Kitbag Conversations - Episode 4: Chase Baker's "The Filthy American"

Episode Date: March 21, 2022

Formerly a resident of Iraqi Kurdistan during the Iraq war, The Filthy American (@thefilthyamerican2.0) is the online persona of Chase Baker, a college student based in the American Southeast. In his own words, “I write about conflicts, culture, geopolitics and anything I think a reader will find worth reading.” During this episode, we talk about: - The current state of socialized media based conflict journalism - Prelude and current situation in Ukraine - And the an individual's call to action to be a volunteer in Ukraine

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Croatoan Report, a podcast dedicated to delivering quality information to the community level. We had a little issue before, but this week I am joined by the Filthy American, who I've been a fan of for a while now, and I'm really looking forward to the conversation we're about to have. How are you doing, man? I'm doing a lot better now that I'm back in my dorm room. Yeah, for the listeners out there, we got maybe two and a half minutes into the first

recording, and someone pulled the fire alarm or burned their mac and cheese, so we had to postpone this for about an hour. Yeah, I was just out there standing outside waiting for, I was like, come on, man, all the times when the fire alarm was going to go off, it's going to go off right now. But the good news is the city I live in is very fashion forward, and the firemen pulled up, bro, and these dudes look like something out of a movie, man. All of them had those gigantic, just absolute, like, mustache, like absolute dog mustaches, bro.

And I was like, you know, if anybody was going to be saying my life is a fireman, they better have an amazing mustache. So that did make my day, and I'll be honest with you. But I'm incredibly excited to be back and get into this man with you. OK, so I've been a fan of the Filthy American for a while now. I first got notified of his existence, essentially, back when Afghanistan was collapsing and the U.S. withdrew from Kabul. And out of all the members of, I guess, our community, like Rose Warfare, our worst day,

the Filthy American was the first to get nuked by Instagram for doing what we do today. So can you elaborate a little on that? Yeah, so it was as a real, as a real gut punch, really, really disheartening. I was what I was saying before, you know, the whole fire alarm thing, we were about to get into this. I a my page was it was it was it was kind of big. It was relatively small, though, is around 6,000 followers, I believe. And the the unfortunate thing about what we do is that.

You know, we always want our pages to grow and to grow our audience. This is part of how it works. You know, we want to be able to reach more people with our work. But the unfortunate thing is that that generally happens whenever there's some type of horrific crisis in the world. And that was an example of that. So when Afghanistan started happening, I already had some pretty decent sources and I was able to report very quickly on what was going on.

And I started doing that. And the page really grew. I was really, I was really excited. You know, I'm obviously wasn't excited about what was going on in Afghanistan. But, you know, I was excited that the page was growing. And then I don't know. I guess I just had enough enough, you know, black marks on my account that it was I'm not exactly sure what it was.

I was just on the account one day on the page on it while I was on it. I was logged out at first. I thought that I must have been hacked by somebody. When I tried to log back in, I couldn't log back in. So this account didn't exist. So I didn't realize it was it was banned. And I went through the appeal process and there is, you know, I reached back out to the community.

Some of the other pages have gone to the gun through this. They gave me some advice, big shout out to Atlas News. He really he reached out and it meant a lot to hear from him because he's the kind of the OG of all this, in my opinion, like I really got me going. He so he reached out and he was he was sending me links. Kind of went through what's happened to him before in terms of being banned. And, you know, I did about everything you can do, everything that I was told to do, all the advice I was given.

And it was it was like such a little circle, man, because it was like a because you go you the one link there, I was like, this is the one that actually works. It actually gets your appeal in there. I would do it. Problem was, whenever you got to the final step, I believe this how it worked, you would you would say, oh, this is the account. And then it would say, OK, well, you need to confirm that this is the account by clicking a link to Instagram is sending you by your account,

like three DMs or something along those lines. Well, how are you supposed to do that if you can't access your account? Because it's banned. It's it makes absolutely no sense. But yeah, I was banned first counting it down September of last year. And I don't exactly know what it was. I'm assuming it was just a culmination of, you know, kind of. Just stepping over Instagram's guidelines. You know, I never really I never was a page that posted

incredibly horrific combat videos or gore. That was never my thing, like I tried to tread lightly. For example, whenever the bombing occurred outside of the airport in Kabul, I mean, I would I acquired a censored version of the aftermath intentionally, because one, you know, I don't really think my audience necessarily wants to see, you know, horrific video. And so, you know, I want to stay within Instagram's good graces. But, you know, despite all my efforts, I did end up getting the big old band hammer.

Now, you had some actual members of the MSM coming out and asking you where you're getting your footage, who your sources are. Because like we've seen, I've seen it on my end that myself or you where our wars or Atlas will post something. And then three days later, five days later, mainstream media is going, hey, there was an 11 year old kid that walked from Ukraine all the way into Slovakia. Can you believe that when we were talking about that last week? So I remember that I think it was you who said.

People reached out to you and we're asking what your sources were. Yeah, it would. I was contacted by a low level person at CNN. Forgot her name. She was I forgot. She offered what exactly her position was. But I had I made a post about. I want to say it was a prison break in.

I forgot exactly where it was in Afghanistan, but it was some prison break and there were some high level. I forgot what what extremist organization they were connected to. The post was so long ago and I don't want to get it wrong. It was what it was. It was a prison break and this this lady, she reached out to me and she she said that she was from CNN and everything. And, you know, I talked to anybody that, you know, messaged me essentially.

And so, you know, I was like, oh, well, that's really interesting. You know, if you want to give me a call, you can. I was actually on this happen. I was at the bar and I was like, I was with my friends. I was like, you know, y'all are going to believe this. Somebody from CNN just called me is about to call me like give me one second. So I stepped outside and I started talking to this lady and she was she got on pasturing me about my sources.

And I was like, well, if you want my sources, you you can. I mean, I don't mind sending them to you, but, you know, I didn't want to know. My my thing was, I was like, I mean, how is it that this huge media organization has all this funding isn't picking up on the things that I am when, you know, I'm just a college kid that's into open source Intel. And it was really jarring. And, you know, the conclusion that I came to is that, you know, this mainstream media is is they're lacking in that sense of

of going through and sifting through various sources. I think with this, with the Ukraine conflict, though, I do think that they really stepped up their game in terms of paying attention to open source Intel. I have seen a lot of mainstream people, people that you wouldn't really think to be into this whole stuff talking about, you know, things like telegram chats and things like that. And I'm like, well, yeah, it's been going on for a while, man.

I'm glad you mentioned telegram, because for a while that seemed to be the wild west of the information community, where anyone from the Wagner group could post all of their proliferated information or RT News, who is now banned, can post whatever they wanted. And so it seemed like that was outside of the MSM zeitgeist, but which was, like I just said, the kind of the area of whoever wants to post on there. Now it seems like that air telegram itself was found out by mainstream and is now like RT News is banned, where initially that wasn't supposed to happen.

So it's really, like you said, it seems like the bigger companies are really getting dialed into where smaller communities like yourself and I get their information. So. Yeah, it is interesting. And I think that it's it's only natural. I mean, that they would do that. But at the same time, I do.

I personally believe that going forward in the future, that a lot of, especially the younger generation, I would say people that are probably 35 and younger or just around that age, they're not gravitating towards. Mainstream media anymore, you know, the way that our information works for for for us is we're looking for, you know, very, very direct and quick, quick information that's accurate and we're not really necessarily looking for, you know,

some of my opinion, because, like, for example, if you turn on any mainstream media, news generally, I don't know, MSNBC, CNN, Fox, whatever, what you're going to do is you're going to sit there for like an hour while, you know, you know, on the uncockable Tucker Carlson is going to go up there and do that for like an hour. You know what I mean? Like he's going to like because like this thing is like for the longest time for the past like 20, 30 years, it was all about, you know, pundits and, you

know, oh, I like this guy's take on the news. I'm going to watch his and they're all reporting the same stuff. You know, but, you know, now you have different people that are individuals that are, you know, they already had an interest in the world and the things that are going on and they were like, like us, we just, you know, for me, I just have an interest in the world and, you know, I wanted to be able to share that interest with people. And so that's really why I started the page.

