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David Rutherford Show: “WWIII Is Being Engineered” — Venezuela Was the First Move - The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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David Rutherford Show: “WWIII Is Being Engineered” — Venezuela Was the First Move

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Wed Jan 14 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: David Rutherford Show: “WWIII Is Being Engineered” — Venezuela Was the First Move
Air Date: January 14, 2026
Host: David Rutherford (guest-hosting for Clay & Buck)
Guest: “Em” (pseudonymous security/intelligence expert)

Overview

This episode dives deep into the geopolitical machinations behind current global instability, asserting that World War III is being methodically engineered by a transnational “Praetorian regime.” Venezuela, they argue, is the initial move in a grander “sport of kings” which supersedes conventional state-to-state “great games.” The discussion, rich in analogy and conspiracy, frames Venezuela’s upheaval as orchestrated by hidden oligarchic interests leveraging intelligence, paramilitaries, and destabilization tactics worldwide. The conversation spans historical power structures, the loss of local sovereignty, the manipulation of narrative, and societal implications for the rising generation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Venezuela as a Geopolitical Chess Move (00:29–13:11)

Beyond Oil, Drugs, and Elections:
The upheaval in Venezuela signifies more than simple resource grabs or electoral manipulation. The “Praetorian regime” (a global managerial class rooted in historic Western power centers) aims to destabilize the region as part of a broader strategy.
- “The Praetorians have controlled through the devil's legions... unaccountable paramilitary... a blend of cartels, blend of finance, double black book special op guys, straight up intel guys... all brought under one umbrella since World War II.” (08:01, Em)
Venezuela’s Special Status:
Since the 1970s, Venezuela has functioned as a Praetorian headquarters in the Western Hemisphere due to its capacity to self-fund through oil and minerals. Removing control here disrupts the regime’s regional foothold.

2. Historic Context—“Sport of Kings” vs. The “Great Game” (01:57–07:32, 28:36–32:16)

Power Evolution:
Traditional “oligarchic war” (the “sport of kings”) shaped history until the 1800s and WWI, after which the “managerial class” and nation-state competitions (the “great game”) dominated.
- “We haven't seen oligarchic war in pure form for maybe close to a century and a half, two centuries. That's what we're seeing.” (04:53, Em)
Who Owns the Table:
Players at the “high table” (managers, national leaders) are just pawns in the game run by those who “own the table”—the unseen oligarchs.

3. Mechanisms of Control: Security & Assassination (09:19–13:12)

Leadership and their security apparatuses are allegedly always controlled by the Praetorians via contracted special operations—leaving even top elites vulnerable to coercion by threats to family and self.
Instance: The removal of Venezuelan President Maduro hinged on neutralizing his Praetorian-controlled security.

4. Wider Implications—Iran, Israel, and Kinetic Pretexts (13:12–16:06, 32:58–36:17)

The same playbook seen in Venezuela is allegedly being applied to Iran, with Western powers seeking regime change, manipulating paramilitaries, and setting up “color revolutions.”
- “If the Praetorian regime realizes that a certain world leader is being approached by... the Russians or the Chinese... and that there's a good chance they're going to turn, you're going to coup them yourself.” (13:12, Em)
The game is to pre-empt others’ moves, extract leaders, and ensure upcoming regimes are beholden to the Praetorians.

5. Collapse of Local Sovereignty—The Loss of “Princes” (19:42–26:29)

Severing the Divine Covenant:
The erosion of local and aristocratic sovereignty (“Princes”) severed the connection between people, land, and genuine accountability, replaced by unaccountable bureaucratic and financialist power.
- “When we did away with princes, we lost our connection to the divine... We handed ourselves into the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats and the managerial class.” (21:13, Em)
Everything Became Financialized:
Ownership and responsibility are now so opaque—obfuscated by endless financial derivatives and asset swaps—true accountability evaporates.

6. The Art of Destabilization & Narrative Manipulation (26:29–28:36; 36:53–37:45)

Kinetic street violence, factional infighting, manipulation of military leadership, and the use of bots/images as distraction are tools to see “what happens next” and shape new regimes.
- “A lot of kinetic action takes place just to see what happens next... to see, to shape what's going to come next and who's going to pop up, who's going to show themselves.” (27:56, A)

7. Recommendations for Young Men: Rebuilding Nobility & Community (40:01–53:18)

Restoring the Divine Covenant:
Reconnecting with purpose, local community, and constructive masculine roles is framed as crucial.
- “We must restore the divine covenant. The divine covenant is the commitment to... individual sovereignty, the right to private property, and a balance of power.” (42:14, Em)
Modern Knight’s Guidebook:
Em advocates for young men to develop “knightly” virtues, learn real skills, and integrate tightly with their local communities (as opposed to chasing prestige or solely financialist success).
- “Men of substance need to also start putting more damn time and effort and energy into the young men of their physical community.” (44:55, Em)
Vocational Independence:
Avoid debt, learn trades, become small business owners. The “knight”/middle-class role in history is extolled as a model.

