(7-8-26) Ep. 248: 'The War Games' Return as Trump Pulls the Plug on Ceasefire with Iran & Much More.

Today's Articles:

(The Wall Street Journal) - Trump says ceasefire with Iran is over after latest attacks. (New York Post) - Trump promises he’ll hit Iran ‘hard’ for second straight night, threatens Kharg Island takeover after calling off deal with Tehran ‘scum’. (ZeroHedge) - Iran Threatens To Choke Off Hormuz Again As US Readies Blockade; Trump Says Tehran Wants To Assassinate Him. (The Times of Israel) - Hegseth’s visit to Israel canceled amid rising tensions between US, Iran. (The Hill) - Trump says Ukraine will be allowed to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors. (Paul Craig Roberts) - Putin Needs A Red Pill. (Wolf Street) - Six-Month Treasury Yield Rises to 4%: Bond Market Tells the Fed to Get on with the Rate Hikes. (The Tennessean Nashville) - Flock cameras raise privacy concerns across the US. How many are in Nashville? (Gadget Review) - Guilty Until Proven Innocent: A Flock AI Camera Fraudulently Accusing a Driver of Package Theft. (Washington Examiner) - Andy Beshear requests update on Mitch McConnell’s health. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_05 0:38

Hello everyone, and thank you for tuning into today's broadcast. It's the Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 episode of the Marco Dre Show, the only show where the facts are facts and hard truths thrive. Well, folks, the war games are back on. I definitely didn't see this one coming as I sit here right now talking to each and every one of you. I'm shocked the United States violated the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding. President Trump responded yesterday evening after Iran struck a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al-Rikayat, after the markets closed yesterday evening. Not a shock there. This is a typical Trump MO, and we're talking about going in to bomb the Iranians yet again. And who knows, maybe make some money along the way. Who knows? Now, in response to all this, the IRGC also struck two other vessels yesterday, which allowed the United States to go ahead and I guess decide they just wanted to bomb the Iranians again. This is after that these vessels, these three vessels, did not comply with the Iranian government's terms. That they must meet in order to coordinate with the Persian and Gulf Strait Authority. Again, this is all laid out in the memorandum of understanding. This is how you will transit the Strait of Hormuz. It's as simple as that. You can go through free of charge. Anyone that wants to can now go through. But you have to follow our terms. By the way, have you ever heard of any vessel coordinating with the Iranians, following their guidance, using the Iranian side of the strait, being struck by a drone or a missile? Of course not. We're seeing a clear pattern here. Follow our rules, of which all the vessels were warned that this would happen should you try to transit without coordinating with the Iranian government, or you will sit by idly, or you'll get hit. So there's three options you got. You can transit by using our route, listening to what we have to tell you, working with us, turning on your beacons and whatnot, your AIS system. Sit in the Persian Gulf or get hit with a drone as you try to transit. Do damage to your ships. I'm sure the insurance companies love this. But then we have President Trump coming in, responding to the Iranians, I guess, controlling the strait through their own means. Which again is not in the memorandum of understanding. And by the way, I can't find a good reason as to why he would not want to restart this war with Iran. Especially when we're at the verge of an oil crisis right now with our supplies inside the United States, with the strategic petroleum reserves for diesel and jet fuel. I have no idea why he would want to restart this at a time right now. But let's take a closer look as to what took place. By the way, I do want to play you President Trump in his own words. He's obviously at the NATO summit today, and he was asked as to what is going on with this memorandum of understanding? Is it still in effect? Is it working? Is it not working? What say you, Mr. President? Tell us right now on clip one.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Is this he's fire Johnny? Is the MOU dead?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

That's a very interesting question. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people. And uh they're vicious, violent people.