And we have all these different accounts that, you know, you know, one, some of them are a lot more, they show their bias a lot more than other ones. And that's fine. I don't have an issue with that at all. But, you know, I think at the end, each one of us kind of has, you know, all together, we all have collecting, we all have generally the same information. It's just that, you know, it's up to the person running the page in terms of like, you know, what they find interesting.

I think that's where the big difference is, is, you know, it's not necessarily about the personality of the person reporting anymore. It's more about, you know, the information they provide, which I think is a good thing. I think a great example of that is Jake Hanrahan and Popular Front, where you could say whatever you want about their community, but their bio has been too cool for J school. I don't give a fuck what you think. I'm on the ground.

You're behind a computer. So it's the most raw in your face, the weight of taking the Instagram, Twitter, community. Yeah, I would, I'm completely with you on that one, man. They, uh, Popular Front do that, uh, Jake, what Jake said going on. It's, uh, it's really, it's really interesting. And I, uh, you know, I dig it. I don't necessarily agree with all of his, you know, takes on everything, but regardless, I still respect him.

He's a very accomplished journalist and he's doing some great stuff. He's doing really good things. When, uh, was it Corsica started popping off last week? He was there within 24 hours immediately on the scene. Maybe a Luke Pierce was there as well, um, reporting on what was going on. And it's really cool to see those guys who have their own platform, Popular Front running around, doing what mainstream media wants to do, but they're just going to cut right to the basics.

It's not the Uber conservative Fox news or your leftist CNN. It's just, this is it. It's very unbiased. And you could, like you just said, Jake has his own direction, but he doesn't put that into his work. It's just, here it is. Yeah. And, and, and I think that you really saw this come about, I want to say with,

with vice news, in my opinion, you really saw people. Enjoying journalism that wasn't like, so let's say, like, let's say if in mainstream media, they go to Ukraine right now. All right. They're going to, for the most part, they're going to like stand on the balcony and like, you know, be in front of a camera and all that deal. And they're going to be like, well, I am on the ground right now. And he, you know, if you create that type of stuff, um, you really saw journalism

change is more, is more focused on the individuals in the story. Um, and, and, or the world around what, like what you're reporting on. It's not necessarily about, Hey, I'm in front of the camera now and I'm going to tell you what's been going on. Like you, you more, let more long lines of let, uh, the story that you're reporting on or the people that you're reporting on speak for themselves. Um, and it's not necessarily about, you know, you interjecting yourself into the story, which I think is really, I think it's quality.

I, I like that. Okay. So we have the established mainstream when it comes to conflict reporting. And then we have the little guys like us. What is the future of this? Because Instagram's certainly not in because of big pages like Atlas can get nuked in little guys like us can get nuked. What is the new direction of an interested college kid in the world?

What, what avenue does he take? Uh, well, as of right now, I found a safe haven, which is the Atlas news app and website. Um, and you know, I've been posting my work on there. Um, and you know, I think I'll always have an Instagram. Um, and I'll try and continue to push my work there, but you know, like you said, you, there's no certainty there. So you, you want to have some type of contingency plan.

If, if things go south and almost guaranteed to, um, and I guess the only thing you could, right now, the only thing I could see, the only, the only thing you could really do is just try and stay at Instagram. It's good graces. So for the best and find somewhere else for your work. Um, and so that way with the things, things go, go the wrong way. And you, and you lose your account, you'll, you'll, you'll be able to reach your audience and continue producing what you do.

I think someone like OAF nation has done a really good job of tip towing through the tulips around the Instagram sensors, but providing real dialed in info, because all they do is have a little picture or a video. They have a quick caption. They're like links in bio. If you want to check it out, the full story and there's no war porn. There's no gore, but they're like, Hey, if you want to see that or want to know the full story, please check out our safe haven, but they're using.

They're at, you know, 465,000 followers on Instagram. That's, that's a pretty sizable base. So they're just using that to help build their network. And Instagram is love it or hate it. It's the tool everyone uses. Well, that in Twitter, but. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Totally, man.

Um, yeah, I do think that that's probably the best way to do it. It would be to, to tip toe the best you can and then have some other platform where you, where you kind of go all out, so to speak. Hmm. Yeah. But, um, I want to, I want to ask you, man, like, what are your, what are your, what are your thoughts? I mean, obviously there's a big thing going on in the world right now.

Um, Russia has invaded Ukraine as a, we're going on almost a whole month now. Um, oh, it's been almost a month and they still haven't seized anything outside of Kyrsten. I don't know. But yeah, it's, you know, my thing is, is, is that I still haven't been able to fully, uh, reconcile Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cause hear me out. Okay.

Now I'm, I'm posing this question to you, let, let, let's, for, so let, let, for the question, let's say that Putin is objectively an intelligent person. I think that that's something that you, it's, it's reasonable to say he's objectively an intelligent person. How does this go so poorly for him? Um, how did he not, how did he not see this? Um, I mean, I'm assuming the, like how did this go so poorly? My, the conclusion I've come to is that it was a combination of a couple of a

couple of things. It was, it was him believing that he could quickly seize Ukraine in less than, you know, a week. And so by the time the international community was going to react, it would already be over and, you know, everything would kind of go back to the status quo. And, you know, there'd just be, you know, sporadic guerrilla fighting in Ukraine every once in a while. And I'm assuming he, he came to this conclusion through, uh, being yes manned

into it by the people around him. Because if you think about, you know, the current regime in Russia, from my understanding of it all, you really become, uh, you become a wealthy and successful individual, like truly wealthy, sexual and powerful by being close to Putin or close to those who are close to him. So what your goal is, is essentially to, uh, keep him happy. Right. So you tell, tell, tell a big boss we want us to hear, even if it's not

necessarily true. And I guess it, you know, over time, he thought that, you know, his military was a lot more capable than, than they seem to be. Um, my answer to this is going to be a little long-winded. And I've definitely molded this over since 2014, just kind of, uh, linear line of notes here, but let's, let's dial it back to 1999. And Putin was the then prime minister and became president after Yeltsin stepped out.

And so there was a book that was written about him. The only authorized published biography of Putin, it's called, uh, first citizen, and it's just a conglomeration of interviews that Russian journalists had that just happened to get ahold of Putin, um, at the time when he was just getting into his presidency. And so it opens up, it's like, Mr. Putin, very nice to meet you. Can you please tell me what it's like to be president?

And he goes, did I tell you that my grandfather survived the purges of Stalin? They were like, no, that's interesting. He's like, yeah, he was, uh, one of the, one of the chief members in Stalin's community. They're like, okay, okay. So can you tell me about what it's like to be president? And he goes, did I tell you that my father was in St. Petersburg?

The Germans know that's interesting. They're like, out of a 120 man company, he was one of 10 to survive. And they're like, okay, okay. And he's like, did I tell you that I singlehandedly pulled every Soviet document out of East Berlin when it was collapsing? They're like, no. And he's like, okay, anyways, what would you like to know? And so when just reading that introductory paragraph, it's just Putin's

painting himself as I am Russia, essentially. Where he goes, yeah, I am the future. I know what I'm doing. So you could look at Putin's, there was the Kursk incident where the Russian Navy was doing their big naval exercise. Uh, I think it was two, it was like September timeframe, 2000. I want to say that could be wrong, but the submarine went out there and it was a flagship, the Russian Navy and it sank and disappeared and immediately

Putin's like, yeah, NATO came out and sunk our ship. And everyone's like, that's not what happened at all. We could get your guys and he's like, yeah, out of the crew, I think they'll be happy to know that they didn't have help from the West. And so the entire crew died when the US and all those NATO nations could have picked it up and off the seabed and in the barren sea, but nothing happened. So this is in 2000, within the first year of his presidency. And he was like, yeah, it's, I think we're okay.

So that should have been the first indicator. And then he invaded Georgia in 08. And so in Georgia, because Georgia and Ukraine in 2006 wanted to join NATO. But they're like, we're considering this. And then if Georgia, the most rapidly advancing military and economy in the former Soviet bloc wants to start militarizing and joining the West can't have that. So what you're going to do is start doing what they didn't cry me in pumping

in those ethnic Russians and quoting exactly what Putin said with a declaration award against Ukraine of, yeah, they got these Nazis running around persecuting and killing our people. We have to go save them. So you go in, NATO didn't do anything. Couple of sanctions, but that was around election time for the U.S. Because Bush was on his way out, Obama's on his way in. They're like, yeah, we're going to do it.

