Is A War With Iran A Distraction From The Epstein Files?
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Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman open this Weekender by asking the ugliest question out loud: Are we drifting toward a strike on Iran with no clear end game? They dig into why the silence feels like the point, how Russia and China fit onto the board, and why a wider conflict always seems to make a few very specific people rich. Then they pivot to the Epstein fallout and what it looks like when Europe actually treats the network like a crime, while the U.S. political class keeps trying to pretend it is somebody else’s problem. From there it gets bleakly funny as they talk about the AI chip rush, the coming squeeze on everyday electronics, and how tech oligarchs keep turning basic life into a scarcity game. Somehow, a treatise on Doritos emerges before ending with what they’re watching and reading, including a new crime caper that mostly works, Gravity’s Rainbow as a full-time job, and Nick trying to finish a Mick Cronin video before the weekend is over.
Welcome to the weekender edition of the McCraig podcast.
I'm Jared Dave Sexton here with my good friend and co-conspirator, Nick Hausman.
Nick, how you doing, bud?
I love me a good conspiracy.
I'll tell you that.
Well, I mean, they're all around us.
Why shouldn't we get in on the fun?
Let's have our own conspiracy.
Co-conspirator.
I want to be the conspirator.
But you have to have co-conspirators.
I guess otherwise it wouldn't be a conspiracy.
It was not a conspiracy at that point.
You're right.
Okay.
All right.
Great.
Well, then we can be co-conspirators.
I'll accept it.
Okay.
Well, I can't wait for this part of the podcast to be clipped out for our future trial before we're put in some sort of an ICE concentration camp.
I'm very excited about that.
Everybody, we have a jam-packed show today.
We're on the verge of war.
Who knew, Nick?
Who knew?
We'll talk about that as well as former Prince Andrew being arrested and what is going on in Europe and how they are actually handling the Epstein situation as well as some interesting.
I don't know if interesting is the right word.
Some interesting news revolving around American electronics and the near future we could be living in.
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Nick, we talked a little bit.
I want to say this like a week ago.
We talked a little bit about what was going on in terms of the United States and Iran and there was a buildup of forces in the Middle East.
Well, shit's popping off and we are seeing historic levels of equipment and arsenals that are being moved into the Middle East.
The only thing that is even comparable are the last two Iraq wars, including the war on terror and before that, Operation Persian Gulf, Gulf Storm.
No, storm, desert.
Desert storm.
Good lord.
Man, they weren't as catchy back then.
Shock and awe was kind of catchy.
I mean, they figured it out eventually.
But the reports are right now that the United States and Israel are ready to strike Iran within the next few days with the possibility that by the time you're listening to this, we might already be in a new war or possibly this weekend.
That would be exciting, Nick.
Here's the thing.
We need to talk about the geopolitical consequences of this because there are strange things that are taking place here.
A lot of different chessboard pieces are being moved into place.
But also, Nick, no one is talking about this.
And Iran is a pretty big target with some pretty big implications.
And somehow or another, we're not being lied to by the administration about why they want to do it.
We're not given a reason.
We're not given a narrative.
Hardly anybody is talking about it.
And somehow or another, we are tiptoeing up into something that could very well be a historic moment and nobody is talking about it.
Well, I mean, when you say nobody, you mean like the Trump administration?
Because they're not particularly talking about it.
No.
Well, they definitely aren't because nobody knows what this is all about.
Because last time I checked with Trump and their administration, they had gotten rid of the bunker with the bunker buster and there was no more nuclear development going on in the Iran for a weapon.
So what is this about?
Is it possible that maybe those bombs they dropped several months ago didn't do anything and they still have it?
Or is this something about something else?
Like, is this about weapons of mass destruction that they're worried about having there?
I don't, nobody seems to know what the objective is, what the motivation is for it.
Why now?
I have some thoughts we'll have to talk about, but like, why now?
What is it?
What are they trying to do?
Well, and that's the, I was writing about this this week.
They don't really feel a need to tell us anymore.
Like, and I've said this before, the Bush administration at least spun a narrative, right?
At least we had to deal with, you know, Colin Powell lying to our faces and Dick Cheney going on every Sunday morning talk show talking about, oh, they'll greet us as liberators and we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud, whatever in the bullshit it was.
Now they don't even feel the need to do it.
It's much like what happened with Venezuela.
They just went in, they took Maduro, and then they're like, hey, we own the country.
And that's the way things are.
That is the development of what happens with fascism, in which the state of being is aggression, it's plunder, and it's war.
And meanwhile, what have we talked about now?
The past couple of years, Nick, we've been specifically focusing on it within the last year or so.
We've been saying, hey, look what's happening with the United States and with Europe and the United States and NATO.
They're sort of going their separate ways.
And there's been a feeling that there's a sorting moment, right?
In which the United States is on one side of a divide.
Europe is over here.
Meanwhile, you have China and Russia and Iran.
And for those who don't know, right now, as we're recording this, Russia is carrying out naval exercises and drills with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
Right now, as the United States arsenal is being focused on Iran, Russia is there.
There's also word that China is sharing intelligence with Iran.
