- 18 minutes ago
Tonight on The Cameron Journal Newshour, we're talking Iran on multiple fronts, from the Christian Nationalism that triggered it to the coming energy crisis and what may come next. We also talked about the death of former FBI Director and Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller over the weekend. We also talk about ICE agents being deployed to airports to help deal with the TSA crisis due to a lapse in DHS funding. It's a long show but with tons of important information about this week's news narratives. Oh, and we briefly talked about a group of dogs that escaped the dog market in China and walked 17 km home.
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NewsTranscript
00:03Thank you so much.
01:34Hello, everyone.
01:36My name is Cameron Cowan.
01:38Welcome to the Cameron Journal NewsHour.
01:42Let me change my graphics quickly back to what they need to be.
01:52And welcome, everyone.
01:53It's been a long, a long week, a long day.
01:58I got a lot done today.
02:00Earlier today, I spoke with Matt Witten, who is a really great TV writer.
02:04His new book, 51%, which is currently piloting at NBC, will be out soon.
02:13And we talked about writing, writing process, writing for TV.
02:16He's written for some shows that a couple of my friends were into.
02:22So they all had questions about things and plot points and whatever have you that I also got into with
02:30him.
02:30And so it was great.
02:32We had a really fun time.
02:37And he was just really, really fun to hang out with.
02:41And that was started.
02:42I had a recording at noon.
02:43I usually record in the afternoon because it gives me time to get up and get ready and get dressed.
02:48All this type of thing.
02:51And I woke up late today.
02:53And so I was barely together for him.
02:56But we had a great time.
02:57And so it's been a busy day and week in the news.
03:01We have a lot of things to cover.
03:02Although not quite as crazy as last week.
03:05Last week we had so much and the show was like an hour and a half.
03:09Tonight we'll come in right on time in about an hour.
03:11But I want to remind everyone to follow me on social media.
03:14If you want the Cameron Journal delivered to your inbox, there are two ways to do that.
03:20You can go to CameronJournal.com slash newsletter and sign up there.
03:23You can also go to CameronJournal.Substack.com and get the newsletter delivered to your inbox every Saturday.
03:29And I am launching ad free for paying members of Substack or Cameron Journal Plus subscribers.
03:35So if you want to contribute to the journalism, this weekend I covered the death of Robert Mueller,
03:41several different stories, Iran.
03:43I do deep dives and you get the interviews from the week, the news hour, the living joke,
03:47all delivered right to your inbox.
03:48So if you want to support me, support my journalism, CameronJournal.Substack.com,
03:54which is really great.
03:55And then obviously you can catch me on social media.
03:57All my links are at CameronJournal.com or also on my Substack, which is really great.
04:03We have a lot of great interviews coming up.
04:05I did five recordings last week.
04:08I have three this week.
04:10April's going to be really great for the podcast.
04:12So stick around.
04:13If you're watching me on YouTube, Twitch, whatever have you, make sure to like and subscribe.
04:17I never ask people that, but I should do more.
04:20Like and subscribe on whatever platform you're watching.
04:22And if we're live on Facebook, we're live on Twitch, we're live on YouTube, make sure to like and subscribe.
04:27And that will be fantastic.
04:28So let's dive into the headlines.
04:31And we're going to start with something that isn't insignificant, but is a note.
04:38If you've been paying attention to politics over the last 10 years, Robert Mueller,
04:47the special prosecutor who investigated the Trump campaign ties to Russia, wrong graphic, there we go, died over the weekend.
05:00He was suffering from Parkinson's.
05:03This is the writer's story says here.
05:05Robert is one of the third, the FBI director who transformed the nation's premier law enforcement agency into a terrorism
05:11fighting force after the September 11th, 2001 attacks,
05:14and who later became special counsel in charge of investigating ties between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign has died.
05:20He was 81.
05:21Quote, with deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away on Friday night.
05:25His family said in a statement Saturday.
05:27His family asked that their privacy be respected.
05:29At the FBI, Mueller said about almost immediately overhauling the Bureau's mission to meet the law enforcement needs of the
05:3421st century,
05:35beginning his 12-year tenure just one week before the September 11th attacks and serving across presidents of both political
05:41parties.
05:41The cataclysmic event instantaneously switched the Bureau's top priority from solving domestic crime to preventing terrorism.
05:48A shift that imposed an almost impossibly difficult standard on Mueller and the rest of the federal government,
05:53preventing 99 out of 100 terrorist plots, wasn't good enough.
05:57Later, he was special counsel in the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Trump campaign illegally coordinated with Russia to
06:05sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.
06:07His investigation concluded that Russia interfered in the election on Trump's behalf and that the Trump campaign welcomed the help,
06:13but Mueller and his team ultimately found insufficient evidence of the criminal conspiracy and did not make a prosecutorial decision
06:19about whether Trump had obstructed justice.
06:20Mueller was maligned throughout the two-year investigation by Trump, who regularly derided it as a witch hunt,
06:26but the patrician Princeton graduate and Vietnam vet who walked away from a lucrative mid-career job to stay in
06:31public service
06:31remained silent throughout the criticism, exhibiting an old-school, button-down style that made him an anachronism during a social
06:38media-saturated era.
06:39Trump posted on social media,
06:41after the announcement of Mueller's death,
06:43Robert Mueller has just died.
06:44Good.
06:45I'm glad he's dead.
06:46The Republican president added,
06:48he can no longer hurt innocent people.
06:52So, yes.
06:54Oh, and then it goes into Bush appointing him and the Bush years.
06:57Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
06:58And the relentless commitment to the rule of law from Obama, all this type of thing.
07:03Um, and his history as an FBI director and his whole, his whole, his whole thing.
07:10Um, it was, yeah, he, it was kind of funny because, um, because no one really knew who he was.
07:21He wasn't really out there like that, um, before the, he was, he was brought in to investigate,
07:28um, that particular asset to the Trump campaign in the 2016 election.
07:33Um, and I, I had, honestly, I had forgotten he was FBI director during the Bush years.
07:38I don't think he made a lot of, he was not out in public like that during the Bush years.
07:43So I think we kind of sort of forgotten about him.
07:45And then all of a sudden he bursts onto the scene and there's a very famous, um, podcast called Mueller,
07:52um, that was launched during the Mueller investigation and made him a household name.
07:59Um, which, what a thing to become a household name for.
08:03Um, but it's, you know, it's always of note when great men pass on and, uh, they don't make him
08:13like Robert Mueller anymore.
08:15I appreciated his old school style and all this sort of thing.
08:18I, um, yeah, they don't make him like that anymore.
