41 Comments

Mark, great chat. Along with many others here I appreciate your time and insight.

You & Luongo didn’t know the name of the judge who released the Epstein files. That would Loretta Preska. Bush 41 nominated her to the bench in 1992. W nominated her to the 2nd District Court of Appeals but the Senate never acted upon the nomination. She’s now on senior status, meaning limited caseload.

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Right. I went blank on that. Either very courageous or ... word came down to pull the trigger?

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Great point.

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Options I see are Supreme Court (no current vacancies), Ca Gov or CA Senate. However, Pelosi wants Schiff to fit Senate seat. If she ends without a chair, it will hit hit fan. They've made their bed...

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I tend to avoid podcasts and videos, they simply take up too much time. And Tom's poscasts are some of the worst: he dominates the conversation timewise. I wouldn't think he's a narcissist but he's at minimum self-involved.

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Bingo. Maybe publish a transcript? Tom has some strengths but he is one of those guys who tries to talk in riddles and inside inferences too much. I'm an academic and deal with folks like that all day. I prefer when people cut to the chase.

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Spot on! Lately Tom seems obsessed with demonstrating how smart and knowledgeable HE is rather than explaining and analysing events in a way that a lay person who doesn’t work in the finance industry or spend all day on his Slack channel can understand. I find all the bad language and angry ranting a bit of a turn-off too. It’s a shame, as he could be a much bigger player if had more discipline and humility. His written material - the blog posts and the newsletter - are generally excellent and I find those very clear and insightful.

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I agree that he could probably expand his audience greatly if he learned to become more of a teacher. That would require a big switch and could prove time consuming. OTOH, I don't really know anyone else who's gone into the same issues as deeply.

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I am listening now to Mr. Wauck's discussion. Mr. Luongo seems okay. They seem to be having a good conversation.

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I'm looking forward to listening to it. Your name is getting out there. It's a reward for all of your hard work, insightfulness and honesty.

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Just finished listening to this in toto. What a treat to hear my two favorite geopolitical analysts/thinkers converse and exchange ideas!

I think you complement each other really well. I have been trying to think of how to explain why this is so. The best I can do is to say that perhaps Luongo's scientific method, inductive reasoning, and game theory skills mesh with your Aristotelian logic, Thomist realism, and common sense :). Of course you are both good communicators. I think ultimately the commonality lies in that you both have an exceptional understanding of human nature (even agreeing that yes, there is in fact a single human nature:). You both have valuable talents and perspectives to offer independently of one another and yet it is great to see you do so in tandem (there is synergy there). Thanks very much and I hope we have the opportunity to see/hear you do more together.

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Oy you’re getting chummy with all the big shots… not that you’re not a big shot. Um, you know what I mean. Perhaps TL can learn a thing or two from us commentators… nah. Forget it. Congrats Mark!

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Looking forward to your remarks regarding this incredible situation with the SOD gross dereliction of duty. I didn’t think it was possible for this administration to look anymore pathetic, I obviously underestimated their abilities.

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Jan 9·edited Jan 9

Congrats on the podcast with Tom!

I agree with Tom, the pro Palestinian protests in the U.S. smell of Astro Turf and the usual suspects. Most of the left, especially Dei/ crt backers are backing the pro Palestine protests. And the protests are way too professional.

I agree with you on the grassroots level of blacks and Arabs of the unhappiness with the Biden Israel policy.

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Haven’t gotten to it yet but glad you got to do it, Mark. You’ve promoted Tom so much, nice to see him have you on and (hopefully) give you some props and additional exposure.

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Listening now and enjoying your contributions when Tom gives you a chance to speak (and you have a great voice by the way)! I’m not sure why Tom invites people on his podcast only so he can talk over the top of them - especially when we already listen to him twice a week on his market reports and on other people’s podcasts all the time. I think Tom is very smart and I am one his patrons but I do wish he would listen more and talk less on his podcast - especially when he has great guests on like you 😊

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I agree - seems one has to fight for airtime with TL

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Heh. In my day I've been accused of monopolizing conversations.

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Thanks. It may interest you to know that my wife said she barely recognized my voice. I borrowed her iPad, and the mic is probably pretty basic.

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Sounds like @MichelleObama is looking at the #BatSignal & #TestingTheWaters for when @JoeBiden gets dumped.

https://twitter.com/dom_lucre/status/1744432072679182562?t=KFjutFcsV6oKlj0UXUZYqw&s=19

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Desperate times… desperate measures.

