5/12/26: Trump Says Ceasefire On Life Support, Trump Desperate Gambit On Gas Prices, UFO Files Breakdown

25:05And even – I mean in this case, you shouldn't be allowed to launch a war. But apparently you can under this current Congress. So what do they do? They become obsessed with leaving their footprint on the world, especially if you're an old guy. You want a legacy. So that's what's really happening. You give up on the domestic stuff, which is harder. You give up on the domestic stuff because you actually have to, I don't know, do something, build consensus. and all of that. And you end up focusing abroad. So Trump - Obama, JCPOA. This happens every time. Obama, Bush with Iraq. I mean, Bush literally ran in 2000 saying, I want to not withdraw from the world, but he's like, we should not basically go abroad and do nation building and then becomes a nation building.

25:40President Obama, JCPOA, Biden. I mean, elected basically to calm things down and to have some sort of rational response to COVID. He basically becomes the Gaza and the Ukraine president. That's what we're mostly gonna remember him for on top of crippling inflation. Trump's second term is already defined by Iran. I mean, Doge seems like ancient history at this point, right? It's going to be Iran. That's the number one thing the history books will probably remember Trump for his second term in, at least so far from what we know. And that's why he's obsessed with remaking the world in his own image.

26:11So let's put this next one up here on the screen from A6. Trump is growing impatient as the Cuban regime clings to power. They say U.S. officials believe that the regime could fall by the end of the year, but that timeline is not fast enough for the president. The White House says Cuba has rejected humanitarian and economic assistance to stabilize, almost certainly because it's with the talks attached or some sort of conditions. Trump is actually out with the truth literally just this morning on Cuba. And what he says is that Cuba said he's claiming that they want to talk. He says, no Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction.

26:50Cuba's asking for help. We are going to talk. In the meantime, I'm off to China. President DJ too. In the meantime, I'm off to China. It's like he left a note from Melania on the fridge. In the meantime, I'm going off. Look, it's very odd. He was promised that Cuba, he was promised Iran would be just like Venezuela. That's why he cannot shut up about Venezuela as evidence in his most recent combo with a Fox News anchor, A7. Let's take a listen. When I was talking to the president this morning, it was just before the Oval Office event, he kind of surprised me a little bit because he said, John, I just want to tell you, I'm very serious about this.

27:24So you can talk about this. I'm serious about beginning a process to make Venezuela the 51st state. Now, there's a rich history in this nation of taking territories and absorbing them into the United States. You know, Puerto Rico is one that people talk about. But this would be the first time, to my knowledge, that a sovereign country was ever invited to join the United States of America. How would that work? Well, John, I won't get ahead of what the president was comfortable sharing with you as far as those plans go. But look, this is a president who is famous for never accepting the status quo.

27:59He is always considering a host of options to improve our country. And, of course, Venezuela, now led by President Delce Rodriguez, is working incredibly cooperatively with the United States. So I won't get ahead of any plans that the president may have to that effect. But look, this has been a tremendous success. The United States revitalizing our relationship with Venezuela and in turn, improving the economic situation of both countries and our people. So, OK, yeah, we're going to have Venezuela as our 50 for eight. While we support Venezuelans, we are going to create, while we fight the scourge of Mamdani socialism, we are going to add a country with millions of ideologically committed socialists.

28:38No, no, that's not what he says. No, those are only the bad ones. We're deporting them. It's funny, you know, if you go down, trip down memory lane is there was actually at the height of like the American imperialist kind of sentiments in the 1880s, kind of culminating with the Spanish-American War and all that. There was actually a serious effort. I think it was under Grant's presidency to turn the Dominican Republic into a state for the same reason. They want 51st state. They're like, yes, America needs the island. And, you know, this is why Puerto Rico, why do you think all these things are American territories and others?

29:17At the time, it was like coaling. But really what it was is about empire and expansion. We will have access to their vast resources. And, you know, there were actually there was a huge debate that happened where they said we can either be a republic or we can be an empire. And an empire, people understood, would be more tyrannical. And that what it would mean is that you would become beholden to the capitalist interests and others. You'd be less representative, actually, of the average citizen. I mean, I think obviously that's entirely borne out accurately as the American empire has expanded. There's been some pluses.

