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Iran News Today: US Slams Iran with Bunker Busting Bombs, Iran Ready to Attack US Targets | Redacted
01:06:14
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- [00:00]
A
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B
All right, deep diving. What's happening with this economy and the war? As you can see, Natalie is not here today. She's tending to our daughter who is under the weather. Allergies hit and it's just, you know, headache net and craziness. So taking care of our little girl. So she is taking care of her. I can relate. I've been pounded by them. Yeah. I mean, you can't see me. I don't have a camera, but I've I for about the past three days, I'm just like constantly. It's like crying. My eyes are watering so much. So it's like I just. Yeah, that's been my life for the past week. Everyone can feel the pressure, you know, and everything with all the allergies and craziness right now. So anyway, if you're suffering out there, I hear you. I hear you. Philip hears you as well. So, yeah, Natalie's not here, but we are going to deep dive the very latest in this war. What does this mean for Iran? Rumblings that Iran is in control of this. And you're hearing quite a lot of bluster from the Trump administration looking for an off ramp right now in order to try to end this war and Israel's war as we're preparing for ground invasion. If you talk to sources in the military, especially the Special Forces like I have, this is real. They are locked in and ready to go. So how close are we to an actual ground invasion and an absolute disaster in the Middle East? We're going to talk to Captain Matthew Ho about all of this from the Eisenhower Institute. And by the way, Eisenhower Media Institute. What I love about Captain Ho is he, you know, he's very much anti war. Right. He heeding the lessons of what President Eisenhower said in his farewell address, which is, beware the massive military industrial complex. They will get us into these forever wars. And that seems to be exactly what's unfolding right now. Even though they told us they don't want an Iraqi style occupation, then why are you sending military? Why are you sending the Marines? Why are you sending thousands of American forces into this region for Israel? We're going to talk about that. We're also going to look at the economy and as we near famine, population potential in certain areas with the lack of fertilizer on the food side and then the oil shock. What does this mean for the rewriting of the US Dollar? And how widespread will this depression be if this continues for much longer? We're going to focus on Europe, but also what's going on in Asia and the United States. And we've got a great economist, one of the most respected economists in the world, Professor Richard Verner is going to be joining us as well. So we'll get to all of that, but first we want to tell you about our friends over at Rumble Wallet because many of our friends are journalists, have debanked because these banks don't like their politics. Well, that's where Rumble Wallet comes in. No bank holding your money. Not even. 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Rumble Wallet is a technology provider only and not a custodial service. See terms@wallet.rumble.com and buy our friends over at American Financing. Because let's be honest, the cost of living isn't just high, it's exhausting. If you've been leaning on credit cards lately just to cover basic things like groceries, gas, utility bills, you're essentially paying a survival tax of 20% interest or more. Why keep handing your hard earned paycheck to big banks when you could just keep it for your family? Our friends at American Financing have a better way. They're helping homeowners tap into their equity to pay off high interest debt. With mortgage rates currently in the fives, on average, American Financing is saving their customers $800 a month. That's nearly a $10,000 a year back in your pocket. It's not just a loan, it's a total financial reset. Takes just 10 minutes to find out what you could save. So call them 866-890-8434. That's 866-890-8433 or visit american financing.netacted so over the past 48 hours, we've seen escalations in money, multiple directions. But if you listen to the Trump administration, this is all under control. And enormous progress has been made towards a ceasefire, that the Strait of Hormuz will be open, that American forces and boots on the ground will not have to become a reality, that we won't have to destroy your desalinization plants. War crimes. So we won't have to commit war crimes in order to liberate the Iranian people. Meanwhile, on the Iranian side, they're probably not being drawn into this back and forth round of lies anymore. The last time they were involved in it, of course, they were bombed when they tried to be a part of these negotiations. For the Iranian part, they're of course saying that they will target multiple bases and oil infrastructure throughout the Middle East. In response, then you hear from the Russian side, you heard from Sergey Lavrov who just said that we are entering a new era in this world, that the fighting is fierce and that basically all of the chairs right now are, are being rearranged and you're watching this happening in real time. So who is in control here? Is it Iran?
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C
Is it Israel?
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B
Is it the United States? Is it Russia? All of these pieces we want to analyze today with Captain Matthew Ho. He is an Iraq war veteran, Afghanistan State Department officer. We always love having Captain Ho on because we think he is one of the most critical and brilliant thinkers on these subjects. So, Captain and all of comes to it from a frame of being anti war, which I really appreciate. So, Captain, great to see you. Welcome back to the show.
- [06:44]
C
Thank you for having me back on.
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B
So over the past 48 hours, we've seen all sorts of striations that are sort of playing out here in the mainstream media. You get the CNN narrative, which is the US has boots on the ground ready for this invasion. All of the pieces are in place as they're telling us. You hear from the Iranian side sort of come a little closer because we're not just going to go quietly into the 9th and you hear the Russian side who looks like they are making out really, really well in this situation right now. Maybe just give me your high level assessment over the past sort of 48 hours and where you see this going.
