Stay Free - Russel Brand - Michael Tracey (Should Russia Be A Terrorist State?)

00:00:00.000 Hello there, you awakening wonders.

00:00:01.000 Thanks for joining us on Stay Free with Russell Brand.

00:00:04.000 We are going to go on a voyage together.

00:00:06.000 Wherever you are watching this right now, the whole show is exclusively available only on Rumble.

00:00:11.000 Why?

00:00:12.000 Because we care about freedom of speech.

00:00:14.000 Because we want to bring people together.

00:00:14.000 Why?

00:00:15.000 Because we respect diversity.

00:00:17.000 Because we respect your individual rights.

00:00:18.000 Because we respect democracy and community.

00:00:21.000 We even respect the great melodies of the sky.

00:00:26.000 The UFO phenomena is all around us.

00:00:28.000 Have you seen Edward Snowden tweeting about it?

00:00:32.000 Edward Snowden, he's a man who's experienced the deep state.

00:00:35.000 Edward Snowden, do you remember when that Citizen Four film came out about Snowden?

00:00:40.000 The thing I loved most was he was clearly a person that had seen too much.

00:00:44.000 Like, this phone!

00:00:45.000 This could be bugging us right now.

00:00:46.000 They're filming us like you could see someone who'd like just flipped out the Matrix.

00:00:50.000 You want to talk about red pills?

00:00:51.000 Edward Snowden, he downed the whole bottle.

00:00:53.000 He went through an Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll style medicinal OD.

00:00:58.000 He has to say about this whole balloon UFO phenomena.

00:01:01.000 And by the way, one of my personal regrets at the moment is they've ruined UFOs for us now.

00:01:05.000 I loved UFOs!

00:01:05.000 Well, exactly.

00:01:06.000 You want to be UFOs don't you?

00:01:08.000 I love aliens.

00:01:08.000 I was going on about aliens like ironically like when I was a kid I used to listen to sort of David Icke stuff and it was all like extraterrestrials are real.

00:01:15.000 Careful, can't say that word anymore.

00:01:17.000 No, I was a boy then.

00:01:18.000 I was a youngster.

00:01:19.000 Like what I was interested in is the idea that top-secret information included cosmic data.

00:01:26.000 That we are not alone in the universe.

00:01:28.000 I used to enjoy all of that stuff.

00:01:31.000 That could still be true.

00:01:32.000 And the Eric Von Daniken stuff.

00:01:33.000 You know, like, sort of, the Bible is accounts of interventions by mystical, transcendent, cosmological, heavenly beings.

00:01:42.000 And, you know, there are depictions of, like, aircraft on the Pyramid Scariff!

00:01:45.000 Oh no!

00:01:47.000 Get him off topic!

00:01:48.000 Abort! 0.99

00:01:49.000 Don't panic!

00:01:50.000 No, what I'm saying is that the subject of UFOs used to be fun.

00:01:53.000 Now the government is saying that there are UFOs.

00:01:54.000 I got off UFOs there.

00:01:55.000 Well, that's because they're lying.

00:01:57.000 I quit using those UFOs.

00:01:57.000 That's why.

00:01:59.000 And as Snowden said, it's not aliens.

00:02:01.000 I wish it were aliens, but it's not aliens. 0.61

00:02:03.000 It's just the old engineered panic and attractive nuisance ensuring that national security reporters get assigned to investigative balloon bullshit, excuse the language, Edward, rather than budgets or bombings a la Nord Stream. 0.95

00:02:15.000 Until next time.

00:02:16.000 We had such a great conversation yesterday, didn't we, with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who told us Actually, our reporting is spot on.

00:02:26.000 The Nord Stream Pipeline bombing, if indeed it was the United States of America, served so many purposes.

00:02:33.000 Militarily, economically, depriving Europe of that gas means that Europe are looking for different relationships.

00:02:39.000 Such a fantastic story.

00:02:41.000 He also did say that one of those UFOs or unidentified objects is like a meteorological thing, didn't he?

00:02:47.000 He said there's a meteorological centre up there in Alaska that they can't get anybody to work at because it's too cold, and they've got balloons up there being operated remotely, and everyone knows that they're there, and no one thinks for a second that it's UFOs.

00:02:58.000 They're simply under a lot of pressure to reduce their defence budgets.

00:03:01.000 They're trying to get through the biggest defence budget in history, so they need to escalate hysteria.

00:03:06.000 Listen, we wouldn't normally ask for a huge budget, but I've got to tell you, There are aliens, okay?

00:03:10.000 Now give me your money. 0.53

00:03:12.000 We're just giving you a hundred billion dollars to give to Ukraine.

00:03:14.000 We're gonna need more.

00:03:15.000 Plus, it seems that you've been agitating Russia into that war through NATO impeachment on previously agreed excluded territories.

00:03:23.000 Listen, just give us your money.

00:03:25.000 What's next, China? 0.98

00:03:26.000 That's a matter of fact!

00:03:27.000 Where did you find out about that?

