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the one where the villain was runover by a tank (ep. 1)
17 Plays1 year ago
Join Gabe and James for weekly discussions of politics, news, and opinion
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Transcript
Introduction and 'Oh Brother News'
00:00:00
James
I can't believe you weren't recording earlier, Ben, because that was pretty hilarious.
00:00:03
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Uh, yes, it would have been hilarious. Welcome to Oh Brother News, where me and James talk about the latest shit in politics.
00:00:10
James
You gotta, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta music.
00:00:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. Cool.
00:00:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We got music. We're fancy now.
00:00:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. So let's just jump back in where we were, we were talking before starting recording.
Trump's Influence on Ukraine and Russia's Strategy
00:00:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Um, there was an an article in the Atlantic about Trump, Ukraine, Russia.
00:00:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um ah James, take it from there.
00:00:37
James
Yeah, article is basically stating, ah this is the very Cliff Notes version. Cliff Notes version is, you know, if Trump decides to cut off Ukraine, Ukraine ah probably can't go two years, you know, without the US support and Russia, you know, they they have years worth of, you know, disposable people to keep throwing at the problem and they can probably outlast Ukraine. and um And Gabe was talking about a Well, I mean, if they ran out of ammunition, if they didn't have any weapons coming from the US, would you really think they would be able to hang on? And ah I'm still cautiously optimistic that Ukraine would be able to withstand them, and or outlast them at
Ukraine's Ammunition and Advancements
00:01:21
James
least. um i don't I don't see Russia going two more years like they've been doing, and people just still going along with that without the Russian economy collapsing on itself and everything else.
00:01:36
James
I personally don't think they can go that much longer, you know, I don't think they could go two more years. um Granted, Ukraine has been doing great, in part because they've been getting weapons and they're able to do this attrition and really just rack up the losses on the Russia side, even if they're not not gaining ground or anything, they're losing ground steadily, but they're inflicting such big losses, you know, and Gabe, Gabe mentioned that um
00:01:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Thank you.
00:02:00
James
you really think they'd be able to last and outlast Russia even with no weapons which led me to a funny well it's not funny depending on who you ask if you ask North Korea it's not funny at all but um in Kursk in in Kursk where you know Ukraine's uh have their little offensive on the on the east the northeast side of Kursk the mechanized ah infantry of Ukraine we're going up against you know thousands of meat wave you know meat soldiers just going in there to keep storming on foot against the mechanized units of Ukraine. And the Ukrainian mechanized units ran out of ammunition. and And they proceeded to take more ground from the North Koreans because even though they had no ammunition, they had armored striker vehicles from the US s with no no more ammunition in them. And they proceeded to run them all over. And the North Koreans didn't have
00:02:51
James
You know, as any anti-tank weapons, they just had small arms fire and people with machine guns and the Ukrainians ran them all over and and took more ground. Even after they ran out of ammo.
00:03:03
James
So there's still hope. Granted, they can't always be like a video game just running people over, but it was a pretty good video.
00:03:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
i mean that is
00:03:10
James
It's pretty wild video. If you search out the video, you can see it in Ukraine as striker vehicles, Ukrainian troops and striker vehicles running them over in mass.
00:03:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I'm gonna have to look for that later. I mean, that is heartening.
Trump's Negotiation Challenges in Ukraine
00:03:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
uh and hilarious um I guess depending on what side of that conflict you are whether you're on the good side or the bad side um I think the only thing that you that I would would have said that you missed was that uh um for like Trump is kind of in a pickle because um he basically promised that he was gonna negotiate an end to the conflict that
00:03:33
James
Yeah.
00:03:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
he assumed would be something like some of Ukraine will remain and there will be some kind of demilitarized zone and peacekeeping troops and you know Russia will get the rest some amount of of Ukraine will become Russian territory and that is under the assumption that Putin has to ah negotiate and with all the things that Putin stands to gain you know kind of like uh, breaking up, breaking up America's influence in NATO and taking over all of Ukraine. And his goal along has been to completely remove the language and the cultural identity of Ukraine and just make it all Russian. And you can see that in the way that like everything is, people are tortured and silenced if they have any sort of support for Ukraine and all of the occupied territories already. Uh, you know, that's totally his plan.
00:04:54
James
No.
00:04:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So in order for that in order for there to be like a negotiation of any kind, Putin has to be willing to negotiate.
Public Perception and Distraction Strategies
00:05:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Putin's at least two years away from willing to negotiate because of you know the amount of economic hit he can continue to take, the wartime economy, the yeah so number of bodies that they can throw, because that's kind of Russia's strategy is just to like throw bodies, like trade bodies for bullets until you're out of bullets, and then come kill you after you're out on ammo.
00:05:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um
00:05:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And they they got at least two more years of of of gas for that strategy in the tank. So Ukraine probably does not unless unless America ah provides another aid package. And Trump, you know, has been against giving aid packages and talking about how he's going to give this this quick, easy solution, which is totally not going to be able to deliver on. So it really puts him in a pickle where like, you know, Putin can just fuck him over and keep on so he's gonna have to either like actually be a strong man the way he pretends to be or take a big L on Ukraine so it's really it's gonna be a big issue for him pretty pretty quickly
00:06:15
James
And see yeah and i I don't think Trump thinks of it as a big issue. I think Trump, I mean, here, if nothing else, I mean, all this stuff about the US s taking over Greenland and Panama and all everything else, you know, there's one thing, if you know anything anything at all about Trump, if anybody has remembered or learned anything over the last 10 years,
00:06:37
James
it's that whatever anybody thinks will hurt Trump it doesn't really matter to him because there's always the next day's story to make everybody talk about something else and people forget so let's say he does decide to roll over on Ukraine okay well that'll be one debacle that people are mad about but the very next day if we're talking about going to war with Greenland and Denmark I think people will drop that story because the next big shiny object will be in their way. And if that doesn't work, then there'll be something else, you know? So I don't really think Trump cares about Ukraine. I don't think he cares about anything. He cares about himself. And if Russia could help him in any way, if he thinks that Russia is in a position to do something for him, then he'll help them. If he thinks that Russia can't really do anything for him, then man maybe he doesn't have, like he has no allegiance to anybody. I mean,
00:07:29
James
Who knows? I mean, he has appointed some halfway decent people to be the envoys in Ukraine. And if he, and it would benefit Trump, the way Trump likes to work is let somebody else handle it. Okay. This general is going to handle it. He's going to be the envoy to Ukraine. He's going to handle it. And if that guy does good, then he can take credit for it. And if that guy does bad, then Trump's not to blame as that guy's fault. You know, that's how well Trump has always worked. So I don't know. Nobody knows.
00:08:00
James
you know I mean gut feeling is always been that he's gonna roll over on Ukraine cuz him and everybody else is always you know talk shit about Ukraine you know and talk shit about Yuzitlinsky and everything else but the same time he was doing that with Kim Jong-un for a year and a half until they fell in love and then Fox News and everybody got right in line with him oh look at that he's doing so great with North Korea I mean after a year and a half of talking about fire and fury and destroying and having World War three with North Korea then no now they're in love. So, who knows?
00:08:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So on the topic of Panama and Greenland, I mean, I guess so ah first I'll say like, you know, explain a little bit, but then do you think that these are, you know, serious pursuits or do you think that they're kind of like a distraction, setting the vibe kind of thing for, um, you know, setting up for like, well, it's okay if Russia wants to be Imperial and take over Ukraine and take over Poland and we shouldn't help NATO defend the, if he wants to take care of, we should let him.