- [07:22]
C
Well, I think, Clayton, we continue to see this play out in the way many of us had suggested it might. But I think particularly the way that we have understood this conflict to be managed by Iran, particularly over the last three weeks, once past the initial first week of the war by the Americans and the Israelis, the shock and awe, if you will, the intensity of that campaign as the smoke cleared, the realization that that's it, that's all, what else is there for the Americans and Israelis to do. They can continue to bomb and bomb and bomb without a pathway to achieving whatever objectives it is they're saying they're trying to achieve. And then you compare that to the Iranians who have demonstrated that they can put together and execute a strategy to achieve the, their clear political objectives. And they have immediate political objectives here as well as long term. The immediate objectives are establishing deterrence, making this war so costly that a war like this cannot happen again in the future, as well as then that deterrence establishes or protects Iranian sovereignty. And you see in their strategy that they've done this. And now today, as West Texas Intermediate crude, which is the American benchmark is about 105, 105 dollars a barrel, you know, you see that strategy really coming into play and you see the desperation of the Americans here. The Israelis, I think, are just committed to their violence for the sake of violence type of policies. But the Americans are really starting to become worried. You know, you see this, we've seen, we saw, I guess, Clayton, beginning of this, this war. We saw an administration that was unprepared for the war. Their, their messaging wasn't together. They, they couldn't articulate what they want to accomplish or how they're going to accomplish it without stepping on each other. And now a month later, the problem is not so much that they can't get their messages together is that they can't get control of the initiative, that the Iranians are in control of this war. And so now, as you start to see the consequences of Iran's economic warfare really start to take hold. You have these economic pressures, but then you also have political pressures. You have Spain saying the United States can't utilize Spain's airspace. You had the Italians saying today the Americans can't land their planes at our Airfields. So you're really starting to see at this point a month into the war, the results of a well crafted, well articulated, well resourced Iranian strategy. And the thing I think that should worry those who are in favor of this war is that we just saw the Yemenis, Ansar Allah, the Houthis in Yemen, enter the war this past weekend. And if anyone thinks that the Houthis entered this war at exactly the fourth week of the war, that that's just some coincidence that it ended up on that date, I don't know what to tell you because they are, they are carrying out a plan here. Not just Iran, but the entire axis of resistance that seems to be able to not just exercise a great degree of strategic patience, but also has captured the initiative, won't let the initiative go, and continues to make the Americans have to consider options that they don't want to consider or they shouldn't want to consider unless they're incredibly foolish and reckless and ahistoric, such as putting ground troops into Iran.
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B
So ground troops seem inevitable at this point. The Pentagon reporting on Monday, or excuse me, the Washington Post reporting on Monday that the Pentagon is preparing for, you know, maybe a week long ground campaign. I mean, I find that hilarious that that's a week long. We are, we were told this was going to last hours, this whole conflict would last hours. And then we were told it would last four days. And then of course, now we're into the fourth week, entering the full month of this now. So the Pentagon is speaking about this in terms of a new phase with ground troops here. And then I want to circle back to your Iran is in control point because I want to go through some of the various pieces of that, how they exactly they are in control. But can you talk about the ground forces piece of this Kharg Island, Conor, wherever they're going to land and what a potential disaster this could be.
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C
So, you know, one thing we should note is that Clayton, if this was a competent administration, if you had any confidence in the Pentagon, we would say, you know what, all this talk out loud about taking these specific islands, you know, no military gives away the plot, no one gives away the plan like this. And so this obviously must be a destination distraction or faint and they will do something different. And there's a possibility still of that. But I don't think most of us have that type of confidence as administration to believe that they're not so foolish, not so reckless. And again, because they don't have the initiative, because the headlines, they don't have the headlines in their control. They are constantly having to come up with things that will try and make it seem like not simply is the United States enjoying success in this war, but. But that we have control of this war. And so this idea of filling the headlines with the possibility of imminent American ground evasion, but then also, too, what would the purposes of that be? And, you know, I come back to this idea that any purpose in putting American Marines or paratroopers or special operations forces on the ground would be for public relations, would be to get video of American Marines on a. On an Iranian beach someplace, planting the American flag. And that then allows for the administration to say, this is it. We won. This is our grand finale. This. Now we're able to exit. So I think so much of this conversation that we're hearing out loud about upcoming ground invasions, you know, taking islands, putting Marines on the coastline, whatever it is, has to come back to this idea that the administration realizes it's not in control and it needs a way to address what you just said. So, well, this was supposed to be hours, and then it was supposed to be days, and then it was supposed to be two weeks, and then it was supposed to be four weeks. And so they need to find a way to get themselves out of this. I mean, that's a very real possibility here. But there is also this very real possibility that they are serious about putting forces on the ground, that they believe that, say, taking Carg island, where about 90% of Iranian oil exports are put onto ships, you know, loaded up and sent out, that that would be a way to. To get leverage, that taking this island will mean that we are now in command at the negotiations table. But, you know, the. It seems if we go. Went back a month ago, and I think I was on your show the day the attacks happened. You know, a lot of the conversation was about this idea that the Americans were going to achieve regime change in Iran through a Kurdish uprising. At first it was all these different sects in Iran were going to uprise and overthrow the Iranian government, the Azeris, the Baluks, the Arabs, et cetera. But then it seemed to be settled upon this idea that all be the Kurds, so there'll be this Kurdish uprising in the west of Iran. And what we'll need to do is we'll need to put American special forces teams to help the Kurds. And we've not heard anything about that. Now, again, if I had confidence in administration and say we haven't heard anything about that, because that's what they're trying to do. That's what they want to get done. So they're not talking about it and they're distracting us with all this stuff about Carg island and seizing, you know, Bandar Abbas or whatever, you know. But I don't have confidence in the administration, so I'm not really too sure, you know. But the reality is, is that this administration is, does not have control of this war. They don't have control of the initiative, they don't have control of the narrative. And I feel they need to do something, whether it's just to get the headlines back, whether it's to try and get some leverage to use in negotiations or because they are so hubristic, they are so embodied with their own belief in themselves, their own mythology. Right. They're high on their own gaslighting, as you say, that they believe in a ground invasion would actually have some type of effect.
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B
Yeah, I mean we spoke to earlier this week we spoke to Joe Kent who obviously resigned the administration because of this war. And he says basically any sort of anti war voices in this were really boxed out, really weren't invited to the meetings at all. So he is, I think in many ways surrounded by a lot of sycophants and yes men who are giving him, you know, a lot of BS. So when they're telling him that they're dropping these 5,000 pound buster bunking buster
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C
busting bombs.
