So, oddly, is there a bit of a branding issue here? I mean, it has capitalism, let's say, which is the greatest system for the ideas you're talking about, has its freedom sort of been used against it, so it's not even selling itself the right way. So, in other words, there's more goodness happening in the world now than ever before. There's, you know, what is it, humanprogress.org, they release studies every day, there's more green on the earth than ever before, there's less poverty than ever before, there's less infanticide than ever before, a zillion other things. But we don't focus on any of those things, almost as a function of our success or something like that. Well, as a function of our morality, right, we're looking for the next suffering group. We're looking for those need and the success of these people, these individuals, is irrelevant as long as there's somebody in need. And there's always going to be somebody in need relative to, let's say, those success. Since capitalism has never had the proper moral defense, and so capitalism is always being undermined, undermining itself because it tried to establish itself on this foundation of altruism and sacrifice. And Iron Man is the first thinker, certainly in modern times, to question the moral underpinning of our lives and to discover moral underpinning that is consistent with capitalism, which is the idea for the pursuit of self-interest. So it's a branding problem, but it's an intellectual branding issue that it's, what's capitalism about? Well, it's the pursuit of profit and money, so that's selfish. And as long as that's selfish means everybody knows that that's immoral, then it's at best what you think, well, okay, maybe capitalism's a necessary evil, but hopefully we can transcend it in some point, and whether it's a mixed economy, whether it's, I mean, this is the Marxist plate on this, that, oh yeah, of course capitalism produces more than feudalism, but we're going to have some magical system where no one has to work, but we're going to have abundance, and we first, we need a dictatorship in order to get that, and then it's going to wither away. But if the whole framework of that is, okay, yeah, but capitalism's evil, so why don't we try something else, and maybe it will work, who knows? If that whole atmosphere exists, you're never going to have a real defense of capitalism, because a defense has to be, this is moral. And what you saw in the 19th century, this is, it's, so why it's just, it's branding, but like branding on stilts, sort of issue. The 19th century is progress on every measure of human life. Exploding populations, so the world population from, when you go from 1800 to 99, way, way higher. Quality of life, that not everyone's now working in farms and you're starting to have leisure time, people going on vacations and so on. Weekends. Weekends, you have access to art that you didn't have before, then if you're talking about technology of, you get electricity, telegraph, anything you look at, it's tremendous, tremendous, tremendous unprecedented progress. What do people think about the 19th century? It's robber barons, and there were child, the children in factories, and so on. Their view is that it's a complete negative, and that's the educational system, but deliberately has obscured the history of capitalism. So it's, yeah, it doesn't have good branding, but nobody knows anything about it, and it's been demonized on every level. And because it's, the essence is, it's selfish. So how do we fix that beyond this? Well, the only way to fix it is education, education, education. Speaking up is educated people about the history, educating about people about what capitalism actually means. I mean, so many people don't understand that capitalism really is the system of freedom. It's the system that leads the individual free to pursue their own values. It's the system of protecting their rights, their right to protecting them from coercion. So capitalism and freedom are really the same thing politically and from a social construct. And they don't understand where profits come from. They don't understand why profit is moral, why profit is virtuous. But underpinning all this is you have to have this moral revolution. You have to have a change in the way people think about what a good life means, what being a good human being means, what thriving as a human being means. And there's no shortcuts, right? You can't, and if you believe in free will, then you've got to convince people, you've got to discuss it, you've got to present the ideas, you've got to educate them, and you've got to engage in the battle of ideas that is ongoing. Is there any system for all the shortcomings that we might have as a moral foundation of what we've sold as capitalism in the United States? Is there any system that's doing it better right now? In terms of the United States today? Well, in terms of capitalism and freedom and the basic ideas of the individual and everything else we've talked about here, is there any system that you know of that's doing it any better than the United States right now? And it's important to get, the essence of capitalism is the recognition of an individual's rights. So it's a system that takes seriously the Declaration of Independence and each individual has a right to life, liberty, property would have been in there, if not for slavery, which I want to come to because it's a huge issue, and the pursuit of happiness. And to the extent that things have gotten better since the Declaration of Independence and things on all kinds of scales, as we've been talking about, have gotten better, it's because rights have been taken seriously. So that on the issue of slavery, that look, slavery and the Declaration of Independence are incompatible. It's a huge black mark that the America allowed slavery. If we're taking the Declaration seriously, we have to abolish this, a person has a right to life and has a right to liberty, doesn't matter his skin color. And this is part of the whole argument that the abolitionists were making, and like a Frederick Douglass is, if you take the Declaration of Independence seriously, you have to abolish slavery, which is true, or if you're thinking about the women's vote, it is, it's an individual has a right to life and a right to liberty and to think for themselves and then have political, choose their political representation. It's not about a male or, so it's a recognition of rights. And to the extent they're recognized, you get progress. And what happened in particular in regard to capitalism and why it's sort of, we've had some progress and gone backwards in all kinds of ways, what was the right that was particularly attacked was the right to property. And if you think of the Socialists, the Communists, Marx, it's what we're doing is abolishing private property. Everything is going to become public. And property rights are a crucial, crucial right. Indeed, in the end, you can't have any other right. I have a right to think if someone can come into my environment, blast a stereo at the hundred and ten decibels, I can't think anymore. I have to have control over my life, which means the property that I've earned in order to pursue all my other values. And so you're destroying a condition of all rights when you attack property rights. But they're nevertheless still is a different, that economically, we've never achieved the growth that the 19th century has achieved in the 20th century. We've still grown economically, but because there's been all kinds of controls then put on people's ability to trade, we don't have free trade anymore, all kinds of restrictions on property, things economically are way worse than they could have been if the right to property were recognized. But some other rights have been recognized and we've gotten better in regard to that and we're way better in regard to the whole issue of color and skin color politically, political, but we're now getting intellectual currents that are reviving this. And if that happens, it's we're going to get politically really, really bad. Right. And I can sense that happening. I mean, even right now, the small crew of Democrats who are saying that they're going to run for president, everyone is talking about tax, tax, tax, tax, tax. So it's not just Cortez. I mean, Elizabeth Warren in the last couple of weeks now, we're going to figure out a new wealth tax and etc. No, they're all, I mean, this is the agenda. The left has moved further to the left. They see an opportunity there. It's appealing. It's what I like about what I like about Cortez, what I like about Cortez is she speaks a moral language. She boils it down to what's really going on right now. Others might couch it as I mean, Elizabeth Warren comes out and says, I'm really for capitalism.  