Fear, Corruption, and the Coming Collapse of the American System
Matt Smith: All right. Good morning, Doug. Lots happening these days. I’d love to get your take on—I think starting with the Epstein case. Case closed, apparently. What do you think? What’s going on?
Doug Casey: Well, where to start on this thing? It’s so ultra disappointing, so embarrassing, and so serious that it’s hard to figure out where to begin. But it’s been obvious to me, from watching these things, that this could only end very, very badly. And it’s shameful the way Bongino and Patel—who made a point of saying how honest they were and how they were going to reform things—have just backed off and said there’s nothing there.
And then this woman—Bondi. That was equally inexplicable. She says she’s got all this stuff on her desk, ready to go, and it turns out she doesn’t have it after all. There’s clearly corruption here. It’s very bad.
And it occurred to me how similar this might be to the famous Dreyfus case in France, around the turn of the 20th century. I became, to use a French phrase, a cause célèbre, and overturned the government. This has got the potential to do the same thing.
Matt Smith: One of the things I was thinking about with the whole thing is: what does it take to make these people, who have impeached themselves publicly recently by making claims about evidence that existed—and who have been champions for this cause, for transparency around this for so long—but again, some of these people have now publicly impeached themselves, like Pam Bondi and others, to make this kind of U-turn?
It is such a drastic U-turn, it implies something really scary to me. Because I don’t think you do this for self-gain. I don’t think you can be bribed into destroying yourself like this. I think fear is the only thing that could possibly motivate someone to do this.
So there is something they’ve been exposed to that is so scary to them that they are willing to destroy their whole sense of identity—their reputation—over it. Fear is the only thing I can even imagine that would do it. And it’s got to be fear that probably most of us have never experienced.
I try to put myself in that role, and I think maybe the fear of watching my children be brutalized in front of me might make me do this. But other than that, I just can’t imagine it. I really can’t imagine. So I think the implications are actually pretty frightening.
Doug Casey: Yeah. I don’t see how Bongino in particular can live with himself. It’s like overturning his whole persona. Everybody knows these people are lying. The question is: why are they lying?
Fear, of course—I think you’re right. Because no amount of money would do it. These guys have plenty of money. Bongino and Patel can’t be doing it to maintain their crappy government jobs. They don’t need that. They don’t need money.
By doing this and discrediting themselves, Patel and Bongino are going to be marked men for the rest of their lives. Public frauds.
What’s going on? What are the secrets that somebody is trying to hide? Could it be that Trump himself is implicated with what Epstein was doing? Or are there so many high government officials and billionaires that are so heavily involved in really disgusting things that it would overturn all credibility in the US government and the US power structure?
This is a big deal.
Matt Smith: Yeah, I think it’s a really big deal. And I think it shows what we’re really dealing with here. Because I don’t know what exactly would be revealed by revealing all the Epstein stuff, but the motivation of the people who are willing to destroy themselves in order to cover it up implies something insidious, something dangerous, something scary—probably something beyond our comprehension.
Doug Casey: It must be that. And haven’t these people thought this out a little bit? It’s really simple. Patel and Bongino—I don’t know anything about Bondi—but if you double back like this, it’s obvious that you’re being intimidated or lying. What did they think was going to happen?
So it must be that they’re being threatened on a really serious level. That’s the only thing I can figure.
Matt Smith: That’s the only thing I can figure too.
So, the other thing—I have basically just a whole list of random news items. I think maybe they’re connected, maybe they’re not connected, but I think they’re interesting. I want you to comment on them.
The second one is that the US Army Corps of Engineers is active today in essentially rebuilding a whole bunch of Israeli defense structures.
You know, it’s not just that we’re sending weapons. It’s that that we’re actively involved. The US Army Corps of Engineers is actually rebuilding infrastructure to accommodate the Israeli Air Force’s new refueling aircraft and helicopters, as well as constructing new headquarters for their 13th Naval Commando Unit, and numerous other projects. This is costing billions of shekels, and it’s all according to official documents from the US Army Corps of Engineers published online.
Doug Casey: Well, perhaps this relates in some way to the Epstein scandal. Why is Israel, in effect, being turned into the 51st state—and treated even better than a state? The money that’s being directed there—couldn’t the Army Corps of Engineers be helpful to the Carolinas or Texas instead?
Israel is getting a lot more attention than actual states in the US. This is frankly criminal. Look, I’ve never been anti-Israel per se. It’s just another nation-state. I understand why the Jews started it, and all that. I get it, and I’ve always been sympathetic, especially since I’m not sympathetic to the Muslim world. But this? What’s the matter with Trump? He looks like he’s under Netanyahu’s thumb.
Maybe it ties into the whole Epstein thing. Because apologists for Israel—like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro—are rabid. They’re frothing and drooling at the mouth when anything is said that might possibly be counter to Israel’s interests. Wait a minute—who are they working for? What’s going on here?
Matt Smith: And in addition to that, we have Trump’s announcement that we’ll be sending more weapons to Ukraine.
Doug Casey: Yeah. Got to continue the war. A pointless war. It should be completely obvious to everybody that Russia is going to win.
Instead of ending the war Trump is making it much worse. Everyone has forgotten the reason they invaded is because they were provoked.
Trump is continuing the war at great expense. Young men are getting killed and maimed pointlessly. It’s crazy. You can’t justify it. You can’t rationalize it. Just like you can’t rationalize attacking Iran—a country on the other side of the world that’s never done anything to the US—just because it helps the Israelis. This isn’t our problem, but we’ve made it a much bigger one by getting involved.
There are lots of other problems in Trump world. Like the fact that there have been no indictments handed down, and there should have been by now. There have apparently been no investigations on anything, although I’ve heard they’re supposed to be starting something on Comey.
It looks like DOGE is dead or dying. Musk has quit in disgust. That was supposed to be the centerpiece of the Trump regime.
Matt Smith: Well, maybe it goes back to our first point: that there’s something out there scaring the hell out of enough people that they’re willing to do things that shock us all, perhaps.
And incidentally, my friend from Ukraine—she lives in Kyiv—told me that a lot of the recent Russian attacks there have targeted recruitment centers. These are the conscription centers, and apparently, there was a lot of praise among some people in Kyiv over that. But some officials came out and denounced it as treasonous to be happy about the destruction of those recruitment facilities.
Just a side note, but it shows what happens to a country in a state of war. It becomes a very dangerous place to live.
Doug Casey: Yes. The rumors have been floating around for some time that it’s not just recruitment—they’re actually sending out press gangs to round up anyone who looks like good cannon fodder on the front lines.
And with the nature of warfare now, “cannon fodder” is the right term. With drones advancing in technology almost weekly, if you’re a soldier on the front lines you’re dead meat.
Matt Smith: Yeah, it’s awful.
The next thing that stood out to me—among everything else that’s happening—was this big press announcement today by the former governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem. And this is great news: apparently now, in TSA it’s no longer necessary to take off your shoes.
Doug Casey: That’s good. It means flying won’t be quite as degrading. But I suppose you’re still going to have to take off your belt and everything else.
Matt Smith: Yeah, and still go through screening. And if some alarm goes off, or you’re randomly selected, you still get the pat-down by some agent of the state. So yeah—it’s still not good. But this is what’s bein
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