Nick Houselman returns to dissect the escalating U.S.-Iran conflict, noting Trump's claim that the war is "pretty much done" after a call with Putin contrasts sharply with Iran turning the Strait of Hormuz into a killbox. With 7–8 U.S. casualties and over 150 wounded, hosts question transparency while suggesting Israel may have goaded America into this trap. As Russia and China profit from instability by selling weapons and lifting sanctions, Iran leverages its oil chokepoint against global capitalism, exposing a chaotic geopolitical landscape where conventional wisdom fails and the U.S. seeks Ukrainian drone expertise despite engaging Putin. [Automatically generated summary]
Oh, I didn't even realize I was gone, but you're right.
You didn't think of us?
You didn't think about the Muckrake community?
You didn't think about this little universe we've got going here?
Yeah, what is time?
It just felt like nothing had, you know, poof.
I'm sitting back in my chair.
It's here where I am.
So I'm glad to be back.
And it really felt like no time had passed.
Oh, well, that's good.
That's why it's nice to take a little step away every now and then and take care of it.
Or we're just living downhog's day.
And I mean, hey, listen, it reminds me.
I can't remember what poet wrote it.
It was, you don't have to be crazy to be here, but it helps.
That's a good one.
I don't know.
That's where we are at this point.
Folks, we have a whole rundown.
So glad to have you here.
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Nick, when I helmed the show last week, it was a few minutes before Trump was about to give a press conference.
And at that point, on Monday, the stock market, what's the technical term, was eating shit.
It do bad.
And then Trump got on a phone call with Vladimir Putin, which is always interesting, got off the phone call, signaled that he might lift all restrictions on Russian oil, then went and gave a press conference in which he said that the Iran war was, quote, pretty much done.
Well, over the past couple of days, as he continues to say that this war is basically over, Iran is like, fuck that.
This war isn't over until we say it's over.
The Strait of Hormuz has been turned into a killbox in which all of the shipping boats with oil and other goods have just been held hostage.
Donald Trump and Fox News has told them to try and break the barricade.
And Iran has said, fine, we'll blow you up and we will absolutely destroy you and leave you in smoking ruins.
Nick, this is the wildest thing what we're seeing at this point.
There is currently no off-ramp available.
Iran has said in official communications that they are going to make sure that America, quote, learns their lesson.
Man, it's something to watch a quagmire of historic proportions really start to take shape, isn't it?
Oh, it is something.
And it's also kind of, I didn't have to pat ourselves on the back, but, you know, I had said that this was going to happen, that after a couple of weeks, Trump was just going to be like, ah, we won.
See ya.
Thanks.
Thanks for playing.
And here we are where he's like trying to do that, trying to create whatever his own reality is.
By the way, there have been, I think, is it seven casualties so far in our armed services?
I want to say it's seven or eight.
And we've now had 150 plus people who've been wounded.
Also, by the way, we're saying that like lightly because we don't know that they're telling us the truth, but that's a different conversation.
Lots of evidence that indicates they've been hiding a lot of information.
And I got to tell you, for an army that hasn't, or armed services that hasn't actually put boots in the ground anywhere and it's just lobbying missiles into a country, that's a lot of death and a lot of casualties.
It really is.
So I don't think anyone's completely recognizing what that means.
We also found out that I will pat myself on the back, that there was further reporting that seems to indicate that Israel goaded us into doing this.
And part of that report was that they had tried to do this with Obama.
And Obama's like, yeah, fuck you up now.
I'm not going to do that.
I don't care if you're going to tell me.
Are you kidding me?
Iran?
No.
And he probably did the same thing.
Hey, they're going to attack you in like two weeks if you don't go and get them first.
Because Trump, literally with a straight face, said, Hey, they were going to attack us in two weeks if we didn't do this, which is like wild considering if you go back and look at what they had said throughout this thing as after it all happened and the different reasons they've been changing this.
So this is, you know, perhaps the political payback is going to finally be that more and more people are going to realize finally once and for all that this guy's a fucking liar.
I mean, I hope.
I would hope at some point or another that lesson would sink in.