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B
Yes, bunker busting bombs, 2,000, £5,000. And the assessments that we're seeing is that they're not effective at all to destroy these tunnel systems that are housing these sort of missile systems, cities that they've been building for decades. So I guess I wanted to kind of come back to your point about Iran being in control here. Maybe you could walk through the different pieces that you're seeing that shows from a military perspective, even from a propaganda perspective that Iran maybe is in control.
- [17:10]
C
Well, I mean, the first thing is their preparation and their planning. And you just alluded to some of this, Clayton. Understanding who their adversaries were going to be, their vulnerabilities, these large American bases out in the open, the fact that the same things that might make Iran vulnerable, such as energy infrastructure, makes America and its allies vulnerable as well, let alone the whole world is vulnerable. The understanding that they're not going to defeat the American navy or air force in a fistfight in the Iranian air force and navy don't really truly exist, not in the sense that we understand an air force or navy as. So they built missile forces, they built Drone forces, they built naval forces that are composed of machine guns mounted on speedboats. An understanding that to fight the Americans in this war that they knew was coming, because this was always a war that was going to be Iran's fate. Any nation that stands up against the hegemon, that stands up against an empire, at some point, this will be their fate. A war like this. They knew they had to take on the United States asymmetrically. And they also, I think, understood that the Israelis would fight similarly to the way the Americans fight in terms of depending upon high volumes of missiles and bombs, high technology, things like that. So the Iranians understood who they were up against, and they prepared for that. They prepared for the way they would be attacked, and they prepared for the way they would fight, and they understood the vulnerabilities in the region. And then they exercised patience. And I think this is the most dangerous thing about the Iranians, the idea that they went through two iterations of conflict with the Israelis in 2024, then they went through the 12 day war with the Israelis and the Americans in 2025, and they didn't give away their hand. They didn't use their best missiles, they didn't demonstrate how they were going to use their drones against us. Right. As well as they didn't give away that they understood the American footprint in the region, that they understood exactly where American radar and command and control facilities were, and that they understood how best to attack them and take them out immediately. I mean, so you saw this country, with this patience, hold back, essentially fight in 2024 and 2025 with one hand, while clearly articulating that the next round of war, that a war in 2026 was going to be a total war that would have a determinative outcome, and that is the war that they would fight to achieve their objectives in the region. Again, those objectives being deterrence and a defense of their or protection of their sovereignty. And so what you've seen then is you've seen an Iran that was prepared, Iran that has strategic patience, and an Iran that followed out that by following their strategy, they. And by using the resources they had, as well as using what's left of the axis of resistance. So the Palestinian resistance and Syrian government are no longer part of the axis of resistance, at least in a way for the Palestinians, in a way that they could bring mass or bearing or force upon the Americans and the Israelis. But certainly the Yemenis, the Iraqi resistance and Hezbollah are. And so patience as well, to hold the, for the Yemenis, for the Iraqis, for Hezbollah to hold back over these last few years, preserve their forces, not give away their strengths even as they were being attacked, is something that's very, very dangerous. And then when you're able to exercise that degree of caution, you're able to exercise that degree of execution of your plan, then taking the initiative comes naturally. And that's what we've seen. We've seen the Iranians carry out their plan plans, their allies carry out their plans, and now the Americans are on the back foot. The question to the American President, to the Secretary of Defense every day is, what are you doing about this? What are we going to do about this thing? What about that thing? Right. It's never about what the Americans are doing, except maybe to answer a question about an atrocity or about what, you know, the next round of tit for tat you just initiated by hitting Iranian industrial facilities or Iranian education facilities. So I mean, this understanding of the Iranians, of how they wanted to fight this war, what they wanted to get out of it very quickly and easily expanding the war throughout the region as well as too, by simply shutting down the Straits of Hormuz by nothing more than firing a few drones off at a few ships. Now the world is facing economic recession. If this war continues, we're facing a depression, I think globally, because that by the time it takes to get these energy facilities back online, particularly ones that are damaged, that will take year, years. You're talking about an energy crisis as well as all the other things that come out of byproducts of energy production, such as helium and fertilizer and all these other things that we're all learning about now, if we didn't know it already.
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B
Right.
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C
Well, you know, this is, this is, this is the culmination of a well put together plan by Iran to achieve what it needed to achieve again, to create deterrence and to protect its sovereignty. And then there's also to the other aspect of this, that the Iranians didn't just have immediate political goals here, immediate objectives, but they're thinking long term. And this is the idea that this war, I don't know if the Iranians would phrase it this way. The way I see it though, this war is likely to be a radically transforming historical event. I believe that this war will be the war that historians, if it continues, if we're able to end it sooner, maybe it won't, but if it continues, this war will be the event that historians will put as the marker for where the 20th century, when the American century, when the American empire ended and when the 21st century, the multipolar world began. Now, I think a lot of us believe we're already in a multipolar world. But just to make things clear, clean, and establish a start date in history, I think this will be the war. Because I think that the, the shake up in the world order that is coming from this war, some of it because of the economic consequences, others because of the United States's own actions and the lack of trust, dependability, the fear that is inspiring throughout the world are, is going to force those who are hedging on creating new alliances, creating new, new mechanisms to creating a new world order. So leaving the post World War II American world order behind and creating something new or not, it's already there. I mean, talk about things like bricks, but building it out, developing it, establishing it firmly. I think that this is something as a war is going to bring. And we can see the Iranians doing their part to do that through something as simple as saying, yes, your ships can come through the streets of Hormuz as long as they're not associated with Israel or the United States, and as long as they pay him yuan. So you see, just in this very simple aspect of the Iranians establishing this toll booth mechanism, the straits are Hormuz de dollarization event that rapidly brings about the end of the American empire and continues the growth of the multipolar world.