SPEAKER_05 4:01

I find this odd having that comment being made for several different reasons. Number one, we attacked them and we started this war. We took out the head of their state under no pretext of nuclear weapons, no imminent threat to the United States. We were in talks with them. We decided to schedule another round of negotiations the following week, and yet we allowed Israel and again the United States followed right behind to go in and attack this compound where the Ayatollah was meeting with several members of the IRGC, his top generals, striking the building, killing not only him, but his wife, his daughter-in-law, and his granddaughter. And we're talking about sick people who they haven't acted like this to us, have they? What are our actions here? What are we doing? We were hoping for regime change, we didn't get it. So now we've got to play on this game that we have to keep these straight up or moves open, otherwise now we have to go and attack the Iranian government again. It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. And again, I don't understand President Trump's position. I don't understand what he expects to gain from all this, but now we have a response coming in, a direct response, from the July 7th attacks, right from the Iranians. Again, we keep hearing about how the Navy's gone, the military's gone, they have no army, they have no air defense systems. Uh, we went in, just so we're understanding all this, right? After the the attacks on the Al-Rikayat, which was hit with a Shahi drone, and likely empty too, by the way. This could have been much, much worse. Had that tanker actually been full, it probably would have exploded, uh, again, being filled with liquefied natural gas, but it did not go up in flames, although a fire was started by the attack drone. But here's what we decided to do. We decided to hit the air defense sites, the coastal surveillance systems, the military batteries, uh, the drone uh capacity sites, or the launch sites, if you will, and other port facilities in Keshem Island, in Bandarabas, which is right next to where the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz is, and Shariq Island, inside of the Persian Gulf, once you transit the strait. So they hit the same locations, though. So I don't understand what we were trying to achieve with this, if we thought, for instance, this would deter them from responding. However, they did respond. And the IRGC now claims that they struck some 85 different U.S. military sites, both in Bahrain and Kuwait. So their capabilities are still there. And the Iranian army even said that it carried out drone attacks on U.S. forces in uh Shaykh, Issa Air Base, in Bahrain. They said that they also shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone. And that there were also explosions over the multiple Iranian coastal cities, as the ones I just mentioned to you, Shariq Island, Keshem Island, and Bandar Abbas. So the war's on, folks. We've now re-attacked the Iranians. Now, had they attacked any of our fleet, that is about 200 to 700 miles offshore, then you got me. Okay, then I'd say, okay, the Iranians are attacking us. They violated their terms of agreement. That didn't happen. That didn't happen at all. And again, I don't see the purpose of this. I don't see what we gained from this. What was the reason for this so-called retaliation? What do we expect? Where do we go from here? And I don't think there's a plan. I really don't believe we had a plan in mind. I believe we just acted again. Any reason to restart this war? I think we just did it. But now I'm looking at an article in the New York Post. It says now that President Trump now wants to take over Kark Island again. This is what he said on Wednesday. Carrying out some additional strikes on Iran as these tensions reignite, saying that there was not a thing Tehran could do to stop the United States. So we're getting the bully tactic again. We can do whatever we want. The hell with you. You're scum, you're sick people. We keep hearing this rhetoric over and over again. Who attacked who? Who started the war? Now we can argue that the Iranians are closing the straight of Hormuz. They said they would. We didn't believe them. And now we find ourselves in great economic turmoil right now as a result of this on a global scale, which is attributed to what President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu did. They are the ones to blame for this. Nobody else. We could have had negotiations with them. They probably would have given us what we wanted on the nuclear weapons agreement with them. They probably would have done that because they were going to do it last June. We could have had this actually a year ago. But Trump let Netanyahu go in and bomb. That was the end result of that. So what Trump is saying, in a nutshell, is that his word means nothing. His word about negotiations, let's let's meet for negotiations, let's come on good terms while we try to attack you and plan to attack you, which is perfidy, which is illegal in international law. And now what he's saying is, now his signature is essentially meaningless. They signed off on these terms of agreement so they can continue to meet, to negotiate. These are the terms. And by the way, one of those terms, ladies and gentlemen, is that the Iranians will control the arrangements for the ships transiting the straits. So if the ships are not doing that, then Iran has the right to go in and do as they please. And it says nothing that if Iran does such and such, the United States can come and attack again. So