No Agenda Episode 1900 - "Trust The Plan"

  No Agenda Episode 1900 - "Trust The Plan"
    "Trust The Plan"
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  Credits
    Trust The Plan
    Executive Producers:
      Sir Onymous
      Jason Calacanis
      Sir Donald of the Fire Bottles
      La Jolla Salt
      Martin Marshall
      arthur sundry
      Sean Ryan
      Sir Fay of the Red Brook
      Sir Kirk of Siouxland, Protector of Things with Power Cords
      Christopher Pepper
      Timothy Woody
      Dame astrid, ArchDuchess of Japan and all the disputed Islands in the Japan Sea
      Sir Dan The Man, Earl of SW Florida, Protector of the Islands of Sanibel and Captiva
      Rusty Vervynck
      Sir Brian With an I
      Sir Facetension
      Danielle Carothers
      douglas murray
      Darius
      Tom Player
      Sir Moses
      SDG
      Ian Sloan
    Associate Executive Producers:
      Justin Robinson
      Eli The Coffee Guy
      Scottie K
    Knights and Dames:
      Sean Ryan > Sir Sean Juan of the Bohemian Grove
      Justin Robinson > Sir J Rob, Protector of the Branch Circuits
    Title Changes:
      Sir Donald of the Fire Bottles > Arch-Duke
      SirFacetension > Red-Knight Sir Facetension, Baronet of the Orders of Heart and Ant
      Sir Lead > Baronet Lead
    Order of the Ant:
      Sir Onymous
      Jason Calacanis
      Sir Donald of the Fire Bottles
      La Jolla Salt
      Martin Marshall
      arthur sundry
      Sean Ryan
      Sir Fay of the Red Brook
      Sir Kirk of Siouxland
      Christopher Pepper
      Timothy Woody
      Sir Mark
      Sir Dan The Man
      Rusty Vervynck
      Sir Brian With an I
      Sir Facetension
      Danielle Carothers
      douglas murray
      Darius
      Tom Player
      Sir Moses
      Ian Sloan
    End of Show Mixes:
      Jus Baker (Just Dew It)
      Jus Baker (Don't call it a pod)
    Art By: Francisco_Scaramanga — "Penetration Tester"
    Mark van Dijk - Systems Master
    Ryan Bemrose - Program Director
    Back Office Jae Dvorak
    Chapters: Dreb Scott
    Clip Custodian: Neal Jones
    Clip Collectors: Steve Jones & Dave Ackerman
    No Agenda Peerage
    RSS Podcast Feed
  Cover Art
    Art By: Francisco_Scaramanga — "Penetration Tester"
  Shownotes
    Adam is joined by Sir Dewcifer Rob Dew for your Thursday Media Deconstructio
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    00 💵 BESSENT
      Three separate interviews at his own G20 in Asheville - Kudlow on Fox Business, Hannity on Fox News, Sara Eisen on CNBC - and between them the Treasury Secretary lays out the whole operation on live television. Kinetic first, then the blockade, then the money. The rial from 800,000 to over 2 million. A country with the third largest energy reserves on earth importing gasoline. Then the part a Treasury Secretary does not normally do: naming the British Virgin Islands trust companies and the hundred-million-dollar houses on worldwide TV, on purpose. Tom Luongo's thesis explains WHY he did it. Mehran Kamrava argues he is wrong.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        📚 THE POINTER THAT STARTED IT - Promethean Updates, "Bessent: CUT THE SNAKE'S HEAD OFF". NOT MSM and NOT a clip source; used only to trace the excerpts back to the Kudlow interview they came from.
        Reuters - Bessent says US likely to announce Iran bank sanctions this week
      Clips — 18
      00 Operation Economic Outcast
        01 Operation Economic Outcast Sanctions Plus A Blockade
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox Business (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX BUSINESS): to Larry Kudlow at the G20 - none of the economic result was possible without the kinetic strikes first - Navy, Air Force, 85 to 90 percent of the factories that could rebuild them. Then the money: he promised at the Economic Club in spring 2025 to collapse the rial and it has gone from 800,000 to over 2 million to the dollar, so the regime prints to pay its own troops, and a country with the third greatest energy reserves on earth now imports gasoline. The doctrine line: sanctions get argued about, but sanctions PLUS a blockade work.
        02 The Egyptian Bank In Dubai And The Patriot Act
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox Business (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX BUSINESS): a branch of an Egyptian bank in Dubai funnelled more than $1.8 billion to the regime and Treasury shut it using a PATRIOT ACT AUTHORITY IT HAD NEVER USED BEFORE - deliberately not sanctioning the Egyptian parent. Then the warning to everyone else: we know who you are, you know who you are, a bank sanction this week and another the week after. Ends on the phrase: we are going to economically asphyxiate this regime.
        03 We Know Where The British Virgin Islands Accounts Are
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox Business (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX BUSINESS): the secondary-sanctions ladder said out loud - out of the dollar system, the banking system, the Federal Reserve wire, the Swiss ledger. Then he turns it personal on camera and says he is doing it deliberately on worldwide TV: he knows which British Virgin Islands TRUST COMPANIES hold the IRGC's accounts and where the hundred-million-dollar houses are, and they will be frozen. The money goes back to the Iranian people, or to the families of the men on the USS Cole and in the Lebanese barracks.
      01 The House Always Wins
        01 Their Head Staying Attached To Their Neck
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — CNBC (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (CNBC): to Sara Eisen, asked what happens if the regime simply does not care that its people are suffering, he answers from experience - with people like this, the main thing they care about is their head staying attached to their neck. Pressed on whether the goal is regime change, he refuses that framing and lists the four conditions instead: give up the nuclear programme, hand over the highly enriched uranium, stop supporting proxies, and the strait stays open.
