7/23/26: Oil Hits $100, Prof Marandi On War Escalation, Hegseth Demands Billions

25:35adventures. Apple Vacations makes it easy to create memories with the people who matter most. Start today at applevacations.com or contact your trusted travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. 16 years ago, I started working as a CNA in the hospital. I loved it. On the day I decided to enroll in the nursing program at Rasmussen University, it was afternoon, my 35th birthday. I was hanging out with a friend and they had just questioned me what I was going to do with this next chapter of my life. I immediately had said, I want to go to nursing school. So I actually had contact information from an advisor at Rasmussen, contacted her, and actually ended up starting like three weeks later.

26:12My name is Cherish Adams, and I'm a Rasmussen University graduate. Learn more at rasmussen.edu. Scotty Price told one little lie at work. Okay, maybe not little. She told everyone she had a husband. The problem? She doesn't. Now she's scrambling to find a fake husband, survive marriage counseling and somehow make it through a summer marriage camp without everything falling apart. From best-selling author Megan Quinn comes Till Summer Do Us Part, a laugh-out-loud romance filled with chaos, chemistry, and one very complicated fake marriage. Find your next summer read at Sourcebooks.com. Professor, President Trump has claimed that Iran is begging to talk.

26:56I don't think there's any reason to take those claims seriously, but I am curious. what the attitude within Iran, as far as you can glean, towards negotiations and diplomacy is at this point. Well, we all know that he said he was saying this throughout this war. He's been saying it so many times. I don't know how many times exactly, but tens of times. And, you know, in Iran, there's actually a different type of debate. There is a divide in Iran between those who think that the MOU was the right thing to do and those who said that we should not have signed the MOU and we should have just continued until things got worse for the United States.

27:34Both sides have an argument to make. I mean, those who were in favor of the MOU, they said, well, we took advantage of the first few days. We exported tens of millions of barrels of oil and imported critical supplies to prepare ourselves for the next phase because we knew that the United States would not abide by the MOU. and those who oppose it were saying, no, we should have continued. They were in bad shape and we should have just put more pressure on. The debate is not. Let's negotiate now. No one is saying that. So the debate today is, and I'm not, both sides have arguments to make and I'm not in any particular camp myself.

28:15I think both have good arguments to make. But the point is that the talk is whether we should have been hitting harder and being more assertive rather than pursuing the policy that we did in the past. No one now is talking about negotiations. Well, the curious thing, sir, I saw that you had said during the memorandum of understanding period, if you could say that there was some sort of understanding, is you were mimicking some of the rhetoric of our vice president. say that you were taking the opportunity to reload. So was this always the course of action that was in the minds of many of these Iranian leaders?

28:56And now that we are back in a phase where, you know, some hot war has resumed, what would it take to resume the memorandum of understanding? The Iranian leaders did not believe that the United States would abide by the MOU. And if they had, the Iranians would have fulfilled their side of the bargain, no doubt. The Iranian intention was there. And that's how it's been in the past. With the JCPOA, that's how it was. And it would have been the same today. But the Iranians knew that, at least those who I know in the different political camps, they all believed that the United States would not abide by its commitments.

29:37And it became pretty clear after three, four days. They did not hand over the stolen assets. They did not force the Israeli regime to leave Lebanon. Trump continued to threaten Iranian officials and the Iranian people, which is a violation of the deal. They expanded the sanctions regime, another violation. They removed the sanctions on oil exports, then reversed that after a few days, another violation. And, of course, in violation of Article 5, they went and set up their own parallel corridor in the Strait of Hormuz because in Article 5, Iran was supposed to manage the strait. So what Americans were trying to do is to try to take control of the strait, take away Iran's leverage, and then not carry out its obligations and win a war that they could not win on the battlefield or through siege warfare.