08:21Or our age is not kind to that anymore.
08:26Um, and I share many of those traits and I can definitely tell you our age is not kind to
08:31that.
08:31This show would be much more popular if I were more outrageous.
08:33Like my colleagues, Asim and Gold and all these guys who are constantly shouting and shouting and shouting.
08:38I, I take after Walter Cronkite and, well, Walter Cronkite's been dead for 30 years.
08:44So, um, moving right along.
08:46Well, uh, this week, uh, 13, uh, airports are welcoming new ICE agents to take over some of the duties
08:53of the TSA due to a partial funding shutdown at Homeland Security.
08:58Now, before we get into the story, let me set the scene.
09:03There's, not all of the federal government is funded at once.
09:06When they pass the budget, the budget's actually a set of about 13 pieces of different legislation passed at different
09:12times of the year.
09:13There's mandatory spending, there's discretionary spending, all this type of thing.
09:18The discretionary portion of the DHS budget is up for review and Democrats are not wanting to let anything go
09:25through until, um, until they get either funding pulled from ICE or major concessions on what ICE, ICE does.
09:35Republicans are not interested in, um, in, you know, in, in doing any of those reforms or very few of
09:42them.
09:42And certainly are not interested in, you know, defunding ICE, which some Democrats would like to do.
09:47And so there's a deadlock in Congress right now where the Department of Homeland Security funding is held up in
09:55arguments and negotiations over ICE funding.
09:59Unfortunately, the TSA and America's airports, who are funded by these bills, um, are caught in the crosshairs.
10:06Lines are out the door in Atlanta, all this type of thing.
10:09So, what President Trump has done is he is sending ICE agents in to U.S. airports to help solve
10:16the problem.
10:18It says here that ICE agents are now patrolling U.S. airports.
10:21Here's what to know.
10:22The deployment comes as a battle over Department of Homeland Security funding has led to closed security checkpoints, long lines,
10:28and missed flights.
10:29Up to 150 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers were deployed at airports across the United States on Monday,
10:35a move that the Trump administration said was an effort to address long lines amid a shortage of transportation security
10:40administration agents
10:40who are working without pay during the partial government shutdown.
10:44ICE officers' exact duties at airports remained unclear.
10:47Officers were seen on Monday at several airports walking in small groups through check-in areas and standing near exits,
10:52their faces mostly unmasked.
10:53Unlike TSA agents, ICE personnel are being paid.
10:57Democratic lawmakers and the union-representing TSA officers denounced the deployment of ICE to airports as disruptive, unsafe, and unhelpful.
11:04Here's what travelers need to know.
11:05The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Sunday that ICE would help bolster TSA efforts to keep
11:10our skies safe and minimize air travel disruptions.
11:12The shortage of TSA personnel stems from the ongoing partial government shutdown.
11:16Nearly 50,000 TSA officers have been working without pay since February 14th when funding for the Department of Homeland
11:22Security, which oversees the TSA,
11:24lapsed amid a congressional standoff over immigration enforcement.
11:27Many TSA officers have taken on second jobs to pay their bills, sometimes calling out of work to do so,
11:32and more than 400 officers have quit since the shutdown began.
11:35DHS said on Monday nearly 12% of TSA officers called out of work Sunday, the highest rate so far
11:40during the shutdown.
11:41That includes about 42% of officers at Hardsville-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Louis Armstrong-New Orleans International Airport,
11:47and more than 37% at Kennedy Airport in New York.
11:49The shortage has led to long security lines that have sneaked out of terminals, causing some travelers to miss flights.
11:55The administration has said that using ICE agents to perform non-screening roles like guarding exits would allow the TSA
12:00to focus on staffing security checkpoints.
12:02Critics of the ICE deployment will argue it will not alleviate security lines,
12:05and is instead intended to pressure Democrats to pass funding for DHS without the changes to immigration enforcement they have
12:11called for.
12:12It looks like they're going to Hardsville-Jackson, Chicago, LaGuardia, JFK, Newark,
12:18and follow-up facilities like the William H. Hobby Airport in Houston.
12:22So far, ICE officers have been seen walking through airports and observing, but not actively assisting with passenger screening.
12:27In an interview on Sunday with CNN, Tom Holman, President Trump's chief border official,
12:31suggested that ICE agents would play a limited role in security operations.
12:34I don't see an ICE agent looking at an x-ray machine because they're not trained in that, he said,
12:38but an ICE agent might cover an exit, allowing TSA officers to focus on screening.
12:42But also on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told ABC News that ICE agents could take a more active approach.
12:47They know how to pat people down, he said. They know how to run the x-ray machines.
12:50Aaron Burka, the president of the TSA Employees Union in Georgia, pushed back on that assertion,
12:54saying that ICE agents can't do what a TSA officer is doing with screening passengers.
12:58They don't have the training for that.
13:00ICE and TSA are both part of the Department of Homeland Security,
13:02but the shutdown does not affect ICE officers' pay because Congress funded immigration enforcement last year.
13:08And then it goes into how travelers are being affected.
13:11Mr. Trump said on Monday that he would send the National Guard to assist at airports if ICE agents were
13:15unable to ease delays.
13:16He also said that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown.
13:23So, um, there was a video about a woman who was pushed down and taken away in an airport.
13:31Um, interestingly enough, but I did not, um, I didn't find out if that was AI.
13:36I just thought it was imaging that was kind of already going around.
13:38So, either something happened or people are already making stuff up.
13:42Welcome to 2026.
13:44Here's what we do know.
13:46So, that's, um, yes.
13:49So, this is, uh, a new and interesting tactic.
13:53Um, uh, I, I, I suppose, you know, they could be also helping in, you know, I guess, I mean,
14:01I guess it kind of makes sense in terms of the guarding of the exits and creeing up the TSA
14:05to open more checkpoints and all this type of thing.
14:07But it is interesting that there doesn't seem to be any real plan, given Tom Holman's like, no, they won't
14:14be doing that.
14:15And Sean Duffy's like, yeah, they could.
14:16Hmm.
14:17Left hand, right hand, doesn't know what doing.
14:20So, um, so if you're hearing about this, this is kind of the situation.
14:24Um, this will probably drag on as long as the partial shutdown goes on, which, who knows, given that it
14:31involves ICE and ICE tactics on, on immigration enforcement.
14:36So, um, and this operation could continue to expand.
14:41And, um, and yeah, could include National Guard and all sorts of things, which creates a very interesting travel experience
14:47with people in uniform.
14:49So, moving right along.
14:52Um, I, I found this article on the conversation by Matthew Burkholder, um, and from the Military Religious, from the
15:02Military Religious Freedom Foundation, um, which is an organization I've written about and with quite often.