00:08:49
James
the
00:09:02
James
said being
00:09:04
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
because Like, we want to take Panama and we want to take Greenland, you know?
Trump's Ambitions with Greenland and Panama
00:09:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Is he just kind of setting the stage for imperialism being okay? Because like, and we're doing it too? Or do you think that he's seriously wants to pursue these things?
00:09:13
James
I mean, he's, well, Greenland has been a thing that people have been talking about for decades, a little bit.
00:09:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And like, is there a reason? Where where are these things coming from? What is he talking about with those things?
00:09:25
James
I mean, they're not, no one's been suggesting going to war with Denmark over Greenland until Trump. But the US has, on many occasions, and going back a lot of presidents, have talked about the possibility of acquiring Greenland. And with you know climate change and the ice caps melting and everything else, it is like red hot property to own because it's all melting away. Once it all melts away, that is some fast shipping lanes right north over there and right to China, stuff like that. So once you get all the once you get rid of all the ice,
00:10:00
James
you know it is that's money so people have been talking about it more and more trump has been talking about it for six years five years you know so i don't think he's totally just i can't imagine us going to war with denmark but at the same time it would track with him wanting to be you know a little dictator like everybody else and just expanding everything and taking over all the stuff to I mean, like look at dr Jackson. He always talks about Andrew Jackson. He talks about these other presidents and they're known for big things like the Louisiana Purchase, expanding the US, making it so big. Same thing russia Putin wants to do. He wants to bring back all the territory from what the Soviet Union had. Trump probably thinks in his head, man, if I could double the size of the US, I would go down in history as like one of the greatest presidents. I'd be on Mount Rushmore. you know He probably does think that way.
00:10:53
James
i mean and And he has a Republican Congress, you know, you need Congress go to war. Do you think Republicans would, I don't know. I don't know, man. They, I think it's, they've proved that they will blindly follow anything he wants to do for the most part. And even if he was talking about the Democrats will lead you down world war three, they're warmongers once the second, he's not even, he's not even in office yet. And he's already proposing going to war with our allies to take over, you know, big parts of the world, you know, um,
00:11:26
James
It just goes to show that they don't mean anything they say, but there's not really a point to it. so It's just like Trump. I mean, I don't know. There's probably ah there's probably a marble bouncing around in his skull, you know, with an idea. I don't think it's going to come to fruition. I have to think there's at least three Republicans in the House and a handful of senators who will say, no, let's not go to war with NATO and and Panama.
00:11:52
James
I would just think that. I mean, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure Lisa Murkowski, the dude from oh Utah and and Susan Collins of Maine, even though she'd be very concerned about it, I don't think they would support a war against Denmark.
00:12:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, what about what about annexing Canada, you know, the 51st state?
00:12:09
James
Well,
00:12:12
James
well I think Canada has would have a say in it. And I don't think they want to do that either. And I think the same handful of Republicans that would say no to war with Denmark and Panama would probably say no to war with Canada too.
00:12:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I just can't imagine that you he would try to make all of Canada a single state. like that' I think that's the craziest...
00:12:29
James
Well, no, that the the reason for that, the funny thing is they've actually, they were talking about this on Fox and Friends, man, you know, Fox and them, you know, they were talking about that with Jesse Waters, you know, his little stupid guy, you know, on Fox.
00:12:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh god.
00:12:40
James
they they actually decided that it it shouldn't be one state, you know, because if it's one state, it'll be a democratic state. And they wouldn't want to give that two seats to they were actually talking about this.
00:12:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
to be two standard seats and how many, how many, it would be so many house seats also.
00:12:52
James
wouldnt They wouldn't send it to give to Senate.
00:12:58
James
Well, not necessarily, but either way, they were talking
00:13:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, those are by population so it's.
00:13:03
James
Either way, they were talking about it. They said they wouldn't make it one state because it'd be a democratic state. And so they did propose two states. They'd be like one liberal state and one Republican state. know
00:13:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Wow.
00:13:17
James
Yeah, but and that's not going to happen. It's just stupid. Hopefully, if nothing else,
00:13:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like
US Aid to Ukraine and Geopolitical Challenges
00:13:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
it's slightly more people than California.
00:13:23
James
he.
00:13:25
James
Yeah, but hopefully people realize Wait a second, he was all they were all acting like we don't want to go to war, and hey, we were talking about bringing grocery prices down, and hey, we thought Trump would be good for X or Y, and obviously he's not delivering that, it's just doing what he always does, serving up distraction after distraction, news story after news story for people to talk about, to always forget about the last thing and always be focused on the new shiny object in front of them because it's something Trump's talking about. He does this all the time.
00:13:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah The flooding strategy.
00:13:53
James
People forgot the first four years, man. The first four years, every other day, it was something something else that was stupid. And at the end of the four years, there was just so much stupid that people couldn't remember half of it. They only remember that, wow, COVID's killing everybody and everything's locked down in our economy sucks. And then they got rid of them. And then they all forgot about how bad it was. And now we're just going back into it. So.
00:14:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
00:14:22
James
I don't think it's gonna happen. with I don't think anything's gonna happen to Panama. I don't think anything's gonna happen to Greenland. I don't think we're gonna roll over on Ukraine. I'm cautiously optimistic that when Putin doesn't have any interest in negotiating, he will look like an idiot if he just, keep he I mean, he will really, I mean, he already, everybody knows he's Putin's bitch, right? And it always kind of grates on him a little bit.
00:14:51
James
right? I think if it's so obvious, and he has somebody else in charge of Ukraine, so he doesn't really take the blame because he has his envoys and his other people, you know, running the stuff with you Ukraine, and the military and these guys and the advisors and they all want to support an arm Ukraine to keep it from have, you know, from Russia from rolling over. I kind of think you'll go along with it just because if nothing else, it's the more popular, you know, opinion.
00:15:18
James
and Besides, he wants to have his whole immigration stuff. stuff you know I think he'll focus a lot more on deporting people and everything else and not really care about Ukraine.
00:15:30
James
I hope. That's the best case scenario for Ukraine.
00:15:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
yeah but i mean if he doesn't If he does nothing, they're gonna lose and Russia's gonna take over the entire country.
00:15:32
James
That's what I think.
00:15:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
There will be no more Ukraine.
00:15:39
James
i don't think they're goingnna I don't think they'll do nothing. I think they'll just kind of keep on arming them or sending them stuff. and
00:15:45
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, I mean, like they cause they're going to have to give them, I mean, for one, there's like 6.8 billion in aid that was, uh, whatever it was part of the last funding bill under Biden that still hasn't been sent to them.
00:15:56
James
Mmhmm.
00:15:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like, you know, he has a few days left to send them that aid that was already appropriated, or it's just going to be up in smoke. Um, and then Trump would have to start putting together a spending package.
00:16:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
in the next couple months in order for it to get past and be there in time for it to make enough of a difference. So it's going to be a like and a very imminent decision for him. And it's not going to be, it's either going to be do nothing and Ukraine's on borrowed time and it's going to be completely gone or do something and push back against Putin. So he's either going to have a loss or loss. He's just got to kind of pick his poison.
00:16:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The other thing too that that makes it even more likely is that, um, you know, the political stuff that's happening in France and Germany where they're both kind of leader lists for the next like three to six months, uh, because of the, I can't, I can't remember the complexities of both of those governments, but I know like Germany has to elect a new government because the done a vote of no confidence on the current one. And then it's like, they can't do it until June or something like that. So they're kind of.
00:17:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
a rudderless ship until then. And France is a similar situation that I don't know the details of.