We're going to do it now. And then from there, it goes over to Ukraine. So right after Georgia got invaded, the Ukrainian government said, we're maxed and we know it, but say what you all about that. Did they prepare? Maybe. But so revolution starts, pro-East government gets ousted. They have that little coup boom.

Russians take Crimea, Russians start that war in Donbass and Ukraine says, I'm not going to do anything because they didn't want to do what we're doing today, but the NATO didn't do anything. They just said, Hey, we'll do sanctions. We'll do, we'll try to stop the Russians. But Putin goes, okay, hold on. Nothing happened. All I have to do is wait.

And if you wait two weeks, the American attention span specifically, they'll just forget what just happened. So just look at Afghan when we left. It's within a week while it was still going on. No one really cared. So from there, we just trace it forward to the US withdrawal of Afghanistan. So US comes out and says, Hey, we're leaving. We're going to up and get out of here.

Completely falls apart. They, the NATO members themselves, where it was the US and the Brits at first, sent guys in the country and said, Hey, we need to get all the people out of here. Yeah. Countries like France and Germany saying no. So while it was going on, I remember thinking to myself, like, hold on, this is just showing the whole world how fragmented NATO is, how they don't like each other, how they don't like to talk to each other, communicate.

And you had a country like Germany saying, no, I'm not going to help you. And the US went, I remember you went into country with me 20 years ago, get your shit and get out of here. So I think the Russians were watching that very carefully going, yeah, they don't like each other. And if any push comes to shove, they'd rather fight, fight amongst themselves instead of dealing with the issue at hand. So then there you go to say the migrant crisis in Belarus from a few months ago,

back in November, when you had a country like Poland, who was very anti-immigrant, very kind of doing its own thing in the European Union. But base, it's 10 year economic plan around the European Union's money pot of. Yeah, I don't like to take an immigrants, but I want to build my economy around this new plan. So the European Union comes out and says, you're going to have to start taking an immigrants. So once those headlines showed up, I'm not saying that 5,000 immigrants were

dumped on the border to test the will of the European people, but it did. And Poland was essentially forced to take an immigrants, shovel them over into Germany. And they had their own little internal issues. And that was a big headline. I remember you were talking about it a lot. So I think the Russians looked at all that and then watched the U.S. leave Afghanistan and understood that there was going to be a power vacuum in that part of the world.

And so when Kazakhstan started to fall apart, back in what January, they had that little 5% increase on gas and the whole country goes into revolution overnight. Then you have all these Russian VDV guys in the Spetsnaz seizing airports, almost like a dry run of something had to happen inside Ukraine, how fast could their military mobiles. So everyone gets dumped into Kazakhstan, state gets stabilized. And then everyone goes, okay, remember that document that was floating around back in December?

Yeah, the Russians invading in February. Remember that? And so Ukrainian people started getting ready to do their government. And then Putin started coming out with these like, oh, there's Nazis in the country. Oh, they're killing our people. The whole same rhetoric that he used against Georgia and Ukraine in 2014. But I think a major issue he had is I think he's an intelligent guy. I'm not going to call him like a brain surgeon, but I think he's smart enough to

understand his capabilities. Well, like you just mentioned, I think he was yes manned into this position because you're going to tell the one guy who controls your entire life. No, like, and if you're looking at it today, a lot of the FSB guys are the old KGB were put under house arrest within two weeks of the invasion, because maybe they told Putin he was going to lose or it wasn't going to go as planned. And they were just essentially told to shut up by the military staff who are looking to keep their position or be a hero when the war is over.

So I think Putin was he underestimated the West's ability to support Ukraine as well as he overestimated his own military because if there's corruption at the top level, you know, starting at the bottom. So there's a 18 year old tank commander who's supposedly a sergeant, which is absurd anyways, but that kid saying, yeah, I know how to drive this tank. I know what I'm doing. Who tells his officer? Who tells the brigade?

Who tells the division? Who tells the army? Yeah, we're good. So it goes all the way to the top and you can't say no. So yeah, that was a long winded answer. But I think it was this combination of things of overestimating the quality of his military and underestimating NATO in general, because as we've seen anti tank weapons and anti aircraft weapons like man pads and those N laws and then

just flooding in through Poland. And it's not the guy with the AK stopping tanks. It's all these NATO provided weapons to the Ukrainian people. So I think now the Russian military is sustained. I think 30% of their military is a casualty at this point inside Ukraine. So out of 200,000, you got 75,000 that are combatant troops. And if 30% of those guys are down and out, that's combat inefficient for any. But like in the division aspect, it's combat inefficient.

So maybe the Russians initially wanted that shock and awe, you know, go balls to the wall method saw it's not really working. So they went, okay, let's just take the nuclear reactors and choke hold the nation because it's I think they're building their strategy as they go because they didn't have one to begin with. They were doing really good with their asymmetric little green men doctrine where you can't really get around that. If you just take off your Russian flag, you could be anybody, but force on force.

I think they're planning it by the day, but yeah, he was definitely yes, man, into this position. I agree with you. I agree with you. And this is, this is, I think that how we've seen this conflict play out. This is likely to be the worst scenario in terms of the costs for human life. Because the Russian military, and I'm not saying this is a bad thing. You know, the Ukrainians are kind of a fight.

I'm not saying that at all, but they really put up a hell of a fight. Obviously, they're able to do so because of, you know, native support. But the point is that as the Russian military becomes more and more inefficient in the country, which it seems to be the case, I, you know, it's, it's pretty clear that the, the, the, the Kremlin is going to, going to start acting more and more erratic in terms of their attacks, especially on civilian areas. And in just any attempt to gain ground because here's the thing. No, this is just my opinion.

I think that, I think that Putin at this point has put everything on the line in terms of his, his power. And if, if this war ends poorly for Russia, or if it drags on for a very, very long time, I think that it would be likely that he would end up losing power. I think that's a possibility on how that would happen. I don't know, but the thing is, is don't get me wrong. The Russian people are very resilient. And I think that they're, these sanctions are, are going to, they're going,

they're going to affect, you know, the average Russian, but I think they're going to be able to withstand it for a fair bit of time. It's just the question is how, how long can the rhetoric put up, put out there by the Kremlin to justify this invasion? How long can that stand? How long can people in Russia? Can you divide that and be like, okay, yeah, this is why we're suffering and it's worthwhile.

Um, and you do it forever. It's just because the entire international community cuts off all supplies to Russia. They kick them off Telegram, Instagram, pop only fans, everything. So everything, every instance of outside support into Russia or the connection to the outside world is Russians are bad. So if Russians are on one hand, have been told since they were little kids that, yeah, Ukraine's ours. They're just this kind of breakaway state that wants to do its own thing.

We're, they're going to come back someday. Just like Putin wrote in his essay in July of 2021, he was like, on the strategic reliability of the Russians and the Ukrainian people, where he called them one people, one single whole, where he's like, yeah, if the average Russian is being told this every day, and they're also being told that they're Nazis, they're killing the ethnic Russians inside the country. And then they're also cut off from the outside world. They're only getting pushed one message and it's, yeah, it's them versus us.

And it sounds a lot like they don't like us. So it's very true, very true. Um, yeah, there's definitely, I would say there will, there will definitely be some polarization or a good bit of polarization and unity within Russia over this, um, and I think that, you know, speaking of Nazism in Ukraine, our neo-Naziism in Ukraine, I think that you might see the same thing over there. Um, you know, if you look at the, you know, since, since this conflict truly started in 2014, um, the ones who the Ukrainians have always been putting

up a really decent fight against the Russians are the, you know, for example, that has off Italian in the neo-Nazi groups. Um, I mean, if you think about it, you know, and I'm not justifying, I'm not trying to justify anything. I'm just saying, you know, if you think about it, let's say you're just an average Ukrainian person, you're young and Russian vades, and you see these guys going around and, you know, they're really kicking ass. And, you know, they're neo-Nazis.

