Cajun Knight Live 52

you go to patreon dot com slash Cajun Night. Not always that the only place to get these shows commercial free, but it's the only place to see the videos, the articles, the news clips, all the things, all this stuff, and also you get to join in on the conversation. It's become a real Wednesday Night barn burner for the group of us that come together and do this. I know

I look forward to it every week. So without any further ado, I'm gonna go ahead and share the screen and let's just jump straight into it with the wildness that is going on in the world. Starting off, I thought this was interesting and also silly. So this is from the Hill Trump on Norway denying the Nobel Prize. He says, I don't care which you know, it's silly, right,

It's silly to me. And then didn't he get it from like Venezuela or something like that, And it was the I think it was the Venezuelan one of the laureates that just got it. She basically like gave her, gave him hers or something like that. But it wasn't the point. He was just pissed that he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize because I've done nord for peace in this world than anyone else right now, And it

was silly things Ian realistically it was. But yeah, we might as well read on this one because that ties into Davos, and that ties into everything else we're going to talk about next. But let's start off here. President Trump insisted Monday that he does not care about the Nobel Peace Prize, but maintained that Norway controlled quote unquote the award, despite the country's leaders denying any involvement in

deciding who receives the prize. Yeah, the nation of Norway doesn't have like I say so in that it's it's from the Nobel Peace Prize organization. And I should just say the Nobel Prize, right, because like I mean, hell, Teddy Broosevelt was awarded a Nobel Prize, but for literature. So I mean, like it's I'm just saying it's for this. I'm just gonna go ahead and just say the Nobel Prize organization, you know, I'll go ahead, Sam, It wasn't the nob.

And there's a couple of different categories. You can be awarded the prize for one of them is peace, and Trump was kind of but hurt that he wasn't given the Peace Prize and said that it was the country of Norway that was the ones that prevented that from happening, which is silly. But anyway, he says, I don't care

about the Nobel Prize. He told reporters, First of all, a very fine woman felt that I deserved it and really wanted me to have the Nobel Prize, and I appreciated that, he added, referring to Venezuelan opposition leader, I'm gonna try to pronounce this on Maria Corina Machado. Yeah, her decision to give her eighteen care Gold Medal to Trump during a meeting at the White House last week. Yeah,

she literally just got awarded this. Most of the country of Venezuela doesn't even know about it, what they probably do now, But because she was an opposition leader, Maduro made sure that nobody in the country had heard about this whatsoever. And she's been I don't even think she's been in the country for years because like she was hunted, she had a price on her head. But basically she felt that, yeah, you do deserve one, mister Trump, And here's mine. She just got awarded that like a few

months ago, as a matter of fact. But basically that wasn't the point, Okay, wasn't about the medal. It was about the status. That move, though not mentioned directly, prompted the Nobel Committee to note that while the symbol of the prize a medal and a diploma, can be given away to honor itself, is inseparably linked to the winner.

Trump's comments came days after he linked the prize, which he has long coveted, to his aspirations to acquire Greenland, in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Joha Stor, writing that he no longer felt an obligation to think purely

of peace. See he was basically I'm gonna read the direct quote, but basically he's saying the only reason why he hasn't done more war things is because he wanted the Nobel Peace Prize, and now that that's not how opening, he doesn't feel obligated to think of only peace, which is again it's a rather silly take honestly, direct quote here, dear johann or Jonas, considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight

wars plus. I no longer feel an obligation to think purely a peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for

the United States of America, the President wrote. According to News Nation Storm, the Prime Minister clarified in a statement on Monday that the Norwegian government holds no sway over who receives the Peace Prize, which again, that's I feel like, that's crazy, that's I wish I could and this is not a fair comparison, but just bear with me here.

That would be like somebody being pissed off that they didn't get Magna cum laude at Louisiana State University in engineering and blaming the governor of Louisiana for not That's not how that goes. That's not how that goes at all. Although the prize is based out of Norway, the Norwegian president and the Norwegian Royalty and every version of that you want to take has no actual sway in the medal.

But all right, cool. As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have clearly explained, including to President Trump, what is well known the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel committee and not the Norwegian government, the Prime minister wrote. Speaking to reporters Monday night, Trump rejected that notion. If anybody thinks that Norway doesn't control the prize, they're just kidding. He said, they have a board, but it's controlled by Norway, and I don't care what Norway said. Yep, yep, that's

that's a thing. The President spent months publicly lobbying to win the Peace Prize before it was awarded to Machado, often claiming he deserved it because he had helped to end several wars. And I mean, to be honest with you, yeah, I think, especially if you look at other laureates who have been awarded. Yeah, Trump has definitely done more in certain regards and could be I think has a pretty solid nomination, right. But again, blaming the Prime Minister of

Norway for this one, that's wild. That's wild. But I really don't care about the Nobel pricy in system Monday. What I care about is saving lives, and I think I've saved tens of millions of lives. We stopped eight wars, and maybe we'll stop a ninth very soon. We'll see. The Trump administration has ratcheted up the pressure on European countries in recent weeks, as the president eyes a US

takeover of Greenland, a self governing Danish territory. He announced Saturday that he would implement a ten percent tariff on Denmark and its allies starting February first, and potentially raising to twenty five percent in June until a deal is reached. The President and other senior US officials have argued that the island must come under US ownership to protect national security interests and thwart threats from Russia, China, Russia and China in the Arctic region. Now, this is why I

brought up this nobel situation. It's silly. It's it's silly. It's Trump being a little bit of a whiner, a little bit. He a little but hurt. Okay, got a little stand in the snatch, and he's feeling some type of way. All right, fine, but that's not the important

portion here. It's about Greenland. And Trump started saying that he well, first, first things first, he started making more of a push towards Greenland, and he was saying that we're gonna take it, not militarily, but I mean, maybe we could if we have to, but like we don't

want to, we'll just buy it. And somebody threw out a number, and I saw a couple of different reports, but a report that I saw pretty consistently was somewhere in the ballpark of seven hundred billion dollars, which, all right, cool, I just dropped a TikTok and an Instagram and whatever the socials about what my personal take is. As far as what Norway is about, what Greenland is about, I don't think it was for the military strong point right. America has a base there and has had a base

there since the Cold War. They just changed it from the Thule base to the Patufic Base, I believe, and it has the capabilities of housing thousands of troops, not not no, hundreds of thousands, no, but you could pretty easily find a way to house about ten thousand troops there right now, and nobody would Batny. Greenland has never had an issue with America bringing troops over that way. I don't think they ever will, to be completely honest with you, it's not like they're an ally. They're a

NATO ally, so it's no big deal. But he was also talking about maybe buying it out right. Denmark said they don't want nothing to do with that. It's not happening. Then you had France step up and say like, hey boy, enough's enough, that's enough of that that crazy shit Donald Germany stepped up and said something similar. Britain step Duppin

said something similar. There was one more country. I forget which one, but one of these other European NATO allies was talking about, hey, hey, that's enough, Donald, we don't need none of that. As soon as Trump threatened ten percent tariffs, every one of them just went silent. Funny how that works out, and then cut to a deal has indeed been reached as of today as a time of recording. Let's learn about that one together, y'all.