29:48We all get cheap televisions and cheap laptops. But the Venezuela example I think is the clearest cut of this mindset of the ease of how these things can go. And again, to the instinct to want to leave the mark. I mean, if you look at the things that Trump is the most obsessed with, from the ballroom to now the reflecting pool, which we had a big argument about yesterday. She's pro-reflecting pool, which is like, I don't even understand. I'm pro-waiting and seeing before rendering my judgment. This man has terrible taste. The reflecting pool is disgusting. Yeah, I agree it's disgusting, but I prefer it filled with duck shit to whatever they're going to put.

30:25Some gilded, which it was, let's be honest, for anybody who's lived here for a long time. It's been gross for a decent period of time. The question is, do you trust Trump to not turn it into a gaudy monstrosity? Look, the Forrest Gump scene, that's what we all strive for in our reflecting pool. That's my reflecting pool is the Forrest Gump-Jenny scene. Now, anyways, taking it back from all that, the whole point is he's obsessed. This morning, he's posting himself on the$100 bill. That's what it's about for Trump. It's about the ballroom. It's about the reflecting pool. And okay, most people wouldn't live with that because they thought that, oh, okay, we're going to close the border.

31:02And what else? We're not going to have crippling inflation in high gas. Oh, what was that? Oh, right. Yeah. So, oops. Now you do have crippling inflation and you have all this bullshit, which is currently happening on top of wanting to make Venezuela the 51st state. Well, just to close the loop on the point that you're making, it's he has been so frustrated with domestic politics that now he's going to the foreign policy sphere because it feels like easier fixes to make these really grand achievements or even gestures on the foreign policy level that are legacy building, which he is clearly obsessed with doing.

31:35You can see it physically here in D.C. He's obsessed with legacy building. And then on top of that, he clearly wants his presidency to be defined by this grand restructuring on the world stage. So that's where he's turned. And we're going to see, Sagar, I mean, we have a lot to talk about here when it comes to gas prices. We're going to see how this goes for him in the next several months, let alone the next several years. Let's get to it.

32:02Apple Vacations semi-annual sale is here and it's the perfect time to plan your next beach getaway. Enjoy up to$250 off international and Hawaii vacations. Up to$150 off domestic trips and hotel savings up to 70 % off. With instant savings of$300,$500 or even$700, your escape has never been more rewarding. Book by May 28th at AppleVacations.com or contact your local travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. This year, it's Pop's turn for a laugh. So celebrate Father's Day with a gift that really pops. A customized Funko Pop of him. First, think of all the things that make your dad the man.

32:40Then turn those ideas into a personalized Funko Pop. Select hair, clothing, and skin tone options to match his fit. Don't forget to show off his favorite hobbies and sports with amazing accessories. You can even add his best friend. Start creating now at Funko.com. Be unique, not anyone else. Express it now. Just pop yourself. That's Funko.com.

33:55Transcription by CastingWords purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. As the war in Iran rages, President Trump announced yesterday he was in favor of suspending the federal gas tax. This is according to The Wall Street Journal, which is basically writing up comments. He told reporters in the Oval Office, we can put the first element up on the screen. Trump said, quote, I'm going to. He said gas prices will, quote, drop like a rock after the war. And when he was asked how long he would consider spending the gas tax for, he said, quote, until it's appropriate.

34:33Worth noting where AAA has gas prices, the national average here, we can toss up on the screen,$4.50 a gallon. $4.50 a gallon as of today. When you scroll around the map, you see prices in California at$6.15. cents. Michigan,$4.71. Illinois, almost$5 a gallon,$4.97. There are still some states where it's a bit lower, basically nowhere lower than$4 a gallon in most places, much, much higher than$4 a gallon. So you can understand why President Trump would be feeling the pressure to take that federal gas tax and suspend it. Let's toss this Wall Street Journal element up on the screen as well. B3, looking down the barrel at what might be happening in California, just as we discussed, them already having sky-high gas prices.

