Executive Disorder: War on Iran, Kristi Noem, Sea Mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Proton Mail

Summary

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It Could Happen Here: "Executive Disorder" – War on Iran, Kristi Noem, Sea Mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Proton Mail

Podcast: It Could Happen Here (Cool Zone Media / iHeartPodcasts)
Date: March 13, 2026
Hosts: Garrison Davis, Robert Evans, James Stout, and Mia Wong
Episode Theme:
A comprehensive analysis of the week’s biggest stories from the edge of US-led conflicts, domestic politics, mounting global instability, and the intersection of tech and security – with the war on Iran, the collapse of global oil infrastructure, eruptions in US political leadership, and digital privacy scandals taking center stage.

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Overview

This episode dives into the ongoing war between the US, Israel, and Iran; key personnel shifts in the Trump administration; the global ramifications of mining in the Strait of Hormuz; American foreign policy maneuvers across Latin America and the Middle East; new waves of techno-capital’s role in the infrastructure sprint; and a critical privacy story centering on ProtonMail. The hosts emphasize how the convergence of military aggression, economic pressure, surveillance, and misinformation are accelerating global instability — but, as always, they leaven the doomsaying with their trademark sardonic humor and pop-cultural tangents.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Opening – Absurdity and Collapse as Background Radiation

• Espresso Proteini: Buffalo Wild Wings' new espresso martini with muscle milk and Buffalo dry rub amuse the hosts.
  • Robert Evans: "It's the dry rub muscle milk combo." (04:07)
  • James Stout: "It'll kill your toilet." (04:24)
• AI-altered media: Ben Shapiro’s supposed eyebrow memes spark a brief reflection on the danger and whimsy of modern misinformation (05:10–06:14).

2. International News: Syria & Afrin Developments

• Hundreds returning to Afrin after years of Turkish occupation, highlighting the slow process of rebuilding for displaced Kurds (06:24–07:10).
• Leadership shifts: Sipan Hamel appointed Deputy Minister of Defense for Eastern Syria; the passing of Saleh Muslim, prominent PYD leader (07:10–07:36).

3. Epstein Case: New Files & Zorro Ranch

• Department of Justice releases files tying Trump and Epstein's victim; FBI investigation into Zorro Ranch proceeds under its current owner — Texas candidate Don Huffines (07:36–09:46).
  • Quote: "Huffines might have evidence that Jeffrey Epstein murdered people." (09:46, Evans)

4. Personnel Shifts: Kristi Noem Fired, Markwayne Mullin Appointed at DHS

• Kristi Noem’s abrupt removal from DHS and her soft landing as "special envoy" for Shield of the Americas (09:48–10:49).
• Markwayne Mullin, MAGA loyalist and member of Cherokee Nation, is set to take over at DHS. Hosts discuss the racist, bigoted reactions to his Indigenous identity (11:01–12:55).
  • James Stout: "It's not what you claim. It's who claims you is the way I've had it." (12:55)

5. Shield of the Americas: Trump Doctrine’s Next Phase

• Explanation of the coalition: Multiple Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, USA) participate; Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela are notably absent (13:54–15:31).
• Graphic design roast: the Shield’s website and logo look straight out of 2005 (14:32–14:45).
• The coalition is an extension of the “Don Roe Doctrine” — hosts reflect on Trump’s adoption of the Monroe Doctrine tradition (15:36–16:18).
• Recent U.S.-assisted (or directed) anti-cartel strikes in Ecuador and their real goal: expanding anti-migrant, anti-asylum policies via FTO/DTO (Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization) labels (16:23–20:33).
  • "This is potentially very concerning...I want to do more reporting on the Trig Bar." (18:22, Stout)

6. US Munitions & War with Iran: “Running Out of Bullets”

• The U.S. has been redeploying missile/drone defenses to the Middle East, leaving other regions vulnerable (20:33–22:22).
• Iranian Shahed drone penetration of air defenses climbs from 6.7% to over 25% in under two weeks (22:00–22:21).
  • Garrison Davis: "Oh, wow." (22:21)
• Plan for future segment: “How America is Running Out of Bullets” (22:31).

7. Mines in the Strait of Hormuz: Bottleneck of Civilization

• Iran preemptively mines the Strait after Trump muses about “taking over” the passage (25:47–26:22).
  • "Trump started publicly musing, maybe we'll just take over the Strait of Hormuz. And Iran started mining the shit out of it." (25:47, Evans)
• The U.S. Navy has withdrawn its dedicated anti-mine ships (“Avenger” class), leaving “Little crappy ships” (LCS) and untested mine countermeasure packages as fallback (27:00–31:44).
  • Reading from the US Naval Institute, host details shambolic mine countermeasures development (28:23–31:20).

8. On the Ground in Iran: Kurdish Policy & Military Trends

• Discussions with Kurdish groups reveal U.S. unwillingness to support land incursions into Iran (32:33–33:14).
• Iran’s internal crisis worsens: continued U.S./Israeli bombing affects essential infrastructure, exacerbates water shortages, and impacts large prison populations (33:32–35:16).
• Nuclear ambiguities: the difficulty of actually “destroying” Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles; much of the current focus is on conventional targets, not regime change (35:30–36:10).

9. Threat of Escalation: Carrier Killers, Blumenthal’s Outrage, Russian Targeting Aid

• Concerns over hypothetical Iranian acquisition of Chinese “carrier killer” missiles, which could precipitate catastrophic escalation (37:20–38:06).
• Sen. Blumenthal sharply criticizes the administration’s answers on costs, risks, and the specter of US boots on the ground (38:06–41:00).
  • "[I am] left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war...I will demand answers because the American people deserve to know..." (38:06, Blumenthal)
• Russia aids Iran with satellite intelligence, helping target US assets (reported by Washington Post) (38:44–39:54).

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10. Special Segment: The Economy & Markets (Mia Wong, 44:09)

• Markets are volatile, battered by swings in oil prices and presidential rhetoric about the war’s progress (44:09–45:44).
• Trump’s public assurances and reversals have become disconnected from actual military progress (45:44–47:00).
• The administration falsely claims to provide naval escorts for oil tankers, but the US Navy refuses such requests due to high risk (47:37–49:06).
  • "The US Navy has refused near daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz..." (47:37, Mia Wong quoting Reuters)
• Looming economic crises: not just in oil, but also in the “shadow banking” (private credit) sector, where withdrawals are spiking but data is opaque (49:06–50:35).
• Ongoing Israeli bombing and ethnic cleansing in southern Lebanon receives little attention (50:47–51:59).

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11. US Politics: Texas, Tech, and Domestic Terror

• Trump delays his Texas primary endorsement to pressure the Senate on passing a voting restriction bill (SAVE Act) (51:56–53:11).
• “Ratepayer Protection Pledge”: Major tech firms (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, xAI) agree to build private power infrastructure and foot the bill for their own data center energy needs – a prelude to deepening privatization of US energy infrastructure (53:24–54:57).
• White supremacist Jake Lang’s NYC protest against Muslim prayer is targeted by two attempted ISIS-inspired attackers with homemade IEDs; bombs fail, both teens apprehended (54:59–57:56).
  • "The only thing weird about it is that there's not a whole lot of that going on right now. But this is very similar to the people who were carrying out sympathetic ISIS attacks during...Mosul." (57:18, Evans)

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12. Foreign Policy Spillover: Cuba Next?

• Trump signals a desire for intervention in Cuba, speaks of a “friendly takeover,” and references Marco Rubio as his pointman (57:56–60:41).
  • "It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover, it wouldn't matter because they're...in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis." (58:50, Trump)
• Speculation: Cuba may be next after Iran; administration still focused on Iran for now.

