Badlands Media - Geopolitics with Ghost Ep. 111: Ayatollah Pivot, Putin at SPIEF & Hunter Biden - 6/5/26

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Ghost opens episode 111 with Trump's Air Force One gaggle, walking through Trump confirming the Netanyahu F-bomb call, comparing AI wealth sharing for Americans to Chavez's oil nationalization, and delivering the line of the week on the Strait of Hormuz: oil is flowing at $97 a barrel and it should have been $300. The biggest shift comes when Trump tells reporters he would be honored to meet the new Ayatollah, calls him probably a professional, and implies the press may have lied about him the same way they lie about Trump. Ghost maps out how this, the uranium entombment admission, the State Department killing Israel's Somaliland play, and Putin's SPIEF defense of Trump all add up to a coordinated squeeze on Netanyahu. Hunter Biden's viral X account gets its moment: the January 2021 hot mic plea deal clip, his posts torching Jake Tapper, Jared Kushner, and Eric Trump, and Ghost's cooperating witness theory. SPIEF closes the episode with Putin's multipolar world speech, Saudi Arabia as guest of honor signing 30 Russia agreements, the Russia-Uzbekistan nuclear plant launch, and Kirill Dmitriev announcing the signing of the Trump-Putin Alaska tunnel design agreement with a mysterious Asian partner now confirmed.

The Badlands, one of the Badlands, explain those Badlands. That's a hell of their name. All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the show. Geopolitic and Ghost. This is Badlands Media. I am your host, Gordon McCormick, the Ghost of Base Patrick Henry.

Today is June 5th, 2006. Let's get the chat up on screen. Let's check in on the chat. because I don't check in on the chat enough. I always say that, but I just kind of barrel away. I just want to make sure that everyone's alive. Somebody's drowning in there, and that, of course, I'm not muted.

And I'm not. So it's a good day. It's a good start. It's a good Friday. So, yeah. Welcome to the show. We got plenty to talk about. Lots happening.

Even more significant, I think, developments that generally I don't think are really appreciated by the general zeitgeist. Not that I'm shocked at this point. I feel like things happen and because of the way I look at things and the way that I'm viewing it and the research I've done and just I guess maybe some of the bias I hold, I'm like very, very encouraged by the things that I see happening. And then I'll post about it and people will black pill or just be like,

yeah, that's just opium. It's like, man, I guess maybe it is. It could be. I mean, maybe I try not to get, uh, to indulge that. I try not to get carried away with, um, you know, uh, fantasy, so to speak, right? And like fantastical ideas of what may happen. But, um, you know, I think, I think I've maintained a pretty consistent perspective over the past few years of what we were going to see happen. Um, which was Trump basically team up with the Muslims. That was like my specific view. My specific view was that we would see Trump team up with the Muslims in the Middle East to shut down Israel, you know, shut down their warmongering as part of the sovereign alliance.

The sovereign alliance being the bigger network, you know, behind all of it. And I, you know, that's exactly what I think we're seeing happen. before we get to that before we get to the Iran stuff and all the interesting developments there because we've been starting the past couple of shows with that let's go to I was listening live it was still live when I was

I believe it's still live now when we went live but Trump's doing a gaggle on Air Force One en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and so this is audio only but I stopped it at a point that I thought was interesting where he made some interesting points.

You know, a lot of this stuff, it's like, they'll just, he'll sit there and he'll kind of like bullshit with the press a bunch. And, like, you know, they were talking about the New York Knicks, because it's the NBA finals or the NBA, yeah, NBA finals. And I think it's game three. And I guess he's going to that game. And so they're talking about like basketball, like NBA and all that. And it's like, okay, you know, we don't need to listen to that.

But he did start getting into. into the stuff with domestic politics and the Republican Party. And this is a geopolitical show. But I do think that as the point I've made in the past and very recently, I do think that Trump is using geopolitics to manipulate domestic politics because those two things are directly connected. They're always connected, of course. But I think in this moment and time in American history, our government is completely compromised. and the political class that controls our government ostensibly is actually controlled by foreign interest.

That's not really a radical view. I feel like that was something that the general zeitgeist, like MAGA was saying 10 years ago. It's just that 10 years ago, the idea was that China was controlling our government or, you know, Russia was controlling our government or whoever, right? And now that it's becoming very, very clear that it's actually Israel that controls our government. And specifically the Israeli diaspora. I think we have to be very clear about that. The diaspora, and I always use the capital D because I consider it like the elite, like the Jewish elite, who many of whom, I think I would assume all of whom have Israeli citizenship, but don't necessarily live in Israel, right? And aren't necessarily connected to it directly.

They care about it, of course. But that's obviously a major influencing factor on our government. And the more that that has become obvious and is coming to the surface, I've noticed more people getting triggered, right, who maybe before had more of a, I don't know, trust the plan, 5D chess kind of view. And the more that this is coming to the surface, I'm just noticing more and more people like teetering towards rage quitting, especially with this Ayatollah Iran development that we're going to look at in a minute. there are a lot of people getting triggered over that and it's funny and again I think that is people putting their own preconceived notion of what is what the world is and what's right and what's wrong and what you know how they see the world based on a very skewed and uh informed misinformed perspective a lot of that misinformation coming from the enemy coming from the mainstream

media uh and just a lifetime of consuming that kind of news um and even when people recognize that the MSM is the enemy, the media is the enemy of the people, they still, I think, struggled to break away from all the narratives that the media has spun up over the past 40 years. So with that said, let's play some of this. And I was let it play for a few minutes. You know, Trump's going to rail on the Republicans a little bit, and then we'll talk about it. And in the meantime, we're having great success with Iran. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon.

They're in no position to have a nuclear weapon. Senator Tillis said you won't support Todd Blanche's confirmation unless Todd Blanche condemns January 6th. Do you have a reaction to that? Senator Tillis is a loser. That's why he didn't run. He didn't run because I wouldn't support him. And he's just an angry man because he's not going to be a senator and he won't.

He wasn't respected in the Senate. He fought a lot of people. He fought beat HECSeth, beat HECSET, turned out to be a gem. turned out to be a gym. Now, Senator Tillis is a loser. He's still cold and he's an angry man because I basically, he was forced to leave the Senate because I wouldn't support him and he quit. So now he's trying to make trouble by, you know, opposing anybody. Todd Blanche is a brilliant guy who everybody likes and everybody respects. And Tillis is always like, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. He should have done it before when he was a senator. He would have got wiped out in a race.

But he needed my support and I said I can't give you my support. He's not qualified. He's not good for the position of Senator. I didn't hear about what he did with John Blanche. John Blanche is fantastic. For all the AI companies potentially taking these equity stakes, have you spoken to Sam Altman or any other anthrax? There's a concept out there.

There's so much money and is so big that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public. American public where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies. And I will tell you, yeah, I have spoken all of them. There's something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public. And we'll look into that. We are looking. I actually have a meeting scheduled in the very short, very near future with, did you know that, with all of the companies?

And we're talking about it where the American people can benefit from the success of AI. And by doing that, they can like it better. Because we're leading China. We're leading everybody in the world with AI. And we want to keep it that way. It's probably the biggest industry maybe that we've ever seen. Which companies in the meeting? All of them.

Okay. So I'm going to let it play for a few more minutes. But let me just, and I don't know, is it easy to hear the audio? Is the audio coming through? let me know if it's not. That right there, what he just explained, is going to confuse a lot of people, I think, or some people. Because, again, going back to what I just said before

about the misinformation and the gas lighting and the propaganda that we've all been exposed to throughout our lives by the media, where they create Hagellian dialectics, they create false binaries, and then they trap us in these false binaries where you have to pick one side or the other. And typically what happens is that it's not that you necessarily align with one side. It's that you view one side as evil or wrong or morally wrong or whatever.

And so therefore, you by default end up on the other side. The perfect example is, of course, is the communism capitalism paradigm, right? So you look at communism, you recognize that communism is inherently evil. Socialism is inherently evil. I don't know. I would highly recommend y'all go listen to Balin's book. book club. I was listening to it yesterday with Ash and Brian. They're doing the creature from Jekyll Island, which is the story, the creation of the Federal Reserve and just kind of like an

analysis of the Federal Reserve and analysis of the whole situation. And as they were explaining, they're actually reading through the book and then like talking about it. So they're like if you listen to each episode, you actually get to listen to the book as they're reading it. And yesterday, they were reading through the part that talks about how the Federal Reserve and the central banking system was actually created to implement a globalist system of socialism across the world and basically subjugate all the people under communism, but put it with a veneer of capitalism. So then people will inherently and support it because they would recognize the Soviet Union and the Cold War and all of that, you know, that that dialectic and oppose it. And so, well, then we have to be on the side of the free markets. and then but it's not really free markets it's a it's a fake financial system where as they explain in the book and on the show um the the fiat currency situation we're basically funding our own

subjugation right because uh we print money we then use it our country uses it to basically buy goods from other countries right um the other countries you're actually the ones getting screwed because they're they're being given dollars that are increasingly worthless. In exchange, they're sending us goods that they're manufacturing, right? So we're getting the goods, we're getting the material wealth. And then because they're holding our dollars, that slows over time the inflation. So the inflation, we don't notice the inflation. Now, in recent years, right, people have been abandoning the dollar. There have been other, you know, there have been some cataclysms that have occurred. And so the inflation is now becoming much, much more apparent.

But that's, I think that is going to, and as they explained in the book, that's going to become more aggressive. Because as more and more people exit a dollar and realize that the dollar is doomed, that inflation is going to accelerate. And that's a real problem. That I would hope that Trump has a soft landing plan for that. But again, do your own research and figure that out because that's something that we've all talked about for years and G money's talked about it and others. Yeah, I mean, it's a bad situation. But the point is that the capitalism that you've been sold throughout your life is actually being used to implement socialism. And you've seen that progressively happen over the decades.

