Trump’s Empire Plan Exposed
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the recent moves President Donald Trump has made in Venezuela and the United States in taking the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and how that signals a new defense strategy that needs to be looked at.
Transcript
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with the recent moves a donald trump has made and the u.s in taking nicolas maduro it signals
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something that we noticed a few weeks ago here at tpl that's that there's a new defense strategy
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that really needs to be looked at that donald trump is already adhering to did he do something
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legal in venezuela apparently it doesn't matter to talk more about this man on the scene as i like
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to think when it comes to these things uh paul micucci thanks for having this discussion with me
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i appreciate it yeah very very interesting times mike for sure and you know you made a great point
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so you know when this happened we all woke up saturday morning and turned on our tvs and it took
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me like 45 minutes i sat there and you know i usually have my morning coffee and get ready to go
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to the gym and i'm sitting there and i'm uh listening and i'm thinking is this for real
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you know and about 45 minutes later i i went and sat in front of the team i thought wow this
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really happened he did really go in and get the president of venezuela and and bring him out
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to new york uh and it all had happened overnight it seemed almost like um he overthrew a country
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and it wasn't within his reach to do so and actually that's where this conversation started
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because literally the next day i'm on the phone to you saying i don't even know if this is legal paul
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like i don't know if he should have been able to do this well but but he did you know as you alluded
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to in the opening he did give us notice before christmas and you know we did uh it was interesting
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you were out of the studio i i called you and i said you gotta you gotta read this national uh defense
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strategy because it's really wild and they just released it to the public and uh i said i'm gonna get
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christoph to voice it over from the western hemisphere's perspective right you know western
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hemisphere for everyone being in the americas right south america north america um and i said
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you really need to to listen to this because it is very wild that he had actually said that he was
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going to uh follow the monroe doctrine right and do this so you know what we're witnessing and you're
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hearing it throughout the news and different podcasts is we are uh watching basically a republic
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become an empire when you said that to me this morning i wanted to you know you want to say
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hold on a sec but really in the end that's what's happening here and and you'll go i'm sure back in
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history yeah uh where this has happened before the new caesar he feels like he might be the new caesar
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sure well he's he's you know he's done this and he did do it without consulting his congress i need
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to ask you about that if you don't mind do you mind if we just push pause right there sure how is he
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able to just seemingly sidestep congress getting an opinion on whether or not he takes the leader of
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another country whether the leader is meant to be deposed or not well so you know uh u.s politics
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a lot larger in number of people for sure it's 535 uh politicians involved in the system 100 senators
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and 435 house reps the congress per se right he controls both so quite frankly he's centralized power
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in the presidential suite because he right now he controls the senate and the congress and so and he
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he rules it with a very iron hand you know if you go against him you're out if you don't like what
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he's doing you're out and that is controlled through funds of uh uh election financing right
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so quite frankly if if he doesn't think you he wants you in the congress or the senate he'll move
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that funding around to other members and other campaign and start about your campaign so a lot
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of it's done in uh it's a heavy-handed uh way of doing it but that is american politics in a lot of
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ways it's canadian politics too but but not as much we don't have all the same things so
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the power resides in the presidential office now the it is the uh executive office that now makes the
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decisions in this government again that's why people are you know saying it's an empire because
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an empire is controlled by a single person um and and elections then become really key because
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that that presidential person that steps into that power is really going to direct your country
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you know substantially now an election in the in the case of uh the usa an election could actually
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leave sort of a split congress the house could be split but in this case and right for the moment for
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this presidential run he has a runway that he can get on at any time it seems well and by the time he gets there
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quite frankly the world will change so in three years the world is going to substantially change
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the electoral will change you know the number of immigrants in the u.s is declining you know that's
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the last night we're watching on the news you know the the things going on in minnesota and the people
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being deported and uh you know as ice goes in and takes people out and removes people it's changing
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right they're his uh doctrine uh in the home uh in the united states is changing significantly and
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that's going to change the electric of the of the united states yeah which then could substantially