35:31The journal has this piece, think$6 gas is bad? It's about to get even worse in California. Why is that? Well, the state just got its last shipment of Middle Eastern oil, Sagar. So the pain is about to be felt even... This is the tip of the iceberg, I think, is actually probably the best way to put It's about to get much, much, much worse around the country, heading into the midterm elections. Summer travel season is then going to give way to fall election pressures. And you're at this point asking to turn the Titanic around when it comes to getting some of these refineries back up to capacity.

36:08Even if you were to wave a magic wand and the war today, it's going to be a huge, huge problem for the administration. And last thing I want to say is Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill yesterday that would actually allow President Trump to sign this into law. It's pretty clear he can't do this by executive action. So Republicans now getting on the bandwagon in Congress as well. Yeah, but at the end of the day, we're talking here about 18 cents a gallon. Like that's just what we already have in Iran war tax. The Iran war tax is what, a buck 50? Something like that. You know, the California example is a very good one.

36:44It's something we've been trying to hammer home here. because we always say, oh, America is a net energy exporter. Yeah, that's true. But what do we learn is that each individual region of the United States is uniquely vulnerable to the conditions for gas. That's why gas is a very different price in California than here. A lot of people like to talk about how California has a high gas tax. Definitely true. Don't get me wrong. However, one third of California gas comes from the Middle East. Why? Well, they have to import. It's far away from a lot of the refineries. They don't want refineries in California.

37:19You sign your own destiny. They don't want refineries. We've built a new refinery in this country since the 1970s. Most of them are being constantly tinkered with and or updated, but brand new ones, not happening. If you compare the Chinese refineries to ours, it's not even a question. Granted, they have no environmental regs. They can do whatever they want. So it's definitely kind of complicated. But the point is that 75 % of the oil in California comes from somewhere else. Only 25 % of it is domestic. A third of it comes from the Middle East. California is actually more reliant on crude oil shipments from Saudi, Iraq, and the UAE than any other state in the nation.

37:56Quote, it'll take a month or two for flows to resume. Then you still have all of the catching up to do. And so Iraqi oil actually just came for the first time, I think, in a while to the shores of California. I mean, you know, look at a map and think about how long it's going to take to get there. So gas prices as of Friday in California are$6.16 a gallon. Diesel costs about$7.50. That's$1.82 more. The state's stockpile of refined products such as jet fuel and diesel are, quote, increasingly strained as big Asian fuel suppliers, including South Korea, slow exports to California, are all being slowed down from everywhere else.

38:34Because, remember, California, because of all this importation of oil, means it's not only going to have the higher diesel price, but all of these other refined products, the things that we use. Only about 35 ,000 barrels a day of refined products are due to arrive from South Korea in May. That is down from 100 ,000 barrels a day in April. And it doesn't help that two of the state's major refineries just closed in the last six months, cutting off a fifth of its fuel-making capacity. Even if the strait reopens, its closure has already withheld at least a billion barrels from the global market. And California is getting as little relief as large tankers from the Gulf Coast come in.

39:12The Trump administration, remember, they did the Jones Act. We've already spent enough time on the Jones Act here on the show. But the reason why I'm going deep into this is that California is a very, very extreme example. Like put B2 up there on the screen just to show California at 615 a gallon. But let's take some other states with high gas. Illinois, for example, right? Illinois is$4.90 a gallon. And in fact, Michigan and Indiana and Ohio all actually have very, very high gas. Now, people would say, why? Well, what was I reading about? Oh, a refinery that happens to produce the oil for those three states had a problem, an accident or something like that.

39:50And so that means that you have to take the oil offline, which means it has to come from elsewhere, via rail, via truck, whatever. And then same in the Northeast Corridor. So, Pennsylvania is at$4.66 a gallon. And, in fact, you have pretty high gas, which is colored there in red, pretty much all along the Estella Corridor. Even in the states where you have all these refineries and it doesn't have to travel that far, let's say Oklahoma, you've got$3.94. And even Texas, the petroleum state is at$4 a gallon. What this highlights is two things. The global commodity of oil and two is just the sheer complexity of moving oil and gas all across the United States and why – one of the things – it's a very interesting story – is one of the biggest trading firms in the oil markets is now betting that Trump will do an export ban.