00:03:29.000 The one thing they could do that's worse than antagonising Russia is antagonise China, but they're doing that as well.

00:03:35.000 And across the course of the show, we're going to be talking about the ongoing demonisation of Russia.

00:03:39.000 We're going to be talking about the way that the media has been amplifying the significance of James O'Keefe from Project Veritas' wrongdoing.

00:03:46.000 And I'm certainly not suggesting that he hasn't done anything wrong.

00:03:49.000 I understand he took a pregnant lady's sandwich, didn't he? 1.00

00:03:51.000 Yes, apparently.

00:03:52.000 And a bit of bullying, we hear.

00:03:54.000 That's got to stop.

00:03:56.000 How much bullying can there be when you're taking a whole staff with you to see Oklahoma?

00:04:01.000 I've never heard of bullying, but included.

00:04:03.000 The reason Project Veritas are in the news, if you're aware, because it's not allowed to be on certain platforms, it's certainly not covered on the mainstream media, is because he did a sting operation on a former Pfizer employee who made revelations about Pfizer that are unfavourable to Pfizer and their shareholders.

00:04:18.000 And now, mysteriously, this guy, James O'Keefe, has been sent on paid leave.

00:04:22.000 So we wondered, how have the establishment reached Project Veritas, because they're sort of like an outsider organization.

00:04:29.000 They're somewhat radical, I believe.

00:04:31.000 They're kind of a right wing.

00:04:32.000 And over here, we don't care what wing you're on. 0.70

00:04:35.000 We just care about right and wrong, not right and left.

00:04:37.000 So how did they get to them?

00:04:38.000 Now we have a little bit of an understanding how Project Veritas have been pressured by the mainstream, by Big Pharma.

00:04:48.000 Well, we don't know, but also it seems like a massive coincidence.

00:04:53.000 If they haven't, it feels like it's a massive coincidence that this is happening at this time.

00:04:57.000 I've been investigative journaling all day, like it's 1999.

00:05:00.000 Well, Seymour Hersh has vouched for you.

00:05:02.000 Seymour Hersh, he's a Pulitzer Prize winner.

00:05:04.000 He says I'm one of the best out there.

00:05:06.000 Now, look, if you're watching this right now on YouTube, You've got to click over and watch us on Rumble, because in a minute we'll be exclusively on Rumble.

00:05:12.000 And that's when we're going to be telling you about Fauci's secret meetings on natural immunity that took place during the pandemic.

00:05:19.000 I came out of it, of course, and said natural immunity, that's not a real thing that's existed throughout human evolution.

00:05:24.000 In fact, without which there could be no such thing as human evolution.

00:05:27.000 We'll be talking about that and revealing some interesting information, but only on Rumble.

00:05:31.000 So click over and join us there when you can.

00:05:33.000 It's imperative that you do.

00:05:35.000 But if that weren't tantalizing enough, let's form Before your very eyes, a causal... Oh, is this how you do it?

00:05:41.000 Yeah, this is investigative journalism.

00:05:43.000 Yeah, I'll do it.

00:05:43.000 You can watch me like investigative journalism right now.

00:05:46.000 Let's form the link between Pfizer and Project Veritas.

00:05:50.000 You might wonder, how did the mainstream, how did Big Pharma exert influence onto... Allegedly!

00:05:56.000 ...an outsider organisation like Project Veritas?

00:05:59.000 Well, let's show you how that could work.

00:06:01.000 They're a radical independent journalist, a news reporting agency, aren't they, Project Veritas?

00:06:06.000 Or are they, Gareth?

00:06:07.000 Who funds Project Veritas?

00:06:09.000 Hmm, riddle me this.

00:06:11.000 The Donors Trust gave Project Veritas a million dollars in 2020.

00:06:14.000 The Koch Brothers, you've heard of them, are co-donors to the trust.

00:06:17.000 They own Koch Industries.

00:06:18.000 Hmm, hmm.

00:06:19.000 Koch Disruptive Technology.

00:06:20.000 Let's call it Disruptive Technologies, you nerds!

00:06:23.000 And they invest funds in big pharma companies, including an organisation called Resilience, Resilience is a biopharmaceutical company that uses living organisms to create drugs.

00:06:32.000 Why not?

00:06:32.000 What harm could that do?

00:06:33.000 I say get yourself down a bat cave. 1.00

00:06:35.000 That's where, I mean, I'm not suggesting anyone has ever done this.

00:06:38.000 Allegedly.

00:06:39.000 He was in that bottle a lot today.

00:06:40.000 I don't need that guy.

00:06:41.000 Allegedly.

00:06:41.000 Like the EcoHealth Alliance are hanging around him.

00:06:44.000 They're in more bat caves than Bruce Wayne, they're not! 1.00

00:06:47.000 Well luckily we're not giving them money anymore.

00:06:49.000 Oh no!

00:06:49.000 Oh no we are.

00:06:50.000 We're still giving EcoHealth Alliance.

00:06:52.000 But them bat caves ain't gonna fund themselves.

