Many and immense thanks to all the fine Conspirators who spent great time with us tonight as we broke apart the news and found key lessons of freedom. Big thanks to all the journalists whose work we got to investigate. I hope plenty of folks get to follow them. :) Feel free to join us, m-f 6 pm on Rumble, or on X. The audio pod follows shortly after the stream, via Spotify and Substack! Here is the link to tonight’s full video stream: Liberty Conspiracy LIVE 81926 Trump Can't Starve Iran w/o Starving West, Bibi Bye-Bye? ICE Horror
Here are some of the stories we got to cover, tonight!
Trump definitely appears to be pushing this idea of strangling the Iranian economy - which he cannot do without strangling the world economy, esp that of the West. Eastern nations might be able to work with Russia and BRICS to avoid a lot of the downturn in supply.
Sputnik@SputnikInt
Trump halts Iran talks, shifts to "strangle" strategy Trump told his team to pause negotiations, moving from "hammer Iran ASAP" to squeezing Tehran over time, sources tell CNN. 🔸 Trump publicly denies any talks: "There are no conversations going on... The Naval Blockade
11:00 PM · Aug 18, 2026 · 7.52K Views
9 Replies · 24 Reposts · 70 Likes
More observers are discussing the unverified, but on-good-intel, news that Trump and aides have discussed using nukes on Iran. But is that a narrative cooked up by 1600 to frighten the Iranian govt?
Col Lawrence Wilkerson offers key thoughts about Trump’s continuing aggression towards Iran, the mess the US has made in overthrowing Assad, and the supine US Congress, as Netanyahu continues to slaughter in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and now, more in Syria. In this, you will notice that both gentlemen accept the Intel info that Trump was misled by Israel re the threat of an Iranian strike on his jet. I am skeptical about that. I suspect the entire “Israel misled Trump” narrative is fictitious to portray the US and Israel as being at odds. Check out their thoughts, though, and see what you think!
The political fallout continues in the US, as Alexander Vindman, the twin scion of expat Ukrainians who is closely tied to Nuland, Pyatt and the cult that worked with Nazis in Ukraine to stage the coup there in late 2013, yeah, that Vita-Vindman, who also tried to push the “Russiagate” narrative — well he lost in a key Dem Congressional primary race against a social-dem who is opposed to the genocide. Judge Nap and Aaron Mate dig into it, and we see something shocking from the FLA Senate floor
And on the topic of the Dems - I want to return to the Ossoff footage we got to show yesterday, and make sure to note that, as one watches this, one recalls that he repeatedly has supported sending weapons to Ukraine, which has been a proxy war state for the US, so he has not been consistent on war.
Evidently, the death toll is now 7… “Israeli Forces Bomb Gaza City Seaport, Killing Six, Including One Child - News From Antiwar.com” LINK
The Cradle@TheCradleMedia
ICC condemns relentless US sanctions as flagrant assault on global judicial independence —— The International Criminal Court has strongly condemned the US administration's decision to slap targeted financial sanctions on ICC President Tomoko Akane and Senior Trial Lawyer
9:36 AM · Aug 19, 2026 · 4.58K Views
18 Replies · 125 Reposts · 191 Likes
Dave DeCamp, of AntiWar, has updates on both key matters.
Will Netanyahu hang on through his election? Will he try something nuclear against Iran before that election? What about Trump?
A Prologue
Steve Hanke@steve_hanke
The US ran a $431 BILLION deficit in July. A year ago, it was $291 BILLION. WAR AND FISCAL DISCIPLINE DON'T MIX.
11:50 PM · Aug 18, 2026 · 24.4K Views
1 Reply · 50 Reposts · 171 Likes
In one of the dumbest and most unethical moves of any Treasury Sec… Scott Bessent today announced the US Treasury would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for 10- to 30-year bonds (to a minimum of $4 billion each), effective September 9 through November 4. This targets the long end of the curve after 30-year yields hit multi-decade highs. The announcement immediately lifted bond prices (and cut yields, with the 30-year falling as much as ~10 basis points) by signaling greater future Treasury demand for its own long-dated debt. This means that the US will have to BORROW MORE, which will inspire the Fed to print more money to buy the new bonds, or see the US Treasury repeat this cycle in a Ponzi Scheme with itself. It will make the bubble-burst much, much worse.
