(4-20-26) Ep. 191: Shots Fired Outside of Hormuz — Iran Doubles Down as Peace Talks Collapse & Much More.

Today's Articles: 

(New York Post) - US Navy destroyer ‘blows a hole’ through Iranian cargo ship that tried to break Hormuz blockade, Trump says. (Wall Street Journal) - Seized Iranian-flagged ship was part of fleet that frequented China. (Politico) - Iran doubles down on closing Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire nears expiration. (Breitbart News) - Waltz: Iran Claiming Ownership of Strait of Hormuz a ‘Violation of International Law’. (Washington Examiner) - Wright says gas prices may not fall to $3 a gallon until 2027. (The Mirror) - Disturbing image shows IDF soldier smashing Jesus statue with axe in Lebanon. (Just the News) - U.S. launches tariff refund system. (PJ Media) - The DOJ Has Found HOW MANY Dead People on Voter Rolls? (ZeroHedge) - Drought Engulfs 60% Of U.S. As Farmers Begin Spring Planting. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Today's groundbreaking news right here in America and across the board, where the facts are facts and hard truths thrive. Let's begin the best of radio, informative, uncensored, unapologetic, and ready to go. Ladies and gentlemen, so many different articles, so many great topics we'll delve into today. I know you can enjoy each and every one of them, so I hope you'll stick around the entire hour. I want to get right down to business to start Monday off the right way. Let's start the week off the right way. We've got lots of activity taking place over the weekend in conjunction with the US and Iran. We'll go over how that's developing, and that seems like the best place to begin because obviously it has different ramifications for a lot of things globally as well. Let's jump into this article from the New York Post. The United States yesterday seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship returning to Iran from China, and they decided to fire four to five different rounds from a 5-inch MK-45 gun that struck the engine room, creating it to be inept, causing the ship to be disabled, was boarded by Marines, and then was taken in the Gulf of Oman. Now, allegedly this ship was carrying chemical weapons, or chemicals rather, for ballistic missiles. Allegedly, that has not yet been confirmed. The Iranians then have stated that there will be consequences for these actions that have been taken by the United States. Everyone knows this ceasefire, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, is a ceasefire in name only. Now it's allegedly going to end after Tuesday. We'll see how the Iranians retaliate, but let me just say this to you. When the Iranians say something will happen, it always ends up happening. Remember, they said if we attack the country, they will close the strait at Fort Moose. And then all of a sudden Donald Trump was surprised, telling people close to him that he was shocked that they did that. Now, even though we know that it was Lloyd's of London that actually closed the strait itself, refusing to ensure the ship's passage through the strait was the bulk of the traffic being stopped was because of that, not because of any action really taken by the Iranians. That was the end result of it. So we see this closure of the strait really because of the insurance woes that took place. So the ceasefire is not just falling apart because the U.S. and its actions, we also see that was greatly added to this was Israel's response to what's taking place inside of Lebanon right now. The resuming of that conflict right now, which again was the major part of the ceasefire, the 10-point plan by the Iranians. That's all now gone, of course. And that was a major precision uh provision, rather, of this ceasefire. You have the Iranians now have said that they will not go to Islamabad. They said it's essentially been canceled. They've said this already. I doubt that they will attend. And Trump is sending dumb and dumber. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom are not serious actors, they have zero experience in foreign policy, and acting on the behalf of Israel, of course, is in their purview, not the interest of the United States. I thought I'd just share that with you as well. By sending these two, though, you pretty much know to a T, the U.S. has never been wanting to broker a peace deal. Not once. Yet, they, along with President Trump, by the way, these two, Prime Minister Netanyahu, they sit on this fictitious board of peace. Now, this fictitious board of peace is supposed to create peace throughout the Middle East. Now that sounds great, doesn't it? We'll have a Board of Peace, we'll have different people on this board. Yet we see none of that. We see nobody holding anybody accountable. By that I mean holding Israel accountable. Israel has attacked all of its neighbors. Gaza to the south, they have attacked Lebanon to the north. Under no provocation, they've attacked Iran. They've attacked inside Syria, they've attacked inside of Iraq, and now they have Turkey on their purview right now for another country to attack. We have enough Tali Bennett, the former prime minister, saying this much. And anyone who's not paying attention to this, I don't know what else I could tell you. But if you think this war is going to end with Lebanon or even Iran, you're highly mistaken. And I think Erdogan understands this as well. So does anybody that's paying attention to it. So it's not going to end anytime soon, but who is going to restrain Israel? Trump can't even get him to abide by a ceasefire for 10 days. I mean, this is the ridiculousness of the whole situation. And yet this guy sits on a board of peace, ladies and gentlemen. No peace to be seen. The only peace he knows about is the pieces of land that he wants to acquire for Israel. That's all. Again, I don't know how else I can say this to you, but I tell you the facts. I don't tell you what I want to hear. Now, as resulting from this attack yesterday on this vessel and acquiring it, President Trump took to Truth Social yesterday saying that an Iranian-flag cargo ship named Tusca, nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our naval blockade. And it did not go well for them. Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel. The Tusca is under U.S. Treasury sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship and are seeing what's on board. Now, to the diehard people that still believe this is 5D chess, they think this is great. This will get the Iranians to the negotiating table. We'll get everything we want, and everything will go back to the status quo. Not gonna happen. Simply not gonna happen at this point because the Iranians don't need to go to the table, ladies and gentlemen. Nope, they never have needed to. They decided to because China and Pakistan had pushed them to that. But they don't need it. They've been preparing for this for decades. So if you believe that Iran and their missile stockpiles are being depleted, you're mistaken. Nothing could be further from the truth. And that's why they've ultimately said, we're not doing this. We're not going to Islamabad. We're not going to go to these negotiations. You're acting in bad faith. Now I want to play you one of the greatest generals of all time. General Keane. General Keane has his hopes very high for obviously this war resuming. Because the U.S. now has significant leverage, he says. That's what he told Stuart Varney, I believe, just this morning. Let's take a listen to General Keene.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Going into these negotiations, we have significant leverage that we didn't have the last time. The last time, the main leverage was two weeks ceasefire, then we return to combat operations. We still have that. But we got this incredible economic leverage on them, which is simply shut down all of their revenue sources over 90%. That is quite staggering. And what should that get for us? It's clearly what we want. We have our priorities, and the number one priority is the nuclear enterprise. We want all the enrichment that they have. We only want to make certain that they've dismembered and dismantled all of the uh technology they use to build uh nuclear enterprise, and that's centrifuges, cascades, etc. We have to see all of that. And also we want no enrichment whatsoever because we know we give them a little bit of enrichment, it's a pathway to a nuclear weapon as it has been in the past.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

