So the other day I found out that the CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me, a crime report to the Department of Justice on the basis of a supposed crime I committed. What's that crime, well, talking to people in Iran before the war. They read my texts. So the crime under consideration apparently would be the Foreign Agent Act or something like that, acting as an agent of a foreign power.
So I had an entire episode prepared for you guys based off of the past four days that I've been off. There has been a tremendous amount of breaking news stories. And last night, after I get done with post production for the episode, which we'll follow right after with this, I see a report come out from Tucker Carlson saying that he's being He has been for the third time that we know of. Obviously he's been spied on NonStop, but for the third time that we know of our
own government. His own government has been spying on him, that is surveilling his communications. And obviously that would golling enough just if it was just that he's being spied on. But then it gets even crazier because Ryder died Trump sick event, Laura Loomer is taking credit for this. She is taking credit for his potential prosecution. A fellow journalist, a fellow American.
Not too worried about an actual criminal case against me for a bunch of reasons. One, I'm not an agent of a foreign power. Unlike a lot of people commenting on US politics and global affairs. I have only one loyalty, and that's the United States and have never acted against it. It's interested for the only interests I care about, because I'm from here and I have a lot of kids, so that's not a concern. I've also never taken money from anybody, don't need it, don't want it, and that's provable.
And moreover, it's my job to talk to everybody all the time and try and figure out what's happening around the world. That's literally what I do for a living, and I'm not going to stop doing that, nor should I. I don't think I'm also an American talk to anybody.
So what disturbs me most about this is that you know, Tucker Carlson has contacts with a lot of governments, a lot of foreign governments. He has contacts within Israel as well. He talks about it openly talks about all of his conversations pretty forthright and pretty open manner. That includes, perhaps to his detriment or to his endangerment, his conversations with Donald Trump, which he has been very open about, his
frustrations and his disappointment. In fact, he went on friend of the Show and friend of mine, Brett Weinstein's show that everybody saw Brett Weinstein on Tucker Carlson, But I don't think most people have seen the episode where Tucker Carlson went on Brett Einstein. It came out the same day so on the Dark Horse podcast, and in it, Tucker really kind of lets the cat of the bag. He really goes deep into why he believes Trump ultimately made this decision, and I'll just cut to the chase.
It seems as if he believes that Donald Trump was threatened, that he was forced into this, that he went against his will. So you should ask yourself, is this because he was having communications with the Iranians? Or is this because he has betrayed in scare quotes, the President of the United States. But even more disturbing, and as I said, all of this is disturbing, You've got if it's true that this CIA referral is coming as a consequence of an investigation because of a tip, a snitch line tip
from Laura Lomer. Well, then we have a real problem because Laura Lumer should not be taken seriously because Laura Lumer, well, I'm gonna be as safe about this as I can. She appears to not be representing American interests when it
comes to her dutiful reporting, that's my opinion. So in short, what we have in our upside down funhouse image lunacy world is someone who appears to be in violation of FARA, which is the Foreign Agent Registration Act, that is, representing a foreign government when it comes to lobbying our own
and doing so in an undisclosed fashion. Accusing Tucker Carlson, someone who, in my opinion, does incredibly quality journalists journalism and also is a legitimate, courageous truth teller the type that we absolutely need right now, and accusing him of what they are guilty of. Yes, accusing Tucker Carlson of being a foreign agent, as she has been doing for many months now when it comes to guitar. But now, if Tucker's correct that this allegation comes as a consequence
of his conversation with Iranians just prior to the war beginning. Well, then it would be because he's in the employ of Iran or representing Iranian interests. As absurd and laughable as that is, that appears to be what's happening here.
There are some people who are mad at me for my views about Israel, and they have some latitude. And one of the reasons they pass on criminal complaints in a fact, to law enforcement is to justify warrants for spying on Americans, So that is an absolutely real thing.
But the main reason.
They do it is to leak the existence of the investigation, such as it is, to the media and then humiliate and terrify the subjects of this op And that's of course happened to me repeatedly many times, including in famously twenty twenty one, when I was still at Fox News and trying to set up an interview with Vladimir Putin and the NSA, I heard from someone there had grabbed my text messages with an American citizen and had leaked
them to news outlets. Those texts were basically my attempts to set up an interview with the foreign head of state and they leaked them to The New York Times in order to stop the interview, which they successfully did, by the way, and they admitted that they were spying. I mean, this is not a fantasy, It actually happened.
No theme throughout my show over the past six months, if not the past years, that I've become convinced that the vast majority of influencers are in the employee of either lobbyists foreign powers. They are not truth tellers but rather mercenaries. And a good example of this is with Laura Lumer that she just yesterday actually was in India. Yes,
Laura Lumer in India. Laura Lumer, who has just drilled into Indians for years and years and years, appears to have been paid to go there and give a tome. Prior to heading out to India to give that talk, she deleted all of her very very hate filled messages about Indians before she got on the plane. But that didn't prevent this from happening.