00:06:54.000 So Resilience is a biopharmaceutical company that uses living organisms to create drugs.

00:06:58.000 In 2020 Pfizer also financed Resilience.

00:07:02.000 So that's the connection between Pfizer and James O'Keefe.

00:07:06.000 Now you'll all know that James Keefe is a man that should be forced on gardening leave.

00:07:10.000 Paid leave.

00:07:11.000 That's what that means.

00:07:12.000 Yeah.

00:07:13.000 Because, firstly, look, he took a sandwich from a pregnant woman because he was hungry and angry simultaneously.

00:07:20.000 That's hangry.

00:07:21.000 He received $20,000 to pay for staff to accompany him to Virginia when he starred in a 2021 production of Oklahoma.

00:07:29.000 Now that, to me, seems like the sweetest little bit of corruption I've ever heard of.

00:07:34.000 But is he any good?

00:07:35.000 Well, let's see, because we have acquired footage Wow.

00:07:39.000 Of James O'Keefe.

00:07:40.000 I'm an investigative journalist and here he is.

00:07:43.000 Now let's have a look at James O'Keefe in Oklahoma and I'll be the first to admit it's transgressive and wrong. 0.94

00:07:52.000 Maybe we'll see some clues.

00:07:54.000 What further clues to investigate?

00:07:55.000 Maybe.

00:07:56.000 But I want you to bear in mind Pfizer's actions during the last couple of years, I want you to remember Albert Baller saying it would be unconscionable for Pfizer to profit from this two-year process, from this healthcare crisis.

00:08:10.000 Minimal profit, he said, didn't he?

00:08:12.000 Minimal profit.

00:08:14.000 Now, I want you to carry all of this in your mind while looking at, uh, there's a few questions I want you to ask yourself.

00:08:19.000 I want you to ask, I wonder how much profit they made.

00:08:21.000 I want you to ask yourself how much money Pfizer spent on lobbying.

00:08:24.000 I want you to consider the conditions of Pfizer's ongoing COVID vaccine trials, none of which I'm willing to talk about, not until we're exclusively in our safe place of rumble.

00:08:35.000 I want you to ask yourself all those things, and if they did kind of receive public funding in so much as they partnered with BioNTech, who received hundreds of millions of dollars from the German government.

00:08:47.000 But while you're mulling over all those questions, because I know you can do numerous things simultaneously, because I believe in your intelligence.

00:08:53.000 I believe in you.

00:08:54.000 They may not, but we do. 0.97

00:08:56.000 Let's have a little look at James O'Keefe performing in Oklahoma, the swine. 0.77

00:09:04.000 [MUSIC]

00:09:17.000 He's really into it, isn't he?

00:09:19.000 Yeah.

00:09:19.000 He's certainly committed to it.

00:09:20.000 That lady, though, in the pink hat, she is not into it at all.

00:09:23.000 She's actually on the phone, which is one of the most hurtful things you can do when someone's playing. 0.98

00:09:27.000 He's playing that part from both his balls and his solar plexus. 0.85

00:09:31.000 He's really Oklahoma-ing. 0.98

00:09:33.000 Yeah.

00:09:34.000 She's on the phone.

00:09:35.000 How would you react in that scenario?

00:09:37.000 Stop the song right I'd stop say excuse me excuse me and even that's a that's a track isn't he's not quite a Musician with him so like the music will be playing stuff and it'd be weird and they'd have to sort of turn it down Well James O'Keefe, I'd snatch that out of her hand like it was a sandwich and she was a pregnant lady. 1.00

00:09:51.000 Are you give me that?

00:09:54.000 Now, of course, this is an appalling performance of Oklahoma, anyone can see that.

00:09:58.000 But is it as bad as Pfizer's litany of, let's call them, successes over the course of the pandemic period?

00:10:06.000 That's what, that's I guess what we're querying.

00:10:09.000 Because like James O'Keefe, he might only be in your mind because of that moment where he was chatting to that lad, Jordan, who they'd honey trapped into making some, if indeed these things are legitimate... Allegedly!

00:10:20.000 Extraordinary revelations about Pfizer's ongoing practices and practices in the preceding couple of years.

00:10:27.000 Are we able to show that while we're still on YouTube or is that a Rumble?

00:10:30.000 No, we're not allowed.

00:10:31.000 We're not allowed to show that.

00:10:32.000 So if you stay with us, if you're watching this somewhere else, click over onto Rumble now because we want to show you, you know, remind you of the last time you saw James O'Keefe.

00:10:40.000 And sort of bear in mind that when he's investigative reporting, a very sombre, serious dude, Yeah, I just think it's amazing that this is the best they could get on him.

00:10:49.000 Can you imagine the effort they would have gone into?

00:10:51.000 How can we bring down James O'Keefe? 1.00

00:10:53.000 That son of a bitch! 1.00

00:10:54.000 He's humiliated Fizer with his sting! 1.00

00:10:57.000 I want you to get out there and show us the filth that you've got on James O'Keefe.

00:11:02.000 I know that guy's got skeletons in his closet.