40:42What he's betting on is that, just to explain the exact mechanism, he is betting on the spread between West Texas oil futures and Brent crude futures. The only way that would happen, even more so, is if we had an oil export ban. And this seems, again, like a clean talking point. Well, just no more oil. But that doesn't account for California getting a third of its oil from the Middle East. So where's the rest of it going to come from? Are there refineries even set up to refine oil? Let's say from Venezuela or from Texas or from anywhere else in the United States. And if they are, how can we even get the oil over?

41:19These are huge logistical problems to keep everybody on the road. And in the long run, it would create more. It would actually create individual shortages, probably like in California or elsewhere. It might immediately actually lower the price here. But in a month, maybe three, you would begin to see problems. In six months, you're just going to have straight up a shortage. And also, it would actually dry up one of Trump's biggest talking points, which is we're making so much money off of this, which is technically true if you are in Texas or if you are an oil company who are making money hands over fist.

41:54So, yeah, if you're in Midland or if you're a Houston strip club owner, you're doing great. Or a Ford F-150 dealer in Midland. This is money for time. If you're Billy Bob Thornton in the Taylor Sheridan universe. I actually met a fan of ours who's a literal landman. She was a woman, though. It was interesting. So she was telling me about her landman. I love it. I was like, wow, okay. So apparently it's a real thing. I had no idea. But what you can actually see inside of this is just the intricate nature in which all of this is just falling apart. Like the gas tax. The fact that we already haven't done it is nuts in my opinion because 18 cents a gallon.

42:32Can I say? Yeah, go ahead. Yes. So I just looked up the federal revenue from the federal gas tax every year. about$23 billion a year, according to Fox. How much have we spent on the Iran war so far? Oh, more than that. The Pentagon's estimate, which is low-balling, is$25 billion. So it's just like one-on-one, right? So just the gas taxes paid. But it's such a good example of what we prioritize and what we do not prioritize. And yes, we do need money to maintain federal highways and such, but we also don't need to start a war with Iran. Give me a fucking break. I'm with you. All right. And yeah, it drives me nuts.

43:07Let's put B4 up there on the screen. Like, for example, this was what I was talking about in our earlier block, is how the Iran war is draining the world's oil buffer at an unprecedented pace. And they say global oil stockpiles have dropped by about 4.8 million barrels a day between March 1st and April 25th, far exceeding the previous peak for a quarterly drawdown. Crude accounts for almost 60 % of the decline and refined fuels of the rest. Crucially, the system actually does require a minimal amount of oil. And I think we've explained this before where it's not that – it's like going to zero is so catastrophic for a refinery and others that you need a minimal amount of oil.

43:54Like it's actually apparently better for a refinery to go from 100 to 10 % than from 10 to zero. because when you go to zero, again, I don't fully understand all of it, but bad things happen. You're not really supposed to turn it off. And if you do, it takes forever to turn it back on. So the minimal amount of oil that you need to maintain, like the current system, we're approaching that within the next six months to a year. Now, I realize it's like, oh, well, that's far away. Keep in mind, it's May 12th. War began on February 28th. The war began when it was cold. Now it's not cold. Think about it that way.

44:27Almost full season. Like we're going into summer. So it's like, well said. It's been a while, actually, since the war started. So is it that inconceivable that you were to see it in three months from now? Not really, actually, considering the way that everything has gone on. So three more months of this, which, again, I don't think really is out of the question, considering the on again, off again, on again that the administration has walked us into. I don't know. I don't see a way out of$6 a gallon. I don't think you're wrong. And, I mean, obviously, I support, like, more domestic production on this front.