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A
Wow.
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B
I think what you just said is incredibly smart. People should rewind this when we're done and rewatch that because I couldn't agree with you more. And you're seeing, of course, even the Financial Times admitting how this is really the solidification now for China as you know, as a superpower in all of this, and the beneficiaries, Russia, China, and it's almost as if the United States wasn't aware of how detrimental this would be that they would shut down the Strait of Hormuz. We've heard repeatedly from like the Trump administration over the past few weeks since this has happened, that they're sort of shocked by the fact that our American bases were attacked, that energy infrastructure was attacked, that the strait was closed, all of which they told us would happen if we in fact initiated this war. And it's just they seem sort of shocked by it. And you're right, settling transactions now in the yuan in order to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, de dollarization in full effect. We're going to talk with Professor Richard Werner in a few minutes here about what this means for the economy. More Broadly, but just from a military perspective, if the US objective is not regime change anymore, if they really cannot accomplish that, then what is the actual military measurable end point here? And you talked about some of maybe the propaganda that would be used by us having U.S. marines on a beach to get some photo ops, Iwo Jima style. But at the end of the day, like what is their endpoint objective? If they're telling us, you know, Iraqi style occupation is not the goal, then what do you make out as the endpoint from, from the higher ups of the Pentagon? What's your sense of it?
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C
You know, this is something I think that empires do, Clayton. They are pushed by emotions, they're pushed by the responsibilities of being an imperial government, the requirement to maintain hegemony, the requirement to maintain order, and then the inertia that builds over that for decades. And then you have the most malleable president we've ever had in Donald Trump. And then Iran war that was wanted for again for decades, and that George W. Bush didn't partake in, that Barack Obama was able to avoid. Joe Biden I think got close to it. But here you had a president who was now able to deliver this war for the empire and all the manifestations of the empire. So Israel, the military industrial complex, the fossil fuel industry, the tech industry that sees 92 million people who aren't on Instagram or X or whatever and can be, if the company countries opened up all those things, make it so that this war becomes something that is not done as a matter of necessity, but as a matter of choice. I guess you could say necessity because the empire feels it has to do this. But all that means is that you put that next to you add that to this understanding of who's in power right now. And you just brought up this aspect of the Straits are Hormuz and that why didn't you know, essentially they see this coming. It's even worse than I think a lot of us understand it because we just went through the experience in the Biden administration and Trump administration of Ansar Allah, the Houthis shutting down the Red Sea. And both the Biden administration and the Trump administration sent naval task force and expeditionary forces into the Red Sea to open the Red Sea back up and they couldn't do do it. So this idea then of that, what, you know, just, just a couple thousand kilometers, however far it is from the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf of a couple thousand miles, I guess you know, that the same thing wasn't gonna occur again. I mean that's the type of leadership,
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B
we're dealing with a much bigger army.
- [28:17]
C
I mean, we're talking about exactly everything about it. Right? So that's all my kind of my way of getting this idea of like, I don't think they have any objectives. I don't think there is anything measurable to work off of. They aren't thinking in these terms. They are operating off of the pressures that come again, either from the fact of the inertia of an imperial system that they sit on top of, or because of specific constituencies, again, Israel, the military industrial complex, whoever, or the fantasies of men like Pete Hegson. Right, Pete Hegseth, a man who thinks, who keeps saying this phrase, we're going to negotiate with bombs. This is somebody who thinks that phrase actually makes sense. He keeps saying it over and over and over again.
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B
Has that ever worked? I mean, we're going to negotiate with bombs, we're going to destroy you.
- [29:05]
C
Right. How ludicrous it sounds. Right. How silly it sounds. And he thinks it sounds good. So that's what we're up against here. I mean, you're right. You take regime change off the table, how then do you achieve the objective of making Iran compliant to your wishes of order and control and dominance in the region? So then it becomes, okay, how do we make it so that Iran can't threaten the order, can't threaten Israel, can't threaten our hegemony here? Okay, we've got to take away its missile and drone forces. We've got to take away its ability to fight back. It's got to take away our ability to hurt us or again to wage in this economic warfare. Oh, how do you do that? I mean, without occupying this country that's four times the size of California? I mean, how do you keep them from building $20,000 drones that basically at this point a half decent machine shop can put together for you? You know, I mean, so what we're starting to see now too is a softening in the language of the American administration. Marco Rubio just gave an interview to Al Jazeera yesterday or two days ago and, and he brought up his four points. One being the destruction of the Iranian navy, the destruction of the Iranian air force. Those things really didn't matter much. Again, not in a way that we think of them in the west of air forces and navies. And then it was an ability to stop Iranian missile and drone attacks as well as stop the production of the missiles and drones. And the key thing is they've stopped using the language of destroy and they're saying diminish. We want to diminish Iran's ability to fight, fire missiles and drones. Want to diminish their ability to produce missiles and drones. You know, using diminish versus destroy changes everything. And it makes it very easy to say, okay, we've reached a point, particularly if your metric is going to be something that can't be quantified or it's just basically along the lines of, you know, take it. You know, trust us, we're the Pentagon. We're telling you we've destroyed 90% of their launchers for their missiles and drones, even though their missiles and launches have remained constantly about 100 or 110 every day for the last three or four weeks. Trust us, we've destroyed 90% of their capacity. I mean, that's what you're looking at here. I mean, we're not dealing with anybody that we can take. We're dealing with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth. I don't know why I'm elaborating on any more than that. That's something we're dealing with here.