00:11:04.000 What has he been doing?

00:11:05.000 Well, he once took a pregnant lady's sandwich.

00:11:08.000 That is bad.

00:11:09.000 Anything else?

00:11:09.000 Yeah, look at this.

00:11:14.000 Hey, has he got the right to use that?

00:11:17.000 Did he license that piece of music?

00:11:18.000 That's very expensive.

00:11:20.000 He spent 20 grand on... The corruption level is what they're talking about.

00:11:23.000 They're not talking about about Oklahoma itself being a problem, they're saying we

00:11:26.000 spent $20,000 on shipping out the stuff. Well let's have a look at that in

00:11:30.000 what I call Pfizer language. Pfizer earned $102 billion I think in 2022. That's

00:11:36.000 $279 million a day.

00:11:37.000 That's $11 million an hour. That's $194,000 per minute.

00:11:41.000 That's $20,000 in six seconds. That's six seconds of Pfizer graft. Think of all

00:11:45.000 the musicals you could have done with that. We could be putting on a different

00:11:49.000 musical every day here in conjunction and cooperation with Project Veritas.

00:11:54.000 Stay free and Veritas presents... You saw it here first!

00:11:57.000 Annie gets your gun! 1.00

00:11:58.000 The King and I!

00:12:00.000 Stay free with Russell Brand.

00:12:02.000 See it first on Rumble.

00:12:03.000 We've got a fantastic guest for you now.

00:12:06.000 It's an investigative journalist, that's like me, who's written extensively about the war in Ukraine on his Substack.

00:12:12.000 He's talking to us about Russia being recast as terrorists.

00:12:14.000 In fact, that's something he's been investigating and subject to an infamous slur as a result of those lines of inquiry.

00:12:20.000 We're very excited to introduce on to Rumble a man we know as Michael Racey Tracey.

00:12:26.000 It's Michael Racey Tracey.

00:12:27.000 All right, Michael.

00:12:28.000 Well, I'm going to keep it rated PG for this particular Rumble colloquy, so I'm going to avoid getting too racey. 0.90

00:12:36.000 Such that, I don't know, maybe there might be some new censorship stricture imposed on Rumble solely to do with preventing me from getting too racy for the daytime audience. 0.80

00:12:47.000 Don't push this to such a limit that Rumble, that has organised itself around the principle of free speech, has to renege on that pledge because you are so disgusting in the things that you say.

00:12:57.000 That would be funny if I'm just so repulsive that they have to totally abandon their stated sort of core principles for the promulgation of speech.

00:13:06.000 Free speech is wrong!

00:13:07.000 What if people...

00:13:08.000 You can't just shout fire in a crowded theatre!

00:13:10.000 Free speech is dangerous!

00:13:11.000 It's too much free speech!

00:13:13.000 Hey Michael, Racey Tracey, we want to ask you first of all about the plan or movement to recast Russia as a kind of terrorist state.

00:13:23.000 Is this something that's been ongoing?

00:13:24.000 How's that changed since the Cold War?

00:13:26.000 How's it changed recently?

00:13:27.000 And was it just one lone congressperson advocating for that or was it a broader movement?

00:13:31.000 Well, yeah, earlier you mentioned that there was this particular Democratic congressman named Tom Malinowski who was booted out of the House of Representatives actually at the midterm elections and replaced by a Republican who pledged to be even more aggressive and antagonistic toward Russia.

00:13:48.000 So that kind of well encapsulates the bipartisan consensus on this topic.

00:13:52.000 But I interviewed Tom Malinowski because he happened to be a sponsor of a resolution in the House calling on the State Department to formally designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, so putting Russia into the same category as Syria, Cuba, North Korea, etc., Iran, and thereby kind of formally abrogating any semblance of Official diplomatic ties that could be forged between the United States and Russia, and you'd think that would have a pretty decisive deleterious impact on brokering some sort of settlement to the war.

00:14:34.000 And far be it for anyone to assume that this was just some sort of rogue plan on the part of one particular Democratic congressman, Last July, the U.S.

00:14:45.000 Senate unanimously assented to a resolution that was championed by Lindsey Graham, so UberHawk of all UberHawks, former, you know, chief sort of buddy of John McCain.

00:14:57.000 And by the way, John McCain, for all he was castigated during his lifetime as being this kind of insane hawk and outside the mainstream, believe it or not, in death, John McCain's foreign policy disposition has become strikingly kind of subsumed into just mainstream bipartisan consensus, which I think is an undercover development of this past year or so vis-a-vis Ukraine.

00:15:25.000 But Lindsey Graham championed this resolution with a Democratic colleague, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and all 100 U.S.

00:15:33.000 senators Assented to it was enacted by unanimous assent so everybody from Rand Paul to Josh Hawley to Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren anyone who you might think be might be somewhat on the margins or somewhat more of a dissenting sort of standpoint on this particular topic they all weather through

00:15:54.000 overt intentionality or just omission, assented to the enactment of this particular resolution,

00:16:01.000 which would, I think it's fair to say, basically obliterate any hope that the United States

00:16:05.000 could engage diplomatically with Russia in pursuit of some sort of negotiated resolution

00:16:13.000 Now, that move actually has not been formally taken yet, despite the arded lobbying of the Ukraine government and Zelensky as well.