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increase their chances of winning another majority government in uh both chambers unless he does
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something so devastating that you know popular vote yes changes dramatically yes yeah but but that's where we
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are for now so now but if he cleans up immigration yeah and he brings more jobs home and the economy
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ticks up just a little bit which it did you know it did before christmas he's uh you know record
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increase in gdp right yeah so it's hard to say that that's not a that's not a good approach as a president
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that he seems to be doing what he said he was going to do i don't think personality wise everybody likes
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him i'm certainly not a huge fan of his personality i think diplomacy works a little nicer but
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this seems to be his method yeah it is well you know and look at venezuela so let's take this because
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i think you know going back to that we really want to take a look at the monroe doctrine so
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you know we heard about it before christmas they came out with it and they said okay
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in the western hemisphere here's basically what we're going to follow and the monroe doctrine was a
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doctrine from 1823 um and now in its modernized form i'm just going to read this for a minute
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it uh updated doctrine asserts u.s uh premises in the western hemisphere aiming to exclude
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non-hemispheric powers particularly china and russia so there you go so you know he
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you know when they went into venezuela for the first time he didn't talk about the safety or
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democracy he basically talked about the fact that he wanted to control the oil and it wasn't and it
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wasn't it wasn't hidden no he didn't he didn't sugarcoat it i said to you i'm a genius i know what's
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going on here it has nothing to do with narco terrorism it's really that he wants this oil and
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you just nodded at me like yeah we all know that yeah well and you know but that's because he said
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it he took it already but you remember in the middle east it was always you know they used all
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these in years past these guys explanations of why they had to insert themselves in the middle east
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it was about oil right so this time he said we're going after the oil in a government that's corrupt
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exactly and he wants china out of that equation so he in the western hemisphere he does not want
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the venezuela oil to be controlled by the chinese well he's going to use it i think in america oh
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yeah of course he is he's going to use in america and he's going to sell it honestly he's going to sell
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it to the chinese he's always said that yeah but he's not selling it at a discount and he's not
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letting it go through the channels that they currently have no which has been heavily corrupt
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exactly and he says that about russia also so you know now kind of bring that back because that has
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canadian implications right so on the same on our you know we're in the western hemisphere too
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you know we're in north america so you know it does have ramifications for us because this is kind
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of signaling to where he wants things to go so he wants control of major resources that are being sold
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to china or to russia and this is he said that point blank well look at the position we're put into
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now he's got all the oil he needs for anything diesel all heavy oil heavy crude arriving to his
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country driving down the price of in the market that we need to sell into dramatically i mean when you get
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oil for free it's hard to compete with that yep and i get it it's reparations for what had happened
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event as well but that instantly has a huge dynamic in that marketplace there's no two ways about it
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canada is going to suffer this so now we need to go to other countries and right now as we record this
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i believe our prime minister is either in or on the way to china in that document that trump put out the
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new national defense strategy it basically says our partners in this hemisphere will not do business
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with russia will not do business with china meanwhile we're there trying to set up new trade channels
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and being told this by the u.s how does that sit well the second part of the the monroe doctrine
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uh is control strategic assets infrastructure and supply chains so they come right out and and they say in
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this document they you're going to trade with us at our pricing it will be higher but the price of
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safety and security is worth it and the fact that we're in the western hemisphere as your strategic
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partner you'll trade with us right so a lot of that trade with other nations and you know whether it
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be europe china australia again you know do you mind if we follow that trail for a second sure just one
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sec so now we've starved we're starved out of the marketplace in the u.s by oil coming in from
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venezuela we're not allowed to trade with china or russia maybe that goes to the u.s but we're not going to
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make money on that yes where does that leave us economically in this in this culture of uh hemispheric
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control you know i hate to and i traditionally don't really uh agree with much of premier evie's
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sentiments but quite frankly you know he had he had an interesting concept the other day and he said
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you know which i've uh been a big fan of for years build a refinery in canada and start to sell
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uh your oil inland well the other thing that somebody pointed out that's a fantastic solution if we start
