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Promethean Updates

Promethean Updates is the video podcast of Promethean Action: political and economic commentary on the fight to rebuild the American economy and end the era of financial empire.

Four shows a week. The Monday Brief and The Midweek Update are 15-minute reports on the week’s decisive events with Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda. The Thursday Q&A is a live two-hour broadcast hosted by Adam Sturman with Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda answering viewer questions. The Saturday Wrap-Up looks back at the week.

Regular topics: Treasury and Fed policy, tariffs and jobs, energy and manufacturing, Ukraine

Latest Episodes:

Saturday Wrap-Up: Deindustrialization was Intentional Apr 04, 2026

Show notes

One year after Liberation Day, the results are in, and they're exactly what President Trump promised. Susan Kokinda breaks down the blowout March jobs report (178,000 new jobs vs. 60,000 expected), the 55% drop in the trade deficit, and the hard manufacturing data showing American industry is expanding for the first time in decades, proving that Trump's break from the British free trade system is working. She then turns to the strategic front, where neocon architect Robert Kagan inadvertently confessed in The Atlantic that eighty years of American wars in the Middle East were never about our security, they were about enforcing the "liberal world order", and where Trump's questioning of NATO membership is cracking the imperial architecture wide open. From China's view of Trump as the "least hawkish person in Washington" to Putin's economic diplomacy with Egypt, a new world of sovereign nations making sovereign deals is emerging in real time. What the establishment calls "going rogue," Kokinda argues, is simply what independence looks like, and with midterms less than nine months away, the fight to secure it is just beginning.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
02:31 Liberation Day: One Year Later
06:42 The Empire Confession, What "Going Rogue" Really Means
09:35 Sovereign Nations, Sovereign Deals

Thursday Q&A: Hormuz Closed: Trump Ends Sea Lane Protection Apr 02, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday April 2nd at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This morning, Trump posted a message to every nation complaining about fuel prices:

"Go get your own oil."

He singled out the United Kingdom, which refused to participate in the operation against Iran, and told them to "build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT."

"You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself. The USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us."

That's not bluster. That's the new doctrine.

Midweek Update: It's Ending: Trump's Iran Strategy Revealed Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues the Iran war is being compressed toward a defined endpoint determined by President Trump and key Arab allies in the Abraham Accords, who want Iran no longer to pose a military threat after attacks on Gulf civilian infrastructure. She says expectations of U.S. ground troops are misguided and that a ceasefire is more likely, citing a Pakistan-China backchannel effort tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s stated willingness to end the conflict under conditions, and Trump’s public consideration of a ceasefire. Boyd frames the conflict as an economic operation with military enforcement aimed at breaking a transatlantic energy-control system: maximum-pressure financial measures weakened Iran before fighting began, while U.S. agencies expanded domestic energy output and Treasury managed oil-supply measures to prevent market collapse. She contrasts Europe and U.S. “green mandate” states facing high fuel costs with “drill” states she says are buffered.

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00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:25 The War Ends When Trump and His Allies Say It Ends
05:00 This War Was Planned, and So Was the Energy Outcome
08:27 Drill, Baby, Drill, or Pay the Price

Monday Brief: RFK Jr. Says Trump is Finishing What JFK Started Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

Susan Kokinda argues that RFK Jr.’s CPAC remarks, praising Trump’s use of power and saying JFK and RFK would back Trump on Iran, Ukraine, and rebuilding the middle class, cut through media narratives and signal a break from post. WWII imperial management. She says Britain and allied institutions are being sidelined, citing Chatham House’s warnings about UK limits and a “Not So Special Relationship” under Trump 2.0, while Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt convene in Islamabad to open U.S.-Iran dialogue without the UK, EU, or NATO. Trump names Vice President JD Vance lead negotiator, presented as an anti, forever war interlocutor who has challenged Netanyahu’s regime-change expectations. Kokinda links this foreign-policy shift to a broader “American System” agenda: Peter Navarro’s protectionist trade revolution and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s rejection of Bank of England, style Fed models, framing it as American System versus British System.

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00:00 Monday Brief Intro
02:33 NATO Locked Out: Four Sovereign Nations Take Over Iran Talks
04:51 Vance Breaks the Neocon Model: The First American Negotiator in 30 Years
07:28 Navarro names Hamilton, Bessent DESTROYS the Financial Times & Bank of England