00:17:18
James
I'm great article here on CNN, by the way, and yet today they announced another 500 million, right on the presidential drawdown authority from the current US stocks.
00:17:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah
00:17:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, that's the that's from the 6.8, but if that was today, though, 500 million.
00:17:27
James
So no, it's not. yeah another 500 million from the presidential drawdown authority. That's not the same as the other stuff, you know, right? presidential drawdown authority says, that's where you say, hey, out of the current stocks, we're just going to take this from the US and give it to them out.
00:17:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh.
00:17:42
James
Right? That is an addition.
00:17:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh yeah, that's what most of the, that's what most of the appropriations was from the last.
00:17:48
James
This is that's outside the approach.
00:17:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It was like, it was restocking it.
00:17:51
James
Yeah, it says this is outside that says, They said, all the remaining money that has been appropriated by Congress for Ukraine is expected to be provided. That does not mean, however, all the presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine will be used by the time he leaves office.
00:18:05
James
Different things, technically.
00:18:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I see.
00:18:08
James
Because, yeah, they have money that's appropriated. If it's appropriated, it's already it's already accounted for. This is going to them here. Presidential drawdown authority is above and beyond it. The president's allowed to, for whatever use, like he's using it for Ukraine, but you could use it for anything.
00:18:21
James
You could say, hey, there's a there's a situation in in Thailand, Thailand right now, or Israel, or they need some they need some missiles right now.
00:18:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
wherever we got us into some tanks.
00:18:31
James
And Congress, sorry, we don't got time for you. I'm using my presidential drawdown authority authority to give them $500 million dollars of our stuff.
00:18:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, they did literally do that with Israel several times recently.
00:18:38
James
And boom. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah, but yeah, but it looks like they're going to get all the rest of stuff there. They've been racing to try and get it in the last couple months in the last couple months.
00:18:49
James
they've in the last few months they got more Ukraine got more shit in the last few months and I got like for the first eight months or the nine months of the year so which is good you know but yeah I don't know if that pace will continue I think they'll give they'll get more stuff they'll get more money I don't think it'll be at the levels they've been getting which sucks because the levels they've been getting has been enough to keep them from being taken over well I mean it depends on how you want to call it put it you know
00:19:15
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Lose slowly.
US Support Strategy for Ukraine
00:19:20
James
Think about this way, if you have a real war, right? If you're having a big war, if we, you never know what could have been, right? It could have been, it could have gone a few different ways, right? We kept slowly increasing what we give them and we kept very slowly giving them more stuff and slowly, okay, now we'll give you tanks. All right, now we'll give you the longer missiles. Okay, now we'll give you a little bit longer missiles. Okay, now we'll give you this, you know what I mean? They kept slowly increasing the levels of stuff they're getting.
00:19:50
James
slow enough that it was never like a big escalation, which I know a lot of people say and I've gone the other way too. I would have liked to have seen a different approach.
00:20:01
James
but you never know how the other approach could have went. If the other approach was right off the bat, right from the jump, we're like, all right, we're giving them nukes, we're giving them S16s, we're giving them everything, the best stuff we got, we're sending everything, we're so we're gonna arm them to the teeth, right, right off the bat. And it's like, holy shit, an overwhelming amount of shit all at once. Maybe Putin might have used a nuke, you never know. I don't think so, but it may have been.
00:20:30
James
And if it's a very, so it's like the, you know, it could be like the frog, the frog in the pot of water. I think that's the approach that the Biden administration use. Like, Hey, if we go too fast and overwhelmingly support them, I think everybody knows we could destroy Russia, right? Our military arsenal is so much better than theirs, right? If we would have just immediately unleashed that and given it to Ukraine, let them just go nuts, right? Russia would have gotten embarrassed quick, right?
00:20:57
James
And maybe they would new can do other things are chemical attacks and everything else. I mean, they've done it in other countries. I mean, so you never know, right?
00:21:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, but I think they were embarrassed pretty quickly just by what happened.
00:21:05
James
And this week.
00:21:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
They came in expecting to just roll it over and put in a puppet government right away.
00:21:10
James
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And, you know, Ukraine was like, actually go fuck yourself.
00:21:14
James
her Yeah, it was close. It was close calls though, man. Honestly, it that first week, that first week or two,
00:21:26
James
There was also a lot of luck involved with the Ukraine. I mean the Ukrainians fucking great. They're brilliant You know, I mean, but there was some luck a Lot of bad decision on Russia.
00:21:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, there were a lot of, there's a lot of bad decisions with Ukraine.
00:21:37
James
Well, yeah, there was a bad decision on Ukraine too, but I mean Russia had worse decisions and There was a lot of luck involved
00:21:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And there's like, like, for example, like one of the bad decisions out of Ukraine was before the invasion.
00:21:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Zelensky decided to demine the space from ah Crimea into the rest of mainland. you know like Russia had already occupied Crimea so like why do you pull up those vines when you're already yeah yeah I don't I don't know I don't know
00:22:04
James
Did Zelensky order that or? Well, I don't know. How much in advance of that? What's after that? Was it after? Well, I mean, because it depends. It really depends. Was it after the Minsk? You know, the Minsk Accords would have made sense if it was then. Granted,
00:22:24
James
you know, a couple years later after the Minsk accords, you kind of saw that it was stupid and toothless and admit nothing. But timing is kind of important. If it was two months before the invasion, I would say yeah, that was really stupid. If it was when they got their ceasefire and Don boss and, and then you know, before Russia started, and you know, skirting that it would have made more sense, you know, but I don't know, I don't know enough about it. All I know is Ukraine got lucky. I think ah think if Russia had gone in with double the troops it had, they probably would have been able to topple you know the government pretty quick. They went in with way too few troops. They got stuck on that frickin' highway and from Belarus and lost all those people. I mean, they had a lot of a lot of bad luck and a lot of stupid decisions right off the bat.
Russia's Economic Troubles
00:23:18
James
But um yeah, I don't know. Either way, it's like the frog, like I said though, it's like the frog in the pot of water.
00:23:25
James
We've been letting Russia be the frog in the water, thinking it's doing all right, and they just keep slowly turning up the heat, slowly turning up the heat to the point where now they have 800,000 casualties already, you know, Russia does. I mean, that's a lot, you know. Two more years of that? I mean, I don't know if Russia could handle that. I don't think they could. I mean, the the ruble's at the worst it's ever been. The money's worthless.
00:23:53
James
they're now bartering with other countries because they can't trade. They've used up their, ah you know, national reserve, you know, their foreign reserves and currency. They've basically used all of it up now to try to keep inflation down.
00:24:06
James
Their interest rates were, you know, not nearly enough.
00:24:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, but they're still producing bombs and bodies to throw at it.
00:24:12
James
Not enough, though, not nearly enough to make up for what they're losing. You know, all the stuff they could produce in a year, they lose in a month. they don't have the stockpiles to keep going.
00:24:24
James
They can't produce nearly enough.
Russia's Warfare Sustainability
00:24:26
James
They're using mopeds.
00:24:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, um they're not they're not losing at that pace
00:24:28
James
They're using mopeds and bathtubs literally mopeds with bathtubs now. to This is what but they are now.
00:24:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, they're losing a lot of people, but they're not losing at a pace that is unsustainable for them because it's basically down to trench warfare. And all of the territories that Russia has taken our mind in a very aggressive, very efficient way. So even if Ukraine, like even if Russia just abandoned all of that territory and just ran back to Russia, Ukraine couldn't just rush in and occupy it immediately because it's, it's mined and it's massive and it's destroyed.