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13. Privacy & Surveillance: ProtonMail, FBI, and Legal Compliance

• 404 Media reports ProtonMail assisted the FBI in unmasking a Stop Cop City protester by providing payment data (not content).
• The hosts clarify Proton is a business compliant with Swiss law, not an activist org – privacy depends on user choices, esp. payment method (62:03–66:35).
  • "If you use a credit card, we do have access to the payment identifier, which can be used to identify the credit card holder..." (63:32, quoting Proton comms chief Edward Schoen)
  • "They are a business. They are not an activist organization." (64:15, Garrison Davis)
  • Proton’s compliance with legal orders correlates with user growth, not increased cooperation with authorities (65:01–66:09).

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Notable Quotes

• "It's not what you claim. It's who claims you is the way I've had it." – James Stout on Indigenous identity debates (12:55)
• "Once it became clear that Iran started laying...mines in the strait, U.S. forces claimed to have sunk 16 minelayers...it sounds kind of desperate because the United States is in a uniquely dogshit position to deal with sea mines right specifically now." – Robert Evans (28:21)
• "[I am] left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war...I will demand answers because the American people deserve to know..." – Sen. Blumenthal (38:06)
• "If you use a credit card, we do have access to the payment identifier, which can be used to identify the credit card holder..." – Edward Schoen, ProtonMail spokesperson (63:32, as read by Garrison Davis)
• "It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover, it wouldn't matter because they're...in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis." – Donald Trump on Cuba (58:50)

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Important Timestamps

• Espresso Proteini absurdity: 02:46–04:48
• Ben Shapiro AI meme/Media manipulation: 05:10–06:14
• Afrin and Kurdish updates: 06:24–07:36
• Epstein files & Zorro Ranch: 07:36–09:46
• Kristi Noem ouster/Shield of the Americas: 09:48–16:18
• Ecuador strikes, FTO/DTO designations: 16:23–20:33
• U.S. missile/munition shortages: 20:33–22:22
• Strait of Hormuz mines/LCS "little crappy ships": 25:47–31:44
• Iran war/Kurdish politics: 32:16–36:10
• Sen. Blumenthal, Russia aiding Iran: 38:06–41:00
• Mia Wong’s economic roundup: 44:09–51:20
• ProtonMail/FBI privacy segment: 62:03–66:35

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Tone and Style

• The episode maintains an irreverent, darkly comic rapport, interspersing granular policy analysis and military details with gallows humor and pop culture asides.
• The hosts frequently puncture their own gravitas with derision or self-deprecation but underlying all is a genuine alarm at the pace and interconnectedness of global collapse.
• Discussion is deeply sourced, referencing primary documents, direct communications with actors (e.g., Kurdish leaders), and on-the-ground reporting.

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For Listeners: Core Takeaways

• The war with Iran is going badly for both US munitions stocks and the global economy, with the Strait of Hormuz threatening a broader collapse.
• U.S. domestic politics sees both erratic leadership changes and the deepening privatization of essential infrastructure, with little functional resistance.
• Moves to further militarize foreign and domestic policy — from new anti-cartel coalitions to looming interventions in Cuba — signal a period where diplomatic norms are abandoned.
• Digital privacy is highly contingent, and users of services like ProtonMail should never assume total secrecy.
• The American public is being whiplashed between official narratives and reality, with misinformation (from AI memes to White House press briefings) increasingly central to policy-making and perception.

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For more detailed references, see episode transcript segments at corresponding timestamps above.

Transcript

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[Garrison Davis]

This is it could happen here. Executive Disorder. Our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by James Stout Robert Evans with a segment later on by Mia Wong. This episode we are covering the week of March 4 to March 11. Some small news items here at the top. Ahead of National Espresso Martini Day this Sunday, Buffalo Wild Wings is releasing a wing flavored espresso protein cocktail made with muscle milk protein powder infused with the Buffalo dry rub, which also coats the rim of the glass.

[Robert Evans]

I gotta say, when we stationed a reporter permanently at Buffalo Wild Wings headquarters, a lot of people said, why not Somewhere in one of the many war zones in the world, you know, why not in Washington D.C. in the press corps. And I shouted that person down until they cried. And today, today I've been proven right.

[Garrison Davis]

We will be doing a detailed report on the espresso proteini next week, anxiously awaiting the release of it this weekend.

[James Stout]

Yeah, I'm not touching that shit.

[Robert Evans]

Yes, I'm excited that they have finally decided to put muscle milk powder in an espresso martini.

[James Stout]

It's one of the foulest. Every word in this sentence gets worse.

[Garrison Davis]

The dry rub I think is much more dangerous, frankly.

[Robert Evans]

It's the dry rub muscle milk combo.

[James Stout]

You're gonna be sneezing as you drink it.

[Robert Evans]

It's imagine if someone had just come out with spicy packs of muscle milk like premixed muscle milk that was hot and spicy.

[James Stout]

I'd be shocked if that didn't already exist, to be honest.

[Robert Evans]

I mean, it' you.

[James Stout]

It'll kill your toilet.

[Robert Evans]

What is beautiful to me though, and what I should note this, this goes back to our sponsors, Buffalo Wild Wings. Caring very deeply about human beings. Muscle milk is in the bottom third of protein powders when it comes to lead exposure. Now, that's still more lead than you're supposed to have.

[James Stout]

Oh, good.

[Robert Evans]

In the bottom third.

[Garrison Davis]

It's one of the better ones.

[Robert Evans]

It's one of the better ones.

[Garrison Davis]

Few other small news items. Erica Kirk has been appointed to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors.

[Robert Evans]

Obviously, Erica, Air Force makes sense.

[Garrison Davis]

Charlie Kirk also served on this board. And Ben Shapiro's eyebrows are not actually that big. Those videos are Manipulated media.

[Robert Evans]

I saw those, and I knew they were fake and chose not to prove to myself that they were fake because I needed something that day. But I guess I'm okay today.

[James Stout]

I haven't seen these. Oh, wow. No, I'm just seeing these for the first time.

[Robert Evans]

Wow.

[James Stout]

It's like a caterpillar has crawled up there.

[Robert Evans]

The beauty of how the meme worked is that I saw it for the first time right after waking up, and I was like, well, that's gotta be fake. And then I saw five more pictures of different pictures with the eyebrows. And so I got this beautiful moment, and it wasn't more than about a minute, but this moment of magic, like when you're a child on Christmas morning, like, this might be real. Maybe this is real.

[Garrison Davis]

It's one of the more useful uses for AI. AI generated or AI altered videos.

[Robert Evans]

It's turned me around.

[Garrison Davis]

You can apply, like, the, you know, these. These very subtle changes to a lot of different videos fairly quickly. So it's not just one, you know, photoshopped or, like, you know, visual effects video.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

But there's, like, five, you know, handheld cell phone videos that look pretty genuine, and if you just make enough of them, you're like, oh, this. This. This seems. This seems real.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. And, I mean, Garrison, you're bringing up the part of this that actually is evidence of a danger, but let's all just enjoy this for just a second more. Okay, we're done.

[James Stout]

Hundreds of people have returned to Afrin after having been removed nine years ago, in some cases by Turkish proxy forces and the sna. Many of them will have returned to find their orchards and their homes destroyed, but at least now they can begin to rebuild.

[Robert Evans]

For an idea of how important Afrin was, like, one of the most common nom de guerres that I came across when talking to YPG and YPJ fighters was Haval Lafren. Like, it's a name that you pick because you're not going to use your real name as a revolutionary fighter. And a lot of people, some of them came from Afrin. Some of them was just a symbol of, you know, what the Kurds had lost due to Turkish military aggression.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

But this is a very big deal for them.

