Jordanians DEMAND US LEAVE After Missile Strikes

Good morning, everybody.Happy Thursday.We have an amazing show for everybody today.What do we have, Crystal?

Indeed, we do.Heavy U .S.retaliation against Iran overnight as Iran claims that they destroyed three of our F -35 fighter jets.We will break down where we are in the war today.Fauci, a name we haven't discussed for a while, grilled yesterday, pleads the fifth amid new revelations.

We will see what there is to learn about that.The chip selloff continues with South Korea hit the hardest, really a big hit taken to that economy.A lot of retail investors are getting screwed.What does it say more broadly about the AI bet that our own economy has placed?Speaking of AI, we've learned more about that AI that was able to escape its environment hack into now we know multiple companies.This comes as employees in the industry, over a thousand of them, are sounding a dire warning and asking for more regulation.

Israel, meanwhile, is paying millions of dollars to Trump's former campaign chief to try to rig chatbot results.We have some extraordinary examples for you.And the reporter from Dropsite who revealed this whole scheme and program is going to join us as well.Yes, that's right.

Really excited for that one.And that was one of those.Everybody knew that they were doing a pro -Israel campaign on social media, but the AI chatbot one, especially in an age where so many people are outsourcing their thinking and answers, is an extraordinarily important story, especially with the receipts that he brings.Thank you to everybody who is subscribing to the show, breakingpoints .com, to support all of our work here.You got the coveted Crystal and Emily AMA.

A very, very, very.

That is a rarity, isn't it?It's a rarity, but in my opinion, the finest of wines.

Thank you, Zucker.

Mostly because then I don't have to do it, I'm joking.So breakingpoint .com could sign up.We also have our newsletter, which is going on right now, which you can of course subscribe to.If you're watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe to our YouTube channel.And please listen, if you're listening to the podcast, please share.

an episode with a friend.But let's go ahead and start with Iran.

Indeed.So let me bring you up to speed.You will recall yesterday when last we spoke, Trump had threatened to beat the effing shit out of Iran.We now have seen a very heavy retaliation from the US against what they described as a sneak attack from Iran on Jordan.I'm kind of confused by this term sneak attack.I don't think you typically broadcast the U .

S.Meanwhile, Iran, for their part, they are claiming that they were able to take down three F -35 fighter jets.One account saying, for the first time since the start of the war, Iran's IRGC announces the complete destruction of three F -35 fighter jets, significant damage to three others at an airbase in Jordan through multiple ballistic missiles targeting the deployment ramp and maintenance hangar this morning.This is per Iranian media Tasnim.Iran had not previously announced the destruction of an F -35.The IRGC adds several U .

S.officers and maintenance personnel were also killed.Again, we have no confirmation of any of this.This is all coming from the Iranian side.The strike comes in response to a U .S.

strike on two residential homes on Qeshm Island earlier this morning, killing a father, mother, and their two -year -old child and injuring two other children, again, according to Iranian media reports.So, we are back at full -scale war, more or less, with this time being the first time, Zahra, I want to get your reaction just to this piece, that Iranthe initiative.Typically, Iran's approach has been what they describe as an eye for an eye.The U .S.

hits them, they respond.And they've been sort of this horizontal escalation.That has been their tactic.This is the first time that they have been the first ones to act and set the pace of escalation here.Now, their view is that the U .S.

reinstitution of the blockade was itself an act of war for them to respond to.

Nevertheless, this seems to be a pretty extraordinary development as we watch this war unfold.reading one, A2, please, up on the screen.Iran and a drone hit a U .S.-owned gas storage tank at Egypt's Mediterranean port, according to their maritime security, and two gas tankers caught fire.This is about an explosion of the war and targeting oil assets, energy assets, both in terms of their allies in the Houthis, whenever it comes to the Red Sea, the Bab Al -Mandeb Strait, Now you have going after Egypt and basically a warning for the Mediterranean port saying, hey, you want to go through Suez, you want to go through this pipeline, the Sumed pipeline will also be able to strike you there.

And of course, we'll be able to strike tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which also happened last night.It wasn't just these strikes that happened on Jordan.So this strategy is basically to say, we have a complete dedication to choking off all Western attempts to circumvent and to bring oil out of the Middle East, period.that's Here's what he says.This is the escalation trap in a nutshell, which is both sides believe, and I've said this as well, neither side has bled enough.And Iran has bled plenty.

So many of their people have been killed, but the IRGC remains intact.The Ayatollah supposedly wants a nuclear weapon, even though his father didn't want a nuclear weapon.They have the ability to have deterrence.They are locked in a place where they have the United States in a diplomatic or in a strategic quagmire.For the United States, we are a grand and a great empire.So while yes, it is extremely dangerous, we're going to talk about our munitions stockpile.

It's not at zero.Only, only 18 of our American service members have been killed.So, you know.I'm not using that language.That's Trump's language.He's like, not that bad.

Look at Vietnam.Not that many Americans have died relatively in the conflict.Several hundred have been wounded, but they've mostly been able to cover that up.And gas is what?I mean, the national price right now, $4 .09 a gallon.It hurts, but it's not absolutely catastrophic.