00:25:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So like all they have to do is kind of keep on keeping on, you know, they don't have to have the same like aggressive pushing burn rate that they have. They can, but they don't have to like to outlast Ukraine. They don't have to. And it's not just like, it's not just that, like Trump is talking about, you know, putting tariff pressure on all of these, um, on every single country. So like all of Europe is going to have tariff pressure.
00:25:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
which is going to change you know how attractive Russian gas looks, Russian oil looks to them.
00:25:44
James
I'm like, here's the thing. Think about this way. In 2024, Ukraine, hey, the island we were talking about moving to, you know, and and when Trump won. In 2024, Russia gained in Ukraine an area twice the size of the island of Mauritius, which is about five New York cities.
00:26:04
James
That's how much land they they gained in 2024 for the whole year. In the whole year, they got 1,600 miles.
00:26:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
10 New York cities.
00:26:14
James
No, five. Five New York cities.
00:26:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, five.
00:26:17
James
Five New York cities. Yeah. Five times the area of New York City. So they got 1,600 square miles total, which is very, very, very small.
00:26:28
James
And in that time they lost four... what was it? Let's 400,000 soldiers. 400,000 people for a few cities worth of land.
00:26:43
James
and most of it is not anything good land it's just empty fields the best yeah correct but I mean
00:26:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, all of the all of the major manufacturing centers, the mining, the steel production, the ah factories, all that stuff is in Eastern Ukraine. And a lot of that is in the Donbass and Luhansk region.
00:27:08
James
But the areas you're talking about the Donbass most of that stuff is a lot of it is the like the areas where Ukraine hasn't really had control over many years. I'm just talking to the last few years here since like 2022, right? They haven't really taken much.
00:27:24
James
you know in the last year they haven't taken much either I mean they haven't really got that much most of the land they took it was I mean they did destroy a couple cities they did take a couple like settlements that were completely moonrock by the time they took it over and they took over a lot of fields and some some tree lines you know a lot of fields and tree lines but you know when you're losing for every you know for every 500 miles, if you're losing 100,000 soldiers, there's no way they could keep up that pace.
00:27:59
James
It would take them at this pace at the pace they're going in 2024. It will take them 30 years at that pace to get to keep.
00:28:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, but it won't because I mean, Russia has 200, Russia has 200 million people, Ukraine before the war, but like go back to 2014, it was 40 million people.
00:28:09
James
I know they I know.
00:28:14
James
Yeah.
00:28:17
James
Mm hmm.
00:28:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, when the war started, you know, for one, you lost all of Crimea, you lost a bunch of Donbass, then a bunch of people left, you know, that's estimated somewhere between like six and 10 million people ah that left between 2014 and 2022.
00:28:29
James
Yeah.
00:28:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And then since then, you know, we don't have numbers, but like, A lot of people have died, you know, and a lot of people have left and there's been a lot of like, you know, corruption around like, Oh, you know, you can get a pass from, you know, getting conscripted.
00:28:39
James
yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You can, Oh, your, I guess your foot is just so broken. You know what I mean? A lot of, a lot of people who don't want to go and who are finding ways to not go and a lot of corruption around who's going and how resources are being appropriated and a lot of really questionable decisions.
00:29:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
from Zelensky's government and from the military.
00:29:07
James
Yeah.
00:29:11
James
In the military in general, it's mainly from the military in general.
00:29:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And a lot of and a lot of the that military also has, especially like the guy, you know, who when he replaced the commander a while ago.
00:29:13
James
Yeah. I mean.
00:29:21
James
Sursky.
00:29:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, ah the the guy that he put in there, who you know, was trained in by Russia before.
00:29:23
James
Delusioning with Sursky.
00:29:29
James
The Soviets. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
00:29:31
James
He loved the Soviet version of that point, but he's not.
00:29:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So he had that he had a lot of that same style of just like trade bodies for bullets.
00:29:35
James
not he' doing not He's really not Ceriski has proven that he's not like that. That was the big reputation he had, especially after Bachmet. But that, I would not put that on Ceriski, even though Ceriski is the one who really got blamed.
00:29:48
James
They call him the Butcher of Bachmet, you know, right?
00:29:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
00:29:51
James
It really wasn't his call. That was really Zelensky's call. You know, Zelensky, it became a symbol. Bachmet became a symbol instead of a ah city, right?
00:30:01
James
Instead of it just a little strategic thing, it became a symbol of hey look at this we're not it's a fortress it's a fortress buckmet you know it was stupid really but i mean and they did put russians through the meat grinder there i mean yes they lost a lot of troops but they killed a lot more russians and if you're really trying to do a war of attrition that is kind of the strategy and since then those seriously really has been really doing the depth and defense stuff we're not going to sit here and just sacrifice our people for nothing they will
00:30:35
James
play to their strengths when they have like a five or six to one kill advantage they'll take it when they start getting encircled they'll move back they'll take the high ground they'll move back they'll they'll keep steadily losing land but slowly but inflict a lot of losses on Russia and that's been their strategy so he's not he's proven not to be the Soviet, just keep going forward, never surrender, stay here till the last person dies, and if you try to surrender, we're gonna kill you. He hasn't turned out to be that. I mean, and they've done so much more with drones and everything else. I mean, they really are transforming the military. I mean, it's not instant. And there's a lot of things that sucks man about their military, like here. And I can't blame either Sergeki or Zelensky for this. A lot of it just has to do with their whole conscription policy and their government, like their constitution, everything, you know?
00:31:26
James
When, when the war started and they're like, we need everybody to protect our country. People came out and drove man, women, men, everybody, young, old, everybody pitching in everybody.
00:31:40
James
Well, a lot of people left that a lot of people did leave. You know, what really sucks is there are more Ukrainian men who left Ukraine than Ukrainian men in their military.
00:31:52
James
You know what I mean? That's, I mean, how many refugees there are, you know, but.
00:31:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, yes.
00:31:55
James
but at the same time the thing that sucks about it is all these people signed up to join and they didn't realize at the time that hey since we're in war and the the way our conscription policy our military thing is and since we're in a time of war there is no out there is no there was no policy for how are we going to rotate troops in and out of combat there are people who have just been sent to the front lines man they've been on the front lines for two and a half years
00:32:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, there are people who have been on the front line since 2014.
00:32:24
James
you
00:32:26
James
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, and there's no rotation policy. And that's a problem with their constitution and the government and everything else. And that goes way beyond Zelensky or Siersky. Granted, they haven't fixed it still, which is on them. But at the same time, when you know, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, man. What are they supposed to do? They already know they have a huge manpower shortage. They already know they're outnumbered you know five to one right everywhere. right Are you really supposed to say, okay,
00:32:56
James
We gotta get half of our people off the front lines when you already know that you really can't afford to take everybody off the front lines, and you really don't have 20 more battalions of troops ready to swap them out with. You know what I mean? I mean, it's kind of a hard decision to make. You know that you have to do something, but at the same time, what do you do? It's kind of like, I mean, here at support, you know where we work. If we're on a day where we only have five people, say we only have five people for the whole week, and it's really, really, really busy. We're like, man, people are burning out.