[James Stout]

Yeah. It's like, I know I've been critical of stg, but, like, I'm glad to see this happening.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

Also in Syria, Sipan Hamel has been appointed as a Deputy Minister of Defense for Eastern Syria, which would be, I guess the way they're dividing up now would be the area which includes Syrian Kurdistan. And we just learned today, very sadly, that Saleh Muslim, who's one of the co chairs of the pyd, the Democratic Union Party, has passed away. Which is, yeah, pretty sad. Rest in peace.

[Garrison Davis]

Last week, the Department of Justice finally released some of the missing files related to four interviews from 2019 with a protected source who claimed that Epstein introduced her to Trump in the 80s when she was between the ages of 13 and 15, and that Trump sexually abused her. The newly released documents are FBI memos summarizing three interviews and a crisis intake form. Yeah, this victim received a financial settlement from the Epstein estate in 2021. And NPR found that there are still 37 missing pages related to these interviews.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

It's also worth noting that the FBI is currently looking into Zorro Ranch, what was once Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. This was Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico property. And it's where he talked a lot about when he would talk about his plans to, like, breed a bunch of children and stuff with his DNA or whatever. He, like, Zorro Ranch was the epicenter of this. And it's become clear in the documents release that in terms of the amount of trafficking and the amount of abuse of trafficked children that was done there, at least equal to his island. Now, this ranch goes under a new name and it's owned by a new person. And we'll talk about who exactly that is in a second. But there were. There were several attempts by local law enforcement to, like, investigate the ranch, particularly to dig for human remains, but those were kind of stymied by ongoing FBI investigations that seem very shady in retrospect, given how long they waited to look for bodies on the ranch. But they're doing that now. I don't know if they're going to find anything. A lot of the talk about bodies is in, like, individual, anonymous reports. That said, I'm glad they're looking. They should be looking at this ranch. And now I can give the promised punchline, which is that the current guy who owns Jeffrey Epstein's ranch is Don Huffines, who's running for state comptroller in Texas and who used to run one of the big dealerships in my childhood. Huffines has it in this case. Huffines might have evidence that Jeffrey Epstein murdered people.

[James Stout]

Great.

[Robert Evans]

Sorry.

[James Stout]

That is. That is bleak. Let's start with Kristi Noem. As we reported last week, it looks like Kristi Noem's time at the Department of Homeland Security is about to come to an end. It did seem that at the time that Trump Announced this via Truth. Noem was unaware of her removal that there's footage of her speaking at an event. Serious people become aware that she's lost her job. But shortly afterwards, she posted on X.com, the Everything website. Thank you, Otus, for appointing me as a special envoy for Shield of the Americas. When you see the Shield of the Americas, this is not Chris. You know, when you see the Shield of the Americas website, you will fucking be laughing then. ECRUBIO and @SECWAR are incredible leaders, and I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren. There's a lot more in this tweet.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. I appreciate how Trump congratulated Noam on being an excellent secretary of in quotation marks. Homeland.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Good stuff.

[James Stout]

Yeah, it was great. There has been some speculation about Gnome being fired because of vehicles that she purchased for dhs. I've linked to a bunch of those contracts. I found the contracts that money is relatively trivial when you look at the massive budget that they have, and I'm really not sure that this was a reason. And I've seen no evidence to suggest that it was. What I have seen is that Gnome is going to be replaced by Mark Wayne Mullen. Mullin is a bombastic MAGA supporter. He's probably best known with trying to start a fight in Congress with Sean o' Brien and generally being an extremely loyal supporter of Trump in all cases apart from January 6, where for a while he supported prosecutions. Now he's much more, like, equivocating on that. He also at one point attempted to set up his own Evacuation of U.S. citizens from Afghanistan during the Biden administration. He is an enrolled citizen in the Cherokee Nation, which, as I've commented before, has been the source of far too many Democratic critiques, which are really kind of disgusting and bigoted.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

God, there are so many things to be upset about, Quinn Mullen about, and being Cherokee is not one of them. And like, policing how you think indigenous people should look or suggesting that, like, he doesn't fit your trope of indigenous people is in itself bigoted and offensive.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. As a general rule, if you're, like, finding reasons or reading someone else who's finding reasons to say this person who has lived their entire life as a member of this tribe isn't really that. You're basing it on some form of racist US government logic from one decade or another, because it's changed over time as opposed to how the tribe actually considers membership. Right. Which.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Is it. I guess what should matter most. I don't. I shouldn't have an opinion on it either way. But. Yeah.

[James Stout]

It's not what you claim. It's who claims you is the way I've had it.

[Robert Evans]

Right, right. Exactly. It's like the way family. I don't know. I shouldn't say anymore because it's not my fucking place.

[James Stout]

Yeah. And I wish other people would adopt the same stance. Mullen is a really big borderhawk. He's been incredibly combative in Congress. I don't think that this will make DHS any less aggressive or violent. Clearly, Noem's tenure had become unpopular.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[James Stout]

In the same way that Bavino had become unpopular. But I don't think this signals a dramatic change in DHS leadership, you know, towards respecting people's basic dignity and rights. Now, I want to talk a little bit about the Shield of the Americas. The program was announced last weekend at Trump's golf resort in Southern Florida. It currently has a webpage with a really incredible placeholder graphic. Maybe I should just share this. If you go to ShieldOfTheAmericas site.

[Garrison Davis]

I was. Yeah. I was wondering if that was a real website.

[Robert Evans]

I think it is.

[Garrison Davis]

Like, do we know that that's actually what they.

[James Stout]

So I. I'm a little unsure because I couldn't find, like, a government contract for, like, the website hosting.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[James Stout]

But I don't think I've ever found a government contract, the website hosting. So it's a placeholder and then it has videos. If you click Access content, it appears to be essentially like a Dropbox.

[Garrison Davis]

Huh.

[James Stout]

For videos of the Shield of the Americas event. Yeah. It seems to be real.

[Garrison Davis]

It does seem to be based on the inclusion of these videos. But the main page with the. With the little.

[James Stout]

That's definitely their logo.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah, it looks like it's from 2005 in the most endearing way possible.

[James Stout]

You know, someone booted up Microsoft Paint and went to town on this.

[Robert Evans]

Someone had graphic design as a passion. Yeah. Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

It looks kind of GI Joe esque. It looks kind of like American Ninja Warrior.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Like, it's. It's a. It's a very specific, like, era of.

[Robert Evans]

Of.

[Garrison Davis]

Of design choices here.

[James Stout]

The Shield graphic. Yeah, it's fascinating. Much to discuss. Anyway, moving past the graphic, currently, the agreement, the Shield of the Americas agreement was signed by representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. Evidently, for those keeping track of countries in the Americas, this leaves Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, along with other Caribbean island nations. There was also a representative from Chile's President Elect who obviously couldn't sign because they don't have the authority to do so yet. What it seems to be is an extension of what we've seen already.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[James Stout]

Of the quote unquote, Don Roe Doctrine.

[Robert Evans]

Can we just call it the Trump Doctrine? Why do we gotta do this? Why do we gotta do this?

[Garrison Davis]

I think the Don Row Doctrine actually is the correct way to refer to it as.

[Robert Evans]

I just.

[James Stout]

Trump himself has used it and it annoys me. Yeah, unfortunately, so.

[Robert Evans]

Annoys me.

[James Stout]

Yeah, me both, buddy.

[Robert Evans]

I know it's what he calls it, but it annoys me.

[James Stout]

It's extremely unfortunate.

[Garrison Davis]

I mean, but it also links it to an actual lineage of US Foreign policy behavior.

