Monday 20 March 2023

The Telegraph Podcast: The Latest 3/17/23

Notes

Ukraine:

• Wager forces have gained ground on the west part of the river in Bakhmut.  Local offensive levels are not sustainable for the Russian forces. 
• Russia is low on ammunition, and they don’t want to use supplies if it’s not worth it.
• Slovakia is donating equipment to Ukraine.
• Issue of fighter jets to Ukraine.  Talk about backfilling the supply of planes.  Poland sending fighter jets.  Whether eastern European countries are acting on their own or as part of an agreement to backfill by US and UK, we don’t know.
• Xi meeting with Putin.  Chinese companies are (according to Politico) sending weapons to Russia through the back door.  It’s an example of China already funneling weaponry to Russia.
• Moldova: British aid to Moldova. 
• The grain deal is due to expire.  An extension is being talked about.  International brokering.
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Stewart Stevens Interview

• Worked on five presidential campaigns – republican. Split with party only when Trump came to power.
• Book: It Was All a Lie
• First major split in Republican party (since Trump) is coming over Ukraine. 
• Trump and DeSantis saying they would cut off funding to Ukraine.  They are the two leading candidates for 2024.
• The “pro Putin” element is now inside the Republican Party. 
• The Russians have said they did support Trump and will continue to support his election.
• You can make a good argument that it is the “single most successful covert hostile foreign intelligence action in modern history”
• Closest thing to a “good war” since WWII. 
• This election is of “monumental importance.”
• Trump “did not create the modern Republican party, he revealed it.” 
• Moral hollowness to the Republican party.  Deeply held values were something akin to “marketing slogans.”
• The “America first” movement is actually “America alone.”  Wy didn’t America go fascist, because Roosevelt was president. 
• “The party is not what I thought it was.”  Felt like working for Bernie Maddow.  “I believed in this stuff and it turns out it didn’t really matter.”
• “I think it’s going to be very difficult for De Santis to walk this back.” (His position on Ukraine.) If he walks it back, they will see it as a sign of weakness.
• In terms of the US defense budget, Ukraine is just not that significant.
• The Putin vision is a lot like the Republican anti-wokeness campaign.  They see Putin saying there are no women in power, no gay people, good Christians and they find that “tremendously attractive.”  “they  are drawn to strong men.”
• They look at Putin and they say: We like this.
• Francis? Commenting.  What is there to be done.
• Stevens says that the only answer is to vote for Democrats.  Pain is the only teacher in politics.”  “You have to beat these people.”  “You cannot compromise with threse people.”
• “they see compromise as weakness.  It’s part of their autocratic nature.”
• One party running against what they see as an illegal occupier in the office.  “You have to beat these people.”  (Talking at the ballot box).  Only way they will have the opportunity to change.
• Polling shows Trump beating Biden.  Electoral college makes this more likely.  Had Trump won 44,000 more votes in the right states, he would still be president.
• Lincoln project project is to steal, to peal off Repuobicans.  “You havke to take it very seriously.”
• “How not to sound alarmist.”  “Whatever you say at the beginning is going to sound alarmist, but by the end it’s going to prove inadequate.” 
• “As somebody who worked in the party, who knows these people, as bad as you think, they are worse.”
• If Trump is elected president it will be the last election that will be in any way democratic.
• Orban is the model.
• All the border walls are not going to change the changing demographics in the country.
• Appeal to the non-white voters?  To hell with that.
• With Trump it’s “embrace of white grievance.”
• In Trump world, you are chumps if you are Americans.  He’s going to settle the score.  White, grievance based mentality. 
• The most advantaged, white americans, are the most disadvantaged.  That is a powerful force.  History tells us it is dangerous.
• Try to get people to vote Democratic now because it’s the “only pro-democracy party in America.”
• Putin saw you had a traditional American president who would stand up for Ukraine, saw he had to go forward.  If Trump were in power, we would have had a Russian-proxy government.
• Russia is supporting Trump in 24.
• “They got what they wanted with Trump.”
• “If you want an issue to be important to ctizens you have to make it important.
• “They have to continue t put democracy on the ballot.”
• “Donald Trump or America.  You can’t have them both.”
• “This is an existential vote” in 2024
• Tucker Carlson every day goes out and makes Putin’s talking points.
• Carlson is shown on Russian television all the time.  And, there’s a reason.
• Crisis in “American journalism.”  One side is not even remotely concerned with telling the truth.  How do you tell both sides of a lie?  “Do you just call him a liar?” 
• “He is a danger to the country, in my view.  That changes everything.”
• There was an assumption that Donald Trump would change…that never happened…1930 Germany…
• The “sane” party still don’t know what to do with Trump.
• Looked at DeSantis as a savior.  He can resurrect the Republican party.  And he has the same position on Ukraine and supporting Putin.
• Shows just how fast a cancer can spread.
• “large element pro-Putin.”  Talking about the Republican Party
• “Overwhelmingly, Americans support Ukraine…courage of Ukrainians stirs something in Americans….critical that that side of the argument win…decency test for America…(if not) something inside of us all will have died.”
• Francis Dernley: People who “no longer believe in the system” that is the danger.  “optimist” about America and somebody else to redefine the republican party and the temporary danger will be allayed.  (Note: THE LAST F…ING THING WE NEED IS FOR SOMEBODY TO REDEFINE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.  YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE SAYING THAT PERHAPS SOMEBODY WILL COME ALONG AND REDEFINE AND RESURRECT THE NAZI PATY.  JESUS).