Like it's not gas lines in the 1970s.So Iran is like, that's the only way that we can bring them to their knees.There's only real one way to get to that point.So we're months away, you know, potentially from their perspective.And Trump, you know, is completelytorn.

There's a report from NBC News yesterday that he was exasperated and he shouted at his advisors just two days ago in the Situation Room.He doesn't know what to do.He actually does want a deal, but he wants it on his terms.Iran, though, has concluded, we cannot make a deal with this man, both because of the way that the memorandum of understanding fell apart.But, you know, more importantly, this is fascinating.They're looking at Venezuela.

So even though that Venezuela is currently an American colony run by the US Secretary of State They turned it turns out and I did not even know this is that they track the relief of sanctions via FinCEN Which is the which is a department in the US Treasury responsible for removal of sanctions despite a lot of the rhetoric It hasn't happened or it took a very very long time.Iran had the memorandum of understanding They saw that their money never actually made it to their bank accounts.They're looking at Venezuela and saying look Venezuela and Del C And they're still not even getting all of their money.They're basically being pillaged by the United States.They also look at Saudi Arabia.So they have three data points.

They have the Memorandum of Understanding, they have Venezuela, and they have Saudi Arabia.Trump announces a nuclear deal and immediately reneges.And then they also look at some of the Democrats and the Republicans in Washington to their criticism, initially, of the memorandum, and they go, even if we were to do a deal with Trump, how do we have any guarantee, as Obama tried with the JCPOA, they would actually get through Congress?Now, obviously, his did, but what they're looking at now, they don't even trust enough of the Democrats currently.support a memorandum of understanding.So they don't trust Trump.

They don't trust our political system.You know, our system itself, both Democrats and Republicans, they don't trust the ability of any of their money actually getting to them.And this is all just over the Hormuz Strait.None of this has even to do with the nuclear issue, which is 10 times bigger and more contentious than everything.

Yeah, we can put a five abovesimply don't believe a deal is possible.The pessimism has gotten worse since the MOU was signed.And so he points to, as I was saying, the political horizon here, OK?Not only do you have a split in the Trump administration where even in the regime itself, they don't agree with each other, but then when an MOU was signed, we have Democrats out there taking pot shots saying, oh, my God, how can you cave to the, what a gift to the mullahs, et cetera, et cetera.They're looking at Venezuela.

You control Venezuela.You got everything you wanted here.You kidnapped their leader and you still can't make good on the things you're supposed to do with regard to Venezuela.Then they look at their own experience with the MOU, where there was supposed to be sanctions relief, and that did not come through, even in that short period of time.So on every level, they're looking at this and saying, how can we expect, like, even if Trump has the best of intentions here, which who would like, who would really believe that?But even if you bought that, they say he is unable to actually follow through, through some, you know, his own personality defects.

He's so erratic.He can't focus to follow through on anything.His own administration is at war with itself.They're in a political, you know, disaster landscape.Democrats are taking political potshots that make this even more impossible.And then just on the mechanics of it, with the MOU, with Saudi Arabia, with Venezuela, they literally seem to be unable to follow through.

And so what does that mean?That means that you are not going to negotiate.at least not in the short term.What that means is you have to exact so much pain that it forces an outcome.That is what they're trying to accomplish right now.And so when you see them taking the initiative and being the first ones to strike in this instance, it's not necessarily because the hardliners won the argument, although in a lot of ways, I think the hardliners did win the argument.

It's because the Iranians recognize that they have to push this thing forward.They have to tighten the screws on an economic level, on a military level, on a political level, if they're going to get to a place where there can be some sort of a resolution, because To your point, Sagar, yeah, Trump might like a deal, but he wants a deal that's a fantasy.He wants a deal that didn't exist when they were negotiating the MOU, and sure as hell doesn't exist now.So until you puncture that Trumpian fantasy, you're going to continue to be in this cycle of escalation.So that's where we are right now.Let me put one more piece up on the screen here.

Well, actually, two more pieces.Put A3 up on the screen.This is just the oil prices.You know, as we're back to war now, they continue to climb.I think we're at roughly $90.It says a benchmark index for worldwide crude prices climbed nearly 8 % on Wednesday, crossing above $90 a barrel.

It's like 87 right now.

This morning, it is down a bit.I don't know why, but there you go.But I would certainly expect the trajectory on oil in general to be going up between everything that's happening in the Middle East plus Ukrainian attacks on Russia not helping the situation.So there is that.And then this is pretty interesting, put A4 up on the screen here about Jordan, Jordanians rare challenge to their leaders, tell the US to leave.So for the first time, you really have an uproar at kind of an elite level within Jordan saying, hey, you know, this whole

being besties with the U .S.S.and hosting their forces here, which is not even something the Jordanian government really acknowledged until now, when it's undeniable, that's not working out so well for us.The article reads, and installations in Jordan, including early Wednesday, Iranian officials said.The attacks have repeatedly set off sirens across the kingdom and pulled the country further into a war it wanted no part of.But most Jordanians have remained silent.

