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Ritter’s Rant 032: The Sounds of Silence
Ritter’s Rant 032: The Sounds of Silence
The IAEA is silent about the Israeli-US attack on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. And the rest of the world is strangely silent about this silence.
Transkripzioa:
Hello, and welcome to this episode of Ritter’s Rant. Today, the word I’ll be exploring is silence. Not the kind of silence that many people want to hear. You know, days are very hectic, and I think we all appreciate a moment of silence where we can reflect on…
what’s been going on, maybe clear our head, come up with some new ideas on how to move forward. That’s the good kind of silence. The silence I’m talking about is the silence that’s coming out of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the aftermath of the Israeli and American attacks on Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities.
I emphasize the term peaceful because Back in 2015, in the aftermath of the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran nuclear deal, which placed the totality of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure under the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, using inspections and techniques and technology that went well beyond anything required of
Iran safeguards agreement with the IAEA as part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. No, Iran agreed to basically allow unprecedented monitoring of its nuclear facilities. And in conjunction with that, the IAEA carried out an index investigation into the possible nuclear aspects of Iran’s program, the fears that nations like Israel and the United States had that Iran might be
pursuing a nuclear weapon. And at that time, the IAEA found that there was no evidence that Iran was pursuing a nuclear program, that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure that was captured under the monitoring regime of the JCPOA was completely involved in peaceful activities. So this is why I’m comfortable in using the term peaceful nuclear programs,
because the IAEA itself said they are peaceful and that there’s been no evidence whatsoever that Iran has deviated from this, even in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s precipitous withdrawal from the JCPOA back in 2018. And the actions of the United States, Europe, and other nations to sanction Iran, to continue to punish Iran for doing what?
For complying with what they said they would comply with when the JCPOA was signed. No, instead, Israel was allowed to manufacture a case that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon, that Iran wasn’t pursuing a nuclear weapon. Even those such as myself who were concerned about what Iran was doing,
saying that you create the perception that you could be pursuing a nuclear weapon, never said Iran had actually crossed that threshold. And to make matters even worse for the IEA, Iran had committed to a process of negotiations with the United States about bringing this entire crisis under control to allow the resumption of inspections to
get rid of stockpiles of 60% enriched uranium that the world was concerned about, to bring control to Iranian centrifuge cascades. The bottom line is to erase any possibility that people could be concerned that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons program by engaging in activities that would continue to certify the peaceful intent of Iran’s programs.
That was the reality on the eve of Israel’s attack. But then Israel attacked bombs. Iranian nuclear facilities that were under the inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Citing as one of the justifications for this attack reports from the IAEA’s Director General, Rafael Grossi,
and reports that were then sustained by a resolution of the Board of Governors of the IAEA that they had concerns that Iran wasn’t fully compliant, that Iran was was in material breach of its obligations under its safeguard agreements. Iran wasn’t in material breach. Iran didn’t violate the NPT. Iran didn’t do anything wrong. But the IAEA,
both in terms of the director general and in terms of the board of governors, insinuated that they had. And that gave a green light to Israel, backed by the United States, to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, an unprecedented action. Yes, we’ve seen in the past Israel bomb nuclear infrastructure, both in Iraq, the Osirak reactor bombing of 1981,
and also the strike against Syria, I believe in 2006, against a facility that was alleged to be a covert nuclear reactor. But neither one of these attacks were done hand in glove with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Israeli attack on Iran was not only facilitated by reports issued by the IAEA,
but by intelligence provided directly to Israel from the IAEA, including Rafael Grossi, who met numerous times with senior Israeli officials and intelligence personnel about the nature of Iran’s program, what was going on at facilities, how these facilities were laid out, where sensitive equipment was located. All of this information was used by Israel to attack Iran.
And here we are in the aftermath where the IAA is now playing the victim because Iran has broken off relations, not in totality. We just have seen Iran say that they can’t trust the IAA. They can’t trust Rafael Grossi. They can’t allow them back in under the way that, you know, under programs that exist.
The former way of cooperating between Iran and the IAA is over. Um, Iran has passed a law. It’s been signed by their president, which basically says that all future cooperation with the IAA and Iran insists that it will continue to cooperate with the IAA, especially when it comes to the implementation of a safeguards agreement will be
done through the, uh, the, the, the, the special, uh, national security, uh, committee, um, the senior, most, um, security body in Iran. It will no longer go through the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. This will be handled as a national security matter by Iran because they can’t trust the IAEA.
There is concern that if the IAEA gains access to facilities, that they’ll just simply pass this information on to Israel and the United States, who will once again bomb Iran. What does this mean for the credibility of the IAEA? I mean, They have yet to condemn Israel for bombing Iran. This is the silence that I’m speaking about.
The IAEA has yet to condemn Israel for bombing Iran. Now, I mean, we understand why the IAEA isn’t because they are complicit in the attack. They are co-conspirators against Iran. But if the IAEA is to have any credibility going forward, it must not only acknowledge the role that it played in the lead up to the Israeli attack,
to the American attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, but it must find a way to convince the world that it can once again be trusted. And the way to do that is to not only condemn the actions of Rafael Grossi, which would also require Rafael Grossi to be dismissed, to be discredited, condemn the
prior actions of the IAEA in terms of its relationship with Israel, which is not a signatory nation to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel which has its own covert undeclared nuclear weapons program, Israel which poses an existential threat to all nations of the region because of this undeclared nuclear program, to stop cooperating with Israel,
to recognize Israel as a pariah nation, to seek to isolate Israel on the international stage because of its ongoing refusal to sign and adhere to the nuclear law and proliferation treaty. The IAEA must start treating Israel, not Iran, as the pariah nation. But as long as they remain silent, then from the mindset of the Iranians,
the IAEA is in the same category as Israel, a hostile player that seeks to undermine Iran’s lawful right to peaceful nuclear energy and to seek the dismembering of the Iranian government. The Israeli actions were linked to a plan related to regime change. And now we have to acknowledge that the IAEA
in conspiring with Israel, in collaborating with Israel, sought the same thing. How can Iran allow the IAEA, which has embraced a program seeking regime change in Iran, to return to Iran without significant changes? No, the silence out of Vienna is deafening. It’s a silence that should be matched by the screams of the international community
in protest to what the IAEA has done, to international law, to concepts of nuclear nonproliferation, to international peace and security. And yet, the world, like the IAEA, remains silent. That was my rant. Thanks for listening. Next time a thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know.
oooooo
Scott Ritter: U.S. Will Remove Zelensky & Europe Becomes Irrelevant
Scott Ritter: U.S. Will Remove Zelensky & Europe Becomes Irrelevant
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-L9yWcoNeo)
Scott Ritter is a former Major, Intelligence Officer, and UN Weapons Inspector. Ritter argues that NATO is rapidly moving toward defeat in Ukraine, and it is currently out of options. The US has seemingly decided to remove and replace Zelensky, while Europe has bet everything on this war – its military power, economy, societal stability, and geopolitical relevance.
Transkripzioa:
0:00
Hi everyone and welcome back. We are joined today by Scott Ritterder, a former intelligence officer in the US
0:06
Marines and a UN weapons inspector. So yeah, welcome back to the programs.
0:12
Yeah, good to have you back. Thanks for having me on. So, uh, yeah, Trump recently threatened
0:18
Russia and gave it a strange 50-day ultimatum, uh, which Russia predictably
0:24
dismissed. And, uh, yeah, this included, uh, yeah, announcing
0:31
continued weapon shipments, which seemingly means that Trump has now finally abandoned his peace mandate and
0:39
made this his own war. But, uh, this whole threat against Russia appears to have two components. that is first
0:45
Europe have to buy the American weapons to fight uh Russia and Ukraine and the
0:51
second is the effort to decouple Russia from its uh partners by threatening this
0:57
uh 100% secondary sanctions for anyone who trades with Russia. I was wondering
1:02
how you’re interpreting this new plan of uh Trump to I’m not sure what the purpose is to be honest, but uh how are
1:09
you seeing the whole thing? When he first published this plan, when
1:15
he first talked about it, I was um taken aback because there’s never been a plan
1:22
more guaranteed of failure than this plan. Um it’s it has no there’s no legs.
