Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday October 22nd at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This week: Zelensky's war reaches American oil, and a color revolution comes home. Secretary of State Rubio says Ukraine struck ships carrying American-owned oil, "probably not deliberately." The ships were foreign-flagged tankers. Rubio told Zelensky to end the war. At home, the Washington Post reports that a small group of national security officials is quietly advising states on how to prepare for possible Trump administration interference in the midterms. Barbara calls it a repeat of the 2020 color revolution playbook: Too Big to Rig vs. Communist Revolution. Leaked recordings published as "The Democracy Files" allegedly lay out "redlines" for declaring the federal government illegitimate.

On the board: Zelensky's war vs. Trump's peace, the Russian diesel deal and the bill to block it, the Post story and the Democracy Files, and the Trump-Putin-Xi alignment with Rubio's Central Asia and India trip, twelve days before the November 3 midterms. Plus the Monday Brief you need. NOT ABOVE THE LAW: Bessent's $1.2 Billion Strike on the Empire's Banks: https://youtu.be/x5V1S-75QTA

Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda take your questions live. Bring what's on your mind.

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Download Barbara briefing, The Real Revolution: The British and the Communists Are Trying to Kill Again, at https://prom.ac/realrev. Barbara Boyd opens with Senator Elissa Slotkin's remarks to University of Chicago students on October 13 about deterring young people from working for the Trump administration, and her background in the intelligence community, the National Security Council and the Pentagon. The episode follows the files Data Republican has been releasing on X about networks of former national security and USAID officials, including the United Democracy Alliance, National Security Leaders for America, Renew to Thrive and the Horizons Project, and their plans around the midterms, and the Washington Post's October 20 report that current and former officials with Defense Department experience have been advising officials from 10 states. It then looks back at the Transition Integrity Project's war games of June 2020, Susan Rice's warning to corporations, Lord Palmerston and Giuseppe Mazzini, and Vice President JD Vance on the charge that the President is profiting from his office. It closes with the Justice Department's election-crime prosecutions, including 28 people charged in California, the end of USAID, Mike Benz at the Institute of Peace, and making the November 3 midterms too big to rig.

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:47 Data Republican Blows the Whistle and the Washington Post Confirms It
05:00 The 2020 Rerun and Lord Palmerston
10:23 Make It Too Big To Rig

Credits
Photos
- Senator Elissa Slotkin: Official U.S. Senate photo, public domain
- The Real Revolution by Barbara Boyd (Promethean Action, September 2026), cover
- Erica Chenoweth, May 6, 2020: East Point Peace Academy, CC BY 3.0
- U.S. Army National Guard, Washington, D.C., June 5, 2020: U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Jacob Jesperson, public domain
- U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021: Tyler Merbler, CC BY 2.0
- Susan Rice: Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy, public domain
- Lord Palmerston, 1857: Herbert Watkins (National Portrait Gallery, London), public domain
- Giuseppe Mazzini, c. 1860: public domain
- USAID headquarters, February 4, 2025: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0
- Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, December 3, 2025: U.S. Department of State, public domain
- President Trump with the National Medal of Science recipients, October 8, 2026: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok, public domain
Video
- Senator Elissa Slotkin, October 13, 2026: University of Chicago Institute of Politics
- Susan Rice on Stay Tuned with Preet, February 19, 2026
- Vice President JD Vance on 2WAY Tonight with Mark Halperin, October 19, 2026
- Mike Benz at the Institute of Peace, October 8, 2026: Mike Benz on X
- Washington, D.C., May 31 and June 2, 2020, and Election Day, November 5, 2024: Voice of America, public domain
- National Guard, Washington, D.C., August 15, 2025: Cpl. David Carvajal, U.S. Army / DVIDS, public domain. The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.
- Stock footage: Storyblocks
Articles, posts and documents quoted: The Chicago Thinker on X (October 17, 2026); Elissa Slotkin's Defense.gov biography (House Armed Services Committee hearing, February 11, 2014); DataRepublican (small r) on X (October 18, 20, 2026); The Washington Post (October 20, 2026); Transition Integrity Project, "Preventing a Disrupted Presidential Election and Transition" (August 3, 2020); The Guardian (October 16, 2026); The New York Ledger, republishing Fox News Digital (October 11, 2026); U.S. Department of Justice (October 19, 2026)

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Susan Kokinda opens with the more than $1.2 billion in penalties Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's Treasury imposed on Bank of America on October 13 for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, among the largest in Treasury history, after FinCEN found the bank failed to report priority national security risks, including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance along the southwest border. The episode traces the bank's record from Countrywide, Merrill Lynch and its $45 billion TARP bailout back to the petrodollar loans of the 1970s, the 1980s debt crisis and IMF austerity in Latin America, and Tom Clausen's moves from Bank of America to the World Bank and back. It then turns to Bank of America's chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan, chair of the Sustainable Markets Initiative founded by King Charles and of the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance launched in April 2021. It closes with Secretary Bessent's statement to the IMF. World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok on growth, exchange rates and energy, including an initial U.S. contribution to the Nuclear Energy Assistance Trust Fund, and the gap in nuclear power between the OECD and the developing world.

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
00:58 The $1.2 Billion Hammer
05:52 Time to Rename the Bank of 'America'?
09:15 Bessent Challenges the Whole Model

Credits
Photos
- A. W. (Tom) Clausen with President Reagan, Oval Office, May 15, 1981: White House / Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, public domain
- Brian Moynihan, official portrait, Homeland Security Advisory Council, 2022: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, public domain
- Charles, then Prince of Wales, COP26, Glasgow, November 2, 2021: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz, public domain
- Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum, Davos, January 27, 2018: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, public domain
- Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial, at HUD, February 21, 2002: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, public domain
- Sen. Thom Tillis, official portrait: U.S. Senate, public domain
- Roy Cooper, July 25, 2019: U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell, public domain
- Garigliano nuclear power plant, Italy, 1970: Demaag (Wikimedia Commons), CC0
- Indira Gandhi, March 21, 1977, and Anwar Sadat, June 15, 1981: Nationaal Archief / Anefo, CC0
- The Shah of Iran with President Nixon, Oval Office, July 24, 1973: National Archives, public domain
- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: Bernard Gotfryd / Library of Congress, public domain
- Atucha nuclear plant, Argentina, December 5, 2017: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, public domain
- Scott Bessent, official portrait: U.S. Department of the Treasury
Video
- Brian Moynihan interviewed by David Westin, Balance of Power, June 17, 2021: Bloomberg Television
- President Nixon's address to the nation, August 15, 1971: Richard Nixon Presidential Library (White House Communications Agency), public domain
- Port-of-entry inspections: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, public domain
- Stock footage: Storyblocks
Map: Natural Earth
Articles, posts and documents quoted: U.S. Department of the Treasury (October 13 and October 14, 2026); The Brussels Times (October 12, 2026); The New York Times (October 14, 2026); Fox News (October 13, 2026); U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder (August 21, 2014); FDIC, History of the Eighties: Lessons for the Future (1997); Bank of America newsroom, Brian Moynihan biography; Bloomberg (October 13, 2026); on X: @judyshel (October 14, 2026); Reuters (June 11, 2025)
Data: World Nuclear Association, world nuclear power reactors (October 16, 2026); Net-Zero Banking Alliance founding signatories (April 21, 2021) and Bloomberg (October 8, 2021)

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