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B
Yeah, I guess I'll get you out of here on this, Captain, which is about the future of NATO. Is NATO dead? And I'll ask it this way. President Trump on Tuesday morning on Truth Social posted this. All of those countries that can't get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran. I have a suggestion for you. Number one, buy from the US we have plenty. Number two, build up some delayed courage and go to the straight and just take it. You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself. The USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil. Basically, we're done. And then Tuesday afternoon, Italy time, of course, I think you mentioned this off the top. We saw Italy saying US Is not privy to our airspace for carrying out a war. We've already seen that with Spain as well. So we're seeing a real fracturing here between the United States and Europe. And is this the end of NATO and what do you think this means for the future of our relationship with Europe? Is Europe in real trouble?
- [32:28]
C
Yeah, Europe is in great trouble. And it's their own fault. You know, following the end of the Cold War, they could have gone their own way, but they thought that they could be partners in the American empire, albeit Junior partners. They thought they would be partners in the American empire. And they went along with our wars throughout the Middle east, our wars in the Muslim world. They followed our neoliberal economic fantasies. And now they have countries collectively that are dealing with housing crisis, health care crisis, quality of life crisis, immigration crisis. I mean essentially a society, economies, political spheres that have been hollowed out because they have chosen the last 30, 40 years to remain vassals within a dying empire. And so the Europeans clutch or the cling to the idea of NATO and I think they're clinging to the idea of the Democrats coming back into power in 2028 to revive the European American relationship as they see it. And you know, this is a vision, this is a view, this is a hope of those who are in power now in Europe, the same men and women who, who represent the institutions that have put their populations into this place, who have made Europe vapid and hollow and superficial, who de industrialized it again, who committed the Europeans to these wars throughout the Muslim world, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I think the Europeans, while they're willing to exercise some degree of, of autonomy from the US in this war, and it goes country by country, some like Spain and Italy, certainly doing more than Those like the UK that are allowing B1s and B52s to fly off from their airfields. But you see other countries too, like Germany, Friedrich Mertz, who was originally enthusiastic about this war, who last year in 2025 during a 12 day war, the change of Germany stated that the Israel was doing the dirty work for the Europeans with regards to Iran. You know, you've seen him even back off in his enthusiasm in the last week. So you would think that this escapade combined with what the Europeans went through just a couple months ago with the American administration's circus around Greenland, plus all the other avenues of American foreign policy over the decades, you would think that this would be where the Europeans say we're doing our own thing, we are branching off, that they would act as Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, advised them to do at the Davos Forum a few months ago, to create their own block, essentially, essentially to detach the European Union from the American empire. And you just don't see that happening with those in power right now, because they believe their best way to hang into power, to stay in the power, is to hang on to the American alliance, to stay as what they see as junior partners in the empire, when they're really just vassals like everybody else. But the idea that maybe The Democrats will come in back to power and everything will go back to being the way that was good for us. And meanwhile their populations continue to suffer from lack of investment, from interests and desires that don't matter to them. But most especially you see how Europe is struggling and will continue to struggle by their embracer of militarism. And the idea that for many European leaders, they view getting Europe out of its current situation is through military Keynesianism. And whether that's political by, you know, continuing this war with Russia in Ukraine to provide for some type of foreign enemy, to distract their populations or to give them some form of political identity, or by the actual economic aspects of a military in Keynesianism, that by building tanks and ships and drones and missiles, etc. They're going to get their economies out of the slump, if you can call it that, is that they're going to re industrialize that they're going to reinvigorate that they're going to regrow their economies by building their own military industrial complex. And I think many of us understand where that's going to put them.
- [37:04]
B
Yeah, very smart. I mean, we lived in Portugal for five years and it was sad to watch that destruction happening in real time. And what Brussels is doing is not to the benefit of the European people at all. And this military boondoggle against Russia is absolutely soul crushing. And really destroying those countries and then shutting down your nuclear power plants and really getting walked on by having your Nord Stream pipeline destroyed. I mean, it's so sad. It's so sad to watch. Really, really is. Captain, great to see you. Really, really thoughtful analysis. I really appreciate this and I encourage everyone to rewind what you just said because I think it's absolutely brilliant. So Captain, great to see you as always, really appreciate it.
- [37:50]
C
Thank you, Clayton. Have a good day.
- [37:52]
B
You as well. All right, coming up, Professor Richard Verner is gonna be joining us to deep dive the economy. One of the most respected economists in the world, he warned months ago that Europe was collapsing in real time. As you just heard the captain talking about there, what was happening in Germany, of course, and beyond. And this war is only exacerbating that. But what about the American economy and what happens with food prices? As the captain just talked about fertilizer, helium, like all of those big pieces, we're now learning much more about it. How important was fertilizer? Oh, turns out really important. How important was helium? It's not just for kids, birthday parties and balloons. It's really important. So we're going to Talk with the professor in moments. But first, this episode is brought to you by our friends over at IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration and coffee. Coffee sponsor, IQ Bar Protein Bars IQ Mix, Hydration Mixes. The IQ Joe Mushroom coffees are delicious. We use them every day. We throw them in the kids lunches. My son goes to swim practice in the evenings and after a swim practice, he has one of these IQ bars full of protein. After his after his swim event and also in his water bottle, we mix it with one of the IQ Hydration mixes because he is a migrainer, as we've talked about on the show, so he tends to get migraines. And one way to head that off is to be properly hydrated. So we keep these in our car in his backpack. IQ Mix is a zero sugar drink, so you're not loading them up with all kinds of sugar. It hydrates with electrolytes, improves the mood and boosts clarity. They also have their IQ mushroom coffee, designed for mental clarity, packed with 200 milligrams of natural caffeine. Plus it comes in four different flavors that will totally transform your morning routine. Plenty of different things you can try. So they're 20,000 five star reviews and counting. More people than ever are fueling their busy lifestyles with IQ Bars, Brain and Body Boosting Bars, Hydration Mixes, Mushroom Coffees. Their ultimate Sampler pack includes all three of them so you can try them out. We do. We love them. In our family, IQ Bar has become part of our daily routine. So right now, IQ Bar is offering bring our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products, including the Ultimate Sampler pack, plus free shipping. To get your 20% off, text the word redacted to 64,000. Yeah, just text it out. Text the word redacted to 64,000. That's redacted to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Well, over the past few days, we've seen gas prices now hit their highest level since 2022 in the United States. Respectfully, average U.S. prices skyrocketed now past $4 per gallon on Tuesday, reaching their highest level in nearly four years. Donald Trump is reportedly looking for some kind of off ramp, if you can actually believe that, from this war against Iran, Israel's war against Iran. But of course, every time we move close to negotiations to try to end this war, Israel bombs something to basically scuttle those plans. We spoke with Joe Kent earlier this week who said that this is a big frustration inside of the Trump administration that every time we get close to some sort of ceasefire agreement or some sort of framework for negotiations, the Israelis step in and bomb and scuttle those plans. Watch.
