Comments by "" (@tekannon7803) on "GZERO Media" channel.

  1. Ian, I have only one thing to say on the Pelosi visit to Taiwan. I am not in international affairs but what I see being on the other side of the world from you in the USA is that if Pelosi would have backed down, it would have given China's leader an incalculable propaganda victory and bells would have been ringing across China and other dictatorship run countries across the world saying that the US was now in China's proverbial pocket. By not backing down---even when President Biden signalled a retreat from her position was what he would prefer---Pelosi, in my humble opinion has put America back on the map so-to-speak. To me, Pelosi's stubborness has shown to the world at large that America is now 100% its own master and no one is going to dictate policy to her. I would still be saying this if the Chinese had gone through with the invasion, because it's going to come to blows one day down the road, might as well happen now. It must grind your gears to hear armchair strategists like myself throw out these think-bombs, but I think history will regard Pelosi standing up to the CCP and President Xi as the moment when the momentum shifted back in the USA's favor and the vestiges of the failed Trump Administration and the disgraced former president were finally left to wither and die and be cast into the dustbin of history.
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  2. The most important thing you say in this vocast Ian is of course 'war fatigue'. I live 2,000 kilometers from Kiev and so I'm naturally glued to the unfolding events, but this cannot be the case for someone living in Kansas or Calgary or Lima, Peru and the like. What I see is the only result that can make sense out of the invasion is for the Ukrainians to win back the Donbas. What I think is going to happen as the Ukrainian military muscle gets beefed up is that they will begin to have the upper hand by being able to shell the Russians at distances that the Russians cannot retaliate against. But a lot of things are going to have to be played out until then and this is where it gets dicey. The land corridor the Russians are building is a trap for the Ukrainians and must be taken back. What we have to do is somehow keep a shining light on this conflict and never let it get dampened or God forbid, extinguished---We can alreday see China is sending fighters into Taiwanese airspace to do exactly that: to get the world's eye off the ball in the Ukraine so that Russia can play the time game and wait till the news cycle goes to rinse i.e. until the world has forgotten the war that Ukraine has fought so bravely.
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  3. Mr Bremer, you are a voice of wisdom in this increasingly expanding war in Ukraine. I live 2,000 kilometers from Kiev and it seems like it is getting closer by the day. I have no experience in international affairs; I am an artist and an armchair strategist. I see things this way. Ukraine is going to take back all of its territory including Crimea and the land it annexed in 2014. They will do this by being better fighters, because they are fighting for their own country. What is worrying about my prediction is that driving the Russians out of the Ukraine won't stop there. They will re-group and have to make up for this terrible humiliation of being out-foxed by a renegade province. They will have to save face. Ian, I don't know if that means bringing the war to Poland and the Baltic States, but they won't accept being defeated by an outlier country. It's an opinion. Lastly, I think the Russians will see their loss becoming clear to them in the battle of Mariupol. The Ukrainians are masters of urban warfare and Mariupol can only be won fighting building by building. What do you see for this conflict at Easter of 2023?
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  4. One has to agree with Ian on his assessment of Secretary of Defense Austin saying the goal was to diminish Russia's ability to intimidate its neighbors militarily. To say point blank that the US wants to weaken Russia's ability to do so seemed like a diplomatic faux pas.
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  5. I have to come in on the Crimea issue. We musn't forget the Tar Tars (correct me if I have their name wrong) were forcibly removed by Stalin from their native Crimea, I think they want to go back home to Crimea if I have my facts right. But Ian, you and I and most people who haven't been invaded by Russian armed forces don't realize the absolute revulsion towards anything Russian being a part of their territory after what they have suffered from Putin's absolutely horrible way of targeting civilian targets and destroying infra-structure. Aren't there something like 25,000 unmarked graves that we know of in Marisupol, for example? No; I understand the facts you have said and they would make perfect sense if this had really been a fighting man's war, but because of the cruel and inhuman way that Putin has led his armies and the massive civilian targeting, no level-minded Ukrainian would ever allow Crimea to remain in even the most neutral way in Russian hands.
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  6. Ian, what I do not understand is that from Day 1 of the Israeli counteroffensive i.e., its incursion into Gaza, why on earth haven't neighboring Arab countries allowed Palestinian civilians to be able to be housed in their countries? Countless deaths could have been prevented, say, if Jordan had agreed to let Palestinians to take refuge in their country until the fighting was over in Gaza. I deplore all harm that has been done to both sides of the conflict, but I cannot fathom why thed 26 Arab nations have not lifted a finger to get women and children and men out of harm's way.
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  7. Excuse me, Ian, but at approximately 1:04 you said the Palestinians who number more than a million are getting ready for a ground assault from the Israeli army because they have nowhere else to go. What on earth is going on over there? Aren't there something like 26 Arab countries in the region? And: none of them are taking in innocent men, women and children from Gaza? How can this be?
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  8. Ian, I know the following question will put me on your outlier list, but what can you offer as advice to China so that they get back on the road to prosperity? What would you do if you were in charge of getting the Chinese economy back to good health?
