Badlands Media - The Daily Herold: 8/28/26 - Six Months Into the Iran War, Trump's Farmer Bombshell, and a New Flashback Friday Segment

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Jon Herold marks the six month anniversary of the Iran conflict by ribbing early predictions it would wrap up in weeks, then covers the Treasury Department's first named sanctions target under "Operation Economic Outcast," a UAE bank accused of processing 1.8 billion dollars for Iranian shadow banking networks. He digs into a new report on hundreds of millions in tax deductible charity dollars allegedly funneled into Democrat leaning voter registration efforts, and breaks down Trump's surprise announcement letting farmers and ranchers process their own meat to bypass a handful of dominant processors. Jon also debuts a new "Flashback Friday" segment, revisiting a November 2020 Politico article on presidential records that he argues quietly laid groundwork for the later classified documents scandals, plus a personal story about turning down a paid Polymarket promotion over disclosure concerns. Sponsor reads and lively chat banter round out a newsy Friday show.

The Badlands, what are the Badlands? Explain those Badlands. That's a hell of their name. Well, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Daily Herald here on Badlands Media. I'm your host, John Harold. And today we are celebrating the six-month anniversary of the Iran conflict situation, the war, whatever you want to call it. And it just makes me think back to when the conflict slash war slash whatever you want to call it. it started how everybody was like oh it's just it's only the last a week it's only the last two weeks how dare you criticize this what are you what are you thinking of course we're not going to be there for more than a month well it certainly will last more than two months don't you just trust the plan bro well there's no way to last three months like whatever on and on and on and here we are six

months in and it's still not resolved. So to those who blindly cheerleaded saying things that they had no idea whether or not they would be true, you guys can go screw yourselves. You're allowed to simultaneously trust Trump and give him the benefit of the doubt while being critical of the things that you don't like, including how long this conflict's taking. But hey, we are getting some interesting new sanctions now. We're starting to get a little better picture of that operation economic fury or whatever the economic D-Day that were sanctioning anybody who was giving Iran a lifeline. We got some more clarity on what that looks like with the first sanction target today, which we'll talk about. We also got, I'm going to do a little bit of a

flashback, I think, today. I might do this start doing this on Fridays, like go back and look at one interesting old article from like the 2020 timeframe, not just for how it ties with devolution, but maybe ties with other things that we're seeing unfold now. So we'll do that. What else do we got for you guys today? There's quite a few headlines in the news actually. Oh, yeah, the judge has come out and once again blocked the United States Postal Service executive order and the changes that they're making.

So I think there's plenty to discuss. So we'll get into it. Brian Fisher says, Happy six-month anniversary of fake wars in distant places that people get emotionally attached to. It's having absolutely no idea what's really going on. That's a long thing to be celebrating, but that's a great point. So thank you for the comment, Brian. Edgar friendly, waiting for President Trump to mandate the name change of Canadian geese to Donald Ducks.

I did see that meme on Twitter, and I did think that was also hilarious. Polymathinon, good to see you, man, says it'll be 17 months, John, says certain decoders. Yeah, whenever it does end, it'll match some Q drop, and they'll be like, see, I told you it would end by now or on this date. So stupid. The Q Awakening says just use FedEx like everyone else. FedEx can be fairly reliable. UPS as well. But yeah, the United States, we'll get into it.

Let's get a quick word from a couple of our sponsors. And then we'll see where the show takes us. First up, we got Save Pulse. Save Pulse back in the mix. Good to see it. Unexpected health emergencies don't wait. And with Save Pulse, you can stay prepared from trusted medications like amoxicillin, azithromycin, and Ivermectin, and Hydrox.

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We also got soft disclosure and Rumble Wallet. We'll do Rumble Wallet a little bit later. We'll start with some soft disclosure. These are the hands that built America. Hands that hammered. Hands that welded. Hands that carried the weight of a nation. Soft disclosure.

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That built me and you Soft Disclosure.com As Frederick Leather says, Making Man Hands into Gay Soy Boy Hands One lotion bottle at a time, Frederick. I saw Phil Scarborough say, but Benning Johnson just declared the war over. I saw you say that.

I didn't see Benning Johnson do that. So difficult to comment on it, but wouldn't shock me. He just probably were. repeats, anything Trump says is gospel, which anybody who's taking Trump at face value at this point, just totally and irretrievably retarded to do. Let's check out the gold and silver prices. Gold is at 44-9680, and silver is down to 67-66, both down a hair.

Bitcoin also trending downward. It was up over 81,000 just yesterday evening. Now it's back down again. The ebbs and flows. Badlandsmedia.tv slash river, badlandsgold.com. Gas prices have come down a hair from yesterday. They're down below to a 4.089. So under the 4.09, just feel those prices getting cheaper.

No new declassified documents, unfortunately. Let's start with the bigger story. say, one of the bigger stories. Judge blocks Trump United States Postal Service ballot rule for 14 days. The federal judge on Thursday again blocked President Trump's mail-in voting order, issuing a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the new U.S. Postal Service rule that implements it as the first midterm mail ballots are expected to go out in about a week. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani halted enforcement of the formal USPS rule on how states must prepare and submit mail ballots for Postal Service acceptance.

