The Road to World War 3

beginning of the invasion. And what does this mean exactly, Well, a no fly zone would essentially mean that no aircraft right is permitted to be able to fly over the Ukraine. But what it also means is certain interfacing with Russia, another nuclear power, and basically saying that we got you. You need to stop, and if you continue to move forward in this aggressive manner, then we are going to

answer your aggression with aggression. Now, for many people, and for many reasons that we all know, namely World War three and the fact that Russia has access to over a thousand nuclear bombs that could essentially wipe off parts of the planet, America does not want to get involved in this war. But America is involved in this war.

We have provided one point four billion dollars worth of money, weaponry, everything outside of what is going to stop the bombs from dropping from the sky, destroying maternity wards killing innocent civilians. We are doing everything, but that The question that I have is, again, are we just slowing down the inevitable? If Putin is a maniac, as many have said, you get on you listen to cable news. He's a maniac,

he's a sociopath, he's all of these things. But if you know that to be true, if the belief really is that Putin is going to stop at nothing, then don't we need to start considering measures that are much more aggressive than what it is that we have already done. Now.

One of the steps that is being floated around is not only the sanctions on Russians right in Russian oligarchs that essentially fuel are fueling this war and will Putin, but to put sanctions on other nations, namely Wink, wink, without a mention, China, China who has been in bedwidth right and in relationship with Putin for quite some time. However, the isolation that Russia is feeling right now, from the sanctions, the crippling right of corporations pulling out of the out

of Russia at a really fast clip. We couldn't afford to have that done with China. Like, this is the thing that happens when you start to realize that everything in our world is actually connected, that we are not you know, some isolated nation that know, a lot of our goods come from China, right, are developed in China, are made in factories in China, right, Because we don't want to pay US workers or US factories, so they

all took their companies their factory is abroad. And so now what we saw right during COVID, at the beginning of COVID is oh shit, well, if everybody is shut down, that means that no one is making the quote unquote all the stuff that we need, right that we've become addicted to. So if we were to put sanctions on China, wouldn't that officially be like kind of putting sanctions on ourselves? Do we think that this nation of billions, right is

not resilient enough to be able to self sustain? Now we know everyone there is no country right that is self sustaining that isn't somehow participating in the global marketplace. But I don't think that there is a country that is as necessary right to the global marketplace as China is and as the United States is. So if we have gone as far as we can go in terms of an economic squeeze on Russia, and President Zelinsky is sitting before the American Congress and saying, look, yes, I

need more money. Yes I am grateful for the ways in which you have shown up. But the reality is is that Ukraine is not going to exist for much longer if Putin is able to continue dropping bombs on our cities. So, like, my question is how many lives is enough for there to be lost for action to be taken. And I've said this before, and I just keep thinking about it, right, I keep thinking about the millions of souls that were stolen in World War Two,

millions before there was any type of intervention. And now I wonder, by virtue of us having social media right of this war literally unfolding before our eyes, whether it is on your phone, on your computer, or on your television, that is America going to be able to quote unquote stay out of it for much longer? When the American people themselves are witnessing these atrocities and saying, how are

we sitting by on the sidelines? How do we say that we are about preserving democracy around the world and we are seeing an real life attack and we're doing nothing to stop it. Now on the other side, right of that is, should American lives be lost in order to defend the Ukraine? Well, the reality here that I think that we all need to start wrapping our minds around is that Putin is not stopping at the Ukraine. Ukraine falls right absorbed by Putin and then they are

going to keep going. It's like, do you remember pac Man and all the little things that pac Man would eat up? That is fucking Putin right now. Putin pac Man. He wants to gobble up Eastern Europe to put a threat and real pressure on the United States and on the Western world. He wants world dominance, He wants the world to fear him. So does he care whether or not Joe Biden is calling him a war criminal? No, he doesn't give a fuck. So what do you do?

What can be done with a madman who is actually quite bright, who doesn't give a fuck, who literally has run out of fucks to give. I. You know, I think that Biden is in a really precarious position for a variety of reasons. But I'm not giving slack to this White House because I have a lot of my own fucking grievances with the ways that a lot of things have been handled, from voting rights, to abortion rights, to their silence and inaction around the assault on LGBTQ youth.

