We're at War, Most Americans Have NO Clue!
What this video covers
This Keeping It Real episode is a geopolitics-and-economics deep dive, released weeks before the 2026 midterm elections. Michaels is joined by Susan Kokinda and Barbara Boyd of Promethean Action, and the framing is that seemingly unrelated headlines — trade wars, the Iran conflict, AI regulation, bond markets, culture-war flashpoints — are all fronts in a single war on American sovereignty, with the midterms as the next decisive battle.
The conversation is organized as a tour of the guests’ thesis. Kokinda and Boyd argue that trade wars, proxy wars, and inflation hitting simultaneously is no accident, and that American sovereignty is what’s on the table. They present a long-running “American System vs. British System” economic framework — a 250-year economic war, in their telling — and apply it to current events: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s moves against IRGC-linked money and what they claim that trail means for the petrodollar; Canada’s break with Trump under Mark Carney and the EU’s tariff posture; Europe’s refusal to end the Russia-Ukraine war; and Anthropic’s lobbying for AI regulation, which the guests frame as a Trojan horse hiding a different agenda.
The back half turns to domestic and cultural fronts: the unwinding yen carry trade and flashing bond markets, the intellectual origins of today’s culture wars (Gramsci, the Tavistock Institute, in the guests’ account), and a discussion of the Lindsay Clancy case as a lens on whether culture wars are being orchestrated or amplified by hostile actors. The episode closes by tying it all back to the November elections.
Key points
- Kokinda and Boyd argue that trade wars, proxy wars, and inflation converging at once is deliberate, with American sovereignty as the prize.
- They present a “250-year economic war” between the American System and the British System of economics, which they say is entering its final round.
- On Iran, the guests discuss Bessent’s pursuit of IRGC-linked money and claim the trail could shake the petrodollar — and the dollar’s value for ordinary Americans.
- They argue Canada’s walkout on Trump and the EU’s tariff strategy under Ursula von der Leyen are aimed at damaging Trump ahead of the midterms.
- On Ukraine, the guests claim the war is being prolonged by European interests despite Ukraine losing and European voters turning against it.
- They frame Anthropic’s push for AI regulation as suspicious — asking why a leading AI company would beg Congress to regulate it — and suggest a hidden agenda behind the AI-safety push.
- The guests warn that the unwinding yen carry trade and red-flashing bond markets could trigger a wider financial crisis.
- On culture, they trace today’s culture wars through Gramsci and the Tavistock Institute, and debate whether figures like Lindsay Clancy show the culture war being orchestrated to weaken the West.