🔥 DD GEOPOLITICS RETURNS! Ceasefire Deals, Shadow Prisons & Global Power Shifts – Sarah & New Co-Host Expose All!

Name: 🔥 DD GEOPOLITICS RETURNS! Ceasefire Deals, Shadow Prisons & Global Power Shifts – Sarah & New Co-Host Expose All! | Forbidden News
Uploaded: 2025-04-21T19:40:30+00:00
Duration: 1 h 8 min 41 s
Channel: Forbidden News

Forbidden News

4/21/2025

🚨 EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT YOU MISSED
1️⃣ 🇺🇦 Ukraine Ceasefire & Peace Talks

Easter Truce: Putin’s gambit or real path to peace?

Trump’s Shadow Play: Why his team floated a US pullout – and who benefits.

2️⃣ ☢️ Middle East Tinderbox

Iran vs. Israel: Is all-out war inevitable?

US Double Game: Public support for Israel, secret talks with Tehran.

3️⃣ Erik Prince’s ‘Shadow Prisons’

US Outsourcing Detainees? Blackwater founder’s foreign black sites exposed.

Legal or War Crime? Critics call it Gitmo 2.0.

4️⃣ 🌍 Trade Wars Escalate

US-China Tech Cold War: Bans, tariffs, and semiconductor battles.

Europe’s Crisis: Sanctions backfire, economies crumble.

💡 WHY THIS MATTERS NOW
✔ Ukraine Fatigue: Western support wobbles as 2024 elections loom.
✔ Middle East Domino Effect: One strike could ignite regional inferno.
✔ The Privatization of War: Erik Prince’s prisons reveal dark future of conflict.

#DDGeopolitics
#UkraineCeasefire
#ShadowPrisons
#IranIsraelWar
#TrumpUkraine
#ErikPrince
#TradeWars
#NewWorldDisorder
#SarahReturns
#GeopoliticalStorm

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00:00:00Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30CastingWords

00:01:00CastingWords

00:01:02CastingWords

00:01:29The United States military has begun strikes.

00:01:43Fight them all off.

00:01:45I think that for the modern world,

00:01:47the one-polar model is not only acceptable,

00:01:50but also impossible.

00:01:59The United States has introduced them.

00:02:08The U.S. Department of INFORMATION

00:02:11The United States military joined Russia by asking them more about this.

00:02:13Philip M. Republic of America

00:02:15The United States have been introduced to Russia with request for the Kerrys.

00:02:18V.C.

00:02:21The U.S. Department of Defense put it up.

00:03:24The Russian military is taking chips from the dishwashers and refrigerators to fix their military hardware.

00:03:32Russia's industry is in tatters.

00:03:35Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.

00:03:54The Russian military is taking 5 our'v и пласти pickles.

00:05:39Aside from Lydia, of course, we have our Yugos.

00:05:42But Marat, thank you so much for sacrificing yourself.

00:05:47I was going to say volunteering, but more like laying yourself on the train tracks and sacrificing yourself for my audience.

00:05:53We are already over 1,300 viewers.

00:05:56That is fire.

00:05:561,400 we just hit.

00:05:58That's crazy.

00:06:00Thank you guys so much for joining us, especially on Easter.

00:06:03Marat, how are you?

00:06:04Please tell us all about you, why you decided to jump into the multipolar pool with DDG.

00:06:14Thanks for having me on, Sarah.

00:06:19And happy Easter to everyone, of course.

00:06:22Some of you guys might know me from Twitter.

00:06:24I know she introduced me as a Turk.

00:06:26To be exact, I'm not.

00:06:28Well, I'm Armenian and Azerbaijani, but that's kind of where I started on Twitter.

00:06:35And I'm just excited to be working with Sarah, who I met last year.

00:06:41And really all I wanted to do on Twitter was just come on and talk Geopal.

00:06:46So this is a lot of fun for me.

00:06:51So I'm looking forward to working with her.

00:06:53I love the comments.

00:06:54Turkey sucks anyway.

00:06:56Yeah, and that's true.

00:06:57It's true.

00:06:57And we'll probably might get to that today.

00:06:59We'll see.

00:06:59But we're obviously going to start with our favorite, the Russkies.

00:07:05Happy Easter from the front line.

00:07:07And this is how Ukraine celebrates it, I guess.

00:07:16So obviously multiple sources stating that the ceasefire was broken by armed forces Ukraine,

00:07:41but I kind of want to take an examination of what kind of, sorry, I'm a little distracted,

00:07:45the puppy is on my left right here.

00:07:47So if you see me kind of looking over, me trying to, she's not being naughty, but leading up

00:07:54to the ceasefire rejection or breaking of the, by Ukraine, whether, which way you want to

00:08:00look at it, it doesn't really matter.

00:08:02But leading up to that, the United States is showing some cracks in the relationship with

00:08:06Ukraine.

00:08:07Trump kind of outwardly saying he's kind of annoyed with Zelensky and Zelensky saying that

00:08:14he's spouting propaganda from the Kremlin, directly from the Kremlin.

00:08:21So we espouse Kremlin propaganda.

00:08:26So I'm glad that Trump's finally on the team.

00:08:29Let's see what this Kremlin propaganda is.

00:08:32He's offered to purchase more patriated missile battles.

00:08:36I don't know.

00:08:37He's always looking to purchase missiles.

00:08:38You know, he's, he's against, listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you can

00:08:43win the war, right?

00:08:44You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people

00:08:49give you some missiles.

00:08:51If we didn't give them what we gave, remember, I gave them javelins.

00:08:55That's how they won their first big battle with the tanks that got stuck in the mud.

00:09:02Kremlin propaganda is don't start a war.

00:09:06You can't win.

00:09:07What do you think about Trump's kind of realist approach to the Ukrainians and Zelensky and

00:09:16kind of Zelensky's reaction to it?

00:09:18Yeah, I mean, this just sounds like, you know, when you're trying to like discourage someone

00:09:24from doing something and you kind of, the language you use sort of just reflects that

00:09:30and carries that negative sort of tone.

00:09:32I mean, that's just what it sounds like from Trump's end.

00:09:33I mean, you know, like Trump, he has no, he doesn't really speak subtly.

00:09:38And so like, you know, when he wants like something to, you know, what's what his intent

00:09:42is when he says something or like what he's trying to convey.

00:09:46And so like here, I mean, it's just fairly clear that like the U.S. is just all in on

00:09:50kind of on de-escalation, on on pulling back.

00:09:53And they're they're trying to pressure Zelensky at this point.

00:09:59What do you think?

00:09:59I agree.

00:10:00And we don't we're not going to play the clip because it's pointless.

00:10:03But they did reiterate that.

00:10:06So that came after the Rubio statement.

00:10:07So before Rubio's statement, Witkoff went over to Moscow.

00:10:11That really didn't appear to be very fruitful.

00:10:16Zelensky also stated, I think Witkoff has adopted the Russian strategy.

00:10:22I think that's very dangerous.

00:10:24He is consciously or unconsciously, I don't know, spreading Russian narratives.

00:10:28It's not helping.

00:10:29So everybody is against Zelensky.

00:10:32It's not Zelensky's fault.

00:10:34He's not wrong.

00:10:35It's everybody around him is just got gobbling up that Kremlin propaganda.

00:10:40Witkoff is a real estate guy.

00:10:42So interestingly enough that he's kind of sent to the wolves den kind of like, what do you

00:10:47think about sending Steve Witkoff to go negotiate with the likes of Putin and Lavrov and just

00:10:55the Russians in general?

