Putin Warns West as NATO Targets Russian Energy Infrastructure, Tucker Drops Bombshell | Redacted

Summary

Redacted News Podcast Summary
Episode: Putin Warns West as NATO Targets Russian Energy Infrastructure, Tucker Drops Bombshell
Date: June 24, 2026
Hosts: Clayton & Natali Morris
Guests: David Morgan (Economist), Scott Ritter (Former UN Weapons Inspector), Thomas Drake (NSA Whistleblower)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Redacted covers three main themes:

1. Global oil market shifts and the impact of Iranian oil returning to the market
2. Escalating conflict between Russia and the West, with a focus on drone warfare, Putin's warnings, and life on the Russian front
3. A newly revealed Google surveillance court case, and the broader erosion of digital privacy in America

The hosts promise “the stories nobody else tells”—shining light on government overreach, Western media narratives, and ongoing “political theater.”

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1. Iranian Oil Returns & Global Energy Markets

Discussion with David Morgan (Economist, Publisher of The Morgan Report)

[05:19 - 20:58]

Key Points:

• Iranian oil is returning as temporary U.S. waivers ease sanctions; 19 million barrels flowed through the Strait of Hormuz in a recent day—an all-time record.
• Short-term deflationary effect: Oil prices drop “at the margin,” causing consumer relief, but “not a cure for the debt-based system.”
  • “Iranian oil coming back is deflationary at the margin, but it’s not a cure for the debt-based system.” – David Morgan [05:34]
• The Strait of Hormuz is only partially open; much shipping is still stuck, making the situation “a trial balloon” rather than a lasting fix.
• Winners/Losers:
  • Winners: Consumers, airlines, truckers, importers, politicians fighting inflation.
  • Losers: High-cost US shale, Louisiana Gulf producers, oil bulls, potentially Russia if Iran competes heavily in Asia.
• Cascading effects: Cheaper oil may “buy time” in the economy but doesn’t resolve systemic monetary issues.
  • “Cheap oil can buy time. It cannot buy monetary systems built on debt, deficits, and the political class.” – David Morgan [09:17]
• US economic outlook:
  • Rising debt, decreasing manufacturing, declining hope in “the American dream.”
  • Gold and precious metals are increasingly trusted by central banks.
  • “I hate to be a doomer...but we have outlived our function of having the reserve currency.” – David Morgan [14:05]

Notable Advice for Families:

• Stock up on supplies, live within your means, and consider holding precious metals (especially silver) as savings and protection against volatility.
  • “Food, water first. And if you have extra capital… definitely save in precious metals.” – David Morgan [17:03]

Housing Market Outlook:

• Stagnant; limited movement due to high prices, with expected downward pressure on prices as baby boomers downsize.
  • “I think you’re going to see house prices come down on the aggregate... more pressure to the downside.” – David Morgan [19:17]

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2. Russia, NATO & The Frontlines – Putin’s Warnings & Realities

Putin’s Perspective (Via Statement)

[30:01]

• The West is “provoking” a broader war by supplying long-range weapons and drones to Ukraine.
• Claims the West manipulated Ukraine into war against Donbass, and now attacks Russian civilian infrastructure.
• “They started the war on Donbass… using aviation, artillery, tanks against their own civilians... Now they’re trying to make strikes against our civilian infrastructure.” – Vladimir Putin [30:01]

Scott Ritter from the Russian Front

[32:24 - 51:57]

Key Points:

• Information warfare: Western media exaggerates or misreports Russian weakness; morale in Moscow/St. Petersburg is high.
  • “These drone strikes... are not crippling Russia... their morale is very high.” – Scott Ritter [32:52]
• On the front:
  • Russian forces are advancing “everywhere.” Ukrainian drones are killing civilians and targeting infrastructure but have not broken Russian resolve.
  • “Russians are winning decisively... threatening to capture Sloviansk... Donetsk falls, all of it will fall under Russian control.” – Scott Ritter [35:06]
• Civilian experience:
  • Towns newly under Russian control report overwhelming pro-Russian sentiment, referencing referendums with “over 90%” support. Ukrainian forces often use civilians as human shields and commit atrocities during withdrawal.
  • “Russian soldiers literally gave their lives to rescue these... Russians who said they want to be part of Russia.” – Scott Ritter [41:09]
• Casualties:
  • Both sides suffering significant losses. Russian “kill ratios” have dropped; drone warfare means higher casualties for both, but Ukraine is losing more overall.
  • “Russia is doing very well, advancing significantly and inflicting horrific casualties on Ukraine. But it comes at a heavy price for the Russians as well.” – Scott Ritter [51:41]
• Drone warfare:
  • Ukraine currently enjoys a drone advantage, but Russia is adapting tactics and developing countermeasures.
  • “It’s this continuous cycle of violence, drone-based violence. It’s going on and on... But from an overall perspective, Russia is advancing.” – Scott Ritter [49:19]

Notable Exchange:

• Clayton (re General Petraeus’ claim of unsustainable Russian casualties):
  • “So one out of his three things that he said was true.” – [51:41]

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3. Google Dragnet & the Collapse of Digital Privacy

Interview with Thomas Drake (NSA Whistleblower)

[55:31 - 78:44]

Background: Recently public court documents: In 2021, the US government ordered Google to turn over names, emails, and metadata of anyone who searched for sensitive political locations (“Republican National Committee,” etc.) around key dates. Google pushed back but was forced to comply.

Key Discussion Points

• “Keyword warrants”: Now, simply searching for a political term can land you on a federal watchlist.
  • “A simple Google search now becomes a federal investigation trigger.” – Thomas Drake [55:42]
• Third party doctrine: Your Google search data, or other data given to a corporation, is considered fair game for government seizure—no warrant needed.
• Dragnet surveillance:
  • Anyone “technically connected” to a searched device—same wifi, similar logins, etc.—can be swept up.
  • “This is not a one time event. This is part of a continuing pattern. The irony here—Google had already complied with two prior geofence warrants.” – Thomas Drake [57:44]
• Loss of presumption of innocence:
  • These warrants flip due process—“search first, find a crime later.”
  • “You just seize the haystack, find the needle. Target the innocents by design.” – Thomas Drake [63:14]
• No standing, no notification:
  • Users don’t know they’re targets and have no recourse to challenge unconstitutional searches.
  • “How can you bring standing if you don’t even know?” – Thomas Drake [66:52]
• Mass digital seizures now normalized:
  • Supreme Court has failed to define or defend digital Fourth Amendment rights, enabling “privacycide, the killing of privacy little by little.”
  • “What’s particularly pernicious is that your search history itself is now treated as a government informant... becoming reverse engineered against you, even years later.” – Thomas Drake [59:46]
• Chilling effect:
  • Self-censorship is a predictable, unconstitutional result; stifles research, activism, inquiry.

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4. The State of US Politics – Tucker Carlson & the End of MAGA?

Tucker Carlson’s Disavowal of the Republican Party

[85:32 - 86:28]

• Carlson rejects both parties:
  • “I would not support the Republican Party... How could any American voter support a political party that puts the interests of a foreign country above its own citizens?... There’s no defending this because it’s immoral.” – Tucker Carlson [85:32]
• Observations of “political theater,” lack of transparency, and calls for a true “America First” movement.
• Tim Dillon (Comedian) remarks on the “end of MAGA”:
  • “The final party was the octagon on the White House lawn. That’s the finale of the MAGA movement.” – Tim Dillon [87:54]

Need for a President with Backbone

[97:54]

• Carlson: Next president must force government agencies to declassify everything—from JFK files to the Epstein case, and be willing to risk everything for the sake of honesty and the American public.
  • “I just hope that we get mass disclosure going back to at least 1963... I hope at some point we will have a president who’s brave enough, who is willing to die for this.” – Tucker Carlson [97:55]
• Hosts and panel highlight the “uni-party” system, corporate/billionaire influence, and skepticism that any true outsider could succeed under current conditions.

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Notable Quotes (w/timestamps)

• David Morgan:
  • “Iranian oil coming back is deflationary at the margin, but it’s not a cure for the debt-based system.” [05:34]
  • "Cheap oil can buy time. It cannot buy monetary systems built on debt, deficits, and the political class.” [09:17]
  • “If the dollar is worth less and less and you can’t consume your way out of this problem, I don’t hold a lot of hope for it... we have outlived our function of having the reserve currency...” [14:05]
• Scott Ritter:
  • "These drone strikes are not crippling Russia... morale is very high." [32:52]
  • “Russian soldiers literally gave their lives to rescue these... Russians who said they want to be part of Russia.” [41:09]
  • “It’s this continuous cycle of violence, drone-based violence... But from an overall perspective, Russia is advancing.” [49:19]
• Thomas Drake:
  • “A simple Google search now becomes a federal investigation trigger.” [55:42]
  • “This warrant in particular reversed that logic entirely. So the government starts with 300+ anonymous people defined only by search query, then they try to find if any of them are criminals... Everyone in the pool is treated as a potential suspect before any individual piece of evidence is even gathered.” [63:14]
  • “What’s particularly pernicious is that the search history itself is now treated as a government informant.” [59:46]
• Tucker Carlson:
  • "I would not support the Republican Party. Not going to support the Democratic Party...I think a lot of other people are out." [85:32]
  • "I just hope we get mass disclosure going back to at least 1963... until that stuff is declassified, we can't answer these questions. But it could easily be, and I hope at some point we have a president who's brave enough, who's willing to die for this. That is the basic prerequisite of leadership." [97:55]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Intro & Episode Framing: [00:57 - 03:31]
• Iranian Oil & Energy Markets (David Morgan): [05:19 - 20:58]
• US Economy & Housing: [12:05 - 20:58]
• Consumer Prices & Inflation Discussion: [21:00 - 25:46]
• Putin’s Statement / Russian Front (Scott Ritter): [30:01 - 51:57]
• Google Surveillance Court Case (Thomas Drake): [55:31 - 78:44]
• Tucker Carlson, End of MAGA, Third Party Politics: [85:32 - 97:55]
• Calls for Political Backbone & Declassification: [97:54 - 100:22]

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Tone & Takeaways

The episode is assertive, at times irreverent, and heavily critical of establishment narratives in both media and government.

• Energy markets: Iran’s oil return is “a reprieve, not a solution;” US economy is structurally unsound.
• Russia/Ukraine: Western media misleads on Russian weakness; civilian suffering is real, drone warfare is evolving, the West is seen provoking escalation.
• Digital privacy: Erosion of civil liberties is deepening, mass surveillance is “normalized,” and even benign online searches can be weaponized against citizens.
• US politics: Disillusionment with both parties is high; demand for transparency and moral courage in leadership.

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For listeners:
If you want analysis beyond the headlines, skepticism about Western media orthodoxy, and deep dives on digital rights, war, and the US economy, this episode is essential listening. The Redacted team, along with expert guests, delivers a bracing wake-up call about the fragility of both global stability and American democracy.

Transcript

[Natalie]

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[David Morgan]

It feels good to save some hard earned cash.

[Clayton]

It feels good to Geico. Welcome everybody to redacted on this Tuesday. So glad to have you all here. We are going to deep dive what's happening right now with Russia. President Putin just a short time ago saying the west is provocating and delivering long range weapons and this is of course a catalyst for a broader war. President Trump just a short time ago saying we want to have an agreement and really taking the piss kind of out of Zelensky. We because he's basically pushing him saying, you know, he wants to have a deal and if he doesn't want to come to the deal, he's going to be marginalized. So a lot to get to today on the Russian front.

[Natalie]

Plus more oil shocks as Iranian oil enters the market. What's that going to do to the price for the rest of us? Is that going to in fact ease the pain that we were all headed towards? We're not sure. We're going to talk to Dave Morgan, an economist, in just a minute. We're excited about that. We're also going to look at this new case. Recently revealed documents show that the government was forcing Google to unveil information about Americans if they only searched for something like Republican National Party or Democrats or things like that. Google did fight this to their credit, but we're gonna talk more about the government's efforts to continue to survey U.S. citizens. So hold on for that. Did I say his name wrong? David Morgan. I'm sorry if I.