Key news stories:
Bloomberg: Bessent’s Treasury Buyback Expansion Spurs Drop in 30-Year Bond Yields
Reuters: US Treasury Secretary Bessent doubles US long-bond buybacks
CNBC: Treasury doubles debt buybacks as Bessent moves to steady bond market
The fascists roar with their drunken corporate whores…
Cato Institute@CatoInstitute
Government equity stakes now in 31 private companies can inflate share prices, let the Trump administration dictate business terms, and make the U.S. economy less dynamic and productive over the long run, says Cato’s @scottlincicome on @CNBC. “And Congress has never said a
4:45 PM · Aug 19, 2026 · 5.8K Views
8 Replies · 27 Reposts · 64 Likes
Whoops! But, surely the US economy is GREAT? - ‘Running out of money’: Kraft, McDonald’s, Whirlpool CEOs all flag the same rising concern over US consumers — protect your wealth” LINK
AND
The Kobeissi Letter@KobeissiLetter
BREAKING: The Cass Freight Index fell -4.8% YoY in July, to 0.96, matching the lowest level since the 2020 pandemic. The index tracks freight shipment activity across North America and is a widely followed indicator of freight demand. This marks the 42nd consecutive monthly
8:27 PM · Aug 19, 2026 · 63.5K Views
37 Replies · 32 Reposts · 202 Likes
AND, as the USDA blocks foreign cattle that people might “smuggle in” without USDA oversight (using YOUR tax cash to stop the cattle or slow the transfer or make it more expensive), we see…
The Kobeissi Letter@KobeissiLetter
BREAKING: The average price of US ground beef jumped +9% YoY in July, to a record $7.10 per pound. Ground beef prices have surged +65% since the end of 2019. Meanwhile, steak prices surged +10% YoY last month, to a record $13.10 per pound, up +70% since December 2019. As a
7:11 PM · Aug 19, 2026 · 154K Views
99 Replies · 134 Reposts · 825 Likes
Kudlow is deceiving people here.
Larry Kudlow@larry_kudlow
The media won't tell you about the strong Trumpian economy. Booming manufacturing and business capex. Plus falling import prices and an estimated 4% GDP growth for 3Q. Maybe someday the media will report it, but for now, I feel compelled to do it for them.
foxbusiness.com
Larry Kudlow: This is the best ‘hard goods’ boom in decades | Fox Business Video
9:43 PM · Aug 18, 2026 · 55.1K Views
526 Replies · 2.38K Reposts · 6.67K Likes
The 4% GDP figure is the annualized quarterly growth rate (SAAR—seasonally adjusted annual rate) relative to the prior quarter, not a year-over-year comparison.
Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model produces a running estimate of real GDP growth for the current quarter on that same basis (the standard way BEA reports quarterly growth). As of August 18, 2026, it stood at 4.0%, after revising sharply lower from peaks above 6% earlier in the quarter. LINK
Longer-term and broader context undercuts the “strong Trumpian economy” framing. Widening the window to January 2025 (around the start of the current administration) shows more mixed or subdued performance than the selective recent snapshots suggest:
GDP growth has been uneven and moderate overall. Actual BEA figures include Q4 2025 at roughly 0.5%, Q1 2026 at 2.1%, and Q2 2026 at 1.5%. Year-over-year real GDP growth has recently been around 2.1%. The GDPNow estimate for Q3 has been volatile and trending down as more data arrives; professional consensus forecasts (Blue Chip) have generally been lower (in the low-to-mid 2% range). LINK
Manufacturing is not broadly “booming” when viewed over the full period. ISM Manufacturing PMI spent most of 2025 in contraction (below 50) before rebounding into expansion territory starting in January 2026 and reaching the mid-50s by mid-2026. Manufacturing employment remains lower than in January 2025—cumulative losses of roughly 60,000 jobs through mid-2026, even after some recent stabilization.Kudlow highlights a favorable short-term window and a nowcast that itself has been revising lower. Looking across the full period since early 2025 reveals periods of slowdown, manufacturing job losses, concentrated (rather than broad-based) investment strength, and import-price trends that are not uniformly declining.
