Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. You can go to Lovie in Japan, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to Lovie in Germany, or Turkey, or France, but you cannot become a German, or Turk, or French. But anyone from any corner of the Earth can come to Lovie America and become an American. We'll come back to a nation of immigrants. A bi-weekly talk show program featuring the life of immigrants, diversity, and inclusion. Every episode, we invite renowned immigrants come to the show to share their life stories, their immigration adventures, and their reflection on cultural diversity. Today, we are very honored to have a professor, Jiang Fang, from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, to be with us. Welcome, Professor Fang. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Wang. Thank you very much for the invitation. We are extremely honored to have you here, because you are my favorite historian. You received your PhD in history from the State University of New York. Yeah, at Buffalo, yes. At Buffalo.  And you specialize in legal history in China. Yes. And because I'm like pure coincidence, I'm also legally trained. I'm extremely interested in your research and your work. And you have pretty active in the academic community.  And you are the former president of Chinese historians in the United States. We are very honored to have you here. And my fourth question is, I remember you told me you came to the United States in the year of 2000. That's the same year I came to this country. And could you share with us your immigration adventure? How did you come to the United States as a student, as a researcher in the year of 2000, please? OK, thank you, NMS 21, for this invitation again, for this chance to talk to you, to be a program. I came to the United States in 2000 and as a doctoral student because of that. But the dream to come to study in the United States has been a long and a dream for me. I think that most of the students in the 1980s and also cherished the dream to come to the United States. As the United States is the most powerful country in all still years. So I went to the University of Buffalo. The biggest reason is that I got the full scholarship of five years in the scholarship from the university. That's pretty cool, yeah. My handful of university I applied because application fees are quite expensive at that time. So I chose only the cheapest university to apply. So UB, that's the acronym of the University of Buffalo. And they gave me the full scholarship and they are very impressed by my experience as a worker and a businessman and also a journalist. That's why I went there. But at first I applied for the University of Buffalo to study in American history because my master degree in China is also in American diplomatic history. And I'm a specialist on Woodrow Wilson and 20th president of America, yeah. And he's a foreign policy toward China, Mexico and other, and a wood one. So that's his, but after I came to arrive at the University of Buffalo, my dissertation advisor, in the field of professor Roger DeForge, he's a main specialist. And he encouraged me to change my, like a major in a field and to Chinese legal history. That's why I moved shift to my major. And I tend to love that, that's major. And a new direction, that's Chinese legal history. Then because of my, I published an article in 2002, just two years after I arrived and then I published several books on that topic. So that's his, I came, then I after I graduated in 2006, I worked temporarily at the University in Southern Missouri. Then I came to UMD in 2008, then since then. Well, both a law and Duluth, we were pretty lucky to have you and we're very lucky to have you at UM faculty. And because your research is so interesting and not many, I think your advisor made the right decision and to suggest you to change your major from William Wilson to Chinese legal history because as far as I'm aware of, there are not many scholars or researchers in the West specialized in Chinese legal history. I can probably name less than 10. And I have, I collected some books about Chinese legal history in English language, but I think it's a highly specialized area. And what do you see is a very well-attablished discipline or it is still developing? Yeah, I think you're right. There were handful for a few of American scholars in Chinese legal history. That's when I was then stepping into the center field. And yeah, I don't want to, I don't have time to talk, name some of them, but the legal history of China, that's what remains a very popular field. And in the United States and also in China. And so the reason I like this field, probably because of a grant I got tonight. So because as a historian, I want like a doctor and a scholarship was not very higher compared to an engineer and all biochemistry and those students. So I didn't have any money in the summer. That's why my advisor and I and I applied a joint program, like a grant from the law school at the University of Buffalo. How do you see? So that's why, yeah, since the grant came from the law school, I had to do some research on Chinese law. So that's my first time to do some research on Chinese law. Then after I published my first article, I found that, well, this field that just as you said before, that's very few scholars have done this field. So then I decided to write my dissertation on Chinese and petition assistant. That's a show like in Chinese. Yes. Yeah. So that's my first book kind of published in 2013. I spent almost 10 years on that book. Well, that's the beginning of my research on Chinese law. Well, it's a fascinating, the petition system is very hard to explain that to a Western audience, it's a part of the current administrative system and have a unique characteristic and have a long historical background. Anyway, because we are in the discussion of the legal history in China, and I have to quote some of my favorite historians, like Professor John King-Fearbank and Jeremy Cohen at NOIU, and you summary all the schooled Chinese studies experts in the United States have this impression and they put them in writing, which says Chinese legal history is penal and administrative in nature and developed very little civil and commercial law. Would you agree? Yeah, I think that says that's the argument first made by, oh, I forgot the, yeah, that's at Cambridge and that's a historian at Cambridge. Yeah, I forgot his name and I see that. But in his book, that's the Cambridge history on Chinese and science. I think that's the book is, oh, Niden, yeah. Yeah, Niden, yeah, he argued that the Chinese law is a kind of a penal law just includes a punishment. Then he saw, since then his argument has been criticized by legal historians such as Phillip Paul and also another one is William Harvard and Harvard. So they argued that Chinese law in history, in the dynasty also contained civil law, right? It was not just a penal law. So they gave some examples and well argued and well resourced argument on that. So I was influenced pretty much by those and argument. But my field are a little bit different from them but mostly my research, for example, like Chinese petition system and also Chinese law and power, right? That's also an intertwined with their arguments. There's a sheer lots of arguments. I cite a lot from the arguments also. I met some of them and I totally agree with them and that's the Chinese legal history is fascinating and it's not as simple as some historians like Joseph Niden have argued, right? Thank you so much. It's that's quite informational and educational. Let's change our gear a little bit and I understand you are leading a new research program Chinese in Minnesota. And we have about, I think the latest number I have is about 45,000 Chinese residents in the state of Minnesota. And that's quite a grow is we become, we're not getting the critical math yet but the way we are keep growing. And so please tell us about your project. Why you want to do a research project on Chinese in Minnesota? Yeah, thank you for the question. I think it came to my attention and of this project goes back to probably 2017 when you would first and right edit off the Chinese historical record of Chinese Americans. Then I became the second editor in chief of that kind of a journal. I don't want to see that journal what's an online collection. Then I after editing and doesn't solve articles on Chinese Americans, I want to write a book on Chinese Minnesotans and because I read it a book kind of published before probably in the 1990s, early 1990s and Chinese and Minnesotans but that book kind of is compared to today's and I was thinking that is outdated because it's covered suddenly and Chinese Minnesotans from the early 1900s to the late 1980s. And most of those Chinese came to America before 1990 as you know and many other people know and they came mostly from Taiwan, Hong Kong and some other Chinese and speaking regions like in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. So but after 1978 to China opened its door to the West again then that's more and more and Chinese from mainland China like us, right? Came here and started first to study and then we stayed to settle our family here and raise our children here and work here, right? And make Minnesota as our home. So how about those Chinese and they are more in the Chinese I think probably among the 45,000 Chinese and Minnesotans maybe a majority of them are people like us. So who is going to write dear history about dear and stories of study and working and settled down like a family raising and in Minnesota. So that says I proposed that kind of book project on Chinese Minnesotans, right? And then I'm still applying for a grant from Minnesota and a historical society but yeah, they are still at the project they're still in the review. So after the grant is approved then I will start tonight. It will be approved. If I were the historical society I would definitely prove it. It's such a heartwarming and also significant to hear you to say that to record our own history in the state of Minnesota. Minnesota is getting well-known for some not just two good reasons but the people in Minnesota and particularly the first, second generation Chinese either from the mainland or elsewhere and we have become the part of this cultural landscape in the state of Minnesota. I very much look forward to working with you and very much look forward to radio research paper. And please definitely include yourself in this book because you are one of the very pioneers to teach and research history in the state of Minnesota and that's definitely worth noting. I personally am a big fan of history. When I was a kid, a teenager I really, really wanted to become a historian but I'm just do not have the intellectual capacity and the perseverance to do that. But anyway, I still very much enjoy reading history and either funk fiction or non-fiction but I do have a quick question for you. If the time travel permits and you can travel back to one of the old Asian the dynasties in Chinese history which dynasty would you like to travel to and be settled there? Not coming back, not coming back. You have to become a resident of that dynasty, which one? I think that will be a tragedy for me because I know, I know. Very many of the dynasties. How positive are you? Yeah, I think that as far as my research