30:25So, and then they bombed Iran when Iran ultimately, after a couple of weeks of warning the Saudis and the Emiratis and the Americans not to do this, the Iranians finally struck two or three ships, I think. And then the Americans waged war against Iran again, another violation, and reimposed the siege. So the Iranians knew that was happening. But the Iranians, the difference between Iran and the United States was that the Iranians were willing to implement the deal, but not the Americans. But the Iranians, they took that opportunity to export a lot of oil and to import critical supplies to prepare them for the next phase.

31:03But I think that ultimately, if the United States, the Iranians are not in the mood for negotiations, but if the United States wants to solve the problem, I think that the MOU, it will not be enough for Iran. They will demand that the United States first carries out certain things before the Iranians do anything. And they will also be explicit in including Yemen and Gaza in the negotiations. That's my guess. Gaza too. Very interesting. Retired General Keith Kellogg has held a variety of roles both in the first and the second. Trump administrations took to Fox News to push for a significant escalation.

31:46This is A7. Guys, let's go ahead and play this. Here is a concern I do have for Iran, though. You have played sports. I've played sports. We've watched sports. And you let a team hang around, a baseball team in the ninth inning or a football team in the fourth quarter, where you are clearly the better team. You should have closed them out in the first quarter, not the fourth or the first inning, not the ninth inning. And the longer they stick around, the more dangerous they become. And that's kind of where we're at right now. And I think the president's going to close it out. He should close it out.

32:16There's a few things he should do, I think. One is on negotiations. Let's not negotiate. I'm not negotiating with these guys. We're going to dictate the terms of the war. And it is a war that's going on right now. We're going to keep taking out their leadership. The whole policy about decapitation, we need to continue that. If that means taking out Bahiti or Arachi or anybody else like that, that's fine because it destabilizes the regime. The other part, because it gives you leverage, is I would take the islands of Karg Island and Lorac Island, which is like it's further to the east, but it's like the command and control center of the Gulf.

32:54And you take them to give the president leverage. Now I own something you don't have anymore. We'll give it back to you at the end of this war if you need it, or we're just going to keep it forever. The other thing I think we should be doing is, look, let's go. And if it takes a presidential finding or something like that, let's start figuring out how we can help the Iranian people organize the resistance against the theocratic regime. So, Professor Trump, in addition to that on Fox News, very influential in this particular individual, also very influential. Trump has directly said he plans to attack Pickaxe Mountain.

33:27I'm wondering from your perspective within Iran what people are sort of expecting Trump's next move to be. Well, first of all, I'd like to point out that I'm really surprised that he was a general. I fought in war, but I was just an ordinary volunteer and foot soldier. What strategic value would Khark Island have? How is it a command and control center? It's a flat piece of land, which has, I mean, right now Iran is not exporting oil because there's a siege. So if they take it, it's a flat island, and the Iranians will just simply start hammering it day and night and kill U.S. troops. And so is that going to stop Iran?

34:13I mean, right now Iran is striking U.S. bases in Jordan. That's like 1 ,000 kilometers away or in western Saudi Arabia. So why does Iran need to be standing alongside the shores of the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz to block ships? This is not like the 18th century. It's not even the 20th century. This is the 21st century. It's the era of missiles and drones. So if Iran can hit U.S. bases in Jordan and destroy their key assets or in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere, then what purpose would it have for them to carry out this sort of attack? I find it amazing that he ever became a general at all.

34:55But I think the most important thing here for me is that if this war expands, first of all, if the global economy collapses, that means the U.S. economy will collapse. And I think that the United States will have to withdraw, not just from our region, but from across the globe. A global economic depression will mean that we will all lose jobs, jobs will be lost, businesses will collapse, factories will shut down, there won't be money, insecurity everywhere. I don't think he quite comprehends what that means for the globe. Tens of millions of people, perhaps maybe hundreds of millions of people will be on the move.