Under the rule, USPS will not accept outbound mail ballots unless states submit required recipient information through its portal and meet the rules, envelope and barcode requirements. The U.S. Postal Service published the formal rule after the Supreme Court issued a procedural decision, allowing the administration to move forward. The High Court did not rule on whether the order is legal, only that the earlier challenge came too soon. Plaintiffs then refiled after USPS published the final rule. Talwani wrote that the plaintiffs states lack the time and funds before the midterms to redesign ballots, get those designs approved, produce them, update election systems, train officials on the U.S. portal and upload citizen data. A hearing is set for September 3rd and an appeal is expected. So this isn't surprising in the slightest. I mean, this is what they're doing with everything Trump term. They are stalling as long as possible. They're hibernating.

to an extent and just attempting to outweigh them with everything and when it comes to the midterm election stuff obviously they were going to fight this tooth-a-nail they're going to fight every change or anything that trump is trying to do with everything they've got and the timing now it's it's gone down to the wire it's like it doesn't matter like okay the rules out they made the rule official i know the supreme court ruled that they could continue until the rule was you know established like they didn't have standing at the time um they probably do now now that the rule's been published this judge just on wednesday the day before we talked about it yesterday maybe we talked about it.

Yeah, on Wednesday's power hour. This is the same judge for two of the different cases. There's the California versus Trump or Trump versus California, whatever you want to call it. And there's the League of Women Voters versus Trump. The original ruling that the Supreme Court handed down was on the California versus Trump case. This judge on Wednesday comes out and says, okay, I'll allow this, you know, in light of the Supreme Court decision, I will also lift my injunction. And now, then the very next day, she puts a new stay on it.

Now that the rule has been officially there. And her excuses, there's just not enough time. Not surprising. And she's probably right. I mean, mail and ballots are starting to go out tomorrow, next week, whatever. Too late for any of the changes to be implemented, which is best case scenario for them. Because here's what they're going to try to do. And this is not like groundbreaking by any means.

This is kind of what everybody expects. If we don't have any fixes to the election system come the midterms, is they will steal enough. with uniparty candidates or Democrats down ballot and everything so that they have the majority and then they will it'll be a rerun of the second half of Trump's first term there'll be investigations there'll be impeachments they probably won't have enough to convict probably depends on how many uniparty candidates they get in there but wouldn't the the GOP the rhinos wouldn't they love to be rid of Trump to rid themselves of Trump kind of just comes down to how many rhino and uniparty candidates so they can get in there. So yeah, we'll see. I'm sure they'll expedite the appeals process with this, but I don't think it'll matter. Frederick Leather says, easy fix, suspend the midterms until all states can comply. I love that. But even if he suspends the midterms or pauses them, cancels them, whatever, I don't want the justification to be so that states have enough time to comply with this executive order because this is not enough. This is scratching the surface.

Yesterday we had the declassified documents, if you want to call them that, where Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen, was out talking about how compromised our election machines are. We need to fix that. We need to fix the money in politics. We can get into some of that. There's so many issues. Let's not completely doom out on a Friday.

I'm not doom it out. I'm being realistic, bro. There's some great things going on. Trump's Canada thing yesterday, renaming the Lake Ontario to Lake America. Still one of my favorite trolls, but he's done. I don't think the post-Trump era will serve the Republicans in the same way as the pre-Trump era. I think you're right.

I just hope we have a legitimate system by then. I think we almost have to. No updates on the presidential website, either, the White House website. There were a couple good Trump posts we can get into. I'm just going to scroll down. His timeline is crazy right now. But he was posted a bunch of pictures of presidents. Saw some people decode them, which was great.

But yeah, so this is apparently an old picture, and I know a bunch of other people have talked about this. I'm not going to go too into details. But a picture of the greatest president of all time, him, of course. This is just trolling. The great presidents, a couple questionable ones in there for sure. Near-great, average failures. I wish you wouldn't have just put Biden on there at all.

That would have been ideal. Just leave Biden off. Let's not even come close to calling him a real president. But this was something he had posted this one. Okay. The President Republic. Oops, come on. True social.

Don't do me like this. Great. I'm going to scroll back again. But anyway, he posted that picture. He posted this picture, which were almost upon. The Five Who Built America. He left Woodrow Wilson off this one, at least. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Reagan, Trump.

Five who broke it. Buchanan Wilson. It's funny, the first picture he had Wilson as like one of the greats. And here he has him as one of the people who broke it. I just want to get to this video and then we'll come back up and talk about the farmers.