8. Contemporary Threats: Engineered Conflicts & the “Targeting” of Young Men (56:16–59:44)

Young Men as Last Asset:
The conversation circles back—asserting the only un-hypothecated asset left in Western society is its native young men, whom “they” (the regime) seek to destroy via unnecessary wars.
- “We have only one asset remaining to us that hasn't been bought and sold... that's our young men. And now they want to send them away in wars to die in great numbers...” (56:16, Em)

9. Gaming, Learning, and Agency (61:18–65:51)

Leveraging Gaming Intelligence:
Modern young men, adept at intricate online strategy games, possess untapped intelligence and adaptability. Em proposes using games and puzzles as educational/inspiration tools for awakening strategic thinking about real-world events.

10. Final Reflections: Real War Is for the Soul (67:00–69:32)

The true war is not for territory, but for the soul of the next generation; the old forms of kinetic conflict are a distraction from this battle for spiritual and civic renewal.
- “We are at war for everything in our own lands... What stands in the way is our young men... The only thing that can stand in the way.” (67:04, Em)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

"We haven't seen oligarchic war... in maybe close to a century and a half, two centuries. That's what we're seeing."
[04:53, Em]
"The Praetorians work with the ever-present threat of a knife at your child's throat."
[10:00, Em]
"We did away with our hard anchoring to the land... everything became virtualized."
[24:41, Em]
"The only asset we as a people have remaining is our young men... now they want to send them away in wars to die in great numbers."
[56:16, Em]
"You want these kids to get heavily involved in the world around you... feed that into the game."
[63:16, Em]
"We are in war. We are at war for everything. This isn't... this is war for everything in our own lands..."
[67:00, Em]

Timestamps | Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Summary | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:29–01:57| Why Venezuela matters beyond oil & drugs | | 01:57–07:32| Historic “sport of kings” vs. modern “great game” | | 08:01–13:12| How intelligence/paramilitary amalgam controls regimes | | 13:12–16:06| Applying the Venezuela playbook to Iran | | 19:42–26:29| The loss of "Princes," localism, and sovereignty | | 27:56–32:16| Chaos as “loyalty test”; what happens after regime change | | 36:53–37:45| Firsthand accounts of U.S. involvement in global proxy wars | | 42:14–47:12| The divine covenant, nobility, and restoring male purpose | | 56:16–59:44| Young men as a targeted “last asset” | | 61:18–65:51| Using gaming for learning, community rebirth | | 67:00–69:32| The “real war” for the soul of the next generation |

Summary Tone

Conversational but urgent
Analytical, historical, and at times conspiratorial
Actionably inspirational for the audience, focused on restoring community, virtue, and sovereignty

This episode is a sweeping, sometimes labyrinthine dissection of current events, reframing state-level crises as expressions of deeper, centuries-old power games. It uniquely ties together geopolitics, community, masculinity, and generational renewal with both skepticism and hope—offering listeners a framework for both comprehension and self-empowerment amid global uncertainty.

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Transcript

A (0:00)

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human Venezuelan politics. Oil, drugs and elections. This is much more than what you think it is today on the David Rutherford Show. Em, welcome back to the show, my friend.

B (0:26)

Pleasure to see you. And hopefully the holidays are solid.

A (0:29)

Absolutely. Same to you, my friend. Happy New Year. All right, first question is, obviously Venezuela is a big play, but there's obviously a deeper context. It's, you know, everybody, what we're seeing is it's, oh, this is about the oil. Oh, it's about drugs. Well, no, it's not. It, that's Mexico. Or this is about the elections being stolen and dominion voting systems. But, you know, how would you first assess what's taking place with this particular incident? And then we'll move to a broader perspective.

B (1:03)

We are fully committed, along with Russia and China, to remove this Praetorian regime and its pathocracy, I think, is what we talked last time from the world stage, particularly given that, you know, for all intents and purposes, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, City of London are, you know, the, the managerial class for this praetorian regime. You know, this, this hidden, not so well hidden, but, you know, this, this, you know, when we're doing unconventional warfare, what do we do? We go in and set up shadow government, we go in and set up shadow services, we go and set up shadow forces, et cetera, et cetera. Well, that's the way this praetorian regime. Guess where we learned it. Right, Exactly.