35:35I mean, imagine, let's say, Latin America, people losing their livelihoods. Where are they going to go? I mean, North America may not be any better, but people will still go to North America. It's sort of like the grapes of wrath where people went to California, moved towards California, even though things weren't all that great over there either. So I don't think they quite comprehend what that means. And there's another factor as well. Yemen is now in the fight. The resistance in Iraq is larger than the resistance in Lebanon. They have at least 150 ,000, maybe 200 ,000 people right now prepared to fight, and they're well armed.

36:18So you have Iran, you have the resistance in Iraq, you have Yemen. Who does the United States have? It has like, what, Bahrain? It has the Emirates? I mean, do they even have a fighting force? And now Saudi Arabia, they can't export oil. These are countries that are literally almost 100 % dependent on oil gas. They're deserts. And if their critical infrastructure is destroyed, then tens of millions of people will have to leave the Arabian Peninsula. Again, I don't think he quite understands what an all-out war means. And they already tried that anyway with Iran. I mean, you can't get higher than Ayatollah Khamenei.

37:00They martyred him. Nothing. We didn't have a leader for two weeks because the assembly that chooses the leader in accordance with the Constitution couldn't gather together for two weeks because of the strikes. So for two weeks, we didn't have a leader. We had a council in accordance with the Constitution. But, you know, but still they fought back. The streets were being cleaned at night. People were going to supermarkets. No one emptied the shelves of supermarkets. So why does he even think that if they try that again, it's going to succeed? The only difference is that if they go after Iran's critical infrastructure this time around, Iran is going to do the same.

37:42And we're going to literally be living in a completely different world if that happens. Yeah. Well, Professor Mirandi, we really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us, sir. It's always a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

38:00The July savings event from Apple Vacations is here. Book by July 23rd and save up to$400 off your flight and hotel package to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, Hawaii, or Europe. From all-inclusive escapes to bucket list adventures, Apple Vacations makes it easy to create memories with the people who matter most. Start today at AppleVacations.com or contact your trusted travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. I think something that makes me well-studded to be a nurse is my empathy. Growing up with a big family, I think I've always kind of been a caregiver. When you care give, you get to know the family and the patient and you get really close.

38:39And Rasmussen University, they did a very, very good job of giving us the resources that we need. So just being able to apply the knowledge that I've retained to my daily life has been so amazing. Learn more at rasmussen.edu. You're building your career, your routine, your future. But this summer, that's for you. This season, escape into stories that feel like golden hour, rooftop drinks, and the kind of love that sneaks up on you when you least suspect it. Sourcebooks Summer of Romance brings together the rom-coms everyone's talking about. From Laugh Out Loud favorites by Lucy Score and Megan Quinn, to binge-worthy reads you'll want to finish in one sitting.

39:21Find your next summer read at Sourcebooks.com. That's Sourcebooks.com. Turning now to the Pentagon, which is currently shaking down the American taxpayer for some$1.5 trillion. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth went before Congress and said that the greatest national security threat America faces if he doesn't get his outrageous budget. Let's take a listen. As I have said before, not fully funding this department, the Department of War. And we know what that means, that that means$1.5 trillion, given the world that we live in and the disaster of what the Biden administration budgets gave us. Not funding this department at$1.5 trillion, I believe, is the greatest threat that our nation faces.

40:08The greatest threat our nation faces is an extra$500 billion, which they didn't originally need and made up a number out of completely whole cloth. This comes as the Pentagon, this part is real, actually is running out of money. because of the Iran war. They are almost 100 % lying to us about the cost. And I'll break that down just here in a moment. But one of the funny things is I've been reading a ton of the stuff behind the scenes, the lawmakers, they've been bringing the lawmakers to the Pentagon for four to six hour meetings where they have chips and dip and AI powered PowerPoints. And they're just walking them through why they need all this money.

