Us. But in telling this story, what you quickly find is that there are stories from all over the place. There is a bunch of stories from All Over The World that keep unavoidably getting dragged into it, whether we like it or not. So even this is about us, you have to start, at least for a second here, with poland. Just a few days ago, mayor of the capital city of poland, the largest city in that country, he held a Press Conference. He announced at the Press Conference that the City Of Warsaw will be Setting Aside Tens Of Millions of dollars in its new budget to build Bomb Shelters for people in that city. Now poland is not currently at war. The capital city of poland is not getting bombed. For them and for us, thats a good thing and an important thing, because poland is a member of nato. So if somebody was bombing poland, if polish citizens, polish civilians needed to use Bomb Shelters in the capital city of that country, that would be very bad news, not just for poland, but for us as well. Because poland is our nato ally. And if somebody was attacking them, that would mean that we would soon be at war as well. If you attack one nato country, you attack them all. It is a treaty of mutual defense. So our nato ally in poland scrambling right now to build Bomb Shelters for civilians in their capital city, that is not great news. The reason theyre doing it is because poland borders ukraine. Russia has invaded ukraine. Poland now has to worry about these things because the war is at their door stop. Poland has to worry about the war being at their door stop. And because poland has to worry about it, so do we. And then there is also another nation, much smaller nation called moldova. Now moldova isnt in nato, so they dont have the kind of protection that affords. They dont have a Mutual Defense Treaty with a country like the United States. But moldova is also, like poland, right on ukraines border. Theyre squished right in between ukraine, where russia has already invaded and romania, which is another nato country, and moldova is really feeling the heat. This past weekend, putin met with the handpicked prokremlin leader of part of moldova that putin wants to break off from that country to make it part of russia. Just like he has been breaking off pieces of ukraine and taking those pieces for himself and forcing those parts of ukraine to be part of russia now, he also appears to have designs on parts of moldova to do the same thing to them. When putin brought this prokremlin leader of a breakaway part of moldova over to moscow to meet with him, the president of moldova got so alarmed by putin taking that meeting, by what putin said about how russia might need to go in and take care of things in moldova some time soon, the way it has in ukraine, she was so alarmed by that, that she flew in person to the first european nato country that would agree to form a Defense Agreement with her country. The president of moldova flew to france, signed a new agreement with france, where france hereby agrees to come to the aid of moldova if indeed putin attacks there too, just like he attacked ukraine. Poland is building Bomb Shelters. Moldova is forming new Defense Alliances as putin is threatening to invade moldova too. Now a third one, the nation of georgia, reuters reporting this weekend that in the nation of georgia, which doesnt border ukraine, it borders russia directly, another one of these handpicked prokremlin officials from part of that country that putin wants to break off and make it part of russia instead, that local leader in georgia has, quote, discussed its possible inclusion into russia with moscow, according to russian state media. So he brings over a prokremlin handpicked leader from a part of russia that russia wants to break off from georgia and make it part of their own country. So putin has invaded ukraine. He is in the third year of his war with ukraine. He is threatening two more countries on his border. Another country that borders ukraine, is threatened enough the way he behaving toward them that theyre building Bomb Shelters in their capital city. Just a few days ago in a fourth country, in lithuania, which borders both poland and russia, we had a vicious hammer attack, what appears to have been an attempted murder, broke the guys arms, smashed him up. A hammer apac on an ally of Alexei Navalny. Alexei navalny himself was recently assassinated in a russian prison. So you put all this together, and what youre talking about here is a geopolitical wrecking ball. This isnt one war. This isnt a country with a border dispute, right. What putin is making happen in the world right now is constant war and destabilization and threats and terroristic violence and assassinations in multiple bordering countries and pushing right into nato. And of course when he pushes into nato, that directly implicates us. Putin was asked ahead of this weekends potemkin election in russia about whether he wants to engage in peace talks with ukraine since that war is now in its third year. Putin scoffed at that. He said why should he bother doing that just because ukraine is running out of ammunition now. And indeed, ukraine is running out of ammunition now. And thats largely because of us. Its because of the Republican Party, at least, in the United States of america. Since protrump hardliners installed a new trumpier republican speaker of the house, American Aid To Ukraine has stopped. And so, yes, ukraine is running out of ammunition to fight russia. So why would russia stop and hold peace talks or anything else right now . Putin can see how this is going the end, as long as the republicans in the United States of america keep doing their part to help. Geopolitical wrecking ball, with apparently limitless ambitions. Its one thing to start the largest land war in europe since world war ii. Its another thing to be three years into that and starting to rattle your saber at multiple other countries on your own borders and the borders of the country you have already invaded. You know, in 2016, there was a lot that was strange. Like just weird. Gonzo, wacky, hard to believe weird about putins decision, russias decision to get their claws into our American Election that year, in 2016, to try to get donald trump into the white house. I mean, there is the overall fact of it, which itself is crazy. But the details of it were just they were nuts at the time. Theyre nuts looking back at it now. Do you remember him signing the Letter Of Intent to build trump tower moscow, which would have been the biggest real estate deal of his life . He signed that Letter Of Intent to build trump tower moscow. He signed that Letter Of Intent right in the middle of the republican president ial primary. Literally, he signed it the night of the third republican candidates debate. And then he and his campaign lied about it and said he had done no such things, that he had no Business Interest in russia whatsoever. He signed the Letter Of Intent to build that thing the day of the third republican candidates debate. There was that meeting the summer before the General Election when his son and his soninlaw jared kushner, they took a meeting in trump tower in new york with somebody who said she had dirt to share about trumps election opponent in the campaign, and she wanted to share that dirt with jared and don jr. As part of the