Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - JUL 31, 2022

00:00:00.000 well ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard we have a very special edition of human events daily you

00:00:20.160 know a couple of weeks ago i did another special edition of human events daily where i recorded the

00:00:25.240 entire podcast from an overnight train to odessa as we were coming out of ukraine we were headed back

00:00:34.640 to leviv and then on our way to poland and i was recording that in a separate compartment but back

00:00:42.520 in my original compartment waiting for me was the person that had traveled with me to ukraine was my

00:00:50.200 partner in crime the guy who's been my partner in crime my whole life my brother and that was kevin

00:00:55.920 and so i remember that i was going through some of my recollections some of my observations my

00:01:02.460 perceptions analysis not too much analysis you know i've got my opinions obviously but i was trying

00:01:09.920 to keep those opinions and editorializing out of it and really just kind of talk about what i saw

00:01:15.200 when i was on the ground and i wanted to record it when it was super fresh but i realized that you

00:01:20.540 know somebody back there in the train was was uh taking a little break was taking a little nap

00:01:26.060 while i was working uh and that was my brother we had a sleeper car we'd actually bought the um

00:01:31.300 uh so there were four bunks to a car and you know these are we're talking you know 50 year old soviet

00:01:37.720 style train and you know not exactly the most comfortable so what i did was i bought four tickets

00:01:43.120 so we bought out um the whole compartment had the compartment to ourselves on the way back

00:01:48.360 so kevin's asleep i'm over filming it and i was like you know i wanted to get kevin's opinions on

00:01:54.540 everything kevin's perspectives and we had him on war room uh earlier this week when i was guest

00:02:01.860 hosting for steve and he talked about it a little bit but he didn't really get into the full you know

00:02:07.640 the full meat and potatoes of what he had to prepare so i said you know what kev you're in

00:02:12.800 town why don't you come over to the human events daily studios there the turning point usa embassy

00:02:19.440 capitol hill sit down with me and we do it's actually the very first sit down interview i've

00:02:25.500 ever done here at human events i said kev i can't think of anybody i'd rather have for my first

00:02:32.020 interview here than you so ladies and gentlemen welcome uh the the newest war correspondent uh

00:02:38.720 foreign correspondent uh for human events daily it's kevin posobic what's up kev thanks for having

00:02:46.180 me it's an honor to be here uh i gotta say i was sleeping on the train it was very comfortable and it

00:02:53.940 was almost the best night's sleep in the whole world oh there we go almost because you didn't have

00:03:01.020 the my pillow that's right now we didn't have the my i don't think uh we gotta work on that next time

00:03:05.800 get them over there next time right to get um yeah have to talk to mike about that he just got

00:03:10.200 canceled from walmart do you hear that no yeah it just happened uh last night he um put it out uh

00:03:16.220 we'll have to get the story going but but yeah it looks like he got canceled from walmart we just heard

00:03:20.100 yeah yeah yeah so so next time mom of course doesn't doesn't ever want us to go back but

00:03:24.740 if we do uh for for a wartime train it was uh pretty comfy get the but it was old you gotta you

00:03:32.260 gotta put admit yeah but you could open the windows and get the breeze going it's like one of those one

00:03:37.640 of those uh youtube music videos with like the background music oh yeah like the white noise

00:03:42.660 you can hear in the in the original uh episode that i did that i recorded from the train you actually

00:03:49.760 can hear that in the background and i was worried right yeah right so i was worried that that sound

00:03:55.460 would overpower the audio that it might ruin the audio um for the episode and just you know sound

00:04:00.860 terrible because so i had to take i found some like uh clear tape in the train compartment that i was in

00:04:08.500 and it was like the one next to us and i just taped the window shut so like because it kept kind of

00:04:14.100 like falling forward because the lock wasn't like the latch wasn't working properly so i taped it shut

00:04:18.920 and then a couple at a couple points during the recording i had to pause and then go back up and

00:04:23.240 re-tape it because the sound was just overpowering but it actually worked out pretty well and a lot

00:04:30.200 of the reviews that we got on people said they really liked it maybe i'll have to yeah i'll have

00:04:33.520 to ask producer mike maybe he can add it in uh sure digitally to uh in the beginning of this podcast

00:04:39.180 yeah beginning here of the podcast pulling into the station yeah we'll have to see if he can do that

00:04:43.060 so if he did do that you will have already heard it by now yeah so many other things like the

00:04:48.340 american like rules and regulations that we have are like just not existent what do you mean by

00:04:54.740 like being able to open the windows on the train well this was right and so really move around right

00:05:00.840 so for folks um that are that are just listening so this so kevin was on the trip with us not just

00:05:07.600 through ukraine but also through the rest of western europe so we did ireland we did italy

00:05:13.880 um briefly you know briefly on our way in budapest so we did budapest hungary we spoke at cpac

00:05:20.280 budapest then from there we went to switzerland uh covered davos i got detained kevin didn't get

00:05:26.920 detained because he was off um trying to track down malcolm nance yeah at the ukraine house and then

00:05:31.840 yeah i needed some intel on some missiles you need some intel on the missiles stand by stand by

00:05:36.280 and so i'm texting you while you're waiting for him at the ukraine house and he ended up being via

00:05:42.280 skype right he was yeah he was back in ukraine did get to meet leave shriver did get to meet leave

00:05:47.160 shriver ray donovan some people were saying that maybe leave shriver um because you were with tanya

00:05:52.300 and so some people were saying that maybe leave shriver swatted me so that he could spend more time

00:05:57.360 with tanya probably that's what it was that's what i was thinking i was like why did tanya come in and i

00:06:01.920 saw leave i was like man that guy's real handsome oh is that what it is that what it is yeah yeah i

00:06:07.900 heard she has a thing for for uh for slavic guys yeah yeah she was sitting up right right up front uh

00:06:15.480 yeah i've seen the photos thank you so yeah so so you come over running because i text you but you

00:06:21.720 didn't get detained and then after that uh came with us through poland got to see the uh got to see

00:06:27.000 the homeland got to meet our cut well see our cousin you'd met him before in the u.s got to see

00:06:32.880 the uh the little village where the posobics are from there and then uh so prior to all that um you

00:06:39.460 know traveling around with us in western europe and then and then central europe and then eventually we

00:06:43.240 make it to to ukraine yeah quite the trip quite the 10 countries something like that yeah i think 10

00:06:51.440 countries yeah 10 countries in like two and a half weeks but yeah so the point was like there's so much

00:06:56.940 more uh common sense incentives and freedom like there was no like so you felt freer i did yeah

00:07:04.200 wow like uh in switzerland i wanted to like jump in the river uh because their swim clubs are like

00:07:10.920 very popular lately and there were are they that's funny because there were times that's funny because

00:07:16.860 there were times that i wanted to throw you in the river so you know it's funny how that works out

00:07:21.360 but no you pay two dollars yeah switzerland is is well i mean it's in the alps so yeah there's no

00:07:27.220 there's no um ocean yeah so you don't have like the the beach culture the beach crowd but you have

00:07:33.380 the swim club culture crowd yeah there are a lot of people swimming yeah two dollars and rivers yeah

00:07:38.560 but there was like no fences and no like big signs or nothing you just jump right in if you want to

00:07:44.460 right and uh like the same with the train when you did in geneva right yeah what do you mean at the

00:07:52.360 in the lake you jumped in lake geneva well they had a swim club there too right but yeah yeah it was

00:07:57.200 like 60 degrees okay you know that ain't bad at the little alpine swim session yeah but no it felt

00:08:04.860 great it's not salty it's like nice royal blue lake water that beautiful alpine water yeah yeah but

00:08:11.940 yeah like i went up to the the olympic dive it was like 10 meters like 30 feet uh and the lifeguard's

00:08:18.880 like oh yeah enjoy you know just go for it old concrete structure like no like ropes on it no

00:08:25.440 warnings like yeah just go for it i thought it was like exclusive for the olympics or something like

00:08:30.960 you had to sign a waiver at least nope yeah like did they even did they did they charge you

00:08:37.220 not to jump off not to jump off pay two dollars two francs to get in and that was it just for the

00:08:43.560 beach yeah yeah that's not bad at all no right so geneva yeah no no coastline on the ocean or