00:10:57Well, it seems like, I mean, Witkoff was, Witkoff was probably sent for, you know, a particular or I should say they selected Witkoff for this, you know, for a reason.

00:11:09But the thing here is that it appears like there's a sort of like peace proposal narrative trap, right?

00:11:16Because they they get Zelensky triggered in a sense.

00:11:21And what the actual outcome of this is, is just alienation of critical partners.

00:11:26And so on one hand, you have Zelensky kind of doing this this act where he's showing strength and independence.

00:11:34And on the other hand, it just leaves Ukraine in no man's land or on the island where they're just like, OK, like you have this independent stance.

00:11:43But like, what does that leave you with? Nothing.

00:11:49Sorry, you're muted.

00:11:51I'm doing a play Witkoff's what he talks about after his meeting with Putin, which I think kind of lends a little bit of insight.

00:11:59He did say when you begin to look at those four or five regions, and he's obviously talking about the Donbass and Odessa, Russia, that you care about them.

00:12:09And by the way, you care about them, too, Ukraine, if some of them are more Russian speaking, do you care less about that?

00:12:18Just.

00:12:19I'm not sure what he meant, but we'll see.

00:12:21I guess we can take a look at this interview following the meeting.

00:12:25I think you used a very good word there, Sean, emerging.

00:12:30I do.

00:12:32This is the third meeting I've had with him.

00:12:34This last meeting lasted close to five hours.

00:12:38We had two of his key advisers in the room at the time, Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev.

00:12:46And it was a compelling meeting.

00:12:49This peace deal is about these so-called five territories, but there's so much more to it.

00:12:56There's security protocols.

00:12:59There's there's, you know, no NATO, NATO, Article five.

00:13:05I mean, it's just, you know, a lot of detail attached to it.

00:13:10It's a complicated situation from, you know, rooted in, you know, some real problematic things happening between the two countries.

00:13:21And I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.

00:13:29Now, when when Witkoff's talking about it, does he mean he sounds more like a business or a commercial engagement, doesn't it?

00:13:40It sounds like we got to kind of get ourselves out of this.

00:13:43We could start engaging diplomatically and commercially with Russia.

00:13:47Is that the vibe that you kind of got from it?

00:13:51Yeah.

00:13:51But like, isn't that the vibe from like Trump's administration as a whole?

00:13:54Like it always seems like his administration is packed with like these sorts of characters that are kind of, you know, their talents are more in the, I don't know, branding or business and stuff like that.

00:14:05And it was even kind of like when he had Rex Tillerson as his as his secretary of state.

00:14:11But but yeah, like it definitely does carry across that way.

00:14:15Well, they do.

00:14:17They do seem to have kind of one foot in, one foot out.

00:14:20And I don't know that I love.

00:14:22I mean, that's part of the art of the deal strategy.

00:14:25Always make it look like you can walk away at any time.

00:14:28That's that's part of the art of the art of the deal.

00:14:32If you guys want to.

00:14:33I mean, you could go to Chachi, but he just asked it to summarize it for you.

00:14:36You don't really need to read it.

00:14:37But that's one of the tenets of it is to always kind of make your opponent know that you held the leverage because you're always comfortable walking away.

00:14:46And that's been something that they've started to really allude to.

00:14:50I mean, we've heard from Trump, I think, earlier he said, well, then he won't be in office for too long.

00:14:54That was very early on in his term.

00:14:57He was talking about Zelensky.

00:14:58They've also expressed they're kind of like annoyed with him or, you know, kind of treating him like a schmuck, if you will, at the White House.

00:15:06And then Rubio comes out and this is from both Rubio and Trump.

00:15:13But Trump was asked if the U.S. will walk away from Ukraine at the White House.

00:15:19So we need to determine very quickly now, and I'm talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable in the over the next few weeks.

00:15:27If it is, we're in.

00:15:28If it's hot, then we'll have to we have other priorities to focus on as well.

00:15:32If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say you're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people, and we're going to just take a pass.

00:15:44But hopefully we won't have to do that.

00:15:47And Marco is right in saying we want to see it end.

00:15:51Think of it.

00:15:52Every day a lot of people are being killed as we talk about, you know, as they play games.

00:15:59So we're not going to we're not going to take that and we will we'll see.

00:16:03I think we have a good chance of solving the problem.

00:16:05Are you prepared to walk away completely from these efforts and these talks?

00:16:10Well, I don't want to say that, but we want to see it end.

00:16:16So interesting.

00:16:17They're both expressing outwardly expressing doubts and a desire to walk away if these talks don't work out.

00:16:26And like we iterated before, is that it was further clarified that Rubio intended to put the pressure on Ukraine and not Russia.

00:16:36What are your thoughts, given the rumors that we've heard that Zelensky rejected a ceasefire?

00:16:41We had the video in the very beginning from the front from our special forces state stating that it's already been broken.

00:16:46They fired upon them and tried to break through.

00:16:50And then we have these guys saying, well, if things don't work out, then we're going to kind of walk away.

00:16:56Putin offered a 30 hour unilateral ceasefire, especially for the reason that both Easter's match up this year, which is highly uncommon.

00:17:04But the both Easter's match up this year.

00:17:07This is, I believe, the third holiday ceasefire, maybe fourth, that Putin has offered and has been rejected.

00:17:15And the Kherson governor came out and actually said Ukraine violated the ceasefire.

00:17:21Now, Ukraine has somewhat kind of said maybe like all the communications didn't get to all the places.

00:17:28It wasn't meant to be like that.

00:17:30But what are your thoughts on this sort of this wishy-washy?

00:17:35But now we're right back in the thick of it anyway.

00:17:37Never really paused.

00:17:39I really think it's a smart.

00:17:41This whole thing is a smart maneuver for Russia because they get to sit pretty and kind of play with house money.

00:17:46What it looks like for the West is, you know, there's somewhat confusing optics from Washington because we are nominally like allied with them.

00:17:55And at the same time, we're counter signaling them.

00:17:57So, like, on our end, there is this sort of, like, it doesn't look great, right?

00:18:02So, like, it makes Washington appear fractured.

00:18:07And then from Ukraine's end, as we mentioned, it's, you know, they're sort of isolated.

00:18:14So, like, I feel like the – I just feel like this is just a smart, like, chess play by Russia.

00:18:21And, you know, the way that – I'm sorry, your question right now was in regards to the –

00:18:27Just your thoughts.

00:18:28You could go off on a tangent if you want.

00:18:31Go ahead.

00:18:31So, I know that you stated before that Zelensky's signaling strength and independence by rejecting the ceasefire and going right for Witkoff and even Trump.

00:18:42But he's also taking a huge risk at alienating USA.

00:18:46Yeah, and the point is to, like, just try to trap Ukraine in this point where it's, like, you're offered a deal you don't really want to take.

00:18:53But then at the same time, you're – it looks like you're the one prolonging the whole process.

00:18:59And everyone around you is just kind of, like, we're not going to do anything, so you have to accept it.

00:19:04So, like, that's just sort of the, like, the cornering that's going on with Ukraine right now.

00:19:09So, it's smart strategy, and it'll probably – it'll probably work, you know, at some point.

00:19:15Because at this point, now, it's just holding on.

00:19:18What do you think about the recent offer from – the recent offer from the Trump administration to recognize Crimea?

00:19:24So, I have my own thoughts on Crimea.

00:19:30Oh!

