians are probably hurting the US in all kinds of ways,

and they're hurting the Europeans very obviously in the sense that the economic war has worked to their advantage. And it's not worked at the advantage of the United States, and especially not to the advantage of the Europeans. and the cost of living's crisis in the United States basically ended Biden's political career and lost the Democrats, the presidency. Also, there are probably quite plausibly all sorts of things going on in the world,

which we can't really talk about because we don't know very much about. The Russians do have intelligence agencies of their own. They're probably operating in many places. We can't say fully what, they do and what they don't do. And we shouldn't really speculate about them. But to suggest that the only way that the Russians can deter the Americans is by starting a nuclear war is going altogether far too far. The special military operation itself is a form of deterrence.

Big Simpson says, is the USA attacking all the countries that supply oil to China? Yes, to some extent. I mean, Iran, Venezuela, obviously. But of course, they can't attack, and this but takes us back to Nicholas' point. They can't attack what is by far the most important one, which is Russia. because Russia is itself a great power and a nuclear power. What all of these operations are doing is making Russia more important for China and strengthening the alliance between them

and demonstrating to the Chinese that they need the Russians and therefore making the Russians, putting the Russians in a stronger position relative to China. Just so. Nico says Levan is saying in every single video to strike the U.S. Telegram and Twitter are filled with accounts calling Putin weak for not nukeing the U.S. Russia responding to Europe or the U.S. conventionally won't stop the CIA and it will lead to World War III. As I said, the elites are willing to end the world. You answered my question in your last video.

They destroyed President Putin's legacy and the trust of people because not wanting World War III makes you weak. You said that Russia will need a more assertive leader. The only thing he could do is World War III, leading to nuclear war, which was, is and will be inevitable. Well, you can respond to that. I mean, what I said in my previous program is that I said that after the special military operation is concluded, after Putin himself has left the scene, which he will probably, well, he will inevitably at some point, it is highly likely that a much more powerful,

much more self-confident, much more empowered Russia will put behind it some of the insecurities that Putin himself has inherited from the period of the Soviet collapse and which he has to a great extent cured and that it will have a more assertive leaser as a result, and one who is less interested in good relations with the Americans than Putin himself is. But talk about Russia conducting attacks on the United States

and initiating nuclear war against the United States. I think that is deeply unhelpful, if I may say. I think that nuclear war is something that nobody can win from and threatening the United States with nuclear war, I can tell you, he's not going to make the situation in the world more stable or make the Americans less aggressive. It's going to make them more aggressive and more frightened and more paranoid in exactly the way that Larry Johnson was saying.

What a war la clander. Thank you for that super sticker. And from... low there, 9-889. Russia and China were caught sleeping at the wheel last time when it came to Iran. Will it happen again if Iran is next on the chopping block? No, I don't think so.

I think that Russia and China will be very reactive. But again, to repeat the point, which I've made in many, many, many programs, it wasn't China and Russia that got, were asleep at the wheel when Israel and the United States attacked Iran, or at least if they were asleep at the wheel, they weren't in a major way

asleep at the wheel. The country that was asleep at the wheel was Iran itself. I mean, I find it astonishing that the Americans were writing articles in their media saying that an attack

against Iran was coming that there'd been discussions between the administration and the Israelis and the Israelis were preparing to attack Iran. And despite that, the Iranians, the Iranians,

themselves didn't appear to expect it, which is one reason why so many top Iranian officials on the first day were killed. Now, I don't believe that the Iranians are going to make that mistake again. Nicholas Walker says, happy New Year. To all, are we seeing, have we seen the start of World War III? Is China and Russia planning retaliation or riding out the storm? World War III in connection with what? An attack the 18th? the attack on Venezuela. I don't think that goes anywhere close to starting World War III. I mean, Venezuela was a friendly country in relation to Russia and China. It was a trade partner. It wasn't a member of Bricks. It's not a formal ally. And to repeat again, the point that we've made

over the course of this program. Somewhat, to my surprise, the government of Venezuela has held together and remains in place. At this moment in time, at this precise moment in time, this operation that the United States carried out against Venezuela is starting to look to me more like a debacle than a success, one in which you get Madero out, take him to the United States. the United States, putting through what I expect will be a show trial in New York, but nothing else substantively in Venezuela changes. Now that would not be a success in any way for the United States. And of course, it would instead get a crisis in Venezuela and the government there starts to

disintegrate because they all no longer trust each other and there's no longer Maduro to hold it together. I don't think that's a successor of the United States. I think that's a bigger problem for the United States. More migration flows, less control over the oil, more spread of violence across South America, empowering of insurgences in Colombia and other places. So, you know, this is not something which I think the Russians and the Chinese feel compelled to react to in that way.

Venezuela still is. friend of Russia and China and these countries. Exactly. It still is. And according to Politico, Trump is demanding that Delci Rodriguez start kicking out Iranian and Cuban operators. She does stuff with drug flows.