        02 We Are The House And Over Time We Win
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — CNBC (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (CNBC): to Sara Eisen, asked the question the whole strategy rests on - can you crush Iran without China, which has been resistant - he calls it a false narrative the media jumped on. His evidence: the blockade has left only 30 million barrels of Iranian oil on the water, so even Chinese remittances run out. Then the claim nobody expected: the US has MORE in common with China on Iran than it disagrees on - Beijing agrees Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and agrees the strait must stay open. He confirms a robust meeting with Governor Pan and declines to say more, because people forget WE ARE THE HOUSE, we do have the information, and over time we win.
      02 Choke Points And Onshoring
        01 The Strait Of Hormuz Will Be A Worthless Piece Of Water
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox Business (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX BUSINESS): to Larry Kudlow - the only good thing about COVID was that it showed where the choke points are - hence de-risking from China rather than decoupling. Iran is trying to use the Strait of Hormuz as a choke point, and it is not one for the United States but it is for many other countries. Then the forecast with a date on it: in two years the Strait of Hormuz will be a worthless piece of water, because the oil will move overland on pipelines.
        02 We Do Not Produce Amoxicillin Here
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox Business (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX BUSINESS): the concession a Republican Treasury Secretary is not expected to make. Almost everyone listening has given a child amoxicillin and the United States does not manufacture it - so to the people who say let the market sort it out, there ARE market failures. His formulation: maximum efficiency is not maximally secure.
      03 Overeducated And Under Earning
        01 Overeducated And Under Earning
          Source
          📺 Sean Hannity and Scott Bessent — Fox News (MSM)
          Sean Hannity and Scott Bessent (FOX NEWS): Hannity frames the midterms as a referendum on socialism with the numbers - the DSA has elected 250 members since 2019 and has over 40 on the ballot this year - and quotes Bessent's own description of that electorate as overeducated, under-earning underachievers. He then asks why $11 trillion in committed investment, chips, pharma and the largest tax cuts in history is not obviously a boom. Bessent turns his own insult back on the host: well Sean, you are overeducated and OVER-earning, that's why.
      04 Warren And Druckenmiller
        01 Foreign Exchange For Dummies
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — CNBC (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (CNBC): to Sara Eisen, on the letter war with Senator Elizabeth Warren, he goes at her competence rather than her politics - she sits on Senate Finance and is ranking member of Senate Banking, and neither she nor her staff know the difference between a foreign exchange INTERVENTION and a currency SWAP. Twice: it is shameful, shameful. And more shameful is that the media has not called her out on it.
        02 Druckenmiller Lost Money The Day He Sent In The Editorial
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — CNBC (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (CNBC): to Sara Eisen, asked about Stanley Druckenmiller - a man he has called his mentor - publishing an op-ed against his debt-management moves, he deflects to the bond market, insists US yields are flat since the President came in, and confirms the two have spoken since and that it was fine. Then the knife, delivered gently: Stan's a great investor, he changes his mind a lot, and he doesn't like losing money - I think he lost money the day he sent in the editorial.
      05 Why He Did It - The Luongo Thesis
        01 He Sold Euros Not Dollars To Break The Trade
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Tom Luongo (BTC SESSIONS, part 1 of 6): his model of what Bessent actually broke - a structural short-yen, short-long-end-Treasury trade that should not work unless somebody in the middle is holding the spreads constant using German bunds as the third leg, producing the headline that Japan and the US are imploding while Europe is stable. Bessent blew it up, he argues, by selling EUROS rather than dollars to support the yen. ⚠️ This is one analyst's thesis, not reporting.
        02 Naked Short Euro-Yen And The Squeeze
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Tom Luongo (BTC SESSIONS, part 2 of 6): the mechanism he claims - they were unhedged short in the FX market, rigging foreign exchange in order to rig the bond market. Bessent waited for the yen to break out at 162-163, came in at 164-165 and bombed it into a levered momentum crowd. With FX leverage at 100 to 1 or 1000 to 1, he says $40 billion of intervention turns into $400 billion of liquidation.
        03 Iranian Oil Loadings Were The Collateral
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Tom Luongo (BTC SESSIONS, part 3 of 6 - the load-bearing claim): why did the euro-yen cross stop rising the minute the Iran operation began? Because, he argues, oil sitting on ships was being used as COLLATERAL to fund the carry trade - which is why London and the Bank of England wanted $200 to $250 oil and wanted Iran controlling the strait, as an enormous expansion of collateral. Now the only party that cannot export through Hormuz is Iran. ⚠️ This is his inference, not a documented fact.
        04 Europe Needs A War To Blow Out The Spreads
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Tom Luongo (BTC SESSIONS, part 4 of 6): the squeeze on bond spreads, with Germans paying almost $11 a gallon for diesel. His claim is that Europe needs a war to blow the spreads out, force a default, consolidate the debt under the ECB and the digital euro, stiff the bondholders and emerge first with a clean balance sheet. He calls it financial warfare.
        05 Every Bank Touching Iran Cut Out Of The Dollar
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Tom Luongo (BTC SESSIONS, part 5 of 6): on Bessent's threat that every country still doing business with Iran has its banks cut out of the dollar system, and his claim that Canadian banks are involved at every level, with a long detour through the forensic history of Canadian banks, prohibition liquor and the drug trade. His point: money has to move faster than the speed of cash, which is why the Dubai and Gulf laundering for the IRGC was shut down first.
        06 The Question Nobody Asked How Was Iran Getting Dollars
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Tom Luongo (BTC SESSIONS, part 6 of 6 - and the most quotable): after six months of wall-to-wall Iran coverage, did anybody ever ask the one basic question - how was Iran getting any dollars at all? The IRGC's families do not live in Iran, they live the high life outside it, and they need dollars. No different, he says, from any other organised crime family.