1:27
It has no chance. um it’s not sustainable and it’s not something that
1:32
serves for instance um as a foundation upon which you can then build um it will
1:39
fail from the start. It is failing from the start. Let’s start with the weapons deliveries. What weapons are being
1:44
delivered? I mean he’s you know president talked about 17 Patriot
1:49
batteries a full compliment according to the president. Um
1:55
I don’t think there’s 17 batteries. I don’t think there’s five batteries. I’d be surprised if you can find two batteries to be shipped right now. The
2:01
Dutch are talking about sending something. The Germans are promising something down the road if they get a back fill, but they can’t get a back
2:08
fill unless you divert, for instance, Swiss uh Patriot orders, but the Swiss Patriot orders weren’t scheduled for
2:13
delivery until 2026 2027. Um, so if the Germans are going to wait for the back order to be delivered, that
2:20
means the Ukrainians aren’t going to see a Patriot battery delivered until 2026, 2027. And the last time I checked, it’s
2:26
July 2025. And I may be a dumb marine and math ain’t my forte, but I can tell you right off the bat that July 2025,
2:34
it’s a long way to go to get to 2026. And I can also tell you that last night
2:39
the Russians fired 450 drones into Ukraine. Um, not the largest number. They’ve they’ve sent almost twice that
2:46
many on nights. And they’re gearing up production. According to Italian newspapers that toured the production facility in Tatarstan, um a thousand
2:54
drones a day are being produced. If we’re producing a thousand drones a day, that means you’re preparing to launch a
3:00
thousand drones a day. And um you know, so I’m just looking at this saying, what
3:06
the hell was Donald Trump smoking when he said this? And the point is it’s it makes no sense. It’s a it’s a policy
3:12
doomed to fail. Now you take a look at the economic aspect of this. you know, the it’s not so much the the sanctions
3:20
against Russia. Russia could care less. In fact, when this was announced, um the
3:25
Russian stock market apparently uh increased value 2.7%. Because the Russians thrive under
3:31
sanctions and so there you go. Um it’s the you know but this promises secondary
3:36
sanctions against China, India, Brazil and other nations that are consuming Russian oil under the the the premise
3:43
that if you can stop them from buying Russian oil, the Russians don’t have the money to continue to fund their war, etc. Well, China’s already committed to
3:50
doubling down on Russia, meaning China knows full well that what’s going on in Ukraine, therefore the grace of God will
3:56
happen to Taiwan if they don’t stop it right now in Ukraine. So, this conflict
4:01
is a Chinese conflict. They’re all in to make sure Russia prevails. Um and you
4:09
know to give you a hint of where the Chinese will stand if we are dumb enough to put these sanctions on China. Uh
4:15
Europe passed their 18th tranch of sanctions. And the Chinese have come back and and said because apparently
4:21
three Chinese companies were included in these sanctions. And the Chinese said if you really want to commit suicide go
4:26
ahead but we will punch back and we pump out hard. We will knock your ass out. Um
4:31
reconsider what you’re doing. And Europe will because they have no choice. uh because they don’t hold any cards here,
4:37
nor does the United States hold any cards with China. Um if you recall back in April, the president put sanctions on
4:44
China. I can’t remember the number, the percentage, it doesn’t matter because it didn’t happen. He had to immediately back down and extend the sanctions for
4:51
90 days. Now they’re extended through August, I guess. Um they never happened. The Chinese responded by cutting off um
4:58
all deliveries of rare earth minerals and magnetic materials to the United States, destroying the American
5:03
automobile manufacturing base because you can’t produce a car without access to these minerals. Um we don’t have any
5:10
alternative source. Um you know the Ukrainian uh rare earth mineral deal is is on paper does it’s not real. Congo
5:17
the three guys that Trump sent to negotiate this with the Congolese leadership and ended up fleeing for their lives. Um, you know what? Where
5:25
where else can you get it? Myanmar, I guess. But oh, that’s all going to China. Where else can you get rare earth
5:30
minerals? Um, I guess you’re stuck. Afghanistan. Chinese got that one, too. Um, so, you know, the Chinese own. And
5:39
if we impose these sanctions, you know, these this this mistake that was made um which was destroying the American
5:45
automobile industry only was recently rectified, I guess, in June where they finally negotiated some sort of um
5:51
agreement. Chinese should just pull the plug. They don’t need us. They’ll pull the plug and they’ll collapse. China’s
5:58
not going to play this game. It’s stupid. It’s the most predictable outcome. Brazil has said, “If you don’t want to trade with us, we don’t want to
6:03
trade with you.” Therefore, it doesn’t matter what you do. We’ll just cut you off. And India, at some point in time,
6:09
India is going to have to get off the fence. Um and I don’t believe that India will sacrifice its sovereignty for the
6:17
insane unpredictability of the Trump administration when they are part of bricks, part of the Shanghai Cooperation
6:24
Organization, part of the G20 and you know that’s the direction of their economic future. So I personally don’t
6:30
believe these sanctions will ever be implemented. I believe that this is uh a gimmick that was I mean I I believe
6:36
Lindsey Graham would like to see them implemented. I mean, um, according to him, it’ll be opening up a can of whoop
6:41
ass on, uh, on, uh, Putin. He’s been one watching one too many examples of the
6:47
water boy, but, um, you know, Lindsey Graham is so irrelevant, such a
6:52
nonplayer, such a non- entity. Uh, he just provides political cover, you know,
6:57
because now it’s the Senate asking for these sanctions. Trump has agreed to it, but he’s waited 50 days. So, what is
7:03
Trump waiting for? because I don’t believe these weapons deliveries will have any impact and the sanctions won’t have any impact. And I think the key to
7:10
this comes in with Seymour Hirs’s most recent Substack article where he says that the Trump administration is
7:17
actively moving to get Vladimir Zalinsky removed from office. This is the only thing a 50-day pause makes sense of.
7:23
This is a chance for regime change in Ukraine to have Zalinsky replaced with somebody. Um Sai believes it’s going to
7:29
be Zulusi, the former commander. I don’t think Zullni is a qualified candidate. And I don’t think he’ll if he is picked
7:37
he’ll be a very temporary candidate because the Russians will not accept him. This is a man who took a selfie with Stephon Bander’s photograph in the
7:44
back posing next to an AOV Nazi. So, um, you know, no, I I think the direction
7:50
we’re heading now is the elimination of the Zillinsky government and, um, the
7:55
implementation of, um, elections in Ukraine that will be geared towards
8:01
producing a government sympathetic to the Russian demands. And from this, you
8:07
will be able to um, navigate towards a eventual ceasefire and conflict termination. And I think this is the
8:14
path that um Trump is is taking. He can’t say it because it’s a loss of faith face. But um I I think you know
8:23
Trump will say you know we will agree to the peace that the Ukrainian government will agree to. But right now you can’t agree to a peace the Ukrainian
8:28
government agrees to because Zolinsk’s government won’t agree to peace. The solution is to get rid of Zolinsk’s government. And I think that’s what this
8:34
50-day pause is designed to do because uh put no sorry Trump said he
8:39
was disappointed in Putin and uh because he didn’t want to make a deal. But it is unclear what deal he’s referring to
8:46
though because uh in the beginning of his administration hefts uh seem seemingly recognized that uh peace would
8:54
require neutrality to be restored in Ukraine and also to make some
8:59
territorial concessions as the Russians would say to uh yeah take into account
9:04
for yeah the changes on the reality on the ground. Uh but Trump referred to as
9:09
ceasefire. Is this essentially is he pushing the same deal as Starmer, Macron or Mertz or what deal are they trying to
9:16
sell to the Russians? Is it just a unconditional ceasefire? Look,
9:23
Trump doesn’t know what deal he wants because he doesn’t understand anything about Ukraine. Neither does Hexith. Neither does Rubio. Neither does
9:30
Kellogg. Neither does anybody. Trump. You have to evaluate the Trump position, not by, you know, what we
9:36
normally would use as the benchmark for evaluating policy, but how it impacts Donald Trump politically, personally.
9:43
He’s a narcissist, an ego maniac, and his policies are ego-driven. What he’s
9:48
looking for here is a political victory. He wants to be said, he wants it to be said that he, Donald Trump, facilitated
9:56
into this conflict. they want it done in a manner where um
10:01
he comes out as the conquering hero. Um
10:06
but even heth I mean from the start and I believe you and I have had this conversation before um territorial
10:14
concessions being made on Russia’s behalf. Well, wait a minute. There’s no concession to
10:19
be given to Russia. Russia owns the territory in question. Who is the United States to concede anything to Russia?
10:25
Russia’s taken it by force and they will continue to take it by force. Russia’s
10:30
not looking for concessions. Russia owns that territory. It belongs to Russia and
10:36
Russia will kill every Ukrainian who decides to stay on that territory and the United States and Europe can’t stop
10:42
it. Uh that’s what Pete Hexet doesn’t understand. That’s what Keith Kellogg doesn’t understand. That’s what Donald
10:48
Trump doesn’t understand. You can no sooner ask Russia to negotiate away the right bank of Kerong than you could ask
10:54
the United States to negotiate away Southern California. And I know there’s some Mara Republicans out there would be
11:00
very happy if Southern California was negotiated away. But the bottom line is the territorial integrity of the United
11:06
States is um you know is set in stone. Um and so is the territorial integrity
11:12
of the Russian Federation and as things stand Kerosaria Detsu Lagans are part of
11:17
the Russian Federation. Um, moreover,
11:22
you know, Hexath needs to understand that the United States started this war, not Russia. Uh, indeed, it was the Trump
11:29
administration’s first term that created the conditions for this current conflict. Um, and that the Trump
11:35
administration’s efforts to arm the Ukrainian military. If you remember in
11:41
2015, we started training Ukrainian soldiers in Western Ukrainian bases. By
11:47
201617 during the Trump administration uh we were talking about training 500
11:53
Ukrainians every 55 days to send them east to kill Russians in the Donbas. That was our purpose um for doing this
12:00
and that’s under Trump. So you know the the the fact is we you know we’re the
12:06
ones who caused this war. We’re the ones who created this war. Um we’re not going to be the ones who get to dictate the
12:12
outcome. I mean why would the Russians listen to us? This is like asking the arsonist how to fight the fire he
12:18
started, you know, and asking, you know, you know, the arsonist gets put in jail. America is an arsonist. We’re a
12:23
geopolitical arsonist, and we’ve launched, we’ve set fire to Ukraine, and the Russians are the firefighters, and
12:29
they’re going to put the fire out on their terms. Um, and they want to put the fire out in a way that the fire
12:35
doesn’t reignite, restart. That means they have to address the base cause of the root cause of this conflict. These
12:40
are things the United States doesn’t want to address, nor are we capable of addressing because, frankly speaking, we don’t comprehend it. There’s not too
12:47
many people in Washington DC that can speak effectively and accurately um and
12:53
responsibly on the complexities of the Ukrainian question. Uh in order to do that, you have to understand the history
13:00
properly, etc. We have Keith Kellogg, who knows a damn thing about Ukraine other than what the Western Ukrainian
13:05
nationalists have told him. We have Marco Rubio who simply colors every thought coming out of his head with I
13:10
hate Russia. Um and we have Peak Headsth who I no disrespect intended but he’s
13:16
dumber in a box of bricks. Um especially when it comes to Russia. So you know who
13:21
who is advising our president? My president not your president my president. Um our president when we
13:28
speak of the world uh being held hostage to the most powerful position in the world the American presidency. Um, you
13:36
know, unfortunately for Ukraine, for Europe, for the world, because of the incompetence of the United States, I
13:42
think you’re going to see uh this conflict continue uh until Russia physically destroys Ukraine and until
13:50
Europe physically destroys itself. Well, it seems if now we see the
13:58
Russians are winning and uh not if we are seeing this and uh uh and this means
14:05
that also given that Russia sees this an existential threat, they’re not going to be able to well do any compromises on on
14:13
the key issues. Uh so a key problem has been the I guess the unwillingness of
14:19
Silinski to make any significant uh yeah concession. So uh so for this reason the
14:27
Russians reached a conclusion long I think a long time ago that it wouldn’t be possible to get a peace agreement
14:33
with Sinski in power. With this new reports, do you see it as
14:38
United States or the Trump administration at least reaching the same conclusion that it’s simply not
14:44
possible with Silinski or is the it’s not about replacing Sinski with solution
14:50
is simply about Silinski losing a lot of support uh among his own people and not
14:56
just the public but there seems to be some cracks emerging in the political elite elites as well. In other words, is
15:03
this regime change of Silinski to pursue a peace or just to
15:11
refresh or we restore some of the Ukrainian government?
15:18
Well, you know, the the Russian problem runs deeper than just Zalinski.
15:24
What they say is any solution, any agreement has to be signed by a legitimate authority.
15:31
And Zalinsky is not that legitimate authority. So that’s the only problem Zalinsky poses is his elimination.
