Susan Kokinda opens with Chatham House's October 15 warning that President Trump could come out of the midterms "unshackled from electoral constraints," and Secretary of State Marco Rubio's answer in Mumbai: "we're no longer going to be defensive." The episode looks at the author of that warning, Dr. Andrew Payne, and his book War on the Ballot, at Halford Mackinder's doctrine, and at Chatham House director Bronwen Maddox on the members of Congress who have come to Chatham House in the run-up to their own elections, with Secretary Rubio on America First. It then turns to the reaction to the President's diesel deal with Russia and his openness to a meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, from the Council on Foreign Relations to the Wall Street Journal's "Yalta 2" editorial, with President Trump and Secretary Rubio on talks about nuclear weapons, and the ASEAN, APEC and G20 summits ahead. It closes with what the President is doing without the Congress: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the tariff authorities, the EPA's repeal of the 2024 power-plant rules, Defense Production Act funding for refining, federal loans for power, drug and manufacturing plants, the White House's $11.3 trillion investment count, and 21 new plant sites announced since October 1.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:20 Off the Reservation
04:24 Yalta Panic
08:26 He Doesn't Need Their Permission

Credits
Photos: Dr. Andrew Payne, © Chatham House; War on the Ballot (Columbia University Press, 2023), cover; Chatham House, London: Chatham House, CC BY 2.0; Council on Foreign Relations, New York: Ajay Suresh, CC BY 4.0; Trump and Xi, Oval Office, September 24, 2026: The White House. Public domain: U.S. Department of State (Rubio); Official White House Photo (November 27, 2018 briefing; July 4, 2025 bill signing); Architect of the Capitol; Lafayette (Mackinder); The Geographical Journal, April 1904; Benjamin D. Applebaum (Trump and Putin, Anchorage, August 15, 2025); U.S. Army Signal Corps / National Archives (Yalta, 1945); Natural Earth (map).
Video: Forbes Breaking News and Mirror Now (Rubio, Mumbai, October 20–21, 2026); Chatham House (Bronwen Maddox, October 16, 2026); U.S. Department of State (Rubio with Breitbart News, October 15, 2026); The White House (October 19, 2026); 2WAY (Scott Bessent, October 20, 2026); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Operation Teapot, 1955); U.S. House Armed Services Committee (April 29, 2026).
Quoted: Chatham House; Andrew Payne; Council on Foreign Relations, Stephen Sestanovich; The Wall Street Journal editorial board; EPA; Department of Energy; USDA; Department of War Office of Strategic Capital (via Fierce Pharma); Export-Import Bank; The White House, "The Trump Effect"; company, state and federal plant announcements, October 1–23, 2026.

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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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Barbara Boyd opens with President Trump's remarks to reporters on Friday, before his Georgia rally, about Ukraine's President Zelensky: he knows the details of how the war began, and at some point he will release them. She argues that the real story of the war's origins threatens what remains of Washington's Deep State, and is driving Europe and Canada into acts of state suicide to keep the war going. The episode follows the President's push to bring down diesel prices ahead of the November 3 midterms, from the threatened U.S. export ban and the emergency diesel stocks of France and Germany to the Treasury license for Russian diesel, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on America First. It covers the peace plan Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff discussed with Ukrainian and European officials in Florida, as reported by David Ignatius, the restriction of Starshield, and the President's Newsmax interview. It then turns to the European and Canadian response: Anne Applebaum on the Ukrainian army, the EU summit in Brussels and Ukraine's €70 billion financing gap, Ukraine's shortage of Patriot interceptors, the IMF's growth forecasts for Europe, the polls in France and Germany, and Mark Carney's 100-Year Partnership Declaration with Ukraine. It closes with President Trump's 2016 ABC interview on Russia and Crimea, Scott Horton's book Provoked, and what is at stake on November 3.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
02:21 Ukraine Developments
06:20 Canada and Europe Make a Suicide Pact
09:36 Ukraine and Bringing Down the Deep State