44:59And if it forces that, I think maybe there's a sick silver lining to all of this. But I don't think that's actually what's happening at all. Let's put this fortune headline on the screen. This is B5. Another huge part of this. The headline here is Iran war is draining world's oil buffer at an unprecedented pace. And then we can move on also to the Financial Times headline. This is B5. Fuel, munitions, and food trumps Iran war rips across U.S. economy. This is not just about gas. Not just about gas. It is about prices that are going to increase across the board because of how fully integrated into every product, plastics, for example, that gas is.

45:40And you're going to have, obviously, what the Biden administration dubbed greedflation. No question about it. Already seeing it across the economy as well. So it is just a geopolitical mess. You don't need us to tell you that. But when you look at some of these, you just pull at some of these threads, the extent of it becomes obvious. I mean, the World Oil Reserves here, Sagar, that is – like you said, there's just – his path to climbing out of this before the midterms, but at all, good luck. It doesn't even really matter. What you pointed to, the Financial Times story, it really is worth going through some of it.

46:17The direct price from the government is$25 billion. So what's the real number? $50, probably? Maybe$60, something like that. And then if you start to go into all of the actual costs of the munitions, which if anybody watching the show would have gone through that ad nauseum. Mark Kelly recently just said the quiet part out loud and the Pentagon wants to prosecute him because he was like, yeah, it turns out that we're critically low. I mean you don't need classified briefing to learn that. You could just look at a spreadsheet. It's very obvious. But really what we're all seeing inside of it is from the fuel export problems, the already keeping interest rates and all of that high, then the crazy part about it too is I think it's consumer sentiment at an all-time low.

47:03We're going to talk about that a little bit with Derek. You've got AI kind of holding up the stock market. You've basically got healthcare holding up the rest of the jobs market. But the actual consumer experience of the average American is just miserable, miserable on a day-to-day basis. And gas, I think it was already bad going into this, not just because of tariffs, but largely as a result. It was tariffs plus, really, of the continuation of a lot of these economic forces. And I think this just really lit that feeling on fire. Yes. Much like Biden. Things were already a problem for Biden, and the Ukraine war happened.

47:35It just eliminated it. No, that's a really good point about the tariffs, too, because the question of whether or not it's there certainty over investing in the United States for the future, manufacturing, business and the like, exports, that was already precarious. And there were a lot of countries. I mean, the BRICS meeting is what in September. So the realignment of some of these really big geopolitical relationships is happening right now in a sense that the Iran war thrust some of this over the edge. Right. Like it was already in motion, starting to gel. And then the Iran war just puts that in a hyperdrive.

48:12So it's it's really I mean, for Trump to leave office with a genuine sense of having redrawn the world for the America, the interests of America first. Whatever that was like before the Iran war has become, you know, the odds have become infinitesimally small after. Can I give you a prediction for China? Let's do it. Trump, there's already a report out there, Trump is considering a$1 trillion investment package from China. Here's what I predict. We will have Chinese EVs in this country in the next five years. That's my prediction. That's a great prediction. That's my prediction. Did you see, so Laura Ingraham reacted to that right away and said, like, catastrophic mistake on the brink.

48:52It's going to happen. It's over. He loves it. He loves it. It's not that he loves it. It's the stars aligned for China. But he does love it, too. No, of course he does. But what I'm saying is they have been, they're waiting. They know he loves investment. they're going to take the Toyota deal which is you can build here but you have to build in America they're going to wave across all the IP things and there will be within five years there will be BYD cars on the road in the US that's my prediction and they will almost certainly be built here but that is the deal that they're going to strike with Trump because he loves the investment and they're going to pledge all of this stuff what they're good for the money we have the largest consumer market in the world Well, that's my prediction.

49:34He's going to then have to bomb Karg Island to keep the neocons happy because they're going to be so pissed off. No, they'll stay quiet. All they care about is Israel. They don't actually care about China, which is kind of how it's always been. All right, UFOs. Let's get to it. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. Apple Vacations semi-annual sale is here, and it's the perfect time to plan your next beach getaway. Enjoy up to$250 off international and Hawaii vacations, up to$150 off domestic trips and hotel savings up to 70 % off. With instant savings of$300,$500, or even$700, your escape has never been more rewarding.