[James Stout]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. The Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine would perhaps have been a more conventional way.

[Robert Evans]

That would be the dignified way to refer to it. That would be the way like a historian would hope to refer to it. Yeah.

[James Stout]

Unfortunately, dignity is not a thing that is abounding at this time.

[Robert Evans]

No, it's not. It's not.

[Garrison Davis]

First is tragedy, second is farce.

[James Stout]

Yeah. And then it's really big for us. I guess the best way to explain Shield of America is to. Is to explain the conference that was hosted the day before at Trump's golf resort, which was the Department of Defense, sometimes referred to as the Department of

[Garrison Davis]

War, but not when they're talking about military action in Iran in which it's the Department of Defense again.

[James Stout]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, because that's not a war. The. The DOD hosted the America's Counter Cartel Conference.

[Robert Evans]

The.

[James Stout]

The correct abbreviation, according to the Secretary of Defense is ac. Just so you know. And I think it's best to explain this with the strikes that were carried out just a few days before this. Right. On the 3rd of March and the 6th of March Southcom, so that would be the US Regional Command, which encompasses South America and Central America, announced that it had a, quote, launched operations against, quote, designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador. We saw videos of these very small, very isolated jungle outposts being struck. And then we saw videos of helicopters is deploying troops who did not appear to be United States troops. It is unclear exactly like what the munitions or what the thing doing that the strike at the start of those videos were. But it seems that the US is working at the very least with Ecuadorian troops. Potentially the US is just there to quote, unquote, train, advise and assist. Right. But it signals a much more like violent approach to this anti cartel mission.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

In this case, the two groups, Los Choneros and Los Lobos, they were both listed as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists in September of last year. I haven't seen that link made anywhere else explicitly in reference to this strike. But the fact that they used. They didn't use FTO in the statement.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[James Stout]

They used dto Designated Terrorist Organizations. There are a few different ways an organization can be designated as a terrorist, but given that there are two that are listed as FTOs and that those two are the most active in the region, I think we can assume that that's who it was against. They also added the Clan Del Golfo. Right. The Golf Cartel would be how people refer to it in English in December of 25 to the FTO list. I didn't pick this up at the time, and again, I haven't seen a great deal of reporting on it. The reason this concerns me is that it pertains to the Trig Bar, terrorism Related Inadmissibility guidelines. The Trig bar can bar people for being admissible to the United States and it could be a serious barrier to migrants. Organizations can be considered terrorists for the purpose of the Trig Bar if they are not FTPs. But the addition of the. The Gulf Cartel to the FTO list will make it very hard for people seeking asylum in the United States who have crossed the Darien because it is not possible for them to do that, at least if they are coming from south to north, which was the direction of travel until 2025, without transiting Gulf Cartel territory. And it would not be possible for that to happen without interacting with them in some way. And so this is. This is potentially very concerning. I want to do more reporting on the Trig Bar. I am pursuing that with some, like, public records requests, which will just take some time. Trump has very clearly made the link between this coalition and the much larger international coalition against the Islamic State. I've said this before, but he clearly sees Operation Inherent Resolve as a very successful model for foreign policy. Yeah, I especially think the model of the. It was called Tallinn Anvil, but the strike cell that they had in Syria is one that he thinks is a very successful model. I've written about this. I'll link to a piece. I wrote about this in my newsletter. But Robert, do you want to go ahead there?

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I mean, I should start with a little update on our ongoing story, which is that America is out of bullets or running out of bullets. Not literal bullets. There's plenty of those.

[James Stout]

Yeah, lots of those in America.

[Robert Evans]

But. But the actual munitions that we use to intercept both drones and ballistic missiles. Now, a couple of things have happened since the start of our war with Iran. We've moved a significant chunk, if not the absolute majority, it's a little unclear, of the anti missile and anti drone weaponry. The major stuff that we had protecting other parts of the world that the United States has bases in, like South Korea, over to the Middle east and over to intercept Iranian missiles primarily headed either toward US forces or most often to Israel. But even with all of the shit that we've redeployed from other areas, there's only so many of the munitions that we use because they're very expensive. And particularly the drones that Iran is using, like the Shahid drones, are very cheap. So starting at kind of the start of hostilities, we were looking at about 6.7% Iranian drones got through the intercept, got through, and this is just in the uae, but you can assume that it's fairly accurate to other theaters. Right. Because we have a lot of missile defense and a lot of drone defense in the UAE. So at the start of hostilities, about 6.7% of Iranian shahed drones were getting through the UAE's defenses.

[James Stout]

Stop it.

[Robert Evans]

Huh?

[James Stout]

There is a thing, Robert, that younger people do.

[Robert Evans]

Yes, the six, seven thing. Yes, I know, it's funny. Iran did that just for the zoomers or the Gen Alphas, whatever. Anyway, that's February 28th. By March 10th, more than 25% of Iranian drones are getting through UAE's interception defenses.

[Garrison Davis]

Oh, wow.

[Robert Evans]

There hasn't been a massive change in the rate of ballistic missile interceptions yet, which suggests that at least we're not running on empty. But that's not good.

[James Stout]

Yeah, right.

[Robert Evans]

That's a massive change. Like that's a massive issue. So we'll continue. I'll be doing a whole episode on how the US is running out of bullets, bullets being, you know, a stand in term for more advanced munitions. But I've got something else to talk about right now that's also involved in the Iranian theater. Particularly I'm going to talk about mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Let's do some ads for products that you may not be able to buy if naval traffic is interdicted through the Strait of Hormuz.

[James Stout]

So buy them now.

[Robert Evans]

So get them now.

[James Stout]

Books.

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[Public Investing Advertiser]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired

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[Robert Evans]

So there's evidence that's come out kind of in the last couple of days. I start Broken on the New Republic. But I believe CBS News was the origin point that Iran started laying mines in the Strait. Before Donald Trump publicly declared he was going. He wanted to take it over. Yeah. So basically, after we killed a huge chunk of the Iranian government, Trump started publicly musing, maybe we'll just take over the Strait of Hormuz. And Iran started mining the shit out of it. Yeah. Now, this is a problem for a lot of reasons. For one thing, the Strait is probably the most. I mean, it's.

[James Stout]

It.

[Robert Evans]

It's arguably the most important energy transit point on planet Earth. Right. Like, it's about a fifth of all crude oil shipments go through the strait. Yeah. That's not the only thing that goes through there, but it is. An incredible amount of the world's crude oil supply travels through this strait, and Tehran's always kind of had the option of closing it by just dumping a bunch of mines in there. Mines are incredib cheap. You can drop mines from very small boats. The US Navy is very good at blowing up big boats. But if you have a shitload of small boats that have a shitload of mines, it's basically impossible to stop an adversary like Iran from laying a fuckload of mines. And that will make it basically untenable financially for anyone to run oil through the strait. If you'd ever know if one of your boats is going to get hit by a fucking sea mine, it makes it hard to get insured to run a boat through the Strait of Hormuz. Most of these mines are not capable of. I mean, these mines in general are not capable of destroying the kind of bolt collars that move crude through. They're not going to blow the boat out of the water immediately, but they're going to damage it. And they have a very good chance because these boats are filled with crude fucking oil. Of lighting them on fire, and that causes a serious problem for the crew of any boat. I want you to. I shouldn't have to explain why that creates a serious problem for the crew of any boat that's filled with crude oil. Right. It's pretty obvious now. Once it became clear that Iran started laying. Had started laying mines in the strait, U.S. forces claimed to have sunk 16 minelayers. That was from U.S. cENTCOM, although it's kind of unclear because at least half of those seem to have been inactive at the time. So these may have just been bigger minelayers that we hit at the start of our attacks on their navy. And then when we realized there's going to be a news cycle about mines in the Strait. Let's claim, you know, whatever. After it came out that Iran had in fact been laying mines, President Trump truthed, we want them removed immediately. If for any reason mines were placed and they are not removed forthwith. I've never heard him use forthwith before.

