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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: Who Was MI6’s Inside Man Against Donald Trump? Jun 13, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues that Mike Pompeo’s June 8 X post praising former MI6 chief Alex Younger amounts to a confession that, within weeks of being named CIA director in late 2016, he coordinated closely with British intelligence, linking this partnership to the origins of Russiagate, which she cites The Guardian as attributing to British spies who fed claims to John Brennan. She highlights Richard Moore’s remarks about deep CIA. MI6 integration, points to Pompeo’s appointment of Gina Haspel and his praise of Brennan, and claims key documents were withheld until resurfaced by Tulsi Gabbard. Boyd says Pompeo and Mnuchin discussed invoking the 25th Amendment after Jan. 6, 2021, and frames the motive as opposition to Trump’s “American System” economics, tied to Koch funding and the Mont Pelerin Society. She concludes that Trump is pursuing industrial revival via defense-driven manufacturing, while Britain faces political resignations and fiscal strain.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:22 The Confession
05:19 Why the British Really Came After Trump
08:43 The Best Revenge

Thursday Q&A: Iran, Lawfare, and Why the Establishment Is Going All-In Against Trump Jun 11, 2026

Show notes

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

The peace track Trump fought to keep alive just took a hit. Overnight, the President says Iran shot down a U.S. Apache over the Strait of Hormuz, both pilots safe, and that America "must, of necessity, respond." For weeks Trump refused to be dragged into the war so many were itching for him to start. Now there's a direct attack and a public commitment to answer it. So Barbara's question only gets sharper: who keeps engineering the incident that blows up the deal the moment peace gets close, and who profits when the Strait catches fire?

At home, the establishment is going all-in. With Trump's "grand conspiracy case" advancing in Florida, a major New York Times hit piece reframed the war inside Main Justice, right as the Senate moves to block Bill Pulte at DNI, kill the $1.8 billion fund for victims of lawfare, and sabotage FISA to force the President's hand. Barbara's read: they're not defending an institution. They see themselves in the orange jumpsuits.

And Michael Steger fills in for Susan this week with a contrarian read on California: the machine's "victory" is a Pyrrhic one that's going to blow back hard, and makes election integrity more likely than ever. Plus: Europe trying to reignite Ukraine, and why the timing is no accident. The establishment is firing on all cylinders, so this week we ask why they're going all-in against Trump.

Midweek Update: Exposed: The British Hand Blocking Trump's Peace Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Susan contrasts Donald Trump’s stated push for a “stronger than a bomb” deal with Iran and his desire to stop the killing in Ukraine, arguing the common narrative about villains in Tehran or Moscow misses what is actually blocking peace. It examines Zelenskyy’s open letter to Putin as a two-part maneuver that undercuts Trump’s Anchorage Summit and calls for Europe and the UK to serve as “guarantors,” followed by Zelenskyy’s meetings in London with Starmer, Macron, and Merz and coordinated messaging from major think tanks. It also highlights a U.S. House vote to keep arms flowing over Trump’s objections, tied to the British-American Parliamentary Group funded by the UK government. The script cites UK records on Ambassador Peter Mandelson and reports that King Charles considered canceling Trump’s state visit over Zelenskyy, framing Ukraine and Middle East conflicts as managed proxy wars that Trump’s sovereignty-based approach seeks to end.

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00:00 Midweek Update Intro
01:52 Zelensky's Poisoned Pill
05:40 The Hand at the Top
08:34 The Mideast, Nations, Not Proxies

Monday Brief: Warner Kept the Russia Hoax Alive, Now Blocks the Truth Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

In this Monday brief, Barbara Boyd argues that Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick are “hysterical” over President Trump naming businessman Bill Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence, highlighting Warner’s CNN warning that Pulte could misuse intelligence to claim foreign interference and disrupt future elections. Boyd connects the backlash to a Senate refusal to authorize FISA and to Fitzpatrick’s push to kill Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion fund for victims of “lawfare,” which she says would create a public record of who targeted figures like Flynn, Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, January 6 defendants, and even Bernie Sanders. She cites former DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s claims about Russiagate and Ukrainegate, alleges Warner and Fitzpatrick played key roles, links the Ukraine funding fight to Tony Blair and Chatham House, and calls for a “Too Big to Rig” turnout in November aimed at pressuring Republican moderates like Susan Collins.

🇺🇸 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
02:06 Why Warner & Fitzpatrick Are Sabotaging a War Trump Is Winning
03:01 What Did These Two Crooks Do?
06:45 What Bill Pulte Will Find

Saturday Wrap-Up: Trump Agrees With Bernie, Bessent Slams Free Markets Jun 06, 2026

Show notes

Susan argues that Trump’s recent comments praising overlap with Bernie Sanders and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s critique of “slavish devotion to free markets” signal not a change of sides but a shift to a different economic system. It frames Trump’s “new economic plan” as an industrial policy that uses tariffs, tax policy, directed investment, and potential public-private stakes in major AI firms, while also challenging Federal Reserve practices and Wall Street forecasting. Citing the latest jobs report (172,000 jobs versus a 105,000 forecast, with prior months revised upward), it claims the plan is working, though manufacturing hiring is still early, following a sequence of orders, production, investment, then jobs described by Peter Navarro. Susan says this approach revives Henry Clay’s “American System,” presented as distinct from free markets, free trade, or socialism.