tells me that is that in my first book and I cover in about 2000 years of Chinese petition system from as early as the Zhou dynasty and until today, China today. So that is a, but after I finished that book, my heart tends to be in a very cold and my mood is tend to be very pessimistic because for about 2000 years seems like those are petitioners, right? Shan Fang, right? Fang Ming was whatever and people call them in different dynasties. Different stories, almost the same, you see. Yeah, if you go back to the early Han dynasty you can find those petitioners a new down and to the emperor and all if you go back to 2010 or even today and some petitioners still in a new down to the officials and so in that regard I think kind of just in the history and all for those petitioners and also the political system in China about not much changed. So if you want me to go back and travel back and to some of the dynasties, yeah, for me if I have a choice, I will not go there. You will not go, yeah, I understand. That's a super, you know, a smart answer and I totally agree the implications. There was a couple of historians Professor Jin Guantao and Liu Qingfeng and they published, they concluded the Chinese history is a super stable system and so I close what you just said is for a thousand years history it repeats itself, very little change but now let's take a broader view and not only Chinese history but the world history as well. Three of my favorite quotes about history I'm going to share with you, I share with you with you early and I want to hear your comments on these quotations on history. The first one is from Benedetto Croci Italian-Hittorian and he said all history is contemporary history. The second one is from George Orwell, the British novelist and he said who controls the past, controls the future, who controls the present, controls the past. Those two quotes are about narrative and postmodernism, history is a narrative and it can be changed and it can be rewritten but the last quote, my favorite quote is from contemporary, a very pessimistic and a fortunate thing, he said those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it yet those who do study history like you Professor Fong are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it. So I eager to hear your comments on these general comments and the general generalizations of history. Well, that's what I think those comments are genius, genius comments and I think people who have not known too much about history will not make those comments, those people I can see. That's a, yeah, I like all the comments and I totally agree with them and I could take the question like those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it, that's true, you see. I think as early in the town dynasty and the town Taizong, the second emperor of the town dynasty, he just make a metaphor making a history as a mirror, right? Yeah, three mirrors and a history is one mirror because in studying history, we allow a person to understand and know better about the fall and the rise of a dynasty, former dynasty. But also, his talk is very, his metaphor is very popular in China but those dynasties still have not been changed, right? Exactly, exactly. The reason I think is they're seeing like a conscientious historians, probably maybe I'm one of them and I hope I'm one of them. You are. Chances, right? Historians, we understand the problem of history but we got no power. Those politicians were rulers. They have the power. Probably they don't have much interest in history or those politicians were rulers that they do have interest in history like the mother don't, for example, right? He's very good. He like reading history and like Suma Guang and Sizi Dongjian. He read many times but tend to forget history. Well, disregard those lessons that's in history. Well, when they are facing the real and practical and practical decisions or problems, that's why history will repeat itself. And that's right. We cannot repeat. History repeats itself and we learn from history that we do not learn from history. Well, we don't want to add our interview with a pessimistic note but I'd like to get to the lighter topics. And when was your last time in China? How long you have been away from it? Yeah, like many other Chinese, right? Last time I went back is 2019. And with my family, we visited the tomb of my late grandfather who died just in 2018. So we went to there. Yeah, that's his one. Yeah, since then, that's because of the pandemic. We have not been able to go back but once China is open to other countries again, I probably will go back and to see my mother at least. Oh, so you're having to see your mom? Yeah, yeah, three and almost four years. I'm so sorry. Just imagine where there are millions of Chinese living outside of the mainland and because of the pandemic policy in the past few years, you know, most of the people have never had a chance to see their loved ones, their family and their friends. And some of them even didn't have a chance to see them for the last time. And their family member pathway, it's just such a tragedy. And so we wanted to go to change it to a lighter topic but obviously we're getting even more heavy topic. Let's do have a lighter topic that we normally conclude our interview with two general questions. The question one is if you were giving some advice to a younger you in your early twenties, so what would you say? If you are able to meet a 21-year-old Qiang Fang, what would you say to yourself? Wow, that's a really nice and a question. Those are young people in India, 20s just like my students, right? My students. Exactly, generation Z, Z. Yeah, yeah, I think the best advice that I give to them is to study harder and stick to one discipline as much as they can. They don't need to like me, right? Because I have changed my major five times. Well, they might learn from you because you are interdisciplinary and probably the reason you have such accomplishment as a scholar, because you've changed your discipline a couple of times. I know, for some people, but those in a traumatic life see that as only myself and I can witness and also experience for myself. That's why when I was in graduate school in China, another fellow student, a graduate student, asked, told me that, wow, you have lots of rich, very rich experience. I would be like you. But I told him, if we just change, right? Change it to each other, then probably you will never live in my life. It's not a copy book. It's one person's career path. Life stories cannot be duplicated in any way. Everybody is unique. And final question, and any books, particularly history books and all history movies, you'll enjoy and you would recommend it to our audience. Yeah, for the history book, and I think that the best book I would like to read and again and again and also would like to recommend is Stephen Suma-Guansen's, because comprehensive and mirror in state and government governance. That's the book and I have read several times and I still love that when I have time. I want to read it. The biggest reason or the biggest merit or credit of that book is the pragmatism of that book. And that book is a tend to connect the past and to the present. So it's one to use the history as a mirror to tell or give the lesson to the present people. So I think that I'm still impressed and also I'm still influenced by that book even now in all my researches. I don't want to focus on writing a history book and a history project simply in the past. Somewhere in the past, but I want to look at, use a book to look into the future. Yeah, that's the kind of... Yeah, but definitely, definitely the most outstanding recommendation. It's a heavy lifting, though. It's very thick, very book and very heavy. It's funny audience, yeah. I would recommend, you know, Professor Jonathan Spence, Chinese history books, they are much more entertaining, but obviously they are not as serious as Sima Guang's Zidru Tongjian, but I appreciate your recommendation. Well, we're just about right out of time. I really appreciate your time, Professor Feng, to come to the show and learn a lot. And I would definitely go back to my bookshelf and just take one volume of Zidru Tongjian and to enjoy it. Again, Professor Feng, Professor Qiang Feng, Professor of History from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Thank you so much for your time, and I really appreciate that you have come to our show. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, lawyer Wang and a missed one for your invitation. I really like this program. I think that I wish the program will become more popular and more famous in the future. Thank you, Professor Feng. Aloha, see you next time. Yeah, see you. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


...evils of free market capitalism. Oi you!  Loads of money! This is a journey into money. Loads of money. He's low to money.  Loads of money, shall I act as I wave my wad? And the geese is in a gatter.  More money is stock, aching instead is warm and put together. Manchester United, nil. Loads of money, united. Loads. That's a part of the school there. Pump up the football, pump up the football. Sorry mate, don't take checks. Just load your money. Inequality, aristocracy. Those people has made me so to speak. Those people has made me so to speak. The state has made me so to speak. There is more to it than just this. So to speak, monarchy, private property. So to speak, inequality, aristocracy. So to speak, libertarians. Hello, I am here I promise. Alright, it's been a while since I've done a live stream hasn't it? I heard someone saying, ah you're back in chat earlier. Never officially left. Things have just been very busy and been rather distracted from making videos in case you hadn't noticed. Alright, so I'm going to get a few disclaimers out of the way before we do this. Everyone is giving their opinion and it's very painful. However, I want to let you know I'm self-aware.  Why should you care about my take on this? Yeah, you probably shouldn't. I do not take any of this to be authoritative or really very educated. I'm not a sort of an expert in this field even though that doesn't mean anything these days. So I don't want to be like a breadtuber here thinking that I'm an expert in everything. There's going to be so much more stuff that I'm yet to learn. However, I think there is a lot of stuff that I've thought which seems to be completely glossed over because people have fallen into one of two camps. The large one being, I want to say libertarians have inherited this from cathedral main street media talking points that Ukraine is some sort of fashion of freedom fighting against Adolf Putin and the new rise of Nazism. And a very, very much smaller side I've seen of I want to say dissident right but that's not fair like truly authoritarian bordering fascist right. Surprisingly a lot of Eastern Orthodox people as well supporting Putin and seeing this as him trying to rid Ukraine of degeneracy and restoring the West somehow.  