Credits
Photos
- President Trump and President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, February 28, 2025: Official White House Photo (Daniel Torok) and frames from the White House video of the meeting, public domain
- Kyiv, February 18, 2014: Аимаина хикари, CC0
- Provoked by Scott Horton (The Libertarian Institute, 2024), cover
Video
- President Trump speaking to reporters, October 16, 2026: One America News
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio, October 15, 2026: Breitbart News
- President Trump, October 15, 2026: Newsmax
- Barack Obama leaves Glasgow, October 15, 2026: STV News
- Anne Applebaum, October 16, 2026: Kyiv Independent
- Donald Trump on This Week, July 31, 2016: ABC News
- Stock footage: Storyblocks
Articles, posts and documents quoted: The Guardian (September 24, 2026); Reuters (October 1, 2026); GuildHall News Agency (September 11, 2026); U.S. Treasury, OFAC General License No. 135 (October 9, 2026); The Washington Post, David Ignatius (October 12, 2026), as reported by Kyiv Post (October 13, 2026); The New York Times (October 14, 2026); Financial Times (October 16, 2026); Politico Europe (October 16, 2026); The Washington Post (October 15, 2026); Kyiv Post (October 13, 2026); Prime Minister of Canada, joint statement with President Zelenskyy (September 10, 2026) and news release (September 15, 2026); Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (October 9, 2026); Congressional Ukraine Caucus, members
Data: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook (October 2026); polls: OpinionWay (October 13, 14, 2026), INSA (October 12, 16, 2026)

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Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday October 15th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This week: Europe prepares war and censorship, and Zelensky must go. Days after President Trump said Ukraine needs a new president and struck a diesel deal with Putin, Zelensky ran home to London, where King Charles and Prime Minister Burnham promised more war aid. Twelve senators now demand Trump rescind the diesel deal. Meanwhile the censorship model spreads from Australia to Carney's Canada and Germany.

On the board: the senators' letter against the diesel deal, London's war push, the censorship playbook, and the pollsters three weeks before the November 3 midterms.

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

00:00 Thursday Q&A Intro
00:37 Trump and Putin's Diesel Deal
03:13 Zelensky Runs to the King
05:09 Barbara: This Is the End of NATO
11:50 Susan: The Empire Since 1971
15:42 Bessent Fires Back at the IMF
18:42 Nuclear Power: The Globalists' Red Line
32:02 The Polls Are Demoralization Ops
53:21 No Blue States, Only Blue Cities
57:48 Your Gas-Price Questions
1:04:49 Barbara: It's Them, Not Trump
1:13:07 Barbara: The DSA Is the Party
1:16:38 Why Trump Won't Prosecute Obama
1:21:55 Retribution Is Success
1:38:07 Navarro's Manufacturing Briefing
1:41:37 Afraid? Get Your 10
1:52:06 Bretton Woods: Roosevelt Died
2:03:21 Closing: Get 10, 20 People

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Susan Kokinda opens with the European Union's largest expansion of its Russia sanctions list since the war began, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling Europe's objections to the U.S. Russia diesel deal "completely hypocritical", since Europe is still Moscow's biggest gas customer. The episode follows the reactions to President Trump's diesel deal, from Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and Boris Johnson to the EU's foreign ministers, set against President Trump's post on the European Union paying Russia $250 billion for energy and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak's figure of $320.7 billion since 2022. It then turns to the IMF. World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, where IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said growth alone cannot fix U.S. debt and deficits, the headlines that followed, and the IMF's playbook since Bretton Woods ended in 1971. It closes with Secretary Bessent skipping the meetings for "domestic engagements", and Peter Navarro's White House progress report on America's manufacturing investments: over 500 projects, more than $380 billion in announced investment, mapped across the country.

