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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: Trump's Election Bombshell is Only Half the Story Jul 18, 2026

Show notes

Susan Kokinda argues President Trump’s Thursday night address aimed to expose a cover-up of election infrastructure vulnerabilities by declassifying intelligence on foreign interference and related risks, while highlighting claims that elements within the FBI/CIA and DHS under the Biden administration kept the information from the President, Congress, and the public. She says the story was buried in two ways: dismissed by people like Sen. Mark Warner as old conspiracies and ignored by ABC, NBC, and CNN who refused to air the speech. As a case study, she recounts Muskegon, Michigan where authorities seized fraudulent voter registrations, gift cards, and weapons. She connects this to remarks by Secretary Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on historic left-wing political terrorism, citing assassinations as the other tool the empire will use when vote fraud fails.

01:43 The Election Cover-Up Exposed
06:48 Michigan Case Study Proves The Point
09:10 Rubio & Bessent Bombshells

Thursday Q&A: Iran Blockaded Again as Trump Goes Primetime on 2020 Jul 16, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday July 16th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This week, the truce is dead. After three straight nights of U.S. strikes, the naval blockade of Iran's ports went back into force at 4pm Tuesday, every vessel, every port, any flag. The first blockade redirected more than 140 ships and disabled nine. Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda on what the resumption means, who needs this war to spiral, and who doesn't.

Then, Thursday night at 9pm Eastern, hours after our show. President Trump goes primetime, flanked by Ratcliffe, Patel, Pulte and Mullin, with newly declassified intelligence he says reveals a foreign plot to interfere in the 2020 election. Consider this show your pre-game briefing: what to listen for at 9pm, and how it connects to the Florida grand jury now pulling the Ukraine-2016 thread of the decade-long conspiracy against Trump.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the deep state fights the confirmations: Jay Clayton grilled at Senate Intelligence over the NYT leak subpoenas, and Todd Blanche in the hot seat for Attorney General. And June inflation just fell to 3.5%, the biggest price dip in six years. Susan keeps up the drumbeat: Trump's economic revolution, the American System against Friedmanite monetarism, is the ultimate antidote to the deep state's ops.

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

Midweek Update: Trump Deploys Full Military Force to Secure Peace Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

In this Wednesday brief, Barbara Boyd contrasts the Iraq regime-change war with Trump’s approach to Iran and the ongoing Ukraine conflict. She highlights two Truth Social posts: Trump replacing a “20% reimbursement fee” with Gulf trade and investment deals, and a doctored image of Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” at Trump’s desk showing North America and Greenland under a U.S. flag. Boyd argues Iraq was an imperial, British-influenced sectarian oil war tied to Bernard Lewis and neocon plans, while Trump’s Iran goal is narrowly to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon, striking military and nuclear infrastructure with minimal civilian casualties and keeping Iran’s economy intact. She compares this to Douglas MacArthur’s isolation strategy against Japan. Boyd then portrays Ukraine as a globalist project begun in 2014, cites Mark Carney’s “middle powers” framing, and spotlights Under Secretary Eldridge Colby’s warning that no alternative can match U.S. defense industry or tech, linking it to Greenland/Canada and “Golden Dome” defense.

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:48 Iran vs. Iraq, they attacked the wrong country
05:16 Trump Channels MacArthur
08:40 Ukraine is Globalism's Last War

Monday Brief: Behind the Air Force One Leak Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

After the FBI asked the press not to publish, The New York Times leaked classified details about Air Force One’s self-defense capabilities as tensions with Iran and threats against the President intensified. The Department of Justice then subpoenaed the article’s four authors to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on July 15, with subpoenas issued by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, whom President Trump has nominated as Director of National Intelligence. The episode argues the deeper issue is why such leaks occur, framing a historical pattern tied to “impactful” presidents like Lincoln and McKinley and claiming Trump is reviving the Hamiltonian “American System.” It contrasts this with free-market orthodoxy, critiques free trade’s damage to U.S. manufacturing and defense production, and highlights the Pentagon’s $10 million “Build Freedom” investment with Mike Rowe to rebuild skilled trades.