If you don't know anything about that you are not qualified to give any sort of a hot take on what has been happening. So what I'm going to go ahead and do, well yesterday aww, we're off to a good start. I don't know if I've mentioned before but that so Ed Balls is a, I think he's a former UK politician yes that's his real name and there is an iconic tweet from like 2014 or something where Ed Balls just tweeted Ed Balls. I think the context was he was trying to search for his own name and ended up tweeting it. Just the man is a meme if the name doesn't tell you enough. So yesterday I was halfway through writing a script because I was going to make a video on this trying to give a nuanced take talking about the ethics of the war you probably saw, well I don't want to say probably if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen a thread I did basically saying that this war is a very messy one in all libertarian ethics we need to determine aggressors and rightful defenders this is not that easy to do and this might be shocking to hear if one you have personal biases and I'll get to that I think it's like I don't want to dismiss any personal biases here because they do actually weigh in and two if you've only heard the last two months of Western media narrative this might be a shocking thing for you to consider but that would be if again you don't know what any of this is all about so like I say I'm going to read from my script probably about I don't know how long it's actually going to take about 10 minutes normally when I do live streams as well just to be perfectly clear on that I normally keep an eye on the chat I've realised that distracts me more than it's actually worth and I always lose my train of thought which is as I am at the grand old age of 25 now that's something that my old ass brain struggles with so yeah I'm going to read from the script add some extra thoughts because this is literally I got done halfway through writing a script hadn't proof read it or anything I thought no this by the time I've edited this added in pictures recorded it done all the post processing and the sound the war might be over and everything I say can be completely redundant because a lot of what I've had to say is we won't know until this is over we won't have too much as clear of picture anywhere near as we would like so let me just get started imagine you're just watching a normal video of mine I'm sorry if you expected it to be a bit more exciting and dynamic it will be shortly like I said it's only half a script okay right this is how it starts Russia has invaded Ukraine and while some media outlets will tell you that this has come about after weeks of posturing and failed negotiation that is not true it has come about after years of it what we're going to hear is that this is a clearly one-sided conflict in which Russia just decided to slaughter the entire population of Ukraine for absolutely no reason and well oh well yeah okay I said I haven't proof read I've got a spelling mistake here and that's already caught me off and we will hear this because the western hegemony has a huge vested interest from high sunk costs into successfully bringing Ukraine into their sphere of influence what is completely missing from this take is the context of the entire eight years that have led up to this and how this is not a new war with clear bad guys and good guys it's one that's been occurring for nearly a decade and requires many considerations what we have to do here as libertarians is determine who is the aggressor in this conflict so we can know who the innocent party is defending themselves and we shouldn't be led to this conclusion by being dragged through propaganda of either side we should assess the situation clearly and unbiasedly looking only at the actors involved their motivations, their actions and their objectives and I just want to say here as well this is a addendum to the script if you think only Russia uses propaganda this is what I tweeted about earlier we're quickly realising how few people are able to determine propaganda in war time in war time, lay-alone peacetime it's not, we might like to think that we are immune to it as the meme goes but you're really not like the people who make propaganda know what they're doing, they know how to deceive you right when Russia secretly annexed Crimea from okay, I probably would have changed the word secretly it was quite open when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 it did so out of a claim that it was going there to protect the majority ethnically Russian population who did not want to remain part of Ukraine I believe it is a reasonable position that this was a sugarcoating and merely a convenient cover story for invading the peninsula with the primary reasons being the seizure of land and resources such as oil and natural gas which were already Russia's primary exports by a huge margin as well as the massive pre-existing port infrastructure into the Black Sea the case I really do confuse myself sometimes let me try again I spend so much time of my editing cutting out gas so I'm just going to go with it I'll no longer interrupt myself if I trip up on my tongue the case that Russia invaded out of aggression for the expropriation of resources is already very strong but then consider what the referendum options they gave the people of Crimea were remember I said the majority Russian population did not want to remain in Ukraine that means they would either want to be annexed into Russia or become their own independent state we cannot determine how many would have wanted independence as the only options they were given were to remain in Ukraine or be annexed in my mind this makes it clear that the invasion was one of aggression and expansion a very textbook example of a state fighting for resources in which libertarian ethics can give a clear and textbook analysis to determine that Russia was the aggressive party but what has happened in Ukraine since then has been very different after the annexation of Crimea other regions of Ukraine which were also majority ethnically Russian began to push for secession here is where we need to establish the fact that as libertarians we should support secessionist movements secession reduces the size and therefore power of states so it's always a good thing when a secessionist movement instead wants to add to an already large state such as the example of Scotland wanting to secede from the UK just to join the EU they in fact undermine the subjective and are not to be supported setterist parables for 80 years there have been secessionist movements in the region called Donbas including Donetsk and Luhansk the last one whose flag in particular is honestly hilarious now this is something I was going to show in the photo I saw a grey meme so if you haven't seen the flag of Luhansk it's a Confederate flag without the stars going through the blue cross I'm just going to describe a meme to you now that shows the production quality of these streams right but it was a jet of some sort I'm pretty sure it wasn't a MiG-29 it must have been something even older than that with Luhansk flags on it the caption was just holy shit Dukes of Luhansk yeah sorry now where was I? after that lovely little anecdote some people like to say that the Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics only want to join Russia but while this could be the case now due to the long fighting and unwillingness of Ukrainian government to grant them autonomy in 2015 they signed a joint declaration stating that if Ukraine agreed to decentralise and grant them greater autonomy they would relinquish all territory and reintegrate into Ukraine the word there which should catch your ear is decentralise an obvious political aim of libertarians these people are an extremely these people are an extremely important detail to understanding the recent invasion but instead they'll probably be memory hold as the western military industrial complex tries to paint the black and white picture of Russia bad in waging war against the people of these regions who yes were assisted in weaponry by Russia the government of Ukraine has been aggressing upon these people in order to suppress their right to independence Vladimir Putin has claimed that the invasion of Ukraine is partially for the purpose of ending this long and bloody conflict that the Ukrainian state has waged against the separatists and to grant them autonomy what matters greatly here is what exactly autonomy would mean for them if Russia is victorious if Russia plans to give them the Crimean version of autonomy meaning absorption into the state then just as in that case Russia is the aggressor if they instead put an end to the conflict and grant these states independence or at least a true chance of allowing them to choose it then what they will in fact be doing is ending the aggression of the Ukrainian state against them and so far that is their stated aim if you think I've sounded overly sympathetic to the Russians so far be assured I have no love for Putin due to the fact that I don't think it would be possible for me to trust him any less than I currently do as much as I hate the baggage that comes with the term gaslighting due to its over usage by leftists he and the Russian government have been full on gaslight mode for the last month calling everyone crazy for even thinking it possible that Russia would invade Ukraine then they did while Putin along with the Russian government and army high ups have claims that their mission is if not the liberation of Donbass at least stopping the war against them I have a very very hard time believing them but we can try to clear this up by assessing the incentives the same way I did before by looking at what they stood to gain from Crimea Crimea is famous for its economic capacity and while I admit I have no knowledge of the economy of eastern Ukraine and can't find clear analyses that alone tells me that the economic incentive is either non-existent or minuscule and so can't be chalked up as the primary reason for conflict and just using the liberation narrative as cover it's also highly unlikely that they're just doing it out of the good of their own heart and I think a possible incentive is actually very plausible and that would be to turn these majority ethnic Russian border regions into buffer zones to the west going back to the Soviet Union Russia has loved and security provided to them by having a wall of friendly countries between them and the western powers previously known as the Warsaw Pact but for over 10 years now the country which has fit that I've put 10 ish I should say a lot more than that for decades now the only country which has fit that bill has been Belarus which tried to break away from this status in a recent popular uprising which failed now it's other bordering European nations Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Ukraine are all either in NATO and the European Union or actively trying to join them Ukraine has not been a reliably neutral neighbour since the Euromaidan protests which came immediately before the Crimean annexation so in Russia's eyes it is directly exposed to NATO and EU interest in both its northern and southern ends of its European border due to this long-standing policy of buffer zones now hanging on by a thread it's my opinion that Russia has a greater incentive to create independent states on the border of Ukraine rather than subjugating Ukraine entirely or outright annexing those regions and my last sentence I've got here says however this is certainly far from being set in stone and I don't know how I've managed this but I must have tapped my keyboard in some way I've put a smiley face emoji in whoa now I've made a love heart I