00:08:50.600 switzerland no coastline on the ocean but they do have a ton of ton of lakes like all over the place

00:08:54.620 so you get those lakes and mountains that would to segue into more ukraine like would kind of also

00:09:01.300 work to our disadvantage because it was so free like we could do so many things like there was a lot

00:09:09.040 of opportunities to get involved with things um so uh yeah being over there um we did get to see

00:09:20.940 well first we went to lviv from the train in poland presumptive presumptive yeah it's the last

00:09:29.120 last city of poland before we crossed the border so there's there's our family's village village and

00:09:35.080 then it was like a 40 minute drive to the border and then we're right at the border um didn't used

00:09:40.420 to be the border it used to all be poland it was poland all the way up to minsk at one point

00:09:44.900 um and if you go back even further it was poland all the way out to smolensk right um and during the

00:09:50.840 commonwealth period so i remember we were looking at those maps last night of how big poland used to be

00:09:54.700 yeah and so and that's that's kind of the you know that's the history of the area right is that

00:09:59.360 there were times where it was just a much larger country than those borders because of all the

00:10:05.600 wars and everything else you know those those borders the poles the germans the russians every

00:10:10.540 time they rumble it's that's that's the that's the battlegrounds that's that's your bloodlands that's

00:10:15.020 the that's the killing fields right there so many battles so many wars over the years a lot of the

00:10:19.840 architecture the buildings and the churches were built then like before world war ii so they were

00:10:26.420 built by polish very much so well in lviv yeah in lviv yeah and that was the thing is that um we had

00:10:32.640 met that local contact there and um it was it was wild because we were going through and looking at

00:10:40.680 the churches in lviv it's gorgeous by the way beautiful beautiful city yeah cobblestones old

00:10:46.600 churches castles and courtyards and had nice patina like the weathered look to it absolutely

00:10:53.260 and inside all the churches and we went into the greek catholic churches um and it realized there

00:10:58.460 was such a big greek catholic population there right that um it was all polish on the inside there was

00:11:03.600 polish uh inscriptions polish tombstones of some people who were interred there and polish on the

00:11:10.080 mosaics polish on the walls the paintings etc just polish yeah so in like philly where i've been living

00:11:16.980 you see scaffolding and whatnot around churches majority of the time because they're being taken

00:11:24.640 down right like demolished or converted into apartments or whatever uh but over there it was

00:11:31.700 so shocking to see that um they had scaffolding around like various statues of mary and stained glass

00:11:41.060 windows because they were protecting it and they were you're right they were covered they were

00:11:45.220 covered yeah and i was like man this is like it's a lot of vandalism here or something you know

00:11:51.320 right i remember and i was told that no that's in case the city gets bombed like to preserve them

00:11:58.900 that potentially they could be they could be protected by i mean these are just like

00:12:02.700 outside and you know big big drapes and and cloth i mean it's not like some it was it's not very

00:12:09.120 protective but if there was shrapnel or some glass that kind of thing that hits yeah yeah yeah of course

00:12:14.960 yeah it was i think it was more for like rubble or something like to to hit into it but one of the

00:12:20.100 problems that's been happening and uh we didn't see this when we were there very humbling but oh for

00:12:25.220 sure but one of the problems that that does happen sometimes is that so there'll be so let's say

00:12:30.640 russia fires a missile fires one of those cruise missiles to take out um the supply depot because

00:12:36.280 lviv that's the big thing with the city of lviv is that that is the ammunition and supply depot from

00:12:42.560 the nato countries and the west comes in via train um then it's stored in lviv and then it goes through

00:12:49.360 you know through the transport network of ukraine at that point throughout the trains the railroads

00:12:55.000 the roads highways etc but lviv is where it's all stationed initially so russia has been waiting

00:13:00.440 and they'll wait until you know a certain point of it builds up and then they'll fire a cruise missile

00:13:05.940 off at one of those depots to blow up all the weapons or tanks or vehicle whatever it might be

00:13:10.300 right but because ukraine has air defense uh they're trying to take out those cruise missiles while

00:13:16.800 they're on their way in so the problem then becomes if you take out one of those cruise missiles

00:13:21.360 before it hits its target then the damage from that missile you don't know where it's going to go

00:13:26.600 right it could land somewhere over the city it could land in a residential area it could land and to your

00:13:31.920 point could land um you know some of it could land on the church right and it was in the one um that we

00:13:39.240 saw remember they had the services and like the speaking of ammunition like the military church right

00:13:44.580 yeah the military church and it was during the day during the week and they were having a service

00:13:51.560 and we just went in and saw like one in particular it was like a side altar with um

00:13:59.920 some kind of display of old ammunition and like the canteen uh at the foot of the show

00:14:07.520 yeah artillery shells in the church inside the church in the church and then there was like the

00:14:15.200 warrior's prayer in ukrainian yep like uh and then there's very martial yeah very martial down the

00:14:23.640 hall there's like there's pictures too of like all the soldiers the mia kia yeah a lot of them looked

00:14:32.120 our age you know and i could find myself just like looking around like man which one like looks most

00:14:36.680 like me right right um it's pretty surreal and uh you could definitely feel like our age or younger

00:14:41.820 i mean keep in mind that 18 you're good to go so you know and they're doing and i remember the one

00:14:47.880 the one guy was telling us that the way it works with the conscription conscription because i was

00:14:52.000 actually surprised that when we were going around laviv that so many people you know because

00:14:58.240 laviv is far far western ukraine right so for people who don't know the map um the fighting

00:15:03.300 right now or at least when we were there is is in the east in the far east and then in the south

00:15:08.640 and so where we are in laviv that's that's as far west as you can go basically and still be in ukraine

00:15:15.240 and that city it almost felt like it wasn't wartime right because people were out at the cafes

00:15:21.940 people were out at the uh at the churches as you say people are shopping right people are acting

00:15:28.140 almost like normal um and then because i've you know i've heard that to men can't leave that's the

00:15:36.660 thing if you're between 18 and 65 right now you can't leave the country of ukraine or if you need

00:15:40.960 to leave you have to have like special permission to leave and so um inside the church right with the

00:15:47.660 way the conscription works you would see you know some young men uh teenagers basically 18 19

00:15:52.960 that had been killed in in the and keep in mind this this is going back all the way to 2014 when

00:15:59.120 all this started and then um the way it works i guess that we found out which is interesting to me

00:16:05.160 is that there's kind of like a lottery and then you get called if you are going to enter the service so

00:16:10.940 it's not like it's not like all the men are constantly being you know sent into the into the

00:16:17.700 fight or not all the men are immediately drafted into the military it's like there are some men who

00:16:23.080 are just living their lives but then you get called up then you get sent to training then you get you

00:16:28.320 know sent to a unit then you go well they didn't constitute a an actual draft right i don't think

00:16:35.580 oh yeah they do have a draft they did absolutely okay yeah 100 but what i'm saying is it's not

00:16:42.560 that that doesn't mean that 100 of the men are all required you know to go right away oh true it's

00:16:49.880 like a it's like a it's like a rolling thing yeah yeah i just yeah i just wanted to point out like

00:16:53.420 as they need it was like but they're good very grounding to to see that like you know and then

00:17:00.060 there's like uh people praying like you see widows there like praying to saint mike saint michael the

00:17:05.580 archangel and you know it was then i was like thinking to myself like and not not old widows were

00:17:12.140 they no no rh yeah um widows in their 20s and 30s so i had i had to like definitely pinch myself on

00:17:20.500 the whole trip like just make sure like is this really like am i dreaming or but it was definitely

00:17:26.860 reality check and you know so i continued to like turn to god to pray like what should i do here like

00:17:34.420 how can i be useful and and and you know moving forward and part of it is sharing the story but

00:17:41.440 you know i um naively was a little more convinced to like i don't know try and join there was some

00:17:52.380 people there that really wanted us to join they saw us and they're like hey what are you guys doing

00:17:56.260 here we ended up getting yeah i remember initially being told they said hey we want you to meet with

00:18:00.960 some some journalists uh on the ground and i'm not going to say their names for um security purposes

00:18:07.000 and you know it's sensitive people are still in country obviously but when we got there i remember

00:18:11.820 them saying you know hey we're going to be taking some body armor forward and we're going to be you