I'm sure the Iranians will fold ultimately, ladies and gentlemen, after one cargo ship being seized. Now, I thought we destroyed their entire Navy. I thought we destroyed their entire Air Force, I thought their military was on the Fritz. What is going on here? So now they're demanding that the Iranians open up the Strait of Fort Moose. But they've ultimately told us that everything's been destroyed. So how are they doing this, folks? Well, again, they have the pressure by using, for example, the threat that they will attack. Again, I said to you before, Lloyds of London, ladies and gentlemen, says, you know, we're not going to insure your ship if you try to traverse the Strait of Hormuz and try to cross it. Just isn't gonna work. So there's that issue, of course, as well. But let me say this to you. Okay, we took a vessel. We know that two vessels had previously gotten by the Iranians, one of the Chinese wasn't stopped by the so-called blockade. Okay, anyways. Understand this. Let's say we are successful with this blockade. I'll I'll give the United States that. Let's say we are now from from this moment on, we're not gonna allow any Iranian vessels or any vessels that will make port inside of Iran to traverse the Strait of Romans. Let's say that is the reality right now. The real reality is that the Iranians have access to the Caspian Sea to the north. They can send, obviously, cargo, they can send oil, they can send a lot of things to Russia. Russia, therefore, can then transport to wherever that destination may be going. They can go to China, for example, if that's the place they would like it to go. They also have other ways to sell. They can also use their pipelines that extend to the east, for example, the Silk Roads, if you will, they can go that route, they can go that way to China. They don't have to do everything by sea. Now, of course, it may be more efficient, but they have other means to get the oil to China. Of course, China's very reliant on their imports coming in from Iran, of all places, and it makes their economy function. So when we talk about seizing these vessels, now this vessel was a cargo vessel, we don't know exactly what was on this container vessel. It could be loading up more oil. I have no idea. It was returning. Only time will tell. But let me say this to you. If we think, and if I say this, if we think that China doesn't have a stake in all this, I think you're sadly mistaken. And China is not going to abandon Iran. Let me just put that out to you. Okay? Now I feel the next move is going to be heavy hitting by the United States. I do believe that. I really do. I think that the power plants, the bridges, I think that will be the next level of escalation that we decide to go into. I do believe that will be taking place. So let's just be very clear about this. I don't think there's any leverage that the U.S. has at this point. Now we could take the vessels. I'm not saying we can't. I obviously believe that this took place. But to say indefinitely now that because we have taken a Iranian cargo ship, that all of a sudden the Iranians are going to, you know, come rushing to the table. It's it's just simply not going to happen. It won't happen. And we know, as of yesterday, the Iranians have now doubled down to restrict the ships passing through the Strait of Ormuz. But again, which I find funny because we all we hear is that their Navy's gone, their military is gone, the Air Force is gone, hanging on by a thread, no missile stockpiles. They've got to come to the table. In fact, they're telling us right now that they're gonna give us everything. And Trump makes these claims before the negotiations, saying Iran agreed to this, Iran agreed to that. But Iran hasn't confirmed any of this. And this is also very troublesome. Because what he can do, and this is what a lot of people are suggesting right now, Trump says they're gonna give us the enriched uranium. We just heard General Keene say that. They're gonna let the United States come waltzing right in, take the enriched uranium, walk right out of the country, open that straight back up, no more nuclear enrichment, no more ballistic missile programs, regime change, everything we want, we will get. Does anybody believe that? I don't believe that. I don't think that's gonna happen at all. Now we we said we want the straight up for moose open, then we decided to put a blockade around it. I'll let you try to make sense of any of that, ladies and gentlemen. But the Iranians have now said that the closing of the strait is now in effect. We don't know that the United States is allowing other ships through. We don't know what the traffic is like at this point. Um, but the Iranians have said, now we're we're gonna start to close this yet again, and it will be absolutely closed for business. So you can take that how you'd like to take that, ladies and gentlemen. But it doesn't sound like they do not have operational control over it. It sounds like they very much do. And you know that because no ships are going through it right now. So I don't understand, I don't understand the whole blockade purpose. What is the purpose of this? You open up the strait, will it be in a ceasefire? Now we're gonna get a U.S. naval blockade? Well, who thinks that's not going to cause strife? Of course it is. It's not gonna get the Iranians to the table, it's gonna cause them to ramp things up as well. This is why I'm telling you, expect things to get out of hand very, very quickly. We will see that. And I don't think that's something that we can take lightly. I think that's something that's going to take place again, obviously, probably sometime either late tomorrow evening or on Wednesday when this war resumes. And let me just say this to you as well Israel will be hit as well, equally hard in this war that we find ourselves in. Now, Mike Waltz went on to the Meet the Press yesterday, he was on State of the Union. I have a couple of clips of him talking about what's going on right now, but of course, where we are with the ownership of the so-called Strait of Hormoose here, and he's saying it's a violation of international law. Let's listen to Mike Waltz.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Well, you saw real confusion on the Iranians' part. Uh, I think that shows the discord within their ranks uh after devastating attacks on their leadership. Uh yeah, the foreign minister says it's open, the IRGC says it c it's closed. Uh, regardless, it's the U.S. Navy and President Trump as the commander-in-chief that decides what ultimately comes in and comes out.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Let me pause really quickly about that. So he's saying it's a violation of international law that the Iranians claim ownership of what comes through the international waterway. Okay, fine. Then how could we, the United States, go 6,000 miles and say everything come through, but everything that is not pertinent to the Iranians, though. You can't do anything, you can't sell your oil, you can't have Chinese ships come through. None of that is able to take place, just what we want to come through. Doesn't that seem a little bit hypocritical to anybody that's listening? I think so.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