“Trump and Canada have a deal* — RT World News” LINK
Atop the gold theft we mentioned yesterday…
MintPress News@MintPressNews
Venezuela Is Now Exporting Around 500,000 Barrels Of Oil Per Day To The US This accounts for roughly half its daily exports, at a time when Venezuela’s elected leader Nicolas Maduro is held hostage by the US Trump administration and an American proxy leadership has been
4:04 PM · Aug 19, 2026 · 2.49K Views
1 Reply · 51 Reposts · 85 Likes
His nightmare continues “DOJ asks court to reinstate criminal charges against Abrego Garcia” LINK
Liberia’s govt just agreed to take 1,200 kidnap victims from ICE, most, if not all, of them, do not come from Liberia, but, instead come from the Western Hemisphere. “African state joins Trump deportation drive — RT Africa” LINK
-And… “ICE responds to detainee’s claim of brain bleed after arrest” LINK
-Political theatre for some of these folks, b/c they long ago could have made this attempt. “DNC approves resolution urging Congress to abolish ICE in sweeping rebuke of Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown” LINK
-This is completely contrary to due process, and it’s not even a legal proceeding that should exist on a federal level, according to the US Con-stitution. Beyond that, the deeper ethical morass of forcing taxpayers to pay for the immigration police state remains the prime breach of Natural Rights. “Feds use ‘mega’ court hearings to speed through immigration cases” LINK
-AND “California sheriff blocks ICE from firing range, training facilities but keeps CBP access” LINK
-AND… “US ICE puts forward insurance plan to protect local officers making immigration arrests” LINK
-AND “ICE detains mom at green card interview as baby watches with US citizen dad” LINK
In the flow of news today, I came across two key items that have inspired me to pick up what we had to drop last night - that being Textual Tuesday. The rise of the Social Dems, as we have noted, is not some new or sudden change in US politics, because the US political system has been made up, on the whole, of collectivist fascists and collectivist socialists - to the detriment of your innate individual liberty and God-given rights. And while MAGA-ites have nothing to stand on when they criticize other collectivists for being collectivists, it is valuable to note not only the immorality of political collectivism (which means, by definition, all forms of the polis), but also the detrimental consequences of welfarism in its various forms. We have been seeing the military-welfarist state actions slaughtering hundreds of thousands in the Middle East, seen how that is weaving into the ICE-IMMIGRATION POLICE STATE and SURVEILLANCE STATE, and seen how easily the special interests can influence the politicians. We also have noted that many anti-war politicians still favor “welfare” programs on a domestic level, sometimes thinking that such programs make up for “exploitation” by corporations or big businesses. But corporations, themselves, are products of statism, and even corporations usually have to compete with each other. It is the tie to govt that becomes problematic…
So, let’s look at two items, and we will focus on these tonight for about a half-hour on Liberty Conspiracy Live. The first is a valuable refutation - on Constitutional grounds and on ethical, and even practical, grounds — of government redistributing wealth to others so those others can receive “services” etc. (note: even police protection is a service, and no one has a right to force payment for it out of his neighbor). Here is Michael Boldin, of the Tenth Amendment Center, with an absolutely outstanding video on real charity, government redistribution of wealth, and the US Constitution. I intend to play major portions of this tonight, and show off Micheal’s new book, once more, as well as refer to the great book, “The Tragedy of American Compassion” by Marvin Olasky (you can get it used, at ThriftBooks - Here.) This is an example of the great scholarship you get from the Tenth A Center!
AND… This is fascinating. So well put
CJ the palmer worm; wife,mother, researcher.@thepalmerworm
By the way - there are fabulous passages in CS Lewis’ ‘Screwtape Letters’ & ‘Screwtape Proposes A Toast’ which demonstrate this Screwtape-Wormwood epistemology of Immanence (and Lewis knew exactly why it was necessary to elucidate this and illustrate it from the inside-out). He
5:17 PM · Aug 19, 2026 · 234 Views
1 Reply · 6 Reposts · 12 Likes
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