A very good morning to you. You're welcome to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. My name is Romare Paulson. And on today's show, we're going to be looking at some hot topics. We have Zamfara to spend three billion Naira on consultancy services for government projects. Another hot topic we're looking at is Nigerians turn to traditional healers as prizes of drugs go up. Yeah, so those are the hot topics we'll be looking at this morning. We'll also be looking at what the national dailies are saying as well as some top trending stories. But first, I think we should take out quotes of the day. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life.  Lock in your destination.  And this is Vimal Shah Bidko from Kenya. He's one of the top guys at Bidko and he's from Kenya. And his quote today says, today is the beginning of the rest of your life.  Lock in your destination.  And I mean, it's mindset Monday. So this just tells you that wherever you are, do not limit yourself. Today is what you have. You have the present. You're not promised tomorrow. And so you need to make hay while the sun shines as they say today is the beginning of the rest of your life. So whatever you do today determines the outcome of your future. So why not lock in your destination, the destination that you would like to see that place that you aspire for yourself. Lock it in today and start to take off because you are the pilot of your life. And that is what our quote is saying today. Okay, so let's move over to our top trending stories this morning. And this is quite a sad one. Over the weekend, we were rocked with some very sad and devastating news. So over the weekend, there was some very devastating and sad news. And it was the fact that Herbert Weigwe, who was the CEO of NNPC Holdings, passed away with his wife and his son as well. And so right now we have like the company, you know, they issued a statement on Sunday that confirmed Weigwe's death alongside his wife and his son in a helicopter crash in the United States on Friday. According to the statement signed by the group company Sunday, the appointment of a new head was in line with the company's policy. And also on the board, the ill-fated chapel with three others, including the former chairman of the Nigerian exchange group at Bimbola Ogumbajo, which is quite sad. Preliminary reports suggest that the crash could have been caused by wintry weather and rain. A member of the National Transportation Board said after a press briefing on Sunday, Weigwe was appointed Access Holdings GCEO on March 28, 2022. Prior to his appointment, he had occupied various positions within Access Bank from being the deputy managing director at Access Bank from 2012 to 2014, where he became the group managing director and CEO. He served as the chairman of Access Bank Ghana, Access Investments and Securities Limited, Central Securities and Clearance System, and presently as the chairman of Access Bank Limited and Unified Payment Services Limited. Meanwhile, more tributes have continued to pour in for the late banker, the latest coming from businessman Femi Otedola, who describes Weigwe's death as a loss of a banking genius. This is quite a very, very sad news that we started with over the weekend, hearing that Herbert and his wife and his son, they had passed away due to the helicopter crash in the United States.  I got this news on my way home. I was in the car and I opened my WhatsApp group because Herbert went to my school, was a proud alumni of the Federal Government College of Worry, and so I opened the WhatsApp group of my alumni association and I saw the news and I'm like, oh my god. And everybody on the group was just saying, no, it cannot be, it cannot be. And it was so sad because we know who it was. He was such a good man. He was a force. He was a visionary. And this is a colossal loss for everyone. The banking industry in Nigeria, in fact, Nigeria at large, and everyone who is near and dear to him, you know, is just an irreparable loss. And at this point, we just hope, you know, we pray that their souls rest in peace and we pray for the fortitude to bear this loss for everyone who is near and dear to the Weigwe family. And yes, our hearts, you know, go to everyone at the moment. It's quite sad, but God knows best. All right, let's move over to another story. So our second top training story goes, Canyon Agency sells warehouses for hoarding foodstuffs. The Canyon State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission is confiscated 10 warehouses containing assorted foodstuffs in the Dawanao area of Dawakin to a far local government area of the state. The commission's chairman, Mr. Mohi Magaji, disclosed this to newsmen shortly after confiscating the warehouses in Dawanao International Greens Market, Singer Market, and Quarry Texales Market on Sunday. He said that the owners of such warehouses were nowhere to be found during the operation, but that those that were opened were sacked full of commodities, including spaghetti, rice, pasta, sugar, and other food items. He said the owners had been issued notice to report to the commission preparatory to facing charges before the court of law for their illegal activities. The agency started operation last Thursday and have made a significant impact towards stopping the instant rise and the price of essential commodities. According to Magaji, the agencies were able to, the agency were able to solve the instant increase in prices of commodities. I'm sure if you're watching this right now, you know what the prices of food is in your area. It is quite expensive, quite exorbitant. There are people who cannot afford this food anymore. There are people who cannot afford to put two meals, talk more about three square meals. Some people have to eat once a day and it's quite sad that some people would actually hoard this food, keep it in warehouses, store them just to, you know, had the price for no reason. And I mean, I commend the agency for doing this. I think as many warehouses they can find, they need to start to open them up and see what's in there. And if no one comes forward then I mean put them on the market because people need this food. You cannot be hoarding food at this point where everything goes up and it's going up is the prices are being hiked because, you know, you're keeping them, you're hoarding them. It's not commendable at all but I will commend the agency and I think they're doing a very good job and yes, I hope they continue. And I hope they don't seize them. That's another question now. Do they seize them? What do they do with them when they seize them? Do they, you know, put it on the market? Do they give them as palliatives or do they just keep them and share them? So that's another thing I would love some transparency on to what they actually do with all of the items that they confiscate. All right, moving over to our final story. This says, Seraph sues a Pabio Abbas of a lack of clarity about 344.85 billion Naira budget. The social economic rights and accountability project, Seraph, has sued the leadership of the National Assembly over unexplained details of 344.85 billion Naira in their budget. Joined as defendants in the suits filed last Friday or Senate President, Mr. Gotswil Ababio and Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr. Tajdain Abbas. Mr. Ababio and Abbas are sued for themselves and on behalf of all members of the National Assembly. Seraph, among other reliefs in the suit, filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja sought an order of mandamus to direct and compel Mr. Pabio and Mr. Abbas to disclose, clarify and explain details of the 344.85 billion Naira National Assembly budget in their Appropriation Act 2024. In the suit, Seraph argues, details of spending of public funds by the National Assembly have been mostly shrouded in secrecy. Nigerians have the right to know the details of the budget by the lawmakers and the rationale for the budget. According to Seraph, upper city, in the spending of the 344.85 billion Naira National Assembly budget would have negative impacts on the fundamental interests of the citizens and the public interests. The suit, filed on behalf of Seraph by his lawyers Kola Wale Uluwadari and Andrew Wang, called Red Impart, it is in the public interest and the interest of justice to grant this application. Nigerians are entitled to their constitutionally and internationally recognize human rights to information. If others said the National Assembly increased its own allocation in the 2024 budget to 344.48 billion Naira. The new budget relocation to the National Assembly is over 70% of the 197 billion Naira proposed by President Bola Tinibu for the lawmakers and the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly. No data has been fixed for the hearing of the suit yet. All right, I mean, could this be Seraph? They are always, I would say, they keep looking out for the citizens. It's not news that our government or our politicians, for every time they need to make an appropriation bill. Over the years, we've seen time and time again where the bill is always increased, the budget is always increased. They come with one and when they're back again, it has been increased by some figures. I mean, I think Nigerians deserve to know what their money is going into. These are taxpayers' money. So it is only right that you're transparent with taxpayers' money. You cannot be spending our monies and we don't know what you're using it for if it's for your own personal gain or if it's for your own personal pursuit of success or it is just your own personal being frivolous, right? You cannot be using taxpayers' money to buy 160 million-dollar SUVs. You cannot be using taxpayers' money to buy a presidential yacht. You can't be using taxpayers' money to just renovate. Fine, I mean, you should renovate the wherever you're staying because it's a government house. However, you need to be prudent with such monies because a lot of people are suffering in Nigeria. So you cannot be taking the money, monies that are meant for everyone to at least get the basic amenities. You're using that for something else. So we need transparency. We need clarity. We need to know what this money has been used for. In fact, why do you need the money? First, why the secrecy? Why are you keeping the money or why are you actually asking for money that we cannot tell what you're going to use the money for? And then you just go ahead and you spend it? You need to report to the citizens of Nigeria because we, I want to believe, we elected you in. So you are there to serve. You're not just there for your own personal ambition. You're there to serve. And so, I mean, could us to serve up?  And yes, we demand, we demand some form of transparency. All right. That's it on our top trending stories. We'll go on a short break. And when we return, we'll be looking at what the national dailies are saying this morning in off the press. Please stay with us.


I'm our Vice President Kashim Shatima, Implossed Graduate of the Nigerian Police Academy to uphold the tenet inherent in contemporary policing while steadfastly eschewing the enticements of corruption. He affirmed confidence in the capabilities of the graduates who he said have been extensively trained to ensure security within the country. There is intensive efforts to introduce packages of engineering, programs in French, education, terminology and security studies, accurate science and kick-start postgraduate programs and the center for the study of police and policing. Moreover, with the provision of well-equipped modern forensic laboratory by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the academy has brought to limelight its dream of providing effective training in the field of forensic technology which is widely required in modern day policy.