Slight study and speeches will be facilitated.
Paul sent out.
You then went on to say our country was built by white Europeans, not third world invaders from India. I think you should do more than just express regret. From what I can see, you're brazen d racist and Islamophobia, and I'm sorry to say that we have articulately DeVore Bama in this country where we welcome all. But your comment smack of anti Indianism was still Islamophobia and even worse racism, which has no place, ma'am in today's world.
So get real, ma'am.
Sorry to say that, but that comments are unacceptable to be as an Indian and as a world citizen.
Now.
As hilarious as that was and is, it's also really disturbing because if she is correct in taking credit for these really slanderous, baseless accusations against Tucker Carlson, with it leading to a CIA operation to spy on him and ultimately refer him for criminal charges, it's disturbing, to put it mildly, that someone with a reputation like Lumer could lead to the unjust persecution and potentially prosecution of someone who I consider to be highly reputable in Tucker Carlson,
someone who I consider to be tremendously important, particularly in this moment, particularly given his opposition to the war in Iran, particularly given his opposition to someone that he campaigned for
and on behalf of for a very long time. And Donald Trump and Tucker goes on to make the point that this is to be expected in times of war, that you will have increasing hostility towards journalism, you will have a diminishment of our privacy rights, our rights, more broadly, our first speech rights, which is obviously what this is. And on a personal level, I take this very seriously, in no short part because I'm friends with Brett Weinstein.
In fact, I got a call from Brett about a week ago asking me, well, I'm not going to disclose what we talked about, it's not that relevant. But regardless, in that same period, I now know that he was almost certainly scheduling his appearance with and his appearance of Tucker to be on his show in the following days.
And now I know that Tucker Carlson was being spied on by the CIA, which means that based off of our completely absurd anti terrorism and homeland defense law, that would mean that based off of a connection that if you can normally, the way it's supposed to work, just so you understand, is that it's supposed to be that they have a right to spy on foreigners, not Americans. We are supposed to have privacy rights. I know it's a laughably absurd claim, but that is what our founders
intended with the Constitution. But in the wake of nine to eleven, the way that they found a mechanism to circumvent our god given rights was to spy on foreigners. And if a foreigner had any contacts with an American, well, then they could then spy on them, because they're not spying on them, they're spying on them for the purposes
of spying on a foreigner. That's the arguments pfable as it is, they take it one big step further than that by then enabling themselves to spy on anyone who the subject of the operation of the investigation has been communicating with, which means that very likely Tucker Carlson's communications with Brett Weinstein would also be under their purview, and therefore perhaps my communications with Brett would also be under
that umbrella. Now I'm not particularly concerned about this because my communications with Brett are very benign and totally in pursuit of the best interests of this country, so I don't care. And additionally, I'm not at all concerned because already assumed that they were spying on all of us. So, you know, it's just kind of comes with the territory, particularly given the lane that I'm in and the topics that I cover. It would I would be naive not
to expect it. It doesn't make it any less disturbing that this is where we are at as a people, that our government spies on us twenty four to seven, that our government tries to scare the living daylights out of journalists who are in pursuit of not just the truth, but in my opinion, perhaps even more importantly peace. So I'll wrap with this. I hope that you guys will stand up for and stand behind Tucker Carlson or Brett if they harass him, or me if they harass me.
But I doubt it.
I just I think it's really it's just a terrible precedent. It's a terrible paradigm to exist under that they would think that they could do this to us, That they think that they can essentially scare dissidence into being quiet and allowing for illegal, unconstitutional, disastrous wars to be perpetrated without any dissent. I think it's a sickness. I think it's a disease, literally, and we have to fight back against it, so I encourage you guys to do so.
As far as I'm concerned, Tucker Carlson has done nothing wrong. There's been no evidence to the contrary that he has done anything wrong at all. So just keep that in mind, because I'm sure the reports are to be flooding your timelines over the next twenty four to forty eight hours as the story just broke a few hours ago, and I would encourage you to really reserve judgment until you know definitively what's up, because I trust Tugri Cralson I do.
Iran does have a conventional military. They are a proud and they are a big cunt. Possible case scenario is Iran says, Okay, you humiliated us, You've killed all of our leaders. We're going to go make this a regional mess and try to get as many people involved as possible.
They're going to go after Americans.
They're going to go after Saudis, They're going to go after everybody imaginable, just to create a big mess and to try to draw the world into it. Just understand, the Iranian people are widely respected and not necessarily are always in sync with leadership. But if and when the people of Iran feel like Persia is being defaced and humiliated and disrespected, we don't know where that is going to go. And that's my final reason why I am
always skeptical of military intervention. And when a lot of the sometimes warmongering wing gets too excited, you don't know. Actually you need to have a lot of humility.