00:19:31Like, for – I just mean in terms of, like, the long-term sense.

00:19:35But the – so, their offer – I don't even follow that point too much.

00:19:42Was they were offering to recognize Crimea on behalf of Russia?

00:19:46Yes, they would say they would finally recognize – and that would be, like, a pathway to peace, as if that matters to Russia.

00:19:54Yeah, I really feel like – I really do feel like that matters to Russia, like, the recognition.

00:20:02Because – so, like, if the U.S. recedes in this conflict, the other power brokers are going to be who?

00:20:08It's going to be, like, China, and it's going to be Turkey.

00:20:11I mean, let's be real.

00:20:12And I feel like Russia does not want Turkey's paws anywhere near Crimea.

00:20:17And they know that they want them.

00:20:19So, like, it is important for Russia to get recognition of Crimea from someone to start there because they don't want that loose end still hanging.

00:20:28And so, like, I do think that particular part, like, is important for Russia.

00:20:32So, this recognition from the U.S. comes as a win.

00:20:35That's a big win.

00:20:37If they – if we follow through with it.

00:20:39Well, and then what about when Rubio kind of – well, I'm trying to segue into our next segment because Rubio said we want to back – we're going to back off because we need to pivot to other priorities.

00:20:52Are we talking China, Middle East?

00:20:54Are we talking – what does he mean?

00:20:57I think for Rubio we know that he means Latin America, but regardless.

00:21:00Sure, yeah.

00:21:01I think that there's all these areas around that, like, the U.S. would rather be involved in than this, like, sinking Ukraine war.

00:21:09I mean, yeah, you have China.

00:21:10You have this, like, budding, like, Israel-Iran thing.

00:21:15You have Latin America.

00:21:17I just think that, like, Ukraine is, like, down on the list now for the U.S. as far as their, like, strategic interests.

00:21:23And so, they're just trying to, like, jump off this ship, really.

00:21:27Kind of interesting.

00:21:28Kind of, like – so how does – how do the recent events in the Middle East, specifically the Saudi-Iranian normalization and what comes with that, how does this also affect the United States' position in and on Ukraine?

00:21:44Yeah, I mean, that's a perfect, you know, segue to, you know, the other, like, major – well, this is not a hot conflict, but a cold conflict, but still a major conflict nonetheless.

00:21:56But, you know, Iran and Saudi had met this week, and this is a big shift because, you know, once again, this is part of this broader pattern of U.S. receding from the region.

00:22:08These actors somewhat behaving independently or, you know, perhaps we might see China's role growing, but essentially it's – was it Solomon?

00:22:23Yeah, Solomon was visited as the – as the acting defense minister, and he – you know, this was a – this is a big meeting.

00:22:32I mean, these are not two countries that meet often, and the versatile thing for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia here is that, like, they're able to somewhat show a pivot because they're, you know, of course, major U.S. allies, but then they're also having these talks without the U.S. really even present.

00:22:49So they're trying out their own little, you know, one foot in, one foot out thing.

00:22:55What about you? What do you think?

00:22:57I think the same because I think that the Syria – everything that happened in the Levant in West Asia actually puts the Saudis and the Iranians on the back foot.

00:23:06The Saudis were also pushed out.

00:23:07I don't think then people talk about that enough, what happened kind of with Gulf Arab influence in the Levant.

00:23:12I mean, we know that Qatar itself paid, I think, over a trillion dollars to overthrow Assad in this final, like, finale, and that pushed out Iran probably for the foreseeable future and also negatively impacted Saudis, what little influence they have left.

00:23:29They're mostly focused on Europe and the Balkans and obviously the Middle East and the subcontinent, but not so much the Levant.

00:23:37So I think that this is really interesting, and I think you brought up a good point, is sort of this is taking – I don't want to say they're sovereignty, but this is a move in the right direction for these two to normalize if we're going to continue down the path of multipolarity.

00:23:50What are your thoughts on that?

00:23:54Well, multipolarity is sort of –

00:23:57I know you paid it, but you're going to have to learn to like it.

00:24:00Yeah, well, multipolarity, yeah, it's not my jam, but like it's sort of this inevitable equilibrium that'll come when like, you know, the present powers recede.

00:24:11Like when you have one particular power, you know, things are – everyone's used to things going a certain way.

00:24:17You know, you kind of follow that power's ideology, et cetera, you know, their global order.

00:24:21But like once they recede, there's this sort of – how do I say it?

00:24:26Like a relativism almost in a sense where everyone kind of has to – no one is the primitive power, so everyone kind of has to acknowledge each other's culture and each other's way of doing things as kind of equal.

00:24:39And so that would be a new world because right now that's not how we look at the world.

00:24:41We look at, you know, the Western way is the right way or like the main way we do things that everyone kind of has to fall in line.

00:24:46And I do think there'll be like a change in some of these norms or, you know, some of the way we do things internationally in this new multipolar landscape.

00:24:59So that's kind of what I'm most interested in is just seeing like, you know, we've taken for granted kind of some of these norms that we have, which only have been around, you know, like in this modern era of like this U.S.-led global order.

00:25:12And so like when we recede out of this like liberal, you know, Western liberalism as the main defining program, I don't know what exactly that looks like, but that'll be the world we're in.

00:25:25I also think that, and I want your opinion, is that we have a very moderate, progressive, reformist government in Iran, progressive relative to Iran, not in our over to it at all, but a reformist government in Iran.

00:25:43Then that's the one obviously conducting the talks with Saudi.

00:25:45Saudi is starting to get, I don't want to say secular, but I don't know what else to call it other than, I don't know.

00:25:55It feels like there's the Islamic facade there, but then there's like Shakir concerts and raves.

00:26:01Is that something that you think that's, do you think Saudi would be able to exert any soft power on Iran in that sense?

00:26:08Because that could be a backdoor for the West.

00:26:12The West could be like, yeah, go ahead and have those talks because we'll just slide right in.

00:26:17It's really hard to imagine how they would be able to like, push out the soft power on Iran because like culturally they don't have that much to offer in a sense of like, like the usual examples of soft power you think of, right?

00:26:32But, um, I don't know.

00:26:35I really feel like Saudi is a weird one because they're so rich, but they're so like behind in a sense of just like their own cultural cachet.

00:26:43So that like, you know, if they are influencing them in some way, like I wouldn't even know how to picture it.

00:26:49Like, I feel like it'd be easier for a place like Turkey if they wanted to influence Iran because they actually have like some soft power to export.

00:26:56And with Saudi, I like, I just don't like, there are just some like rich guys who are just trying out new things.

00:27:02They're like UAE with even less soft power.

00:27:06It's like, you know, when a sports owner, like when a team gets a new owner and it's this like guy who comes in and he's like, we're going to win the ring in five years.

00:27:14We're going to try all these new things.

00:27:16And it's like, but they've never owned a team before.

00:27:17So they like get the wrong players.

00:27:19And like, this happens all the time.

00:27:21But yeah, that's what Saudi reminds me of.

00:27:22And so like, I just, I don't ever see them as being like a major broker in the way that like Iran or Turkey was for the region.

00:27:31I just feel like they'll, they'll be able to sort of be present, but, and probably have some behind the scenes influence.

00:27:38But like, I don't know if they'll be able to project in the same sort of gravitas that these other powers do.

00:27:43I'm wondering though, because now we'll, we'll get into the, the calling off of the Iranian strike.

00:27:48I'm wondering if talks with Saudi and Iran actually help buttress up the decision to not strike Iran with Israel.