What is up everyone welcome to a brand new stream. I told you guys this that I would either be doing a live Reaction to the Oscar winners either yesterday night or today But I thought I'd sit on it and sit on some of these winners and see what other Records come out, but this is gonna be nice to see nice to talk to you guys Now let me make sure the audio is all working Oscar awesome awesome the Oscars are working the Oscars are working So I know this is live so if you catch this later awesome if you're watching it now awesome I'm gonna give it a couple. I'm gonna just get pretty much straight into this pretty fast I like to see some people are joined Terrence is here. What is up Terrence? Like I said, feel free to join in feel free to share this video feel free to please like this video And also hit that subscribe button if you're new and you want to be talking more Oscars movies because I love talking movies Um while I'm waiting for people. I'm really gonna get into I'm gonna give it like two minutes So 317 my time I'm gonna get into what is coming up for my channel for the month of March I am going to do a March update video tomorrow But just to get you guys in the know what is it gonna be going on this weekend? So I have four screeners to go to this week. So so I got So I think today. I'm going to see the strangers pray at night Tuesday, I'm going to see wrinkle in time Wednesday. I'm seeing gringo and Thursday. I'm seeing Isle of Dogs I'm so freaking pumped for that movie not even joking like I'm so excited for all these films. Um, I Have some weird temper toward gringo. I hope it's funny and I'm really excited for wrinkle in time surprisingly Oh, nice to have you in here Scott Sullivan. Oh, you might have to push that back that screen dude So you can watch this one then we'll go watch yours But yeah, so we got one more minute waiting for other people to join I see we got six people in here make sure to comment down below so I can shout you guys out if you're here But yeah, I'm wearing my pulp fiction shirt today. This is Oscar nominated film as well techno drone. Hi Zach How are you? I'm doing great. How are you techno? But yeah, this is gonna be this gonna be a lot of fun. I got the Oscar winners projected over here I got my mic going and got pretty much a ton of things going on This is gonna be a nice discussion talking Oscars and of course after I do give all my Oscar talk What I want you guys to do is I'm gonna say the winner I'm gonna go through the nominations who I would have liked to win who I'm glad who am I happy that the person One did someone get snubbed and then that's how we're gonna go through a Terence when does Isle of Dogs come out Isle of Dogs comes out on March 23rd if I'm to be exact. I think it's the same weekend as Pacific Rim I don't even think I can really review the film until a couple days before then but still I've heard it's gone a lot of good buzz So I'm really excited to see it But yeah, so we're 317 looks like we're gonna start the stream nice to see you guys again But let's get going So we're gonna go pretty much in the order that they announced the awards Take a drum working on videos as surprise you'll have to wait but see but I promise it'll be marvelous can't wait to see it But starting for the first war that they gave out is supporting actor best supporting actor and the nominees were Sam Rock Well for three billboards outside ebbing, Missouri Willem Dafoe for the Florida project Woody Harrelson for three billboards outside ebbing, Missouri Richard Jenkins for the shape of water Christopher Plummer for all the money in the world now here I would have easily taken out Christopher Plummer and moved in a call me by your name either Michael Suellenberg or army hammer into that spot But looking at this who do I think who won Sam Rockwell won and deservedly so I think Sam Rockwell He's the one of the best parts about that whole film and I he really Transformed into that role of that cop and I think this is Sam Rockwell's best performance to date I think he's been one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood for a very very long time So I was really happy to see that he won I was honestly a little bit surprised because I thought there was an outside shot that one The foe was gonna get in there and when even though Sam Rockwell has been winning every other award he was going up against Woody Harrelson and I Really do think that there was a tough spot that will the folk could have won the Florida Florida project But I'm really happy that Sam Rockwell ended up winning I know some of you guys in the chat are saying Patrick Stewart should have been nominated So Patrick Stewart would have been great, but I think this was a really stacked year for this I think Plummer is the only one I would have really taken out Richard Jenkins was fantastic Woody Harrelson was really good too I mean he could have gone back and forth with you taking him or saw him Rockwell out and like I said Will the foe is great, but I'm really happy Sam Rockwell won at the end of the day and looking at this over here Hey Thomas and I see you in here man. Hey, there's like this year's Academy Awards had far too many snubs for me So for me it was pretty good. It was very predictable in a sense But yeah, let's move on to makeup and hairstyling now We have the nominees were the darkest hour Victorian a duel and wonder now I actually had a Victorian a duel get winning this because I didn't finish the film But just looking at it with the makeup and hairstyle was great I mean darkest hour deservedly so wanted. I mean You don't even see Gary oldman You see Winston Churchill and that's just some fantastic makeup But let's go over to the most most no shit winner of the night and that is costume design for phantom thread phantom thread one Beauty and the Beast was a little bit any good one a darkest hour shape of water and Victoria duel I think it was really between shape of water Victoria duel or phantom thread for this one and deservedly so phantom The movie that's about clothing one so so any more that we can say to that I think you guys will probably all agree in here as well Documentary feature a Chris one. I know I need to watch that section on Netflix. I've heard it's incredible So I need to watch that a sound editing the nominees were Dunkirk baby driver blade runner 2049 The shape of water in Star Wars the last Jedi so in the end of the day Dunkirk one I think a lot of people were honestly thinking that baby driver a blade runner might have had a shot at winning this But I think in the end of the day Dunkirk wins the reason I think Dunkirk won this is because well the sound for Dunkirk is Incredible it's one of the best sounds mixing and editing I've ever seen in any type of film and I think Dunkirk is an incredible pick for this I think it really it really makes what the film is even if you don't like it Don't get me wrong if they would have said baby driver. I would have freaked out and been so happy Looks like we got a EJ is in here. What's up Zack? And I see you in here, man Technodrive really wanted the to see shape water, but I couldn't damn well Hopefully you get to round to seeing it soon. The shape water is a great movie Moving on to the next one that is sound mixing the nominees were Dunkirk baby driver 2049 Shape of water in Star Wars the last Jedi now These are still same thing as the last one and Dunkirk one again again same exact examples that I'll say Dunkirk deserved this one But I would have been very happy to see baby driver win the same thing because I think it all works in the end of the day Now we're moving on to production design and this was a close one I had shape of water winning this but it could have easily gone to Dunkirk or Blade Runner 2049 But the nominees were the shape of water the beauty in the beast blade runner 2049 darkest hour and Dunkirk now Looking at all these films production design any of these films could be easily one any of them Flat out any of them could have won, but I think the deserved winner was shape of water I think shape of water is such a fantastic Fantastic film from top to bottom, but the production design in that film is out of this world I mean don't get me wrong all these other films had great production design. There's something special about shape of water I do see Sean Foley just joined so nice to have you in here, man You just didn't really miss anything. We've just going over in order what movies won and yeah It's nice to have you in here John Make sure hit that like button and sir comment down below when I get to the nominees that you guys want to talk about and Also for people who are watching this live make sure to leave when I get towards the end I'm gonna remind you guys leave some questions leave some stuff that you guys want me to answer that are Oscar related It can be towards anything that's Oscar related This is an all Oscar discussion of course for the results on the 2018 Oscars, but moving from there I think production design shape of water is a good choice foreign language film a fantastic woman I didn't see it. I did see the square, but I didn't get to see a fantastic woman Best supporting actress my girl Allison Janie won this but the nominees were for this Allison Janie for I Tonya Mary J. Blige for mudbound Leslie Manville for a phantom thread Laurie Metcalf for Ladybird and Octavia Spencer for the shipwater So personally, I probably would have taken out Octavia Spencer out of there and threw in Tatiana Masalani for a stronger in there I thought she gave an overall probably my third favorite performance for a best supporting actress this year Maybe even my second I thought she was great and fantastic and stronger But looking at this Allison Janie was the star when she was fantastic Laurie Metcalf would have been a nice winner in there as well But I think Allison Janie was so freaking good in I Tonya She stole every single scene from every other character in there and I she was so fantastic in I Tonya And I she deservedly win it and looking over here I'm pretty sure a lot of you guys will be seeing the same second run I was ready to buy a shotgun a baby baby boss baby one best anime feature Well, we'll get to that soon EJ.  