The Young Turks - All Talk No Solution

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

The U.S. and NATO officials are struggling to decipher the status of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. U.S. officials are saying that the reported detention of a Russian spy boss is showing tensions over the stalled Ukraine invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday that the country is combining all national TV stations into a singular platform in an effort to combat Russian disinformation. Several gas stations in Wisconsin have filed a lawsuit against a competitor alleging that it is selling gasoline below cost. Dave Rubin recently announced on Twitter that he and his husband are expecting two babies via surrogacy. Some of the commentator’s fans were less than pleased and trolls flooded the comments with homophobia. *** The largest online progressive news show in the world. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. Help support our mission and get perks. Membership protects TYT's independence from corporate ownership and allows us to provide free live shows that speak truth to power for people around the world. See Perks: ▶ https://www.youtube.com/TheYoungTurks/join SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ http://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks TWITTER: ☞ http://www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM: ☞ http://www.instagram.com/TheYoungTurks TWITCH: ☞ http://www.twitch.com/tyt 👕 Merch: http://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews https://youtu.be/TrTtN_AEhA8 https://youtu.be/H-RklTMC7Rg https://youtu.be/HWLweR_eIjI https://youtu.be/aN33W6DpLKc https://youtu.be/fUfreUxzaJA https://youtu.be/XkWm_YhVeGQ https://youtu.be/p--N_1foBdU https://youtu.be/Fj2nsZgXgmk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. What's up, everyone, welcome to the Young Turks, Anna Kasparian with you. Jank Yugar is off for the day. I'll be hosting the first hour solo, but Ida Rodriguez will be coming in to join me for the second hour where we're gonna lighten things up a little bit. There is unfortunately a police brutality story that we need to get to.

Just an innocent individual who gets tased by a cop for simply asking why he was being pulled over. We'll give you the details of that story and more. We'll also talk a little bit about the Supreme Court nominee, Judge Jackson, and how her first day of Senate hearings went. Of course, Senator Josh Hawley made some pretty gross and deceptive accusations against her. We'll get into those details as well.

And in the first hour, we've got a lot to get to in regard to the situation in Ukraine. President Vladimir Zelensky has made a move that I think is actually pretty damaging. So I'm going to speak out a little against it and has to do with media censorship and also the censorship of opposition political groups within Ukraine. But before we get to that, I do want to give you all a quick roundup of. of what has kind of developed in Ukraine over the weekend. There are some unfortunate negative, there's negative stalling when it comes to the negotiations. The peace talks, we'll get into that.

And we'll also talk about a proposal by Poland that I was actually pretty surprised by. And I'm glad the United States has completely rejected. So without further ado, let's get to our first story. We're losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground. Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us. And we have demonstrated the dignity of our people and our army, that we are able to deal a powerful blow. We are able to strike back.

While the resistance against Russian troops continues to be fierce, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is calling for direct peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin. It appears that the peace negotiations have in fact stalled. And Zelensky believes that having officials from both sides get together to have these conversations is just not yielding the results that he's hoping for. So he would like to sit down with Putin himself to discuss what a potential deal could look like. This follows multiple peace talks between officials from both countries.

And unfortunately, they have led to nowhere. Although I will argue that there does appear to be a little more flexibility on Russia's side. And we'll get to those details in just a second. But first, why don't we watch a little more from Vladimir Zelensky's interview on CNN over the weekend. I'm ready for negotiations with him. I was ready over the last two years. And I think that without negotiations, we cannot end this work. I think that all the people who think that this dialogue is shallow and that it is not going to resolve anything,

they just don't understand that this is very valuable. If there is just one percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance. We need to do that. So so far it appears that Putin is unwilling to sit down with Vladimir Zelensky because there are two points of contention, two areas in which Zelensky is unwilling to move in the direction of Putin's desires. And it has to do with officially recognizing certain portions of Ukrainian territory as now being part of Russian territory. Zelensky has recently indicated though that he is in fact willing to consider some concessions to Russia to help bring

an end to the violence, including a neutrality policy, although it would be one underpinned by robust security guarantees. Now, of course, Zelensky, I think this is common sense, wants to ensure that if there are concessions made, much like the concessions that Ukraine made back in the 1990s when it gave up its nuclear arsenal, that in return there will be actual security guarantees to protect the sovereignty of the country. Now, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov also weighed in on this. And this is where I see a little bit of positivity. Who knows if this goes anywhere? But he has again brought up the fact that Zelensky is willing to take a neutral status as part of the peace negotiations. And being neutral means, of course,

avoiding, you know, being part of NATO. There might be some deemate, basically doing away with the militarization in Ukraine, although it's unclear whether Zelensky is in any way open to that. But here's what Sergei Lavrov said over the weekend. After our operation in Ukraine ends, and I hope it ends with a signing of a comprehensive agreement on Ukraine's neutral status with the guarantees of its security. As Putin, a couple of months ago, commented at a news conference on our initiative of non-expansion of NATO, he said we understood every country needs guarantees of its security. Now, I wouldn't take anything that Putin says at face value. Remember, when Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal, that was an agreement not just between

the United States and Ukraine. The UK was part of that. More importantly, Russia was part of that agreement. And clearly, Russia has reneged on that agreement. So any statement from Putin claiming to understand the value of security guarantees for Ukraine is not something that I really take that seriously. The question is, what will it take for Putin to withdraw his forces and to stop carrying out the hideous violence that we're seeing day in and day out in Ukraine? Now, Putin did lay out several issues to achieve a ceasefire with Ukraine in a phone call with the Turkish president Erdogan. And according to the Turkish presidential spokesperson, here's what we know about what Putin is demanding. The first is Ukraine's neutrality. We talked about

that. Second, disarmament and mutual security guarantees in the context of the Austrian model. Third, the process that the Russian side refers to as denazification. Interesting, I would like to if there's any kind of reckoning with Naziism within Russia, but that wasn't mentioned, of course. Fourth, removing obstacles to the widespread use of Russian language in Ukraine, and we'll get to that in just a second. I think that is a problem based on what Zelensky has just implemented. It is understood that some progress has been made in the first four articles of the ongoing negotiations. It is too early to say that there is full agreement, or that an agreement is about to be signed.