      06 The Other Read
        01 Grasping At Straws For A Coherent Strategy
          Source
          📺 Mehran Kamrava of Georgetown University in Qatar — CNBC (MSM)
          Mehran Kamrava of Georgetown University in Qatar (CNBC): asked by Dan Murphy what the economic campaign is actually doing inside Iran, he concedes the damage - e-commerce disrupted, international travel and imports choked, inflation high - but frames the whole thing as the United States GRASPING AT STRAWS FOR A COHERENT STRATEGY it has not been able to articulate. The asymmetry that undercuts the Treasury theory: this is a state long accustomed to punishing sanctions that does not always care when its people suffer, and whose leadership believes Iran has a higher threshold for economic pain than America does - so they can wait Washington out.
        02 Not Desperation But Doctrine
          Source
          📺 Mehran Kamrava — CNBC (MSM)
          Mehran Kamrava (CNBC): given the President's claim that Iran is lashing out BECAUSE the sanctions are working, he answers flatly - no, it is not the right read. Iran acts on reciprocity, and there has been a steady, deliberate shift from a defensive military posture to an increasingly aggressive and offensive doctrine, with a current of thought in Tehran that escalation buys concessions where restraint buys nothing. So the President is quite mistaken if he thinks the attacks on Jordan and the UAE are desperation.
    01 🛢️ THE WAR ITSELF
      The war reignites after a month of relative quiet - the US striking radar and missile sites near Hormuz, Iran firing on Jordan and the Gulf states, Iran claiming a US strike hit a wedding party. Trump calls it a relatively little war for us, then threatens that Iran will be totally wiped out. Putin sits down with Iran's president and pledges support. And then the video: the President posts footage of American forces destroying Kharg Island. The US never attacked Kharg, and it appears to be AI-generated.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        CNBC - US, Iran, Hormuz: tanker attack and shipping sanctions
        CNBC - Iran, Israel, Europe and Kuwait as the war widens (3 Sep)
      Clips — 5
      00 The Strikes Resume
        01 Mary Bruce - A Relatively Little War And Putin Backs Tehran
          Source
          📺 Mary Bruce — ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT (?)
          Mary Bruce (ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT): the whiplash in one package - Trump calling it a relatively little war for us, not a big war, alongside his threat that Iran will be totally wiped out as a country. Iran struck two tankers in Hormuz and is now firing missiles and drones at US allies including Jordan; Iran claims a US strike hit a wedding. And in a striking show of support, Putin sits down with Iran's president and pledges to supply what they need.
        02 Keir Simmons - Thirteen Missiles At Jordan And Petrol Queues In Tehran
          Source
          📺 Keir Simmons — NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (?)
          Keir Simmons (NBC NIGHTLY NEWS): Jordan reports a barrage of 13 Iranian missiles, 10 intercepted. Trump: their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their surveillance is almost entirely gone - that doesn't mean we won't smack them. And the picture inside Iran: massive queues for petrol in Tehran with officials admitting they cannot meet demand under the US blockade.
        03 Charlie D'Agata - Iran Says A Wedding Party Was Hit
          Source
          📺 Charlie D'Agata — CBS Evening News (MSM)
          Charlie D'Agata (CBS EVENING NEWS): Iran says a US airstrike hit a residential neighbourhood during a WEDDING PARTY, killing four civilians including a four-year-old, with dozens wounded on Iranian state TV. CENTCOM says it is looking into the reports and that the US military never targets civilians, after more than six hours of strikes. Then the readiness note underneath: the USS Abraham Lincoln limps into Thailand after 286 straight days at sea, and the Navy has acknowledged the war has severely strained carrier readiness.
      01 The Video That Was Not Real
        01 The Kharg Island Video Is AI Generated
          Source
          📺 MS NOW fact-check — MSNBC (MSM)
          MS NOW fact-check (MSNBC): the President posted video of American forces, in his words, blowing to smithereens the island of Kharg. The US HAS NOT ATTACKED KHARG, and the video appears to be AI-GENERATED. The real strike was on an island called Barak, against missiles prepared to mine the Strait. Two corrections follow - the Strait remains closed after six months, and Iran is not dead as claimed, having retaliated on US bases in Jordan. The analysts' read: Iran is waiting Trump out and will not deal until after the November 3rd midterms.
        02 The President Likes To Switch It Up
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          JD Vance (PBS NEWSHOUR, press gaggle): asked directly about the President tweeting AI-GENERATED video of the bombing of Kharg Island - was it a warning, what was the messaging - the Vice President never disputes that the video is synthetic. He says the president likes to switch it up on social media a little bit, and that he would be the first to say he doesn't make announcements about military actions on social media, before recasting it as a message to Iran to stop shooting at commercial shipping.
    02 🇨🇦 CANADA AND LAKE AMERICA
      Carney wins three by-elections by more than fifty percent in each riding, and answers the insults directly - stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough. Bessent asks how you can be at war with someone thirteen times smaller who would have to bring their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall. Lake Ontario becomes Lake America by executive order, with Trump musing about the Atlantic and the Pacific. Canada's answer is the Wendat etymology: the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        Axios - Apple Maps and Google rename Lake Ontario "Lake America"
      Clips — 6
      00 Carney Answers Back
        01 By-Election Wins And Trash Talk Beneath The Office
          Source
          📺 Mark Carney — CBC (?)
          Mark Carney (CBC): after three lopsided by-election wins, more than 50 percent in each riding. CBC then lists the insults - the Lake Ontario renaming order, Vance, Bessent's Edmonton Mall line, and Hegseth posting to demean Canadian military cadets. The Prime Minister calls the trash talking beneath the office of a US cabinet secretary: stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions.
      01 The Treasury Secretary On Canada
        01 Two Submarines From The Edmonton Mall
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox News (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX NEWS): asked about a tit-for-tat trade war with Canada, he says you cannot be in a tit-for-tat with someone thirteen times larger than you are, and that it is unfortunate Prime Minister Carney has turned it into a political shouting match. Then the mockery: we're not at war with Canada - how are we going to be at war with Canada? Are they going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall and sic them on us?