00:18:17.200 know bringing some helmets and some uh tactical combat care tourniquets and quick clot and other

00:18:23.280 things bandages yeah and i remember hearing that i said wait a minute that that doesn't sound like

00:18:29.100 journalism like we're just here to you know we just need a ride you know we were looking for a ride

00:18:33.820 with other you know reporters right you guys are doing is you know and hey you're you're here

00:18:40.160 you're volunteering like it's you know it's your life i couldn't but but that's not that's not what

00:18:45.380 we're here to do sure yeah i couldn't help it though i mean being like like i'm a carpenter right

00:18:50.700 you know i work with my hands that's just where my mind goes it's like man is this church like need

00:18:55.680 work on it like or uh you know boom boom boom somebody cars broken down like it's just where my head

00:19:02.180 goes well there's certainly you know i mean from a situation like that from a humanitarian perspective

00:19:08.200 right you can be there as a humanitarian aid worker and we saw a lot of humanitarian aid workers

00:19:14.180 who are just helping the people who are there helping um people have been injured in in any of

00:19:20.360 the fighting um you know as you say help to rebuild caritas yeah caritas is there and a lot of americans

00:19:27.080 have gone over in that volunteer capacity as an activist rather than someone who's like you know

00:19:33.540 actually part of the resistance that's that's getting involved in the fighting but more privately

00:19:37.400 though i didn't see any any uh american flags over there any kind of like joe biden associations uh

00:19:45.440 well what's interesting yeah getting americans over there and i tweeted that you had 40 billion that

00:19:50.100 you had said that right so you know on that point you know that idea that you know here in the u.s

00:19:57.400 and really across europe we saw this that people have ukrainian flagged all over the place people

00:20:03.200 putting them on their twitter accounts um people putting stickers on their cars t-shirts we're i mean

00:20:09.300 we were at the paul mccartney concert the other night and i saw people there with ukraine shirts on

00:20:12.680 there was and it was um but yeah i hadn't even thought of it that way and i tweeted that you

00:20:18.740 said that after war room the other day that you know that went that it occurred to you that when

00:20:23.140 you were in ukraine you didn't see anybody flying any american flags no well not yeah no american flags no

00:20:30.960 like appreciation like that um but definitely like from like a practical sense like where's where's the

00:20:40.800 aid like we saw we saw some in poland um before we cross the border uh a few tents when we got off

00:20:50.580 the train right in lviv at the train station which by the way what happened when you tried to get some

00:20:55.040 video of that oh they tried to they tried to take me out right away they who some young guys uh i think

00:21:01.100 they were like the equivalent of like mall cops they weren't like official police maybe they were they're

00:21:06.860 junior cadets whatever like train station police i could i didn't even get down the steps of the

00:21:11.760 train station and they said could you have your phone out yeah i had my phone out just doing a

00:21:15.760 little scan like you know whatever but they were like oh american tourists came right up and was like

00:21:22.220 delete the footage you gotta you gotta get rid of this i was like okay sure i didn't know what was

00:21:28.420 going on did he watch you did he make you delete it he watched me yeah yeah but then was it was it

00:21:35.360 and you're recently deleted i don't know how to do that actually that function but i did do in davos

00:21:41.560 i told you what i did with that footage when the when the cop uh or whatever you want to call those

00:21:46.760 guys those are cops he asked me to delete the footage so i had taken uh two pictures like after

00:21:54.840 the footage so when i pulled it back up i deleted the pictures and still had the video no because you

00:22:00.040 if you go into your um you have iphone right yep you go in your photos app and then you go to albums

00:22:06.120 and you scroll down and you should see recently deleted oh okay and then it'll stay there for like

00:22:12.320 i want to say like a month and then you can go in and you can um restore it well yeah no it wasn't even

00:22:19.300 a good picture it was kind of blurry even but just this to show that there was tents but nothing like

00:22:27.060 american american red cross or like united states like anything yeah i didn't see i didn't see a lot

00:22:33.240 of red cross i went into the one tent and they had cots sleeping bags uh cheese sandwiches it was

00:22:42.380 like a big thick kaiser roll with like two slices of cheese and that's it and then like some campers

00:22:48.480 like percolated coffee yeah that's it you know well i remember you know um for all the refugees like

00:22:55.220 everybody needs all this help that's everybody and that's all you get for 40 billion yeah yeah

00:22:59.100 where's it going yeah exactly well because obviously the question is you know how much of that is going

00:23:04.960 to the the actual war effort you know bombs and tanks and fuel how much of that is going to

00:23:12.400 the actual refugees though the humanitarian efforts that people need you know tanya i forget if i told you

00:23:19.880 this but you remember how um we were looking to need a covid test to get out of um poland and back

00:23:26.100 to the u.s yeah so tanya right before right after she uh sent us off on the train she was still staying

00:23:34.580 there back in poland because i didn't want her to come just you know one of those things where you

00:23:38.880 know i didn't want her to come anywhere near where there could even potentially be anything

00:23:45.460 dangerous right because we have two little boys right and um she went back and she was going around

00:23:52.700 those humanitarian tests and she actually saw a covid tent and she went over and asked what the

00:23:59.640 procedure was to get a test just to see if she could get a test there and it was funny because the girl

00:24:04.260 that she met the nurse was actually from nashville tennessee and oh interesting saying oh wait like you're

00:24:12.340 you know because tanya speaks like you know she speaks polish and russian and ukrainian and all of

00:24:16.300 it and she goes and she comes across somebody say wait a minute well you speak english you're from

00:24:21.240 nashville and she said yeah yeah i'm here i'm volunteering and then tanya said that's great how

00:24:25.460 long have you been here she said oh this is my second time out and apparently what this girl had

00:24:29.500 been doing was she would go to ukraine volunteer but obviously you're not really making any money doing

00:24:36.760 that so it might give you like a little place to live and some food like crowdfunded so what she was

00:24:41.520 doing she was crowdfunding but then she was she was going back home to the u.s and then was like

00:24:47.440 working a little bit there to make some money and then you know for like a month or two months and

00:24:53.020 then coming back to you and then her plan was to come back to ukraine wow well but privately like

00:24:58.220 is there any like through the 40 billion is any of it like set aside for people like her

00:25:04.560 like she wasn't getting any of it like hey here's an extra 2 000 bucks to go over you know well and

00:25:10.560 that's and that's the thing right probably not is you know we're over there we're over there trying

00:25:15.220 to understand you know where our 40 billion is going because when you look at the situation you

00:25:20.920 have to say there are people caught in the middle of this right and you know you can look at the two

00:25:25.600 sides and we try to be um at least objective here from the perspective of saying you know this is what

00:25:32.220 ukraine is saying ukraine is saying you're invading russia is saying that there was a coup and you guys are

00:25:37.600 trying to you know you started the civil war and we're just in protecting the people that you're

00:25:43.200 attacking in donetsk and lugans etc in crimea sure and so right we we get that we get there's two sides

00:25:49.940 to every story but from from my perspective is there's always going to be people that are caught

00:25:56.280 up in the middle of it whenever there's one of these squabbles it's kind of like it gave me a little

00:26:00.160 bit of um appreciation more appreciation for why it was that our you know that our great grandfather

00:26:07.340 decided to leave poland um because you go back to poland and you say man it's a beautiful country

00:26:13.320 the food's amazing yeah but great soil to grow great soil but you know every time the great empires rumble

00:26:20.860 you know it's it's right there sure it's right there having family still over there probably caused

00:26:27.720 like girls like her you know maybe she has family over there oh she might yeah i don't know just to

00:26:33.320 volunteer and it's commendable i'm not saying oh yeah i'm not implying like you should expect a check

00:26:39.120 from the government to go volunteer right but the question is where's you know where's where's my

00:26:43.920 where's my 40 billion bro exactly yeah but uh i did notice that too like um the ukrainian people

00:26:52.880 that are caught up in the mix that don't know any better just banding together anyway um to get the

00:27:02.020 resources out there if i like get rides here you you posted something on on instagram about that right

00:27:07.160 i did i liked what you wrote yeah it's like a tweet but you could say but like on instagram it's just

00:27:13.120 words you know um but that was very that was very um impressive to see to people not running away not

00:27:23.260 being refugees stand on their ground yeah um and i could relate because it's kind of like kind of