Right that being said, if we go to war, right, this isn't going to end well. And by end well, we mean like the world ending, meaning that everyone releases their nukes and then we're gone. But if you have a bully that is standing in the middle of the schoollyard, beating their chest and literally pummeling one of the less strong kids in front of you, and there is a line of other kids that are going to be pummeled to death if you do not intervene, when is the

right time to make the decision? What does that look like? This is the thing that I'm trying to understand is is there a moment. Is there a number that is in the head of this president and the other leaders that are in NATO that they say if he crosses this line, we gotta jump in because if not, folks, then how long are we willing to let this go? Because you know, today, yesterday, excuse me, in the press conference that Biden gave, he keeps giving warnings that this

is going to be a long, painful, terrible war. But how long, how terrible? Right? And how are we going to say that we are a country that believes in democracy and yet we are literally not willing to put anything in jeopardy or at stake in order to move forward. Because here's the thing, one of the other things that Zelinsky said while he was invoking Martin Luther King and invoking the fact that we should care more about peace

than we do money. And I was confused because I'm like, I don't know who you think you're talking to, because all politicians in America care about his money, right, Like they are you know, political prostitutes right there turning tricks for their favorite donors, right, so long as that money keeps flowing, they'll keep they'll keep tricking, Like that's how politics works. So I don't know how long we watch

these images and these pictures play out. I don't know how many more millions of people need to flee the Ukraine to these bordering nations that are not going to be able to take on an entire million population of people without buckling under that pressure. What's the endgame here? That I mean, this is the question that I'm asking myself and I know that many are asking right now, is what is the endgame? What is Putin's endgame? His end game is a United Russia, right, it is a

USSR two point zero. That's his endgame. What is he willing to do in order to make that happen? Because if he pulls back now, right, he will look weak in front of the world. He won't look like he pulls back now. Are we welcoming him back into the G seven? Are we welcoming him back into the political fold as if he didn't just commit war crimes on

national television? So if Putin and Russia are not coming back into the fold, if they are now and forever will be our adversaries and they are an active threat, then what do we see, folks, as the endgame? How do we move through this? This? I do not know. But here's another thing that has me really in my feelings, and I talked about this on Woke Wednesday, every time America puts up its budget and Congress has to pass a budget so that you know, government doesn't shut down

and all of these things. We're often told that all of our social services and safety nets, oh we don't have enough money for them. Right. You bring in the same amount, if not more, of our tax dollars every single year, and it is Congress who gets to decide where those tax dollars are allocated to. Now, we know that there are also people that are in Congress who make a lot of money when we are at war, right because they have investments right in military technologies, right

into war technologies. It's the same way that you had members of Congress that we're making money investing before anybody even knew about COVID, right that they were like, oh shit, this is about to be hot, so let me go put some money in on masks, and put some money in on ventilators, and put some money in on these things. I mean, this happens. There's a bill right now and that is circulating around Congress that is in fact about stopping members of Congress from being able to make money

off of the ship that they learn. Funny enough, I think that this is something that Democrats and Republicans will agree on that they don't want to hinder their ability to be rich off of our backs and off of our misery. So we'll see how far that legislation goes. Nonetheless, you know, you have one point four billion dollars that you're able to just hand over to the Ukrainian people,

to Zelenski. But when we turn around and we say where are the resources for education, for a healthcare system, for infrastructure, for all these things, everything is a fight. But the money to provide endless resources for war. We're good, right, And the American people will stand up and they'll applaud and say, yes, we need to help the Ukrainians. But

I ask at whose expense? Right, Because if the federal government this week says, oh, well, we're no longer going to provide COVID care to the uninsured because we can't afford it, and we're no longer going to provide states with all the resources that they need, we have to bring that number down thirty percent because we can't afford it. But then you turn around and in less than a month provide one point four billion dollars to the Ukraine. I just again, how do you rationalize saying this shit

out loud? And people will say to me, oh, well, Danielle, Republicans are no longer going to vote for COVID release. Well, they didn't vote for it in the beginning, right it was there is never a part of their plans. But Biden is the President of the United States, So what kind of emergency release funds do you have access to? Because here's the thing that I continue to believe is that there are more maneuvers and strategies that can be made if, in fact, we had leaders that had backbones.

But because we don't, because they would rather capitulate to the needs and the desires and the accusations of Republicans, we don't ever get anything done right. And then we want to turn around in campaign season and say, oh, don't vote for the other guy. And I'm thinking to myself, well, why I know why I don't vote Republican? Because they're racist, they're misogynists, they're pigs. You know, they're terrible human beings.