Cortez doesn't doesn't play that game. I'm a socialist. Right. You admire her, but she goes to the moral roots. I mean, one of the things she said, she says, for example, they say, well, how are you going to afford Medicare for all? And she says, look, it's right. This is just, if it's just, we'll figure out a way to pay for it. Right. And you go, yeah, I mean, she's right. If it really is just, then we'll figure out and we have to sacrifice a bunch of billionaires in order to put them on a, you know, burn them at the stake or whatever. We'll get, we'll do what is right. If that's the case. But it's not just a bunch of billionaires. I know you were being decisions, but it's a lot more than that. We know it's a lot more than that. And we know the economic consequences of what she's advocating for. But she is saying, I'm willing to take all those consequences. Those consequences are not what's important in life. What's important in life is to be good. What's important in life is to be just. What's important in life is to be moral. And that's where the rubber hits the road. That's what needs to be challenged. That's what the right cannot challenge because they bought into that morality. And that's why the only thing that Atacca calls on any of these commentators can do is say, how are you going to pay for it? Well, how are you going to pay for anything? Right. It's not about how you pay for it. It's about, is it right? It's not right to have Medicare for all. It's not right to have a wealth tax. It's immoral to have a wealth tax. It's immoral to use force to take somebody's property. Property rights are just as sacred as free speech. They're just as sacred as any other right in this country. And unless we're willing to fight for these rights, for the absolutism of these rights, then forget it. There was a case when Obamacare was being passed that really hit home on this rate. So Obamacare is about to be passed and the head of the Renational Committee writes an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about how he's against Obamacare, socialized medicine. It's terrible. It's going to destroy medicine in America. And what we really need to focus on is protecting Medicare and Medicare is a must. And we need to beef up Medicare and make sure Medicare is a cost. And next morning, he's on NPR. And the guy on NPR says, so you want to protect Medicare? And he said, absolutely, we're a pro-Medicare. And he says, but Medicare is socialized medicine for people over 65. Why is socialized medicine okay for people over 65 and not okay for people under 65? And the guy said, no answer.  And that's what the right hasn't learned from its history over the last 100 years. To the extent that they even believe in capitalism, many of them don't anymore. To the extent that they believe in free market, if they can't defend it morally, they will lose every single time. So then what do you do about sort of what would be like a needed intermediary step if you were to roll back some of these things that you don't like, some of the regulations and all of that, that you'd end up sort of short-term hurting a lot of people, let's say. Even if long-term, do you have any responsibility then? Sure. And it's hard. It's not easy. And I don't think anybody should pretend it's easy. So what do you do about Social Security? You can't just end it tomorrow. You'd have to phase it out over a generation, too. And there are multiple proposals on how you would do that. You can't just end Medicare tomorrow, but there's the being proposal of voucher systems and phasing out the voucher over a long period of time. So there are ways to handle it where you take into account the historical context of how we get there. But the fact is that the more we delay dealing with these issues, the more painful any change will be. And the fact also is that there's going to be pain. You can't run a corrupt immoral system and then try to fix it without people suffering. People are going to suffer when the fix comes. And the question is, do we fix it consciously in our control or do we fix it when everything's falling apart and we have no choice and people are dying? And I think important in that is that if you're really trying to abolish it over a period of time, the reason you would be doing it is, as you put it, it's a corrupt system. So there's victims now. It's not just the victims of it. So if you think of social security, because it's a pretty simple example, what the program is, it's not presented like this, but what it really is, is they took money from young people and gave it to old people. And not old people paid a ton into social security. So it's not a savings program. You took money from young people and gave it to old people. On the hope that when these people get old, there's going to be other young people around them. And now they're worried that because of demographics and various things, there's not enough young people. We've made all kinds of promises. The victims now are all these young people who they're having struggling. It's a way of a changing economy. They're having trouble. They're in law school. They have debt and they can't get the job that they were expecting and so on. And now whatever job they get, you're going to take 5%, 10% of their, that they might be saving for a house or get a better education. And you're taking it from them and you're giving it to someone. And that is, there's victims here. So what you're trying to do is phase this out with and have as little victims as possible. But it's impossible not to have any victims because the whole point of the program is it victimizes some people for other people. All right, I don't want to end this on victimhood. So give us a nice button ending that's not about victims. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, we've talked in the series that we're doing, we've talked a lot about happiness. And one of the ways to conceptualize what to think about capitalism is at the end of the day, capitalism is a system that leaves us free to pursue happiness. This is the vision of the founding fathers. It's by taking courage and out of society, by eliminating the threat, the fear of force, of somebody walking into my house and taking my stuff, of victimizing me, that the state is there to protect me from that and it leaves me free otherwise, to pursue my values, to take the risks I want to take or not to take the risk, but to pursue my values, my happiness, my success. And indeed, I don't think people can be happy in a system where they are fearful for their lives, where they're fearful for their property, where their thoughts are being controlled, where they're told what to do, where they don't take ownership over their own thinking, ownership over their own soul, ownership over who they really are. Capitalism is a political manifestation of free will. It's the idea that you have the capacity to make choices and to pursue happiness, to pursue success, to pursue a thriving life. I can't top that, can you?