And the Republican Party is very much, very complicit in it. Like they are the ones who brought the Chinese to the World Trade Organization. They are the ones who brought, you know, opened up the markets with China. I think Clinton was the one who technically maybe signed it. But Kissinger and Nixon met with them first in 1972. Yeah. And so it's when Trump sits there and he talks about the American people and the American public becoming a partner with these AI companies and basically getting an ownership stake in it, the opponents of that are going to say, well, this is. communism. This is socialism. This is the government being invested in a private or a private

entity, a private corporation. These are not private corporations. These are publicly traded companies, number one. Technically it's still private, you know, it's still considered the private sector, right? But it's important to note a few things. Number one, all these companies were financed with tax dollars at some point. Most of them were DARPA startups. Most of them were started up, you know, spun up by the CIA, spun up by, you know, military funding, those kind of things. That's how they started, right? And then they became private sector, you know, corporations, like enterprises. So that our money, I think, funded a lot of this stuff anyway, like Google and Facebook and all that. I mean, AI in general, all the things that built us towards AI,

we were funding that anyway. We've heard Howard Lutnik since he, since he began in this administration, talk about that investment, how the American people have financed a lot of this stuff. And then a few oligarchs have basically benefited from it, plus the shareholders from the specific companies. And it's time for the American people to get their equity stake. If you view AI as a natural resource moving forward, because at this point, it kind of is a natural resource, right? It's something that is going to generate energy. It's going to generate wealth. it's going to generate, you know, it's going to be used to make goods, not just tangible goods,

but also intellectual goods. If you think of it like that, it's not too different than the way that I think Nicholas Maduro and Hugo Chavez view the oil in Venezuela or Mogadig viewed the oil in Iran in 52, where those resources belong to the people of those countries, right? And so the people of those countries should benefit from the exploitation, you know, the extraction and the use of those resources. Again, you can view that as socialism, communism, but that's not the socialism communism that you've been sold throughout your life. The socialism communism, the Bolshevik communism that you've been sold throughout your life is the idea of extracting wealth from the rich, from the people who are producers, not just the rich, but even the middle class. and then taking that wealth and transferring it to people who don't work.

That's the socialism, communism that you've been sold, you've been told about, like, eat the rich, basically, which the Bolsheviks literally did in 1917, where they killed all the rich people and took their money. That's not what this is. This is taking a resource that's already existing. At this point, it's AI that's already existing, right, that we financed that is going to generate more wealth and generate more things, right? and then saying, all right, we're going to cut the public in on this. And the revenue that's produced from this and the benefits that are produced from this are not just going to go into the hands of a few tech oligarchs. It's going to go into the profits from that are going to go into the pockets of the public

and maybe be used to finance the government, maybe be used to finance public projects. So we don't need taxation. So we don't need to squeeze every dime out of the public. the current tax system is communism. That's the communism. I've seen figures where it's like 50% of your money is basically being taxed when you add up all the little places in your life where you're taxed. That's the communism. That's the transfer of wealth. So eliminating that tax system and replacing it with something with an alternative system, that's how you get out of communism. That's how you get out of socialism. And we have to come up with creative ways

to do that. And that's what Nicholas Maduro and Hugo Chavez were doing in Venezuela. It's one of the reasons that they were painted as bad guys by the American oligarchs, the globalist oligarchs. I figured that out months ago and have a very different view of all that now. And we have to have very clear eyes when we look at this stuff. So let's go back and let's keep listening to us. And now I want to look at a news article connected this. for the American people. You see, I mean, we're going to see sort of it's like you make them a partnership in this revolution.

It would be a beautiful thing. Senator Bernie... It would make him rich. Senator Bernie Sanders proposed this. 50% managed public-private partnership. I've been talking about it for the last year. But is it odd to be kind of on the same page with Senator Sanders? No.

No, actually, when Bernie Sanders was taking advantage of with Hillary Clinton and he, he was lost in the primaries. A lot of people think he didn't lose. I mean, he didn't lose. He lost two of them, right? He lost then and he lost the second time with Biden. But when Bernie Sanders lost, you know that I got many of his people. They voted for me. Because we are on an economic plan as far as economics is concerned. We have certain things that aren't that far apart. People are surprised. But many of the, if you'll take a look, many of the people that voted from Bernie Sanders, when he was no longer there to vote for, they went to me. I picked up a lot of his, a tremendous amount of his voters.

How many, how much oil have you gotten through the strait with the help of naval escorts? And are you asking, are you directing U.S. forces to guide those ships through the straight, more tankers through the street? A lot. I don't want to say how many, but a lot. A lot of oil is coming into our country. A lot of oil is coming into the world that people don't even know. about and that's why it's at $97 a barrel instead of $300 a barrel. And when that whole thing is straightened out, it shouldn't take long one way the other it's going to get done.

And when it's all straight down, you can have oil prices drop down to maybe even lower than they were. I would, you've heard me say this, I was in Iowa. And for a gallon of gasoline, it was at 185. That was three and a half months ago. Last year the FBI reopened it, last year the FBI reopened it, last year the I reopened its investigation into the cocaine found in the White House or the Biden administration. Have you been free from where that investigation stands?

No, but I might ask about it. I might ask you in the shelves where they found the cocaine, actually. I might ask about it. Have you made a decision on the arms sales to Taiwan, that package, the $14 billion? All right, let's pack it up there. And let's just real quick look at something. I've picked up on and a lot of other people have picked up on and that is a Hunter Biden's X account which is kind of like gone mega viral in the past few days

let's see I want to pull that up but I also want to pull up so I have his account right here and I failed to not have a lot of tabs open I have like a 100 tabs open. So hopefully this is not causing lag on the stream. But the other thing I wanted to pull up was in conjunction with, excuse me, Hunter Biden was Trump's true social. Because Trump, if I'm not mistaken, made a post about Hunter as well. Let me see. Yeah. Okay. So Trump posted this. I think this is, I'm pretty sure this is AI. This has got to be AI. I saw people posting a picture of this of him just drawing President Trump, and I couldn't tell if that was AI or not.

And then Trump posted this picture. At the top, it now says greatest president. And so I couldn't tell if the original one was AI or not. Or if you actually posted a picture of himself, let's check his account. If he actually posted a picture of himself drawing Trump, let me see if I don't think he did. no no no so this is the picture the picture is like it looks like a cheetah he's like drawn a cheetah and then somebody's gone in there and uh and replaced it so let's just look at some of hunter

biden's post because you know we were talking about this in the balance chat last night and i think the the consensus among us is that we think hunter biden is a cooperating witness we think that he cut a deal um a while back and i believe i might even have a clip of that that somebody shared. Let me see. That would be right here. Yeah, Chris shared that. Okay, so here's a 25 second clip.

I don't know when this is from, but it's a hot mic moment from, it looks like January 29, 2021. So this is like nine days into the, that's when this was posted to the YouTube at least, so nine days into the Biden administration. Let's listen. Yeah, so if you didn't catch that,

let's listen again. It tried to jump to a Rand Paul clip. I don't want a Rand Paul clip YouTube. That's not what I asked for. Let's listen to that one more time. This is real. This is not like AI. This is

like a hot mic. I guess Hunter was miced up and he just started talking. I remember this happening and being like, everyone was like, this is really weird. This seemed very intentional. Where he says I cut a deal. This is Hunter Biden saying this or at least everyone thinks it's Hunter Biden. It sounds just like him. I just agreed

to and then this kind of volume is off on Biden. Okay, I just got a text. Thank you for the person who's texted me that. And it says your browser has lost connection to your share screen. That is so annoying. I'm so sorry. I don't know why Stream Yard does that. That was not me. That was Stream Yard. Let's try it again.

I'll play it one last time. It's only 25 seconds. But take a listen. This is the real audio from like a White House Oval Office press briefing. President Harris and I were joined by members of our COVID-19 team, response team. Dr. Tony Fauci, our chief COVID medical advisor, Javier Bucera. Excuse me, our nominee for Secretary of Health.

So just so you know my life, as we're waiting to do this, I just agreed to. Dr. Rochelle Walenski, she's going to be the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So he says, just so you know, I've just agreed to. and then like the volume drops significantly, but then you can still hear he says a plea sentence to and then the volume drops again and then you can't really make out what he's saying. But you clearly hear him say,

I just agreed to a plea sentence. So, and that was, I mean, it sounds just like Hunter. So that was weird. That was at the very beginning of Biden's like nine days into the Biden term. And I don't know why I'm getting, why am I getting two stop share? Yeah, okay.

I was getting two share screens, but let's look at now. So then you get Trump's post of Hunter drawing the greatest president portrait, which wasn't real AI. But then here's some of the posts that Hunter's been making. These have been getting, I mean, look at this, 9 million engagements, 16 million engagements, you know, millions and millions of engagements every post he makes. And some of these posts, I mean, we were talking about this. Some of these posts are actually objectively funny.

and again Hunter Biden could be a scumbag. That stuff could be, some of that could be, you know, exaggerated. I don't know. I'm not certainly not defending Hunter Biden, but some of the stuff he says here is interesting. Let's see. So he has a post from May 20th. That's like his first post.

He's probably deleted all his other post. And he has a post from May 21. Then he has a post from May 23rd, almost seven years clean and sober, not a victory lap, just a fact to anyone. in the fight right now. It gets quieter, not easier, quieter. And the quiet, you find out who you actually are. That's the part they can't take from you.

And then May 24th post, and then the May 27th post is the Cheetah one. And he's talking more about recovery. And then May 29th post. And then June 1st post, seven years sober to bay. And then he kind of just starts going on a tweet storm. This was like two days ago. Gratitude isn't just for the good times,

the real practice is finding it in your worst moments. And then people started like, I mean, obviously people were responding to him and like attacking him. And so he says, let me get this straight. Jake Tapper is focused on attacking my mom. Jared and Ivanka are building a private island paradise on Albanian protected land. John, Don Jr. married the daughter of Epstein's banker and a startup. His fund backs just got a record $620 million. Pentagon loan.

Eric is taking an Israeli drone company public for $1.5 billion in the middle. of a war with Iran that nobody wanted. And I know, quote, but what about your paintings, Hunter? In quote. And he says, please. And then, because I guess Jake Tapper must have been talking about all that.

And he says, Trump hasn't made a public appearance in eight days. This is two days ago. This is after an unscheduled visit to the hospital because he likes getting checkups. Thank God, Jake Tapper, or as I like to call him, the Brick Tamlin of his generation. That's the guy, I think, from,

I think it's Steve Karel, from Anchorman, if I'm not mistaken, kind of like the retarded guy in the movie, is on the case Huntingtown Clues in a book about my mom's experience his first lady four years ago. So he's crushing Jake Tapper. And then he says, yesterday, what the F timeline are we on? Someone called me the Maga Whisper, and I'll gladly take the title, left, right, D, or R, we all want the same things. We're being divided on purpose by the Epstein elite oligart class because

As long as we're at each other's throats, they get fat and rich off of our misery. The second we figure out we agree on more than we disagree, they're done. Love your neighbor, be yourself, radical honesty. No fuck's given. No fuck's taken. Pardon the language. Everything else is just noise, but still, F. Jake Brick Tamlin Tapper on any timeline.