00:16:20.000 When Zelensky was in the United States in late December for his vaunted first trip abroad since the war began, or at least the first trip that's been publicly reported that he's taken abroad since the war began, that was one of his lobbying agenda items for that step to be taken to basically nuke, to use a Somewhat ominous pun the diplomatic ties between the United States and Russia and the United States has not for whatever reason Formally gone there yet

00:16:48.000 But the Biden administration tends to be a somewhat lagging indicator in what kind of aggressive steps it's willing to accede to, whereas Congress and the media kind of are at the forefront of kind of banging on for whatever the latest threshold crossing step is.

00:17:06.000 Thanks, Michael.

00:17:07.000 You talked in our conversations offline about the seamless Congealing of folklore and myth into conventional wisdom.

00:17:20.000 How, I suppose, abstract ideas that are not underwritten by facts are starting to be used as platforms, foundations and arguments, I guess, for escalated activity within this conflict.

00:17:34.000 Can you give us some examples or did you just give us one, i.e.

00:17:37.000 the sort of the attempt to label Russia a terrorist state?

00:17:40.000 Are there further examples that have accrued around this conflict?

00:17:44.000 Yeah, and there are multiple dimensions to this phenomenon.

00:17:47.000 And this being the first year anniversary of the invasion starting, or we're approaching that anyway, it's a good time to reflect on how this dynamic has worked discursively.

00:18:01.000 So when Russia first launched the invasion February 24th of last year.

00:18:07.000 There was this instantaneous congealing of myth and folklore, as I would put it, around a sort of triumphalist narrative That showed the resilience and the resourcefulness and the heroism of Ukraine.

00:18:24.000 And certainly in particular instances, there might have been cases that were legitimate of, you know, individual Ukrainians displaying valor of some sort.

00:18:34.000 That's not even what I'm commenting on here, because, you know, the immediate counterargument will be, oh, you're trying to Denigrate the sacrifices of Ukrainians and cheapen their suffering.

00:18:46.000 No, I mean I personally went to the border.

00:18:50.000 Yeah, right up in your window Well, no, I mean actually the reason why that rebuttal or that theoretical rebuttal is so cheap is because you know an actually serious sort of moral and Assessment would have to take into account the genuine suffering of those Ukrainians who, through no fault of their own, actually have had their lives disrupted.

00:19:11.000 When the war first started, I went to Poland on the border area with Ukraine.

00:19:15.000 And I personally, you know, without trying to get myself set up for interviews through NGOs or through some sort of fixer or through some sort of, you know, orchestrated PR initiative, I actually personally interviewed lots of, you know, mostly women with young children.

00:19:33.000 Who did have their lives genuinely disrupted through as a result of an aggressive military action.

00:19:39.000 And I think there is sympathy that is justly afforded to them.

00:19:43.000 So, you know, I think somebody who is a careful moral reasoner would have to take that into account.

00:19:50.000 And so I'm taking that into account, but I'm also simultaneously noting that there was this onslaught of just propaganda and fabrication In service of advancing one particular triumphalist Ukraine narrative that was then arrogated for the purpose of intensifying a primarily U.S.

00:20:08.000 military intervention.

00:20:09.000 So I don't know if you recall, but within days of the invasion happening last February, there was this anecdote that got circulated and then just beamed across the entire information kind of landscape where Zelensky was supposedly offered an evacuation route out of Ukraine by the United States, and he responded Triumphantly and boldly and audaciously by saying, I don't need ammo, I need a ride.

00:20:35.000 And that became this rallying cry showing not just the valorous spirit of Zelensky, but of Ukraine as a whole.

00:20:45.000 And t-shirts were immediately produced with this slogan, and it became one of the core tenets of this war mythos.

00:20:54.000 And if you actually go and look at what that originated from, there was an AP story In late February, that was sourced to an anonymous intelligence official.

00:21:03.000 So nobody was willing to put their name to the conveyance of this, you know, titanically inspiring quote.

00:21:12.000 And that US intelligence official is the one who related apparently to the AP reporter.

00:21:18.000 We still don't know who that intelligence official was.

00:21:21.000 But as you might I agree.

00:21:23.000 U.S.

00:21:23.000 intelligence officials have a variety of potential motives for why they would want to place information out for public consumption.

00:21:31.000 And then by October, one of the very few instances of an actually sort of robust journalistic evaluation of the nature of the U.S.

00:21:41.000 intervention in Ukraine was published in the New Yorker.

00:21:45.000 And it quoted another official kind of laughingly acknowledging that that entire anecdote, including the quote itself presumably, was just a sheer fabrication for propagandistic purposes.