15:39
Once he’s eliminated, you can replace him with a legitimate authority. But the legitimate authority, all they’re good
15:46
for is signing a deal dictated by Russia. The legitimate authority isn’t going to have if you remove Zalinsky and
15:53
replace him with somebody else, they’re not going to be able to come in and say, “Well, my name’s not Zalinsky, therefore
15:58
you must give us this, that, and the other thing.” Ukraine gets nothing. Ukraine has lost this war. Europe gets
16:04
nothing. There will be no concessions made. Um, getting rid of Zalinski opens the door toward creating a government
16:11
capable of legally accepting the terms of surrender dictated by Russia. That’s it. Um,
16:20
and for that reason, I don’t pay too much attention to the crumbling of Ukraine’s governance from the standpoint
16:28
of, oh, that that shows disscent, people breaking free, wanting this, that, you know, wanting peace. Nobody in the
16:33
Ukrainian government wants peace. They want a continuation of the corruption that has allowed them to buy sports
16:41
cars, mansions, etc. to move resources offshore. Um, watch how quick they all
16:47
flee when the uh when the wall comes tumbling down. There won’t be any of the
16:52
Ukrainian officials that are currently there um remaining behind to face the
16:58
music. Uh they will be gone. Um and and this is the resistance you’re seeing
17:04
because of Zalinski right now. So there the the Ukrainian elite, political and
17:09
economic elite are saying that he is costing them access to that which enrich
17:15
them. That is the resources of the west pouring in um and that that’s why they
17:21
dislike Zolinsky not because of any posture or anything. It’s it’s purely a resultsbased analysis. Are we able to
17:28
continue to enrich ourselves with the U funding brought in? Is Zilinsky able to
17:35
go out and rattle the ten can and get people to put money in the ten that we can then steal and enrich ourselves or
17:41
is the money drying up? Therefore, we need somebody new to come in. You know, from their
17:48
perspective, Zillusi would be the darling of the West and the money would just be triple because now the West would say, “Oh my gosh, Zelusni, he’s
17:54
the man.” But the Russians don’t care. They’re they’re not going to say they go, “Oh, well, because the West now likes Zillni, we have to concede.” The
18:01
Russians will just continue the war until Zulusni likewise leaves. The the entire Ukrainian government is corrupt
18:08
and Russia is not going to deal with any of them. They will not be part of a postconlict Ukraine because if you’re
18:15
talking about the root cause of this conflict, the Ukrainian ruling elite is the root
18:22
cause. They will not be allowed to stay. They will not be allowed to remain. Um they may not even be allowed to reside.
18:30
um they may be arrested, put in camps, put on trial, or compelled to flee, but
18:36
no, they won’t be part of any post Ukraine. The more I listen to the Russians, the more I look at how the
18:41
Russians are structuring um themselves right now to try and you know, there’s an interesting book um it’s it’s a work
18:48
of fiction, but it’s called Armageddon, written by Leon Urus. Um and it’s a book about the Berlin uh crisis at the end of
18:56
World War II. But the way the book starts is it talks about the problems of military government and how the United
19:03
States had to prepare for military government um you know for postconlict Germany and we were preparing for
19:09
military government um midway through the war you know and I think the
19:14
Russians are at that stage right now while they haven’t defeated the Ukrainians they haven’t eliminated the government the Russians are preparing
19:21
for postconlict reality and they will have a government ready to move in and
19:27
that’s What the world needs to start preparing for is the inevitability of Russia dictating what the future of
19:33
Ukraine will look like from the top to the bottom. What do you see being the role of the
19:39
Europeans in all of this? Because uh again part of Trump’s uh deal was uh
19:45
America will send sell weapons to the Europeans and the Europeans will then be allowed to donate this to Ukraine to
19:52
fight Russia. But uh the Europeans seem somewhat uh divided. The Italians and I
19:58
think the French as well aren’t too interested in uh spending the money they don’t really have. I mean they’re both
20:05
going bankrupt fairly soon. Um and on weapons, but uh Germany and the United
20:12
Kingdom, they still seem somewhat uh yeah still gung-ho on war. Uh indeed the
20:19
political recently had an article where Meron Starmer was meeting and uh yeah
20:24
apparently they found the common cause in war that this is the only thing seemingly going for them. Uh now
20:34
the the British aren’t really that big of a surprise. they always tend to position themselves as um yeah the the
20:41
most anti-Russian force uh to I think partly to make themsel a a reliable
20:47
major partner of the United States in Europe but for the Germans this is something very different than what we
20:55
only saw a few years ago. Uh do do you think that they would take this further
21:01
if they now see Ukraine beginning to collapse or you know would they spend money they don’t have for these weapons
21:07
America don’t have or would they actually enter the war themselves?
21:13
Well, you can’t enter a war unless you’re capable of entering a war. As I’ve said, Germany can’t they can’t
21:20
deploy 4,000 troops to Lithuania to, you know, get their Lithuania Nazi brigade
21:25
up and running. uh how do we expect them to suddenly you know form the fourth panzer army, the third panzer army, the
21:30
sixth army, the ninth army, the eighth army, you know, to replicate the uh forces of the third reich. Um they don’t
21:38
have the resources to do that. You have, you know, Mertz and his tongue, but where what’s it backed with? Even Ryan
21:45
Metal, you know, the the the the military-industrial complex, how many tanks can they produce? Where will they
21:52
get the steel? Where will it get the money? Germany is bankrupt. They don’t have a
22:00
milit they don’t have Audi just I mean it it’s it’s a fascinating video, but
22:06
they you know they’re they’re not selling cars. So they had to destroy cars that they produce because they
22:11
they’re not able to sell them. But you know there’s no there’s no there’s not a
22:17
functioning economy right now in Germany. It’s a collapsing economy and you have a situation where Europe is
22:22
starting to say in order to free up money for this irresponsible military
22:28
spending, we have to start cutting social programs and um you know touching the things that
22:34
made Europe a great place to live. Um you know the the idea of you know the
22:40
French and their 4-day work week. I mean who wouldn’t want a 4-day work week? Um
22:47
the Germans in their paid vacations, I mean they, you know, they were the the envy of the world. Um now that’s going
22:53
away. Healthc care is going away. Education, everything’s going away. Europe is collapsing into third world
22:58
status because of the insanity of these wararm mongers that are trying to
23:04
rewrite history. I mean, if I hear Merch one more time say, “We got to, you know,
23:09
we won’t make the same mistake.” Well, what mistake did you make, Mertz? because he’s talking about we’re going
23:15
to do it right this time. Do what right? Invade Russia the right way. You won’t
23:21
make the same mistake. That means you want to you want to do something that you already did. And the implication is
23:26
you want to basically repeat what happened in the Second World War. Please repeat it because I will love the
23:34
outcome. Then we’ll have T90 tanks on the plints outside of the Reichag um as
23:39
opposed to T-3485s. These are two of the most grossly irresponsible leaders Europe has ever
23:45
had. I mean, I don’t know why. And to be frank, I know you, it’s not you, but
23:52
Norwegians. And you have your own history of quizzlings. And you know what it was like to live under Nazi
23:58
occupation, and you understand the irresponsibility of those Norwegians who sided with Nazi Germany and fought
24:04
alongside Nazi Germany. And I hope that your society continues to hate them and revile them. I can’t imagine anybody in
24:10
Norway saying, “Oh, we wish for the good old days of quizzling.” Um, and yet
24:15
that’s what’s happening in Germany right now. Where are the Norwegian voices to say no? No. Where are the European
24:22
voices? Where are the Dutch voices? Where are the Belgian voices? Where are the French voices? Where is all of
24:28
Europe that was occupied by the Third Reich? Why do they believe that an expansive Germany would simply turn its
24:34
eyes east? Where are the Poles? Because to get to Russia, you got to go through Poland.
24:40
And yet this is what Merch is talking about, literally talking about. How do you get those German tankers who say
24:46
they want to shoot to kill Russians? No, you don’t, guys. The Russians will kill you. They did it before. I don’t know
24:52
why the Germans forgot that. And the Bundes is not the is not the vermach. Okay. The Bundes is full of beerrinking,
24:59
schnitle eating fat men who don’t know how to fight, have never done a day’s worth of exercise in their life. And if
25:04
they went to war against these hardened killers that currently populate the Russian military, they’ll be slaughtered
25:09
in a week. This is fantasy. It’s It angers me because I I can’t believe we’re sitting
25:16
here in a day and age where we’re watching it happen again, watching the Germans try to become the fourth Reich
25:25
and nobody’s saying anything. the silence of the world as this happens except the Russians, but apparently the
25:31
Russians aren’t allowed to say anything because they’re evil and they’re bad. The good news is I don’t think Merch is
25:36
going to last the year. I think the German economy is such that he will have a vote of no confidence and that there
25:42
will be an election and he’ll be tossed out on his ear and I think Starmer is going to face the same music. He’s one
25:48
of the most wildly unpopular leaders in England and he as he continues to spout this madness
25:54
um it’ll be rejected. The other good news is I mean this you know the the the economic collapse of Europe is tragic
26:02
for the European people but maybe good for the world because I don’t know how many more times the British have to go
26:08
through this cycle of elections till they realize that their nuclear deterrence is unaffordable and maybe we
26:14
can get the British nuclear deterrence taken care of where they just self-demobilize because they can’t
26:19
afford their new submarines and their trident missiles and all this and look at the French with their economic
26:25
collapse. Wouldn’t it be nice if the French likewise came to the determination that they can’t afford these submarines? And now we’re starting
26:31
to look at a potential of real nuclear non-prololiferation because if you eliminate the French and the British independent nuclear deterrence and the
26:37
only reason why I’m bringing this up is because they just had the North Declaration where France and England came together and said, “No, no, our
26:43
nuclear umbrella is going to cover all of Europe.” No, it shouldn’t cover Europe because you’re not responsible
26:48
enough because you two morons are talking about sending conventional forces into Ukraine to fight the Russians and trigger a war that will
26:54
then inevitably lead to a nuclear exchange. Britain and France can’t be trusted with nuclear weapons. So the collapse of
27:01
Europe could lead to the unilateral disarmment and that frees up the United States and Russia now to negotiate
27:07
responsibly because in the history of our arms control negotiations, we’ve always been hindered by the NATO NATO
27:13
nuclear deterrent and the fact that we refuse to put the British and French nuclear arsenals on the table when
27:18
talking about numbers. Um yeah, but no, Europe, you said what
27:24
about Europe? Your question was what about Europe? Europe doesn’t matter. Europe doesn’t count. Europe is nothing.
27:31
One giant nothing burger. Europe is going to rot. Europe is collapsing. Um
27:37
there Europe will go through political upheaval. Um and you know the Russians
27:42
will sit there and say we didn’t want this. Russia doesn’t want that. Why would Russia want instability on its uh
27:48
on its western borders? What Russia wanted was stability. What Russia wanted was responsible trading partners. What
27:54
Russia wanted was, you know, a peaceful coexistence. But that’s not what Europe is offered.