Welcome back to Libbery Lockdown. This is Clint Russell. Thank you for tuning in once again. My mom came and visited, so I took four days off to spend it with her. Hi, Mom, love you very much. Let's get into the show we've got. Look, I've been getting a bunch of pushback on a few claims that I've made, which is fine, that's normal, particularly from a lot of people I like, like Laura Logan,
et cetera. And I just wanted to show the clips because I feel like and in fact, I was fact checked by Groc and Groc said that no, Trump and heg Seth and Rubio none of them said these things. And I was like, yeah, they have. I have them prepared for my show right now. So I want you to hear them and you tell me what you think.
Here's they've been killing our people and killing people from all over the world, and I think we have great support, and I think if we didn't do it first, and they would have done it to Israel and give us a shot if that was possible.
So first up, you got Donald Trump saying that if we didn't do it first, they would have done it to Israel. Did he say that they would have done it to America?
No, it was Israel.
All right, Let's shift over to Pete hegset to.
Our steadfast partner, Israel, your mission is being executed with unmatched skill and iron determination.
Pete Hegseth says that your mission is being fought. It's like, yeah, that's kind of the vibe I've been getting. And then on last week's episode, I already played you the clip of Marco Rubio saying the same thing. So we've got three. Basically, you can't get any higher. Secretary of State, Department of War, President of the United States, all acknowledging that this threat, this threat that we it was so imminent and urgent that you couldn't go to Congress to get congressional authorization
for this war. It had to be taken, and particularly the threat was against not America but Israel. So for the life of me, I don't I don't underst why this is still such a contentious point. It's so self evident. You have the highest levels of power in our government saying it day in and day out, this is a war not to our benefit, but rather on the behalf of our ally as they see it in Israel.
What's sad is when the whole world and Americans are looking at the situation and we know the reason because you're beholden the dB NET and Yahoo m H.
We don't know why.
We don't know if it's because if you're getting paid allegedly, We don't know if you're We just know you're compromised in some way.
Now, far be it for me to agree with Charlotte made the God. We rarely agree, But I think that this is just more evidence that we've broken containment. Ladies and gentlemen like this is being discussed in mass This is being discussed on both sides of the political aisle, right wingers, left wingers. Everybody's still having the same conversation. We are not in control of our government.
You know, the people that are cheering on this war in Iran, fucking clue why we're there. They don't care. They're happy to just see violence, you know. They're happy to see things blow up. They're at a bar in Florida. They're excited about the Iatola getting whacked. They don't know why, they don't know what Iran did to them. They're just
happy to see violence and chaos. They don't care that a Tomahawk missile ripped through a school and killed one hundred and sixty five people, many of them between the ages of eight and ten years old. They don't care because many parts of this country are a moral black hole. They are a moral black hole where there is no morality. They're a moral You say, well, they maybe they have bad morals.
No, no, no, they have no morals. They're a black hole. So you may be thinking that Tim.
Dillon is being a bit hyperbolic just for comedic sake.
I don't know, man.
We got Alex Karp, the eelvolunteer, saying, this is what our greatest export is at this current stage of empire decline.
So that what makes America special right now is our lethal capacities, our ability to fight war.
That's right.
One of the top performing stocks in America over the past couple of years, Volunteer CIA cut out am I Dad, Yeah, He the CEO of that company, says that what makes America special is our capacity to essentially export violence, our capacity to kill people. That's what makes America special at this point, And unfortunately I have to agree. Now, I don't agree with the positive spin that he's giving it.
Obviously that also helps line his pockets, now, doesn't it. No, I'm just saying I tend to agree that that does seem to be what our primary economic exports are death and destruction. And in truth, it's hard to blame the American people for feeling as if this this is some sort of patriotic endeavor when you have talking points like this coming from Fox News.
This is a short term disruption for the long term gain, short term pain for the long term.
Gain, short term pain be for long term gain. We're gonna have some short term pain with long term gain, short term pay for a long term gain.
Short term pain.
Yes, we've got some long term gain, short term spike for a long term gain.
Some short term pain for American consumers.
We may have to deal with that in the short term, short term and temporary, temporary, short term pain. It's gonna stuck in the short term, some short term pain, short term pain.
We have to focus on the short term, short term, short term, short term, short term, and long.
Term short term.
Hopefully this is a short term pain. Well, I'm sorry, that's not just Fox News. That's CNN and MSNBC, and that's across the board. You remember when CNN and MSNBC would pretend to be the enemy of Donald Trump. Well, that all gets put to the wayside as soon as a war is a foot, in which case the talking points circulate and everybody starts to sound like a parrot.
But you might be thinking, well, Clint, I mean, sure, that may be affecting the older demographics, which still tune in to conventional cable news, but what about the young. Certainly they're getting more truthful, hard hitting information, right.
I think the way you can look at this this I haven't heard anyone else say this, but this seems to me to be the war to end all wars. I know that that's like bumper stickery and whatever, but it's the war to say no more of this, no more state sponsored jihadism all over the place, and one end. Once that happens, Once these countries calm down and things start turning, and we know the Gulf States are thriving because they've put aside some of this Jihattis lunacy. People
will start being more successful and more successful, flourishing. People are less inclined to become crazy radicals, and that's not what the people of Iran want.