Yeah, global connections here on sync tick the nine o'clock block on a given Thursday. We are joined by Sylvia Artanetti. She is with Project Expedite Justice, and right now she's in Madrid. Good morning, Sylvia. Good morning, Jay. Thank you for having me here. It's actually afternoon, isn't it? Yes, it's evening. 8 p.m. here for me. Sylvia, you spent a fair amount of time in Ukraine, and you have friends in Ukraine, and you're in touch with them, or at least you have been up to this point. So can you describe, at least from your observation and their comments to you, what it's like? Yeah, indeed, I've lived in Ukraine in Odessa for six months in 2020. I was an intern there and had the opportunity to meet a lot of students from the area and made a lot of great friendships. At the moment, the situation is very critical. It's near to a human catastrophe, and my friends, some of them have taken up arms and others are in bomb shelters. I have two friends from my hometown in Italy, because in Italy we have a big Ukrainian community who left Italy soon before the beginning of the recent escalation, so a week ago, to get their documents from Ukraine, and unfortunately they got stuck there. They are students in Italy and their mother is in Italy. I talked to them yesterday, luckily they're in the western part of Ukraine, that right now is still relatively safe, but they are scared. Obviously like everyone else, they have to go to shelter, bomb shelters when the Syrian goes off, and the situation is very critical. Yesterday we actually got to talk, and they tried to explain me the situation and what they're going through. So if I may, I would like to report some of their thoughts of what's happening. Please. So I'll be translating from Italian because they sent me the message in Italian, but they said in Kiev from the 24th of February, millions of Ukrainians are hiding in bunkers or in underground metropolitan stations. Putin has said that he wouldn't have bombarded the civilians and the residential buildings, only military infrastructure, but in reality already during the second day, we've seen that he's been bombarding everything he sees. Regarding Kharkiv, the last two days, small towns have been bombarded around the city, as well as the entire city infrastructure. For now, Kiev and Kharkiv are the main fighting spots, but they've been bombarded in other cities, like Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kerson, and Zaporizhia. But a lot of people are not escaping, they're not leaving, they said they don't want to leave because this is their home. A lot of people are trying to stop Russian tanks, even without weapons, and simply yelling Slavokraini, glory to Ukraine, and sometimes they managed to stop them. In the West, where I live for now, it's quiet, but people are preparing for the worst. And others, the way they can, they've been volunteering, they've been hosting refugees, they've been preparing food for those who need it in the East. But a lot of Ukrainians have been donating money to the army. For instance, a man, over eight years old, he donated all of his savings, around 100,000 hryvnias, they are like all the money that he has saved in his entire life. But Ukrainians are not giving up, and they are not afraid. The first days of KOS are gone, and now Ukraine is more united than ever against the enemy. So these words really touched me when I read their message, because they're clearly living it in the first person. They're suffering these atrocities. And the other friends are in even worse situations. A friend of mine just told me yesterday that Russian forces entered East Sea Team, and they've been bombarding with everything they can all day long, and they've been just sheltering. He's the same friend that previously told me, and for me that he was going to join the territorial defense to fight for his country and for his family. And right now the situation is that they're trying to gain control of the nuclear plant that is 30 kilometers north of VCT, which is Vosnesensk in the Mikolaj Oblast, which is northeast of Odessa, a bit above, like the north of Kersen. And we spoke while he was in bomb shelter, and he was just about, like as we spoke, they were like managing to exit, but he said it doesn't know what is happening. He doesn't know how to react to it. And he said, I guess killing civilians is just putting style. So clearly my friends are suffering very much, and I'm very worried for them, and for what's to come. Well, that's awful. You know, on some of the points you made, I tell you that this morning Zelensky announced that 16,000 people from outside Ukraine had volunteered to come and fight with the Ukrainian army, and he welcomed them. And there will be more, you know, Sylvia. Yes, absolutely. Everyone is united against Russia right now, trying to help the Ukraine, and Ukrainians that live abroad have been returning to their countries to fight. Even the son of a friend of my mother that managed to leave right before they closed the border, said to adult men that he was thinking himself of going back and taking up arms and defending his country from the invader, from the invader. At the same time, yesterday, Macron had a telephone call with Putin, where Putin indicated that he intended to occupy all of Ukraine. And, you know, the implication is that if he had to blow it all up into a parking lot, he would. So that's consistent with what's happening. And so tragic and irresponsible, incredibly irresponsible. It is a war crime, in my opinion. Is it a war crime in yours? Yes, it absolutely is a war crime. He's been attacking civilians. He's showed no respect for human life. He's been targeting hospitals, as well as administrative buildings and residential buildings. It is certainly war crimes are being committed, which is why we've seen that the ICC getting involved in the matter and opening the prosecutor decided, requested the opening of an investigation. Several referrals by countries that are party to the ICC have been submitted. So now the ICC is ready to start an investigation in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, possibly. These are like the crimes that they're exploring. And unfortunately, the crime of aggression was outside of the jurisdiction of the ICC because Ukraine is not a party. Neither is Russia. But Ukraine had signed an adult agreement in 2014 following the first round of this war, right? Because this war did not start 18 days ago. This war has been ongoing since 2014, since putting a next crime here. And the investigation was started in the context of the protests, the Euromaidan protests in Kiev. But then it's scope was expanded. This was to cover any crime that's been committed since 2014, including the crimes that are being committed nowadays. Well, you know, one thing about war crimes is you have to have evidence. And until yesterday, evidence was streaming in from all parts of Ukraine by telephone calls, such as the calls that you had, by, by photographs over cell phones and social media, and by video over cell phones and social media to say nothing of television. But it seems like Mr. Putin has woken up to that problem. He wants to stop the flow of evidence, you know, proving war crimes and other communications. So he has started knocking down the cell phone towers. He has tried to turn off the internet, both in Ukraine and, and in Russia by the way, to silence the voices of those who would protest his invasion. And of course, he has knocked over the television towers. So it seems like the evidence that was coming in until yesterday will be constrained going forward. I recall also that at some point Zelensky asked for satellite phones, which would continue to operate even if the cell phone towers were down. I don't know if Ukraine actually got those, but it would seem to me that that the Western Europeans and the U.S. ought to be supplying a lot of satellite phones and supporting the satellite costs on them. Do you know anything about this? Can you talk about how you get evidence out of Ukraine? Yeah, yeah. Indeed, that's