00:27:29.920 like me and you like i work i i've worked like with my hands and all and i don't have the time

00:27:37.640 to uh or anybody in trades not me and you directly but like anybody that works in trades and other

00:27:43.300 people have commented on this um we rely on journalists today in the digital world like

00:27:50.960 to get accurate information on what's going on especially if you're in war like you need to know

00:27:58.560 accurate information like and even soldiers like hey why are we fighting that's that's what they say

00:28:05.060 in war the first casualty is truth exactly um but to see that like uh people still going to work

00:28:15.280 at the restaurants still like even when we were in mick alive like we stopped at a gas station there

00:28:21.240 was this lady like all dressed up in her uniform like cooking croissants like baking and making

00:28:27.580 sandwiches it's a really really nice gas station by the way yeah it was great i actually took a picture

00:28:32.700 of it because the pastry it was like brand new like white steel totally out of place yeah super

00:28:39.600 out of place not this is like that was like 30 minutes out of mikolaev yeah yeah where all the all

00:28:47.140 the prices were zero you couldn't even buy gas there right i think they were out of gas yeah it was

00:28:51.580 probably seized by the military or potentially or shut down whatever and it was not like the they

00:28:57.820 were like ignorant of anything like going on but like you could tell these people like had

00:29:02.660 their uh they had pride in what they were doing yeah their dignity was still intact dignity right

00:29:07.840 and it was just amazing to see and something and that was like keep in mind that's that's like

00:29:15.180 i would love to see more of in america for folks who haven't seen yeah for folks who haven't seen the

00:29:21.060 or listen to the first podcast you know this is on the on on the highway that we when we made it from

00:29:26.360 odessa to mikolaev and keep in mind so we did we did 40 hours on the railroads in ukraine 40 hours

00:29:35.260 so that's 600 miles in 600 miles out so 1200 miles on the ground in ukraine and you know this point

00:29:44.480 where we go into mikolaev that's about was about an hour and a half two hours drive from odessa to

00:29:51.040 mikolaev but that's checkpoints checkpoints checkpoints armed military inspections um you

00:29:58.120 have to show your press credentials have to show your ids you know constantly having to show our

00:30:02.980 passports and you know in the midst of all that we find this little gas station with like a pastry

00:30:09.420 shop and they're right in the middle of it you know and these people yeah you're right they you

00:30:12.960 could tell they took a lot of pride and and dignity and what they were doing yeah and then when we

00:30:18.320 were down i saw we saw the guys salvaging like out of the buildings that got bombed like they were

00:30:25.020 just there's there were so many like moments like looking out the window just see like somebody

00:30:30.660 still just like going from good with their groceries from the from the supermarket like going home

00:30:36.720 carrying those uh those bags yeah like some guy like putting out the trash like right and then down

00:30:42.380 the street there's like a building bombed out um because the narrative we get is like hey listen

00:30:48.940 we have all these refugees everybody's running away from the war blah blah blah and then you get there

00:30:54.640 but there are people who stay yeah yeah there's people that stay and they just know that it's

00:31:00.940 not that it's all bs but like they know like where else am i to go like this is my home

00:31:07.520 i love my home and you know they're just tired of it like the girl like right when we cross the

00:31:14.760 border um there's just like this beautiful girl i sat next to on the train wait wait wait that's not

00:31:21.680 what happened hold on hold on what do you mean it's not what is what happened there's there's some

00:31:25.760 context here that to provide the audience all right so let me tell i'm going to tell the true

00:31:29.720 story of what happened so there's context oh there's context there's definitely context so i get

00:31:35.360 the tickets and we're going across and and and this originally we only had tickets uh from

00:31:43.120 prejamsil to lviv and so that was what like four hours but it was it was mainly because the train

00:31:49.280 was slow and because we had to do the border check 8 a.m train i think it was like 8 a.m like that train

00:31:54.140 that's that's really not far like it's it's it's literally right on the other side of the border but

00:31:58.240 because it takes so long for the inspections they have to check everyone on the train took about four

00:32:02.380 hours so i'm sitting there waiting to go across and i realized that because we have assigned seats

00:32:08.680 so this wasn't the sleeper train this wasn't the train with no arguments that i'm no it was new to

00:32:12.820 explain everybody yeah it seemed like a newer train it was newer and uh we had assigned seats and then i

00:32:17.960 realized that you know just like when you're on an airplane i said oh wait my seat my tickets on this

00:32:22.580 side of the aisle your tickets on the other side of the aisle yeah and so and it's two to two so

00:32:27.360 you know i remember uh going over to you at one point and saying hey kev do you want uh

00:32:33.220 you know do you want to ask someone to switch seats so we can you know so we can sit together

00:32:37.560 and that's when the girl came and sat down next to you and you're like no no i'm good

00:32:43.020 yeah no well i said well maybe i need i said i i said maybe i need to charge my phone oh yeah

00:32:50.280 that's when oh sure the phone that's when she came in it was like real cute phone real real good

00:32:55.360 looking phone there she said you could use my my charger my charger oh look at you sharing chargers

00:33:01.440 over there sharing chargers in ukraine yeah and listen this girl number i did get her number nice

00:33:09.500 name was ira dirty blonde hair beautiful golden amber eyes oh boy here it comes uh you know very

00:33:18.380 memorable um but now like uh and we ended up talking for like half an hour like a majority of the train

00:33:27.340 ride totally unexpected and uh she let me charge my phone and uh it'd be crazy i wonder if she got on

00:33:36.760 in poland i wonder if she's listening that'd be that'd be wild if she ever hears this now she came

00:33:41.780 on it will just text her now she came on on the train in poland right yeah right so she was heading

00:33:47.520 back she was working in israel on a work trip and israel yeah okay and since all the airports are

00:33:56.320 shut down in ukraine you can't go to or from right you have to take the train or however else i don't

00:34:02.260 think they have greyhounds so she flew back to poland they have buses maybe she flew back to

00:34:07.200 poland i didn't get it at all but the point is she was in israel got back to poland four days

00:34:13.400 four days commute from israel back to kiev makes sense kiev so she was heading to kiev yeah that's

00:34:20.460 where she lived wow and i said wow you're going back to kiev and she's like well that's where my

00:34:25.040 family is yeah that's uh where my apartment is and she said yeah we do get the air raid alarm still

00:34:32.200 sometimes eight hours a day just like we see on the news or you know telegram clips whatever so it

00:34:39.860 was good to there was credibility there like she was witnessing to it like yeah that is real and uh

00:34:47.900 i was like just blew my mind that she was just like yeah we're just tired of the war and we don't

00:34:56.300 really want to go anywhere else um and i was like not expecting that uh it was just great to see like

00:35:05.700 she just loved where she lived and yeah that dignity uh the pride where they live it's just

00:35:12.400 you see ukrainian the nationalism i know that word gets thrown around a whole lot nowadays

00:35:20.840 but like it's good everybody supports it but american nationalism bad right you know we're not

00:35:27.200 you're not allowed to be a nationalist anywhere but ukraine right now exactly yeah that's my point

00:35:31.880 that's my that's my point it was just like so cool to see people like loving their country

00:35:36.600 banded together uh you know fighting for what they have patriotism yeah patriotism that's better yeah

00:35:44.520 uh it was so cool to see that and um yeah i and and you know so now i think about her because i see

00:35:53.920 like he is still getting bombed and uh you know i hope she's all right well have you reached out you

00:35:59.420 got her number uh i can't comment oh oh i might have got left on red i don't know oh maybe she

00:36:09.820 gave you a fake number maybe she got her instagram that's who you thought you're the one that saw she

00:36:14.740 was a spy she is a spy i asked her for instagram and she's like oh that's just for my dog oh just

00:36:21.520 for your dog maybe she was just letting me down easy no no i don't think she was because i was um i

00:36:28.220 could hear you guys chatting from where i was sitting and i mean she definitely was like she

00:36:34.620 was she was indeed she was definitely we were talking and then i would stop talking and then she

00:36:38.880 would like say something else yeah no she was oh what are you guys going to report on no that's

00:36:43.180 why i think she's fine because what was what did she do for work what did she say she was

00:36:48.200 cyber security cyber security in israel right yeah that's a spy dude agency

00:36:55.560 yeah she probably she probably found out who you were that's the problem