28:00
That’s not what Europe is offering. And the Europe as it’s currently configured will never offer that because Europe as
28:06
it’s currently configured can only survive by creating the spectre of a Russian threat that doesn’t exist. We
28:12
just had the newly appointed commander of European forces, General Christopher Donahghue at a land euro land war
28:20
conference in Vboden talk about how quickly he can take NATO forces can take over Kittenrad.
28:26
NATO forces won’t get one kilometer into Kenrad before nuclear weapons pop off all over NATO. That’s what he doesn’t
28:33
seem to understand is that Kenrad doesn’t exist in isolation. That it’s tied into the defenses of the Russian
28:38
Federation. And the last time I checked the Russian constitution, Keningrad is considered to be a constitutional part
28:44
of the Russian Federation. And if NATO were to invade it, you would be creating an existential threat to the physical
28:50
integrity of the Russian Federation. and NATO and Europe would disappear from the face of the earth in a nuclear
28:56
holocaust. That’s what Christopher Donnie, who doesn’t understand, appearing nobody in Europe understands this as well. Europe needs to grow up,
29:03
wake up, or just die already. Go away. I’m I’m I’m personally tired of Europe,
29:08
fed up with Europe. I imagine the Russians are as well. And America will become fed up with Europe because you
29:14
don’t bring anything to the table. Not a damn thing. You don’t bring a
29:19
functioning economy. You don’t bring national pride. My god, the Germans. We’re sitting here talking about the
29:24
Germans as if the fourth Reich is something pipeline and they still won’t look us in
29:30
the face and say, “Shame on you.” I mean, I don’t know if you saw Tucker Carlson’s uh conversation with the
29:36
build. Yeah, the Germans should just again just roll over and and fade away. They’re they’re embarrassing the the
29:43
total lack of they they posture tough against Russia, but when push comes to
29:48
shove, they are the most compliant group of beta cucks I’ve ever met in my life.
29:54
And I apologize for injecting that thought into this conversation, but that pretty much defines Germany and much of
30:00
Europe today. Well, it’s remarkable how quickly Europe became so insignificant politically,
30:07
economically, militarily, and uh I think this is a great fear of Europe that America’s leaving and um there’s no
30:15
Yeah. then Europe’s relevance will go with it. And well, when you spoke now, I
30:20
thought about JD Vance when he told the Europeans, we don’t need vassels, we need allies. It’s kind of sad when your
30:26
when your masters in Washington have to tell you to stop being vassels. But um it is uh yeah it is a yeah sad decline.
30:34
Yeah. as a European u my my main concern is given this whole time over the past
30:40
few years now you know you could see that the military division of Europe that this would uh lead to the relevance
30:46
that it would lead to economic uh decline and uh yet the the people who
30:52
pursued this path they kind of monopolized on patriotism that you know if you if you care about our countries
30:58
this is the path you take and uh yeah as you said now look at Germany again with
31:04
a failing economy. Uh talks talks now openly banning the main opposition party
31:10
backing genocide in Gaza and the only foreign policy now appears to be war on
31:15
Russia which is and uh yeah as you pointed out I don’t think the other Europeans would respond that favorably
31:23
once this uh you know if this German army ever gets off its feet. the you
31:28
know the irony is if you go back and look at Germany in the 1930s during the Vimar Republican end of transition
31:36
you know they could put strong German men in the field to do
31:42
calisthenics and you looked at them you went that’s military stock right there those boys are fit
31:48
how many Germans today put the flag of their country on their shoulder with pride
31:54
how many Germans run around and say I am a German. That flag is my national symbol. I will die for that flag. Or if
32:02
the Germans bought into this Euro rot where they’re part of a greater European uh continuity and uh and they’re ashamed
32:09
of uh of defining themselves as Germans. And I think that’s a problem with a lot of Europe right now is that they’ve
32:15
bought into this European Union stuff uh which stands for nothing and they’ve forgotten who they are. And ultimately,
32:22
in order to have a viable military, you have to have a group of physically fit, and I want to re-emphasize that,
32:28
physically fit young men who are ready to die for their country. Not conscripts. Everybody’s talking
32:35
about how they’re going to use conscription to bring their military up. Conscription in a modern war is a recipe
32:40
for disaster. First of all, conscripts will never be able to handle the modern equipment of war uh effectively. Um
32:48
second, their motivation. They’re conscripted. that means they didn’t want to join the military to begin with. Um,
32:54
and Europe doesn’t have this. This is why you have shrinking militaries. Nobody wants to join and it’s expensive
32:59
to have a all volunteer force. And that’s one of the reasons why I I’ve stopped worrying about Germany a long
33:06
time ago. I’m angry. I’m furious. But I don’t fear Germany mobilizing a new
33:13
Vermacht because I don’t think Germany has enough men. They barely are able to
33:19
put out the financial incentives to get enough people to volunteer to serve in the Lithuanian brigade because
33:26
constitutionally Germany can’t deploy um conscript for or forces uh over you know
33:32
outside of Germany uh beyond you know that against their will. So you can’t
33:37
it’s not like the United States you join the military and they go well we’re sending you off to Afghanistan. Well you can’t do that. Well you have to
33:43
volunteer in Germany and they’re barely able to get enough. They haven’t even gotten enough yet for this Lithuanian brigade. So, how in God’s name do they
33:51
think they’re going to motivate 500,000 German boys
33:56
to join the military? And are there 500,000 physically fit German boys? I’m talking about people that wake up in the
34:02
morning, play sports, can put 90 pounds on their back, hike 25 miles um you know
34:07
in in in function. Uh you know, modern societies don’t produce warriors anymore. We produce chairbound people
34:14
who, you know, have bad circulation because they spend all day in a desk playing computer games. Um, you put them
34:20
in a gym, they can’t lift the bar, let alone put 120 pounds on their back and go. This is the this is the sad fact
34:28
that faces Europe and the United States. I mean, we have our own obesity problems. One of the, you know, when we take a look at our own population, our
34:35
population is not capable of producing warriors in sufficient numbers right now. Um and and it’s it’s a problem for
34:42
an allv volunteer force of the size of the United States because we had to make so many concessions in order to make
34:49
recruitment goals that now when you take a look at a US military formation on the parade deck or you know exercising it’s
34:56
a joke. It’s it’s like coming to you know a fat you know a fat camp and a
35:02
bunch of overweight people you know desperately trying to get in shape. you know only the Marine Corps and a handful
35:07
of army units maintain the you know combat the physical capacity the the the
35:12
European military today they don’t have this physical fitness uh this this capability war is about more than
35:20
technology war at the end of the day and we see this in Ukraine comes down to hardened
35:26
men on the ground willing to eat mud
35:32
breathe cordite and shove a bayonet down the throat of the bad guy. Um, and
35:38
unless you’re able to function that environment, you’re going to lose the next war. And Europe right now, they
35:45
can’t. It’s it’s um the European Europe collectively Europe’s militaries
35:52
are universally not prepared to wage highintensity conflict of the sort that’s being fought
35:58
in Ukraine today. And I feel you’re correct that uh this
36:04
um yeah war will not just destroy Ukraine. I think it will destroy Europe at least in its current form. But um
36:12
it’s uh yeah I think yeah future generations will look back at 2014 and
36:17
um the years after and the foolishness of continuing this even when the consequences became known and you know
36:24
we kept looking the other way. Uh anyways thank you so much for your time. Uh yeah, I hope you can come back again
36:31
soon. Okay, thanks a lot. Have a good day.
oooooo
@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Ritter’s Rant 033: Dominance
Ritter’s Rant 033: Dominance
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/ritters-rant-033-dominance?r=1vhv3f&triedRedirect=true)
Pete Hegseth seeks to achieve drone dominance over Russia and China. This may be the quintessential “mission impossible.”
Transkripzioa:
0:01
[Music]
0:11
Hello and welcome to this edition of
0:13
Ritter’s Rant. The word we’re going to
0:16
explore today is dominance. Uh it’s a
0:18
it’s a concept uh that has been recently
0:21
introduced into the public mix by none
0:23
other than Secretary of State Pete
0:25
Hegsth who held a a very interesting
0:28
press conference on the lawn of the
0:30
Pentagon the other day where uh backed
0:33
up by some uh soldiers operating uh
0:36
small unmanned aerial systems also known
0:39
as drones. um he received and signed and
0:43
disseminated a memorandum that uh seeks
0:46
basically to guarantee
0:49
US drone dominance uh in the coming
0:52
years.
0:53
I mean, first of all, let’s just
0:56
underscore the reality that drones,
1:00
these small unmanned aerial vehicles
1:04
have redefined the modern battlefield.
1:07
And this is reflected in Secretary
1:09
Hegsth’s memorandum. Uh he says that war
1:12
will never be the same. And he’s right,
1:13
war will never be the same. And he also
1:16
acknowledges that um those nations who
1:19
are potential adversaries of the United
1:22
States, China, Russia um have a
1:25
significant head start advantage over
1:28
the United States um both in terms of
1:31
how they acquire and and use um these
1:35
unmanned aerial systems um but also
1:38
their experience on the battlefield. The
1:40
United States has no similar experience.
1:42
And so what Pete Hagsth is trying to do
1:44
is fast track um to make up for lost
1:48
time. And he does this in a number of
1:50
ways. He focuses on procurement. Um, and
1:54
if anybody wants to understand why the
1:56
United States will never successfully
1:58
compete with Russia and China on UAV
2:00
procurement, um, just dig into the
2:02
nuances involved in the creation and
2:05
implementation of the blue list, which
2:07
is a Department of Defense approved list
2:09
of, uh, drones that have passed through
2:12
uh, significant vetting procedures, and
2:14
the green list, which is run um, by the
2:17
commercial side of the house, civilian
2:19
side of the house, but again designed to
2:21
um, identify
2:23
and and and streamline civilian
2:25
acquisition of um these small drones. Um
2:30
it’s supposed to be efficient. It’s
2:32
supposed to streamline things, but I to
2:34
get for instance to get on the green
2:36
list, you you’ve got to pay like a
2:38
$100,000 fee per system. Um it doesn’t
2:42
seem like u you know something that
2:45
would facilitate fasttrack. It seems
2:48
like it creates yet another bottleneck.
2:50
Um,
2:52
and then there there’s also the issue of
2:54
these systems have to be USmade or at
2:59
least non-Chinesemade, which again
3:01
limits the field. I understand you if
3:03
you’re going to go into a drone war with
3:05
China, you probably shouldn’t source
3:07
your drones from China, but during this
3:09
stage of acquisition and testing, um, I
3:13
would imagine you’d want to um, you
3:15
know, have access to everything because
3:17
that’s what the Russians are doing. I
3:20
mean, you know, it’s it’s the Russians,
3:22
let’s just be honest, they’re they
3:25
stumbled into this this drone warfare.