I think the bigger picture here is that the Iranian regime cannot hold the entire world's economy hostage. Uh, they cannot uh uh met out collective punishment uh because of a dispute over its nuclear program. It's something that will not stand, it's something actually in the United Nations uh that uh record 135 countries that joined us and joined our Gulf Arab allies in condemning, including Iran's uh attacks on ports, airports, roads, bridges, uh uh hotels, uh you name it, uh even civilian neighborhoods uh with their drones uh and with their missiles. Uh so Iran is increasingly isolated diplomatically, it's struggling uh economically with its currency and foreign currency reserves, tanking. Uh and at the end of the day, uh they do not have the cards uh and they're coming back to the table for a deal.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

Well, then how do they just come and say that they're not gonna make a deal? They said the negotiations have been canceled, Mr. Waltz. Don't you don't you understand this? So, again, we I I have to ask, ladies and gentlemen, he says that a record 135 countries joined us and our Gulf Arab allies, again, that facilitate our military bases, that have allowed us to attack Iran without any provocation whatsoever, condemning their attacks on ports, airports, roads, bridges. Yet here we are attacking this country. We killed their supreme leader, one of their head leaders, of course. We've bombed schools, we've bombed a hospital's neonatal clinic. Have any of these countries called that out? We are the aggressors in this. Let's just call it for what it is. We are the aggressors in it. Had nothing to do with the nuclear program, had nothing to do with the ballistic missile program. The straight up for moves wasn't closed until after we attacked them, so that could have been an issue. This is all about regime change. This is about Israel wanting us to go in with them to take out the Ayatollah, hoping that the country would collapse from within. It didn't implode, though. We miscalculated that. And what we thought would take 48, 72 hours to do never occurred. So now we have the issue of, oh, well, it's their nuclear program. Well, they don't have a nuclear program. They don't have nuclear ambition, they don't have a nuclear program. So that can't be it. They say, well, they have ballistic missiles that can go into Eastern Europe. So what? They're not striking Eastern Europe. They're striking precise targets inside of Israel and our military installations all throughout the Gulf Arab states that are facilitating it. That we've largely left in the dust right now. That's another story for another topic, though. But did any of these 135 countries condemn the United States and Israel for what we did? Amid negotiations? Is this guy kidding me right now? Makes absolutely no sense, this guy. Really. I'd like to believe that he knows what he's talking about. He's the ambassador to the UN. But really, where does he get off saying this to us right now? That it's just Iran that started? It's not like Iran just closed the Strait of Hormuz and then decided to strike our military bases in Israel. That'd be a completely different story. But it's the exact opposite. And we saw, by the way, Sergei Lavrov condemning the Gulf uh cooperation countries when they came to Russia recently. Like they were claiming that, you know, look at all these attacks. They were saying, well, wait a minute. You're not condemning what the United States and Israel did, but you're condemning what Iran's doing, defending themselves? It's amazing to me. Anyways, Waltz went on to say the following. Let's listen to this.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Well, but that's the point. The Strait of Ormuz is an international waterway. Uh, unlike what the Iranians are trying to claim, they've even moved the goalposts and are now claiming that it's uh a waterway of theirs, uh, which is an absolute violation of international law. Ultimately, it's the U.S. Navy and President Trump that decides what comes in and what comes out.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Okay, so I guess the United States decides what comes in and what comes out through the straight-of-four moves. If we decide that we don't want anything from Iran to come out, so they can engage in free trade, commerce, that's fine. But when they do it, again, it's against international law, apparently. Okay. Let me ask Mike Waltz this. Does he, I don't even know if he understands international law, I have to ask that again. I I don't know. You know, he's the ambassador to the UN, but does he understand that the UN charter of which the United States are signatories of is the supreme law of the land? What do I mean by that, ladies and gentlemen? Let's take a look no further than Article 2, Section 4. What does that say, for example? Well, it says all states to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. So this core rule outlaws aggressive war. You don't just attack another country just because. Now, of course, we have self-defense articles like 51 or the UN Security Council authorization, chapter 7, but that's self-defense. We are not in that situation. We never were. We never were. So right off the bat, what we did was completely illegal. Again, you can't have a war of choice or a war of aggression. There has to be some type of reason for that to happen. They want peace to be the legal default in everything that takes place. So he goes on, and he says all these things. Well, it's international law, you how dare you do this? Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have been breaking the international law from the start of this war. The whole war has no basis in any imminent threat. We know this is true. Has Mike Waltz ever heard of perfidy, ladies and gentlemen? Again, that's against international law. Stating that we're in negotiations, we're coming to the table with good faith, that we'll resolve the issue. We had a meeting planned for the following Monday, and we bombed them on a Friday. I'm sorry, excuse me, on a well, it was Friday our time. Saturday their time. Very late on Friday evening. We can't do that. So right off the bat, we said, okay, we'll meet with you on Monday, things are going well. You have the the negotiator from Oman saying the exact same thing, things are going well. The Iranians, things are going well. We're making progress. And then of course we find out, thanks to Marco Rubio, that the Israelis came to President Trump and said what? He said, listen, we've got the Ayatollah, we've got the heads of the IRGC, we've got the heads of the military, all in one place. We know where they're gonna be. Now is the time to strike. And we did. But it had nothing to do with nuclear weapons, it had nothing to do with any looming threat. It had to do with the fact that we wanted regime change, but we didn't get it. That's why everything went wrong. Let's just be very clear about that. That is why everything went wrong. So, perfidy, illegal. How about that, Mike Waltz? Attacking a country due to aggression? Yeah, I think that's illegal too. Any word on that? How about a naval blockade, which we've done in the Caribbean, by the way, with Venezuela? Illegal. Even the UN Charter also says, this is by the UN General Assembly, what counts as aggression? An evasion or military occupation? Bombardment? Blockades. Therefore, that acts as a formal declaration of war, ladies and gentlemen, which we are currently doing in the Gulf of Omah. Okay. So there's that. How about blowing up fishing boats without any due process, Mr. Ambassador? Hmm, how about that? No due process? We say, oh, these are drug boats, we're gonna blow them up. Really? You have no idea who's on the boat? If there's any contraband on the boat, any drugs on the boat? Yet we go ahead and we do these things? And then we wonder why people are getting upset about this? We're killing fishermen? It's unbelievable. But he has nothing to say about that, does he? No. Nothing about that. Nothing of, you know, international law. We struck that one boat that got people's attention because we double tapped it. We struck it again while we had fishermen clinging to wreckage that was smoldering. We struck it again. The law says, international law, by the way, says you are to rescue people when they are unable to defend themselves. They pose no threat, which again these fishermen did not. There's been no proof there's been drugs on these boats. There's no proof these boats could have even reached the United States, yet we continued to kill over 111 fishermen. And I do say fishermen because it's been proven that a Trinidadian boot with a leg in it. Again, I hate to be graphic with you, but this is the truth, washed up on the shore of Trinidad, and that boot was identified by the family of that fisherman that wanted answers. So don't say that we just killed drug smugglers bringing drugs to the United States. There's no evidence, even that Venezuela is a major pusher of drugs into the United States. That would be Mexico. Just thought I'd be clear on that. So there's that. Um so how about rules of engagement? We can go that route too. Rules of engagement. We know that, for example, the Biden administration put together um the rules of engagement for the civilian harm mitigation and response action plan. This allows the Department of Defense to go back in, to do recognizance, to re-examine, to know for sure that the targets we are striking are not civilian sites. What did Pete Heggseth do in 2025? We don't need rules of engagement. We don't have to follow international law. Trump said that himself. I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt anybody. What? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. But that was the rah-rah effort of the military. So we could just strike whoever we want to strike. We don't have to follow rules of engagement. We don't have to do any of this. And what do we end up doing as a result of that negligence? Well, we ended up striking that one girl's elementary school. We murdered 165 6 to 12 year olds. We murdered the staff. We murdered the teachers. We were murdered the people inside the building. And then we decided we'd hit them with a double strike. No, a double tap is what it's called. And incinerated 68 young schoolgirls in the prayer hall of the school. What does Mr. Waltz want to say about that? Does he have the mind for it? Does he have any quarrels against it? I don't know. Nobody knows. But this is where we find ourselves. And let me just finish off saying one more thing about this. I want to play one more thing. Mike Waltz was also on FaceThe Nation yesterday. He made his rounds pretty good. And this is what he had to say as well about what's going on and where our steps may go in this war. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

All options are on the table. The president's prepared to escalate to de-escalate. He means it uh when he said nothing that benefits Iran is coming out of the straits. And then on top of that, Secretary Bessant announced Operation Economic Fury, uh, where we are prepared to put secondary sanctions on banks who are transacting uh in illegal Iranian oil dollars. Uh so we are truly putting maximum pressure on every aspect of the Iranian economy, and at some point, uh they are gonna see some level of common sense and pragmatism and say enough is enough with this nuclear obsession.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Nuclear obsession that does not exist. So he's he's telling you right then and there something is gonna happen. Everything is on the table. So that means power plants, desalinization plants, energy grids, bridges, roads, everything's on the table. There you go. That means everything that he's saying right now is probably gonna happen, is what I'm just gonna let everybody know. I think this will escalate much further. And I do think we will begin resuming the strikes probably on late Tuesday or early Wednesday. I think the resuming of this war will continue. So, and just when you thought you heard it all, folks, the Washington Examiner states this is Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, more like Chris Wrong, I think I would call him, says that gas prices might not fall below$3 a gallon across the nation until 2027. Isn't that wonderful? Short-term pain, ladies and gentlemen, for long-term gain? Is that where we are right now? I don't know what that gain's going to be because the Iranians are simply not going to collapse. It's just simply not going to happen. Anyways, he said there was uncertainty about gas prices in the coming year, signaling on Sunday that they won't come down by very much. Wright was then asked by Jay Crapper when Americans will start seeing$3 a gallon gas again, as the national average is now sitting well above$4. And the energy secretary did not give a good outlook. I don't know, is what Wright said. Could happen this year, they might not happen until next year. But prices have likely peaked. Oh, really? Prices have likely peaked. How would he know that? How does he know the price has peaked? The war's not even close to being over. And then he once reiterated after saying that once the Iran war ends, gas prices will come down. Well, how do we know it's gonna end? Second end, there's no ceasefire in place. There's no obviously there's no communication, there's no talks that are taking place. So how do we know this is gonna end, Mr. Wright? There's no idea. This is the same guy who won an NBC saying there was a good chance prices could start falling by this summer. That's what he said last month. Now he's saying 2027. These people can't get anything right. But you know, don't worry. Wright still maintains that the prices have likely peaked. Don't worry. Hey, they're they're peaked. Just get