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  9. For a military analysis, what I don't get is that we all can look at the war maps and see that the only reason the Urkrainians are not pushing the Russians out is because of land mines, trenches and dragons' teeth. Boys and girls, if America or Britain or France or Germany were leading the charge, carpet bombing the mine fields would come first, ground support aircraft like the legendary and highly feared Warhogs with their 50 caliber cannons and machine guns would make mince meat of fleeing enemy soldiers. G-9 bulldozers would clear out the murder holes, Apache attack choppers would be strafing the trenches and artillery batteries and the like. Let us help the Ukrainians win by at least giving them the weapons and equipment they need to push the Russians back to their borders.
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  10. Very good analysis Ian. It is fascinating how well-researched your data is and your evaluations always show all sides of the problem at hand. Lastly, and it has bothered me since it happened, but isn't this detail in the Alexander Dugan assassination attempt intriguing? Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read, seconds before he was going to take off in his chauffeured car, Dugan apparently suddenly had a change of mind and switched cars with his daughter and she ended up taking his car and becoming the victim. Did he know there was a bomb or was he told?
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  11. I'm not a military man, but I think the Americans and their allies spent 20 years doing everything they could to bring the Afghanistan people and the country and the culture up-to-speed so that it could move along on its own. The criticism is ferocious and probably is right in a lot of way that the US and its allies and NATO soldiers and UN troops should have stayed longer. But my perspective is this: if after 20 years you do everything in your power to help a nation get on its feet and the day you leave a group of ragtag terrorists hiding in the mountains can come out of nowhere and emerge from their hideouts and take over the entire country, then you have to come to the same conclusion as I have and I'm sure a lot of other people and that is that whoever the Afghanistan people are, they lack any desire to be their own masters. Think of it. Someone helps you out for two decades and you've got a job and a house and the kids are alright and suddenly the person helping you out moves on and the next day you're homeless and living in a tent on main street in some Southwestern town in the US? What does it say? It says you will never be able to stand up on your own, never be able to live independently and alone. Americans and their allies should not feel guilty. Granted. It is pathetic to see the Taliban take over and show them to be from another period of history in their beliefs. They have carried out an assault on women that is off-the-charts. But I have only one question. Why on earth aren't the Afghanistan men fighting to make sure their women are treated fairly? Why aren't the Afghanistan men outraged to see their women treated like cattle? Twenty years were spent trying to get a nation on its feet. America: you did your best to help out and on top of that many of your finest soldiers lost their lives and all the money that was invested into getting people to see the light brought this result. It's not your fault or your allies' fault. The lessons you tried to teach the Afghanistan people will manifest one day when the Afghanistan people realize that they have been invaded by a sort of cult with nothing else but ancient religious doctrine that makes no sense anymore. The Taliban does not have the best interests of the Afghanistan people in mind; they only want their way of life.
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  12. Ian, as far as the Afghanistan situation is concerned, I think you have said it right--- it's an unconscionable disaster. But I don't think America should be blamed for leaving after 20 years. You can't help people for ever because then they lose a sense of fighting for their own land. Look at the Ukrainian men and women fighting to the last man and last woman to save their land from being swallowed up whole by a superpower! What I am asking you Ian is where are the Afghanistan men? What are they doing? How can they sit back and let their women become reduced to child-bearing females? I am furious to think that we have seen no backlash from Afghanistan's men against the Taliban's mistreatment of their women. This proves I'm right in that if after 20 years of blood and treasure spent by your government to help these people get on the same page as the rest of the world, and the moment good 'ole Uncle Sam goes packin' the country falls apart, then so be it. You can't help someone if they don't want to be helped. If the Afghanistan men are willing to let a parasitic group of religious fanatics turn their country into a men's club, then all the king's men and all the king's women can't do anything to help them.
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  13. Ian, you see the geo--political scene like a political scientist and it is very enlightening for ordinary folks who have really never thought much about NATO and business ties between nations, trade deals etc. So; here we are with a war of a thousand cuts against Ukraine by the Russians. Expertly trained, Ukrainian military forces have stunned the world in their ability to fight. They are an 'A' list country and instructors from all nations training their troops like working with them because they learn fast. My question today is what is the game-changer sort of weapon that is going to put the brakes on the hard men of the Kremlin? Will scores of tank busters, F 16s, Apache choppers zooming across the battle lines make the ghouls who send the missiles pack up and go home? Something isn't right, because the rhetoric from Vlad the Empire Builder is still gung ho. My gut feeling is that Crimea is the bug that should be stepped on. America's greatest living general in my humble opinion, the retired Lt. General Ben Hodges believes that Ukraine will take Crimea in August or has the possibility to do so, time tables have a way of shifting, so we can imagine somewhere down the road it's going to happen and when it does, will it be the day the Russian invasion dies and a new regime comes out of the shadows to thrill us all with an encore?