People who signed the letter said they were driven by a sense of national responsibility and concern that the troop presence endangered Jordanian sovereignty.We maintain that their presence exposes Jordan to security, political and economic risks that serve no national interest and increase the likelihood of our country being dragged into a regional conflict to which it is not a party.This is the polar opposite of the logic that has held throughout the region for years and years and years.And it is the same reversal of logic that is occurring across the region where they're going, hey, I thought it would protect us.to have these U .S.

forces here.I thought that would keep us safer.Instead, this is putting us and our sovereignty at risk, and for a war that most of our population, and much of the Jordanian population, by the way, is Palestinian, that our population does not agree with.So we don't want to do this anymore.Big picture, this is one more blow to the entire long -term U .S.

military strategy of putting these bases all around the world, and then it turns out, We can't protect the bases, and the bases end up being magnets for these sorts of attack that piss off the allies we're supposed to be protecting.

Couldn't any American sympathize?We're like, look, our alliance, I'm going to pick on you.country, Switzerland.I don't know if we have an alliance.It's technically a neutral country, but everyone's like, okay, whatever, you know?Nobody thinks about it.

Then Switzerland, let's say hypothetically, were to get into a war.Americans either get killed or missiles start, we're like, whoa, whoa, we're like, what's going on here?Exactly.Also, just to underline how extraordinary this is, the government of Jordan has prosecuted people for criticizing not just the Jordanian monarchy, but literally its own allies.So this was an extraordinary move.But we've actually talked a lot about, Jordan is a very unstable country.

You got a king and a queen, you got a parliament, you kind of have like this weird dictatorship over the country, 80 % of the population's not even Jordanian, they're all Palestinian.Obviously, they're pissed off already because of what Israel has done to Palestine.They have a significant amount of a refugee population.So, already, it's a very unstable system in and of itself.

Big haves and have nots between Amman, which is basically a western city, and the rural areas, which are, you know, much different life being lived there.

Totally.It's a gorgeous country.I highly recommend to visit.It is a great country.If you ever have the time to do so.But even as an American barely spending any time there, I'm like, this is a very strange system that is going on.

So then you add on top of this is the Israel conflict, and now direct attacks on Jordanian soil, which as you said, they didn't even know about in many of these cases, like everyone knew their American military there.But to this extent, absolutely not.They have ballistic missiles that are coming in.So this is a very dangerous and precarious situation for the United States.And there will be two things that happen.The allies, the Gulf allies, or any of these Arab allies will have to make one choice.

They will either have to do a bear hug and say, OK, now we have to go all in.This is kind of the UAE and or Saudi strategy, or you're going to go in the Jordanian direction, possibly another direction where they go, OK, we're going to push you out in the long term and you're going to significantly hurt, you know, that any type of alliance.But the bedrock of American policy has beenjust been always to make a deal with the regimes, the monarchies, and pay them off.The population, they use the money and they kind of dole it out in a patronage kind of system to keep everybody happy.This has upended that dramatically, which again is an Iranian grand strategic victory if we were to look at now perceived control over the Strait of Hormuz, as well as fracturing the alliances of the Gulf countries, all while domestically hurting the president of the United States, bleeding the U .

S.economy, and perhaps like most importantly, actually revealing the, you know, basically tearing, showing the entire world what the U .S.military is actually capable of.To have this happen is the greatest blow to U .S.

prestige and perceived power, which ultimately is power in and of itself, in my entire life, more than Iraq.Yeah.More than Afghanistan.I agree.To have a declaration that we will overthrow your regime and not, and then to have the strait closed despite the fact that it was open and shown zero ability.I mean, America, CENTCOM is bragging.

They're like, we've put 500 million barrels out of this strait of Hormuz.Sounds like a lot, but they did the math.That's only 5 million barrels per day on average.There were 20 million, 25 million moving before the strait.So it's like, wow, the full might of the empire, hundreds of billions of dollars, and that's all you could get?No, I would not have thought that.

And I'm a huge pessimist on the military.

We're much weaker than even I thought.Yeah, no, absolutely.Like we showed our ass to the whole world.There's just no doubt about it.The whole strategy is flawed.We're about to talk about, you know, the munitions stockpile and interceptor inventories.

And that is a crucial immediate term problem.But I think the bigger problem is just in the entire system and the entire strategy.Because and I saw policy tensor talking about this.Like, let's say that the cupboards were full to you.some Trumpian terminology here that we hadn't given a bunch of stuff to Ukraine, that wehad everything that we need.

Do you really think that that was going to be sufficient versus China?When you just think about, they have something like 95 % of the entire drone industry is in China.How does their industrial base compare to ours at this point?You guys tell me, which side has more industrial capacity to spin up whatever they want?And, you know, Iran, They are a middle power.They are certainly rising in power and prestige, but we can't even compete against them.

They've been much smarter, much more strategic and had a military that was much more prepared, better prepared for waging modern warfare.You know, this whole approach that we have is just completely hollow.And so, yeah, that has been thoroughly revealed in this war in a way that it really wasn't.in the Iraq war or in the Afghanistan war, which were also obviously embarrassing and humiliating for us in their own ways.