        02 Free Riders And Cellar Dwellers With Spain
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox News (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX NEWS): to Sean Hannity - a free-rider problem with Canada going back a long time, and Carney complaining about shade after a verbal beatdown when he is the one who said the two countries were at war. Then the turn - Canada HAD a great military, right at the forefront on the beaches of D-Day, and what its own government has done has put it near the bottom of NATO spending, cellar dwellers around with Spain on military spending to GDP. The payoff: Canadian businesses are not with the Prime Minister, and the Canadian military is not with the Prime Minister.
      02 Lake America
        01 Effective Immediately To Lake America
          Source
          📺 President Trump and reporter Deepa Shivaram — NPR (MSM)
          President Trump and reporter Deepa Shivaram (NPR): Trump in his own voice - we're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America - followed by the executive order directing the federal government to rename the smallest of the Great Lakes, the same move he made on the Gulf of Mexico. Then Trump riffing: a lake? Now all we need is an ocean, so maybe we'll change the Atlantic and or the Pacific, maybe we'll change them both. NPR puts it against the 50 percent tariff on some Canadian goods and Canada's counter-tariffs.
        02 Then Now And Always
          Source
          📺 Mark Carney — NPR (MSM)
          Mark Carney (NPR): via Dan Karpinchuk in Toronto - whatever the United States calls it, Canadians will know it as Lake Ontario - then, now and always. NPR frames it as the latest tit-for-tat in a trade war fanned by insults, mainly from Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The rebuttal Carney chose is the history: the name comes from the indigenous Wendat word Ontari-eo, meaning the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.
      03 Russia At The G20 Table
        01 Champagne On The Discomfort Of Russia At The G20
          Source
          📺 François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's Finance Minister — CBC (?)
          François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's Finance Minister (CBC): on the United States inviting RUSSIA's finance minister to the Asheville G20 over allies' objections - it created a lot of discomfort around the table, and not only from Canada. Ends on Carney's line that this administration's signature is sometimes written in pencil.
    03 🪖 THE PENTAGON PURGE
      The Army currently has no civilian secretary, no chief of staff, no confirmed general in charge of operations, and no commander of troops in Europe. Dan Driscoll took his concerns about the purge to the President in person and then resigned - nearly two dozen top officers pushed out in eighteen months, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Chief of Naval Operations, and ten more pulled off Army promotion lists. Meanwhile the Defense Secretary is posting photos body-shaming Canadian teenage cadets.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        Axios - Hegseth, Dan Driscoll and the Pentagon shake-up
      Clips — 3
      00 Driscoll Resigns
        01 Weijia Jiang - Two Dozen Officers Pushed Out In Eighteen Months
          Source
          📺 Weijia Jiang — CBS Evening News (MSM)
          Weijia Jiang (CBS EVENING NEWS): the numbers under the resignation - nearly two dozen top military officers pushed out in eighteen months, including the CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS and the CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS. Driscoll took his concerns to Trump directly. Republican Congressman Don Bacon of House Armed Services says the secretary has gone overboard on the firings; H.R. McMaster calls it bad news for the country to have no Senate-confirmed Army leadership. CBS has also learned a top Driscoll deputy is going this week, and that Hegseth removed ten officers from Army promotion lists - sources say half are female or minority.
        02 Jim Sciutto - The Parting Shot And The Cadet Photo
          Source
          📺 Jim Sciutto — CNN AC360 (?)
          Jim Sciutto (CNN AC360): per The Atlantic, Driscoll took his concerns to the President IN PERSON before resigning, and Trump was surprised to learn how many generals had been purged. Multiple sources agree Hegseth is damaging the Army's adaptation to modern DRONE WARFARE while fighting culture wars - even, as it turns out, petty ones: he posted a photo body-shaming a Canadian youth cadet and her trainer. Adam Kinzinger's response is the payoff: literally they're kids, this is a cadet program, and MAGA males are betas who have to punch down to feel big.
      01 The Four Vacancies
        01 The Army Secretary Resigns
          Source
          📺 Rebecca Castor — FOX 13 SEATTLE (?)
          Rebecca Castor (FOX 13 SEATTLE): after 18 months, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns following months of tension with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, having told Trump that Hegseth's firing of top generals is hurting Army readiness. The chair of the Congressional Army caucus, on tape: it was nice having somebody smart who knew the policy - unfortunate that somebody like that can't last in this administration. Driscoll is a Yale Law friend of Vice President Vance expected to play a major role in his 2028 campaign. The payoff is the inventory: the Army now has NO top civilian leader, NO chief of staff, NO confirmed general in charge of operations and NO commander of troops in Europe.
    04 🏛️ THE BALLROOM AND THE BUNKER
      Five to four, unsigned, decided entirely on STANDING - the majority never touched whether the ballroom is legal, only that the National Trust had no right to sue, because "mere offense, disagreement or distaste does not qualify." Chief Justice Roberts joined the three liberals in dissent and wrote that the construction is LIKELY UNLAWFUL. And the mechanism underneath it: the thing is already sixty-five percent built, construction SPED UP during the appeal, and the majority deferred to the DNI, the Army Secretary and Rubio on the grounds that stopping it would harm the military installation in the bunker beneath it.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        CNBC - Supreme Court and the White House ballroom
      Clips — 3
      00 The Ruling And The Roberts Dissent
        01 Roberts Says It Is Likely Unlawful
          Source
          📺 Gabe Gutierrez with Tom Llamas — NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (?)
          Gabe Gutierrez with Tom Llamas (NBC NIGHTLY NEWS): the Court allows the project to proceed indefinitely, ruling that the historical preservation group had no standing - writing that MERE OFFENSE, DISAGREEMENT OR DISTASTE DOES NOT QUALIFY. But it was 5-4, and CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS JOINED THE COURT'S THREE LIBERALS IN DISSENT, writing that the construction is LIKELY UNLAWFUL. Trump says the project will be finished by the summer of 2028.