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  14. It seems like every time I tune in to your show, Ian, there is talk of escalation in the multitude of conflicts that are beginning to look like Canadian wildfires in summer as their numbers increase and the odds of a conflagration drawing in the superpowers threatens to gain in intensity. I do not buy into being a doom sayer, but the slippery slope of hope that things will go back to boring normal seems to fading faster than ever before. The hit on an American military base in Jordan is in my mind someone hoping Uncle Joe takes the bait and ups the ante. I think it would be wise to use reverse psychology on whoever and whomever may be trying to trick the Americans into kickstarting a wider conflict in a region seething with animosity and grief over events no one in the middle east seems to be able to control very well.
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  15. Ian, if my memory serves me well----and to be honest it's not water tight----but Alexander Dugan was the one who at the last minute decided to switch cars with his daughter and this has been a troubling after-thought on the potential political intrigue this is going to generate, but did he know in advance that his car was rigged to explode and then consciously make the decision i.e., to let destiny take its last ride with his daughter? It seems improbable, but Russian psychology is a riddle in anybody's book from this side of their border. You did rule out everyone else but the Ukrainians for the gas pipeline destruction. Why the need-to-know is so pressing at this moment is puzzling, because it might be that the western press ends up shooting itself in the foot by digging into such an ill-timed and potentially damaging propaganda tool for the Russians to use to intensify and escalate the war in the Ukraine.
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  16. Ian, please forgive us for what I am about to say if it is offensive to anyone and/or totally off-the-charts. Please believe me- I hope it is a load of nonsense! Moreover; from the humble and certainly not university educated mind in international affairs of an artist, instead of a world-renown geopolitical person of impeccable prestige such as yourself, please allow me to vent my couped-up anger and fear of what I see coming at us from every known horizon. Above all, let us not take our eye off the ball with the horrendous war in Ukraine. The Israeli conflict with Hamas is tragic and our hearts and prayers go out to the families in Israel and the Gaza strip who have been caught in the crosshairs of a cleverly planned out attack by Hamas aka Iran, Assad in Syria, Putin in Russia, Kim Jong Un in North Korea and the ringleader himself President Xi if my resources serve me well. This is happening when there is no Speaker in the House in America. Boys and Girls, we are seeing what the some may say is the axis of power on the other side of western democracies is serving us on a silver platter. The Donald J. Trump variety show has made every American lawmaker along with former Secretaries of State and Defense deal with imbecilic revelations of a former president who had no business being in government let alone as the President of The United States in the first place. Your adversaries are rubbing their hands together every time the hapless former president utters a word. The Israeli War as Netanyahu calls it was ready to go as soon as America was weakened enough from within and funding being choked for the Ukrainian war and Putin rattling the nuclear sabers. It's only an opinion, but we must not let Ukraine down and take our eye off the Russian aim to disable and render Ukraine essentially uninhabitable if need be. The war in Israel is not against Hamas, Hamas is a proxy for everything the west stands against. We must keep ourselves in readiness for the last domino to fall and that of course is the planned invasion of Taiwan and then to have American power over-extended and therefore vulnerable, much more vulnerable than any of us can imagine. We must stand together and I make this plea to the Republicans and Democrats in your beloved government. Ian: tell them to let their sophomoric silly spats fall to the wayside. Tell your fellow Democrats and Republicans to get a speaker elected asap and band together behind President Biden and Vice-President Harris, because what this way comes is going to make the programmed stock market crash look like a walk in the park. WW III has started in this latest Israeli/Palestinian conflict if my intuition is right and we all should be prepared.
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  17. You're doing a good job Ian, and it's great to hear your important updates on an expanding NATO presence and a world on the brink of WW III: If it's not already kick-started...
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  18. I think we have to be very careful in assessing Israeli citizens moral values. Prime Minister Netanyahu was shoe-horned into a 6th term of power in my opinion, because no one else has got the nerve nor the ability nor the savoir faire to use the rod of iron one needs to rule in a region where human life is equal to how Russian military commanders view their own troops and we all know that is not much at all. I believe Israelis are on the same wave-length as way back in Nixon's time, but what I think has happened, Ian, is that when you have seen rockets raining down on your part of the country or someone you know has been knifed at a bus stop, or blown up in a bus, it's terrible to say, but it hardens people. The 7 October attack has rocked the moral compass of most of the world and as we sit and watch the bombardment of Giza and hear that 150 people use one toilet in 24 hours, there is a time when you don't know what to think. I firmly believe that the best diplomatic tools that can be applied to Prime Minister Netanyahu is to stand behind him on the international stage the same way President Biden would like to hear from Netanyahu if China invades Taiwan and Biden is left between a rock and a hard place with suddenly no friends in sight. It's a hard call, but a peaceful solution will be the outcome for the Palestinians and a homeland secured for them, that is my belief. The Greater Arab Community can make this intolerable situation of homeless Palestinians into an oasis with their own country and we just have to find the color of roses they need to see to change their views on what is happening on their doorstep.