potentially be a problem. Luckily, the technology that we have these days, as you mentioned, allows us to gather evidence like directly on the spot and be shared all over the world. Putin's efforts to undermine the sharing of these evidence have been, I've shown their results on his side, but at the same time, evidence will keep flowing. There are a lot of organizations involved from individuals to investigative journalists, to collectives like Bellingath, which is also known for its previous investigation in 2014, about the MH17 downing. They're now tracking the use of cluster munitions in civilian areas, and they're also like built a map tracking all the attacks in the various cities, including video and photo evidence that can later be used in prosecutions, whether at the national or international level. A lot of other efforts have been made by other organizations in creating guides to increase the capacity building of civil society organization individuals that are seeking to document these atrocities. So they're be guided in how to collect these evidence to the standards that are required to possibly convict the perpetrators. So this is certainly a big development. This is also what we need people to keep doing, keep documenting and keep sharing, like sharing everywhere on any social media, wherever they can just spread the truth and unmask also misinformation that is being spread by Russian media. You mentioned cluster bombs, and I'd like to dwell on that for a moment, because I don't think people really understand what it is and what it is intended to do, and what kind of injury, damage, and death it can do. What is a cluster bomb, Sylvia, and why are the Russians using it? Right, by no means an expert on like military warfare, but the use of cluster bombs is particularly damaging to civilians, because it is just a very intense attack that is not per se a breach of international law, though there are some some treaties that prohibit the use of such bombs, indeed because of the damaging potential that they have on civilians, and but neither Russia nor Ukraine are part to our party to this treaty, nonetheless an indiscriminate use of warfare against the civilian population qualifies as a war crime, whether the use of such weapons is per se legal or not. We have a question from one of our viewers Sylvia. Mind you, we were not aware of these most horrendous things when this first started. The jury was out as to whether this was a war against the Ukrainian government, military, or the people on every block. Now that has been shown that it is a war against everyone on every block. And the question here is, so we've had an escalation of the level of violence, the level of attack, the irresponsibility of the instructions to the army, the Russian army. And the question is, will there be an escalation of sanctions applied to Russia for attacking civilians? Because now we know that Russia is directed at attacking civilians. So do you think there should be, there is there an escalation of the sanctions based on that revelation? Yeah, we've certainly seen an escalation in sanctions by several countries, especially the EU, including many other assets have been frozen from the Russian Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, putting in other high profile figure of the Russian government. And while initially we saw perhaps a slow response, even by European countries, everyone was asking for more sanctions, more effective responses. So we also saw then on the second or third day that Soviet and Russian banks have been taken out of this with the system, which is certainly damaging their economy. And we've seen an increasing movement and development by these countries, by governments, by foreign governments in trying to undermine Russian efforts by hitting them economically. And it's also quite interesting that perhaps this was, it's not the reaction that Putin expected, right? We will be trying to understand his strategy and trying to make a sense out of it, but it seems just very difficult. Perhaps he did not expect such a strong reaction by European governments, because he saw in previous instances the reaction, for instance, in case of poisoning, also the taxation of Crimea and the fighting that has been going on in Donbas since 2014, Europe or like the West or the foreign governments have intervened, but with mild sanctions, whereas this time the sanctions are directed specifically at undermining Putin and his government. So the hope is that the hope is indeed to undermine the economy, so not to allow Putin to keep going on with this war. He's also losing the support of many oligarchs, as we've seen, because they've been obviously particularly strongly hit by the sanctions, and they're losing a lot of money. So if they withdraw their support, they perhaps will see also a change, but it's, it just cannot be like, it's too early to say, well, it could happen, also given Putin some predictability and the way, like looking at the way he's been conducting this war so far, it's hard to make predictions. Well, we talked to somebody in Belgium a couple of days ago, actually yesterday, and he said that people around, including young people, were concerned that this was the harbinger of World War III. How do you feel about that? Is it, is that threat present? Is that threat implied in what Putin does and Putin's unpredictability? Is that, is that fear, you know, through your community, your community and project expedite justice, your community in Italy, your community, such as you are in touch with it in Ukraine? I think everyone, I have spoken to myself, believe that the threat is real of World War III. Particularly the nuclear threat is extremely high and was seen like putting threatening to use such warfare if someone intervened. But yes, in terms like we've also seen the West proceeding quite cautiously, NATO too has been quite wary of imposing no-fly zone above Ukraine, which is, they've already made clear that they do not want to intervene with troops on the territory of Ukraine, but perhaps many have called for no-fly zone to be imposed. But that would require the military involvement of NATO and that has the potential of being very destructive. We've seen in the past what can happen, what is the risk when two countries like the US and Russia that have such a huge nuclear arsenal, like the way that this can threaten the entire world. So surely NATO and Europe in general, I've seen like everyone's been in the US to have been proceeding cautiously and in doing so, they've also received a lot of criticism by the people that are demanding more, but clearly it's a very delicate situation and the risk of escalating World War III is high and the decisions should be taken waiting all the aspects of this and not forgetting indeed about the potential of, the destructive potential of a nuclear war. You know, Sylvia, I suggest to you that human tragedy is only starting to unfold. And I'm reminded of Stalin's effort, successful effort to starve Ukrainians back in the 30s. And indeed he starved many, many millions of Ukrainians to death by cutting off their food supply. And that has the possibility now it's haunting to think that Putin who fashions himself another Stalin would cut off food, make it unavailable to Ukrainians which are hunkered down and starve them now, today. And so you have further possibility of human rights violations and atrocities. Furthermore, you know, they will be separated from healthcare and clean water. And this is a big problem because over time, it's a waiting game. It's essentially a siege and people will die. Do the people you talk with in Ukraine express concern about that since starvation is no way to go? But now people I talk to did not express concerns about starvation but clearly the tactic as you said of like medieval, this medieval tactic of siege that Russia is employing, it's potentially very destructive for the civilians that will not have access to food as you said, which is already like being a scarcity in some cities like Kharkiv, the mayor