00:37:00.640 yeah maybe yeah yeah like scan my phone yeah scan yeah like that's why she wanted me to plug it in

00:37:07.060 yes right right yeah what did you plug your phone actually into right she was cute though they sent

00:37:13.500 some good supplies to us yeah see that's what they do they need to get to me they're like oh we go to

00:37:17.620 kevin yeah that's how we do it right right right oh man yeah so that was that was quite the ordeal i

00:37:26.360 did not want to get off the train at that point uh well because she yeah she kept going to kiev yeah

00:37:30.940 she kept going to kiev and then um i was about to i was we're stopping at lviv and after lviv they

00:37:37.340 opened up the the coffee car on the train oh you're gonna ask her the coffee car yeah but that was

00:37:43.740 your move to take him take him to the coffee car why not buy her a drink yeah then we could have

00:37:49.680 really gotten in the conversation oh yeah it was just so cool to see it and and like uh she was cute

00:37:57.200 folks she other kevin's not just making that up she's definitely she wasn't the only one either

00:38:01.120 she was no tanya tay but she was she was a good looking girl there was uh quite quite the talent

00:38:07.980 over there um talented country well yeah kevin i heard this well it's funny that you mentioned that

00:38:13.800 because i remember you saying that you know by you wanted to make a contribution to the war effort and

00:38:20.180 so you know when you heard about the refugees i mean i think you were saying that you would you would

00:38:24.800 take uh as many of the women as wanted to come and stay with you so two or three or even four right

00:38:30.940 i i did i only have so many seats in my car only so many seats in the car right but that's what a

00:38:35.940 written house say four doors that's that's really yeah that's really what i was getting at about uh

00:38:41.420 don't mean to make light of it don't mean to make light of it but but but no no ukrainian women are

00:38:47.220 obviously gorgeous yeah so i was getting to as well as like there wasn't american flags everywhere

00:38:55.820 but however there also wasn't any rainbow flags all over the place no no uh no blue hair purple hair

00:39:04.400 nose rings nobody's nobody's acting your pronouns in uh in eastern europe you know no that stuff stops

00:39:10.820 at germany not much obesity over there no no uh yeah it was it's kind of like stepping back not stepping

00:39:18.820 back in time but it was just like so refreshing to see the culture like that i had never been to europe

00:39:23.820 um well see that's the thing so much of it was just like what i've seen on the movies and the

00:39:30.980 narrative i've been given and then being there in real life it's like yeah the average watching the

00:39:37.180 movie and reading the book the average person in eastern europe right would be considered like quote

00:39:44.820 unquote far right in the united states under our current crazy system of everything oh yeah be considered

00:39:52.520 like you'd be considered extreme right because keep in mind that um there's none of that like like uh

00:39:59.860 same-sex marriage for example is not recognized in most of eastern europe oh wow okay yeah i didn't even

00:40:06.080 i didn't even know that but you can't even um you and that's that's just that's considered i mean that

00:40:11.440 that was also the norm for thousands of years of human history but you can't even you can't even talk

00:40:17.180 about that in the united states so you can't even you can't even bring that up or you're considered

00:40:21.000 super extreme um and in ukraine itself it's it's not recognized not even a little bit there wasn't

00:40:27.400 any that hyper polarization of like political sides like you know there is over here like they paint

00:40:35.020 you oh you're wearing a red shirt that means this you're wearing a blue shirt that means this

00:40:38.660 yeah it was i mean we weren't there for very long but from what i could observe and i'm you and i are

00:40:45.820 both pretty keen on observing people and crowds and stuff like couldn't couldn't tell like every

00:40:52.320 well it seemed like yeah it seemed like everybody was very very supportive of their country not that

00:40:57.400 they weren't like at least aware you put it this way put it this way americans are all about raising

00:41:01.540 awareness we saw that we saw that in lviv but i noticed that there was much less of it when we

00:41:09.280 went of like the ukraine flag and ukraine flag t-shirts and purses and bags i noticed there was

00:41:14.680 less of it when we went to odessa and then we went to mikolaev there was like none other than maybe like

00:41:21.720 a couple of billboards yeah oh right the billboards it's true yeah so mikolaev they had billboards of

00:41:27.880 you know signs saying like mikolaev is ukraine um you know i could read that basically um the

00:41:35.040 simple ones but i didn't see like people walking around with ukraine t-shirts and ukraine flags and

00:41:39.760 everything so you saw that more in lviv but it was like the further east we went and the further south

00:41:46.820 we went it it it became less and less yeah but real patriotism oh yeah it's awesome i don't like i

00:41:57.820 i only imagine it like scenes of like valley forge or like washington crossing the delaware i always

00:42:03.760 i think i think about like revolutionary war and that kind of patriotism um you know 1776 and all

00:42:12.500 those stories like like we grew up yeah living in philadelphia um and then to see it there like

00:42:22.100 well tell me like like like just rallies like we think of like rallies today and right 21st century

00:42:28.380 like you gotta have your tickets your assigned seats there's like a merch table and then you know

00:42:35.480 but then like for me my experience like playing baseball growing up was like rally time like ninth

00:42:42.100 inning your team's down yeah you know you put your hat on inside out and rally cap you got blisters on

00:42:47.940 your hands but you're still up there at the plate you know like everybody's yelling from the dugout

00:42:53.640 you know you just get into it and nobody has to tell you like it's just you're in yeah yeah it's just

00:43:00.240 something that happens so that the uh that feeling in the organic element yeah like a feeling in the

00:43:05.600 air very human yeah yeah it was it was so cool to see and i just pray that like you know god forbid

00:43:12.660 it never has to happen in america i felt it too i definitely i what you're saying i you know i

00:43:18.740 definitely felt that too the minute we crossed the border it's it's it's it's in the air it's palpable

00:43:24.380 so now i have that like yeah god forbid anything ever happens in america but it's just like man like

00:43:30.080 to see them like it was like an example of what you know could be like for defending america well i was

00:43:38.200 going to ask you something else but let me let me follow up on that real quick because i remember you

00:43:41.320 wrote something uh you wrote something on instagram talking about your reflection on what if something

00:43:50.500 like that happened in america and and yeah tell people what you wrote well that's that's kind of

00:43:56.700 what i was getting at i mean yeah if any major power like russia china were to invade which would be a huge

00:44:08.540 mistake um red dawn would would we don marines yeah would we be able to have up in the woods

00:44:18.020 yeah but we would need more than just you and i you know we would need like a team like the unity

00:44:25.800 needed like how resilient the people were the dignity like like just pride in the nation like

00:44:32.760 and i've thought about that even before ukraine like if people came to invade do you think they

00:44:37.960 would really care like who i voted for or you know this and that would they stop and ask me

00:44:44.840 no or would they just pull the trigger or would they just well it'd probably depend on what you're

00:44:49.360 doing probably depend on what we're doing yeah of course but they wouldn't stop and ask us

00:44:56.080 questions before like you know handcuffing us or whatever happens you know they would they wouldn't

00:45:04.700 care like uh yeah who i voted for or what my job was and you know they would just see oh americans you

00:45:13.380 know you know what i'm saying it it's well they said there's nothing that unifies a people like an

00:45:21.380 external aggressor like an external force we had like a bit of it at like post 9-11 like a week or

00:45:27.780 two after yeah it is kind of like that where it's sort of we're all in this together and this is bigger

00:45:32.780 than any any one faction it's bigger than any one you know region or ideological you know coalition or

00:45:42.740 something that it's yeah you know this is all of us versus nothing i mean it's a powerful thing it's a

00:45:47.240 very powerful thing it didn't matter like oh yeah the like a guy that owns a 7-eleven working with

00:45:52.260 like a firefighter like working with like a painter with yeah with a doctor and it's like all the labels

00:45:59.020 didn't matter everybody kind of got together right and you do you do have that sense in lviv you

00:46:03.100 definitely have that sense in lviv so that's you know i took that in stride and you know it was like

00:46:08.620 part of why i'm uh being more vocal about it and uh you know online and coming here um and then the

00:46:17.560 problem is though is that we're getting some of the reports and you and i were just reading last

00:46:20.740 night we were kind of doing our evening news scan that i think uh ukraine's losing something like

00:46:25.940 an axios had their report out 200 to 500 men per day on the eastern front in the donbass region in