used to the$4 a gallon. Don't worry about it. Folks, everything that is indicating right now, let me just say this to you. I mean, again, I have to understand that he would know that when you take a fifth of the world oil supply that is no longer in circulation, that it's obviously gonna have an effect on the supply and demand. And I would assume running a shell natural gas company for many, many years, he would know how supply and demand works. So, here we are, and again, if I know this, Chris Wright has to know this too. He has to. He has to know. The oil that is being transported still, ladies and gentlemen, was already out before this war began. The ships that are coming back, for example, the ship that was just taken by the United States, the Tusca, the MV Tusca, they're making their routes and they're going from you know their destination, and now they're coming back. The oil that's on the market today, inside the United States, inside Europe, inside Asia, has already been in circulation for the price that was, you know, below the war that began in February 28th. We haven't even seen the oil prices for the new barrels of oil that were sold when it was$119 a barrel. Hasn't been put through circulation yet because, again, has to make its destination, has to go through the refinery process, and then it gets shipped again to market or to its said destination, and then that price changes. So we haven't even seen the bulk of it yet. Now we've seen the oil futures being manipulated. Oh, the war's gonna end, overcoming the talks. Oh, look, the straight of our moves open up again. Okay. So we haven't even seen, ladies and gentlemen, the brunt of where we are going with this. By the way, let me just say this to you. If you think the prices are high now, just wait for summer. The oil that is, you know, the$90,$100,$110,$119 barrel that we saw from Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate or Burbane or Dubai or any of the other futures, it's being sold right now because the transportation costs are up for double once it hits the market. Just be very much aware of all that, by the way. And again, it's still in the$90 range today. And I think once this ceasefire, so-called ceasefire ends, officially, I think you'll see those prices beginning to go back up. That's just my estimation of that. So if you think the price are going down, I got another uh you know thing to sell you. Maybe a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you real cheap. Who knows, folks? It's it's very, very shocking that people get away with this, they say these things to manipulate things, and then of course the opposite happens. And he was one of the people that have sold this lie that, again, the price of oil is coming down. It's very, very disgusting. Let's keep moving on, folks. We got lots to talk about still. Let's shift over to one more topic pertaining to this war before we move on to some domestic issues we have to talk about. This out of the mirror, this is a disturbing image, shows an IDF soldier smashing a Jesus statue with an axe in Lebanon. This is while they're supposed to be an alleged ceasefire of themselves. And the IDF conducted an examination of the image and confirmed that it is a real photo. So it's not just something made up, of course, to uh create ill will towards Israel. But yes, it is an IDF soldier violently smashing an important religious icon to pieces while stationed in southern Lebanon, where they're not supposed to be. Remember, I just read to you, ladies and gentlemen, uh, any occupation of a territory uh is an act of war, is it not? Yeah, I think so. I think so. And again, this is where we find ourselves. This is exactly where we find ourselves, seeing things like this. And obviously, this creates great unease. Uh, the views on X, for example. Uh, the incident with obviously great severity and an emphasis of this soldier's conduct, uh, obviously smashing a religious statue of Jesus in Lebanon, a country that is roughly 40, 45% Christian, by the way. It's one of the only Christian-led countries throughout the Middle East. Let me just explain that to you as well. But it's creating a lot of up people being upset about this. Why is this taking place right now? You know, we hear about these attacks, for example, inside Palestine, we we know that, or excuse me, Gaza, if you will. We know that one church was hit. Why would you be striking a church with a missile and blowing it up? One of the oldest Catholic churches inside the Gaza Strip. Well, I'll let you figure that out on your own, ladies and gentlemen, but I wanted to bring this to your attention because we've seen time and time again when the IDF goes through a church, they tend to destroy it, they vandalize it, they smash things. And we see it right here, uh the statue of Jesus Christ, being destroyed like this. And it should cause outrage throughout, obviously, the Christian world, but everyone should be upset about this. Why would anyone think it's okay to go into a I don't know where exactly this is, outside somewhere, but smashing the head of a Jesus Christ statue in southern Lebanon, of which you're not even supposed to be in? And people think this is okay? You know, I said this on the show uh a couple months back. I know I said this, but they destroyed the Simon Peter Mausoleum in Lebanon in December of 2024. They leveled it, had been there for 2,000 years, and the IDF destroyed it, and not a peep, nothing from anyone, no outrage, certainly on the Western press. Now I said it on my show, of course. But why are we allowing this to take place? Why are we letting this happen? Why are our taxpayer dollars going to the IDF that is destroying a statue of Jesus Christ? I'm mad, you should be mad, and again, I'd be very upset if somebody did that to a Muslim or a Jewish structure anywhere else in the world. That's not right. You shouldn't be doing that. And the fact that this is happening unscathed without any repercussion is another big issue. Yet we're told we have Judeo-Christian values. And by the way, I'm not saying everyone that's Jewish believes in what this idea of soldier does. Obviously, that's his own actions. But isn't it a little bit strange? We see this time and time again, these religious structures. Again, I told you about the Catholic Church and the Gaza Strip being destroyed. The Simon Peter Mausoleum being destroyed. This is history, ladies and gentlemen. These are old structures. They have been there for quite some time. And now we see this. Now I don't know the history of this statue. But isn't it a little bit telling when time and time again we see this happening over and over again? Shouldn't someone in the United States, maybe our wonderful ambassador Mike Huckabee, maybe say something about this? That this conduct is not proper. Where's the UN too, by the way? Anything from them? No, no, not a thing. Destroying these very old religious structures, no one says a damn thing about it, and it goes unnoticed, primarily in the mainstream media. Now, of course, you listen to my show understand this, and by the way, I always tell you if you don't believe me, go fact-check me. Go fact-check me. But again, the IDF right here, saying it right now. Yep. Following the completion of an initial examination regarding a photograph published earlier today of an IDF soldier harming a Christian symbol, it was determined that the photograph depicts