So again, just crushing Jake Tapper. And then he says, wait, did he just? say checkered past I'm 28 felony six bankruptcies and nepteen bromance short of the checkered pass okay also on a serious note I would like Peter Dushi and I think he intentionally misspelled his name instead of Ducey said Ducci to please ask the president when I get my royalty check for those wears Hunter hunter T-shirts it's been four years now and he keeps telling me the check is in the mail by the way where's Hunter is like a like I guess Trump was selling their shirts during his campaign or whatever that's a

Qism. That's from the Q posts. Where's Hunter? Where's Hunter? Where's Hunter? So Hunter Biden is now like Q posting. And then he says the MAGA whisper strikes again and he has a clip of Trump. I have a question about Hunter Biden. He's on social media now and he has suggested maybe joking, I don't know, that he could run for president in 2028. How would he do Hunter Biden in a 2028 Well, you would think that, you know, pass has something to do with winning an election, and I would say as best is not the greatest. Where's Hunter? Remember my wears Hunter, it became the number one shirt anywhere in the world for about three weeks.

I'm not going to say that. I'm sure, you know, hey, if the guy from Maine can do well, I guess Hunter could do well, too. Because the guy from Maine is a basket case. And I would say, worse than him is the one from Texas. That looks like Alfred E. Newman. I would say that if he can do well, maybe Hunter can do well. I'm not sure it would be pretty close as far as I'm concerned. So Alfred E. Newman, I'm pretty sure that's the guy from like Mad Magazine, like the ginger kid from Mad, like the cartoon from Mad magazine.

And so five hours ago, Hunter Biden says things most Americans agree on groceries, costs too much. Tariffs suck and make no sense. I don't agree with that. Congress and presidents shouldn't trade stocks. the debt is a mess. The border should be secure, but legal immigration is good. Endless wars are stupid, especially ones that nobody wants and have never been explained. Americans are exhausted. AI is like my new best friend that also might be trying to take my job, my ability to think for myself and my humanity in the process.

Yo, like I love you, but WTF, I still love you. Diversity is actually awesome. The opposite is boring AF. Canadians are super effing cool. Mexicans are chill. Putin isn't a good guy looking out for the America. America's best interest. Rocky, Four, and Miracle are great movies. Good neighbors are a blessing. Freedom of religion and coexistence.

Yeah, okay, so he just keeps going. He does say Epstein didn't hang himself. He does say that and that. He says the Cowboys suck. Okay, I can agree with that. I'm talking about the football team. And then he says, the way he closes it with me,

laptop vaccines, transgenders and sports, pronouns, that's the joke. Okay, and then there's like really some of the funny stuff he's posted has come from his replies. So let's see. These are like we're the savage ones and then we'll move on from this, but I do want to just take a minute and kind of laugh at this. Okay. I think this is the one that I'm thinking of. Okay. So in response to that timeline post where he's like, what timeline are we on? Someone called me the Maga Whisper. Someone responded and

said, um, excuse me, but aren't you decidedly part of the elite oligart class? You're the son of a career senator, former vice president and president who received the most legally overbroad pardon, which may not even be constitutional in the history of the United States. Sounds pretty effing elite to me. And his response to that was, do I look like I'm part of the elite oligart class? This was taken at a super eight motel off I-95, by the way. And it's the famous picture of him selfie of him smoking a cigarette. I mean, the self-awareness is what makes it funny. Let me see. There's one other one that I

There's one other one that The one that he posted about the meth pipe Well here's one about BB Netanyahu Okay so someone says Ask some thoughts on the entire fiat and financial system being Unicorn fart dust and his response is fiat is a sham The banking class is corrupt decentralized digital currency And the blockchain are the inevitable future

And the incumbents will fight it to the death And then somebody responds says, of course, nothing on Israel, and his response to that is, I have lots to say about the atrocities being committed by BB Net and Yahoo in the name of the Israeli people. It must end, and there must be a two-state solution. There must be a way for Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace. The murder of innocence is murder, period. And then I'll just, I have it saved in our private chat, so I'll just read it to you. I can't find the exact post, but I shared it in our private chat.

It says, it says, he says. He says, I know this may sound petty. He's responding to somebody posting like a picture. I think a picture of him passed out like the pipe in his mouth, that picture. He says, I know this may sound petty, but I can't stand it when people put Photoshop, when people Photoshop a meth pipe in my mouth. A crack pipe doesn't have that little bowl at the end. This is why we can't trust AI.

Please make the appropriate edit. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So he's like quoting Trump. Like he's using Trumpisms. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Trump is actually like refusing to. slam Hunter. And the one thing we have to point out with the Hunter Biden pardon is, as I understand it, his pardon is the only one that Joe Biden actually signed himself. My understanding is every other pardon that was issued was signed by the auto pen, which means that technically, you know, if the, if the auto pin is proven and that's like discredited and all those are nullified, assuming that Joe Biden's presidency isn't fully nullified and it may very well be, his pardon would be the one pardon that would actually stand. You know, so I find that interesting.

But if you already cut a plea deal, then the pardon is probably like superfluous, like redundant. So anyway, we'll move away from the Hunter Biden thing. I just thought that was interesting. I know, the Hunter Biden thing is very interesting. So now let's go and talk about the Republicans. So here's Newsweek. The Republicans revolt against Trump again with Save America, with Save Act votes spark Maga Fury.

Four Senate Republicans broke ranks on Thursday to thwart. an effort to pass to Save America Act, a sweeping election overhaul. Republican Senator Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, and Tom Tillis, joined the Democrats to strike down an effort to launch the bill to be nearly $70 billion package geared toward funding immigration and customs enforcement, ICE, and Border Patrol. It was yet another blow to the Trump-backed election package, which has been stalled in the Senate for months after the House passed a version of it in February on a near party line vote.

says if passed, the legislation would have required voters to show proof of identity, such as a passport or birth certificate when registering to vote and it would have taken effect immediately. The same four Republican senators thwarted the first attempt in April, which was sponsored by Senator John Kennedy. Their opposition and fundamental rebellion did President Trump's wish to pass the bill as a priority has angered some of the MAGO movement who have accused him of betraying the party. quote, I am beyond embarrassing that Republicans continue to block the Save America Act, Alabama. Senator Tommy Tuberville, a fellow Republican, wrote on X on Thursday. The four senators voting against the bill, quote, have not only betrayed their constituents. They are accomplices in Democrats' illegals first agenda. The people of North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, and Maine deserve better.

MAGA commentator, David J. Freeman, also known as Gunther Eagleman. Okay, don't need to quote him. On social media said the four senators vote was on. unbelievable. So point point is, is this is perfect. Like this is exactly what we expected. These people do not care about you and they are not going to save you from anything. They will not even pass. I mean, at Badlands, I'm not a part of like the election integrity circle, the people who are very, very well educated on that. That would be Ash. That would be Cancon. That would be Chris Paul. that would be John.

I mean, those four, I think, really have a strong handle on the election integrity stuff. But I do know that from all of our discussions that the Save America Act is not, passing the Save America Act does not save elections. It does do a lot to take us in that direction. It, you know, requires voter ID. It does a number of things to close up loopholes where elections can be stolen, but it doesn't fortify the elections and make them. full like bulletproof. These people won't even pass that though. They won't even like I think the concern that I've heard Chris and others say is that

the Save America Act was going to pass and then that would be credited as like, okay, we've saved elections. We can now move on and never talk about election integrity again. They didn't even do that. They won't even do that. So when we say the Republicans are the enemy, this is what I'm talking about.

I'm not talking about Republican voters. I'm not talking about earnest people because we have a lot of people in our audience who come to guards and talk to us about this. who have run for office locally and now fill positions in the quote unquote Republican party, the local GOP in their county. I'm not talking about those people. I'm talking about the people at the very top who control the party, right? And it's not even these four.

It's the people behind them, the handlers that control them, because what happens is that the party then can distribute funding to the primary candidate of their choosing. That primary candidate then gets millions of dollars that they can use to promote themselves. and whether or not the election is legitimate or not, even in the situation where the elections are legitimate, if one side has millions of dollars in funding and the other side doesn't, the guy with millions of dollars of funding who's gotten his name out everywhere is far more likely to get more votes than the guy who nobody knows about, right?

Because not only can he promote himself, but you can also put out disparaging attack ads on the other guy and make everybody, you know, sigh up everybody into hating the other guy. So that's how that's just one of the many ways that the system is rigged, even if you have legitimate elections and why the Republican Party, in my opinion, is the enemy. But, you know, if we're going to keep pretending that there are savior, I don't think we're going to get anywhere in terms of like saving the country. So that's why I wanted to talk about that. I'm going to move away from, you know, from the domestic stuff. I am going to continue on the interviews with Trump because yesterday Trump said some pretty.

significant stuff as it relates to Iran. So let's start talking about Iran. President Trump, which is crossing as we're heading in here. President Zelensky wrote a letter to President Putin. He wants the two of them to meet to hash out the end of the war in Ukraine because he thinks you are too busy with the war in Iran. Is he right? Well, I don't know. I'm glad that they're maybe talking about meeting. I think we had a lot to do with it. I know exactly what you are doing. But I think it would be great of them, man. They should get it done.

There's been a lot of talking about the Treasury putting your face on a $250 bill. Have you seen a mock-up of the Trump $250 bill? And if that winds up being currency, would you ever be able to... What just happened? No. I think it would be great of them. Okay, I'm sorry. Let me find the spot again. So that was Ducci, Peter Ducci, Ducey, rather.

That wasn't the clip that we were looking for, but I am going to talk about that story with Zelensky and Putin here in a minute. So just put that one in the back in the back of your mind. The one that we're looking for is, of course, the one that y'all have all heard. Here we go. All right, let's watch this. How about inch of that lands his cameras on it? We have about nine of them and they're on and we covered.

So if anybody even got near it, we would know what we had to do. And we heard you want to meet with the new Itoll, the new Supreme Leader. I don't want to meet, but if I did meet, I'd be honored to meet him. I'd like to see if we make a deal. But if we make a deal, it's possible that I would meet him. I'd be okay with that. What happened here in the U.S.? I haven't really heard too much about it.

I didn't suggest it, but some people have suggested it. happen to it be happened. I'd be respectful. Do you think because Epicuree killed his dad and his life and his kid that he's got hard feelings and wouldn't want to me? Well, I would say I'm not his favorite person. But with that being said, he's probably a professional. I don't know. He's probably a professional.