[Clayton]

What did you say?

[Natalie]

I don't know. What I just said just left my mouth and then it was absolutely.

[Clayton]

Did you get him reversed, Dave. Oh, oh, okay.

[Natalie]

Sorry.

[Clayton]

Dave. Yeah. Dave. Our producer, David. Our producer. It's very easy to mix them up. David. David.

[Natalie]

Both Davids do not abbreviate without permission.

[Clayton]

David Morgan is going to be joining us here in moments. But first, take control of your money. Claim $10 right now in US stable coins. You can download Rumble Wallet today with the code redacted 10 just go to wallet.rumble.com redacted and you know, how much do you have control over your own money? Well, technology keeps reshaping our lives and now crypto is changing how money works, how financial transactions big and small are increasingly made. Rumble Wallet makes a wallet and buying cryptocurrency easy with our part with our partner at Moonpay. You can also use your debit card, credit card and bank account to make setting up funding your wallet easy. You can choose from Bitcoin, stablecoin tied to the US Dollar Tether Gold. Use Rumble Wallet to tip your favorite creators like us here at Redacted up to you. Use the promo code and claim $10 in US stable coin. That's USAT. Just go to wallet.rumble.com redacted and use that code redacted10 right now to set up your Rumble Wallet.

[Natalie]

All right. Well, our gas price is going to come down. Is everything okay now? Have we averted an energy crisis? Well, Iran is in fact allowing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at just about one third of the level that it was flowing before the war. President Trump said this today. 19 million barrels of oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, an all time record. Oil prices are tumbling down and the world is a much safer place. Well, is that true because there are reportedly over 11,000 vessels still stuck since the strait closed in February. Can you just unclog that kind of traffic jam with no consequences? And what of the influx now of Iranian oil which previously most Western countries were not able to buy due to sanctions? It was not allowed on the market. What will that do for for the west and also for Iran? Now one factor that could keep pressure on oil prices is the return of Iranian crude oil to the market. Iran reportedly has between 120 and 150 million barrels of oil in storage. That could increase exports as sanctions are eased and shipping lanes reopen. Now that won't flood the market overnight, but combined with the reopening of the strait, it removes much of the war driven premium and that customers had been paying at the pumps. So the question now is whether this is a temporary Reprieve or dirt, just, you know, 60 day negotiating period or the beginning of a more permanent shift in global oil supply, shifting power away from the United States quite clearly. Now David Morgan is the publisher of the Morgan Report and the author of Second Chance how to make and Keep Big Money from the Coming Gold and Silver Shock Waves. And he joins us today. Thank you so much for joining us, sir.

[David Morgan]

Welcome back, Natalie. Thanks for having me.

[Natalie]

All right, so how much could Iranian oil realistically hit the market and will this relieve some of the pain at the pump that we've seen and the global pain that we were headed for because of the energy crisis?

[David Morgan]

Well, you hit it already, Natalie. I think the key word is some. The core thesis is Iranian oil coming back is deflationary at the margin, but it's not a cure for the debt based system. It lowers the oil risk premium. It pressures crude oil prices and helps consumers temporarily. But it may cool and it may cool the cpi, but it also exposes how political energy is driving these markets and how critical they are at this time. So the recent report says that US has temporarily sanctioned waivers through 8-21-26 with Iranian barrels already moving through as you stated, the most likely bar being other Asian refiners. But we remain cautious. Reuters also reports that roughly 126 barrels already went through as you stated. So I think it's good, but it's not great. And again I repeat, it's at the margin, which means politically how long is it going to last and what is the market going to do? Probably fluctuate. Like we've been seeing gas prices up, gas prices down. That could be based on that tweet. So how long will this last? I think is the fact we have to be most cognizant of.

[Clayton]

What do you make of the Strait of Hormuz? Is it in fact open? Is it partially open? Like what is the current state of that? Have you been able to get any sort of shipping manifest ideas? Because there's so much misinformation out there as to the flows through the strait over the past couple of months, to

[David Morgan]

the best of my ability, I look at a lot outside of the US propaganda press. Not there's a propaganda in all the mainstream press, but looking outside of that, looking from the Russian perspective and also others, it looks as if it's a partial, it's not full and it's more or less, I would call trial balloon. They're going to keep it up and they're going to see what happens. And of course Russia actually Doesn't do as well from an economic perspective because Russia exports oil and there's a higher demand for Russian oil because the strata or moves being disengaged. But they want peace more than anything else in my view. So they benefit from higher oil prices, but they want stability more than they care about higher oil prices.

[Natalie]

Now could this possibly push new oil supply into the market that we haven't had before? Now we've seen before. The Biden administration really tried to keep supplies low in order to not flood the market. That was their tactic. But what, how much do you think Iran could significantly contribute to the global market that we have not seen in at least two or three decades?

[David Morgan]

Yeah, that's a bit nuanced. So what most likely is you'll see more Iranian output because you know they're full of brim in their storage capacity right now. It will affect negatively like the margin, which would be shale producers in the United States and also refineries of heavy crude along the Louisiana coastline. So what you'll see is perhaps a slight increase on balance, but perhaps about the same amount. The flow rate remains constant, but the source differs from not as much from shale, not as much from US refiners and more through the Iranian production lines.

[Clayton]

Do you anticipate? You know, obviously we always talk about the flow of oil and gas prices, but it's the trickle down after that. It's the food prices, it's everything as a result of diesel and the shipping, of course, across the United States. How much of a cascading effect do you expect? We kept hearing it's three weeks away, it's four weeks away, don't worry about it. It's not until next year that we're going to have this problem on your spectrum. Where do you see it?

[David Morgan]

Let's break that down. First of all, if Iran can sell oil in dollars again, that's significant. It reinforces dollar settlement in the short run even while the long run Trend remains toward $ization with the winners will be consumers, airlines, truckers, importers, politicians fighting inflation and possibly the equity markets will continue to be supported and perhaps go higher. The losers, as I said previously, are high cost US shale, Gulf producers, descending market share, oil bulls, and perhaps Russia. If the Iranian barrels compete against Asia, which they will, as I said. So the catch is a temporary waiver is same as durable peace, banking, insurance, shipping compliance, sanctions, uncertainty and buyer hesitations all limit how fast the Iranian oil can normalize. And it will take time. So I would say getting Iranian oil into the market may Lower the price of energy, but it does not solve the problem of money. Cheap oil can buy time. It cannot buy monetary systems built on debt, deficits, and. And the political class.

[Natalie]

Right, because nobody's talking about de escalating our military budget. No one's talking about actually getting our fiscal house in order so that when we do wage these wars, we don't hurt so much. So I guess the symptoms of that behavior remain, even if we can sort of still walk the line for a little bit longer. Is that what you're saying?

[David Morgan]

I am. I mean, one of the more crude references, Natalie, is jawboning. I mean, it's a lot of yakking. You know, I'm of the Missouri school, you know, show me. Don't tell me. It sounds great. Let's see it in action and let's see how long it takes to stabilize. I think the one fact I haven't done perhaps a job I wish to do on your show is that even if everything goes as stated and as planned and works perfectly in real glitches, which is highly unlikely, what is the time factor to really get things going? And I think it's going to take longer than people suspect. Furthermore, when does the system stabilize? And that's an ebb and flow. What happens, as I keep saying, between the competing oil producers and Strata Hormuz, if you let some oil through, it's like turning on your faucet. You're turning it on, but if you don't turn it on full blast, you're not going to water your garden in time as an example. So we've got to keep that in mind. But I'm hopeful that it'll come through. But I'm also jaded at my age and being these markets for so long because I've lost almost all confidence in the political class across the board as far as following through, you know, the old show me, don't tell me, I want to see it first.

[Natalie]

Right.

[Clayton]

Obviously, you're an expert in gold and silver and it's taken a little bit of a hit in the past couple of weeks, obviously. And you know, people I don't know jumping back into the US dollar in parts, I don't know, but $39 trillion in debt, over a trillion dollars in just interest payments alone. Now, on that debt, where do you see the US economy heading over the next 12 to 24 months?

[David Morgan]

Oh, boy. I'll tell you, Clayton, I really think that the late.

[Scott Ritter]

Great.

[David Morgan]

You'd have to look him up. Elliot Janeway. I'm that old. But he was a maverick economist outside of the mainstream. And he talked about the US stock market being one great casino. And that was probably in the 70s. It's a great casino now more than ever and the stability just isn't there. Because if you look at what the markets are telling us, not what David Morgan thinks, we see that gold has taken over as the main reserve asset class for the central banks at large. That's the first time in a very long time. The last time we were there basically was when we were on more or less a gold standard. What that says is that I trust gold more more than I trust the US dollar, which means going forward with the debts that keep increasing cannot mathematically be paid back and we cannot really grow our way out of it. The only way to get there is through financial repression. Financial repression only means that you give an interest rate to the bond market that's below the true inflation rate, which has been true for a very long time now. It worked in World War II. We had the same GDP to debt ratio, approximately what we have now, roughly 125 to however, or excuse me, 125%. However, at that time we produced as an Austrian thinker. The Austrians don't think of capital as money. We think of it as production wealth. Production making cars, making refrigerators, making stoves, washing machines. I mean we were a strong producer of wealth in the United States during the post war era and that is what really brought us out. So we worked our way out of it by producing more wealth. This time we don't produce wealth, we don't manufacture hardly anything. If you look at what we do, you look at the biggest employers, what do you have? UPS, FedEx, you've got Walmart, Amazon. I mean these are, this is a 70% consumer society. If the dollar is worth less and less and you can't consume your way out of this problem, I don't hold a lot of hope for it. I hate to be a doomer, I don't want to pull the fear card, but I'm a realist and the reality is we have outlived our function of having the reserve currency that's given us an exorbitant privilege for too long. And we are going to as the United States live within our means sooner than most people realize.

[Clayton]

Yeah. If by force we'll be forced to do seems, and I think you're right about the manufacturing like it's, it's a beautiful idea. Like this idea of reshoring manufacturing in the United States. Start making Zenith Televisions again in the US and people can buy their computers from an American company.

[Natalie]

Well, in fact, the job numbers don't support that. This morning CNBC was reporting that factory numbers are at its lowest rate since around the COVID pandemic. So we have not actually replaced factory and manufacturing at all. That just hasn't happened. Why do you think that is?

[David Morgan]

Well, because it's cheaper other places. I mean, you know, the whole system of capitalism on the negative side is it's profit driven only. I like what's called conscious capitalism, but I won't dive there yet. Natalie, the point being that if it's only profit, then if your labor costs are less overseas, which they are, you're going to manufacture your iPhones in China, which is what we do. So the corporations, the corporate structure are internationalists. In many cases they don't care where the manufacturing is done as long as the profit margins are maximized. Which means built in the USA has very little meaning for almost everyone. Not all, but almost.

[Natalie]

Right. And can I ask you how you think that American families should be living right now? Because as we watched the strait continue to be closed and we saw the gas prices going up, you realize that there will be supply contraction. We realize that fertilizers could not get through and therefore global food supply would contract. So the way I've been living is just, you know, grab some extra supplies. Every time you go to Costco, you just don't know are you going to be able to get some cleaning supplies, soap, things that you need for your family and just make sure you have a good stockpile. And so what should I do with that mindset? I'm asking you as a housewife more than a journalist right now.