It is not what they had when they had the shop Aroun.
Yeah, that's a podcast, and he's said, you know, no one said this yet, but it's the war to end all wars. You know, you know where that phrase comes from. Since he said no one said it yet, that would be HG. Wells in nineteen fourteen describing World War One. Yeah, you're right, that was the first of many, many wars of actually a war of century, of total war, which is what the nineteen hundreds were. That was the war to end all wars that began the twentieth century, and
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That's Clint Likes gold dot com again, one more time. Clint Likes gold dot com. Check it out. Now you're thinking to yourself, surely Ben Shapiro has learned his lesson after supporting the Iraq war, in the Afghanistan War, the tire global.
War and tear. No.
No, he hasn't, and I can tell you why. Because this war is to benefit Israel, which is his true passion in life. So that's why he's getting this one wrong yet again, you saw thirty two thousand people shot in the streets.
I know that we're supposed to forget about all that because opponents of the war, as we'll get to, are very very upset about a girls school that got hit in the war. And then we're supposed totally present that the Iranians don't slaughter innocent Iranians at the rate of tens of thousands the minute they pop their heads out of the ground. The Kurds, for example, live on the eastern side of the border with Iraqs. You have Iraqi
Curds on one side, Iranian Curds on the other. We could see serious incursions into Iran from both Azerbaijan and from Iraqi Kurdistan by Iranian Kurds, and if that happened, there would be a serious challenge to IRGC forces. Those forces are now isolated from Iran because of the fracturing
of the IRGC leadership class. Basically, with the destruction of the top levels of the IRGC, the lines of command have now broken down and you have specific IRGC areas governed by specific IRGC commanders, and so the entire structure could begin to collapse piece by piece, and if that happens, then more and more Iranians in the center of the country will understand that the moment has come for action, and finally the United States could simply bomb until the bombing is done.
Let me tell you, I'm not guessing at Ben Shapiro being wrong. We already know he's wrong because in that monologue he says that there is an expectation or potentiality the Kurds, after having been betrayed by the United States of America and undoubtedly by Israel as well, have already announced. Yeah, we're not falling for that again. You guys pulled the rug on us in Iraq. You pulled the rug on us in Syria. We're not going into Iran on your behalf, no think, but certainly we can rely on the left
wing to get this right. He's basically saying, listen, we're Christians. We don't need to defend these Jews at all. Their Holy Book is irrelevant to us. It's just barbarism in there.
Does Israel have the right to that land because you're appealing to Genesis, You're saying that's the original deed.
It would be fine if they took it all.
I mean, I thought that was fascinating and well worth watching. And the way he went after Huckabee based on a differentiation between the New Testament and the Old Testament. He's basically saying, listen, we're Christians. We don't have to care about the Old Testament at all. Right, there's a lot of barbarism in there. He went after the whole Amlachite business. You know, that's just that's just genocide, right, Like, listen, we don't we don't need we don't need it to
defend these Jews at all. Their Holy Book is irrelevant to us. It's just barbarism in there. Christ is king. All we have to care about is Jesus.
So you have to believe that the Democrat voting Sam Harris, who's also an atheist ethnically Jewish but atheist, he would obviously find Mike Huckabee's position that Israel has a right to the entirety of the Middle East to be laughably absurd because he's an atheist, he doesn't believe in the Bible. There's no way he could think that Huckaby is in the right. He would have to decide with Hucker Carlson.
He would have to no, no, he doesn't because at the end of the day, despite calling himself an atheist, there is no person on earth that Sam Harris hates more than Muslims. Because there has never been a war in the Middle East that Sam Harris didn't support, literally never. But we haven't ran out of hope yet. I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure given how much Bill Maher hates Donald Trump, he's got to be opposed to this right.
Also this week war did you hear about that thing? And we bombed Iran and it's going on now? Have you expected me to say I hate it? I don't. Sorry, when he puts boots on the ground, yeah, that I'll hate it now I know too many happy Iranian Americans. Sorry, And you cannot name one horrible thing that has happened in the Middle East in the last fifty years and not connected to this fascist theocracy.
Bill Maher says there that you can't name one tradge, one bad thing that's happened in the Middle East that didn't connect her. I run, okay, how about the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, Gaza Lebanon.
I mean, sure, you get the look.