So there are some issues with the other demands from Putin. And I want to get to those details right now. So Kalen, that's the spokesperson for Erdogan's administration, said that Putin had additional demands that were the most difficult issues, the recognition of the annexation of Crimea and the two so-called republics in Donbos. Kaylin said that these final two issues are not acceptable demands for Ukraine and the international community. So essentially giving up territory to Russia, officially declaring Ukrainian territory as part of Russia's territory, that's really the sticking point as we speak, based on what

we're hearing from officials on the Russian side, right? We're talking about a spokesperson from Erdogan's government, relaying this information to us. based on conversations that Putin allegedly had with Erdogan. So again, I mean, it's hard to confirm that this is really what's going on, but based on reports, it seems like this is where the sticking point is when it comes to peace negotiations. And by the way, have you really seen any other news organization be as hyper focused on the peace negotiations rather than how many fighter jets are we gonna send to Ukraine? Listen, having a conversation about military capability is fine.

But I do think there's this asymmetrical coverage of the conflict in Ukraine, of the war in Ukraine, where all of the focus is on how much money can we send, how many weapons can we send rather than, or by the way, or should we engage in a direct military conflict with Russia rather than, hey, where are they, where do they really stand on the peace negotiations? And what can the West do? What can the United States do to help assist this process to move along, right? We want a ceasefire, we want the peace negotiations. But again, Putin is unwilling to sit down with Zelensky, specifically over Zelensky's unwillingness

to give up Ukrainian territory to Russia. And to be quite honest with you, I don't blame Zelensky for feeling that way. I mean, imagine, you know, any country just being invaded by a second country and then having to give up territory after they've been attacked in an illegal war. It is incredibly frustrating and infuriating. Now, Ukraine also rejected Russia's demand that soldiers defending the embattled Southport of Maripole surrender at dawn on Monday, meaning today. So Zelensky is like, no, I'm not going to surrender.

We're not going to hand over Maripole. The deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet, Andre Pali, died in combat in Maripole, according to the governor of Savanzopal, the Crimean city, where the fleet, is based. Pally is one of several high-ranking Russian officers who have been killed in action in Ukraine. And I want to be clear, you know, Ukraine has claimed that far more generals have died than have been independently confirmed. But based on, you know, what happened to Pali, he has been killed in the line of combat. Now, at the same time, Ukrainian officials and witnesses said Russian troops were forcefully deporting people, including children,

Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesman for Ukraine's foreign ministry, said in a statement that 2,389 children were taken from their parents in the Donbass region and sent to Russia on a single day, Saturday. But I want to be clear that that claim has not been independently confirmed yet. So the number might be lower. You really can't take what any side says at face value. It needs to be confirmed by an independent source. With that said, though, I want to get to the final part of this, which is concerning, because it appears that Poland is really willing to take the next step, which could escalate the situation.

And I'm very happy to see that the United States rejected this proposal outright. So Poland's deputy prime minister first proposed a NATO peacekeeping mission. That is a euphemism. Let me be clear. When the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia traveled to Kiev last week to meet with Ukraine's leaders. I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission, NATO, possibly some wider international structure,

but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory, he said, at a news conference in Kiev. Again, the United States has already rejected this. The formal proposal has not been stated yet. This is kind of, you know, Poland putting out a statement to see if there's any warmth to it. any reception to it. And again, the United States, under the leadership of Joe Biden, shockingly, has rejected this.

And the reason why I think it's a good thing is because it's very similar to the idea of a no-fly zone. No-fly zone sounds just as lovely as a NATO peacekeeping mission. But again, these are euphemisms. What do they really mean? It means that NATO allies will be in direct conflict, direct war with Russia, which escalates the situation. and also essentially undoes any type of progress in regard to the peace negotiations. Remember, we want to do what's necessary to de-escalate, not escalate this war, while also helping to support the peace negotiations that are ongoing between Russia and Ukraine.

So that's where the story stands as we speak. It still appears as though Russian troops have stalled. They continue to attack Kyiv, but they have failed to, you know, get control of Kiev or take hold of that, of the capital. And so we'll see how this all plays out. But it's, it really is incredible to see how much Putin has miscalculated the situation, which is a story we're going to get to a little later because he is lashing out at his intelligence officials over how things are going. And that doesn't always work out so well. for Russian officials. Well, with that said, why don't we actually get to that story?