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to use our own oil that's that's a massive boost for our our nation yeah and the other thing in that
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is okay if we don't have the right fuel uh refining done or we don't have the right oil it doesn't
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prevent us from trading with other nations uh commodities you know that doesn't have to be a
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purchase made there can be actual barter made between countries of uh well our fuel is good for this and
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your fuels needs are the so that i still think is is a possibility sail into those markets and long-term
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deals into china and russia i think the main concerns right yeah it all depends again anything
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outside of the western hemisphere whoever we're dealing with uh they want they want a view on
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yeah so the u.s wants an active view into um you know the last key point is use military economic and
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diplomatic pressure to enforce alignment so the question you had before about you know the fact
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that he didn't uh he didn't consult congress before going into venezuela he moves uh on colombia
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with statements you know and now i notice this morning they're having conversations um in uh
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greenland and they're having conversations in colombia with the president right now so he's actively
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moving forward saying this is what i can do this is the alignment i want align or i will actively move
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through the following so whether it's sanctions whether it's military i will align and so even to
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the point of you know i'll find a way to illustrate your government as corrupt and remove the current
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infrastructure yeah that's the threat that's out there i you know regardless of what anybody thinks
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that's the threat that he now has in his back pocket venezuela is also a calling card and don't forget
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what i did in venezuela i'll do it here too yeah and he's you know he's left a lot of the
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infrastructure of venezuela and the politicians in place um telling them basically you better make
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this work now as i guide you through it or else you know we will start to remove people but he's
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you know he's learned from the middle east some of the lessons that they've made mistakes on
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and he's not going in and just wiping out the whole regime and trying to put a new one in
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so i think there's some lessons learned we'll see how that goes but as you look at this you're saying
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okay so now gone into venezuela and you've aggressively taken over you you've used the
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monroe doctrine you've enacted it you've gone in um just like you said you would but does that put
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you at conflict in other regions now you would think probably it does so russia ukraine uh china
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taiwan so is it really so now you're looking at you're thinking to yourself should you even be
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there if this is not your hemisphere exactly and and are you kind of sucking and blowing because
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you know you just went in and did what you did they've kind of done the same thing in their
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hemispheres yeah or are doing the same things and so quite frankly puts him a little bit at odds on
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the next move so and i think the criticism that he has to watch out for is okay now let's pull out
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of here because we're here the other interesting part of this which i thought nato and you know
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there's a lot of discussion from other members saying you know as long as they follow international
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law and all this stuff you know he's he's willing you know in a statement uh yesterday uh you know i'll
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you know i'll work with nato i'll make contributions to nato but i'm not obligated to nato yeah i'm not
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beholden to nato's decisions because certainly not in his hemisphere his empire exactly so he's very
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uh blunt about it he's been uh you know and i think this morning it was interesting and i should
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have brought it with me and i'll put it up on the show he he published or they published a list the u.s
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government a list of uh associations and companies that they will no longer support or be associated
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with which was very interesting because it's a very hard line in the sand right yeah they're saying
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okay we're not we're no longer gonna abide by this this this this this association um and it all had
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around you know uh china decoupling it was a lot of that had to do with which is a huge part of the
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national defense strategy exactly a very big uh and uh basically uh forcing uh allies within the western hemisphere
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to work cooperatively on trade so it's it's starting to you know you're starting to see a clear path
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and a clear decision matrix there the other one that we don't talk about which we should be talking about
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in the defense paper the national security strategy they do talk specifically about
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arctic sovereignty so they're very they're very you know they emphasize uh the freedom of navigation
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and hemisphere control provides a framework under which the u.s military and commercial vessels could
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trans uh transit the northwest passage without any consent right so it allows them access around the
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entire hemisphere yes because they're allowed of course ushwaya uh at the bottom is their net last
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outpost i believe and that gives them a full uh protective uh moat if you will around the hemisphere
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right so that's you know the discussion now on greenland i think uh marco rubio is actually
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there this week or next week uh to start the discussion on moving forward for the acquisition
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or takeover of greenland or he's in denmark i think he went to oh yeah i believe that and so