3:28
Uh, by their own admission, the Russians
3:30
weren’t prepared uh when the conflict
3:32
with Ukraine started. They had a drone
3:34
doctrine um that made use of, I guess,
3:37
what we call conventional drones. Uh you
3:39
know, they they had, you know, the high
3:41
altitude drones that would do the
3:43
surveillance. They had drones that you
3:45
could put rockets on and fire things
3:46
off. They had uh high value kamicazi
3:50
drones. Um but this war quickly changed
3:53
into something that the soldiers
3:54
themselves uh did. They brought in these
3:57
small Chinese-made unmanned aerial
4:00
systems and they started employing them
4:01
on their own. The tactics that have been
4:03
developed aren’t tactics pushed down on
4:05
the soldiers by the Russian bureaucracy
4:07
but actually developed by the soldiers
4:09
themselves. And now the Russian
4:10
bureaucracy is looking at saying how do
4:12
we adapt to this? Last month uh in June
4:15
uh President Putin addressed this issue
4:17
and he spoke about you know the need to
4:20
you know get Russia officially in line
4:23
with what’s needed to support the
4:26
reality of drone warfare. Russia’s
4:28
talking about creating a whole new
4:30
branch of service uh which is drone
4:32
operators um that reflects again the you
4:37
know the importance of drones on the
4:38
modern battlefield. But again, this
4:40
isn’t an idea conceived by the the the
4:43
Russian leadership. This is an idea
4:45
that’s already been implemented on the
4:47
field. Uh in interviewing Abdalanov
4:50
about operation PTO talk, the u the the
4:52
the daring raid through the pipe in
4:55
Kursk to to liberate uh the towns and
4:58
throw the Ukrainians back. uh he spoke
5:01
of
5:03
how the Akmat special forces already
5:05
have their own drone units and how
5:07
drones have been you know integrated
5:09
down to the to the lowest level. These
5:11
are innovations that are put in place by
5:13
Aladanov, by his leaders, by his by his
5:16
own soldiers. This isn’t something that
5:18
the Russian high command said you have
5:20
to do the following. They did it because
5:22
it’s necessary to survive, to win, to
5:25
prevail on the battlefield. Um that’s
5:28
their laboratory.
5:30
And it works. And the Russian leadership
5:32
seems to reflect this. Also, the way
5:34
they acquire drones. They aren’t getting
5:36
their drones by filling out paperwork,
5:38
sending up to the Ministry of Defense,
5:39
and saying, “We need drones.” The
5:41
Ministry of Defense turns to the defense
5:43
center says, “Produce these drones.” It
5:44
goes through the acquisition system and
5:46
they issue them. No, there’s a whole
5:48
network of private Russian citizens who
5:52
buy drones using their own funds and
5:54
then deliver these drones to the front
5:56
lines to the units that need them. that
5:58
goes outside operates outside of the
6:00
framework of official military ministry
6:03
of defense channels. Vladimir Putin
6:06
again recognized this. He met with these
6:07
people. He rewarded them. He praised
6:10
them. But he also said we have to bring
6:12
this under control because you can’t
6:15
this isn’t how the system’s supposed to
6:16
operate. But this is what happens when
6:18
you have innovation in times of war. And
6:21
as a result, you get revolutionary
6:22
changes. For instance, um you know the
6:25
these small drones, they’re you know are
6:28
you know radiocontrolled. That means
6:30
that their signals can be jammed. Now um
6:33
the the soldiers have solved this
6:35
problem two ways. One by being
6:37
innovative in how they apply their
6:39
electronics being very adaptive. So if
6:41
they send a drone out and it gets
6:42
jammed, it fails, they change the
6:44
frequency, they frequency hop, they do
6:46
these things. But as the anti electronic
6:48
warfare becomes more and more
6:50
sophisticated, they brought in the
6:51
concept of fiber optics. And now you
6:54
have drones which can’t be jammed, which
6:56
can operate up to 20 kilometers. In some
6:58
cases, they’ve gone out to 41 kilometers
7:00
uh into the enemy rear. And they’re very
7:02
accurate, high high quality uh video and
7:06
very deadly. This was a soldier
7:08
innovation. That means somewhere on the
7:10
front line a common soldier said hey to
7:13
defeat the electronic warfare why don’t
7:15
we apply fiber optics and then it got
7:19
adapted and now the system is reacting
7:21
to this. This is the Russian laboratory.
7:24
It’s one that feeds off the Ukrainian
7:25
laboratory. The Ukrainians are very
7:27
innovative as well. The Ukrainians have
7:29
adapted the Russian fiber optic uh
7:31
tactics and now both sides use fiber
7:33
optic drones. They both are very
7:34
innovative in their use of electronic
7:36
warfare and their counter drone
7:38
strategies. They feed off each other. As
7:40
this battle goes on, one side will do
7:42
one thing, the other side will observe,
7:43
react, do it, they react. And you have
7:45
this modern laboratory where if you make
7:49
a mistake, you die. This is literally
7:51
Darwinism on the military battlefield
7:54
and the Russians are emerging dominant.
7:58
Pete Hexith wants to catch up. But how
8:01
do you do that? The United States of
8:03
course has created units that are
8:05
working with the Ukrainians, taking the
8:08
innovations and the lessons learned out
8:10
of Ukraine into the American laboratory.
8:12
But we don’t have something similar to
8:14
that. Pete Hegath and his memorandum has
8:16
tasked the Marines, the Army, the Air
8:18
Force, the Navy, the Coast Guard to
8:20
develop units, uh, organizational
8:23
structures within their respective
8:25
branches that focus solely on drones and
8:28
to get these guys moving to incorporate
8:30
drones into the tactics. The emphasis is
8:33
on the Indo-Pacific in preparation for a
8:36
potential conflict with China, but
8:38
nonetheless, they’re doing this. But
8:40
peaceime innovation comes slow. And the
8:43
other problem is the United States
8:46
doesn’t trust their soldiers. So in in
8:49
in Russia, you can have a young sergeant
8:51
uh sitting there who who will make a
8:53
decision. I don’t like the way this
8:55
performed. I am going to adapt it and
8:57
send it out there and he’s not getting
8:59
permission from higher management. His
9:01
job is to put a drone on target and he’s
9:03
going to get that drone on target. And
9:05
he does so in a very afford affordable
9:07
manner. In the United States, god forbid
9:10
if a lance corporal corporal or sergeant
9:12
had an innovation and just acted on
9:14
their own. No, they have to write a
9:15
paperwork. It’s got to get staffed up to
9:17
the very top. Somebody has to do a
9:18
budgetary review, determine whether or
9:20
not there’s funding available for it.
9:21
Then they’ll approve it down, but
9:22
they’ll divert it out of the sergeant’s
9:24
hands into a a laboratory where a whole
9:26
bunch of people will be looking at it.
9:28
And next thing you know, it takes a long
9:31
time. It costs a lot more money and it’s
9:34
not that good because people keep adding
9:36
things. Soldiers keep it simple. Marines
9:38
keep it simple. Russian soldiers keep it
9:40
simple. Only doing that which is
9:42
necessary to achieve the outcome on the
9:44
battlefield. As soon as you layer in
9:46
bureaucracy, it’s over. It’s over. And
9:48
one of the problems is while Pete
9:50
Hegth’s memorandum speaks of
9:52
streamlining, it is creating additional
9:55
levels of bureaucracy that mean that
9:57
ultimately the United States will never
10:00
catch up with Russia, will never catch
10:01
up with Ukrainians. And when we do, uh,
10:04
literally we’ll be reinventing the wheel
10:06
and the first time we’ll be doing
10:07
something, um, will be about the
10:10
billionth time that the Russians do it.
10:11
To give you an example, in Europe right
10:14
now, the US Army just published a video.
10:16
It shows soldiers learning how to drop
10:18
grenades from the drones. Learning how
10:20
to drop grenades from the drones. Now,
10:22
you can go back three years and look at
10:24
the Ukrainian Russian conflict and see
10:26
they’ve been dropping grenades from
10:27
drones for a long time. They’ve
10:29
perfected that art. And here the
10:31
American soldiers are just now learning
10:33
how to put a grenade on a drone and
10:35
begin the process of coordinating and
10:38
controlling and dropping on the
10:39
battlefield. Um, and again, they’re
10:41
doing it in a non-lethal battlefield
10:43
where there’s no counter drone activity,
10:46
uh, jamming. I mean, I I remember early
10:47
on in the Russian Ukrainian conflict,
10:50
uh, what they would do is cut the
10:52
signal. So the Russians would send the
10:54
drone over to the Ukrainians. They drop
10:56
they drop the drone. They’d capture the
10:57
drone, reconfigure it, send it back over
10:59
to the Russians, and the Russians would
11:00
jam it, drop it, and they’d be using the
11:02
same drone back and forth sometimes.
11:05
That’s how they learn. There is no
11:06
similar laboratory here in the United
11:08
States. The Russians right now are
11:10
producing up to a thousand of the larger
11:13
Shahed drones. Um, you know, these these
11:16
one-way kamicazi drones, a thousand a
11:19
day in a factory in Tatarstan. Um the
11:23
United States just basically created
11:26
what they call Lucas, which is uh the
11:28
American version of the Shahed drone. Um
11:31
it’s not in full production. It was just
11:33
put out there. It’s passed certain
11:35
tests, but now it’s time to implement.
11:37
Are they going to produce a thousand of
11:39
these a day? No. I doubt we’ll have a
11:42
thousand in service uh total. Uh and
11:45
that’s the difference of scope and
11:46
scale. The bottom line is peak heads
11:50
brain and heart are in the right place.
11:52
But we’re dealing with an American
11:53
bureaucracy that is not conducive to
11:56
streamlining anything. It’s not
11:58
conducive to cost cutting. Actually, it
12:00
produces the exact opposite effect. And
12:03
if this is the way we think we’re going
12:05
to achieve drone dominance, I think
12:07
we’re going to find out in the end that
12:08
we’re going to be very frustrated by the
12:10
outcome. Which means the next time
12:12
America goes to war and our forces are
12:15
on the front line engaged in this new
12:17
reality called drone warfare,
12:20
we’re not going to do too well. And uh
12:22
that translates into dead Americans and
12:25
you know outcomes on battlefields that
12:28
are the exact opposite of what we’re
12:29
hoping to achieve. We need to do better.
12:32
Maybe it’s time we actually copy the
12:34
Russians, trust our soldiers, do actual
12:37
streamlining, and do what’s necessary to
12:40
win on the battlefield, not necessary to
12:42
what’s to win in the corporate
12:44
boardroom. Anyways, that’s my rant for
12:46
the day. Next time a thought crosses my
12:48
mind, I’ll be sure to let you know.