Because it just shows you, it goes to show how difficult it is to give Vladimir Putin any information, any intel that he might not like. Despite the untold damage that Russia has inflicted on Ukrainian people over the past month, things are going pretty badly for Russian troops and the Russian. government. Now, new reports indicate that there is infighting between Vladimir Putin and his own intelligence officers. And this has actually led to the detention of a top commander in Russia's Federal Security Service. So let's get to the details as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The commander of the Federal Security Service intelligence agencies unit responsible

for Ukraine had been placed under house arrest. The official in an interview also said bickering had broken out between the Federal Security Service and the Russian Ministry of Defense, two of the principal governmental units or government units responsible for the preparation of the February 24th invasion. So just to give you a little more detail on who this person is and what the consequences have been, the FSB officer said to be under investigation and house arrest is Colonel General Sergei Besset. head of the intelligence agency's fifth service, also known as the service for operational information and international communications, which operates as the de facto foreign intelligence arm of the overall agency. It would have shared responsibility for preparing the way

for the invasion of Ukraine. So Putin is incredibly frustrated at how the invasion is going. He genuinely thought he'd be able to swoop in and just take control of the whole country within two days. And part of the reason why he thought that is because he's the kind of person who will hire intelligence officials and then get mad at them for telling him what he doesn't want to hear. So if the intel officials have intelligence that indicates that, hey, Putin, maybe you want to hold off, it seems like there isn't enough opposition to Zelenskyy. government within Ukraine for you to actually win this, Putin will lose it. In fact, I have a perfect example of that in just a moment. But first, more details. Now, remember, we're talking about a key player in developing the military plans for the

attacks on Ukraine. He's being punished. He's on house arrest. Other reporting coming out of Russia also suggests that a second FSB official was placed under house arrest as well. the officials were interrogated for providing poor intelligence ahead of the invasion, according to Andrei Soldatov. He is a Russian security services expert. They were in charge of providing political intelligence and cultivating networks of support in

Ukraine, he said in an interview. They told Putin what he wanted to hear about how the invasion would progress. And look, none of this is really surprising when you take into account the way Putin responded to his Intel chief when he met with his security council just days prior to the invasion. He gets together with all these officials to hear what they have to say, whether or not they support invading Ukraine. There were a few who didn't really seem to be on board, but if they gave any hint that they weren't on board, they would be treated the way his Intel chief was treated in this next video. Just watch. What was especially weird and creepy was the way he dressed down the head of his foreign intelligence service, Naryshkin.

Naryshkin was sweating. He was stammering. In other than we need to take the decision, what we today is going to say. In other words, you're going to start a pregivor of process? No, I... Or... or... or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, you... I, I, you're, I, you're going to, you're,

I, I'm, I'm, I'm, or, you're, I'm, I,

just say, that or, do you, I'm, I, I, I, I'm,

good, sit on, thank. Okay, this is a little bit of a tangent, but can you guys now understand, why Putin and Trump seem to get along so well?

I mean, even if there's no, you know, collusion when it comes to American elections, even if there's no wrongdoing in that regard, just like taking a step back and understanding why Trump admires Putin so much, Trump was very similar in that he wanted to be surrounded by a bunch of yes men, a bunch of people who just tell him what he wants to hear, even if that means it would lead to him being poor at his job, making decisions that that were based on faulty intel. And that's what we have with Putin. Putin himself has been absolutely sure that he understands Ukraine really well,

said Andrei Soldatov. He says that he expected his agencies, and first of all, the FSB to do some groundwork like cultivating political groups that could provide support for the Russian invasion. And now, obviously, that's not what is happening. So not only is Putin frustrated at faulty intel, which by the way, again, these are people who were telling him exactly what he wants to hear, because if they tell him otherwise, they might be punished. I mean, there's no winning in a situation like that.

But he also wanted to basically help build groups within Ukraine that would not only consist of opposition to Zelensky in the Ukrainian government, but would assist the Russian troops in carrying out their invasion and overall the outcome of control. Ukraine and possibly implementing a puppet government on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Now, four Russian generals have died. The Ukrainian government says some U.S. government calculations estimate as many as 7,000 Russian troops have been killed in action. The officials caution those are uncertain estimates. And look, I'm always hesitant to talk about death tolls, especially when they haven't been confirmed by third parties.

7,000 troops sounds a lot higher than what the reality is, but I don't know for sure. What I do know is Ukraine has come out with much higher numbers than that, and I don't believe those numbers at all. Do I think Russian troops have died in this invasion? Of course. We don't firmly know what the real numbers are yet, but what we do know for sure is that Vladimir Putin has grossly underestimated the will of the Ukrainian people and their unwillingness to just give up and allow him to take control of their sovereign country.

So that's where Putin is today. He remains a little unwilling to soften his demands for a peace deal. However, the peace talk started with absolutely no flexibility on the Russian side. And now all of a sudden we're hearing about some possible concessions from the Russian side. So we'll see how it all plays out. That's where things stand as of today. When we come back from the break, we'll talk a little bit about what Vladimir Zelensky is doing in Ukraine to essentially censor, silence, ban the opposition. I think it's actually a terrible move, and I'll explain why. Come right back. You guys are the absolute best.

Thank you for watching. Thank you for supporting the show. And thank you to our lovely viewers for the super chats. Bubba Franks with a comment, no super chats yet? I can fix that with a smiley face emoji. Love you. Thank you for the support. I also want to read a comment from Chaplain Fred,

aka prayer dragon who says, Hey Anna, greetings from Germany. It's 11 18 p.m. now. German people are sad and upset for the lack of U.S. intervention. Friday I had to Poland with my inter-brigade, love and miss TYT. We love you, please stay safe. And I'm actually surprised that Germany is upset that the U.S. hasn't, like, engaged in a direct war with Russia.

