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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:

Monday Brief: Carney’s War Isn’t About Trade and Bessent Knows It Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

After Prime Minister Mark Carney abruptly pulled Canada out of U.S. trade talks and framed the dispute as a “war,” this episode argues the rupture isn’t really about tariffs but about political and financial strategy aimed at the U.S. midterm elections. Citing U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s account of negotiations and Canada’s unique retaliation, the script claims Carney is pursuing “geo-industrialization” and a “donut strategy” to go around the White House and influence American public opinion, aided by U.S.-connected advisers and outreach to mostly Democrats. It also highlights comments from Iran’s foreign minister about U.S. debt and links the broader conflict to competing economic systems. The episode concludes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is fighting a parallel battle to manage risks from the yen carry trade using tools like FIMA to prevent destabilizing Treasury selloffs.

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
01:43 It’s Not About Trade, the War Canada Can’t Win
06:23 Carney and the “United States Stakeholder Strategy”
10:21 Bessent's Real Target: The System Itself

Saturday Wrap-Up: Bessent's Secret Plan Crushes Wall Street and London Aug 22, 2026

Show notes

As headlines warn of a $40 trillion U.S. debt and a “bond market explosion,” Barbara Boyd argues a manufactured financial panic is being used to attack President Trump ahead of the midterms. She spotlights Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s “discreet” plan, echoed by Vice President JD Vance, to get economic growth to outpace debt by directing credit into productive investment rather than speculation or consumer handouts. Boyd frames the approach as an updated Alexander Hamilton model: sovereign credit for infrastructure, technology, and industry to expand real output and contain inflation, while curbing Wall Street and Fed-driven speculation. She cites Bessent’s focus on domestic production and supply chains and highlights executive-order priorities including advanced manufacturing, nuclear and fusion power, a Moon colony by 2028, and breakthrough science. The episode also features Vance’s critique of free-trade policies, “deaths of despair,” and a $1B Cleveland-Cliffs investment in Middletown, Ohio.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
02:01 The Secret Plan Nobody’s Hiding
06:01 The Trump/Bessent Economic Program is Hamilton on Steroids
08:19 Why Wall Street and London Will Never Figure it Out

Thursday Q&A: Trump's New Reality: The Iran Deal, The Strait of Hormuz Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday August 20th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This week, the Middle East is coming together, and the media is lying about all of it. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, and President Trump cheered it: "A BIG, BOLD, AND IMPORTANT FIRST STEP. WOW!" For fifty years, the Kissinger doctrine kept the region divided, dependent, and at war. Now sovereign nations are underwriting their own security, and Washington is applauding. Susan Kokinda connects it to Trump's other move: ordering the Pentagon to wind down the Korea war games, hours before 18,000 troops were set to drill.

Then, Gaza, Iran, and the Oman question. The 60-day deadline expired Sunday and the media declared failure, but Kushner is pressing Netanyahu on the peace plan, Hamas disarmament is on the table, and the administration has a direct backchannel to Tehran. Barbara Boyd takes on Trump's bluntest threat of the week: why Oman? What is London's actual stronghold in the Strait of Hormuz game, and why is the threat aimed at the empire, not the peace?

And the psywar at home. Sailors "breaking" on the USS Lincoln. A vice president "unfit", for negotiating peace. Socialists "marching" through Tuesday's primaries. Three stories, one author, and the carrier story is already blowing back on its creators.

Plus: Tuesday's election results, the "Never Vance" operation, and your questions. Bring what's on your mind. Barbara and Susan take them live.

Midweek Update: The Outlaw Ledger: Canada Is Not a Partner Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

President Trump announced a three-day pause on planned 50% tariffs against Canada, citing a pending deal and suggesting Keystone XL could be revived. Susan Kokinda argues the dispute is larger than USMCA negotiations, portraying Canada as an “outlaw” that enables transshipment “smuggling,” fails to enforce forced-labor bans, and facilitates “snow-washing” through weak corporate transparency and money laundering documented in British Columbia’s Cullen Commission. She contrasts U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s pro-development case for oil and gas as civilizational progress with Canadian Minister Mélanie Joly’s Chatham House speech promoting “geo-industrialization” and a Mark Carney-aligned “middle powers” strategy against U.S. and China “hegemons.” Kokinda highlights a House of Commons petition led by Green Party leader Elizabeth May to declare U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra persona non grata, and notes Joly’s outreach to U.S. lawmakers and cities during the trade fight.