15:07Um, and, uh, I wanted to get into this Christian nationalist thing, because I covered this on Saturday on the
15:15newsletter, and I wanted to, uh, and I, I was imploring people, like, we have to protest now.
15:22We have to start asking people now.
15:24We have to take action now.
15:26Because this evangelical holy war situation is coming to a head.
15:33And I know that doesn't make a lot of sense to people, but for those of us that grew up
15:38in it, and grew up on the Left Behind books, and listening to all of this stuff, this is here,
15:42and it's now.
15:43The great thing about the Iran situation, and we'll get into it in a little bit, um, is that people
15:50are seeing the Iran war for what it is.
15:52There's an Israel component to it that is quite significant, and people are seeing that, people are saying that.
15:58The idea of greater Israel, which is from the Nile and Egypt to the, uh, Euphrates, is being talked about
16:04openly.
16:04MRFF has never gotten more press and more acclaim than this moment, because the lid is off the pot, and
16:12the pasta's boiling everywhere.
16:15So, I wanted to cover this again on the NewsHour, because this is very important.
16:23If you, and I'll just say this right out, and I don't usually talk about the news this way.
16:27If you want, if you are watching this right now, and you would like to continue to live in a
16:33secular, pluralistic society where you can choose what to worship or not, where you can choose what you want to
16:40wear or not, and all that sort of, the freedoms that we're ordinarily enjoying,
16:45and you don't want to be stuck looking like a Christian homeschool kid, if that has any appeal to you
16:51whatsoever, this should be a paramount concern.
16:56This, Christian nationalism has been cropping up in its current format for at least 20 years, and the roots go
17:03deeper and farther back.
17:04If you want to get into all of it, my article at the Cameron Journal, CameronJournal.com, goes into the
17:11complete history.
17:12Going back to the 1850s, but the latest incarnation kind of starts in the 60s with Billy Graham and Pat
17:20Robertson and the 700 Club and all that stuff.
17:25This is reaching a fever pitch.
17:27This is reaching ahead.
17:28And so, I want to get into this article a little bit and talk about this more, because this is
17:32the future of our country.
17:34And I don't mean that in a hand-wavy Democrat.
17:37I'm trying to get you to vote for a candidate way.
17:38I mean, literally, if you want to continue living the way we have been in some form, get worried.
17:46So, soldiers in the United States Armed Forces have lodged more than 100 complaints with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,
17:54MRFF,
17:55stating that their commanders are using extremist religious rhetoric to describe the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
18:01According to some complaints, American military commanders have told their troops the attack on Iran is a holy war,
18:06and that U.S. President Donald Trump was anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause
18:12Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.
18:14In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, the MRFF's President, Mikey Weinstein, said the foundation was inundated with calls from
18:22soldiers,
18:22indicating that commanders across the armed forces were euphoric because the war would serve as a way to, quote,
18:28bring their version of weaponized Jesus back, unquote.
18:30The comments are, among other, violent religious rhetoric to come from U.S. officials.
18:35The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, father of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
18:41caused a diplomatic row when he suggested Israel had a biblical claim to take over much of the Middle East.
18:46The language also comes from some American officials.
18:50Some American officials have sought to characterize the Iranian government as fanatical.
18:54Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran was run by religious fanatic lunatics.
18:58Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamic delusions, could not have nuclear
19:04weapons.
19:04Meanwhile, American televangelist John Hagee recently claimed that Russia, Turkey, what's left of Iran, and groups of Islamics would soon
19:12invade Israel and be destroyed by God.
19:16And then he gets into his Ph.D. and everything, and here's where it gets interesting.
19:21Rhetoric about war as being religious and Trump being divinely anointed and about to cause Armageddon
19:26is deeply disturbing and has catalyzed condemnation from Christians in the U.S. and beyond advocating non-violent and diplomatic
19:32foreign policy.
19:33Violent U.S. religious rhetoric being amplified with the U.S.-Israel war against Iran
19:37is associated with beliefs that once Israel is restored as a nation and the temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt,
19:42Jesus will return and judge humanity.
19:45Christians adhering to these views read the biblical book of Revelation,
19:47with its vivid, symbolic, apocalyptic language, as making literal claims about history.
19:52They maintain their inspired and authoritative biblical interpretation,
19:55allows them to know conflicts in the Middle East,
19:58and initiate God's final act in history,
20:01with Trump seen as the dominating and aggressive man
20:03who can help usher in God's violent judgment of his enemies.
20:07It's relevant to consider how some Christian beliefs about Jesus' death correlate
20:11with a willingness to support or justify violence.
20:13Protestant evangelical theologians such as J.I. Packer and John Stott
20:18argued that Jesus' death primarily paid the penalty for human sin.
20:22They emphasized that God's holiness requires a payment for this sin.
20:25In this framework, God orchestrates the violent death of Jesus
20:28to satisfy God's penal justice to forgive humanity.
20:31This is what I grew up with, folks.
20:33Non-evangelical Christians, on the other hand,
20:34like 19th century congregationalist Horace Bushnell
20:36and contemporary Mennonite theologian J. Denny Weaver
20:39understand the death of Jesus as an example of God's love.
20:42In this interpretation, Jesus doesn't endure violence to pay a debt to God.
20:46Instead, the death of Jesus is more akin to that of a martyr's tragic death.
20:49These theologians reject violence as a condition for forgiveness.
20:52A 2012 debate in the Presbyterian Church about a hymn
20:55demonstrates this tension with the proposed change of hymn lyrics from
20:59On that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied
21:02to the love of God was magnified.
21:05Ultimately, the authors rejected the proposal.
21:07But the conflict demonstrates that Christians are passionate
21:10about their different interpretations of Jesus' death.
21:13And then it gets into a lot more Bible stuff that we're not going to read right now.
21:16The point being is this all comes out of a very specific brand
21:22of white evangelicalism, mostly Baptist, Southern Baptist sort of flavors.
21:28And there's enough of these people who have enough power in the GOP
21:34and all this type of thing that they're there.
21:36They've been leveraging the military for 20 years.
21:40And again, I have a long article about this in partnership with MRFF about this
21:44for 20 years.
21:45Mikey Weinstein has been fighting this since 2004.
21:48So 22 years.
21:50And this, I've always said Trump has been a moderating force on the GOP
21:55in terms of he's not really sold in all this stuff.
21:58And so he doesn't always engage in it.
22:02However, this war in Iran is right out of the book of Revelation.
22:07It's right out of the left behind books.
22:08There are pastors.