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Funny, I was leaning more toward Lady Macbeth 3.0.

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Recognition of bad spot they're in with poor prognosis on Newsome or Kamala candidacy chances.

Desperate times call for ...

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Any such plans require a booby prize for Kamala or she can play spoiler. Her best play is to sit and wait.

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Halfway through. Just enjoyed the excursus into the power of saying "no". Onwards...

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Good conversation. As Will Schryver put it in his post titled Open Defiance: "Nothing unites the human playground quite like one intrepid soul willing to stand, fight, and humble the bully." With hypersonic missiles. Or drones launched from Yemen.

Mark, I appreciate your blog as it introduces me to new perspectives from so many Americans who understand we've got no other place to go. You can't just move from a blue state to a red state, that's not how it works.

Thanks for the link to Danny Davis the other day, and his heartfelt call to only call on Americans to serve in an army that defends American interests (rather than the interests of Empire).

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If things get as dicey as I expect them too, we may not have the option of “not moving”, it may be our only option. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

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@Tamsin

"You can't just move from a blue state to a red state, that's not how it works."

Well, we moved from a blue state to a red state 11 years ago and...it helps! :-) Everything is so much healthier here.

But you're right. Its not the whole answer.

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You're very welcome. I'm way behind today, gotta catch up.

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Same here brother. I’m with GGG and Mark’s gang. Pretty fricking good groups of Patriots!

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Looking forward to listening. I'm also a member of Tom's Patreon group and I'm sure you two had a very interesting and insightful conversation. Happy Monday!

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Great session, almost done. Love Col. Macgregor but like him in NSA or SecDef role. Byron Donald should be Trump VP choice, imo. Outstanding communicator, Especially in hostile environments like CNN & MSNBC. While Doug is good, I think he can be a bit cerebral as he explains context. While helpful, Byron's more direct style ould appeal better to the average voter.

Wasn't sure what you meant about Doug, Scott and others "trying to break out of that box" could you kindly shed more light on that please?

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Jan 8·edited Jan 8

I assume it means breaking out of the neocon box in which only the projection of American military power can safely keep the world safe for democracy, i.e. we are the global mall cops, the only ones who can be trusted to "do the right thing" ha ha ha.

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Maybe too kind on neocons - cops and all. Where obama is an empty suit, brandon is an empty cranium, and neocons are empty hearts.

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To what end? Additional provocation of Russia? That's what got us here in the 1st place.

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RemovedJan 9·edited Jan 9
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"If mobilized Finland could put 100k to 180k somewhat trained fighters in the field within a few months."

A few months? How long do you think it would take the new Russian northern army to reach Helsinki? If they really wanted to do this Russia could probably be in Oslo in a few months.

"Putin has cleverly offered [Poland] territory"

No. What he has said is that maybe the people in Galicia/Western Ukraine would prefer to rejoin Poland. Putin, in addition to being a student of history, is a bit of a humorist. He knows very well that those people HATE Poles and Poland as much as they hate Russians. And he knows that the last thing most Poles want is more Ukrainians within their borders. He's having some fun, but his serious point to Poland is that if they don't want to be swamped with Ukrainians and see their homogeneous country totally transformed, then they have a real interest in finding a way to get along with Russia's plans for Ukraine.

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I'm trying to catch up this morning and I'm listening to Mercouris, Diesen and a Russia expert, Geoffrey Roberts. They just got to the point of discussing Western Ukraine and what Putin has said about that recently. Mercouris repeats what I just said--not an offer, but suggestion that maybe Western Ukrainians would prefer to join Poland. Mercouris laughs and says he has seen NO EVIDENCE of any such desire by Ukrainians.

It occurs to me that Putin may be making a subtle threat to Western Ukrainians, using Poland as the traditional boogeyman. IOW, hey Ukies, play ball with Russia or maybe you want to become Poles. That's a true threat to Ukrainians.

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RemovedJan 10
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Thorns get pulled out.

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Why do you want to expand NATO? It’s usefulness is overrated and their missions are generally bad for humanity

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Yes. The balance is reserves. Which, according to internet sources, may be quite a bit more than 180K.

But a military confrontation between Russia (pop. ~150M) and Finland (pop. ~5.5M) would be grossly assymetrical.

I'm thinking Finland also had many good reasons to stay out of NATO, which it had done since NATO was formed.

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Uh, Wikipedia says 24k active personnel. I'm going with that number.

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