of Kharkiv was particularly concerned about this as well as the access to water and heat that was lacking because Russia had cut it off. So clearly this, yeah, this is not a war against the Ukrainian government, as Putin initially said, this is a war against the Ukrainian people. He's making, he's attacking civilians. So he's starving them. He's trying to like, these not even, they're not even letting civilians to leave from many cities, like including Kharkiv, which is like particularly having been bombarded between yesterday and today. And civilians are trying to flee but their head they're struggling. So clearly the attack is not, like the aim is not just to undermine the government. The people do are responding. The Ukrainian people are demonstrating incredible resilience in the way that they've been resisting to this invasion, this act of aggression, because that is what it is. So that is what we're talking about here. And people have taken up arms, they've joined the street fighting, they've tried to block roads, so they're like to stop tanks, as well as the convoy that we saw was approaching Kiev that is also was being like it was like on post at the moment, because of the intervention of Ukrainians, as well as the logistical issues that like Russian troops like me have had. But it's certainly a very, very worrying situation in terms of the human tragedy, in terms of the impact it will have on the people. We've seen that a million people have left the country already in eight days, a million people. That's an incredible number. These people are like just fleeing for their safety. They're going to Poland, a lot of them, nearly half of them to Poland, but also Hungary, Moldova, Romania, all the border countries and they're being also transported to other or like they are finding means of transport to other destinations in Europe to join their families. Would Europe accept them? Will Italy accept them? Will Germany accept them? Will France accept them? Yes, for sure, everyone will accept the refugees, not just within Europe, but also other countries outside of Europe have shown willingness to accept Ukrainians fleeing the conflict. You have friends there. You spend time there. You applied for your internship there and so you have a sense of what it's like to be Ukrainian. And of course your Italian and the Italians have a special good nature, may I say. That's an understatement. I love Italian people. In any event, what did you think of the Ukrainians? What did you think of their good nature? How close were you in terms of having friends there? How close are you? What are they like? I have to say my experience in Ukraine has been one of the best I've had so far. I've lived in a few countries, but Ukraine has been, or Odessa in particular, has been one of the places I've had the easiest time to talk to. Everyone has been extremely welcoming since the beginning. It was almost unbelievable how welcoming it would just be to a foreigner from the university staff to university students. A lot of people contacted me wanting to meet me, wanting to exchange ideas. It's been a really wonderful experience there in Odessa and I've long wanted to return and I hope that I'll also be able to do so. But yeah, it's very heartbreaking now. I've lived there. I've witnessed, I've walked in those streets now seeing those same streets being bombed and my friends taking up arms to fight there for the families. It's just incredibly heartbreaking, but shows a lot of bravery from their side. I just really hope that this will end soon and we'll be able to see each other again very soon and walk on the beach. Yeah, I wish I could find an indication that it will end soon, but it doesn't actually, from all indications right now, not going to end soon. Sorry to say. So I know you made notes for our discussion, Sylvia. You thought about it a couple of days anyway. You had a lot of things that you wanted to express. I don't know whether you've expressed all the things you wanted to express. We have a few minutes left and I would like to offer you the opportunity to make any other statements, express any other thoughts and reactions that you had planned to mention. Yeah, I would like them to make a final statement and also an appeal to everyone that is witnessing these atrocities. We've seen the governments that they are proceeding cautiously to indeed avoid nuclear threat, as you said, and also say further economic interest, but it is clear, it is also clear that putting the underestimated European response, as I said, there has been a gradually increasing response at the sanctions level, as we said, but also at accountability level with the ICC, the ICJ getting involved. We've seen a lot of the response across the globe and I guess what Putin had not realized is that these are our friends, our brothers that he attacked, and that's the you there, our neighbors. They want to join our union and we want them in and this is a process that's been ongoing already for some time and the many aspects that Ukrainians are already a part of the EU. So many Ukrainians live in European countries, as I was mentioning, there's a huge community in Italy and I have lived in Ukraine and I'm sure that I'm not the only one like me, many others friends in Ukraine or classmates or family and this is also true for the Russian people because like we let's not forget that some of the Russian people are also like if not all are a victim of these tragedy too, they've been strongly protesting in squares, risking their lives, more than 6,000 people have been arrested since then and a lot of Ukrainians have families in Russia, they are like they have like a good relationship like the Ukrainian people tend to have good relationship with the Russian people in terms of obviously this situation is very delicate but like they have family there, some of them and also the Russian people are, there's children that are dying too in this war and I'm happy that the Ukrainian people who are demonstrating incredible resilience and it's really admirable but let's not leave them alone against this insane megalomaniac who after invading the country has been committing such grave atrocities against civilians. So let's not leave them alone, we have options, let's use them, we need to fight back as international community with everything we have so let's bridge the debates on accountability and sanctions, let's fight with every on every possible front on every possible front to really undermine Russian power and also let's not forget that we have also the possibility of doing something about it right, all of us can contribute to this whether it's through protesting a lot of people find perhaps not very effective at times about protesting can help and he also helps the Ukrainian people right to show that we are with them but it's also about creating spaces where we can share ideas, connect to people and raise awareness of what is happening. Well what else can we do? We can donate, we can donate directly to the Ukrainian army if we want or we can also donate to NGOs that are getting involved on the border, they're trying to help the refugees or getting food into Ukraine and we can also offer our skills. So us at PEJ, Project Expedite Justice are volunteering, some of us are volunteering our time now to work on some projects and sanctions to help and contribute in the way we can with our legal skills to the situation right and also I've heard that in Romania there are dentists for instance offering free service to Ukrainian refugees so a lot of people are getting involved in the way they can and that's what we need to continue doing so we don't have to be the decision maker to be able to do something about the situation, we have the tools, we can fight misinformation, we can increase awareness and in our like individual capacity we can still contribute hopefully to bring an end to this war. Jovia Autaneti, I am profoundly touched by your comments, I'm sure many people. Thank you so much for joining us today and helping us understand what it looks like from Europe.