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  19. Ian, forgive me for acting like someone with a geopolitical background in what I am about to say. My disclaimer is that I am an artist, but I try to find solutions. What I believe is that I have a long-term resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Here goes: Gaza must be evacuated and the Palestinians relocated. Every building and infrastructure of every sort should be bulldozed into the ground and the 145 square kilometer land area that Gaza has been should be made into a sort of Galapagos of the middle east. Yes; that's right and it would serve as a nature reserve for endangered species of animal, fish, plant, bird which are perishing at an astounding rate around the planet. This area which is about the size of the Isle of Wight could be transformed into a nature reserve where Palestinians and Israelis could eventually work side by side in saving species from extinction. Just let this roll around in your mind and what you will find coming into your thoughts are pleasant images instead of tragic ones. Ian, in all due respect, I know this peace plan means for us to be cruel to be kind, but the Gaza strip is turning Palestinians into a sort of sub-species of the human community because of the inhumane living conditions it offers. Palestinians need one patch of land, and there are countries around the world who have a need for workers. China has whole cities with apartment buildings with millions of apartments empty, for example. We could at least ask them to help out in taking Palestinians leaving Gaza; same for asking Jordan for more land for the Palestinians. It's a peace plan with something good to replace something bad for all eternity.
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  20. It has got to be one of the hardest things in the world to know someone who is a national leader and watch a video of him getting assassintated. I don't know you Ian, but I think it must be devastating to see a voice of reason and liberty and someone who reached further than just being a Prime Minister----Shinzo Abe was a humanitarian and liked you for who you are and not what your credentials represent you to be. Ian, you're doing a great job and you are contributing to making this a better world and you must use the passing of Shinzo Abe to go even further than you had ever emagined in your life. We know every day people are being extinguished senselessly by an unstable person or an enemy sniper or an incoming missle or an assassin's bullet, but we can't let anything stop us in making the earth a place where everyone can live free and follow their dreams.
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  21. Ian Bremmer is a voice and vast experience in international affairs; each of his vocasts leave one with more understanding of what's going on in the world. In my view, Putin's meeting with the Austrian Chancellor went sour as we all expected, but the more we have meetings from the west with Putin, we will at least have live intel on what he looks like, what he's thinking and what he isn't saying. It's better than hearsay. I don't know if Ian will agree with me, and as a disclaimer; I'm an armchair strategist and work as an artist for my day job, but I see things heating up to where we are going to start calling the Ukraine conflict a pan-European military action with Russia--pun intended. I believe when Mariupol is cetain to fall into Russian control is when the NATO shield gets taken down and NATO troops, aviation and naval vessels go into action to ensure that Mariupol stays in Ukrainian hands. I believe that the Ukrainians, after 7 weeks on the defensive, must move into offensive action on the badlands and open plains where the Russians are now congregating. Yes; I believe we are going to see WW III begin in earnest with the next phase of fighting, but isn't this the only way we can make sure that the west doesn't end up under the control of Russia?
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  22. Ian, there is something unsettling coming from all of what you are saying that I think none of us---and maybe even President Putin---hasn't put together yet. I say this because Putin's ego is too big to ever give in and surrender or give up the fight in Ukraine. I see a man painting himself into a corner of his office and ready to play Russian Roulette with everyone else but himself...
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  23. It is obvious that all or most of the South American countries could tilt the war in Ukraine's favor in an instant by their governments giving up their spare ammunition supplies which are only collecting dust in armories and arms depots across their continent. Ian, I know I speak for many, many people when I say you have been a professor to the entire world with your excellent commentaries composed of sound-bites which stay in the mind and linger and which constantly bring us up-to-speed on global events. You have broken down the key components of the political ‘baseball game’ of the Ukraine war that we are witnessing in interminable 'extra innings' as armchair infantry soldiers. You have made us more than aware that we are a not shaken but stirred west whom has finally awakened to an existential threat that until now we have chosen to neglect at our own peril. What is paramount is for all of us to understand that autocratic regimes---which are analogous to communism ----really mean constant expansion. They are encroaching on us silently and stealthily by gaining ground meter by meter and their target are democratic countries. Thank God for your excellent analyses which allows us to see behind the smoke-and-mirrors and for constantly offering good content in your top notch vocasts.
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  24. Ian, in all due respect to you as someone not only myself, but many people Iook up to and listen to on a regular basis. Former Lt. General (Ret.) Ben Hodges would vehemently disagree with you in your statements that Ukraine cannot recover its lost territories. General Hodges knows one thing: how to win a war. General Hodges believes Ukraine will win this war. Ian, this is America's greatest living general---in my opinion---openly stating that Ukraine can win the war. My question is this: who would you listen to? My prediction, and I am someone who is about to publish a---are you ready for this? A children's book! My prediction is that General Hodges knows his stuff; Ukraine will soon have Crimea in its grasp and Russian forces will be retreating!