12:50
Thanks.
oooooo
Ritter’s Rant 034: Super Duper https://youtu.be/v_aXaT_cX-M?si=jkia4n1uuuNF_oft
youtube.com
Ritter’s Rant 034: Super Duper
Donald Trump feels a need to lie about everything, including US missile production. We may be good, but we’re not “super duper”
Transkripzioa:
0:01
[Music]
0:11
Hello and welcome to this edition of
0:14
Ritter’s Rant. The term we’re going to
0:16
explore today is super duper. Not super
0:19
duper in, you know, the kind of way you
0:22
heard it applied in your childhood. Hey,
0:24
that’s super duper. It’s a super duper
0:26
day. Uh, let’s go out and have a super
0:28
duper good time. No, we’re talking about
0:31
super duper as spoken by the president
0:34
of the United States, Donald Trump. He
0:37
thinks that we have some super duper
0:38
missiles. One he actually calls the
0:40
super duper. Um, it apparently flies
0:44
super duper fast and uh has super duper
0:47
accuracy and is just super duper. Um, I
0:51
mean, this kind of childish language,
0:53
it’s not a one-of occasion. You know, we
0:55
we see the president just yesterday uh
0:57
talking to the press uh bragging that
1:00
soon America’s going to have more
1:01
missiles than anybody else in the world.
1:04
More missiles.
1:06
And we’re talking about the the the the
1:08
speedy ones. We’re talking about the
1:10
slower ones. We’re talking about the the
1:12
accurate ones and the less accurate
1:14
ones. But either way, America’s going to
1:16
be producing more missiles than anyone.
1:19
It’s super duper. And it’s a lie. It’s
1:22
wrong. Um, I mean, first of all, let’s
1:26
just ask ourselves, why would the
1:27
president commit to such a flawed
1:32
statement? He is, after all, the
1:34
president of the United States, the most
1:36
powerful position in the world. Um, he
1:39
doesn’t need to be exaggerating. Um, he
1:42
can tell the truth about America’s
1:44
military capabilities. They are
1:46
considerable. Um, I mean, if you if you
1:49
need to brag, brag accurately. But why
1:54
would he talk about accuracy and
1:57
numbers, etc.? It’s because he’s
1:59
insecure. I mean, that’s often the u the
2:04
real state of the ego-driven narcissist.
2:07
Uh, and Donald Trump is an egoomaniac, a
2:10
narcissist. I mean, a textbook
2:11
narcissist. Uh, he just cares about
2:14
himself and his image. Um, even when he
2:17
talks about the United States, it’s not
2:18
a reflection of the United States. It’s
2:20
a reflection of him, the greatest man
2:22
ever. Everything he does is the greatest
2:24
ever. Um, every deal is the greatest
2:27
ever
2:29
super duper. Um, but you know, last
2:32
month, Mark Rut, the secretary general
2:34
of NATO, and on several occasion stated
2:38
straight out that Russia’s defense
2:40
industry produces more in four months
2:42
than all of NATO combined produces in a
2:44
year. Um that means that Russia’s
2:48
producing three times more than all of
2:51
NATO and that includes the United
2:52
States. Super duper. Um
2:56
clearly this doesn’t sit well with this
2:58
president. And so he need feels the need
3:00
now to come out and go on record um that
3:04
you know no America is producing more
3:06
than anybody and it’s better. But is it
3:09
and are we? Um first of all let’s talk
3:12
about the super duper. What is the super
3:14
duper? Well, the Super Duper is Trump’s
3:17
name for what’s known as the air
3:18
launched rapid response weapon. Um, it’s
3:22
a it’s it’s a weapon system that’s I
3:24
think been developed by Boeing. Um, its
3:27
last test was in March of last year. Um,
3:30
and then the program was cancelled
3:32
because it just doesn’t work. It It’s
3:34
too expensive. It doesn’t work. Uh but
3:36
this president can’t stand to be seen as
3:39
falling behind u the Russians, the
3:42
Chinese, the North Koreans, the Iranians
3:45
when it comes to hypersonics. And so he
3:48
has ordered that this super duper weapon
3:51
be you know brought back to life. And so
3:53
now the Air Force is once again testing
3:57
um its air launched rapid response
3:59
weapon. Um but it’s not operational.
4:02
It’s not even close to being
4:03
operational. It’s been a failed
4:05
theoretical weapon for such a long time,
4:07
but it’s super duper. And this is what
4:09
the president’s talking about. You see
4:10
what what’s happening here? He’s taking
4:12
something that literally doesn’t exist
4:14
and he’s acting if not only does it
4:16
exist, but it it’s the best. It works.
4:20
Um, and it’s ready to be deployed in
4:22
more numbers than anything else out
4:24
there. Uh, numbers. I’m sure the
4:27
president was briefed on a couple things
4:29
which prompted this one.
4:31
um you know there are the attackums
4:33
missiles these are battlefield missiles
4:36
the army u you know missile that’s been
4:39
provided to Ukraine etc and recently the
4:42
Loheed Martin the company produces them
4:44
announced that they’re producing about
4:45
500 of these a year 500 that’s a that’s
4:48
a decent number none of these go to the
4:50
United States arsenal though all of them
4:51
are for foreign military sales um and so
4:54
he surely can’t be talking about the
4:56
attackums when he talks about American
4:58
stockpiles of ammunition um we als also
5:01
have something called the precision
5:04
um munition and this is the replacement
5:06
of the attackups. Um and right now it’s
5:09
starting to go into you know initial
5:12
production. Um Loheed Martin again
5:14
producing it uh can produce between 230
5:18
to 290 a year. Uh but Loheed Martin
5:23
recently announced that they’re ready to
5:24
ramp that up to 400 a year. 400 of these
5:27
newer precision um missile systems. Um
5:32
these are big numbers. These are
5:34
impressive numbers, but isn’t more than
5:36
anybody else in the world. Uh let’s take
5:39
Russia for example, the Iscander
5:41
missile. Uh Russia right now is
5:44
producing around 60 to 70 escanders a
5:48
month. Uh that means that Russia is
5:50
producing between 700 and 800 and some
5:54
odd escanders a year.
5:56
That’s a hell of a lot more than 500 and
5:59
400. And that’s just the Escander. What
6:02
about the Kenzel? Russia. This is the
6:05
air launched hypersonic missile. You
6:07
know, the air launched weapon that the
6:09
United States doesn’t have, the super
6:10
duper. This is Russia’s super duper, but
6:12
it works. It’s there. It’s being
6:14
produced. It’s been produced in numbers
6:16
of about 10 to 15 a month which means
6:19
you know roughly
6:21
120 to umund
6:26
150 a year. Um now that’s not the same
6:30
as we have with the attacks and all that
6:32
but again those are incomparable
6:33
systems. The the kinszal
6:36
is
6:37
what the super duper should be and we’re
6:40
not producing any super dupers and the
6:41
Russians are producing a whole bunch of
6:43
kins you know. And what about the Dark
6:45
Eagle? The Dark Eagle is America’s
6:47
intermediate range system. It was
6:49
supposed to be deployed about a year and
6:50
a half ago, but it can’t because it
6:52
doesn’t work like almost every American
6:53
system. But now the Dark Eagle is ready
6:56
to enter into its initial operational
6:58
phase. Um hopefully, you know, if you’re
7:01
an American, uh it’ll be deployed in
7:03
Europe, uh sometime by the end of this
7:06
current fiscal year. That’ll be one
7:08
battery, you know, a couple dozen
7:10
missiles. Um they have another one
7:12
scheduled to come online in 2026.
7:16
Um what does Russia have? Well, Russia
7:20
has deployed a system. It’s called the
7:21
Archnik and the Archnik is now in serial
7:24
production serial production out of the
7:25
vodka machine building plant in Udia. Um
7:31
the Russians haven’t produced the
7:33
production figures for the Russian and I
7:36
would imagine that it’s probably a
7:37
classified number. But if you just base
7:40
it upon you know what is known of past
7:43
production cycles for instance
7:45
affiliated with the SS20 missile etc. Um
7:48
the production lines that are in vodk
7:52
production lines could probably sustain
7:54
a production rate of around um 60 to 80
7:59
um missiles a year maybe more. And
8:04
there’s talk about uh Vodkans building a
8:07
second production line because there’s a
8:09
high demand on the systems coming out of
8:11
Vodkans which means now Arashnik could
8:13
be produced in numbers closer to 200 a
8:16
year. That’s 200
8:19
intermediate range missiles. Each one
8:22
possessing six independently targetable
8:25
warheads. Each one of those possessing
8:27
six um you know powerful cluster
8:30
munitions. Um, and the United States has
8:33
yet to deploy a dark eagle. So, the fact
8:38
is Russia outproduces the United States
8:42
and missiles. Russia has a qualitative
8:44
and quantitative advantage over the
8:47
United States. And we haven’t even begun
8:49
to talk about China and its ballistic
8:52
missile production capabilities would
8:54
swamp that of the United States. What
8:57
about North Korea and its ballistic
9:00
missile production capability? What
9:02
about Iran and its proven ballistic
9:06
missile production capability? The fact
9:08
of the matter is the United States isn’t
9:11
the world’s leader in ballistic missile
9:13
production. It’s not even in second
9:15
place. It’s probably not in third place
9:18
or fourth place. The United States could
9:20
be in fifth place.
9:23
That’s not good enough for this
9:24
president. You know, it’ be one thing if
9:25
the president would be honest and say,
9:28
uh, I don’t like being in fifth place.
9:30
You know, that we need to ramp up our
9:33
production capabilities. I’ve gone to
9:34
Congress and ask for more money. I’ve
9:36
asked the Pentagon to streamline
9:37
production capacity. We need to get
9:39
these numbers up. That would be an
9:40
honest statement. Um, he could say that
9:44
the the super duper isn’t ready yet.
9:46
We’ve been testing it. It’s been failed.
9:47
Uh, blame the past administration. claim
9:50
that your administration is seeking to
9:51
overcome all of the the you know
9:54
inadequacies to produce a very good
9:56
missile that can be deployed to our
9:58
armed forces that works. That would be
10:01
honest. But this president is incapable
10:04
of being honest when his egos on the
10:06
line. Bottom line is it either has to be
10:09
super duper or nothing at all. Well,
10:12
that’s my rant. Next time an idea
10:14
crosses my mind, I’ll let you know about
10:15
it. Thanks for listening.
oooooo
@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu
Ritter’s Rant 035: Free Speech
Ritter’s Rant 035: Free Speech
America is sold as the bastion of free speech. Russia is sold to the American audience as having no free speech. The reality is much more complex.