All I'm saying is that is such an unbelievably bias position. Again coming from an atheist allegedly who obviously is as bloodthirsty as anybody on the right wing, you will find basically sounds like Lindsay Grant. And what makes this worse and more irritating, Despite the fact that we've now got twenty plus years of just disastrous quagmires in the Middle East, you still have this incredibly short term analysis that people are putting forward. We're just going to drop bombs and
then we'll go home and everything will be fine. Well, here's the problem. Bill Trump today alone has said that we have now wiped out Iran's complete one hundred percent of their military capability. He then followed up in the same post saying that the straightuh Hormuze needs to be reopened by the people who use it, to which I say, if Iran has been one hundred percent militarily defeated, then why do we need any assistance. Trump thing goes on to say that he wants the Europeans to help, he
wants the Chinese to help. The Chinese are not going to help. We have already kicked the hornets nest. It's like when your enemy's making mistake, don't stop them. That's how they view what we're doing here. So obviously they're not going to assist. But moreover, the obvious real lesson here, or the real truth here, is that Donald Trump is lying. If Iran has been one hundred percent militarily defeated, you don't need to be posting and asking for help by
anybody else. You don't need help, especially with Trump. You know he would love to take a victory lap. We did this all on our own, and da dah dah, and we're just the best. We're the best. And it's over in two weeks and it was in and out. We're done. Additionally, we've now deployed five thousand marines to the region, which are likely going to be used to
try and free up the straight of hormones. Now, if Iran's been defeated, you certainly don't need five thousand marines to release the blockade, right, it should be easily done with a dozen people.
Nope, And here's the problem.
In June of twenty twenty five, right before we decided to bomb their nuclear facilities, we were in negotiation with the Iranians and they were at the negotiating table with US, and it seemed as if there was a potentiality for a real agreement that essentially lifted the sanctions that have been crippling Iron economically for years now, probably a decade, and in return they would either allow for inspections again or give up their medium enriched uranium. And during that process, yeah,
we hit them hard. Now you fast forward to February of twenty twenty six, just last month, just a couple of weeks ago. Again we are at the negotiating table. This time because the Iranians have already realized that we will kill them. In the middle of negotiating, they have the Omanians, I don't know if that's what you call the oman Is being used as intermediary to try and negotiate peace, and the representatives from Oma just the day before we take out their leader and their top fifty
leadership and bombed the living hell out of them. Oman says. Iran has agreed to everything. They're ready to roll. All they want is to maintain a basically a civilian level nuclear facility for medicine and whatnot.
But nope, we bombed the hell out of them.
And what has come out since then is that it was Kushner, Jared Kushner who had Netanyahu's sleeping in his bed as a child. Little conflict of interests, I'd say there, as well as Steve Whitkoff, who was the lead envoy negotiator with the Iranians, and the Iranians now believe that they were basically shivved, They were stabbed in the back well believing that negotiating towards a peace settlement was a possibility.
In fact it was not that. In fact, this was headed to war no matter what.
So here's the problem, just from a purely like setting judgments aside here and just analyze this with me under a game theory framework. If you are negotiating with someone and you know that they might kill you mid negotiation, can you take them seriously about anything? The answer is no. And that is where the Iranians and honestly the rest of the world is now feeling and having to reassess and interact with America under the presumption that you are not a good faith actor, that in fact you are
just setting us up to be murdered. So under that paradigm, that means that peace negotiations cannot be fruitful because you cannot trust anything that America or Israel has to say, which is obviously the rational position to hold. And it's unfortunate because this is oftentimes how we're told to perceive the Iranians, that they're irrational, that they're prepared to blow up their entire country as long as it injures one American or one Israeli. And it's like, well, who's the
irrational actor? If our side is the one who's willing to murder our negotiation partners mid negotiation and bomb the hell out of a country mid negotiation, well then who's the irrational one? Who's the one that's reckless? I would argue, it's pretty clearly US. So now, under game theory, the only thing that you have, the only chip or card you have to play, given that you are terribly out manned, but you do have very difficult terrain to invade.
You have a capacity to.
Defend yourself, but you don't have really any capacity to harm America, at least not on our homeland. The only card that the Iranians are left to play is to close the Straight of Hormones, which today they announced that they will be closing it for at minimum three months now as I've already told you guys in prior episodes the straight of hormz is responsible for thirty percent of
the oil transit of the world every single day. So if Trump is lying about his capacity to open up the straight of hormones, that means we are in for
a world of hurt economically, like catastrophic. We're talking two hundred plus dollars per barrel of oil, which would have cascading effects throughout not just our stock market, but through the global economy, but through every single product we buy because, as you probably are aware, so much of what we consume has oil in it or in the production of it. But here's the tragedy. This is the only card iran
has to play. If you recognize that your negotiating partner cannot be reasoned with, the only card they have to play is to make it so painful for us, you and I, the people who don't even support this war, to make it politically untenable for them Trump, whitcof, Kushner, the Israelis to ever do this again. That is the only leverage they have. The Iranians have to punish us economically to try and defend themselves militarily. And I think that's exactly what they're going to do.
The only thing prohibiting transit in the Straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping.
It is open for transit. Should Iran not do that?
So in short, despite that word salad, yeah or fucked, they don't actually have a plan for this. And in fact, the Trump was warned by one of his top generals don't do this, that they will obviously shut down the Straight of Hormoz. And guess what, According to I think it was a Washington Post I read the article from Trump said, I believe that we will beat them so badly with this surgical strike, this decapitation strike. We take
out their top fifty leadership. Obviously command and control will fall, the people will rise up. There will be no moment at which Iran is still standing by which they can give orders to shut down the Straight of Hormoz. This is honestly what Trump thought. That was wrong, And I'll tell you how stupid this is. This is a true story.