[James Stout]

That's what he would for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Robert Evans]

The military consequences to Iran will be at a level never before seen. If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction. That sounds kind of desperate. And it sounds kind of desperate because the United States is in a uniquely dogshit position to deal with sea mines right specifically now. Yeah, we made a really funny decision. And by we, I mean the Trump administration made a really funny admin decision basically immediately before we declared war on Iran. A country we've known has always threatened to mine the Strait of Hormuz every time we fucked with them. And that funny decision was in January. The Navy decommissioned four Avengers class mine countermeasure ships, which were the last mine countermeasure ships we had in the Persian Gulf. Now we have other boats that we're pretty sure can do the job, but we've never tried. And the funny thing about the boats that we're currently going to be using to take out mines is that they're preexisting boats that were not built to take out mines. We basically have, I think they're called operations packages that you add to the boat to add capability. One of the capabilities. They have these little basically drone torpedo things that can go out and seek out mines. They've got an enhanced, like, radar package, I guess, or whatever. They're better at looking for mines because the boats that they added these packages to were not initially meant for de mining. They're littoral combat ships. Lcs, widely considered to be the worst boats in the entire U.S. navy. In fact, in the Navy, the acronym LCS stands for Little crappy ships because they're bad. They've been very bad at basically every time we have, like, tested how, how will these things function in like a real fight. It's the answer has been like, terribly. They're not good ships. They kind of suck ass. Now we'll see if the mind countermeasures that they put on these boats, like, make them superior to the old Avenger class. However, there's a lot of issues with the mine countermeasure packages that they've been. They've been making for these. And I want to read a quote from an Article published by famous leftist and thus untrustworthy news source the US Naval Institute. Initially set for an initial operational capability in 2015, the MCM package went through a development process punctuated by stops and program failures. For example, the first craft that could tow the AQS20 sonar to hunt the bulk of mines suffered reliability problems and was scrapped. The service also canceled a plan for the MH 60s to tow the AQS 20. After years of program changes, the packages coalesced around a few core main systems. So the development of these MCM mission packages has been troubled for a very long time, which is what delayed the retirement of the Avenger class minehunters previously. And the Navy's now saying they totally work now and we're all gonna find out in real time if they do.

[James Stout]

Sick.

[Robert Evans]

And the last funny thing I have to say is the four decommissioned Avenger anti mining ships, two of them at least have hilarious names. Two of them make sense. One of them was the USS Sentry. Perfectly reasonable name for a demiting ship. The other was the USS Dexterous. Kind of a weird name, but whatever. And then you have the USS Devastator and the USS Gladiator. What is a mine ship? Devastate. It's a.

[James Stout]

It's for Dem.

[Robert Evans]

It's to stop things from getting devastated. Anyway, that's my report.

[James Stout]

Okay, good to know. Let's pick up with Iran. I want to start by talking about the speculation regarding partner forces. I think some of it has been just like a little bit misinformed. Start with. People have been talking about the Balochistan Liberation Army. They were only added to the United States FTO list last summer, which leads me to believe that the Trump administration is not positively disposed towards him.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[James Stout]

Like if they've just put them on the FTO list in August of last

[Robert Evans]

year, what are the odds anyone in that administration knows where Balochistan is.

[James Stout]

Yeah, it happened shortly after they killed some Pakistani military personnel. So I'm guessing they just got asked to do it or it was part of a negotiation.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Stout]

It also seems very unlikely that Trump is now willing to back a Kurdish land incursion. Invasion wouldn't be the right word. People going into Kurdistan, it's not an invasion. I have a short video here. Kind of an autonomous region, as they did in Syria and Iraq. We're not happy.

[Robert Evans]

We're not looking to the Kurds going in. We're very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don't want to make the war any more complex than it Already is. Ruled that out. We don't want. Yeah, I. I have ruled it out. I don't want the Kurds going in. I don't want to see the Kurds get hurt, get killed. We've had a good relationship. They're willing to go in, but we really.

[James Stout]

I've told them I don't want them to go in.

[Robert Evans]

Do you think the map of Iran will.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

I just think it's.

[Robert Evans]

The war is complicated enough without having. Yeah, sure. You wouldn't want the war to get complicated.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Also the. The audio quality on Fox News, they're absolutely atrocious. Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

It's hard in those planes sometimes.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're in a difficult situation. Yeah.

[James Stout]

So I've spoken to a couple of these Kurdish groups that people have been speculating about in the last couple of weeks. Here's part of a statement that I received from the Pak. That's the Kurdistan Freedom Party, that refers to the US's vacillation on supporting them. The United States is working in the best possible way to dismantle the Iranian regime and eliminate terrorism in the region. For over three decades, we have been fighting to expel the IRGC from Kurdistan and liberate our land. Therefore, we cannot and must not base our policies on the shifts in US rhetoric. America has its own plans regarding the overthrow and subsequent administration of Iran, and we have our plans for the liberation administration of Rojalat. Rojalat. Referring to eastern Kurdistan there. Yeah. Meanwhile, of course, for the last week, we've seen consistent bombing of Iran, including the targeting of oil and water infrastructure. Hengo is reporting horrible overcrowding and food shortages, as well as increased militarization of Ghazal Hazar Prison, which holds more than 16,000 people. As I highlighted last week, Iran was in a water crisis before this new campaign began. Hitting water infrastructure will only increase the odds of massive human suffering and death. This is especially true as it seems that Trump is somewhat growing tired of the war with Iran. He said in a press conference this week it would be, quote, inappropriate to target the newly chosen supreme leader of Iran. In the same press conference, Trump also repeated his claim that Iran was going to take over the Middle east and would have had a nuclear weapon within a matter of weeks if it were not for last year's Operation Midnight Hammer. He also talked about an Iranian nuclear site protected by granite. Both Fordo and Natanz were struck last year and have underground elements from. Fordo is about 80 meters below ground.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

And that was a site that, like, required a US strike Israel did not have the means to knock that one out. But to the best of my knowledge, Fordo is now out of commission following the strikes in Operation Midnight Hammer, which happened in 2025. So perhaps he's referring to another subterranean site, or perhaps he's. He's confusing this with. With earlier information. Evidently, you can't just destroy uranium. Right. Like, if there is enriched nuclear material, then that is still there.

[Robert Evans]

Well, yeah, we talked about this the last time, but, like, the thing that's time consuming is enriching the uranium. And there's no evidence that any of this has reduced the amount that Iran has access to.

[James Stout]

Yes, exactly. And according to Senator Chris Murphy, it doesn't seem like that is particularly the target of this campaign. He said most of the targets are conventional weapons facilities, like drones and missile facilities. The Iranian navy, as Robert mentioned, Air Force. It does not seem like they're particularly interested in regime change. And as Robert mentioned, the IRGC is still able to use many of its small civilian vessels, fast attack vessels, and drones. I spoke to quite a few people who are in this sort of shipping security world, and one of their concerns is, like, when they say fast attack vessels, they're talking about very small boats with mounted machine guns. Right. Operating in large groups and swarming tankers or other ships going through the straight of Hormuz, which would be quite challenging to defend ships from, especially if they're like large civilian ships. Right. I know some people have been speculating about the CM302 missiles that Iran ordered from China. Those are like, quote, unquote, carrier killer missiles. I don't believe they have those yet, though. If they do, we'll probably find out soon enough.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. Boy, that would be a big day.