🇺🇸 America 250 Merch drop, featuring Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton: https://shop.prometheanaction.com/collections/america-250-founding-fathers-collection-17762026

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
01:12 THE PHYSICAL WAR: “They Go After the Big Names”
04:10 THE INTELLECTUAL WAR: The American System Returns
08:04 THE INDUSTRIAL WAR: "The Math Ain't Math"

Saturday Wrap-Up: The Uproar about War Isn't About Iran Jul 11, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues Trump is pursuing peace talks with Iran while warning the ceasefire is over and the U.S. will respond with crushing force if Iran interferes in the Strait of Hormuz. She says media claims that Trump is a warmonger are false, citing Trump’s regional “Board of Peace,” Iran’s long-term proxy war through Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iran’s uranium enrichment and nuclear ambitions. The script describes U.S. strikes. Operation Midnight Hammer (2025) and Operation Epic Fury (Feb. 2026), and claims these actions weakened Iran, shifted Gulf states against Tehran, enabled changes in Gaza and Lebanon, and collapsed Iran’s economy, leaving Hormuz harassment as its main lever. Boyd frames the conflict as part of a broader struggle against a London-centered “petrodollar” energy order and Net Zero policies, highlighting Trump’s energy expansion, economic metrics, and new nuclear and fusion initiatives as the future economic strategy.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:38 The Real Situation in the Middle East
05:54 Energy Is the Real Dictator of the World
10:55 The Meaning of Trump's Economic Revolution Is Sinking In

Thursday Q&A: Trump and Erdogan Take NATO, Europe Gets Left Behind Jul 09, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday July 9th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

This week, Europe said the quiet part in print. The Wall Street Journal just published the inside story of a five-hour emergency session at European Council headquarters in Brussels, participants called it "therapy night", where Europe's leaders wrestled with a question they'd never dared ask out loud: is America now a threat? Mark Carney's message to the room: "The old America isn't coming back." Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda read it for what it is: not an alliance in crisis, but the old order, the EU, Britain, and Carney's Canada, regrouping against Trump's America, and finally admitting it.

Then there's Ankara. Susan's take: this wasn't really a NATO summit, it was Donald Trump and Erdogan, and everybody else watching. Turkey stayed out of the Iran war, kept clear of Israel, and is positioned to help end the war in Ukraine. At their joint press conference Trump said the F-35 sale is "certainly something we will consider" and announced sanctions on Turkey will be lifted, with Netanyahu publicly urging him not to sell. Susan unpacks what the Erdogan flank means for the alliance the media thinks it understands.

And on the Russia front: the signs Moscow has dropped the attrition game in Ukraine and is moving, and why Russia wants Trump, and only Trump, to settle it.

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

Midweek Update: What Erdogan and Putin Know That NATO Doesn't Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

At the NATO summit in Ankara, President Trump signaled a new foreign-policy dynamic by prioritizing Turkey and President Erdogan, nearly skipping the summit, praising Turkey’s independent role on Iran, and floating renewed F-35 sales despite Turkey’s S-400 purchase and ties to both Moscow and Kiev. In contrast, European leaders and Canada’s Mark Carney arrived with a “Resilience” agenda, claiming Europe can stand without the U.S., after months of planning, including Carney’s coordination and MI6 guidance on “managing” Trump. The episode argues this posture is undermined by Europe’s industrial decline, citing falling German production, Volkswagen’s expected job cuts, and Britain’s shrinking steel capacity, while Carney’s response centers on new defense and Ukraine lending facilities. The script frames Putin’s July 4 call with Trump as highlighting shared historical ties and “colossal” cooperation potential, including space collaboration, as evidence old geopolitical rules are breaking down.