Right Like I didn't always believe that. I believe that we had a difference of ideology, But when they decided to vote in a white supremist right, when they decided that like misogyny and hatred and all of these things, and homophobia and transphobia were a part of their mission statement.

Then they showed me who there were. So I have no qualms in saying that if you are a Republican in these United States in this time, that you are a racist because you don't support racism or you are quiet about it, and then you don't get that label. That's not how this works, and it's not how I work. Nonetheless, I believe that there are things that can be done by Democrats and by this administration, but they refuse to. And it is because they are afraid. It is because

they are afraid about how Republicans will react. They are afraid by what it is that they will say. And I'm saying to you, they don't like you, know how, right, They don't give a fuck about shoe warrior feelings. Right. And the minute that they have the gavel, the minute that they have power, they are going to impeach a whole lot of people for no reason whatsoever. But they will make up reasons, they will make up laws. Right.

And so if you know that, and you know that it is in our best interest in the best interests of preserving our democracy to make sure that that does not happen. Then why would you be moving in a reactionary posture instead of doing what needs to get done and worrying about the consequences later. Because here's what we know to be true. The American people, their memory is real, small, real short, right, And why is that? It's not because I believe Americans. It's not because I believe us to

be stupid or I believe us not to care. I just believe that when your basic needs are not met, Right, you do not have the luxury and the benefit of being able to sit around at your kitchen table pontificating on how Republicans are moving to screw you, right, because you have to be concerned about what food or medicine you're going to be able to put on that kitchen table. And so when you can't do that, your days and your time are going to be spent trying to figure

that equation out. Right, you don't have the luxury of them being able to them being able to say, how come why don't I have the ability to do that in this country? Oh, because we've all been force fed the same lie about pulling yourself up from your bootstraps, and if you are facing hard and difficult times, that's because that's because of you. You're a lack of grit,

your a lack of wherewithal. It has nothing to do with the fact that in other industrialized nations around the world that call themselves a democracy, that they actually do way more to take care of their citizens than the United States does. And that's the truth. We're so busy waving a flag and saying we are a number one we don't even understand what we are number one in.

It's not any of the good things. If you're wondering, it's you know, I just I think that I have come to a place in my political career where I am beginning to kind of grapple with the fact that this democracy government, my love and feeling that we can create a government and a system that is for us and by us, that the belief that you know, it's each generation's duty to perfect our very imperfect union. I no longer believe those things. I believe that America is

a sham. I think that it's kind of one of the biggest griffs and one of the biggest setups. Right, we were able to say that we were number one, and we were better than everybody else's. We were moving at breaking pace right with industrialization and you know, and democracy, and we were building levit towns, and we were you know, constructing and creating products and cars and all of these things. We were at the pinnacle right at the turn of

the twentieth century. But then somehow, at some point, we just stopped investing in the American people. We instead decided to start investing more in shareholders and CEOs and their needs. We decide that it wasn't about creating safe, safe working environments, right for corporations that are hauling in billions upon billions of dollars off of the very little money that they

give some of their lowly workers. Right, we stopped providing pensions, we stopped providing insurance, We stopped doing a whole host

of things. And the government that were supposed to be our watchdogs looking out for the little guy, decided that they were then going to team up with the CEOs and the corporations so that if they got a little cut, then they didn't care what was happening to the collective, because it was really only about the needs of the individual their needs, their families, their Maserati's and their yachts,

their vacation homes. So the belief that I had that I fell in love with as a young person about being a part of creating massive change, I mean, I guess I've taken off my rose colored glasses. I guess I've moved to a place of knowing where I actually do see both sides, and both sides don't look good. You have one party that is very clear about who they are, who they embrace, and what they are aligned with.