And of course, with the oil. He keeps on talking about the oil. And he's demanding that Delci Rodriguez do something about it. This is where we are at the moment. And we also have reports that Trump wants, once he puts enough pressure on Rodriguez to do these things, we're getting reports saying that Trump would then get rid of Rodriguez and then he wants an election. This seems to be the plan, if he even want to call this a plan? Yes, yes.

That's where we are. He wants, he wants Delci Rodriguez to cooperate with him in order to engineer her own political destruction. It's an interesting plan. I'm not saying it's inconceivable that it might work, but for the moment it's not. Now, I mean, again, the debate that took place yesterday, Venezuela, China and Russia all still seem to be very much on the same side. Now, this is far from played out.

We don't know how it's going to play out. We'll just have to wait and see. But even if Trump gets everything that he wants in Venezuela in the short term, I don't think he's got a success, a long-term success. I think he's got a problem. He's not going to get oil from Venezuela in anything like the quantities that he expects. He's going to have another broken society on his hands and another problem for the United States. People like Mark Singer will be happy.

But I can't see that it is. useful for the United States for the U.S. military to become Mark Singer's collection of Paul. I think it's Paul. Paul Singer. Paul Singer. I'm so sorry. I think so. Mark Singer was an actor. I think you're asking Paul Singer. It would not be to the, it's not for the U.S. military and for the U.S. government to act as he's collectors, his debt collectors. If that's what they have essentially become. Linda says, does the U.S. delivery of F-35s to Turkey give them a permanent military advantage over Greece and Iran. Greece and Iran.

Very, very good question. I mean, Greece should be worried about it. What Iran will do is another matter. I mean, Iran, and I say this again, we come back to who was asleep at the wheel. I made this point many times. Iran received many offers of assistance from both China and Russia. And it was very reluctant to accept them. didn't in fact accept them and that was one of the reasons why it was caught unprepared in june now especially

if f-35s turn up in turkey the iranians might decide to start changing and adapting their policies now iran and turkey have a complex relationship they're not exactly friends they're not exactly enemies. There's no history of conflict, recent conflict between them. Iran, by the way, opposed the coup against Erdogan that took place in 2016. So, you know, if the F-35s are possessed by Turkey, it's not an immediate security crisis for Iran. From Rumble, where does the, one second, I lost it. Okay. From BBWIO, where does the W-E-F fit into this?

Well, where does it? It's everywhere and nowhere, if I can say. I think in terms of Venezuela, in terms of what's been done there, I get to tell you something, I think they're not at all happy. They don't like this talk about spheres of influence and things of that kind. From their point of view, it is. the United States retreating from globalization into a hemispheric empire. That goes very much against the ideology of the WEF,

which is, as I've pointed out many times, a European-based institution. Russell Hall says Trump's erratic behavior may be due to age or a realization that the American economy is worse off than is acknowledged. but I also wonder what sort of chemical cocktail his doctors have him on. Good questions to which of course I can't by definition give you answers. I don't know about his health condition. I don't know about the kind of the best. Well he says it's the best.

To me, to me, to me, and I have to say this, I mean, I will say this, he certainly looks older, he certainly looks more tired and his language does seem to me less coherent than it was. But that may be simply a result of extreme fatigue because Trump keeps himself far too busy, trying to do far too many things and not doing them or any of them particularly well. I mean. And he's old. So it's your result. Nico says a reliable Russian friend who is close to officers has told me that the losses are 750K and they are hiding them.

Is this why Europe persists? Well, I mean, that's the story that's getting around, but I get to tell you this. I am sure that figure is wrong, and I've got many reasons for thinking that. You know the figures. I know the biggest. I know. But you never say. You don't say.

I know. I know. You can I also say, I mean, the media zone of figures for what they're worth. Anyway, also contradict that picture as well. Alexander knows the numbers. He does. The hockey goalie. I'm guessing a snatch and grab on BB is now legit in Trump's eyes.

I don't like it, but this event just further proves international law is only for the weak and naive, rules for thee and not for me. Well, international law is a nebulous, complex thing, if I may say so. And obviously, obviously we have to be realistic and understand that the world works in particular ways. and that law, international law, is never a particularly strong restraining force, but simply throwing all aside, saying that it really doesn't matter anymore, that none of the institutions that make up international law amount to anything is something that is going to create alarm and fear amongst many countries, because they will say to themselves,

we are dealing not with a country that is in some ways predictable, and which adheres to certain conventions of behavior, which makes it easier that we can work with, but we're dealing with a rogue out-of-control superpower. And what that means is we have to find other friends who can help us to protect ourselves from it. That is going to be the major message that many countries around the world take. Richard Weddington, welcome to Drank Community,

the alchemist says, gentlemen, my uncle just became UN Commissioner Rob Salah. I'll pass along the suggestion to release Maduro. Results not guaranteed. Absolutely. Good.