Here we go. This one. Okay. The President Republicans most admire. It's Donald Trump. This is a historic comparison. A majority of Republicans say, 53% say he's the Republican president they most admire. Ronald Reagan, who traditionally has won that much. Donald Trump

nearly triples up on this. Reagan at just 18%. And then Abraham Lincoln, who by most historic accounts, is the greatest president of all time. But Republicans say that the president that they most admire by what is, is this, six, seven times as many,

Donald John Trump at 53%, easily crushing Abe Lincoln at 8%. And the Elon polls showed that he was the greatest president as well, Donald Johnson. There you go. CNN showing polls of how Trump is the president that Republicans most admire. I mean, he controls, I hate that we call it the Republican Party, but he controls it.

It is what it is. And it's a good thing. And when they have to acknowledge it, that's always a good sign. Phil just sent this link in. The White House posted that breaking, Donald J. Trump just signed an executive order establishing a new Federal Academy, the United States Space Academy. The NASA-led Federal Academy dedicated to combining rigorous technical education with leadership, development, discipline, and commitment to public service.

I wonder if that's on the website yet. No. That's cool, though. I guess unless you think space is faking gay, then it's probably less cool. But I think it's kind of cool. A lot of stories coming out. Independent reports talking about like NGOs and some of the crimes they've been committing. And I think these are all good, especially coming from just the news.

tax deductible charities served as pipelines to Democrat voter registration, according to a report, hundreds of millions of dollars in tax deductible, oh my gosh, tax deductible donations subsidized by every other taxpayer, were effectively underwriting partisan election work that the tax code says charities can't do. Anybody surprised by that? They came out and admitted it in that time article in February of 2021. Leftist nonprofits are using pass-through organizations to boost voter registration for demographics most likely to vote for Democrats, according to a new report.

The report titled The Charities Influencing Elections, 24 and Beyond, written by the Capital Research Center, found that multiple left-leaning 501c-3s, which are prohibited from engaging in political campaign for or against a candidate and whose donations are tax-deductible acted as conduits for 501C-4s, which are permitted to engage in direct partisan politics. Those tax-exempt organizations spent $638 million

during the 2024 election cycle. $638 million to help register voters, and they say most likely for Democrats, which is probably true. But whether it doesn't matter, it shouldn't matter what party. That is an insane amount. America Votes Education Fund, the AVEF reported on its most recent IRS Form 990s

that it gave $20,748,002 in grants to its 501C4. affiliate America votes while spending just $532 in office expenses and $274 in fundraising expenses and they pay no employees. So they literally create these 501c3s so that people can give them money tax deductible and then they use those as fronts to launder it through to register and pay people to vote. Do you remember when they were paying people to vote? They still do that some places to register to vote. Absolutely insane. Yeah, I think that's all I wanted to read on this.

We don't have to go through each one of these. But they're not just doing that with registering to vote. They do that with lots of other things, where they like funnel the money through NGOs to get the tax deductions, but then they go on to fund the activists and the activism that they want taking care of. It's one of the aspects of how they launder money. Frederick Leather is Just the News,

says Canadian Broadcasting Corporation tells staff not to refer to 9-11 as terror attacks in coverage. What else would you refer to them as? That's ridiculous. Good to see you, Ty. Chaiser, 501c3s need to go away. Hey, I'd be fully in support of that. There are some charities that do good work,

and there are some like, so the Catholic school system I used to work for, they were considered a 501C3. Donations to them were tax deductible, and I think some of that stuff needs to stay. So I don't know how you do it differently. But I think I'd be on board as a rule that we don't need NGOs anymore. But we certainly don't need government money, tax dollars going to 2501c3s anymore.

One with cats, registering a complaint. Too many great back-to-back shows on Friday. I can't get anything done around the house. That's a good problem to have, though. RR. Hodi, I would really like to know who made the first chart with FDR is great and what they thought was so great about FDR. I don't know who made that thing. It's going to press their match.

What's up? Evan. All right. Let's, I don't know if I want to get to the flashback. I might save that towards the end. Yeah, I found a pretty good resource that allows me to like go back in time almost and look at some of the key intelligence stories from the day. And, yeah, I found some really good ones.

So I think I'm going to start doing this every Friday. There's a lot of really relevant stories that I think you guys will enjoy. but let's go to this instead let's talk about Trump and the farmers this is a pretty big move you posted today this

scroll back and find it this was this morning all right ranchers and farmers have always been a number one priority for me they work very hard are very smart efficient and immaculately clean but for years I've heard that they have had a tremendous problem

with the big processors who many say are a nasty monopoly. There are essentially four of them, a very non-competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful farmers and ranchers, and I can't let that happen, can I? So in order to break this powerful monopoly with much of its ownership based outside of the United States, I'm authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow farmers and ranchers to be given the right to process their own food. This should move quickly. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I think this is huge. This is a huge move. For the farmers and This is exactly what they wanted.

But they were being like drowned out by the monopoly of of big processors or whatever you want to call them. That's what Trump called them. Then being allowed to do this themselves, this could change the game for a lot of these people. I'm going to have to reach out to the rattlesnake meat sky. If you're getting back on a show to talk about this, because I wonder if that's something he would start doing.

