🚨 The Illusion of Diplomacy – June 12 2026

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00 a.m. ET.

Lead: Another Imaginary Peace Deal

Photo credit: The White House

Thursday morning, President Trump declared that “The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT“.

Hours later, Trump posted that he had discussions with the highest level of Iranian leadership, and that “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved.”

Later that day, Trump announced to reporters that “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran.”

That sounds promising, if it wasn’t for the fact that Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said that “no agreement has been reached.” And there are claims that the discussions being publicly described by Washington never even occurred.

Does this all sound familiar?

One day, we’re told victory is near. The next day, we’re told Iran is ready to surrender. Then reports surface that a deal is imminent. Then more bombs fall. Then the cycle starts all over again.

Does Trump not realize how ridiculous this all sounds? Or maybe he does, but he’s stuck in a never-ending cycle because there’s no way out until something changes on Israel’s end.

This creates two serious obstacles…

We have Israel on the one hand, which has no interest in signing up for anything that does not include the destruction of Iran. And on the other hand, we have Trump, who won’t sign up for anything that doesn’t allow him to declare victory.

Sooner or later, something has to give.

Meanwhile, the global economy suffers, inflation climbs through the roof, and the risk of famine grows.

Two-Dollar Democracy

Photo credit: Wall Street Journal

According to multiple Skid Row residents, votes for Karen Bass were going for as little as two dollars during the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election.

Allegations of vote-buying emerged in a series of TikTok interviews. In the videos, residents described being offered small sums of money to fill out ballots.

One woman, who said she was paid $2, stated, “They come out here all the time.” Another resident, Rene Johnson, said she received $5. Exploiting some of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable residents for votes certainly paints an ugly picture of our political system, doesn’t it?

The allegations are just the latest controversy surrounding Bass. She faces criticism over a city plagued by homelessness, crime, and deteriorating conditions, and continued backlash over her handling of the devastating Palisades fires. Even her own brother is suing the city she runs after losing his Malibu home in the fire.

You’d think a string of controversies would convince Bass to step aside. Instead, she just advanced from the June primary and is pushing ahead.

Will the Skid Row vote-buying scheme be seriously investigated? Probably not. Just like Rep. Thomas Massie’s blatant election fraud won’t be looked into either, or the fact that some voters were unable to select Senate candidate Mark Lynch on their ballots.

The oligarchs seem able to manipulate these elections any way they want, and the media follows suit, just like they did when they lied about Russia influencing our 2016 election.

At this point, many Americans no longer trust the electoral system and have just flat-out stopped voting altogether.

Every day, the headlines seem to bring a new crisis.

War. Inflation. Market swings. Political chaos.

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Redacted Featured Video

Did you miss our last live show? No problem, you can catch the replay here! And don’t miss this segment we did recently with Steve Abramowicz where we discuss why inflation is at its highest level in three years.

News by the Numbers

Photo credit: CBS News

86 47. Those are the numbers that are etched into the grass on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The term “86” is slang meaning to “throw out” or “get rid of”, and Trump is the 47th president.

146,000. That’s how many migrant children the Trump administration says it located after they entered the country during the Biden years and were released to sponsors, though nearly 300,000 others are still missing.

$119 billion. That’s how much was poured into nuclear weapons by the world’s nine nuclear-armed nations in a single year, including $69.2 billion from the United States, which outspent all other nuclear powers combined.

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