00:27:56So for our listeners that don't know, Israel initially posed a plan to strike Iran with the assistance of America and their armed forces.

00:28:05And that was slated to go down in October.

00:28:08Now I wouldn't be surprised it was supposed to be like October 7th or something ridiculous.

00:28:11Cause that's how Jews are where they love numbers.

00:28:15But anyway, so Israel had originally planned it for October and then they backed it up and they said, no, we want to do it in May.

00:28:22And I feel like that was actually Bibby trying to see like, what kind of leverage do I have here?

00:28:28How badly do they really want it?

00:28:30And Trump saying, well, that's not in my timeline.

00:28:33And, and Trump being Trump, I don't think Trump was too cowardly.

00:28:37I think Trump was basically saying, you're not going to tell me what to do when I'm in the midst of talking.

00:28:42And he gave Iran a timeline till I think, I believe it was May 25th is when their time runs out.

00:28:47So Trump absolutely refused to support the attack saying that he would choose to pursue negotiations over the nuclear program, which side note, he tore up the JCPOA, but okay.

00:28:59We're wasting months and months and months renegotiating the JCPOA that he tore up to spite Obama.

00:29:04But I digress.

00:29:06There was a huge internal divide allegedly with Tulsi Gabbard, J.D. Vance, Pete Hegg, Seth, Susie Wiles, and even Waltz said that they didn't think it was a good idea to strike Iran, which I thought was interesting.

00:29:22There were obviously, Bibi came to the White House on the 7th of April, and that's when the U.S. announced that they would not be joining in on this, whatever they have planned.

00:29:36But we did, we did move a large contingent of warfighting equipment to Diego Garcia right near Iran.

00:29:41And yes, we've used some of it on Yemen, but not anything of the magnitude that we've moved.

00:29:46What are your thoughts on all of this?

00:29:49I kind of just took it as a Trump saying, like, you're not going to tell me when and where I'm going to strike, like, and kind of switch up the deal.

00:29:56Because if you remember, on the way to the White House, Zelensky switched up his deal, and that was their excuse for kind of treating him so badly.

00:30:03So we know that they don't like the whole bait and switch thing.

00:30:06That's very, very taboo, and they don't like that.

00:30:09They don't like to think that, they don't like people to think they have one up on them.

00:30:13So I thought that that's a lot where it came from.

00:30:15Or do you think that Trump, or do you think there's something more to it?

00:30:20Or is Iran really a threat to the United States?

00:30:25Yeah, they clearly are not like a threat to the United States.

00:30:28They are, they're a threat in the sense of like, they're on the opposite team, and they're a big player, right?

00:30:35So like, in that sense, they're like oppositional to us.

00:30:38I don't think they're a real threat.

00:30:39I was about to ask you too, what your thoughts on Iran going nuclear are, or if that'll happen.

00:30:46But like, this whole issue with Iran is sort of dizzying, because here we are talking about a nuclear deal, when we already had one, and the same administration's one that tore it up.

00:30:58And now they're back, like, like Groundhog Day, and they're just like, oh, we need this thing that we had just already had, and then tore it up.

00:31:06And like, Netanyahu was, you know, an opponent of the previous, of the JCPOA.

00:31:12And he, you know, he had let Trump know, and of course, that was all, you know, the whole big thing, it was the first time Trump, you know, tore it up.

00:31:18It was just kind of like another indicator of like, you know, Trump's Zionism, or like friendliness to it.

00:31:25And so now here we are again.

00:31:26I mean, sometimes I'm just like, I feel like I'm in a crazy town trying to follow the story, and what like all the twists and turns are.

00:31:33There was a lot of interesting discourse I heard this week in regards to this nuclear issue for Iran, right?

00:31:40Like, I can't believe why hasn't Iran gotten a bomb yet, or, you know, I don't get why Iran doesn't get a bomb.

00:31:48I feel like that day, like, will come.

00:31:52I just don't know.

00:31:53I just don't know.

00:31:54I don't think that it'll be soon.

00:31:55Like, I don't think that that's going to, I don't think they're going to come into having a nuclear bomb quite yet.

00:31:59But I think people get excited when they see that Pakistan has one, and they're just like, why can't Iran have one?

00:32:06We've moved very quickly from the, like, the paradigm where, like, only a couple countries were supposed to have it.

00:32:11And now we're just like, why doesn't everyone have it?

00:32:14Yeah, that's true.

00:32:16So, yeah, I am like, I'm hoping we kind of push those days far ahead.

00:32:21Like, I don't want to be in this point where, like, everyone's armed.

00:32:25But, yeah, Iran's big enough to where, like, they'll probably need it.

00:32:29I just don't know, like, how, I don't know, like, what the next 10 years, 15 years of our mutual diplomacy looks like for that, like, environment.

00:32:37That's the thing.

00:32:38And I think that, and I was going to ask you that, because we're doing negotiations with Iran to put back in the place an agreement that was in place that worked well enough.

00:32:47It didn't need to be torn up.

00:32:50That was something that he did probably for Bibi and to spite Obama, to kind of crap on Obama's legacies.

00:32:56Like, I got you now.

00:32:56And this sends a really bad message to the Russians and the Ukrainians that we're trying to negotiate an agreement with.

00:33:03It's like, here we are, really working our tails off to get another JCPOA that we ruined.

00:33:10But we're back here to negotiate Minsk 3.

00:33:12It's like, why would anybody engage in diplomacy with the United States at this point?

00:33:18Why would they engage in diplomacy with the United States?

00:33:22Why, like...

00:33:23I mean, other than the fact that they have to.

00:33:25But, like, it's...

00:33:26Why ever listen to anything this administration says?

00:33:29Because this is the same thing they did with NAFTA when they tore that up.

00:33:32And then they reworked a deal, which was just, like, so it's just with a new name.

00:33:37And that's, you know...

00:33:37You know, like, they love to do this where they, like, tear something apart and then just reissue it and just slap on their own name on it.

00:33:45And, yeah, like, I...

00:33:47It's not too impressive in regards to, like, when you just watch and you sort of assess how they do things.

00:33:53But I suppose it's effective in its messaging.

00:33:57So, so...

00:33:59After coming out of the talks between Saudi and Iran, the Ayatollah said,

00:34:05Our belief is that the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia is beneficial for both countries.

00:34:11And the Iranian Armed Forces Chief said,

00:34:13Ties between our armed forces have been improving since the Beijing agreement.

00:34:19And they did conduct operations or drills together.

00:34:23How do you...

00:34:25Do you know anything about the kind of mesh-up or what a mesh-up between the Saudi and the Iranian Armed Forces would look like?

00:34:32It's not very formidable, is it?

00:34:38No, but, like, I was going to say, like, you're the military one.

00:34:44And I'll leave it to you.

00:34:45I don't know about the mesh-up.

00:34:45But, like, it does strike me as, like, these both have shared interests in their shared vulnerability, which is...

00:34:51They both have oil interests, right?

00:34:53Like, they have oil infrastructure that they're concerned about, both, you know, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

00:34:59And so, like, a powerful incentive for cooperation is, of course, a mutual vulnerability.

00:35:05And so, like, that aspect to Saudi and Iran does sort of point to something that, you know, they both can work together on.

00:35:12But, sorry, I'll leave the military mesh-up.

00:35:17I don't know very much about the capabilities of the Saudis, except that they're very much under the bum of the Americans.

00:35:25Anything that they use, anytime they want to take off, anytime they want to engage their air defense systems, that has to go through the Americans.