      01 Standing Not Legality
        01 The Court Ruled On Standing Not Legality
          Source
          📺 Jake Rosen — CBS News (MSM)
          Jake Rosen (CBS NEWS): what the Court actually did, in an unsigned 5-4 opinion - it held the National Trust for Historic Preservation had no legal right to sue because its declarations of harm were not concrete enough, and that BOTH the D.C. district judge and the D.C. appellate panel erred by giving the Trust too much latitude. The point to hold: the majority never touched the legality of the ballroom or the mechanism being used to fund it.
        02 Sixty Five Percent Finished And A Bunker Underneath
          Source
          📺 Jake Rosen — CBS News (MSM)
          Jake Rosen (CBS NEWS): the mechanism, and it is the story. The administration's own filings say the ballroom is about 65 PERCENT FINISHED, and the Trust's attorneys say construction SPED UP while the case was slowed in the appellate process - so another four to nine months and it is too far along to stop. The majority deferred to the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of the Army and Marco Rubio, who argued that harming the project would damage the MILITARY INSTALLATION IN THE BUNKER UNDERNEATH IT housing presidential security. Ends: for now this is settled, and President Trump will get his ballroom after all.
    05 🗳️ THE MAIL BALLOT PORTAL
      A Postal Service whistleblower says the new mail-ballot verification system is being built in secret, on a rushed timeline, and is not ready. The mechanism is the story: every state and local election official must upload the name and address of EVERY mail ballot recipient in the country into a federal portal before the Postal Service will mail those ballots - and if a state does not comply, or a barcode or an address is wrong, the ballots can be sent back. The IT staff testing it had days.
      Clips — 1
      00 The Whistleblower
        01 Rushed Secretive And Hidden From The Public
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Gabe Cohen (CNN), reporting an unnamed US POSTAL SERVICE WHISTLEBLOWER: the new mail-ballot verification system is riddled with technical and operational problems and procedures being developed under the President's mandates are being HIDDEN FROM THE PUBLIC. The mechanism: every state and local election official must upload the names and addresses of ALL mail ballot recipients across the country into a government portal before USPS will mail those ballots - and if states don't comply, or barcodes or addresses are wrong, ballots can be SENT BACK. The IT staff testing it had a matter of days; the whistleblower's own description of what is happening behind the scenes had to be bleeped on air.
    06 📰 THE PRESS AND THE PRESSURE
      At the G20 the Treasury denied credentials to reporters from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, and Bessent told the AP it had nothing to do with point of view. Set that beside the pattern - the Pentagon's reporter restrictions, the AP thrown out of the Oval Office for refusing to say Gulf of America, the FCC referral of Kristen Welker. Then the same instinct at local scale, and this one is not opinion: a regulated utility in Arkansas sued two newspapers to stop them publishing what Google actually pays for power, and lost the restraining order the same day.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        CNBC - Google data center, Arkansas, Entergy and the court
      Clips — 3
      00 Credentials And The FCC
        01 Treasury Denies The Times The Journal And Bloomberg
          Source
          📺 MS NOW anchor — MSNBC (MSM)
          MS NOW anchor (MSNBC): at the G20 in Asheville the TREASURY DEPARTMENT DENIED CREDENTIALS to certain reporters from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg - three financial outlets, at an economic summit. Bessent told the Associated Press the decision had nothing to do with point of view; the Times called it an assault on press freedoms and Bloomberg said it undermines public accountability. Then the pattern: the Defense Department demanding reporters accept restrictions, the AP suing the White House after being banned from the Oval Office for refusing to say Gulf of America, and Trump referring NBC's Kristen Welker to the FCC. ⚠️ Opinion-inflected - the anchor is making a case, but every fact is attributed on air.
      01 The Utility Sues The Papers
        01 Entergy Sues Two Newspapers Over The Google Deal
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          Andrew Mobley (KATV Channel 7, ABC Little Rock): Entergy Arkansas is trying to shut down reporting on how it will power a Google data center in West Memphis, and has SUED the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times after they published confidential details of its agreements with Google. The documents reached the papers from a private citizen who got them from the Public Service Commission under FOIA. What they showed: GOOGLE WILL PAY ONLY ABOUT ONE THIRD of the $1.6 billion Cypress solar plant built to power its data center - $526 million - against Google's public assurance it would cover the full cost. Entergy says the paper made a careless math error, counting 12 months instead of the 20-year term.
        02 Impossible For A Power Price To Be A Trade Secret
          Source
          📺 A media-law expert — KATV (?)
          A media-law expert (KATV): to reporter Andrew Mobley, the trade-secret claim taken apart - what is this information that is so secret it can't be shared? The court is right to be sceptical, because IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HOW MUCH GOOGLE IS PAYING FOR ELECTRICITY TO BE A TRADE SECRET; that does not fit the definition. The payoff lands the same afternoon: Eastern District of Arkansas Judge Lee Rudofsky DENIED Entergy's request for a restraining order against both newspapers.
    07 🤖 AI AND WHO PAYS FOR THE POWER
      One story wearing four hats, and the hat is the electricity bill. Bessent boasts the US goes from sixty percent of global compute to eighty percent by 2028. A single data center can draw as much power as a small city; data centers from Virginia to Illinois have added nearly fourteen billion dollars to customers' bills; seven in ten Americans do not want one near them. Trump says the only reason to refuse is if you want to be backwards and poor. Vance concedes ninety-nine percent of the backlash is the utility bill. And underneath the boom, token prices are collapsing, Anthropic is being sued for torrenting the music it trained on, and financial-services hiring is the lowest since 2011.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        CNBC - AI token prices hit record lows
        Axios - Anthropic, Sony and Warner Music copyright
        Reuters - Texas governor pauses new data center approvals pending audit. ⚠️ YOU TAGGED THIS FOR WGTDT - it is here for context only because ABC names the Texas freeze on air.