an IDF soldier operating in southern Lebanon. The incident is being investigated by the Northern Command and is currently being addressed throughout the chain of command. Oh, yeah, right. What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? Absolutely nothing. So I wanted to say this to you, ladies and gentlemen, because again, I think if obviously American troops did this, this would be something of grave concern. Um, but it's it's very, very telling of what's going on in the world today. And we should be very much against this. Against these illegal occupations, these illegal wars. And that's why I say this thing. We should be pushing for peace, not pushing for greater wars. On another front, folks, I think you'll enjoy this article coming up. I think this is good. This is in just the news. The federal government on Monday launched a system to process and deliver tariff-free funds on Monday. But who's it gonna go to? To you and I? No. No, no, no. But the money is gonna be returned to businesses that paid them after the Supreme Court found that the tariffs that President Trump imposed were absolutely illegal. Well, no kidding. I told you that from the start. I said this is illegal. It has to go through Congress. All taxation has to go through Congress. It doesn't just go through the executive branch. But here we are. Now the system is now under the purview of the U.S. Custom and Borders Protection because, of course, all the imports go through them. They get paid, the treasury gets paid the money upon the delivery. And specifically, the refunds addressed the tariffs paid on the duties Trump imposed under AIPA, that'd be the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which again did not meet the standards to do so. Just again wanted to make that very clear to everybody. So now the Supreme Court says, well, now what do we do with this$166 billion in revenue that we've taken in? Who does the money go to? Where does the money go? Well, to be eligible for the refund, the company must file first a registration. As of the press time, the Customs and Border Patrol indicated that tens of thousands of importers had done so already, accounting for roughly$127 billion in potential refunds. Now, isn't this nice? This is very nice. So if you are a business, and let's say you got any product coming in from China, Brazil, anywhere, it doesn't matter where it is, and you had to pay this, well, this company paid this exorbitant tariff, and they up their prices, seems like they're doing pretty well, doesn't it, folks? Because as I told you before, you and I, the consumer, we pay that tariff. Yes, the the company, the retailer, pays that tariff initially when it comes through customs and border patrol. And maybe for some time they could eat up that difference, right? They keep those prices low. But at some point, to turn a profit, they have to send that tax over to you, the consumer, and the stores. So you and I pay for it. And we know this is true because on average, we paid about a thousand to twelve hundred thousand dollars in 2025, the average family did, because of these tariffs. So we all paid it. So why isn't President Trump returning it to us? Why is there no tariff refund for the consumer? Because the businesses are getting away with it. That's that's the truth of the matter. That's what's taking place. Now, if he does a you know tariff refund, which he suggested he might at some point, uh again, I don't know that that would take place. Uh, it could take place, probably not. But isn't it funny? The businesses they raise the prices, obviously, they take more money in to make up that difference. That 15, 20, 25%, whatever it may have been. You pay that, so again, they're compensated for it. And now they're getting more money on top of it because they paid the initial tariff or tax, is what I told you, uh, because of the ridiculous things that Trump did with these tariffs that he loves so damn much. Well, again, if you love the tariffs, get Congress to sit down and to implement them. This is how it worked all throughout history. Look at the Smoot Hawley tariffs. Look at all these different tariffs named by different people throughout the course of American history. You know, I'm not opposed to tariffs. Okay, if you want to do tariffs, lower the federal income tax or get rid of it. That's this is how you want to collect money for the federal government. But not only do we pay taxes, federal income tax, state income tax, property tax, sales tax, this tax, that tax, you're now paying a tax on these wonderful tariffs, the big, beautiful tariffs they were put in. Yep, there you go. Write that in there. So you paid more, and these companies get their money back. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Anyways, that's not the only thing happening right now. We gotta go on to an article out of PJ Media. This one is very, very important. Harmeet Dylan sat down yesterday with Maria Barta Roma on Fox News, and one of the things that she said was very important in this article I have for us, and she's talking about requesting the voter roll data from every single state, including the District of Columbia. And about a third have cooperated voluntarily and reached out other settlements as well with the federal government, and the arrest she is now going to be suing. And this is a very, very important segment because we have to know exactly what's going on in our voter rolls. We have to know what's going on with their voter laws in various states. Is it legal? Is it not legal? Should it be done? What should be done? And I think this is a very good step in the right direction. She is the, I believe she's the assistant uh attorney general for civil rights division inside the United States. And she makes a very, very startling admission to Maria yesterday. And I want everybody to hear that right now on clip five.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

Yeah, so let's talk about that. Uh, we have a comprehensive effort. I've uh requested the voter rolls from all states in the District of Columbia. About a third of the states have voluntarily complied with us or reached settlements with us. Us and we've run some of those records, so I'll talk about that in a minute. I'm suing 29 states and the District of Columbia for their refusal to give us the voter rolls to which the attorney general or the acting attorney general is entitled under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. We're doing that to make sure that states are in compliance. And guess what? States are not in compliance, even those ones who want to. So for the ones that we've run so far, 60 million records that we've run, we found at least 350,000 dead people currently on the voter rolls in those jurisdictions. And we've referred approximately 25,000 people with no citizenship records to the uh to Homeland Security to look at uh you know to dig into that further and see the extent to which people voted. I'm in touch with voting rights activists who are showing me information about people who have voted who are not American citizens.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