There are reasons why this is happening, but it's also strange that we're not even getting a narrative for why it's happening.
It feels, and I think this is tied to the larger reason, and I'll give context for it in a moment.
It feels almost like there's a magnetic pull in here.
You know what I mean?
That all these different powers are being brought into one place in order to have a conflict.
I think there are reasons for that.
And I'll get to that in a second.
But what are your feelings here?
Why do you think this is occurring?
Well, it's really curious and concerning if like, I thought Russia is busy right now.
Aren't they busy with Ukraine?
Like, how are they having exercises in the Strait of Hormuz?
Like, they shouldn't have time or resources to be able to do this.
World wars, world wars ask you to be a multitasker.
I'll just say that.
Right.
And it's like, okay, if we look at the past when we've used false flag operations to start wars, it wouldn't be hard to imagine like if everyone's in the same region kind of screwing around with some tests and then all accidentally somebody does something and gets a wire cross.
And then next thing you know, we're in a big conflict.
That could certainly happen.
You know, what I've been kind of hearing the whispers is that there's some notion that there's an Epstein files connection to all of this, where like Iran says, well, we're going to release the videos we have of Trump that are in the Epstein files if you attack Iran.
And then Israel's turning around saying, well, we're going to release those same files if you don't attack Iran.
So that's an interesting thing.
And honestly, that's kind of what this feels like.
It's all about.
It seems like we're moving.
The other whispers are that there is some really awful shit in there that they simply have not revealed.
They will not reveal because it's going to be terrible probably for Trump and a lot of other people, right?
I mean, from what I'm gathering, it does feel that way.
I'm talking about, you know, we're not talking about 17-year-old stuff.
We're talking about kids much younger than that, right?
And so is this why they're willing to do all this?
Again, is some sort of distraction?
And, you know, certainly, you know, we talked about, you know, focusing on, you know, different conspiracies.
You know, did Netanyahu do the whole thing after October 7th to stay in power because he knows he's going to be in trouble if he's not, if they don't have a war between them and Gaza the entire time?
I don't know.
That's all these things are connected in a way that's really concerning and out of control.
Before I get into my reaction to what you just said, I want to take a moment because you just something you just did, I think is really important for our listeners and also for us to pay attention to.
Did you notice that as you were talking about all of this, you were like getting pretty dysregulated and you're like, is this going on?
Is this happening?
It's over here.
It's over there.
Is it this?
And by the way, I've seen all the rumors that you're talking about.
Like, man, the amount of muck that I am swimming around in on a daily basis, I've seen these rumors as well.
And the idea, one of the things that has been pushed and been pushed by some pretty big hacker accounts for the record, the idea that Trump is between a rock and a hard place in terms of multiple governments have access to incriminating, compromising material.
Well, Nick, if we take what's happening right now, I've talked constantly about the peasant life, right?
What's happening in the halls of power?
What's happening in the castle, which is far away from you, you're not sure what's going on.
I'll say this.
It's probably not a good thing to have one of the most compromised human beings in modern history as president of the United States of America.
Because whether or not what you just laid out is the reason why America is doing what it is, it still remains true that God knows how many national intelligence bodies have dirt on Donald Trump.
Who even knows?
And what did we learn about the Epstein stuff?
We learned that he was working with Mossad.
We learned that he was working with Russia.
He was probably working with the Central Intelligence Agency.
God knows who else he was working with.
There's all kinds of these layers of things that are taking place.
And Donald Trump in no way, shape, or form is ever going to be independent, whether it's with Russia or whoever.
Saudi Arabia, my God, he's been compromised by Saudi Arabia financially and if not otherwise, right?
So what you just brought up, that feeling is dysregulation.
It's getting like, I don't know what the fuck is going on.
This is awful, right?
I don't want this to happen.
Meanwhile, there's only one group of people in all of this that are really going to be served if all this comes to blows.
And that are weapons manufacturers.
And who are the weapons manufacturers at this point?
Who are the people who are creating the new weapon systems?
Because we got, Nick, we got to talk about Chinese robot armies.
We got to talk about drones.
We got to talk about robot attack dogs and attack vehicles, AI.
It's the tech people.
It's the tech oligarchs who have been going after democracy.
And by the way, Nick, let me check my notes and maybe you can help me with this.
The tech oligarchs, do they work with only America?
No.
Okay.
Do they have relationships with every other major power?
Yeah, they get around, Jared.
Do they sell them weapons?
Sure.
Do they sell them surveillance materials?
Listen, NBA players are now connected to selling people.
Oh, they absolutely are, Nick.
Yeah, I know where to go for a drone if I need one.
Do they sell them systems in order to run all this stuff?
Yes, they do.
That's interesting because if there is a world war in which, by the way, nobody knows exactly what it would look like.
My guess is it would look a lot like Syria, in which shit's just popping off and nobody knows at any given time who's with who and who's not with who.
Who stands to gain from that?
The oligarchical class, the tech class.
They are going to supply all the weapons and all the strategies and all the systems.
So everything that's happening at the level you're talking about, whether it's Donald Trump or what is Russia doing or the United States of America, they don't think that way.
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