Based upon this understanding, and here's a big part of this, I will not be in posing the tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February the first. Watch your four oh one K. Additional discussions are being held concerning the Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland. Further

information will be made available as discussions progress. Vice President Jadvance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoys Steve Wiccoff, and various others as needed, will be responsible for the negotiations. They will report directly to me. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald Trump, President of the United States. Ed Lawrence slivin Davos watching all of this, I think the markets are going to like this.

movement on that will be. But clearly the NATO Secretary General has been in President Trump's corner from the beginning of this President posted on true social note that was passed to him from Mark Ruda, the Secretary General of supporting him and strife for Greenland. The President is making the case here and this is what we've heard from this administration saying that that US is the best position to protect Greenland should something happen from China or Russia.

And that's the argument the President's making, and the administration coming in here saying, look, you need to allow us to make this argument, come in with an open mind, and we can negotiate something fair. Because the point of the President made in his address today was that Denmark really hasn't put in the resources where the money needed to support Denmark the way I mean to support Greenland the way it needs to be supported. So it'd be

very interesting to see where this goes forward. But at least now we have a group of folks that have come together with a plan and the President, as you know his strategy, he talks big, gets people talking and then his next step is to put forth something and this is where the negotiations can start. So maybe that's where we are at the moment, a starting point for negotiations.

European nations to up their defense spending. So perhaps and Again, I don't know this for a fact, but perhaps this was his plan all along. This is him still trying to do the whole art of the deal kind of situation here. He's he's making some bombastic claims, some borderline threats, and he does it so hard and so seriously that they started to capitulate, which is what he wanted in the first place. I don't know. I don't know. I would love to hear y'all's take on that one. But

I have an article puote up here from Politico. It says Trump says he won't impose tariffs after reaching Greenland deal framework quote unquote. A deal wasn't met, but a framework for a deal was met, and that's enough for him to calm down on the whole tariff conversation, Trump said that he's reached an agreement with NATO on a Greenland framework and will not be imposing planned tariffs on

European allies. The president said in a social media post that the deal quote will be a great one quote for both the US and NATO allies, but did not elaborate on the details of the agreement with NATO Secretary

General Mark Root. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February first, Trump wrote, the deal eases tensions over control of Greenland, which Trump has aggressively sought to rest control of from Denmark while citing national security concerns. In an interview with CNBC conducted shortly after his social media posts, the president said quote, we have a concept

of a deal. I think it's going to be a very good deal for the United States also for them, and we're gonna work on We're gonna work together on something having to do with the Arctic as a whole, but also Greenland, and it has to do with the security, great security, strong security, and other things. He literally, I tried to a Trump impression, but it's just his speech

pattern is wild. But anyway, Trump steered clear, providing further details, including whether the framework involved any degree of US ownership of Greenland or mineral rights. And this is why I thought it was all about that in the first place, because I don't think many people know this about Greenland.

They have untapped mineral reserves, iron, uranium, rare earths, cobalt, gold, diamonds, zinc, copper, they have all of these things, and they being a country that only has fifty seven thousand people living there, they don't have the manpower to properly mine and smelt and take advantage of these minerals whenever. And you especially if you look at China and you look at all of what's going on, and they are like the lynchpin

as far as the rare earth's go on Earth. If there's another spot where you can get your hand on some of those rare earths for those magnets that are needed in all of our electrical components, I could understand why he is saying that that is a matter of national security, even though it's not a military or defense thing as what we're thinking of when we think of like kinetic warfare. It's more like setting America up for

the next five, ten, fifteen years. But again, no real word on if this framework quote unquote has anything to do with these minerals or not. I don't know. It's a little bit complex, but we'll explain it down the line. Asked how long the deal will last, Trump said forever. So I have a weird feeling that it's going to tie into the minerals. I could be so wrong. Here and it had nothing to do with that anyway, But I just I got a feeling, you know, I got

a feeling. Trump, in his true social post said discussions around a missile defens system pertaining to Greenland are part of the negotiations, which will be led by jd Vance, Secretary of State Mark Arubia, and Special ENVOYE step Woitkough. NATO spokesperson Alison Hart said in a statement that the framework will focus on Arctic security through the collective efforts

of allies, especially the Seven Arctic Allies. Heart added the negotiations between the US and Denmark over Greenland will go forward. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen welcomed Trump's decision to back off the tariff threat and rule out military force in Greenland in a post on Wednesday evening. US stock markets railed Wednesday on news that Trump had backed off his tariff threat. Yeah, as the reporter just said, Watcher four one K, because man, that was a thing, that was

the thing people were really worried about. He's back on the tariff kick. It's like, shit, we just got everything back to a working place. Why But that's because Trump be doing Trump shit. You know moving on. Prior to his trip to the World Economic Forum and Devo, Switzerland, Trump had threatened new duties on eight European nations, including Denmark and major NATO allies such as the UK, France,

and Germany. At the time, the president said the terriffs would be in effect until quote a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland. US imports from the eight countries were about three hundred and two billion dollars from January through October of twenty twenty five, about ten point five percent of total US imports in

that period. Trump had also dangled the possibility of using military force to annex the Danish territory, and was exploring a range of options that included military action to take control of Greenland earlier in Jane anyway, but in a speech of Davos on Wednesday, Trump ruled out the use of military action. Which is good that nobody wants that. Really we don't. We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use successive strength and force where would where

we would frankly be unstoppable. But I won't do that, okay, Trump said in his speech, which okay, yeah again. The entire nation. This place is three times the size of Texas and has a population of fifty seven thousand people. Y'all. The parish that I live in, which granted, everybody else in the United States has counties. Louisiana has parishes. The parish I live in has three times or just under three times the amount of people that live in it,

as does the entire nation of Greenland. So yeah, we're talking about the United States military. If we were trying to annex it, I don't think there would be any opposition. I think the people of Greenlan would probably be like, well, all right, they wouldn't be happy about it, but I don't think we would see like, uh, you know, violent rebellions or anything like that either. Hell, Greenland could have claimed autonomy from Denmark anytime they wanted for the past

few years. They just haven't done it. They're kind they're kind of nonchalant about the whole thing. So it would have been, like you said, kind of unstoppable. Yeah, obviously obviously where the American military like duh, but all right.

The US campaign to take control of Greenland has been met with unusually strong resistance from European allies, who have insisted that Greenland's geographics, significance Jesus and defending the Arctic is critical to NATO's member states and should be controlled in coordination with NATO. Again, it is already but all right. European allies have been threatening strong responses to the looming tariffs.