You know, me not being a rancher myself, I don't have the full background of the impact this could have, but just thinking about it logically, this is something they should have been able to do the whole time. That seems like common sense. The fact that they weren't is kind of wild. I'm curious, who was the first one to restrict them from doing it themselves? Maybe that's something we should look up.

Why haven't farmers and ranchers been allowed to process their own food? Let's see what the AI says. E.H. Kyle, John and that Glenn Beck interview with Trump, Glenn's the one who brought Yeah, Glenn is the one who brought it to Trump's attention. I did see that. Project Leathers, I read the import of beef will help ranchers and farmers make up the colling

during the Biden's four years. Lee Storm, who removed the farmer's right to do that? Why did the farmers accept the government could decide their rights? Yeah, in the United States, okay, let's see what AI says. In the United States, farmers, ranchers generally have always been allowed to process food for themselves.

What they usually cannot do without the required inspection or licensing is sell certain processed foods, especially meat to the public. I think that's what Trump is doing here. The core reason is that once food enters commerce, government rules aim to protect buyers from contamination, disease, adulteration, and misleading labeling.

Okay. Who made the rule that farmers can't sell food? They process themselves. I'm just really curious when, like some of the background, when this started. Congress did it, not a single agency or individual. For meat, Congress passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act, in 1906.

The law prohibited commercial sale of adulterated or misbranded meat and gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture authority to inspect livestock and meat processing establishments. There you go. It was Congress. Of course it was. The original 1906 meat inspection law

emerged amid public concern over unsafe, filthy adulterated and falsely labeled meat and industrial packing plants is primarily aimed at the national meat packing trade not at stopping a household from eating food it raised and processed itself. but its commercial sale framework later became the basis for rules that also affect small farms and local ranchers. USDA's historical account says that the law prohibited sales of adulterated or misbranded meat products.

They later strengthened it. But the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967, which expanded USDA authority and required states operating their own meat inspection programs to maintain standards. Man, this is wild. It's constantly infringing upon our rights. Amand says, why does anyone obey government tyranny laws? Fear of them destroying us. That's a great point.

One of the cat says, the big processors give all the cattle vaccines before slaughtering, even organic or grass fed. At least that is what I've heard. Would not surprise me. Tracy internet laughable, I've bought meat sold as cow that I questioned was even meat. Gabriel Blow

says they can sell it privately while still alive and deliver it to the processing facility. That's how I get beef locally. Yeah. Like when you buy like a quarter of a cattle, head of cattle, you usually pick it up at the processing plan or the farm will pick it up from there. It has to get processed by somebody. See, and sir, did I miss that? It's a slow day in the new cycle opening. I wouldn't say it's as slow. It's a little more interesting than the last couple days. And funnily enough, the thing that I'm most interested in is the story from November of 2020, November 9th of 2020. This is one of the

angles that the mainstream media is trying to spin out there. Hegsseth ignored CENTCOM and cut a program ahead of Iran school strike, according to a report. What can have a leader asked his top military commanders for advice and then ignores them because he doesn't like the answer? Apparently, defense secretary Pete Heggseth. Well, here's a thing. That's like not an uncommon thing. With heads of businesses or heads of government agencies or heads of anything,

they have the final say, like the buck stops with them. could you imagine the president like taking advice from his advisors and then not going with that advice as if that's some sort of scandal because that's what they're trying to frame this as like the people are there to advise him give him advice and recommendations

if he decides not to do that even after the advice and recommendations he is fully within his authority to do so but anyway new reporting from pro-publica reveals that some of the nation's top military commanders were pulled by Higseth about cutting a program called civilian harm mitigation and response, which was designed to reduce civilian casualties during U.S. military operations. The report notes the top military officials overwhelmingly

wanted to keep the program in place. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations across much of the Middle East, specifically warned that scaling it back could increase the risk of misidentifying targets and reduce awareness on the battlefield. Hakeseth cut it anyway. It shows that Hickseth viewed civilian harm mitigation as part of a culture that was too politically correct and incompatible with his vision of the Department of War. Again, we're trying to make this a scandal. I don't think we've heard the end of the school children that was bombed, like 200 of them, and where the bomb came from. A lot of speculation flying around about that. But let's talk about this, once I get the archive linked up.

we've got our first targeting of a bank related to the operation, what do they call it, epic theory or economic theory. Treasury targets UAE Bank over alleged $1.8 billion in transactions tied to Iranian networks. The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it is taking action against a UAE, United Arab Emirates Bank, in a push to cut off. a key financial lifeline and sanctions evasion vehicle for the Iranian regime. It said that under Operation Economic Outcast, that's what it's called, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN,

proposed a rule that would revoke bank, Miser, UAE's correspondent banking access to U.S. financial institutions. Treasury promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left and finally end the threat of the Iranian regime. According to Besson's statement, we also warned that I Iran's enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the U.S. dollar and the global financial system. Bank, Missouri, whatever that stands for, or says, UA.E decided to find out the hard way, and today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its controlled or continued egregious support for the Iranian regime.