Nico says Rubio told U.S. citizens to leave Russia due to an imminent terrorist attack. Meanwhile, the U.S. is arming Taiwan with anti-ship missiles and drones. Well, again, about the United States arming Taiwan with anti-ship missiles. One of the things that has become very

clear to me as a result of the Ukraine war is that the United States simply doesn't have enough missiles to make a difference. And I've heard many people in the United States talk about this themselves, that the United States is desperately short of anti-ship missiles and the ones that it has, the harpoons and the tomahawks are not particularly effective against the kind of warships that the Chinese Navy makes up. I'm not an expert in these matters. But that's what I have read American analysts say about terrorist attacks in Russia. There have been many. We'll see what exactly it is that the United States actually knows.

Ms. Texas Chi question. I know that Russia and China are not inclined to such an action, but what would happen if Russia, China and other allies put some form of sanctions on the U.S.? Yes. They probably wouldn't do that for the simple reason. They wouldn't put big sanctions on the US because of course their entire legal argument, their whole legal case,

is that sanctions of that kind are only legal if they are authorized, authorised under Chapter 7 by the UN Security Council. So they won't want to undermine that position, at least not for the moment. But China does impose sanctions and it does on a fairly regular basis. It puts sanctions on individuals.

And of course, it didn't call it sanctions. But as we know, it restricted exports of rare earths last year. And that did cause a dramatic effect on American behavior. OMMRT says Brian Burletic argues that, contrary to your belief, the U.S. is actually increasing aggressions all over the planet to ensure world hegemony instead of just carving out their own sphere of influence. What would be your reply? I mean, I think that the problems are too great for the United States to pursue world hegemony in that kind of way.

I think that when the Americans themselves say, as they did in their recent strategic security strategy review, that it is beyond their power to do this, I think that this is, we must take this serious. because it is true. If nothing else, the events of 2025, not just 2025 in Ukraine, but the whole period of the special military operation has demonstrated that the United States cannot prevail against the Russians. And the events of 2025 showed that the United States cannot prevail against China economically. So I think that they are gradually accepting this.

But that isn't making them less aggressive. In some ways, it is making them more aggressive as they try to hold on to that which they believe they must have. Well, I would reply that the United States is changing the model. I think this falls in line with what Brian says as well, which is that they're outsourcing empire. For example, Europe, you deal with Russia as best you can, and then we'll see if we can put together some countries in Asia. can help us deal with China. Yes. So I think they definitely understand that as the United States on their own, yes.

They cannot rule the world, but perhaps if they can outsource this, then they can keep control. Yes. The problem with that kind of outsourcing is that it's the sort of thing that empires do when they're no longer that strong. If they cannot fight their wars themselves and they have to rely on allies and proxy, to do it for them, then they very quickly discovered that the countries that they are relying upon are either too weak and that exposes further the weakness of the Imperial Centre, or alternatively, they start to develop minds of their own and start to behave in ways that are independent of the imperial centre. That is the history of empire, which is of course something I'm fairly familiar,

with because it's exactly what the British tried to do in the early 20th century. Also don't underestimate the power of the information space. Yes. Which the US controls. Absolutely. The information space and also the intel agencies.

Yes. The the intel agencies and the information space, there the United States is matchless. I mean, the Russians and the Chinese in information terms are not even there. I mean, their

presence is so minimal. It barely, it doesn't effectively exist. Big Wyman, thank you for that super sticker. Matliss X says, could Trump go after the Panama Canal before he goes to Greenland? Well, quite possibly. Ask him at the moment.

I mean, he's giving a many of options. I mean, he's himself talking about his many of options. Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iran, who knows, why not Panama as well? It's up to him at the end of the day. He makes the choice. He's going after everything.

OMG, Mr. MRT says, would you agree with Professor Yang, who said on Glenn's recent podcast that the main goal of the Venezuelan operation is to damage China. Also, can you invite him for a stream? Well, we'd love to invite him from a stream, and I think we should do.

We had him on a stream. We have, we have, absolutely. That's what I meant. Absolutely. We certainly should. Yes, I think that if you listen to the rhetoric from the US, which I generally believe, by the way, that this whole thing is ultimately more about China, by the way,

than I think it is about Russia. I mean, again, the security strategy review said that the United States must prevent, must act to prevent economic connections developing between China. And the in whole of Latin America, And this is about securing Latin America, pushing out China, making China weaker, forcing the Chinese to give up Venezuelan oil. As I said, all that will do is make the Chinese more dependent on the Russians, which will make China, Russia, together, an even stronger block, which will cause the Americans more problems. Jeff Bickford, thank you for that.

Sparky says, no, we did that. Trump gets one over on Maduro. We got that one from Sparky. Nephretitis Fjord, thank you for that super sticker. Patricia, welcome to the Drand community. Hard spun says, as the empire contracts, containment of China will transition to an emerging Japanese-led First Island Alliance.