I think that it would be very appealing for, uh, a good bit of people in that country to start siding with them more and more. Now I'm not saying that's going to be like a big thing. But, you know, I think that it is something that is interesting that I could see start playing out. We could also say the same thing about the Russians, where you saw all those Soviet flags being flown around in the South, where I was a Russian 18 year old and I saw the former country, which was supposedly the best flying

over territory that we want back. Hey, if I was a young Russian soldier, I'd be like, fuck yeah, that checks out. And so it's the same thing. It doesn't matter what side you're on. It's the iconography of this is strong. I like this. So it's more of a morale boost. And if Putin, during his declaration of war, kept talking about like, yeah,

the Soviet Union, that was our thing. The Russian Empire, that was our thing. Ukraine keeps trying to leave. They were a part of us because we are the single whole. So if he kept referencing the Soviet Union and then the Soviet flag started to pop up across those now seized Ukrainian territory, I think a lot of the Russian soldiers looked at that one. Yeah, that's, that's it.

So, oh, dude, I'm with you, man. That's not to say every single one, because there's always those leaked messages coming out of Russians, constraps going, I have no idea what's going on. I didn't even know I was in Ukraine until I was a weekend. So. Yeah, right. It I'm with you on that, man. When I saw that Soviet flag flying, I was like, oh, shit, they back.

It was a, it was a sight to behold, really was. Now, what do you think? Okay, so I want to get your thoughts on this, because do you know who Tim Dylan is? Of course, I know who Tim Dylan is. Yeah, he's funny as hell, man. Are we going to sacrifice our summer over Ukraine? Yeah, exactly. Are we not going to not be able to go to the beach on 4th of July because we decided

to implement into a fly zone in Ukraine. Dude, he, I just, it cracks me up and that he had this bit talking about how. How the American, like the celebrities in the West are going to be the ones that push us into nuclear annihilation because you know, they're going to be like, oh, I'll stand with Ukraine type deal, like implement a no fly zone. It's just like everything kind of goes south from there. But what I'm getting to is, I want to know, like, do you think that in the U. Obviously, I mean, we're both from the United States.

Do you think that that's a possibility that the celebrities end up pushing? The average person into supporting a decision that is not in the best interest of the world as a whole in terms of escalating this conflict? It's definitely a political move on their part where you have someone like Benedict Cumberbatch promoting his new movie, wearing a yellow and blue ribbon on the red carpet saying like, yeah, and Russia, we got to stop this whole war in Ukraine. I didn't even know what Ukraine was till two weeks ago. But yeah, we got to get this over with this.

It's really bad over there. So I don't think it's not the it's not some, you know, some gas station worker pulling the trigger. It's politicians in office and they really, regardless if they watch movies or really dial into entertainment, I don't think celebrities have anything going on with that. It's a completely separate entity. They could have all the influence on Instagram as they want, but they're not the ones running the show.

Without a doubt. The problem is that the stakes are just so damn high right now. You know, it's it's it's really we're at a a huge tipping point in terms of global society. I think I mentioned it a few episodes ago where maybe the future is really boring and it's just globalism forever, because if Russia is doing this really just an old world idea of, yeah, securing the borders, nationalism, go out there, be proud to be Russian.

We're going to we're going to do this because we want to. Is that the last gasp of a nation doing what it wants because because let's dial back to the 1950s, Britain and France invaded Suez without the blessing of the U.S. and we're told to go home by the U.S. and they did. So it's like that was a huge shift because that was the age of the empires where this new state called the U.S. and Russia were like, no, no, no, no, we're doing our thing now.

You guys are done. Like, go sit down. Yeah. And you got a post cold war where it's the Russians are like, yeah, remember the Soviet Union that kicked ass. Let's bring that back. Oh, by the way, step number one, we're going into Ukraine. If they get absolutely shut down, that's like the last gasp of

independent thought, essentially, at a national level. Yeah, I do. I do agree with you. That's that's very likely. And that that's why this conflict is so fascinating from just, you know, not trying to make it seem like, you know, I want to have this happening. But it's just it's very it's very interesting because this is this is some World War Two type shit, man.

Like, this is something that, you know, we you haven't seen in the world in a long time in a long time. And it's very likely that something like this one will never happen again. And will not happen again in the near future or, you know, in the next hundred, two hundred, two hundred, hundred and fifty years. I would say, though, the in terms of, you know, the future being very boring, that there's a possibility and everything can kind of just go back to the very kind of a brave new world that we seem to be entering.

But I I think that, you know, what could happen is, you know, foods like food scarcity in the future. I think that nations themselves could be destabilized just because of economic collapse. And I think that if there would, I think what is likely in the future is that there would be conflicts inside of countries themselves over, you know, like economic collapse, for example, and everybody's kind of calling it quits. I wouldn't even go that far.

It's just South America had water wars in the early 2000s. So yeah, like natural resources, basic needs are people taking for granted. But if if for some reason the Middle East ran out of oil and everyone stops caring about that, it will implode because they don't have any natural water. It's it's it's a whole thing. Mesopotamia, that or the Tigris and Euphrates, that's in Iraq. And that's pretty much owned by us anyways, or the US.

So it's yeah, it'll get it'll get interesting soon. Not I don't know. I don't I can't put a timeline on it. I'm not too dialed in on every single nation's current standing. But yeah, yeah. So what do you OK? Let's say hypothetically, there is some serious escalation with the conflict in Ukraine in terms of what NATO is doing.

How do you what would you see that likely? Because I did I did read something today and I'm only let me pull it up. It was something to do with I want to say I got it right here. Let me pull it up so mess this up. OK, OK, so apparently. The Danish Minister of Defense has announced that the markets going to send forces to support NATO or Polish-led peacekeeping mission into Ukraine. And the Danish military has begun preparing for this operation.

I mean, I'm reading stuff saying, you know, the Poles, they're all going home about all this stuff. I mean, how likely but what do you what do you make of all that? It's it's difficult to address because the Poles are very. Confident in their abilities to take on the Russians. But then they say, yeah, Ukraine, we got you. You just have to we'll give you some planes. What we need you to do is meet us in Ramstein, Germany,

where we're going to hand our stuff off to the US and then you drive there and fly your planes, our planes back to your country. And so it's pulling can be all talk of, yeah, let's go fight the Russians. And I'm sure, you know, they have a thousand years of being considered Europe's punching bag. I'm really sure that they really do not like the Russians. But it's they could keep saying that. But without unless they do a false flag attack in their own country, you'd be like, yeah, Belarus did it. I don't know. It's.

That would be awful. 100 percent. And it's like, is this is the government of Poland strong enough to act independently? Because if the US keeps telling them no, and if England and France and Germany keep telling them, no, it's I'm not sure. It seems like all these smaller states, too. It's like the Baltics, Poland, I guess the Danes, they are the ones saying, like, yeah, we got this or but it's I don't know. I'm trying to try to put this to words of this.

You know, because this is what our decision happened, right? Let Poland listen, let them leave NATO. All right. So they know article five to worry about. And then let them boys punch it out, right? Just let them go in there. But they are far near no more. And then after it's all over, they can hop back in. All right. That is that timeline is way too long, man.

That's 15 years of work. Yeah, true. Just go for Yugoslavia. Just let everyone duke it out and only the strongest survives. Like, yeah, yeah. Well, also, that's another angle we could look at that because Yugoslavia was a mess and we still have guys. NATO still has guys in the former Yugoslavia as peacekeepers. And so I remember a few months ago, about six months ago now,

the Serbians and who was it? Kosovo, those two guys were shooting at each other. And they were like, hey, there's still a war there. And the US will not just the US, but like NATO fumbled that so bad that I don't think they really want to get involved too heavily in Ukraine, outside of indirect support, because anything kinetic can lead to Russia saying, oh, I'm threatened, I'm going to use a bomb. So. Yeah.

And I mean, honestly, I think that it would be interesting to see, let's say there's some some accidental attack on, you know, Polish, Polish soil from Russia. If something just goes haywire and there's an accidental missile launch that hits like some just anywhere in Poland, it would be interesting to see if if if things would actually kick off from from NATO, if even, you know, if the if the Russians were like, yo, I, you know, our fault, my bad type deal.