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
01:16 Trump's Team Is Dropping Economic Bombshells
05:58 First Orders. Then Production. Then Jobs. It's Working
10:05 Navarro Names the Name They Banned for 100 Years

Thursday Q&A: The World Is on Fire: Iran, Ukraine, China Jun 04, 2026

Show notes

Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday June 4th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

The press said Iran killed the talks. It didn't. Israel did. When Netanyahu threatened to bomb Hezbollah in Beirut, Tehran walked from the table, and Trump got on the phone, turned the strikes back, and kept the settlement alive. The real question isn't who wants peace. It's who needs the war: the City of London faction whose last revenue streams run through a Middle East in flames and a blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

And it isn't just one front. Russia is warning foreigners out of Kyiv as drones spill into NATO-member Romania and strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Hegseth went to the Shangri-La Dialogue and laid out a sovereignty-based defense doctrine, declining to lead on Taiwan and rattling the China hawks. It's primary day at home, and Barbara unpacks the "fifth-dimension" cognitive warfare aimed straight at MAGA. The whole world looks like it's on fire, so this week we ask who's lighting the matches.

Midweek Update: Trump Orders Netanyahu to Stand Down Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

This episode argues that leaked details of a Trump-Netanyahu call and John Bolton’s complaints reveal Trump’s rejection of the traditional National Security Council process and the permanent intelligence bureaucracy’s control over presidential decision-making. It links that shift to Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence, citing establishment and bipartisan backlash and JD Vance’s statement that the intel bureaucracy must answer elected leadership. The script then highlights Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, describing a move away from “globalist” rules-based rhetoric toward a scoped Pacific posture defined by a balance of power, sovereignty, free commerce, and improved U.S.-China relations. Finally, it cites a Council on Foreign Relations essay, “After Hegemony,” as an admission that the old Hobbes/Locke philosophical basis of geopolitics is ending, framing the conflict as empire versus sovereign nations.

🇺🇸 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
02:00 Trump Pulls Rank: The Presidency Comes Off the Leash
04:35 Bill Pulte, New Acting Director of National Intelligence
06:32 What Hegseth Planted in the Pacific
10:10 The Confession: "Locke's World Would Emerge From Hobbes'"

Monday Brief: The Billionaire Behind the Senate Jun 01, 2026

Show notes

Barbara Boyd argues the Senate’s repeated blocking of Donald Trump’s agenda is driven less by narrow Republican margins than by powerful donor networks, focusing on Oracle founder Larry Ellison and his ties to Tony Blair. She profiles Ellison’s major political spending (including backing Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and the NRSC) and links it to Senate leadership under John Thune, a longtime Mitch McConnell protégé aligned with the postwar globalist order. The episode claims Blair’s Tony Blair Institute, funded heavily by Ellison, spent years building a case for regime change in Iran, working through venues like CFR and UANI, but Trump limited action to strikes on nuclear infrastructure without regime change. Boyd says Blair is now rebranding via a “Radical Center” manifesto while advancing surveillance and digital ID models, and urges overwhelming midterm victories to “shock” or replace Senate obstructionists.

🇺🇸 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
01:34 The Money: Larry Ellison and the Senate
04:23 Blair's Empire: Forever Wars and the 2028 Agenda
08:21 The Surveillance State They're Building

Saturday Wrap-Up: Trumpification: Why Blair, Carney May 30, 2026

Show notes

Susan Kokinda argues that Jamie Dimon, Mark Carney, and Tony Blair are suddenly echoing Donald Trump because a major shift in economic and strategic power is underway. She highlights Dimon’s admission that outsourcing and dependence on adversaries was a mistake, Carney’s “Canada Strong” pitch on investment and sovereignty alongside continued globalist policies, and Blair’s critique of Labour priorities on clean energy, welfare, and defense. Kokinda contrasts this rebranding with what she calls the Trump administration’s revival of the “American System,” pointing to an oil tanker headed to Japan, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s claim that energy geopolitics has shifted to the Western Hemisphere, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s Reagan Forum remarks rejecting “invisible hand” economics and insisting that economic security is national security and “productive capacity is power.”

00:00 Saturday Wrap-Up Intro
02:08 Old Wine, Rebranded Bottles
07:52 What They're Circling: The American System
12:57 Why the Rebrand Fails: System and Principle

Thursday Q&A: Empire's Last Stand: Trump Throws Britain Out of Iran May 28, 2026

Show notes

Get our FREE Newsletter at https://www.PrometheanAction.com. Join us for a live broadcast, with your hosts Barbara Boyd, Susan Kokinda and Adam Sturman. Thursday May 28th at 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific every Thursday. We take your questions from both the Youtube live chat and our Newsletter Subscribers!

Kevin Warsh just took the Fed. Trump invited the Islamic Republic of Iran into the Abraham Accords. Rubio is at the Quad in India fighting over the strategic minerals that will build the next economy. It's the economy, stupid, and Hamilton, not Keynes, is Trump's man.

Warsh was sworn in Friday as the 17th Chairman of the Federal Reserve, vowing "regime change", production, not interest rates, defeats inflation, and Judy Shelton is his publicist for a New Bretton Woods. Trump's Truth Social post, "Perhaps the Islamic Republic of Iran would like to join the Abraham Accords as well", flips the perpetual-war playbook on its head. And the question driving London's opposition to peace in the Middle East: who gets Iran's lithium deposits? Plus, Tuesday night's Texas runoff results and what they tell us about whether the old GOP machine has anything left in the tank.

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