Is a Japanese force defrapp a CCP red line far? Well, I'm going to say this. If we have a situation of a renewed conflict between Japan and China, then that is an incredibly dangerous situation. It's dangerous for China, but it is even more dangerous for Japan itself. Its economy is, I read somewhere relative to that of China's. Today, it's about the same size that Taiwan's economy was relative to China's in 2000.

In other words, China economically and militarily, is far more powerful than Japan. So I think this would be a disaster for Japan. And I think it would be a mistake for Japan. And I hope that some way can be found back. Nefertitas Fjord, thank you for that super sticker. Sparky says, free the Dutch Antilles from Dutch tyranny and brutal impression probably would be almost as easy as free in Greenland from Danish tyranny. and brutal. Well, indeed, absolutely. And, you know, why not throwing Guadeloupe and Martinique,

which are French possessions in the Caribbean as well? You know, we can free all of these places from tyranny and bring them under the comforting umbrella of the United States. I mean, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if we start hearing more and more of this rhetoric now. Macron would not be happy. Daniel Morgan, every society gets, the kind of criminal it deserves, Robert Kennedy. Very good. Cousin Royale 2090. Welcome to the Duran community.

Linda says Iranians expect a better economy. The government is unable to control the inflation. Most prices of goods are still based on the dollar exchange rate. I agree. And I get to say something else. And here I'm saying more than I know. but what I personally think, I think that Justice Pezschgan has proved out of his depth

in handling the foreign policy and security crisis that we saw play out last year. I think that he has proved unable to rein in and bring under control the many problems of the economy. I mean, he's not, he seems to be very aligned with the more reformist fact. in the Iranian leadership. And contrary to what many people assume, they have consistently failed to run the economy well. And I suspect this is partly the cause of it. Of course, there are other factors. There's the sanctions.

There's the fall in the price of oil. But Iran is a big country with many resources. It should be able to ride a storm of that kind. And of course, it's got Brick's partners that it ought to have been developing close. relations with, economic relations with. Ladoshka gifted the Durand Five memberships. I'm not sure how that works the gifting of memberships, but thank you so much for that. Sparky 6086 says, let's hope Iran doesn't hold back if God forbid the need arises.

Well, again, if we go back to the 12-day war that happened in June, there were, if you remember, there was the pattern of missile and air attacks between the two countries. And it was absolutely clear that it was the Iranians towards the end who were winning the advantage. Empire, we are, says US policy is simply the policy of empire. Everything it does is driven by pure appetite and control. Yes, but there are empires that are skilled at concealing it and which therefore go on longer. and there are empires that have completely dropped the mask. It's never a good idea to drop the mask quite to the extent that has been done.

We're talking about, somebody quoted Robert Kennedy about countries getting the prisoners that they deserve, the criminals that they deserve. Well, what I will say is this. I mean, Trump has a habit too much of talking like a gangster from a Hollywood movie. I mean, he uses this kind of rhetoric too easily. I suspect at some level he thinks it makes him look tough. It doesn't make him look tough. But it doesn't make the United States look tough. It makes the United States look reckless and dangerous.

Sparky says since World War II, Denmark has allowed the U.S. to treat Greenland as its own. The U.S. could use it as a huge landfill. and Denmark would care. Maybe the U.S. thinks Denmark will change their attitude. Well, the way the Americans are talking is that they want an outright annexation of Greenland. Quite why. Again, I mean, I'm not really clear, but that's the way that they're talking. And it seems to me that this is now absolutely Trump's objective, and it's the course that he's going to follow. And obviously, for the Danes, losing Greenland is going to be a big psychological. shop. Few people lived there.

Few people from Denmark have ever been there. But to have this huge territory taken from Denmark by the United States is going to upset a lot of people in Denmark at that, I'm sure. Matthew says, what about you too? Are you now of the opinion that we are going to get this European smash?

Yes. I think so. A war. A war. A war. A war. I mean, I, Oh, oh, oh, that, oh, no, well. I guess that's what, yeah. If that is, if that is, the Europeans cannot fight a war against the Russians without the Americans involved. If the Americans don't want to be involved, it's not going to happen. And I don't think the Americans want to be involved. Peter, friends, welcome to the Duran community.

We answered that. Topato Matato says Smelly Butler vindicated once again. Sorry, can you repeat that again? Sorry. Smendley Butler, vindicated. Oh, yeah, absolutely. No, no, absolutely. I mean, going back to what we were saying about the U.S. military actoring

as the enforcement and collection arm of Paulson. That's true. And I'm sure it is, by the way. I have no doubt that that played a big role in this. And it's exactly what Smetley Butler was complained. about that he'd been forced to do back in the 1920s. Empire We Are says July 26, 1947, America's Real Day of Infamy. Alexi Pilko, we answered that to get him on a podcast.