00:21:56.000 Which, you know, if you're thinking about it from the standpoint of the self-interest of, or the perceived self-interest of whoever those, you know, Ukraine government officials might be, you can see why they would want that information out there to kind of construct this affirming kind of noble narrative on their behalf,

00:22:12.000 because what were they doing?

00:22:14.000 Well, they were lobbying for more and more intense US/Western military escalation.

00:22:20.000 Remember at that time, Zelensky, despite being crowned as this incarnation of Churchill

00:22:26.000 and the most beloved leader that has graced the world stage since the Second World War,

00:22:33.000 he was lobbying in March and April of last year for a no-fly zone, which even Joe Biden himself said,

00:22:41.000 if that demand were actually acquiesced to, that would instigate World War III.

00:22:45.000 And yet we were all being told that we must be, you know, singing the praises

00:22:51.000 of somebody whose preferred policy interventions would actually bring about the most cataclysmic world,

00:22:59.000 you know, conflagration that anybody could ever dream of.

00:23:04.000 So that was one element of the mythos.

00:23:06.000 And I think, you know, on another level, You have just kind of the way that the logic around U.S.

00:23:14.000 interventionism has been inverted to justify support for this particular U.S.

00:23:19.000 intervention.

00:23:19.000 Now, a lot of self-styled leftists and liberals and even leftists kind of purport to be very well acquainted with the history of interventionist U.S.

00:23:31.000 foreign policy.

00:23:32.000 They'll have learned to some degree about Vietnam.

00:23:36.000 They know about Iraq.

00:23:38.000 Maybe there are some blind spots in their knowledge, but there are certain sort of core kind of features to what they understand to be the reality of U.S.

00:23:46.000 foreign policy, and it produces a rather cynical view of the utility of U.S.

00:23:50.000 foreign policy, because number one, it tends to be predicated on state duplicity, meaning that the actual nature of the policy is not forthcomingly communicated to the public At first, and it tends to be accompanied by this conjoining what's called mission creep in that the scope or the contours of that US policy tend to expand and lurch out into new areas and to entail a far greater investment of both financial resources and even human resources if it escalates to the level of an actual

00:24:31.000 Intervention involving boots on the ground, so to say.

00:24:34.000 But all that kind of got shunted to the side with regard to this particular intervention, at least as it began in February of last year, because it was seen as advancing these kind of grandiose objectives of protecting the rules-based international order, protecting international liberalism against the encroachments of right-wing connotated Global authoritarianism as personified by Putin as the chief exporter of that insidious tendency.

00:25:10.000 Even in the US, the legacy of World War II itself was specifically invoked time and time again, almost to the point of tedium.

00:25:17.000 No, not almost, definitely to the point of tedium, where you get, of course, the obligatory Hitler comparisons that Putin must be stopped or else he's going to do a blitzkrieg throughout all of Europe.

00:25:29.000 But also that the U.S.

00:25:30.000 needs to resume its role that was articulated by Franklin Roosevelt as the arsenal of democracy by furnishing armaments all across the world, including to, you know, Britain, Soviet Union, etc., in that phase before the U.S.

00:25:43.000 formally entered the war in December of 1941.

00:25:46.000 Nancy Pelosi went on the floor of the House of Representatives and demanded the enactment of the Lend-Lease policy for the first time since the 1940s on account of 0.99

00:25:57.000 these ideological imperatives toward protecting global liberalism from these villainous

00:26:04.000 depredations of Putin and what have you, I guess also Lukashenko, who we're also supposed

00:26:11.000 to be terrified by.

00:26:13.000 And so, given these ideological nostrums that got so fervently pumped out into the public

00:26:21.000 consciousness, any kind of analytical, objective, impartial, rationally minded assessment of

00:26:29.000 the nature of this particular US military intervention got subordinated to those wider ideological goals, such that no one really had the sense that there could be mission creep associated with this particular U.S.

00:26:40.000 intervention.

00:26:42.000 No one got the sense that there could be state deceit involved in the selling of the intervention.

00:26:46.000 And yet we found, as could have been, I think, easily predicted by anybody who was trying to maintain a bit of a mooring and sort of rational Yeah, kind of assessment.

00:26:58.000 Exactly those things have happened.

00:26:59.000 So for one thing, I don't know if you recall, but when Biden and top administration officials were talking about the nature of US intervention post-Russian invasion on February 24th, they were almost invariably framed in terms of sort of a very narrowly confined aid mission, almost like it was just like a a strict humanitarian intervention where the aid would be

00:27:25.000 mostly about blankets and food and water and basic sort of nourishment for the besieged

00:27:36.000 civilians.

00:27:37.000 And they specifically use the word aid, I think, because it has a particular propagandistic

00:27:44.000 And this doesn't get much talked about either.

00:27:45.000 But when you think of aid, like if the US is going to be providing aid to a besieged nation, what does that kind of conjure a mental image of?

00:27:52.000 I don't know, like a first aid kit or something, right?

00:27:54.000 Just strict sort of medical aid.

00:27:56.000 Whereas by June of last year, The U.S.