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what do you think just what's your feeling greenland goes with this or 100 yeah 100 i don't think there's
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any i think there's a there's a very nice blunt conversation uh and i think greenland is moving
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they feel like they're moving in the direction of accepting it to be honest with you it's been
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i mean it's not not of the the general public but of the the economy forecast for them is so much
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better in this that it it's hard not to look at it but the truth is i don't know that greenlanders
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overall are thrilled if he does this what does that mean for canada well it definitely means more
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arctic control right so it does mean quite frankly that there'll be more involvement and uh you know we
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have the outstanding issue of oil as you mentioned whether it's uh you know alberta and quite frankly
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alberta has a lot of issues right now that they have to deal with um you know they they understand
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that uh every every barrel of oil that is actually made in venezuela impacts them right and you know
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the show you did with dan was very interesting if the price of oil falls any further we're out of the
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game we're we're definitely out of the game so and there's no point drilling i mean our even some of
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our facilities are failing now because there's not the money to put into scaling them or even repairing
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them yes so uh it's a frightening time but the empire building that we're seeing going on is
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happening really quickly paul yeah so you know i think that's where we have to watch caesar would be
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impressed caesar would be impressed but you know the speed of which uh you know empires are built
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are you know only are curtailed by the ability to to move and commute and nowadays quite frankly you
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know the the transportation and the vehicles and the military force that they have assembled you know
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look how fast they got into uh just outside of venezuela you know what moments 11 you know 11 warships
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yeah you know landed the you know and that was to that was to land 200 people for an invasion to get
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a president uh on a late night incursion so you know how fast could they it feels to me like they
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were ready to do it and then curtailed it by several hours or days a couple days and then went for it again
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so they they actually how quickly they could even pivot to do this was remarkable yeah yeah so i think the
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speed with which you can move your military is the speed with which you can enact so quite frankly
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you know if they have a discussion with greenland and that doesn't go well you know do they just start
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to move military towards greenland and then at that point they say okay you know we're going to shut
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off some supply chains to you we have nick maduro on the phone he wants to tell you something yeah yeah
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yeah well that you know and that's that's an interesting an interesting case but but i think we have to
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as canadians start to pay attention to it you know we we i think we start off with tariffs and that's
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why before christmas when the national security uh paper came out uh the strategy you know i said we
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really have to pay attention to this and you know it's over christmas i was talking to people oh you
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know don't worry about it you know tariffs and i'm like i don't think we're at tariffs now no we've
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kind of moved beyond that yeah tariffs are one piece of it trump has the ability to uh in advance
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right in front of your face lay landmines yeah tariffs were one of the landmines sure another
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one was uh the drug trafficking and and the uh the crime in canada right there's another landmine
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and you just and you know that those are going to come up because i don't think he has the capacity
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to think outside the box of what his actual plan is and he can't keep quiet about it long enough to
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actually execute it i'm sure they have to tie him down when they're doing military uh maneuvers but uh
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uh he does give you the clues you know like i'm gonna do this we're starting with tariffs yes nobody
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wants tariffs but i we can't do it for free anymore yeah so we're being told you can't have free security
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anymore canada he means it yeah well end of end of free security was one of the uh strategy issues uh
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you know coming in and protecting countries and putting all the money into nato and doing all this
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that's over now yeah right and so you know we're kind of slowly saying okay we got to put money into
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defense we have to our pace has to if we're gonna keep our sovereignty and we're gonna keep uh going
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as canada as we are today we have to speed our our defense strategies we have to figure out some
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leadership with respect to oil and gas and whether it's refining or pipeline like i think we got caught
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up and waiting we're like okay no no it's gonna happen we sit around sucking our thumbs all the
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time this is not the moment i i think we thought okay this isn't gonna happen and you know he published
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this paper we all read it we all went for christmas everyone took a break came back he didn't take a
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break so i don't know if people noticed so like you know that venezuela you know the capture of the
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president was i think i read somewhere it was originally scheduled for christmas day good god
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yeah no it sounded like it had been rescheduled yeah around and because of weather it got rescheduled
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okay so there was there was so his original plan was no we work 365 here to make this hemisphere