In some circles, he has a very good reputation, actually. You know, sometimes some people say bad, but a lot of people say bad about me. It's totally false, of course. On jobs. Tomorrow, the jobs report. Okay, that is a significant change in the rhetoric on the Ayatollah. And this comes right on the heels of Trump confirming the comments about Netanyahu, which I guess we haven't covered yet. I guess Ash and I covered it on Badlands Daily on Wednesday.

Let's see. I got this right here. So Trump confirms that he actually did say what he, what was reported he said about, about Netanyahu, and we'll just play that. I'll play that clip real quick because that's a big deal. Like, again, I wasn't, as I said on the last show on Tuesday, I wasn't sure, I wasn't sure what Trump was going to say. I wasn't sure was he going to back out of it.

Was he going to act, you know, was he going to kind of say, eh, it's not really quite what I said. Okay. But here's, here's, I'm sorry, share the screen. Here's what he said. Now, Axios reported that you had a phone call with B.B. Netanyar, he, the Prime Minister of Israel, in which you were angry with him.

You said, you effing crazy. What are you effing doing? I helped you stay out of jail. Is that true? Did you speak to him in those terms? I did. I always say angry. I was a little bit.

perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know, at some point I said, BB, we got to stop this, we got to stop it. But I have a very good relationship. We've done well, done well together. He always is. We could never have done it, but everybody knows that we could have never done it without the United States. But we've, we've, I've worked very well together. I like BB a lot. And I've worked very well with him. We had a, you know, I'm a wartime president. He's a wartime prime minister, very important part of the world. And I think we've done, you know, very well.

We've gotten along very well. So he did what I expected him to do. He, like, maintained, like he gave a diplomatic answer. Like he wasn't like, yeah, I'm done with BB. I'm never going to talk to him again. F him. Like I never expected him to say something like that. I also didn't expect him just to like shake his head and nod his head and just say,

yeah, like that's what happened. The only thing he really refuted was that was the tone of it that like he was he's like, well, I wasn't really that angry. I was perturbed. But I mean, she specifically asked him like F bombs, you said I kept you out of jail. Like, what are you doing? He didn't refute any of that. He didn't say, well, I never said, you know, I kept you out of jail.

He didn't like, so he's confirming that the words that were reported are what he said to Netanyahu. And again, I think this is a significant shift in their public relationship because this is the first time that I think. the public well it's not the first time there's been reports over the past year of him like expressing um you know like when he came out and said they don't know what the f they're doing when he was walking out to the helicopter to marine one at the end of the 12-day war when israel kept sending the jets after trump sent the b2 bombers so there's been a few moments like that but this is like a very significant shift where uh now it's really being seated that trump and netting yah who are not on the same page and he's and trump clearly says this is

got to stop. You got to stop fighting Lebanon. You got to stop fighting Hezboa. At some point, you just got to stop. And the problem is Netanyahu can't stop. And we have covered that ad nauseum on this show. So I'm not going to go down that that diet, you know, I'm not going to give you that that rant again. But he can't stop. He's now his allies and his enemies, his political enemies inside of Israel, are both pushing him deeper into war because his allies want, want greater Israel. They want the borders to be expanded. And his enemies are accusing him of being a chicken,

of being a chicken hawk. They're accusing him of being a wuss. That, oh, you're going to let Trump push you around. You're going to let that happen. And to that point, again, polls are probably faking gay, but I don't doubt that this sentiment probably exists.

And that would be this. From Clash Report. Ma'Arev poll, that's a media outlet in Israel, found that 62% of Israelis oppose allowing Trump to dictate Israel's military operations. And I think that that's probably true. I mean, I would expect pretty much any country to have that attitude. I mean, if you were asked, should a foreign leader dictate your military operations, I would expect more than 62% of Americans to say no, if they were asked about Netanyahu controlling our military operations. This doesn't surprise me. This is this is not like this doesn't really indicate anything specific about the Israeli people.

But it does from like just a optic standpoint, it does kind of give Netanyahu affirmation and confidence to continue forward and to say, you know what? We got to do what we got to do and we're going to keep fighting Hezbollah. And to that point, you know, Trump has been working. on a deal with has been working on a deal with hes below there was one other clip that since we're on this interview or not this interview but this um gaggle or whatever with the oval office gaggle with the press let's look at the uranium comment because i do have that article here question about the nuclear dust so the bombers go in they entomb a lot of this and rich, you're right?

Yeah. At this point, do you need a deal with Iran to go get it? Or have you thought about just a covert airing, send in the seals, send in the Rangers? But I didn't want to be Jimmy Carter. I didn't feel like being Jimmy Carter. So we did. Well, we thought about it right at the very beginning before you saw it. Before we did what we did, before we destroyed their entire military.

We thought about it. And I didn't want to be in a position where you had to, you know, to get it. get there, it's not like Venezuela, like you go in, you're there for a matter of minutes and you're out and everybody's waving goodbye as you, you know, take off and you brought the cargo back. This is different. You'd have to be there for two weeks. You'd need massive equipment. You'd have to airlift the equipment. And you know, you're in a war zone. And there was a time at the very beginning when we thought about doing that because they would have not been watching. But they would have found out. I mean, during a period of a week to two weeks, you know,

you would have, you would have had a major construction operation because that plane and more importantly, those people that operate those planes, including the mechanics, you know, that flew for 37 hours round trip. Think of that. And the tankers that refilled them four times. And what an operation was. Amazing. But we would have been, Peter, we would have been there for a period of from a week to two weeks. We would have gotten it. But I said, I don't like the idea of that. All of a sudden, they, you know, pinpoint.

They still had missiles left. That means they would pinpoint you and just keep lobbing them in until one gets through. And people would have gotten killed. So I didn't like it. We could get it right now. I don't think they could stop us if we wanted. But there's no reason to. It's in tomb.

You use a good word. It's in tomb. We also have cameras on it through Space Force. We have very powerful cameras. Every door is the door, you know where the doors go? They go to bad places. But every single place on those mountains is basically three. Because we also hit it with tomahawks after.

You know, after that, we hit it with tomahawk. Every inch of that lands is cameras on it. We have about nine of them. And they're on. And we covered, so if anybody even got near it, we would know what we had to do. And we heard that we'd meet with the new Ayatollah, the new Supreme Leader. Yeah, so that was the right before. So he makes the uranium comment.

And then he makes the Ayatollah comment. So let's just walk through all of that. This is like the Gaza Riviera comment, right? Because he came out February 4th or 5th of last year when Netanyahu visited. And he was like, yeah, we're going to clear everybody out of Gaza because why wouldn't we? you know, it's a, it's a just, it's all rubble. We'll temporarily put them off site. We'll rebuild Gaza.

It'll take five or ten years. And then we'll bring everybody back. And of course, the world was like, absolutely not. Gaza and Palestine were like, absolutely not, because they all know how that's going to go. The people will leave and they'll never be allowed back. And my knee-jerk reaction was this is a ruse. There's no way Trump actually means this. he's basically giving permission to all the Zionists to clamp down on this take and run with it and be like, yeah, of course we're going to expel, forcibly expel people from their land, which is the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing, which falls under the definition of genocide, at least my understanding of it.

He gave them permission, and then of course he walked it back later. He was like, yeah, we're not actually going to do that. That's not really practical. It's not realistic. same thing with this uranium thing like going and getting the dust was never practical you know if like assuming

all different possible scenarios like we bombed them we didn't really bomb it was all narrative let's just assume we did bomb them let's just assume that we did bomb them we did actually blow this this site up and we you know collapsed the the facility in on itself

and it's as Trump says entombed you can't just go in there and pull it out. I mean, it's not like you're walking into a, to, you know, you're walking downstairs and through a hallway and then you just grab it. I mean, it is under rubble. It is under, you know, which was already under rock, which was already underground. I mean, there's no way you're getting that. How are you going to find it all? Like there's just no way. It's not practical. While, of course, the people there don't want you there, like a hostile war zone environment. Trump's right. It was never practical. The, the suggestion was never practical. The moment it was

suggested, I laughed about it. I was like, this is so silly. There's no way you're going to go get it. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. And yet Trump was talking about going and getting it. And then that gave permission to all, like Mark Levin and all these other people, Levine, whatever he said, how his name is pronounced, to say, yeah, let's go get it. And so now they're all disappointed. They've been rug pulled and they're freaking out because they're like, wait a minute, you said we were going to go get it.

Why aren't we going and getting it? But it was never practical to go get it. It was never a practical operation. That was never a practical idea. those people are just too stupid to really think about it and be like, well, yeah, I mean, you'd have to sit there with, like, construction equipment for weeks and, like, I mean, who's driving the construction equipment? Navy SEALs, right? I mean, who, like, realistically, who are you sending in, I mean, there's no covert operation that's lasting two weeks with construction equipment. It's just, the whole thing was very silly. If you, if you bought into it, shame on you, because you weren't using your discernment, you were just kind of like taking Trump at his word. He does this stuff all the time. And the Ayatollah is another example. You know, he said in them with Miranda Devine, the woman he was speaking to in the other clip About the Ayatollah, he was like well, you know, he's missing some body parts like that like he's missing body parts

Maybe he is maybe he isn't I don't know maybe the guy isn't even real well you know like we've we've never really heard of this guy until his father was killed and now all of the sudden you know he's gay like that that's become like confirmed now that he's gay a gay iatola that that that seems very very strange. It's a very silly WrestleMania, like soap opera narrative. But Trump has gone from basically talking about this guy being the most evil man on earth, which is how he's always been described, the Ayatollah, not necessarily this specific person, but the

office of the Ayatollah, his father has always been described as like the most evil, radical sociopath who cannot be reasoned with. He's a religious zealot. He wants to kill everybody. You know, if he gets his hands on a nuke, he's going to destroy Israel. If he could, he would nuke America and destroy America

despite the fact that he put a fatwa out, which is like a religious decree in 2003 saying that Iran could never possess a nuclear weapon because it was against the Koran and against their beliefs. Yeah, I mean, now all of a sudden, he's like,

hey, let's go ahead and play the clip one more time. We'll comment on it. I don't want to meet, but if I did meet I'd be honored to meet him. I'd like to see if we make a deal. But if if we make a deal it's possible that i would meet him i'd be okay with that happened here in the u.s way i don't know i haven't really heard too much about it i didn't suggest it but some people have suggested it if it happened to it be happened i didn't you know again ducy's the one asking trump right

and trump's kind of like yeah i mean i don't want to meet him but uh you know i'd be i would be honored to meet him like wow okay like you'd be honored to meet this guy that we've all been who's been described as like this crazy sociopath like murderous sociopath forever, him and his father. And then Trump's like, I'm not the one who's suggesting it, but other people have suggested it. So now all of a sudden we're getting information that people in his orbit have suggested that he go and mute the Ayatollah.