European Commission President Ursula of vonder Lehan said Wednesday that the EU is quote fully prepared to act in retaliation to the tariffs. I don't know what they would have, like counter tariffed okay cool. Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK and and Beta male, he's just gonna throw that out, said he will not yield over Greenland despite the threat of tariffs. Again, UK, you need to not yield to protect your own citizens right now. But like, yeah,

please speak up more. We love hearing from you. A spokesperson for the Danish embassy in the US did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a panel at Davos on Wednesday Roots said that the NATO nations should be happy with Trump's role in reshuffling NATO a security alliance, and he has sharply criticized dating back to his first term in office. Route acknowledged that he is embrace of Trump is not popular with European nations. Yeah,

I could see that. I could see that multiple European nations are kind of tired of Donnie t in his mouth. I sure sure. In backing off, Trump may be able to maintain a fragile status quote with Europe, even as US officials have expressed frustrations that the European Union isn't living up to a July trade agreement that eliminated tariffs on a variety of US goods in exchange for a fifteen percent tariff on most European goods. Yeah, that's the thing.

Remember whenever Trump was going on his big tariff thing, and all these European nations said that they would remove these tariffs on US goods being sold in Europe. Some have absolutely stood by their word and they have removed them.

Last year, the Trump administration struck trade deals with both the EU and the UK that set new reciprocal US tariffs on them at fifteen and ten percent, respectively. Speaking in Davos on Wednesday at an event hosted by Axios, US trade representative Jamison Greer probably mispronounced it's fine. Brush aside such concerns, saying that Trump's agreements aren't intended to permanently spare countries from tariff threats if new issues rise.

So again, it's it seems like the tariff thing is what actually got people motivated to do something about Greenland. But now the deal has been struck, or at least a framework for a deal has been proposed and has made Trump calm down on the tariff conversation in Europe. So I mean, I'm taking that as a w honestly.

But while we're talking about Trump and Dalla dollar bills, y'all, I don't know how many of your heard about this, but Trump has decided to enact and found a Board of Peace involving Gaza, and he is charging nations who want to be lifetime members of this Board of peace a billion dollars for a permanent seat on this board. That's that's hilarious to me, especially when you see the countries that have already signed up. We're gonna get to

it anyway. This is from France twenty four. Here, a permanent seat on US President Trump's Board of Peace, aimed at resolving conflicts, will cost countries one billion dollars each according to its charter. For the record, that's just for a seat that has nothing to do with the other costs that are going to be associated with peacekeeping operations

quote unquote when it comes to the Gaza situation. But you know, just to get your foot in the door, it's gonna be a billion, cold hard cash right off the top. So take that for what it is. According to its charter. Invited world leaders include Russian President Vladimir Putin, oh shit, Hungarian Premier Victor Orbun and the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Apparently Trump extending an invite to Putin. People are kind kind of giving some side eye glances

about this. But perhaps and I'm not saying this is actually gonna happen. I don't think Putin actually gives two shits about what goes down in Gazi. He's got his hands full of other stuff. But the invitation extension, right, the extending of an olive branch. There are those that are hoping that perhaps this will kind of change the mood of Putin to where he'd be a little more willing to talk about peace in other regards. I don't think it's gonna happen, but like that seems to be

the going consensus here. But let's read in more. Trump's government has asked countries to pay a billion dollars for a permanent spot on his quote. Board of Peace aimed at resolving conflicts. According to its charters seen Monday by AFP, the White Houses asked being areous world leaders to sit on the board chaired by Donald Trump himself, including the

three that we mentioned earlier. Member countries represented on the Board by their head of state would be allowed to join for three years or longer if they paid more than a billion dollars within the first year. The charter says each member state shall serve a term of no more than three years from this charter's entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman.

the first year. The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, but its charter does not appear to limit its role to the occupied palace any in territory. It's for that purpose, but it might have some some other tentacles if you catch my drift here. The White House said there would be a main board, a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern devastated Gaza, and a second executive board that appears designed to have more of

an advisory role. The Board of Peace is an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependability and lawful governments, and secure enduring peace and areas affected by or threatened by conflict. That's what the charter says. Anyway, failed institutions.

Now it appears that to take a swipe at the international institution such as the United Nations, saying that the Board should have quote the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed, which I'm gonna be honest with you, there's some credibility there. There is not all of it. The UN has done some good things around the world for humanitarian aid and.

But as a as a litmus test, litmist test, excuse me, of of where the money actually goes that comes from the UN. Yeah, it's it's a bit murky, to say the least. Before I continue, Sam, I see your hand, brother, what you got.

best way possible. But it that was doomed to fail regardless, especially when you look at the amount of debt that had been accrued and all of it was thrown on Germany, all of it to the point there was no way they could ever pay them, Like I understand, America's got more debt, but Germany could never have made those payments happen. So all these countries that were a part of the League nations were gonna be just out. They were never

gonna get their money anyway. So in my opinion, the League was doomed to fail from the onset, But I think it had good intentions behind it. They just it was the first time that something like that to that scale had ever been really attempted though.

not technically monarchy, but essentially would be Luxembourg. And they're actually a grand duchy. They're the only grand duchy on earth, and they ever really they don't have a king. They have a grand duke and he runs his country full tilt as a monarchy. But at the same time, it's such a small nation that it's that he's beloved by his people. Luxembourg isn't known for throwing their hat in

the ring as far as military is concerned. It's you know, so, yeah, they still have monarchy, but it's not to the level that it was prior to World War One. But yeah, I agree, the UN is the let's let's call it the stepchild of the League of Nations, but it had more credibility at one point in time, it seemed like it could be used for a greater good for a bit there. But as time has gone on, yeah, it's kind of gone into the realm of ineptitude, So I

don't know, right. Trump has regularly criticized the United Nations and announced this month that his country will withdraw from sixty six global organizations and treaties. Roughly half are affiliated with the UN. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago. As a matter of fact, he's pulling out of everything that he sees to be wasteful, and we could look at the math on that. I don't know. I don't know how much of this doge had anything to do with, right, But he's basically pulling out of

a lot of things. And when you look at how much of these organizations that America was footing a giant chunk of the bill on, Yeah, it's a thing. Members of the Board would be limited to states invited to participate by the chairman, So not just any old country can be bop up to the Board of Peace and decide they want to be a member. You have to

be invited. Trump would have the power to remove member states from the Board, subject to a veto by two thirds of members, and choose his replacement should he leave his role as chairman. The Board of Peace began to take shape on Saturday, when leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Argentina and Canada were asked to join. Trump also named as members Secretary of State Mark Rubio, former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair, senior negotiator Steve Witkoff, and his son

in law Jared Kushner. Shocker shocker that Jared Kushner got asked to be a part of the Board of Peace and in response with gazam okay anyway, Israel has objected to the lineup of Gaza execute board UH to operate under the body, which includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fadad and Katar diplomat Ali al Thawadi. Yeah, members of the

board is also a Turkish dude. Turkey hates Israel by the way, for anybody who didn't know, and a Katari diplomat because you know how those Kataris love them some Israel. So yeah, Israel's not exactly jazzed up about this either. But Trump is saying, screw it, We're gonna make this board a piece and if you want to be a part of this ball team, it's gonna cost you a billion off the top. Go ahead, sam, is.

bit of credence here. World War One, they didn't surrender. They fought tooth and nail. Now, granted, they would have been taken if it wasn't for other nations helping them out, but historically France hadn't been bitches, you know. It's there's a couple of times where they have absolutely not shown their most courageous selves. And I have no idea what the current status of Francis legion are sick.