      Clips — 6
      00 The Compute Boast
        01 Sixty Percent Now Eighty Percent By 2028
          Source
          📺 Scott Bessent — Fox Business (MSM)
          Scott Bessent (FOX BUSINESS): to Larry Kudlow at the G20 - the United States sits in a very special place because it is the AI superpower, and he puts a number on it - America is pulling away on compute, from about 60 PERCENT of global computing power in 2025 to 80 PERCENT BY 2028. His own verdict on the figure: which is just extraordinary. 🔴 Note: the 2028 clause was silently dropped by the machine transcript and recovered by re-transcribing the window - it is on the tape.
      01 Who Pays For The Power
        01 Backwards And Poor And Fourteen Billion On The Bills
          Source
          📺 ABC News (MSM)
          ABC News reporter (ABC): Trump's message to Americans who oppose data centers in their neighbourhoods is get out of the way - the only reason not to want one is if you want to end up BACKWARDS AND POOR rather than successful and rich, and many of them are designed in a very beautiful way. Against that, a resident: we do not want a data center in this county. Then the numbers - a single data center can use as much electricity as a SMALL CITY, an independent monitor found data centers on the grid from Virginia to Illinois have added NEARLY $14 BILLION to customers' bills, and seven in ten Americans say they don't want one near them.
        02 Ninety Nine Percent Of The Backlash Is Utility Bills
          Source
          📺 JD Vance — PBS NewsHour (MSM)
          JD Vance (PBS NEWSHOUR): asked how the get-on-board-with-data-centers message plays before the midterms, the Vice President concedes the actual grievance - I think probably 99 PERCENT OF THE BACKLASH to data centers has come in areas where building one means higher utility and higher electricity for the people on the ground. His fix is deregulatory: if you build the data center you should be putting power BACK into the grid, not taking it out - and if that happens, they are not that controversial. It's when the utility bills get so much higher, that's when it's a real problem.
      02 Jevons Paradox
        01 Jevon's paradox - Token Costs Collapse And Anthropic Margin Pressure
          Source
          📺 Kate Rooney — CNBC (MSM)
          Kate Rooney (CNBC): the price of AI tokens - the kilowatt-hour of AI cost - hit an ALL-TIME LOW this week per Silicon Data, because models are getting more efficient and using fewer tokens. Good for enterprise buyers, bad for the frontier labs: margin pressure has been a key question for Anthropic's CFO in test-the-water meetings with bankers as both Anthropic and OpenAI look to go public. Her Valley source: you don't need to hire a PhD to be your office manager. The offset is JEVONS PARADOX, an 1860s steam-engine argument that falling prices stimulate more than proportionate demand - but for the labs to benefit, token volumes have to grow FASTER than the cost falls.
      03 The Lawsuit And The Hiring Number
        01 They Torrented The Songs To Train Claude
          Source
          📺 ABC News (MSM)
          ABC News reporter (ABC): Sony and Warner allege Anthropic engaged in PIRACY - going to shady sites, torrenting music illegally and using it to train Claude, and in some cases STRIPPING THE COPYRIGHT INFORMATION out during training. The songs are not obscure: Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Eye of the Tiger, All I Want for Christmas Is You. Anthropic disagrees with the assertion and says it plans to defend itself robustly in court.
      04 Financial Services Hiring
        01 Financial Services Hiring Lowest Since 2011
          Source
          📺 CNBC (MSM)
          CNBC anchor with Kate Rooney (CNBC): that morning's labour data shows THE HIRING RATE FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES IS THE LOWEST SINCE 2011 - fifteen years. He ties it straight to AI, because banks are among the heaviest enterprise-AI consumers and a banking analyst is the single most obvious white-collar job to hand to a model. The industry has argued AI is not costing jobs the way the doomers claim - and he says you may be seeing pockets of exactly that, with banking at risk. 🔗 Play against the IBM producer letter in the notes above.
    08 🌊 VENEZUELA
      Trump calls it the biggest oil deal in world history - sixty-five billion barrels, twenty-five years, signed on 2 September. The counter-view comes from the man who used to run Venezuela's oil ministry, and he refuses the word partnership twice: no transparency, a transitory and very weak government, a private company with no oil track record holding the Orinoco belt and Lake Maracaibo, and a participation held by the American Department of War. Venezuela, he says, loses sovereignty over the fields.
      Clips — 1
      00 It Is Not A Partnership
        01 It Is Not A Partnership
          Source
          📺 A former Venezuelan Oil Minister — CNBC (MSM)
          A former Venezuelan Oil Minister (CNBC): he refuses the administration's own word for it, twice - it's not a partnership. His grounds, in order: there is NO TRANSPARENCY and nobody knows what the agreement actually says; the government that signed it is a transitory and very weak government; the counterparty is a PRIVATE COMPANY WITH NO OIL TRACK RECORD now holding reserves in the Orinoco belt and Lake Maracaibo; the US DEPARTMENT OF WAR holds a participation in that company; and the term runs 25 years. The payoff: Venezuela has no participation in the production and loses control of sovereignty over those areas. ⚠️ He says sixty-five THOUSAND barrels where the deal is sixty-five BILLION - his slip, on the tape.
    09 🇷🇺 RUSSIA AND EUROPE
      A quadcopter packed with explosives targeted a parked Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport, and only a faulty detonator prevented a deadly blast - then an incoming cargo flight struck a second drone midair and aborted its landing. Germany has now formally accused Putin's government of a state-sponsored act of violence on NATO soil. Von der Leyen calls it the new normal; Rutte lists the fires set in factories building Ukrainian defence equipment. And the honest question underneath: beyond summoning ambassadors, what will Europe actually do about the frozen Russian assets sitting in Belgian banks?