Germany was pretty hesitant to do certain things like implement sanctions against Russia in the beginning or cut off its gas deal. gas pipeline deal Nord Stream 2 with Russia in the beginning, to see them now pushing for the U.S. to be more willing to intervene is fascinating. But I'm curious if it's the German politicians or if it's just German people who are kind of looking at what's happening. And remember, we're talking about European countries that have more at stake, right? Just based on geography, based on the refugee crisis, they just have a lot more at stake.

compared to the United States, and that might be informing the commentary from the public. We'll see. But I do think that Biden has shockingly been good on this issue. I'm sure there are mistakes, small things here and there. But when it comes to the big issues, like avoiding a no-fly zone, avoiding direct military conflict with Russia, I think he's made the right decisions. One person who unfortunately has made what I think is a bad decision is the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky, so let's talk a little bit about that. Ukraine's president Vladimir Zelensky has made some questionable moves recently. Now, it's understandable that he is under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, his country

has been invaded by Russia. there are entire major cities that have been leveled as a result of the brutality of Putin's war against Ukraine. However, now you have Zelensky taking control of the media, while also doing away with opposition parties that are far more sympathetic to Russia. Now, some might say that's understandable, they're in the middle of war, this is martial law, but I disagree. I think Strategically, this is a bad move, and honestly, optically, it's a bad move as well. Let me explain. First, the details.

The new platform named United News is a national security measure given the direct military aggression of the Russian Federation, the active dissemination of misinformation by the aggressor state, and distortion of information, as well as justifying or denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Zelensky's office. said in a statement. Essentially, Zelensky has decided to merge all national television stations into a single platform. And he says that this is just his effort to combat disinformation. Now, I don't know if you guys agree with me on this, but so far I think that Ukraine has done a pretty good job in the propaganda war. Okay, I think, and it's not just because Ukraine is

is savvier than Russia when it comes to propaganda, we all see the videos, we all see the brutality, we all see what Russia is doing through its illegal invasion of Ukraine. So the people of Ukraine have put up a fierce resistance to Russia. So, I mean, look, I would be against this no matter what, but maybe he would have a legitimate argument if the disinformation was so persuasive that you now have Ukrainians fighting one another rather than resisting the Russian invasion. But that's not what's happening here. According to the release, United News will mainly consist of information and or information analytical programs on a single information platform of strategic communication and will be

a round the clock information marathon. There's going to be a lot of information guys, okay? But only one kind of information. The announcement, which came under martial law, means the suspension of privately owned and operated media outlets in Ukraine. And Zelensky, unfortunately, has decided to take things even further. On Sunday, he announced in a speech that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has decided to block 11 various political parties. So here's the statement by the president, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

Ukraine decided given the full scale, war waged by the Russian Federation and the ties of some political structures with the state, any activity of a number of political parties during the martial law is suspended, namely opposition platform for life, Sherry Party, Nashi opposition, opposition, Union of Left Forces, State Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party, Vladimir, So those are the parties that would be impacted by this. And if you're curious what the reasoning is, he says the Ministry of Justice is instructed to immediately take comprehensive measures to ban the activities of these political parties in the prescribed manner. Everyone must now

take care of the interests of our state, the interests of Ukraine. Now, the parties that he listed tend to be far more sympathetic to Vladimir Putin and Russia. But most of them have. no power, right? They're tiny parties. They have no power with one exception. So most of the parties affected were small, but one of them, the opposition platform for life has 44 seats in the 450 seat Ukrainian parliament. The opposition platform for life is led by Victor Medvichuk, a pro-Moscow oligarch with close ties to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Party officials later said the suspension had no legal basis. Listen, if you're going to claim that you're a democracy, and that's what we keep hearing

over and over it. So this is a pro-democracy country, pro-democracy. You can't ban a political party that has 44 seats in parliament. I mean, I just think it's a bad move and it provides fodder for the Russians. I mean, one of the claims that they keep making is that ethnic Russians are treated terribly in Ukraine, and that's part of the reason why they needed to do this invasion. give them any evidence or fodder for that. I think it's a really bad move. And I actually do want to also discuss, you know, how similar Zelensky's actions are, in my opinion, to some of

the moves that Vladimir Putin made in Russia years ago. Now, I want to show you two different videos. The first one has to do with Vladimir Putin coming into power as president. And one of the first things he did once he had power. Let's watch. Putin moved to consolidate power. One of his first targets, television. One of the first things he did was to take control of television because more than 90% of Russians got all their news from television. During the Yeltsin years, independent television channels like NTV flourished.

Even as they ridiculed political figures. NTV has a... comic show called Pukle Puppets. And when Putin comes to rise in public life, it features a Putin puppet as well. And he's never portrayed very flatteringly. Putin apparently was driven to madness by this show. And by the way he was portrayed on it, the way he was mocked on it. NTV and its owner, Vladimir Kuzinski, came into the crosshairs of Putin's government.

He sent armed operatives from the prosecutor general service and the tax police to raid the offices of media most, the parent company of NTV. So Putin comes into power as president and just starts shutting down any type of media he dislikes. Any kind of media that might be satirical, it might poke fun at him, shuts it down. Anything that might oppose Putin's policies shuts it down. Now, some might argue in defense of Zelensky, well, this comparison is Apple's in oranges, because with Vladimir Putin, we're talking about an authoritarian who just used his position of power to continue consolidating power. There was no crisis, there is no martial law, which, okay, that's a fair argument, fair.

But what about what Vladimir Putin did when there was a terrorist attack in Russia, well, in an autonomous zone that the Chechens wanted to, you know, avoid making part of Russia, right? So this is known as the Besslin terror attack. This was in September of 2004, awful, awful hostage situation where a school was held hostage for several days by Chechen terrorists. And Vladimir Putin refused to capitulate. Instead, he sent in his own troops, and that led to just a complete, another nightmare. But while that story itself is bad enough, what Putin did.

did in exploiting that tragedy to consolidate power is the point that I'm trying to make here. So let's watch. Putin's troops were armed with rockets, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers. A lot of the children who burned alive, burned alive because of a fire that raged. It turns into this debacle. And the end result is corpses of little children stacked like firewood. More than 320 people were killed. Half of them children in the tragedy in the town. of best land in the last school siege, he's demanded a...