00:46:34.320 those cauldrons and then when you add in the total casualty numbers that there are days when they're

00:46:39.000 losing up to a thousand people per day a thousand men per day um wounded or injured wounded injured or

00:46:47.000 killed right well that's the follow-through you have all this patriotism but then when we go to like

00:46:52.180 mick alive and and see like boof where where's it all go you know are you really willing to like

00:47:00.920 fight um and someone else had posted that it was like kind of sarcastically but like hey i'm like

00:47:08.120 you really want to go over and help ukraine like i'll give you a thousand dollars so like go join

00:47:12.620 join the join the forces but uh yeah being over there like to be like malcolm nance looking for

00:47:20.180 missiles yeah to actually go over um and fight well i mean it's one thing to i think be you know like

00:47:28.420 you're saying before help out on the humanitarian side as a volunteer as an activist rebuild churches

00:47:34.300 help with the refugees that type of thing and one thing that we found out that i didn't even realize

00:47:39.100 before we were there that there have been three million people that have left ukraine but there's

00:47:44.540 a million of those that have come back since they initially left at the end of february when things

00:47:50.260 started so there's been a lot of people and even when you and i were going from poland into ukraine

00:47:55.880 probably thanks good reporting accurate reporting well reporting and also just kind of realizing how

00:48:02.780 how things are going and right you know that that same sense of of like you said home people don't want

00:48:09.600 to you know some people i i can imagine certain people like uh you know look at it as an opportunity

00:48:15.440 to come to the come to the eu right come to other parts of especially like if you're younger you know

00:48:21.440 they kind of look at it as that as as like a tick because because europe or uh ukraine isn't part of

00:48:25.360 the eu that's so some people that's what i'm saying so many people come from elsewhere than ukraine to

00:48:33.260 america to cross the board like because we're the best like right you come over you don't even have

00:48:39.000 to come legally anymore and then we'll get you an apartment we'll give you a phone president yeah we'll give

00:48:44.540 you health care we'll set you up with you know education set you up education yep and you can vote

00:48:51.960 or getting to that point basically yeah to see people on the train going home like now i'm good

00:48:59.760 right i i want to stay home and uh i used to be more um i guess cynical about that like

00:49:08.140 but to see it in real life is just amazing you know what witness that now tell me a little bit

00:49:14.060 more about and you talked about this a little bit on war room this is what i was going to get to in a

00:49:18.240 minute there a minute ago was that when we actually got forward to the city of micholaev a city that

00:49:25.080 has been uh under attack at points it was quiet pretty quiet the day we were there uh got hit i think

00:49:31.700 like a day or less than a day after we left the shipyards got bombed and when you realize that we

00:49:37.940 were you know getting closer to the actual line of the russian advance where you know i think we got

00:49:46.260 as far as the curse on highway and the curse on highway was obviously it's the highway to curse on but

00:49:54.440 curse on is the the first russian held city whereas micholaev is the last ukrainian city before you before

00:50:02.900 you reach there so we were at a point where we were probably about you know let's say let's say

00:50:08.360 the roadblocks were out of the way then we'd be maybe about 15 minutes from the actual you know where

00:50:13.120 they're having these artillery duels and the actual fighting yeah yeah it was at that point that also

00:50:20.700 like it was uh in touch with reality again too yeah reality lofty oh european trip first time ever

00:50:29.080 like yeah when i saw those those uh reality comes up and slaps you in the face yeah the checkpoints

00:50:34.460 we had to go through and the ak's face and the passports you got a show and you don't know papers

00:50:40.580 and you didn't even know either usually you have a little bit of intel of like where we're going and

00:50:46.040 this and that but you didn't even know well it was at that point i knew what micholaev was well

00:50:50.920 because if you remember right it's when we got to leave you knew but there wasn't like a the trust

00:50:56.080 factor when we got to what was going to happen that i hadn't even realized at that point you know

00:51:03.820 again because of the media narrative that the trains were running as far as they were running

00:51:09.040 i didn't realize that there were trains available that went to odessa that went to oh yeah right

00:51:14.200 harkiv that went to dnepro that went to zaporizhia and you know originally we've been talking about

00:51:22.220 maybe traveling with those resistance guys via car right you know down uh deeper into the country

00:51:28.780 across to the river it's an upper river but then once i realized and that was we had that conversation

00:51:33.680 in the lviv train stations that once once you realize the trains are available it's like

00:51:37.680 let's ride the rails you know let's let's do it let's just do it old school we did we did but 40

00:51:43.660 hours you you you noticed too though one of the one of the cars was like full of soldiers anyway it

00:51:48.960 was the front car yeah the front car we didn't go with the humanity we ended up going right with

00:51:53.800 this well and you remember tell everybody what happened on the first train that train down to

00:51:59.060 odessa what was it that when the conductor came by uh what did she tell us that we had to do that

00:52:04.900 night so that night we did get to open the windows blah blah blah it was like romantic to hear the train

00:52:11.840 tracks but pitch black pitch black all all the lights out dark dark train you know she came by

00:52:20.340 and told us in ukrainian and then another passenger concerned came and told us in english like turn off

00:52:26.880 all the lights to have all the lights off for the whole time traveling at night yeah because you know

00:52:33.480 the idea being that ukraine's got you know trains running all throughout the night from lviv to different

00:52:40.140 parts of the country and some of those are going to be cargo trains some of those are going to be

00:52:44.660 passenger trains so obviously a cargo train would not have lights on it but a passenger train would

00:52:50.360 potentially right have the have the windows cargo train car yeah or at least like a small yellow light

00:52:56.300 red light like airplanes have at nighttime or something like a you know a night light right and so

00:53:02.360 the only but if you're let's say you're you know a russian drone that's that's keeping an eye on from

00:53:07.840 the sky on the trains it might be harder to tell which one is a cargo train versus which one is a

00:53:13.620 passenger train if there's no lights yeah yeah so it's kind of a way to to hide which one is the uh

00:53:19.980 is the military train oh yeah oh yeah blue what was it was like an old round top yeah all blue with

00:53:26.960 the yellow stripe across it right but yeah going going into mick alive was uh it was i mean i i've

00:53:37.820 spent some time like in uh inner city philadelphia i used to work like i used to live i used to work

00:53:44.680 in like fishtown it's like the hipster capital philly and all that but i lived in kensington actually

00:53:49.880 it's like the borders are you know everybody argues about where the borders of neighborhoods are

00:53:55.060 probably probably in dc too kings and bad but yeah yeah if anybody has seen the pictures of the

00:54:02.340 the l like the elevated subway and those blue arches yeah it's pretty horrifying that's where all

00:54:07.560 the the fentanyl addicts yes um they call them fentanyl zombies are are hanging out they also refer

00:54:14.220 to it why do they call it kensington beach the kensington beach i actually didn't know that till

00:54:20.240 about a year ago but it's just like uh you know you go down it's new you go down for the day hang

00:54:25.700 out get a tan well they say because you come back when people get when people od on fentanyl they're

00:54:32.340 like they just collapse on the ground and they're lying out and they say there's so many people lying

00:54:36.940 out there it's like going to the beach so they call it kensington yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that too

00:54:41.920 no no sunscreen and yeah they lay out there for pretty long and well it's not only from there but

00:54:48.080 um uh you know for folks that that haven't followed before kevin was with me in chas in seattle in

00:54:55.620 2020 um some of those nights it got pretty hectic you were with me in 2016 deplorable dnc um where it

00:55:04.640 got got pretty rowdy there so yeah we've been in some putting some stuff been some stuff philly was

00:55:10.160 pretty intense i know some other of our contemporary journalists um they were actually in philly for

00:55:17.640 the george floyd riots and all the looting um so i was down there on top of just being kensington in

00:55:23.740 general but for all that did you go to any of the george floyd riots in uh in philly i did yeah you

00:55:28.860 did that's right i had to live there yeah well you were burning down buildings yeah fair fair fighting

00:55:33.420 the police yeah uh and then i was there with the national guard too yeah and i ended up actually

00:55:39.400 oh yeah tell me for the for the guard yeah quick story anyway it's just to like relate to how

00:55:45.680 decrepit uh michelive is but real quick yeah when the national guard was in philly stationed