00:35:31Those systems are kind of owned and operated as such.

00:35:34They have a few that they can operate on their own.

00:35:38But, I mean, I think that if it came down to it and with no other outside involvement, the IRGC would walk through the peninsula like a hot knife through butter.

00:35:46Like, it really wouldn't even be a competition.

00:35:50They don't really have any war-hardened experience, really, in that regard.

00:35:53So, they're very green, like, just in all aspects of their military.

00:35:59So, they might have, like, you know, they might be able to afford some good equipment or have, like, you know, U.S. help.

00:36:05But, like, yeah, they're really not a big player or they're not scaring Iran, probably.

00:36:12And Iran is still in that.

00:36:13Iran is trading oil with China faster than they ever have.

00:36:16And that's because, obviously, because of the tariffs and because their relationship is strengthening.

00:36:20And, like I said in the quote, they did mention the Beijing talks, which has really strengthened the relationship between Iran.

00:36:26And I think I want to reiterate the fact that Saudi and Iran were both pushed out of the Levant.

00:36:32So, this is also an alliance of, a losers alliance of convenience a little bit.

00:36:37So, I think, I don't want to say losers, but this is to their best.

00:36:40This is in their best interest to engage with one another, for sure, because neither one of them want to engage with Turkey.

00:36:46And they can't engage with Israel.

00:36:49What do you think about Qatar's role?

00:36:52Do you think there are stars rising still?

00:36:54Yes, very much so.

00:36:57Qatar is taking, they're like UAE, but way more politically and militarily savvy.

00:37:04UAE is off to the races with some ridiculous influencers.

00:37:09Qatar is really examining how to push soft power in certain ways, especially in the United States.

00:37:15They're paying multiple people on Twitter to push.

00:37:18I won't go down the rabbit hole.

00:37:20People think Tucker Carlson's paid by Qatar.

00:37:22I don't know if he is or isn't.

00:37:23But I do know of at least a handful of people that verifiably are funded and pushed by Qatar.

00:37:29And I think that that shows their prowess in that field.

00:37:33But I think that they're going very slowly and being more pragmatic about it.

00:37:37But they are spending money like water, like water.

00:37:41A trillion dollars to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.

00:37:44We spent 15 billion, and I think that was way too much.

00:37:48So that's pretty impressive that they're ready to put down that kind of cash to push their sort of priorities.

00:37:53We have to see how their relationship progresses with Turkey, especially.

00:38:00Yeah, yeah, for sure.

00:38:01And they're still housing members of Hamas.

00:38:04I just don't, I'm not really sure.

00:38:06And those talks are still going on.

00:38:08So things are in shift.

00:38:10And that's why actually that line, now that we're talking out loud about it or thinking out loud about it,

00:38:14that alliance between Saudi and Iran makes a lot of sense.

00:38:17A lot of sense.

00:38:18And I think that if they were actually true to that alliance, it could be something pretty serious.

00:38:23With the money, amount of money and access both of those, or Saudi has, Iran has some money.

00:38:29But the amount of money and access Saudi has and the strength and military buildup that Iran has,

00:38:34that could be pretty significant.

00:38:38As you said, especially if Qatar is working with Turkey or it continues to,

00:38:44then that does open an avenue for the Iran, which is crazy to imagine.

00:38:50But it opens a door for Iranian and Saudi cooperation to counter that.

00:38:56Well, somebody would have to.

00:38:58And it would have to be somebody of a massive scale because the liquidity of Qatar is so crazy.

00:39:03And Turkey is obviously very militarily formidable.

00:39:07So it's kind of like a counterpart to both of them.

00:39:10We have a very formidable Iran with a very rich Saudi and a very formidable Turkey with a very rich Qatar.

00:39:16That could shape up to be disastrous, maybe.

00:39:21Probably not, but maybe.

00:39:22These guys seem to be a little bit more pragmatic than we are.

00:39:25Well, they are actually an example.

00:39:28In contrast to Saudi, I feel like Qatar really punches above its weight in soft power.

00:39:33And it kind of figured out ways to influence its respective region or internationally through its use of media,

00:39:41through its funding of influencers and stuff like that.

00:39:44I'm sure Saudi does the same things, but Qatar, for such a small country, does incredibly well.

00:39:52I agree.

00:39:52I agree. I mean, Al Jazeera was in its time and not so much anymore.

00:39:57It was a powerhouse.

00:39:58Al Jazeera has a lot to do with the overthrow of Esed.

00:40:02A lot.

00:40:02And they push very anti-Ansarala rhetoric.

00:40:07They're very, very good at it.

00:40:09And I think that they learned and garnered a lot from actually their Al Jazeera offices.

00:40:14You wrote some stuff on our notes about the kingdom still hosting U.S. troops and whatnot.

00:40:22So how do you think, don't you think that the normalization talks between Saudi and Iran happening contingently with the talks between U.S.

00:40:30and Iran could pose something serious?

00:40:34I feel like, so I don't know if it'll reach a point where it's something serious.

00:40:41I think the U.S. is just sort of, you know, going to like pout its lip at this.

00:40:46But I really don't think the U.S. wants to get involved in this particular issue any longer.

00:40:51I mean, outside of like, I mean, outside of keeping an equilibrium, like, I don't know if they're going to throw their weight behind one particular side anymore.

00:41:00I mean, because like, as you see here, let's say you have a Turkey-Qatar alliance and then you have, you know, a growing relation between Saudi and Iran.

00:41:06Which side does the U.S. prefer, right?

00:41:09It's a little difficult there because now you have.

00:41:11So I think U.S. is just interested in not poking this any further.

00:41:18But like, yeah, you have China as a broker, you know, showing up.

00:41:22You know, if China really does start to show up there.

00:41:27Right.

00:41:28I guess I'm getting out.

00:41:29I'm rambling here.

00:41:30But what I'm getting at is that I don't know if the U.S. will have much of a choice really to do anything about it.

00:41:35I think you brought, you're bringing up China is important because China does not like Turkey.

00:41:39So China provides another counterweight to that Qatar-Turkey alliance.

00:41:44China does not like Turkey and China does not like radical Islam.

00:41:49And they do not like countries that push it.

00:41:51So they would be, that makes sense that they would enter and try to normalize between Saudi and Iran.

00:41:58That's very advantageous for China.

00:42:00Because the other really like interesting region and the reason why China doesn't like Turkey is because Central Asia is going to be key kind of for what's going on.

00:42:10And in the 19th century, you have the great game, right, which is between the England and between Russia for Central Asia.

00:42:18You have the, you know, Britain that's coming up from India and they're trying to reach Central Asia and you have Russia going from the top down and they converge in the middle.

00:42:29But anyway, you have these two powers that are fighting over Central Asia.

00:42:31And now it's kind of evolving to where you have China and Turkey, actually, that are competing for this region.

00:42:39One through, you know, just through its size and influence and wealth and population.

00:42:44And then the other one, you have someone who's trying to utilize like a cultural connection like pan-Turkism, you know, Islam.

00:42:51Right.

00:42:51And China doesn't like that.

00:42:53And so we go from this North-South Pole to like an East-West Pole.

00:42:58And yeah, that's another like little showdown to watch out for, you know, China, Turkey, and this battle for the Central Asia.

00:43:06That's really, I'm glad you brought that up.

00:43:09I think we need to do at least one episode on neo-Ottomanism and its effect on the world or how it butts up against China's foreign policy interests.