Putin seized on the tragedy to expand his power and control. He's demanded a radical shakeup of security and greater powers. Russia has suffered. He canceled elections throughout the country. Stark message, governors and leaders of Russia's dozens of republics forced out the most outspoken members of the parliament. Forced out the most outspoken leaders of the parliament. It sounds strikingly similar to what Zelensky is doing now by pushing out 40,

parliament members who happen to be part of an opposition party that is sympathetic to Russia. I understand where Zelensky is coming from. He's under attack, his people are under attack, civilians are dying, there is a refugee crisis as a result. However, what he's doing does not solve anything, right? Consolidating power, shutting down opposition group, shutting down any type of independent media, it's not right, he shouldn't do it. And honestly, when it comes to propaganda, again, I would argue that the Ukrainians are winning.

There's really no need to do this. This further complicates the peace talks. Putin is way less likely, way, way, way less likely to strike a deal with Zelensky if he's seen as consolidating power. Zelensky's move does provide fodder for Russians who claim that, you know, ethnic Russians are being treated poorly in Ukraine. And that's why they need to invade and save the day. And it's just, again, unnecessary to do the censorship, especially considering how Ukrainians are clearly winning the propaganda war here. Everyone sees what Russia is doing. Everyone sees the brutality that's being carried out.

Everyone sees how much the civilians are suffering. The opponents within Ukraine right now clearly are not powerful or persuasive enough to convince the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian military to just give up and stop resisting. They're resisting, they're resisting fiercely, and again, I just don't think that this was the right move for Zelensky. It was completely unnecessary. By the way, going back to that school hostage crisis, I want to give you updated numbers. 333 people died, including 186 children, all because Putin refused to capitulate. He refused to engage in any kind of negotiation. And that's terrifying because it shows you that he doesn't give a damn about anyone's life.

He doesn't care about the lives of Russian troops. He doesn't care about Ukrainian civilians, including children. I mean, we've seen that with the brutality that he's carried out. And so if there's anything that should be top of mind, it should be, what can we do? What can Zelensky do? What can the West do to support the peace negotiations? Don't take steps backwards by further provoking a man, Putin, who clearly doesn't care about human lives. at all and is willing to see everyone go down in flames just to prove a point.

All right, well, we got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you. We're going to switch gears a little bit and talk about the oil market and price manipulation. This story is incredible. There are several gasoline stations in Wisconsin that are suing a station for selling gas at too low a price. They don't like that this one station is given a bargain that's cutting into their profits. It is insane.

This is how the free market really works. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone. Welcome back to the show. We're going to move off of our Ukrainian coverage in just a bit. Talk a little bit about what's happening with gas prices. But before we do, I want to read from a viewer who disagrees with my take on Zelenskyy, censoring the media. He's not abolishing freedom of the press. He's nationalizing privately owned, often by oligarchs media outlets, unlike Putin. He is not, for example, banning or censoring social media. Okay, so the social media points an interesting one. But I still don't agree with him taking hold of all media and ensuring that it's all just one message. Same with banning entire political parties. I just don't think that it's the right move. It's not good optically. And again, it's not good strategically, especially when you're calling for peace negotiations,

direct peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin, which he's been resistant to, right? If you want peace negotiations, if you want to avoid providing fodder for the Russian troops and the Russian government, don't start banning people, banning certain, you know, media outlets. Don't even give the appearance of consolidating power. It's not a good look. Again, I understand where he's coming from. But he also needs to take a step back and understand that when it comes to the information wars, Ukraine is definitely winning.

So with that said, let's move on to something completely different. Well, sort of different. There's a Russian angle to this as well. But I do want to talk about gas prices and more importantly, price manipulation that's taking place right now. As we've covered many times before, there's a lot of manipulation taking place when it comes to the price you pay at the gas pump. Now, the very businesses that claim that they're super gung-ho for the free market don't actually really like the free market because that would mean that they'd have to compete. And in some cases, they might have to lower prices to compete with competitors, and that might cut into profits, and they don't like that.

So a perfect example of that is in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where a number of gas stations are suing one gas station for having prices that are just too low. So let me give you the details. Newsweek's reports that court documents name companies that operate nearby BP and shell gas stations as plaintiffs in the case. Both are demanding $80,000 in restitution, an amount based on the 40 days they claim, Woodman's market in Waukesha has been keeping prices too low. So just to give you an example of what they're suing over, what's the price difference here? As of Saturday, last Saturday, just a few days ago, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in

Wisconsin was around $3.93, according to data from AAA. Woodman's currently offers gas at $3.59 a gallon based on listings Newsweek acquired from Gas Buddy. BP and Shell locations in Waukishaw listed prices of $3.89 to $3.99 a gallon. Listen, I live in California. So I look at those prices and I'm just like, I'll take the highest price that's listed there. Because we're paying $6 a gallon, mostly because we have added taxes to what we pay per gallon. But nonetheless, it's not about California. It's about the free market here and how it's being manipulated.