The Treasury describes the UAE branch of the Egyptian bank as a critical node for Tehran's access to American dollars. Treasury estimates that between January of 2024 and June of 2026, they processed approximately 1.5,000, $103 billion for 103 companies that are potentially part of the Iranian shadow banking networks. And so because Iran is already subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions, in order to generate revenue abroad, it relies on multi-jurisdictional shadow banking networks that provide key access to U.S. dollar correspondent banking relationships. Iran uses these shadow banking networks to launder funds, procure weapons, and bankroll its regional terrorist proxy groups. Bank, MISER, UAE's customers include

apparent front companies used by Iran's Ministry of Defense and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to evade U.S. sanctions as well as to launder money on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Moch Tabah Kemeni. That's the gay one. That's missing some limbs. The Treasury Department said it's

Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Reza Mohamed Taiidi, the manager of the bank's Dubai branch on Friday. In addition to sanctuary in a Hong Kong based front company that has helped launder funds for a sanctioned Iranian exchange house. There we go.

For sanctions. Here's to see where else this goes, and I wonder if we're going to see it reach some other countries that were potentially, you know, formally called our allies. Like, will we see potentially some, you know, UK or NATO countries? You know, a lot of the city, London claims that have been going around, will we see anything to back that out? Maybe Canada. And Russia and China are kind of already in a sense.

sense de-dollarized. So why does Higseth walk talk and smell like a sinus, says he and Stuart? Rizetire answered says he does, but technically so does Trump. Maybe it's not what it looks like, I doubt it, but a guy can dream. Polymathenon calls it a reach-around. That's an economic reach-round. I like that.

Jana Tinch says never give the milk for free. Only the chicks. That's funny. Polymathenon says sounds like drainage. That's a good way to look at it. Me and Chris will be talking about that on tomorrow's power hour. But John, that's not trusting the experts. That's the immortal sin to the status bootlicking class.

It's ridiculous. How long until we transition from trust the experts to trust the AI? Because I already see some people trying to do that. People will make a claim and then be like, oh, but see my AI told me that's true. A lot of people are like becoming fully dependent on AI. And guess we're the sources of the AIs. It's like it's the experts. It's what the experts say.

It's getting better to an extent. And I still, I love AI as a tool now. I'm fully all in on it as a tool, but it's never going to be the end-all be-all for me. But I think we're moving to an age where it's going to become, like the trusty experts will be trust the AI, and you won't be allowed to question the AI.

And then eventually we all go retarded. It's a funny meme that says, from now on, Canadian geese will be called Donald Duxie. I did see that too. Wait, why did you pronounce Janet Tinch's name right? I don't know. Who's Janet Tinch? Did I say Jana for you and say Janet?

I'm sorry. You're awesome. Jana L.N. Don't hate me for that. E.H. Kyle, we did not hit that school. 2CTV had video from that day with all the parents at the school. They said where it came from. They saw it launched and divert.

It was an Iranian missile that hit the school. Yeah, I don't know if I trust any of those sources, man. It's not an EHCals girl, but I don't think we're going to know. the truth behind any of that stuff. I don't know if it still does, but seven months after Charlie Kirk happened, Chad GPT was still saying there was no credible evidence of the event ever happening.

Isn't that funny? Because people will look at that and be like, see, Charlie faked his death. I saw literal QD coders doing that. Chat GPT told me that he's still alive. Why is that? Look at, that's crazy. It's insane.

EC was here. Good to see you, man. Missing your stalling bread. But she says, I look forward to pelting a robot with a balloon filled with baking grease, painting glue. Eric Taylor, good approach to AI. John never let the tool dictate anything, make it back up anything it gives you. Think of Wikipedia. You know how everybody hates Wikipedia and all that stuff.

And you have every reason to, but it's still a good resource. It's one of the first place I look when I'm looking up any story. But then I dig deeper typically. Like, I'll look at this. This is what the machine wants me to know about it. I'll dig deeper on my own, but it's still a good starting point. same thing with AI. Same thing with AI.

Okay, let's do the Flashback Friday. I'm kind of excited about this. So for those who miss the opening of the show, what I'm going to start doing on Fridays is at least one story where I'll go back in time, find an old story that when you read it at the time, it's like, oh, that's interesting. But when you read it now after like six years in some cases of context,

context, it takes on like an entirely different meaning, like an entirely different, that you can look at it through an entirely different lens, right? And it's just fascinating. But before we do it, let's get a quick word from the final sponsor of today's show. And that is Rumble Wallet. Prepare for awkwardness, guys. This is a paid advertisement for Rumble Wallet. They're sponsoring this portion of the show.

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Flashback Friday. Let's do it. So this is an old Politico article. This is from November 9th of 2020. November 9th, 2020, the day after Joe Biden was declared the winner. This is, I think, the day of or day before Chris Miller getting named as the acting secretary of defense. And then I went on to Cash Patel as for Juanik, the move, Anthem.