Elza says, Corina Machado was built up for years to take over the country and then it was taken away from her like candy from a baby. But she's still kissing up to Trump. Can she start a new career? Who knows? She, she, despite the fact that she has to talk to Trump about Trump in that way, she looks very upset to me. And I'm going to tell you something else. The Europeans and particularly the British are very, very unhappy about it because the British in particular had invested an awful lot in Machado. They were absolutely expecting that she would be the person who,

however this was arranged in Venezuela, would eventually come in and take control. they arranged for her to get the Nobel Peace Prize. That's how invested they were in it. Absolutely, absolutely. So I mean, you can suddenly be told, well, actually, that's not the idea after all, and it'll be Rodriguez instead. And Machado nowhere, and the Americans will get it. All that really does leave many people in London, very unhappy.

Didn't they realize that Trump wanted the Nobel Peace Prize? I mean, he was talking about it for so long. Did it? Did it? and all the people that were orchestrating Machado to get the Nobel Peace Prize, sit back and say, well, Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize. If we're good to Machado, then Trump's going to be upset with Machado, and maybe Machado won't get what she wants with her.

No, they didn't think that. I mean, they didn't, they didn't understand it, and they didn't think that. They always, especially in London, they always assume, this goes beyond Trump, by the way, they always assume that they have more influence and ability to control American policy than they really do. Sparky says Monroe Doctrine was anti-European colonialism, so was Simone Bolivar. It's ironic the Monroe Doctrines seemingly used or at least referenced to justify taken over a Bolivarian Republic Venezuela.

Well, quite so. I would say that Bolivar himself, who was an extraordinary and heroic man, very decent man, began to develop suspicions of the United States. towards the end of his life. He'd been very, very admiring of the United States up to then, but he began to worry that in time the United States might become a threat to Latin American independence, which is, of course, the cause that he gave his life to.

Russell Hall says, don't forget to keep an eye on Rumble. Yes, I am, Russell. Got your question on Rumble. Thank you so much. Nico says, I did the math. And on February 13, 2009, Vladimir Putin will officially surpass Joseph Stalin as Russia's longest serving leader since the Soviet times. Well, indeed, of course, there's always a question of when exactly did Stalin become Soviet leader?

Because did he do this when Lenin died directly after Lenin died? Because there seemed to be a period of power struggle in the 20s. So was it in 28? Was it in 34, as some people are said? So there's always these questions about the Soviet period. Just saying. Sammy says Venezuela themselves gave up Maduro and we have no clue what the heck. What? Sorry, we have no clue what the back room deals were.

Bricks cannot do anything if the nation gives up their leaders. Well, that is obviously true and it's a very good point and thank you for making it. I mean, if there is that kind of betrayal within a country, which it clearly has been, by the I didn't get anybody disputes. Then, as I said, what are people in Beijing and Moscow expected to do about that? Kevin Young Bleds-beats, gifted the Duran five memberships. Thank you for that. Polly says, so happy the Duran's, so happy with the Duran's view on political matters.

Thank you, Holly for that. Nico says, I'm sorry for being bitter. My fellow Greeks, it's just such a depressing world, but good news. I fixed my profile. Hope you liked the 80 euros. Happy New Year. Thank you. Thank you for that, Nichols.

Well, it is a bleak and bad world, but to repeat again, point which Grams she once made, in a period of transition, morbid symptoms appear, and we have to live through them. But that doesn't mean that the transition might not lead us to better things.

I believe and hope and want to believe that it will. Sammy says, sorry for the spelling error. Thank you, Sammy, for that. Tai Ferrari says, Hi, guys, do you think China needs a war to be combat ready instead of the training? Well, that's a very good question. I mean, I don't know what the real abilities of the Chinese military are.

I hope it is never used in action. I don't think any country needs wars. But there's no doubt at all that wars do make armies more efficient, the Navy is more efficient. And it's often said that the China. military doesn't have the kind of combat experience that the Americans have and which the Russians now have to an even greater degree. Do abscondis says Bricks should be organizing a short-term loan to allow Iran to stabilize its

economy while more enduring arrangements are put in place. But where is books? Well, the reason, I'm going to make a suggestion with the probable reason something like that isn't happening is because they're not confident that Peziscan and his ministers would use that loan properly. I mean, that's always the problem when you're negotiating these kind of loans. And I'm not even sure, and I haven't even heard, that Peziscan has sought a loan like that. Persishan became president of Iran very much on an agenda of improving relations with the West. He still comes from within that section of Iranian society that still believes that the way for Iran is to develop a long, good, stable relationship with the West, with the United States, and even more with Europe.

by the A. Z. Mary says the U.S. needs more oil because otherwise it will have to let in Chinese electric car makers and also completely rebuild the electric grid. Well, again, I know that these are the kind of arguments that exist in the United They do, by the way.