Because obviously that's not in Russia's best interest, but they want to continue this conflict. And it's not in anybody's best interest, in my opinion, unless you're like global annihilation. But it's just it's just it's a stalemate right now. And it's like it's it's I mean, right now, the way things are going, in my opinion, I think I think Russia is going to if everything continues, every look rush is going to end up looking like North Korea almost

in terms of the isolation. Almost international pariah. That yes, that weird guy that you're like, yeah, he's there, but I wouldn't trust him. Yeah, right. He's a little school sheer kind of goes to come pulls us up to school and like a listen to a lot of radio head and goes to school in a trench. Like, yeah, a little too much M&M for my taste.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. That's interesting. Yeah, it's the whole war in general is so much a a mind boggle because it hasn't happened in so long. And I'm sure you've seen it. There's a lot of pages on Instagram and Twitter saying this is just like the war in Afghanistan.

It's not it's nothing even close. It's the U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan 20 years long were asymmetric. It was a different kind of war. It was it was it was small. It was isolated in compared to tanks on tanks, friction on like conventional forces on conventional forces. It's it's not even comparable. So I think a lot of people are jumping to that.

Like, oh, yeah, Russia's lost maybe 10 to 15,000 people in a month. That's as five times more than the Americans lost in Afghanistan. You're like, yeah, that's cool. But if all we have is Afghanistan, like let's just dial it back to this 50s or the World War two, like an actual conventional war. Yeah, it is. I mean, just to give you just like to go off what you're saying. I mean, you like since Mar Marupul has been under siege,

there have been more civilian casualties in the little over three weeks that it's been going on. If the Ukrainian reports are correct. There have been more civilian deaths in Mario pool already than then we're in both battles of Fallujah combined and that's and that's that's pretty that doesn't illustrate the scale of destruction and how truly conventional this war is. I don't know what does.

I mean, like we've been saying for the past 10 minutes, like this is something that the world hasn't seen in a long time. And that's that's what makes it interesting. And I understand the talking point to say, oh, you know, the world's only really caring about this because this is about white Europeans or something along those lines. Whoa. Yeah. I don't I don't I'm not saying that I'm sure maybe that does play a factor.

But I mean, this is no, I mean, I think this is just something on a totally different scale objectively. I mean, that's that's that's my take on it. Well, yeah, if someone like South Africa started throwing blows against Botswana, you're like, yeah, I get I can see that. But because if South Africa wanted to pull the same idea of like, oh, yeah, I remember the apartheid, that was pretty cool. We were a lot better off then.

What if we went against the state that broke away? They used to be ours. Let's go take it back. I think it would be a completely different narrative in mainstream media specifically of, yeah, it's I can see that. But it's because it has been so long since there's been conventional war in Europe. It's taken a different direction.

But it's been about a month now and it seems like. It's not really in the zeitgeist anymore. Everyone's like, oh, yeah, I'm going to drop a yellow and blue flag on my Instagram and then just to talk about how, you know, my neighbor's cousin's boyfriend met a Ukrainian once in a metro in DC. So yeah, I do. I definitely it definitely has kind of it's it's boring now. It's not as cool as it was when it first happened.

So the average American. Hey, but listen, you know, something I do want to I do want to talk about. And I this is just completely unconfirmed reports, right? But I have been hearing over the past four or five days. And again, I cannot confirm this to be legit. But if it is, I think it's incredibly interesting that a lot of the Western volunteers have. There are two things here. The first thing is that there's a lot of Western volunteers going over

there to volunteer in Ukraine and they're claiming that they aren't getting the equipment they want that they not necessarily they want, but that they, you know, they need to even fight. And it's essentially a massacre and they're using being used as cannon fodder. And if they desert their their their kill, I know what video you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I had I have a I have a friend who's in Poland right now. And he said that he's on the border with Ukraine.

And he was telling me that he's been hearing things from people who have been to Ukraine and like this again, this is unconfirmed, that if you're a fighting aged male in your in Ukraine, even if you're a foreigner, there's a possibility, especially if you're not connected to some type of, you know, bigger organization to justify while you're there. There's a there's a there's a there's a chance that you'll end up getting conscripted into the Ukrainian forces. Now, how true that is?

I don't know, but, you know, it would be it will be interesting to see, you know, the stories that come out from these volunteers and if this stuff that we're hearing is actually true. So the Ukrainians came out and said, we want people with combat experience. We don't want liabilities. So if you have all these, they call them the Reddipitalian. If you have all these essentially war tours pulling up going like, yeah, man, I'm going to go to Ukraine and I'm going to fight.

And then they're told to go home because their only experience is paintball. They're like, no, get the fuck out of here. You're going to get our guys killed because at the end of the day, the Ukrainians only care about the Ukrainians. They don't they're like, yeah, thanks. We're in the green for total numbers because we have 25,000 volunteers showing up to help us. But of that 25,000, let's be generous and say maybe 15 know what they're doing.

So you have 10,000 showing up either a being turned away or giving nothing saying like, yeah, just just watch the supply dump. If just our guys will do the fighting, just stay back here and make sure no one steals our stuff. So on one hand, like it would be crazy to hear that Ukraine is only handing out either a magazine with a few rounds in it and a weapon and no helmet or no body armor to the volunteers. But on the other hand, it would just make sense to go like, yeah, I'd rather protect

our guys and give the fighters what they need rather than these tourists. So, yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that one. Um, yeah, I mean, here's the thing. I, I, I, I understand why you would want to go over to Ukraine and and and do humanitarian work. Um, I get that. But unless you have like a chip on your shoulder for some reason, why you just really hate Russia and this is like, yo, this is my opportunity to like, you know,

get back at Russia. Um, I don't, I don't see why, I don't see why all, why this is like happening. Why there's so many internet dudes that, you know, have never seen combat. Like, dude, I would just show up like that, that is, that's some crazy stuff. I mean, everybody's drawn comparisons to the Spanish Civil War. Um, and I think that's very true. Um, but it is, it is interesting, man. And it's, it's unfortunately amusing to a certain extent, but you know, it is,

it is very dark because these are human lives and you don't want to make light of that. But at the same time, it's like, come on, man. Like if, like, if you, if you never, if you've never seen some shit like this before, don't put yourself in that position and like, don't, don't endanger other people that are having to fight for their own country. Do you know what I mean? Um, well, I have seen a lot of reports of mainly British and American.

And this is just because I'm not dialed into like French or German telegram channels, but American and British volunteers are going over our combat vets from the war on terror. They're like, I don't have nothing going on. And so they're showing up in act. They're doing, they're doing good things. I'm sure you've seen the videos, but it's maybe it's those, would you call them internet nerds just showing up?

Yeah, we have no great depression and we have no great war. We have to go find our own because it's a spiritual war. So they're going to go out and be cool for, you know, hinge or something. But yeah, and that's, you know, and I, I understand that man. I mean, I, I, I do, I do see, I do see that if I think that to a certain extent, you know, I've always, I've always thought this and I kind of, I kind of learned this because of, because of my childhood and where I grew up, that I think that people, um, generally not, not, not, it sounds

kind of weird to say, but I think that to a certain extent, people do not necessarily crave, crave, um, you know, uh, difficulties or, or, uh, certain issues in their life, but there's something, there's something to be, to be said about when, when somebody's able to have a, a, a, uh, be in a fight that seems very black and white, where it's like, I'm the good guy and I have my, my, my partners here and, you know, we are fighting a just war. Um, and there's a conflict like that. Like, you know, you don't, you know, it's, it's, this is like the past, you

know, since the second world war, um, well, I, you know, okay, now there are some exceptions for example, like, you know, Korea and Vietnam and the draft was still a thing in the United States, but for the most part, you know, people who live in the West, you never see conflict. You don't really see, um, you don't really see combat or anything like that. And, you know, that's, that's, if you think about it, that's pretty rare in, in human history. Um, you know, generally it was, uh, it was a part of your life at some point.