00:33:26
James
but what are you going to do man you don't have anybody else you kind of just say shit all right well i hopefully they hopefully they don't burn out because we need them and that's kind of the situation they're in it's kind of your damn if you do dames we don't you know what are they supposed to do i don't have a good solution for them i mean the us keep saying they need to lower their their conscription policy you start taking all the young people too you know sounds good but at the same time they have people in these train in these other battalions they're training up that don't have weapons anyway there's not enough military weapons to go around for all the people they have it as it is so does it really matter if they have another million troops two million troops i mean more millions of troops without weapons would it would it matter they don't got the weapons exactly so ah you know there's a lot of problems we got a lot of problems yeah
00:34:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, that's part of the point is that they got to have the weapons But there there has been ah You know when in talking to the Ukrainians that I know there's a lot of stories of of ah people being sent under equipped or as soon as they get to the front line under trained and they're just sent off to go do something that's pointless like go take that hill with no guns and no experience and No, what's it wasn't gonna change nothing get up there eat those bullets and
00:34:25
James
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:34:33
James
Yeah.
00:34:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like there's been a lot of that.
00:34:40
James
Yeah.
00:34:43
James
Yeah,
Social Media: Freedom of Speech vs. Reach
00:34:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So I don't know. So I think Trump's in a pickle. I think Ukraine's definitely, uh, an increasingly bad situation.
00:34:44
James
I mean, I know.
00:34:53
James
Yeah.
00:34:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Um, let's switch to a, a fun topic.
00:35:00
James
Oh boy.
00:35:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Um, rebranding moderation censorship in American social media.
00:35:09
James
When you said rebranding, I thought you were about to talk about the Gulf of America.
00:35:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, for, oh yeah, god, the Gulf of America.
00:35:14
James
ah Rebranding.
00:35:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yes, just one more one more of Trump's nonsense news cycle captures.
00:35:19
James
yeah Rebranding. Yeah, exactly.
00:35:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um He wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
00:35:25
James
I don't.
00:35:30
James
America. Yep.
00:35:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um yeah the thing i want to The thing I definitely want to say at the top of us talking about like social media and free speech.
00:35:34
James
Repreading.
00:35:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um is this point that i don't I don't see getting made enough, so I want to make it. And that is that ah people will talk about not being able to say something on Facebook or even something on Facebook that they want to say or a person um not being granted freedom of reach, you know, being promoted in the by the algorithm or being demoted by the algorithm even.
00:35:53
James
Hmm.
00:36:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And they'll call that a freedom of speech issue. And it is absolutely not a free speech issue because free speech gives you the right to to have, to have, to be free from the government restricting your speech if you're a citizen.
00:36:11
James
Yep, correct. It was government.
00:36:19
James
Yeah. Yep.
00:36:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So it's like a lot of like, actually he was talking to my wife about this today because I was like, Oh, yeah immigrants don't have any of the rights only citizens.
00:36:25
James
Yep.
00:36:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And actually that's not true.
00:36:35
James
Mm hmm.
00:36:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
There are a bunch of rights that immigrants do have, but the first amendment in particular, um While the amendment doesn't say specifically, there have been precedents set by Supreme Court decisions so that immigrants don't have quite the same version of the First Amendment that everyone else does.
00:36:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But regardless, okay like freedom of speech does not mean that a newspaper has to publish whatever the whatever Jim Bob wants to say on the front page or on any page.
00:37:00
James
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and It doesn't mean that the TV station does or the radio station does or the movie studio does or the book publisher or the magazine publisher.
00:37:05
James
I mean, you can't go to jail for it.
00:37:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
or social media.
00:37:11
James
You can't go to jail for saying something that's, yeah.
00:37:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Exactly. It means that the government can't, well, it also means like the government can't restrict Facebook, for example, from being able to publish content.
00:37:22
James
Well, that's not, that's all, there's also a limitation that they are allowed to do a little bit. and The Supreme Court already ruled that in Biden, Biden administration's favor for that. because they were trying to tell ah Facebook and these content you know these media companies, hey, you got you know they were trying to ask them to squash some of the stuff there that was complete disinformation about it, you know and they complied.
00:37:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, they were, I mean, they were asking and there were some, I think like the Hunter Biden laptop story was originally suppressed on Facebook and Twitter for a few months around the election time.
00:37:47
James
yeah
00:37:55
James
not at their request and Not at the request, and not at the request of the Biden administration. Do you know what the only request of the, of Biden was?
00:38:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I thought that was a direct request.
00:38:04
James
No, the only request was not to publish the dick pics.
00:38:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, well, that's reasonable.
00:38:10
James
That was the only request about the lifetime. They wouldn't say, Hey, can you not publish a story? They said, Hey, can you not publish the naked pictures of the president's son? That was it.
00:38:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, that's pretty, that's pretty reasonable.
00:38:21
James
Yeah, that was it. That was the only request they made.
00:38:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, I think that goes against their content policies anyway.
00:38:27
James
Exactly. Exactly.
00:38:28
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But yeah, but this is the point that I feel like doesn't get made it often enough, right? Is that like freedom of speech does not guarantee you access to any of these platforms.
00:38:35
James
yeah
00:38:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Not not any kind of legacy media, not, not to be on television.
00:38:38
James
hello
00:38:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It's certainly not to be on social media.
00:38:41
James
yeah
00:38:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And the thing that people are talking about there when they're talking about social media is not freedom of speech is freedom of
00:38:47
James
right
00:38:48
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
reach freedom of reach is um the it's not a right. It's not in the Constitution. ah And it's the idea that you have equal access as everyone else to being promoted by the algorithms or having anything you say on a social media platform being accessible by anyone who might want to hear it.
00:39:14
James
Yeah.
00:39:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And that is not and never has been the case either. And like I think a lot of their moderation was to say, well, this is factually inaccurate. ah you know We'll send you something else that's going to link you off to the truth somewhere else as we've determined it, or as users have determined it, ah or to take you know particularly inaccurate messages, or in the case of Facebook, you know to kick Trump off the platform after January 6.
00:39:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um And I think all those things are just content moderation.
00:39:51
James
Yeah.
00:39:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
But there's this ah Scott Galloway clip that's been going around the last couple of days where he makes some really interesting points.
Zuckerberg's Decision on Fact-Checkers
00:39:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So Mark Zuckerberg put out this video where he basically said ah Facebook is going to stop doing censorship.
00:40:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And again, this is like four years ago, we were calling it moderation. Now we're calling it censorship. ah And so they were taking their Uh, they're fact checkers that we're going to have no more fact checkers and they're going to move the whole like security and compliance team, which does the fact checking from California.
00:40:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So it's not West coast elites. They're going to move it to Texas and they spend about $5 billion dollars a year on that team.
00:40:28
James
Hm.
00:40:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And Scott Gallo was like, well, if you look at the, so they're going to save like $5 billion dollars a year because people aren't going to move to Texas, they're going to quit and they're going to fire a bunch of them because they're not going to have any fact checkers anyway.
00:40:46
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So. they're going to save $5 billion dollars a year. And if you look at the ratio of costs to market capitalization for Facebook, that's probably going to result in the value, the valuation of Facebook going up by 120 to 150 billion with a B dollars and Zuckerberg owns 14%. So Zuckerberg is going to, is going to make somewhere in the range of $20 billion dollars by firing the fact checkers. And then when you think about how, um,
00:41:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
across a bunch of different industries, whenever the government starts putting out rumblings of like, Oh, we're going to regulate this industry. Those industries are motivated to and and have very often done with their own regulation. You'll see this with like the MPAA for movies. You see it with the ESRB for games. You see with nutrition facts for food. It's not from the government. The, uh, food companies put their own shit together. That's why nutrition facts are bullshit. Um,
00:41:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So this is kind of the same thing. This is him like not pissing off the president further, like capitulating, making $20 billion dollars in the process, and avoiding what would probably be a more onerous and restrictive ah you know government regulation. I think that it's like it's sort a it's a very smart business move, especially if you're thinking, like well, you know Trump's lame duck. He's only got four years. Maybe in three years, we do something different.