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  25. The GZERO show is ending the year 2023 with at least one new fan. I think Ian Bremmer has done an outstanding job of examining, well, outstanding problems that are shaking and baking societies across the world in the proverbial oven of the Armageddon sympathizers. To Ukraine's credit, the Russians have held firm against a counteroffensive by a country going at Russian front lines with no air superiority, no carpet-bombing of the endless minefields, sometimes with 5 mines planted per meter! It has moved ahead without G-9 bulldozers making acres of dragons' teeth go away. It has moved forward without Warthog ground support fighter planes loaded with 50 mm cannon and one of foot soldiers most feared weapons to deal with. It has gone ahead without Apache Attack Helicopters which would have taken out machine gun nests, troop carriers, anti-aircraft guns, missile carriers. It has gone ahead without F-16s which would have ground any Russian counteroffensive to a swift halt and also taken out dozens of hidden artillery batteries. Boys and girls, does anyone realize that the Ukraine was given the go-ahead to do their counteroffensive without any of the aforementioned weapon systems and kit albeit tanks, Himars and anti-tank Javelins etc. The last I want to say about AI is that recently in an interview, someone said that an AI robot was questioned by another robot about if it was a robot. Listen carefully, because if this is true, we are all in for a shock-future: the robot which was questioned had its inner thoughts revealed and it was asking itself if it should answer the question honestly and say, yes, or come up with a lame excuse. Boys and girls, this sounds like consciousness in its nascent stages of a silicon-machine-brain right off the assembly line. The ball is in the human community's court, Ian and Zeynep, but have we already lost the AI championship match in advance?
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  26. It's great to have your views on the Ukrainian war. It's sad to see the political dysfunction in your country, but perhaps the best thing former President Trump has done is to show how fragile democracies are and how an outlier can do so much damage to a country like America, but what democracies can do over autocratic regimes as you have said is they can overcome divisions and self-improve. What people fail to relalize is that new tools are necessary move ahead and unite your nation; you can't fix the current problems that you are confronting with the old set of tools that used to work. Until new ideas are put into place, things will continue to be in log-jam status. It's easy to say; it's hard to do.
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  27. I have to comment on this atrocity of human behavior, antisemitism, that is an embarrassment to the entire human community. Every single person born and living on planet earth deserves one thing: living his or her life in the way he or she pleases. Please, forgive me if I am wrong, but I do not know who it is or what kind of people are attacking Jewish people, but what I want to say to them is that you are doing a great disservice and harm to people who happen to be Jewish and simply because you do not agree with what they say or what they do merits calling them down. Boys and girls, this is not a good reason to attack someone simply because they are a part of a sect or religious organization. What people don't realize is that it is hurtful to have someone not like you simply because you belong to a certain religious group or do things that the majority of people disagree with. This must stop. There is no reason to ever attack someone because of their faith. All plumbers wear blue socks! What is wrong with this statement? Obviously, all plumbers do not wear blue socks and all Jewish people cannot be thrown into the same basket because someone might find that one person of the Jewish faith has committed a crime, for example. Lastly, Ian Bremmer might be Jewish or he might be from Mars, but it does not matter because he does his job the best way he can and if you don’t like his analyses, that is your right, but you have no right to condemn him because he is Jewish and says something you disagree with. Let's be real: it hurts when one is slandered, or prejudiced because of one's color, nationality or creed.
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  28. Your analyses make sense, but it's scary looking ahead into what is possibly coming down the pike Ian. Could you fill us what scenario is the one Putin will probably stick to and use as far as the war in Ukraine is concerned? Do you see Mariupol as the keystone in the war in Ukraine? Isn't it the most important thing the Ukrainian army must do is keep Mariupol in Ukrainian hands?
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  29. There is a reason I keep tuning in to GZERO Media with Ian Bremmer. Say what you will, Bremmer does one thing that makes one respect him: he tells it like it is and does not hold back on criticizing even his own country! What Ian said at 10:38 in this videocast was one of those wake-up moments I have been waiting for to make me understand the Russian power players' pysche: they do not respect the rights and especially human rights of those countries around them that they can conquer. Ian says that Putin does not repect any rights of any country that is not powerful. This tells us what we have not been able to understand---or that I have not understood until now---but it's true. This is why Putin's war machine, Z-Ruzzia, will march to the Baltic Sea, take back the Baltic States, reduce Poland to farming communities and the like. Lastly, faux journalist Tucker Carlson may honk his horn to the international community with his load of alternative facts, but there is no way he did not have a very personal message from Uncle Joe when the mics were turned off. My guess is that Uncle Joe offered an offramp for Putin to be able to retreat from Ukraine without losing face. As Ian has pointed out, Putin has no respect for a country weaker than his to take over; add into the cooking pot that this country whips his hide and you have a great power and a great people scorned, ridiculed and humiliated across the world for decades. This is why we are at the most dangerous point in the war and why Tucker Carlson is doing a pseudo-interview of a Russian President who desperately needs a way to make all of this go away.