Saturday Wrap-Up: Verdict: Trump Tells NATO 'Never Forget' Mar 28, 2026

Show notes

In this Saturday Wrap, Barbara Boyd argues that President Trump’s cabinet remarks and Saudi Investment Forum comments mark a “verdict” on NATO and the broader transatlantic system that has dominated the global economy for 40 years. She contends the Iran War is fundamentally a financial story: after Europe offered only a post-hostilities role policing the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. moved to replace Lloyd’s of London by using the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, maritime reinsurance, and Central Command to secure Gulf shipping. Boyd says this shift amounts to U.S. control over a critical energy chokepoint, captured in Trump’s “Strait of Trump” line, reshaping how oil flows to Asia. She previews Trump’s May 14, 15 Beijing trip, framing U.S.-China relations around shared industrial traditions linked to Sun Yat-sen and rejecting a “cold war” narrative.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:44 The G7, A Funeral for the Old Order
05:36 The New World, America Takes Control of Energy
09:19 The China Horizon, Sun Yat-sen and the American System

Thursday Q&A: Trump Didn't Blink: The New Alliance Britain Can't Stop Mar 26, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday March 26th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

Last week, we told you NATO was finished. We told you Trump was breaking the British imperial alliance structure on purpose. We told you the Strait of Hormuz crisis wasn't about oil prices, it was about who controls the global economy.
And in the last 72 hours, every single one of those predictions accelerated.

Midweek Update: It's Over: Trump and Iran Just Shut Out the UK Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

Susan Kokinda argues President Trump has opened a new diplomatic space to de-escalate the Iran conflict by working through a regional roster. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Gulf States, and back channels into Iran, while the U.K., EU, and NATO are absent and increasingly irrelevant. Citing reporting that ministers met in Riyadh and that Egypt, Turkey, and Oman carried messages, she says this “Board of Peace” architecture is isolating Iran and weakening its proxies, pointing to Lebanon’s move against Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority’s condemnation of Iran, and Hamas considering disarmament. Kokinda links Europe’s exclusion to self-inflicted energy weakness from Green and anti-Russia policies, noting rushed LNG moves and a delayed Russian oil ban vote. She concludes Ukraine’s outlook darkens as Europe and Britain lack leverage, highlighting Zelenskyy’s scramble for support in London and Washington.

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
02:09 The New Table, And Who's Sitting At It
05:40 No Oil. No Gas. No Seat
08:23 The Proxy War Loses Its Sponsor

Saturday Wrap-Up: Trump Just Told Israel and NATO No! Mar 21, 2026

Show notes

*Get our FREE Newsletter at* https://www.PrometheanAction.com. President Trump publicly rejected Israel’s strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field and criticized NATO for refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, arguing both reflect a long-running “Great Game” strategy centered on energy choke points and instability. Susan Kokinda says these moves follow Trump’s December National Security Strategy, which prioritizes avoiding “forever wars,” preventing adversaries from dominating Middle East energy routes, and making choke-point leverage obsolete through American energy independence. She highlights administration comments that Israel “doesn’t hate the chaos” while the U.S. wants stability, and notes shifting U.S. political dynamics as figures in both parties question allies who won’t contribute. Kokinda points to new U.S.-Japan agreements, over $60B in U.S. natural gas investment, $40B for small modular nuclear reactors, and deep-sea critical minerals cooperation, as the model for a new, nation-to-nation strategic architecture.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
02:06 What Is Driving Trump's Break With Israel, NATO, and London
04:22 NATO's COWARDICE
08:43 The Japan Deal, What the New World Looks Like

Thursday Q&A: NATO Exposed: Hormuz Refusal Breaks the Alliance Mar 19, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday March 19th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

Trump's demand that NATO allies patrol the Strait of Hormuz just exposed the alliance for what it is, a paper tiger. Germany, the UK, Australia, and Japan all refused. The mask is off.

Then there's Joe Kent, his sudden resignation from the National Counterterrorism Center isn't what it looks like. We break down why this is a coordinated psyop designed to fracture the MAGA coalition from within.

Join us LIVE for analysis and your questions.

Midweek Update: NATO Dumped Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues President Trump has been testing NATO for months and is now seriously considering leaving the alliance after European allies refused to help defend shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a move she says confirmed his view that NATO plays “stupid games” while the U.S. pays the costs. She traces the turning point to the February 2025 Munich Security Conference, where Vice President JD Vance warned Europe is threatened from within and must provide for its own defense. Boyd links Trump’s Iran policy, renewed talks, a 60-day deadline, then Operation Midnight Hammer and subsequent European sanctions, to an economic strategy built on cheap, reliable energy and a desire to reduce U.S. military focus in the Middle East while expanding investment-led development. She also warns of competing online narratives after Charlie Kirk’s 2025 assassination that aim to fracture MAGA through religious warfare, targeting Vance and DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

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00:00 Midweek Update Intro
02:11 Vance Warned Them at Munich, Now Trump Is Walking Out
05:50 London's Oil Markets Need Iran's Chaos, Trump Is Cutting Them Off
08:50 The Empire's Psyop: Splitting MAGA Along Religious Lines

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