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News Talk eleven, ten ninety nine and three WBT. I
hope you had a good weekend. I spend probably too
much time, Yeah, I spend too much time over the
weekend reading how Donald Trump and JD Vance ambushed the
Ukrainian president. Is it Volodimer Voldemir Zelensky. I did not
realize he had two whys at the end of that name,
but whatever, so yeah, so that they ambushed him and
that he ambushed them. Much like almost everything, it seems
like whatever your opinion is of the of the Orange Man,
that will determine how you saw what we saw play
out on Friday, and we heard live here on the show.
It seems like if you don't like Donald Trump and
he is the Orange man who is bad, then you
think that he ambushed Zelensky. And if you like Donald
Trump and you like JD. Vance, then you saw it
as Zelensky ambushing them. And I gotta tell you, watching
the entire exchange going on, it did not. I do
not agree that the president and the Vice president ambushed
the Ukrainian president. That is not what I saw happen.
It's not even what I heard happen as it was
happening when we were listening to it and the thing
degenerated into the screaming match. That wasn't even what I
heard happen in real time. It never crossed my mind
that this was some sort of an ambush because it
was all precipitated by Zelenski interrogating our vice president in
the Oval office. When Vance said what he said, basically
criticizing Joe Biden, it wasn't even a criticism of Zelensky, right. JD.
Vance said, We're going to do something that the previous
administration didn't, which is we were actually engaging in diplomacy,
and then Zelensky uses that as an opening, like, well,
what do you mean by diplomacy because Russia has violated
all of the previous ceasefires and Russia did this bad
thing and all of that. And here's the thing, I
agree that Russia sucks. I don't have to choose. I
don't have to pick. This is a false choice people
by this idea that somehow, you know in the Trump
administration saying last week that Ukraine started the war. Whatever,
Ukraine did not start the war, right, Vladimir Putin has
invaded what Georgia, Crimea and now eastern Ukraine, and like, honestly,
the reasons for those two areas, those two peoples to
be fighting for what I understand to be could be
like hundreds of years over this territory. I don't even
know if they needed any kind of uh uh an
impetus for Russia to go in there, except the ability
to do it an opportunity, which I do believe they
sensed a weakness in Joe Biden. I wonder why, hmmm,
and they rolled in and they knew that they weren't
going to get any kind of real pushback from NATO
because Ukraine's not in NATO. So I don't agree with
the Trump comments, the administration comments about you know, Ukraine's
starting it. I don't believe that to be the case
at all. I think the war started when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Now did Ukraine do stuff inside of this area before
Russia invaded? There were Russian speaking people there and they
wanted to be part of Russia, supposedly whatever. Like all
of that stuff, all of that history, I as an American,
I am not up to speed on it, nor I like,
I don't know if I should be required to be
up to speed on all of that, because again, you know,
we have people who are like, we're not the world's policemen,
and that means we don't have to take an interest
in all of that. You know, who should take more
of an interest in all of that history Europe, which
is why I was very excited to see that Europe
now says that they're going to, uh, they're going to
stand up and they're going to lead on Ukraine, which
it only took three years, but hey, better late than never,
I guess. Although they did say they're going to be
committing troops. They're going to be committing ground troops into Ukraine.
Now that's a little bit more problematic, you see, because
those countries in the EU that are members of NATO,
unlike Ukraine, if they commit ground troops and then they
get attacked and then they try to trigger Article five,
I believe it is of the NATO Agreement that then
would require all NATO nations to band together in the
mutual defense of a NATO ally. So wait a minute.
So we don't want to send troops. We've said Trump
has said we are not sending ground troops into Ukraine.
That has been the position of America since the beginning
of all of this, even going back to Obama, right like,
we were not sending ground troops anywhere into Ukraine. But
now Europe says it's going to stand up and it's
going to do more. And by doing more, they're talking
about sending in ground troops and now that may commit us. Well,
that doesn't sound very neighborly. We didn't commit ground troops
from the Europeans, not that there's a lot to commit,
but we didn't do that to them. Would Why would
we like it if they did that to us, especially
in a theater where we have said we are not
going to do that. So over the weekend, after he
got kicked out of the White House, Zelensky went and
met with these European leaders and after that meeting the
UK Prime Minister Geer Starmach, He's German, announced a four
point plan to work with Ukraine to end the war,
end defend the country from Russia. So you're sending in
military support to defend Ukraine from Russia? What part of Ukraine?
The part that Russia has already taken? Are you talking
about a ground invasion of the area that has already
been seized by Russians and it is under the Russian
Federation control? You're going to be sending in ground troops
over there. Again, I'm no military strategist or you know,
historian of the of the russou Ukraine troubles or anything,
but this seems kind of like an escalation with a
nuclear power, right, doesn't it. That's what it seems like.