00:55:51.700 uh because you always see like people helping out addicts it was middle of summer so it's super

00:55:57.720 and i'm not against that at all but it's like they they get like preferential treatment down there

00:56:01.960 they get like all kinds of food every day clothes you know food showers like who would ever want to

00:56:09.080 stop using when you get all these people to give you peanut butter jelly sandwiches and cigarettes every

00:56:14.360 day all day long exactly um the real horrors of addiction yeah yeah so it's like it's like

00:56:20.800 the difference between helping and enabling so yes my point was and getting the stimulus check

00:56:26.880 i got a stimulus check and i was like there's so many people giving out stuff i'm gonna go and i

00:56:31.180 spent my whole stimulus check about half of it as much as i could carry on like drinks and energy

00:56:36.340 drinks and i walked out with like two full coolers uh and i was just started walking up the soldiers

00:56:43.080 like stationed in humvees handing out drinks to them it was like the middle of june too

00:56:48.120 super hot yeah and these guys are in uniform in pennsylvania not like out west yeah we got the

00:56:53.220 humidity on the east coast right so yeah i went over and you know i did periscope that one i usually

00:56:59.820 i don't record stuff like that like you know because it's it's more for like god and god's work

00:57:06.320 um but i did have someone with me and it's like hanging out recorded it um

00:57:10.980 but yeah it was like what can i do what can i do to take action to give back and uh they were

00:57:18.380 appreciative some of the guys were like nah nah like what are you what are you doing like walking

00:57:23.120 up the soldiers um but other guys were like yeah you know and a couple of the guys were younger than

00:57:29.020 me and yep like lived in like harrisburg because you get the right like you get the national guard

00:57:35.560 wherever they're stationed like from that state like deployed i don't know how it works like well

00:57:41.220 they could be in a you know it depends on which unit is deployed right so national guard is from

00:57:46.280 uh pennsylvania so they could be like 40 indiantown gap or they could be different um different parts of

00:57:52.040 the state and then people could you know for their for their reserve student uh their reserve

00:57:56.940 service they could travel to that unit so the unit could be stationed to anywhere in the state and

00:58:01.720 they could be anywhere in the state so you want to usually obviously you want to try to you know

00:58:05.980 stay somewhere be in a unit that's close to your house but i remember like when i was uh when i was

00:58:10.800 in the reserves for the navy side like i used to have to travel to uh fort dix new jersey to you know

00:58:15.640 because that was the closest unit that had availability for me no i remember the one guy in particular he

00:58:19.920 hated it he was like this sucks i don't want to be so close to my home like it was like messing with

00:58:26.720 him you know it was like such a shame to have to be deployed like in his backyard pretty much um

00:58:34.300 but that that yeah so you say all that we went to say that's like that that flashed you back to that

00:58:40.200 was where yeah that's what all i could compare to yeah um so but it was definitely shocking and

00:58:48.280 horrifying in its own right like it was war and i was ready you know at that point like you know

00:58:55.300 it wasn't like i don't know i was serious you were too like and and we were uh i was ready for

00:59:03.800 you know the unexpected we're on our toes for sure um to see like bombed out buildings and i was

00:59:11.380 expecting it to be a lot worse and it probably it was like but we just didn't have time to go further

00:59:17.000 uh but yeah to see that um and and to your point i remember you said when we were there that we would

00:59:26.880 we would see bombed out buildings but it it wasn't like every building in the whole city was bombed

00:59:32.640 right it was more like um at least at the point that we saw it it was more that uh you know there'd be

00:59:39.740 like one building here you're one building there the problem of course being if the fighting gets

00:59:45.720 closer then probably more of those buildings are going to get hit and absolutely that's what did

00:59:52.100 happen uh in the in the following days right a few of the few of the uh ports there were bombed

01:00:00.440 and that was when i brought up the first building we saw it was like a simple apartment building

01:00:06.880 but how many was it like maybe 30 apartments tops and i i i thought we were going somewhere else i

01:00:16.700 didn't even see it when we got there because it was all just like regular buildings and then this

01:00:20.220 one was on the corner and it was blasted out like right in the middle of the building it almost it

01:00:26.160 looked like a like a giant had just like punched it from the top down like you had a main entrance

01:00:31.260 in the in the center of the building in the front and that's where the explosion was it was direct

01:00:37.020 hit direct hit but it was there i i remember questioning like why because we had guides with

01:00:46.040 us at that point yeah questioning the guides like why it was just this building like what is this like

01:00:52.240 a warning shot like where's the other i i just assumed or was it targeted from you know movies or

01:00:59.380 whatever like there would be like four or five other blasts like nearby another building across the

01:01:04.220 street or something like the road blown up like i didn't know um but yeah that's that's uh the

01:01:12.120 investigative part came in like well that could have been for example you know and maybe our guy

01:01:17.600 just didn't know but you know maybe that had been like a command center of some sort or you know

01:01:24.080 a center for the volunteer military or you know some type of yeah i could see that be of some sort of

01:01:30.960 military significance and that's why it was targeted specifically or you know some individual who was

01:01:37.940 there you know yeah 21st century warfare like they have drones yeah they could have had some guy with

01:01:44.240 intel had the drone follow him home exactly and then boop you know or or just tracking the phones

01:01:51.100 or true yeah yeah they can track your phones they track phone all day long probably track your phone

01:01:56.920 all the way back your little your little uh your little keevan spy there she's probably tracking you

01:02:03.240 right now probably listening to us i know i gotta get a new phone hi era how are you

01:02:08.940 but then so so we go we we get that close we come back we come out you're back out now tell me what

01:02:19.520 you know and just in terms of like wrapping up a little bit what are your when when you see ukraine

01:02:24.920 on the news now when you see headlines you know what is it is it is it easier to put into context

01:02:31.640 because you've you know and i don't mean to overplay or overstate you know what we saw and what we did

01:02:39.720 i mean we barely saw anything we barely did anything when we were there it was quiet but but just the

01:02:45.740 fact that you probably better off you were there and have that perspective now and that you can see

01:02:52.980 you know back here in the u.s there's all this this talk about it 40 billion dollars another billion

01:02:58.640 dollars arms going over just what's it like you know hearing these stories now or following telegram

01:03:05.680 and seeing the videos etc now that you've actually been there and and walked those streets and driven

01:03:10.840 those roads i rode those rails to put it in context um it's really just i i don't i don't know how to put

01:03:23.220 it exactly like uh i know it's mostly not true like it's like mostly fake news like what we most of

01:03:34.120 what we see how does it what we get what do you mean by that uh just the way videos are curated and

01:03:42.700 edited and audio that you get it like before before having gone i was like man like everybody's excited

01:03:52.440 to support ukraine like why is that like everybody on the left and the right and i'm like wait a second

01:03:58.740 um but to see like how how uh i guess chaotic it is over there and and also like the same time like

01:04:15.340 organized it is with like resistance fighters like

01:04:19.840 i'm kind of still still cloudy still processing he's still processing it really um but when i see

01:04:30.380 the news from ukraine now it it's yeah i mean it's nothing new war is nothing new um depends on the

01:04:40.440 station that you watch but is it you know do you have a sense of you know do you think about

01:04:46.220 that girl you saw on the train when you saw when you see kiev getting bombed and do you think of

01:04:52.200 you know our guides when you hear that nikolaev might be next and that there's you know the

01:04:57.580 russians are looking at you know potentially cutting off that highway that we drove on does it

01:05:02.440 you know uh yeah does it does it resonate a little more oh yeah it yeah and that's why i wasn't

01:05:09.600 kidding on the war room yesterday i was like i'm just here so you convince me not to go back

01:05:14.200 uh well mom says you're not allowed to go back no joining the resistance yeah they wanted us to for

01:05:19.800 sure oh they wanted us to yeah i'm sure they'll take anybody one two americans just got captured

01:05:23.780 yesterday in karkiv but yeah i mean i so i i personally i i would say like you know i'm

01:05:31.080 more uh supportive of ukraine in the sense of the people that i saw you know not on a grand scale

01:05:44.060 like you know the elites and why it's actually happening and all the corruption and they're

01:05:51.040 going after the chemical plants and the battery factories whatever well i don't think there's

01:05:55.520 anybody who who wouldn't say wouldn't agree with that to say that yeah regardless of which oligarchs