That's a new development. That end of itself is breaking news. Let's continue. I'd be respectful. I'd be respectful. After all the memes, right? After all the memes he's put out like mocking these people. people after you know making fun of the guy for being gay making fun of the guy for missing

body parts making fun of uh you know him and his father for like hiding out and being cowards after uh you know all the lego a i memes like videos that the iranian government its embassies have been putting out i mean the meme warfare between trump and the iranians have been has been on its surface on its face so disrespectful and now all of a sudden trump's like oh yeah i'd be respectful for what met like it'd be a great honor to meet this guy he's the least of a country. And then Ducey actually has a really good follow-up here. Because Epic Fury killed his dad and his life and his kid that he's got hard feelings and wouldn't want to me. I would say I'm not his favorite person. But with that being said,

he's probably a professional. I don't know. He's probably a professional. In some circles, he has a very good reputation. He's probably a professional. He's probably a professional. I'm probably not his favorite person. Yeah, I killed his whole family. But, like, you know, he's probably a professional. He can get over that. I'm probably not his favorite person. And in some circles, he has a great reputation. That's what he's going to say right here.

...actation, actually, you know, sometimes some people say bad, but a lot of people say bad about me. It's totally false, of course. And he finishes it by comparing himself to the Aitola and being like, yeah, you know, all these stories that we've been told about the Aitola. Everyone says all these bad things. But, you know, a lot of the media, these same people have said bad things about me. So maybe he's kind of implicated.

Maybe it's all fake news. Maybe we've been misled about who the Ayatollah is. Again, this is all implicit. He's not explicitly saying this, but reading between the lines, it's kind of the subtext that he's laying out there. He's creating a lot of uncertainty. Whereas before it was there was total certainty that the Ayatollah had to go. We had to have regime change. There's no way we could allow them to stay in power because they're radical zealots and they're going to pursue a nuclear weapon no matter what. And now all of a sudden he's backing off of that and he's like, yeah, you know what, maybe. Maybe we will go meet with him. Maybe we'll go have lunch. It would be a great honor to go have lunch at the Ayatollah. And what's interesting is going back to the Venezuela comment when he said, you know, it's not like Venezuela where you just go in for a few minutes and then you leave and everyone there is waving goodbye. I don't know if you caught that when he said that.

Everyone in Venezuela is waving goodbye because I'll remind you that they went and quote unquote kidnapped Maduro, right? And then Maduro's son held the Bible for Delci Rodriguez. right to be sworn in and then Maduro's son has given speeches and days after him being kidnapped being like my father left plans in place for when he left of what we had to do

we are following those plans to the to the T we're following those plans we are executing his will continuity of government Deli Rodriguez said the same thing Maduro is still the president of Venezuela we are like I'm just keeping his seat warm I'm just the interim president temporarily and then Trump suddenly starts describing Venezuela as like one of our greatest allies.

And, you know, Del Sviraig is a fantastic woman. Well, I mean, Maduro's son doesn't seem that upset that his father's gone. Like, I mean, he, not that he doesn't love his father. He seems to very much love his father, but he doesn't seem worried about the fate of his father. And Trump is sitting there describing the military operation, people waving goodbye as they're leaving with Maduro in their possession. Yeah, that's again, I think Trump is very intentional when he says this kind of stuff. I don't think he says this by accident. I think he says, and then people overlook it because they think Trump's kind of like a goofball.

And so they're like, well, you know, he's a goofball. He says stuff like that. He doesn't really mean it. Yeah, he says stuff he doesn't really mean all the time. But sometimes I think he's very literal and people just don't take him seriously because they think he's a goofball. So anyway, that is fascinating. Fascinating. Let's take a break.

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One more time, that's Badlandsmedia.tv slash strength. A link will be in the description below this video. And be sure to tune in for episode, go check out episode five of the America First Stories that can be found on a Badlands Rumble page for a behind the scenes look at this company with Jordan Sather. What is that? This is a smoking hot manly can. We got the Crawdads classic three pepper gourmet hot sauce, the sweet and spicy pickles.

Oh yeah, the ghost pepper peanuts. Go ahead. Have a handful. Ghost aren't even real, dude. Love these cans. Kids got it for me for father's death. I'm just going to use your bathroom real quick. Yeah, dude.

The bathroom stuff, you know. Dude, you're all right? Yeah, man. I'm great, man. Get another beer. Welcome back, everybody, to hour two of... Geopoulos with Ghost. I'm your host, Gordon McCormick.

The Ghost of Base Patrick Henry. This is Badlands Media, June 5, 2006. and we are going to keep moving along here. Before we do, I wanted to bring up Gart, which I always forget to do on my shows, but really excited to be heading back to Deadwood for the third time now, June 25th through 28th. And yeah, this is a great, this is one of our favorites because it's the town that we take over. And this one's going to be special because we are going there, and just days before President Trump will be there, or at least at Mount Rushmore,

which is adjacent to there. So we will certainly be at Mount Rushmore as well. Not unfortunately with President Trump, but days before for the America 250 birthday. So, yeah, and I think John said he's trying to get, I think there's like a way that you can get affiliation with the 250 stuff, but I don't know if that's going to end up happening. But anyway, go to Badlands Media.tv.tv.

We're going to be there again from June 25th to 28th. If you can't join us in person, make sure you pick up your virtual ticket because there'll be a lot of extras behind the scene stuff, you know, offstage shenanigans that will be filmed and put out there. And then there's also I saw, let's go ahead and pull this up. I think it's a good segue to something that I wanted to mention anyway. Our boy, Dmitri, or Karel Dmitriev, who is very hard to get in touch with. I've tried to figure out ways to send messages. If anybody from Russia is listening, please ask Kirill Jamitri have if I can interview him.

I would love to interview him. And if he wants to come to America, he can stay in my guest room. I have a guest room he can stay in as well. Not to be weird. But here is a post that he put out. Russia flag emoji, hockey stick emoji, America flag emoji on July 1st. And he is quote posting a Russian news outlet.

And the Russian. Russian news outlet is as a clip of I believe this is Robert A.G. The head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. Let's listen to this. Okay, it's in Russian. So we're going to listen. We're going to read it in English. It says, we, again, we must not forget hockey.

Of course, I'm very happy to declare. Let me see if. Now you speak in Russian. I'm very happy to declare that we will hold the first. hockey match between Russia and USA for the purpose to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the USA on July 1st. The hockey match will be held in Moscow. And we hope that in this way we will also contribute break the ice between Russia and in USA, which is now between us. So remember, Russia was banned from participating in the Winter Olympics last year.

was it last year two years ago whenever whenever there was one no it was this past wasn't this past winter it was this past winter that's right Russia was banned from participating in the winter Olympics so they their hockey team couldn't play there was also that

that like hockey tournament they did last year between it was like Canada United States and some Scandinavian countries all countries that are very good at hockey traditionally and like Norway Sweden I think

Denmark maybe and Russia was banned from that as well. So we were forced both times to play Canada in the final. And we lost, what was it? I think we lost to Canada in the tournament. And then we beat Canada in the Olympics, which is when it actually mattered. But we didn't get to play Russia,

which Russia, we probably would have played Russia because they would have been the better team probably. I mean, Canada has a ton of NHL players, but Russia's Russia. And they have a Vetschkin, ofetchkin, of course, is avechkin. So who you see on screen. So anyway, point is, this is happening right after Gart.

So, like, three days after Gart, this match is going to be happening in Moscow. And then three days after this match, we get the 250th birthday in out Mount Rushmore with President Trump. So, yeah, join us in Deadwood. It's going to be special. Get your tickets today at balancemedia.tv slash event. And Kareil Demetriev, we will just jump straight to. his news because he has other important news and that is not coming up why is why is that tab not there I'm hesitant now to play clips from the news brief because the clips

sometimes don't play very well but here it is says we will read the we will read the The screenings is in Russian. We will have news tomorrow. This is from yesterday. He says, we will have news tomorrow. We are signing an agreement that we will continue to design the tunnel. Therefore, the tunnel will be, we are designing the tunnel. This will be one of the largest infrastructural projects in our country.

And he's referring, of course, to the Trump-Puton tunnel, the one that's going to run across, run across. run across Alaska from Alaska to Russia. This was teased during this was teased during the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska last August, which by the way, when that meeting was happening, we were in Deadwood.

That was the last time we were in Deadwood was last August. While we were sitting on stage in Deadwood, Trump was sitting in a room with Putin in Alaska and this tunnel project was being highly promoted by Carrillo-Demitriev. So there's something weird about Deadwood and Krell Dmitriev in Russia and digging tunnels in Alaska.

So I think this means we need to invite Dmitriev to Deadwood. So that is an open invitation. I haven't run that by John, but I'm just going to go ahead and exercise executive power and authority and say that we will accept you if you like to come. You can have my hotel room. You know what? We can bunk up. I think the hotel rooms that I normally get have two beds.

So we can be roommates. You can sleep in the other bed. It won't be weird. Mr. Dmitriev and yeah, it would be a lot of fun. I think I think you would enjoy the cowboy town of Deadwood. It would be a great way to experience American culture is to come to Badlands Media Gart event in Deadwood. Let's play this other clip of him speaking about this. I believe this is at Spief and we're going to talk,

uh, Steve, Jordan Spieth. Um, Spief. We're going to talk about Spief next. So he says, this is from today. And he says, today we signed an agreement on the tunnel design and understandably there's so much close attention to this as we know the project was discussed back in the czarist era then under

Stalin there was an idea to create a kennedy bridge truskov they wanted to call it the truscoff kennedy bridge uh the the drusba bridge now and now we have actually set a task for the designer we see that the new projects and solutions can dramatically reduce costs. And we study that is the last step is the technique of economic justification. We've even attracted the interest of a number of colleagues from, let's say, Asia, who will participate in the design. I wonder who that is. So we'll keep you informed about the next steps.