I mean, American political leaders think in these terms all of the time. I don't accept those arguments. I think that if the United States wanted to develop its own industries and its own manufacturing. It has all of the resources to do it. It could build car factories. If electric cars are the solution,

it can build more electric cars. After all, it was an American company, Tesla, that basically pioneered the modern electric car. So, of course, the United States can do this. I mean, going out, seizing oil from countries like, Venezuela, which will, if it ever is produced in the kind of volumes that people are talking about, will simply compete with America's own oil industry. That doesn't seem to me to be a sensible, a wise way forward. Sparky says Trump could have the Venezuelan issue worked out like pro wrestling,

where Rodriguez is publicly defiant of Yankee Trump, Venezuelan intervention, while Grinnell's agreements are quietly implemented. Well, of course, and that's what many people believe. And it's what I generally believed until yesterday. Today, I have to say, I am not so sure. I get the sense that Rodriguez is not quite as owned by the Americans, as I thought. We've had this information from Larry Johnson, which is that she was not part of this, you know, plot. basically. So, you know, we'll have to see. But everything is in flux and I'm not going to

pretend that I know for certain what is going to happen in Venezuela within the next few weeks and months and a year or so. Kevin Young Bleds beats says, don't we really need a repeat of a 21st century blitz? Can Duran put together objective facts point debunking oil lie all lies nonsense that the Russian invasion was unprovoked. Oh, absolutely. We can do much of this. Of course, this requires a lot of hard work. But on the oil questions, I mean, we've already said quite a lot on our various programs. And of course, on the Russian ball, we said an awful lot more about that too. And the fact that it wasn't unprovoked and it's absurd to claim that it was.

Kevin Young Bloods Beats says, I agree with Brian, they will do it anyway, no matter what continuity of agenda division of labor strategic sequencing. Yes, as I said, I don't doubt at all that there is a continuity of agenda pursued by some people in Washington. Though I do myself think that there is now an alternative view, which by the way, I should make clear, I don't think is the dominant one. I think the dominant faction in the United States remains the neocons. And I do believe that they are still pursuing neocon policies everywhere all the time and in every place. But I do believe that there is an alternative faction, which says let's focus on spheres of influence. And it is ascendant within the current administration. But to repeat again, outsourcing empire.

isn't something that works. It's a sign of weakness when empires do it. And it is when it happens, an infallible sign that an empire is starting to break down. The Romans also tried it, by the way, and it didn't work well for them either. Paul Walker says cover for the Epstein files, question mark. Well, probably.

I mean, I'm sure that there is a need to change the, topic of discussion and what we've seen over the last week does that. Kevin Young bleeds beats gifted the Duran five memberships. Cool. Thank you for that. Rustabout says, will we see the rise of Germany as the EU turns against the USA? No. Germany's decline has accelerated.

The latest economic use from Germany for the month of December was 10, terrible, and the situation there goes from bad to worse, ever faster. We should do another program about Germany fairly soon. I mean, this is an economic catastrophe on a scale that I have never seen. I mean, I've heard many people complain long and bitterly about the recession that came with Margaret Thatcher's premiership, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. that happened in the first years of her premiership. There's lots of questions about whether she caused it or whether she ended it or what.

All I'm saying is it's very much part of English British folklore that this recession was, you know, a huge prolonged, devastating social event. The German recession has been longer and deeper than that one was. And I just make that point so that people in Britain understand. Salimullah says, would like to know your opinion on Yemen and the GCC. Well, that is a hugely interesting one because it looks as if the UAE and Saudi Arabia are now backing different sides in Yemen. And that there's now that the UAE is now trying to divide Yemen and trying to recreate South, the former republic, far former socialist republic, by the way, of South Yemen, and that this has angered the Saudis

and that the alliance between the UAE and Saudi Arabia is cracking. So it's an interesting story, MBS versus MBZ. MBZ is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. MBS is, of course, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. it's a developing and very, very interesting story. And of course, I'm going to make a prediction that the Yemeni factions will manipulate the two Gulf leaders for all its worth.

And I would not be surprised if at the end of it, the Yemenis themselves come together. And it's the Gulf states that become divided. But it's a very, very interesting story. And there's even talk now that there might even be a war between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Then I don't believe that. Empire, we are, zero one, says, in the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world's media and many European media.

Vladimir Putin, February 4, 2020. He said that to Tucker Carlson. He's absolutely, I mean, that's absolutely right. I still think the Russians could do an awful lot more, by the way. Just saying. But, I mean, there's no doubt at all that. Fundamentally, that is true. Twilight R6, U says,

why didn't Russia alert Iran before the attacks? Other countries were notified beforehand and Russian intelligence surely picked that up. Well, again, perhaps they did. But the point is that the Iranians didn't need a warning from Russia because the warnings were there all over the American media. I mean, that was what really astonished me about this,

why Iran was caught so unprepared. Because all of the warnings were there. The warnings are back. Lindsay Graham is wearing Make Iran Great Again hats. Exactly, exactly. On TV, on Fox News. Trump is signing those hats. Exactly.

The warnings are back, yeah. Again, I quickly say this. I mean, again, I wouldn't put all the blame for everything on Bezos Gun. But I do wonder whether, as I said, if the previous president, and Dhabraeim Raezi, who didn't like the Americans, had been there, whether those boardings would have been quite as casually ignored as they were with Peziscount. Bezos came in absolutely sure that somehow or rather he'd be able to improve the relations with the Americans. And I think he still has this illusion. Just a second.

