So the other day I found out that the CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me a crime report
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 a agent of
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 will 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 non-stop
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 be galling enough
Just if it was just that he's being spied on but then it gets even crazier because rider die 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 foreign power. I'm like 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 interests are the only interest 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 gonna stop doing that nor should I I don't think I'm also an American
I can 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 pretty
forthright and pretty open-minded 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 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 Weinstein
It came out the same day so 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 snitchline tip from Laura Loomer well
Then we have a real problem because Laura Loomer should not be taken seriously because Laura Loomer
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 farra, 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 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 is 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 effect
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
2021 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 now a running theme throughout my show over the past six months
If not the past year is that I've become convinced that the vast majority of
Influencers are in the employ of either lobbyists foreign powers
They are not truth tellers, but rather mercenaries and a good example of this is with Laura Loomer that she
Just yesterday actually was in India. Yes
Laura Loomer in India Laura Loomer who has just drilled into Indians for
Years and years and years
Appears to have been paid to go there and give a time 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
Resilitated wire call center. 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 brazenly racist and
Islamophobic and I'm sorry to say that we have a tituli
They were power in this country where we welcome all but your comments smack of anti-Indianism
Worst 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 me 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 and
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 Loomer could lead to the
unjust
persecution and potentially
prosecution of someone who I consider to be highly reputable and 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
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 9-11 the way that they found a mechanism to circumvent our God-given rights was to
spy on foreigners and if a foreigner had any context 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 argument as laughable 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 interest of this country
so I don't care and
Additionally, I'm not at all concerned because I 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
24-7 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 or 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 dissidents 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 gonna be flooding your timelines over the next 24 to 48
hours is a 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 Tucker Carlson
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 killed all of our leaders. We're gonna go make this a regional mess and try to get as many people involved as possible
They're gonna go after Americans. They're gonna go after Saudis. They're gonna 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
De-faced and humiliated and disrespected. We don't know where that is gonna 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 Liberty 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, etc
And I just wanted to show the clips because I feel like and in fact
I was fact-checked by Grock and Grock 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 years
I'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
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 Hegseth 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 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 understand why this is still such a contentious point. It's so
Self-evident you have the highest levels of power in our government staying 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 BB Netanyahu. We don't know why we don't know if it's because of 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 Charlemagne
They got it that 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 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 have no 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 Ayatollah getting whacked. They don't 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 a 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 amoral. You say well, they have 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've got Alex Karp CEO of Palantir 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 our lethal capacities our ability to fight war
That's right. One of the top performing stocks in America over the past couple years Palantir
Cia cut out. Am I dead?
Yeah, the CEO of that company says that what makes America special
Is our capacity to essentially export violence our 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 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 some short-term pain
Yes, but 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 suck 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. Short-term.
Long-term. Short-term. Lip. Hopefully this is a short-term pain. Oh, 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 afoot, 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 into conventional cable news. But what about the
young? Certainly they're getting, you know, more truthful, hard-hitting information, right?
I think the way you can look at 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 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
jihadist 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 Shah of Iran.
Yeah, that's a podcast. And he's saying, 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 H.G. Wells in 1914, describing World War I. Yeah, you're
right. That was the first of many, many wars, a war, a century of total war, which is what
the 1900s were. That was the war to end all wars. That began the 20th century, and we
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thinking to yourself, surely Ben Shapiro has learned his lesson after supporting the
Iraq war and the Afghanistan war, the entire global war on terror. 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 32,000 people shot in the streets. I know that we're supposed to forget about
all that because opponents of the war, as we will get to our very, very upset about
a girl's school that got hit in the war. And then we're supposed to totally pretend
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 Iraq. You have Iraqi Kurds on one side, Iranian
Kurds 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, thank you. 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 thought that was fascinating and well worth watching. 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 just a lot of
barbarism in there. He went after the whole Malachite business, you
know, that's just genocide. Right? Like this, we don't need it. We
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
Huckabee is in the right. He would have to side with Tucker
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? 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,
then I'll hate it now. I know too many happy Iranian
Americans. Sorry.
You cannot name one horrible thing that has happened in the
Middle East in the last 50 years and not connected to this
fascist theocracy.
Bill Maher says there that you can't name one tragic one
bad thing that's happened in the Middle East that didn't
connect to Iran. Okay, how about the Iraq war? The
Iraq war is not a war. I mean, I'm sure you get the look. All
I'm saying is that is such an unbelievably biased position
again, coming from an atheist, allegedly, who obviously is as
bloodthirsty as anybody on the right wing. You will find
basically sounds like Lindsey Grant. And what makes this
worse and more irritating, despite the fact that we've
now got 20 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 100% of their military capability. He then followed
up in the same post saying that the Strait of Hormuz needs to
be reopened by the people who use it. To which I say, if Iran
has been 100% militarily defeated, then why do we need any
assistance? Trump then 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
hornet's nest. It's like when your enemy's making
a 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 100% 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 we're just the best. We're the best and it's
over in two weeks and it was in and out. We're
5,000 Marines to the region, which are likely going to
be used to try and free up the Strait of Hormuz. Now, if
Iran's been defeated, you certainly don't need 5,000
Marines to release the blockade, right? It should
be easily done with a dozen people. Nope. And
here's the problem. In June of 2025, 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 Iran 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
2026, 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 them. Oman is being used as
intermediary to try and negotiate peace. And the
representatives from Oman just the day before we
take out their leader and their top 50 leadership
and bomb 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, you know,
basically a civilian-level nuclear facility for
medicine and whatnot. But no, we bombed the
hell out of them. And what has come out since
then is that it was Kushner, Jared Kushner, who
had Netanyahu sleeping in his bed as a child,
little conflict of interest, 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 shipped.