Yeah, I wonder who that third partner is in Asia, guys. I think it's probably Xi. I think it's probably China. and Coral Dimitria, by the way, when we were in Deadwood last year, was also talking about joint, like in the days leading up to it, joint projects. He's like, you know what? We don't really consider projects with Russia. I mean, I'm sorry, projects with China and project with America is two separate things. We kind of consider them all one thing.

Like, it's all three of us working together on these infrastructure projects. That's what he said. And that was right after Russia and China had announced plans to build a moon base, based on the moon. at the same time, Space Force and I guess NASA had also announced plans to build their own base on the moon. So you got that. So which I think Dimitri was pretty much saying is yeah, this moon base is being built by all three of us. That was kind of the underlying subtext. And yeah, let's real quick just pull up this image. This is the, here it is the Kennedy-Khrushchev World Peace Bridge

could and should be built between Alaska and Russia at once. This is from declassified documents from 1963 related to the Kennedy administration, and you can clearly see this map that was drawn on somebody's napkin or the back of somebody's paper. Very, very impressive cartography skills on display here. I'm pretty impressed with this.

But yeah, clearly this goes, you can see that it goes over to it goes over to Moscow right it's going over like over here page left to Moscow you can see this Alaskan road

through Canada down the United States and you can also see this little branch they draw that goes down towards Beijing interesting that even back then in 1963 they were like highlighting the significance of running a track to Beijing that is

fascinating so This is like everything coming full circle Trump fulfilling the prophecy of JFK And I think finishing the task Because I think that personally I think that our country Was taken over by insurgents By an insurgency when President Kennedy was killed And Trump is now I think resolving that situation

All right So let's talk about spief We had a few things on Israel But you know we've talked about Israel enough Israel and Iran and all that That'll keep until I think that'll all keep until Tuesday. The TLDR is just that ex-chief justice, Barack, says the slippery slip of violence could end in the murder of a judge in civil war.

He's referring to the riots and the protests revolving around the issue of conscripting those yeshiva students, you know, those religious students, the ultra-Orthodox students into the military. So we will just leave at that and we will pick up, pick that up later. Let's talk about spief because spief is significant. So again, we mentioned this on Tuesday. Right now they are meeting in St. Petersburg. This is the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. international form? Yeah, international economic form.

Spief. The plenary session. 20,000 representatives, you know, various, it's like diplomats, entrepreneurs, I guess bankers, just media figures, I mean, whoever, just anyone who could score a ticket and wanted to go from a hundred different countries. The Talibros are there. Yeah, there's a lot of. And Trump did, by the way, send an envoy.

We have an envoy here. Here is, because every year, it's saying Putin gets up and he gives a big speech. It's a very big deal. We're going to run through that. He also, I think he does a Q&A session. I think that's done at this. It's either done it this or it's done at his, like, say, the union. But here is his interaction with.

And, of course, they're speaking Russian because Putin doesn't do English. He can't speak English, but he prefer. is to speak in his native tongue, and that is very based. So it says, this post says from Lord Bebo, Trump sent greetings to Putin via his envoy to Moscow. Rodney Cook, chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, conveyed greetings from Trump to Putin. And so this guy stands up and he says,

in front of everybody, I would like to give you a greeting from your good friend, President Trump. And I'm inspired by everything, what I see since I came here. Mr. President, this is the guy, I think, speaking for himself. I am very grateful to you for the opportunity to talk today. We have a lot of ideas, which we will discuss next week. So I guess they're meeting next week. And I'll go ahead and play this other clip that we have from Putin because I think this is notable. But again, I think people misinterpret this stuff when they see it. And that is this clip.

If I can find the right tab back into the left, back into the left. The tab is not showing up. So we're just going to pull it up on search. So Putin was asked if he thought Trump was misled. Okay. And so here is his response. Prime Minister Nathan Yang. Okay. So he's being asked in English.

And I'm pretty sure his response is not in English. But if I will read his response, though. Do you think Prime Minister Nathan Yahoo's plans as they stand are one of the main reasons why America is in a position where it needs to one look at how to get out of this, how to exit this, and do you think President Trump was misled? Well, I have no grounds to believe that President Trump was misled because he's a very mature person, a very experienced politician. I don't think anyone from outside can exert any significant influence on him we know very well the concerns of Israel. They are related to their perception that Iran

seeks a nuclear weapon, even though on multiple occasions before Iran had stated and it keeps stating that it entertains no such plans. And we have no grounds to believe otherwise because we have no proof that Iran seeks a nuclear weapon. But that said, Israel has these concerns. And the main problem around the situation is the lack of mutual trust between the parties. Yeah. And so you got to love Putin running out here and defending Trump. I think there's some misinterpretation online about what this means, where he's basically, I think some people I've seen are accusing, are saying that Putin is accusing Trump of

doing something wrong. Like, he wasn't misled. He just made a miscalculation. Again, I don't think this was a miscalculation. I think Trump, as he said before, I'm the one who led Israel, who forced Israel into this conflict. And now Trump is clearly exiting the conflict. And Israel has no intention of doing that. And they will be fighting alone.

And that's going to be bad news bears for Israel. And Putin, you know, like Joe Ken is out there saying, you know, speculating like why we got into the situation. And one of the possible explanations he says is that Trump was being misled by his own intelligence community. by his own intelligence, by people in his orbit who have his ear, who are giving him bad information by Mossad, who is feeding, you know, who it's openly known that Mossad gives us intelligence. And Putin's out here saying, Trump wasn't misled. Trump's smart. Trump doesn't get misled. I think this was very calculated and it was very calculated. And I think you're seeing that all play out the calculation part. and the last thing on this little just side note is that uh mark levin i see people in the chat saying i need to i need to call mark levin i guess rhymes of heaven is that what they're saying mark mark mark

11 rhymes with heaven he's just a heavenly man uh so like let's just look at his ex post because like he this is signal like his ex his ex account is very much signal for uh you know i think massad media He says, is everyone okay with this? And he's posting an article from Jewishinsider.com. And the Jewish insider.com article says lawmakers raise concerns as Trump prepare a civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. Experts told Jewish insider that the agreement in its current form would not require Riyadh to adhere to the non-proliferation gold standard, a commitment to forego domestic uranium enrichment and fuel reprocessing. So, yeah, they're freaking out about this. They do not want Saudi Arabia to have a nuclear technology.

technology, even the civilian nuclear program, energy program. Levin is telling you that right here, that nobody in the Middle East is allowed to have a civil, remember, Levin was, for months was like, Saudi Arabia are our allies. They're going to be fighting the Iranians for us, right? But, oh, but no, like our greatest ally in the Middle East, outside of Israel, according to Levin, can't have nuclear technology. It's like these people are supremacists, of course. But this is the one that I wanted to point out was this one.

Eight hours ago. Why would our State Department do this? And this is from the Mossad commentary account, which unconfirmed is if this is actually Mossad. It says it's Massad commentary. It has a million followers in the checkmark, but it doesn't have the gray checkmark, which, you know, it's a government body. I don't think it's actually Mossad.

I think it's just like an account. account that might be affiliated with Mossad, but I don't know. It's not official. It says, huge disappointment. U.S. rejects Somaliland sovereignty after Israel recognition. The U.S. State Department has formally reaffirmed Somalia's sovereignty and territorial integrity dealing a blow to Somaliland's push for international recognition. This comes after Israel reportedly became the first country to recognize Somaliland with growing Israeli interests in a strategic position near the Red Sea, Yemen, and the Bob al-Mandab Strait. Yeah, so the fact that this is, and I went and checked, and this is real, here's the actual State Department.

Where is it? The State Department post about this. Well, the State Department is posting a security alert to exercise increased caution level three for Saudi Arabia, the West Bank, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. And Bahrain. so you know some stuff might be popping off there um but the state department did put this out they said that uh the fact that they're rejecting this in this moment like the timing of all this is very very intentional trump disrespects netting yahoo he's then asked about that net he confirms that it net and yahoo has asked about it net and yahoo says uh uh he he says yeah you know families like

siblings always fighting families but you know what we still love each other at the end and we still worked together. That was his like video. He went on television and said that and he was given softball questions. It was clearly damaged control. Then you get the commentary about the Ayatollah about we're not going to get the uranium. It's all entombed. We don't need to go get it.

Trump would be honored to meet the Ayatollah. He might consider it. He would be very respectful. Maybe there's some fake news out there about the Ayatollah. The press lies about Trump. Maybe they're lying about him. And then the State Department the next morning comes out and says, yeah, we reject this Somaliland idea, which was 100% in operation by Israel. Like Israel was the only country pushing for this, right? Somaliland.

The rest of the world stood up and was like, no, you're not doing this. This is outrageous. You're not cutting Somalia in half. And the whole reason that they wanted to do it is because the Somaliland, if you go look at the map, agreed to – to house a so look like look at the map here look where Somaliland is they agreed to have uh israeli military bases on their coast so that puts them right across the water from yemen and that would also they probably could potentially get a naval port there that would then then allow them to control the al uh the owl or what the bob al mandob straight this little

straight between jabuti and yemen um yeah that was the whole reason israel Real wanted this. And the state department said, uh-uh, we ain't doing that. No thanks. I mean, yeah, this is like blow after blow after blow coming to BB. And it's making him look weak, I think. And again, the weaker that he looks, and again, it's not Trump coming out and being like BB's weak, BB's bad. We don't like BB. Trump is still pumping his tires, but it's the action that speaks for itself, right? The action of the State Department rejecting this bid by BB to create this new country. The action by, you know, the reporting of Barack Ravid and Mark Caputo to, you know, Trump

putting down, putting down Netanyahu behind closed doors on a private call. Trump being asked by Peter Ducey about the Ayatollah and kind of, you know, changing his position on the Ayatollah publicly. All of these little things add up and make Netanyahu look weak. And the weaker he feels, the weaker he looks, you know, regardless of the way of the issue. whether or not elections are real and legitimate in Israel. In order to maintain the public mandate, he has to push forward. And I think all of this pressure is now coming down on Netanyahu in this moment as Trump is

stepping off, stepping off the platform, stepping off the rug. The pressure is being maximized against Netanyahu, which is keeping him on the platform, on the rug. He has no choice. There is a 0% chance that Netanyahu is going to back down now at this point because if he does, it will look like Trump's the one who told him to do it, and he's capitulating a Trump. He can't afford it domestically. He can't afford it. He has to press forward. Okay, so let's talk about the spief.