[David Morgan]

No, that's fine. Well, I agree with what you said. I think it's very simple and it's a no lose bet. I mean if you buy extra food and stuff you actually eat, then you're probably going to be higher in price anyway so you save some money over the long term. And also if it, if we're wrong and you don't need that extra supply, you can give it to the food bank. So I think that's one. I would say the main point would be live within your means. However, having said that, I'm very aware that so many families, especially the younger generation, are working two jobs and cannot live within their means. And that really is a shout to the American dream. Being more as you know, the late great George Carlin said, to believe in the American dream, you've got to Be asleep to believe it. I mean, as a crude joke, I think he's correct at this point in time. So, yeah, you do what you can. You try to live within your means the best you can. And wherever you have, you know, extra capital, I would go for food, water first. And if you have anything above and beyond that, and savings, you have a savings account. You're not in the stock market. I would definitely save in precious metals, silver being much easier for most people than gold because the price differential, and that is a way to maintain your purchasing power. And that's been proven again and again over time. But I think, again, to repeat, Natalie, we are in a situation where the lifestyle change is going to be greater and greater over time. The middle class is getting wiped out. And that's very apparent. I mean, you look at the tent cities in America, you look, you know, I travel the country still not as much as I used to, but, you know, going into some of these major metropolitan areas, especially on the outskirts, and seeing, you know, what we call the Rust Belt, I mean, it's not getting better. As you said, the news may say one thing, and the idea of reshoring manufacturing and making America great and all that for the idea. But again, I want to see it.

[Clayton]

Yeah, I guess. Dave, we'll get you out of here on this. I want to ask you about housing and what, what we're seeing right now with housing. Housing market, and it seems like it's frozen. That's what we've been, we've been covering here, people just not moving. What do you see unfolding with housing over the next six, eight months?

[David Morgan]

I'll remain stagnant over the next six to eight months. I mean, we've had a big problem with commercial real estate, as we all know, and a lot of those loans are just starting to come due now. And that's going to really hurt some of the commercial banks that did the loans on that, on those commercial buildings, residentially, which, what you're speaking about, Clayton, there are always pockets where people want to move to and that type of thing. But on balance, no, it's pretty stagnant. People don't really want to sell. If they do sell, where are they going to move? They have to pay the same amount for the same, you know, house or not. In most cases, the answer is yes. So they're really not upgrading. They're sliding sideways, and then it's cumbersome to move and all that. So I think you're going to see house prices come down on the aggregate and I think you're also going to see, as time marches on, you have to go six to nine months where you're going to see more pressure to the downside on houses, because as the baby boomers downsize and get out of their mansions and move into, let's say, smaller homes or apartments or healthcare facilities or whatever, there'll be a big amount of those type of homes that will not have a lot of buyers. So the only way for the two to match, obviously, is.

[Natalie]

Right.

[Clayton]

Dave and Morgan, as always, really appreciate your thoughts, and we'll be watching what happens here with oil prices over the next few weeks. I'm with you on the. I'm just sick and tired of the politicians in Washington. We have to chart our own path, to be honest. David, great to see you. Thank you so much.

[David Morgan]

My pleasure.

[Vladimir Putin]

Thank you.

[Natalie]

I mean, I feel a lot of anxiety for the fact that inflation is not going to come down. What's happened to us in our consumer prices just through the course of this war will not be undone. Even if we can sort of stave off a total implosion. The inflation's here to stay. These prices are here to stay. It can't.

[Clayton]

Well, inflation's here to stay. And so are some of the greed of some of these companies keeping their prices artificially higher for no reason. I mean, it's been cataloged that there are companies where the inflationary number on those particular products has come down. There's no reason that those prices then should have remained. Like, why is a Chipotle burrito still as high as it is? Right.

[Natalie]

I don't. I don't have the economics.

[Clayton]

Well, I mean, the point is that if they. If they know that they can see record profits, they can. They can keep a lot of these prices artificially high and blame it on inflation and blame it on things they will. Even if a part of it is true. My point is, like, if a part

[Philip]

of it is true, I mean, prices only go up.

[Thomas Drake]

They never go down.

[Philip]

Yeah, I'm not gonna. If they know. If they know we'll pay $10 for a carton of eggs, they're not gonna sell them to us for five bucks, Right?

[Clayton]

Yeah. When is it ever going down? The only thing that ever seems to really go down is gas prices.

[Natalie]

The price of eggs has actually slightly gone down in the last two years. We had the egg crisis during the Biden administration and it has recovered slightly. So there is hope for that. You know that. But again, we're not seeing natural market forces here. We're seeing Political perversion of that and no real effort to control that or to curb it.

[Clayton]

Do you think that because you brought up, like, last week on the show or whatever, the idea that it's actually cheaper now to even go out to eat? It's cheaper for a lot of people than to go to the grocery store. It's cheaper to go to and get even. Like, fast food.

[Natalie]

Yeah. Depending on what you eat. Yeah, it really depends on what you eat. But you can get a lot of frozen meals for a lot cheaper now than cooking the ingredients. Meat is really expensive. I mean, just like chicken thighs. The other day it was a dozen and a half, but still, like $18 for chicken thighs. That's crazy, you know?

[Philip]

Well, I think. I think it was last week that I read that the price of a pound of ground beef now exceeds the minimum wage for, like, so it's. You'd have to work more than an hour just to buy a pound of ground beef.

[Natalie]

Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah.

[Clayton]

Unbelievable. Well, we've got more news to get to. Let us know your thoughts in the chat room here. Yeah. And where you guys are seeing, like, where you guys. Like, where are you guys seeing prices in your neighborhood? Like, where have you guys noticed, like, at the grocery store, what are the most expensive items that you've noticed specifically? Because, you know, we don't want it to be fear. But right now, this is a reality for so many families that you're seeing what's happening across the board right now, and people just cannot afford these simple things anymore. So let us know in the comments what you think about all of that

[Natalie]

and whether or not you think. I mean, gas prices do come down. So that is one thing that does.

[Clayton]

That's like. Well, the only thing, to Philip's point, like, I always feel like, oh, wow, like, gas prices are now down below $2. Like, and we see that fluctuation in gas prices, but everything else. I mean, look at, like, a Happy Meal, for crying out loud.

[Natalie]

Yes.

[Clayton]

You know, like, you look at the 1980s, like, McDonald's menu, that hasn't gone back down. Everything has gone up and stayed up.

[Natalie]

Right. And the price tag of the war again will continue to be attacks on the middle class and the. Well, the working class. And that's not going to be recovered in any stretch. Go ahead, David.

[Unknown Male 1]

I was just saying, even in things like potato chips, the price goes up and you get less in a bag.

[Clayton]

Yeah. Or they shape the bottle a certain way. They're like, new. Like, I love that they're like, new. Easier to grip design. No, that just means like you've like shaped the bottle so that now there's less in the neck. Yeah, but now I can grip it easier.

[Natalie]

That's nice.

[Clayton]

I remember thinking.

[Thomas Drake]

Yeah.

[Clayton]

I remember thinking growing up when I. Even when like prices were going up and up and I saw like the bottle that says like family size or whatever. It's like family size. Like what kind of family? This. It's not a family. Yeah, this is like a single person size of hand.

[Unknown Male 1]

Was the family size like shampoo or something? You should see the family sizes over here. That's like the family size. Bags of chips are like what are normal bags of chips in the U.S. yeah.

[Clayton]

To be clear, David's in Thailand at the moment. Oh, boy. Yeah. 379 Polar sit in his Pennsylvania region. Our friend of the show, Owen Scheuer just said for the first time ever he was unable to fill up his gas tank like that. He was capped out. They were putting a limit on the amount he could fill up in Texas.

[Natalie]

Interesting.

[Clayton]

He went to fill up, he used $50 and they capped him. And it's like they wouldn't let me fill more than that.

[Natalie]

Even during the pandemic. That didn't happen in Texas in a lot of places. That's wild.

[Unknown Male 1]

Yeah.

[Natalie]

All right. So that's what we're doing.

[David Morgan]

All right.

[Clayton]

Well, that's what we're doing. All right. Coming up, we're going to talk about Russia. The very latest on this. President Putin of Russia just spoke a short time ago. Say the west is warning the west, but more specifically that the west is antagonizing and are legitimate targets pushing us towards World War 3 with obviously long range missiles being rolled in from the United Kingdom, thousands of drones then being shipped from Germany into Ukraine. Do they have a death wish? Like what is happening? Europeans have a death wish right now, it seems. And President Trump just a short time ago speaking about a possible peace agreement, trying to hopefully push Zelenskyy in that direction. So we'll unpack it in just a moment. But first, I don't know if you've seen more and more people obviously are sick and tired of like processed foods and seed oil chips and all of that kind of stuff they don't want to pay for. Like just stuff that's just made with all sorts of garbage. And that's why Masa Chips right now is giving you 25% off because this is a company that makes their ingredients, their chips with only corn, sea salt and 100% grass fed beef. Tallow. That's it. No mystery chemicals, just real food, the way it was meant to be. You can find them at Wegmans, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts supermarket. They are the real deal. Snacking on this chips is nothing like eating regular chips. With Masa chips you feel satisfied, light and energetic. If you've got like a taco night, just have a few of these. You won't feel like, oh my gosh, bloated, disgusting. After you eat like seed oil chips and all of that. Sluggish. So these you can try, they have the original, the white, the blue, the lime colbone, churro hatch chili. I'm a big fan of the white ones. They taste like the sort of like the Mexican restaurant style ones that you'll get. So give them a try today. Go to masachips.com redacted news. Use the code redacted news for 25% off your first order. And again, that's masachips.com redacted news. Use the code redacted news for 25 percent off or just click the link in the video description or scan the QR code on your screen. So our thanks to Masa. All right, well, Europe seems to be losing its ever loving mind. These individuals who are running the European countries right now, the EU have lost their mind hell bent on bringing direct war with Russia. The mobilization is fully happening right now. One big, a big love letter to, I guess to Russia after Keir Starmer, right before Keir Starmer is stepped down is to test long range missiles to help Ukraine bomb Moscow directly with these new experimental systems including these 250 kilogram warheads. So this is like a big going away present I guess from Keir Starmer to the Ukrainians so they can test all of these things out on Ukrainian soil because who cares, right? It's just like a battle testing ground at this point. They've completely mortgaged their future to the IMF and the World bank anyway. Their lands are given up. Millions of their kids are now dead as a result of it. So what does the UK care? And frankly what does Germany care? According to reports today, Germany has delivered 6,000 new medium range drones to Ukraine. So they can continue to launch, I don't know, drones at civilian infrastructure inside of Moscow. And like the 194 or so that they launched just last week. President Putin today stating during a press conference that now they are openly saying they are preparing for war with us. He said, I'm quoting him, he says now they are openly saying they are preparing for War with us, meaning the West European countries, increasingly military offensive budgets. Putin said, quoting him. He also said at first they create threats for our country, force us to take actions necessary for self defense, and then immediately accuse us of all mortal sins to justify the continuation of their aggressive policy. He said during this press conference when he was asked specifically about where things stand and this Western provocation, he said, look, we are focused on the war and we are advancing everywhere and the west continues to try to poke us. And this is what he said in response. Watch.

[Vladimir Putin]

They brought in a crazy anti Russian regime to power in Ukraine through a coup. And they started, they started the war on the Donbass using aviation, using artillery and tanks against their own civilians. We tried to talk reason with them for eight years, but they didn't want that. And ultimately we were forced to come to the rescue of the people who felt themselves to be part of the Russian world, for whom the Russian language is their native tongue. And so ultimately we were forced to do what we did. Now we're advancing in every part of the front. Those who came back know how this is. We're steadily advancing everywhere. So now they're trying to make strikes against our civilian infrastructure to upset the people. And of course the west is providing all the assistance they can and they're launching huge amounts of UAVs. But all that they're trying to do is to create some sort of image and cause a lot of lack of confidence but on the front.

[Clayton]

So this lack of confidence that you're hearing it from all the neocons on Fox News and otherwise, that Ukraine is winning, we heard that last week, right? Ukraine is winning this war and that Putin is now on the fence and they've lost so many men that he can't go on, he can't continue all of this. So what is the truth and where do things stand right now with this massive militarization from the west, providing all of these additional weapons and long range munitions, Is Putin right? Is he wrong? Someone who just returned from Russia is former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who was just in Moscow, saw firsthand these attacks literally in Moscow and around. Scott, great to have you back on the show. Welcome back.