22:09I guarantee you walk into any Baptist church in the South
22:13and you will have pastors saying, this is it.
22:15It's time for Armageddon.
22:17That's why they're doing this, all this sort of thing.
22:20Now, the reality is it's a land grab for Israel
22:22and we're trying to get rid of Iran and all this sort of thing.
22:25The reality is when we'll get into more of that,
22:27there's the reality, but that's the narrative.
22:32And these are also people who believe that our entire country
22:36should live by them, by their values, in the way that they do,
22:41and that our country would be better if it were based in Christian values
22:45and the Bible were equal to the Constitution.
22:49So if that doesn't have any appeal to you,
22:53and I imagine if you watch this show on any regular basis it doesn't,
22:57this is something we need to start speaking out more loudly about.
23:02This has now caused a war,
23:03and the minute Trump is gone in 2028,
23:06I guarantee you the GOP will run, not walk,
23:12to make this basically their official position.
23:16Get scared.
23:19Because this is the real deal.
23:22It's ironic that we're trying to destroy a theocracy
23:25while they also would like a theocracy.
23:28You can't...
23:29If you pitched a book of that to publishers,
23:32they would reject it for being implausible.
23:34That's the life we're leading right now.
23:36It's nuts.
23:38This is nuts.
23:39But that's where we are.
23:41And I was very forceful in my newsletter.
23:46I encourage people to donate to MRFF.
23:48They are fighting the good fight to fight for the religious rights
23:51of our fighting men and women.
23:52And they are at the front lines of this conversation.
23:55And it's global right now.
23:58They've never gotten this level of attention.
24:00They've been on CNN.
24:01And this conversation is blowing up.
24:05Get scared.
24:06Get busy.
24:08Start shouting it out.
24:09Share this video.
24:12Explore the Military Illegious Freedom Foundation page.
24:15All this sort of thing.
24:16I'll put some links in the description that will help.
24:18I'll save this.
24:19Instead of getting rid of it, I'll pin it.
24:21I'll share this.
24:22Please let people know this is what we're facing.
24:25And this will not stop with Iran.
24:28It gets so, so much worse.
24:32All right.
24:33Speaking of Iran, let's get into Iran.
24:37I forgot to change my graphic.
24:38All right.
24:39Let's get into Iran.
24:42It's sometimes hard to do graphics and do the show at the same time.
24:47Anyway.
24:50So, let's think about how the war in Iran is going.
24:54Hint, hint.
24:54Not good.
24:55All right.
24:56So, I was reading some things this morning.
24:59And this was a report from the Institute for the Study of War.
25:07And there's been some interesting things that have happened.
25:09So, Iran fired two ballistic missiles at the Diego Garcia Air Base, which is a U.S.-U.K. joint base
25:17in the Indian Ocean, right there.
25:20That's the longest missile attempt they've ever made.
25:27One missile failed in flight.
25:30They intercepted the other.
25:32Obviously, Iran did it as a point to show that they had reach if they wanted to.
25:40These show that if Iran can fire something that far, here's everywhere they could hit.
25:47Which, for those of you who may have not paid attention in geography, is most of Western Europe, except for
25:55Ireland, the Hebrides, Portugal, and most of Spain.
26:00Their missile can reliably hit everything in this inner circle and could possibly hit everything as far as Thailand, Delhi,
26:15all of North Africa, most of North Africa, rather, all of Western Europe, up into Scandinavia, London, and most of
26:27Western Russia.
26:31And so, it is definitely, I think, changing the calculus for the involvement in a lot of things.
26:40Again, one of the missiles failed in flight, but if they wanted to make a gambit for attacking something else,
26:47something bigger, something NATO-related, Iran's showing they could do it.
26:52And that, in terms of conflict escalation, this gets a lot bigger.
27:02It also says here that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, has reportedly expanded its influence over regime decision
27:10-making in a growing power vacuum caused by leadership losses in Supreme Leader Mojtava Khamenei's apparent inability to exercise full
27:18authority.
27:18Some of the officials who have likely expanded their influence are among the most aggressive and repressive elements within the
27:23IRGC.
27:25The United States Treasury Department issued a short-term waiver on March 20th permitting the sale of Iranian oil already
27:30in transit.
27:31The waiver does not allow for the purchase of new oil.
27:33The combined force continued to degrade Iran's missile production capabilities.
27:37The IDF struck at least five missile production sites in Tehran.
27:40Um, so it's, uh, yeah.
27:44So that, that is, that is kind of what's happening, what's happening here.
27:50Um, there is, uh, strikes on industrial sites throughout.
27:55Here's the Strait of Hormuz that's closed unless you're paying a yuan.
27:58Um, there's also a rumor that Iran wants to now have a toll that would bring them in $800 billion
28:02a year.
28:04Um, but, uh, so there's these various and sundry sites, including,
28:10these launchers and all this sort of thing.
28:12I've read so many rumors of stuff.
28:14I'm not even going to pass everything along, but we'll get into it.
28:16The United States also struck the Natanz nuclear facility in Estefan province on March 21st.
28:22Anti-regime media stated that the United States used a bunker buster bomb.
28:25Armed Forces General Staff Ability media stated on March 21st that no nuclear material had leaked after the strikes.
28:30The combined force previously struck the Natanz nuclear facility on March 2nd and during the 12-day war.
28:35The Associated Press stating an unreleased IAEA report reported on February 27th
28:39that the IAEA had observed activity at Natanz and the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,
28:43but could not verify the purpose or nature of the activity.
28:50And, oh yes, and then these are strikes from last week in and around Tehran and elsewhere.
28:57So, that is, uh, and there's still a lot of missiles going into Israel,
29:03a lot of people living in bunkers.
29:05Um, it's still, uh, it's still quite, quite dire, um, in terms, for life in Israel right now.
29:13So, um, and there's still a lot of, a lot of talk about missiles and drones and all,
29:21we'll talk more about this, but I thought this was interesting from this morning
29:24and had some great maps for us to look at, which is always great.
29:29Um, this, I loved this analysis from Artem Owaini, he's over at Diplomatic Peace,
29:35he's a PhD at Georgetown, um, I actually need to be following him.
29:39Um, and it's, um, and the, I thought this was interesting.
29:46Stepping off the escalation trap is highly unlikely.
29:49Now, remember what I said about escalation, that the more, is, Iran expands its reach,
29:54and the more it does, the more people are drawn in to fight against it.
29:58Well, here, listen to Mr. Arta tell us more about it.
30:02The war's root causes remain unaddressed.
30:05Iran has no guarantees it won't be attacked in a few months.
30:08It must consolidate its strategic gains.