00:43:19Because people don't understand what neo-Ottomanism is or pan-Turkism.

00:43:23And who better than a Turk like you to teach them about it?

00:43:28Yeah, or just like that ideology being so like popular in Turkey, but like solely in Turkey and less so amongst us.

00:43:37Right.

00:43:37And that's a lot of the confusion that happens with pan-Turkism is it's kind of seen as this like equally popular among all Turks.

00:43:45And it's just not.

00:43:46And so I think China knows that.

00:43:47People in Central Asia certainly know that.

00:43:50And so that's China will actually, ironically, will probably be an ally in the fight against pan-Turkism.

00:43:58It's going to come to that because it'll be in their own interests.

00:44:03I'm like trying to type these.

00:44:04He's Armenian-Azerbaijani.

00:44:07I just call him Turkish because it's funny.

00:44:09Okay.

00:44:10I spelled Azerbaijan-y wrong because I was rushing.

00:44:13But this is, I want to get to our last segment because this is the one I've been ranting and raving about all week long.

00:44:19And people have been calling me a, thank you for coming, fine home painting, love, new subs.

00:44:24Please welcome, guys.

00:44:25And thank you.

00:44:25We're over 5,000 now.

00:44:27That's astonishing.

00:44:28This is like a huge welcome back and I really appreciate it.

00:44:30But we're going to get down, I'm going to channel my inner Candace Owens.

00:44:33We're going to go down my rabbit hole.

00:44:36No pun intended.

00:44:37But I've been ranting about this all week.

00:44:40This Bukele visit to the White House and then kind of the way, where it took me after that.

00:44:46So, okay.

00:44:47So I want to start with the hot mic moment.

00:44:49And this is what kind of sent me off.

00:44:52So this is a hot mic caught between Donald Trump and Bukele.

00:44:56I'll let you guys watch and kind of decide what you guys think.

00:45:00Well, you know, I'm happy with the book.

00:45:04I want to, you know, the homegrown criminals next.

00:45:09Yeah.

00:45:09I said homegrowns are next.

00:45:12The homegrowns.

00:45:13You've got to build about five more places.

00:45:15Yeah, that's better.

00:45:16All right.

00:45:20It's not big enough.

00:45:21No.

00:45:23Right.

00:45:23And the reason why it piqued my interest was because, well, what does he mean by homegrowns?

00:45:27I didn't automatically defer to, he means us.

00:45:31I was like, maybe he's talking about the homegrowns in El Salvador because they're notoriously overpopulated in those prisons.

00:45:37They're overburdened.

00:45:38It's the most overburdened prison system in the world.

00:45:42And it's probably one of the worst.

00:45:44But so they're planning on building new ones.

00:45:46So I said, okay, that's interesting.

00:45:48But then another clip came out from none other than Caroline Levitt to reassure us that we were right.

00:46:00Deporting American citizens to Central American prisons, is it legal or do you need to change the law to do it?

00:46:10Well, it's another question that the president has raised.

00:46:13It's a legal question that the president is looking into.

00:46:15And he talked about this yesterday with his meeting with President Bukele in the Oval Office.

00:46:20He would only consider this, if legal, for Americans who are the most violent, egregious, repeat offenders of crime who nobody in this room wants living in their communities.

00:46:32And then there's this CHNV thing.

00:46:35President Biden let more than 530,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, into the U.S. with this CHNV program.

00:46:45He did it with the stroke of a pen.

00:46:47And now a judge will not let President Trump undo it with the stroke of a pen.

00:46:52So are you guys going to give all 530,000-plus people individual deportation hearings, or are you just going to try to deport them?

00:47:03I spoke to White House Counsel's office about this this morning because, obviously, another rogue district court judge is trying to block the administration's mass deportation efforts with this latest injunction.

00:47:13We will fight this in the court of law, and we will ensure that every individual who illegally entered our country and was really taken advantage of by the previous administration because they abused the parole system in this country to fast-track legal status, as they said, for these illegal immigrants.

00:47:35And they completely abused our legal system.

00:47:38Many of these paroled individuals were then given temporary protective status, which the intention of that TPS was only supposed to be used in times of war or storm or destruction in the home countries of these migrants.

00:47:53It was completely abused.

00:47:54These migrants came here for economic reasons, and they illegally entered our country, and the president is not going to tolerate that.

00:48:02And so we will continue to focus on deporting as many individuals as we can.

00:48:08Interesting.

00:48:10So, and if you were still confused, I have one more for you, just in case you didn't hear it the first two times.

00:48:17And some are wondering, though, if it's a slippery slip.

00:48:19What's your reaction to President Trump suggesting that homegrown criminals could be sent to El Salvador next, American citizens?

00:48:27They're criminals.

00:48:28They broke our laws.

00:48:29They need to suffer our punishment.

00:48:31Look, I don't want Donald Trump teaching my daughter Sunday school class, but dadgum, I like him in the White House

00:48:37because he understands the rule of law, I feel like, and America is sick of this stuff.

00:48:43But doggone it, I like him because he's amazing.

00:48:46I had to check how to spell daggum.

00:48:48I didn't know if it was danggum or daggum.

00:48:51It's daggum.

00:48:52I think it's like southern for goddammit.

00:48:56Anyway, so we have the three officials.

00:48:59We have the three officials telling us the homegrowns are next.

00:49:03Thankfully, bring him around, you're not a homegrown.

00:49:05You're not born here, so you'll be safe.

00:49:07I'll be in El Salvadorian prison with Brother Nathaniel on one side and I guess Auntie G and maybe Chai on another or something.

00:49:16But what really got me was that, okay, well, what are they even talking about?

00:49:20Then we have this sort of deportation of this guy with the MS-13 tattoos to get everybody worked up, right, with a distraction.

00:49:27They're over there fighting about whether a smiley face means S or Satan or it doesn't mean anything, just as long as they're not looking at us.

00:49:34So I started to dig in because when they're trying to distract you, you should actually dig further into what they're doing.

00:49:40And I started finding out that Eric Prince is proposing huge contracts into El Salvador.

00:49:47He is working alongside Bukele to privatize the prison system in El Salvador under his newly formed corporation called 2, the number 2 letter U-S-V, 2-U-S-V.

00:50:04So he created a new LLC, which is common.

00:50:09What these people do is they'll create these shell companies.

00:50:11So Blackwater was for Iraq and then he switched over to academia to go do or academy to go do UAE stuff.

00:50:17And then he had another company when he was proposing China.

00:50:19Now he does 2-U-S-V for El Salvador.

00:50:22He wants to build a 10,000-ped camp, process 100,000 U.S. detainees.

00:50:28He wants to do, he specified non-citizens first.

00:50:32So that tells me that citizens will be later, I guess.

00:50:35He wants to waive trials and ICE standards.

00:50:41And this is the kicker.

00:50:42What they really want to do is to create a treaty of sessions.

00:50:47So for our listeners, a treaty of sessions would mean that once El Salvador signs into this contract, it will be backed by the U.S. government.

00:50:56It will be signing it with Blackwater.

00:50:57But he'll be ceding this territory to the U.S. government and basically wherever these private prisons are or wherever Blackwater, to U.S.V., but Blackwater, for all intents and purposes, is doing their prison guard work.

00:51:11That would be American soil.

00:51:14So it closes up that legal loophole of deportation because this is not no longer deportation.

00:51:20It's just removal and placed under custody.

00:51:23It's very, very scary if they're already and they they're already building the infrastructure.

00:51:31Google has moved down there to provide cloud services.

