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Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar joins us for a Last Interview, from Bangkok. PBC opens the conversation with a question he’s never asked Mr. Escobar: what is your full name? And he reveals: Petronio Flavio Escobar, along with the story of his parents’ selection of a great name for such a great student of history.
From there, we learn about the recent anti-monarchy protests in Thailand, and Pepe explains the importance of that nation to China, which is building a high speed rail link that will ultimately reach Singapore via Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.
Next, Escobar gives us Beijing’s view of Trump’s last gasps, describing the more aggressive posture China has adopted toward the US in the past year, and we mention that foreign policy, including Trump’s trade war with China, was barely mentioned in the presidential election this year.
We talk about the “blob” surrounding Joe Biden, the term coined by Obama advisor Ben Rhodes to describe the foreign policy and intelligence teams that supported US military misadventures in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
Asked about the potential for Trump to strike Iran before he exits, Escobar says his sources all say that Iranian threats of retaliation should prevent any major actions.
At the end, following up on a previous 2020 interview, Pepe explains his current theories about the origins of Covid-19