don't know how I'm doing this it must be the controls I use to change screen so further things I want to say another thing I should have clarified at the beginning war is bad I should hope because I'm not checking the comments I hope nobody's in there saying I'm trying to justify the war I'm trying to say it's not as easy as to say Russia is the aggressor Ukraine has been aggressing on people secessionists and separatists who like I said in 2015 did have the aim of decentralization due to collapse in the ceasefire agreement probably by both sides ever since then it's just been a total war utter utter war in eastern Ukraine so it's like this is not a new conflict in which like I've heard lots of politicians saying Russia has invaded unprovoked that's complete nonsense they shouldn't have invaded but also Ukraine shouldn't have been bombing the people in Donbas for so long who should be allowed to secede I don't think we can argue against that I thought I'd have more things pop into mind but I think I've covered much more in the script than I actually imagined so let's go over to the chat saying that's not the let's go to the hands of Crimea I think you're talking to each other in the chat oh wait it's much fucking hell it's not working lovely so Dover Russia's flag I thought the flag of your hands was Russian flag oh okay never mind I do remember when Dover Russia was more of a thing the only innocent people are the civilians yes first thing again another premise if you pray I encourage you to pray with me for people Russia and Ukraine entirely especially the Ukrainian civilians good time Dover Russia's super shattered $4.99 Do you think that this will open the doors for government to further crack down on citizens' rights to defend the country no I can't imagine why that would further crack down on it like we saw occupied Democrats on Twitter celebrating how 10,000 AKs were being given out to civilians in Kiev I'm always going to call it Kiev by the way this new spelling that everyone's using I understand it's probably correct spell KYIV I simply don't know how to pronounce that I'm going to keep it as Kiev anyway yes we've seen liberals jumping up and down celebrating the receipt to civilians of fully automatic military and grade assault rifles the cognitive dissonance is of course a non-existent for them but I don't see why this would lead governments to crack down on citizens' rights to defend their country in fact by even though they haven't realised it it's gotten liberals in support of the Second Amendment and individual autonomy East Ukraine is rich in natural resources some of them include rare earth metals I had heard that there were mining infrastructure in that area it was tough for me to get many details on it West Ukraine is the farmland that makes a lot of sense right because Ukraine was the bread basket of much of the Soviet Union that's why there were so many Kulaks there and they had to get rid of them so I want to know does anyone disagree with my analysis like am I do you believe it is true that you can say there is a clear regressor oh one thing let me go back to my Twitter thread actually because it's got a few more things that I was that I've missed out so far just scroll down a little bit right so what's going to make it it'll have to be very things are going to get much clearer for us in hindsight to know who is the aggressor like I was trying to get at is determined mostly on what are Russia's actual objectives here is their objective state expansion and conquest if so they're the aggressor is their objective to try and grant actual autonomy and independence to the republics in Donbas then it's not so clear what is clear is that this should never happen this war is still bad this is all still the result of states using power and aggressing on people for their own gain started with Russia aggressing against Crimea which led to separatist movements going up in the east of Ukraine which led to the Ukrainian government aggressing against them like I feel like this is just simply beating a dead horse but if I don't outright say it I'm going to be accused of all sorts of things so I just hope that you can understand where I'm coming from and what I said at the beginning about how personal bias I don't begrudge anyone for any positions of personal bias within this because it is simply so messy right now you have if you were Ukrainian holy shit you should fight for your country if you are in Donbas like Donetsk or Luhansk you want to be independent from Ukraine I could understand why you want to fight for that side of the war too this is what I mean by how it's so bad my take is that's an absolute load of bullshit and escape goat Jonathan Diaz super shattered $20 as far as propaganda is concerned this is basically one big video with democracy as the actress I can't believe people want to risk nuclear annihilation for this fetish okay so the bot there censored him but he said basically one big porn video with democracy as the porn actress and you're right like this is it's very much more of a damsel in distress story really but I mean you can't go wrong with that for the analysis to be honest so what cam said oh yeah so the escape goat that Russia is going into cleanse Ukraine of sexual degeneracy absolute nonsense Russia and Putin especially like this this is where I think postmodernist no not postmodernist sorry not going to give them any praise the Russians are correct doesn't mean that they're orally or even ethically right but what they are correct about is politics is about power it's not about ideology nobody understands that better than Putin and the Russian Government Putin would not give a flying fuck about what the state of sexuality is in Ukraine absolutely would not care he would not be doing this unless it could better him politically that is simply a man about power what the post libertarians say is that ideology is an enemy to power you don't find politicians who stay in power for as long as Putin has who are consumed so greatly by ideology like Stalin was nowhere near as much of an ideological communist as any other communist you can name he cared about power a bit of ideology going on there but there is no ideology in Russian politics it's just politics full stop and secondly people thinking that Russia is a very Christian country are completely deluding themselves I believe it has the highest rates of abortion and divorce in the entire world and this is to be expected after the persecution of religion that came at the hands of the Soviets you are living hundreds of years in the past if you think that Russia is currently a very Christian country really isn't and neither is Putin apart from there is Marco here saying Putin is not an upstanding Christian he knows very far from it I've just seen a photo of him emerging out of a pool of water with a bunch of orthodox priest behind I guess it's some sort of baptism renewal there's no way he's going to do that I don't think apart from symbolizing to the first of all the orthodox church in Russia loves Putin this is one of their biggest problems they stray into the problem becoming lackeys for him fortunately patriarch Kareel I think that is the patriarch of the orthodox church in Russia has come out against the war on Ukraine even if he was a bit vague but I think that's actually pretty brave for him to do Putin himself not a great example of a Christian any sense of it am I going to keep the live stream on the channel to watch later? yep I don't take my live streams down he would do it for a political stunt my thoughts exactly thoughts on cats, not big on them I'm a dog person, dogs are useful you know what cats can be useful for vermin control but they're not good pets they're good pets domestic violence is legal in Russia holy shit I didn't know that there are two aggressors fighting here with good people in between yes yes you're right that is always the case with the state this is kind of what I mean with things I hope go without saying but in terms of which state has aggressed against which state I know that's almost almost a sentence we really shouldn't care about because when one state aggresses against another it can only do this through the means of aggressing against individuals and states are just created out of individuals but I mean who is the who's the aggressive party in Ukraine versus Russia to isolate it down to those terms what's my take on the 2014 revolution and the action of Kiev state right after you know what I don't know that well to be perfectly honest with you because I was quite invested in world events during that time I was following the year of Maidan and then Crimea and then outbreak of Donbass pretty closely at that time but I didn't have any sort of actual consolidated political views so I don't remember looking at it through any particular lens and thinking ah this is right this is wrong I was very neutral about it and just seeing what's going on and trying to keep up to date of course the revolution started because lots of the younger Ukrainian population wanted to join the EU and I'm against joining the EU but the reason why this turned into like a riot because the government wanted them to stay under Russia's influence I don't like Russia so where do I go here it's tough to say at that point yeah and I really think so the most important thing we should be doing I really think is not tweeting I stand with Ukraine or putting a Russian flag in your name or anything like that it's concern over the civilians here do not get swept up into the propaganda the propaganda from our side in the west will be for military intervention we know that the media outlets are the as Michael Mallis calls them the propaganda wing of the military industrial complex he's right and if you get swept up into this propaganda of Russia bad Ukraine damsel in distress passion of freedom and democracy you're submitting yourself to this shonen spirit beast super shattered $6.78 love your channel dude no any means of linking up with like minded people libertarians in London or the UK in general yeah I've actually been to meetings of the UK libertarian party once in London and once in another city so that the party itself I'll say look it up look it up yourself it's expect weirdness like I really hope nobody from the party and especially nobody that I met is watching this but libertarians we're weird we need to acknowledge that if you expect if you go to a libertarian meet-up especially in a country so when it's so so so niches ours it's going to be weird people there but by all means find like the UK libertarian party facebook pages keep an eye on their events section and normally talk about when they're doing meet-ups and you can go to a pub have a drink with some people talk about these ideas yeah that's probably the only way to do it to be perfectly honest with you or join some sort of like I don't know how I can tell you one but find some sort of like a discord a discord channel a discord server with a high concentration of Brits and you should be able to get in there and make some friends oh yeah as Zulu says the Scottish libertarian party is also very good count-dancular supports them quite a lot as well so they've got a fair bit of traction but yeah it's only in Scotland I can't imagine if you were up in Scotland and weren't Scottish like you know like what's the word have segregation and they'll