if Trump wanted that, he could have added that in there. But it just goes to show you who was the one that was making the terms. It's the Iranians. Why? Because the Iranians have won this conflict. There is no turning around. There is no going back on this one. So now we've attacked them yet again. And now we're talking about taking Kark Hotel. Why the hell would we take Kark Island? What do we gain from taking Kark Island? It's a small island in the Persian Gulf. It kind of hugs the northeastern side of the Persian Gulf. It's on the coastline of Iran. Obviously, they have radars in the region. Should we try to take this island? Again, I don't understand what we're going to put troops on this island? Are we going to just remove the oil export depots on the island? What are we trying to do with this taking of Karg Island? It's not going to stop them from transporting oil. Because anyone that's paying attention, especially to my show, ladies and gentlemen, you always listen to my show. I appreciate that. I've told you before, they have six new transportation routes going just into Pakistan. They have the Belt and Road Initiative transit corridor with the Chinese. So they can transport through that. Think of it as another Silk Road. They can transport it into China that way should they need to. They can transport north to the Caspian Sea to Russia, should they need to. And again, these are BRICS allies. So they want to get transportation into India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia. They have various routes of which they can go into to continue trade. If they want to sell to Japan still, they can go through China. China can then transport that way. There's ways around the Strait of Remoose. They don't just have to use Kark Island, which is a major terminal for transporting oil, don't get me wrong. But it's not the only one, and this is not the only route they can use. So if we're going to put Marines on Kark Island, why are we doing it? What do we plan to do next after they arrive on the island or take the island? And what happens if our Marines come under attack? How do we get supplies to them? How do we evacuate them? We're right next to the Iranian coastline, which they are definitely enforcing. We know this. We have taken out their radar systems, but they are still able to control them. They still see exactly what's going on in the straits, so therefore that tells us they still have a system in place. Doesn't matter how advanced it is, they have a system in place to check what is going on. And they're probably also getting intel from Russia and China as well, I would have to imagine. But this is where we are, folks. And it's not in a good position either. I'll just say that to you. And again, Trump went out to say, yet again, this is more rhetoric coming from Trump now. He said in one day we can knock down every single bridge in Iran. There's not a thing they can do about it. If we have to, we'll take them out. This is what he's saying to Zelensky, too, by the way. Why Zelensky is in NATO, I have no idea. Actually, I know why he's there. He's begging for more money. Begging for more resources so we can stay in power longer. But he says, though, afterwards, if we have to, we if we have to, we'll take them out. They have desalinization plants, we'll take them out if we have to. This is again a stupid position. Because anyone that's paying attention and understands anything about what's taking place in the Persian Gulf, you would know that Iran is about the size of Western Europe. It's big, it's massive. They get about 8% of their water through desalinization. That's where they take seawater, they remove all the salt water, and then it's able to be drunk by people. It's drinking water. It's clean enough to drink. There you go. But the Gulf Arab states in the region, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, right? These countries, though, however, rely roughly 80 to 90% on their drinking water from desalincies. So if Iran were to hit a desell plant in, say, Kuwait, that's going to be detrimental to the people of Kuwait because then they don't have any access to drinking water. So Trump could say, okay, we're going to hit your plant. Okay, you've cut off 8% of the drinking water supply. Now what? They still have 92% of it still available. We have to stop thinking in terms that the Iranians are just stupid people, pure evil, pure, you know, this and that. The way they describe the Iranians to us, uh, it's just not always true, folks. These are not just primitive people. These are smart people, these are tough people, these are people that were coming to the table to negotiate with us, and we decided to attack them. We've got to call it out for what it is here. And that's why, again, on the show I tell you exactly how it is. I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything because I'm an American. I love my country, but my government is failing us right now. I think everybody would agree with me on that. There is no strict strategy in any of this. Because again, Trump has nothing to say. Oh, maybe we'll take Kirk Island. What is that gonna do? Well, the regime is gonna fall because you've taken Kart Island? The oil exports are gonna cease to exist? Of course not. Of course not. This is just, again, uh all words. Uh none of it makes any bit of any sense. And it's only leading us to more disaster. Oh, by the way, Trump again made another erroneous statement too that he said while he was at the NATO summit in Ankara. Get a load of this.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