01:06:01.700 are making money off of this and which ones are fielding different troops etc that at the end of

01:06:07.580 the day you know your heart just goes out to the people that are like the people we saw in

01:06:13.440 micholaev who are are stuck there the people who are just trying to live their lives just go to the

01:06:19.120 grocery store and and raise their kids and yet have to live with that worry of is there going to be a

01:06:26.540 shell is there going to be an air raid is there going to be intact

01:06:29.440 yeah war war sucks i mean i i yeah war sucks say that again i would hate yeah definitely a heart

01:06:39.660 goes out to him special intentions i i try and pray the rosary every day you know yeah you're not

01:06:44.840 praying every day you're not on the team on the team you know and i i i seriously i do pray for ways

01:06:50.400 to like take up space and uh you know uh i think you're doing that right now live by live by

01:06:57.780 example you know um to share my story to other people i know that's a kind of cliche but uh it's

01:07:05.400 very cliche yes it's uh well we have real credibility though so that's the difference we've already got

01:07:10.700 to be careful with that right and that's what you know that's why i try to not go beyond my personal

01:07:19.480 observations and experiences and i try to make a direct line between this is what i saw

01:07:27.760 versus this is what i heard versus this is what i'm seeing on the news or you know from some report

01:07:33.540 that you know i don't i don't blur those lines yeah we're and we're not we're we're talking more

01:07:39.180 than just like you know the championship game here like this is like war you know so all that stuff is

01:07:45.280 very important right well um to to sum it up you know let people know where can uh where can people go

01:07:53.300 if they want to hear more from you if they want to follow you if they want to you know talk to you

01:07:59.340 ask more questions where can they follow you uh you guys will follow me to church you want maybe the

01:08:05.480 gym uh do the gym oh no uh i'm mostly on instagram kevin pasovic uh my real name used to be something

01:08:13.740 different but yeah mostly there i am on facebook um but i do uh video video calls only i don't respond

01:08:23.600 to texts oh oh snap no that'd be great like if you just no catfish no catfish if you can that's a

01:08:31.620 strong no catfish policy no i like uh i'm old-fashioned i like actual phone calls and

01:08:37.020 you know video calls um so i challenge anybody to do that go for it i don't have twitter or linkedin

01:08:45.100 or none of that um maybe right though i am on getter yes yes i am on getter um same name same name

01:08:53.080 yeah getter instagram and with you you know sometimes in the field so look for me on there

01:09:01.220 do some more of that you know and and let me just say before we before we sign off here

01:09:05.400 that um i don't know if i've said this directly yet but thank you for coming with me because i was

01:09:12.320 uh you know i would have gone either way and um usually i do like to have a plan before i get in

01:09:21.020 over my head for some things before i usually like to kind of at least sort of know the parameters of

01:09:26.260 where i'm going like for chaz we had that kind of planned out i remember i also remember that you've

01:09:31.860 helped me not go into certain places you remember during the george floyd uh the chovin trial yes

01:09:38.640 when i suggested i said hey why don't we go to the uh the george floyd uh square the autonomous zone

01:09:45.040 they have out there in minneapolis oh yeah and you were basically like jack gas station no we're not

01:09:51.200 going there yeah the cup foods yeah that was real hot you were like we are not going there that is not

01:09:56.740 seattle that is not a bunch of white you know antifa losers that and i remember there was a

01:10:03.340 drive-by the very next day that's right the very next day there sure was so you you talk me out of

01:10:07.900 well i call it sometimes i try and do my best but i appreciate appreciate you coming in and and

01:10:13.020 yeah absolutely and uh as a brother you know back and riding the rails is didn't realize it'd be as

01:10:18.900 long as it would but uh you know we did it and i really feel like i know popular and all like

01:10:25.620 i really feel like god calls us to do something more than what we actually do in life and i feel that

01:10:33.000 um but yeah yeah so i'm glad to be along along for that uh to do more in life last quick question so

01:10:42.240 you not before we did all this we stopped in rome and you got to go to saint peter's basilica

01:10:50.140 oh i sure did so tanya and i we we we were we had to film the show that day but then we went

01:10:56.040 and went over to the sistine chapel but you were you pretty much spent the day in the basilica

01:11:00.260 so uh so what what did what did that mean what did that mean going to the basilica

01:11:04.500 uh uh well i'll try and keep it quick uh to it you know i honestly thought i was going to get

01:11:11.900 uh like emotional like going in there um but i didn't i got a little little choked up but

01:11:19.360 it was so surreal man it was but it was like relieving to beat to go in there it was just like

01:11:26.120 as a catholic it was like man like this is it like this is the place to go and yeah that that's

01:11:33.520 what was going through my head you know um like a pilgrimage absolutely and and then i didn't even

01:11:39.700 know but the uh the pieta was like right there as you walk in wow uh on the right and uh it was just

01:11:47.140 so beautiful it was like such a surreal moment um getting like pentecostal here but like i went in my

01:11:54.040 phone had like two percent on it and then the phone died and i didn't have any money on me yeah i

01:11:59.800 know we didn't even know where you were you didn't know where i was like where's kevin

01:12:03.100 and he's coming back etc you know yeah and like riding around rome when vespa is looking for you

01:12:09.700 yeah miles away from the hotel yeah and i just went anyway i was like man i bit my lip and you

01:12:15.380 weren't that far from the hotel no it was maybe it's a solid mile it was walkable it was walkable

01:12:20.560 and i did walk um but yeah just you know what i'm saying like it's like no phone i guess like

01:12:28.160 anybody nowadays you lose your phone power and right but uh took 25 minutes great planning the day

01:12:35.160 great planning 25 minutes to get in everybody online says two to three hour wait 25 minutes i was in

01:12:41.640 there nice and then it was just amazing like i was praying i my plan was to pray rosary which i did

01:12:48.640 in front of saint joseph's altar uh amongst many other people um but then also i was treated to uh

01:12:59.320 it was kind of like the stations of the cross thing uh somebody could inform me on that but

01:13:04.120 all in italian and they would go around to each uh statue and altar and the priest would say a few

01:13:12.100 things and then a small choir would sing uh and then just go to the next one they carried on like

01:13:19.060 that for like an hour uh just going around the church and was on the speakers and everything

01:13:24.560 um that's awesome so so serene and then at the end the end is the best part and and then i'll and i'll

01:13:35.100 stop but it was around five o'clock and they had a mass in the back and it was roped off though and

01:13:43.700 two italian guards at the front and they were like are you are the swiss guards italian okay they were

01:13:50.480 in suits the swiss guard was out front oh but they were saying like i forget exactly verbatim but it

01:13:56.860 was like are you a tourist are you a catholic you know they asked you because they didn't want people

01:14:02.960 just walking in there sitting and taking pictures of the mass the whole time and i was like yes i am

01:14:08.720 a catholic yeah that's right and i'm here oh yeah for five o'clock mass that's right in saint peter's

01:14:14.340 basilica boom and i got i went up front it was all in italian but i'd you know it was great it was

01:14:21.200 italian or latin italian it was italian it was italian i think it was a novus ordo okay yeah but i did

01:14:27.440 kneel for the eucharist of course and uh didn't didn't got took it on the tongue not in the hand

01:14:33.480 amen all right folks all right saint peter's tomb and apparently saint paul's there too that's right

01:14:41.000 and and and stay tuned because you talked about seeing a representation of the stations of the

01:14:46.640 cross but uh we're doing so turning point is going to be doing a trip to israel in september

01:14:53.380 and uh i'd love for you to come with that's exciting see jerusalem and so you've seen the

01:14:59.000 uh epic the celebrations of the station of the cross i'd like to take you to the real thing what

01:15:05.200 do you say that would be great all right yeah i'd love to all right that's the next adventure all

01:15:11.240 right appreciate it thank you so much for listening kevin it's an honor to love you yeah love you too

01:15:16.600 always welcome you'll always be my brother no question appreciate you having my back

01:15:20.400 it's great to be uh on in in the first first podcast here first interview first interview all

01:15:27.180 right ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for listening and as always ladies and gentlemen

01:15:30.880 you have my permission to lay a short

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - July 31, 2022

JUL 31, 2022 - THE TRUTH ABOUT UKRAINE

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