Item number SCP-029-J Object Class Euclid Special Containment Procedures SCP-029-J is currently considered tentatively contained. Due to the low-risk nature of SCP-029-J, police reports are to be monitored for potential reports of SCP-029-J. Class-A amnestics are to be administered as necessary. At this time, no additional containment procedures are required, pending review yearly on January 12th or as needed. Deprecated as April 21, 2017, Foundation agents are to attempt to contact SCP-029-J in order to attempt to discern more stringent containment procedures. At this time, for resource and sanity reasons, additional attempts to contact SCP-029-J are not considered conducive to study and are to be discontinued. Description SCP-029-J is an adult male of a parent Middle Eastern descent, who claims to be Jesus Christ. SCP-029-J is exclusively found in the Newark, New Jersey area, posing as a four-hire driver using the application Uber. Foundation agents contacted Uber to request the driving records and registration of SCP-029-J. No records were found. Upon being assigned to a subject request, SCP-029-J's vehicle is listed as a flaming hot ride of the current year and is always one minute from the pickup location. Of note, the Uber application does not allow this to be listed as a model name. SCP-029-J's vehicle has been determined to be a multi-entity combination, designated SCP-029-J1 through SCP-029-J4. SCP-029-J's vehicle has been shown to take a variety of appearances. Disability is contingent upon the concentration of SCP-029-J1 through 4. These entities have to date proven easily distracted, leading to a high incidence of sightings of SCP-029-J, especially around the Christmas and Easter holidays. The entities that comprise SCP-029-J's vehicle are as follows. SCP-029-J1 has been identified as a throne. Throne are depicted as great wheels containing many eyes and reside in the area of the cosmos where material form begins to take shape. They are usually depicted as the literal movers of the throne of God. SCP-029-J1 takes the physical form of all four wheels. SCP-029-J2 has been identified as a seraphim, and most likely as Michael. Seraphim are usually depicted as having six wings, one pair covering the face, another the feet, the last to fly with. They are not normally depicted as humanoid. SCP-029-J2 makes up the chassis. SCP-029-J3 has been identified as an archangel, most likely Gabriel. Depictions of Gabriel usually include a horn of some variety, with which he proclaims God's Majesty. Reports of Gabriel's physical form vary. SCP-029-J appears to only include Gabriel's voice, and is the radio and sound system. SCP-029-J4 has been identified as a group of twelve cherubim. Cherubim have varying descriptions, from four wings and four feet, to even having four faces, an extraordinarily complicated arrangement of faces and wings, feet and glowing coals in their mouths. Reports are inconsistent, varied, and almost invariably inhuman and eldritch.  Addendum 1. Remote Surveillance Prepared by the Department of Intelligence Reporter Agents Richiarty and Stokes Data Report December 21, 2016 Incident Collection of Remote Surveillance Summary SCP-029-J has appeared with a 1.7% chance to date, to any particular user's request. An important note is that SCP-029-J can appear in multiple places at once, and has been observed to be given a maximum of seven rides at once. Valerie McIntyre requested a ride from a location in Harrison, New Jersey, to the Prudential Center in downtown Newark. A transcript of an encounter between SCP-029-J, SCP-029-J1-4, and Valerie McIntyre was captured with a laser microphone on December 17, 2016.  You think you can pull this off? SCP-029-J2 has the appearance of a late model sedan. No identifying badges can be seen. His license plate reads S-P-Q-R-S-U-X. I don't really care. You think that supply-side Jesus stuff is okay? Whatever.  Stop moaning, Ray. Gabe, shut up and start the music. Fine, fine. Rock Me Sexy Jesus from the Hamlet 2 soundtrack can be heard playing from SCP-029-J3. Mackintyre approaches the car. Hi, Jesus? Pronounced as the Hispanic worm? Actually, it's Yeshua, but you can call me Jay if you want, that's me. Awesome, thanks. Mackintyre opens the door to SCP-029-J's vehicle. SCP-029-J4 begins making sounds approximating an engine turning over, and idling, poorly. The rain rain! Comfortable back there? Would you like a bottle of water? I've got refrigerated, mineral, holy, transubstantiated into wine. Uh, haha, no, I'm alright, but it's a little warm, can you turn up the AC? SCP-029-J leans down towards the dashboard.  I swear, I've led God's forces to glory for thousands of battles! I'm supposed to be your general, but now I'm climbing the control for lazy millennials today! Sheesh! SCP-029-J2 ceases to appear in the late model sedan, and can be seen in its angelic form. See description. Its wings make up the bulk of the vehicle's chassis, with its face situated where the rear axle should be. SCP-026-J1 continues to appear with non-anomalous wheels.  Hey, that's not very nice.  Yeah, what the deuce, lady?   SCP-029-J2 returns to its physical appearance of a late model sedan. SCP-029-J1 begins turning at this point, prompting Foundation agents to follow. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. You okay, Ray? Broken glass. Ow! Just had to pick the most rundown hellhole on Earth. New Jersey! Mack and Tyre had begun screaming at this point, and attempting to leave SCP-029-J's vehicle, but is unable to climb over SCP-029-J2. Oh god, oh god, oh god, please help me! Yeah, I'm trying. Calm down, lady. Ray, come on, man. Say the thing. Alright, alright. SCP-029-J1 can be heard making a sound similar to clearing its throat. Be not afraid! Mackintyre stops panicking and appears shocked and agitated.  That's it? Be not afraid? Hey! It was good enough for his mom. Wait. Mom?  You're literally Jesus? That's not just a name? Of course. We're all here to try and reach the people. And what better way but through Uber? Jesus saves. You a trip. Haha. Several seconds pass. SCP-029-J3 ceases to play music. Awkward. By the way, we're here. Also, Owl?  Oh, come on, lady. I'm Jesus Christ. Lamb of God. I'm here to help. Just open the door. Okay, okay, no need to crucify anyone or anything. Haha. Several moments pass. No? Alright. Open the door, Mike. SCP-029-J2 opens the side door, and Mackintyre quickly accesses into the building. Freak! Several moments pass in silence. So… Think she's gonna tip us? Final note. According to SCP-029-J's profile, it was rated 1 star for this ride. Addendum 2 – Direct Foundation Contact Prepared by the Department of Intelligence, Reporter, Agent Matthews, Data Report, April 24, 2017. Incident – Direct Contact with Object On April 19, 2017, Foundation agents successfully acquired SCP-029-J as their driver after redacted unsuccessful attempts. SCP-029-J simultaneously picked up 12 separate containment teams at the same time. The following is a transcript between SCP-029-J, the various entities that make up SCP-029-J's vehicle, and Agent Matthews, an expert Abrahamic religious studies and a trained field agent. Transcript of Encounter Inbal Foundation Assets Agent James Matthews, Level 2, Religious Containment Abrahamics