[James Stout]

Yeah, boy. Yeah, that would. Things would get quite bad if that happened.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly, like, that might be, for this administration, a tactical nuclear scenario. Like, it would be an unprecedented loss. They'd have to do something insane to save face.

[James Stout]

Yeah. I assume US carriers have means of defense as opposed to.

[Robert Evans]

They're very hard to kill. Yes.

[James Stout]

Yeah. That's a particular matchup that no one has seen yet because no one has been wild enough to try it.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. They say these are carrier killers. They're theoretically carrier killers. A lot of the defensive systems on carriers as regards missiles like that are theoretical too, because it hasn't happened.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Not many people have aircraft carriers. And the people who do, you don't want to piss off. Yeah. Finally, I guess I want to talk about the Senator Blumenthal who raised the alarm in a Congressional briefing this week. Here's a clip. I emerged from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate. I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war. My questions have been unanswered and I will demand answers because the American people deserve to know and I guess I am most concerned about the threat to American lives of potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iran. We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives here. And there is also, as disturbingly as anything else, the specter of active Russian aid to Iran putting in danger American lives. The last part references reporting that came first from the Washington Post Russia is providing targeting info to Iran, chiefly using its advanced satellite imaging capacity. To quote from the piece quote since the war began on Saturday, Russia has passed around the locations of US Military assets, including warships and aircraft. This might explain how Iran has been able to hit some softer targets, like the temporary structure in Kuwait where at least six people were killed and we've now learned that many more people were seriously injured, as well as hitting some over their horizon radar systems that we spoke about last week. Finally, the US Is carrying out operations against Hasht Al Sha' Bi Popular Mobilization forces in Iraq. This is getting a lot less reporting, but it seems like if there are boots on the ground anywhere right now, this would be where they would be, right? They're using things like Apaches and A10s. They're not using standoff munitions delivered from a from a great distance. And so anything that is likely to result in either needing people to spot targets or needing people to rescue a pilot or a helicopter gets shot down would more likely at this point be there in Iraq. That's about all I have.

[Garrison Davis]

We'll go on one more ad break and return with a special segment from MIA Wong.

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[James Stout]

We need to intro the music.

[Garrison Davis]

If you want to play the music, you can't.

[CarMax Advertiser]

On to the economy we have been seeing over the past week what I would effectively describe as a will they won't they with are the stock markets going to collapse where markets have imploded and then immediately rebounded, Basically in line with Trump saying that the war was going to be over very soon. This was the sort of state of things on Monday. You know there had been massive collapses in the Asian market from rising oil prices and then Trump said that quote the war is very complete, pretty much in a Phone interview with a journalist from NBC. And this caused a resurrection of the markets. Now this is completely disconnected from the actual reality of the war and functioned entirely to again, just calm these markets on Tuesday. So that was Monday. On Tuesday, Trump said in a speech, quote, we've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long running danger once and for all. Which. Okay, that's, that's gibberish. Now, Trump has specifically begun to address the fact that again, you can't move oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz because Iran is going to just carry out strikes on them. He said, quote, we're also focused on keeping energy and oil flows to the world. And I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe's oil supply. And if Iran does anything to do that, they'll get hit at a much, much harder level. I will take out those targets that were easy and that I mentioned before will take them out so quickly they'll never be able to recover, ever. If they want to play that game, they better not play that game. In the long run, oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without the threat of Iranian ships, drones, missiles, nuclear menace or anything. So what he's saying here is that if Iran keeps the strait closed, he's going to destroy them. But A, he's already in a war with them, and B, this just means that as long as Iran keeps his straight closed, then the war keeps going, which keeps the straight clothes longer, which keeps the, the war going. So this is, this is great. Trump was also directly asked by a reporter about whether the war is going to keep going. Quote, thank you, thank you, Mr. President. You said the war is, quote, very complete, but your Defense Secretary says this is just the beginning. So which is it? And how long should Americans be prepared for this war to last for? And he immediately starts going into metaphysics, says, quote, well, I think you could say both the beginning, it's the beginning of building a new country. And then he eventually says, so, you know, you could look at that statement. We could, we could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here, I could call it, or we could go further and we're going further. But the big risks on that war have been over for three days. We wiped them out in the first few days. So that says nothing other than probably the war is going to keep going. Now, Trump has been claiming there would be Navy escorts through this Strait of Hormuz. This is an absolute unhinged lie that Trump came up with to calm oil prices. And on Wednesday we had reporting from Reuters that obviously, no, the navy has been turning down requests for escort. I'm going to read a quote from that Reuters piece. The US Navy has refused near daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high for now, according to sources familiar with the matter. Which, yeah, no shit, of course this isn't happening. There's no way for it to happen. Have you seen an oil tanker? The largest of these things is 2/5 of a kilometer long, right? And some of them are, you know, half that size. So they are like one fifth of a kilometer long. But you can't escort that through a strait that is, and I kind of emphasize this enough, 23 miles wide, its narrowest point. Now, Iran has also started mining the straits to some extent. On Wednesday, Trump claimed the Navy had destroyed Iran's mining ships and the strait was safe to cross. Iran immediately proved this to be a lie by hitting a whole bunch of oil tankers in various places around the Gulf. And this is, you know, one of one of the substantive issues with trying to get one fifth of like the world's oil supply through this Gulf on top of, and also, and again, like this is being reported a little bit less. But we talked about this in my episode earlier in the week. It's not just oil. It's things like critical chemical components for fertilizer that comes through here. It's natural gas. It's also helium, which is a very, very critical element for a whole bunch of heavy industry that is actually very scarce. And a huge amount of the world's helium supply has to travel through the Gulf. And there are so many kinds of munitions besides mines that Iran can use to hit boats. From rockets to missiles to drones to just shooting at them with the guns on boats, the thing they've apparently done now. Now, Trump also said that he was waiving oil related sanctions on certain countries to reduce prices. It's not clear what this means. It's probably Russia. Reuters has claimed that it's about the US Temporary allowing India to purchase Russian oil that's been like stranded at sea. It's very unclear what's going on there. On Thursday we got, we got a bunch of claims from the administration that escorting tankers to the strait was their plan the whole time, which no, it wasn't. This is just going to continue to be an absolute nightmare because if Trump can't figure out a way to get oil through there, he's either going to have to end the war or the world economy is going to just implode. Yeah, we'll be tracking that situation. There's also another crisis that has begun to brew, which is the crisis in the so called private credit market, which is this is stuff that used to be called shadow banking. I'm going to go into more detail on this later as it becomes more and more sort of relevant. But private credit shadow banking is a series of things that are like a bank, but they're not regulated. So we are talking about trillions of dollars of assets. There has been a huge run basically on the shadow banks to the point where several very large banks have paused the ability to take money out of them. Now, it's difficult to report on this because we don't actually know anything about how many people are pulling their money out or what the effect on this is because there are no reporting requirements because these are shadow banks and the whole point about them is that they're not subject to the regular regulations that regular banking will be subject to. So, so that's another looming economic crisis that we're all sort of just going to have to deal with on top of Trump attempting to sort of destroy the economy with this war in Iran. And finally, I want to close by talking about a very good peace and crime think called history is repeating itself. A Lebanese perspective on the war in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran. That is an interview with friend of the show Ilya Ayyub talking about a part of this war that has been basically ignored in the media, which is to quote Elia, Israel has ordered the forced evacuation, effectively the ethnic cleansing of the entirety of southern Lebanon, the HA and parts of.

[Robert Evans]

Becca.