Now I thought that was a myth. I thought the Democrats came out and said, no, no, no, nobody thinks I can't vote votes in this country. Don't worry about it, just don't pay attention to it. Well, of course, we know that it is a truism, and then we know that this is something that happens. And in any state, like, for example, California, New York, these blue states, you don't even have to show an IDU to go vote in a federal election. Yeah, you have to do it for every other thing you do in life. It's amazing, isn't it? So think about that. On top of the 350,000 dead voters, God knows which way they voted, they also found roughly 25,000 individuals with no citizenship record at all. Now, I want you to think about that. Do we really think it's that low? This is just what they found right now. Obviously, that number is much, much, much higher. They're just scratching the surface with this. Now I say it's up for John Thune to stop playing games, by the way, get this SAVE Act passed, which will again clean up the voter rolls in this country. It will also ensure some free and fair elections take place, that you have to show proof that you are a citizen before you register to vote, and that you have a proper identification to prove that you are who you are when you do go vote. It is time we cleaned out the voter rolls, and it's time we got rid of this ridiculous mess in a lot of these blue states where they don't have to show any type of voter ID, which again is really ridiculous, I'd have to say. The only way you would want that to happen is if you knowingly want someone to cheat. Because why else would you not want somebody to prove who they are? And if they're who they say they are, they have no problem. They go vote. Right? You register to vote, you go to your said precinct, you show your ID, you cast your vote. That vote is obviously tallied. I think this Save Act needs to go a step further. I said this to you time and time again. When we vote, not only should you prove who you are, that should be verified right there, there, your signature should match the signature on your driver's license. All that can be done right away. But you should get a carbon copy of how you voted at your precinct. You should have a number at your precinct. So if your voter is 75, okay, your voter 75 at such and such precinct in this county. Fine, great. Well, after the election, after your ballot has been cast, it's been recorded. There should be a way for you to go back and say, okay, let me see how voter 75, I'm voter 75. I want to see how I voted in this election. I want to see how my vote tallied up to my precinct. And I should be able to go in and see, okay, my precinct X, I was a 75th voter. I was the 50th person that voted for this candidate. Okay, great. And I look across the line, I see exactly who voted for governor, for president, for senator, for every one of these judges, if you will. These wonderful judges we have in this country. And for every other thing, everything local, too. All these things matter because these are the people that rule over us. And I use that term sort of lightly, rule over us, but that's the truth. These are the people that make decisions, these are the people that make sure the state runs how it is, these are the people that make sure the government runs how it is. Everything matters, from president all the way down to dog catcher in your county. All these things are very, very important. So that's very, very crucial that we get to the bottom of this, and this legislation is very significant. So we have both the House and the Senate right now. Let's just be very clear about this. And by the way, the way things are going, when you look at some of the gubernatorial races that are very close right now, even in Iowa right now, it's looking good for the Democrat to take a state that I think went 14% for President Trump in 2024. You know things are not trending very well for the Republicans. I'll just say that to you. So, knowing all that, why would you not want to get to work right away on this? This is something that should be done right now. Now, as if the numbers for this entire case that we're hearing about is not infuriating enough, Herbie Dillon went on to note that five states have had federal judges rule against the DOJ's request for the voter rolls, essentially blocking what she called a very basic voter hygiene for what's going on. Can you imagine that? We have these judges, these corrupt judges, that are going out there and they are blocking the federal government from viewing this data that is for a federal government. They should be able to look at that and they should be able to confirm what exactly is going on. It's amazing to me. We allow these judges to let criminals run rampant, release them early from prison on parole, and they go out and commit these heinous crimes. We see the same thing going on with cases like this. They're not allowing the federal government to come in and look at documentation on a federal election. It's amazing to me. It really is amazing. By the way, I think we need to hold these judges accountable. This is just a side note, but we need to hold these judges accountable as well. When they do things that are not constitutional or sound, I think. Especially if you have judges, again, that are releasing illegal aliens or releasing violent criminals that have been arrested 15, 20, 60 times back out into the public, and they go on and harm American citizens. That's a big problem, folks. I think everybody should really understand that, and we should all be on the same page as that. We don't want people going out committing crimes against American citizens. I don't think that should be controversial. So good work on Harme Dillon. I'm glad she's getting to the bottom of this. We need to expose this, especially if it's something that is so rampant. By the way, I think those numbers are very, very low, too, by the way. I don't think it's just 350,000 dead people voting or 25,000 illegal aliens. I think the numbers are much, much higher. And that's why these judges are trying to protect these people. Now, another topic I think we need to get into today. Again, I want you to stay with me. This is very, very important. What I'm going to say to you right now. This out of Zero Hedge came out a couple days ago, but again, it's still very, very important. I've kind of talked with you about this in previous episodes, but I want to really hone in on this for any new viewers or anyone that may have zoned out for any particular reason. It says here, drought engulfs 60% of U.S. as farmers begin spring planting. This is something very, very troubling. Now, we know that there's been a massive drought that has emerged across large swaths of land, especially in the U.S. agricultural belt as of late, which threaten crops and, of course, the livestock. And eventually it affects the pricing of food. Especially at a time when fertilizer and diesel costs are currently soaring. Now, as of early April, take a listen to this. And this growing concern for the planting season begins as farmers have said that their prices have skyrocketed. What do I mean by that? Well, some farmers, for example, have reported that fertilizer costs have already tripled for them. And we look at things like diesel prices for the machinery that they use in order to plant and cultivate their crops, which means what? Well, that means that the production costs rise. Well, as I told you on Friday's show, I said what? Production price index going up? What does that mean for the consumer price index? Has to go up as well. They work in that relationship. So, you know, many farmers have said, you