Like get the game wardens do not fuck around in Louisiana's throw that out anyway, all right, moving on as we're still go ahead, Sam, you have one more thing.

If you've at least in Louisiana, if you have the game wardens kicking in your door without a warrant because they have that much probable cause to do so, brother, you are you're fucking around on a level that most people can't comprehend because the game wardens, they have so much square mileage that each individual warden has under their jurisdiction that they have to cover on any given weekend.

For them to pick out one person in particular is like, you know what, I know you're doing something illegal and I'm gonna find out you have to have pissed in so many high profile cheerios that, like you, you asked for it at that point, because I have outlaws of my family, like legit outlaws that be doing the wildest shit. As far as that's concerned, the game wardens am even concerned with them, Like really, well, I mean as far as outlaw hunting goes, you know, like, yeah, I got

some of those dudes. But and it's not even like, oh because the game warnings are all dirty, No they are not go ahead and try to bribe one of those boys.

This month, the United States military announced they have seized a seventh Venezuela linked oil tanker in the US titans control over the production and sale of the country's considerable oil resources. The US Southern Command or SOUTHCOMB, which oversees military operations in Latin America, said on Tuesday that it captured the motor vessel Sejeta Sagita. Not sure if that's a softer hard gen as part of the blockade and

on oil vessels leaving and entering the country. The apprehension of another tanker operating in defiance of President Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be the oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully, Southcomb said in a statement. It added that Tuesday's tanker seizure occurred without incident, sharing a video appearing to show US forces

flying towards the vessel and landing on its deck. The US began seizing sanctioned tankers on December tenth as part of the campaign to increase pressure on Venezuela. Tensions between the US and Venezuela came to a peak on January third. We talked about that already, whenever they came in and

bagged and tagged Maduro and his wife. In the lead up to that operation, Trump and allies like Stephen Miller had been increasingly vocal about laying claim to Venezuelan oil, given the US's history of prospecting for petroleum there is in early in the twentieth century, But by nineteen seventy one, Venezuela had nationalized its oil industry, which is never a

good idea. Efforts to expropriate assets from foreign oil companies in two thousand and seven have further fuel criticism from the Trump administration, which considers Venezuela oil stolen from US owners. Now that's a claim, that's a claim. Here legal experts, however, largely consider such arguments in violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. Yeah,

that's accurate. Trump has nevertheless said the US will control Venezuelan oil and has used the threat to further military attacks to pressure Venezuela's government to compliance, which they are now. And that's the thing they keep trying. They keep sending out these vessels. I don't know how many oil tankers Venezuela has within its fleet here, but I feel like

they might be running out. I don't know here. The Trump administration has also placed steep sanctions on Venezuelan's economy, as part of a trend stretching back to the Republican leader's first term as president. The US has framed the tanker seizures as a way of enforcing those sanctions, although the legality of using military force to enforce economic penalties is disputed. Yeah, you know, other nations have been upset by this, but at the same time, they're not really

doing much to stop it. Could that be because they don't want none of the smoke with the US. Or is it because they don't want to catch a tariff from running their mouth too much? I don't know, I don't know. Both are viable options, I suppose, Trump said. Trump and his officials have said that the sale of Venezuelan oil on the world more will be dictated by the US, and that the proceeds from those sales will

be placed in a US control bank account. It's straight up theft, it's straight up schoolyard bullying, and honestly, I'm kind of here for it when it comes to just Venezuela. Not everybody, not everybody. America doesn't need to go on some conquest shit and start running everything on earth. But I'm not mad at it. When it comes to Venezuela. I'm just throwing it out any or any socialist nation, any socialist nation. I'm good with US bullying though. That's

fine with me anyway. I know a lot of people are gonna be mad that I said such a hot take, but yeah, fuck them, Fuck socialism. Trump has also used control over Venezuela's oil to ratchet up pressure on Cuba, for which access to Venezuelan oil is an important economic lifeline. The US presidential reporters on Tuesday at a waffle House briefing or Jesus Christ, I misread that a White House briefing. God, that that's how y'all hungry? I am, I just read

White House as waffle house. Good God, Almighty.

because of the sanctions. I'm just I'm just saying it. It's nice to see gas prices go closer to two dollars a gallon as opposed to whatever the hell they were two years ago. You know, let's at least take some of that good with some of the bad.

in totality. But that's also because we're so close to the water and boat motors do not do well with ethanol gas. So it's it's they're a little more expensive, but also it's better for your engine. And honestly, I have no idea what the price on that is because the last time I filled up was a Walmart. I need to see.

see Jacob learned some lessons the hard way. After eight months of riding that thing as my daily commuter vehicle, I had a solid inch layer of gel that had formed on the inside of my carburetor and I couldn't figure out why. And you know, I talked to some mechanics like no, get you a little one of those little three dollars. It looks like a five hour energy drink, but it's for your fuel. Throw that in as an

added of and it will help clean that out. But at that time I was living in Virginia and I couldn't find a gas station to sell non ethanol gas, so just it was what it was. But the next bike I got was fuel injected, and even still it was better. But yees, smaller engines, lawmers, boats, whatever the case is, don't put ethanol. Don't don't even play that game unless you unless you really want to start working on motors on every single weekend you have available, then

like get after it. You know, that's that's a you thing. But yeah, like you said, if it has a yellow cap, it's made for the e eighty five. If it has a green cap or a black cap, use it at your discretion. But also if you're going to do that, run some sea phone through it, you know, once every month to give or take just kind of clean out everything.

At least that's my my advice. Uh, Sam, I'm sorry Royce, what you say, no, because I just said thank you, Yeah, no doubt, I lest say hex s head am I am I about on the money on this.

I think Maduro knew that this was coming. I think that he willingly handed himself and his wife over, and apparently so did Putin. Now why is that so important? Well, again, if we're talking about the old tankers and their shadow fleet and how that's how you know they've been getting oil to and from Russia and selling Russian oil with different banners and different numbers and different flags on the back.