George Bush, George HW. Bush, the Junior in two thousand and three, when they were talking about you know, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran as potential arenas for war George Bush was smart enough to say, yeah, Iranza no goes on because of the straight or horror moves, primarily also because of the mountainous regions and making it impossible for a ground invasion.
It's just ultimately suicide.
There was top generals at that point that we're threatening to resign over it, to resign over plans of a ground invasion into Iran. So this is a dead end and our military brass has known that for decades.
And this is going to be complicated.
But I want to explain it to you guys, because I had an opportunity to respond to Thadeus Russell about this a couple hours ago, and it's just it's very complex, but it's also I think it's very rational and logical. So let me tell you what I think is happening and why. But it's important to understand how the empire
actually functions. The American Empire is clearly a real thing, but it's not so much a physical empire in that, you know, like the Greeks of the Romans, Like we're going around and we're actually putting boots on the ground and we're conquering every square inch of land that we control. How our modern empire works. Our modern empire functions under a more soft power, even though it's oftentimes brutal, but it's it's considered soft power. Sanctions, CIA, USAID funding, opposition parties,
things of that nature. The more kind of less it's not less overt. We're not actually just putting five hundred thousand troops and invading a country like Ukraine, for instance. Our overthrow was done without troops or very minimal troops. And then the other tier of soft power would be that we negotiate with other countries, offering security guarantees or financial assistance, like, for instance, we give a ton of money to a bunch of Muslim countries to get along
with Israel. We also have offered security guarantees to many Muslim countries to get along with Israel. I know, it's an interesting trend that keeps popping up over and over again. Like Donald Trump in his first term, I've heard Timpoole and a bunch of people, you know, give a lot of credit to Trump for the Abrahamacords. But what really were the Abrahamic Coords? In my estimation, it was not
so much about peace in the Middle East. It was about getting everybody in the Middle East who was oppositional to Israel to be under our thumb so that they would allow for Israel to do what they did in Gaza, to do what they're now doing in Iran, which is why we took out Iraq, why we took out Afghanistan and Libya and Syria. Is that this is about another empire, an empire that is not our own, that does not,
in my opinion, benefit us at all. Now I'll explain that in a second, but the key thing to understand is, as I said, our empire is not so much physical as much as it is coercive, as much as it is financial in nature. We use bribery, we use protection rackets to get people to do our bidding. So we don't control the entire world, but we control most of the world with this mechanism. And the underlying mechanism by which we control is that we are the global reserve currency.
We're able to print money that has maximal purchasing power domestically and diminishing power as it gets pushed out into the rest of the world. But the rest of the world is required to use it because we'll kill you if you don't. So it's certainly an empire, but it's a modern variation of it. However, the reason I believe that our empire is being sacrificed right now is for another empire, an empire that is physical in nature, an empire of expansion, an empire specifically for Israel, not even
for America, and it is very physical. And I'm not just talking about Gozla or the West Bank, but also portions of Lebanon and Yemen and probably Iraq, possibly Iran, I'm not sure at that point at this point, but Syria for sure. So in short, to put a tidy little ball on this, what I believe is happening is that we are jeopardizing our empire because as of today, the Iranians have announced that they are willing to allow ships to sail through the straight oh Hormoz as long
as they are selling that oil or gas in Yuan. Yeah, that's a problem because that means that they are essentially blockading anything that goes through there that is being transited or sold via the US dollar, which means that the Petro dollar reserve status is kind of massively under threat. The orionions, however you want to feel about them, are playing for keeps. They're playing hardball and they're playing smart.
This is exactly the lever of pressure that you would want to apply to an empire if you were trying to defeat them. Sure, we don't have the power to strike you domestically, but we have the power to undermine your entire shit, your entire operation. Bro Like, that's about
as hardball as it gets. So in summary, we are trading our soft power, dollar based empire on behalf of Israel burgeoning physical empire in their region, their expansionary programs, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you would have someone like Miriam Adelson polling up two hundred and fifty million dollars to put Trump into power.
And this is the payoff.
Now.
As I covered on the prior episode, there is massive suppression that's going on, not just from social media algorithms, but also on the ground. It is illegal to post footage or most footage within Israel of strikes that are landing from Iran. There's also been a total internet blackout within Iran, probably because they're afraid of subterfuge, cyber attacks, things of that nature, but also to suppress dissidence that
might rise up against them. But regardless, it's made it almost impossible to get any footage of what's actually happening there. We've also gotten virtually no footage of all of the damage that's been happening to American basis throughout the region, even though we now know that there's been at minimum thirteen KIA on the American side. But there was something that took place yesterday that people Most people didn't even know what happened, but those that did take notice understood
that this could be something very, very big. This is Scott Besson.