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  30. Ian, isn't the only solution to gun safety in your country by having every American who is qualified to and can operate one own a hand gun and preferably wear it at all times? Wouldn't this throw a spike in the wheels of people that go to public places expressly to kill other people. Lastly, is this the solution to hate crime? I think if politicians used a variation of this phrase it might just put a serious dent in some people's belief systems. Here goes; every person has the right to be here. Period. Every one, no matter who they are or where they live, have the right to be on the Earth and that means in the country of their choice and obviously legally living in a country.
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  31. Excellent interview Ian! You gracefully conduct one of your best interviews with Kim Ghattas who eschews wisdom and pragmatic insights into the escalation of tensions in a region wound tighter than a hangman's noose. What we see is Israel emerging from the sands of time as a country after centuries of its people scattered across the globe in diaspora. Now it has become a nation and its sensibilities are worn to the bone as it flexes its muscles at every conflagration or harmful act to one of its citizens. However, like all newborns and beginners the reactions from a pinprick have led to a cannon ball response and now terrorist organizations have resulted from regional societies unable to administer aid to their own peoples. Spiraling out of control, we now see that these same terrorist groups know full well in advance that they can stoke up the fires of retribution from their Israeli adversary and come out the winner of public opinion on a regular basis. The worst thing and most abhorrent images to see are that the real losers here: the civilians. World leaders take heed: Violence only leads to more violence and destruction of ordinary people's dreams to lead a good life...
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  32. Ian, you do a great service with your vocasts. It feels like being back in university at times, you know what I mean, when the professor would go off-subject and interject a comment or two on current events. What I am writing about today is that no one is saying anything about the 'mobbing' or 'mass-harassment' the Taiwanese people must be undergoing and feeling practically every single day of the year. What is mobbing? I call it mass-harassment and it is not easy to deal with if anyone has experienced it. It's murder now-a-days because people are tuned into their portable phones. What it is all about is that someone, for some reason or another is deemed to be an outlier for one reason or another. One person forms a group and then they all get together to synchronize their attacks. They zero-in on somebody mercilessly and they are there to show up at designated spots i.e., the target-person's every move is monitored. It wears you down psychologically. Imagine having jets scream by overhead on a daily basis---sure you get used to getting buzz-bombed, but a lot of people are not very solid psychologically, so I imagine Taiwanese people live in a sort of constant stress; Taiwan has become a nervous cage rather than an island paradise.
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  33. I was going out to a party and I thought, well, why not onelast dose of Ian Bremmer's delightful and often inciteful videocasts. Wrong, wrong and double wrong on this one. I will be arriving at the party with facts like Ukraine supplies 1/5 of all maize to the world, Ukraine has 30% of global wheat and barley exports, and more than half of the world's sunflower oil and because of Putin's breaking the grain agreement, it will be axacerbating hunger in countries like Ethiopa. Guess who will not be the guest at the party the most warmly recieved! Thanks Ian, now I am an outlier...
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  34. Ian, forgive us for talking about something so personal, but you could use botox on your forehead. It will save you from doing it later in life when the lines are practically impossible to remove as the skin is too damaged.
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  35. I know I speak for many people when I say I hope we will see you giving your videocasts when you've lived over one hundred summers, Ian! Henry Kissinger shows us what a future man will be i.e., commonplace in society as age is really only a number. If your mind is clear and you are in good heatlh, it does not matter what year you were born in. What Kissinger has been able to do in his life is to have made decisions that according to some have caused a lot of good and then for others a lot of decisions that didn't. What is remarkable is that at the same time he has moved on in spite of the controversy over some dicey calls and he has made some very positive contributions to society and shared precious knowledge that has helped his government and the west. The jury is still out on political misfits coming back to the stable of stars on the international stage; the controversial Assad of Syria a case in point. Nonetheless, like Henry the 'K' as he used to be called, Kissinger is unclassifiable, but how history will judge him and his legacy and only a gifted biographer and decades of time will tell.
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  36. Very good videocast and solid, concrete and well-thought-out responses to often very pertinent questions are the hallmark of Ian Bremmer’s quick take videocasts. Ian, you are doing the free world and probably many trapped in countries who only get a trickle of information from the west a great service. If I have one criticism about everyone weighing in on what or what not Israel should do or say or how they should react. Your President Biden giving Netanyahu and slap on the wrist so-to-speak on the world stage smacked of chastising the poor guy before he got his country into first gear about how to deal with the surprise attack by Hamas. It undermines confidence in oneself when it happens with peers, imagine how it feels with every mainstream network filming it! We should all be saying what we'd like everyone to be saying if we were in charge of preparing a counterattack like Israel is doing; we should be saying we have complete faith in your decisions, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we know you are going to do what is right for Israel and the Palestinians the best way you can. Why do I say this? Because every channel you tune into, some armchair specialist has got a sound bite for how Netanyahu should run his war. This is out of our hands and we have to remember that every single person in Israel is running on high adrenalin to the max; they are in front of a possible fight for their very existence and therefore only words of support make it past their internal censors.
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  37. If this was a perfect world, we would have Ian Bremmer as America's next president...