[Scott Ritter]

Thanks for having me.

[Clayton]

So when you hear this, I mean you've seen the increase of militarization from Germany, from Western countries, European countries, what the UK is doing, what is the mood or sentiment like inside of Russia? Do they truly believe like the EU is arming themselves for a direct confrontation with Russia?

[Scott Ritter]

Well, you know, I, I visited two Russias. I visited St. Petersburg, in Moscow, and I also visited the Donbass, Lugansk, Donetsk, in Zaporizhzhia, which is the front line. And there's, I guess, two mindsets inside St. Petersburg in Moscow. The, you know, what we're witnessing is a major information warfare operation being run by the west, using Ukraine as a proxy. These drone strikes against, you know, Moscow, St. Petersburg against Voronezh, against other harassment. The idea that these strikes are crippling Russia, crippling the Russian economy, demoralizing the Russian people, is absurd in the extreme. I was in Moscow the day that 500 drones came at them. You know, you have this very dramatic explosion and things in the air, and the Russian people just get on with their lives. There's no, there's literally no major impact on them. Their morale is very high. There are some on the left in Russia who feel that, you know, Vladimir Putin's inability to respond decisively, you know, is a sign of weakness and that Russia must end this war to the, to the point of, you know, accepting the fact that they won't, you know, have all of the territory of the, of Donetsk under their control. There are others on the right who believe that Vladimir Putin's pragmatism is a sign of weakness and that Russia must double down and go for the decisive victory. With all due respect to the people who live in St. Petersburg and Moscow, you don't, you don't count. You're a bunch of academics, you're a bunch of, you know, elites, and I don't think Vladimir Putin listens to you at all. The people that Vladimir Putin listened to, of course, are the people that live on the front line, the soldiers that are doing the fighting.

[David Morgan]

They're winning, by the way.

[Scott Ritter]

They're winning decisively. They're, they're, they're, you know, threatening to, to, to capture Sloviansk. They're going to take Kamatorsk before the summer is over. They've just taken another third town in that urban belt. When that happens, the Donetsk falls and all of it will fall under Russian control. And when Donets falls up, a Russian front will fall. And so the Russians are winning on fights, very hard fight. The Ukrainians are flooding the zone with drones. You know, these are drones that, you know, not only murdered 21 innocent teenagers, students at Starbase College, but these are drones that continue to attack civilian infrastructure and vehicles in the, you know, strategic highway that connects down Mariupol with, with the Crimea. It's very dangerous to travel. I traveled on those highways, came under drone Attack it. It's, you know, it's, there's no, you can't diminish what's happening. I mean, you can't pretend it's not happening. Gas stations are closed. There is a gas shortage. Melitopol was without electricity and water. And you know, one would think that this would break the spirit of the Russian people living there. And the answer is hell no. They're as determined as ever to keep fighting. They will fight. You know, they understand that victory is theirs. That, that what's happening here, these Ukrainian drone attacks, is just psychological warfare operations. It's very bloody. You know, they are killing a lot of civilians. You know, as you see, they destroyed military infrastructure. But while this has complicated logistics, it hasn't stymied the Russians. The Russians continue to, you know, advance decisively. They have other ways of getting supplies to the front. The other thing I like to point out is it's not just, you know, German and British support that's making its way. It's American support. The drones that attacked me were American made Hornet drones or drones that were made by a company funded by Eric Schmidt, the CEO of a former CEO, founder of Google. Eric Schmidt, if I ever meet you, I'm going to punch you because you tried to murder me and you are culpable in the, and the, the attempt on my life and the life of everybody else. You know, the, you're committing terrorism. Last time I checked, that's a violation of law, federal law and international law. And you are, you know, providing material support to these terrorists. You know that your drones are being used to attack civilian targets. You know this because the AI chips that you put into it basically, you know, spend the first, I think 80% of their battery power looking for pre programmed military targets. And then when it comes down to 20% of them found the target, it goes into free kill mode. That means kill anything and everything. The strategy is to drive civilian traffic off the highways so that the only thing ostensibly on the highways would be by default, military traffic which would be struck. But you're, you know, the law of war doesn't allow you to do this. And so Eric Schmidt is a war criminal. These Hornets and you know, other drones are being guided, you know, through the use of Starlink terminals. So Elon Musk is a murdering sack of horse manure, you know, and they are murdering children, they're murdering innocent civilians. They're, you know, committing war crimes as we speak. But no, the people of the, of these regions, their resolve is, is unbelievable. I've never been More impressed with the, with a collective people than my entire life. These, these are people that, you know, they haven't been at war for four plus years. They've been at war for 12 plus years since 2014. This is nothing new that they're going through. And they are proud to be Russian and they are determined to be part of a Russian victory. That means that the totality of their homeland becomes part of mother Russia.

[Natalie]

And one thing that I can't get from news coverage and social media is what's it like for these towns once Russia comes, continues to move the front line. I mean, we all live in a town. Imagine what that's like, is you don't live in Ukraine anymore. Now you live in Russia. And what is the either support or opposition? Because we know that most of the people in those regions did in fact vote in the referendum over 90% to become a part of Russia. So in these new towns, is there resistance? Is there acceptance? What do you think? Were you able to see that when you were there or least understand some of that temperature?

[Scott Ritter]

Yeah, I visited a. First of all, I have to say that I got close to the front on a couple of occasions, but the Russians were insistent that I be allowed to leave the territories alive. It's very dangerous, very dangerous at the front line. And if you're, there's no driving around, there's no war tourism. When you get close to the gray zone, the, the, the drones are flying, and if you don't take the appropriate precautions, you're going to die. I traveled to Gorlovka, which is a former frontline city that's still under tremendous attack. And I also went to refugee camps where the, the Russians who are in these villages that are being liberated, rescued and brought to these camps, Ukrainians call them to, you know, pejorative. It means the waiters, those who wait. And these are basically people who say that we're Russian. And when the Ukrainians start to withdraw, they say, no, we're staying, we're not evacuating. So the Ukrainians basically target them. They, they use them as human shields. They keep them in homes as complicated to Russian advance. People keep saying, why are the Russians advancing so slow? Well, first of all, war has changed. The drones are everywhere. You just don't get to play the game you used to play. It's a different war, slower war, slower pace war. But the other thing is that when the Russians are liberating these villages, they literally have to clear each building

[David Morgan]

with

[Scott Ritter]

the understanding that there could be civilians in the basement. Hiding. Otherwise, they would just do what America did in Mosul and Raqqa and elsewhere. Just flatten the entire city. Makes life easier when you kill everybody. But the Russians don't operate that way. They go in, they find these old people. Again. I was in this refugee camp. It's tragic. They're being well taken care of. But they all had similar stories, how they were in basements for 20, 30 days. The Ukrainians would laugh at them. Wouldn't let them get food, wouldn't let them get water. If people venture out outside to get food and water, they were killed by the Ukrainians. The bodies left to rot. They would have to go out and bury the bodies at night. When the Russian soldiers finally arrived, the Russian soldiers would, of course, start evacuating them, and the Ukrainians would attack them with drones, with artillery, with mortars. And these, these elderly people, they're all, you know, people in their 60s, 70s, some in their 80s, would break down and cry and tell, you know, how the Russian soldiers literally covered their bodies with their own. And many of the Russian soldiers were wounded because of this absorbing fragments that were meant to. For the old people. Some of the Russian soldiers died. Russian soldiers literally gave their lives to rescue these, these. These Russians who said they want to be part of Russia, they want to live in Russia. Sadly, there's still a large number of people trapped in the front areas, including large numbers of children who, you know, it's very. Because of the drones, it's just very difficult. It's easier to resupply them in place than it is to try and evacuate them. But, no, it's very difficult. The Ukrainians use these civilians as human shields. They fortify these towns. And the goal is just to make the Russians fight for every square inch and to try and get the Russians to kill civilians so that the Ukrainians can blame it on the Russians. But the bottom line is the Ukrainians are slaughtering these civilians by the hundreds and the thousands. It's just an act of war crime. There's nothing honorable about delay. The Ukrainians are fighting this conflict.

[Clayton]

What about the cost of death on the Russian side? There's obviously numbers thrown around. You heard from David Petraeus, who says that Russia can't really go on with this anymore. Listen to General David Petraeus today. Listen, it's extraordinary. They're outnumbered 5 to 1 in terms of personnel, 12 to 1 in terms of the economy, and yet they are taking the fight to Russia on the front lines, on the Black Sea, in the depth of the battlefield and in the Russian Federation itself. And over time, Vladimir Putin is going to eventually look in the mirror and say, you know, I'm not only not going to achieve my immediate objectives of control of all the provinces that I've laid out, Donetsk, Luhansk and others, I'm actually going backwards. And the casualties are so high that we can't sustain this again. They've taken more killed and wounded than the U.S. took in all of World War II. All right, so a couple of things to unpack there, Scott. Putin's gonna look. David Petraeus apparently knows Putin very well. He's gonna look in the mirror and say, one morning, I just. I can't go on anymore. So he knows him very well on that front. More killed and wounded than the US has sustained during World War II.

[Vladimir Putin]

2.

[Clayton]

And that Ukraine is taking it to Russia even though they're outnumbered five to one. And it's really crippling Russia right now. Three things there that sound like a big pile of bullshit, but.

[Scott Ritter]

Yeah, well, Petraeus is just full of it. So is anybody else who embraces that. First of all, the Ukrainians have more troops in the special military operation than the Russians do. The Russians have around 700,000 troops. The Ukrainians have around 800, 900,000 troops. Now, many of the Ukrainian troops are poorly trained and they're getting slaughtered. But the idea that Russia outnumbers now, the Russians are able to put more infantry into a given area because the Ukrainians today, because of the casualties they're taking, they're emphasizing drone troops. They use the drones to create these screens, massive waves of drones, etc. 80,000 drone operators in place. That number's shrinking every day, however, because the Russians hunt them down and kill them. But, you know, so, you know, there's. There's rough parity in terms of overall numbers. The Russians are able to mass infantry better, but again, when I say mass infantry, these aren't human wave attacks. You know, drone warfare makes that impossible. You're looking at the Russians coming in and threes and sixes and. And nines. You know, these. These smaller assault groups supported by drones and supported by precision artillery. You know, this is the way the battle's fought across the front lines. The. The Russians have taken very heavy catalysts. There's no. There's no if, ands or buts about this. But it's hard to calculate them, you know, because to give you an example, almost. Almost between a quarter and a third of the overall Russian death count will be attributed to Wagner forces who, you know, used prisoners in. In Literal human waves assaults. Back in the 2022, 2023, you know, four of the major battles fought by Wagner, they lost between 50 and 60, 000 men per battle. Now that's 200 to 300,000 people. Right off the bat, the Russian military doesn't count these numbers when they talk about their casualties. Wagner was a private military company, and therefore the numbers of Wagner dead aren't incorporated into overall Russian numbers. So it's not that the Russians are lying, they're just not reflecting that. The same thing with the casualties of the Lugansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These people were put in heavy fighting and they, they suffered casualties that go unreported in the overall Russian numbers. But, you know, what we have right now is a situation where even Russia, which was having extremely favorable kill ratios because of the surge of drones that the Ukrainians are bringing to bear on the battlefield right now, Russia is suffering casualties nowhere near the numbers that Petraeus talks about. Russia's advantages, though, they've gone from say, you know, 12 to one, meaning that for every one Russian killed, 12 Ukrainians are killed. Now we're looking at two or three to one. So for every, you know, a Russian killed, two or three Ukrainians are killed. But, you know, the Russians are killing on a daily basis, you know, 2,000 Ukrainians, you know, on, on a good day for Russia, on a bad day for Russia, they're killing, you know, 1,000 Ukrainians, Ukrainians, you know, but that means that if it's a 2 to 1 ratio, that means 500 Russians are dying as well. That's a lot of Russians. You know, the Russians are recruiting about 30 to 40,000 guys a month. So they're not. Their forces are getting stronger, but they are taking casualties. I mean, there's just no if, ands, or buts about it. And the casualties depend too, because we're talking about a new kind of warfare. One of the things, things that I, I was able to ascertain is that drone warfare has gotten ahead of the, the training of many Russian units. The officers continue to, you know, use old tactics. And so they are encouraging more, you know, heavy infantry assaults in an environment where FPV drones are flying around. And, you know, the good commander knows that this can't happen. You have to change your tactics. You, you know, you have to use counter drone tactics. You have to factor in things that you didn't factor in before. People like Abdiel Adinov, who's the commander of the Akaman Special Forces, Here's a man who knows modern warfare. His units make impressive advances, they do a good job, their casualties are relatively low. Because he cares about the lives of his troops and he understands the role that tactics play in preserving the life of his troops. There's other commanders in divisions that