probably let you in yeah Zulu's a mod on my channel well thank you very much for the donation oh yeah I haven't even really thanked anymore for the donations by the way sorry I'm so used to all this like fame and success now that I just completely forget that donations involve money thank you so much to everyone who's done it so far let me find out we had RF USA RF I hope that's it's gonna be some weeb shit thank you very much for the five dollars camcype thank you so much for the ten dollars Jonathan Diaz 20 fucking hell that was the thing about as far as propaganda is concerned this is basically one big porn video but democracy is a porn actress well who's the actor then I have to ask in that case can't believe people want to risk your nuclear annihilation for this fetish yeah and that's that's why I said Freudian analysis like that is probably actually pretty the liberal people on Twitter love to be completely Freudian against everyone they don't like saying if you disagree with them you've got a small penis so Mars will turn this Freudian analysis back on them and just say they're fetishists for nuclear holocaust cat just perded in front of you I thought you said puked and that would have just reinforced my position so yeah continue what I was saying on earlier like if you have Ukrainian family and you're worried for them you have absolutely every right to be worried for them and be against Russia if you have friends and family in Donetsk and Luhansk you have absolutely every right to I could say to view Russia as a preferable alternative given the Ukrainian government's treatment of those people for the last eight years and if you were Ukrainian living in Kiev or anywhere else if I was Ukrainian under this I would absolutely go and get one of those 10,000 assault rifles and fight for my fucking country if I was from Donetsk and Luhansk and did not want to be part of Ukraine and Ukraine had been bombing my place and people for years on end I'd absolutely fight Ukraine for this I don't want to say like but what this is highlighting or should be highlighting so a lot of people and isn't really is that yeah war is a messy fucking business it's not black and white it's not Adolf Putin versus Princess Zelensky it's fucking difficult and when you've just got two state actors trying to either expand their territory or retain their territory the people of which want to leave no there's not going to be clear good guys are bad guys in this fight because of this if you have a personal bias one way or the other it's within your right to because we don't I honestly don't think we have an objective standards of view this apart from saying war bad and like yeah we know and this isn't going to help anyone if we just get up on a grandstand and say war bad means of course like you know advocate for the end of the war but if that's all you have to say but this is a human conflict here involving human people who are going to fucking die and already have died like we need to do something more than that I think relativism I wouldn't exactly call it relativism because that would say ah we can't say whether or not this is right or wrong flat out but we can war is absolutely wrong flat out state aggression is wrong flat out but when you have two state actors aggressing against each other and people getting caught up in the crossfire what do you do that has to then come down to personal preference in some regard people who fight for their country should be celebrated well here's the thing that this point you can't really say that Russian troops are fighting for their country and that brings in a whole other aspect that's why I haven't said what I've said is if you're from Donetsk and Luhansk I would completely think you're within your right to take up arms and fight for your own country but then if you're Russian you don't have much of a stake in this game apart from unless you believe in this narrative I talked about earlier of creating a buffer zone to the west and viewing NATO as an enemy who's expanding all around you I'd say you wouldn't be unreasonable of that belief but that is far from justifying this action this invasion so then that then puts Russia under the spotlight like yeah a Russian soldier from Moscow or I don't know any other part in Russia does not have this defend your home principle that I've just mentioned for Ukrainians and people in Donbas which side is morally in the right at this current stage because of this dichotomy where I've just said where a Ukrainian person fighting is defending their home a Russian person fighting is at best liberating a small part of eastern Ukraine at worst just aggressing on these people so in terms of libertarian ethics I don't think until we see clearly what the Russian government objective has been this whole time because we won't know until it's over despite what they say we can't really say too much but in terms of morality I would say the Ukrainians absolutely have the upper advantage there they're defending their home Russian people aren't, the people from Donetsk and Luhansk are those aren't people from the Russian Republic many of them are conscripts as well so like biomes don't then just say Russian troops are evil and they're just like Nazi stormtroopers again which is the kind of thing you'll see on CNN I had an argument with a good friend of mine earlier they didn't even actually respond to this on discord they posted two videos one of which was a rocket hitting an apartment in Kiev you might have seen the video or at least the aftermath photo and another one was some civilian medics one of which had been shot and wounded I think he was still alive and he was posting this saying like look at these awful things the Russians are doing and I just thought it's very so childish to look at a war and like tragedy happens in war that's why it's so bad but then just imagining that this is all done out of sheer pure malice and the people who've done this have been deliberate like no shit happens in life shit really happens in war rockets can absolutely not have the correct aiming their fuel management system can malfunction and so it can hit an apartment building where that was absolutely not the intention of the person firing it and medics getting caught in the crossfire that's something that happens with war I just don't want to see people who should be good lateral thinkers going into this Russia bad Ukraine good mindset I know this is war war is fucking hell and there's a reason for it it's not black and white easy bad guy good guy who flags waving around you know support the cause really isn't someone said I said it is a asymmetric war I don't think it is um to get into like the geopolitics and actual military situation of it this is where I think there are people far better than me I only have vague ideas but we've been hearing recently about how stalled the Russian advance has become um you see videos of convoys of APCs I won't call them BTRs or BMPs because I don't know the difference but I know there is a difference so at least that's sharing some of this self awareness I was trying to uphold um just simply running out of fuel you can see Russian APCs parked in the middle of the road Ukrainians going up to them saying what's going on they just go yeah I've got no fuel things are getting pretty out of hand we don't know where this is going Russia's hypersonic cruise missiles it seems like they only used those on the first day I believe and so it's potentially they've run out of them they could have used all of their cruise missiles already and that's not good for them ah thank you very much uh is that Yoku bus? Joker bus? saying this is a good take thank you ah then any LP people yeah what is it about LP people and just sucking up to fucking western propaganda narratives but if you this is what I mean I don't have a personal grievance whatsoever or even an ethical grievance if you support Ukraine or support Russia what I want you to do is think about this for yourself because there is massive massive propaganda on both sides yes we know Russia uses loads of propaganda through state affiliated media you don't think that our complex uses propaganda our media our institutions like I've said have heavy sunk costs into seeing Ukraine become like democratic NATO, EU, this and that they're just not gonna they're not gonna view this objectively they have skin in this game and you should not be trying to take objective impartial analysis from people who are just so upfront with their bias don't expect that we are just gonna get nothing but truth and Russia's gonna get nothing but propaganda you're both gonna get propaganda think about this clearly that's all I ask if you say you support Russians and separatists ffff yeah go ahead but think about this for yourself that's the only way to do it Putin is destroying Russia well that's true if this he threw a real Hail Mary on this one if this doesn't work out I saw someone say he's gonna get the Gaddafi dreamer and I have to agree with that he's hedging a lot of bets on this they've been so resistant for so long because of their energy independence and that has given them so much strength that they're a heavily exporting nation in terms of their economy and they like to think that tap can't be turned off because places like Germany and France and even the UK as we're going through our own energy crisis um struggle so much but like that's not something that could last forever if this doesn't get blown over in a week yeah he could be absolutely fucked he could be dragged through the streets and hung from a lamppost it's entirely possible it's a big information wall that's absolutely right both sides are trying to well one knock out each other's internet access but also shut off their own internet access so that civilians can't leak intel is there any valid moral ethical support for Putin in your opinion I would say not reasonably if it was true that if it was reasonable to expect that he was being honest when he talks about um what was the word he used de-Nazifying Ukraine like that's just fucking mental I mean that says it all at that point that anything that comes out of his mouth the next probably isn't to be trusted the same way any liberal on our side of the fence calls anyone a Nazi if we could trust that he was actually just trying to liberate the separatist areas maybe would you be in any sort of right mind to trust a single word that comes out of his mouth absolutely not so no it's hard to say there is any sort of case for him Russia as a whole Russia as a whole is a completely different story then we like a normal Russian person is not wrapped up in this conflict a normal Ukrainian person is and that's that is where there's a lot of asymmetries the October revolution as consequence has been a disaster for the Russian nation yes since day one that's putting it lightly and now here's one take he's already proven that's not what he's doing by attacking Kiev um I'm not incredibly sold on that take I wouldn't say I completely disagree but if if if it truly was and we gave all benefit of the doubt which we would actually be stupid to do and say he was just trying to liberate um DPR and LPR again I would not do do not expect that to be deliberate like no no no artillery battalion or battery I should say is what we call it in the British military is outwardly going to go out of the way and say you