Encountered Anomalies SCP-029-J SCP-029-J1 SCP-029-J2 SCP-029-J3 SCP-029-J4 Alright, you guys have been trying to get me into containment for what feels like 40 eons, so I guess we should talk. Excuse me? I'm just trying to get to Forest Hills. Agent James Matthews, Age 31, Foundation Level 2 Agent. You have two kids, a wife, and are having an affair with Jenny from HR. Agent Matthews appears distressed. Wait, what? How did you know about Jenny? Did you actually just ask God how he knows something? Agent Matthews lifts his lapel mic slightly. I'm not having an affair. Whatever, man. You know he knows everything, right? Agent Matthews is informed of the other containment teams also being detained by SCP-029-J. Wait, how are you here? Okay, say it with me. Omni, Omni-pa, Omni-pru- Agent Matthews sighs. Omni-present, Bingo. Okay, so you know who I am and what I'm here for, so I guess my question is, why? I've gotten a bad rap. We're here to try and improve my image. And who exactly is we? I'm the wheels. I'm the body. We're the engine. Broom-broom! Yeah, me, Ray, Mike, Gabe, and the Cherubs. I was just gonna have Ray do it, but it wasn't a great idea. He's a kick-ass set of wheels within wheels, but he doesn't get XM radio. I guess you could say this is a real electric car. Several moments pass in silence. See, in the septal gland, hostile ball was translated as lectum, and from there… No, I got it. I'm one of maybe four people in the world who would get that joke. And it still isn't funny. SCP-029-J3 ceases playing the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. Awkward. If he knows we're angels, can I talk now? My throat's getting dry from singing the whole time. No, you're the radio, Gabe. Fine. Who are you and what do you say you are? SCP-029-J3 continues vocalizing. Your singing sucks, Gabe. You can't hit any of Judas' high notes properly.  At least I don't have to get my wings dinged by drunks every night. At least you don't have to drive on your eyes all night. Every night! SCP-029-J4 becomes visible, as a group of 12 visually non-anomous Welsh corgis. I'll be getting food soon. They're the whole all guys on Halsey. Heavenly host, I command you to stop complaining or so help me I'll turn this chariot around. SCP-029-J1-4 Unison. Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. So, wait. You're telling me this car that I'm in right now is the Archangel Michael as the chassis, the Archangel Gabriel as the radio, Raziel, Lord of Thrones as the wheels, and is pulled by 12 cherubim, and is driven by Jesus. Give this man a shekel! I figured if I do this people can really get to know their savior. Okay. So, isn't your chariot supposed to have this giant multitude of angels move the heavens and the earth, everything like that? SCP-029-J hesitate for a moment. Usually, yes. Circumstances were slightly different. Dad wouldn't lend me the regular throne chariot, so instead I've got my own sweet whip to drive people around in. SCP-029-J sweet. Whoa, okay. So, why did all the angels help? I owed him for a taco, and he said we'd be square. He said he'd watch my dogs next weekend while I'm in Cabo. I just like singing. Wait, this is voluntary? Okay, one last question. Of course. Why do the cherubim look like corgis? They always look like that. How do you guys keep getting the description so wrong? I'd like to get out of the car, please. Final notes. After this incident, containment procedures were updated to reflect the current state. Addendum 3. Human Resources Request Prepared by the Department of Human Resources Reporter Agent Matthews Data Report April 30th, 2017 Content Agent Matthews' resignation letter, in its entirety.


Hello, beautiful souls. Welcome back to Art of Awakening. My name is Ona Christie, visionary artist in Mystic Oracle, and today I want to talk about the importance of time. And lately I've been really feeling into and sitting with the concept of time as it relates to our spiritual awakening. And I'm really coming to understand that working with time and how we work with time and through time is actually very central to the awakening process. And here is why, because the entire alignment and awakening and the enlightenment process is a process of moving into sync with natural time. Because when we're in sync with the time flow of nature, that will naturally bring us into developing and evolving in the way that we were actually designed to be, right, intended to. Because we weren't created in a vacuum. We were created in this whole environment on this beautiful planet, right? We're part of the planet. And to be able to acknowledge that through our use of time and how we live our lives, whether it's in sync or not, to the universal spirit flow, right? The Christ consciousness or the life wave of the planet, okay? So right now, most of the world uses the Rick Rick Gorian calendar, which is based on a ratio, a time or a number ratio of 1260, okay? So we have 60 seconds to a minute and 60 minutes to an hour. And then we have 24 hours in the day, which is two cycles of 12, and so forth. And this is all based on geometry and geometrical concepts, right? But it is not based on how nature actually works. And so if we are continue, if we continue to use the Gregorian calendar, we have automatically, just like you don't even have to think about it, but you're separating yourself from the natural way that time unfolds. And what that does is it creates distortions in your energetic field. It just creates distortions in life and it automatically kind of distorts how you create, right? Remember, as we are creator beings, as human beings, we were created to be creator beings. And so everything that you touch, everything that you think and do and feel is actually an act of creation. It's creative act. So we are all artists, right? And our arts, even if you don't consider yourself an artist, it doesn't matter because you're creating art through your life. Your life is a work of art. And so when we are connected with the natural flow, the art begins to flow spontaneously and beautifully and it has soul, right? And you can feel any work of art if it has that quality of chi or prana or soul or breath essence to it. You can feel it and versus, I think we've all seen art and actually, I challenge you to go look at computer generated art, go look for AI art. And yes, on the surface, much of it is very beautiful. But when you start looking at one image after another after another after another, they're all AI generated, you start to recognize that there's a certain sterile quality to them. Even if they're beautiful, you start to recognize there's a certain stamp of energy on these things that does not feel soulful. Okay. And that's what happens when we sync with that artificial timeline. It kind of gets us out of sync with the soul essence of nature and the soul essence of who we are, right? It disconnects us from the God essence within us. And so that is going to affect everything that we create. Okay, it's going to affect all our relationships. It's going to affect, you know, any physical thing that we create, it's going to affect the the timelines that we create. And one last thing about the Gregorian calendar is that I recently learned that the standard calendar that we're using