[Unknown Male 1]

the,

[Scott Ritter]

the soldiers just despise because they, they, they order the soldiers to push forward. You know, when the FPV drones are flooding the market and it's just sending soldiers to their death. If you're out there and you have no ability to bring down FPG drones or to strike back, it's a suicide march. And Russians are suffering very heavy casualty because some of the commanders just haven't, you know, altered their, their tactics. We're in a sort of a weird transition phase right now where the Russians are learning, but they haven't all learned. They're also, you know, the Russians are developing anti drone capabilities. I, I went to, you know, the, the centers in, for instance, Upper Rosia where they're, you know, directly supporting frontline units with new technologies, new tactics, et cetera. And they're developing these interceptor drones that are very effective, but you've got to build them to scale and that takes time and that takes money. And so right now, the Russian, the Ukrainians sort of have the advantage in terms of drones, there's no doubt about that. But when I say they have the advantage, that doesn't mean they're winning the war. Russia is advancing, Russia is winning, Russia is killing more Ukraine, they are killing Russians. But the Ukrainians are doing an impressive job. They're making it a very difficult fight for the Russians. But very soon you're going to see the situation change. Because what will happen is that the Russians are now familiar with Ukrainian tactics, they're familiar with their operational procedures, and they're developing weapons and tactics of their own to counter it. When Russia executes these new methodologies, new tactics, use new tools, they'll offset whatever advantage Ukrainians had. And then the Russians will have a stronger advantage, advance even farther until Ukrainians adapt to the Russians and bring in new technology and make life hard again. It's this continuous cycle of violence, drone based violence. It's going on and on and on. But from an overall perspective, Russia is doing very well, advancing significantly and inflicting horrific casualties on Ukraine. But it comes at a heavy price for the Russians as well. David Petraeus is not wrong when he says that the Russians have lost more men dead and wounded in this fight against Ukraine and the United States lost in all of World War II.

[Clayton]

So one out of his three things that he said was true. Scott Ritter, who is fresh off a big trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, and to the front lines in the Donbass, thank you for your incredible perspective. Thank you so much, Scott.

[Scott Ritter]

Thanks, Ram.

[Natalie]

Appreciate it. All right, coming up, we're going to talk about a new bombshell court case from Google showing just how much the government is trying to track not just you, but your very Google searches. So search for something like Republican Party. Oh, you're on an FBI watch list. So we're going to talk to an expert about that in a second. But first, we want to tell you about our friends at Bright Core Nutrition. Because microplastics are infiltrating every part of our lives, scientists now estimate that we can consume a credit card's worth of plastic per week. That means through our food, water, the air we breathe. One study found plastic particles in 100% of human lung samples. So nobody is safe from exposure. And it gets worse. Plastics don't just sit in your body. They cross the gut lining and leach into your blood. And their endocrine disruptors, so they disrupt your very hormone system. They've been shown to alter gut bacteria and suppress, suppress your immune response, increase your risk for neurodegenerative diseases, cancers, metabolic disorders. Even if you eat clean or avoid packaged foods, you're still being exposed, but you can fight back. That's where kimchi won from Bright Core Nutrition comes in. It's a potent ally in this toxic world. It's packed with over 900 probiotic strains unique to kimchi and proven to break down bisphenol, which helps you detox from the inside out. It doesn't just support digestion. It helps protect your cells, your brain, your hormones, and your future. Your body was not designed to handle plastics, but your gut is designed to protect you. You just have to have the right tools. Right now, you can get 25% off with the code redacted at the link below. That's my brightcore.com redacted. One more time. That's. That's mybrightcore.com redact order. You can call them at 888-404-6312 and you'll get up to 50% off plus free shipping. One more time. That's my brightcore.Com redacted. Well, what if simply typing address into Google is enough to get you on a federal watch list? That's exactly what happened, according to a new court case. These new documents from Google's court case case with The US Government was revealed. They found that the Justice Department ordered Google to identify 311 users who searched for either Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee headquarters during the 5 days AF of January 2021. The demand was made because they said, oh, we got to find that pipe bomber which we think may have even been associated with the government. But that's another story. Okay, so this is an old case, but the court documents are new. We do see that Google tried to push back. They sued in order to protect users identity. And the judge said actually you don't even have the right to ask to anonymize these users. You must hand this over to the government. Google argued that the request was grossly over broad and amounted to the kind of general search that the fourth Amendment was designed to prevent. But now Google searches are just a snapshot of really what's going on here. Because things like government monitored Internet searches, mandatory tracking systems in your vehicles, age verification on social networks, which gives the government another way to track you. Well, joining us to discuss is Thomas Drake. He's an NSA whistleblower who originally exposed the warrantless spine on American citizens. So he's been on this for years. Thank you so much for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you on the show.

[Thomas Drake]

Thanks for having me.

[Natalie]

So what do you make of this demand from the government that just a simple Google search could put you on their watch list?

[Thomas Drake]

I'm not surprised at all. It just means a simple Google search now becomes a federal investigation trigger. It's this is just a continuing age of what I call privacy, especially in the post 911 world where there's no presumption of innocence at all and everybody's suspicious. And in this case it's not even a specific warrant, it's really more of a general warrant which is actually forbidden under the Constitution. The digital age is kind of a writ of assistance and third party doctrine which is what the government will use as a cover is that they assume that there's actually no presumption of protection under the fourth Amendment for any data that's held by a corporation. And that's why they go to the companies like Google and say, hey, turn over what you have. Google to its credit certainly pushed back, but it certainly has major implications for privacy. The loss of any presumption of innocence and even more critical, the extraordinary erosion of the fourth Amendment, the warrant that they're talking about in that article, and I know this is now history going back a number of years, the warrant itself, and you wonder why did it take all this long to come out? Well, if you actually read it, it's quite breathtaking in its scope. And it's important to note this, beyond the 311 querying users, they actually demanded data on what they call technically connected user. This is an Orwellian term. This is basically anyone that has a Google account who's ever linked through a shared email or a phone number, or is a credit card or even a common or similar login, IP address or some device identifier is caught up in this. This is what I call the dragnet. And Google themselves actually warned the government that this could sweep in thousands of complete strangers who just happened to be sharing a public WI FI network at some point in the past, having no connection at all to even the argument that justified the query in the first place, including people who had never even met the original searcher. So this is not a one time event. This is part of a continuing pattern. And the irony here for me is Google had already complied. I mean, you talk about compliance. This is part of getting into this. If you don't comply, then you're in essence, oh, then it's unlawful and we're the government. But they had already complied with two prior geofence warrants on the same investigation, which was literally mapping the physical movements of everyone whose phone had passed anywhere near RNC or the DNC headquarters locations. There was even apparently another warrant that they had provided. And this is one of the things anonymized data wasn't specifically identifying a user on well over a thousand people. And yet by the time this disputed warrant showed up, guess what? The government had already unmasked hundreds of individuals and charged none of them.

[Clayton]

It's crazy. Well, I mean, the pipe bomb story to me stands out obviously given the hypocrisy of the entire operation. Right. And we've had, you know, FBI whistleblowers on here. And if there was planting of the bomb, of course by the government in and of itself, this is like a really specific incident here. But I guess maybe more broadly than just this pipe bomb incident, what does this tell you about where the government surveillance has gone since your time? And blowing the whistle at the nsa, Edward Snowden as well. And blowing the whistle. Has it just gone darker, more nefarious?

[Thomas Drake]

Yes, the privacy for what's left of it, there's very little left of privacy. Is being structurally dismantled on industrial scale. That's really what's happening. You want just me to sum it up in terms of the past 25 years in this case, what's particularly pernicious is that the search history itself is now treated as a government informant. Think about that for a couple of seconds. So any query you type into Google, it could be an address, it could be a candidate's name, it could be a protest. Location is retained and they can be reverse engineered against you. This could be anytime, even years after the fact. So what you believed was a private anonymous act on your part, or even just curiosity in practice, becomes a timestamped account link record sitting in some corporate database. In this case, Google waiting for a government subpoena. So the data is there. The government is assuming they can get access to it because it is third party doctrine, which actually goes back quite a ways now. And then there's these non disclosure orders. You can't even say this is part of why this took so many years to come out. So Google in this case, but this has happened to a number of other companies, they're actually forbidden to even acknowledge that they receive such an order to turn over the data. And so in this case, the surveillance essentially becomes invisible. And so the warrant is accompanied by a gag order which prevents Google from even telling the user that their data has been seized. And if you're the user, you say the Google user, you have no idea that you've been swept up into a federal investigation. So any classical definition of privacy here, which at a minimum requires the ability to at least know your privacy under the fourth amendment has been violated, that's all stripped away. And so courts have actually ruled this is part of the problem where users have no reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to third party doctrine. Because the data is quote unquote being voluntarily shared by you. Remember this consent, you know, terms and conditions, that whole TNC thing, that means you're voluntary sharing data with a corporation, that becomes third party data, which means now the government can get access to it.

[Natalie]

But the court has ruled in the past that government action that discourages certain behavior is unconstitutional. And we didn't see that played out in the Murthy vs Missouri case, but that was the case that was made, is that the government was asking for censorship. And so there were people who self censored in order to not run afoul of social media networks. And so what this will tell us, users of the Internet is if I search for something that I know the government doesn't want me to know, then I'm gonna be surveilled, they're gonna not like it. There are forces at play there that are going to Be watching me. I know that. I feel that all the time. And that does feel to me unconstitutional because it encourages self censorship and it puts us in this surveillance state where we're afraid all the time. And that I feel like is what exactly this has done.

[Thomas Drake]

I agree. You just said use the word self censorship. And what's also happening is in essence it's a first pass investigative tool. But there's no suspect that's actually been identified. They're looking for possible suspects, but based on third party doctrine, they're just going to get the data that we might need. You never know you might need it. So in this case they just get it. So they collect the data first, that seize first and then look for a crime second. There's no presumption of regularity here, even when it comes to the very high bar that the government has to meet to violate your fourth amendment privacy rights. So you go from classic law enforcement, proceeds from suspect evidence. Your case, there's no suspect, we're just going to dig into the evidence and we'll find a suspect. So this warrant in particular reversed that logic entirely. So the government starts with 300 plus anonymous people. It's defined only by search query. Then they tried to find if any of them are criminals. So that means, and this is sort of the haystacks, not just the straw or the needle in the haystack, it's all the straw in the haystack. Which means that everyone in the pool is treated as a potential suspect before any individual piece of evidence is even gathered. So he just seize the haystack, find the needle, target the innocents by design.

[Clayton]

It sounds very similar to obviously the FISA carve out that we've been covering here on the show extensively. This idea that these Americans, whether they had even just like in conversation with someone who is overseas, are swept up in this dragnet and all brought inside and they're not even made aware of this, that they're a part of some sort of federal investigation. Do they have, do Americans have any rights to know that they're a part of some dragnet operation? As you pointed out, they just sweep everyone up in this Google search history. And if they're doing that, then shouldn't we all have a right to know?