Yeah, so was I we'll get to their soon But yeah, overall really happy Allison Janie one I think a lot of us kind of thought she was but I know there was an hour So I thought shot that maybe Lori Metcalf might might win But looking at animated short not really gonna throw any of these I saw Lou and I'm actually looking I'm actually gonna look for dear basketball. I actually had Lou or garden party winning this But I mean Kobe Bryant sound Oscar winner who would have known Best anime feature. This is the one you guys want to talk about the nominees were Coco the boss Baby the bread winner Ferdinand and loving Vincent now I Think everyone guessed Coco was gonna win Don't get me wrong. There's a part of me that said, you know what the boss might be might end up winning But it didn't thank God. Thank God it didn't the bread winner and loving Vincent would have been two nice ones And if they would have won I would not have thrown a tantrum over because if you haven't seen loving Vincent The way that the animation is made in there deserves an award just by itself. It is amazing, but I don't get me wrong I'm so happy to see Coco one. I know some people find it to be a very overrated film I don't I've watched it three or four times now, and I absolutely adore Coco I think it's one of the best films to come out last year I would have even made a range to say it should be nominated for best picture It was that good and I'm guessing a lot of you guys probably be saying the same thing I was one way with Allison Janney's performance. My goodness EJ says Coco was so happy that it won I'm very happy to and Surprising is the director of that also made choice or three and he won for choice or three as well for best enemy feature So that's awesome the guys two word to Oscar a winner. So that's really nice Now this is where I think we get to the first snub of the Oscars. This is really the only snub I can say and This is for visual a flex and the nominees were Blade Runner 2049 Guardians of the Galaxy volume to Kong skull Island Star Wars the last Jedi and war for the planet the apes and the winner was Blade Runner 2049 and don't get me wrong I think Blade Runner 2049 is one of the best-looking films and also one of the best seamlessly flawless CGI films The thing with this film though is War for the planet apes should have won it because almost every shot in War for the planet apes is visual effects Every shot at almost every shot and the fact that you don't you it's seamlessly you don't see monkeys You you don't see CGI monkeys. You see actual monkeys I don't know if the Academy thought they were real monkeys or something But or the planet apes never won the whole trilogy never won and it's insane to me It should have won for this year and I think the top it was the best thing here Well looking over here. We got Cocoa was such a masterpiece. I'm glad it won I was really worried about this boss baby ended up winning because Bob's easy was on my top five worst 2017 thing same here Oh, I almost sideways is here nice to have you in here out of many thoughts on J having to shave his head I cannot wait to see that video if you guys don't know J Vaters and almost sideways made a bet to whoever lost in the Oscar predictions. They had to shave the other person's head. That's gonna be a very entertaining video on Norville's nightmare. Hello there Love the shirt. Thanks, dude got it for my work a couple months back a techno drone Adam Why because he had a few as pics? NBA 73 I'm at work. So can't chat but I love listening to your thoughts Hey, thank you. Thanks NBA for 73 for joining in make sure to come back later comment down below and let me know your thoughts EJ definitely agree with war for the planet apes should have known Jumple I didn't see war planets. Hey, dude, you should really check that whole trilogy out fantastic It is a really well-made trilogy. Did it make you my top 10 last year? But I really like that film. I really really really liked war for the planet. It's my personal favorite still Don for the planet apes. Yes, I have it right here and I actually have the whole trilogy sitting right over here So that's nice, but going up to the next we got film editing and the nominees were Dunkirk Baby driver I Tanya the shape of water or three billboards outside ebbing, Missouri now Winner again Dunkirk I think for this one though baby drivers that I would have personally picked baby I've given the editing of Dunkirk is the reason that Dunkirk works on an overall level But I personally would have gone with baby driver I think baby driver had overall the best editing throughout the whole year and then I probably would have picked I Tanya and then Dunkirk, but I do understand why Dunkirk won for this award just because Dunkirk if that movie wasn't edited the way it was with the three different story lines finally proceeding towards one Second of the film it wouldn't have worked the film would it kind of not been the way it was and I know some people don't like the film But it really works for that level of the caliber that it went for and from looking over here Baby driver got Rob that I agree with you baby driver. I wouldn't have been surprised. I was kind of cheering for it I wish baby driver one two EJ says Norville war for the planet Seems like a clear effects would win for me same But yeah, moving from film editing documentary short subject heaven is traffic jam on 405 one I didn't see it so can't talk about live-action short film the silent child one can't talk about it But we do get to adapted screenplay which the nominees were call me by your name the disaster artist Logan Molly's game and mudbound now all of these don't get me wrong. I would have loved to see Logan win But for me call me by your name one and I think all me by your name deserves it James I've read crafted such a fantastic script in this and all these this was a really tough year for depth of screenplay because I could Have made a thing for mudbound the re's winning it would have been nice to see an African-American Female win and even Virgil Williams as a part of that script us Aaron Sorkin could have done it from Molly's game Logan anyway any of these films you could have made a thing saying it deserves a nomination But in the end of the day call me by your name is easily probably the safest choice for this It is the best choice and James. I every seriously crafted something so special that it felt so humane that you were actually on this There with them in the movie. It was something that the director captured perfectly on the screen and Looking over here a lot of you guys are still talking about war for planet abes EJ I need to see call me by your name. I hope you get to see it soon because it is fantastic Now we move on to original screenplay was just probably my favorite win of the night and that is a get out One Jordan peel one, but we'll get to that in a second the other nominees were three billboards outside ebbing, Missouri The big sick Emily v. Gordon and Kumal non Gianni.  I've retweeted about Jordan peel winning It is it really makes me a really happy see him one a Three billboards outside ebbing, Missouri was another clear original screenplay that would have been not been surprised But my favorite script actually out of all these is the big sick that personally would have been my choice I was voting for the Oscars I would have voted for the big sick the big sick was my favorite film of last year and come on Emily Developed such a fantastic script that brings together. I think cultures and families all unique a ladybird was a great script director Written by Greta Gerwig and the shape of water is I mean the great shipwater was fantastic Going to cinematography the nominees were Blade Runner 2049 the darkest hour Dunkirk mudbound in the shape of water now This was a tough category. I was very nervous when they were about the non-stop But then our man Deacons finally won after 14 nominations the guy won for Blade Runner 2049 And I am so happy that Roger Deacons happened to have won. I think he deserved it I could have made I think the other two choices I would have been really happy with winning would probably be my down mudbound for Rachel Morrison because she's the first female to ever be nominated for cinematography and I mean mudbound is a Fantastic looking movie who have not checked out my bound yet. Please don't watch it. It's a great movie It's on Netflix. You have no choice if you have Netflix You're literally just making up excuses for right now and then the shape of water Dan Dan with twisty scene I could have made a thing for him shape of water is one of the most beautiful looking films as well But for me Blade Runner was the clear winner Blade Runner is the most visually appealing film of last year It was literally a art on the screen. It was it was so good-looking I'm looking over here. A lot of you guys are super happy with Blade Runner and it was it's great to see Deacons win I was really happy to see that but now we move on to original score Which is probably the toughest year for scores every single film that was nominated for a score I'm not gonna lie every film that was nominated for a score. Honestly deserve this score So the nominees were shape of the shape of water Star Wars the last Jedi Dunkirk Phantom Thread and three bowboards outside ebbing, Missouri and the winner of this was the shape of water Deservedly so it is my favorite score of the last three years that I've ever seen in a film The only thing I probably would have taken out of this film or out of the score I probably would have taken out Star Wars the last Jedi doing wrong. I like to score But I would have honestly moved in war for the planet apes. I thought the score for war for the planet apes was like One again another one of the best score I thought last year we had some of the best scores I've ever seen in any films and heard in any films that just went along with the whole film in general the shape of water The score is so unique Don't get me wrong. I would have really been happy of Dunkirk one. I think the score works for that as well I think Phantom Thread I think it was really between Phantom Thread and shape of water for the score though Phantom Thread has such a haunting score, but shape of water is just it's something special for some reason and looking over here We all almost sideways it's it's awesome get out also one best picture and best director of the Spirit Film Awards That's very true really like that indie awards on Saturday Almost sideways. I will love to see my bound win almost sideways. It's a shame He didn't win for assassination of Jesse James because that's what I feel was his best work Hey, honestly, you're right on that. I think that is probably his best work Ej, I love the score and shape of water gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it Same I'm the same way with you guys on that one Tough tough category All right moving on to original song the nominees were remember me Mighty River mystery of love stand up for something and this is me from the greatest show now This is a tough category. Um stand up for something. I could it's gone and given away with I liked it was fine I like that one. It's fine, but for me The mystery of love mighty river If I was go through these so that the winner was remember me from Coco not my favorite song from Coco But it's the most emotional song in the movie. I mean remember me is a fantastic part of the song. My personal favorite is El Polo, but uh Remember me one. I thought it was gonna be this is me that would have won But I think the thing is this is a great show that has so many great songs I would have honestly this is me is not their best song. I would have personally slid in The the magical one that they sing the beginning The Hugh Jackman and his wife sing in the beginning when they're dancing So I thought that was one of the best songs in there or the other side was that kept running to jackman I thought that was the other one in there But really remember me comes out on top doing wrong would have loved the mystery of love when I've been listening to that Like the last few days and I'm like man. This film is really hard Almost I was almost awesome to see one of the lead men from nine-inch males get nominated for fan of threats score Hey, that's awesome. You're totally right on that one and cynical dread. Nice to have you in here, dude Now we move on to some of the last few categories and the nominees are for the best director is Del Toro for the shape of water Nolan for Dunkirk Get out for Jordan Peele labor Greta Gerwig and Phantom Thread Paul Thomas Anderson. So I would have honestly Taken out Phantom Thread. I would have honestly taken out Phantom Thread. I didn't think that was PTA's best work I would have moved in Denis Villeneuve Or even I would have moved in. Oh damn it. I'm on name Martin McDowell for three billboards. Those are the two I would have switched in there Most likely Martin McDowell would have moved in there over PTA. I don't think that was his best film still a great It's not a good film. I just I don't think it was his best directed film But best director. I mean the shape del Toro comes out on top. I'm so ecstatic for del Toro It was the happiest when I think of the night Del Toro is like the best friend you want to have and just love and just hug and just talk movies and creativity with him I I cannot would see what del Toro does next after the shape of water I think the other clear winner that could have easily won is Nolan. I think this is Nolan's