Tata. But this is around the time. They just stole the election from Trump. Okay. And the title of the article is Biden may have trouble unearthing Trump's national security secrets. The law requires sitting presidents to preserve all records relating to the performance of the official duties, but it has no real enforcement mechanism. This is from Natasha mouthpiece of the establishment Bertrand. Again, November 9th, just after the election. just reading the title like you could probably already see where I'm going with this you could look at this multiple different ways one devolutioning like why were thinking why would they have trouble getting Trump's national security secrets that's interesting but where I

really think this is even more interesting is how this was setting up the classified document scandal two years ahead of time like this to me is almost reinforcement of the idea that that these people they almost script out how they want to do some of these narratives and how they plan to attack Trump? Because what are the odds that the day after Joe Biden has declared the winner, they're already talking about Trump committing some sort of scandal with classified documents and something that they would later go and pursue him vigorously to prevent him from ever coming back? Fascinating.

From tearing up documents and hiding transcripts of calls with foreign leaders to using encrypted messaging apps and personal email accounts for government business, the Trump White House's skirting of records preservation rules could limit the incoming Biden administration's visibility into highly sensitive foreign policy and national security secrets. The mysteries have swirled over the past four years what was really said during Trump's many phone calls and one-on-one meetings with Russian president Vladimir Putin. A little flavor of Russian collusion in there. What is Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, discussed with Saudi Arabia's prime prince

Muhammad bin Salman on WhatsApp, where messages can be automatically deleted? Did Trump's aides memorialize any of the reported conversations he had with U.S. and foreign officials about boosting his business empire? And this should sound familiar. The Presidential Records Act, which requires a sitting president to preserve and ultimately make public all records relating to the performance of their official duties, was passed 42 years ago in response to President Richard Nixon's attempt to hide the White House tapes that led to his downfall.

The law makes presidential records available to the public via the Freedom of Information Act beginning five years after the end of an administration. There has no real enforcement mechanism or relies on the president's good faith compliance out of respect for the institution and the separation of powers. When Congress passed the PRA, they give the White House the right to decide what constitutes a presidential record. Now, isn't that interesting? I'm not going to read the whole thing.

But I just think with the multiple different ways that you can look at this, the devolution lens. And we might talk about this on tomorrow's power hour, too, because Chris also finds it interesting. But they were already planting the narrative seed for the Presidential Records Act, long before the Mar-a-Lago raid, long before the FBI

did all its shenanigans with the National Archives long before Jack Smith before like the years long, two years long almost classified document scandal and we had multiple of them we had the Trump one

we had the Biden one we even had Mike Pence in there for a little bit they were already laying the groundwork for that narratively but then also the other lens you could look at it through is how did they know that they weren't going to get access like why were they already talking about not getting access to some of the classified

stuff that Trump was doing, especially with national security. And there was also that story, just I won't go into it. But if you remember, from the end of the Trump first term, there's the story of the ugly transition inside the Department of Defense and how they weren't sharing classified stuff, especially with special operations with the incoming Biden administration officials. It's all super interesting. Yeah, EHKL, I remember Cash wouldn't even talk to Biden's transition team. They didn't have a clearance.

Yeah. But I don't know. If you like these reviews, I'll keep doing them, like going back and looking at some fun stories from the past. Actually, let me read two more things here. There are some guidelines. The National Archives defines presidential records as any document materials created or received by the president, their immediate staff or anyone in the executive office of the president whose function is to advise or assist the president in the course of carrying out official duties. But it is not clear how much has been preserved given Trump's habit of a ripping up documents.

Remember that when they took pictures of the documents ripped up and put in the toilet? it. The employees once tasked with taping them back together were summarily fired in 2018. The White House's strategy seems to be that you can't make a record public if it doesn't exist in the first place. That's a scary way to govern. Pauline Athon says he likes it, so we'll do this more often. It's the only opinion I needed. Yeah, there's a few, like I'll show you a couple of these headlines. I won't do the recaps now, but there's this story from

2021. The CIA drove spike in media leak investigations requests under Trump. Records released by the Department of Justice provide new details about Trump's campaign against a whistleblowers and leakers. We're seeing that repeated right now. I thought that was interesting. This is from July of 2021.

Pentagon warns of an increased potential for nuclear conflict in newly disclosed manual. That was funny. Here's this from January of 2021. 12th. This is while Trump, this was before Trump got in there, or Biden got in there, excuse me. When it comes to security clearances, rules for others don't apply to Congress. And they're saying how like, Congress people shouldn't even have access to classified programs, which is just funny. Talk about Pompeo seeking a flurry of unmaskings last spring.