00:42:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
see what the political climate is then. But at the same time, I think it's incredibly cowardly, because like, what is the point of being the third richest person in America or whatever, whatever he is, you know, 200 billion something dollars that he has to his name?
00:42:35
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Like, what is the point of being that wealthy? If when it comes down to it, you're not going to stand up and fight for something as important as speech and
00:42:45
James
because he had no morals to begin with. And it was after he was meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. And it was after his friend, the guy was jumping up on stage to be an idiot, Dana White, the UFC CEO. you know He's board the board.
00:42:56
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
He, well, he's joining the board of meta, but I mean, everybody's going to everybody, all the CEOs going to Mar-a-Lago to like, to, to like talk to Trump.
00:42:58
James
Exactly. It's just they're all buddies now.
00:43:04
James
Yeah.
00:43:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
It's because they know that he will come after them if they don't.
00:43:09
James
Yeah, exactly.
00:43:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And like, he will make things worse for their company.
00:43:11
James
like it's a
00:43:12
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
If they don't like, that's just fulfilling the fiduciary responsibility. I don't even, I think you can see that as like a, a moral quandary, like at least like going to kiss the ring.
00:43:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
The same thing with like donating to the ah yeah the inauguration committee, you know which is just like, do you want to give Trump some money like you know handto hand to hand? Because a whole bunch of money from the last inauguration went missing.
00:43:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah
00:43:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
i don't know i don't i don't even I don't even see that as anything as morally culpable. But I do think that like choosing to not fight ah and switching, you know, so firing all the fact checkers and just completely giving up is pretty cowardly bullshit.
00:43:59
James
Yeah, yep, it is but you know Yeah What are you gonna say man Looking out for him he's looking out for number one.
00:44:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, I don't know.
00:44:13
James
Hey Trump won and he'll make me look bad and he's gonna I you know, he's gonna sick his mob on us and I don't wanna deal with that so cool I'll just go along with whatever he wants for a few years.
00:44:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
At the same time, they're trying to get H1B
00:44:26
James
Can't make more money.
00:44:32
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
so they can hire the best people for AI, and they're trying to invest in nuclear power plants so that they can have enough power to power the data centers.
00:44:34
James
Eh, stop that. That's not why they want... workers anyway.
00:44:49
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
well i think that's
00:44:49
James
they were want h1b workers because h1b workers can't leave them it's like getting your mail no well yeah you have a month or two to get another employer if you leave otherwise you get deported it's kind of like getting a mail order bride who doesn't speak english and bringing her over here that's what they want that's what the that's what h1b muses are
00:44:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I mean, you can go to a different employer.
00:45:07
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, it's kind of like it's kind of like if you're a top engineer at Google, Microsoft will pick you up. you know those those
00:45:16
James
Most H-1B workers are not doing that kind of work. And the, like the people in X, the people, the number of people they have with H-1B visas, right? Or like Tesla, you know, doesn't even come as like Tesla, right? And so X, you know? But Tesla, the amount of, the amount of engineers that they got rid of and fired, right? Dwarfs what they have with H-1B visas coming in here. They had way more people. They have, they have all the talent here in the America they need.
00:45:45
James
they want the people they can get cheaper who aren't going to be going and striking or doing anything to get fired because they need to have the job to stay in the country. They want compliant workers who are dependent on keeping the job to stay in the country.
00:45:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Hmm.
00:45:59
James
That's what they want.
Impact of H1B Visas on Workforce
00:46:00
James
That's what they want.
00:46:00
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay, so wait, but
00:46:00
James
me to reor this
00:46:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So back up a little bit, just go, uh, I know it's, uh, older news, but explain the whole, uh, Musk Vivec H1B, explain the whole shit show from the beginning as if it's not week old news. Okay. Someone listening, you know.
00:46:21
James
Hold on a second, I just noticed that my number one key is becoming an exclamation point as if my shift key is held down as not, and if I hold shift, I can't do anything, I can't type. It's weird, my keyboard's been acting really weird lately.
00:46:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Very unfortunate, still not newsworthy.
00:46:36
James
I know, but I was trying to Google something here, because the help with this and
00:46:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, I see.
00:46:48
James
No, thanks. When I scroll down, it goes sideways. When I click, everything gets linked, you know.
00:47:02
James
Yeah. Anyway, um yeah, H1B visas. All right, so they Musk and re Vivek Ramaswamy, you know, they say that American workers are retarded. um I'm quoting them, you know, Americans are retarded and lazy. And that's why and they need people like Vivek Ramaswamy said, we need people with India's work ethic, you know, to to come over here, you know, and that's why we need H1B visas because they're better than American workers. And
00:47:36
James
Yeah, so they want people to come over here and now it's 65,000 people a year. That's how many total people come over on H1B visas, right? um You can get an additional 20,000 for people with a master's degree or higher, right? ah Amazon is like the top country, top company, you know, it has just under 4,000 people total with H1B visas, right?
00:48:03
James
ah Cognizant, they have 2,800 people. There's a couple other companies. IBM has 1,300 people on H1B visas. Microsoft has 1,200. Google has 1,058. Capgemini, we know from the McDonald's industry, they have 1,041 people on H1B visas. Facebook has 920 people. Apple has 864 people. Intel has 851 people. Tesla had 742 people, right?
00:48:32
James
742 people total. um Tesla before they've never been in the top 25 companies in years. They've suddenly jumped to number 16 after firing tons of people in America because you know they wanted unions and they wanted rights and they wanted better conditions and safety things that Tesla keeps failing at and you know fires all these Americans and brings in a few hundred people from out of you know the country.
00:49:01
James
ah But yeah, they're claiming that they need these workers to come here because they're better than Americans, basically. It's a small number of people, but they want them because H-1B visas, ah visa holders, the company sponsors them to come over here. The company sponsors them. The company says, hey, they need we need them to work here. The government says, all right, you got these good skills. This company wants to sponsor you. You can come on over to the US as long as you're working there, as long as they're gonna sponsor you.
00:49:30
James
And they really can't leave, you know, they, uh, if they, if they do leave, they have a two month window to have another job lined up. They typically don't leave the country that sponsored them.
00:49:43
James
You know, uh, it's not in due to servitude because they're getting paid, but they're usually getting paid less than the American workers that they would be doing the work for.
00:49:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So part of the appeal there is that, um, yeah you know, for, for an immigrant, when you're coming from, from another country, looking at America many times, uh, it's a big opportunity.
00:49:58
James
They're grateful to come over here.
00:50:02
James
A real poor. Yeah.
00:50:07
James
Yeah.
00:50:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And a lot of times with the, uh, with the valuation of the dollar to a local currency, you know, even if they're making a hundred thousand dollars or $100,000, if you're in America, you think, well,
00:50:09
James
And to get your family over.
00:50:15
James
Mm-hmm. Send money back.
00:50:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
that's not that much money, you know, like it's good money, but you know, it's not, um, you know, you're not taking a lot of trips. You're not paying off all of your student loans. You're not, you know what I mean? It's not, it's not like super, you're super rich and super comfortable instantly. So you got to kind of pay attention and, uh, take things at a certain pace, especially if you're living in a place that's got a high cost of living as a lot of these places with these tech jobs do. So for these people,
00:50:51
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and one it's like a it's like an opportunity and they come in with this awareness that this is a big opportunity and that this place is going to give them a leg up that they wouldn't have had if they had stayed wherever they came from and and at the same time a lot of times even making only like 100k that's enough for them to like live with roommates work long hours um keep their costs of living low and then send a bunch of money back home where maybe they can retire their parents or you know, cover medical bills or get people out of debt and all that sort of stuff. So like sending money back home, it becomes like the hundred K goes a lot further when you're, uh, when you're willing to do that. And I think that's a piece of, like, there is a very real sentiment that, uh, like, yes, there is absolutely like an exploitative, like, well, we can kind of hold them hostage and treat them worse because, you know, they're not going to try to unionize or, or, uh, whistleblower.