- [41:07]
D
And then also, in terms of every time that President Trump attempts to move us to a place where we can negotiate, the Israelis come in and they kill negotiators, they kill members of the government. They specifically bomb, bomb the infrastructure that President Trump says that we're not going to bomb anymore, basically to show the Iranians that, like, we're not negotiating in good faith or that it really doesn't matter what we say because the Israelis are just going to jump in and do whatever they want. And as much as the Israelis have gone against us publicly, we still have yet to restrain them in any meaningful way. I know there's been some reports here and there that the vice president or somebody else called and yelled at Bibi. But until we actually take away some of the support that we're giving to the Israelis, their behavior will not change because they basically think that any, you know, kind of talking to that we give them is just hollow because it. Because it truly is.
- [42:01]
E
Ouch.
- [42:02]
B
And then President Trump on Tuesday morning published this note on Truth Social. It's really a big fu to Europe and the UK all of those countries that can't get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz. And of course I do. I just read this to Captain Ho a few minutes ago. But he said, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you. Number one, buy your oil from the United States. We have plenty. Number two, build up some delayed courage and go to the Strait of Hormuz and just take it. You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself. The USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your oil, President Trump. So we want to bring in one of the most respected economists in the world, and that is Professor Richard Verner. Now, to analyze where we are heading with this economy. Because there are all sorts of very troubling signs, not just in oil and gas prices, but of course, from food stocks and stores and fertilizer, helium. You heard Captain Ho just talk about that a few moments ago. So, professor, great to see you. I guess I just want to ask, maybe at the top level here, before we get into some of the nuance, what are the biggest concerns for you economically, worldwide, with this war right now?
- [43:22]
E
Thanks for having Me on your show, a great fan of your show. It's a pleasure to be here. It is very concerning. I'm based in Europe and Europe is very much dependent on energy from a number of outside sources, including from the Middle East. It's dependent on fertilizer, it's dependent on other raw materials that are important for either food or industrial production, specialized, you know, raw materials. So and Europe of course, has thrived in the past on this international business model where you import raw materials, you add value and you produce high quality, high value added final output. And while international trade is working, then this delivers prosperity. And of course, developing countries can do the same. Often they were told by the army of the World bank not to move up the value added ladder. But that's been the model certainly in Europe and other successful countries in East Asia have done the same. So we are facing now yet another policy induced crisis, if not catastrophe if raw material inputs are cut off further, because already the energy situation in Europe has, has been quite dire frankly for the last four years with prices rising significantly. And you know, also very much policy induced artificial reduction in the supply of necessary inputs and imports. You know, for example, Europe saying, okay, we won't deal with Russia because they've just delivered for decades very reliably and very cheaply energy to us. We're going to stopped importing that. Now we're going to blow up some more nuclear power plants in Germany and some even, you know, the traditional coal power plants that, you know, blew them up. So we've had these policy induced restrictions already on energy supply. And now we're coming to a point where there could be a real, well, what, what they, what they all call a choke point being utilized on Europe in particular. It looks better to me looking from the outside in the U.S. i think the risk is far more moderate in the US Although we do also have strange things happen in the US Various food supply chain node points being blown up and having some strange, you know, fires in various strange places. But overall, Europe is much more vulnerable. Asia is also quite vulnerable really. So we could see a major shock to the economy similar to what happened in 2020, which was another policy induced throttling of the economy.
- [46:49]
B
I think that that's the most important piece, right, that this is a destruction of our own making of our own policy by these globalists. And so when you see that intentional destruction of this world order right now we heard from Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday from Russia saying that we are seeing a major recalibration of the World order right now that the fighting is fierce. But there is going to be a recalibration massively, I think, in the next couple of years. That is what we are seeing right now. So, I mean, professor, this sounds like it's intentional. This is an intentional reordering of the world order in order to either consolidate power, I don't know exactly. Maybe you can sort of unpack what you see. If this is in fact intentional.