A (1:57)

So it's funny, you know, there are a lot of people who believe that tactics are, are new or, you know, when, when this, this type of. Of what, currency, political, religious manipulation is old. As old as civilization itself.

B (2:14)

Correct. Yeah. So seven elements of power, right? They've been around forever, right? So we are fully committed to arc, you know, America, Russia, China, to diminish substantively the praetorian regime's ability to take the world to World War iii. That's the primary, because that's nuclear war, right? It'll go nuclear and it'll go nuclear quick. So it's not that Russia and China are our friends. They're also not our enemy, and they never really have been. In fact, Russia has been more America's friend than any other country out there. If you want to talk about America's greatest ally, it isn't Israel or anybody else. It's Russia. Russia. The United States wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Russia. In the 17 and 1800s on and on more than one occasion, they had to get involved on the world Stage. What it is, though, is that Russia and China are coming out of their own collapse and they're recovering and they're recovering well. Now China's, you know, removing the last. This Praetorian infrastructure in China, that's what Xi's about. That's why they're trying to coo him so hard right now. And unfortunately, some very, very intelligent guys I know from our world are all about it. And I'm like, sorry, guys, you don't understand what's actually really happening. But point being is that the Praetorian regime, you know, the Praetorian system, you know, Praetorian regime is probably the best way, has been trying to draw us into World War III against Russia and China. Although that's ludicrous, the China one, that's not working. And so now what do they have to do? They have to use all of their devil's legions, you know, their shadow government, shadow ass, etc to try and draw us into, you know, a more complicated way of back, you know, walking us through the back door into World War iii, since they can't go in through the front door to World War iii. And so Russia, neither Russia, China, nor a substantive subset of America's oligarchs want World War iii. So what are the Praetorians doing? They're doing everything in their power to destabilize as much of the world as they can, right? So there's two. I've. I've written 26 lessons, you know, sport of Kings lessons. What's happening right now, what we're seeing and why it makes it so difficult for people to really parse it out, is that we have not seen the sport of kings, which supersedes the great game for a century plus, maybe 2 century, you know, a century and a half, shall we say, since the 1800s, since the Gilded Age. And so we don't really recognize. All we've seen is the great game, you know, this manager of class, nation state game against each other, you know, et cetera, et cetera. We haven't seen oligarchic war in, you know, pure oligarchic war in maybe close to a century and a half, two centuries. That's what we're seeing. That's what makes it so hard for us who grew up in these managerial systems and structures to really kind of parse out what's actually going on.

A (15:37)

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B (19:42)

Well, it's a great question, David. Great question. I mean, I think we have to parse out two things. The why is it so difficult? And then the other is how. Because how is. We're just bombarded with massive amounts of information that's just trash and nonsense. And, and we have 287 known built in cognitive biases into the way the human brain works. And you know, so we're linguistic monkeys and because of that we're too easily hijacked through words. Right, this magic of words. So that's. That's the how. Right, the why. The why it works is because. And this was the whole purpose behind liberal democracy, the whole push behind the Enlightenment. Now I want to separate out the Scottish and English Enlightenment from the continental European, Roman Enlightenment, because it was fundamentally different, the severing of our relationships as a people with our local princes. And I don't mean. I don't mean as hyperbole, I mean that literally with our dukes, our earls or barons severed what was lost in that effort that went over centuries and, you know, really culminated in World War I and then finalized in World War II, where, you know, down with princes. Princes are done. We killed a lot of them in the trenches of Europe in World War I and World War II, but really, World War I slaughtered entire, you know, noble houses and royal lines, some of them, over a thousand years. But the point I'm getting at is that the. The tethering of a people to their local prince and their local land and reality was lost. And in that, we lost something very profound. We didn't, you know, we didn't think about. Some did, because again, the Scottish and English Enlightenment people were talking about this. They weren't talking about down with Princes, they were just talking princes needing to step their game up. And here's how they need to do it, and here's how the people need to step their game up, such that, you know, collectively can do this. But the point is that when we did away with princes, we lost our connection to the divine. And I don't necessarily just mean the divine of God or the gods or however you work, you know, you believe. But we lost that divine covenant between a people and their leaders and the land and the pro and the fruits of that land, you know, the productivity of that land. And we went into. We be, you know, we then handed ourselves into, you know, our future, our lives, our fortunes, into the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats and a managerial class and the financialists. And without that tethering to a local elite, who's a true elite, who you can also hold accountable because you know where they live and they're directly tied to the land and assets. They can't just slip it into some offshore bank account, right through 13 different trusts and all this other stuff. We had a. We had a vested interest to really know what the hell was going on locally and to be involved. And we had a sense of the divine covenant that is the responsibility of a people and their prince with one another in the land and, and other peoples, and we lost all of that. Everything's been financialized, it's been derivatized, everything's portable, trans. You know, everything's movable. Like one of the things that really drives our world, that keeps us all. If you look at asset management companies and you look at assets, values are going up parabolically, but the owner of the asset changes about every quarter, every year. They're constantly changing out ownership between these elites. Why? Because much of that relates to a physical, tangible asset somewhere in the earth or productivity or a population of people. And if you knew who the owners were, they would be accountable.