Um, there wasn't some long piece. And, you know, the question is, is like, in some dark way, is that, is that somehow attached to the, the, the natural human experience of like, you know, it kind of allows you to feel completed, to have people next to you that you could count on in the life or death situation. And I think that that's, that's honestly a reason why a lot of, um, combat vets, um, feel detached from society when they, when they return. I mean, and look, I, I can, I'm not, I'm not a combat veteran or anything like

that, but like, you know, I, uh, for those listening, they don't know. I, I grew up as a kid in Northern Iraq and Kurdistan. Mom, my parents were relief workers during the Iraq war. They do humanitarian aid. So I was in Iraq for 2003, 2013. And I do know that I grew up in the Kurdistan region. So it was a lot more peaceful than what was going on in the, in the South and central of the country, but nonetheless, you know, I did see some things and, you

know, there, and there was some real camaraderie between, uh, the humanitarian workers, you know, they're like, we have a common goal here and to a certain extent it's life or death and that really brings us closer together. And what I'm trying to say is that you don't, you never really have that in the West anymore. You don't really, you don't really, you're never in a situation where you have to rely on somebody to such an extent like that. I don't know if that makes any sense, but yeah.

Yeah. You were definitely typing or touching, uh, you know, psychological issues. So yeah, it's like just the West, it's the West for sure is always maybe been working, they've been doing their own thing, but it's since essentially World War II, it's not really a lot has gone on. And so you're a little off top, but I'm sure you've seen those, you know, mighty masculine Western ideal pages showing up. They're like, yeah, we got to get back to eating elk meat and a bow hunting.

So it's, oh my gosh, man, like edit with like little dark age in the back. Oh yeah. That's how you want to war the best little dark. Oh, that's a good ass. I'm going to be honest. Yeah. I think, I think that that's a thing. I think you can also look at it as it seemed like around 2010.

A lot of people in the West out of nowhere went, yeah, I really like Russia, you know, might as rights and because they're running around doing whatever they want and they don't have anyone else to tell them no. So it's, I think that's also why we've seen a lot of like sympathizers for the Russian cause of like, yeah, these guys are, they're being met back when men were met. I remember that saying. So it's, yeah, interesting.

But I think it is just a lot of people wanting to do something and feeling more accomplished than working at Harris teeter, you know, is can you imagine going on a first date and you're like, yeah, man, I work at Harris teeter and that's it. Like, yeah, I went to school and I graduated and I have a dog and, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm unique. I'm like, no, I went to Ukraine and I fought a war. Like I'm very unique.

So yeah, the search for adventure. Yeah, I think that's a big thing. And because, I mean, life in the West, it's, it's, it could be very monotonous. It's not, there's nothing really in that. That's the weird thing is that, you know, objectively, we live in a society that's, that should be, in theory, the most enjoyable to live in. But we have some, we have a lot of mental health issues in Western society. And of course you could blame social media for that, for being like a big,

a big player in them. But I think that something else is that, you know, people don't look at their lives as being something as a, as like a romantic or worthwhile thing of engaging in, it's, it's not, it's very monotonous. It's very, you know, day in, day out type deal. And, you know, I think that's because to a certain extent, you, you, societies become so predictable in the West to where you're not able to have any type of, you can have obviously a spontaneity, but like, you know, it's not a constant

thing going throughout day to day where it's like, you know, you know, what your life's going to look like in the next year for the most part. This could feed directly into what you were saying earlier with Tim Dillon of, yeah, people idolize celebrities because, and if celebrities are very much anti Russia right now, because it's the new fad, I think a lot of people are going to be anti Russia. So, yeah, yeah. And it is interesting how during the first week of this conflict, it seemed

like there was just full unity. Like there ain't one, there wasn't one person that you could find that would be like, Hey, I mean, obviously you could. Like for the most part, you would, everybody was just like, yeah, you know, yeah, I do stand with Ukraine. Like Russia's, they're, they're just the Rina bully and all that stuff. And like, you know, Ukraine's a little band and everybody loves the underdog story and look how they're fighting for their land and their sovereignty and

all that. But like now it's like, I guess it's because like you said earlier, it's not in the zeitgeist anymore. You're seeing people take different states is on this whole thing. And people are not, you know, politicians are out here, you know, not going with the whole, you know, pro-Ukraine narrative completely anymore. And, and I try and keep my ear to the, to the conspiracy side of American society, just to see what they're saying.

I keep tranking my ear to like pretty much all, you know, political groups. Yeah, there's not necessarily just them. But man, they're, they're saying some crazy shit, bro. Like, like, I was listening to the Alex Jones podcast the other day, just whatever he does, like, because don't get it wrong. It's so funny stuff to listen to sometimes. It's just like, you know, it's pretty funny. But anyway, oh, he was going on, man, about he, I mean, he was saying some

stuff like that, that was just real out there, man. And I was just like, this is blowing me away. I can't, like, I would have thought that, like, especially if anybody was going to be pro-Ukraine, it would have been, you know, the conspiracy side of, you know, American society. But like, you know, I guess it's the, it's the, it's like the, generally the QAnon group, like those types of people that are the ones that are saying things like, Oh, the, the war on Ukraine is actually not even real.

It's all just staged. Like, can you even prove it's actually going on? Or it's like, you know, you don't even know, man. They're like, you know, they're bio weapon labs and stuff like that. And like, yeah, I think there, I think that is confirmed. There are actual bio labs in Ukraine that are funded by the U.S. But, you know, the real question is, like, are they, are they producing like biological weapons necessarily, you know?

But you could look at it like, if most people get their information from mainstream media, where you have your Uber conservative guys who are anti-globalists, who are like, yeah, Russia's sticking it to the man. They're going against the globalists. And so there might sympathize with the Russians. And then you have your hardcore leftists who are like, yeah, dog, I hate the West, anything West is bad. I support the Russians because they don't like the West.

So it's really hard to find a middle ground of like, I see where the Russians are coming from, but it's fucked up. So it's. Yeah. Yeah. And that's another thing is that, you know, there, there is, there is, to a certain extent, some justification for, not justification, but you can see where the Russians are coming from with a whole

native expansion thing. I mean, if you think about it, when, when the Soviet Union collapsed, you know, Gorbachev, Societies Germany to allow it to be unified again. And, you know, the deal was, all right, well, we're going to do this. And, you know, the USSR is done for, you know, everybody's going to get their independence, all these states, but, you know, NATO don't come walking our way, you know, like, you know, you stay over there. And, you know, over time, it's just been like a slow roll towards Russia.

And which I personally think was, was a mistake. I think that. And I'm not saying that this war is, is the West fault, is the fault of the West completely, not saying it at all. But, you know, I think that, that those countries in Ukraine in particular should have been left as this kind of no man's neutral zone in between the West and Russia and just to kind of keep the peace type of deal. Yeah, but it comes down to the individual state.

Like, what do they want? If they want to join the West, they see East Germany rapidly modernized in 10 years. I think a lot of those smaller Baltic states or Eastern European states that just got out of that Eastern block are like, yeah, that, that's good. We need some of that. We need to build any buildings, more than five stories, because we want elevators. Like it's, yeah, that's true. That is true.

Yeah. And it just helps reinforce why NATO is a thing. And this war definitely did because if Afghanistan showed how weak it could be, this is definitely shown how strong it could be because it's like, oh, we're here because of the Russians. So it's, you know, it's secured their job for the next 50 years. So. Yeah, you're right.

If you think about it, bro, NATO was a was a joke before this. Like, was it even around? Like, we'll take like, bro, think about like, but think about like, dude, Germany wasn't, you know, Germany, we, we footed the bill for their, the United States footed the bill for their, for, for everything militarily for them for like ever. And now, bro, it's like 1934 over there, bro. They cranking out everything, which is, is, is crazy, man. Like that, like the, the unity that this conflict, that's, that's something

that's really interesting is the unity that this conflict has brought to NATO is definitely remarkable, I would say. Yeah, definitely. Cause it's hard power. It's not soft power where the West is very much a soft power fan of, Hey man, I don't see, we just got a McDonald's in Hanoi. Like it's, it's been 50 years, but there's McDonald's in St. Petersburg, there's McDonald's in Moscow.

They're like, yeah, let's just win the people's hearts and minds. And then the government will fall suit because in a generation or two, those people that enjoyed Big Macs are now in, in the country, they're running. So it's that soft power mindset. And it's like, it, yeah, just no war for a while. Maybe you could look at it however you want, but it's like passivity, breeds and complacency. Yeah, yeah, it's like, yeah, we're NATO who's going to stop us.