00:51:34The IOF is training and outfitting the soldiers, which are nothing more than death squads.

00:51:40So am I being hyperbolic or am I as am I like overreacting or is this like isn't this kind of fishy, especially with Vukaili trying to say we're going to be the Bitcoin haven where everybody can come.

00:51:53With their billions of Bitcoins and nobody has to pay wealth taxes.

00:51:57Not that I'm a pro tax person, but it's very interesting that he's catering to the crypto bros.

00:52:03Google runs down there to make a Google cloud headquarters.

00:52:07They're hiring people like crazy.

00:52:09We have Eric Prince trying to enter into contracts.

00:52:13The Israeli private companies have privatized the agricultural and the water sector of El Salvador.

00:52:19We know that Palantir is investing and we'll get to them next.

00:52:22Isn't this kind of spooky?

00:52:25Yeah.

00:52:26Well, real quick, I was going to say on that last clip, I hate those like Southern phrases where they're like, I wouldn't want him teaching my daughter Sunday school.

00:52:34Like the store is as flat as two sides of a pancake or whatever.

00:52:39I'm hotter than a dog in church.

00:52:42You're like, I don't even know what that means.

00:52:44Why would a dog be in church?

00:52:46So the like, there's this like authoritarian creep under cover of like something legal.

00:52:53So essentially there's no, on one hand, there's no border enforcement in this particular case, right?

00:52:59You just have like construction of a parallel penal regime that's, you know, that targets the certain U.S. citizens that are deemed undesirable, you know, for whatever reason.

00:53:09And so, you know, using foreign soil kind of bypasses a, you know, bypasses certain rights that we have here.

00:53:17And so this, this would be like, if I can invent a word, like a Guantanamification of like U.S. Peel system where you're just like utilizing these offshore sites.

00:53:29Exactly.

00:53:29That's what I said.

00:53:30I was like, well, they don't have to, they're going to fulfill their promise of closing Gitmo by deporting people to Bitcoin City.

00:53:37Yeah.

00:53:37And deporting them indefinitely.

00:53:38I mean, we have kids and U.S. citizens in Gitmo that are their cousins of some terrorists they suspect in Iraq somewhere.

00:53:46And you're like, so it's not far-fetched to say, oh, well, Sarah should probably go to El Salvador in prison since she knows some Russians at the front or something like that.

00:53:55Not that this admin would do that, but I'm just saying.

00:53:57And then you kind of, it kind of, and now I'm going to get, and now I'm going to get a lot of crap.

00:54:01Don't give me any crap tonight in the spaces.

00:54:03You know who you are.

00:54:04But what about the changing of the definition of anti-Semitism and the enforcement of such on the colleges?

00:54:11No, I'm not saying that, oh, this is a Jewish opera, Jewish plan.

00:54:14I'm just saying that that's a, that's a litmus test to see if you guys will put up with that.

00:54:20And then if they could, if you're saying, because the general message that I'm hearing from MAGA is not about the citizenship, not about whether they have a right to be here.

00:54:28It's about that they're subverting or going against American foreign policy and creating waves that way.

00:54:35So if that's the reason why they want to deport these visa holders, how far do we have to push them until they're like, well, you're also subverting the U.S. foreign policy.

00:54:47You should probably be detained for a little bit until we can get that under control.

00:54:50Yeah, and this is all kind of part of this broader, like post 9-11 thing that the U.S. is shifting into, where it just sort of utilizes these like extreme incarceration methods.

00:55:04And I mean, you're right, like Gitmo has people that are just like in there for what we don't even know.

00:55:09They're not going through the process.

00:55:10And the, as for El Salvador, you know what El Salvador kind of like, what it reminds me of, you know, those like budget car dealerships where they're like, credit check here.

00:55:23It's kind of like, everyone's welcome.

00:55:24Like, if you have bad credit, we'll take you on anyway.

00:55:26El Salvador is like pitching itself as, as this like place where various regimes can, like, it's, he's, he has a willingness to waive civil protections to make El Salvador just like testing ground in domestic dissidents.

00:55:42Yep, he offered testing ground for the IDF, actually.

00:55:45And he offered testing ground for Peter Thiel and his surveillance.

00:55:49And you're right.

00:55:50And the funny thing is, is that when they came out, do you remember when Michele did like the hype video where they were dressed up?

00:55:55Like, I don't know, like, they looked like the dark elves from Lord of the Rings or something.

00:55:59They looked crazy.

00:56:00And he was in like his dictator outfit.

00:56:02I was like, and he was like, this is so base.

00:56:04And I was like, this is a, this is a show.

00:56:07And that's what he, I was like, this guy is a fraud.

00:56:09And I started looking up all of this stuff.

00:56:11And while Michele wasn't initially a CIA plant, people have to remember, Michele was ousted from two political parties before he was able to run for president and win.

00:56:21And yes, he did run on a being hard on criminals ticket.

00:56:26He was buttressed up and outfitted, kitted and trained by the U.S. and Israel afterwards.

00:56:32So he owes them.

00:56:34And people think like this guy came in and by the grace of God that he just transformed El Salvador overnight.

00:56:40And you're like, no, that takes millions of dollars in training and, and people on the ground.

00:56:44And, and, you know, and this isn't, and I know that in 20 years, we're going to hear about death squads in El Salvador and people disappearing like under Pinochet and Somosa.

00:56:53And I'm just like, are we doing all of this for the sake of, for you to say that the crime's better?

00:57:00Or is it so you can have a Bitcoin haven where you kind of have an unending pool of slave labor?

00:57:05And also don't forget the, the way this idea actually started was Michele, in order to raise funds, started privatizing the cells inside of the prisons and offering up spots for foreign prisoners where he would charge the country a fee.

00:57:18So that's where this idea started.

00:57:21And it's very scary because it's like literally human capital.

00:57:26It's just like, it's just like Kamala saying, we can't let prisoners out.

00:57:30They put out the fires for free.

00:57:31And it's like, well, we need prisoners because we need Bitcoin slave labor.

00:57:35Yeah.

00:57:36And now we're like getting at the point where like, this is all getting kind of convoluted because like there, there are aspects to Bukele that like, or that sort of political system or someone like coming in, someone like him to come in and just, you know, shake up a country.

00:57:49Like, I think stuff like that is good.

00:57:50And the thing with Bukele has been like, I've never seen any sort of dictator whose regime has been so successfully astroturfed by the internet and like the web, like just like zoomers on the web who like don't know that much maybe about the country.

00:58:05And I'm not going to say, I know that much about El Salvador, but like there's, there's like all these like zoomers online who are like, this guy's so based in red pill.

00:58:15And it's like, you know, close to nothing.

00:58:17Right.

00:58:17Like I, I, I, his, his hype and his stock is like so high, a lot of nothing.

00:58:22Right.

00:58:23But we'll see, like, cause you know, there's, you know, all the, everything they said about what he did for crime in the country.

00:58:29We'll like, we'll see how, you know, how true or how correct that was.

00:58:33And if it wasn't a great, but like, as for all this stuff, I, I've never been a fan of the, like the move for Bitcoin for the country, these like ways that he sort of pitches himself as this, I don't know, parking, parking spot for the rest of the world for their shit.

00:58:49Like, um, yeah, it's, uh, I've never really liked Latin American dictators.

00:58:56I like other dictators.

00:58:57I never liked the Latin American ones that much.

00:58:59And there was a whole archetype of it.

00:59:01Like there's a long history.