I think it's kind of important that Putin knew that a raid was coming and he was about to lose his plug. But g and China has also been making some pretty size well plays in Venezuela in the past. Few months and years. How was she left in the dark. Let's talk about it here. More details have started to emerge about the American raid that sprite spirited Nicholas Maduro out of Venezuela two weeks ago. There have been reports that US forces used new weapons, including sonic devices or

ones with directed energy capabilities, to overcome a Duro's security. Again, it's not people are losing their minds about that. I cannot tell you how many content creators and news media people have heard. I can't believe they use sonic weapons on these people. They're all still alive. That is a better alternative than catching a suppress three hundred blackout to the dome piece. I'm just saying, And it's still not even confirmed if they did or did not use that.

It's also equally possible that these Venezuelan guards quote unquote security forces heard the choppers coming in, knew that what in theirs, and they went and hid until they no longer heard the bombs and the choppers, and then they came out and was like, oh, it was a sonic weapon that did it to me. Both of these are very very viable possibilities, but even still America's had this

tech for decades. We may not have had an occasion to play with our new toy in a while, but I think this was a pretty If this was accurate, and if they did use it, this is a pretty awesome way to get a test run in a field usage out of it. But all right, Sam, go ahead. Before I get into the reading here, it's almost you kind.

But whatever did anyway, And now also seems that the Venezuelan military had not con their Russian made S three hundreds and bulk into surface to air missile batteries to radar networks, which effectively meant that they were non operational

when America struck. So two things. One, if they were connected to a radar, the growler that they had in the air would have knocked out that radar and rendered them non functional anyway, So even if they were connected and were improper for working order, it would have meant nothing point A point B if they weren't connected. That further shows how this wasn't a they were such a viable military I can't believe no, dude, it was Venezuela.

It's okay, they're not. Nobody is scared of the big bad Venezuela military coming after them, So I mean it is what it is. The build up of pressure on Maduro's regime was not exactly easy to miss. A month ago, President Trump himself said that Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America, including his deployment of the world's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R.

Venezuela's most enthusiastic partners over the last two decades. Towards the end of the last month, Moscow began pulling diplomats and their families out of the capitals in Caracas, which we did talk about that months ago, right when Russia

started pulling their people out of there. The riding was on the walls, And I honestly wouldn't be shocked if Trump gave Prutin a phone call or something akin to that, his people got with their people and was like, hey, big dog, we about to go in there and grab you boy. So just so you know, just so there's no collateral. If you want to ixnaure people out of there, now would be the time. Who knows. Russia's assessment of the situation and its withdrawal of personnel were not shared

with Beijing. According to well placed sources in China, this has caused eyebrows to be raised about what it means for a relationship between the two countries that is supposed to be comprehensive, quote unquote, mutually beneficial quote unquote, and eternal quote unquote. These are their words, not mine. So whenever we say about how Russia is doing all these things with Ukraine and China and Russia are inseparable and

they're linked in all these things. This goes back to the Soviet Union and the CCP, Communism and the Marxism and all the things. Still to this day, their words say that the relationship between Russia and China are supposed to be comprehensive, mutually beneficial, and eternal. I feel like that can't be overstated. Honestly, Beijing was not simply blindsided by the US operation. It was in rist by it.

I'm not gonna even try to pronounce that Chinese name, but china special envoy to Latin America had arrived in Caracas and met Madurou hours before the latter was captured. Yeah, remember hearing about that, y'all, Remember hearing that Russia had just sent some emissaries to Caracas and they had just met with Madurou. They had just got done with dinner. These dudes had the worst work trip ever. They just had this talk with the president. They're in their hotel room,

they're getting all the five star accommodations. All things are good. Next thing, you know, they got bombs dropping, sirens going off, and now the president they just met with has been bagged and tagged is in New York. That's the worst fucking business trip that a politics or political figure can even fathom, aside from them being you know, arrested them damnselves. But anyway, shortly before Wang Yee Yvonne Gill and two

country foreign ministers. Wow Wang Yee, what an unfortunate name. Anyway, the two countries foreign ministers had spoken by phone to a firm China's quote solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence and stability. They made that call right before Maduro was just joint which again I

think that's great. These words would serve less as a show of resolve than a measure of how limited China's ability was to translate diplomatic language into meaningful protection or leverage on the ground. Yeah, because China sucks, right, Like, that's crazy. They are so out of the loop on so many things. And this is also something that needs to be accounted for as well as they keep talking about Taiwan and what they're going to do and all this.

They were this out of the loop when it came to something that they were literally meeting with the guy beforehand. And that's not because the US was super secretive about this. The CIA has been operating in Venezuela for months. It was very clear that something big was about to go down. China is that far out of the loop on one of their homeboys nations like that. It's not it's not a good look. China stands to lose out from the many billions of dollars of loans it has made to

Venezuela in return for its oil. Yeah, they ain't getting that money back on me. I'm sorry, Go ahead and call those defunct. It also stands to lose the half a million barrels of oil a day it has been getting from its ally about four percent of its total

oil imports. Such was Beijing's confidence and its partnership with Maduro and his regime that it invested an estimated nine billion dollars in building a petrochemical plant in Xiyang, Guangdong Province, capable of producing twenty million tons of refined oil a year. Once again, big shwinging a miss, Big shwinging a miss for China, and that sucks, but you know sucks to suck. I guess it's easy to make crass comments about the

significance of losing face in Chinese culture. Oh yes it is in this case, though, the fact that Beijing has been caught badly out of position, outmaneuvered by the US and let down by Russia has sparked vigorous discussion in China and in some quarters, speculation that the failure of the Russian built defense systems in Venezuela was not a coincidence but evidence of high level cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

That's possible. I don't really think so. And the only reason why I'm saying that is because, and again I

don't mean to sound shitty. Then the systems that were being used, the M two and the S three hundred, have been used by both sides Ukraine and Russia in the conflict over the last four years of this two week special military operation, four years, they have both been used, which means that every frequency that these systems know to look for, right, if you look at how these radars are, how they look for aircraft, if you look at the guidance systems on these ground to air defense systems, the

frequencies that they are using to be able to actually target and strike air targets, right, it's we already knew the entire playbook to these systems. So once again, even if they were online, and even if they were fully operational and fully functional, we've been getting all this data from Ukraine for four years there's nothing that they could

have possibly done to prevent this from happening. Even if we gave them a twenty four hour advanced notice, it would have been a lot more deadly on their part. There would have been way more bodies. But there's nothing that could have been done to stop this at all. To say that this means that there was cooperation between Moscow and Washington, that's, in my opinion, a bit of

a stretch. In testimony before Congress in twenty nineteen, Fiona Hill twenty nineteen, seven years ago, but all right, Fiona Hill, Trump senior advisor on Russia during his first term in office, recounted a conversation that at the time seemed like a geopolitical oddity. Hill said that Russian officials repeatedly floated a very strange swap arrangement whereby Moscow might ease back its support from Aduro if the US gave Russia a freer