But it's, yeah, they've definitely beefed up where before it was, it seems like it was always just NATO, but it was just parentheses, United States, United Kingdom, Canada. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yes, the McDonald's and Big Macs, McDonald's is the real US embassy in countries, bro. That was 100%. You see all those videos of those Russians for reeking out because they

didn't get Big Macs or like, end this war. I want to eat my McNuggs, bro. I mean, I can't believe that's the future of how it works. There was like, yeah, all we have to do is just, well, I mean, the east does that too. They're like, let's just tap into the American education system. We'll win them that way. Americans are like, I'll just sell them fast food because it's exportation of cultures are biggest export.

I remember when I was in Bulgaria, sorry, I was in Romania. This was before COVID. And we were in this small town, when you get to Eastern Europe and you see like, and you get into the real sticks out there and you see like those former Soviet apartment buildings and everything. It's like, whoa, like that, that's crazy. You know what I mean? You never really, you always saw kind of videos, you know, yeah, you know,

the east, like, you know, the iron curtain, everything passed. That was real depressing. But like, you get over there. It really is still like that to this day in certain places. We were in this, we were in this town called Deva in Romania. And I remember there was only one hotel and it was like mad expensive. And I was backpacking. I was like, no, I'm not going to pay that.

I just was trying to be in Deva for a day. And so we literally just chilled at the McDonald's for like the majority of our time there. And it was so interesting because they didn't, they had a Big Mac. Yeah. But they had other, all the other burgers were named after American cities. They had like the Chicago and the Detroit. And I was like, this is so odd, man.

I mean, I don't even remember. I want to say like the, like the, the Detroit was like a quarter pound of cheese or something. I don't know. I mean, it's like you export McDonald's and you're like, it's ours, but let's make it yours too. Hey, Italy, you're going to get your own spaghetti. At McDonald's and then Japan has pizza or sushi or whatever.

So it's like, yeah, you still have the Big Mac and you're not getting rid of it, but you can have your own. So it's, that's a whole other conversation. But yeah, it's really interesting to see the different mindsets working. But yeah, it's back to hard power of like, oh yeah, we need to have a strong military to stop the Russians to justify why we're in this military alliance. So I agree. Um, and here's the sad thing, you know, going back to the, to the, to the, to

the conflict itself is that I see right now, and this is my opinion. I think that the likely outcome is that, I mean, even because Russia wasn't able to take Ukraine rapidly, it is, it is, it has increased the, the fighting spirit of the average Ukrainian in my opinion. And this is like, you know, we get, we got a shot here. We get, we can really do this. So even if, let's say Russia takes Kiev, even if they installed public government and, and mostly big cities are taken and all that good stuff right

now, this, this conflict is going to still dissolve into a guerrilla war. Like it's going to be, because I don't see the, the Ukrainians stop in the fight. Don't see it. Um, I think it's, it's, it's, there's going to have to be, there would have to be like a withdrawal. I mean, maybe, yeah, uh, Russia can keep, you know, some of the separate to states, but like, you know, they're, I don't think they're going to let up and which is really unfortunate because I mean, if that's the case,

then it would be very likely that, that Ukraine is going to become like a European version of Syria, um, which is really sad, really sad. That's interesting. Yeah, it's, I don't know. It's, we've already seen footage and heard reports of Ukrainian special operations forces or just individuals in the countryside, blowing up tanks or driving around in cars, whipping Molotov cocktails at BTRs or BRDMs and just doing their thing because they're like, yeah, I'm doing my part.

I'm just going to go burn out this tank. You know, you got that funny report of that babushka throwing up pickle jar at a drone and destroying it. So it's why I haven't heard this one. Yeah, it was in, it was in Kiev. Supposedly this is, you know, this is rumored, but yeah, it was in Kiev and this old Ukrainian woman was like, I've had enough and like walked outside with a pickle jar or cucumber jar and just whipped it at a drone

and took it out and she's like, yeah. And then there was another one. I want to say it was in, uh, Harkov where this, this Russian BTR was just sitting on the side of the road. And supposedly there was like 16 guys in it and she walked up with a Molotov cocktail and just threw it at it and the whole thing lit up just like, whoa, it was insane. And it was like, yeah, if this, this 87 year old woman who remembers

the Soviet Union is doing this, I don't think the Ukrainians are going to quit anytime soon. And Zelensky is a folk legend now. You could say whatever you want about him a month and a half ago, but right now that guy is, he's a hero for the Russian or the Ukrainians. You know, you made it in terms of an international icon. If the president of France is copying your drip, bro. If, if Macron is out here trying to copy your look, bro, then you know.

Oh, he's just looking to get reelected. Come on. That's the feet Marine Le Pen again. That's fair. Hey, but seriously though, um, another thing I want to mention. It, I think, I think Russia in terms of strategy and I kind of touched on this briefly at the beginning, they're going, it seems like they're going to start taking more of a scorched earth policy towards the war.

Um, and it's going to make the, the human, the, the toll of the civilian casualties so high that it's going to be horrific. Man, I mean, I think that in terms of the zeitgeist and the average person talking about this conflict, if the Russians successfully surround Kiev and they, and they, whenever they do, if they, if they end up doing it, um, initiate a full assault, like when that really kicks off, that's going to be, that's going to be something that's going to be really bad, man. Am I being, um, it's good.

Cause if, if the Russians do what they did to Grozny during the Chechen wars, which they seem to be, you see glimmers of it in Mario pool and car, Keith, um, it's going to be, it's going to be really horrific and it's, it's going to be really sad, man. Yeah, it's true. It's, you know, your Russia could say they've blessed off these humanitarian corridors all day, but I talked to, uh, Kyrsten info a lot. I've had three or four or five interviews with them and I don't know

who they are, but they are in Kyrsten itself and they're always feeding me footage and they're always saying like, Oh yeah, we haven't received anything in two weeks. Like the Russians keep saying that, yeah, we are helping the Ukrainian people, but they just pump in their own ethnic Russians from Crimea or wherever in Russia, they put them in Kyrsten. They're like, yeah, they're handing out, you know, humanitarian supplies and bandages and the locals are turning in their weapons to

make sure the city's safe. And they're like, no, this, these are all Russians. These are the narratives completely false. So yeah, yeah, absolutely right. Yeah. The civilian toll, which is who are always caught in the middle of any war are just the numbers are going to keep soaring. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. Now, let me, let me ask you, um, do you, what do you, what do you make of this internal purge that's going on in Russia? Yeah. Um, do you. It seems that, you know, it seems that Putin is attempting to get ahead of some attempted coup, not saying that it's likely, but, you know, he's, you know, obviously trying to keep everything airtight over there and make

sure that he's always the big guy, which is, which he's done very successfully for the, since he's been in power. Um, but, you know, I think that that, that's something that I thought about is that, you know, what are the chances that there is some, uh, there is some coup from the leadership. Um, and they had, we let's just use Turkey's president Erdogan as an example where there was a supposed coup inside Turkey and he just rounded up all the suspected sympathizers who were essentially just people who were vocal

over his administration and sent them to jail. And so if you have 150 members of the Russian government coming out day one saying we don't like this war, you have 150 political prisoners that are going to be a jail soon. So if they're the ones who have any remote sense of power in Russia and if Putin's like, yeah, let's just get rid of them. Like he's already arresting some of the FSB guys. Why can't he do it?

And who are the chief of police? Like that, that's your stasi. That's your number one guys. What's stopping him from just going after political individuals who he put in power in the nineties. So, yeah, and that's another thing. It's like, you know, talking about him, his, his, his, his seeming like Putin's like how he, he couldn't, he couldn't see what was going to happen.

Have you made you great? It's just so, it's just so odd when you think about it, because this is a guy like he, yeah, he's the president and all into this supposedly democratic, whatever. But he came up in that system. He came up during the Cold War. He was in the KGB. He knows the game. You know what I mean?

Like this is not, he's not like somebody that got elected into the government and he has to then learn how to navigate the intelligence side of the government. Now, he understands it fully. And if he understood that, and especially knowing how much corruption there was in the nineties in Russia, I don't, I just don't see. I mean, I can see, but it's just, it's mind boggling to think that he didn't, he didn't have a total, he didn't have his, he didn't have a finger on the pulse of what was really going on in terms of his military.