Then you have Democrats who are unclear about who they are aligned with, and they speak out of both sides of their mouth. I mean, this is what honestly, and let me say this, and I don't say it lightly. This is a thing that black Republicans offer are often Now I'm not joining your fucking party, right, but the thing that they often offer is that well, Democrats lie to you. They keep talking about equal pay, they keep

talking about, you know, fighting against climate change. They keep talking about all these things, but all they are doing is talking about it. They don't actually offer up any real change to the American people. Now you can say, well, they try and offer it, but then it's swat down, but it's not just swat down by it's not done

on party lines. There are plenty of quote unquote, you know centrist Democrats that use Joe Mansion and Kursten Cinema as their shields because Kursen Cinema and Joe Mansion are fame horse, right, they always want to have their name in somebody's mouth, so they don't take it because it gives it feeds their ego. But there are many of other members right who vote against the interests of the in service of the few, the few that are in

front of them. So when you learn all of these things and you start to realize, well, you talk to immigration folks and they tell you, do you know that Obama deported more people than any Republican did. Do you know that right now Joe Biden has deported twenty thousand Haitians, right, twenty thousand Haitian refugees seeking refuge from certain death in their country, political upheaval, COVID upheaval, natural disasters that have flattened parts of the country right over the past couple

of years. They are coming here for aid and assistance, and the Biden administration didn't say, oh, we don't take people from Shiitthhold countries, but they shore as hell have used their planes as a fucking boomerang to put those people right back where they started. And then at the same time want to say American people, we will open up our doors to the Ukrainians. Well, I wonder why right, because they have the right hue for our empathy, they

have the right complexion for compassion. It's you know, And this is what I say has me troubled most days, because I want to believe that we are a country that wants to be better. But wanting to be better and actually doing better are two very different things, two very different things. And so we see that America wants to be better, America wants to talk tough on Russian

oligarchs and war criminals. But when it comes right, when it comes to talking tough and dealing with those who are putting our democracy at jeopardy, when it comes to talking tough and actually doing something right to hold the people that are trying to destroy our republic, there are no words to say, there's nothing to offer up. And so I'm confused about where we go eight months from now, when it is election time. And we will most likely

in those eight months. It is it is very possible that we are at war, right, that we're not just aiding from the sidelines, that we are actually in a full blown war. That's certainly possible. We know that by the time that the election comes, we will no longer

have abortion certified across this country. We will have lost that under a Democrat's watch, with no policy coming up the rear to make sure that even if the courts right make the decision which we know they are going to make to gut Rovie Wade, that no federal protections will still be in place. No, we don't have that, we don't have voting rights, we don't have police reform. And then you have newspapers like The Hill who are stating that Democrats have moved too far to the left

and this is why they're going to lose. And I'm saying to myself, and I said this on woke Wednesday, how can we be considered too far left when Republicans have gone so far to the right that they are off a cliff and they have moved both political parties to right of center. But yeah, going after and trying to preserve our democracy our climate, right, Like that's seeming too left leaning for people because they don't realize that in a couple of months we are going to be

at the beginning of hurricane season. And what we know is that every hurricane season over the last four or five years have been quote unquote historic, right, historic, and the damage that it has caused historic, and how long it has lingered and why is that, Oh, I don't know the warming of our fucking oceans. We can't afford to be ignorant, right, We can't afford to continue to go to like these Paris Climate Agreement, these summits, to talk a really good game, to go home and then

not pressure the CEO's to do the right thing. Right now, folks, we are experiencing gas prices that we have never seen in this country. Right. Gas is somewhere like four thirty nine a gallon, at least that's what I saw when I was out east Onmlong Island. The oil companies have the ability to absorb that cost and not place that

cost on the American people. Also, the price of gas, the price of oil has dropped right by thirty dollars in recent days, and yet right and yet the price of gas hasn't actually gone down, And I want folks to think about that. This is kind of akin to what the airlines did in my mind. Right, So you have airlines right who are like, oh my god, we're losing so much money, nobody's traveling. Oh my god, government bails them out. They decide to charge you for everything.

They charge you for the cushion in your seat, they charge you for overhead compartment. And then they say, oh, but once things go back to normal, you know, will roll back those costs. They ever did, They never did, right, So if oil companies are well aware of the fact that they are actually making bank right now in this crisis, and they know that they hold right the power over the American people because you don't have a choice. You

got to get to work. So whether you're driving yourself, you're taking a train, you're taking a subway, all of that caught is gas, right, because we've made no investment into any other kind of power source, any other type of energy source, not in any real way. I just get so angry because I realized that things don't have to be this way, right, that this is not what people stood in line for for hours at a time, when we did not have a vaccine to vote for.