The UK, France and other countries will step up their
efforts in a quote coalition of the willing according to
the BBC, and will seek to involve the US in
their support for Ukraine. Zelensky said, quote, We're working all
working together in Europe trying to get my Zelensky impression down.
It's been a little difficult. But anyway, he says, we're
all working together in Europe in order to find a
basis for cooperation with America, for a true piece and
guaranteed security. And this is what he kept talking about
in the Oval Office. He was there, though, to sign
a minerals rights deal. That's what he was there for,
and that's what he was there for at his own demand.
The deal could have been signed outside of the Oval Office.
They could have signed it back in Kief or wherever
like they did. He did not have to be at
the White House, but he demanded it, and so they
said okay, and then he shows up and he keeps
hammering away at demands for guaranteed security, which means what
what does that mean? Guaranteed security? Well, I guess to
one extreme, it could be nukes in Ukraine. We send
nukes back into Ukraine after we convinced them after the
fall of the Soviet Union to get rid of them.
All right, that was a mistake, but because if they
had nukes, they probably would not have been invaded. Or
what membership in NATO is that what he thinks the
guaranteed security is? Is it ground troops? American ground troops
in order to fight the Russians again a nuclear power.
This is why Donald Trump when he was screaming at
Zelensky at the end of that Oval Office press availability,
he said, you're you're leading us down a path towards
World War III. And that's when he was like, you
don't have the cards, you don't have any leverage. He said,
we are not playing cards. It's not card game, which
I guess that's an idiom that is lost to the
Ukrainian president that you know you don't have any you
don't have a strong hand. It's not saying it's a
card game. It's a question or it's an analogy rather
for leverage, for your strength in your position, and he
doesn't have it. And this is the thing that I
keep wondering as I see the analysis coming in from
not just the lefties, but also people on the right
that also, by the way, hey Donald Trump, that are like,
we got to keep supporting, keep supporting, keep supporting. It's like,
what's the end game here? How do you think this ends?
What's the like, what's the what's the solution? What's the
exit strategy? Is there one? Because I never hear it,
I never hear an exit strategy from the people that
are promoting this guarantee of security. What is it? What
does that look like? Nobody will say why it's a
brain buster. Here's a great idea.
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make memories that'll last a lifetime. News Talk eleven ten
ninety nine three WBT. The phone number seven oh four
five seven zero eleven ten. The email is Pete at
the petecalendershow dot com and that is spelled k A
l I n e R on Twitter at Pete Calendar. Okay,
so this is according to the BBC report from over
the weekend. I do have your emails. We'll get to
your emails after this big meeting with the European Union leaders.
The French president Emmanuel Macron, he told Laffiguarreau, Lafiguarou, figure
out Figureau newspaper, and then he went on to say
that Paris and London wanted to propose a a one
month truce between Russia and Ukraine in the air, at
sea and on energy infrastructure. Speaking at a news conference
shortly after the meeting of leaders Gerstarma, He's German said
they had agreed on four points. Here they are the
four points. Number one, to keep military aid flowing into
Ukraine and to keep increasing the economic pressure on Russia.
Number two that any lasting piece must ensure Ukraine's sovereignty
and security, and Ukraine must be present at any peace talks.
Number three in the event of a piece deal, to
boost Ukraine's defensive capabilities to deter any future invasion. And
number four to develop a coalition of the willing to
defend the deal in Ukraine and to guarantee peace afterwards.
And if that sounds like ground troops, it's because it
means ground troops. Starmer also announced an additional one point
six billion pounds so two billion dollars of uk export
finance to buy more than five thousand air defense missiles. Okay,
that's a loan. This comes on top of a two
billion pound loan to provide more military aid to Ukraine
backed by profits from frozen Russian assets. He said, we
have to learn from the mistakes of the past. We
cannot accept a weak deal which Russia can breach with ease. Instead,
any deal must be backed by strength. The Prime Minister
did not state which countries had agreed to join this
coalition of the Willing, but said that those who had
committed would intensify planning with real urgency. We're gonna go
plan Baby. The UK, he said, would back its commitment
with boots on the ground and planes in the air.
He said Europe must do the heavy lifting, before adding
that the agreement would need US backing and had to
include Russia, but then Moscow could not be allowed to
dictate terms. So again European boots on the ground, which
means if they get attacked then NATO can invoke Article
five and drag us into war. That seems to be
the framework of their plan. Countries at the summit include France, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Norway, Turkey, Wait, Turkey,
sorry turquea as they pronounce it now, but do not
call it the Gulf of America people okay, Czech Republic, Mark, Germany,
the Netherlands, Romania, Finland, Italy, Spain and Canada. European Commission
to President Ursula Vanderleyen said that there was now an
urgent need to rearm Europe. Well it took you long
enough Europe, It's only been what eighty years? All right?