best director film And again, I cannot would see what no one does next Peele and Gerwig would have been in great solid choices as well If they would have won I would have been happy as well, but honestly del Toro winning like made my heart so so happy Now we move on to best actor and this is coming out to be Gary Oldman for the darkest hour Timothy Shalemann for call me by your name Daniel Day-Lewis for the phantom thread Daniel Kahlua for get out and Denzel Washington for Roman J. Israel Esquire Now I would have moved out Roman I would have moved out Denzel Washington good performance, but I wouldn't have moved it out And I would have slid right in right there to be my man my good man I wouldn't actually moved in three of these people Charlie Hanham for lost city of z Robert Pattinson for good time Or Jake Gyllenhaal for stronger either of those three would have worked for me. I I could even make a 10 for only the brave I'm surprised only the brave didn't get any nominations at all But uh, yeah, no, so for best actor Gary Oldman won It was pretty much a lock But I think there was some things that Daniel Day-Lewis or Timothy Shalemann might take it away from him I think Gary Oldman is a fantastic actor and Hollywood put away all the controversy besides him I think Gary Oldman really delved deep into Winston Churchill and the guy deserved it He I did not even notice the guy Looking at Timothy Shalemann. I would have that was my personal pick for this I would have loved to see Timothy Shalemann win. Of course is Daniel Day-Lewis's Last performance. I don't really believe that but he was fantastic. I mean everyone in here was great I would just move really I would have moved out Denzel Washington move someone else And they were really happy to see Gary Oldman win and looking over here John fully I haven't seen any in pta's films outside of fam thread pta's a very Different director. I'll just say that let's say the least Ej the fact that Martin McDowell wasn't on for best director is just unfair I mean three of his actors were nominated, but the director wasn't well. It's kind of like the year argo Ben Affleck didn't get nominated. He even won the dga and didn't get nominated Um, ej james fringley. Yeah, I'm still bummed out that he didn't get nominated But congrats the shape of water four of the last five director winners have been from Mexico That is like my favorite thing to hear is that del Toro and like the last four five directors have been from Mexico That is the three of me goes right there. I saw someone post that But now we move up to best actress which for me This is probably the most stacked category of the year And the nominees were francis mcdorman for three billboards outside ebbing missouri sally hawkins for the shape of water margot robbie for itania Source errone for lady bird and meryl sheet for the post my personal choice margot robbie or sally hawkins I think margot robbie probably gave single handling the best performance of this year I think itonia was so snubbed in a bunch of categories and it should have been nominated for even best picture and best Script, but we'll get to that in a second francis mcdorman one francis mcdorman deserved it. I mean it was really a three I I would say it's margot robbie sally hawkins or mcdormans year. They were all gray source of rome Was great. I think she was a little bit better in brooklyn uh streeps, of course going to get nominated but uh, yeah poof I mean sally hawkins was fantastic in the shape of water margot robbie and itonia was great and francis mcdorman in general for Three billboards outside ebbing missouri was Fantastic. I think she gave probably the best speech of the night My personal favorite though was actually del toros for uh We'll talk about that in a second for what it might have won. But uh, yeah francis mcdorman was fantastic I loved her speech and I see over here almost sideways says the same thing that mcdorman's speech was fantastic It really was but now we get to the last big category of the night And this is best picture and the nominees were the shape of water call me by your name the darkest hour Dunkirk get out Ladybird phantom thread the post and three billboards outside ebbing missouri now before I get into this Make sure to leave some questions into the chat if you want if you're watching this live I want me to talk some oscar stuff just oscar questions purely if you put something else in there I'm gonna be honest. I'm probably not gonna read it. I'm just talking to oscar's if you guys have any questions If not, we'll go straight to it. I'll show you guys my twitter page that I think it's pretty entertaining Of what's been I've been tweeting a ton of stuff from it. I want to show you guys some of these things But uh, yeah shape of water came on top I was so happy to see the shape of water win. I didn't think it was going to win I honestly think it was going to come out to be between get out and three billboards I had three billboards winning would have been really excited to get out win But shape of water I was even more excited to win because I was very surprised that shape of water was going to win Because it did beat this one thing is that it was not Nominated for the sag assembly award Which every single best picture movie has been nominated for it except brave heart Which was like 24 years ago And the fact that shape of water beat those odds was fantastic It beat a ton of odds to get best picture and that just makes me happy to see shape of water Ended up winning in the end of the day. Call me by your name. I could have easily won dunkirk I think he did it easily been the other winner three billboards Really, I honestly would have just taken out darkest out of a fan thread and moved in um blade runner in itania in there But I was really Really really really happy to see in the end of the day shape of water one I del Toro was great. I'm going to show you guys a little thing that he did over on twitter in a second Let's see tecno drone if you could have put any non drama movie at least best picture Which one would you put um not excluding the ones I just named I would probably have moved in um Logan easily I think Logan was the best film of last year indefinitely And it it should have been nominated for more but it really was this was a really stacked year But guys so i'm going to go over to my twitter I'm going to share my screen to show you guys some of the stuff over here. So Let's see All right. All right. All right. All right Wait, hi Stop presenting Let me see how I do this I'm trying to share my screen to you guys Do do do do here we go Share screen There we go. All right. So this is obviously my twitter page So I wanted to go through some of the things over here. Let me see what you guys are saying really fast I feel shape water adam from almost I would say is I feel shape water was good But winning best picture is a surprise might be like bird man from a few years ago Good movie just not one of the best picture see but I i'm different on that I think shape water was one of the best films of this year and I also think bird man deserved it I love bird man. That is one of my favorite films of all time I I love bird man the way it was directed and just everything in general was fantastic ej But you'd like to see disaster artists get more nominations absolutely I really do think a lot of it played into um Um The whole controversy with um, james franco Logan isn't my top three favorite comic book movies behind watchman and dark knight deserve more nominations Yeah, I agree on that. All right. So just looking at all these. That's a cool little embaku thing um So this is one of my favorite things right here pick of the day. We'll look at this really fast So pick of the day right here Jordan peel Michael key I I love this picture.  That was great Um, I love hearing this remember Jordan peel says he quit writing get out 20 different times Then he finished it and then he won an oscar that is probably one of my favorite things right here is just reading this because the fact is is that It get out is such a it shows you never give up on your dreams Um, now I really like this one. We'll look at this. Um, you kind of just see Him going up and this is something I do want to say is I love his speech that he actually gives for this I I think it's one of the best speeches of the night And I say that for a lot of reason just for the fact that that speech is fantastic in so many different ways And I I absolutely love that speech in general But also looking out before we move down a little more a little plugin right here Sweet film podcast star today that is in the link below go check it out It's me and cody you can pretty much it gets us into what got us in the movies Oh, I love this one Uh, Jordan peels look of happy and disbelief keegan michael keys reactions to him winning are two of the best things I've seen it here in a very long time Look at this. Look at these two beautiful But look how happy is that's the type of friend I want in my life Not even gonna say I I love that and almost I always oh, I agree just not staying power I can get that part. I can get that part Adam, but yeah, I love I love his disbelief. He's so shocked. I'm sure a lot of people are shocked I was a stacked category this year But I mean look at that. Look how happy he is for him Um, I love this. This is one of my favorite things when you have when you have to double check We see you real gt. Well played oscars. Look at him. He grabs it. Yeah, it's right. Yeah, it's right. I love that Us. These were really good interviews. I really recommend seeing all these post interviews I love what del Toro says. This is the door kick it open and come in to young filmmakers I love that. It's just so inspiring and pretty much you can go from there the same thing I have retweeted this thing quite a few times because I found it to be entertaining I love del Toros for this reason. I chris stuck when you see right here. You check the envelope Uh, don't get me wrong.  I swear to get out where three billboards had it But I'm so happy and I mean if you even look down. I actually had a um poll going Get out with three billboards and people voted for three billboards to win so It's very it's very it's very sing I like kumal tween the big stick came in second really just a lot of fun things I love this scene by the way from this um, but overall I really I really really really liked everything that happened during the Oscars I think this was a great year for the Oscars. It really is like a little Christmas celebration for me. Uh, so I think that's where I'm going to end the stream guys This was a ton of fun. Make sure to share the stream make sure to like and subscribe Especially if you're new make sure to subscribe to Sam or Sean films down below Check out also that new podcast like you saw on my twitter page And I hope you guys like these type of videos like I said I'm going to try to do more live streams when I'm not like busy if news comes up I want to start doing more live streams kind of do different types of videos on here I think live streams are a new unique way that I can interact with you guys and do a ton of other things But really this is gonna be a ton of fun. I know you guys are all the best I I love all the support you guys give me and until next time of course stay classy


Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is a real pleasure to be here today. Great traffic coming up. This facility is just amazing, so it's just absolutely wonderful and great to be with all of you here today. I hope you feel like I do about this event and about the Institute's programs in general. And that is except, of course, when we turn ourselves our attention to the news of the day, the media of the day. You know, and I shouldn't be surprised, right? You know, being up here on stage, you know, this is what I do for a living, so when I pick up the Wall Street Journal or I'm listening to Bloomberg, I should realize that I'm going to be fed a story about the economy and about fed policy and all of that. So you think that, you know, if I'm up here on stage, I should know what I'm doing and I shouldn't be surprised at the news. But tell you the truth, ladies and gentlemen, it makes me feel like Chris Rock. Now my talk today is on the Fed and how COVID unleashed the Fed. But I want to state the basic premise, the basic conclusion of my talk, which is that the Fed is the single cause of inflation. They are the ones responsible for causing inflation. And that is their goal is to increase inflation. Now, of course, they don't want consumer price inflation, but that's the inevitable result of them printing up essentially printing up trillions of dollars of new money and injecting it into the economy and in effect handing it out to their friends and to the government. But we have known. We have known for well over 400 years since the Spanish came to the new world and brought back all the gold and silver that adding new money into a monetized economy doesn't really do the overall economy any good. It changes the numbers and it read it. We're gonna see it redistributes wealth in society, but it doesn't do any good. I mean, that was the first real lesson of economics by the Spanish scholastics and then later the European Enlightenment Economist, David Hume and the philosophers, they all knew that any amount of money was good enough for an economy. You didn't have to increase it. It didn't need to be expanded. It could be, but it didn't need to be the mercantilist of the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th centuries and really right on up to today. They thought that money was wealth. The more money you could accumulate, the more wealthy you work. But economics. If it's done one thing and it's done it for a long time, it's that increasing the money supply is not necessary and it's actually very bad for the economy. And I want to review some of the bad things because we're just gonna be talking about what the Fed's been doing. But what's the ultimate impact? Okay, the first thing I've already mentioned is price inflation. This is what gets reported in the consumer price inflation that you may hear about or read about. Obviously, it's been in the news lately given that the consumer price index is up 7% over the last period over the last year. But Austrians look at a lot of different prices, not just consumer prices. We look at land prices, real estate prices, stock and bond prices, wage rates in all the various professions. We want to know what's going on economy wide, whereas the Fed, the government and the mainstream media want you fixated on that consumer price index. The second thing that the Fed does in manipulating the money supply and the interest rate is it causes the business cycle. Now, if you're reading about the Fed and the economy in the mainstream media, they're always talking about fixing the business cycle or controlling the business cycle or alleviating unemployment, things of that nature. But they're at a fundamental level. They're the ones that causes this instability in our economy that causes the booms and the busts. And finally, of the three major things that the monetary inflation from the Fed causes is it redistributes wealth from the productive productive sector and the productive people in economy to the government and to their friends. Basically, when the Fed is in the business of printing up money, it's basically buying up the government bonds where our government has gone into debt. And they're just electronically printing up money to taking that government debt off of the table. And it allows government to spend more money than they otherwise could through taxation. So as we're preparing our taxes and getting mad about the whole thing, we don't actually see the full bill of government because it's borrowing trillions of dollars every year trillions of dollars. The CPI that I mentioned just a minute ago is really the ultimate effect. So the money goes into the government. The government spends it on itself. It spends it on its contractors. It spends it on its friends. And so it gets to spend the money first and then as the money trickles down through the economy and it ends up in our pockets one way or the other. And we start to spend it. That consumer price inflation starts to go up. So that's really the last and ultimate thing. And it misses the whole story of what's going on because they're only looking at these general aggregate statistics like CPI, gross domestic product, the unemployment rate and things of that nature. Austrians always look at the statistics underneath these aggregate statistics so that we can tell or at least have some insight into the direction that the economy is and where it's heading. Now I want to talk about the Fed as a confidence game. Now this is something that actually they actually use this phrase. There was there's a big article in the Atlantic magazine about the Fed going into the COVID crisis and what they thought and what they expected and what was you know what was at risk and how they needed to restore confidence. And when you when it's put that way restoring confidence, it sounds like a good thing, but it's actually just a scam. It's actually just a scam that's perpetuated onto the American public on an ongoing basis for now over a century. Austrians have looked into this aspect of the Fed looked at it critically and you know basically Larry White an Austrian economist published an article where he looked at the Federal Reserve's influence on economic research. And what he found was that virtually all of the leading macroeconomist and monetary economist in the economy were all on the Fed's payroll. They were at either working at the Fed or they held temporary positions at the Fed or they were a member of the Fed leadership or they were they were leading people in terms of editing the leading academic journals. So they have a stranglehold on academic research as far as most people would see about the economy and he published that in 2005. George Selgen with straps and Larry White also published an article on has the Fed been a failure and they used the weakest possible criteria and they found that the Fed still was a failure over the previous regulatory regimes and other national central banks. And of course on Mises.org we published something almost virtually every day about the wayward activities of the Federal Reserve. Their failures, their misguided policies and their misguided statements about the economy. I put a lot of those together in the third item. The Federal Reserve is a confidence game which I gave in 2010. It was updated and published in 2016 in the quarterly review of Austrian economics and I looked at what the Fed was saying. They're published statements right. What they told the public and basically in 2007, which is the year between the housing bubble in 2006 and the financial crisis in 2008 and in 2007 they said that everything was great. That all of these new all this new financial engineering mortgage backed securities credit default swaps all of that was great. And they were telling that to conventions of the people who manage the people who manage your funds. So I've come to believe that whatever the Fed says, whatever the Fed does, yes, it's designed to build confidence, but that confidence is misplaced. It's really a confidence game meant to dupe you out of more and more of your hard earnings, hard work and accumulated assets. Now, in a lot of this, you know, it's an I'm talking about history here and I'm going to be specifically talking about 2019. But all of this stuff is eerily the same as it is right now. So it might get a little confusing there. But in general, the Fed wants to be seen as an inflation fighter. And the Fed is now fighting inflation. If you listen to the news about the economy, the Fed is talking about tapering and tightening and normalizing raising interest rates, you know, all of this talk. And in more recent days, it's actually about things like, Well, this Fed president says he wants to raise it a quarter percent interest. And this fellow in the president in St. Louis wants to raise it a half a percent. And somebody, another president wants to raise it a full percent. So we're getting bombarded if you're listening, which I'm not necessarily recommending. But if you are listening, that's what they're telling you. They're telling you they're really concerned. They're really hard at work. And they're going to tighten no matter what happens to their own personal reputation. So it's tough talk. But that's all it is. You know, one of the things we're also here today is that, Well, the Fed has to tighten because Russia is causing the inflation. Okay. Little teeny Russia. It's big in terms of land, but it's not that big of an economy. It's not well integrated into the world economy. It's basically a raw material producer, mining oil, that sort of thing. And yet the Fed and the mainstream media media is blaming our inflation on Russia. Now, that's easily disabused. If you go to look at the charts of raw materials, you know, grains and meats, metals, you know, sugar, coffee, cotton, all of those charts, what you'll see is that Russia is hardly a blimp on those charts. In other words, they're already looking like this so that the price of all of the raw materials in our economy, say the top 40 top raw materials, they're all looking like this. They've all increased over the last two years by 60, 80, 100%. And then at the very end, you can find some charts since the Russian invasion, where the price of something has risen really noticeably. It's not on that trend anymore. So oil prices have risen above the trend and wheat prices have risen above the trend. And for all those nickel consumers out there, yes, nickel has risen above the trend, but all the rest of them are either on trend or below trend. So if you look at the facts, Russia essentially has done little to add to the inflation that we feel, the inflation that we drive by at the pump. I also want to mention the 2% target, which has been fed talk for a long time. You know, the Fed has been below target for several years now. And they're worried about getting to the target and, you know, regular people like us are wondering, well, why do they why are they worried about getting inflation up to a certain level? Well, that's because it benefits the Fed. It benefits the government, but it's absolutely not necessary that the Fed generate 2% CPI inflation. That whole idea of a target dates back a few decades. When inflation is really high in a lot of countries around the world and central banks innovated by with this 2% target. And they would say, you know, I know our currency is a mess, but we promise you not to go above 2% inflation. And it took them many years to get it down to 2%. But the whole purpose of the target was to con us into thinking that all these central banks had sworn off inflation that they had sworn off depreciating their currency. And then they found themselves below it. And they've been fighting to get above it ever since. And the whole narrative has basically changed. Now, we almost got back to normal. In 2019, the Fed told us it was going to return to normal. It said that it was going to raise interest rates, that it was going to taper its quantitative easing program. Taper means that it was going to reduce its quantitative easing, which meant that it was going to buy fewer assets out of the economy. And so we got a lot of talk about this return to normalcy almost daily. It was talking about, you know, tightening and returning to normal, you know, things of that like that. In the pre COVID days, as the COVID numbers started to tail off, they needed a new playbook. And that playbook was a return to normal. But that didn't last very long. They got very nervous almost as soon as they started this return to normal policy, they became very, very nervous. And one thing that happened in 2019 that I was noticing was that the help wanted ads in 2019 were increasing at a very high rate. Okay. And they were increasing throughout the year, which said, not only is the economy returning to normal, but it was looking like it might be quote, overheating in terms of people getting better jobs, you know, we can't allow that for people to get jobs and to get better jobs. And so the Fed didn't like that. And we actually got a peak in help wanted ads in December of 2019, which goes hand in hand with the fact that we got a new record. Just this past week in new job openings in the economy. Back in December of 2019, the new record was 7.3 million. The new record this past week was over 11 million jobs out there available being advertised. But underneath that help wanted aggregate number. There was a couple of important micro numbers and one that I keep an eye on is the number of help wanted ads in the mining and timber industry. And mining and timber is kind of like the start of economic production. Okay.  