40:45And even the Republicans are like, I just don't get it. They're like, where is the money going? And so the money in the Pentagon doesn't know either. And they don't know. It's all their own audit. It's complete. Exactly. So first of all, they haven't passed an audit in five years. But the thing is, is it's entirely a slush fund, basically either for the Iran war or the whatever pet projects, you know, that these Trump people have got going on in the background for drones or all kinds of these boondoggles that they have. They have no zero justification. And if you look and I have brought many of these up in the past of these past projects of the promise funding, I brought it up in our last show, 500 million to reproduce these 155-millimeter shells, which were all given to Ukraine.

41:29And it's like, oops, in the four years, so almost the entirety of the United States experience in World War II, before we appropriated that money to today, not a single shell has rolled off of the assembly line. $500 million,$500 million, it's gone. So how did that happen? Nobody can actually tell you why that happened. Basically, they bought the wrong part or they made the wrong bet. I'm like, you couldn't have fixed it like two years ago, three years ago? And then the army's like, don't worry about it. We'll eventually we'll get it. There are all kinds of these types of reports. And at the same time that they're shaking us down for 1.5 trillion, the Pentagon is also stop releasing the F-35 report, which is due every single year to Congress.

42:06Right. So they're covering that up, whatever happened with that F-35 over Iran, as well as the one that got clipped by the Houthis. They are stopping the release of all of these normal reports, which are congressionally mandated by Congress so that the public can figure this out. And then telling us with a straight face, if we don't get this$1.5 trillion, then this is the greatest threat that our country faces. It's insanity how this has been normalized. Ken Klippenstein has a piece up to put all of this into perspective. And he says that all of World War II, all of it, from 1941 to 1945, cost the U.S.

42:44an estimated$4.5 trillion in today's inflation-adjusted dollars. Hegseth wants to spend even more than that over the next four years. He is asking for more money than we spent in all of World War II. If you want another comparison, let's take a look at how much does Iran spend for their military. 7.4 billion. And we brought you earlier this week that Washington Post report where military analysts were saying, hey, we're running low on basically everything. We cannot safely sustain this pace at all. It's not just certain categories, missile interceptors or whatever that we're running low on. We actually are running low on everything.

43:22We cannot continue in this direction. And the White House is maybe not aware of what's going on here. I think any American has to look at this and be like, what are you doing? what is this money going towards at a time when, you know, this administration and a lot of fanfare at the beginning about Doge, you know, we got to cut the debt and the deficit. No, we're spending way too much money. And then you'll just casually go in and demand 1.5 trillion dollars and say it's the greatest threat to the country if we don't fork it over. No, for a war that we don't even want to be in. I mean, it's complete and utter insanity.

43:54And so, of course, members of Congress, I mean, certainly Democrats, but Republicans are feeling some pressure on this, too, as he comes out, you know, hat in hand, begging for more billions to fund something that no one wanted in the first place. Right. And actually, just I'm going to show everybody Pentagon math. So here's Hegseth on what the cost of the Iran war is. He says 37.5 billion. Then I'll show you what it actually costs. Let's take a listen. I've been listening patiently while you made your presentation. You estimated at one point that the cost of the war in Iran was$29 billion, but then added a caveat that there was a replacement of munitions, for example.

44:29Do you have a new estimate about what the war has cost us so far in this, the fifth month of the first year of this war in Iran? Senator, the estimate we have as of today is$37.5 billion. And is the current activity which we have been told about the exchange of fire back and forth in Iran an indication that that number is going to go up in the months ahead? Some of that number captures additional O &M, mill pay, and other that would be anticipated through the fiscal year. So some of that anticipates what costs would be going out in the future as well. So the new number you've given me is what?

45:05$37.5 billion. And that represents the cost of the war through what period of time? Through now for certain aspects of it, but also mil pay, O &M, other anticipated costs through September 30th, Senator. All right,$37.5 billion. That's Pentagon math. Now let's look at actual math. Let's put this one up here on the screen. The real cost is somewhere around$100 billion. And by the way, even that is a little bit of a lowball. So how exactly does the Pentagon, you know, secretary go before Congress and say under oath that it's$37.5 billion? Well, you actually kind of heard it in his response, is not counting munitions and replacement costs, which is kind of an insane way to actually count it.