30:10It cannot risk another 12-day war.
30:12Mow the lawns scenario of short-term, high-intensity bombing.
30:15To stabilize the Middle East, Washington must finally recognize Iran as a regional hegemon.
30:19A middle power akin to Turkey or Russia.
30:21With inalienable sovereign rights it can credibly defend.
30:25This means accepting Iranian missile capacity, domestic enrichment,
30:28and its de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz.
30:30The U.S. must also abandon its obsolete Mideast paradigm,
30:34acknowledge the shifting reality on the ground,
30:36and retire the disastrous Carter Doctrine and its unsustainable gunboat diplomacy.
30:40Instead, it must accept the role of regional pillars,
30:42embracing the natural equilibrium derived from regional power politics and local balancing.
30:47This would render U.S. policing redundant.
30:49Currently, however, there's zero evidence Trump will do this.
30:52The U.S. could use its third Persian Gulf war as a historic watershed
30:55to exit the Persian Gulf in the wider West Asia
30:58and force its regional satellites like Israel and the GCC
31:02to reconcile with the actual balance of power in the Middle East.
31:05Instead, Washington will likely use any tactical pause
31:08to regroup for further bullying and coercion down the road.
31:11Tehran is not blind to this.
31:13While the U.S.-Israeli approach of shock and awe seeks immediate capitulation,
31:16Iran's strategy of asymmetric attrition aims for a slow, painful realization.
31:21The U.S. is running out of time with no moves left, nor does it hold any Trump cards.
31:25As such, Iran seeks a comprehensive, permanent, non-aggression pact on its own terms.
31:30It will not hand Trump a face-saving ceasefire while he is cornered.
31:37And it mentions a video about President Trump saying we're going to have a ceasefire
31:44on hostilities from the United States until Friday.
31:48So that also was a bit of news.
31:51This happened all day.
31:53I mean, there was new news and rumors out all day at different times, different things.
31:58And President Trump announced the cessation of hostilities for five days until now.
32:06And the Iranian state television is saying the Americans are backing down
32:09due to the resilience of the armed forces and the Iranian people.
32:14So there's definitely...
32:16There needs to be an endgame here.
32:18I don't know what the endgame is, but there needs to be an endgame here.
32:21And it doesn't appear that there is one.
32:24Um, the other kind of interesting thing, um, is, uh, Donald Trump just said, this was
32:32this morning, said the Strait of Hormuz will be jointly controlled and may be controlled
32:35by me and the Ayatollah.
32:37The same man who 36 hours ago threatened to obliterate Iranian power plants now proposes
32:41co-managing the world's most important oil choke point with the leader of the country.
32:45He's bombing.
32:46In the same breath, Trump said he, it is not the supreme leader.
32:49Nobody has heard from him, and we don't know if he's living.
32:51He's proposing to jointly control the Strait with a man he simultaneously says may be dead.
32:55While Trump was saying this, the IDF confirmed it had just completed a wide-scale wave of
32:59strikes on Tehran using over 100 munitions.
33:02Targets included the Quds Force Command Post, an IRGC Aerial Defense Headquarters, an IRGC
33:08Ground Forces Headquarters, and a large military compound in the heart of Tehran.
33:11The Quds Force Intelligence Headquarters, a Ministry of Defense Naval Cruise Missile Manufacturing
33:15Site, and multiple ballistic missile warhead and electronics research facilities.
33:19The IDF reports it has destroyed approximately 330 of Iran's estimated 470 ballistic missile
33:25launchers.
33:25Iranian fire has collapsed from 90 missiles per day on day one to approximately 10.
33:30The IAF is now hunting the remaining 140.
33:33While Trump was saying this, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson stated for the third
33:36time today that there have been no direct or indirect talks with Washington, and that
33:40Iran's position on the Strait of Hormuz has not changed in any way.
33:43While Trump was saying this, Iran delivered the sentence that should be read by every head
33:46of the state on Earth.
33:47You struck our hospitals, we did not do the same.
33:49You struck our emergency centers, we did not do the same.
33:52You struck our schools, we did not do the same.
33:53But if you strike electricity, we will strike electricity.
33:56That is not a threat.
33:57That is a ledger.
33:59Iran is publicly recording, but it is not done to establish the legal and moral basis
34:02for what it will do.
34:04The ledger says, we absorbed hospitals, we absorbed schools, we absorbed emergency centers.
34:08Electricity is on the line, cross it, and the regional grid becomes a battlefield.
34:12Every desalination plant, every hospital ventilator, every water treatment system in the Gulf that
34:16runs on power.
34:17Trump then claimed Iran agreed to hand over nuclear dust.
34:20He said, we've agreed to that.
34:22Iran has agreed to nothing publicly.
34:24Trump has negotiated in public with a counterparty that says it's not at the table, proposing
34:28to share a street with a leader whose existence has a key questions, claiming a nuclear deal
34:31that the other side has not acknowledged, while his air force drops 100 munitions on the
34:34capital of the country he says he's dealing with.
34:37Ross Atom is evacuating Bashir nuclear plant to a skeleton crew.
34:40The five-day clock is ticking, the 140 remaining launchers are being hunted, the strait is
34:45closed, and the man who controls the world's largest military just proposed co-managing
34:48the world's most important waterway with a man who may not be alive to sign the agreement.
34:53The molecules do not negotiate with ghosts, the molecules wait.
34:57And then there's a video of Trump talking about all of this.
35:00We'll watch a little bit.
35:04They have.
35:05What about the street of war moves?
35:06Who's going to be in control of that?
35:08That will be opened very soon if this works.
35:10How soon?
35:11And who's in control of it?
35:12Will Iran still be able to control the flow of oil?
35:15Be jointly controlled.
35:18By whom?
35:19Maybe me.
35:20Maybe me.
35:21You want the United States to be in control of the world?
35:23The Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah, look, and there'll also
35:28be a form of a, a very serious form of a regime change.
35:32Now, in all fairness, everybody's been killed from the regime.
35:37Even for medical purposes, civilian purposes?
35:39They have.
35:40So, it, it keeps, uh, it keeps going on.
35:45I don't, I think, I think Trump is just throwing out ideas to see what sticks at this point,
35:49which is what he does.
35:50But that's, clearly, that's what's going on.
35:53There's only one problem.
35:54People are dying.
35:55Um, oh, this was interesting.
35:57There was a, um, a drone, uh, a drone attack, a penetration of airspace at Barksdale Air Force
36:05Base.
36:06I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it says here,
36:09that, uh, given, there's, given the five days of repeated intrusions, there's a higher
36:15probability that these drones were launched from a remote area.