Everything we basically consume is ultimately made with the assistance or actually made from the stuff we dig up, the stuff we cut down and the stuff we plow and plant and harvest. And that number peaked earlier in July of 19 of 2019. And then subsequently it fell by 72%. So there was rumblings underneath the economy that things weren't as good as they might have appeared. And then we got an inverted yield curve in the economy in August of 2019. And an inverted yield curve is just simply the fact that short term rates in the economy, say, alone for one year or two years or a bond for one year or two years is paying a higher interest rate than alone or a bond that's of a 10 year duration or a 15 year duration. So it's basically when short term rates rise above long term rates and that's a signal that a recession is on its way. This is very much the help wanted stuff is typical and normal in a business cycle. The inverted yield curve is typical and expected in a business cycle in a market economy. So this was not dire news. This was expected news. In other words, if the Fed is supposedly tightening, yes, the economy is is going to show it's the bad investments that were made during the boom. And then in September of 2019, there was a problem in the money market, money market funds and just short term borrowing and lending in the economy. Um and there was a big spike in the interest rates on that short term money. As a matter of fact, the the the feds target at the time for short term money was 2.4%. And we'll look at that historically in just a minute, but their target at the time was 2.4%. And then all of a sudden, because they don't actually control everybody in this marketplace, there was a jump up to over 5% in this market. That was unexpected. It went totally against the feds playbook. Uh and they were scared basically, but it wasn't really unexpected. It was just simply a case where the supply of loanable funds by the fed and in the market was falling and the demand for loanable funds in the market was rising. And so naturally you get spikes in the interest rate. So all three of those things and there's others were expected and normal. If you understand the fact that the fed causes a business cycle and that every boom is going to be followed by a bust or recession. But the fed panic. It acted quickly. It acted aggressively. It bought government bonds and other bonds in massive amounts of money. Uh, buying bonds means that banks have cash. They cut interest rates. Um, and this is all pre COVID. Okay. So this is not in other words, the fed is already panicking at this point before anybody, at least anybody in here knew about COVID. Um, we're talking about 2019. And then when COVID hit, uh, the government subjected us to what I call triple whammy. Um, and you know, the actual COVID response was something that was way over the top. Uh, you know, and I would say it's aggressive, unscientific and frankly on American. Uh, and then there was the government's response to the economy under COVID conditions, which was also massive. Trillions of dollars, uh, which was, you know, on the face of it, very uneconomical. And of course, it was all borrowed against the future. So this was a sort of a double poison that the fed, uh, in the government had injected into our economy. And what I'm going to concentrate here for a few minutes is on the fed response, which was enormous, um, and dangerous and unprecedented. The first thing I want to look at is those interest rates. Um, and put it into historical perspective. Okay. This is the federal funds rate, the interest rate that banks lend to other banks on a short term basis. And if we come all the way over here, this is, uh, 2020, uh, in 2021. And basically they've brought interest rates in March of, uh, 2020 down to zero. Okay. After a very small tightening period or policy, you know, they wanted to return us to normal, but policy never got back to normal. They flinched. They panic. Uh, as a matter of fact, the tightening, uh, only got up to about 2.4%, which is actually less than all of the loosening cycles of the fed in the last 40 years of the 20th century. So that's how far out of context, out of reality, the fed is taking us, uh, and our economy and brought us into this new era of low interest rates and a hyper expanding, uh, monetary system with extreme policies. Uh, and actually a lot of things that are hard for me to explain. I mean, we've also we have experience. For example, um, things like negative interest rates and a normal person would say, Well, how do you get negative interest rates? Uh, or even better, we had a period where we had negative oil prices. Okay. Now you try to explain that to your freshman. Yep. You can get a, you can get a barrel of oil for negative $31. Um, and so that's the kind of thing. Um, that's the new era that we find ourselves in here where back here, uh, 1964 are at least our coins still had a silver content to them, right? And now we go over to here and even though we took the copper out of the penny, the penny actually has a melt, a monetary melt value greater than a penny. So if you could melt a penny down, you'd get six cents of metal. And if you could melt a nickel down without getting thrown in jail, they're worth about eight cents a piece. So that's how far away from reality, uh, we've got. And now the money supply where you really see the panic on the part of the Fed. This only looks at, uh, 2016 to the present. And basically they've got the money supply here increasing substantially up until we get to the COVID crisis. And then there's a massive increase in the money supply during that period is the Fed just dumps essentially electronic cash into the market in that Atlantic article. It goes into great detail about that the only solution to saving the world to keep, you know, the earth moving through the sky was unlimited cash, unlimited cash. That was the only thing that could have possibly saved us. Of course, it didn't save anybody in here, but it did say the Fed and the government, the debt holders, the banks, all of that. So we had this massive, very quick increase never before seen. So where you and I might not even notice trouble in the economy, the Fed was so panicked that they increased the money supply by a huge amount, trillions and trillions of dollars. And then, yes, this trend line afterwards, it has a upward, uh, a higher upwards slope, basically. And all throughout this period, uh, over here before 2016, we have quantitative easing one quantitative easing two quantitative easing three, uh, and then quantitative easing four. And that sounds nice. The first thing that came into my mind was QE, the Queen Elizabeth, you know, it's like, is this a, is this a free ticket for a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth? Well, it turns out in the long run, no, it's more like third class steerage tickets in the Titanic. So this is huge. Um, and it's quantities of money that are beyond our understanding almost. And on top of that, not only has the Fed become, uh, the largest holder of our government debt, but it actually now because of this quantitative easing policies has been soaking up mortgages to the tune of the fact that it is now 25% of the entire mortgage market in the United States. So you may go to a bank and take out a mortgage or you may go online and take out a mortgage, but one quarter of all those mortgages end up on the banks on the books of the Fed. And, uh, speaking of their books, this is the balance sheet of the Fed, uh, from 2003 through the present, um, you know, how many assets does it own? And in order to increase the supply of money, basically the Fed buys government securities.  Central banks are have already, uh, been buying stocks in stock markets to keep stock markets afloat, uh, as well, particularly Japan, which is by far the largest shareholder in all of Japan. So the balance sheet 25 years ago was more like $300 billion. And in recent years, it's been less than a trillion. And then the housing bubble, we saw that first quantitative easing mode. It doubled the balance sheet of the Fed, and they just continued on basically buying more and more assets, dumping more and more money or liquidity into the economy. And it wasn't until we get over to 2018, well before COVID that they started shedding some assets from their balance sheet. And this is when they panicked. So this little bit of deleveraging its balance sheet sent it into a panic where it quickly expanded the money supply with unlimited cash. And then when COVID hit, it increased the balance sheet to $7 trillion. So in less than a decade, we've gone from less than a trillion to over 7 trillion. And then we've been with these monthly purchases here of agency bonds, government bonds and mortgage backed securities have taken us all the way up to the $9 trillion level. So what the Fed is planning next, it's hard to tell, but it doesn't look good. And but they're going to continue on this same path unless we can stop them. Thank you.