45:50And if anything says that just operating costs absent of what was shot is$37.5 billion should get everybody a heart attack. If the real cost is$100 billion, I just want to put this into perspective for everybody. For the 20 years that the United States spent trying to rebuild the Afghan National Security Forces, 20 years, we all remember what that project was like. That total cost of that operation was$100 billion. So$100 billion spent in 100 days versus 20 years. That's how much more efficient we've become at throwing away money. And where did the money go exactly? We can actually see that they're flat going broke because of the way that the budget is allocated.

46:33So let's put the next one up here on the screen. And this, again, shows you why they're so desperate for this$1.5 trillion cash injection. The Pentagon faces a urgent budget shortfall because of the Iran war. Already, they are limiting training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness. They continue to short several other critical departments of the Pentagon. The White House has now asked for an immediate infusion of$67 billion. Remember, that's$30 billion more than Pete Hexeth just said that the Iran war costs, just to help cover some of the costs. If you continue to actually look at where some of this stuff is going, you could see that it comes largely from airstrikes.

47:15It comes from replacement of munitions. It comes also from the operating costs of all of these different aircraft carriers, these strike groups, the forward deployment, the amount of resources and overtime and other things that they have to pay over here. This is just the direct cost of the war itself. This doesn't even factor in munition replacement. And that's with the$100 billion figure that I'm talking about. So the real cost is probably$200 billion to$300 billion, which is insane. I mean, that is so categorically nuts. At the time, when I covered Afghanistan, I was like, this is more than we spent in Vietnam.

47:52And somehow we've blown out the Vietnam budget in 100 days. Think about it. That was 500 ,000 American troops were there and all the other insanity that we're doing. To be clear, I'm just talking specifically about the Afghan national security costs. But if you want to put Iraq into that, too,$4 trillion, again, it took 16, 17 years. I mean, we're on track actually already. And we don't even have any troops that are on the ground. Imagine what that will cost. And it also doesn't take into account rebuilding the bases that have been obliterated. But those bases may never be rebuilt. I mean, there may be no reason to go back to that.

48:22Clearly, the basing strategy has completely failed. I don't know that those countries could be super excited about us going back in and rebuilding and setting up shop after all of this, whenever all of this is over. But yeah, you just look at it and you're like, where is the money going? Like, what are you actually, you're out of everything, you're having to skimp on training and maintenance, and you're begging for more billions? Like, what is actually happening here? I genuinely don't understand. And by the way, they don't really understand either because they can't pass an audit. So they don't know where the money is coming from, you know, going to either.

48:54Ryan made a good point. He's like, how do you know you're out of money when you can't even do your own audit. Like, how does that even work? No, what happens is you check the bank account and you see that it's low, but you don't know where it all went. I mean, we're a small business. I can't even run shit like that. Can you imagine? They're the government. Yeah. And meanwhile, it's like, oh, well, we need ammo, but you know, that'll take years and we're low on this and that radar system is defunct. And what has happened? I mean, it really speaks to the way that we have outsourced all of this to these grifting military-industrial complex defense contractors.

49:26They jack up the price on everything. We're completely beholden to them. There's an absolute revolving door between the Pentagon and between industry. No one has any incentive to do anything intelligently or in a cost-effective way. Meanwhile, Iran is churning out their Shahid drones at low cost, like there's no tomorrow. They actually, as a middle-income country, have maintained their industrial base. So they're able to do that and spin up production, no problem. Here we are, the supposed superpower, and there's no equivalent ability to flip a switch and in anything approaching a ghost-effective manner, spin these things up.