36:18Operators would need to alternate between multiple launch and landing points to avoid
36:22detection.
36:22A fixed-wing-style drone with a hybrid motor operating on liquid fuel and battery is a
36:27likely contender.
36:28This would place the wingspan of about four to five meters, the advanced cameras are
36:31for guidance and terrain analysis, and a total six-hour flight time.
36:34That would easily drive the cost of each drone to $60,000.
36:39Um, and it would need 50 meters of runway space.
36:42Um, and it's kind of showing how, around, like, where they suspect it came from, and where
36:48Barksdale's is, and, and these repeated drone intrusions.
36:51Um, apparently there's a swarm of 12 to 15 drones penetrated the ISS for five consecutive
36:56days.
36:57They halted flight operations, and on one occasion, a four-stage shelter-in-place order.
37:00I don't know why they didn't begin shooting at them.
37:03Um, it, and apparently it came from the southeast here.
37:07Bases here came from down here.
37:09I don't know any more about that, but it was very, I, I found it interesting that this
37:14was a thing, um, and could be a, a sleeper cell or other asymmetric actor.
37:25Um, this, now this was very interesting.
37:29So this came from the New York Times this morning, as reported by Max Blumenthal over at
37:33Grayzone News, says here, New York Times has essentially confirmed that Israel played a
37:37role in simulating the violent regime-change riots that left around 3,000 dead in Iran
37:42this January 8th and 9th, but which were marketed in the West as pro-democracy protests.
37:49It was well understood by the Mossad that these riots would help stimulate military action
37:52by Trump.
37:53Israeli intel merely needed to convince the feeble-minded president that a wave of decapitation
37:58strikes would unleash a massive upheaval to immediately topple the Islamic Republic.
38:01The January riots were presented to Trump as a preview of what was to come.
38:05Western media, including the New York Times and the Guardian, played a central role in
38:08legitimizing Israel's deception by falsely characterizing the violent regime-change
38:12riots as mere protests, massively inflating the death toll and covering up the fact that
38:16many were murdered by the Israel-backed rioters themselves.
38:19The whole of Western media and the Western human rights industrial complex deliberately
38:22misrepresented the real character of these riots, but now the war they helped to instigate
38:26is going badly for the U.S. and Israel, and that same media is now free to reveal
38:31a few kernels of truth.
38:32It says here that Mossad's strategy during that period was to try to weaken the government
38:36until it essentially surrendered to Israeli and American demands, using a combination of
38:40crippling economic sanctions and operations to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists and
38:43military leaders and sabotage nuclear facilities.
38:46Over the past year, as the prospect of Israeli military action against Iran became more likely,
38:50Mr. Barnes reversed Mossad's approach, dividing the agency's resources to plans that could
38:53lead to toppling the government in Tehran in the event of a war.
38:56In recent months, according to officials, Mr. Barnes came to believe that Mossad could
39:00potentially begin igniting riots around Iran after several days of intense Israeli and
39:04American air strikes and the assassination of senior Iranian leaders.
39:08Yeah, I mean, we kind of went into all this knowing that the hope was, oh, there's protests,
39:14okay, we'll see if we can topple the regimes, and that's not what happened at all sort of thing,
39:21although there is definitely some misarray. But this isn't really a surprise, so I'm not quite
39:28sure why he's surprised. But again, we explore the news narratives. This is another interesting
39:33narrative. But the reality is 67% of people already think this is Israel's war, so this isn't new.
39:40We kind of knew this. But thank you, Max, for telling us.
39:45Oh, this guy. Yes. So, this Professor Jiang, I thought this was interesting. He thinks that
39:52the biggest problem with Iran is not what's going to happen to America, but what will happen to China.
39:58So, this is an interesting perspective. It says,
40:19Why can't America exit? Iran will demand a trillion dollars in compensation, plus complete U.S. withdrawal
40:23from the region. If America withdraws, Gulf states will become clients of Iran. The petrodollar will
40:28collapse. America, with $39 trillion in debt, will face a real economic collapse. The point no one
40:32talks about America is not fighting for Iran. It's fighting so it does not collapse itself.
40:36Iran's smart plan, $800 billion per year. Iran plans to impose a 10% passage fee on every ship
40:42crossing the Strait of Hormuz. It's such a revenue of $800 billion per year. This amount will rebuild
40:47Iran stronger than before. If this is correct, and I see it is not so far-fetched, Iran will emerge
40:51from
40:51this war richer than it entered. But he says here,
40:54The biggest loser is on America, but China. China imports 40% of its energy from the Gulf. Its economy
41:01is
41:01entirely built on cheap energy. Even artificial intelligence, which everyone talks about, requires
41:05cheap energy. Any disruption in energy supplies will hit China more than any other country. And what no one
41:10notices, the war on Iran is not just an American war. It is a war on China's future as a
41:14great power.
41:15The real beneficiaries? Israel and Russia. Israel wants greater Israel from the now out of the Ubrates.
41:20Draining America in a long war equals pushing out of the region. Weakening the Gulf equals removing
41:24any competitor. Russia. America lifted sanctions on Russia, on Russian oil, which happened on
41:30Saturday. Russia sells oil at record prices. And finances its war in Ukraine from America's
41:34pocket. In short, America's paying for others' wars while thinking it's winning. And then it gets
41:40into the religious factor, which we've talked about. And then it says the ground invasion is
41:44coming. There's already a rumor that they're going to seize Karg Island, which is Iran's oil
41:48facility. I think I have a story about that coming up.
41:53And the UAE says, also, the weakening of the UAE, Dubai was built on the illusion of security.
41:58Simple Iranian strikes revealed the model's fragility entirely. What was a safe haven
42:03became a target, and the confidence upon which all these towers were built is eroding.
42:06The UAE will not end, but its economic model will be severely shaken because everything is
42:11based on the assumption of regional security. And that assumption has collapsed. Japan will
42:15recover and China will decline. Professor Jing Lilley said, if I had a billion dollars,
42:18I would put it all in Japan. Japan has historically risen from anything. The Mongols, World War II,
42:23nuclear bombs. China, however, are agricultural, closed, and able to adapt to the new era.
42:27The West is collapsing from within. Europe, Canada, and Australia are experiencing deliberate
42:31demographic change. The democracy that emerges looks more like organized demolition of Western
42:37civilization. And the question who is driving this? No one has a clear answer.