know what boys let's go fucking kill some civilians today like no I cannot possibly yet lots of civilians will die that would not be the intention I just don't like that way of viewing it um where was I going um shit no sorry I've completely lost my train of thought ah revolutionary prayer sorry for the frequent pinging I'm sorry I haven't noticed I told you I'm not going to keep it up with the chat you've been working out and lifting for weeks but you've lost all motivation what should you do hmm I don't know remember well first of all remember it takes three weeks to break a habit three days to lose it I don't like oh is that is that sources you got any peer-reviewed clinical gels no that's why it takes to be common wisdom and I found it to be true for myself if you've been doing it for less than three weeks kick I think that could be a motivation know that if you keep going this is going to become a habit we're creatures of habit virtue is um the application of habits just keep going power through once you crash once you cross the mark where it just becomes normal to work out it's not something you need to be motivated for and then you've made it I have rusty shackle for why did you start lifting in the first place always keep that in the back of your mind yes no of course so it doesn't matter just still evil just like a marathon to kill civilians was evil yes like this is why war is so bad when it's one of the reasons why war is so bad there's many we don't have to I think my point is that like the death of civilians in war is bad enough we don't have to then pretend that civilian deaths are because one side is so evil it's just evil people doing evil things no war as a whole is evil and the people are most responsible for it are the ones conducting it the ones who started it the ones who have the most to gain out of it when civilians die in the crossfire which was inevitable because war is hell it doesn't it doesn't behoove anyone to view that as a outwardly malicious act that evil this one side is so evil because they killed civilians that that is the tragedy of war in and of itself it doesn't you don't have to try and make it seem more evil than it is because it is so evil because running as a city exercise perfectly good motivation I fucking hate cardio I only do weights now every side in every wars committed war crimes yeah because a war is a crime there's no point trying to make war crimes seem worse than they already are because they are so terrible you don't have to try and embellish it and take overly simplistic views you don't have to over exaggerate it it's bad enough on it's own I thought I was going to have more specific stuff come to mind but well I don't know this has been going on for 15 minutes that's normally about how long I go how long I go to the stream for if you guys have any questions I'll give it another minute or two see if there's any questions in chat if they pop up I'll take my time in answering you fear giving many guns out to civilians or blur the line between civilians and combatants this will get bloody any war blur the lines between civilians and combatants well at least since the Napoleonic wars this is one thing I wanted to bring up Hopper's analysis of modern war since from the Napoleonic era afterwards since ideology got infused into warfare absolutely impeccable if you haven't read democracy the god that failed what are you doing you have no excuse to have not read it by now absolutely blow your mind ever since the French Revolution the war became ideological then we had the concept of total war if wars weren't like Germany versus America versus Germany it was democracy versus fascism and if you live in America that means you're a democrat if you live in Germany that means you're a Nazi and you are enemies it's not militaries fighting each other the way it was in the time of kings this is why his case for the Napoleonic year reducing war is so good if you look at the casualty rates of the time of like the Roman Empire that was a highly highly ideological time even if you think it wasn't it was about keeping the ideology of Rome itself alive and so every man was committed to keeping this ideology and fighting for it and an unbelievable about if people died in battle after the collapse of the Roman Empire into the feudal age due to feudal fatalities and even general participants in war the number absolutely shot down because in feudal societies kings went to war countries didn't go to war since after the French Revolution it became countries going to war again we've had total war and utter devastation to civilian life that is the root cause of it thank you so much for the two donations thank you dude turning up to ten extremely generous of you I'm glad that this a lot of what I've said hasn't been extremely controversial that makes me very happy because I thought I don't know I've been expect when I give these takes I've been expecting more resistance because so many people have no experience of a peer to peer war in their lives of a modern nation versus a modern nation fighting each other and a lot of people don't know what to do they're still swept up in the our side versus evil Islamist terrorists like ISIS and they imagine that war is always black and white because it's been pretty black and white for quite a while in all fairness even though of course we shouldn't be there it's been easy for people to accept this concept that we are the good guys everyone who is against us is the bad guys and now that we aren't involved in this war now that it's Russia and Ukraine and we have more close political ties to Ukraine than Russia then so many people have just gone fully on board with this very I've lost my train of thought again I do apologize anyway I'm just glad that people are willing to hear and you want to take on this I absolutely agree with more than happy with you that guy 117 super shattered $9 and 99 cents how do you see the war playing out at this point now it's very tough to I don't know because when it first happened I thought a week I thought like of course a lot of the it appears from that the Russian people or governments were being very bullish on it as they would be and expecting to be done in two days well it's been two days now and they haven't won I thought from the outset again I'm not a fucking military analyst like take my opinion with as much grain of salt as many grains of salt as you'd like I was expecting about a week and it's less than a week so I'm not thinking like oh that's it Russia has lost all momentum that's it they can't win now I don't think that's entirely the case however it seems like on many fronts they are stalling lots of people have said that the like tank lines are just basically there for well propaganda almost like look at all these photos of all our tanks moving in but that it's not really the tanks doing the fighting it's a lot of the air force I don't think that's very true Russia's military doctrine is still very focused on infantry and APCs and armoured infantry and armour ground and if if their ground forces run out of fuel and ammo and get lost and you know that's it that is a death spell for Russia it's not it's not like the US where they've just got drone after drone after drone and cruise missiles launch from battleships no they're still very focused on feet and tyres so they really could be on the back ropes but you're not going to know people are starting to understand what the fog of war is why it's called the fog of war like no nothing is clear right sorry I've got a few pings let me give up on them probably Shubra thoughts on Ukrainian president remaining in Kiev is it admirable yeah of course it is oh my gosh could you imagine any of our politicians doing out of favor under siege fuck no they'd be on their private planes to the fucking Cayman islands in no time leaving us to it to complete the war that they started like if Zelensky Zelensky is carolus rex super shattered $5.47 great stream Ed Balls thank you Chromo I know that's you thank you very much Ed Balls indeed what's that 50 face money I don't know what that is shonen spirit beast super shattered $6.78 unrelated thoughts on Canada Trudeau and freedom protest I wouldn't be able to say anything you haven't heard this is like what I'm trying to do with this talk on the very muddy ethics is trying to show it's called the fog of war for a reason this is so messy it's not clear cut however any take you've heard from libertarians on the freedom convoy I will absolutely go with that is so black you can't get more black and white than that more power to them and fuck the fuck fucking Trudeau but you see what I mean like yeah of course I will admire Zelensky for I mean he's backing up his own words right he knew who's gonna cause conflict with Russia by trying to join NATO and they were so close before this broke out and he's putting his fucking money where his mouth is but he's understood he's putting his nation in danger of conflict the conflicts come and he's ready to fucking fight it or at least you know it could of course again be propaganda the photo of him in a plate character and Klitschko with a pkm he was holding or something pretty epic but yeah that could just be a photo up but even if he stays in the city you can't help but admire the man especially compared to our fucking elites no chance that they put their money where the mouth is when it comes down to the wire god at least admire them okay let me sorry let me try to find my pings well thank you again to Chromo that guy double one seven dude he's a gold subscriber of mine on subscribe star thank you very much very generous of you and Shonen spirit beast again thank you fellas okay Zulu what's my take on the theory that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were setting up for a pincer on Iran well you know what I haven't heard that before I don't know why like is that something Scott Horton talks about because if so I need to listen to Scott Horton more and it would be a shame if I didn't know that that's entirely plausible does Afghanistan border Iran to the south I don't know let me go and google maps real quick it's the height of geopolitics and military analysis I won't put google maps on my screen either because it will give you my fucking street address yep okay just checking that it wasn't oh yeah it does wow okay you know what I didn't even know that Afghanistan's entire western border was around hey there's a theory isn't it if it wasn't Russia would be trying to get into a war with it's Iran the the stay over cold war boogeymen even though well I mean this is another point I've had right why has the west been so antagonistic towards Putin for the last 20 years my holy shit having the Russian economy and resources on our side like I cannot understand why politically you wouldn't want that I think the only reason is for theatrics keeping the old cold war boogeyman of the red scare and just applying it to the new Russia for the sake of elections like fucking 2016 just make Russia the boogeyman ah well Trump's Russian Trump sympathizes with Russia therefore he's one of the boogeymen like fucking just shows the utter contemptible state of even just the political acumen of our elites like take the morality out of the equation right are they good politicians no they're fucking terrible to start beef with this huge country that is extremely advantageous