50:10Book by May 28th at applevacations.com or contact your local travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. This year, it's Pop's turn for a laugh. So celebrate Father's Day with a gift that really pops. A customized Funko Pop of him. First, think of all the things that make your dad the man. Then turn those ideas into a personalized Funko Pop. Select hair, clothing, and skin tone options to match his fit. Don't forget to show off his favorite hobbies and sports with amazing accessories. You can even add his best friend. Start creating now at Funko.com. Be unique, not anyone else. Express it now.

50:48Just pop yourself. That's Funko.com. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20 % year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S &P 500.

51:21Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice.

51:48Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. turning now to UFOs my favorite subject a lot of people have thought about this with consternation is this a distraction from the government so let's get this out of the way almost certainly it's almost certainly is now does that mean that some of the information released by the administration isn't interesting no it doesn't now is anything earth-shattering let me just say at the top absolutely not it's not like we've gotten absolute confirmation of nothing however as usual with government files Emily the way that I like to look at it is what they choose to show you is probably less important than what they chose not to show you.

52:24And what they have chosen to show us is a few new things. And, you know, with this aura of transparency, a lot of it is recycled video and or things that anybody who's been in the UFO, the interest for quite some time, very little in this will shock you. But nonetheless, what we have learned from it so far is that in terms of the transparency that's promised, it basically confirms what a lot of us had already thought about the subject, which is, yeah, are there some videos and others in U.S. possession which are shocking? Absolutely. Certainly. We'll show you some of those. However, they're not like the best videos.

53:00But the real stuff, if it exists, which I support your right to believe, if it doesn't, none of that is really in government possession. And if it is in government possession, it's either hyper-compartmentalized or spread out amongst defense contractors. It's set up in such a way where it can't even make its way to the type of people who are trying to do disclosure. And so to give your general reaction and your read of these files, I'll turn to Dave Grush, one of the whistleblowers here who gave an interview to Fox News. And he's basically saying that the administration is being blocked, and this is according to his own information, by these elements within the government, which may have some insight into these files from any sort of release.

53:41Let's take a listen. What you're saying is we are on the cusp of getting a lot more details that deal with actual alien beings, however you're going to describe them. That's certainly up to the president's team, and I certainly support them. But it has come to my attention actually recently as of today. There are some actors within certain intelligence agencies to include DIA and CIA specifically that are actually blocking some of the president's presidentially appointed team and getting access and getting control on some of these historical records. So I really expect the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, Bradley Hansel, to take care of that as some of that's under his cognizance, especially on the national program side, which is directly under his organization, to reveal some of the historical National Security Council records on this.

54:31Right. So what Gresh is saying there is that the DIA and the CIA are blocking some of the team from getting access and getting control. And this is why this stuff really matters, because you can only declassify what you have access to. And remember, this has already happened with Epstein. Oh, we found 89 million files. That's just a case that's been going on since 2019. Now imagine a subject from 1947, possibly, even earlier, that you continue to look at. And I tend to look not just at Dave, but at many of the congressmen who have much more visibility into this subject than you or I, from Tim Burchett and or even some of these Democrats or Eric Burleson or, you know, who am I thinking of?

55:11Jared Moskowitz. Like all of them continue to just make comments where they're like, yeah, it's not really everything that's been shown. Let's put C2 and let's take a listen to that of a Democratic congressman, Subramanian, talking about the UFO files. Let's take a listen. No, I don't think so. I'm underwhelmed by the release, honestly. Given things that I've heard and things that I've seen, I'd like more to be released. The American people deserve to know what we do have and any sort of evidence of anything we've seen. So he's on the oversight committee, and really what they're saying is either the things that they've heard or the things that they've seen, either in a classified setting or been testified to from witnesses, we just know that this is not the full breadth of it.