If you're listening to this show, you know I try
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as they make the media landscape more transparent. News Talk
eleven ten ninety nine three WBT seven four five seven
zero eleven ten. Email is Pete at the Pete calendarshow
dot Com. All right, let me, I got some emails,
some audio clips. So first off, let me I'll read
some emails here. This is Junior. I'm just deciding which
way I want to go here because I want to
get to the audio, because I also have a bunch
of audio from Marco Rubio who made several appearances for
interviews and explained a lot of this stuff, which like
the backstory here. Well, let me start here from that
BBC article before I get to the emails. After this
European summit, Zelenski said to reporters at a final press
briefing after he met with King Charles the Third, he
said he was ready to sign a deal on minerals
with the US. Like well, then, what the hell did
you just do? Why did you blow up the Oval
Office meeting? Like why did you let that get By
the way, did you see the video of the like
the Ukrainian ambassador to America. She was sitting in the
front row and you could see her and she's just
as he starts, as Zelensky starts going after vance, she
just like she starts looking down and she just puts
her head in her hands, just shaking her head like
she knew right then and there. And then there was
this from loud Peter Mandelsson the British and as to
the United States. He went on ABC's This Week with
George Stephanopolis and called on Zelensky to give his unequivocal
backing to Trump's initiative for peace in Ukraine.
Speaker 2: We need a very radical reset, as you say in
the caption behind you, and the reset has to consist
of the United States and Ukraine getting back on the
same page and President Zelenski giving his unequivocal backing to
the initiative that President Trump is taking to end the
war and to bring a just and lasting peace to
Ukraine and the Europeans. George too, they need to back
the calls for a ceasefire. And by the way, I
think that Ukraine should be the first to commit to
a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow, and then
as part of the unfolding plan for this negotia, the
Europeans and perhaps some other countries too, have got to
consider how they are going to put forces on the
ground to play their part in providing enduring security and
deterrence for Ukraine. Now that's the reset that we're looking for.
That's what the British Prime Minister is working for in
his meeting in London today.
Speaker 1: All right, So the NATO Secretary General Mark rut or
Rutty root tay whatever he said, the meeting had seen
European countries stepping up quote unquote to make sure Ukraine
has what it needs to quote stay in the fight
as long as it has to like that, so war
without end. The US Treasury Secretary Scott Besson warned a
deal on minerals between the US and Ukraine could not
be signed without a peace deal with Russia. The US
has also begun piece talks with Russia excluding Ukraine, and
that's angered Ukraine. How dare you look? This is what
Trump was asking, like, why do you care how we
get Russia to the table. If it gets them to
the table, you cannot even start talking about any kind
of a peace agreement, any kind of a cessation of
the violence. If one side won't come to the table,
you gotta get them both at a table right, whether
that happens first alone and then eventually together whatever, Like,
I don't think I have ever seen this kind of
resistance to attempt to broker a peace agreement. But I
know Orange Man bit right. That's the that's really the
big problem here, all right, Junior says, I can't figure
out why we are not seeing a forensic account of
the money we have sent to Ukraine. I actually have
info on this. There's no way that someone isn't getting
very rich from war. Oh, people always get rich in war.
I am sure Zelensky is benefiting somehow. He has purchased
a private island somewhere one one thing. I once worked
for the US marshals. The basic techniques for the locating
of fugitives were to focus on money and sex surrounding fugitives.
The lives of political leaders are not different. We need
an examination of Zelenski's life after receiving funds from America.
Following the money trail will also lead to several American
political leaders who have done very well from funding Ukraine. Yeah, Ukraine,
this is the problem Ukraine has been and everyone has known.
This has been a money laundering jurisdiction for many people.
And it's been corrupt right for a long time, and
so there's not a lot of trust there, particularly in
this administration. I mentioned the money part. Let me give
you this is FROMM.
Speaker 2: To DO.
Speaker 1: Economists for Ukraine. Okay, So they did an analysis. They
performed an independent analysis on publicly available data. The findings
show that in three years of the full scale war,
the total monetary value of usaid delivered to Ukraine's government
amounts to just under fifty one billion dollars, of which
eighteen point three billion comprised military aid and the rest
of thirty two point six billion is direct budget support
in the form of expense reimbursement through the World Bank
and collateral for loans. These figures, in particular, the military
aid component, differ from the appropriation amounts by a factor
of two to three. The US government has valued its
military aid to Ukraine at just under sixty six billion dollars. However,
this group's estimate puts it at eighteen point three billion.