00:59:02Do you think he'll be in power a long time?

00:59:04Like there's a chance he could, like if he's hot air, like he is a lot of hot air.

00:59:10Yeah.

00:59:10He's a lot.

00:59:11Nobody could just take him.

00:59:13Well, we could, but that's the thing.

00:59:14I don't think that he matters as much and he'll just, I think that that's the thing.

00:59:17We can take him out at any time, but it's actually really useful to have him there.

00:59:20The zoomers love him.

00:59:22He's the crypto bro.

00:59:23He's like the crypto savior.

00:59:25He's the first president, first country to use Bitcoin as a currency inside the country.

00:59:31And I tell people in spaces and I'll reiterate it.

00:59:34These anarcho capitalists have been looking for a place to park.

00:59:38There are a lot of people who got very rich off of various coins.

00:59:41And I'm not saying that's bad or they're scammers.

00:59:44They got very rich, but they don't want to be told what to do with that money because Bitcoin and all crypto was promised to be an unregulated way to earn, hide, whatever your money.

00:59:53So they want to make sure that they continue to prevent that.

00:59:56And there's been many, many movements and many, there was actually a very long, not a longstanding one, but there was a conference that existed in Mexico called Anarcapulco.

01:00:04And they wanted to build their own commune kind of small town in Acapulco and they succeeded for a short time, but it eventually fell apart because Mexico is crime rated and they were all white and people got killed.

01:00:15You know how it goes.

01:00:16So now this would give them that air, that extra layer of safety because you're going to have the El Salvadoran death squads guarding you.

01:00:23You'll have free labor and no taxes.

01:00:25And so this is kind of, it feels like it's a building off of that idea.

01:00:29And I want people to remember that Eric Prince's contracting doesn't just go to El Salvador.

01:00:34He wants access to all of the ICE systems and he wants to privatize ICE functions.

01:00:40So he wants to take over the deportation hearings and then ICE would be focused more on students and domestic stuff, domestic terrorism, i.e. anti-Semitism.

01:00:49So he wants access to all of those databases and he also incentivized bounty hunters that he said we could do an incentivization program where we pay bounty hunters basically a head fee.

01:01:02We charge by scalp, we give it scalp rewards, I guess.

01:01:07So that's what they're incentivizing bodyguards or bounty hunters to pick up the people.

01:01:13Then they take the people and they do whatever they want with them and not to be left out, of course, is Palantir.

01:01:19Who was the victim of a leak this week?

01:01:23And honestly, they should be the victim of a leak every week.

01:01:26But this week they leaked that they are working hand in hand with ICE.

01:01:32They just scored a $95.9 million contract with ICE to help them with surveillance.

01:01:40This will help manage Trump's mass deportation campaign.

01:01:44Palantir has acknowledged that there will be failures in the removal process.

01:01:48And is prepping Palantir employees for the potential backlash.

01:01:54The quote is, we recognize there is a risk of potential harm.

01:01:58Many risks will not be within our means to address.

01:02:03They want to take over all of the logistics, understand the data, understand who's self-deporting, who's not self-deporting.

01:02:10And side note, Palantir and Peter Thiel have invested heavily into El Salvador and Israel for their surveillance systems.

01:02:19I feel very spooked out.

01:02:23Like, I'm creeped out.

01:02:25I always say this, that, like, the thing that will follow the American system or, you know, the American century, you know, for a while, America has kind of set the tone for everyone.

01:02:38And even ideologically, you know, this liberal democratic system was it.

01:02:42And so we often talk about how, like, when, you know, when liberalism dies, what are we going to transition into or what does this all evolve into?

01:02:50And I always say that, like, this, whatever China is doing is going to be what comes out on top.

01:02:57And the U.S. will eventually settle into something similar.

01:02:59And what I mean by that is this sort of, like, third position authoritarian system that's, like, interwoven with tech.

01:03:08And so, you know, because tech allows us to monitor people, allows the state to monitor people in far easier ways than the state ever was able to before, it's going to utilize that.

01:03:19And so what I'm getting at in this long answer is that, like, Palantir, you know, this is the beginning steps for when, like, the, you know, we get into this, like, dystopian cyberpunk, like, world where, you know, tech is a major part of our, you know, every minute of our lives, whether it's through super apps or, you know, all these other apps that we've put our entire life on.

01:03:39And then the state is just going to be logged right into it, you know, or just be able to track that, whether it's through companies like this or, you know, other means.

01:03:49But as we, you know, continue moving into this world where, you know, everything is powered by tech or by AI, et cetera, et cetera, that is just one more, like, one extra lens into our life from the state and its extra control for them.

01:04:09So I don't know if it's going to be Palantir that, like, is the company that, you know, ends up on top when it's all established and sophisticated, but they are getting in on this early.

01:04:18So, and yeah, you are right to be creeped out because these aren't.

01:04:23We've been talking about the idea of techno-fascism.

01:04:26I don't know that we would call it.

01:04:28I keep defaulting to that because it's the best term that I can find right now.

01:04:32But the techno-fascist thing and this extreme consolidation of power.

01:04:37So we just talked about Palantir and we talked about Blackwater.

01:04:41And then another contract came out this week between SpaceX and Palantir to build Trump's Golden Dome system, which will then be rented out to countries as a missile defense system.

01:04:50A privatization of our military, more a privatization of our military function.

01:04:55So I just feel like there's this handful of these technocrats, this, like, Elon, Peter Thiel, David Sachs, maybe a few others thrown at, Eric Prince.

01:05:06And they're just, like, wielding all of the power.

01:05:10And it's independent of the government.

01:05:13It's actually not – it helps a little bit, but it's not a huge net positive for America in terms of soft power.

01:05:21They're not reaching out as, like, I'm American with American money and American government contracts.

01:05:26They're reaching out as private institutions.

01:05:29Yeah, and this is sort of the life cycle of everything where, like, when something is rising and it expands and it expands under its own sort of banners and institutions,

01:05:38like, once that starts declining, these same institutions or the same brand that, like, once carried sway, it starts to recede and it's parted out little by little and privatized.

01:05:55And kind of like an old parallel to this, in a sense, not that, like, privatization at that time was happening in the same way,

01:06:02but, like, when the Roman Empire started crumbling, the way that it got sort of Germanized or the reason that those German petty kingdoms showed up is because

01:06:11if your security – like, if your military security is crumbling, you need to find new security.

01:06:18And so someone kind of shows up as a free agent or as, like, a private actor, and that's what the German tribes at that time sort of were.

01:06:25They offered protection and they offered, you know, military might in a way that, like, the Roman Empire could no longer guarantee.

01:06:33That's how these territories started to go Germanified.

01:06:36And so that's kind of what I think of when I see this, like, American system being kind of parted out and privatized and just, like, almost like in a chop shop where it's just being sold off

01:06:49or being carved out to these people interested in profiting off it.

01:06:55But it's bad news for, you know, for the American Empire, we'll say that, and for life over here.

01:07:01So then we'll end the episode on a positive note.

01:07:03Bad news for the American Empire.

01:07:05That's a positive note.

01:07:06And Murat, how do you feel after making it through your first episode of DD Geopolitics live broadcast?

01:07:15It wasn't that hard, was it?

01:07:17Yeah, I appreciate the kind comments.

01:07:20They like you.

01:07:21They really like, they actually, I hate to say this, but they like you more than they liked John.

01:07:26Oh, I appreciate that, guys.

01:07:29I promise this will probably be the worst that it'll only get better from here.