55:50Now, there's some interesting stuff in there. We'll get to it. This is always a problem with this subject, is that the stuff that's really flashy attracts all the attention, which I understand. I get it as somebody who's interested, but it's really about the nitty gritty whenever it comes to the US military videos, their own internal assessments, their knowledge and or lack of knowledge, let's say on certain things. And then the most important thing is when they have a video of something and they go, we have no idea what it is. And then what usually happens in that no idea what it is, is it just gets buried.

56:20They're like, oh, we're on deployment. We don't want to deal with it. But that's the interesting thing, right? And that's what a lot of these internal like Arrow and all these other departments were set up to find. And every time they inevitably come out and be like, oh, there's basically nothing to see here. Don't worry about it. There's never been any real effort. Trump allegedly is trying to get here to the bottom of it. But the unfortunate thing is I think they see it as like a fun thing as opposed to a very serious endeavor. Now, that doesn't mean necessarily that nothing serious won't come out, but I'm personally a little bit skeptical into the terms that it's gone down so far, and especially because the way it was received initially is people were like, wow, like the Apollo astronauts saw aliens.

57:02It's like, guys, that's not what happened, right? Like what happened is they saw some shapes. And by the way, all of this has been reported now for years. Like we literally know all of this from the photos, from the testimony of the astronauts and others. I'm glad it's reigniting discussion, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's any sort of smoking gun. So go ahead. Well, I was just the feeding frenzy around this is becoming so it's it's made it so much less serious and accessible because this is obviously now a tool of theatrical transparency because we're in an era where institutional trust is really low.

57:35And so politicians have decided that it will make them look really good to kind of flex their muscles of disclosure. But nobody that's the thing with disclosure. Nobody knows if you're actually fully disclosing anything. And so when you see some of these establishment-type politicians starting to enter the discussion, when you start seeing really establishment-friendly scientists enter the discussion, when you see whistleblowers enter the discussion, and then you have to compare and contrast all of these different perspectives, one person trashing the other person, this person trashing, it just becomes impossible to disentangle what is limited hangout-type information, what is real.

58:15Are things real but also limited hangouts? This is the most, this last several days, I think have been some of the most frustrating because it's a feeding frenzy. There are a lot of new people trying to pick at things who haven't been deep in the space like you have for many years. And it's just all so impossible now. It's always been hard. But now it's gotten to the point where it's actually probably the government's plan. It's almost impossible to really sort the wheat from the chaff. Very well said. So we picked some of these videos, which are actually interesting, nonetheless. Let's put them up here on the screen.

58:52We have some of them. They're all clearly labeled. Actually, this one's the most interesting one. Indopaycom submitted a report of a UAP consisting of one minute and 39 seconds of video from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2024. for. You can actually see it right there in front of your screen, just flying there among windmills. I haven't seen somebody be able to geolocate it just yet, but this is consistent with some of the videos that we've seen, things that are flying just over the water at a rate of speed, which we don't exactly know how it's moving, no visible forms of propulsion.

59:23Now, I'm going to give the caveat that in many of these cases, what ends up happening is it's a camera flare or it's some sort of technical glitch, let's say, within the system. That's why you need rigorous review of all of these things, and you don't just put it to the side. But this was an interesting video, definitely, for sure. Let's go to the next one, shall we? So what we have here is a report of a UAP consisting of nine seconds of video from an infrared sensor, again, aboard a US military platform in 2024. What is it? I mean, it's a bit hard to say, right? We can't exactly see. It's kind of blurry from everything that we're able to know.

1:00:02I mean, at first glance, it might look almost like the space shuttle or something like that. It could be a blimp, right? But I don't think so, just because of some of the things that have been ruled out now in the past, and especially that's usually you're very able to identify. However, again, I always give the caveat with these things. Sometimes it's a weather balloon. Now that's also been used as an excuse at Roswell. Let's go to the next one, shall we? Okay, here we have Northcom submitted a report here of a UAP consisting of 21 seconds of video from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform, again, in 2024.

1:00:38You know why these are interesting to me is the windmill video and others is we have had so many reports over the years now about UAPs with no visible means of propulsion that can move in all of these different ways. And it's usually over bodies of water. And it's also, again, this is not, I know this sounds crazy, but the testimony that comes from it are the ability to move both underwater and over it. And so you actually have some reports of things going into the ocean or out of the ocean. So the fact is that you actually were able to see some of these things very, very high over the water and small type of, at least small movement.