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:40 The Outlaw Ledger
05:11 Two Cabinet Officers, Two Systems
09:16 The Petition and the Outpost

Monday Brief: Blown Up: London's Iran War PsyOp Just Backfired On Them Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues the BBC/New York Times story about US sailors jumping off the USS Lincoln in the Persian Gulf is a psychological warfare operation aimed at undermining Donald Trump and will backfire by attacking Americans’ belief in troop resilience. Citing comments from Afghanistan veteran Joey Jones and Navy Secretary Hung Cao, she criticizes media and Democrats for portraying service members as victims and notes Iran’s exploitation of the narrative. Boyd frames the Iran conflict as focused on keeping oil and gas prices stable and preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon, while contending Iran has long used threats to the Strait of Hormuz to inflate an “oil and gas premium” tied to the petrodollar system and London finance. She links modern propaganda to Bertrand Russell, the Tavistock Institute, RAND “swarming,” and NATO cognitive warfare, and calls for countering the “color revolution” apparatus ahead of the midterms.

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
02:23 This War is about Breaking the Globalist Hold on our Economy
06:08 The Tavistock Institute and Today’s Trump Derangement
12:00 Why the USS Lincoln Story Blows Back on Them

Saturday Wrap-Up: Kissinger Exposed: How Trump Dismantled 50 Years Aug 15, 2026

Show notes

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. is escalating economic isolation measures against Iran and forecasts the Strait of Hormuz will become “irrelevant” within two years, while Energy Secretary Chris Wright argues shipping continues under escorts and rerouting, citing 8, 9 million barrels/day still moving through the strait plus 6 million diverted via expanding pipelines. The episode frames this as part of a broader strategy since March 2025 targeting Iran’s financial networks while expanding alternative energy supplies, including increased U.S. production, changes in Venezuela, UAE production outside old OPEC quotas, and Iraq pipeline deals to bypass Hormuz, alongside a nuclear power “renaissance.” It highlights remarks at Chatham House by Lebanese adviser Jean Aziz blaming Henry Kissinger’s 1976 actions for decades of conflict and IRGC entanglement, and Qatar’s Majed Al-Ansari describing a regional Gaza “20-point plan” leading to a Washington-based Board of Peace meeting on Feb. 19, 2026.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:53 The Chokepoint Being Superseded, Not Broken
06:02 The Indictment Nobody Was Supposed to Hear
08:44 The Replacement

Thursday Q&A: Trump's Coalition Builds While the Left Implodes Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday August 13th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This week, Susan Kokinda reports from the ground in Michigan, where a political revolution is underway. Last week it was the primary results; this week it's what the results have set in motion: the organizing, the realignment, and the fight for the state the empire's media can't narrate away. What it looks like when the flyover states stop taking orders.

Then, Tuesday's returns from Wisconsin and Minnesota. Trump-backed Tom Tiffany takes the Wisconsin governor's nomination decisively, while Minnesota's Democrats lurch further left, dumping a sitting congresswoman for a progressive who campaigned against immigration enforcement. Mike Lindell falls short, Klobuchar steps down-ballot, and the pattern sharpens: Trump's coalition is building while the Democrat Party is captured by its radicals. Barbara and Susan lay out what it means for the midterm map, eleven weeks out.

And Iran boils, the blockade, the back channels, the leadership crisis in Tehran. It's a fast-moving story, so wherever it stands Thursday morning, the hosts will sort the signal from the noise, live.

Plus: your questions. Bring what's on your mind. Barbara and Susan take them live.