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yeah yeah they were working straight through the holidays to get there that's you know they're
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so in the new year i think you know probably i'd have to say the summer they were probably planning
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this so last summer they were probably putting it into play uh the paper the strategy was being written
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and so the layout of what's going to happen next is is in play so for those people who are seeing
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i'm saying well i you know what's going to happen next they'll just decide i i really don't think it's
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going to happen that way i think it's it's laid out for those of you who get a chance we'll put on
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our site read the 2025 u.s national security strategy please print out a map in fact we you know what
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we'll make one available there too yeah the western hemisphere the western hemisphere map because you'll see
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my first thought when i looked at that map was we could be self-sufficient we have all all the food
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all the oil all the all the minerals all the the uh you know advanced societal uh comforts that we need
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in that hemisphere it doesn't seem unreasonable in my mind now that i've taken a look at what's
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available within our own ecosystem if we do it this way right but think about it for a minute mike
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the us sat down they created a uh national security strategy they published it they've uh planned it
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executed part of it we have to do the same so we need a strategy for ourselves we need an execution plan
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and we need to move why aren't we moving in tandem with the us and saying okay look we want to keep our
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sovereignty what do you need from us to keep everybody happy instead we go and we fight i don't
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understand or we ask for deals are we wait in line for economic uh uh reparation of our our tariffs
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like well we think this is only about tariffs that's the problem i think i think we're a little bit
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blindsided thinking this is just a tariff discussion this is a kuzma discussion it's it's bigger than
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those so the control of the western hemisphere is their objective it's not singly focused on tariffs are a
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tool but that's not the single discussion i think that's where we're missing you know
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missing the forest for the trees what will what will be convincing on this paul is if they start
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to pull out of their middle east interests which they kind of like even in even in israel right now
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they have what seems to be a quiet silence in the ukraine he's not exactly always getting along with
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zelinski it almost feels like maybe he will start to withdraw from some of these places what are your
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thoughts on that so it's interesting you say that because in the strategy paper so it argues that the
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middle east should no longer dominate us for us foreign policy as u.s energy position improves and
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uh conflict dynamics change so it basically says we shouldn't focus on the middle east so as you're
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saying it you're noticing it yeah the paper talks about it says don't don't be so concerned over
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there in our own hemisphere we have everything we need uh seek strategic stability with russia
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and an expedited end to the ukrainian war to reduce escalating risk and stabilize europe
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so he's spelling it out he's spelling out what he's doing he you know whether it be
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africa middle east europe asia he's spelling it out he puts it right he puts it in the strategy
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paper he tells you where he's going and he's going is that still posted by the way christophe
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the uh your read through of that yeah i'm going to recommend people go and have a listen to it because
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and the document is there as well because you're right it seems to be the roadmap for trump and and for
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his empire well again now it's an empire he doesn't have to go back to congress
00:26:42.960
he's told congress what this is just super you know just for the viewers he's told the congress
00:26:51.200
his strategy here it is no one said no it's published here we go here we go and you know
00:26:58.640
having spent time lived in the u.s did business the one thing i admired all the time is strategically
00:27:05.360
when they decide to go in a direction they do go in a direction very rapidly right yeah unlike canada
00:27:12.000
which you know we have regulations and red tape and we tend to spend a lot of time schmoozing about
00:27:17.200
why or if it's the best thing to do and we kind of argue and debate a lot we then end up doing it but
00:27:22.720
you know we're not aggressively moving in an execution mode when we get a strategy and play
00:27:28.080
that's not our culture well you have to admit the last 10 years wouldn't give somebody with this
00:27:32.640
strategy a lot of confidence that their neighbor to the north is ready to participate do you know what i
00:27:39.120
mean if i was trump and i was putting this plan out and this was my strategy and i looked to canada
00:27:44.320
and i saw the last 10 years of what we've done to ourselves here i would be a little nervous to to
00:27:50.400
be doing business with us yeah well the signaling coming out of the u.s as far as you know the last
00:27:55.760
10 years are aren't great right because you know they do talk about you know i was listening to ron
00:28:01.360
de santis uh the other night uh he was talking about canada and the trudeau era and you know
00:28:08.080
talking about marxism and all kinds of you know i didn't agree with what he was saying but you know
00:28:13.040
that's obviously that's the perception that it's in his speak and it's you know they are talking that
00:28:18.160
way more and more and more you're hearing about it they're hearing about our coupling with you know
00:28:23.440
china and so you know they're talking about it it's it's it's on their radar they're thinking about
00:28:29.040
it yeah yeah uh okay well look this is uh an interesting thing and i think we'll probably
00:28:34.240
keep an eye on this this this document seems to be the road map that we need to keep an eye on
00:28:38.960
yeah uh as canadians as well so um i appreciate you taking me through it and having this discussion
00:28:44.800
because my first thought was hey donald trump can't just go and do that as it turns out that's
00:28:50.560
the strategy build an empire build an empire thanks paul thanks