Woodman's has defended its prices in light of this lawsuit saying that its prices are set to compete with Costco, just six miles away from them. And they say that this Costco is their primary competition. Gas buddy listings show that Costco in that area is selling gas at $3.49 per gallon. The company has counter filed against the suit seeking its dismissal, and they absolutely should get the dismissal that they're calling for. What, like, what grounds is there to go after a gas station that has decided to, you know, implement prices that would be competitive? Isn't that what the free market is supposed to be about? It's just mind blowing to me that these gas stations would do this, that they would sue another gas station for having prices that they

deem far too low. I mean, isn't this how the free market is supposed to work? You're supposed to have better service, a better product, better prices. But if your prices are just too good and it's cutting into the profits of surrounding businesses, surrounding gas stations, well then that's unacceptable. Another way that manipulation happens, and we've talked about this on the show so many times, has to do with the so-called OPEC plus cartel, right? These are the oil-producing companies, countries. And they get to manipulate the price of what you pay at the pump by essentially withholding production intentionally to lower the supply of gas. And Saudi Arabia is definitely guilty of doing this. In fact, they bragged about doing this. And I'll show you the evidence

in just a moment. But before I do, I just want to note that Saudi Arabia is very salty about the fact that people are criticizing their government for manipulating gas prices. They claim, no, we will not stand for that. We have not done anything wrong. In fact, it's the Houthi rebels. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, it's their fault. So look, there's a kernel of truth to that, but most of it is BS, and I'll debunk it. First, their claim, the state-run Saudi press agency quoted the Saudi foreign ministry as saying, that the kingdom, quote, declares that it will not bear any responsibility for any shortage in oil supplies to global markets in light of the attacks on its oil facilities. And again,

they're blaming these attacks on the Houthi rebels, which they're, of course, fighting in Yemen. On Sunday, Yemen's Iranian-backed rebels launched one of their most intense series of attacks targeting the kingdom's oil and natural gas production, sparking a fire at a petroleum distribution center in the port of Jedda, the country's second largest city and disrupting production at a petrochemicals complex in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast. Okay, so that seems pretty serious. How much of a disruption was there? Was this permanent disruption? Are they still trying to figure out what to do about? No, it wasn't permanent. The overall extent of damage at the installations remains unclear. The Saudi energy ministry acknowledged a temporary,

a temporary drop in oil output at the 400,000 barrel a day Yanbu site without elaborating. And maybe he didn't want to elaborate because their argument that they've done nothing wrong here is BS. Because this attack happened over the weekend. There was a temporary drop in oil and natural gas production. And literally, starting two years ago, they were bragging about intentionally, you know, withholding production in order to see a spike in prices, right? You ensure that there's less supply, especially at a time when there's increasing demand. And that means, stock, the value of shares for the stocks will do much better. You're going to make more profits, more money. It's intentional manipulation. And it's not just Saudi Arabia. Other

oil producing, natural gas producing countries do similar things because they can, right? They can just artificially manipulate because they get to decide how much they produce. And so I want to go to this video. This is from January of 2021, okay? This wasn't last weekend. This is from a year ago, more than a year ago, where the Saudis were bragging on the international stage about intentionally keeping production low. Let's watch. Saudi shocking everybody and announcing a one million barrel a day surprise cut. The Saudi minister, Prince Abdullah Ziz, joked at the beginning that he had a surprise for the meeting, and he wasn't kidding. So they're coming out, they're cutting by an additional

million barrels a day. Now, others will be increasing production, but oil is soaring right now. oil stocks are soaring right now. Nobody saw this coming. I mean, OPEC generally, there's leaks all the time and we tend to report on things that are that are being whispered about. It's a lot harder to do that virtually, Kelly. We are seeing the price of oil, which is up 5% right now. The XOP ETF is up 8%. The XLE is up 6%. Some of the more heavily shorted names of 9 and 10% as well. So the Saudis doing this unilaterally, meaning they did it on their own. They called it basically a gift to show solidarity. In fact, the Russian minister called it a New Year's gift and actually briefly smiled. I love that video because, again, it perfectly summarizes what Saudi Arabia was bragging about on the international stage, January of 2021.

And while you hear the news being summarized for you, what do you see on the screen? You see the stocks for various, you know, gas companies, fossil fuel companies, you have ExxonMobil. You see how well they're performing in the stock market in response to the news. Listen, sure, we can sit back and we can get mad at Saudi Arabia for doing what Saudi Arabia would do, right? Of course they would. If it means that they're going to increase their profits, of course they're going to do this. This is how it works. But what we should be really upset about is the fact that at this point, in this late

juncture, we're still dealing with dependence on fossil fuels. When we've had decades, decades of terrifying reports from environmentalists indicating that if we don't get off this dependence on fossil fuels, we are going to deal with extreme weather conditions, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, all of the disastrous weather events that we've been noticing, okay? And on top of it, when we have this kind of war between Russia and Ukraine, when we have these types of international relations, it's also going to put us at a significant disadvantage. And then couple that with the fact that we don't have a nationalized system for natural resources in America. We just rely on the whims of private

corporations that have one thing in mind and one thing in mind only, maximize profits. We would have been in a far better position if instead of giving subsidies to oil companies, instead of focusing the vast majority of our energy on continuing the reliance on fossil fuels, if we just focused more on developing renewable energy. I mean, we keep talking about, not we, but the US government loves to talk about China being such a threat. And it's because China's a competitor to the United States. And China gets it. They've dedicated a lot of investment into solar panels. What is the United States done? Why aren't we manufacturing solar panels? Why aren't we creating jobs within our country that would propel us closer to renewable energy? I mean, it would be

such a win-win. But no, instead, we're going to remain reliant on a system where you have all of these shady-ass companies, I'm sorry, shady-ass countries and companies, they get to manipulate the market however they want. Why wouldn't they? If it means more money in their pockets, they're going to do it. It's just gross. So of course, I don't believe anything Saudi Arabia has to say, but we should already be at a point where Saudi Arabia doesn't even matter when it comes to energy. OPEC plus countries don't matter when it comes to energy. to get to a place where our reliance is more based on renewable energies, where we don't have to kow to all sorts of weird authoritarian figures to ensure that there's enough oil

and natural gas production. All right, let's move on. Yeah. All right, well, this next story is uncomfortable. Not because Dave Rubin and his husband are expecting children, I think that's totally fine. I have no problem with that, but it's all the chatter surrounding it. So Dave Rubin announced very recently that he and his husband will be having two children via surrogates, so there are two surrogates and the right wing audience that he has cultivated for himself is just as cruel as you would expect them to be.