Transkripzioa:
Hello and welcome to this episode of Ritter’s Rant. Today’s topic is free speech, but free speech that is contextualized. It’s in the context of maybe comparing and contrasting notions of free speech here in America with free speech as practiced, say, in Russia. And the reason why this is relevant is we have an ongoing controversy today.
Tulsi Gabbard has come out and made a case that the Obama administration conspired to interfere with not only the electoral processes associated with the 2016 presidential election, But once the American people had spoken and had chosen Donald Trump as their president to undermine this president and seek indeed to have him unable to be
seated as president or once he was seated to be removed from office. Now, these are criminal actions or potentially criminal actions by the Obama administration. You might say, well, what does this have to do with free speech? Well, everything. You see, at that time, The U.S. media,
which is supposed to be the watchdog of the government on behalf of the American people, a free press as part of our First Amendment rights. The U.S. media, the U.S. press basically echoed without question the allegations that were put forth by the Obama administration regarding the evidence. alleged actions of the Russian government, the Russian intelligence services,
and the Trump administration. And one could say, well, is that really a violation of anything? And I would answer yes, because as I know, myself and others were able to point out at the time the inadequacies of the Obama administration’s case, not based upon insider information or access to data, but just simply common sense reporting,
looking at the facts, digging deeper into the facts and finding inconsistencies with the narrative and insufficiency in terms of the data being used to sustain the allegations. I wrote in 2017 that the Intelligence Community Assessment concerning the alleged collusion just didn’t pass the muster of common sense. It didn’t pass the muster of viability, of believability.
And yet the U.S. media parroted it as being the absolute truth and moreover attacked anybody who dared speak out in the manner that I did, seeking to silence us, suppressing us, ending the notion of free speech. So this is a problem. The other problem is the way it’s being handled, you know, today. Again,
we not only have a media now that is acting in a defensive manner rather than admitting their mistakes, for instance, as they did in the aftermath of the election. the WMD fiasco that led, uh, led us to, to war in Iraq, where the media did come out and, you know, in a mea culpa said,
we made a mistake. There doesn’t appear to be any effort by the media to admit their mistake. Moreover, they working apparently in hand and glove with the deep state, uh, you know, the, the Obama administration in exile, the remnants of the Biden administration, uh, holdouts in, uh, within the U S government, um, establishment, um,
are trying to defend their actions. And the way they do that is by doubling down on the notion that Russia was a malign actor. And now this is where it affects free speech, because at this critical time in U.S.-Russian relations, the American people are being subjected to inaccurate reporting from what passes
for a mainstream media here in the United States and being denied access to fact-based reporting coming out of Russia about these and other very sensitive topics that relate to U.S.-Russian relationships. RT, Russia Today, Sputnik, Ariang Novosti, and other Russian media outlets continue to be banned here in the United States based upon
actions of the previous administration, the Biden administration, which was a participant. Many of the people in the Biden administration were direct participants in the effort to wrongly paint Donald Trump as colluding with the Russian government to undermine American electoral processes. What are they afraid of? It’s not Russian propaganda, because when you dig into it,
the reporting of RT, of Sputnik, of REI Novosti, of other Russian media outlets, is unerringly accurate, especially in retrospect. When you go back and take a look at what they were reporting about these very issues, you find that the most accurate reporting on these sensitive topics didn’t come from the American media,
but from the Russian media, and the Russian media is suppressed. We are getting into existential territory here, because free speech defines who we are and what we are as Americans. The notion of free speech is one of the fundamental rights given to us under our Constitution. And yet, as we speak today, we have the U.S.
government suppressing free speech here at home, I mean, I don’t have to remind everybody we’re coming up on one year when the United States government sent 40 FBI agents into my house to intimidate me from speaking out in support of policies, the improvement of U.S.-Russian relations that they found to be against the policy direction they were wanting.
Now, my job isn’t to sit here and promote U.S. government policy. Free speech allows me to be critical. But I was it’s not as though I was promoting Russian propaganda and trying to paint the United States in a bad light. I was simply trying to promote U.S.-Russian friendship.
And that was deemed to be not only offensive, but criminal. So it is it is relevant in that regard. It’s also relevant in what’s happening today as the Trump administration in their second go around makes fitful efforts towards, you know, repairing relations with Russia. It’s complicated by the Ukrainian conflict and such,
but at least the United States and Russia are talking. But isn’t it time that the United States lifts the restrictions on Russian media, ends the banning of Russia Today, of Sputnik, of REI Novosti? Isn’t it the interest of the American people to have access to fact-based reporting from these outlets, especially when U.S.
media continues to parrot the previous reporting of the allegations that Donald Trump was somehow working with the Russians when now we know he wasn’t. Free speech. You know, It’s such an important issue that I have actually dedicated an entire episode of The Russia House with Scott Ritter on this very topic,
comparing and contrasting notions of free speech here in the United States and free speech in Russia. And we will be airing this, a conversation with Igor Ivanishko, a Russian expert on these issues, an expert on Russian laws. We’ll have this conversation about free speech, and it’s one that I encourage everybody to watch because
Without knowing what free speech is, what it really is, maybe we’re not aware of how badly it’s being suppressed here in the United States or how strongly the American public is being manipulated about issues pertaining to free speech in Russia. There is no greater issue than this today because we are in a situation,
a scenario where the United States and Russia are fitfully pursuing the opportunities for bettering relations while at the same time constrained by past policies that push us towards the potential of war. This is an issue that needs to be discussed, debated. There must be a dialogue. But this dialogue can only happen, A,
when there is an environment truly appreciative of the free speech rights of American citizens here in America, and where we respect free speech so much that we allow Russian voices to be heard, Not because we fear that we’re being subjected to propaganda, but because we want to know what the Russian perspective is about U.S.-Russian relations. Free speech.
Does it exist? Can we have it? I don’t know. But I do know we definitely need it. And that’s my rant. Thanks for listening. Next time a thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know.
oooooo
Ritter’s Rant 036: The Rules of the Game
Ritter’s Rant 036: The Rules of the Game
(https://scottritter.substack.com/p/ritters-rant-036-the-rules-of-the?r=1vhv3f&triedRedirect=true)
You can learn all you need to know about someone by watching them play a round of golf.
Transkripzioa:
hello and welcome to this edition of ritter’s rant the theme of today is golf um some people might say why golf um it’s an obscure game played by you know western uh i guess elitists although it’s it is becoming uh more and more the game for the working class but uh
You know, it’s a game that’s often mocked. I think one of the greatest books about golf is called A Good Walk Spoiled. I’ve been playing golf my entire life, and my wife makes fun of me every time I head out to the golf course. She just doesn’t understand the allure of walking around smacking a little white
ball with a club ball. getting frustrated when it doesn’t go where it’s supposed to go. But that’s not why I’m talking about golf. I’m talking about golf because golf is considered to be one of the great tests of a person’s integrity. It’s not so much about the skill that you possess on the golf course.
It’s about the etiquette that you possess. You can learn more about a man, who he is, about his integrity, about his ethics, playing around a golf with him than you can about just about anything else. Because golf is one of these games where the referee is yourself and
There’s nobody standing over your shoulder looking to see if you obey the rules. When you hit a ball into the rough or the long grass, it’s just you. You and the ball. And only you knows what happened. You know that if you grounded your club and the ball moved, did it? Who’s going to tell on you?
You have to tell on yourself. That’s what golf is about. You know when you’re in a sand trap and you’re lining up, if your club grounds, hits the sand, that’s a stroke. Nobody may have seen it. It didn’t advance the ball at all. No harm, no foul, right? No. The rules of the game are quite clear.
And that’s the thing about golf is it’s about the rules of the game. It’s about the etiquette of the game. This is why you learn so much about a person by playing a round of golf. Yes, we all have missed the putt and cursed in the sky.
You know, we may have, you know, shaken our club in anger. You know, we’re only human. I’m not talking about the occasional outbursts of anger that come with this game. Maybe not too, maybe it’s not so rare. But what I’m talking about is that moment when it counts. Let’s call it a tournament. And you’re in contention.
and you’re where nobody can see you and something happens the ball gets moved the ball moves backwards you can’t find the ball you thought you knew where you hit it but it’s not there and now you know that if it’s a lost ball you have to go back to
where you hit it take that stroke and hit it again Or do you just reach into your pocket, drop another ball? Nobody saw it. Maybe move it to an advantageous lie. It’s not. I mean, you know, you hit it right here. You know, it should be here. And then you hit the ball onto the green.
You make the putt and you win the tournament or you win the round and you declare yourself a winner. But did you win? The answer is no, you didn’t. Not at all. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because there’s a video right now making the rounds showing President Trump playing golf in Scotland.
And he’s driving around in a cart and he’s heading toward the tall grass to the left of a sand bunker. And he has two men walking ahead wearing, you know, their colored vests, their safety vests. And one of them clearly reaches down and drops a ball onto the ground.
And Trump comes up, sees the ball and proceeds to play it as if it is his. But it’s not. It was dropped by a caddy. It’s not his ball. Why did he do it? This is, this isn’t just, you know, your casual golfer or a fun run.
Donald Trump’s a man who claims to have won just about every club championship and every golf course is a member of, I mean, you know, he owns three of the most elite playing, um, you know, golf courses in Florida, Jupiter, West Palm beach Doral, and he’s a club champion of them all. Um, He wins everything, apparently.
When he goes in there, he’s the longest hitter, the straightest hitter, the best putter. I mean, my God, this is Donald Trump. He’s the world’s greatest. According to some people, he hits the ball pretty well. His short game is not as good because it requires a lot of practice. But his putting is decent.
But for a man his age to be winning club championships – It’s suspect. And if you dig into it, you find out that he’s just a cheater, straight up cheater. I mean, cheating of the worst sort. It’s not just about lying about moving your ball and proving your lie. He will throw people’s balls in the sand bunkers.
He will put people’s ball in the water. He’ll do anything to have an advantage so he can declare himself the winner. And this is just not indicative of a man of honor, a man of integrity, a man of character, just the opposite sort of fits every stereotype people have about a New York city, real estate, you know,
a business person, liars, cheaters. They, they, they, they put down false information. They exaggerate costs, cut corners in construction. I mean, everything bad you can think about is what a New York city real estate person is. And that’s Donald Trump in a nutshell. And you’d like to say, well, maybe he can redeem himself. You know,
maybe that’s just the way he does business, but deep inside, he’s a good man, a man of integrity. I’m telling you right now, you can tell more about a person’s integrity, about their character by playing a round of golf with them than you can just about anything else.