They were stabbed in the back while 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, you know, 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 outmaned but
you do have, you know, 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 Strait of Hormuz, 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 Strait of Hormuz
is responsible for 30 percent of the
oil transit of the world every single
day. So if Trump is lying about his
capacity to open up the Strait of Hormuz,
that means we are in for a world of hurt
economically, like catastrophic. We're
talking 200 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, Whitcoff, 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 streets
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, we're 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
Strait of Hormuz. 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 50 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
Strait of Hormuz. 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 H. W. Bush, the junior in 2003 when
they were talking about, you know,
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran as
potential arenas for war, George Bush
was smart enough to say, yeah, Iran's a
no-go zone because of the Strait of
Hormuz 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 were
threatening to resign over it, to
resign over plans of a ground invasion
into Iran. So this is a dead end and our
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 Thaddeus
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 or 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. That's
not how our modern empire works. Our
modern empire functions under a more
soft power, even though it's oftentimes
brutal, but 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 500,000 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 Tim Pool and
a bunch of people, you know, give a
lot of credit to Trump for the Abraham
Accords. But what really were the
Abraham Accords? 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 then 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. It's
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 Gaza 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
tiny little bow 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 Strait of Hormuz 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 petrodollar
reserve status is kind of massively
under threat. The Iranians, 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.
That's about as hardball as it gets.
So in summary, we are trading our
soft power, dollar-based empire,
on behalf of Israel's burgeoning
physical empire in their region,
their expansionary programs. And that,
ladies and gentlemen, is why you would
have someone like Miriam Adelson
ponying up $250 million to put
Trump into power. And this is the
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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
dissidents 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 bases
throughout the region, even though
we now know that there's been at
minimum 13 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...
It's because of what you...
Oh, okay.
Okay, no problem at all.
See you shortly, Mr. Secretary.
You can work that in.
Mr. Secretary, I have to say it's a
first, I'm sure, a last as well
that an interviewee has been pulled away
to go to the Situation Room.
How's the President? Was he...
Was he stressed?
No, the President is in great spirits.
The Iranian mission is proceeding
well ahead of schedule.
And I have to tell you, well,
that I'm a teenager who's considering
military service, and I could give
this team my highest compliment
from President Trump to the head
of the Joint Chief, to the Secretary
of War.
I would, they say, that I would
trust my child's life in their hands.
Now, for those that aren't familiar
with Scott Besson, 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's like clearly, like why
does it go 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,
Bibi Netanyahu has not been seen.
Yeah, it's true.
Also, there's another Israeli
intelligence meeting or briefing
today, which Bibi Netanyahu
always attends, wasn't there.
There was also a press
conference from Netanyahu 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 there theorizing that
it was AI.
So it makes you wonder.
It really does make you wonder
if Netanyahu was taken out by Iran
and that they are covering it up
for, I don't know what purpose
you would cover it up, I guess,
to try and negotiate an exit
strategy, maybe, or to find an
heir apparent.
I don't know.
Now, today Israel denied it, and they
say that Netanyahu is 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 go 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 Hegsath or
Donald Trump or whatever.
It's like, that was like a
fealty test to end all fealty
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.
They're 100% militarily destroyed.
You know, everything's going great.
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 wants to.
She's hopeful.
And some of the pushback 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 express 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 in 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 instead, 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.
39 trillion in debt is a
hiccup away.
We're going to be 40 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 going to 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, man.
He is his voting base.
The writer dies
are largely sycophantic.
They largely just praise him
anytime he makes a mistake.
It's 5d 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 Weinstein
talked to Tucker Carlson
about yesterday.
The golden pager
that was given to President
Trump strikes me as
another Rorschach test,
just like Beebe'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?
I think 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.
All right.
You know, yeah, what was that?
Now, it's important for you
to remember that Tucker
Carlson prior to about two
weeks ago when the Civil War
started had a really good
relationship with Donald Trump.
So when Tucker Carlson says,
yeah, I think it was
received that way
as in as a threat,
that's fascinating.
That should be front page news
nationwide.
So in my view,
there are 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 Lindsay Graham
saying he's Reagan
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 traitor 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 while 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 now going
to win the Senate.
The Democrats are now 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 5D chess.
We have no time left to just put all
of our desires and needs
and really necessities aside
to assuage 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.
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