Pentagon Report assessed lasers and radar to detect deception. They wanted to use lasers and radar to see if people were lying. that was funny what else oh here's another funny one from may of 2021 the US government hides some of its darkest secrets at the Department of Energy

Lee Walden says flashback Friday's funny I see a soft disclosure ad in the future there'll be plenty of soft disclosure ads in the future RR Hody says I strongly doubt most of Congress would be able to pass security investigations I went through yeah

yeah I don't think many of them could or would otherwise be able to hold the security clearance. But hey, they get in there because the will of the people decided they should be in there. So certainly that means we can trust them with every and all things. I thought this was interesting. US is probing NATO allies over military support as it moles further troop cuts. The U.S. will examine European defense spending and military access as part of its review of American force in Europe,

said Deputy Pentagon Chief Elbridge Colby. they're saying that the support of NATO countries for key U.S. defense objectives and a first test ahead of a critical review of American force in Europe. The rare visit by a U.S. senior official marks another step in the U.S. campaign

to make Europe and Canada spend more for their own defense. Washington also wants to probe their loyalty after several NATO countries curbed access to their airspace and to American bases linked to the U.S. Israel War on Iran. I think they're laying the groundwork, guys, for us to finally pull out of NATO. I think that would be awesome because screw those guys.

Oh, I thought this was interesting too. California Senate passes a bill to find influencers over undisclosed paid political posts. And I have questions for this too. California Senate passed a bill on August 24th to find content creators who make paid political content without disclosing the compensation. The legislation authored by Democratic Assembly member Mark Berman will still need to vote in the state assembly before we. reaches Governor Gavin Newsom's desk. A voter should have a right to know whether or not campaigns are paying for the messaging that they're seen.

Both Texas and California require content creators to include disclaimers on political posts. The new legislation is an effort to enforce the law. Currently, the state's campaign watchdog can request that a court compel an influencer to disclose the monetary connection, but it could take months for the process to reach fruition. However, Berman's bill would give California's fair political practices commission the power to find both influencers and political committees if they violate the law bypassing the court's involvement i don't know if this is the right solution for this but i do see this as a problem and it shouldn't just be because of like campaigns generally like it shouldn't just be political

campaigns where if you're posting because somebody's paying you to post on behalf of the campaign like you should disclose that i agree but it should be with whatever it is if somebody's giving you money in exchange for something you say that is no longer just like you're your free speech that is in a sense bought and paid for speech not even in a sense that is directly what it is and the people you're sharing that to your platform should should be allowed to know that it's actually funny so you know all the polymarket stuff um where where people are like posting paid promotions for polymarket people came to us this week asking us to do that and they're like hey would you be interested in in doing paid promotions for for polymarket and my response to it

like posting stuff on Twitter. And my response, and I'll read it, I said, as long as they are comfortable with me saying, Polymarket is paying me to post this at the very top of the tweet. I said, I'll take their money, yeah. But I'm going to put, Polymark is paying me to say this. And then they responded that it says paid partnerships on the post. You guys wouldn't add anything else.

And I said, no, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. So I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it unless I also got to add that they're paying us for it. If it's already there, why do they care? And I don't think they responded. That's like I turned down, I literally turned down money. All I had to do was post something. I don't know how much money. But because I wanted to disclose first,

in addition to the little paid promotion thing that's at the bottom, paid partnership thing, I wanted to post on there that I'm being paid to say this. But they don't want that because they want to think it's your authentic voice, that you're doing it willingly of your own free will. But there's so many people that post. put things out there that they don't actually believe. They put it out there because they're getting paid for it.

It's like an integrity thing. And this is the problem with FARA. This is the problem with any of these people that are promoting, you know, foreign governments for money. Yeah, it's cool that you register with FARA, but do any of the people that you're posting online to, do they know that you've taken money? The government knows.

But the people you're giving the message to don't. It colors everything. But I don't know what this solution is. because I think it's I don't want more government control or intervention over anything. I also am a capitalist

so like I'm okay with people making money I just wish they'd be honest about how they're making it and why they're making it. Very few people out there are willing to do that. People fake illnesses people start go fundies,

cry streams, all these things. They'll do anything to make a buck. We just sell you lotion to make a buck. And nobody's forced to support anything we do. Nothing's buying to pay well. We only survive and or thrive if and when we get the support of the people watching our content. That's just the truth of it. But there's got to be something here.

I don't hate the idea of this. I wish more influencers would be in some form of fashion forced to disclose when they're being paid to pose something. But I don't know if finding them is the thing to do if they don't disclose it or I just don't know. But there's something here. that I'm kind of in favor of. Yeah, Jessica, Jessica was the storm who brought that. She's the one who was like the go between, between the people wanting us to do the polymarket and,

and apparently they did not respond after that. So, John, did you see Josh's post on X explaining this to people about the polymarkets that it is not a poll? Yeah, I mean, we've been talking about that for a while. Tracing and net. Yeah, and so Jessica Storm can vouch for my polymarket story. I'd share the screen. I just don't want you guys

I guess I don't care I'll be honest about it I mean it was it was rumble that was bringing us the deal but it's just wild how much money is in and all this stuff people just take it do what they want

you see was here best not to take the money Judas betrayed Jesus for less than $700 at current prices that's funny that's true and I've always I've always thought about this too

like by taking the approach we do we are not as financially successful as we could be. Like, we are not reaching the peak of our financial success because of how we operate. But I've always believed that if we keep operating this way, based on our principles, like not in pursuit of money, because so many people out there, like, I wish, I wish you guys could see some of the stuff behind the scenes more.

