Tonight was supposed to be clean: Andre Bezrukov, a Russian “illegal” who became Harvard-educated Don Heathfield, his St. Petersburg legal-forum lecture, and a structured walk through his argument that we’re living through a new 1914–1945-style rupture — this time driven by AI, sanctions, and a tired American empire trying to freeze history. Instead, the best-laid Bezrukov plan gets hijacked by talk radio doing what talk radio does. We start with the real story behind The Americans, Bezrukov’s life under deep cover, and his core claim: the U.S. has globalized itself into a corner, hollowed out its own middle class, and now leans on sanctions, carrier groups and manufactured enemies to hold the system together. Trump’s Venezuela buildup and threat of crushing secondary sanctions on anyone trading with Russia are Exhibit A and B. Then the phone lines light up. Caller one wants to know what Russians “really” think about Muslims and whether America is still America if a Muslim is mayor of New York or Minneapolis speeches in Somali. Caller two rolls in with air-power nostalgia, rednecks, Dearborn, the Middle East as “useful idiots,” 9/11 and Dealey Plaza, air-traffic-control collapse, bad maintenance, falling engines and why AI is “all nonsense.” Somehow we still thread Bezrukov through it: empires that overextend, elites that offshore everything, an angry base kept busy with culture war while the real decisions are made elsewhere. Tonight is messy, funny, and very human — exactly what happens when a long-form geopolitical monologue has to wrestle live calls on the fly. Part 2 of the Bezrukov analysis continues tomorrow night, with a full run through his remaining arguments and fewer interruptions… probably. International Flavor: Where the Truth Just Tastes Better.