If you play a round of golf with Donald Trump, one thing comes out for certain. He’s a cheater. He’s a liar. Is this really the man we want to be our president representing us? I mean, because this does carry over. You know, this is a man who has withdrawn America from some very important arms control agreements,
the JCPOA, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran nuclear deal, where Iran wasn’t making a nuclear bomb and everybody knew it. He pulled out. Now what? We’re on the cusp of war. We actually dropped bombs on Iran because of Donald Trump. He claims that he wants a better deal. He doesn’t want a better deal.
He wants Donald Trump’s deal, just like he doesn’t really want to win. a golf club championship. He just wants to proclaim himself to be the winner. I mean, there’s a story where a guy actually won the club championship, but Donald Trump came back and said, yeah, he didn’t win because I didn’t get to play.
And so they’re on the golf course. He says, we’re going to play right now. We’re going to play right now. And the winner goes in. So they’re playing. And this is the one where the guy and his son hit their balls on the green. Donald Trump hit his ball in the water.
By the time the guys get up to the green, Donald Trump’s caddy had thrown the sun’s ball into the water and put donald trump’s ball on the green and donald trump said no my ball is on the green he makes the putt don’t claim victory he
didn’t win he’s a cheater he’s a scam artist he’s a con that’s not golf that’s something else donald trump withdrew from the intermediate nuclear forces treaty he did so in in a way that threatened international peace and security. Today, we have now a situation where the Russians have deployed the Ereshnik intermediate-range missile,
a missile system that couldn’t have existed if that treaty was still in place. The United States is getting ready to deploy the Dark Eagle intermediate-range missile into Europe. Now we have a situation that takes it right back to the 1980s, where we were on the cusp of thermonuclear war because of these destabilizing weapons. Donald Trump did that.
not because it was done out of honor or integrity or sense of genuine concern for the national security of the United States. He did it on a whim because he thought he could get a better deal. He thought he could do things better the Trump way. See, Donald Trump can’t accept anybody doing well in anything.
He can only accept Donald Trump winning everything. So there can’t be a treaty unless it’s Donald Trump’s treaty. But how could you do business? How could you negotiate with this liar, this man who doesn’t know what integrity is, this man who can’t make a deal without looking into what’s best for us,
not caring at all what’s right for everyone? No, golf isn’t a good walk, spoiled. Golf is the glorious game. Just talk to Ben Crenshaw. Ben Crenshaw is a man who has come to epitomize, you know, the glory of golf, the history of golf, the dignity of golf. You know, Ben Crenshaw won the Masters tournament back in 1984.
The Masters, this is Bobby Jones tournament in Augusta, Georgia. I mean, it is sort of the touchstone of golf. Yeah. In 1995, he came back. His longtime swing coach, Harvey Pinnock, had died the day before, a couple days before. Crenshaw had to go back and marry this man who taught him the game of golf.
A very emotional time for Ben Crenshaw. And yet he turned around and he won the 1995 championship. masters tournament uh in honor of his swing coach this is the kind of guy that he is and he didn’t win by cheating he won by playing the game straight up see that’s
what happens if you do things right if you play with integrity if you have integrity if you honor the etiquette if you honor the you know the glory the history of the of whatever you’re involved in good things will result but when you
cheat when you kick the ball when you drop the ball when you move the ball It may come down as a win on your scorecard, but it’s not a win in life. And when you’re the president of the United States and you’re responsible for the lives of 340 plus million Americans and billions of people around the world,
we don’t want a guy that kicks the ball, drops the ball, moves the ball. We want a guy that counts every stroke because that’s the way life is meant to be lived. That’s the way the game is meant to be played. That’s my rant for the day.
The next time a thought crosses my mind, I’ll be sure to let you know. Thanks.
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Ritter’s Rant 037: Arrogance
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Ritter’s Rant 037: Arrogance
Arrogance is the product of excessive pride or inflated sense of self worth. It is the most dangerous of the seven deadly sins. And America leads the world in arrogance. This isn’t a good thing.
Transkripzioa:
Hello, and welcome to this edition of Ritter’s Rant. Today we’re going to explore the word arrogance. And unfortunately, when we use that word in the context of the present times, it’s more often than not referring to actions, policies, words, deeds of the United States of America, of our elected representatives, of our president.
And today is just chock full of examples of arrogance. We have a tweet from Senator Lindsey Graham, I guess we call it, it’s not a tweet anymore, it’s a posting on X, in which he puts Russian President Vladimir Putin on notice. He says, yeah, you guys may have beaten sanctions in the past,
but you’re not going to beat them this time because the United States has the magic formula. Instead of threatening Russia, we’re going to threaten those who do business with Russia, nations like China, like India, like Brazil, like others. people who buy Russian energy. And, you know,
basically Senator Graham is putting Russia on notice that the United States is seeking to bankrupt Russia, to break Russia economically, to make Russia bend the knee. And I mean, Senator Graham tells Vladimir Putin, he doesn’t know what he’s gotten into. He doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions. That’s arrogance.
I mean, maybe Senator Graham doesn’t know anything about Russia. I don’t claim to be the world’s foremost expert on Russia, but I know enough about Russia and I’ve dealt with Russians enough, especially Russians of senior rank of a certain degree of knowledge and insight into the workings of the Russian economy,
to be confident to say that when it comes to knowledge about how Russia interfaces with the global economy, what makes the Russian economy tick, where Russia’s vulnerabilities are, The Russians know a hell of a lot more than Lindsey Graham does or Scott Besson or anybody else in the US government.
But the arrogance of Senator Graham blinds him to this reality. And it just takes the United States down a path that we really don’t need to be going. We shouldn’t want to be going in this direction. But no, here comes the president doubling down on stupid, putting out his own posting on social media. putting India on those.
He starts off by saying India and the United States are good friends. But India is behaving badly, you see, because India buys energy and weapons from Russia. That’s not good, according to the president. It’s always ironic to hear the president chide others for buying Russian energy or buying weapons from Russia,
when all this president does is seek to jam energy down the throats of our erstwhile allies and compel people to buy American weapons. I mean, what is good for the goose obviously isn’t good for the gander. arrogance uh i mean let’s just take the meetings that the president had just the
other day with uh ursula van der leyen the uh president of the european uh commission she uh or european union she sat there and had this president sell her a supposed great trade deal i mean one that had Europe committing to purchasing $750 billion worth of American energy, $750 billion over the course of three years.
That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of energy. And then she committed to have Europe invest $600 billion into the American economy. I mean, my God, this was such a great deal. except it’s not a deal at all. First of all, Ursula had to back away.
And she said, I don’t have the ability to make anybody pay $600 billion and invest into America. It’s not central funding. This would be private investments. And we have no way of knowing who’s going to invest or if anybody’s going to invest at all. Pro him, they’re not going to invest.
So the $600 billion is just made up money. $750 billion in energy payments. Look, Last year, Europe bought $76 billion worth of energy from the United States, $76 billion. And now they’re supposed to suddenly almost quadruple that to $250 billion in a year.
First of all, the United States only exports $310 or $318 billion to everybody in the world. And the notion the United States is going to cut its contracts with others and divert all resources to Europe, that Europe has the ability to bring in liquefied natural gas, pump it on shore, deliquefy, transport it and all.
Europe doesn’t have the resources. They don’t have the infrastructure. This is a made-up number. It’s totally fictional. Fictional. But the arrogance of the president allowed him to sit there and pretend this was real and sell it to the American people as if he had accomplished something. He’d accomplished nothing. It’s embarrassing.
I mean, this is so detached from reality. And now he’s telling India, that they can’t buy Russian weapons and they can’t buy Russian oil. And if they continue to do so, he’s going to throw a tariff on them. I think the number was 25%, but it may go up. Who knows? What is India going to do?
I don’t know. I can’t imagine any sovereign state yielding to the United States. We know China won’t. China’s come out and said, no, they will have nothing to do with this. that China alone determines who they buy energy from, what their energy requirements are, what their priorities are, who they do business with.
And they will not yield to the United States on this issue. And they warn the United States, if you want a trade war, then you’ll get one. Nobody will win, but we’re not going to quit. And I think the last time the president tried to put this tariff thing on China back in April, he had to back
back down real quick you know the president likes to say that china made a call they didn’t make a call uh that china backed down they didn’t back down it was the president who backed down because he basically got his butt kicked handed to him um
and they just recently resolved that issue it sort of centered around rare earth minerals and uh china’s domination of that market and the fact that the american auto industry was about to go bankrupt because They didn’t have the access to the materials they needed to produce automobiles, especially electric vehicles. They need those permanent magnets. Permanent magnets are,
the term permanent magnet comes from the fact that the materials that they’re built from or manufactured from are naturally magnetic, meaning they don’t have to be charged from outside sources. So they’re naturally magnetic, which means they’re going to hold a charge no matter what.
They’re ideal for use in electric vehicles and the windmills and the motors of the windmills. And China controls about 90 plus percent of the global market. You piss the Chinese off and they shut off the sources, nothing works. Well, that’s what we did in April. We just barely resolved this issue.
And now the president’s getting ready to piss the Chinese off again. How stupid can he get? And the answer is very stupid. Why? Because he’s arrogant. The notion that the United States is the center of this planet, of the universe, is an absurd notion. There may have been a time when American hegemony was
a natural course of events in this aftermath of the Second World War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the sole remaining superpower. But we inherited this, not because we did anything, but because people around us collapsed. Now we’re in a world where people have stood up, they’re competing, it’s a multipolar world,
and we want to continue to treat the world as if they’re somehow subservient to us. The world is not composed of servants. The world is composed of sovereign nations, and you must treat these sovereign nations with respect, not with arrogance. continue to behave. And all that’s going to happen is it’s going to blow back on us.
When I say us, I mean, we, the people of the United States, no matter how much the president likes to claim that we’re bringing in tariff income like we’ve never done before, the American people need to understand the following. Tariff income is just another term for tax. You’re paying the price. I’m paying the price.
We’re all paying the price. This isn’t money gifted to us from other nations. This is money that we end up having to pay. And so far, it’s costing us around $150 billion. Us, the American people, additional money. levies on our income above and beyond that which the government already takes in the form of taxation. You know, taxation,
our paycheck, taxation at the gas pump, taxation at the store, taxation of our homes, taxation of everything. We’re the most heavily taxed people in the world, and yet we somehow sit there and say, wow, we’re making money on tariffs. We’re not. What this president is doing through his arrogance is bankrupting the American people.
He’s bankrupting us economically, and if this continues, It’ll bankrupt us in terms of our national reputation, of our moral standing, of who we are and what we are as a collective. Arrogance. We don’t want to be arrogant. We want to be the opposite. You know, the golden rule, do unto others as you would want done unto you.
We wouldn’t want other nations coming in and dictating to us what we can and what we can’t buy. We shouldn’t be in the business of dictating this to other nations. That’s my rant. Thanks for your listening next time the thought crosses my mind i’ll be sure to run it by you
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