They're cheats, they're sick people, they've hurt their people, they killed 54,000 people as of now that were protesting.

SPEAKER_05 15:36

Okay, so how do we go from 10,000 to 20,000, to 30,000, 40,000? Now we're at 50,000 a little while ago, now the number is 54,000. Ladies and gentlemen, I I've said I've set the record straight on this show many times. Again, you know me. I do my extensive research on this. There are independent journalists from the United States that have specifically gone to Iran. This was after the so-called protest took place, right? They actually looked at the hard documentation inside of Tehran as to what happened, as to who was killed, and they were able to figure out that the real number was actually 3,117 people died during the several days of this back and forth by these hijacked protests, of which we armed the Kurds, the Baluchis, and the Mujahideen Al-Khalks. They were once designated a terror group by the United States. I guess when they do our work for us, then we don't have to call them that anymore. It was a riot that was fomented by the CIA, Mossad, and MI6. There were police officers killed. Yes, there were civilians killed, and yes, of course, some of these rioters with guns that were setting cars on fire, setting buildings on fire, attacking people, setting policemen on fire, killing them, attacking military base. How would we respond if people were attacking our military base? Let me ask you this. Let's just throw a scenario out there. Let's say Antifa was attacking a military base in the United States. I'll use what I'm familiar with. Camp Pendleton in Southern California, next to Oceanside. Let's say Antifa, a group of Antifa thugs showed up with weapons, and they were trying to breach the U.S. military base. How would they be met with? Do you think for a second we would allow them to breach this military site? Of course not. Of course not. And it's stupid to think otherwise. I I can't even believe I have to say this to you, but this is what was happening. These are the people that were it wasn't a peaceful protest where the government just came in and started machine gunning people. That did not happen. And I also know that it didn't happen because after the they stopped the transmission of the internet, by and large, and they stopped the Starlink um transmission, they were able to actually arrest some of these people. They were actually able to get to their phones, and they were able to look and see, okay, what's going on? Who are they talking to? I've said this about the riots in the United States, too. Get some of these people's phones, see who they're communicating with, and then go through that trail to figure out who is actually funding it. I've said this and we haven't done this yet for some reason. But what they were able to find was that they were communicating with a female Mossad agent, and she was telling them exactly what to do, where to go, what to destroy, what to say if you were arrested, and all the works. And they they shut that down right away. So once the communication ended, the the riot stopped. And then the real protest for the economy resumed afterwards. And by the way, President Pazeshkian was marching with the protesters in the streets. Would the Iranian people be marching with the president of the country that is so-called executing them for rioting? And if he's a part of all this, why would he be marching in the streets with them? Yeah, try to make that make sense to some of these schmucks that come out and say these random things like, you know, now it's 54,000 people? So Larry Johnson, by the way, who you all know I admire greatly, uh, he was talking, he said, do they really want us to believe that the Iranians in the matter of three to four days, if that, in January of this year, uh killed more people than what they're claiming have been killed in these massive air campaigns and strikes inside of Gaza? Is that what they really want us to believe? I mean, if you have to look at the context, folks. Look at the reality of the situation. It doesn't make any bit of any sense. And again, this all falls on lines, but it gets people worked up. This is a government that's killed 54,000 people. Where the number comes from, we don't know. We just make it up as we go along, I suppose. But this isn't doing anything to help the cause. It's certainly not doing anything to, again, stop the Iranians, because again, they know it's all a bunch of nonsense. And by the way, we have the documentation approved. We have all the surely have the numbers, but everyone that was killed, they have a national Iranian ID with that person who was killed, uh, minus the people that have been burned beyond belief that they cannot identify. That's what the Iranians have. That's what independent journalists that went to Iran themselves and saw this and spoke to people and what they saw. And we have some of these great journalists now there, right now, looking at what's happening with the funeral of Ayatollah Aldi Khamenei. And it's it's massive. It's obviously going to surpass how many people showed up for the previous Ayatollah Khomeine back in 1989. So this is gonna be a very, very big event these couple days now here in Iran. I believe it will end tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. But now we have these strikes going on. And by the way, you're hearing too from the mainstream media, because again, I watch it, you're hearing that people are on the streets shouting death to America, which, by the way, is true. Um what I want to say to you about that, and again, I don't like hearing things like that. I find it egregious. However, when we put this into context, you have to understand this is a country that was just attacked by the United States and Israel for no reason. We've put sanctions on them for years, crippling their economy. For years, for a long time. We've funded a war from 1980 to 1988. We allowed the Iraqis to go in, we gave them The money, we gave them the weapons, we gave them chemical weapons. That's killed anywhere from, what is it, 300,000 to 500,000 Iranians, 70,000 of which are civilians? And we can't figure out why some of these Iranians in Iran today hate the United States, hate Israel? We just can't figure it out. But let me put it on you this way. How would we respond to, for instance, if the UK funded Canada to attack the United States for eight long years? 500,000 Americans were killed, 70,000 of which were civilians. How would we treat the Canadians? What would we think of the UK? Would we like them? Will we talk with them? Would we want to break bread with them? No, you'd hate their guts. Look how we responded to 9-11. We were upset that we lost some 3,000 Americans that day. And rightfully so. We were pissed. Everyone was pissed. So when they say death to America, they're not saying death to the American citizen. You and I listening to the show. That's not what they're saying. They hate the United States government. That's what they hate. They hate the Israeli government. Before you tell me they hate all Jews, just understand this, they have Jews that currently sit on their parliament. So make that any sense for me that they hate all Jews. Or hate all of the West. We have Americans on the streets there right now. So we need to put things in certain contexts. Especially when we're talking about what people are saying. Yes, they are saying that. But it's not directed to every single American. They hate the United States government for what the government has done to them and their people. But that's a reasonable response, folks. If we had a government out there that was putting sanctions on the United States as well, crippling our economy, crippling our quality of life, we'd be upset about that too, would we not, folks? Let's be honest with yourself. Would you be pissed off about that? Yes, you would. You'd be very miffed about that. And again, rightfully so. Now, I'm not happy telling you that's what our government's doing. I wish our government wasn't doing these things. I wish we would open up free trade with the Iranians. I wish we could have real diplomacy with the Iranians. But that's never going to happen when we have uh Israel telling us what to do in the region. It's just not going to happen. That's why we're there. That's why this is all going on. Okay, that's it. That's the truth of the matter. I tell it to you how it is. I don't sugarcoat things, I tell you how it is. If you don't believe me, look it up. I always tell you, if you don't believe me, do some research. You tell me otherwise. I'm all open for this. But now we've got a bigger problem on our hands, folks. So now we've exchanged attacks with one another. We hit 80 of their sites, they hit 85 of our military sites in the region, in two different countries. And I do believe that it's possible that they may have even struck some of our vessels that are sitting some 200, 500, 700, wherever they are, miles away. That is certainly a possibility that this took place, and that's why Trump is especially pissed off as to what happened. And if we decide again to strike again tonight, what does that mean then? That means we get struck again tonight as well. So this going back and forth now, I don't know what resolve we'll have from this, but this is where we are now. So consider the memorandum of understanding dead. And now Iran has threatened to now reclose the stray, which would be very, very detrimental again to the world economy. This is as the U.S. military said they're ready to restart the blockade again, which again we said we weren't going to do. We were going to disband it, send us ships home. Everyone was happy about this. But now, according to state broadcaster Press TV on Wednesday, citing an Iranian official, they said that Iran is of the course planning of the strait only under its own arrangements. So again, we're going back to the way things were. Or a protocol involving a collection of fees, utilizing a designated route to close off the strait, to only its using its course on the Iranian side, as per the Islamabad memorandum of understanding. This is where we are now. So are they going to pick and choose what ships are going to come in again? It seems likely. They have gone on to say the United States military stands ready to restart the blockade of ships to and from Iranian ports if ordered to do so. Yep. And Iran suspends talks on a final settlement with the United States. That's what's coming from Iranian sources.