      Clips — 4
      00 Leipzig
        01 Germany Accuses Russia Of An Attack On NATO Soil
          Source
          📺 CBC (?)
          CBC News (CBC): in early August a quadcopter packed with high explosives targeted a parked Ukrainian cargo plane at LEIPZIG AIRPORT, and German authorities say ONLY A FAULTY DETONATOR prevented a deadly explosion - then an incoming commercial cargo flight struck a second drone midair and had to abort its landing. Germany's foreign minister has now formally accused Putin's government of a STATE-SPONSORED ACT OF VIOLENCE ON NATO SOIL and is closing Russian diplomatic facilities. Plus: six straight days of jet-powered drones over Kyiv, analysts expecting Putin to try to cripple Ukraine's energy grid this autumn, and Modi lecturing a visibly agitated Putin on camera that we need to move from endless war to the end of war.
      01 This Is The New Normal
        01 Von der Leyen And Rutte Say This Is The New Normal
          Source
          📺 Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — BBC (MSM)
          Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (BBC): the EU chief says Europeans face a hard truth - THIS IS THE NEW NORMAL - speaking after Russia was blamed for the attempted attack on the German airport. Rutte's list is the substance: Russia has grown increasingly reckless, with more drones and missiles crossing into allied airspace along the eastern flank, an increase in malign activity targeting NATO territory directly, and FIRES SET IN FACTORIES producing defence equipment for Ukraine.
        02 Landale On Attributing The Hybrid War
          Source
          📺 James Landale — BBC (MSM)
          James Landale (BBC): the diplomatic correspondent in Kyiv on why attribution is the whole game. The defining characteristic of hybrid war is that the actions are UNATTRIBUTABLE - mysterious parcels exploding in warehouses, cyber attacks, information campaigns, and never clear who is responsible. What is new with Leipzig is Germany, the EU and NATO trying to attribute responsibility explicitly and openly, to impose cost and deter the next one.
        03 Frozen Russian Assets And What Europe Might Actually Do
          Source
          📺 James Landale — BBC (MSM)
          James Landale (BBC): the honest answer to what Europe will actually DO. Short term, diplomatic manoeuvring - ambassadors summoned, German-Russian relations deteriorating, cultural links damaged. Longer term, the interesting question is whether any of this galvanises support for Ukraine - specifically whether Europe can finally agree to use the FROZEN RUSSIAN ASSETS trapped largely in Belgian financial institutions, on which Europe has been badly divided.
    10 🧊 ICELAND SAYS NO
      Icelanders rejected EU accession, and the Prime Minister frames losing as winning - the promise was to hold the referendum and to RESPECT it, which previous governments did not do. Over eighty percent of the country turned out, against everyone who said they would not care. This is the payoff to the thread we opened on 1900 when the vote was still ahead of us.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        The Guardian - Iceland EU accession referendum result
      Clips — 1
      00 A Victory For Democracy
        01 A Victory For Democracy
          Source
          📺 The Prime Minister of Iceland — AFP (?)
          The Prime Minister of Iceland (AFP): addressing the nation after voters rejected EU accession: the promise was to DELIVER the referendum and to RESPECT it - something previous governments did not do. Then the reframe: I don't see this as a setback, I see this as a VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY. The proof he offers is the turnout - over 80 PERCENT of the country participated, against everyone who said people wouldn't, couldn't, or weren't interested. Icelanders have shown that they're wise.
    11 🌏 THE WORLD
      Over a thousand dead in the Nepal and Tibet floods, with more than six hundred hydropower workers possibly still alive in air pockets inside mud-filled tunnels and thermal drones searching for them - seventy-five Americans among the families waiting. And in the West Bank, settlers attack an NBC News crew IN THE MIDDLE of an interview, beating a fifty-one-year-old Palestinian woman unconscious on camera. Netanyahu condemns it, the US Ambassador calls it repugnant, and there have been no arrests.
      Clips — 2
      00 Nepal And Tibet
        01 Britt Clennett - Six Hundred Workers Trapped In The Tunnels
          Source
          📺 Britt Clennett — ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT (?)
          Britt Clennett (ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT): drone video of villages in Nepal and Tibet buried under several feet of mud, with MORE THAN A THOUSAND DEAD. Rescuers are searching for more than 600 HYDROPOWER WORKERS who may still be trapped in AIR POCKETS deep inside mud-filled tunnels, using drones with thermal cameras. Siraj Shrestha of Scranton, Pennsylvania, whose brother Niraj was inside: I do believe in miracles. Seventy-five Americans are among the families waiting.
      01 The West Bank
        01 Matt Bradley - Settlers Attack The Interview In Progress
          Source
          📺 Matt Bradley — NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (?)
          Matt Bradley (NBC NIGHTLY NEWS): THE ATTACK HAPPENS DURING THE INTERVIEW. Aida Ahmed Abdullah, a Palestinian woman, is describing how Israeli settlers forced her family from their West Bank home when a car of masked young men arrives, smashes the crew's windshield, beats the NBC team with sticks and beats the 51-year-old woman UNCONSCIOUS on camera. Netanyahu condemns criminal acts of settler violence including the attack on NBC News; US Ambassador Mike Huckabee calls it inexcusable and repugnant. An investigation is open and there have been NO ARRESTS.
    12 🎭 CULTURE
      The Met drops John Galliano over his antisemitism conviction and the video of him praising Hitler, and his friend goes on camera to say the museum was wrong and we all make mistakes. Mel Gibson apologises for mocking an ASL interpreter at a convention where autographs were selling for two hundred and seventy-five dollars. The Mint is selling dollar coins with Trump's face for $2.44 each, which federal law appears to prohibit. And the USS Abraham Lincoln docks at Pattaya after 286 straight days at sea.