B (33:10)

He tries to live. This doesn't happen very often. Yeah right. Because what was coming for him was those Cuban security guys and they were going to kill him in his sleep one night in his family. So he's out of there. We did, you know, we had conversations with the executive who's now the President according to their constitution. So we're doing it all constitutionally, right? Etc. And now we have to kind of wait and see and back and support where we can at a distance to see if that administration, you know, the new administration can handle what the praetorians throw at them, you know, and you mentioned two vectors, right? The military, you know, factions in the military, and then Machado and her group and then Maduro's son, right? So we wait and see, right? It's the same thing that we're doing in Iran right now. The British are all in, as well as the CIA, the Praetorians are all in on couping the Ayatollah and putting their own. Putting the Crown prince, right? Putting the Shah's son on the throne. They're all in, openly stating it, right? So what do we do? So what did Trump do? Trump comes out and unfortunately I hear too many, again, big brain guys from our community, right? Some of whom are actually, are big brains, right? And they're all for this change, regime change. It's like, come on guys, you don't really actually understand what's happening. So what did Trump do? He didn't come out to support. And nobody in the administration has come out to support the, the rioters, you know, the, the coup attempt, but also hasn't come out to support the Ayatollah and the current regime. What he did, what they did say was if you start killing, you know, if you just go gun battles in the street and start killing the rioters, we will, we will. Rioters. Okay, well, that's the right thing to say. So now what are we doing? We're waiting to see if the Ayatollah and the current power regime can survive, right. Without going to just, you know, massive bloodshed. Because then, you know, then, then we're supporting baby killers again, right? But if they can't, you know, like, why do we move C17s closer over there? And more importantly, what's on those C17s where they come out of, Right? None of that is none of the stuff that's on those birds or where those birds come from or what would be on those birds is for anything but surgical operations.

B (41:19)

Yeah, Yeah. Y question. We. And again, I don't. I'm not a Christian. I. I went to Christian schools. I went to private boarding. Christian boarding schools, Catholic included. So I do have somewhat of a fairly extensive understanding of it, but I'm, you know, deeply Norse down underneath. You know, I'm. I'm Norse Norman on both sides of my English and Scottish families. So. So. So give me a second. So When I say divine, I don't mean necessarily, you know, to the church or relation to the church. Right. I mean something much more fundamental and, and profound. We, we have to restore the covenant with the divine. And what is that? That is the, the covenant to one another. Right. That covenant, you know, in the English peoples right specifically is the individual sovereignty, the right to private property and a balance of power. Right. That's the covenant that, that created our civilization. And oh, by the way, it was three kings in a row who brought that about and fought it out. Right. And then nobles who fought it out, you know, across centuries thereafter. It wasn't just, you know, the people, it was this individual sovereignty right to private property. And the balance of power was set in motion and maintained, sustained by nobility, actual hereditary nobility and monarchy. So we have to restore the covenant of the divine, which is the relationship between us, ourselves in our own lands, with that land. So back to the question you asked, Young. First off, there is no divine covenant between me and somebody in Mexico or, or continental Europe or Russia or China or Ukraine or anywhere in hell in the United States. I'm out here in the West, I barely got a divine covenant with the people in New York or, or Colorado or Wyoming or Montana. You know, I'm, you know, the United States is huge part, particularly out here in the West. Most of our states are bigger than European countries, right. So in our whole, you know, the US itself is bigger than all of Europe, including the British Isles and then some. Right. So, you know, first thing is that there is, we must restore the divine covenant. The divine covenant is the commitment to those three principles amongst ourselves. And that is only associated with our own. That is only related to our own community, our own home, our own lands. We owe no obligations to anybody else anywhere else. It's just a fact of existence in life. With respect to how do you develop and train yourself? I wrote a book, published it here recently called the Modern Night's Guidebook. It's not exhaust, you know, it's not this big tome, but it's, you know, is, was reduced down as much as I could. You know, what are the principles of the night? You know, and, and again, not in the Christian church sense, but more on the broader concept. Again, no, not to take away from the church. Right, yeah.