Good luck everybody. Hi everyone, Shawn with jaspyscasebreaks.com here doing 2021 Bowman Sterling Baseball, six box, half case break, pick your team number one on release day. It's our first look on case breaks for it. So all card ship, I'm excited. I love this stuff. Prospects, mostly rookies, prospects, and then some vets in some cases. But here's our full list of customers and their respective teams, Chris Maxwell and the Diamondbacks, down to Mark Liebscher and the Nationals. If you see anybody with this little rooftop next to their name like Richard Johansson there, that just means they won those teams in a team random filler, which was done right here. So you can see the results. That video was uploaded as well. Carrie got herself a box of 2021 Bowman Sterling ship seal tour by being part of that. So thanks to everybody for getting in. And let's do this break. Here is that list in person. Well, that's true, but still he's on the team rex. And since this is the first half of a fresh case, we're gonna pop this open. So we're gonna pop this open, figure out which half of the case we're gonna do. The second half of this is gonna be for pick your team two, which will most likely go tomorrow with Jason. You've got six boxes on the left, six boxes on the right. Dice roll, one, two, three on the dice. For the left boxes, four, five, six on the dice. For the boxes on the right. There's my special dice. See it. It's a six. So boxes on the right for us. These will be for pick and team two. So just so you guys know that these are all from the same case when we do pick and team two tomorrow. I'm gonna throw a two on there. That's a terrible two on the bottom, but whatever. No counts. Cool, here you go. Here you go. Lots of packaging on Bowman Sterling. Lots and lots of packaging. But great looking cards. So it should be five autos per box. One autograph per mini box. Seriously, look out when they call it Brennan Davis and Miguel Amaya. No, I mean, that's the thing. Cubs have really good prospects, Rex, which is why I really don't see why when you're like, oh yeah, they might go after Marcus Strowman. That just seems like exactly what you don't need to do. You know what I mean? Like rebuild from within again. Don't be going and signing a max contract on a pitcher. Especially a pitcher that like has shown that like he gets frustrated when his team is not contending and winning, you know? Like he's a very, very vocal player. No. Yeah, no worries. No, I get that, but Rex, but what I'm saying is like, if your team isn't gonna contend, right? And you know that this is a very like outspoken player that wants to compete. Don't go out and sign him right now. Like get your team in place. Use the prospects you have. And even though it's your pitching isn't great in the farm system, go pick up some like cheap one year to your fillers. Like the angels did this year, right? Angels weren't supposed to contend again this year. So they didn't go out and do the big pitching.  And now here we are.  Oh, I'm talking about the cubbies. Okay. Yeah, I just don't, you know what I mean? You know, it's kind of like, you can do it, Rex, but it's like putting the lipstick on a pig.   Rex, I'm kind of rooting for the ale to end in a four way tie for the wild card spots. I'd like to see this like anarchy situation happen. You know? Some people just wanna watch the world burn. I think that'd be so exciting. Cause then you'd have what? Two playing games to get into the wild card to have a one game plan. Or no, two one game plans to get into the wild card spots. Ugh. Or would there be like a two game, like a round robin, three game series with like double elimination? So every team has to play each other. I would be affixed to the TV for like those, that game, those two games, two days or three days. Honestly, I just wanna see the Cardinals get in and take the Dodgers out in one game.   What are they at? Like a hundred and six games this year or something like that? Potentially. And then one game loss. I'd be so happy. I told Joe, I was like, I was like, oh dude, if that happened, I was just like, can you imagine that? I mean, offer, that would be hilarious. I was like, you guys would have also not made the playoffs just like the Angels. I didn't know you were listening. I thought maybe you were sleeping or something. Oliver, I said what I said. Oh, Joe, he was saying at the other night, he's like, that would totally be us though. He's like, win a hundred and six games and lose a one game play in. Oh yeah. That would be, I mean, honestly, that would be so brutal. That would be the worst way. That's like the worst way to go. Just take a little, take a whole thing. I'm done now. Okay, just have six, thank you so much. No worries. Yeah, no, I know what you're saying, Oliver. But remember, last year's title doesn't count. Wasn't a real year. That wasn't a real, real baseball season. See, I like you, Oliver. So it pains me to say that. There's a reason your trophy's only half the size of the regular trophies. Yeah. That was shitty to see Clayton Kershaw in that press conference today though. That's sad. You never like to see that. Huh? Well, yeah, no, he said, he said it's not looking good for October. And remember, he's a free agent. Yeah, that's exactly, well, he walked off the mound holding onto the baseball. He didn't give it to Dusty Baker.  So I think he knows. Like that was probably his last outing pitching. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent, a hundred percent, Oliver. But like, you know, you don't want to compare yourself to the Angels. Nobody wants to compare themselves to the Angels. That's the saddest franchise, middling around in obscurity with two of the top five players in the league on their team at the same time. Just the worst. Good luck, guys. Mount Castle for the Orioles, Roy Leporga. God, this looks so good. Patrick Bailey, giants. This is my first in-person look at this stuff. This looks incredible. Chris Walker and the Giants on our first auto. Andrew Vaughn, White Sox. Kerry Macias and Logan Gilbert to 75. For the Marlins, sorry, Mariners. Chris Maxwell and Jose Salas. For the Marlins, Franklin McKenzie. And Aisa Lacy for the Royals, Richard Johansson. And you got a Bobby Miller refractor parallel autograph for the Dodgers and Kerry Macias. And Tyler Sodastrom to 150. For the A's and Travis Melbourne. Beautiful cards. You gotta be a little bit worried, Oliver. Especially like losing Kershaw now. What's the rest of your pitching rotation look like right now? I don't think so, Rex. I don't know exactly all the ins and outs of that. That's for bigger people than me. Scherzer, Bueller, Urius. Pashé for the Braves, Richard Johansson. And nice, this is an old retro rookie. Aaron Judge, that's out of 25. That's really cool. Yankees, so this is a reproduction of his rookie. New York Yankees. That is Travis Melbourne, I like that a lot. Hyun Il Choi for the Dodgers. Kerry Macias. Ann Dalton Varshota 199 for the Diamondbacks. Chris Maxwell. Jordan Walker, Big Prospect for the Cardinals. Roy Leporga. Bobby Dahlback for the Red Sox. Josh Proust and Matt Manning to 75 for the Tigers. Zach Nguyen. Bryce Jarvis for the Diamondbacks. Chris Maxwell. Christian Pashé, Braves, Richard Johansson. Ann Yolkwi-Sespitis, White Sox, Kerry Macias. Andrew Vaughan again for the White Sox. Kerry Macias and Jose Tana for the Indians. And Adam Richards, pre-lockdown. And then once you get into the playoffs, you can kind of use like a four man rotation. Not for long, but at least to get you through the first, you know? It usually works too, if you can work yourself out to like obviously like a three game lead or something like that for your fifth, like your fifth point starter, you can just do a bullpen game or throw somebody in there to eat innings just to give everybody else an extra day. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and if you get like I said, if you get a sizable lead, like a three nothing lead or whatever, and you're on that fifth starter day, you could just throw out a bullpen day or something like that just to get through. Yeah, gold to 50, Kevin Alcantara for the Yankees, Travis Melberg. It said forearm, I think it was forearm tightness or something like that, Oliver, is that what it was? Jared Schuster for the Braves, Richard Johansson. He openly said Rex, it's not looking good for him for the rest of October, so. I doubt that the team lets him come back. Kohi Arihara to 199 for the Rangers, Scott Rakufis. Bueller, Uriah Scherzer for series after Wildcard. Gabriel Arias for the Indians, Adam Richards. Well, because you have Scherzer going to Wildcard, you have Scherzer throw the Wildcard game, right? Almost guaranteed. And Angel Martinez for the Indians, Adam Richards. And you got an orange auto of Cade Cavalli to 75 for the Nationals, Mark Liebscher. God, these things look so good. This is such a great design. And Heston Kerstad for the Orioles, Roy Leporga. I did not see that, Rex, but I'm not surprised either. That would be cool, Oliver.  I think that'd be pretty cool. Just give him a better send off than today, you know? Yeah, I don't know, Rex.  Go out with a bang, not a fizzle. Pashé for the Braves, Richard Johansson. And you got Tanner Hauke, little silver wave to 125 for the Red Sox, Josh Proust. Kobe Mayo, sparkle auto to 99 for the Orioles, Roy Leporga. And Taylor Tramiel, refracted to 199 for the Mariners, Chris Maxwell, little silver wave auto to 125, Reed Detmers for the Angels, Joe P. And Joe Adele for the Angels, Joe P., Dylan Carlson for the Cardinals, Roy Leporga. And Cole Henry for the Nationals, Mark Liebscher. And Nick Bitzko for the Rays, Tyler Wemmer. Do you think Chris will be re-signed by the Dodgers? Oliver, do you really think he'll come back? I don't. I think he'll go out as a Dodger. I don't think he'll pitch for another team ever. I think so badly that he might honestly, I honestly hope that he goes like minimum money just to stay on the Dodgers, whether it's bullpen or whatever. I don't think he wants to go anywhere else. I know, I know. But yeah, I think he either re-signs the Dodgers on a really cheap contract or he doesn't pitch ever again, doesn't ever go anywhere else. That's what I'm saying. I don't think he wants to go anywhere. That's what I'm saying. I think he would take a very, very cheap deal. Nice Red, Robert Hassel, like that. Padres, Joe P. And right behind that, a gold auto of Zach Veen to 50. That's nice. You got an atomic to 10, seven out of 10, Luis Patino auto, what a box already. And you got a, is that not a redemption? No, it's not a redemption. Jake Vogel for the Dodgers. Kerry Macias again. Alex Kearlaw for the Twins. Carlos the Gear. Tyler Stephenson to 199 for the Reds. Kerry Macias and Yolbert Sanchez for the White Sox. That is Kerry Macias. Reds out of five, Joe. Robert Hassel, that's out of five. Alec Bohm for the Phillies. Chris Maxwell and Kronerworth for the Padres, Joe P. You got Jared Kalanick. Oh, that's right. Tops is not giving him a rookie logo until next year. No, I think update is his first rookie. Joey Bart to 199 for the Giants. Chris Walker and Carmen Ladzinski for the Pirates. And Richard Johansson, Alec Bohm again, Phillies. Chris Maxwell, Kronerworth again. Padres, Joe P. You see out of five right up on top there for you. He's pretty good too. Hey Evan, could I ask one favor of you? If you have a thing of just like even an open one of just regular top loaders, can you bring it over? I'm like gonna end up like five short or six short in this break. Did they, Joe? I pull, I think you're right. No, you know what, you are right. Cause he actually has rookies in tops chrome too. But he only has super short print. Thank you, sir. He only has super short print and the auto. That is really weird. Why didn't they give him a rookie logo in this then? What are you doing? No, I'm almost positive you're right. Whoa, Oliver, are you throwing that accusation out against Justin Verlander? You got Nick Lofton, silver wave to 125 for the Royals. Richard Johansson and Nick Gonzalez. Nice one there for the pirates. Richard Johansson, I'm actually looking forward to talking about O'Neill Cruz, Rex. I'm looking forward to Nick Gonzalez coming up. You got Kibri and Kronerworth coming up. I'm looking forward to talking about Rex, I'm looking forward to Nick Gonzalez coming up. You got Kibri and Hayes for the pirates, Richard Johansson. And Kevin Alcantara, Yankees, Travis Melbert. Jazz Chisholm for the Marlins. And Franklin McKenzie and Spencer Howard to 99. For the Phillies, Chris Maxwell, Kobe Mail. Orioles Roy LaPorga, Bobby Dahlback for the Red Sox. Josh Proust, Christian Javier to 199 for the Astros. Chris Adams and Luis Patino to 150 for the Rays. To finish it off, Tyler Wemmer. There you go guys, that's our six boxes.  So that's the first half of the case. Very nice six boxes guys. Obviously rookie autos, heavy on prospect autos which is what you're looking for. But this set looks great in person. This is my first in person look at it. It looks even better like up close and even then through the camera. So second half of this pick your team two is in the store. Likely we'll go with Jason tomorrow but don't sleep on this product guys. This is really nice stuff. And we have a really good price on it too. So there you go, that was the break. Thanks to everybody for getting in. That was 2021 Bowman Sterling Baseball six box half case break pick your team number one from jaspyscasebreaks.com. I'm Sean, jaspyscasebreaks.com. Thanks for hanging out. We'll see you next time.