hand in Ukraine. So again, this special military operation. Russia was already trying to grease the wheels on that in twenty nineteen, long before they ever actually stepped foot into Ukraine. But okay, this was not a formal offer, Hill stress, but a hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink wink. How about

doing a deal? This was out of the question, according to Hill, who was sent to Moscow in April that year to underline that Ukraine and Venezuela are not related to each other, but especially these days, perhaps they are. Perhaps there's a little bit more of a money exchange that can be exploited. Over the last few years, the question of whether Russia is both a reliable and a good ally has become one of the key talking points among policymakers, advisors and thinkers in China. They don't really

do much thinking there actually. Professor Jia Chingwu, Yeah that's a name, former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and one of the most well known figures in Chinese strategic thinking, noted that while Russia's isolation because of the war in Ukraine had brought economic benefits to China, these have come at a cost. That is a really hot take from one of the most well

connected strategic thinkers in China. Yeah yeah. Being a homie of Russia during this conflict has come at a cost. Whoa In particular, he noted in an interview just before the Maduro Operation that Moscow's defense or dependence on China has meant that the latter's current and future relations with Europe have been compromised. As such, he added, a solution

to the war in Ukraine would be of benefit to China. Yeah, I think that's kind of the going consensus, and it doesn't take some sort of a brainiact from China to acknowledge this. The war has run its course. The people that were out to make money have made whatever money they were gonna make. The military industrial complex of many nations have made some money. It's good things. It's time to wrap it up. It's time to call it quits.

But that really and truly will all depend on Putin right, because Zelensky has been willing to come to the negotiating table for three years, but more more adamantly, for the last two years. Putin has consistently rejected every time that a possibility of coming to the table has been proposed, and he has made. It depends on which interview with him and which speech he's given. Some are saying that he wants all of Ukraine. Some are saying he just

wants the Oblasts, that he's already taken. I don't know. I don't know at what line he's gonna decide enough's enough or if it's an attrition thing. I don't know. But yeah, even China, their eternal homeboy there where it's not mine, is saying that, Yeah, if ending this would be really beneficial for even US. Bro, So, I think

that's something that's kind of important here. That is a view that started to gain currency in recent months in Beijing, where more questions are being asked about the wisdom of an alignment with Russia's supposed to be based on shared interest, but which in practice has become increasingly asymmetrical and uncomfortable.

Russia's willingness to ignore the UN Charter, to rely on military force as a first resort, and to use the threat of nuclear escalation and coercion as diplomatic tools sits uneasily with China's preferred self image as a stabilizing power that works through institutions, rules and long term balance. Yeah, China does have that self image right, that they are

a stabilizing power. But all right, for Chinese strategists, the problem is not simply reputageational damage in Europe or the US, but the deeper risk of being tied to a partner whose way of doing things cuts directly against China's own instincts about order, predictability, and control. On Friday, China Trust struck a deal with Canada to reduce tariffs on Chinese

electric vehicles and on Canadian agricultural products. The significance of this agreement lies less in what it says about the Western countries hedging against the US under an aggressive and seemingly erratic Trump, and more in what it signals back

to Beijing itself. The deal, while modest in scale, is a reminder that China still sees value and engagement with advanced economies that operate within established legal and institutional frameworks, and that there are alternative pathways open to it beyond dependence on a sanctioned, militarized Russia. For policymakers in Beijing, the contrast is stark. One partner leads on force, disruption and intimidation, and the other offers markets, rules and negotiated stability.

The question increasingly being debated inside China is not whether Russia is useful in pushing back against American pressure, but whether following Russia's example leads China towards the kind of global role it actually wants to play. And again, honestly, when you look at China making their own military push, or at least wanting to in Taiwan, you know, I could see it going both ways. That was already being discussed before Maduro was spirited to a courtroom in New York.

But the significance of the US operation is not limited to what it means to Venezuela or even to oil, but to a profound reshaping of the global order. I really do hope that this leads to some sort of drama between China and Russia that would just that would make twenty twenty six just one of the best years, you know. Anyway, all right, moving on to the next topic. Here. We were talking about Davos earlier, and apparently hundreds of protesters in Davos were forming up ahead of Trump's visit.

Let's talk about it here. Hundreds of protesters are hundreds of protested in Davos ahead of President and Trump's visit to the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of the global business elites. It comes as OXFAM released a report Monday warning that the collective wealth of billionaires hit a record eighteen point three trillion dollars, and that the total number of billionaires surpassed three thousand for the first time

in history. Last year. OXFAM also reported that high unequal countries are seven times more likely to experience the erosion of the rule of law and the undermining of elections. This is oxfam's executive order. But anyway, moving on into this, So we talked about Trump threatening to impose tariffs. I thought it was interesting at least for the whole protest thing. So basically these protesters they were forming up just because of the wealthy elites that were showing up. And it's

very liberal. It's very acronym people, you know, it's of that screaming libtard variety. Hell, you can see a flag right here in the middle with all of the different quote unquote genders, all seventy four of them are somehow in that picture. I don't understand it, but whatever. Anyway, So they were protesting already before Trump got there. Now that he's there, they have ramped up the protest on in Davos for the World Economic Forum, So I mean

just wanted to bring that up. Not everybody around the world is a fan of what's going on. Some people are just out there losing their collective shit over it. So Poland, Now, let's shift gears a little bit here. Poland's prime minister praises cyber defenses after attempted attack on

energy infrastructure was foiled. Yeah, for anybody who didn't hear about this, Poland had a cyber attack that was targeting their energy infrastructure and apparently their cyber defenses were good enough to actually stop it in its tracks, which is I mean, that's pretty bad ass to me personally. But

let's get into it here. Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised the country's intelligence services on Thursday for foiling an attempted cyber attack on energy infrastructure that could have left up to half a million consumers without heating during Poland's bitter winter. Now where could that have come from, you might ask. I don't know. I'm not speculating, but there is one country that has been eyeing Poland and invading their airspace and all these things in the past few weeks.

happened in December of twenty twenty five. I just found this article two days ago, though, so I mean it stopped in December, but I'm just now hearing about it. So I felt like it was important to bring up. Tusk blamed Russia. Yeah, there it is, and urged the Polish parliament to swiftly pass new cybersecurity legislation to strengthen protection against foreign interference. Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Digital affairs Minister Gaukowski Chris Christoff CHRISTI is off, Chriss is tough.