42:42I thought the only interesting part was that he thinks China is kind of a loser out of all
42:47this, which may explain why Beijing has taken a wait-and-see attitude. But I think, yes,
42:53we are now at the situation where the geopolitical chessboard is 110% being reset, more so than what
43:00Trump did last year. There is no guarantee China comes out on top of that, especially given their
43:06economy shrinking, which is a whole other story. Oh, and speaking of that, this is actually also
43:15quite good. And this is from John Podritz. And it says here that, and this is, yeah, speaking of what
43:28I just said about resetting the board, Iran will emerge as a regional hegemon of the Gulf and therefore
43:32is a great power in the international system. If the U.S. cannot seize the Tormo's weapon from
43:38Iranian hands, no one can. Deterrence in Asia is gone. If the U.S. cannot suppress Iranian missiles,
43:43there's no possibility of suppressing Chinese missiles in Asia. The multipolar world was a
43:47hypothesis at the end of February. It's now a confirmed military fact. The U.S. will have to
43:52revert to hemispheric defense. Hold, maybe not. Hold that thought. I mean, that's where the Trump
43:58administration is going, but that will have to revert. I don't think that is true. This has
44:02large-scale implications of the world because it undermines functional specialization of the
44:06international system. It is very hard to see how the Gulf monarchs can survive this revolution
44:10in the balance of global power. A lot of equations are going to break because of the collapse of
44:14military, of U.S. military impunity. On the bright side, a global stagflationary shock is coming.
44:23Only the velocity and violence of the shock are uncertain. They are both likely to be considerable.
44:27The oil, gas, and food price shock will destabilize inflation expectations and force
44:31the central banks to deliver global monetary tightening. Meanwhile, the deteriorating balance
44:35of payments and income replacement will stretch fiscal capacities. This will hit the weakest,
44:39hardest by definition. It seems very much like the warring nations will wreck the world economy
44:43that feeds us all. Everyone needs to prepare for the very serious and persistent shocks, especially
44:47if he delivers on his ultimatum. We're on the precipice here. It's the end of the American
44:52century. Things can get very hairy indeed. Reports of U.S. decline are sometimes greatly exaggerated,
45:04but we're already seeing problems with helium, which is chip production, AI chip production,
45:12MRIs in hospitals, things like that. Most of that comes from the Middle East. It's not moving right
45:18now. Fertilizer. It's planting season. Fertilizer's not moving right now. It's getting expensive
45:24because there's so little of it elsewhere. We saw this during the Ukraine invasion. Food spikes.
45:31Oil price is going up. The price of gas is going to start to get expensive.
45:35Um, we got to be in for the long haul on this one. Um, because even if everything stopped tomorrow,
45:47most of the Gulf is going to take three to five years to repair. We won't see full capacity again
45:53until the end of this decade and into the next one. And so, but this guy is saying that we're
46:01facing
46:01strategic, uh, strategic defeat in, in Iran. And I think that is certainly possible. I'm not saying
46:10it isn't possible. Um, but given the fact that a lot of the teeth has been taken out of the
46:16Iranian
46:16tiger and it's very clear the leadership is starting to scramble and the Republican guard is trying to
46:22fight to the death. Don't declare it over yet. Wars have a very bad habit of changing very quickly.
46:31Um, the, uh, we kind of already talked about that. Oh yes. Yeah. I mean, we're not going to go
46:37through this. Um, he talks about the six things that broke this morning that caused the ceasefire.
46:45One is the bill, depending on requested 200 billion and it might not pass. The fed, uh, kept rate steady.
46:51Allies revolted politely because no one's really helping. They're running out of, uh, fuel in Taiwan,
46:56which will affect global chip production. Um, uh, uh, there's, so there's tons of damage to, uh,
47:07to oil infrastructure in the region. And then rising gas prices are bad for the election in the fall.
47:12Um, and then all of this math is, you know, causing Trump to want to do this pause. Some people
47:21are
47:21saying it's because there's going to be the ground invasion. We'll know when we know sort of thing.
47:26So that's Iran. Um, we're going to move on and talk about a couple things quickly before we close
47:33things out this evening. Cause I'm not going to do a huge, a huge whole thing. Um,
47:40this evening I said, we're going to be at an hour. That's 10 minutes. Let's see what we can get
47:47through. So this post I thought was very interesting. The right is about immigration.
47:53Hmm. The civil rights act. No traditional values. Hmm. The left is right about healthcare is a scam.
48:01Big corporations screw the public. Food and water supplies being poisoned. Wages suck.
48:06The libertarian right is right about the exploding national debt crisis.
48:10War in general is a racket. Distrust of FBI, CIA. The far right is right that Jews are destroying our
48:16country internally. We want no more Jewish wars. The far left is right that Jews are destroying
48:20Palestine and the Middle East through a humanitarian crisis. We want no more Jewish wars. You will
48:25essentially need a nationalist dictator to meld all the correct things together and save the country,
48:31which the current system cannot do by design.
48:38Most of this is not true. I, in terms of, I wouldn't agree with it. Um, on the face,
48:49all of these are good ideas. Well, saying that the civil rights act should be gotten rid of is not
48:54a
48:55good idea. You're disenfranchising citizens in your own country. Um, I wonder what part of immigration he
49:01thinks the right is right about because I may or may disagree. Traditional values, no. Um, you know,
49:08some of these other things are, are helpful, but the Jews are destroying our country internally is
49:13not true in the vast majority of, of cases. Um, however, if you want to get a sense of who
49:22reads this sort of thing and what they think, I'm going to invite you to check out the first comment,
49:26which is, at Grok, which historical leader best fits the description of addressing all the above
49:31points, name only, and it names Adolf Hitler. Welcome to Elon's Twitter, X thing. Um,
49:41and, uh, I don't, uh, I don't know that we would want to live in a country where we harmonized
49:49all of
49:49these things. I mean, if you're a very particular person, I'm sure this has a great deal of appeal
49:55to you, but for a lot of us, it basically means some combination of disenfranchisement. Because
50:01here's the thing, if you get rid of the civil rights act and you can openly disenfranchise
50:05people, fixing health care is not going to matter because people are going to be disenfranchised.
50:10You know, fixing the food and water is not going to matter because I'm not going to be able to
50:12afford it.
50:13You know, the distrust of FBICAA, that's cool, but you're disenfranchising everybody.
50:17Like, like that, that's where this whole thing, like, again, there's some of these things was
50:23kind of like, okay, that would be cool. You know, traditional, traditional values. Okay.