50:04So it's, I mean, it's just a complete indictment of the entire system that we have constructed. And Rubio has the gall to come out and be like, oh, the Iranians are spending all their money on their military rather than helping their people. First of all, we're attacking them. So they're under existential threat. I imagine there are people right now are quite understanding of why the military budget needs to be upped a little bit while they're directly at war with us and with Israel. And by the way, everybody else in the region who, you know, these attacks are being launched from. Second of all, look at our country.

50:36Trump literally came out and said, well, we can't have nice things because we got to spend all this money on our military. Like this is what you're doing. A 1.5 trillion and it's the greatest threat to our country if we don't hand all of that over to you. And 1.4 trillion for what? What will it get us? More munitions? Because that's what they always say, more money. Where's the bullets? The bullets don't exist. It's like, where's the tomahawk missiles? Oh, that'll be six years. Sorry. Remember I covered the story how Japan, so we went to Japan and we shook them down. We're like, hey, you guys got to buy some tomahawks.

51:05The Japanese are like, okay, we'll buy some. Here's our money. Here's the order. And then you know what happened? We launched the Iran war and we're like, yeah, you're going to have to wait a few years for those tomahawk missiles if they come at all sometime in the future. That's one minuscule example. And this whole supply chain, it's a nightmare. From the Tomahawk missiles, I was talking to you guys privately about gun cotton. There's one factory in the whole United States that makes gun cotton. It's one of the most critical inputs for these artillery shells. One, it's in Radford, Virginia. If it goes on fire, which is literally a highly flammable substance, good luck.

51:37We're out. And so is half a NATO, where they import 40-something percent of their gun cotton also comes from that same factory. What are we going to do? And there's no modernization. There's no actual efficiency. You're talking about the shot head drone. It costs$20 ,000 to$100 ,000 a pop. Something like these Tomahawk missiles,$4 ,000 or$5 million. And they have to be built in one factory in Arizona. Where is the money going? For what purpose? And no other, not to say government is a business, but the sheer even attempt at trying to have some level of efficiency. And then if you're going to say that we're running it like the government, we should make it hardened, as in not very vulnerable to potential disasters or problems like a fire, I don't know, at one factory, which is deeply critical, they don't even do that.

52:21You know, all they're doing is covering up all of the problems that exist in these gigantic boondoggles. And all of us are the ones who are paying for the—it only goes exponential in terms of the cost. That's what's so staggering when you compare the Afghan conflict to this one. You're like, how did you accomplish the boondoggle that we all saw in the withdrawal in just a 100-day period? It's genuinely stunning. One tomahawk missile, single missile, 18 to 24 months from the moment of the order. That's what I'm trying to say. Two years. People who listen, like, they think I'm exaggerating. If anything, I'm underplaying it.

52:56Like, you need to go. All of this, this is what they're trying to do. They're actually stopping, like I said earlier, the release of these open source documents on THAAD and on Tomahawk. People accuse me of saying, how would you know the stockpile? I go, luckily, we actually have Congress, which is mandated. You just have to release the report. You don't know the exact number, but based on a general estimate, you can do plus or minus 5 to 10 percent. We actually do know. A lot of this stuff has been highlighted in the open source environment. So, yeah, almost 60 to 80 percent of the THAADs are gone.

53:28Gone. I mean, it will take five years at a minimum just to replace that. And we continue to fire today. I mean, the actual cost, one actual cost estimate of the first 60 days of the war was$82 billion. That was 40 days ago. You know, it's like when you start to put all this stuff together, it's nuts. There's no accountability in our government. And just to, you know, continue this, here we have Mike Waltz getting grilled by Ted Lieu, who is also trying to underplay the amount of people who have now been killed in the Iran war. Let's take a listen. How many American troops have been killed in the Iran war?

54:04In these ongoing operations, 18. Okay. Now, President Trump has repeatedly stated that Iran's military was obliterated. On March 16th, President Trump stated that Iran's military was, quote, literally obliterated, end quote. How is it possible that 482 American Jewish have been wounded and 18 service members killed by a Iranian military that's been purportedly obliterated? The Iranian Navy, Air Force, air defense system and industrial capacity have been massively damaged, if not completely ineffective. But this is a state that is trying to reconstitute. This is a state regime that is obsessed with a nuclear weapon, and it's a regime that still maintains some missile and drone capability that it's firing on all of its neighbors, including our bases.