unknown 26:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

The other source came from Fox News. So if we have this blockade again, well, then the Iranians will certainly close down the strait. And they've gone on to say that Trump will certainly lose both the Strait of Farmhouse and on the negotiations over a final agreement. This is where we are now. We're losing leverage as time goes on. We are rooting the global economy as time goes on. And by the way, Pete Hegseth was supposed to be planning a visit to Israel today on Wednesday, but amid the newly hostile attacks between Washington and Tehran, and of course Israel's concerns over a possible sale of the American F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey doesn't seem to be happening right just yet. So it looks like good old pistol Pete pulp fiction Pete decided to cancel his trip now because he's got to worry about what's happening with the United States and Iran. By the way, Witchy has gone on to say he's ready to do whatever Trump wants him to do. Well, of course he is. Of course he is. Let's look, though, really quickly before we move on to other topics today. Let's take a look at this. This comes from CNBC. Let's take a look at gas today. We've got Brent Crude up 5.19%, now trading at $78, just over $78 a barrel today on the futures market. And West Texas Intermedia right now is trading at $73.52. Those numbers are going to spike, folks. The war has restarted. It'll spike again. Yes, Trump will come out in a day or so and say they really want to make a deal with me. They can't wait. We've we've we've bombed them so much. They want to make a deal. That will happen, of course. But I don't know how much longer Wall Street's going to buy this. But it just shot up to 7% earlier today. It was just over 80%. I'm sorry, $80 per barrel, rather, earlier today, around noon, when I was first checking it. But this is going to continue to go up. And I believe once we enter the realization that we have no more oil to utilize from our strategic petroleum reserves, this is the part that's scaring me. Because we can't get any goods to market if we have no diesel, and we can't fly people around if we have no heavy crude to turn into aviation fuel. Jet fuel, if you will. We can't do anything about that. And once the supply dries up, once we reach that choking point, what else are we going to do then? Because we're not getting any shipments in in any significant amount that would meet that same demand. So the more the attacks take place, the leps the less ships that will continue to go through, and the more that we have to dig into the petroleum reserves. And we're entering a breaking point. Here's the problem: investors will only wake up when the supply is absolutely gone. So in other words, when Trump announces, which by the way, a month ago he did announce this we have about four weeks left, we're using about two million barrels from the SPRs every single day. That's just a fact. So that means every week we use some 14 million barrels. Now, here's the problem. Here's the problem. Some sources say eight to nine million per week. Okay. But let's just take it at face value. In the first week of June, we know that there was 349 million barrels of oil still left in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Okay. This is heavy crude, that's again refined and used for diesel fuel or for jet fuel. Okay. So that was four weeks ago. So four weeks ago last Saturday, if we're using the 2 million barrels per day, that's 14 million per week, that means we are down to right now at 279 million barrels at Saturday of the 4th of July. Now if we use the lower figures, 8 to 9, if we're using 8 per week, that means we're sitting at 317 million barrels still left. That's the best case scenario at best. That would still mean, though, that we only have about 14 days left. That's all we have left. And by the way, we cannot go below the 270 million barrels left in the reserves. Why? Because, God forbid, there was ever an attack or any type of war we have with another country, we have to have that left for our military to utilize. So we cannot go below that 270 million. So some people are saying, oh, Drace, we still have a lot. We still have a lot to go before we hit rock bottom. That's not true. We can't he can Trump understand this. Trump can do this. But then he's leaving our military out to dry. Because should there be attack by China, Russia, you name it, any country by the way, we have to have that oil in there ready to be go at a moment's notice. We cannot, we can't have that. So, yes, we can use the reserves for an emergency like we are experiencing right now with the closure of the strait, but we cannot leave our military with nothing because then our ships would sit still, we wouldn't be able to fly our helicopters and what have you. It'd be a mess. It'd be an absolute mess. So Trump is in a a tough spot right now. Um I don't see what he's going to do, but he has to decide. Is he going to further deplete the reserves, or do we just produce less jet fuel or diesel? And then what happens to our economy then? What happens when literally there is nothing at the pumps? Your trucks don't drive, your goods don't get to where they need to go, you can't haul anything. But that's true too, you have no jet fuel, you can't fly anywhere. So if you're planning to go someplace this summer, folks, uh you may uh not be going. That's the reality of the situation we are in right now. And by the way, too, I want to make just a note about um the F-35 sale to Turkey, which by the way needs congressional approval. It would be obviously illegal to sell an F-35 to a country like, for instance, Turkey, which has relations with Russia, and of course, possibly purchasing the Russian S-400. And the reason this is a problem, the reason that people are kind of upset about this and Netanyahu alike, and we should be upset about this as well, because if they are able to acquire an F-35, this is obviously one of our highest producing uh jets that we have for the military, um, what could happen is they can run a calibration test on it, how to detect it, how it operates, how to attack it. This would be awful for us. This is a national security risk. So the idea that we're contemplating, which Trump hasn't done yet, but he's contemplating selling them F-35s, uh, again, I think this is a big misstep should he try to do so. And I pray to God somebody talks some sentences saying, Mr. President, this would be detrimental for our national security if we were ever to, God forbid, go to war with Russia. They would ex they know exactly how the F-35 works and how they could obviously neutralize it. So that's nothing, nothing we want. All right. Let's move on. Let's move on, folks. So that's my my bit to you on what's happening with Iran now. As I said to you before, folks, the war has just begun. We're just getting started here. All right, let's switch on to another topic that relates closely to conflict. This comes from the Hill. Trump says that Ukraine will be allowed to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors. Again, I thought we were done with the Ukrainians. I thought we were done with this war, that we're done aiding and abetting them. And now all of a sudden we're going to be giving them more weaponry. It's amazing to me. President Trump said on Wednesday that the U.S. is now granting Ukraine the ability to co-produce key air defense weapons. This would be the Patriot Missiles, this is a defense system which we use, which are critical to defending against Russian ballistic weapons attacks hammering their country right now. Again, why would we do this so late in the game? This is four and a half years of this conflict. But Trump made these remarks alongside President Zelensky. I don't know if we can even call him a president anymore. He's the de facto president, uh, but he is still a coke head and a little twerp and uh a vile, vulgar comedian, I