Criminal Aid says 20,000 participants from 100 countries expected at St. Petersburg Forum. It says Yushikov. Yuri Yushikov said in a briefing on Tuesday that in Moscow that high-level representatives, including government officials and politicians from about 76 countries, will take part in the We'll take part in the forum, but it'll be 20,000 people from more than 100 countries total attending. So it sounds like 76 actually will have officials there and then another whatever, 25 plus. We'll just have, you know, media figures, whatever, journalists, others, you know, other representatives there, in an unofficial capacity, I assume.

So and then it talks about Cook. Cook is the guy who stood up and extended the, you know, the salutation from Trump to Putin. He says, quote, this year for the first time in several years, and this is Yuri Yushikov. All right, Adrian, appreciate that text. I'll get to that right now. Yuri Yushikov says, this year for the first time in several years, an official U.S. delegation will arrive at the forum, led by Rodney Cook, head of the U.S. Administration's Commission of Fine Arts. I would say that the Americans have been absent at this level since around 2017-2018.

So the beginning of Trump's first presidency, said Yushikov. Cook is scheduled to participate in the Russia-U.S. Dialogue of Culture's session alongside Bolshoi and Morinsky Theater Chief Valerie Jirjirjof and Hermitage Museum Director, Mikhail Piatrovsky, he said. Ushikov outlined the program for the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said will begin his form schedule on June 4th with a meeting with heads of leading international news agencies to discuss key domestic and foreign policy issues. Putin will also hold talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Miz Mirzayovov, and together they will take part in a ceremony launching the construction of the first power unit of Uyghur, Uzbekistan's integrated nuclear power plant via video link. So they're, I guess they're going to show this thing getting powered up or launching the construction.

So launching the construction of a power plant, a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan. They're also building one in Kazakhstan. The forum's main plenary, again, that's Central Asia. Trump was talking about Central Asia last week. The forum's main plenary session will take place June 5th, that's today, featuring a keynote addressed by Putin, followed by a discussion. In question and answer session, said Yushikov. Other participants include Mirziyov, who's the Uzbek president, Tanzania president, Samia, Saluhu, Hassan, and Chinese vice president, Han Zyeng.

He said, Putin is also expected to meet separately with Han to discuss the results of his visit to China and prospects for further development of relations on June 6th. Saudi Arabia is the guest country of speak 2006. How about that? with its delegation headed by energy minister, Prince Abduliz bin Salman al-Sad, said Ushikov, and I believe that is MBS's full brother, because he has half-brothers and full brothers. Let me verify that. Abdulab-Ziz, I want to say, is his full brother. I'll be able to tell just by his age.

Yeah, Google actually is not getting it right or the search engine because they're naming that as his father. They're like, this is the father's name is Salman. This father's name is not Abdulbs' is. Sorry guys, but you got it wrong. Okay, born in 1960, so this would be his half-brother. So it's his half-brother, and his mother would be, yeah, so his mother is Sultana, who died at age 71 in 2011. So this is NBS's half-brother.

I'll show you a picture of him. This is him right here. So he's the one leading the delegation. So MBS has got his half siblings involved in this too. His full brother, Khalif, is the defense minister. That's like one of his closest confidants. So we'll go back to the article. He also announced that a Russia ASEAN, A-S-E-A-N summit will be held June 18th in Kazakhstan.

And that, I believe, is the ASEAN stands for the Asian Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And that is going to be held in Kazakhstan and Kazan, Kazan Russia, Kazan Russia, which is also where they held the BRICS conference, I think, either last year or the year before. Anyway, so Saudi Arabia is the guest of honor. That's a big deal. We got the U.S. delegation visiting for the first time officially since 2017. I mean, this is a big deal.

There's a lot happening here in the lead up to the 250. the celebration. I want to go to the chat because we have a $100 rant from Spartan 12. $100, enjoy Deadwood. Spartan 12. Thank you so much. That's very generous of you. Yes, thank you so much for that rant. That's fantastic. So really appreciate your support and your generosity. Okay, so let's talk about Putin's actual speech. So I have notes on that. It did just happen this morning. This morning, our time. It would be later in Russia, St. Petersburg time. And it is right here. Okay. So here are the main talking points. Putin was asked about the letter. Remember the letter that Peter Ducey asked about,

from Zelensky's like, hey, Zelenskyy, sent a letter offering to meet, and Putin rejected it. And so I will, I got a video here again, Russian, I think. Yeah, there's no, there's no overdub. So I'm just going to read what he says. He says, I said there is no point in the meeting. The only purpose for the Ukrainian side would be to stop the advance of our armed forces. That's all. And we need agreements, not for half a year or three months, but for a long historic perspective.

Let experts work out some decisions. And after that, it's possible to meet and attend the signing of. some documents. But it's necessary to find a solution first. I said that letter you just mentioned, it was truly insolent in tone. What is the point of that? That's what Putin's saying. It is a way to create the conditions for in-person meetings and negotiations. Or is it a way to create an atmosphere where holding any such meetings becomes effectively impossible? I believe it is the latter. Interesting. The author of the letter mentioned my age. Well, what can I say?

Of course, everyone has to consider their age, but it seems to me that many other political figures carry out their duties at my age. And some are even older than I am. I don't really consider Putin to be that old. I mean, I don't know how old he is, but I mean, he's a pretty spry guy. I mean, he's like rolling around on the match doing jiu-jitsu. He's on the ice on his ice skates playing hockey. Now, granted, nobody is cross-checking Putin, but I mean, still, I mean, being able to, he's skating backwards. I mean, he's not a great skater, but certainly better than me.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's, so he said that it's insolent in tone. That's interesting. But he rejects it. He says, we're not going to meet. We're not going to meet until, like, Putin and Zelensky are not going to meet until there's something to sign. He's like, there's no point in us meeting it.

That's just ridiculous. Like, we'll meet when there's something to actually discuss, which means find a solution first, and then we meet. Here's the article about Uzbekistan. then starting beginning the construction of a nuclear power plant. That is going to piss off all the right people. And then here's another article. Sanctioned Russian billionaire says high interest rates have set a trap for the economy.

Some of Russia's richest businessman complained on Friday about the central bank's tight monetary policy with one saying and it created a trap for the economy in the highest level public criticism of the financial authorities since a 2024 rate hike. Economic growth is expected to slow to 0.4% this year from 4.9% in 2024 due to the high rates and overvalued ruble and Western sanctions. And the government's proposed measures are not expected to provide a significant boost to growth. I want to know who this guy is. It says Roman Trotsenko, a transport fertilizer and real estate billionaire, likened the central bank's monetary policy to a vulker. shock, referring to the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes in 1979-82 under chairman

Paul Volker, quote, that was a big experiment. No one has repeated it since except us, he told in the audience of top officials, bankers, and businessmen at a panel on growth organized by the country's main bank, Severe Bank, as part of Russia's biggest economic conference in St. Petersburg. And it just goes on to talk about interest rates, which don't matter to us because we don't live in Russia, addressing the main plenary session of the conference, Putin said he had an understanding for the businessman's deep sorrow and cries of alarm over the high borrowing costs, which looks like 14%, but said Russia's economic foundations were sound. Already a miracle, Trotsenko said economic history books would describe the wartime rate policy as Zabotkin's trap into which Russia mistakenly fell, referring to the central bank's first deputy chairman, Alexei Zabotkin, an architect of current policy. Zabulkin, who attended the discussion, applauded Trisinsko's speech, but later told reporters that the Central Bank was fully aware of Russian businesses' woes.

Dimitri Mezzapine, owner of fertilizer producer Uralchim, Ural Kim, Lincoln, or Lichen, I'm sorry, the Central Bank's actions to cool down the economy to efforts by hostile Western powers. quote, what does the external challenge do besides the fact, as the president said, they want to inflict a strategic defeat. They simply want to slow us down. What is happening internally? What is the central bank doing when it says it wants to cool down the economy? Russia's richest man, according to Forbes billionaire, Alexey Mortashoff, owner of steelmaker Seversstall, said domestic demand for steel had fallen by 30% in the last three years,

resulting in the company cutting 24% of its investment portfolio while its cash flow had turned negative. Quote, I am sure that almost everyone in this room is seriously reconsidering their investment program. It is clear that with such instability and volatility, this means we will face an even greater decline in investment and an even greater fall in GDP. Russian billionaires usually refrain from making public comments on the war in Ukraine. Many have formerly ceded control of their companies and are fighting in courtrooms for lifting the, the lifting of Western sanctions. Germann Greff, this guy's this is a Putin guy, CEO of

Severe Bank who drafted Putin's first economic program in the early 2000s, which led to spectacular growth rates for several years, told reporters after the panel that Russia's meager growth rate under the current conditions was already a miracle. So yeah, Gref, it's interesting. You do these other

shows and you've learned who these people are. So from doing the book of Trump and going back and studying the aluminum wars in the 1990s and studying the era of, you know, Putin's first like 10 years in office or I guess eight years in office, learned who some of these characters are. I don't know if it's Hermann Greff or Germon Greff, but he's the CEO of Severe Bank and he has been since at least Putin took office. So we're going on, what, 26 years? Yeah, I mean, he has, you know, whatever, positive take on it. So anyway, I just wanted to cover those bases before we get to Putin's actual speech.

So now let's look at Putin's speech. All right. And guys, hit the thumbs up if you are enjoying my rambling. All right. I just have notes. So I'm just going to read the notes. There's nothing to really share. Okay.

So the war, the biggest point, war intruded directly on the forum. the forum opened under the shadow of the war intruded directly on the forum the forum opened under the shadow of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes against St. Petersburg area infrastructure reports say strikes hit an oil terminal no I'm sorry that's the wrong section

here we go okay so the main themes from Putin's speech because we mentioned that a that Ukraine did on St. Petersburg at the beginning of this thing on Tuesday. That was like right after it happened. All right. So the main theme that Putin had was the old world order is over. Putin argued that sanctions, asset freezes, and Western financial dominance have damaged global trust in the dollar euro-centered system. His pitch was that Russia and its new partners need a new fairer financial architecture with fewer Western-controlled choke points.

and the AP summarizes as Putin blaming the West for global economic instability and promoting a multipolar world with alternative financial payment structures. Russia is not isolated. He said Putin used the forms of tenants and guest list to reinforce the idea that Russia still has major partners outside the West, especially China, India, Saudi Arabia, Central Asia, Africa, and the broader global South. This was the diplomatic subtext of the speech. Even if Europe in much of the U.S. corporate world are absent, Moscow is trying to show that it has another economic network. Three, economic pressure is real, but Putin downplayed the crisis talk. Putin acknowledged economic headwinds, but insisted Russia's fundamentals remain stable. The message came against a grim background.