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:41 Trump Forces the Empire's Hand
04:25 IMF Says: Growth Doesn't Work
07:00 The Empty Chair

Credits
Photos
- Boris Johnson and Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv, April 9, 2022: Office of the President of Ukraine, CC0
- Kristalina Georgieva, Davos, January 20, 2026: Isaac Castillo/Presidencia de la República del Ecuador, public domain
- Peter Navarro, White House press conference, October 9, 2026: frame from Real America's Voice coverage
Video
- Secretary Bessent on Fox & Friends Weekend, October 11, 2026: U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Kaja Kallas, press conference after the Foreign Affairs Council, Luxembourg, October 12, 2026: © European Union, 2026 (EU Audiovisual Service)
- Kristalina Georgieva, IMF press briefing, Bangkok, October 14, 2026 (AP)
- Peter Navarro's White House press conference, October 9, 2026: Real America's Voice coverage
- President Nixon's address to the nation, August 15, 1971: Richard Nixon Presidential Library (White House Communications Agency), public domain
- Demolition of the Rugeley cooling towers, June 6, 2021: Voice of Clam (Wikimedia Commons), public domain
- Stock footage: Storyblocks
Graphics: U.S. manufacturing investment maps, White House / Office of Trade and Manufacturing
Articles, posts and documents quoted: The Brussels Times (October 12, 2026); Prime Minister of Canada, readout of the call with President Zelenskyy (October 11, 2026); on X: @BorisJohnson (October 10, 2026); Euronews (October 12, 2026); on Truth Social: @realDonaldTrump (October 12, 2026); FRANCE 24 (October 13, 2026); Bloomberg (October 13, 2026); CNBC (October 14, 2026); Reuters (October 9, 2026)
Data: Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), buyers of Russian gas, December 5, 2022. August 31, 2026

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Barbara Boyd opens with President Trump’s Sunday announcement of an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and what led up to it: his remarks to the press that it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president, and Friday’s agreement for Russia to supply diesel to the United States and the world, with a Treasury license authorizing Russian diesel through April 2027. She argues that Trump and Putin have exposed the game being played by the City of London: Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s refineries, which the Washington Post examined, keep fuel prices high ahead of the November 3 midterms, while the Financial Times reports the administration threatened to cut off weapons and intelligence if the attacks continued, and members of Congress move against the deal. After President Zelensky’s interview on ABC’s This Week blaming high prices on the war in the Middle East, the episode turns to the energy wars: Russia’s ban on fuel exports, U.S. diesel above $6 a gallon, no major new U.S. refinery since 1977, and Europe’s emergency diesel stocks, held mainly by Germany and France, until Trump’s export threat brought a G7 release of 100 million barrels of oil and diesel. It closes with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Operation Economic Outcast against Iran’s regime, the petrodollar system and London’s commodity markets since the 1971 collapse of Bretton Woods, President Putin’s case for long-term contracts between producing and consuming nations, the Conservative Treehouse’s argument that the world’s biggest economy is aligning against the financial schemes of London while retaining the dollar, and Secretary Bessent’s chart on prices under Biden and Trump.

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
03:05 The Trump/Putin Trap
05:53 The Energy Wars and the City of London
07:24 Is A New Economic Order at Hand?

Credits
Photos
- Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025: U.S. Department of Defense / Benjamin D. Applebaum, public domain
Video
- President Trump speaking to the press, October 10, 2026: The White House, public domain
- President Zelensky on This Week, October 11, 2026: ABC News
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Fox & Friends Weekend, October 11, 2026: U.S. Department of the Treasury / Fox News
- President Zelensky with a U.S. congressional delegation, Kyiv, October 9, 2026 (x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2108607485342790142)
- President Nixon’s address to the nation, August 15, 1971: public domain
- U.S. Navy footage (U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, DVIDS), public domain
- Stock footage: Storyblocks
Articles, posts and documents quoted: on Truth Social: @realDonaldTrump (October 9 and 11, 2026); on X: @ZelenskyyUa, @SecScottBessent; U.S. Treasury, OFAC General License No. 135 (October 9, 2026); The Washington Post (October 11, 2026); Financial Times (October 11, 2026); Ukrainska Pravda (October 11, 2026); International Energy Agency (September 17, 2026); U.S. Energy Information Administration, “When was the last refinery built in the United States?”; Reuters (October 1, 2026); BBC News (October 2, 2026); TASS (October 21, 2021); The Conservative Treehouse (October 10, 2026)
Data: U.S. Energy Information Administration, weekly U.S. retail diesel prices

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