[Thomas Drake]

Yes, but there's no presumption of innocence here. So you don't have a right to know. You gotta remember the logic here has been completely flipped. It's just because they're searching for something. It's like, okay, we're gonna search first. We'll figure out who's actually criminal later. Intent of actually presenting evidence that reaches that very, very high bar under the Fourth Amendment that you may have engaged in a criminal action or a criminal set of activities. Remember, no charges are filed against people. No accountability is happening here. You're just unmasking hundreds of users through all these warrants, but you're not charging anybody. In the end, that means that. But in this case, just this case alone, never mind some of the others you just made reference to with sort of how they bypass fisa, or now they basically put a back door, which is really section 702. That means that Americans, it doesn't matter, identity, email address, payment information, linked devices, all gets handed over to the federal government. And you don't even have, like, you can't even come to the court and say that your rights have been violated because it's all under national security.

[Natalie]

Right. So the judge ruled that Google had no legal standing to challenge the warrant before it was executed. So I guess the judge is saying it's these 311 users that needed to have could have brought this standing, but they don't even know. So that.

[Thomas Drake]

How can you bring standing if you don't even know that? You don't.

[Natalie]

Right.

[Thomas Drake]

And remember, now they execute the warrant, which means now you've lost standing. Because obviously there's an assumption. See, this is what makes this all flipped upside down. The very fact that a warrant's been issued. Is there an assumption in the legal system, classically speaking? I have started making this distinction between classical and sort of the primacy of national security rules. There's the assumption with a warrant that bar has been reached, or the likelihood is, if it goes to trial, that a jury would find you guilty. That's the bar. It's really high. In this case, there's no bar.

[Natalie]

Right.

[Clayton]

Can I ask you about this? So, for instance, in 2009, the Obama administration granted Israel access to FISA records. So all Americans who were illegally spied on their data is now with the Israeli intelligence apparatus and the Israeli government. Were the American people who were caught up in this Israeli or this FISA dragnet notified? Do they have any recourse?

[Thomas Drake]

I was part of a couple of different cases, without getting all the specifics, where the standing issue became fundamental. And in the end, it went quite far. It was over multiple years. There were lawyers and organizations that were defending those who believe that their Fourth Amendment rights were violated. And they were not able to prevail because the assumption was the government basically was immune from any kind of lawsuits in the end. And there was an assumption that the government had the right. And this is kind of again, another irony, the right to violate based on the fact that they issued the warrant. So you're basically weaponizing the whole process against people that have no idea they're even. They're even being, you know, they even have a warrant against it because it's all again, done in secret. I myself, I remember they went to the court, they had to get a warrant to actually to do the classic search and seize of what they thought was evidence that they could find in my home. But I actually was handed the warrant. At least I got to see it. In this case, you're never notified. Remember, they actually had to provide me proof that they had a warrant before they could enter my home, which is sort of the final. That's like the final defense is your own personal residence behind a closed door. A man's home is. His castle is kind of where that came from. They have to show me the warrant.

[David Morgan]

Right.

[Thomas Drake]

They have to show me the warrant before they could actually come into the home and begin going searching through all of my property and papers. So what's happening here? You're now weaponizing the mechanism and it's corrupting the whole thing. This means the Fourth Amendment never got its day in court. This has an incredible chilling effect because it strikes at the very heart of what it means to be an American.

[Natalie]

Right.

[Thomas Drake]

Yeah, look, if you just look up. I just look up somebody's location, and that's a criminal act by virtue of the warrant being issued, even in secret. That's the assumption it's a criminal act to look up a location. That means for any reason you're now treated as what, a domestic terrorist? I mean, this has extraordinary chilling effect on any type or presumption of a political association based on an inquiry. This is incredibly severe attack on not just fourth Amendment, but first member, the very act of doing the search query. I would argue with a fundamental First Amendment right. So you got two key amendments. The very two key amendments that I've said for any number of four are fundamental to what it means to be an American based on the very reason why we decided to separate ourselves and have a violent revolution against the Crown of England.

[Natalie]

Right. I'm just thinking about, like, the types of things that I research on a regular basis. Like this week I was researching the government suppression of DDT and the, you know, health effects, health counter effects of ddt. And they sprayed it on soldiers on their bodies. And that query alone would Trigger some kind would put me on a list that you just can't do general research. So what do people like us do is they become afraid to ask questions. Yep, that's exactly what they what the intended consequence of something like this will be.

[Thomas Drake]

Now the judge did cite that Grubbs case that goes back again post 9 11, 2006. It's a case about the timing of anticipatory. This is another thing where you're now sort of extending what it means or justification for a search warrant. This is again, you're departing from the classical definition. They ruled in that particular case that Google had no standing to challenge warrants constitutionality before it was executed. I mean, wait a minute, so it's a procedural maneuver, right?

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[Thomas Drake]

Which means that whether you know a keyword dragnet targeting on hundreds, thousands, or I've argued in the past, depending on which part of the national surveillance apparatus you're using, potentially millions of people satisfies the requirements of probable cause and particularity. That's really another part of the fourth Amendment you have to specify. Was never decided though that case was never, ever decided on its merits because it was never allowed to go forward on any merits. The ruling, remember, you have to remember what that arose from. That arose from a child pornography case involving a single identified suspect. But now you're, now you're taking that and then you're applying it in a mass reverse identification warrant partying hundreds of anonymous users. That I will say, and I'm going to be very polite in the use of this phrase. That's a doctrinal stretch of even the base core meaning of the fourth Amendment. There's no check, which means there's literally no check on contesting or stopping or preventing or mitigating any pre execution judicial decision on what are clearly overbroad digital dragnet surveillance. That's why the fourth Amendment particularity requirement exists, precisely to prevent it. In essence, what's happening now is what

[David Morgan]

I'll call,

[Thomas Drake]

or some would say lawfare. The lawfare legal architecture is becoming lawfare and it's rewarding secrecy over substance. So it teaches future prosecutors the path to an unchallenged overbroad warrant, which is actually a violation of the Constitution is simply execute it quickly. You don't notify anybody, you seal it under a non disclosure order and then you are standing rather than substance if you're ever challenged.

[Clayton]

Founding fathers must be just rolling over. I mean, and now with everything in the cloud, I mean the idea of unreasonable search and seizure in your home, it's Almost like they don't even need to go bother with your home anymore.

[Natalie]

Right. You have your digital life, everything.

[Clayton]

Yeah, everything's digital now. So like the home is like who cares about the home anymore?

[Thomas Drake]

That's part of the problem. Laws not keep up with it, but it shouldn't. The thing, the fourth Amendment still, even though you can go back to the original words which still stand to this day, those have never been modified members an amendment to the original Constitution which didn't have any amendments to begin with. So they, you know, people like wait a minute, when the first Constitution went around, got approved, they said wait a minute, how are you going to protect us just given we just went through the American Revolution, how do you protect us from a central government decides to abuse his powers? Now there is a little bit of hope here. I say hope. The Supreme Court did weigh in. I don't know if you're aware of this. There was a case in just a couple of months ago, Chartre versus the United States. It was a geofence warrant. And it seems that the court is unlikely to categorically invalidate. I mean I say hope, but they weren't willing to categorically say all geofence warrants, which is, this is a, you know, this is a slightly different context but similar. But it was or did signal concern about warrants lacking probable cause and particularity. So it was a very narrow ruling. But it, but again the problem was it didn't resolve the core question about the fourth Amendment standard. And so to me, until the court speaks really clearly about this, the dragnet template or the dragnet surveillance template becomes operational and I'll just say increasingly normalized.

[Clayton]

Right, That's a great point.

[Natalie]

Well, I really like the term. You've introduced us to privacyde as in the killing of privacy little by little. And it's a hunting hungry beast. So thank you so much, Mr. Thomas Drake, for joining us today. Your perspective on this was a goldmined.

[Clayton]

Yeah, thank you so much.

[Thomas Drake]

Yeah, well we still have to me there's still the need for probable cause. Just put digital in front of it. It's still the digital probable cause need. Digital particularization. And you just can't have these mass data warrants with sort of these undefined parameters. It's not an open ended fishing expedition. That was the Hulk point of locking this down. Just because it's digital doesn't give you an excuse. Because it's easier to get the data

[Natalie]

and say oh well, they don't know, they don't care. Yeah, exactly. Right.

[Clayton]

I Mean, sadly, with all these tech oligarchs running Washington D.C. and trying to move it to this massive surveillance state, I'm not optimistic. But I am a positive person by nature. So I will hope that this reaches the courts and we, we can have Congress weigh in on this or something. Thomas, thank you so much.

[Thomas Drake]

Well, you're seeing it right now with section 702. Remember now it's technically, it still goes for about another year or so, 10 months, depending on how you interpret what the FIS is. But is the first time, at least at the congressional level, that they did not renew what was sunsetting roughly? Well, it was every five years. And they started doing these sort of let's do emergency extensions. Emergency extensions. Right now there is. There are no extensions. Right, right.

[Clayton]

Well, there is some hope tells you.

[Thomas Drake]

Is that bipartisan. There is bipartisan support for. Hey, you want to go after an American or someone living. You don't have to be an American. American can be, you know, basically a legal resident, foreign resident in the United States, even if. Or just visitor and US Corporations, you gotta go get a warrant.

[David Morgan]

Right.

[Natalie]

Yeah. Well, thank you again. I'd love to talk to you longer about your experience with being an NSA whistleblower. Please come back on redacted, if you will.

[Thomas Drake]

Sure.

[Clayton]

To do a deep dive with you.

[Natalie]

Thank you so much.

[Clayton]

Thanks, Thomas. Really appreciate it.

[Thomas Drake]

You're welcome.

[Scott Ritter]

All right.

[Thomas Drake]

Stay private.

[Philip]

Yes.

[Natalie]

Yeah. And stand against privacy. I'm not for that. Okay. Coming up, we're going to talk about Tucker Carlson dropping a big bombshell on the Republican can party in just a minute. But before we do that, Clayton's going to tell you about gold and silver because obviously.

[Clayton]

Yeah, let's talk about it because, well, you've seen the headlines. Major banks predicting, of course, gold could climb over $6,000 an ounce. We had Brian Solarcuk on the show just a short time ago, mining legend in the gold mining space saying that he sees gold hitting over $10,000 an ounce. And yeah, you can see this pullback a little bit here over the past few weeks. Gold, silver getting a little hard hit. Well then on top of that, you have the US Dollar, people maybe going back into the US Dollar. Well, that just seems like it's temporary because all of these central banks are buying up as much gold as they can right now. And who you trust matters just as much as what you buy. That's why we trust our friends at Lear Capital. They're an education first company that prioritizes customer experience over. Over a quick sale. And because of that Lear has thousands of satisfied customers over $3 billion in transactions offering something truly unique, a 24 hour risk free purchase. So if you're thinking about taking some of that US dollar savings right now and moving it into gold and silver as a way to protect your family, great, you call them, they'll walk you through the process, you make the purchase, whatever, and then like 24 hours later you're like know what? I, I should have invested in Guatemalan money or more US dollars which loses value every day. It's in the savings account. Like you know, it's totally up to you. It doesn't matter. They won't ask any questions. They have a 24 hour risk free purchase guarantee. So no problems at all. You make that decision. Now I know people in our audience will say like, because a lot of you own gold and silver and you will say to me in the comments, if you don't have it stored in your own safe, in your house, in your own gun safe, then you don't truly own gold and silver. And you can do that. Lier will let you do that. They'll ship it right to your house, you can store it in your gun safe, you can do whatever you want with it, the gold coins, silver coins, or you can store it in an off site 24 hour guarded facility that they work with as well. I think, I think it's in Delaware actually it's under. And they send you an audit of course on a regular basis. So you know exactly which gold items are yours, all of them. That and you get that audited. I don't know if it's once a year or quarterly, but you can ask them that question on the phone. So you know, for larger purchases you might not want to have that stored in your bedroom but again you do you anyway. For those interested in moving forward and moving some of your retirement dollars into gold and silver, they actually were just recently named one of the best overall gold IRA companies by Consumer affairs. So if you've got like an old IRA or an old 401k that you want, want to transfer over into a gold backed self directed account, they'll handle all of that for you. So that Wall street doesn't make money, you make money anyway. Right now you can text the word news. So just grab your phone and just text the word NEWS to 43343 again that's 43343. Text the word NEWS for your free gold guide and they will contact you and start the entire process. You can also visit the [e-mail] so our thanks to them. All right. Man, that Thomas Drake, huh? Really interesting. Really interesting. Of course. He was really the inspiration. I think, if I have that correct, and I don't want, if I say that correctly, the really the inspiration for Edward Snowden, I think.