[CarMax Advertiser]

This has been a horrifying campaign that has involved Israel bombing major Lebanese cities, including repeated bombings of Beirut, as well as the systematic destruction of Lebanese villages by the Israeli army in the areas they've occupied in the south. The Israeli invasion has killed 600 people in Lebanon so far and that number will be higher by the time you're listening to this. This campaign does not seem to have an endpoint and is continuing as the American and Israeli war in Iran also continues to grind on. Yeah, put a trans girl on your couch.

[Garrison Davis]

Thank you, Mia. I have a few more news stories before we close out this episode. Trump has delayed his endorsement in the Republican Texas primary to build pressure on the Senate to pass the SAVE act, the voting restriction act to gain favor with the President. Ken Paxton has announced he'd back out of the race if the Senate passes the SAVE act, which Trump later called his number one priority. Paxton knows that the passing of the act is very unlikely, but by signaling support for the president's number one priority, he's hoping to gain favor and maybe even steal the endorsement away from Cornyn. Or convinced Trump not to give an endorsement, which would help him in the runoff election.

[James Stout]

Okay.

[Garrison Davis]

Politico has reported that Trump was, quote, irritated when news articles from Axios and the Atlantic published Wednesday declaring that Trump was, quote, unquote, expected to endorse Cornyn. According to a Republican operative, Trump and others in his orbit hate when stories get out ahead of official announcements, unquote. I sympathize with the President here. I am also often irritated by news articles from Axios and the Atlantic.

[James Stout]

Yeah, yeah, aren't we all? That's the thing that bring us together as a country, right?

[Garrison Davis]

It will be interesting to see what Trump does here. I mean, Trump has previously called Cornyn like a rhino, and Paxton is way more popular with the megabase, despite having more electoral liabilities for the general election.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

On March 5th, seven of the biggest tech companies signed President Trump's ratepayer protection pledge, empowering the private sector to build their own power infrastructure like power plants, microgrids and substations, while also agreeing to, quote, bring or buy new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for their data centers, ensuring such expenses are not passed to American households, unquote. And that is per the White House. So this expounds on the Right player protection pledge that Trump announced during his State of the Union address. We have a little bit more details now.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

The pledge has been signed by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and Xai. These companies will, quote, unquote, voluntarily negotiate new, separate rate structures with utilities and state governments wherever they build new data centers, and will, quote, commit to pay these rates for the power and related infrastructure brought online to service their data centers, whether they use the electricity or not, unquote, to prevent blackouts and power shortages. The pledge also promises that AI companies and hyperscalers will also, quote, coordinate with grid operators to make backup generation resources available at times of emergency, contributing to a more reliable grid, unquote. This pledge is not legally binding, but like I said, it will empower the private sector to develop power plant infrastructure.

[James Stout]

Great. Scary.

[Garrison Davis]

Last Saturday, March 7, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside of the New York City mayor's residence, Gracie Manchin, dubbed Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City. Stop New York City Public Muslim prayer, unquote.

[James Stout]

Incredibly frustrating guy. Yeah, I know that's his goal, but, like, very frustrating.

[Robert Evans]

Well, he's. He's high off the fact that he was able to ignite a news cycle by lying about shit.

[James Stout]

Yeah. After getting chased out of Minneapolis by people with water pistols and rescued by a translady. Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Now, during this protest on Saturday, two teenagers who traveled from Pennsylvania, Amir Bilat and Ibrahim Kayumi, allegedly attempted to detonate two improvised explosive devices amongst the protesters. And after being apprehended, both suspects stated allegiance with ISIS. According to U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, the homemade explosive devices were mason jar sized and packed with metal shrapnel and contained the high explosive tatp.

[Robert Evans]

Oh, wow.

[Garrison Davis]

One IED was ignited and thrown towards a group of protesters. Another was dropped in front of several NYPD officers, but neither device successfully detonated.

[Robert Evans]

It is hard to make bombs. That is why very few domestic terrorists in the US Go the bomb route.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed that the bombers, quote, allegedly sought to inflict mass casualties in service to ISIS with the hope of exceeding the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombing, unquote. Balot was asked if he wanted to accomplish something akin to the Boston bombing during interrogation, to which he allegedly replied, no, even bigger, it was only three deaths, unquote. During interrogation, Kayumi stated that he had watched ISIS propaganda videos on his phone. The criminal complaint says that en route to the NYPD precinct, Balat told officers, quote, this isn't a religion that just stands. When people talk about the blessed name of the Prophet, we take action. If I didn't do it, someone else will come and do it, unquote. And he later pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in writing, along with the phrase, die in your rage.

[Robert Evans]

The only thing weird about it is that there's not a whole lot of that going on right now. But this is very similar to the people who were carrying out sympathetic ISIS attacks, you know, during the height of military action in Mosul. Same. Same diff.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Yes. The timing is odd, unusual. Yet given we're past the territorial caliphate, et cetera. They have been propagandizing a bit more in the last five, six months.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. No, and it makes sense that they choose this as a target.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

But thankfully, again, most people who try to make bombs fail. And that was the case this time, too.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

For our last main story. Since the war on Iran began, the Trump administration has increasingly been Talking about Cuba as being the next target of US intervention in the immediate aftermath of military strikes in Iran. The Atlantic reported that Trump is eyeing Cuba as the next target, with an administration official saying, the President is feeling like I'm on a roll, like this is working, unquote. In a CNN interview about U.S. military success in Iran last Friday, Trump started talking about Cuba, saying, quote, cuba is gonna fall pretty soon, by the way. Unrelated, but Cuba is gonna fall too. They want to make a deal so badly. They want to make a deal. And so I'm gonna put Marco over there and we'll see how that works out, unquote. That same day in Florida, Trump was asked about this Cuba deal and what it would mean for the US and

[Robert Evans]

it may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover, it wouldn't matter because they're really in. They're down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy, they have no money, they're in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis. And we don't want to see that

[Garrison Davis]

may or may not be a friendly takeover.

[Robert Evans]

Uh huh.

[James Stout]

Yeah. I mean, I don't think that's really an option.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, it sounds like he's threatening Batista too, basically even going back further than that. But yeah.

[James Stout]

Does he consider Venezuela to have been a friendly takeover? Like, because he's very friendly with Delsey now.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[James Stout]

Like you can see her tweeting all the time about their great partnership.

[Garrison Davis]

I think he would consider that an unfriendly takeover which has now become friendly. But I think he's like, referring to the amount of like actual, like, you know, kinetic force as a part of a takeover versus just a diplomatic deal done by Rubio. But in. In his CNN interview from, from Friday, Trump did specify that the administration is, quote, unquote, really focused on Iran right now and that they have, quote, plenty of time. But Cuba's ready after 50 years. I've been watching it for 50 years and it's fallen right into my lap because of me, unquote. The day before this, Trump mentioned how Rubio wants to finish up operations in Iran before trying anything in Cuba. Quote, we could do them all at the same time, but bad things happen. If you watch countries over the years, if you do them all too fast, bad things happen, unquote. Do them, do the countries, do them.

[James Stout]

Yeah, I see. Fascinating. That's the reference to these regime change, decapitation.

[Garrison Davis]

Doing the country.

[James Stout]

Yeah, right. Got it. Good to know.

[Garrison Davis]

At a presentation for the Shield of the Americas on Saturday, Trump said, quote, as we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela. We're also looking forward to the great change that will soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba's at the end of the line. They have a bad regime, unquote.

[James Stout]

It is wild to see him just like, I don't want to be like, you know, look, Babe Ruth used to point to where he's going to hit the baseball. That's probably not the best analogy there. You know, I mean, it is bonkers

[Garrison Davis]

just to see they're very confident right now.