50:28We're getting, we have no fault divorce. Women can have a bank account or a credit card,
50:31all this type of like how, you know, how, how, again, and this is what the, this is why this
50:36never happens because nobody necessarily wants to go back to living that way, but they'd like
50:43the society that they thought produced that. And yes, we do need to do something about the
50:49national debt. War in general is a racket, especially if you're a shareholder of a major
50:53defense corporation. Yeah, we probably shouldn't trust the FBICAA very much given their track
50:57record. I don't think we need to be anti-Semitic in this whole conversation. And yeah, we need
51:03universal health care. Yes, big corporations screw the public by lobbying for legislation that
51:06benefits them and no one else. Wages, that is all true. You know, but when I, immigration
51:12depends. I might be with you on immigration. I might not be depending on how he thinks that
51:18should be addressed. You know, the idea of quote unquote, no more Jewish wars. Sure. No
51:24more wars for Israel. Anyway, we need to defend ourselves and worry about our own problems.
51:28Yes, sure. Okay. But this is, this is the type of, of thinking that is, this is the type of
51:36thinking and the type of narrative that's so common in political discourse, especially online right
51:41now. And I don't think anybody really wants to live in a society where all of these things are
51:49harmonized because a lot of people get left out in the cold. For many people, that's a feature,
51:56not a bug. Um, I'm going to come back to that in a second. Um, oh, this is the feel
52:06good story.
52:07Let's do the feel good story, shall we? Um, so this one went viral this morning and it's very cute.
52:18It's straight out of Homeward Bound. These dogs, this is in China. These dogs were stolen from their
52:25owners in the dog meat trade, illegal, but it still exists. And these seven dogs escaped their
52:34captors and they traveled 17 kilometers back to their home led by a precocious corgi. If you can
52:40believe it, this was some video of the dog standing on the side of the road, trying to get away
52:47traveling as a pack in a group. So it was all very, very cute. And, um, it took place in
52:55Shenzhen,
52:56uh, Zhilin province in China. And yes, this is straight out of Homeward Bound. Seven dogs stolen
53:02from their owners have gone viral after escaping an illegal transport truck and making their way home.
53:07They were taken, but they never stopped finding their way back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A hundred million
53:11dollars, you'll make a fortune. Um, I, those are just a feel good story that I wanted to do because
53:16it was fun. We might talk about it on the living joke on Wednesday too, but, um, gap, it was,
53:23it was,
53:24it was fun. Um, and, uh, oh yeah. Why did I, why did I say this? Oh, this, now this
53:31is interesting.
53:32I might save the Epstein, uh, uh, story with Michael Wolff until next week because my mouth
53:39is dry. I'm a little tired. So we might just end on, um, on the energy crisis because what's this
53:49tab?
53:51Uh, oh, the antitrust division getting gutted. That's important. We can do it next week. I'll
53:56save those for next week. We're going to stop on this little, on this little carousel on Instagram.
54:02So we've gone through Iran, we've gone through the plan and Trump and all this type of thing.
54:07This is an interesting sort of thing of what I think you need to be prepared for.
54:12Absolutely morbid black comedy that the U.S. government is removing sanctions on Iranian,
54:15on Russian Iranian oil in 2026 and was part of any celebrated peace deal or diplomatic normalization
54:20that is a last ditch effort to soften the blow of a historic energy crisis caused by a U.S.
54:25war.
54:26Um, IEA urges work from home measures as a way to mitigate oil price pressure on consumers.
54:32Um, the next lockdown will occur because nobody can afford fuel. No need for another pandemic. You
54:37just make commuting impossible. Um, airlines drop contingency plans over jet fuel shortage fears.
54:43Aviation executives said they were struggling to get assurances about the availability of fuel
54:46beyond the next month as war in the Middle East threatened supplies and drove up prices.
54:50Um, there's demand. The International Energy Agency, um, is calls for demand cuts amid largest
54:56supply shock. Uh, IEA calls on governments worldwide to urgently reduce oil demand as
55:00escalating conflict in West Asia and the effect of closure of the Strait of Hormuz triggered the
55:04largest supply shock in modern history. U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February have
55:08pushed oil prices above $100 per barrel and analysts warn they could climb as high as $200 if
55:13disruptions persist. The Strait carries 20% of the world's oil flows and its closure streams
55:17markets despite the release of 400 million barrels from emergency reserves.
55:22The IEA urges immediate demand cutting measures including remote work, reduced speed limits,
55:27increased use of all the transport, and limits on car usage in major cities. The agency also
55:31recommends cutting air travel, particularly business flights, which could reduce jet fuel demand
55:35by up to 15%. Several countries have already implemented similar policies, echoing strategies
55:39from the 2022-2023 energy crisis as governments ease pressure on fuel consumption and prices.
55:46Um, and it goes along in terms of refineries. Um, oil, all oil, gas, wells, refineries,
55:52petrochemical plants, ports, and other critical energy infrastructure across West Asia and the
55:56Caucasus, as well as all takers, will soon be destroyed. That's not true. Um, based upon a ground
56:04invasion, that is unlikely, but yes, that could definitely happen if this keeps going. Um, I did love
56:10this one. Trump is doing more to destroy the fossil fuel industry and smash the sources of wealth
56:14that fuel inequality than the wildest socialist eco-terrorists could ever dream of.
56:19Um, oh yes, this goes into the hydrogen and everything. Long story short is
56:25there's an energy crisis that's starting. Um, plan accordingly, plan appropriately, um, you know,
56:35if gas is still cheap where you are, now might be a time to fill your tank, um, you know,
56:42lay in food,
56:42this type of thing. Um, and maybe don't plan on traveling because we might not be able to
56:48for very much longer. Now, here's one of the nice things about living in the United States.
56:52We are oil independent. We are a net exporter of oil, have been since 2013. The shock will not be
56:58as bad here, but as it propagates itself around the rest of the world, it could get very difficult.
57:04And we still have the fertilizer problem and the helium problem and all the other things that I
57:08mentioned. So, it's the top of the hour. I'm tired, mouth tired, throat dry. I'm going to sign off.
57:14My name is Cameron Cowan. This is the Cameron Journal News Hour. Thank you so much for watching.
57:18Please find me online, cameronjournal.substack.com or cameronjournal.com,
57:23at Cameron Cowan on Twitter, uh, LinkedIn, Facebook, at Cameron Journal on TikTok on Blue Sky.
57:30Um, I thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. And I'll see you Wednesday for The Living
57:35Joke.
57:35Connor and Will be here. We're going to talk about some fun stuff with gaming and all this
57:38sort of thing. I just got back into seeing Skylines, and I'm going to talk about it.
57:42Um, and then, uh, I'll see you next Monday for the Cameron Journal News Hour.
57:46The newsletter comes out Saturday. Go sign up now and get it delivered directly to your inbox.
57:51All right. Talk soon, everyone. Good night. Bye-bye.
58:05Bye-bye.
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