Like if the Russian, if those in like, you know, in like middle admin positions in the military were, you know, constantly skimming off, you know, the budget to like go and like, I don't know, go to the club and like St. Petersburg or whatever, you know, whatever it was. If that's been happening for so long, and especially to the point where it's deteriorated the Russian military and their, their effectiveness and Putin didn't see that, that's, that's very, that's very interesting to me. I think that's very, it's kind of, it's very mind boggling.

It also has a lot of political power too. Remember a few years ago when he walked into parliament and said, I'm going to rewrite the Constitution. Can you guys leave for a little bit? And they were like, yeah, I'll be right back. So everyone just broke the recess for 24 hours. He rewrote the Constitution that presidential elections are now six years long instead of four and he can run indefinitely.

And they're like, all right, yeah, you guys can come back inside. And so the entirety of the government went, yeah, I can bless off on this. And so I don't know if you have ever read anything about his mentor from St. Petersburg, but Anatoly Subchak was the, his mentor in St. Petersburg when he left East Germany. And this guy, he wrote a book and it essentially says like, you want to run Russia after the Soviet Union collapses. This is how you do it.

And so it's like Putin took that and ran with it. And he was like, yeah, you just need to have the right friends and the KGB owns everything and you got to work with the Vordy and the mafia because they own everything inside Russia. They are the ones who seize all the assets of the Soviet Union collapse. Now they're the oligarchs today running around with, you know, 7.6 billion dollars because so it's, Putin has a lot of political weight. And I think if he comes out and is arresting his top guys and if that rumor

is true that he fired his number one general because the war was going so bad five or six days in, which I haven't heard anything else since. But yeah, it's like, what are you going to tell this guy? No, if the reports are true that 80 percent of the Russian population support this war, it could go either way, because I don't think he's an announced successor and there's nobody like Medvedev from 2008. He didn't really do a job. So, yeah, and that's another thing, man, is that that's the big question is

what happens when when Putin's gone, because he's held, he's held this country together for a long time and he's always been, he's always been the big man and he is, he's, and look, I'm, I'm, this isn't not trying to praise Putin because I'm not trying to do that at all. But if you really think about it, for a long time, he has done a lot of good things for Russia, I think. I think that, you know, for what he took over, you know, in the 90s and what he ended up doing in Russia, I think, I think he did a pretty good job.

And I think that a lot of Russians, you know, they grew up with him as having them always always been the leader, he's always been been the person to look up to, he's always held the country together. And, you know, that's the question is like whenever he's gone, however it happens, you know, whether it's old age or something else. What happens when he's gone? You know, like, is it, is it going to be total chaos? Is it going to be a lot of internal conflict and a power grab for multiple

different people who already have power? You know, it's just going to be very, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens when he's gone. It could go the way after Stalin left. And so he left and then the Soviet Union had their own little internal turmoil. And then who, who succeeded Stalin? Hold on, give me one second. Yeah, yeah, that's something interesting.

Because the next guy showed up one second. What was his name? Kid. No. Why can't I think of this? Khrushchev. Yeah, Khrushchev, the hero from Stalin grad, came up. He's like, yeah, nobody like Putin or nobody like Stalin.

And let's be honest. And then that really ruffled a lot of feathers with the deep state. But everyone's like, yeah, I can see that he really wasn't a good guy. And he had these things called purges that were not really nice. So maybe if maybe it could go that way of, but there, how many generals do you know that are publicized in the Russian army? Because it's Americans. Everyone's like, yeah, I don't general McChrystal.

You know, I'm, I know Mad Dog Mattis, but I don't know of any Russian officers outside of Durazma, who could be even considered a worthy successor. So yeah, that is, that is true. That is true. And it is, you know, it is also odd. I think that, well, actually, I don't think it's odd. I would say that I would say it would make sense if Putin has behind closed doors, made it known who he would want to take the reins whenever he's gone.

I would think that would make a lot of sense, actually. Just, you know, he doesn't, obviously, it's not been made public yet. But it's a, it will be, it will be quite the thing whenever he does, not whenever he moves on. And, you know, yeah, it's a, that's, I think that's the big question for a lot of Russians as well, because, you know, they, they don't want any, any instability in their country. I mean, a lot of them remember what happened in the nineties in the, in the

Soviet Union and how crazy it was and the uncertainty. It's just like how it is in Ukraine. You'll just get propped up by one of the mafia families and they're like, yeah, we need someone we can control. Putin was a little on Orthodox. So I just want to say that this is already the longest podcast I've had so far. And I genuinely had a good time. It's more laid back, not so much question and answer, but conversation

known as nice. I'm glad, I'm glad you had a good time. I did too. This is, uh, this has been, it's been a lot of fun. Um, I hope those listening ended up enjoying our conversation. Um, yeah, we'll have to do it again sometime, man. Seriously. Yeah.

Um, I'll hit you up once this is over and then we can plan a follow up. So maybe like a regular thing, but there's definitely some topics I want to address here soon and then essentially build out the crotone report because it grew legs, so I have to keep building. So yeah, man, you got, you got, I was, I was looking at that. I mean, how long has your page been around since it's, I started in July, but I really didn't get serious until mid to late October. Oh, okay.

Well, very impressive, man. You definitely, you've definitely done a lot of good work and you know, you've grown, I mean, in the, in your, your audience is definitely a reflection of the quality of your work, man. Seriously, props to you. No, thanks so much. And I'm really glad to see that your second page is doing better than your first and even though about the same amount of time too, and I'm sure that,

that Atlas sponsor is 100% helping. So yeah, I, I think it is, um, I, for some reason, I do think that, that my name, uh, for the reason probably turned some people off. I thought it would be kind of like a cool neutral name where like, you know, certain people would see it and they're like, Oh, even though left like, yeah, you know, the filthy American, you know, that's, that's kind of, that's kind of interesting because, you know, Americans, you know, are really, are kind of despised sometimes in the global society.

And then people on the right would be like, Oh yeah, a filth American like that or something like that. But I don't know, I think, huh? Yeah. I have immediate, I mean, for sure, for sure. I just get a lot of people asking me if I'm Croatian. I'm like, no, I wasn't going to ask that. Yeah.

That's not Croatian. It's a, so Croat's own, like a little history lesson, I guess, was from the lost colony at Jamestown in when the English, the English first settlement in the new world was propped up in the North Carolina coast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Rolta Raleigh went away for a little bit and he came back after like a year

and went, hold on, where the hell is my, where's my colony? And so there was only one indication of anything that happened. And it was a single word carved into a tree that said, Croat Owen. So in my idea, it's the, the meeting point between new world and old world, which is like mainstream media and the little guys like us, or it can mean everything and nothing at the same time. It's, it's ambiguous, which is on one hand I could look at and go, yeah, I can talk about whatever I want because I could say I'm information and that

could range from, you know, how to get a 405 squad to what it is Putin thinking. So it's, yeah. Yeah. That's, that's really, I didn't realize that man, but that's a, that's pretty pretty, a pretty clever name. I like that. Yeah. There's not a lot of pages running around with that name.

And I thought it's like, I need something original and like, like, yeah, I know exactly who this is with some context and history behind it. So I thought it was cool. But all right, I am going to let you go. It has been a pleasure having you. And yeah, it was a great being here. I hope you enjoy this one. Would you mind if I plug my, my page real quick?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So if anybody's interested in following what I, my work and my everything that I'm doing right now, Instagram, Instagram account, it's, you have to type it in exactly because I am shadowban currently. It's the filthy American 2.0 is all one word. And then I am posting longer or I'm publishing actually longer form articles on the Atlas news app website.

So if you guys are inclined to check that out, it'd be really cool. He also has a podcast with our worst today called militant muck rickers, which is, which is a pretty good listen. If, if you have some time, I enjoyed it myself. Yep. Yep. I'm also over there. Hey, listen, it's been a real, it's been a good time.

And I was like, this is a great conversation. We really got into a lot of things and I appreciate you having me on seriously. Absolutely. Thanks for coming out. You take it easy. Yep. Cheers. Cheers.