B (44:36)

Correct, correct. Which is why the Templars had to be destroyed and they burn Jack Monet at the stake and, etc, Right. So in the Modern Nights guide book, it's a very, you know, it walks you through the seven elements of power. I call them the seven swords. But, you know, it's the seven elements of power. It walks you through the principles of, you know, life. You know, what are, what are the obligations that we have as, as a man? Right. In very de, you know, in, in, you know, extensive but not, you know, exhaustive. Right. So people can broaden out from there. The goal that I, when I wrote the Modern Nights guidebook is to give these higher level reconnections with the sport of kings, right? So we're not all stuck chasing the great game, which will never win, you know, that that's. They got unlimited resources, money and time to play their, you know, to play their great game. We'll never, the only way we can do it is enough of us have gotten, got to recognize, oh, there's a sport above that. And let's try and support that. Let's try and connect in with that. Let's try and not get, you know, blinded by the great game, trying to, you know, keep us from seeing that. And then, you know, young men have to get more actively involved in their communities. Now that also means that men of our age and men of substance need to also start putting more damn time and effort and energy into the young men of their physical community. And I don't mean through, you know, charitable giving and all this other stuff that's. Some of that's important, but more of it is men and really the matriarchs behind their men need to be doing a better job of investing in local young men in their own damn communities because that's where that is your only safety and security in real, in true hard times. Right. So just on a self preservation basis alone, you'd be wanting to help local native young young men in your communities, wherever you can find them, and helping set them up as small business owners and, and getting them through, you know, all of these things instead of charitable giving. Because why, if anything ever really physically goes wrong, one back to the earlier Praetorian problem. You don't know you can trust your security team or at least one or two members on it. Right. And if things ever become sustained and, or you just don't have the capital to be able to afford your team anymore, which happens, your only safety and security for you and your family is the local community. And I don't mean the cops, because the cops have constitutionally been told they don't have an obligation to physically protect you.

B (56:16)

Yeah, another great question and, and brings it all back together nicely. The only asset we as a people have remaining is our young men and some of our young women. And you know, we men, we can't fix the world of women. Only women can do that. And that's just an honest truth. Now we can provide some influence and management and guidance from the outside but women got to fix women. That's just the way it is. Right? Maybe we can get some help from the gay guys but I'm not sure they're not off doing their thing. Now. We have only one asset remaining to us that hasn't been bought and sold and hypothecated 100 times or 700 times and that's our young men. And now they want to send them away in wars to die in great numbers. Why? Because it's the only thing, the only asset that they can't fully commoditize and that is a wild guard that they can't control. So they need to kill off the native sons and import dependents, you know, praetorian slaves for all intents and purposes now they're well kept slaves etc but the we cannot lose the last remaining. Well, there's two assets actually, but they're related. We cannot lose our young men. If we lose our young men in another great conflagration. I don't care where it starts, how it starts, what the purpose is. It could be right here in our own country. Country. But we cannot lose our young men in a great conflagration again or we're done. Now here's the other piece. There is another asset, but it's already been hypothecated and all these other things, but it's still real. And it's the boomer's wealth. The boomer's wealth is the largest collection of private wealth ever created in the history of the world by a lot. That's right. And that's what the real target is. And they want to kill off the young men, our young men in our own lands or, you know, the native sons of the land, because they have to take. Take legally physical possession of the boomer's wealth. And if young men are here to stand ready to fight and deny that, like, you know, think the government tried to take Bundy's ranch. Now think that across the whole country for trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of personal private wealth. So we cannot lose our young men because that is the most amoral thing for us to do. If we still want to claim ourselves immoral people. Right. Or reclaim our position as a moral people, is not send our sons off to die in. In just a slaughter. Right. We did what we did in Ukraine on purpose. We never gave them the supports they needed to win an actual war. There's another thing that people yelling and screaming about. I just want a little bit of an aside, but it's very important. People yelling about, you know, how ineffectual Chinese and Russian air defenses are. The surest sign that they are effective is we didn't give aircraft and we didn't close down the airsport space over Ukraine. That is the biggest tell that they're successful. Right? That's right.