- [47:40]
E
It is intentional. It's policy induced. The policies have been intentionally taken. And of course there is the usual gap between what they say they're doing and what they're actually doing. And one, you know, shouldn't be confused by that. Basically there's a lot of lying going on as usual. And what they tell us is their motivation and their reason and what's their goal is not necessarily what the real goal is, because some of these people are very well aware that if they spoke plainly, it wouldn't be very popular. So, yes, it's a realignment in the major geopolitical system and it is intentional. The intentionality can also be seen apart from all the events early on, which were also very much intentional, you know, in 2022, you know, leading Russia really to what at that time was, from the Russian perspective, the only step left for them to, to make sure that there could perhaps be peace for the ethnic Russian speakers, citizens of formerly of Ukraine. But there were, you know, subjected to already eight years of war by, you know, civil war by, by the Kiev government. So, and so that was the next step. There was no other option left. And then of course, the way Europe reacted to this was further exacerbating the situation. And these choke points were utilized against the West European population. It's quite clear in Europe and similarly in some other parts of the world, what's happening now with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, you wonder really about, for example, the decision by the insurance companies, many leading names of which are based in the City of London in the United Kingdom, to not insure shipping going through the hormone Strait of Hormuz before, you know, the, the various reactions from Iran and statements from Iran were made. So that seemed to be an indication that already these, these things have been planned very much in advance. And it was clear that a disruption to international shipping, international trade was, was really part and parcel of certainly the planning exercises that have been going on in London. So where is this leading us? Well, from a Russian perspective, and you quoted the Foreign Minister Lavrov, of course, what countries Like Russia, China, you know, the BRICS member countries in Iran is one of those BRICS member countries are wanting to see is a new rebalancing of the international order that gives more power to alternative places, not just the U.S. i mean, this is a process that really started quite a while ago. Around 2008, 9, 10, China made several very official formal efforts to apply to all the stakeholders and in the US concerning the imf, World bank and you know, UN related, UN setup in order to get a bigger vote. The International Monetary Fund in the World bank are dominated by the US vote. And there seemed to be no sort of, you know, legal real justification anymore why this should be in this way. And so in China basically said, you know, give us a bigger voice and we're happy to work through it. These organizations and with you continue, you know, the international collaboration as it's panned out. But you know, the other countries, rising powers such as China should also have a bit of a say. They were rebuffed. And that's when China, then around 2010, launched under the current president, launched his, his landmark Belt and Road initiative, which perhaps initially was a little bit hard to understand from a Western viewpoint, but from a Chinese viewpoint, it was essentially the Chinese attempt at creating an international structure with China having a larger role commensurate with its economic capacity and also ability and willingness to play a bigger political role and help other countries develop. So it was centered on corporation trade and also help for developing countries in various forms, while at the same time securing supply lines, international trade for China. And at the core of this were alternative institutions of the IMF and the World Bank. It's like the Chinese IMF and the Chinese World bank were created, the Asian Infrastructure Investment bank in Beijing and the New Development bank in Shanghai. Now, while these banks have not really, you know, received many headlines, they are just really a part of this structure. At the same time, we've got the Shanghai Corporation Organization and we've got the various initiatives by both Belt and Road membership countries and also the BRICS countries. They all are aimed at other countries having a bit more of a voice in what's going on in the world and not just America dictating things.
- [54:03]
B
Do you see this, Professor? Is this just an oil shock or now are we crossing into a much bigger credit shock for the global economy? With the Strait of Hormuz closed, disrupted brent crude near $118 a barrel, what do you think breaks first in this financial system?
- [54:26]
E
Well, of course, when you say oil shock, I mean the first thing Most people think of is, you know, historical comparisons. The, the big oil shock was, you know, just more than 50 years ago in the 1970s. And that seemed to be, and that's certainly the story that's written about it, something that's like, you know, a bad event happened. There was this oil supply shock, it couldn't be avoided. Then there was inflation and but really that's just the COVID story that was also a completely orchestrated event. The inflation was not even due to oil prices. That's the irony of it. There was significant inflation, of course in the 1970s, but that was entirely created by the central banks, massive money printing and monetary expansion. Why were they doing that? Because in 1971 the United States defaulted on its international gold obligations and this default triggered the United States also abandoning the fixed exchange rates that became untenable. The dollar fell and that was the real problem, the fall of the dollar. And this is of course currently the same problem. When we talk about what we just discussed in an alternative system. Are the countries trying to have a bit of a say what about the dollar? And that's really the answer, short answer to your question is well, the dollar is the central focus of what's going on and we have to watch what this means. It doesn't mean that the dollar necessarily be the first to fall and crash. Actually it's the vassals currencies that are being debauched first. Japan being, case in point, the yen is ridiculously cheap. It's artificially done to suit America because by artificially weakening, you know, major industrialized countries currencies against the dollar, that's one way of maintaining strength in the dollar. You see. I mean currency is always relative, it's always currency pairs. So Japan is made to have this weak currency so that the dollar looks stronger basically. And in terms of the economy, of course, Japan has been suppressed for several decades and they've had lost decades. This is of course what's been happening to Europe more recently Germany in particular Europe, another group of vassal countries that are made to suffer for the benefit of the US dollar and the US economy and strategic relationship.