I listened to you on the oh okay okay to see short as the Secretary missus s.
I have to say it's a first, I'm sure a loss as well that an interview. He's been pulled away to go to the situation room. How was the President was he was? He stressed, Uh No, the President is in great spirits. The Iranian mission is proceeding well ahead
of schedule. And you know, I have to tell you well that I've a teenage teenager who's considering a military service, and I could give this team my highest compliment from President Trump to the head of the Joint Chiefs, to the Secretary of War, I would say that I would trust my child's life in their hands.
Now, for those that aren't familiar with Scott Assent, he's our Treasury secretary, like top economic advisor basically to President Trump. So if you're not familiar with him, you probably don't know how he normally speaks. He doesn't speak like that. He was shaken, like deeply shaken, and to have him pulled mid interview tells you that it was something urgent. To put it mildly right, you don't pull one of your top spokespeople from an interview unless it's mandatory, and
they said it was mandatory. So he gets pulled aside, he comes back hours later and he is like, clearly, like why does it goes shaken? So there's two possibilities in my opinion. One and unfortunately, I don't know what he said to that interviewer prior. Maybe he said something that Trump didn't like, so he just went back there, got his ass chewed out, and then came back out and was all shaken, and that's why he conveyed it in that fashion.
It's possible.
The other possibility, and this is a very interesting one, since that moment bib Netnaw, who has not been seen.
Yeah, it's true.
Also was another Israeli intelligence meeting or briefing today which bib Netnyaw, who always attends, wasn't there. There was also a press conference from net Yahoo that came out yesterday that people are pointing out that he had six fingers, that he was missing teeth in one of the frames, and they're very theorizing that it was Ai. So it makes you wonder. It really does make you wonder if Netnyaho was taken out by Iran and that they are covering it up for.
I don't know what purpose you would cover up.
I guess to try and negotiate an exit strategy maybe or to find an air apparent.
I don't know.
Now Today Israel denied it and they say that Netnya, who's fine. Okay, maybe, But regardless of whether or not that actually has happened, I still think it's really telling that you would have a moment where the Treasury secretary would be pulled aside and then come back.
Why does it ghosts stumbling.
Over his words obviously like shaken and looked like he was scared to death, And then you got to really like rewind back and listen to what he said. He says, I just want to say that I would my son is of age for the military, and I would be proud to have him, you know, under the command of Pete hag Sath or Donald Trump or whatever.
It's like.
That was like a Fieldy test to end all Fielty tests, like you, hey, will you let us risk your son's life? And he's like yeah, And he's saying that in a very shaken fashion. So something to you know, pay attention to is that there is real stress right now. And I think that it belies the fact that Trump is pretending we've already won this war. It's only been two weeks. There are one hundred percent militarily destroyed. You know, everything's going great, and there's short term pain for some long
term gain, right, I think not now. I'm not rooting against us, as I've said many times, I am critical of Donald Trump and the Trump administration because I love this country and because I want us to succeed and prevail and be prosperous and free and peaceful. But the reason I'm critical is because we're not being any of those things. The dollar is dying as a consequence of our empire. The empire is dying as a consequence of our relationship to Israel, and some of the opposition to
these wars has also been dying. And I'll maybe get into that in my next episode. That would be Charlie Kirk and I actually had this conversation with my mom
down at the pool today. We were talking about, you know, whether or not Trump is still on our side, because you know, she wants to believe or she's she wants to she's hopeful, and some of the pushbacks she gave me on some of my criticisms was like, well, there are certain things that Trump can do and other things that he can't, So we just have to hope basically a limited capacity of what he can endeavor to accomplish.
So we just have to hope that some of the things that he endeavors to accomplish will be to our benefit. And what I expressed to her is that, well, I have no animosity towards Jewish people. It is so evident to me at this junction that, yeah, I agree with her that there is a limited amount of capacity of things that you're going to be able to accomplish, particularly in the first year or two of your presidency, and you're going to have to pick and choose. So which
are you going to pick and choose? And what I think most Trump supporters are realizing at this point, or at least a good chunk of them are realizing, is that, yes, he has limited things that he can accomplish, and the only things that he's really focusing on accomplishing are to the benefit of Israel, not America. When it comes to deportations, he says, you know, we're going to do mass deportations. Then it looks as if he's not even going to
surpass Barack Obama's deportation figures. And why is he not going to surpass Obama? Well, because it's politically untenable. But then you have to ask yourself, Wait a second, the war in Iran is super unpopular, way more unpopular than deportations. But you can still do that. Oh, but whose interest is that in? Oh, that's in the interest of Israel
or Ariam Adelson or your donor class more broadly. And it's like, oh, suddenly, suddenly the things that aren't popular get done if it's to the benefit of your donors. But if it's unpopular and it's to the benefit of Americans. You can't get it done all right, then you start to recognize like, oh, well, then clearly you're not on
our side. Because if there is a limited amount of things that you can accomplish and you are opting to not do the things that you promised us, like not more wars in the Middle East, and it said you're delivering more wars in the Middle East on behalf of your donors, Well, then you have completely abdicated your duty to your voters, to your supporters. And as I've said, the reason I approach this with such urgency, the reason I feel this betrayal so deeply, is that we needed
a hero. Thirty nine trillion in debt is a hiccup away. We're going to be forty trillion deep in the hole by the end of this year. There is no time for fuck ups. There is no time for games or mistakes or selling out or being a fraud, none of that. You have to be real right now. And if you're not real, I'm gonna hold your feet to the fire. And the reason I know that this is viable, the reason I know that this is valuable is because Donald Trump is He is surrounded by yes men. He is
surround his voting base. The rider dies are largely sycophantic. They largely just praise him. Anytime he makes a mistake. It's five d chess. Oh, you just don't understand he's actually going to be doing this. Oh you think that in the short term this is a problem, But long term he's going after Fauci.