[Thomas Drake]

Yes.

[Clayton]

Yeah. So, yeah, just incredible to listen to him. I could talk to him for, for an hour, that's for sure.

[Philip]

Yeah. I was just thinking about, like, because I, I know I should have a vpn, but I don't. And like, just the searches I do for this show alone, like, I might, I might be on every list that's out there.

[Scott Ritter]

I know.

[Clayton]

I mean, think about the stuff we do on the show. I'm like, okay, you know, Ukrainian organ harvesting, you know, whatever it is you're doing research on this show for all the topics we do and the reporters that we talk to that are blacklisted around the world, like, dear God.

[Philip]

Right? I'm like, well, like in the same day I could be like, like building up, building out B roll. Like, like, okay, I need a Jeffrey Epstein footage. Russia, Ukraine war footage, you know, like Netanyahu footage. You know, it's like, damn, I'm going to jail.

[Unknown Male 1]

Well, and then when you, you just decide, well, I'm going to find a different browser. So you find this browser and they hype it up like, oh, our browser is this and that. And then you find. It's. Now it's on the ground. Google backbone. Like it's made on Chrome.

[Clayton]

Yeah, yeah, it's all, it's all Google infrastructure. Right. I mean, it's, you know, and of course, you know, Google was born out of darpa. Anyway, like, are we surprised? Like, you know, they get these, you know, CIA funding projects and now, oh, it's an, it's a third party company. It's an American company, has no connections to the CIA or DARPA or any of these other intelligence communities. Give me a break. Yeah, people talk about like VPNs have a back door to eight different agencies. Like, oh, yeah, well, and look at,

[Unknown Male 1]

Most of the VPNs are owned by Israel.

[Clayton]

I know, it's crazy. Dude. Dude from the Earth says, dude, you make me feel better about not having a vpn.

[Thomas Drake]

I know.

[Clayton]

I mean,

[Philip]

you want to talk about raw dog in the Internet, that's what I do all day long for, for my job. So, like, I, if I'll be the test subject for everybody.

[Clayton]

Yeah, I mean, at this point it's like, okay, what are you going to do? What are you going to do. People say, Tim Buck in our chat says I was clicking on the. Oh, I'm clicking on the wrong thing here. Social stream's not up and running today. But I was clicking on the actual YouTube chat says that I trust Brave browser.

[Unknown Male 1]

Yeah, Brave browser is built on Chromium, so don't trust it.

[David Morgan]

Yeah.

[Clayton]

Anyway. All right, well, I do this now. Talk about this a little bit. Well, Tucker Carlson dropped a bit of a bombshell during an interview yesterday on the future of the Republican Party. And, you know, it's not surprising, I think, to people that know him well, but it might be surprising to those who watched, like Tucker Carlson go out there and openly campaign for President Trump. You go to these big events, they're on stage, you know, along others like, you know, Elon Musk and others who were openly championing for this idea of America first. And he was asked about what, what he wants in the future and would he support a Republican candidate, where are his loyalties going forward? And here's what he had to say.

[Tucker Carlson]

I would not support the Republican Party. There's no chance I would support the Republican Party. Not going to support the Democratic Party. I don't know what I'm going to do. But at this point, you know, how could you support, how could I or any American voter support a political party that's not loyal to the United States, that puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens? Like, that's, that's, you know, it's not possible to vote for people like that. And I'm not going to. And I think I voted Republican my entire life. I worked at Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. I've been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party. I mean, very consistent defender. But there's no defending this because it's immoral. And it's exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation, and they're not doing that. So, no, I'm out. And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out.

[Clayton]

I mean, an ardent supporter of Republicans. I mean, as long as I've known Tucker, you know, co hosting Fox and Friends with him, like, during commercial breaks, I would ask him, you know, who do you vote for? And he would tell me, I haven't voted in years, that he just didn't, wouldn't vote for anybody. And so for him to then throw his support behind a movement that I think a lot of people support, It a lot of us champion the idea of an America first make, a make America great movement. So for him to have thrown his support by that, and not just thrown his support by it or his vote, which he didn't vote in years, but then to go out and publicly campaign on Trump's behalf, like, it's pretty darn bewildering. And I think it just goes to show you the state, the current state of this quote, unquote, MAGA movement, if it does exist at all or not. I don't know if it does or not. There's still going to be those like Epstein Binder crowd that are going to, you know, support it and, you know, the people that will sort of rally around a UFC fight on the White House lawn or whatever. But Tim Dillon, let me play this. We'll go to the next one here, Philip. So Tim Dillon last night said he. He says MAGA is dead. And really that UFC fight on the White House lawn was like, really the end, like the last party for maga.

[Unknown Male 1]

The Idiocracy event.

[Tim Dillon]

Dance knows that MAGA is ending. The MAGA movement, the party that Donald Trump threw when he walked and walked down the escalator is ending. And I think it ended with that UFC fight. I think that was the last party MAGA was going to throw. You had motocross, you had UFC fights. That was a fun party. But it's the final. I think it's the final party. I think in the same way that that Imagine video during COVID Hollywood didn't know it then, but that was the end of them. Like, that was the finale of Hollywood. They didn't know. They thought they were making a video trying to. I don't know what the hell they were trying to get people to do, stay in their house or shut their mouths or whatever, or feel, you know, some sort of way, you know, or, you know, they wanted to do this, you know, thing to. To calm people down or inspire them. Whatever was in their mind. That Imagine video was the end of Hollywood. It was the finale, it was the series finale of whatever Hollywood was from its inception in the early 1900s to that Imagine video in 2020. I think that was the end. And in the same way that I think the MAGA movement's final party was the octagon on the White House lawn. That seems to be a fitting symbol of the finale of the MAGA movement.

[Clayton]

So do you agree with that? I mean, maybe. I mean, it seems like that might be the end of it, but the midterms are gonna Be absolutely bloody. And I've never seen a president squander his political capital so dramatically. So dramatically in such a short amount of time. Think about it. The enormous political capital that Trump had coming into office and how you even had Hollywood and you had major corporations that were saying, sorry, we're gonna go back on our. We had the censorship policy before. We were doing all of these things that were pretty nefarious. Yet Mark Zuckerberg, like, coming out with his admission that we're not gonna remember that whole thing with Mark Zuckerberg when he came out and made. What did he say? He came out, like, made that whole announcement about, like, we're not gonna.

[Philip]

Yeah. Where he's all. All talk. All talking tough.

[Clayton]

Yeah.

[Philip]

You know, because. Because we're all afraid of Mark Zuckerberg.

[Unknown Male 1]

Like, where he was like, like, they deleted a lot of posts and they're going to try to stand for free speech and. And all this other stuff.

[Clayton]

Yeah. We're not gonna delete, like, conservative posts anymore. We're not gonna censor things on the meta platform. We're walking back on all of our, all of our censorship and our, Our. Our moderators clean house with a lot of moderators. Remember all that political capital that he had coming in and how to. Like, how do you squander it? Like that you go to a war that you don't. You didn't even want.

[Unknown Male 1]

Well, and also, like, he. He said, like, oh, we won, like, 36 times. Oh, we're going back. Oh, we won over going back. And then now there's this quantum thing that he's like, they're posting on every government account.

[David Morgan]

Yeah.

[Unknown Male 1]

Have you read the comments under all those posts? Like, people are fed up. They're done.

[Clayton]

Like, we're. It's the golden era. Okay? So the golden era includes U.S. sending $300 billion to Iran. Like, today, a News Nation reporter asked Trump, do you think that Americans are okay with you sending 80 or whatever billion dollars to Iran when Americans are suffering? And Trump, instead of answering the question, says, what. What news outlet are you with? He said, News Nation. Like, News Nation. He loves News Nation. Right. He told people to go watch News Nation because Fox News was too. In the. You know, anyway, he's like, oh, that's not a good outfit. That's not a good company. You guys aren't doing too well. Like, that's a legitimate question. Why are we sending billions? Why are we paying the pensions of Ukrainian SBU members and intelligence agencies? Why are we paying for Ukrainian Nazis?

[Philip]

I had read we spent 900 million out of the nuclear arsenal budget to retro or to refurbish the Qatari air or jet that they gave to Trump that apparently he gets to keep after his presidency.

[Clayton]

So it's a personal gift.

[Philip]

It's a personal gift from Qatar to him. And then we use 900 million out of our nuclear arsenal budget to refurbish it. That was nice of us. I'm happy I did that. You're welcome.

[Clayton]

Well, now you see, you know, it's obvious what's happening. I mean this is like to watch the political theater with, with J.D. vance right now, right? So here's a guy who you know, gets tons of money from, you know, got tons of money from Alex Carr, Peter Thiel Palantir, right? All of that was by all accounts like fully supportive of Israel. Then in like the past week has like kind of put his foot down and kind of, because he's on a book tour kind of criticizing Israel and criticizing Netanyahu and telling people to stop, stop questioning Trump's leadership here. Like the Israeli cabinet need to step up. And all of these people though are so weak. All of these people. So they get into office and they're either paid off, they've got compromat on them we need. And Tucker made this point in a follow up question which is we need a president who has a backbone, who's unafraid to get into office, who's unafraid to call for full release of JFK files, Epstein files, all of it, just be fully transparent, has the backbone and you think, oh like a guy like Trump, he's gonna come in here and fully release all these documents. No he hasn't. Jfk, Epstein, UFO disclosure, like what the hell's going on with that? We're gonna be the most transparent president in history, invite all these like MAGA influencers to the White House and give them a whole like a bunch of Epstein binders that are filled with stuff that's already public. Do a little dog and pony show about all this stuff. Like so we need a president that is, has a backbone and is kind of like a Teddy Roosevelt and not afraid to look these criminals right in the face and tell them, sorry, I'm not going to be bought. And that's like Teddy Roosevelt going to the Albany assembly and getting right up in front of people and calling them out right to their faces. Unafraid.

[Unknown Male 1]

Well, and unfortunately our electoral system has been hijacked. So we're never going to get somebody like that in this current system. You know, they have to fight these two private parties that doesn't answer to the federal government. So it's like, how is a person like that even going to get past the nomination for the party? Because they made third parties irrelevant. So it'll never happen. Unless. I mean, I don't think voting is the way.

[Clayton]

Well, I mean, not voting for, to Tucker's point, like, I mean, Republicans are Democrats. No way.

[Unknown Male 1]

No way.

[Clayton]

Like, it's one big uni party. And I think that's where, like, probably Tucker feels, like, abandoned, or other people probably feel abandoned is because you felt like, oh, yes, it's a uni party. Yes, it's a uni party. There's very little daylight between these two corrupt parties. It's kind of always been the way. But, like, this time is different.

[Vladimir Putin]

Right?

[Clayton]

And that's how people get swayed. And so they're gonna start to see that with J.D. vance, like, oh, this time it's different. Like, he is kind of an outsider. You know, he's kind of a Washington outsider. He kind of went along with Trump's agenda. But no, no, he really does not want us in these foreign wars. He really doesn't want us to have a surveillance state. Right. Even though he just.