I wish we would talk about it. Maybe after the lawsuit we will, but how driven by money some people are and always have been. And everything they do, they try to make it seem. like they're these good, well-intentioned people, but they're just gross. But I've always believed that if we just operate, doing things the right way, all the money stuff will take care of itself. At some point, I got to imagine that authenticity is going to be the currency of the future.

This is something that we've talked about many times over the years, probably haven't talked about in a while. But in an age where we're going more and more towards AI and just fake people generally, bots. and then also on top of that, like, people, you want to, dead giveaway for people online who are posting just straight AI slop, it's the whole EM dash thing. Anybody's post with the long EM, nobody writes like that. And you can almost, I wish there was a way you could accurately search Twitter for this,

because I've tried it in the past, like going through and searching a timeline for just the EM dash and seeing when they started using it. Because you can see, you can, you could probably time it up to when like a, a. certain AI platform launched and now all their posts, all their long posts anyway, have that a EM dash. But in the time where like everybody's relying on AI for everything, to think for them, to talk for them, to have relationships for them, at some point, people will start to value authenticity again. And so that's where my mindset is. We're going to keep pushing that, keep building out the community. We're going to turn down money when it, you know, they won't

allow us to be authentic in exchange for taking it. You know what I mean? Like I'm not going to be somebody I'm not in exchange for money and then long term people will value authenticity again. Phil Scarborough says your X account should have a symbol if you're a paid influencer. The issue is I mean I agree but then everything would have to go through X. A lot of the people are getting money from people outside of X like that polymarket deal would have had nothing to do with X and how would is X then responsible for verifying who's getting paid to post something?

It shouldn't be that way. like if you're if you're a corrupt individual and a corrupt business like these people that are giving money to the NGOs to launder through to get people to vote like you think they would disclose if they were paying somebody to say something I doubt it and a lot of the people I guarantee you a lot of people taking money to say things obviously don't want to disclose and would not disclose if they were taking the money too so I don't know it just seems very unenforceable skeptical yeah youtube is dead set on not paying content creators so they're going to eventually just have all of it be their own AI videos based on content that is already on their platform

yeah i could see a future for that too i don't know it's just going to be so interesting how many people just get sucked into like their their videos on tic talk or youtube or the content they follow on twitter it's all done by ai bots the promethian action videos guys like it is my opinion i can't verify this but it is my my opinion based on what they say and how they say and this is why I haven't like been sucked into it is it looks like they are reading and sounds like they are reading off an AI script like they're not putting these connections together they're just reading in my opinion an AI script like do they even believe any of the stuff is going on or they just hey this is the stuff that's trending on

Twitter this is what the people think put together a breakdown of how this news fits into this story and there you go. You have your AI script. You just sit there and read it for 20 minutes, put it on air and it goes viral. Might be real people, but not their real original thoughts or ideas or words, in my opinion.

Can't verify it, but that's what it looks like to me. So we need to get better at figuring out what is AI, what isn't a very helpful tool. There's rumors that they're going to come out with that way that you can copy and paste. you'll be able to see what content or written word was done by AI based on some code that's in the actual text and it transfers with from copying and pasting. It won't be perfect, but looking forward to that tool very much so. Oh, when you said fake people, C.C says, when you said fake people, I thought you meant people that pretend to be authentic to take advantage of you.

I missed that authenticity. Yeah, there's a lot of that too. Fix Bay, Net, used to be inauthentically antagonizing. Thank you so much, Fix Bayonet. Appreciate your guys support. Diane Laporte clump here's to integrity in America make make integrity great again yes love it thank you for the rant you guys over on YouTube um or bova I want the John who reads commercials live that's the only John you'll ever get

it's the only John you'll ever get this guy who reads it live does alive guys I am going to get out of here though now only lands tonight I was originally going to be on it but I'm not anymore because I forgot that is it the first home football game for the high school team here and they do like a big back-to-school picnic and so taking the kids to that um excited it'll be fun kids a lot fun but that means i will miss tonight's show but instead i think we're going to have i got to post this in the private group but looks like j Josh reed alpha cams Zach Beebe be a fun show BB and alpha can have their argument finally um but yeah with that guys i'm going to get out of here i hope you guys have a great

of your Friday. Make sure you tune in on Sunday. There will be in America First Stories. I'm going to be interviewing a new sponsor that's coming, and I'm pretty excited about it. So make sure you guys check that out. And with that, you guys have a great rest of your day. Is there anybody I can read?

I know Ghost used to do the Friday slot after me, but I don't think he's doing that anymore. So, yeah, Maha News at 3 p.m. Eastern. Spell Breakers at 9 p.m. Eastern. And then, Onlylance Tonight. You guys have a great rest of your Friday. I will see you tomorrow on the power hour 10.30 p.m. Eastern.