Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent appears on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the current status of the economy and ongoing geopolitical events. Within the interview [Video and Transcript Below] Secretary Bessent notes that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is coordinating closely with both British King Charles and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, needs to be very careful about the malicious lies he is speaking to U.S. audiences. WATCH:
[Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: Welcome back. Joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to be with you.
KRISTEN WELKER: It’s great to have you back. Let’s start on inflation, these new inflation numbers we got this week. Consumer prices rose in September at the fastest pace in five months, to 3.7%. Are the president’s policies driving up inflation?
SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, we have an energy shock. And if you look underneath the hood in the numbers, core inflation has been very flat before this month, and it’d been down for four months in a row. So core inflation is down. The food is below the Fed’s targets. The prescription drugs have had the biggest decrease in history. Rents are down. So this is an energy shock. We will get to the other side of the Iran conflict, and those prices will come down.
Again, there are multiple dynamics unfolding inside this story. However, as to the central component of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy complaining about hampered access to Starlink and/or Starshield, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sets the record straight.
Ukraine has never had access to the U.S. military version of Starshield; providing that level of guidance access would be akin to the United States being in direct conflict with Russia using a proprietary U.S. military system. This is not our circus and not our war; there is no need for U.S. military conflict with Russia.
Because Ukraine does not have that access, it is now revealed that Zelenskyy has been using Starlink, a commercially available satellite system – but that system is not permitted by SpaceX to be used for military efforts. This is almost certainly where the relationship between Elon Musk and former Ukraine Defense Minister Michael Fedorov comes into play. Fedorov is no longer in the Ukraine govt. WATCH:
Rubio notes that Zelenskyy’s claims against the White House are nonsense. The White House has not interfered or instructed the military about the use of Starshield because Ukraine has never had Starshield to use. If Ukraine has been violating the terms of service by weaponizing Starlink (they have) then the commercial provider can act independently to block or stop that access. [Full Transcript Below]
In the background of this storyline, we should always remember that about a month ago Russia finalized their own upgraded satellite system that covers Russia and eastern Europe. It is widely suspected the increased accuracy of Russian targeting inside Ukraine is specifically because of their own enhanced capabilities, which now highlights the vulnerability of Ukraine if they do not have weaponize their Starlink access and the new desperation therein.
Bottom line, Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to highlight his mastery of cutting through the nonsense and staying focused on the priorities of the administration with messaging that cuts through the media chafe. Rubio excels in this role far beyond prior expectations. Very impressive.
On the topic of his travel to the “stans”, watch carefully. This is connected to the overall Russia/Central Asia agenda.
The New York Times {SEE HERE} is leading a charge of multiple U.S. media outlets to rage-bait Americans on the issue of President Trump exempting Russia from a new sanctions regime.
Let me start with a positive. Despite the massive amount of years-long gaslighting, lying and narrative engineering by the overwhelming majority of American media and political punditry, the majority of Americans don’t want U.S. sanctions against Russia [37% vs 54%]. Why? Because most Americans have a keen sense of manipulation.
This is one of the reasons why I believe the current effort to create an impeachment narrative against President Trump, again using the Ukraine conflict as the source material, will fail. Yes, the majority of elected politicians support Ukraine and oppose Russia, but the majority of the American people don’t align with the politicians.
More than a week ago we noted the Trump decision to enter a diesel sales agreement with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin was very predictable. Even when President Trump signed HR5334 the Lindsey Graham Russian Sanctions bill, we noted how it was written to the benefit of President Trump by Lindsey Graham himself. {GO DEEP}
Indeed, with Europe purchasing Russian energy from Vladimir Putin, one of the great ironies within the latest Russian sanctions bill was the requirement and authorization to tariff Europe at a 500% rate for violating the sanctions bill. Yes, that is correct, inside this bill congress authorized President Trump to massively raise tariffs on Europe or anyone else who was purchasing Russian energy products.
As a consequence, if President Trump doesn’t take an action to pause or exempt Russia from these latest sanctions regime, then he will end up hitting almost all the NATO allies with 500% tariffs. However, the media don’t want to draw attention to that aspect as it doesn’t fit their narrative {NYT ARTICLE HERE}.
It did not come as a surprise to me to see President Trump sign an executive order to “waive the application of any sanctions provision” [Executive order here]. Lindsey Graham knew the bottom-line goal of President Trump was to stop the killing, stop the fighting between Ukraine and Russia, and Graham himself created the ability of waivers in the sanction regime specifically so that Trump would have maximum flexibility in providing economic carrots to Russia.
The waiver option is in HR5334 specifically so that President Trump can use it…. And so, he did, DUH! And Lindsey Graham knew he would. And the media are going bananas.
Perhaps this is the source of the problem. Elon Musk has repeatedly said that Starlink systems are not permitted to be used for military operations; the Starlink system is a commercial communication system that carries terms of service that do not permit use as a weapon.
The Starshield system (not Starlink) is the government military system created by Musk and is utilized for military purposes as controlled by the U.S. government. Starshield is not a commercial system and the authorization for use is through the government.
Zelenskyy is now claiming he uses Starlink for military attacks, a violation of the terms of service, but claims he only uses them inside Ukraine territory.
Zelenskyy– “We don’t use Starlink for our responses inside Russia. We use Starlink to intercept jet-powered “shaheds” that attack our civilians and kill families.
Starlink wasn’t turned off – its speed was reduced. And when the speed was reduced, we were unable to intercept a certain number of jet-powered “shaheds.” We couldn’t use a tool that helps protect people. That’s very painful and frustrating.