to our economy to the point where all of western Europe is almost entirely energy dependent on them and make an enemy out of them you fucking idiots crazy honking violates the NAP definitely not if Ukraine wins what do I see the impact being quite potentially like I said earlier the Gaddafi treatment of Putin dragged through the streets his own blood pissing out of his face and getting hung from a lamppost it's entirely possible because if they don't this is such a huge gamble guys huge huge huge everything rides on it if they win Putin achieves his objective which is either installing a puppet government in Ukraine or I don't like to say liberating because that is a very friendly word but giving autonomy to Donbas if those are his objectives and he achieves them he's gonna walk away great he's gonna be either a liberator or a conqueror and a strong man and that already is a great image that works for him in Russia if he loses his country is fucked the ramifications of a full scale invasion of a country just on the verge of joining NATO at that point you would then at that point it would be so politically fucking stupid if our elites didn't got him for that the fact that they've made an enemy out of him for the last two decades now that's fucking stupid and completely pointless in my opinion I mean yeah we can feel like it's Putin's biggest mistake but if he wins probably won't be the reason he's done this is because he would have assessed and I think he'd be writing in assessing this that our, that NATO West is gonna do nothing about it I think they will only do I don't even think they'll do anything like even if it becomes clear that Russia's losing I still don't think they'll do anything apart from if you watch British night stream that I was on the other days basically saying that they're gonna hold all sorts of emergency conferences shake their fists clutch their pearls wag their fingers until the war is over I thought that was gonna be the pure strategy give it a week Russia would have won and this whole time our country's leaders would have gone we strongly condemn this action by Vladimir Putin just stalling just stalling until it's all over is NATO not a government equivalent to a defensive pact we might have for private entities I think if we follow the reasoning that government should act as if it were a private agency joining NATO would definitely be in their best interest of rights hmm if there weren't more extremely political ties to NATO it is not as simple as saying oh hey guys if someone invades us could you defend us and if someone evades you we'll defend you like you have to bend a lot to join NATO you have to be part of the hegemony of the American Empire that's really what NATO is it is this the vassal states of the American Empire hmm it's not as easiest to say that it's just a defensive pact maybe it wasn't the beginning but I'd still even doubt that claim to be perfectly honest with you Russia won't win they'll possibly defeat the Ukrainian government but they won't win against the civilians guerrilla warfare's 2.0p but that would be the case if I think I think that would be the case if they either installed a puppet government or just simply occupy the country occupation I do not think would be their objective a puppet government would not last like yes they've got one in Belarus they've done for decades but like look at the clashes that happened last year like that was was it last year or the year before I don't know time flies I always get that wrong there were huge huge uprisings about it it was because they wanted to be democratic and you know that's a bit cringe but like it's not like they exactly have a very good political system in the first place you can't blame them for trying to change it I think but the uprising failed an uprising like that in Ukraine which does have a very anti-Russian anti-Soviet really but through that same vein and especially now anti-Russian patriotism running through it no way they absolutely could not occupy or install a puppet government in there and have it last that's why I think the only feasible objective could be for them to establish independent states on the border and create a buffer zone because there's no way they could conquer Ukraine and hold on to it absolutely no chance like Ukrainian people in the west and the center they are fucking Ukrainian and they know it and they love it and they would not roll over they've absolutely got the will to fight and the will to resist is NATO as an idea an anti-libertarian concept what's wrong with having a defensive pact I guess the individuals don't consent but what if we eliminate that so okay taking that out of the equation like as a concept defensive pacts as they stand no but NATO it's so much more than a defensive pact it's of course that's what it likes to say it is but that's like the UN saying they're just a peacekeeping force no it's really not it comes with a whole load of baggage not as simple as just you look out for my back I'll look out for yours alright boys well this has gone on for over an hour that's pretty good I normally like my live streams are pretty much only ever Q&As so I always have something to riff off this has been rather unstructured apart from reading from a script what if we invite a rush into NATO they'd say thanks but fuck off I'm sorry it's time to go it's time for all you boys and girls in Europe along with me to go to bed revolutionary bro it won't be night time for you there but you yet but sleep is one of the most important things in building muscle get good sleep get jacked Russia and China rules will be lost already China for sure oh that was my point I was trying to get to as well why the fuck is our government's made such an enemy out of Putin for the last 20 years when he could have been a seriously valuable ally in deterring Chinese expansion that's what we need to fucking worry about thoughts on Lord Miles absolutely based I want to shake the guys hand one day if he ever stays in this country for more than two minutes about what is going to happen in the future between airports all right thank you very much boys and girls thank you so much to everyone who donated I'll read off the names again we got do do do do do do do do DoRF US RF camsite Jonathan Diaz Shonen spirit beast twice doo doo doo doo do yeah again that guy double one seven thank you very much extremely generously you because like I said Sorry Grappstein, sorry you've just joined. This is all going to be a vod as soon as I'm over though. Feel free to listen through to it. Trump's savior of libertarians and anarchs. Absolutely. 2024, bring him back. See you later fellas.


You can see it. You can hear it. You can feel it. Nature's awesome power, momentarily tapped by mankind in an equally awesome facility of concrete and steel that astonishes the senses. Here, in the third power plant of Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington State, the massive force of falling water drives the world's largest hydroelectric turbine, producing power for thousands of people throughout the wet. Whether at home, at work, or at play, we have only to flip a switch and that power runs a factory or prints a newspaper. I've been an operator here at Grand Coulee Dam for more than 20 years. It's an amazing place. When the third powerhouse was completed in 1983, it more than tripled the output of our facility. The third powerhouse alone can generate enough power to operate the cities of Seattle and Portland. Adding the third power plant made the best possible use of an existing hydropower cycle. Hydropower is clean power too. There's no pollution. And of course our fuel, water, is used over and over again as part of the hydrological cycle. The energy is stored in Lake Roosevelt behind the dam. Grand Coulee Dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation from the early 1930s through the early 1940s. Today its enormous generating capacity, 6.5 million kilowatts, and state-of-the-art equipment make it one of the most efficient power generating facilities in the world. This is one of the reasons that customers of reclamation power enjoy some of the lowest electric rates in the country. Grand Coulee Dam provides the Bonneville Power Administration with over one-fifth of the Federal Columbia River Power System generation. The 20 billion kilowatt hours provided annually by the Grand Coulee Dam is among the lowest cost power produced for the Bonneville Power Administration. But power is not the only benefit from this great structure. Grand Coulee Dam is the key feature of the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project. Water is pumped from Lake Roosevelt to Banks Lake and then is distributed to over half a million acres of highly productive agricultural land. Grand Coulee Dam is also operated to help control flooding and regulate river flow. And as anybody who lives in this part of the country knows, it offers great recreational opportunity. Grand Coulee Dam is the largest of the Bureau of Reclamation's 50 hydro plants that are located throughout the 17 western states. These plants are part of Reclamation's operations and maintenance program of operating, preventive maintenance and operational modification. This program has produced significant increases in generating capacities and efficiency. What we do here at Grand Coulee Dam is very important to a lot of people in the west, even throughout the country. Whether it's performing general maintenance, repairing equipment, or replacing worn out parts, we always try to do the best possible job we can. We plan and schedule our work to keep outages to a minimum and to keep productivity high. If the machine is can complete the machining of the wicket gates by day 72, we can keep on schedule. We plan to work two shifts during this period and we expect to finish the wicket gates about a week early. We'll need the three days to get set up for machining the seal rings. We think quite a lot of our facilities and the way in which we operate and maintain them. Hydropower accounts for about 12% of this country's supply of electricity. And here in the west, Reclamation plays a big part in providing that electricity. Our plants produce over 50 billion kilowatt hours each year. That's enough to take care of the needs of well over 15 million people. Without a doubt, the way we handle our jobs is important to a lot of people. With machine tools like this, we rebuild the critical parts of our generators and turbines. This extends the life of them and gets a maximum return on the dollar that we spend. This modern equipment assists us to achieve the precision and uniformity in the upkeep of our equipment here. I am proud to be part of this. Reclamation places a high priority on efficiency and reliability. New and innovative maintenance methods are continually being developed to ensure that low cost, reliable power will always be available. Using special alloys and new welding techniques to reduce the effects of cavitation. By making small changes in the contour of these blades, it will shape to minimize cavitation. This gives improved efficiency with less downtime. Here at Grand Coulee Dam, we have the hydropower show place of the world. Each year we are hosting more than one half million visitors from all over the world. We're quite proud of that fact. It shows our pride in America. Come visit us and see for yourself.