Hello there. Says, do you have any predictions about who might take over after Putin? No, I'm not going to make any predictions. There's some talk in Russia that it will be a man called Dumin, who is an important figure in the presidential administration in Russia and who is a former special office forces soldier and who has strong ties with the military industrial complex and who is, of course, himself a military man. But he's not a member of the Security Council

and he's not, therefore, at the highest level of the Russian leadership. And I don't think one can guess and I don't want to. Anthony Witcher says, everybody, Duran, locals, programming is so bad, I can't post there anymore. I will be posting here

and on my substack from now on. Sorry to hear that. Thank you, Anthony, for that. Stalin Falcon. Thank you for the membership. Sparky says, It's a good thing. The U.S. never did that to Haiti.

Wait a minute. Didn't President Obama kidnap? Afterstead to Africa. Absolutely. Exactly. Yeah. There's nothing new about. What is different about this operation is the rhetoric that the United States has come up with.

I mean, Obama, of all people, knew how to spin these stories, that it was all done, positivity and freedom and to protect democracy. and all of that. Trump doesn't do any of this. And as I said, it is very unnerving for many countries around the world. In fact, Trump, as I said before, talks like a Hollywood gangster. I mean, it's he uses that kind of language. And it's not something that people expect from the president of the United States.

Stan Littman says, Wall Street prices for $3 trillion rollover was anti-Zionist Maduro, strategic retreat out of Russia's sphere, W. Lippman. From Linda, Iranian currency has been unraveling since Trump pulled out of Iran deal, and both conservatives and moderates have failed to stabilize the situation. Well, yeah, I mean, again, I want to stress, I'm not fully familiar with all of the facts in Iran, and I'll take heed of what you say. Certainly, Iran has been going through many problems.

And there's no doubt about it. I mean, the economy is not managed as efficiently as it could be. Iran has all of the resources to run a successful and strong currency, and it hasn't done so. Bose-John Palsik, thank you for that super sticker. Keith Al-Alkhas 7173, would a market crash slow down this rush to World War III? I am not hoping for one, but maybe it would buy breathing space or would it exacerbate things. Well, who knows? If there's a market crash, a big market crash, then of course that will dominate the news. And I suspect that a president faced with that would probably have to curtail

his foreign policies. Even as a distraction, it probably wouldn't work. Kevin Young Bleeds Beach says, Duran, so we're saying the UK. UK, EU definitely are all talk. We won't sleep, walk into another war with Russia. According to Brian, we will not act in our nation's interests. The US will feed the UK and EU into a proxy war. Well, again, I know this is Brian's view. I don't, I don't sense that there's any desire in Europe, certainly amongst the European public. There's not only no desire. There's strong opposition. I don't think the Europeans are capable of fighting a war against the Russians. They know that perfectly well.

And they will not do so unless they are confident that they can suck the Americans in. Sparky says, as long as they're plausibly ignorant of the plot, Rodriguez and Maduro don't need to be in with the plot. John Ski says this was about stabilizing the petro dollar and explaining to the world that the dollar is, the dollarizing oil will not be tolerated. There's a lot of truth in this, but at the same time, of course, bear in mind that in order to secure the petro dollar, you need a strong oil flow from Venezuela. And I'm saying it's not going to happen, not in the way the Trump imagines. The big country, the big oil exporter that is now selling oil outside the dollar system is

Russia. And the United States cannot do anything about that. From Winston Farnhard, result of empire action in Venezuela can only be assessed on the basis of its future economic relationship with Cuba, Russia and China. Well, yeah. Indeed. I mean, I should say another country that needs to make careful decisions about what it's going to do from now, one is Cuba. And the Cubans have had offers of help from Russia. And I suspect from China to, I know about the Russian ones. and it's not been enthusiastic about accepting them and given the history again, I can understand why. But, I mean, they should listen to what is coming out of Washington.

Just saying. Kevin Young Bleeds Beats says, Sorry, I meant to say, do we really need a repeat of the Blitz for the UK public to wake up? I post Iran clips on my insta, which is why I asked for short videos debunking lies about the Ukraine war. Well, okay.

I understand you. I mean, I think you're repeating it. You can notice it, people who talk about a European war, a war between Europe and Russia and the Europeans acting against the Russians by themselves, I think mostly are based either outside Europe or are not familiar with the realities, the actual military realities.

Our armies are in no condition to fight the Russians. We all know it. Even in the media in Britain, people talk about this. I agree with you. But you know the weird part about all of this is there are a lot of leaders in Europe, especially in the EU that do not know this, which is very bizarre. Which is very bizarre, yes. Yeah, because they should have all the inside information about the state of the militaries of every country in Europe.

Yes. And everyone knows who we're talking about. But they have no clue of the state of things. And they definitely want a war with Russia. Yes. Which is weird. The European armies are a lot weaker now than they were in February 2020. I mean, it's a strange thing to say because you hear all about arms buildups and all of that.