The best is different so the best It's about a group in a submarine way down At the bottom of the ocean right very deep so complete isolation again You get all the emotions that come from that the tendency towards emotionalism come out of complete isolation And I don't remember all of I don't remember everything about the best But but the key about their business That during this time down in the submarine at the bottom of the ocean they encounter an alien With very little information about the alien they encounter an alien and then every one of them Responds the alien differently. So so the military guy who's suffering from The disease that you get when you go down Into the into the depths true fast, right? He becomes paranoid so his lead motivation is fear and he does everything he can and he acts In every way out of fear. So it's how do we know stuff? What motivates us to act? One guy, it's a conspiracy theory You know another guy it's fear but he's more rational than the first guy But he's still most of his motivation is to fear and then he let the two lead character and the woman in this case Played by But she's a wonderful actor She's curious She wants to study it. She wants to figure it out. She's not taking anything for granted. She's not fearful, but she's not You know, she just wants to she's she's in awe You know we're meeting an alien for the first time in human history This is cool, and I want to study this and I want to figure it out and and I'm afraid but I'm not so afraid that it's gonna dominate It's gonna rule over my cognition and I'm not gonna let my emotions rule what I do And she's constantly trying to communicate with the alien try to figure out what it wants and how Who it is and how it relates to and then there's her ex-husband who's in the submarine as well And he is more cautious than her but again He respects her and he also has the general attitude of wow, this is cool. What does it mean? How do we deal with it? And he's he's you know, he is also the the man of action He is the one who is gonna actually at the end of the day engage with the alien and save everybody and and actually You know, anyway, I don't want to give it away.  You start seeing James Cameron's weird Philosophical views in the uncut version and it's awful. So You know, I I both of those movies with the exception of the ending of the biz I think I'm excellent movies about how different people in extreme circumstance Deal with those circumstances epistemologically that is how do they think about them? How do they use their mind, right? It's just a model. Do you focus on reality? Do you engage with the virtue of rationality or do you let your emotion? Swamp swamp Your your reason in both of the movies It's about collecting facts figuring out what's right and what's wrong. What works and what doesn't work What a savior and what won't save you. There's a wonderful scene in their biz We're in order to I don't know escape a situation. They have to be basically Put themselves in the state that's or the lead character has to put himself in the state That basically is as close to death as you can be he actually has to freeze his body As close as it Can be to death and he can do that the only that's the only way you can save his ex-wife who still loves And save himself hopefully because then he gets revived You know revived after it and it's very powerful again. He's thinking how do we get out of the situation? What do we do? How do we do it? And it's constantly it celebrates the human mind It celebrates the ability of human beings to think under stress under the worst kind of stress You can imagine other life and death circumstances in both movies aliens and the best Take you to that extreme put you in that extreme situation And then the heroes are the ones who emerge as the rational as the ones who can use their mind on the extreme situation And solve problems in the extreme situation in that sense it celebrates rationality


My name is Alina Rasmus and I work at Kaleime Dene School. This year I am the culture coordinator. I'm working with two cultural instructors from our community to implement all the cultural programming in our school. Can you please describe your program, what it's called and what are the age groups? So I work at Kaleime Dene School in Dilo. It's the community school of Dilo. We go from junior kindergarten to grade 12. We have about 120 students any given day. And we, in our program, we run a language program. It's Willa De Yati. And so all of our students have language classes two days a week. And then on top of that we run culture camps, we call them. So for example, at the beginning of the year, we harvested cranberries in the fall and then we made cranberry jam with our students. And then we harvested medicines. We harvested spruce gum, rose hips, and Labrador tea. And then we made a spruce gum salve for all of our sores and ailments. And we also made Labrador tea rose hip cream for our lotion. And now our next camp that's coming up is rabbit snaring. So we've made our rabbit snares in class. And next week, everyone from junior kindergarten to high school will be out on the land setting rabbit snares. A part of it is always the language. So we infuse Willa De Yati in everything we do. With our older students, we've started having our language classes in the language only. But we find that our grade five students, some of our students have anxiety and it's too stressful for them. And we don't want it to be stressful. So we just have small periods of time where we're speaking only Willa De Yati. What do you hope to accomplish through the program? And how do you measure the success of the program? So first of all, we're an Indigenous school and we need to honor that in everything that we do. So a large part of what we're doing is helping teachers to incorporate Dene ways throughout their daily class routines and infuse language into the daily classroom routines. We start every morning by praying in the language and then we use the language for our greetings and our basic commands throughout the school day. We're also trying to encourage our students to speak Willa De Yati at home as much as they can and outside of the classroom because we know that our languages are at a critical state and the more we can do to keep them living and breathing, the better it is. So in addition to in the school, we're also hoping to bring it into our homes too. So how do you measure the success of the program? Having students speaking Willa De Yati in our school were successful and you can really see so many students shine when we're on the land and participating in the activity and it inspires them to write stories and make all these connections in their life are two cultural instructors that we have right now. Some of our best classes have been when we just talk with students about who they are, who their people are, how they're connected, the different ancestors and things like that and then it gets kids talking and thinking and then they come back to school while I talk to my mom and my great-grandfather was a reindeer herder and it's really cool and it's getting kids excited about their own history and who they are as a people. It's lots of fun. From your perspective, what is Indigenous education? I think Indigenous education has a lot of layers because a lot of Indigenous students are learning about their history and their culture which is a part of Indigenous education and they're gaining pride and self-esteem in that knowing all the phenomenal things that their ancestors did and were a part of because so much of our history is from a Eurocentric point of view so it's really important to bring that out not only for the Indigenous students but for the non-Indigenous students also. However, that being said, at our school all of our students are Indigenous. But I know a lot of our teachers are really learning and they're really learning so much that they didn't know which is really important because we have to make sure to get that history out and then not only that but moving forward all the amazing things that Indigenous people are doing and the trails that they're blazing it's super exciting and I think we have to really celebrate that because our mainstream society often celebrates other things and our students are often idolizing other people that aren't necessarily always positive moving forward so in that way it's really important too. From your perspective, what knowledge is important that you would like to pass on to the next generation? I think sometimes the word respect is used too often and not understood and I think that for kids to learn a healthy respect of who they are and where they came from it will really help them moving forward in their lives. To be able to reach their own potential. What is your vision for Indigenous education over the next 10 years? From a language perspective, it would be it's critical for us to look to immersion programs that not only immerse kids in school but have a role for families too because if it's just spoken at school we're not gonna be able to do enough. We have to get language in our homes we have to have our young parents encouraged to speak the language and really we have to have a movement up front that works with the schools in getting the language out there and everywhere. We're immersed in English. The music we listen to, the TV shows, the radio everything we're immersed in English all the time we have to find a way to shift that paradigm and make ourselves immersed in the language and the language of the land that we're on. You know, we're on Yellowknives Denny First Nation territory so that's the language that we look to for this area if it's another area it might be Cree if it's another area, whatever. Whatever the language you are on we need to be immersed in it and in Dilo it's nice because we have our street signs are in Willi Deiati but why not Yellowknife? Why not Sombake? Why is Yellowknife not called Sombake? You know, why? Like we have to start putting it out there everywhere all the time for people to start becoming accustomed to it and using it and making it a regular part of everyday life.


Ukrainian officers complain of receiving Western weapons systems when they're no longer relevant. Unnamed Ukrainian military officials said there is an unfortunate pattern of the West finally sending weapons when they are no longer relevant for the current battlefield dynamics, Politico reported citing sources. While Ukraine's Western allies have provided tens of billions of military aid and equipment, some of the more advanced systems pledged such as the F-16 fighter jet have been slow walked and have yet to reach the battlefield. At the same time, Russia has been steadily adapting its defensive capabilities to counter new Western weapons as they arrive. The official explained that Russia has been testing its air defense posture and has likely deployed its radar and anti-air missiles in a manner that would render much of the F-16's offensive capabilities ineffective. Under a series of damaging strikes on Russian positions using the long range storm shadow and scalp missiles, Russia changed its tactics and positions and officials said weapons systems become redundant very quickly because they're very quickly countered by the Russians. He said adding, the Russians are always studying, they don't give us a second chance. And they're successful in this. The officials said that Ukraine also needs more traditional weapons and munitions such as the more than a million artillery shells currently being sourced by the Czech-led initiative. Elsewhere, the officials said domestic Ukrainian politics have contributed to the unfavorable battlefield situation. All of these issues are present against the backdrop of a nearly six-month delay in military assistance from the US. Zelensky said in late March that Ukraine could soon be forced to retreat without an infusion of aid, which the officials agreed with. Ukraine's ability to hold off the ongoing offensive has been mostly thanks to Russian mistakes on the battlefield, but the officials said that Russia will likely be able to penetrate the front line and to crash it in some parts. Ukraine's security service and main directorate of intelligence under the Defense Ministry were behind the attack on Russian Nizhnykansk oil refinery in Tatarstan on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian media reported, with reference to unnamed sources within the intelligence department. A Ukrainian long-range drone hit the primary oil processing facility at the Nizhnykansk refinery, after which fire broke out there, according to the report. The capacity of this processing unit is 8 million tons of oil, which amounts to 2.6% of the total annual refining of the Russian Federation per year. In addition, this plant is among the five largest refineries in Russia. We continue to work systematically to ensure that Russia has fewer and fewer opportunities to finance the war of aggression against Ukraine. We will continue to cut off oxygen to the gas station country in order to minimize the flow of petrodollars to the military budget of the Russian Federation, the source told media. According to Baza, at least three people were injured at the refinery. This is the Taniko oil refinery in the city of Nizhnykansk in the Republic of Tatarstan. The region's governor confirmed the attack on the refinery, but in his statement, he did not specify the name of the refinery that was attacked. Russian media has confirmed that Nizhnykansk oil refinery was hit, while stressing that the technological process was not disrupted. The Russian media also claimed that drones allegedly attacked a hostel in a special economic zone of Alabuga, and that two people were injured during the attack. Ukraine in recent months has stepped up attacks on Russia's oil refiners in a bid to impact Kremlin's highly lucrative trade in refined products. Kiev believes its drone attacks on Russia, the world's second largest oil producer, are justified because Ukraine has suffered large-scale damage to its infrastructure from Russian airstrikes since the start of Russia's full-fledged invasion of the country in February 2022.