🇺🇸 America 250 Merch drop, featuring Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton: https://shop.prometheanaction.com/collections/america-250-founding-fathers-collection-17762026

00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:39 Trump in Turkey
05:04 Europe Walks Into the Corner
09:18 The Phone Call, and Russia

Monday Brief: Mamdani Panic: His July 4th Attack on Musk Backfired Jul 06, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues that recent speeches by President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance offer an antidote to communism, socialism, and what she calls Democrats’ targeting of Gen Z and millennials through a counterculture shaped under Obama and Biden and teachers’ unions. She describes escalating attacks on Trump’s planned Freedom 250 celebration, including musicians withdrawing, blue states refusing to join the Great American State Fair, a Patriot Front march, and Chatham House commentary highlighting U.S. “fault lines.” Boyd highlights New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s July 3 City Hall speech criticizing inequality and “oligarchs,” including Elon Musk, and notes online satire in response. She then recaps Trump’s Mount Rushmore remarks defining American liberty, culture, self-reliance, and patriotism, and Vance’s New York Harbor speech invoking Washington, the Declaration, and builder Henry Kaiser.

🇺🇸 America 250 Merch drop, featuring Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton: https://shop.prometheanaction.com/collections/america-250-founding-fathers-collection-17762026

00:00 Monday Brief Intro
01:23 Raining Garbage on America’s Parade
06:21 A Call to American Daring and Imagination
13:45 The Grand Finale

Saturday Wrap-Up: America at 250: The System Britain Stole Jul 04, 2026

Show notes

On America’s 250th Independence anniversary, Susan Kokinda argues that this moment is more profound because Donald Trump and his administration are reviving the “American System” of political economy, tariffs to promote domestic industry, manufacturing, and internal improvements, after it was suppressed following President William McKinley’s assassination in 1901. She contrasts the American System with the “British System,” citing Henry Carey’s warning of two opposing systems, and says the nation’s economic heritage was replaced by free trade, consumerism, and institutions like the Federal Reserve. Kokinda connects the Declaration’s appeal to the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God to economics, quoting Lyndon LaRouche on a state shaping a nation’s relationship to the physical universe. She highlights speeches by Jamieson Greer and Scott Bessent on production over consumption, and J.D. Vance’s call for a Hamiltonian approach grounded in human dignity, linking it to the Declaration’s “pursuit of happiness” over “property.”

Promethean Action is not associated in any way with Helga Zepp LaRouche.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:59 The Weapon the British Took From Us
05:42 The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God
11:27 Happiness, Not Property

Thursday Q&A: America Turns 250 Jul 02, 2026

Show notes

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

This Saturday, America turns 250. Two and a half centuries since a handful of colonists declared that governments exist to secure the rights of the people, and that when one stops, the people can replace it. Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda mark the milestone with the story the textbooks skip: why the founders' idea of a sovereign people building a real economy is the exact thing beating managed decline today, at home and abroad.

At home, a wave of major Supreme Court rulings just landed, and the establishment is melting down. Barbara cuts through the panic: the Court affirmed the President's power to fire officials across the executive agencies, with the Federal Reserve the lone exception, and even that turns on process, not protection. On campaign finance, the Court struck the limits on what a party can spend in coordination with its own candidate, a decisive shift heading into the midterms. And birthright citizenship was upheld, the challenge denied, about as expected.

Abroad, the headlines want a White House at war with itself. The reality is a strategy that's working. The "Rubio vs. Vance" storyline is a media invention, the President is using both men, on Lebanon and on Iran alike. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's message this week: the U.S. still holds all the cards. And the oil-sales panic is hollow, the only real buyer for Iranian crude is China, at a steep discount. It's the same thread Susan pulled in Monday's Brief: Trump is dismantling Kissinger's doctrine of managing wars forever, and ending them instead.

Plus: what every one of these means for the midterms now coming into view. Bring your questions. Barbara and Susan take them live.

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