know, we either don't make a profit or the prices have to go up, one or the other. Well, again, very, very detrimental to what's going on. We look across the Great Plains, for example, otherwise known as the nation's breadbasket. Winter wheat farmers are already being forced to decide whether to keep the struggling crop or to cut losses and replant. With dry soil making germination much, much harder, they have to make those decisions at the spur of the moment. It's very difficult. The drought also complicates matters for ranchers, right? The men, men and women that go out and produce our beef or chicken, you know, all those herds. The nation's cattle herd is already the lowest it's been since the 1950s. And by the way, the population has since doubled since the 1950s. So that should tell you what exactly is going on there. Now, as a result, some ranchers may further decide to reduce their herds, which again only pushes the beef prices to new record highs. This is detrimental for so many reasons. We see in western states the problem is not so much rainfall as the shrinking mountain snowpack exists, which threatens irrigation supplies ahead of the growing season. So, again, when we have states, for example, California, they refuse to build more dams or they refuse to build more storage for water. And when they have particularly more wet seasons, Gavin Newsom refuses to do this. What happens is they have the water use cutbacks now. And California is a very big producer for lots of crops, but it's also a very big dairy state, too. So when you take that water supply and you say, Well, we're gonna relinquish your rights for water, they did that in one of these areas in California. I couldn't even believe it. I believe it was called Potter Valley, but they wanted to cut off water access to all the ranchers in the region. I'm like, this is unbelievable. But when you have a winter, when you have less snowpack on the mountains, and that obviously affects the farmers in that region in the Central Valley, and you put in these water use cutbacks for the agricultural purposes, uh, it's already becoming a much, much bigger problem. And again, well, I'll say it to you as well. Gavin Newsom could easily again, he has so many options he can use, and yet he does nothing because I think he's working on books, podcasts, going on television, making a fool of himself, because that's what he is. This is a big problem. And when you have the majority of the I think it's a lot of the walnuts, the cashews, uh the figs, all these things in California make up the bulk of what takes place for consumption across the country, it's a big problem. And, you know, he could go to things like desalinization. He refused to do it, though. Refused to do it. They have some ridiculous law that they don't want to obviously collect rainwater because they don't want to affect the you know, delta smell. I mean, it's so stupid. It really is. But you know, he's born paid for by the environments, environmentalists out of uh Sacramento, and of course, out of the Bay Area, uh, you know, the Sierra Club, they have a big input on what he does, of course. Again, these are the people that put him in power. So you have big money talking to him, and of course, we get no way to fix these problems. So not only do we have a herd problem, we have herds not coming into the United States, we also have a water problem now. And now we have a big fertilizer problem thanks to what's taking place out of the Middle East. Obviously, those fertilizer prices are going up. Uh, but let me just explain this to you. On the topic of production, just so we understand exactly what's going on. Let's just say, for example, you have a dairy farmer, right? And for every 100 pounds of milk, they earn about$18.30. That's what's being produced today. But the problem we have is for that 100 pounds of milk that they produce from the cattle that they milk, it cost the farmer for feed, for water now, for operating, keeping the lights out on the farm, the bedding, and what have you, it cost them$23.50. So that's the widely used benchmark. So they're about$5 below even breaking even. And by the way, the USDA ought to be ashamed of themselves, they're the one that set these prices. But what happens next? Well, you guessed it. They need to sell off parts of their herd just to make ends meet, right? They can sell a certain number of cows, or if the cow, for example, isn't producing enough milk to be beneficial to them, they they sell that off. I mean, that's a process that the farmers go through. But when you're put in those positions, they have to do these things. So either their herd gets a little bit smaller just so they can make ends meet, or they have to borrow from the banks. And what happens then? Well, they go either into default, they can't make those payments back because they're not making any money, uh, but they get further and further in debt, and then they end up going out of business. And that's the government working for the little guy in our country, ladies and gentlemen. So, what do we do? Well, what have I told you before? Number one, you have to elect the right people into office. That's first and foremost, people that actually give a damn about our farmers. I want to give farmers incentives. Um, but this is the problem. And by the way, I said this to you before. Get out and know exactly who the people are that are producing your food. Now, if you can go to a farmers market, if you're able to do that where you live, go see them. Get to know them, learn how to buy direct from them. They make a lot more money that way than going through the regular big, you know, channels of big agriculture. Um, that's the best way to go about doing it. But what I'm saying to you as well, and I'll say this before we end today's show and wrap things up, there is going to be famine in the world coming up, because again, we're seeing not just what's taking place with the fertilizer here in the United States, it's taking place all over the world. This is gonna be a very catastrophic effect about what has taken place in the Middle East and what's coming out of the Strait of Hormous or what's not coming out of the Strait of Hormous. So all these things are very closely connected. Uh, it is gonna be happening in America, probably not to the same effect as Europe or Asia, but it is going to be something that takes place. So don't say I didn't warn you. Again, I always tell you the same thing, don't I? I say make sure you're staying stocked up on food and water always. You've got to do that, folks. It's not a suggestion. I'm telling you this because I want you to be prepared. Because once those prices start skyrocketing, that's gonna be very, very detrimental for all of us here in the United States, folks. So don't say I didn't warn you. I'm telling you right now. It's happening right now. We got small herds, we have low crop production, and it's gonna be affecting each and every one of us because everybody has to eat. That'll do it for today's show, folks. Thank you for being here as always. Please share the show with others if you can. I appreciate you when you do that. Make sure you're staying prepped with food, water, medicine, anything to be self-sufficient while you can. Everyone's staying, I'll see you back here tomorrow for more groundbreaking news on the next Marco Drake show. Until then, be good. Stay busy. God bless.