00:51:46
James
Bye.
00:51:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
you know, rock the boat when they're kind of in this country dependent on this job that maybe they can get somewhere else. Maybe they can't. um That's totally a piece of it. But there is another piece of it, which is like the immigrants just work harder, man. Like immigrants come in with the mindset of like, I have this big opportunity and I'm going to make the most of it. And they do a lot of the things that we don't want to do.
00:52:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and they succeed in ways that we very often don't. And a lot of that is, is mindset and this idea of like, this is an opportunity and I have to make the most of it. And that is a big cultural difference. Like there is a real, a very real point there, you know, like every Ukrainian that I know, uh, has a similar story. They came here with a couple hundred bucks. They did shitty jobs for long hours. Oftentimes they got fucked over. It was hard because they didn't have,
00:52:44
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah They didn't have documents, they didn't have full documents. And they solved all those issues while paying a shitload of money to the government for immigration status update stuff, because our immigration is just costly and horrific if you're trying to become a citizen.
00:53:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
ah And then they've built businesses or built careers in a way that like, you know, is not nearly as common among just citizens of America. So like there is a real a very real point that like Elon and Vivek have about the value of immigrant workers.
00:53:24
James
Yeah, but...
00:53:26
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
All right,
00:53:29
James
I gotta look back.
00:53:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
what do you think about the, ah or do you have anything more on that stuff?
00:53:31
James
No.
00:53:34
James
No. Not really.
00:53:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
What do you think about the fires in California and fire?
00:53:40
James
Fire.
00:53:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
And the propensity for ah Trump to be punitive to California and Gavin Newsom, which...
00:53:49
James
Well it depends. Have they been raking the floor?
00:53:55
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
have they been Have they been cleaning the forests?
00:53:58
James
yes i've been raking the floors of the forests
California Wildfires and Federal Aid
00:54:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh God, I forgot about that dumb shit.
00:54:05
James
because that's all they need to do donald trump knows more about firefighting than any of the firefighters remember everybody you need to rake the floor of the forests i think that i mean in here it's fires are going to happen in the West and California.
00:54:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's right, he does.
00:54:29
James
They always do. They're always going to happen.
00:54:33
James
Donald Trump's going to be a dick. That's what's going to happen. Now they're still 11 days before Trump takes office. I think they'll get their aid.
00:54:45
James
after Trump takes office of course he's going to try to send demands and screw him over and hey you need to help get rid of all these immigrants if you want any aid and it'll go back and forth in the courts and you know California is going to take care of California man you know that's what I think that's what I think but
00:55:02
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Hmm. I see.
00:55:08
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Heard some really bad stuff about California firefighters. Like the California took, I think $23 million away from the state budget for firefighters. And they put that into the budget of, I don't know, I think it was $123 million.
00:55:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
it It was like 20 or 120 million dollars. I can't remember what but the what the what the story I said I saw was. um But they took that money and they put it into the budget for ah the police in California, which brought their budget to like two point one billion with a B dollars.
00:55:47
James
and
00:55:47
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
um And then a lot of the firefighting that happens in California is done by inmates and the inmates like are paid
00:55:54
James
pretty yeah good program so really good bug
00:55:59
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
very little and they when they come out they don't even get a certification for the firefighting work they did while they were inmates
Inmates in Firefighting Efforts
00:56:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
and they can't just go get a job as a firefighter.
00:56:05
James
I don't think that's true. I don't think that's 100% true.
00:56:11
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No?
00:56:11
James
No, I don't think that's but true.
00:56:13
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah so that's I haven't fact checked it but that's the story that I saw recently.
00:56:16
James
No, they they knew they do the firefighting. In fact, there's a whole TV show that's been going around. It's all popular about it. you know But actually, no. That was actually, if I'm not mistaken, I think that was a Kamala Harris thing, a really big initiative. And actually, it's been incredibly successful as far as um having the prisoners actually have a sense of purpose and ah people the prisoners who do the firefighting work.
00:56:42
James
um Now, A, it's kind of like it's kind of looking a privilege. It's weird. you know They got a sense of purpose. They're not just sitting in prison. you know They're able to go you know visit their families and stuff like that and you know see things like like there's been prisoners who do this program. know and they They get monitored and everything else, but they get a little bit more freedom because they have to be on good behavior to be trusted to go out and about and even though they're monitored and everything else, you know they're doing the job. They really are fighting fires and big fires and stuff like that. right um It's almost like a point of pride for those prisoners, right?
00:57:16
James
And a lot of the prisoners have said that themselves, you know, it's like, yeah, you could just be in prison and then you can tell your family members, yeah, i'm I'm in prison. Or you could tell your family members, I'm a firefighter, you know?
00:57:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Hmm, yes.
00:57:26
James
And it actually makes them feel better. And like the recidivism rate of of the prison populations, when they've been the ones doing the firefighting, it's like next to nothing. It's very low.
00:57:37
James
It's very, very low. um I thought they do get like certifications or something like that. Like it's like community. so It's almost considered like community serves like that something like that. It's it. I remember God, I didn't know that was on the agenda to talk about. We can look into that. um
00:57:54
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, I just pitched it at the end. I know we only got about 10 more minutes left.
00:57:57
James
But. um Yeah, while I was continuing to show us now up to hundreds of prison inmates to slow the spread, you know, 800 prisoners battling the safe Los Angeles, you know, ah yeah, they they employ 3100 inmates, you know,
00:57:58
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
So we gotta go. go
00:58:09
James
um
00:58:10
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I think it's a great program so long as they treat the guys right.
00:58:13
James
Yeah, and um Yeah, it's it's ah it's been actually yeah It's a third a third of the of the firefighters basically are inmates So it makes sense to take away a little bit of budget to give it this because they do have a successful program um Yeah, the pace scale was doubled in 2023 um
00:58:30
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't know, man. I can't see taking any money out of the budget for firefighting in California, given that they have such a wildfire problem every year.
00:58:37
James
oh my god it's still so cheap jesus christ i didn't realize how little they got paid for that well
00:58:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
How little are they getting paid?
00:58:44
James
what do you think the maximum amount of money they work they get in a day for battling fire all day wow you are a liberal ten dollars and twenty four cents that's the maximum they will receive in a day of this
00:58:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
$30. Jesus Christ.
00:59:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, i think i think that like I think that's a huge issue.
00:59:01
James
very
00:59:05
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
We don't have time to talk about it. I haven't researched it. But like that is that's slave labor.
00:59:08
James
Yeah.
00:59:09
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That's total bullshit.
00:59:10
James
Yeah. Yeah. They doubled the pay rate, you know, in 2023. That's why they're getting that much money now.
00:59:19
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Wow.
00:59:19
James
The incarcerated firefighters have some of the highest injury rates among all prison workers, and they're four times more likely to sustain injuries compared to other firefighters, right?
00:59:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
You think?
00:59:27
James
Because the left training and things like that, they work the longest hours, they have the hardest tasks, they don't shoot the water hoses. Instead, they use powered chainsaws and manual hand tools such as axes with the goal of starving the fires of fuel to continue the burn.