Reuters reported Russia's 2026 growth forecast at 0.4 percent after growth slowed from 4%. 0.9% in 2024 to about 1% in 2025 with a 0.2% contraction in Q1, 2026. Russian business elites at Spief publicly criticized high interest rates and overvalued ruble sanctions and weak investment. For technology was his growth answer, Putin emphasized AI, autonomous systems, digital platforms, and domestic digital sovereignty as the way Russia can raise productivity and avoid dependence on Western tech. The Moscow Times noted that he presented AI in autonomous systems as key technologies for future productivity growth while warning that countries without their own digital systems risk becoming digital peripheries. Interesting. And that's at the same time Trump was talking about in that Air Force One gaggle, you know, bringing the tech oligarchs in and then maybe even getting the American people in on the action and taking ownership of public. ownership over some of these AI technologies and their companies.

Five, the war was mostly absent from the formal economic speech. Notably, Putin reportedly did not dwell on the Ukraine war in the main address. Despite the forum opening after Ukrainian drone strikes near St. Petersburg, the omission appears deliberate. The speech tried to present spief as an economic development and multipolar order forum, not a war conference. Six, but Ukraine dominated the Q&A when Preston Zelensky's proposed. proposal for direct talks, Putin rejected the idea, saying there was no point in meeting unless a deal was ready to sign.

He again opposed a temporary ceasefire and argued for a broader settlement, referencing understandings from his 2025 Anchorage Summit with Trump. There you go. That was during Deadwood. Seven, he defended Russia's hard line on negotiations. Putin's position was Russia's open to compromise, but not to a ceasefire that lets Ukraine regroup. He also reiterated that the EU mediation was unacceptable because Moscow does not see Europe as neutral. In earlier speech, media remarks, he said Russia would strengthen air defenses after Ukrainian drone strikes reached deep into Russia. And the final point, Iran came up as part of the broader global crisis frame.

Putin said Iran had not asked Russia for weapons and that Russia had not supplied them. He also floated Russia's willingness to take enriched uranium for storage as part of a possible settlement mechanism presenting Moscow as a diplomatic actor in the Iran crisis rather than merely an anti-Western military patron. Okay. And then going back, just some other key points from the forum in general. That was Putin's speech we just went through. So, yeah, the conference began with a terrorist attack from Ukraine.

Putin rejected his Zelensky's direct meeting proposal. We've already talked about that. The economic story was unusually grim and rather public. We talked about that. Russia used beef to sell multipolar world economics. Putin's main macro message was that

Western-led financial order is losing credibility. He argued that sanctions and the freezing of Russian reserves damaged trust in the dollar and euro. And he called for a modern, flexible, and responsible financial architecture free from bans and barriers. It's also worth pointing out that Trump has been giving these exemptions and extending them for Russia

to sell their oil. So that's only happened in the past few months and I'm sure that'll help them out in Q2. So maybe they'll be able to turn around some of that stagnation. Some other key data points, Putin emphasized developing countries rising share of the global economic importance. He framed

sanctions as proof that non-Western states need alternative financial payment structures. And the speech's official theme this year was, quote, pragmatic dialogue, the path to a stable future, end quote. As far as attendance, Russia showcased non-Western partners plus a symbolic U.S. return. We've already kind of gone through that. Saudi Arabia was the guest country centerpiece. Saudi Arabia's role was one of the biggest diplomatic economic storylines. Tass reported that Russia and Saudi Arabia planned to sign 30 cooperation agreements

on Spief sidelines, especially in energy, education, and tourism. Saudi Arabia's delegation was led by energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, and Reuters noted Saudi participation in energy OPEC plus discussions. And here's the TAS article from yesterday, Russia, Saudi Arabia, to sign 30 agreements at Spief. It doesn't, the task doesn't really give a lot of detail. They're pretty short and sweet. So yeah, I'm sure we will learn more about this as this develops.

We'll get more information from both sides. But this is Russia highlighting the Saudi ties at a moment when oil OPEC plus and the Middle East instability are central to global markets. The Saudi role also reinforces Moscow's not isolated narrative. Excuse me. Yeah, and that's notable because Yeah, I mean, Saudi Arabia is kind of that that's Trump's guy. That's Trump's man in the arena in the Middle East, so to speak, along with Qatar, along with, along with Turkey. I mean, I mean, Trump likes to pump the tires of Erdogan, but I mean, look, MBS is his guy.

Like, that's his guy, more so than Erdogan. But it says Russia-Uzbekistan nuclear deal was the biggest hard project launch. this is a strategic Russian energy foothold in Central Asia. It comes amid competition from China and the U.S. for influence in the region. We did talk about on Tuesday, you know, Central Asia and how Trump wants to, you know, get more access to that. The, you know, he touted the deal that he just signed with Armenia as

part of that effort to get access to Central Asia, which my understanding is there's like a ton of money in Central Asia. Asia. I mean, if you look at their capital cities, which are seemingly empty, they're like massive monuments, massive architecture. I mean, it's pretty crazy what they've built. But you don't really see anybody ever walking around in these like pictures and videos. It's really weird. Okay, the U.S. return, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The last one was it also follows Ross and Tom's push into Kazakhstan and wider Central Asian nuclear infrastructure. So yeah, building out the nuclear infrastructure of Central Asia, which I think is a kind of a safe. place to do that because Central Asia is not like a divisive place. It's not a place that's controversial or you're not going to piss off a lot of people by like going in there and building infrastructure. I mean, I'm pretty sure if I'm not mistaken, Tajikistan is where we staged our invasion to Afghanistan. General Quas will correct me if I'm wrong. It was either Tajikistan or Turkmenistan, but I think it was Tajikistan, if I'm not mistaken. So anyway, those are both in Central Asia. The U.S. return was cultural, symbolic, and politically loaded with Rodney Mims Cook Jr., leading the delegation. China's presence reinforced the Russian-China strategic framing with Vice President Han Zien, attending speech. And he plans to go to Belarus next.

Putin did address the Iran war crisis, but we already talked about that. Okay. Yeah. So I think we'll probably get more information. about spief as this as time goes on we will definitely get more more information about it let's see and then the last thing that I'm going to close out with today is well there's this guy the central bank deputy chief saying that Russia must this is at spief he says Russia must ignore Western sanctions Western sanctions must be ignored the first

Deputy Governor of the Russia Bank of Russia said at the Spief form on Friday, adding that Russia should deepen its financial sovereignty and build payment infrastructure, less exposed to external pressure. So, yeah, it's like if these guys just all defect from the Western banking system, that is really bad for the Western banks, right? If they just stop banking with them and they create their own banking system, their own financial system, where does that leave the Western bankers who have started all these wars who launder all the money for the cartels,

who launder all the money for the CIA. Yeah, that leaves them in... Oh, look, and I'm just seeing it breaking news, a Ukrainian drone has exploded into Romanian port. This is this... This would be the second Ukrainian, the second drone that's hit Romania. And remember the first one they tried to say

was a Russian drone, but then Putin came out and said, that's not our drone. Not a drone at all. Okay, but the story I wanted to... end with was this one. Xi Jinping to pay state visit to North Korea. This comes weeks

after the Chinese leader hosted the Russian and U.S. presidents in Beijing. Chinese president Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week at the invitation of the country's leader Kim Jong-un. Chinese and North Korean state media reported on Friday. The state visit will take place June 8th through 9th.

KCNA carried a similar announcement. So both countries have announced that saying Xi will visit at the invitation. of Kim. Neither outlet provided details on the agenda of the visit. Xi last visited Pyongyang in 2019 while Kim was in Beijing last summer, joining Russian President Vladimir Putin at a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of Imperial Japan's defeat in World War II. The trip comes weeks after Xi hosted Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing in separate high-level meetings.

Trump visited China, May 14th through 15th, while Putin was received in Beijing. May 19 through 20th, both meetings featured similar former welcomes in Beijing, but reflected different political relationships with Washington and Moscow. Yeah, and that was, they have this article reference here. This is from that meeting last year, where the three of them were joking on a hot mic moment. They were walking and they were joking about living to be 150 because of like technology and the way science was going. That was pretty funny. So anyway, that I want to see Kim Jong-un come to D.C. I want to see Kim come to the White House and visit Trump because that would at this point I don't feel like it

would be that controversial. I feel like Kim Jong-un has been like normalized enough that him coming in the White House. I mean, it would be a big deal. Don't get me wrong. But like it's not like the guy's going to clack off of like a suicide vest or something. Like nobody's like you know, it's not it's not like it would be some sort of security issue if he did come outside of maybe the CIA trying to assassinate him. But yeah, it's like Kim Jong-un, the optics of him hanging out with Trump in the Oval Office, that would be like next level. So we definitely need to see that happen. Yeah. So anyway, all right, guys, let's, and I apologize if I have not been sharing my screen, but there, you weren't missing anything. I was just reading from article.

So there was nothing really to see. It was just notes. Okay. So now let's check out the chat. Any questions from the chat? Any comments from the chat? Once again, thank you to Spartan 12 for your generous rant. And guys, if you're listening to this on replay, you can go to badlandsmedia.tv slash boost or click on the boost button at the top and give a rant at any time. listening on replay. And it looks like Eleanor 2000. Okay, Eleanor, you said on Tuesday that you had put in, you tried to put in a few boosts and you didn't think they had gone through. I sent that over to Cheryl to our people and they said they did come through. So they're actually, I'm looking at them right now.

Two of them came through. They're going to refund one of them because they assumed that it was a mistake. So they're going to, I think they already refunded one of them, but just double check. if that didn't happen, let us know because very generous of you. But I remain grateful for the knowledge and time you share with us, Gordon. And of course, I love the maps.

Well, thank you, Eleanor. And I love the maps as well. So I'm glad that I'm not the only one. All right, guys, hit the thumbs up, share the show. We'll be back on Monday with the book of Trump. And then the following Monday, so not this Monday, but next Monday I'm going to have a special guest on from outside of Badlands to talk about the Beirut bombing from the 80s and like that's like the beginning of the whole Hezbollah narrative

because he was there he was in the barracks which is a pretty famous event in marine history as CanCon will tell you so that's going to be a good one that's not this Monday but next Monday this Monday we'll do a different topic you'll find out tune in Monday night 730 p.m. Eastern time and with that said we will We'll cue up the music. Y'all have fantastic weekend. Thank you so much for joining us. And don't forget to hit the thumbs up on this video.

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