The discrepancy between the appropriation amounts and the values computed
in the independent analysystems from three factors. One. The majority
of US military a to Ukraine has come in the
form of existing equipment from US stockpiles. We are giving
them stuff, okay, when they track every weapon provided and
consider the vintage of these weapons, their full depreciation and
their failure rates rendering the equipment unusable by our army,
the value, they say is lower than what the American
military estimates the value to be. See, and I've been
saying this for a while too, that like the money
that we allocate quote unquote is going to our military
defense contractors. They're building new systems and stuff, they're building
new weapons. We are keeping those and we're sending Ukraine
the old stuff. So that so it's difficult to determine
because we're like inflating the value of what those of
what that aid looks like because that's for domestic consumption,
and then we send them the old stuff and that
is of a depreciated nature. So it's not as if
all of the uh, the aid is a check, right,
It hasn't all been that. So anyway, these guys are
saying that the number is somewhere around fifty to sixty
Just talk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT seven oh
four five seven oh eleven ten email sped at the
Pete Calender shoe dot Com. So a couple things. Europe
says it's going to step up to help in your
in Ukraine. Ground troops. They're gonna they're talking about sending
ground troops now into Ukraine. And they've given loans, not
direct payments, you know, just they're they're giving loans, which
I don't know. Like somebody asked me on in an email, like,
was Joe Biden aware that we could just do loans?
I don't know. Joe Biden not being aware of a
lot of things. That's pretty on brand. But get this,
the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Okay,
not exactly a right wing organization. They're saying the third
year of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, EU imports
of Russian fossil fuels in particular remain largely unchanged, totaling
almost twenty two billion euros worth of exports of revenue. Notably,
EU imports of Russian fossil fuels in the third year
of the invasion surpassed the amount of financial aid that
they have sent to Ukraine. So they're actually funding the
Russian war machine more so than Ukraine. Like how insane
is this? I mean, they really don't have much of
a choice because they went all green energy and such right,
shutting off all sorts of power generation forms, and then
they had to rely on well, the same energy sources,
but from Russia this time. Russia's stronghold over new markets
also solidified. In the third year of the invasion, the
three biggest buyers of Russian fossil fuels China, India and
Turkey sorry Turkah, however they pronounce it now. The value
of India and Turkey's imports saw a year on year
increase of eight percent in India increase in six percent
for Turkey. Despite a host of sanctions, Russian revenues the
third year have dropped by a mere eight percent compared
to the year prior to the invasion of Ukraine. They
have made Russia has made eight hundred and forty seven
billion euros since the beginning of the invasion from fossil
fuels exported, so almost a trillion euros in revenue Russia's making.
Russia's increase use of shadow tankers to transport oil to
its new markets enable it to bypass the oil price cap,
and they relied on almost six hundred of these shadow
ships to transport more than half of its total seaborn
oil exports. It almost seems like they don't have a
clear sightline on what an exit strategy looks like here
over in Europe, right, because they are reliant on Russia fuel,
and so they're funding the Russian war machine and then
turning around and doing loans to Ukraine to fight the
Russian war machine that is funded by them. This is nuts.
The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk before his flight to
London for that EU summit, he said, five hundred million
Europeans are asking three hundred million Americans to defend them
against one hundred forty million Russians. And then he said
it again in the interview. He was like, five hundred
million Europeans are asking three hundred million Americans to defend
them against one hundred and forty million Russians. Europe lacks
the belief that we are truly a global force. So
what happened with Zelensky? What was the deal? I don't
have time to play this audio clip right now, to
play at the beginning of the next hour. But Zelensky
came to the United States to sign the minerals deal.
He demanded that the signing occur here and in front
of the world. The deal could have been signed anywhere.
But according to David Strom at hard Air hotair dot com,
the zay Man wanted to sit down with Donald Trump
and this has been This is very on brand for Zelensky.
You'll recall that's what he was demanding of Donald Trump
during the quote perfect phone call that prompted Democrats to
impeach Donald Trump, right, because Zelensky was trying to get
an Oval Office meeting with Trump, and Trump wanted to
know like how the Bidens were doing their deals in Ukraine.
He wanted information about the corruption revolving around Hunter Biden
in his seat on the board of Barisma, for which
he was paid fifty thousand dollars a month, and that
led to his impeachment. And then there were reports that
the z Man met with Democrats before the Oval Office meeting.
In fact, one of the Democrats at the meeting tweeted
out a picture of the meeting. Strom says, most people
have conveniently forgotten that it was Zelenski himself who first
proposed a minerals deal like this to tie the US
to Ukraine, I mean by something other than payoffs. To
Hunter Biden, of course, but like this, that was the
point of the deal. Trump said this in the Oval Office.
Rubio has said it, like, you have the deal with
us for the minerals. We are now there. We have
an economic interest in your country and it is tied
to our national security. This is a better position for
you to be in because it may prevent Russia from
getting any ideas about any further incursions because now we've
got big time economic interest that they're going to be
messing around with, and instead Zelensky's like I want security demands,
Like what are you doing, dude? Just sign the agreement?
All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you
so much for listening. I could not do the show
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