Gaukowski Jesus christ Poland said Poland came very close to a blackout and called the cyber attack one of the most serious in recent years. Digital tanks are already here, he said to RMFFM radio, emphasizing that modern warfare is being waged in cyberspace. So who was behind the cyber attacks? Tuss said that so far there is no definitive evidence to identify the perpetrator, but he did say that much of what had been gathered points to the involvement of

groups connected to the Russian security services. I mean again, I'm color me shocked, Color me shocked, But again we don't know that purely in the speculative route, allegedly, allegedly Russia may have had something to do with this. He said that as in earlier attempted cyber attacks to Polish infrastructure,

the key was early detection and robust response mechanis. European allies of Ukraine said in December that Russia is waging a campaign of hybrid warfare through sabotage, assassinations, cyber attacks and disinformation to sow division in Western societies and undermined support for Ukraine. Yeah, and of all the countries are going to try that with poland little European Texas who

are gearing up waiting for Russia. They're not gearing up to because they think Germany is about to attack them again. They're gearing up and buying every single armament that any country will sell them specifically because of Russia. So you know, he and maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe the cyber attack really had nothing to do with Russia. Maybe it was a hacker group, it's one of these, you know, mercenary hacker groups or something like that. But

perhaps they want to dependent on Russia. That's very possible too. That comes after a series of incidents in countries such as France, Denmark and Sweden in which critical infrastructure has been targeted. European intelligence agencies say investigations into Russian interference

now consume as much time as terrorist threats. Wow, a coordinated international operation has hit the infrastructure of a pro Russian cybercrime network linked to a string of denial of service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies, the European Union's

police police agency EUROPOLE said in July. Code named Eastwood, the operation targeted the so called No Name zero five seven sixteen group, which Dutch authorities identified last month as behind a series of denial of service attacks on several municipalities and organizations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

Europoles said that the cybercrime network was also involved in attacks in Germany and Switzerland, so again Poland's readiness for similar threats In recent years of attacks on critical infrastructure have become increasingly sophisticated and dangerous, making cybersecurity in the

energy sector crucial to Poland security. As Derata not gonna try to pronounce that name, an editor at the Defense twenty four portal told euro News effective protection requires not only technology, but also cooperation between the public and private sectors. In response to growing threats, we need to prioritize the development of safeguards. Attacks are taking ever new forms, so we too must move with the times and strengthen our defenses,

she said. She also pointed out that poland cyber defense systems function correctly. During December's attempt to attack on power plants. Well, good good. I'm happy that Poland was able to defend themselves. And again, we don't know if Russia had anything to do with it. We are saying that it is very very likely and very probable at this time, but you know, hey,

we'll see how that shakes out. I don't know. Again, I'm happy that their cybersecurity has been beefed up, especially with Russia waging the hybrid war that they have been for quite some time now because they are losing the well, I'm not gonna go there anyway, Sam, go ahead.

board computers and systems. They are made to work off of each other and make the airspace a more dynamic battleground. The F twenty two is more brute force. It's the it's the oh shit, like all else has failed, so send in the send in the thing that's here to eat everyone's ass kind of thing. So that's why we've never launched the F twenty two. We've never it was over Venezuela. It was in the wing just in case

something got off the ground. The F twenty two is gonna attack it, but it has still to this day not gotten its first intercept, and with any look, it never will. Dude. Honestly, if we continue to dominate the airspace in the way that we do, when we never have to use our secret weapon, that is a that's an optimal situation for us. But yeah, with that being said, Poland has bought a solid number of F thirty five's and they've ordered more.

sure we could do that. That's the same reason why Trump only dropped one moab because the diameter or the radius I should say, of destruction off of that one moab. You're not dropping that in any old city because you're gonna fuck up a lot of civilian population.

a larger navy, no, no, they exactly exactly No. If we're talking about actual naval assets. America runs this shit hand over fist, there's no question about that. Because of that, we are the global police on the seas, and because of that, international trade can happen primarily unimpeded, right, and we get really good deals on things because of that. If that's this is the same reason of how like, why don't you shoot at a cop because the cops keep the law and order and you could do that.

But if you if you kill a cop, you just signed your own death warrant. There's no way around that. It's the same concept.

deal with it. Which is really really funny because I know that you talk about the F twenty two a lot, but in actuality, the first time it crossed the international dateline.

so who's to say what would actually happen. They've done war games with it, they've done mock dogfights and ship like that, and it was it's really case by case. It's not the end all, be all best aircraft. Ever it is for its intended purpose. I would argue, But yeah, and yeah, the A ten wardog it is slow as far as its speed goes, but like you said, it's it's also really good for its purpose for sure. Yeah, Sam, go ahead.

case scenario thirty days. That we're kind of unmatched on a military stance, and that's the way that we should be. But also, yeah, to hear people talk about the naval assets and the planes and how oh well, you know, the Russians just came out with this thing. Oh well, the Chinese are doing this thing. It's like, that's funny, that's cute.

military members get arrested for selling secrets to China. If China was so much more advanced than us, then they wouldn't be offering our lower enlisted thousands of dollars, not a lot of thousands, but some thousands of dollars to sell them secrets, and they wouldn't be using war thunder to as an actual litmus test for what our platforms can actually do. So, yeah, it's it's actually pretty funny

from our perspective. Go ahead, Sam, So about these traders, Yeah, another one just got caught a couple weeks ago.

not trying to downplay it. But most of these kids were being all for like twelve thousand dollars for these secrets. It's it's not even like they're trying to set themselves up for life. They were they were dumb. They got offered something and they probably thought, oh, well, this is the platform we've had for years and years. Whoever's looking for this probably already could find it, but like, sure,

i'll make some quick cash, real quick. And they didn't realize that they were selling secrets to the CCP and then got caught.

It was like certain capabilities of certain air platforms public. I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at that.

read into it here. So commuter rail service in Spain's northeast Catalonia region was suspended Wednesday after a Barcelona commuter train crashed the night before, killing one person and injuring thirty seven others. The crash came two days after Spain's worst railway disaster since twenty thirteen, which left many Spaniards in disbelief. The death toll in that crash in southern Spain rose to forty three. So in a matter of three days they have had forty four people killed and

thirty seven people injured from train crashes and derailments. The commuter train on Tuesday night hit a retaining wall that fell onto the train the Catalonian town of Galita Jelitam. I don't know how they pronounce it. There arout thirty seven kilometers outside of Barcelona or twenty three Freedom units. Officials said. It's very strange.

into Barcelona. Catalonia's regional authorities asked people to reduce unnecessary travel and companies to allow remote work until service was resumed. This is very bad. If the infrastructure was already faulty and there were complaints, they should have done something earlier. Delores Sogas said in a commuter town where hundreds of people were delayed or stranded on Wednesday. Spanish Prime Minister's Pedro Sanchez offered his condolences on X, writing all my

affection and solidarity with the victims and their families. That's a weird thing to say. If it was in fact that the infrastructure was faulty and that's what caused these deaths, all of my affection and solidarity with the victims. Yeah yeah, word word, your solidary could have been with making sure that your infrastructure was done properly to where this wouldn't have happened, you know, seeing as how that was what

you were elected to do. But like word. While Spain's high speed rail network generally runs smoothly at least until Sunday, had been a source of confidence, commuter rail networks are plagued by reliability issues. However, crashes causing injury or death aren't common, which is true Spain's railway operator Adith said that the containment wall likely collapsed because of heavy rain fall that swept across the northeastern Spanish region this week.