- [57:11]
C
But
- [57:14]
E
so really what happened behind the scenes? While in the early 70s the central banks, starting with the Federal Reserve were reflating, creating money in vast amounts and advanced speed, Therefore creating the inflation was to hide the realignment of the international monetary system. And really the dollar and the dollars roll from previously been fixed exchange rate and gold linked dollar to a dollar that was no longer linked. Well, it was no longer in fixed exchange rates and was not linked to gold, but was now going to be underpinned because it has to be underpinned by real economic resources to underpinned by oil. And that was being arranged at that time, at the same time. So you know, not from 1972, 3, 4, essentially coming effect becoming effectively only in 74 the petrodollar system then was erected and that, that allowed the US to enjoy, you know, another half century of economic supremacy. So I think this is what we're witnessing. We're witnessing the shift, the end of the petrodollar and the shift to a new system which in the western countries, the countries that are really part of the US empire, if you want to call it that, seems to be aimed at having digital currencies as the next step. So no link to, to gold or other real resources, but digital. And you see this will only work if they step up controls. And that's what we see in the West. I mean in Europe, it's astonishing in the uk, the European Union, how the media being censored, people are getting censored, sanctioned for just uttering their opinion or their, what they believe to be professionally sound analyses. And you get sanctions. You, you can't buy anything, you, you become an outlaw. This is the latest they're doing in the EU to some, some people speaking up and having different opinions from the European Commission. Because basically when you adopt this digital currency system, it is a system of control and it works while you step up all the controls and then you can, can control inflation because well, if you think that people are spending too much, hey, we just switch off your spending power, your money won't work anymore and you can fine tune this, you can use AI to run this digital gulag. So that seems to be happening in the West. This whole digital infrastructure and surveillance and control system is being put in place while we speak. And you see this works by having scarcity as an excuse because if you're going to roll out more measures as we saw in 2020, you need an excuse. And you know, the, the war against Iran seems to be as good as any excuse cutting off energy supplies and trade. Sorry, we're out of energy, we need some lockdowns now. We need energy lockdowns. You can't use your car, you maybe not allowed to travel. So that's where, where things seem to be heading in the west. While in the BRICS countries there seems to be a preference for gold, acquiring gold, shoring up gold reserves, all to some extent that's true globally. Gold is quite popular. You wonder Whether in Europe and the Western countries, they will allow gold to remain free. I mean, in the eu they're restricting cash payments. The amount of money that is allowed to be used in the form of cash for transactions is restricted by EU regulation by the Commission. And of course they're going to constantly bring down those limits. So I think these are the trends and of course we have to watch what the currencies are going to do. The currencies are one way to reflect this and the other one is how they're going to deal with our freedoms and restrict our freedoms.
- [61:47]
B
I think you're spot on with that. Again, very, very intelligent analysis of this. And I think this is the intentional destruction of the US dollar moving us towards this system of control. Absolutely. Professor, great to see you. Thank you so much. We'd love to have you back on here. I hope that cooler heads prevail and we can actually get out of this thing with minimal impact. But it doesn't seem to be the case. But I think we are entering a new world order for sure. Professor, great to see you as always. Thank you.
- [62:15]
E
Great to see you. Thank you very much.
- [62:18]
B
Thanks, Professor. Wow. I think he's absolutely spot on and I've long thought about that. What restrictions will they come to with us on gold? Will they allow it to continue to be free? Will they ask you, like FDR did, to turn in your gold? Is that what's next? He's right about Europe already limiting cash transactions. That if you use cash over a certain threshold in Spain and Portugal and otherwise that you're considered on the gray market. We heard that from the ECB, right? If you use more than €500 to make a payment to a gardener or somebody else, that you're considered gray market, meaning AKA terrorist. Because then we can't track it. We need to know everything that you're doing. So war is the great catalyst that is ushering in this massive change. And I'm glad that he said that because you know, we've heard from David Icke and others who believe like all of this has been planned for decades in order to drive, to drive this change. So yes, that's how I think about it. So. Well, here's something that is backed by the highest level of credible science. A toxin removing detox product. Product that quite frankly, everyone needs to be taking. Why? Why? Well, the FDA admits that our drinking water has forever chemicals in it. Another recent study showed 99 of people have microplastics in their blood, not to mention the heavy metals and pesticides. That we're being exposed to. These toxins are everywhere today. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know it. And it's a disaster for our immune system and for our health. Health? We're talking brain fog, terrible sleep, chronic diseases. It even causes developmental problems in kids and dementia in adults. It's just gross, but okay, Clayton, what? Like, what do you do about it? Well, there hasn't ever been anything clinically proven to actually work, but now there is. It's called Masterpiece. And it's a new detox formula that removes these toxins from your body. But it also replaces, replenishes essential nutrients. It's completely unique and it uses just two all natural ingredients, nano zeolite and sea minerals. So Masterpiece carries in the minerals to your blood and cells and leaves your body alkalized. It leaves your body, leaving your body alkalized, which is a state you want to be in. Energized, nourished, while grabbing the toxins out of your body, removing them from your body at the same time. It was created by no nanobiology experts with $30 million in equipment. And it's working. Peer reviewed research, multiple clinical studies show that it reduced 71% of these tested toxins within 90 days. We're talking graphene, oxide, microplastics, toxic heavy metals, aluminum, even glyphosate. Yeah, the same stuff we're talking about in Roundup. Glyphosate. And there are thousands of testimonials with tons of people reporting, better sleep, more energy, more focus. Really, everything health related improves when these toxins are out of our body. The research and their testimonials are available on their website. So go there, do your own due diligence yourself and study it for yourself. We'll have a link in the description below. The creators of Masterpiece made it for their family and guys, you need it for your family. This is real stuff. We use it every day in our family. Best of all, it's just about a dollar a day. So right now go to Masterpiece Health redacted. Not dot com. It's Masterpiece Health redacted. Save an extra $5 per bottle and we'll make sure we have that link available for you. It's the best gift you'll give yourself and your loved ones all year. So that's going to do it for us today. We really appreciate you joining us here on this Wednesday. Thank you so much much for subscribing to the channel and being a part of our great community here. We really appreciate it. We are an independent show. We are independent journalists. We are not paid for by the defense industry, Big pharma. We're supported by a few key sponsors that we believe in and we're supported by you. So thank you guys so much for subscribing on YouTube on X on Rumble. And we'll be back here tomorrow at 4:00pm Eastern Time. Hopefully our daughter is feeling better. So that's why, of course, Natalie was out today. If you're joined us late, you're wondering where Natalie was. She's tending to our daughter who had allergies, kind of craziness and all of that. So anyway, we'll be back tomorrow at 4pm Eastern Time. Have a great night, everyone.