[Unknown Male 1]

Trust me, bro.

[Clayton]

Trust me, bro. But he's got all this money from, like, Palantir. Okay? Right. So you're gonna start to hear this whole rhetoric unfolding around Vance over the next few years as he runs for president or doesn't. Cause the neocons desperately want Marco Rubio, of course, because he'll do their bidding. He'll carry out their foreign wars. They love him.

[Natalie]

So.

[Clayton]

But to Tucker's point, makes this point about we need a president who's got a backbone, who will just walk in and is unafraid. And I'm throwing my editorializing is saying somebody like Teddy Roosevelt, who, if you know the stories about him when he was in the Albany assembly, would just, like, call. He would just stand up and call out the people who were, like, taking money and corrupt right to their faces. And, like, no one, like, even covered the Albany assembly. But you had like, New York Times reporters in the back of the. All the. They're like, half asleep. They're like, this is so boring. Why am I gotta cover, like, a state Assembly? And then suddenly there's this guy, Teddy Roosevelt, who's, like, calling out corrupt members of the assembly and they're like, these reporters, like, what the hell just happened? Like, who's this guy anyway? We need a guy like that. Who's the new York City Police Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt, who just shows up on the beat at midnight and goes out on arrests. Real, you know, a real badass.

[Unknown Male 1]

Well, that's like, I mean, that's, that's, that is in a lot of ways, Thomas Massie. But he would never get anywhere near

[Clayton]

there under the Republican banner. Like, under the Republican Party banner. Like, there's no way. So you've got to have a third party. But again, I even come back to Theodore Roosevelt. He tried after he was president of the United States, left office and then runs on the Bull Moose ticket when didn't even run as a Republican, came back to try to run again and lost a third party. Even a president running on the third party. One of the most popular presidents. Hell, he's on Mount Rushmore. He couldn't get elected. Ross Perot is the closest we've ever had, even did better than Teddy Roosevelt. Anyway, here's Tucker talking about we need a president with a backbone.

[Philip]

Listen.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, just by the next president forcing the FBI to divulge the reams, the literally hundreds of thousands of pages of information they have, information they gathered about that shooting to the public. And that information belongs to the public. In our country, the public owns the work product of the US Government. It's called public property. So it's not the personal property of Cash Patel or whoever these clowns are running the FBI or doj that belongs to the American people. And I just hope that we get mass disclosure going back to at least 1963. We still don't have the full corpus of the Kennedy assassination documents. Why is that? Every reference to Israel was redacted. Why are there references to Israel in the Kennedy assassination documents? There are fact. What is that? All of this stuff should be declassified. There's no national security pretext to hide it. No, what they're hiding are their own crimes. And so until that stuff is declassified, we can't answer these questions. But it could easily be, and I hope at some point we will have a president who's brave enough who's willing to die for this. He's going to need to be willing to die to improve his country. That's. That is the basic prerequisite of leadership. Lay down your life for the people you lead. At that point, maybe we can get some answers. But I would start with that Butler shooting because I agree with Joe Kent that, you know, there are questions that we that are absolutely baffling, that that whole story is bizarre.

[Natalie]

Who do you think?

[Clayton]

Yeah, why? Like if someone tried to shoot and kill Me. And it's all very mysterious story, but maybe I'm, it's just me. I would not close that investigation until I had real answers. Just an idea. It's very strange, right? So these, like, multiple assassination attempts. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. But I think it's interesting when Tucker says these individuals have, who would want to lay down their life for the country, and that should be a prerequisite. Not afraid to die for their country to come in and say, I don't care what you think you've got on me. I don't care what Mossad group is hanging out in the Pentagon. I don't care what foreign government might threaten me. I don't care what money interests are pissed off.

[Unknown Male 1]

Don't ever take one of their pagers or their wireless microphones.

[Tucker Carlson]

Right.

[Clayton]

Say it's a 30 06. Yeah. I don't know. So let me know your thoughts on that. Yeah. What do you guys think about all the, I, you know, I, I, I, I, I study it, I, I go deep in it, and then I pull back from it. But we need answers on the Charlie Kirk assassination. And, you know, you'll have people that are fully in the tank for Israel, so they'll say nothing to see here. Yes, it was Tyler Robinson. And, like, why would you even ask a question about it? Right? So then you're stupid. You're a, you're, you're, you're stupid. Like Candace is what they'll call you, okay. For asking questions when none of it makes sense. Okay. You know all of this talk lately about this microphone, this exploding microphone angle and, and all of that, I don't know, I'll just throw it out to the chat room. And what you guys think of it? Do you guys think it was an exploding microphone? Do you think there's any evidence at all that this was a 30 06? Do you think there's any evidence at all that this one guy pulled the trigger on a rooftop?

[Philip]

Well, is there any evidence at all? I mean, look how, look how they botched that entire investigation was like Cash Patel shows up to play sheriff, and then what? Like within, within a couple days, they paved over the damn thing. Like, they, they. There is there. I'm like, there. There isn't. The evidence we have. Yeah, the evidence we have is what we've already seen. That's it. That's all there will ever be. Because I think that's what they're doing is they're not bothering to investigate because that leaves a paper trail. So they're Just, just clean up.

[Unknown Male 1]

Well, and they just announced that the Lance Twigs isn't even going to be there in person. He's sending in a video. So there's going to be no cross examination. Like the whole thing just makes no sense.

[Clayton]

Yeah, yeah, you and you pave over like an active crime scene. You literally pave over it on a Sunday. Who works on a Sunday?

[Unknown Male 1]

Emergency pavers.

[Clayton]

Emergency pavers. Like it was paved over on a Sunday, wasn't it? Yeah, Sunday morning it was over.

[Philip]

It was five days over the weekend.

[Clayton]

Yeah.

[Unknown Male 1]

Okay, well, and the theory on that is because. So they're, they're saying that's because the, there was blood and that's a biohazard or whatever, which, you know, whatever. But the, the theory is because it was a, the, the charge in the microphone, that bomb residue would bend there and that sticks around a lot longer than blood ever would. So, you know, like. Yeah, because Charlie's clothes have not been examined. Like, there's, there's theory that he was cremated. Like, there's all like, like what was the guy Crooks, you know, that, that shot at Trump supposedly. Yeah, yeah, he was cremated, you know, like.

[Clayton]

Yeah, with.

[Thomas Drake]

By the conspiracy theorists fodder.

[Clayton]

Like, if members of Congress that are coming to town to try to, to actually look at his body and they're, they're, they're all these members of Congress are sniffing around, we better cremate his body quickly. Like the FBI gets to tell you when to cremate a body. Like, does the family not have any say in that? What?

[Philip]

I just feel like stupid that now that one didn't have the, the writing on the bullets.

[Unknown Male 1]

Right.

[Philip]

That didn't start until after Kash Patel took over as, as the FBI director. Correct. That's when, that's when all the. Yeah, when he took over and all the criminals decided, let's leave messages. No, I don't think there was messages

[Unknown Male 1]

on Thomas Crooks too. I don't know if it was writings on it.

[Clayton]

Yeah. Because that was trans men or something.

[Unknown Male 1]

I'm going to check.

[Clayton]

Yeah, it might have been. There might have been on, on the, the Butler casings too, but maybe not. I don't know. You might be right about that. It might be after. So Kash Patel era is when people started writing on shell casings.

[Philip]

Right. Cause then shortly after Charlie Kirk, there was the shooting at some kind of processing center. There was a kid opened fire and he had messages written on his bullets. And then.

[Clayton]

Yeah, that's the new thing. Yeah. Then there was the shell casings at the ICE facility. Remember? I think those had lighting on it too.

[Unknown Male 1]

So that might be United Healthcare. United Healthcare had deny, defend and depose. Charlie Kirk had. Hey, fascist. Catch. And the Dallas ICE field office recovered show casings inscribed with the word anti ice following a shooting at a CUS Customs Enforcement facility.

[Clayton]

Yeah, so that's the new thing riding on shell casings.

[Unknown Male 1]

Well then you have politicians over there signing bombs to go into Gaza. I mean.

[Clayton]

Yeah, yeah, I know that.

[Unknown Male 1]

Nikki Haley and Josh Shapiro.

[Clayton]

Didn't Josh Shapiro also write on him?

[Scott Ritter]

Yeah, yeah.

[Clayton]

Pennsylvania Governor. It's all planned.

[Thomas Drake]

Yeah.

[Clayton]

Richard Perez. It's all planned. Enjoy the show. It really is. And that's the thing. It's like once you start forgetting that, then that's when they try to manipulate you once again. Right. So if you forget that this is all theater. If you forget that this is all we're all being manipulated, then they're going to try to push like JD Vance on you and they're going to hope that you forget about the theater. Six months earlier. That's how this goes. And they'll tell you like, no, he's really America first. He's, he didn't want that war in Iran. He just went along with it. And when he's asked about it in, in meetings and so forth, he'll say, you know, I always back the President, but obviously there were a lot of us that had disagreements internally about this and that. Great, that sounds, that sounds promising, right? He's really anti war. He's anti, you know, he really showed his tough stuff against Israel. But you took a lot of money from Peter Thiel and Alex Carp and the Palantir and the surveillant. But you know. Yeah, yeah, but you know, that doesn't mean I want us all to be surveilled. That doesn't mean I want us to,

[Unknown Male 1]

to be okay, well, and also it's like, you know, it's like you, you're fooled so many times and then it's like, oh, but I'm gonna believe this. I start my, my starting point is I don't believe a word any of them say until I verify. You know, read and verify and listen to what people are saying and read articles and stuff like that. I don't believe anything. So start there.

[Clayton]

G. Fontes says the same Miriam Adelson you've said controls Trump has funded Thomas Massie all along. That's not counting the Armenian Armenia. Nina Arm. Do you mean the Armenian Museum And Sam Marquis and Jeff Yassin has Miriam Adelson funded Thomas Massie?

[Unknown Male 1]

Not that I heard of. He's taken zero apac.

[Philip]

Yeah, I don't think he would. I did. I, I, that's surprised.

[Unknown Male 1]

Yeah. Unless it was some kind of pack that he had no control over. You know what I mean? Like, that happens sometimes.

[Clayton]

I can ask him.

[Philip]

I don't.

[Clayton]

But I've never heard that he's taken any money from me, Miriam Adelon. But thank you, G. Fontes, for that. Where is that? Can you link that up there, please? Can send us a link to where you found that.

[Scott Ritter]

Miriam.

[Clayton]

Miriam Adult.

[Unknown Male 1]

I'm already, I'm already looking it up.

[Clayton]

I think from what I, I saw, I think it says, based on available

[Unknown Male 1]

information, Thomas Massey did not take campaign money from Mary Madison. In fact, Adelson was a major financial backer of the effort to defeat him.

[Clayton]

Yeah, I mean, all the, all the money that Mary Madeleson pumped into Kentucky was to defeat Thomas Massie. So, like, can you point to me evidence that because Miriam Adelson, like, it's, it's documented the amount of money that she, that she spent funding what's his name against Massey. Can you also. Unless it's hidden somewhere, but I'd love to see it. Like, you know, I'm, I'm all about. I have no agenda. So show me, show me. Show me the proof. Show me the evidence as Thomas.

[Unknown Male 1]

Show me the blueprints. Show me the blueprints.

[Philip]

So,

[Clayton]

yes, Cole's Towing says. Yes, exactly. She spent money, but she spent it to defeat him. Okay, but again, I'm not being a dick, G. Fontes, like, if you, you seem to be very emphatic about this. Like, can you show me the proof? Just please share it. I'd love to see that. And why would he accept that? Why would he accept that? That seemed, that would seem very strange. I mean, that's the thing that forced

[Philip]

him to lose, not be on brand.

[Clayton]

Yeah, that's the thing that forced him to lose is that he wouldn't take their money.

[Unknown Male 1]

But.

[Clayton]

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[Scott Ritter]

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[Clayton]

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[Thomas Drake]

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