And it is no longer enough to say that I'm not the other guy and think that that is going to be enough to get you into office. And so I don't know what democrats messaging is. I don't know how we talked tough about preserving democracy and the horrible things that Putin has done. And the only person that he didn't sanction, the only person Putin didn't sanction, was Donald Trump. You know the relationship that Trump has with

Putin and other enemies of America. But yet you're doing nothing about the literal sitting fascist threat that is standing on the buffet line at Mara Lago, that is continuing to spread live, continuing to chummy up to the nation's enemies right and being rewarded by it by not being sanctioned, and we do nothing. Merritt Garland has a stack, a stack of information and investigation that has been done by

the January sixth Commission, no indictments. You know, next week you'll hear a conversation that I have with our friend Joyce White Vance, who will say that you know, Merritt Garland doesn't operate, is not operating on the timeline of midterm elections, and I'm saying he fucking should. He fucking should, because when Republicans take back power, he's not going to

be able to do a damn thing. If in fact, he's doing anything right fucking now, which is really unlikely because the federal prosecutors are former federal prosecutors that I talk to say that you would have heard some rumblings by now. There would have been some fucking leaks in that sieve of the Department of Justice that would let

us know that there is movement that is happening. There is nothing, So are they that good at hiding it or have they just decided, much the same way that Alvin Bragg did in New York, that we're just not going to do anything. We'll just quietly allow things to, you know, stay the way they are, will allow the status quo. We knew that Alvin Bragg wasn't going to do dick in New York when the two top prosecutors quit.

We haven't had that action taken yet by folks at the DOJ, but we know that they are really unhappy with the way that things are going and how they have been rolled out. I want to have faith. I so desperately want to have faith. I want to believe that our better angels are going to prevail. I want to believe that somehow we're in the midst of some sci fi dystopian, you know, Hollywood movie, and that the

good guys are going to prevail. At the very end, just when you think that all is lost, they're gonna snatch defeat, right, snatch victory. Excuse me out of the mouth of defeat. But no, I think that Democrats instead are just laying down. I don't even think that they are actually fighting. So what does that mean for us? You know, as I watch the coverage of the people in the Ukraine and folks staying, staying and saying that they're going to defend their country, They're going to risk

their lives to do that. I think about us in the United States. I don't think that we would come together in the face right now of certain terror. I think that you would have a group, and a not insignificant group that would say, I don't know what you all are up in arms about. Right, you have the Tucker Carlson's of the world, and the Candice Owens, these Russian puppets and the Tulsea Gabbards who are out there spewing Russian talking points for the first time folks in

our nation's history. As there is war that is unfolding, you have members of one of the two political parties applauding dictator and still can somehow call themselves Americans. They're applauding the war criminal and questioning the one who is getting all of the applause, questioning the valiance right of Zalinski, but applauding putin. That's where we are. It's a scary place. We're in a really we're in a really scary place.

So I will say this, let me end here and delve into a woke moment of wellness, which you know I can't offer every day because some days I'm just not in that headspace. Yesterday I was not. I was

really distraught about what I was seeing and reading. But I will say this, as the weather has begun to change, I have, you know, really challenge myself to get back out and to walk, to get back out and to walk around my community and to see people playing with their babies, to see cute little dogs walking on the street, to listen to music blaring out from cars, just to realize that life does not stop, right, life will continue, and system that even in the face of all that

is horrific and rage inducing, that there is still good to see. I was walking today and I saw, you know, the beginnings of leaves coming out of you know, of branches, right, that spring is on the horizon. That given everything that is happening, the cycle, right, the rebirth is still happening.

It's important to get out of our rage, depression, grief bubbles and be able to see those things, to be able to take stock in what is still good, what is still happening, and not just shroud ourselves in the darkness and the sadness of the moment. So whatever it is that you do, do not stay in rage and in the news and in terror and in anxiety for too long. Take breaks, go outside, point out, journal, Begin to journal during this time. If you've never kept a journal,

and I'm keeping one right now. It's not daily, but I at least try and write down once a week because we're living in extraordinary times. Right. This show for me is my political journal, right, it is exactly what is happening as it is happening, but emotionally for my

well being and how I'm feeling in the moment. It's important for me to get those things out right, to be able to look back, you know, and hope that things will get better, that I will see a pattern of as the world crumbles, that I'm able to really relish in, you know, and marinate in moments of joy, even as fleeting as they are. It is important for us that is your woke moment of wellness as always, dear friends, Power to the people and to all the people. Power,

get woke and stay woke as fuck. See you back tomorrow.