would have to say. This is a guy who played the piano with his putts. This is who this guy is. And we're actually taking him seriously while he destroys all of Ukraine. Uh I don't even know what would be left of Ukraine after this. For some reason, we we we believe that the Ukrainians can actually stave off the Russians. It's it's uh it's remarkable, really when you think about it. It really is. But the idea, though, that we would now give them the means, I guess the pens, I guess the the way to produce our our own patriot missiles, uh is not gonna sit well with Putin. I don't think that would work. Um But let's break this down. First of all, let's say we were stupid enough to do this. Believe you me, this that could happen. With what resources? Who's gonna give the Ukrainians the these the resources necessary to produce these patriot missiles? Remember, Ukraine does not have the rare earth minerals necessary that they need from China in order to produce these. So are we gonna give them to them? Are we gonna give them our capabilities to do so? Are we gonna give them our rare earth stockpiles? I what are we going to do? Again, it sounds nice on the abstract, of course. How are we gonna foment this? How are we gonna allow them to continue to do this? With our money, cost about one to five million dollars to produce a single patriot missile. We produce about 600 per year, so how many are they going to produce? This takes several months to produce them. So we're looking at months from now that they may get some more Patriot missiles from us when this war could possibly be over. And so Trump said this right out front. He said, We're going to give a license to you to make patriots. That's pretty cool. I don't know why we're sharing our technology with Ukraine, a non-NATO country. Um I'm I'm at a loss of words. I don't understand this either. We should be trying to end this war, not foment this war. I thought we were gonna end this war on day one. Here we are giving them now access to patriot missiles. It's amazing to me. Absolutely amazing. We always have money for war, don't we? We always have the means to give to other countries. We just don't give to ourselves. This is where we are, folks. It's amazing to me. But you know, I I gotta tell you, I think there's still this is a this is the stupidity of NATO. And Polka Roberts actually writes very profoundly about this, this reality we find ourselves in. Uh, that we're now going to, I guess, uh allow them to dig deeper into Russia, which I think was the point of the the entirety of this war. Why did Ukraine to go to Russia for NATO? That's what it was all about. It's a proxy war. It's a proxy war. I guess Putin still hasn't figured this out yet. Uh, but here we go. The front line is no longer just some village in Donbas. Uh, this is moving on further. So the front line has definitely moved well into Russia now, uh, which ceases to just be a terrorist attack right now. That's how Putin describes what's going on. But these are actual disruptions in the energy storage depots. Uh, this is disrupting air travel inside of Russia now. This is imposing gas line rationing. So Russia is not where it was at the beginning of this war. Don't no doubt about it. Now, I still I still believe that there is no chance that Ukraine could beat Russia, but they're starting to take more hits. And obviously Putin has refused to admit that these attacks on the Russian homeland are real acts of war by the Ukrainians. It's not just fighting inside of Ukraine now. And so I again I don't know why Putin is not ending this war right now when he can. But what he's doing, whether he knows it or not, he is allowing Europe, right, these European countries that back the Ukrainians, to come in and really do some damage inside of Russia. Now, again, we we could talk about uh the the energy problems that they're gonna be having, the attacks on the Russian civilians themselves, the oil refineries, which again is not gonna be beneficial to them. And by the way, Putin's got to run for office again this year, which this war is becoming less and less popular. Despite their advances, despite them bombing now inside of Kiev, they either have to take the city or this just drags on even longer. But again, the the the Trump now going in and saying we're gonna give you patriot missiles for defense purposes. It's gonna take them months just to even produce these. So why are we doing this? Again, this is this is the idea of NATO that we keep supplying, supplying, supplying, and we pray to God that this will stop. That this this war will just continue on. Putin has gotta understand something. This war of attrition is putting him further and further in the means to have a nuclear war. That's that's what it comes down to. Further and further will it push him in that position where he's got to do something about this. If he doesn't take it soon. He needs to take it soon. Take Kiev. Claim you run the city now, bring your troops in, occupy it. And then Zelensky's gotta come to the table. That's the only way he can move from here on out. Otherwise, what else can happen? The war ends if they have Zelensky. Or if he flees. So Putin's delusions have to end. He's got to take the city as soon as he can. I I think he's going to up the ante here on this summer offensive. But this has got to end soon. The longer this continues on, the risk we have Russia and any other government, certainly in Europe, risking the option for a nuclear war. This should not stand. We should not be involved in this. No NATO country should be involved in this now. If you cut the line off from Zelensky completely, he can't fight. And if he can't fight, he's got to make a deal. That's the reality of it. But we seem to think that, oh, we'll continue to let him bomb inside of Ukraine. I'm sorry, inside of Russia, inside of Moscow, bombing civilian sites, bombing the oil depots. Not gonna work. Not gonna work. Russia's too big for them to handle, and they're taking too many casualties. So again, cut off Zelensky, force him to the table, make a deal. That's the only way you can go about doing that. All right, folks, let's go on to something else. Again, I don't have terribly positive articles for us today, but this is where we stand today in the United States. So let's change gears for just a moment. Let's talk about the U.S. economy just some more. I told you before the problems we're going to be having with our oil industry, the energy sectors inside the country very, very soon, as early as mid-July, which is right around the corner. This comes from Wolf Street, though. And it says here six months' treasury yields rise to 4%. Yeah, the bond market tells the Fed to get on with the rate hike. So where do we stand now with our bond market? Remember, I told you if we start hitting 5%, that means our economy is going to be ruined. We're right around the corner. We're getting closer and closer every single day. Now, the government sold some $84 billion of the six-month Treasury bills as an investment rate of 3.97% at the Treasury auction this week, up from the 3.8% at the auction just two weeks ago. Now, in the secondary market over the last two weeks, the six-month yield also spiked by 17 basis points. Just so we're clear on this, that'd be 0.17%, closing in on Thursday at 3.97%, after closing at 4% in just the two days prior. This is according to the Treasury Department. So the last time the six-month yield was in this range was in early September before the three rate cuts by the Fed. So, where does this leave us? Where are we now? Why are we seeing this? Why are we seeing these rate hikes? We're seeing the expected rate hikes, no more cuts right now. And there's a couple different reasons for this. Let me explain it to you. The economic forces are pushing the yields higher because one, they're expecting growth expectations right now. Some of you are saying, well, the growth, that sounds good, you're growth. Yeah, we