55:04I think that's a pretty common sense evaluation, but if I need to explain it to you further, I can. You need to explain to American people how an Iranian military that's been purportedly obliterated killed 18 U.S. service members and wounded 482 service members. I know seven of those service members died in a plane crash. So, there you go. Died in a plane crash. They died in a plane crash. First of all, that plane crash, yeah. There's a lot of questions about that one in terms of what they claim. Also, where are those pilots? Anybody seen them? Hero pilots? Weird. Been a few months. You know, there was another hot exchange between them where Lou asked him, you know, how many U.S.

55:45troops have been wounded in Iran? And Walt is like, eh, maybe around 100. He's like, no, it's 482. How do you not know that? And I mean, it is utterly disgraceful. And so obviously he's getting caught there in the fact that Trump is constantly making these grandiose pronouncements about how they're obliterated and we won the war and their nuclear program is obliterated and all of these things. Well, if the nuclear program is obliterated, why are we now getting all this propaganda about Pickaxe Mountain? If the nuclear program was obliterated, why did we do this war in the first place? If the Iranian military is obliterated, how are they still able to kill our service members, take on our radars and wreak destruction across the entire region.

56:22So, you know, sometimes Trump's lies do meet with reality in a way that becomes somewhat undeniable. Yeah, that's very true. Last thing, I just want to flag this for everybody, B6. This would be an insane thing, and it looks like it's going to happen. Trump is now saying that Republicans should add Iran to the Russia sanctions bill. For those of you who don't know, the entire Congress is currently united in honoring Lindsey Graham by putting these massive sanctions on the Russian economy, so-called secondary sanctions. And now they want to add Iran per Trump in the honor of the great Lindsey Graham, who would have wanted this.

56:57So what this piece of legislation would do is it would be even more of an economic declaration of war on the Russian economy. You can support that, not support that. I can tell you it certainly will continue to send oil prices higher because that's the way that they're mostly funding their economy and also in terms of the Iranian economy. It would also give Trump massive presidential and discretionary power to use the same type of national security authority he originally imposed his original tariffs on. So it's not really just about Russia and it's not just about Iran. Really what they're doing is passing one of the most neoconservative pieces of legislation ever forward in the name of national security or Ukrainian democracy or whatever, adding Iran in there, and it would absolutely cripple even more of the black market oil, which is currently on the market.

57:45You may say that, oh, that's a good thing, but of course, coming at this current time, it gives Trump more extraordinary powers and would further hurt, actually, and probably drive oil prices even higher. So if that's something that you want, then I guess that that's something that you should support. So that was the last thing I just wanted to put on everybody's radar. It's very, very underplayed in Washington because the whole neocon media supports it, but it's a terrible piece of legislation that they didn't want to pass originally because they knew it would genuinely leave us no negotiating options whenever it came to the Kremlin.

58:17And yet, of course, in honor of Lindsay, that's what we all have to do. All right, let's get to the polls. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. The July Savings Event from Apple Vacations is here. Book by July 23rd and save up to$400 off your flight and hotel package to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, Hawaii, or Europe. From all-inclusive escapes to bucket list adventures, Apple Vacations makes it easy to create memories with the people who matter most. Start today at applevacations.com or contact your trusted travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. Big transfer news today.

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59:28I have been with Rasmussen University since 2013. All virtual. All of my professors throughout the entire journey have been nothing but supportive of making me reach my dreams. Rasmussen professors, they want to see you grow so that you can be what you went to school to be. I'm so thankful for Rasmussen University for being able to make it so easy and seamless. Rasmussen University. Find your seat and start now at rasmussen.edu. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.