A retaining wall concrete barrier fell onto the railway track because of rain. Yeah again, I'm gonna go ahead and blame infrastructure issues on this one, but all right. Sunday evenings crash happened when the tail end of a train carrying two hundred and eighty nine passengers on route from Malaga to the capitol Madrid derailed and crashed into an inner incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva Wuevla, I

don't know, another southern city. According to Edith, the collision took place near Adamuz, a town about three hundred and seventy kilometers or roughly two hundred and thirty Freedom units from Madrid. The front of the second train, which was carrying one and eighty four people, took the brunt of the impact, which knocked the first two carriages off the track and down a four meter thirteen foot slope. Bodies were found hundreds of meters from the crash site, according

to the regional president juanma Morino. Damn. So yeah, that was a solid hit anyway. So yeah, Spain has had these two big trained derailments take place within days of each other. Our prayers are actually going out to these families who that's horrible, but also Spain's got to get their infrastructure back up and running. Dude, my god. All right, moving on or Sam, I'm sorry your hands raise, go ahead, Okay, I'll get it all right, moving on to South America.

I should have brought this up when I was talking abou Venezuela earlier, but I just kind of found out about this one a little bit earlier. Honestly, this is from NASA. Yes, I understand like NASA or hate NASA doesn't matter, but that doesn't take away from the fact that wildfires have erupted in South central Chili or Chile

however you want to pronounce it. Wildfires broke out amid a hot and dry conditions in the south central Chile in mid January twenty twenty six, prompting evacuations and causing extensive damage to infrastructure. As of January twenty eighth, the SPA eight of deadly fires had burned more than thirty thousand hectares, which is seventy four thousand acres in the country's Bobio and Nubla regions, according to Chile's National Forestry Corporation.

The MODUS, which is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro Radiometer all RIGHT instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, captured this image of smoke billowing from multiple fires on January eighteenth. Dozens of active fires in the area prompted the evacuation of fifty thousand people and destroyed more than three hundred homes, according to a January nineteenth report from Chile's UN Resident Coordinator's Office. Aerial and ground based photographs showed neighborhoods in

Concepcion shard in the aftermath. Gusty winds, along with temperatures that exceed thirty eight degrees celsius or one hundred degrees freedom in places fanned the flames and hampered firefighters' efforts. According to the news reports, Chile's president declared a state of catastrophe in the regions, not a state of emergency. He declared a state of catastrophe, allowing more resources to

go toward battling the blazes and assisting affected communities. Other parts of South America also face hot and dry conditions during the twenty twenty five twenty twenty sixth summer, likely priming vegetation to burn. About six hundred and fifty kilometers or four hundred miles south of Conceptcyon, firefighters in Argentina battled wildfires in and around Los Alaris National Park, home to rare stands of long lived cypress trees. Damn, that

is upsetting. But yeah, so this image was taken from space of the fire and the smoke billowing out of multiple locations. Yeah. So, thoughts and prayers also go out to Chile and all the wildfires they're after to deal with. Right now, all right, now, we are going to go to Japan. The Japanese Prime Minister has decided to dissolve parliament and hold a snap election on only three months after she took office. Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. Oh my god, the BBC just did it

to me again. Look at that. Wow wow wow wow. Go ahead, Sam. So I've been following her for a little bit.

voter backing for her spending plans and other policies. The snap election announcement on Monday comes just three months into her tenure as the nation's first female Prime minister. Today, I, as Prime Minister, had decided to dissolve the Lower House on January twenty third, she told it in a news conference. The snap vote on February eighth will decide all the seats of Parliament, all four hundred and sixty five of them's Lower House and mark Takashi's first electorial tests since

become Prime minister. We just said that calling an early election she would allow her to capitalize on strong public support to tighten her grip on the government's Liberal Democratic Party, the LDP, to shore up her coalition's fragile majority. The election will test voter appetite for higher spending at a time when the rising cost of living is the public's

top concern. A poll released by the public broadcaster NHK last week found that forty five percent of res respondents cited prices as their main worry, followed by diplomacy and national security at sixteen percent. NHK reported last week that Takashi would call snap elections while taking into account her diplomatic schedule. On January thirteenth, the Prime Minister hosted South Korean President Lee j myong sure in her hometown of Nara to discuss the two nations security and economic ties.

Tokyo shares jumped more than three percent on Tuesday to speculation that Takashi would call snap elections to capitalize on strong poll numbers. So she's basically trying to strike while the iron is hot, you know. And I take that for what it is. But yeah, Japan is going through a little bit of a transitional period at this moment. We will keep our eye out to see what goes down with them next, all right. So, and I'm sure that this BBC article is gonna do the same thing

to me. But the photos have been leaked to the BBC showing faces of hundreds killed in Iran's brutal protests cracked down for anybody who does not know the Yeah, I knew that was coming. Basically, the protests in Iran

have pretty much been squashed. I'm sure there are still some remnants that are happening around Iran right now, but for the most part they have been quelled and hundreds of people have been murdered in the streets and pictures of them have been seen not just from satellite, but also because they didn't have internet access for a while.

Right the eye and the and the political arm but most of the Ayahtola put them on a media blackout, shut down internet and hell, half of the places I got shut down electricity as well and cut to Trump deployed Elon Musk to get starlink in the sky so these people could report on what was going down. So again not just from satellite, not just third parties, from the people in Iran. Hundreds of people were slaughtered because

of them protesting the current regime. Again, I was very hopeful that the regime change would take hold, and not even just for the prince that's living in But there's the Maryland right now and whatever. Fine, I don't really have any opinion on him strong one way or another, but just to get the Iatola out of power, yo, that would be phenomenal and most Muslim countries around Iran agree with that sentiment. Even the Shia do not want him to be in charge of Iran, which that's a

strong state. But yeah, so thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the murdered individuals. I hope that this gets more precedence and more press time than whatever the hell Trump is doing right now, because this is a humanitarian crisis, honestly, but I also have a feeling that this will get pushed under the rug like so many other things doing iron But anyway, I did want to bring that up on this episode, and with that, I think we are going to go ahead and wrap

this episode up. All the good members of the Retinue, I want to thank all of you for joining me this evening. If you are listening to this podcast, good people, and you would like to join in and be a part of the Retinue that meets every Wednesday night at nine pm Central, go to link in the description to patreon dot com slash Cajun Night. It's a good time. It's a sharing of information. We thoroughly enjoy these conversations and the sometimes you know, derailing of the conversations in

this regard as well. But it's always a good time, and so I am very thankful for all of you for helping me grow this to be its own independent thing, and I throw enjoy this. It's always a good time anyway. I am the Cajun Knight, and as always, God bless