we want growth. However, what we're seeing is that the corporate earnings remain resilient. Again, look at the stock market highs. Because AI is propping everything up. That's why we're seeing that. And the incoming data shows that the economy is not cooling as quickly as the Fed would hope. So stronger growth equals higher expected rate hikes. That's why they want this. Now there's also what's called a term premium. This is when the investors are demanding extra compensation for holding these treasuries amid uncertainty about inflation, about the deficit, and about the Fed policy direction. So again, we just had the Fed regime change with Kevin Walsh coming in. We're not sure how he will govern completely. But the Fed has signaled a shift towards a tighter policy and reduced treasury bill purchases. That's just the way they're moving forward now. So it's going to be a bit different than how Jerome Powell governed. And markets will react very quickly. They're pushing the six months to two-year yields sharply higher. And by the way, the big kicker of all this is that inflation has not yet disappeared. Certainly hasn't gone down. We're seeing energy prices now rising. I just talked to you about that just today. We're up 5 to 7% on average today, looking at the oil futures inside the United States. And the markets see a non-zero chance that inflation re-accelerates. So we're expecting the prices to continue to go up. So even though the long-term expectations remain contained, the short-term inflation risk matters more for the six-month bills. That's why you're seeing those go up. And by the way, too, I was looking at the bond market also for the 10 year. That's up at 4.565% today. And again, they're all going up. So I fear that if, for instance, we hit that 5% mark very, very soon, which I think it happened, I think you're going to see the economy again in ruins if that happens. If we hit that 5% mark. And again, we haven't been here since, well, since we had the 2008 crisis. What happened then? And by the way, I mentioned this on the show recently as well. If the inflation is at, let's say, 4%, right? Let's say it's at 4%. In order for the Fed to combat that, they've got to raise the interest rates to 5%. Less people borrowing, less money circulating, that means it brings inflation down. That's the way they want to attack it. Now, whether or not that happens, I don't know what Kevin Warsh was going to do. At their last meeting, he did not issue a cut or a hike. He kept things as is. I think he was trying to look to see how this war will go. So in other words, if we got the straight opened up again, if we got oil flowing in again, inflation would reduce, absolutely. I think that's what he was hoping for. But we're not getting that supply in the United States. We're not getting the same oil flow in supply. And that puts a damper on the U.S. economy. So now that we have this war restarting again, and now we see the price of oil going up, I think we're going to continue to see it go up, and I think the only thing he's got to do is to raise the interest rates. So I think it's going to be detrimental to our economy because this is not going to lead to anything positive. Okay. Just wanted to give you that good news of where we sit right now with the interest rates. And by the way, there are some people that like the interest rate hikes too, by the way. Right? Um There are some people that will make a lot of money on this. And again, we see different reasons for why Wall Street wants the hikes in the rates, interest rates. Uh, but it's not always because of stronger growth only. It's also because the higher inflationary risk and the bigger deficit spending of which we find ourselves in. And by the way, no people want to hold on to a lower yield, especially uh because investors won't accept the lower yield, so they want to push the rates higher to protect their own purchasing power. That's why we see this as well. Alright. So expect that, folks. I told you before, expect to see that go up. Uh again, the economy is in uncertain terms right now. I do want to talk about something very important, though. This will probably make you want to scream. I don't I don't think anything else uh will happen when you hear this one. Uh, like you, I like my freedom. I do. We live in the freest country on earth. That's a fact. But we have these little encroachments from time to time, things that we didn't ask for that we seem to get. And nobody seems to do a damn thing about it. I don't know why, but this is where we are. And and like you, I'm sure you've seen this. Uh, I I've been taking note of this as of late, haven't had time to really discuss this. But I saw this happening in California, and I said to myself, this is a good time to talk about this, this idea, of course, of this flock safety camera systems, which are a type of the automated license plate recognition technology that is used by local law enforcement to capture your license plate. And they do these, for instance, they capture the vehicle make, the model, as well as any other unique identifiers of the vehicle itself. And what they're using is for now is speeding, right? They use these in California now for speeding. So you don't have to have a cop pull you over, they just mail you, you know, your ticket. They, hey, you were speeding in the zone and we got you on camera, there you go. They used to use these too on freeways. I know they used to use these on the interstate and New York State. Uh so if you went through, for instance, a tolling system, if you're on the throughway, and they say, hey, you didn't pay. We got you on camera here, this is the kind of same system that's in place here, but now it's all over the place. And unlike the CCTV cameras that are merely just to record, the flock safety cameras collect all the given information on that camera. It's recorded, and it's input into a searchable database system. Sound draconian, I agree with you. And this allows the law enforcement to track the vehicles with ease. So they could say, oh, you were at such and such a place at such and such a time. And it makes you feel a little safe, doesn't it? Right? Oh, we know exactly where everyone is, this is great, there'll be no more crime, we'll live in a utopia. Except the opposite is true. The opposite is true. Now, of course, it's designed to aid law enforcement. The data procured by the cameras can alert officers when a car is left from where and where it's going and what have you. Creating a detailed report helpful in investigating stolen vehicles, if you will, missing persons, other criminal cases. It sounds nice, doesn't it? However, however, however, things can turn very bad as well. So not only are they recording you everywhere you go, but then they can also interrogate you for things of which you didn't do. That's becoming a great big problem. And I've got an audio clip I definitely have to play for you. You're you're probably not gonna believe this. Actually, you probably will. You probably will. But these systems can go very, very wrong as well. This runs a couple minutes, but I want you to hear this entire exchange that took place. Now, this is from Gadget Review, and I want you to understand where this leads us. And if you don't believe me, think about the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise. They get you for a crime even before you committed the crime. This is this is the direction of which they are going into. And they documented in this article a woman uh named Chris Anna Elzer. She got this summons from Columbine Valley police accusing her of stealing a package in a location. And what was the evidence? You guessed it, the automated license plate reader information cameras that located, I guess, her vehicle, and they placed it near the crime scene. And as you'll see, she has something else to say, otherwise, to these phony allegations against her. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