      📰 Articles & links (read/context — above the clips)
        NPR - Met Gala John Galliano exhibit cancelled
        Variety - Mel Gibson mocks ASL interpreter at Fan Expo, apologises
      Clips — 5
      00 The Met Drops Galliano
        01 The Met Drops John Galliano
          Source
          📺 Rana Novini — NBC NEW YORK (?)
          Rana Novini (NBC NEW YORK): the Metropolitan Museum will no longer honour John Galliano, former head designer of Dior, whose work was to be the focus of next year's Costume Institute spring show that the Met Gala launches - the museum and Galliano parting ways after outrage over his antisemitic and racist remarks. The record: convicted of antisemitic abuse in Paris in 2011, with video then surfacing of him PRAISING HITLER, followed by an apology, rehab and a 2014 comeback. The counter-voice is his friend, designer Philip Bloch, on camera: as a friend, I'm heartbroken - arguing the Met should have kept it because he is sorry and we all make mistakes.
      01 Mel Gibson And The Interpreter
        01 Mel Gibson And The ASL Interpreter
          Source
          📺 YouTube (clip)
          E! NEWS: Mel Gibson has apologised for MOCKING AN ASL INTERPRETER at a Fan Expo Canada Q&A on 29 August, making hand gestures behind her as he walked on stage, with a statement issued to E! on the 31st. The report carries both sides of the viral reaction - users calling him classless with anger issues, and defenders saying he owned a silly mistake. The kicker it ends on: at the same event, autographed headshots and photo ops were selling for $275.
      02 The Trump Dollar
        01 Gold Coloured Dollar Coins That Cost Two Forty Four
          Source
          📺 PBS NewsHour (MSM)
          PBS NewsHour (PBS): the US Mint has started selling $1 COINS BEARING PRESIDENT TRUMP'S IMAGE, meant to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary, at a cost of up to $2.44 EACH. Officials say they can be used as legal tender - but their usage and legality have been questioned, because FEDERAL LAW BARS THE DEPICTION OF LIVING PRESIDENTS on the nation's currency.
      03 Shore Leave In Pattaya
        01 Docking At Pattaya And The Sailor Who Wants To See Temples
          Source
          📺 BBC (MSM)
          BBC correspondent (BBC): the USS Abraham Lincoln docks near the Thai resort of Pattaya, a town the BBC notes plainly has long been where American service members go to drink and carouse and which has a thriving sex industry - and then cuts to a sailor with different plans, who says he is excited to see the culture, go see some temples, go relax. The correspondent describes the arriving crew as conspicuous, carrying big backpacks and looking a bit lost.
        02 Soi Six The Go-Go Bars And A Listener Corrects The BBC
          Source
          📺 Jonathan Head — BBC (MSM)
          Jonathan Head (BBC): the correspondent on the go-go bar streets by name, an estimated 25,000 TO 50,000 SEX WORKERS in the city, prostitution notionally illegal in Thailand with police reminding the US crews, and the crews also barred from the cannabis shops and from water sports like parasailing and jet skiing. ⭐ The ending is the reason to play it: the BBC CORRECTS ITSELF ON AIR after listener Amelia Goff wrote in to point out the crew is not all men - Amelia, you're right, and we'll pay more attention in the future. ⚠️ Frank content, so you know before it rolls.
  Clips and Art
    Art
    Clips
      02 We Know Where The British Virgin Islands Accounts Are.mp3
      01 We Are The House And Over Time We Win.mp3
      00 The Strait Of Hormuz Will Be A Worthless Piece Of Water.mp3
      03 Europe Needs A War To Blow Out The Spreads.mp3
      04 Every Bank Touching Iran Cut Out Of The Dollar.mp3
      05 The Question Nobody Asked How Was Iran Getting Dollars.mp3
      00 Rushed Secretive And Hidden From The Public.mp3
      00 Sixty Percent Now Eighty Percent By 2028.mp3
      00 Backwards And Poor And Fourteen Billion On The Bills.mp3
      00 Jevon's paradox - Token Costs Collapse And Anthropic Margin Pressure.mp3
      00 Financial Services Hiring Lowest Since 2011.mp3
      00 Germany Accuses Russia Of An Attack On NATO Soil.mp3
      00 Von der Leyen And Rutte Say This Is The New Normal.mp3
      02 Frozen Russian Assets And What Europe Might Actually Do.mp3
      02 Frozen Russian Assets And What Europe Might Actually Do.mp3
      02 Frozen Russian Assets And What Europe Might Actually Do.mp3
      00 The Met Drops John Galliano.mp3
      00 Mel Gibson And The ASL Interpreter.mp3
      01 Soi Six The Go-Go Bars And A Listener Corrects The BBC.mp3
      00 Docking At Pattaya And The Sailor Who Wants To See Temples.mp3
      00 Docking At Pattaya And The Sailor Who Wants To See Temples.mp3
      00 Docking At Pattaya And The Sailor Who Wants To See Temples.mp3
      Bessant Heads and Necks Iran.mp3
      Ex FBI 1 Pipe Bomber Backgrounder.mp3
      Ex FBI 3 Steve Baker on New Pipe Bomer Info.mp3
      Ex FBI 4 Steve Baker Oct Meeting Pipe Bomb.mp3
      EX FBI 2 Pipe Bomber Backgrounder 2 .mp3
      EX FBI 5 First Net Gov Cell.mp3
      Flock Bluetooth Grabber.mp3
      Flock Camera Bluetooth Take Over 2 AA.mp3
      Flock Cameras Bluetooth Take Over 1.mp3
      MOS SavSays Lindsey Clancy.mp3
      Penetration Tester Carl AI Data Center bubble1.mp3
      Penetration Tester Carl AI Data Center bubble2.mp3
      Penetration Tester Carl AI Data Center bubble3 Solution.mp3
      Ricky Schroeder Trust The Plan.mp3