[James Stout]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Robert Evans]

They haven't gotten a serious pushback. You know, we're starting to see gas prices rise, the cost of living is going to rise, but we haven't suffered any sort of major military loss.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Eight Americans have died in the operations against Iran. Right. Like, yeah.

[Robert Evans]

And I doubt Trump has noticed, but

[James Stout]

I mean, for him, that's not serious. It's not.

[Garrison Davis]

No.

[James Stout]

He seems to have literally shrugged it off almost in press conferences. We did learn today that a great deal more people suffered more serious injuries than we thought in that particular drone strike in Kuwait. But there won't be electoral consequences. Right. I think that's one of the reasons why they like these airstrike heavy, very light ground footprint models.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

Because it's not Americans who die.

[Robert Evans]

No. It's Iranians who are primarily dying.

[James Stout]

Yeah, yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Shall we close with this brief discussion on ProtonMail?

[James Stout]

Yeah. It's important.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

So last week, 404 Media reported that the end to end encrypted EML service ProtonMail quote, helped FBI unmask anonymous Stop cop city protester, unquote. That is their headline. So what happened here is that In January of 2024, the FBI sent Swiss authorities a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request for information tied to the defend the Atlanta forestrotonmail.com account. The FBI believed that whoever had access to this email would likely have administrative access to the now defunct Scenes from the Atlanta Forest blog, which hosted sabotage report backs, calls to action and some instructional information on possible criminal acts people could commit. After Swiss authorities verified the FBI's request, ProtonMail was legally required to submit payment data which identified a name tied to the account through a credit card. Swiss authorities then forwarded that information to the FBI via the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. This individual has not been charged with a crime and no email contents were provided to either the Swiss authorities or the FBI. This is Edward Schoen, the head of communications for Proton Quote. Proton only provides the limited information that we have when issued with a legally binding order from Swiss authorities which can Only happen after all Swiss legal checks are passed. This is an important distinction because Proton operates exclusively under Swiss law. Proton accepts payments via cryptocurrency, cash and also credit card. If you use a credit card, we do have access to the payment identifier, which can be used to identify the credit card holder from the card issuer. We check all legal orders received from Swiss authorities and we understood that a law enforcement officer was shot and explosive devices were involved. And we verified that Swiss legal requirements were met. Debt, unquote. That's their main statement regarding the handover of this credit card information.

[James Stout]

This has always been my understanding of how ProtonMail works.

[Garrison Davis]

They are a business. They are not an activist organization. They are. They are a business. And Swiss privacy laws are stronger. And they would have not been able to hand over financial information identifying the person if this account paid in cash, mailed to Proton or via cryptocurrency, which would have been way more difficult to

[Robert Evans]

identify, depending on the crypto.

[Garrison Davis]

But yeah, I've operated many, many ProtonMail accounts through the years. I've never tied any of them to financial information. You do not need to pay for most of the services that they provide. Like I even have Proton VPN without paying for like the expanded VPN option.

[James Stout]

Yeah. They've always been very clear that they're a Swiss based company and they comply with Swiss privacy law.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. This has happened before. They have responded to FBI requests before.

[Garrison Davis]

I don't know how many FBI requests they have responded to. I know they've responded to requests from other countries in Europe.

[James Stout]

There's one around 2020.

[Garrison Davis]

I know they respond to French authorities about environmental protesters.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

The fact that Swiss authorities did send send this information to FBI is newsworthy. This is notable. But this doesn't mean that Proton is getting increasingly compliant. Like this is from.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Early 2024, following the standard procedure via the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. And importantly, the actual end to end email contents were not given because Proton themselves don't even have access to those.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

And for clarity, Proton has given info to the FBI before. I found a case back in 2022 where the FBI was able to get data on a US Proton mail user who was being investigated for harassment. They responded in 2021 to 6,995 legal orders and complied with about 6,000 of them. In 2021, it was about 5,000. In 2020, about 3,000. I think this generally reflects the rate at which Proton has grown rather than them becoming more likely to respond to these requests.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

And by responding to the requests. That doesn't really give us a good insight into what they're actually responding with.

[James Stout]

Right, yeah, yeah, that's the other thing. Right. Like this person's email inbox was not opened to the FBI. That is a different thing.

[Robert Evans]

Very important.

[Garrison Davis]

It was the name linked to their credit card.

[James Stout]

Yeah. I think like you said, this is reportable, but it was a little oversold in the headline. I know everyone does that these days.

[Garrison Davis]

But yeah, it's good for people to understand how Proton actually works as like a privacy email and they are not an activist group and that is an important distinction. Like they are a Swiss business that will follow the law. And if you understand how to use Proton as a service to maximize your privacy, then it can be a very useful service. But it will not protect you in every way. If you're handing them over payment information or information tied to your name that is not encrypted that can open the possibility of an account being identifiable.

[James Stout]

Yep. So I know a lot of people had contacted me about a ProtonMail address. Like hopefully now you have the information that you need to decide if that is something you want to use or not.

[Garrison Davis]

Speaking of ProtonMail.

[James Stout]

Yeah, speaking of ProtonMail, we still have a ProtonMail address. Now you know a little bit more about how you can use it if you want to. Coolzonetipsroton me. If you would like to send us a pitch for you or your boss to be on behind the Bastards. If you would like us to plug your book, if you want us to talk about your fucking timeshare, you can send all of that to coolzone mediaheartmedia.com especially if it's the last one. I will block you.

[Robert Evans]

Oh no. I'm looking for a timeshare that seems like a good investment.

[James Stout]

Sick.

[Garrison Davis]

But that is the email for non tips for things that are not related to news. Tips. You can use the Coolzone [e-mail] email address.

[James Stout]

Talking of tips, I have a tip Garrison for marketing people. If you email anyone 10 times a day, you're going to piss them off. They're not going to want to fucking hear from you. Stop it. Some of you aren't.

[Robert Evans]

Well, you're not emailing them. You've got an AI doing it.

[Garrison Davis]

It's got to be AI. Yeah, that's the. That's not a person.

[Robert Evans]

If it's a marketing person. There are other people who email 10 times a day.

[James Stout]

Yeah, I mean this was a marketing person who was emailing some of our work addresses. Try and get us to plug their podcasts, which aren't our podcast is to stop it. Grow up, have some self respect.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, what's really fun is if you go on Reddit you can find a subreddit for those kind of marketers where they'll complain about journalists not responding. And it's beautiful.

[James Stout]

Yeah, you can't see because the podcast I'm raising both my middle fingers at this time. Anyway, this has been us whining about marketing people. I hope you all have a lovely week.

[Garrison Davis]

I will be as I chug as many of those proteinies as I can.

[Robert Evans]

Garrison, if you want to start really bulking up, you need at least 100 grams of protein a day and there's

[James Stout]

10 and each die that's only 10

[Robert Evans]

espresso proteinis protinis a day. You could pour them in a CamelBak and go about your day.

[James Stout]

Just make sure you dip the end of the camelback in the buffalo dry

[Robert Evans]

rubber dryer up for the nozzle.

[James Stout]

Have a little shaker. Have a little.

[Garrison Davis]

A little we reported the news.

[Robert Evans]

Oh God did we.

[Public Investing Advertiser]

We reported the news.

[Robert Evans]

It Could Happen.

[CarMax Advertiser]

Here is a production of Cool Zone Media.

[Robert Evans]

For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media,

[CarMax Advertiser]

visit our website coolzone media.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts,

[James Stout]

you can now find sources for It

[Garrison Davis]

Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions.

[Robert Evans]

Thanks for listening.

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