We have cameras everywhere in that town. You can't get a breath of fresh air in or out without us knowing.

SPEAKER_04 52:12

Chrisana Elzer learned the power of Flock firsthand.

SPEAKER_03 52:15

You were in town from 11:52 until 1209. Exactly. Like I said, nothing gets in or out of the town without us knowing.

SPEAKER_04 52:25

When a Colorado police officer showed up at her door holding flock snapshots of her truck.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

And here's when you left at 12.09. That's when you left town. To get no to stop at Ridgetrail and take a package. Well, there's no shushing. I don't need to be.

SPEAKER_04 52:46

The first thing he pulled out on the body cam is that flock picture. The clear photograph of your car.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

But here's your vehicle in the neighborhood many, many times, apparently casing houses, because you just can't drive through for work or visit other businesses. You can only be casing houses.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

It is her, it is 100%, it is locked in. There is zero doubt. I wouldn't have come here unless I was 100% sure. 100%. It is certain, it is on video. You're obviously welcome to go to court.

SPEAKER_04 53:15

Chrisana was charged with stealing a package, but it wasn't her. The porch pirate was somebody else. Multiple times you tried to show him your video evidence, he didn't want to see it.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

You looked at a time of a crime. You saw my vehicle entering in the flock.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

No, no, what I did was I did an investigation.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

I have video evidence.

SPEAKER_04 53:43

I don't know what you want me to say. The charges were dropped after Krissana spent weeks trying to get the police chief to look at her evidence, time-stamped video from her truck, and a neighbor's doorbell camera showing she wasn't at the scene of the crime. What does it say about where we are that you feel you have to have more cameras than the police have in order to make sure you can prove yourself innocent?

SPEAKER_01 54:06

It sounds like it flipped the script to you're guilty until you prove yourself innocent.

SPEAKER_05 54:11

She's absolutely right about this. And this should be very startling to anybody listening right now that if they can just place your vehicle in a certain location, then it's okay they can come and harass you if you look like somebody who has committed a crime. And in this case, it was somebody stealing a package off of somebody's porch that looked like the defendant here. But she was able to later prove I wasn't in this area. I was over sh luckily she had this. What if she didn't have this? What if they didn't have the door doorbell cam footage of her showing her that she was at her location when this robbery was taking place? This is the reality of which they're trying to put us into right now. And again, if she didn't have that, then I guess she's guilty, right? She gets charged, she gets to have whatever consequence the courts uh feel that she has to have. All because of this camera footage of which nobody asked for. And we have Civil Liberties advocating, obviously suggesting otherwise that this local dragnet surveillance infrastructure is in place, and it's kind of taking over real policing. So, in other words, it looks like you, your vehicle was in this region, it must be you. It's gotta be you. We had your vehicle on camera, it looks like you, therefore you are guilty. Can't prove otherwise? Sorry, you're going to jail. Now we've got to make sure we understand this. Independent reporting has also documented that these systems document plate misreads leading to innocent people being stopped or detained. One camera is one pole is a a tool. Uh, you know, and thousands of them network together to kind of give this feel that uh they're they can do no wrong. So in other words, it's almost like AI, right? You're on camera, therefore it's you, therefore you must be guilty. You were in this location, it looks like you, we think it's you. You're going, well, wait a minute, I'm driving through this location. Uh, sure that looks like me, but it wasn't me. Well, it was you. Wouldn't be here if it wasn't. That's what the cops said, right? However, thankfully, she had information, she had other technology that proved, oh yeah, she was actually at her home at the given time, of which this piece of property was, this package rather, was stolen. This is something out of 1984. This is something out of some dystopian novel of which you would never want to live in, folks. This is not freedom. This is this is a police state, is what they're bringing it to. And you heard him say that you can't go anywhere in this town without us knowing. What kind of freedom is that that they can record you every step of the way? Is it leading to more safety? Obviously not. Because the real criminal was out taking on the package, wasn't being stopped or harassed, or haranged by the police. This innocent woman was. So remember, what did I believe it was Thomas Jefferson, if I'm not mistaken. Um, and I'm gonna be paraphrasing him here, but you can't give up just a little liberty for security. You just can't do it. Because if you do that, you get neither. And that's exactly true in this case, unfortunately. Uh, so we we've really look at our Fourth Amendment rights, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, this idea of constant surveillance with these cameras that are on our streets recording you, tracking you, your every move. When did we sign up for this? Can anyone tell me when we all came together in consensus and said we want to be in a police state, we want to be recorded 24-7 so you can see exactly where we're going. And by the way, use that information whenever you'd like by the police. Uh, something tells me uh this needs to be stopped, and this needs to be really, really brought up against uh a Supreme Court case. We've got to stop this. This this cannot continue on. Absolutely not. Oh, and by the way, folks, we have a few moments remaining, so I wanted to talk to you about this article out of the Washington Examiner. And Governor Andy Bashir on Wednesday sent a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell requesting the hospitalized lawmaker provide an update on his health following weeks of speculation with little information released by his office. Now, McConnell was first hospitalized on June 14th and has since remained in a Washington hospital. They have yet to disclose the incident as to what led to the hospitalization. Some people suggested that he was found unconscious and that he's on life support. Um, but we really should know where our elected officials are and what's going on with them. Because again, he's an 84-year-old man. We should know the the whereabouts and at least the status of his health as well. Um, some people have suggested they have spoken to him. Uh, there's really no confirmation, though, as if that's true or not. Only time will tell, of course. As always, folks. Alright, folks, thank you again for being here today. That's all I for you today. I appreciate you so much. Make sure you're always staying prepped. You've got to stay prepped in times like right now. Water, food, medicine, fuel, money, tools, ammunition, anything to be self-sufficient in these times of uncertainty. I tell you that every single day, but you need to start acting on it, folks, while you can. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll see you back here tomorrow as always for more news and talk on the next Marvel show. Until next time, be good to stay busy. God bless.