right now is based on how the ancient Babylonians measured time. And coincidentally, I've been guided to learn about a little bit about the ancient Babylonian beliefs and mythology. And what I found, I find actually fairly disturbing, okay, because just in a nutshell, their creation myth revolves around these these God beings that if you read into it, they're egoic beings, you can see that you can feel it. And what they believed was that these God beings created my unkind in order to serve them, right, to essentially be slaves. And first of all, that just does not ring true to me. It doesn't sync with my own experience and my own, you know, what I've been told through the Akash and through my own guidance, that humanity was created as a part of the earth that we are part of earth consciousness and that we were created by, you know, by the creator, you know, as as holy beings, right, not as slaves. So right off the bat, that that is just something that was a huge red flag to me. And then I also learned that their belief about the afterlife was that a human being passes on that they go into this underworld that's all dry and dusty. And that there's that's all there is, and that every human being ends up there, no matter how they live their life. It doesn't matter whether you're a good person or not, or if you're, you know, working to there's no evolution there, right, it's basically ends in depth. And that's it. I mean, and that too, it's just so so rings untrue with all of my experience. I assisted my mother in passing last week, and that was such an incredibly beautiful experience and so much light around that. It's like I know that we do not go to a dry, dusty underworld and, and, you know, for eternity, we go back to the light. And that is the absolute truth. I've experienced it. So many people have experienced that. So when I'm looking at a system of time that's based on these beliefs that I know in my heart and my gut are not based on reality, it really gives, you know, gives one pause. I think, you know, are we really using this this timeframe? And also it was the Gregorian calendar was adopted as in the Western world in the 1500s, I think, and it was like initiating in this age of mechanization. There are good aspects to it, right? There's, there's light and dark to everything. And I think we can be very grateful for a lot of the ease of life that we have due to mechanization and technology. But I also feel that the technology needs to serve us, not us it, okay? And so when we're using this timekeeping mechanism that is created to make of the world something mechanical and lifeless, you know, really think about that versus the alternative of a timekeeping system that brings us back into sync with universal time and with natural time. So we actually do have an alternative. And if you've been with me for a while, you may remember a couple years ago, I introduced a calendar called the galactic calendar or the dream spell calendar. And this is this year's version of it. Okay. And what this is is it was, it is based on the ancient Mayan calendar, which is based on a ratio of 1320. Okay. And that is actually a reflection of nature and how nature, the natural cycles move. Okay. And so when we use this calendar, you can see here, it's it's quite the beautiful piece of art itself, right? But this explains that the 1320 refers to the 13 tones of creation, which they say convey nature's creative process as an unfolding 13 day spiral of time. Okay. And then the 20 glyphs are symbols of universal energies, which represent archetypal aspects of our beings. And so it goes on the cycle. And each day has a certain frequency that you can work with. And what I love about this is this recognition, right, that life is art. Because when you are sinking with the natural cycles, you automatically sink with the creative flow of the universe, right? And that's why I feel it's really important to be aware of time. And that's why I feel like this calendar may be something that is really worth working with. Now, over the last couple of years, I bought this calendar, but it's, I have to admit, it's been kind of challenging for me to kind of actually really get the hang of working with it, because there are certain complexities. And because it is something that's unfamiliar that we weren't, you know, most of us weren't, didn't grow up with. And so sometimes, anytime that there's a positive change that we want to make, often there's a challenge associated with it. And that's just an invitation to dive in and work deeper and to work through those challenges. Unfortunately, you know, we're not alone in this. We're all, we're walking each other home. We're all here in this ascension process together. And so there was just this wonderful offer that I received recently. Now, you may know that earlier this year, I started a private membership group for Star Seeds and Awakening Souls. It's called Spoke and Earth Ministries. It's free to join. And when you join, we get together once or twice every month. And it's just a beautiful community of kindred spirits. And so there's a couple of members of that community who have been working with this calendar. And I have really been going to town and really beginning to understand how to work with it. And they both of them just are just glowing when they talk about this.  And if you're, if you haven't worked with this calendar, how it works is that there are 13 moons or months, right, and of 28 days each. And that adds up to most of the year. But then there's one day that it doesn't cover. And what they do is they take that day, and it's called the day out of time. And it's this beautiful day to just kind of rest and reset and meditate and, you know, just take a day of timelessness before we start a new cycle. So I love that concept. And he reminded me that the day out of time is coming up on July 26th. And he offered to do a presentation on the day out of time. And we both knew that there was another member that her name is Martha, who is also working with the calendar. And as it turned out, she was interested in helping with the presentation. So the two of them are going to be offering this to us on this day out of time. And I think I'm really excited about this presentation. They're going to explain the calendar, help us to learn how to use it in a practical way in our lives. And also, there will be a guided meditative art session within that session. So I think it ought to be a lot of fun. And so I would like to invite you to join us. You do have to sign up as a member of Spoken Earth Ministries to do this, but it is free to join. It is free to attend. And I will be recording this. So there will be a replay available for any member who is unable to attend. You can watch it later. I feel like this is going to be a very, very special gathering. And I would love for any of you who are resonating with this whole concept or idea, huge invitation to come join us, see what it's all about and to experience our community. And so thank you for listening. If you're interested in joining Spoken Earth Ministries, there's a link below in the description box as well as a little link to where you can learn more about the galactic calendar. And until then, remember, you were born to be free.