1:01:18This is from 2024. All of these were from 2024. That's actually what kind of made it interesting. I will say there's several videos which are coming out in a new documentary by Jeremy Corbell. He's got eight out of 24 videos which members of Congress want to be released. So those videos we'll all be able to see in a documentary. And again, many of these are leaked or provided to them, which they heavily scrutinize. And they do so to get it out because of things like this where they don't want it to be covered up. Many others continue to say that there are better videos inside of the Department of Defense which haven't been released or the CIA in some cases.

1:01:52That's what Avi Loeb said. I've heard about this for years. At a certain point, I'm not going to lie. You know, you're getting frustrated that they're not being released. But so far, I mean, I wouldn't compare this to the Epstein release. I wouldn't compare it to – actually, you know, let's take the Epstein one as a good example. Why did we ultimately get what we got with Epstein, which is not everything? It was a huge movement behind Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey to have a bill that was signed by Congress. Massey made a good point in his interview with Tucker Carlson is that in the long run, this bill survives all administrations.

1:02:26It's not just a resolution. So even if this current administration isn't doing what it's supposed to do, in the future, future administrations still have to comply with the bill. Well, it's also – and he told Ryan and me here that it's prosecutable. Right, exactly. So they added that in the bill, which I think went really under the media's radar. That was part of, I mean, people were upset about the bill because it had national security exemptions and the like. And so we were talking to Massey about it. And he said, well, if there's another administration that comes in and is doggedly anti-Trump and they find evidence that some of what Pam Bondi did not release was not national security, was not relevant to national security, then guess what?

1:03:04You're on the hook still. Yeah, I think it is. Look, I just think that that's good evidence, and there's a reason that almost every bill like that hasn't moved through Congress. So to my UFO friends, what I would say is we don't rely on executive orders. We don't rely on any of that. If you really want to see something happen, then you're going to need a bill. And by the way, don't forget the JFK Records Act was signed in, what, 1991? Yeah, I was going to say even a bill. Even a bill isn't necessarily going to get you everything that you need. It's going to be a long slog, all right? And so, look, we got something that's interesting, but did it prove really anything?

1:03:38Not really. We got a few interesting videos out of it, and that's good. But I'm going to treat it with some of the skepticism I think it deserves. I just want to say that video is from 2024, as we were just talking about those videos. 2024, JFK, 1963. We heard up until what the Biden administration, actually early Trump 2.0, if I'm remembering correctly, that people alive could be harmed by the release of the JFK files. And so any bill that you get is going to have national security exemptions. And you are going to hear the same damn thing for the next 100 years about people who were alive or 80 years, people who were alive in 2024, who could theoretically be harmed by releases of things from 2024, let alone 1947.

1:04:15I'm sure they still have some excuse why things from 1947 can't be released because of people who are impacted, affected potentially. So, yeah, I mean, it's just you'll always be putting together the pieces of a puzzle without knowing what the picture in the puzzle looks like, right? Like you don't have the box. And so you don't know when the puzzle is complete. You don't know what the picture is. You're just assembling all the different pieces or trying to. And some of them are to a different puzzle. Some of them are fake pieces. Yeah, some of them are decoy pieces. Very well said.

1:05:12We'll see you next time.

1:05:23in the Shell app and enjoy life with more. Your nearest Shell station is closer than you think.

1:05:33Apple Vacations, where your story starts. Apple Vacations semi-annual sale is here and it's the perfect time to plan your next beach getaway. Enjoy up to$250 off international and Hawaii vacations, up to$150 off domestic trips and hotel savings up to 70 % off. With instant savings of$300,$500 or even$700, your escape has never been more rewarding. Book by May 28th at applevacations.com or contact your local travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own.

1:06:15If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, We alert you right away, all through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Save up to 40 % your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash iHeart. Terms apply. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.