00:59:41
James
you So like, they'll be the ones out there like so the fire spreading through the forest, hey, get out there, prisoner start cutting all these trees down that way the fire when it gets here it can't spread.
00:59:42
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Hmm. Yeah.
00:59:50
James
Which is a lot harder than just shooting with the water. You know, I mean, ah yeah, so yeah, they've been <unk>s see here.
00:59:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah.
01:00:00
James
hand crews, I'm trying to look at the the things there. I thought they actually...
01:00:07
James
ah dooooodood dooo-oo Yeah, 30% of the wildfire wildfire workforce is inmates.
01:00:14
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
1% 30% yeah, okay.
01:00:16
James
30%, 30%.
01:00:17
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That was what the story I said said
01:00:22
James
oh
01:00:28
James
Well, during the most recent US s election, California voters rejected Proposition 6, a ballot measure that would have banned forced labor in state prisons. Only a handful of states have ever abolished forced prison labor. Colorado, Vermont, Nebraska, Utah, Alabama, surprisingly, Oregon, and Tennessee. That's it. Those are the only states that don't make prisoners forced labor. Wow.
01:00:50
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, it's another one of those ah Jim Crow holdovers.
01:00:51
James
But I just want to I just want to I read before though. I could have sworn that I read before, though, that there was something there was some changes when Kamala was there that actually gave them more like stuff for.
01:01:06
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Maybe it was something that was pitched, or maybe you're just not finding it looking for it right now.
01:01:08
James
Those are connection. ah
01:01:15
James
Oh, no, I talked about that later. I went dead air.
01:01:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Yeah, well, yeah, so stuff we didn't get to that we talk about next time is ah Trump's sentencing, which is coming up pretty soon, I think.
01:01:30
James
Oh wow, he's gonna be sentenced to nothing.
01:01:33
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, man.
01:01:34
James
Yeah, and that's still enough to have him rushed back to the Supreme Court, with which by the way, he had a call with Alito, you know, right right as he was, ah you know, filing his emergency petition to the US Supreme Court to stop this from being sentenced.
01:01:34
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Great.
01:01:50
James
Him and mean Alito had a big, long talk and during this talk that definitely did not talk about this case, definitely did not come up, so so says Alito. Uh, he says he didn't even, he wasn't aware that Trump would even bother trying to appeal to the Supreme Court.
01:02:06
James
Um, but yeah, so he had a big long talk with Alito and turns out that Trump is going to hire like Alito staffers. So. Yay. Yeah.
01:02:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Supreme corrupt.
01:02:18
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Okay. Yeah, we can go into more detail on that.
01:02:18
James
yeah
01:02:21
James
It doesn't really matter what happens.
01:02:21
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Maybe he'll be sentenced by the time we record next week.
01:02:24
James
Oh, bigger news though is Eileen Cannon. Did you hear what Eileen Cannon did? Like I think today or yesterday.
01:02:29
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
No, tell me.
01:02:30
James
all right you know how she dismissed the case right against you know the the the espionage case the classified documents okay Eileen Cannon was the Trump appointed judge in a little area of Florida and when the US federal government was going after Trump
01:02:37
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Remind, remind me on behalf of the viewers who Eileen
01:02:52
James
um you know, violations of the Espionage Act because he had, you know, top secret nuclear secrets, you know, in his bathroom, in his bathrooms and stuff like that and everywhere else with audio recordings of him talking to people and reading this stuff to people who are not authorized and laughing about it and saying, you know,
01:03:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
in boxes in his bathroom in Mar-a-Lago where all sorts of people are.
01:03:15
James
admitting on tap on tape that he's not allowed to read this to them because it's not declassified, you know, that that one. Anyway, he petitioned to make sure that his appointed judge could get the case and where she held it up and kept getting reversed by the 11th circuit because she kept doing favorable things for him and things are out out of her jurisdiction, out of her scope as a judge to help Trump. And then she ultimately dragged it on long enough and then just outright dismissed the case and for no reason.
01:03:45
James
um So now when a judge dismisses a case, they are off the case is not her case, period. So she has no jurisdiction for anything related to that case anymore. She's off it, she dismissed it, no longer anywhere in her docket. Well,
01:04:01
James
a couple of other cohorts that were wrapped up in the classified thing. They had other charges against them with a different court and everything else. They made a petition to her, which is way outside her jurisdiction.
Eileen Cannon's Injunction Against DOJ
01:04:20
James
and for an emergency request to keep Jack Smith's um report to Mayor Garland. The special counsel U.S. law says special counsel, what does a special counsel has the authority to do? To write a report. Do you do any processing and write a report and give it to the attorney general you know or to prosecute people, right, with the concerns of the attorney general. And since Trump, you know, so they dismiss the case,
01:04:47
James
and that that that case against Donald Trump is no longer going forward because Eileen Cannon dismissed it while they're held up on appeals now that Trump won the election they're not going to move forward to try to keep prosecuting him as right as he's taking office they did the next thing okay well I gotta just issue my report give it to the Attorney General and that's it well she just and announced An injunction against the attorney general of the United States on behalf of two people who were nowhere in her purview or her jurisdiction, they made a request of her to keep Jack Smith's report to Merrick Garland from being made public.
01:05:23
James
So she ordered an injunction against the attorney general to keep the attorney general of the United States from releasing his report from Jack Smith.
01:05:24
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Wow.
01:05:31
James
That way when Trump takes office, they can throw it away.
01:05:36
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Wow. I see.
01:05:37
James
Yeah.
01:05:38
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Great.
01:05:41
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Well, why would we punish people for things that they clearly want to do again?
01:05:46
James
Yeah, so she's probably gonna be on the Supreme Court next year, two years from now.
01:05:53
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Oh, so that TwinkleDee and TweedleDum can retire.
01:05:57
James
Yeah, yeah. Let Clarence Thomas or somebody retire or Alito and they'll replace her with a Eileen Cannon, who had no qualifications to be a judge and then just did a whole bunch of illegal things and got overturned by the appellate courts over and over again because she was illegally acting to benefit Donald Trump and then he'll put her on the Supreme Court.
01:06:16
James
That's my prediction for 2025.
01:06:20
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Great.
01:06:23
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Great.
01:06:24
James
oh
01:06:25
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
OK, well, on that wonderful note, ah this has been O
Conclusion and Podcast Wrap-Up
01:06:31
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Brother News. I'm Gabe. He's James. And we'll be back every Friday until
01:06:36
James
Okay.
01:06:39
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
they shut us down. Well, by the time I publish it, it'll probably be Friday.
01:06:41
James
okay
01:06:43
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I don't know. We're still in the pre-video figuring it out phase. But we're ah we're coming out of alpha. So I don't know.
01:06:52
James
ah
01:06:52
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
I would say for this one won't be up until Friday. So if you're hearing this, it's Friday.
01:06:57
James
All right.
01:07:00
James
All right. Well, nice talking.
01:07:01
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
All right.
01:07:03
James
Hopefully everybody has some fun stories. at Google. Hey, I sent a link in our chat here. Uh, I highly recommend anybody recommend clicking on the link to watch some, uh, Ukrainians running over Russians and North Koreans.
01:07:14
James
That's pretty good entertainment.
01:07:16
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
That does sound fun. I will try to attach that to the podcast, see if I can figure that out.
01:07:18
James
so All right.
01:07:22
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
Cool.
01:07:22
James
News week. Thanks. Shout out to news week. All right. Audio.
01:07:27
GABRIEL ZIEGLER
All right.