We also use Starlink for mid-range strikes against enemy military targets in our temporarily occupied territories. We couldn’t do that when the restrictions were in place. And third, what matters most is people. Our warriors, who spend weeks and months on the front line, receive food and water delivered by drones using Starlink.
Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is it being restored now? Yes.” {SOURCE}
President Trump gave an extensive interview to Newsmax on the topic of Iran and Ukraine, expanding on how difficult it is to deal with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. WATCH:
The AP is reporting that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has restarted drone attacks against Russian oil refineries despite the request by President Trump to halt targeting energy infrastructure. There are a lot of aspects within this dynamic.
♦ First, keep in mind that any attacks against Russian infrastructure should always be evaluated against the capability of Russia to effectively mitigate such attacks. Russia is an analog infrastructure in a digital world, and one of the benefits to their system is the rapid repair capability in the old-school systems.
This may seem like a small detail, however, as noted in the prior attacks against almost all Russian infrastructure, Russia continued energy operations and exports of diesel fuel despite Ukraine targeting. Russia is remarkably resilient and they build out their capabilities with redundancies no longer used in most of the western industrial systems.
Due to their analog systems Russia may be less efficient in maximizing productivity; but what they lose in industrial productivity becomes an actual asset when shifting between internal systems becomes a matter of physically opening and closing valves to shift from damaged to operational stations. Russia’s slow adaption of technological innovation factually becomes a strategic advantage in this type of kinetic war.
♦ Second, it is worth remembering that oil refining capacity has been curtailed by the “climate change advocates” who now assemble to support Zelenskyy. The nations now aligned against the interests of Russia are yet dependent on the dirty industrial carbon energy resources provided by Russia and other oil exporting countries.
Today at 2:30pm ET Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, head of the Justice Department’s fraud enforcement division, Attorney General Todd Blanche and other justice officials are scheduled to hold a press conference to announce significant charges as part of a national tax fraud enforcement surge. Livestream Links Below:
Well, well well… Interesting development. The conspiracy theorists were correct all along.
Four years after the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, one of the alleged perpetrators has to answer in court for the first time. The trial of Serhiy Kuznetsov began today in Hamburg, Germany.
During opening arguments, lawyers representing Kuznetsov informed the judge that he was acting on instructions given to him by the government of Ukraine when he led a team to detonate explosives on the Nord Stream pipeline.
GERMANY – According to the indictment, Serhiy K., together with other military personnel and on behalf of Ukrainian state agencies, is said to have developed the plan to destroy the natural gas pipelines running from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Lubmin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The aim was to prevent Russia from using revenues from the gas trade to finance the war of aggression.
Under the leadership of the accused, a commando consisting of several professional divers, a skipper and an explosives expert is said to have brought large quantities of high-performance military explosives into the waters off the Danish island of Bornholm on a sailing yacht chartered in Rostock. There, explosive devices equipped with time fuses were then attached to the gas pipelines running along the seabed.
When they were ignited on September 26, 2022, the two gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 were severely damaged. There were a total of four leaks on three of the four lines.
It is challenging to put the geopolitical perspective into an easily digestible format because the construct of western finance is the only reference point available for most Americans. We do not have solid references for what exists outside the western monetary constructs that have existed for generations. However, Barbara Boyd tries to expand our cognitive bubble to explore the potential ramifications of a Trump-Putin energy agreement.
I do not personally think President Trump engages these dynamics from a reference of London or the U.K. Instead, he simply seems to recognize the institutional financial constructs are no longer working to the benefit of American interests, and those constructs happen to be from the British Commonwealth financial system and the bank of financial settlements.
Promethean Action’s Barbara Boyd opens with President Trump’s Sunday announcement of an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and what led up to it: his remarks to the press that it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president, and Friday’s agreement for Russia to supply diesel to the United States and the world, with a Treasury license authorizing Russian diesel through April 2027.
She argues that Trump and Putin have exposed the game being played by the City of London: Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s refineries, which the Washington Post examined, keep fuel prices high ahead of the November 3 midterms, while the Financial Times reports the administration threatened to cut off weapons and intelligence if the attacks continued, and members of Congress move against the deal.
After President Zelensky’s interview on ABC’s This Week blaming high prices on the war in the Middle East, the episode turns to the energy wars: Russia’s ban on fuel exports, U.S. diesel above $6 a gallon, no major new U.S. refinery since 1977, and Europe’s emergency diesel stocks, held mainly by Germany and France, until Trump’s export threat brought a G7 release of 100 million barrels of oil and diesel.
Her presentation closes with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Operation Economic Outcast against Iran’s regime, the petrodollar system and London’s commodity markets since the 1971 collapse of Bretton Woods, President Putin’s case for long-term contracts between producing and consuming nations, the Conservative Treehouse’s argument that the world’s biggest economy is aligning against the financial schemes of London while retaining the dollar, and Secretary Bessent’s chart on prices under Biden and Trump.
If the British Commonwealth were a substantive stakeholder in the Ukraine outcome, one might expect the Commonwealth’s former Banker and current leading advocate would be immediately contacted by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Alex Stubb from Finland and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte from The Netherlands. Oh, and “the Netherlands imported 146.461 million tons of LNG from Russia“…. so far this year.
From CANADA: “The Prime Minister’s Office says the two leaders discussed the new agreement for Russia to supply millions of tonnes of diesel fuel to the United States, which Trump announced on Friday.
The PMO says Carney made clear this agreement runs against the efforts of Canada and its allies to end the war in Europe by providing Russia with new revenue. A readout from the office says the two leaders talked about increasing coordination with allies to help Ukraine with its air defence needs.” {citation}