Now again, the entire story is uncomfortable for me. I know a lot of people have been enjoying the chatter online, but it makes me uncomfortable. In fact, it was uncomfortable from the very start when Rubin not only felt the need to make this announcement on his show, but went on to explain how the process works to his notably anti-gay audience. Let's watch. I know most of you guys that are watching this are now on more conservative. side of things and I never see any real issue with conservatives anymore and gay people.

But I know this is like a little bit weird for some people to hear, right? I get it. And by the way, to me at some level, this is a little bit weird. Like I've had to learn a lot of stuff and go to a lot of doctors and it's, and it's cost a lot of money and it's been a long sort of adventure. But basically what you're seeing there, one more time with those ultrasounds, would you? Those are two different wounds and those are two different babies. We got one egg donor. So you got to think about this. If you need to stop right now and grab a Sharpie and make a chart, you could. So basically, we've got plenty of sperm around here.

That's one thing, right? So there's a lot. I'm just saying there's a lot of sperm. We didn't have a shortage of sperm. So we've got sperm. So we had half the battle, right? We had half of what we needed, but we needed an egg. Our feeling was that we wanted one egg donor, meaning you get a whole bunch of eggs.

Well, hopefully you get a whole bunch of eggs from the egg donor. And then we would take several, you know, we'd split. the eggs. So let's say you got, I think the first time around, we got like 18 eggs. And then you take the spur, we would split them. So now there's like nine and nine. I'm giving you the rough estimates here. And you would then inseminate them. And then you hopefully from that, some of it takes, some of it doesn't take. But then in essence, you have these embryos, and then you need surrogates. So the surrogate, obviously, is the woman who then carries the child. Listen, you know, it's one thing to make the announcement, like, it's risky to make an announcement like that.

Again, when you've cultivated a right wing pretty anti-gay audience, especially with the backdrop of all of the anti-gay, anti-transgender, anti-whatever, anti-whatever legislation that's happening on a state-by-state basis, all these red states are like fully engaged in the culture wars. So on one hand, I kind of understand why he seems terrified in making this announcement. And I get why, but like, just make the announcement and move on. Like if you feel the need to explain it to your audience, I'm trying to be polite here. Just don't talk about how there's plenty of sperm in your house. Like, it's just, look, it's not even for me. Like I don't want to hear about it, right? But anyway, he seemed nervous and he had good reason to be because his audience

was incredibly cruel and while, you know, some on the left are kind of gloating about it because it's like, ah, karma, you get what you deserve, it makes me really sad. Like this whole story makes me really, really sad because at the end of the day, whatever you think about Dave Rubin, put that aside, he's surrounded with people who think he's like this terrible person, this sinner. And it's one thing for him to take that heat, but I don't want kids to be around that. that makes me really sad. And this should be a moment where, you know,

two people celebrate expanding their family. But again, and yes, he did this to himself, he's surrounded by people who write comments like this. So I went to the video where he makes the announcement, and I just decided to grab the top comments. Okay, these are the first comments that you see. So unbelievably selfish to bring children into the world, denying them a mother, children are not just something you pay for to fulfill some desire you have.

They are a gift and you are absolutely not in a relationship that is conducive to this gift. I am so disappointed. I had such respect for you. Well, Jane, I never had respect for you and you don't deserve respect. What a hateful, disgusting comment to put on someone's video. But this isn't surprising. And by the way, you know what a child needs? A child needs love. Okay, a child needs support, a child needs love. I have, despite whatever feelings I have toward Dave, I have no doubt that they would be loving, and I think he'd be a good parent. I just hope he keeps his children away from these types of people,

because I would hate to hear that their children are in an environment where they're absorbing this kind of commentary. Another person writes, if children need a father in their lives, they also need a mother, so sad. Another person writes, so it's okay for you and your partner to buy two children and then let them grow up without a mother in their lives? Another person writes, confused. No, I get it. It's the two babies that'll be confused. Don't speak for me. Don't speak for me. Two dads is not right. This is not right. Who's the mom going to be? A child needs a mom, a female mom. This is sick and you can't make this normal. I mean, it just goes on and on. I'm grossed out. these comments, I don't really want to read any more of them, especially because we also have videos to get to. So before we get to the Glenn Beck video, I want to go to these two individuals

who I very luckily had not heard about until unfortunately today, Edward Zoll and Lauren Witsky, who decided to unleash one of the most bigoted attacks I've ever heard. Let's watch. Just see what they said about that pedophile couple that are trafficking kids. What, what's her name again? Are you talking about Dave Rubin? Oh, Dave Rubin. Oh, Dave Rubin. Yeah, yeah.

Coming soon, baby one. What did they steal this kid from? That's two men. Two men are gay. They can't have kids. It's got to pop out first, and then that's when they snatch them. Oh, that's when they steal. Yeah, that's when they steal it.