What is a blip? Who has them? Why do they have them? And what does it mean? No, I'm not talking about the sound that you hear on a radar screen. I'm talking about what happens to someone's viral load when they have HIV. A blip is just that. It's an irregularity in someone's viral load, presumably someone who is otherwise undetectable. I personally had a blip in February 2014, two years after my diagnosis with AIDS, and my viral load when I had the blip was at 20. When I get my blood work done and I have my viral load checked, anything under 20 copies per milliliter of blood is considered undetectable. So at this point, when I got my blood work done, my viral load was at 20 copies of the virus per milliliter. That was right on that line that made me detectable. Anything under 20 would have been undetectable, but I had exactly 20. So I was considered detectable, and I had been undetectable for the previous, almost two years. And suddenly I had a detectable viral load, even though I was taking my medicine on time every day, I was adhering to my ART appropriately. Despite having that blip, my doctor instructed me to continue taking my medicine as usual, go about my business as usual, and sure enough, my viral load went back down to undetectable, and it has stayed that way ever since. In recent history, studies have shown that people who are undetectable for six months or longer are sexually untransmittable. This begs the question. If someone has a blip, and they don't know it, and they have sex with someone who is HIV negative, will they give them the virus? Are they then, as not being undetectable any longer, therefore transmittable, able to transmit the virus to someone who is HIV negative? There are many, many debates and discussions about this online. I did a video for Jubilee Media in which we talked about having HIV, and the idea of disclosure came up, and inevitably the conversation about untransmittability came up, and one of the biggest arguments, aside from adherence to the medication, is that people experience blips, and during those blips, you are exposing someone to HIV, and therefore, we cannot rely on the idea that someone who is undetectable is untransmittable. I instinctively knew that there was something wrong with this argument. If this was such a danger and a risk, why would physicians and studies, and the CDC, and the World Health Organization, and all these countries and organizations say that someone who's undetectable is untransmittable? If there's this big, looming pink elephant in the room of the fact that anybody could have a blip at any time, and therefore could transmit the virus, why would all these organizations, countries, and people take on the responsibility of saying that there is zero risk of transmitting HIV if you're undetectable? So I decided to dig in a little deeper and find out what the facts are. What do the studies say? Science, not stigma. First, I wanna point out that most blips are, in fact, between 20 to 199 copies per milliliter of blood. Milliliter is basically a drop of blood. So remember what I said. My test is able to detect a viral load of 20 or greater. Anything below that is considered undetectable. So when someone typically does have a blip, it tends to fall in the range of 20 to 199 copies per milliliter of blood. Now, when we talk about people who are undetectable and untransmittable, this means that they are undetectable for six months or longer and have a viral load under 200. By and large, major majority of people who do have a blip still fall in this range of undetectability being under 200 copies. Those of you who are concerned, many, many people experience blips and are unaware of blips and have sexual acts without protection with HIV negative people and do not transmit the virus because they still cannot transmit the virus. I do wanna point out the study where discordant couples or couples where one person is HIV positive and the other is HIV negative have many, many sexual acts over a period of time and in this study, eight people did transmit the virus. This study is known as the HPTN052 study. 1,172 couples followed through to the end of the study. These were HIV, serodiscordant or couples where one person was positive and one person was negative and primarily heterosexual. Of these 1,171 couples, only eight transmissions occurred. The reasons being the HIV positive partner was put on ART treatment at the beginning of the study. Four of these transmissions occurred in the beginning stages of treatment when the HIV positive partner was presumably not fully virally suppressed. The other four transmissions occurred because treatment had failed, either due to a lack of adherence to the medication or because that person had a strain of HIV that was resistant to the drug. Aside from these eight transmissions, there were zero other transmissions that occurred, even though there were presumably hundreds if not thousands of sexual acts performed between these 1,171 couples over the course of four years. And before we move on, I have to say a quick thank you to Movement. I partnered up with them for this video as well as offering me these awesome ever scroll blue light glasses. These bad boys filter out blue light so that when I'm spending hours and hours editing on my MacBook, they filter out the blue light so the light's not as harsh, less likely to give me a headache. And then at the end of the night, when I'm ready to turn down, it's much easier to do. Not only that, but I actually really like these glasses just for style. I think they're cool. I think they're slick. I love that the frames are clear. There's a little metal on the side and you have the MVMT logo emblazoned there. I use it primarily functionally for the computer screen at home or even watching TV at night. But I do like to wear it out just because I think it's stylish and it looks cool. So what I really like about these watches is that they're not outrageously priced but they're still really sleek and stylish and they kind of have like a luxury brand feel to it. I'm really digging this one. It's called Element Chrono and it's in carbon gray. I like the gray because I can pair it with a lot of different colors. Kind of like gray and black are my go-to's for a lot of things just because I like to switch up my style a lot, wear different colors and it's pretty safe to say the gray will go with a lot of things. Luxury brand vibes without luxury brand prices. And that's essentially what the two guys who founded MVMT were trying to do. They were trying to find watches and apparel that gave off that luxury vibe but then were turned away because the prices of so many of these brands were just so astronomically high and you know watches can get really expensive. So I think it's cool that they found this niche in the market where you're gonna pay a little bit more but you're gonna get a lot more style and bang for your buck as far as aesthetics go. I'm not like a watch head and I need it to be like synced to the satellite and the moons around Jupiter. I just need it to work and as long as it works, we're good. And that's what it does. You know for me it's more about aesthetics and the way it looks and the way it makes me feel wearing it because I don't wanna wear a watch if it's clunky.  It just has that kind of contemporary feel to it. Check the info box below. I'll put a link to their Instagram there as well as a link where you can get 15% off on their website. They have free shipping worldwide as well as free returns. So check it out, give it a look. If you like it, there it is.  All right, let's continue on with the video. The next study I wanna mention is the partner study and this study happened between 2010 and 2014. This study included both heterosexual couples and gay couples and all the HIV positive people and the study were on ART therapy for years already. After 900 couples had sex more than 58,000 times, there were zero transmissions of HIV. Let me repeat that again. After 900 couples had sex more than 58,000 times, there were zero transmissions. Statistically, theoretically, we can all presume that blips happened. There were definitely blips that just happened within these couples' health history during this four year span. Whether they were aware of it or not, whether it showed up in lab result or not, there were without a doubt blips that happened and yet zero transmissions. 900 couples, so 900 people who had HIV did not transmit it to 900 people who did not have HIV. 58,000 sexual acts, that's a lot and that's just this one partner study. Moving on to partner two. The partner two study enrolled couples between 2014 to 2018. It involved 783 couples and it involved over 77,000 sexual acts. Partner two is actually the second phase of partner. So in partner two, they wanted to include more gay couples and so a lot of the gay couples that were included in the 2010 to 2014 study were extended from 2014 to 2018 in the partner two. Now they did enroll more couples. All the couples that they enrolled into partner two were all gay. So with a total of 783 gay couples, some of whom who'd been in the study from 2010 all the way to 2018 and those from 2014 to 2018 who enrolled later for partner two out of 77,000 times that these couples had sex, there were once again zero transmissions. Of all these studies, science and the data all remain the same. There are zero transmissions at HIV when people are adherent to their medication and when they don't have a resistant strain there is zero transmission when undetectable. And we are talking now about hundreds of thousands of times couples having sex. And let me make it very clear. These couples are not using condoms. The HIV negative partner is not on PrEP and they are not using PEP which is post-exposure prophylaxis which you can take after having sex as a precaution. So there's no condoms, no PrEP, no PEP. The HIV positive person is undetectable and they are having sex and there are zero transmissions. Presumably you can imagine that there are blips that happen that happened during this study had to be. Statistically it just had to be the case. Who knows if these blips were over 200? I don't know but there were definitely blips and there was zero transmissions. I hate to be a dead horse over the head but the data speaks for itself. For the naysayers out there the burden of proof of evidence is on your shoulders to prove that there is risk. Because the data, the science proves that there is zero risk. So if you're gonna make that claim the burden is on you to prove otherwise. There is a reason why governments, organizations, scientists, leaders are all saying that there is zero risk of transmission for those people who are HIV undetectable for six months or longer because the science and the data and the facts prove that that is the case. Blips aside that is just fear mongering and it's understandable that people are afraid. This is relatively a new finding that's endorsed by the public. It's been around but to be endorsed by countries and organizations and people is relatively new and so a lot of people are traumatized and scared and remember the very recent history that was the AIDS epidemic and how scary that was and how very real and how many people were lost. A whole generation of people were lost to the virus. So understandably people want to be cautious and safe. But there is a point where I have to put my foot down and that is when fear is leading the narrative. Fear is leading conversations and arguments online especially I see it and it's not based on any fact or figures, data, it's just stigma and so we have to combat that with the facts and with information and that's why I decided I wanted to make this video. So let's not sweat the small stuff, the blips are the small stuff and they really don't affect our transmission rates. As long as a person is responsible and they're taking their medicine as they should be and they don't have a resistance to the drugs and by the way if they had a resistance to the medication they wouldn't be able to say that they're undetectable because they would have never gotten to that place. So anybody who is adherent to the medication and undetectable does not have a strain of the HIV that is resistant to the medication. That leaves one final argument that a lot of people make and is that how do we know if people are adherent to taking their medication as they're supposed to? And that's a fair argument and people are flawed and it happens. Now I don't have any studies or facts to show that missing a dose or two or three won't make a difference or does make a difference. I don't have the facts so I'm not gonna speak on that but it is a fair concern and so I leave that open ended. What I can say is that those of us with HIV it's in our best interest to take our medication and to do so responsibly and by and large almost everyone that I meet or come across is someone who's very much invested in their health and wants to live and wants to be healthy and wants to take their medicine as they're supposed to. And not to get too off track but there are constantly new treatments being developed including injectable medicine that will stay in the body for a month, three months, maybe eventually six months, who knows and that wouldn't negate the concern over adherence because as long as you've been to your doctor in the last month, three months, six months you know that the medication is doing its job inside you and you don't have to worry about taking a pill every day. So knock on wood that comes sooner than later. Thanks for sticking around and watching this video. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this, your comments, your arguments. Maybe you disagree with something I had to say. Maybe I pointed out something that you hadn't thought of or enlightened you in a way. Who knows what? I wanna hear what you have to say. Please leave a comment down below, like this video if you like it, subscribe. If you haven't subscribed already I'm gonna be making a lot more content just like this and I will see you guys soon.