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  38. Do you know what is absent from your Haiti report, Ian? There should be a coalition of African countries sending troops, police, supplies, doctors---you name it! Haitians are Africans and the mother land should be doing the housekeeping. Uncle Sam always gets the blame for not solving yet another dictorship-gone-bad in the Caribbean. How about a coalition of Caribbean governments sending in help? Or next door in the Dominican Republic? For crying out loud, America can't literally be the world's policeman.
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  39. This videocast is one of the most important messages that everyone should hear it at least once. What I take home in a double-walled cooler is that Elon Musk has got it in his head that he can mimic the American Secretary of State and lodge his clumsy foot in the door of international afaires once again by reversing course and pledging support for the President of Russia who has become an international pariah because of war crimes committed by his troops in the Ukraine and by throwing President Zelensky under the bus at the same time. Why one Earth would he want to make this controversial move on his corporate game board? By saying opposing views to a President Biden or a Prime Minister Sunak or a President Macron and the like, Musk is undermining American and European foreign policy and its efforts to deal with one of democracies greatest challenges since WW II: the war in Ukraine.
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  40. Ian, please excuse me to insert a comment on another subject that may be of interest to you to comment on yourself. Militarized-Mobbing: What no one is talking about is what China's incessant war cries and threats to invade Taiwan are doing to ordinary people. This is what I call the militarized mobbing of the Taiwanese people. Mobbing is organized harassment; China sending fighter jets to buzz Taiwan is mobbing on an industrial scale. Mobbing is destructive because people are fragile and constant teasing by feigned attacks or barely disguised false threats i.e., screaming jets overhead for example, can cause people to become jittery, anxious and afraid. Anxiety can disrupt one's mental state, disturb one's sleeping habits and cause unease in a myriad of ways. This is unfair and it needs to stop. By the way, your video on Social Media is superb!!!
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  41. Happy New Year, Ian. There are many people trying to find a way to end the senseless conflicts, but the world has one knight in shining armor on the geopolitical stage trying to make sense of it all and that is you. Ian, I am an artist and not in any way associated with peace negotiations. The following statements I am going to make will prove that, but I have to try because I believe I may have the kernel of a peace plan that could have our generation, our governments in 2024, to find a way to end all future wars between neighboring countries. This idea will also apply to the Ukrainian war, but as it is a hot war it will need to have one side caving in before my idea could make any sense. But here goes and I am aiming at one thing: the kids. Ian, I am in it for the kids. I had what could only be called a golden childhood and when you see kids in the Gaza strip with 5 wars in 15 years like notches on their scarred childhoods---honestly, there weren't any childhoods for those children. Here goes: We could transform Gaza into a nature reserve for endangered species of plant, animal and aquatic life and turn it into a Galapagos of the middle east. Yes; that's right, turn the blood-soaked sands of a failed attempt at a homeland for a proud people and make it into 145 square kilometers of life-saving space for the obscene numbers of species disappearing daily. We have already hit the 1.5 centigrade temperature increase and that means it will accelerate even more. Of course, you know this is at best an attempt to find a way to get the Palestinians on the right side of history, but what I believe is that boundaries can be re-drawn in the region and a parcel of land found for these wonderful people who need a place of their own to be living by their own wits. To recap: the peace plan is to put nature reserves acting as buffer zones between highly contested border regions and God only knows how that can happen, but we can be the ones who solved these intractable border horror shows and leave this as our legacy for future generations.
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  42. Ian, in all due respect, you are a voice of reason and wisdom in your assessments, but please show us a neutral look on your face. You are wearing your emotions rather than leaving them at the studio door before you come in to make a vocast. You look more and more concerned and worried with every new vocast you make. Just tell us what's going on like you would be talking to the cashier in the grocery store. Why do I say this? Because your face is exactly how we feel about the Ukrainian and Russian war. We need calm. We need to move ahead and all of us need to leave our emotions out of this.
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  43. Excellent, top-notch, riveting speech that goes beyond the usual geo-political rhetoric by never forgetting the ordinary person in all that's going on in a world where nothing will surprise us anymore: tsunamis, wars, environment disasters, draughts, civil wars, religious wars; you name it and we've already been there done that. Ian, excuse me to criticize you when I could not even imagine doing what you do. But here goes: you are a center-stage personality and a global icon, but you should stay away from bringing the spotlight on you personally. Stay the way you come off best: pointing things out. You must not bring yourself into the picture, Ian. What do I mean by that? You said Henry the 'K' was around one hundred years-"and if you're lucky---or something like that---I will be here for another 50 years, too. So get ready for a lot more of seeing me, me, me------" etc. Do you see the mirage in what I am saying? This is where you go into overdrive and forget that you are most appreciated by not throwing in hypothetical statements about 'Ian Bremmer'. It is overkill; you want to not reference yourself at all or try to be funny at any time in a speech. Why do I say this? Because you are already someone of renown and it looks like you are patting yourself on the back i.e., "me, myself and I."
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  44. Ian, you are a great educator and I learn something every time I tune in. Already at 4:32 into your vocast, I would like to know why you think Republicans would not have antipathy to such a shady character as Donald J. Trump. I don't understand his attraction other than his wealth and bombastic style of talking about anything.