russian governments help for Trumps Campaign to become president. Thats that happened . Thats an insane thing to have happened. That happened. There was russia running the Social Media Campaigns out of st. Petersburg to try to get americans at each others throats and to spread Conspiracy Theories and to boost trump. There was the russian intelligence operation that hacked into the Computer Servers of the democratic party. And when russia started releasing that hacked material to try to help trump and hurt the democrats, trump came out during the Democratic National convention and asked russia to please do more. During the Republican National convention. That was that incredible moment when the Trump Campaign took an interest in precisely one part of the republican Partys National platform. They didnt care about any of it. They didnt want anything. They didnt ask for anything. They didnt try to change anything, except for one thing. The only thing they intervened in at all in the 2016 Republican Party national platform, the only thing they changed, the only thing they even showed any interest in is that the Republican Party had a plank in its platform that said the United States should support ukraine to stand up against russia. And that was the one that they said had to go. It was the only part of the platform that they cared about. There was so much that was just i mean bizarre at the time. Honestly, looking kind of less bizarre looking back at it now maybe. But covering it at the time, it was just it was hard to believe these things were happening, right. Russia Helping Trump in that election and trump so obviously welcoming it, overtly welcoming it, asking for more of it, trying to pretend that it wasnt happening. It was just it was crazy times. But the craziest of all was when they brought that new guy on board to run the campaign. In the summer of 2016, the summer of General Election, this guy appears out of nowhere. He had not been a political figure in the United States in years and years and years. It was just completely unknown to almost everyone in contemporary politics. He had been like a gerald ford era guy and a reagan era guy, but nobody had seen him in washington for years, until he popped up, hello, as the newly announced Surprise Campaign chairman for the donald trump for President Campaign in 2016. Who is this guy . Where has he been . Why hasnt he been in washington for years . Whats he been up to . Well, it turned out what ehad been up to for years was working for kremlinalined oligarchs in the former soviet union. Thats what his job was. Thats what his expertise was. Thats what his life had become. He was running political campaigns and pr campaigns to benefit Vladimir Putin and the kremlin. And then, inexplicably, flies back to washington to offer his services for free to run the donald trump for President Campaign, while the russian government was engaged in a hand over first, no limits whole of Government Effort to mess with the u. S. Election to try to install donald trump in the white house. I mean, it was like you couldnt script Something Like this for a Pot Boiler Trashy spy novel with a shiny cover. It was crazy. It was crazy at the time. Its insane looking back at it now. I mean, specifically, what Paul Manafort specialized in, what he had been doing for years at that point was that he was being paid by proputin oligarchs in ukraine to keep ukraine under russian control, to keep ukraine in putins sort of sphere of influence. Paul manafort was paid very well to be the spin doctor and the Campaign Guru for the pro kremlin Puppet Leader of ukraine. Until he mysteriously popped back up in america in u. S. Politics for the first time in decades to run things for trump. And he said no, no, trump didnt need to pay him for that, he would do it for free. Probably out of a sense of deep patriotism im guessing. One of the things that was so insane about the appearance of this guy Paul Manafort on the Trump Campaign is that it was soon evident that in any normal political sense, this guy was a bad idea. I mean, you know, Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort had multimilliondollar contract with Russian Oligarch. Paul manafort reportedly offered to help putin advance moscows interests. Trump Campaign Chief proposed strategy where he would influence u. S. Politics in a way that would benefit russia. Trump Campaign Chief linked to putin interests. Manafort allegedly wrote confidential Strategy Plan to influence politics, Business Dealings and the news to benefit putins government. Trump Campaign Chief paid millions by putin ally. I mean, these were the headlines of the Paul Manafort era in trump politics. This was not good press for a guy being paid millions and millions of dollars for his genius in shaping press coverage. Those were the kinds of headlines that he attracted. And once that strategic brilliance helped sharpen the focus on what the heck was going on with this campaign and russia, manafort also showed off his chops in handling questions about this very sensitive issue on camera. So to be clear, mr. Trump has no Financial Relationships with any Russian Oligarchs . Thats what he said. Thats what i said. Thats obviously what our position is. Just indulge me for a second. Its been a long time. Would you mind if we play that for a long time. Just focus on his answer here, just once more. So to be clear, mr. Trump has no Financial Relationships with any Russian Oligarchs . Thats what he said thats what i thats obviously what our position. That that that thats what i thats what he. Thank you. Ultimately, Paul Manafort left as Trumps Campaign chairman when his oncamera Spin Doctor Brilliance was not able to spin away the fact that he had taken millions of dollars in offthebooks payments from a kremlinsupported Political Party in ukraine, the socalled blackledger scandal. It then emerged while he had served as Trumps Campaign manager, he had met repeatedly with a person to whom he had secretly handed over nonpublic sensitive Campaign Strategy information from the Trump Campaign. And this was not some other person who worked on the Trump Campaign to whom he was giving secret information. At least somebody working on the Trump Campaign you might think. The person Paul Manafort repeatedly met with to whom he gave this nonpublic sensitive internal campaign information, this person was later identified as a russian Intelligence Officer, one who may have been involved in the attack by russian intelligence to hack, steal, and then leak Democratic Campaign materials in 2016 to benefit Trumps Campaign. And thats not me saying it. That is the bipartisan report of the Republicanled SenateIntelligence Committee. Paul manafort as Trumps Campaign chairman repeatedly met with a russian Intelligence Officer to give him inside information on the campaign, Nonpublic Secret Information while russian intelligence was trying to help trump win the election. I literally keep on my desk a printout of the page 1 New York Times story that ran about that report when it was finally released in 2020. You see the headline here, Republicanled SenatePanel Details ties between 2016 Trump Campaign and russia. Yeah, it turns out not a hoax. Weird, huh . Quote, A Sprawling Report released today by a Republicancontrolled Senate panel laid out an extensive web of contacts b