I mean, you know, I was talking with a friend of the show, Wajah Ali, earlier before we recorded this, and we were talking about the fact that have you seen the polls where Trump is with non-college educated white men?
Non-college educated white men.
No, tell me.
He's plummeting like the girlfriend at the beginning of the movie Cliffhanger.
I mean, it's they are looking around and they're like, not only are you getting us in wars that we don't want to get into, and not only are you implicated in the Epstein files, but like my, my, my wallet is getting hit, right?
That was, that was almost the agreement.
You go out and hurt the people that I hate and make them feel terrible, but don't affect my bottom line.
You couldn't go Hans Gruber.
You had to go.
Yeah, you know, Hans Gruber, that's fair.
Listen, it's more obscure.
Every now and then you got to get one of those in.
Yeah.
And what has happened now is, and it's incredible, Nick, because when this happened, and you and I, you know, we did the emergency podcast.
And over the course of this conversation, it's like these people didn't know what they were doing.
Like they literally, they went against every piece of advice that was given to them, all conventional wisdom, every expert, every intelligent analyst, every military expert.
They were just like, no, fuck you.
We know better than you.
We're now going to do that.
And Iran, Nick, I never really want to miss a show anymore without saying this.
Iran is eating our lunch.
Like they are winning a war against the United States of America and Israel.
And in large part, it's because their back is against the wall, but also because they had a plan.
And immediately, like they sealed off the Strait of Hormuz, which, you know, when you are in a global capitalist system, the one that we're in, you use that to your advantage and you turn it into a killbox.
Fine.
If you want to bomb us and kill our people, like we're going to make sure that a boat doesn't get through.
The question now that I'm wondering, because I was talking about on Tuesday's episode, the escalation ladder is really bad.
Like boots on the ground.
I mean, yeah, maybe that might achieve something, but the emotional and psychic trauma of watching Americans murdered and maimed by drones and that coming through social media.
Like if you think flag drake coffins are a problem, that's a whole different ballgame.
So maybe they'll do that.
Tactical nukes are, of course, like this whole other type of thing.
What is now looking like could possibly happen because also Iran is going to start attacking banks.
That was announced today because we attacked their banks.
So now we're looking at the possibility of, will there become an alliance of the capitalist countries who say, hey, this problem that has now been unleashed, we've got a very, very fragile capitalist global economy.
If this is going to start toppling things and everybody is set up to topple right now, is it going to turn into a coalition, not of willing, but relenting, right?
Like countries that want nothing to do with this, but you now have this system that everybody, basically everybody is lashed to the same ticking time bomb.
Couldn't it could it force everybody to finally once and for all cut the uh the need to use oil?
I mean, that would be rad.
I would be up for that.
That's fine.
Great.
But guess what, Nick?
I've paid attention for a few years and I don't see that lesson getting learned anytime soon.
Well, that said, you know, the leading country that uses solar and wind right now is China, and they continue to rapidly expand these things.
And so by the way, Nick, on that note, let's just point out the two countries that are making out like bandits right now, Russia and China.
They are just sitting back and we had the question about like, what are they doing?
They're in the catbird seat.
They're making billions right now.
Well, there was nothing more galling.
I mean, a lot of galling things, but like what really got my goat was hearing that we're considering removing sanctions on Russian oil.
Sure.
Because that really sounds more like Russia would have been like, hey, yeah, go into Iran.
That would be awesome.
And by the way, Russia is backing Iran.
Like that's their guy.
Nick.
But they don't give a shit.
Real fast, because you brought this up, and I'm so glad you did.
If people want to understand what life behind the scenes is like during the fall of the American Empire, Nick, on one hand, we don't know what to do with drones.
So we're asking Ukraine, who we've betrayed multiple times, can you teach us how to fight drones?
Then Putin calls.
Putin has been helping Iran fight us.
Our president takes the call and is like, he tells him, hey, you're a good boy and you're doing a good job in your war.
And he's like, hey, maybe we should lift all these sanctions.
Everybody is everywhere.
There's nothing stable and nothing predictable.
Like, why would anybody work with us at this point?
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