00:28:00.000 was basically agreeing to the demands of the Ukraine military to furnish them with an entirely new military in the midst of a hot war, which we are constantly reminded is the most wide-scale war in Europe since the 1940s.

00:28:16.000 Now, is that aid as commonly understood by just the general member of the public?

00:28:21.000 I don't think so, but that word was sort of very much fixated on, I think, for a particular purpose.

00:28:28.000 And then it kind of escalated from there.

00:28:29.000 I mean, at the beginning, the idea was just to send some aid

00:28:32.000 along with maybe some small arms so the courageous Ukrainians could defend their homes.

00:28:38.000 And also, a Javelin missile here and there so they could take out an invading Russian tank.

00:28:44.000 Then by June, it was heavy artillery that the US would also be sending,

00:28:48.000 the HIMAR rocket systems that later came, of course, the Patriot missile batteries that would then be deployed

00:28:56.000 to Ukraine as was announced in December by Biden.

00:29:00.000 And it kind of culminated, at least as yet, with the US saying, oh, by the way,

00:29:05.000 we're gonna send our most advanced battle tanks into Ukraine, that's the next iteration of this aid.

00:29:11.000 So if that's not mission creep, if that's not in keeping with sort of

00:29:16.000 the quintessential trajectories that you would expect of a US foreign policy intervention,

00:29:23.000 I don't know what would be.

00:29:25.000 And yet, there's just not really much popular consciousness of this very predictable cycle because the overarching ideological imperatives that have been imbued onto this particular conflict have taken such primacy.

00:29:42.000 Michael, you extraordinary insomniac, you great river of vocabulary, you.

00:29:46.000 What extraordinary analysis you took us there on the journey from blankets to clear escalation via that word lethal aid.

00:29:55.000 I remember when they made that peculiar portmanteau, that new linguistic hybrid, and as Language evolves as censorship increases.

00:30:03.000 You start to recognize how power is newly operating.

00:30:07.000 Michael, I could listen to you all day.

00:30:09.000 Sometimes I felt like I might not have a choice.

00:30:11.000 We'd love to have you back on our show for further conversations.

00:30:16.000 It would be brilliant to get more of your insights and I'm really excited to talk to you more.

00:30:21.000 You can follow Michael on Substack by going to mtracey.substack.com.

00:30:28.000 Thank you very much, Michael.

00:30:28.000 Calm.

00:30:30.000 Goodbye, mate.

00:30:30.000 We'll see you again soon.

00:30:31.000 That was amazing.

00:30:32.000 Will we speak again soon?

00:30:33.000 Yes, of course.

00:30:34.000 Let's do it.

00:30:34.000 And sorry if I rambled on.

00:30:36.000 No, it's brilliant.

00:30:37.000 Sometimes I get... I get worked up because sometimes I feel like I'm just... I'm channeling the absolute truth of the universe directly into the level.

00:30:44.000 I know someone else like that.

00:30:45.000 Ah, the old absolute truth of the universe.

00:30:47.000 I know someone else like that.

00:30:48.000 When that absolute truth comes a-knocking, you've got to answer the door, baby.

00:30:53.000 Michael, that was fantastic.

00:30:54.000 Thank you so much.

00:30:55.000 What a beautiful contribution.

00:30:57.000 He was channelling, wasn't he?

00:30:58.000 Yeah, he certainly was.

00:30:59.000 Some of my favourite words.

00:31:00.000 I liked triumphalist quite a lot.

00:31:02.000 I liked abrogating.

00:31:03.000 I liked that being used.

00:31:04.000 There's a depiction of you with your top off going.

00:31:06.000 Oh, wow.

00:31:07.000 I can assure you it doesn't look anything like that.

00:31:09.000 I've seen you naked many times and you're a fine, fine man.

00:31:12.000 Thank you so much.

00:31:12.000 All right, F it.

00:31:13.000 All right, F it.

00:31:14.000 Off topic, but here you go, ladies. 1.00

00:31:15.000 Also, men, because... Sure thing. 0.72

00:31:18.000 Sure thing.

00:31:20.000 Men can objectify you as well. 0.99

00:31:21.000 Of course they can.

00:31:22.000 Anyone.

00:31:23.000 Anyone's free to.

00:31:24.000 Objectify Gareth.

00:31:25.000 I invite you to.

00:31:26.000 Give him a good objectify. 0.99

00:31:27.000 Don't try to make some serious point about the war.

00:31:29.000 Look up there.

00:31:30.000 That's what you are.

00:31:31.000 You're sort of a topless, you look like Giroux.

00:31:35.000 That's right, I'll take that.

00:31:36.000 I thought it was amazing that thing, because when he's talking about the mission creep, it's something we've talked about the aid before, isn't it?

00:31:41.000 The way it started off as aid and then it was lethal aid and now it's military aid.

00:31:46.000 And you know, Biden coming on the telly, you know, towards the start of the war saying we're not going to go to war with Russia.

00:31:51.000 And then it's got the point, I mean Michael's, one of the things that he's written is that America now controls virtually every rocket fired by Ukrainian forces at Russian targets.