00:00 Thursday Q&A Intro
00:55 Barbara's Open: "There's Been a Major Arrest"
07:50 Susan: Detroit's Verdict
13:20 The Mary Waters Clip
19:10 Trump's Oklahoma Tell
22:55 Drew: "Is This Connected to the LaRouche Movement?"
31:25 Musa: Perot, Buchanan, Nader, Why Trump?
36:20 Daniel: Bohemian Grove
39:00 Bob & Eddie: Can Democrats Stop a Socialist Capture?
50:35 Dora: Working Families Party & SEIU
1:00:45 Ted's Big Question: Organic or Orchestrated?
1:10:20 Barbara: Tucker, MTG, Massie, Not Organic
1:16:25 Craig: A New McCarthy Hearing?
1:20:00 Mercenary: When History Feels Like a Lie
1:31:55 The White House App
1:33:35 Gregory: "How Can We Still Trust the President?"
1:47:00 Winkie: Susan's Journey, RFK to Trump
1:54:05 Mrs. Res: Wisconsin's Polls and "Woke Two"
1:58:40 KP Powell: Patrick Byrne
2:00:20 Josh: Turkey and the Realignment
2:02:00 Closing: The Aspen Interns in Chat

Midweek Update: Is Religious War London’s Last Shot at Trump? Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues that British intelligence and allied Democrats are stoking U.S. religious conflict around Gaza, Iran, and Islam to target Donald Trump and the midterms, citing media narratives, claims about Israel’s influence, and a Texas proposal to ban hijabs and halal food. She links New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and Barack Obama to a London. Soros. Obama network, highlighting their biographies, Rhodes/Columbia and NYPIRG connections, and Democratic Socialists’ attempts to delete or soften past “woke” positions tied to 2020 unrest. Boyd claims Britain has long used the Muslim Brotherhood and engineered Middle East sectarianism since Sykes-Picot, and similarly “invented” communism as a tool against industrial rivals. She says Trump is countering this with limited Iran action, economic pressure, Gulf “Board of Peace” efforts, and a renewed focus on rebuilding a productive, nuclear-powered economy.

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:22 The London Lineage of Mamdani, Abdul El-Sayed and Barack Hussein Obama
08:20 The “London, Soros, Obama” Apparatus Targets Trump
12:16 What President Trump Is Doing to Confront This

Monday Brief: Bessent vs the Fake Rebel Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Susan Kokinda critiques Michigan Democratic Senate primary winner Abdul El-Sayed, arguing that while he calls Trump a symptom and “the system” the disease, El-Sayed actually protects the same oligarchic system he denounces. From reporting outside a Michigan polling place, she recounts El-Sayed’s slogans (“Money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all”) and contrasts them with Republican claims that the “Big Beautiful Bill” and pro-industry policies put money in workers’ pockets through tax relief and jobs. She traces middle-class decline in Detroit to the end of Bretton Woods and NAFTA, cites Scott Bessent’s “compensate the loser” strategy, and argues oligarchy is unelected policy control. She disputes El-Sayed’s AIPAC framing by citing larger funding streams from foundations and NGOs, then ties El-Sayed’s Rhodes Scholar background to Cecil Rhodes, framing the conflict as “Rhodes versus Lincoln” and promoting Promethean Action.

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
01:45 Money In Your Pocket
06:04 The Enemy's Real Strategy
08:39 The "Money Out of Politics" Fraud, And What That Money Bought

Saturday Wrap-Up: London's Hidden Hand Behind Zohran Mamdani Aug 08, 2026

Show notes

This episode argues that Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Democratic primary win, driven by young voters, reflects anger from college graduates burdened by debt and lacking useful credentials, a trend Vice President JD Vance links to decades of bipartisan “globalist capitalism” that outsourced industry and weakened the middle class. Barbara Boyd contrasts British imperial economics and Marx’s attacks on Henry Carey’s “Harmony of Interest” with President Trump’s American System approach, spotlighting domestic industrial growth, mining deals, and Jacob DeWitte’s rapid Texas nuclear reactor build enabled by deregulation. The program then claims today’s DSA insurgency is fueled by foreign-linked money, citing AppLovin-connected donors backing Zohran Mamdani and El-Sayed via super PACs, alleged China- and Shanghai-based funding networks, Middle East advocacy funding, and ties to Muslim Brotherhood organizations, and urges support for Promethean Action ahead of the midterms.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:56 Communists and Globalists Hate Both the Working and Middle Classes
06:43 They Don't Just Hate God, They Hate Unique Individuals
11:25 It Isn't Student or Even New York, Michigan, or American Money

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