But that's like plotting a crime right there, so somebody should probably do something about that. Sheriff O'Powell? Should we call a sheriff of a power? Someone needs to do with this. We don't call somebody because I have a kidnapping in process, you know? Seriously, look, why is he crying for? Is he crying because he got away with it almost? Look at this. These two men who cannot reproduce.

The only thing they can reproduce and then create is more debauchery and AIDS. They can spread AIDS. I've got very little love for Dave Rubin for reasons that I've outlined on the show multiple times. With that said, those two disgusting human beings should be sued for defamation. They claim that Dave Rubin and his husband are pedophiles. There's absolutely no evidence at all in regard to that accusation. And they also went on to say that they're spreading AIDS. I mean, but like also at the same time, how could you not be frustrated with Dave?

Like, was the money worth it? Was it worth it? Was it worth it? I get to have a nice big house. I'm sure you'll have like a night nurse. I'm sure you'll have all, you have all the resources necessary. I get it. But is it worth it? Because what is life really about? Is it about surrounding yourself with these terrible people who think that you're a second class citizen who think that you're like a child predator because you want to start a family with your husband? Just so you can make a buck. Like is it worth it? I I don't get to turn your back on all the people who you used to call your friends. People who actually cared about you, people who looked out for you, people who were happy

for you when you had good news to announce. He turned his back on all of that to make a buck. And look, it blows my mind that he would make that decision. It blows my mind that anyone would make that decision. But with all that said, it doesn't take away from the fact that the people attacking him right now, the audience that he cultivated. make me sick, and I don't think that it's anything to gloat about. I don't think it's anything to celebrate if you happen to be on the left.

So that's not the only video. Let's now go to his boss, Glenn Beck, who felt the need to bring him on to like engage in questioning, essentially like make Dave like apologize for his life decision. Let's hear what Glenn Beck had to say about it. You know me. I'm a deeply religious man and my religion says, man and a woman, that is the basic building block of family. We are so, we're probably the clearest church on this,

because it's been in our, in our doctrine for 200 years. So we're very clear on that. But that's marriage and relationships. And that's what I believe. But I also am, I also, I also know God created you, just like he created me, flaws and all. You know, I believe I have a gene, they've never found it, that makes me very susceptible to alcoholism,

because it runs in my family. So does craziness, but it runs in my family. The same thing with things that I don't understand. And if we can't have a conversation about things that we don't necessarily understand and probably won't until we get to the other side, we have to just work it out together and be able to say, Dave, I disagree or I don't know what the answer is, but I love you. I love you.

I'm going to compare alcoholism to, you know, you being gay. I mean, in that rant that he went on right there, he just, again, seem to double down on what Rubin's audience has to say, right? Like, how, he compares Rubin's sexual identity to alcoholism. Beck says that Rubin is flawed because he's gay, right? Because he's going to have children with his husband. That's his boss. That's the guy that Ruben works for. And for people who don't feel any empathy for him or sympathy for him, I get it.

Especially because after all this went down, Ruben, man, just not only made a fool out of himself, but somehow managed to twist this as the left being intolerant. Let's watch. I get why the right has these, what I would argue, are often legitimate fears because the left does not stop eating civilization. And think about what an unfortunate position that puts us in, because then someone like me can make an announcement like this, then good, decent, thoughtful, conservatives. Some of faith, maybe some not of faith, whatever it is, could reach out and say, boy,

this this is what an interesting opportunity and sure it's a little different and and whatever all all the love that you and the blaze guys and everyone else are giving me and then and then there's this other part that's legit which is correct oh if we move the line they're going to keep going and i don't know what the answer to that is i honestly don't because that has nothing to do with me no it has everything to do with you Dave it has everything to do with you and it shows you the like gross selfishness that he you know, has this worldview through, right? Because what he's arguing there is, no, no, no, look, conservatives, I totally get why you're a little put off by this. I totally get why

you're worried because you know the left, you give them an inch, they'll take a mile. I mean, what's next? We're going to have rights for transgender people. I mean, I only like the left when they were fighting for my rights. But guess what, Dave? The right still hates you for who you are. And that is the environment that he has created for his children. Okay, people who call themselves friends of Dave Rubin who on his show in his face will tell him, no, I wouldn't go to any type of celebration that you're having with your husband. No, I probably wouldn't go to, you know, anything that would celebrate Dave Rubin's identity as a gay. man, which I would assume includes baby shower, baby's birthday, I don't know, anything that would

be supportive of the fact that Dave Rubin happens to be a gay man with a husband, who has gone to extreme lengths, by the way, to expand his family. Again, it should be a joyous occasion for him. It should be an awesome occasion for him. But the very people, and I want him to make sure, I want to make sure that he is very clear on this. The very people who wish him ill are the people that he has coward to in the name of profit, in the name of money. And I don't know, look, everyone's different. Okay, I personally would forego making more money just to stay in an environment where I am

around people I genuinely like, where I get to work with people I call friends, where I get to, you know, speak my mind without any fear of retaliation. To me, that is priceless. And I think I've proven myself. I've been at TYT for 15 years, despite giant offers from other companies. I don't say that to brag. I say it because there's more to life than making money. And the thing that pains me the most about all of this is just thinking about the kids, man. Kids are super sweet. They're so innocent. They haven't experienced the cruelty of humanity. yet. And I hate that they're going to be brought into an environment where people think less of them, less of their parents, less of their family, simply because they can't get over

the hate in their hearts. And to me, that is not something to celebrate or gloat about. All right. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at Apple.com. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.