Right, No, he's not so. At his core.
What drives Donald Trump Well, in my opinion, there's a distinct possibility he's being driven by his survival instincts, that he's actually under threat. As Brett Weisen talked to Tucker Carlson about yesterday, the golden.
Pager that was given to President Trump strikes me as another raw shock test, just like Babe's statement after Charlie Kirk's murder. You can read it into totally different ways, right. The normal way to read it is that.
This was maybe a.
Tasteless celebration of a successful operation and YadA, YadA, YadA. On the other hand, it can obviously be read as a threat. I can imagine the meeting in which somebody says, hey, maybe we should send President Trump a golden pager after our successful operation somebody should immediately shoot that idea down and say no, we can't do that because it could be read in another way.
Right.
So, anyway, as we are struggling to understand what is taking place in our country, why it was received that way too?
You do? I do?
Well, you're not making me feel better.
I mean, come on now, come on right? You know, yeah, what was that?
Now?
It's important for you to remember that Tucker Crosson, prior to about two weeks ago when the war started, had a really good relationship with Donald Trump. So when Tucker Crolson says, yeah, I think it was received that way in as a threat, that's fascinating. That should be front page news nationwide. So in my view, there were two possibilities. Either a Donald Trump is under mortal threat and there's literally nothing he can do to get out of this and he's just trying to keep him and his family
alive possible. Or B, and I am coin flip on this, I really don't know which it is. Is that his ego has been satiated by the pro Zionist orbiters around him. They've convinced him that he's some sort of messianic figure within Judaism.
This is true.
They say this constantly. You've got Mark Levin constantly saying he's the first Jewish president. You've got Lindsey Graham saying he's reagen plus plus plus and blah blah blah, and the more bombs he drops, the more patriotic and the more George Washington he is. And this is purely an ego play that they have found a way to manipulate Donald Trump based off of ego. So we've got two possibilities. As I said, mortal threat or it's an ego play. So as far as I'm concerned, there's not much I
can do. If this is a mortal threat thing and Trump is just trying to survive his presidency and get out and keep his family alive, well then how am I going to convince him of anything?
Right?
But if it is an ego play, if he is selling us out based off of him being manipulated by his advisors, well then the alternative ego attack that we have is to not inflate his ego, to call out as loudly as possible that you are betraying us, and
your legacy will be one of betrayal. And we expected you to be the hero that you marketed yourself to be and you're not that, and every fucking street corner you walk down in America you're going to be yelled at for that exact purpose that we know exactly who you are and what you did, and that you are a coward and a trader to this country. Or you can be the hero that you marketed yourself to be.
You can disclose the Epstein files, you can end the endless wars, you can go after Fauci and the entire deep state, the FBI that tried to kill you, probably like you can do all of these things, or you go down as the greatest what if in history? What if you had had courage, What if you had been honest? What if you would actually pursued the things that you promised. So, if it's an ego play, we go after his legacy. We say you either deliver or you are reviled. Those
are your options. Be a hero, be lauded, be loved, or be a villain, be yelled at, be hated. So well, obviously I'm just driven by truthful analysis of what I see happening. There's also tactical reasoning to the approach that I have is that I believe that if we can shift the zeitgeist in America, particularly amongst his base, the people who he thinks love him still to say, hey, you're actually not delivering. You're actually not on our side,
and the clock is ticking. We are approaching the midterms. You're going to lose the midterms because you chose to, instead of delivering on your campaign promises, to deliver on your donor promises by starting a war in Iran. So the Democrats are not going to win the Senate, the Democrats are not going to win the House, and you're going to get impeached. So now we're never homeboy. We have no time left to play around. We have no
time left for five D chess. We have no time left to just put all of our desires and needs and really necessities aside to assuade your egotistical concerns. We're not going to pretend you're delivering when you're not. And if that still doesn't work, well, then yeah, his life is probably under threat and you can guess by who. If you enjoyed this episode, please do with the like button, subscribe, leave a comment, and share it around. And if you guys want to get cozy go to my pullo dot
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