00:31:59.000 We only control virtually every rocket?

00:32:01.000 That's unbelievable!

00:32:02.000 It's not a proxy war!

00:32:03.000 It's only virtually every.

00:32:04.000 What if it were every?

00:32:05.000 That would be worse.

00:32:06.000 Do you know what's most terrifying about this?

00:32:07.000 Is we are right.

00:32:08.000 You, on the basis of a lot of diligent research and aggregating a great deal of brilliant reporting and creating your own narratives, Me, because I've always felt, don't trust what you're told.

00:32:19.000 Never, ever trust authority under any circumstances.

00:32:23.000 Demand individual and collective freedom.

00:32:25.000 Stuff that I somehow picked up as a child.

00:32:27.000 That's what's worrying.

00:32:28.000 Was it that David Icke stuff you used to watch?

00:32:30.000 It was mostly him, but don't talk about him, even on Rumble.

00:32:32.000 No, God bless him.

00:32:33.000 I mean, you know, other than, well, no, let's just, let's not get into it.

00:32:36.000 Should we get into it? 0.99

00:32:37.000 Why don't you just take your bloody top off? 1.00

00:32:39.000 Got it. 1.00

00:32:40.000 Like a good boy!

00:32:41.000 That's what we've got to do to get out of this mess now, is it?

00:32:43.000 I'm afraid to say we're going to... Sorry, mate, there's no demand.

00:32:46.000 You take off your top.

00:32:48.000 Hey, on tomorrow's show, we've got Bob Roth.

00:32:50.000 He's the man that taught me how to transcendentally meditate.

00:32:53.000 He was a student of the Maharishi.

00:32:55.000 He hung with the Beatles.

00:32:56.000 He's a brilliant meditation teacher.

00:32:58.000 Did he teach you to meditate?

00:32:59.000 You did, yep.

00:33:00.000 But you don't meditate enough, do you?

00:33:01.000 I didn't keep that up, no.

00:33:02.000 I meditate all the time.

00:33:02.000 I'm a great meditator.

00:33:03.000 We should get them not meditating.

00:33:05.000 We've got to get Leon meditating.

00:33:07.000 Why can't we?

00:33:08.000 In a proper cult, you'd have to meditate to be in it, wouldn't you?

00:33:11.000 Yeah, you're right.

00:33:12.000 That's the only thing that we need to do now.

00:33:15.000 Then we're a proper cult.

00:33:16.000 To confirm our status.

00:33:16.000 Start creating communities.

00:33:17.000 And there's lots of other things that go on in cults.

00:33:19.000 Yeah, but we don't do none of them.

00:33:20.000 No, no.

00:33:20.000 Happily married person.

00:33:22.000 Tim Poole is on the show, Friday.

00:33:24.000 I thought you were going to say, Tim Poole, however, does!

00:33:29.000 Paul, the great guy.

00:33:30.000 He don't need any more pressure.

00:33:31.000 He gets swatted every half hour, doesn't he?

00:33:33.000 Tim Paul's on this show on Friday.

00:33:35.000 He's a great friend of the show and we're very excited to have him on.

00:33:38.000 Sign up to Locals to see the show behind the show.

00:33:41.000 How do we conjure up this ingenuity, this chemistry, this majesty that Pulitzer Prize winning journalists like Greenwald, like Seymour Hersh are queuing up to say is the greatest little news show on the planet.

00:33:55.000 I'm pretty sure you just misquoted them.

00:33:56.000 Yeah, they didn't say that.

00:33:58.000 You get the gist!

00:34:00.000 You get the gist!

00:34:01.000 This is all part of your methodology, isn't it?

00:34:03.000 That's part of my method, I'm different.

00:34:04.000 That's what me and that guy, Racey Tracey, we just channel, really, and then communicate.

00:34:09.000 So you can join us and we'll read your comments, like we will these people.

00:34:13.000 Check out these people that are commenting right now in our Stay Free community.

00:34:17.000 Take your top off, show us your bum, stuff like that. 0.85

00:34:19.000 Anyway, you could be saying those kind of things.

00:34:21.000 And also, you'd get a weekly guided meditation with me.

00:34:24.000 I'll answer your actual problems.

00:34:26.000 Like, you might have a heartbreak.

00:34:27.000 Christ, buddy, you don't know the meaning of heartbreak.

00:34:29.000 And I'll meditate you right through it.

00:34:30.000 Also, I've got a stand-up special coming out soon.

00:34:33.000 Very good.

00:34:34.000 Exclusive access.

00:34:35.000 Okay, well, we're back tomorrow with some fantastic guests and some ludicrous and outrageous fun.

00:34:40.000 Some challenges to mainstream narratives and, I would say, access to realms as yet Foregone by a world that wants you denied the real, real truth.

00:34:51.000 See you tomorrow, not for more of the same, but for more of the different.

00:34:53.000 Until then, stay free.

Stay Free - Russel Brand - February 15, 2023

Michael Tracey (Should Russia Be A Terrorist State?)

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