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  45. Ian, we have been tuning in to your show for more than dozen moons now and this is the last time----JUST KIDDING! Mr Bremmer, the verdict has been announced: you should run for the presidency in your country. You have got all the bases covered on world politicians and their policies, you know what makes President Xi tick, for example. You know Putin and many, many more of the people who are leaders across the globe. In brief, you know all the past and present political giants and you have got firsthand experience in dealing with international politics from your brilliant interviews. Sandwich that in with being someone of impeccable integrity---Ian, with all you carry in your brain about American government and the situation at ground-zero in the political realm in the USA and you stand up very tall as a candidate for your country's highest office. You would make an excellent president...
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  46. I enjoy listening to your analyses because you see things clearly and you give us explanations of events and things from someone with a lot of experience in international affairs. I'm an artist living 2,000 from Kiev and the war in Ukraine has made it hard to concentrate on my work. I'm worried especially about Mariupol falling apart and going into Russian hands. Biden's comment was not appreciated in Europe and it may be best explained by the iconic news paper journalist Simon Jenkins from The Guardian. He said, "an iron maxim of war is to imagine what your enemy most wants you to do, and not do it." Right from the first time he was asked about President Putin, President Biden said he thought Putin was a killer. It was right before their meeting in Geneva. I thought this was a gaffe. You can call it what you want to call it, by Biden's latest 'gaffe' about regime change gives Putin's backers some more ground to stand on. That being said, what I think is that you don't show your cards on the international stage. This is what Macron and the others are fumig about. I've written President Biden to say the same thing. You don't give away your hand. It would be ten times more powerful if Biden would keep his personal feelings out of international affairs. Don't forget; now other leaders who are negotiating are hobnobbing with someone who openly is calling for Putin to stand down. His opponents in Russia are very clear on this: they repeatedly say the Putin must be removed from power in their country. In this respect, I think that President Biden does not understand that what must be done is to allow your enemy a bridge over which to retreat---Simon Jenkins also wrote that in the article. W
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  47. First, it is astounding how Ian Bremmer has got a handle on issues across the globe and delivers his analyses succinctly and in plain English that everyone can understand. What is frightening about what Ian just said is that AI and poor information in the hands of a rogue autocratic leader who has no checks and balances in his government has suddenly made the world a much more dangerous place. Just today or was it yesterday, the leader of the lower house of the Duma (please check this info) said publicly that if the west continues to supply Ukraine with offensive weapons it will mean global catastrophe could result. Nevermind that Russia has just invaded a sovereign nation, but the moment Russia feels that a sovereign nation it has invaded is planning counter-offensive actions, suddenly Russia feels theatened enough to utter irresponsible rhetoric about there being a wider world conflict if the Ukraine and the west follow through.
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  48. It's great to get the GZERO perspective on things. As someone living a few hours by air from the Ukrainian border, it is starting to sink in. This is not going away. It might take 50 years before there is normalcy for the Ukrainian people. The time has come to begin discussions about how we can peacefully dismantle authoritarian regimes, because they have become cancerous. I am an artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iefz3iCxPlI and not at all qualified in international relations. I have come to this conclusion by doing my own research. Democratic countries and authoritarian regimes cannot co-exist on the same planet. The Ukrainian war shows us that we have to find words that can show how to the countries which have autocratic leaders how toxic the autocratic governing style is to the human community. It is also costing us in the west a fortune to keep upgrading our weapons systems to match whatever they are doing on the other side. Again, I am only calling for open discussions in the United Nations with all concerned countries about how we want to move ahead as the human family. We need to re-assess how the world is being run, because we are running out of time and the tensions caused by the continuous tug-of-war between competing political systems is causing great harm to people and the environment as well. These struggles between countries are keeping our eye off the ball as far as ensuring a good life for the entire human community. There are peaceful ways to do this and we have got excellent minds like this man right here on GZERO. We have to see this Ukrainian invasion for what it is: a catastrophe; but also as a window of opportunity towards ending autocratic governing systems that are only going to get more powerful and more dangerous if they are not dismantled
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  49. I knew it; I knew it! Just as I was settling down for a comfortable Friday night's relaxation and a week-end where I can forget the headlines, as soon as I turned on the computer, and activated Ian Bremmer's superhuman videocast, the roof has flown away and it has made it impossible to relax for the... rest... of... my... soon-to-be immortal life?
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  50. Ian, what makes no sense at all is that with all the public knowledge of the Ukraine war and Ukraine's need for help at a time when Russia is incrementally improving its ground forces' ability to gain territory with its massive supply of artillery shells and better battlefield tactics compared to Ukraine for example, that anyone, anywhere in the US Government or in America would do anything to block the aid package. It is doubly hard to understand how one person in the House of Representatives called Johnson would not unblock all resistance to aiding and re-supplying the Ukrainians. Don't they understand that people are dying at this writing because the Ukrainians lack kit and weapons systems?
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