But it's true. And about the British army, I can say that definitely. and about the German army, I could say definitely too. The one army I know less about it's the French. Kevin Young Bleeds Beach says, okay, thanks to Rand Team. Appreciate you all very much. Thank you for answering our questions.

It does scare the living daylights out of me. It's a scary thing that we have, the leaders in Europe that do want conflict with Russia. And the big reason for that, Alexander, something we've said in the past many times. which is that a lot of the European leaders are informed by the media. Yes. And they believe the story's coming out of the media.

They really do. And they base their policy and a lot of their speeches and their statements on what the media is reporting. So when the media says that the Russia economy is falling and the Russian military is collapsing, they believe these things. Absolutely. I get this, I think else, of course, that the Europeans talk about war with Russia, in part so that they can suck the US in and keep it here. And of course, the Americas, what people also see from the outside, is all of this talk in Russia,

and they think that it's the Americans pushing the Europeans to fight Russia so that the Americans can themselves disengage. But these are conflicting things, and it won't happen. As for European politicians taking their information, from the media. I've just been in discussion with one of them, and I'm not going to name him. But you're absolutely right.

Yeah, I know. You're absolutely right. That base their policy on what CNN is riding and New York Times and the Washington Post. Yeah, you're absolutely right. To be fair, to be fair to the European politicians, Trump also bases a lot of his statements on what Fox News reports. Yes, exactly.

So there you have it, yeah. Red Panda Pi says any chance Maduro made a deal with the U.S. I don't think so. I would have thought that he wanted to make a deal. He had much better offers. He could have gone to Turkey or Russia or something about that. That would have been a deal. But the kind of deal that we see in which he's arrested and dragged off to a court in New York and kept in an American prison, that doesn't seem to me like the kind of deal that you would expect someone in Maduro's position to make. Anthony Witcher says, why shouldn't China capture Taiwan's leader and put her on trial for treason? That would not be as bad as what the U.S. is doing. Taiwan is not a sovereign country.

I've heard reports that Chinese social media is full of people say that that is exactly what China should now do. Sparky says, although President Trump saying the quiet part out loud is good in some ways, the realization of poor into U.S. geopolitical behavior is routine. sets the wrong example in normalizing it to the world. Yeah. I mean, what is telling everybody is, you know, we are bad, we know we're bad, we don't care. It's, it's a message that before, you know, Ronald Reagan or Kennedy or whomever, always knew how to package things. Remember what Alex said about the Americans having this decisive advantage in the information space?

This rips that away. The only president who did this to a certain extent before was Lyndon Johnson in the 60s, whom I well remember, by the way. And it didn't play out well for the United States at that time. Yep, agreed. And I think that is everything, Alexander. That is the live stream. Let me just do a final check and your thoughts as I check everything.

A grand and splendid live stream in my mind. they say. I mean, it was magnificent and one of the best we've done and one where we've done a good, we had a good opportunity with an exceptional guest in Larry to go through all of these issues. About Venezuela, there is an awful lot we still don't know, but I've started to sense that it's not actually going. This project is not for the moment going especially well. I might be proved wrong. It may turn out that there's all sorts of people coming out in Venezuela who are indeed in

Trump's pocket. If they are, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. But the early signs on the contrary pointing the opposite direction. From

Shinina-Hoseven 6732. Happy New Year to both of you. In my opinion, Trump will try to do regime change in Cuba before the midterm election to get the support from Cuban American base. Greenland will happen next year, not now. So it does not hurt his base that much in such a short time. You may be absolutely correct. I would say that I think Cuba will be a more difficult and even more difficult not to crack. And he's got to sort out Venezuela first. At the moment,

the Venezuelan situation isn't resolved. But if it is, say, resolved over the next two weeks, which it might be, at least in some form, then, you know, quite plausibly, quite possibly Cuba is next on the list. And then maybe Greenland. We'll say. And keep in mind, Rubio wants Cuba. Absolutely. Graham, of course, has no problem with Cuba, but he's definitely pushing Iran very, very hard. And you have Greenland and of course you have Ukraine and everything going on there. So, I mean, it's, it's all bad. Yes. It's all just bad. Correct. We'll end it there. Thank you once again to Larry. I have his information linked down below.

And thank you to everyone that joined us from Odyssey and Rockfin Rumble and YouTube, as well as our locals community, the derad.com. Check us out there and also look for us on Substack. Those links are in the description box down below. Thank you for all the questions to everyone that sent in questions. And thank you to our moderator. Zareel, Harry, and who else was moderating? I think that was, I think that was it for the moderators today. I'll carry it, Zareel. One second, let me make sure I got the moderators. Yeah, thank you to our moderators in the chat,

and we will see everybody really soon, Alexander, because we have a whole bunch of videos coming out. We certainly do. now as well. So look for videos on Alexander's channel and look for videos on my channel. The links to those channels are in the description box as well. Take care, everybody.