Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share TDG: Someone Bet on the Ceasefire Before Trump Announced It
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
TDG: Someone Bet on the Ceasefire Before Trump Announced It
The ceasefire is two days old and every piece of it has a price tag.
Someone turned $13,200 into $467,000 betting on the Iran ceasefire hours before Trump announced it - while Trump Jr. holds a financial stake in the platform it happened on. Meanwhile, Trump pitched a toll booth on the Strait of Hormuz, Israel killed 254 people in Lebanon the same day it was excluded from the deal, and Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to buy weapons stocks before the war started.
Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
In other news:
Four essays dropped yesterday, and they all connect to the same throughline: people in power doing exactly what they were paid to do — and counting on you not to notice. Let’s go.
The CIA Director’s Grandson Just Threatened the Pope
Pete Hegseth’s top policy aide — grandson of CIA director William Colby — invoked the Avignon Papacy to warn Pope Leo XIV to stay in his lane. That’s not a history lesson. That’s a threat dressed up in 700-year-old precedent.
The Pentagon doesn’t usually threaten popes. When it does, it’s worth asking who authorized it, why now, and what exactly the new pope said that made the Defense Department nervous enough to reach for medieval blackmail.
Read more →
Israel Poisoned Lebanon’s Farms. Then Killed the 262nd Reporter.
Glyphosate doesn’t just kill crops. It kills the people trying to document what happened to the crops. Mohammed Wishah was the 262nd journalist killed in this conflict. He was covering the agricultural destruction when he was shot.
The evidence keeps piling up. The witnesses keep disappearing. That’s not a coincidence — that’s a pattern.
Read more →
Altman Proposes Taxing Robots While Selling Them to the Pentagon
Sam Altman wants a robot tax. He also just signed a deal to sell AI systems to the Defense Department. The company that dropped its ethics policy lost the bid. The one that kept them got the contract. Draw your own conclusions about what “ethics” actually means here.
The sleight of hand is impressive: propose a safety net for the workers your products are replacing, while cashing the government check for deploying those same products at scale.
Read more →
Epstein Helped Bannon Design the Authoritarian Playbook. Vance Is Running It.
This one connects some dots that have been sitting in plain sight. Bannon and Epstein were in contact during the period when the authoritarian movement playbook was being drafted. JD Vance — Thiel’s guy, Bannon’s ideological heir — is now in a position to run it.
The strategy was never improvised. It was designed. And the people who designed it knew exactly where they wanted to end up.
Read more →
That’s the grift for today. Share what’s useful, ignore what isn’t, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
// Go Deeper
Latest Posts
Intelligence Operations
Steve Bannon
Cover-Ups
If this is useful, tip the writer.Venmo | PayPal | Ko-fi
Podcast Sources
Iran Prediction Market Bets on Polymarket Raise Questions Over Insider Activity - Bloomberg
Potential Insiders Made $600K Predicting US and Iran Ceasefire on Polymarket - Yahoo Finance
Newly Created Polymarket Accounts Profit from Insider Bets on US-Iran Ceasefire - NYC Today
With Casino Empire Gone, Trump Family Bets on Prediction Markets - CNN
Trump Administration Sues Three States Over Attempts to Regulate Prediction Markets - NPR
Trump Says US Could Charge for Strait of Hormuz Passage Amid Iran War - Al Jazeera
Trump Floats a Toll-Charging Venture with Iran in Strait of Hormuz - Washington Times
Iran Demands $1 Per Barrel of Oil Passing Through Strait of Hormuz, Paid in Crypto - The Hill
Trump Says Lebanon Not Included in US-Iran Ceasefire Amid Israeli Assault - Al Jazeera
Israel Says Iran Ceasefire Doesn’t Apply to Lebanon, Strikes Central Beirut - PBS
Iran War Updates: Israel Kills 254 in Lebanon After US-Iran Agree Ceasefire - Al Jazeera
Pete Hegseth’s Broker Sought Defense ETF Before Iran Attack - Salon
Morgan Stanley Broker Explored Defense Investment for Hegseth Ahead of Iran Strike - AdvisorHub
Trump Wants Strait of Hormuz Open Without Limitation During Iran Ceasefire - CNBC
Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By RachelandthecityThe ceasefire is two days old and every piece of it has a price tag.
Someone turned $13,200 into $467,000 betting on the Iran ceasefire hours before Trump announced it - while Trump Jr. holds a financial stake in the platform it happened on. Meanwhile, Trump pitched a toll booth on the Strait of Hormuz, Israel killed 254 people in Lebanon the same day it was excluded from the deal, and Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to buy weapons stocks before the war started.
Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
In other news:
Four essays dropped yesterday, and they all connect to the same throughline: people in power doing exactly what they were paid to do — and counting on you not to notice. Let’s go.
The CIA Director’s Grandson Just Threatened the Pope
Pete Hegseth’s top policy aide — grandson of CIA director William Colby — invoked the Avignon Papacy to warn Pope Leo XIV to stay in his lane. That’s not a history lesson. That’s a threat dressed up in 700-year-old precedent.
The Pentagon doesn’t usually threaten popes. When it does, it’s worth asking who authorized it, why now, and what exactly the new pope said that made the Defense Department nervous enough to reach for medieval blackmail.
Read more →
Israel Poisoned Lebanon’s Farms. Then Killed the 262nd Reporter.
Glyphosate doesn’t just kill crops. It kills the people trying to document what happened to the crops. Mohammed Wishah was the 262nd journalist killed in this conflict. He was covering the agricultural destruction when he was shot.
The evidence keeps piling up. The witnesses keep disappearing. That’s not a coincidence — that’s a pattern.
Read more →
Altman Proposes Taxing Robots While Selling Them to the Pentagon
Sam Altman wants a robot tax. He also just signed a deal to sell AI systems to the Defense Department. The company that dropped its ethics policy lost the bid. The one that kept them got the contract. Draw your own conclusions about what “ethics” actually means here.
The sleight of hand is impressive: propose a safety net for the workers your products are replacing, while cashing the government check for deploying those same products at scale.
Read more →
Epstein Helped Bannon Design the Authoritarian Playbook. Vance Is Running It.
This one connects some dots that have been sitting in plain sight. Bannon and Epstein were in contact during the period when the authoritarian movement playbook was being drafted. JD Vance — Thiel’s guy, Bannon’s ideological heir — is now in a position to run it.
The strategy was never improvised. It was designed. And the people who designed it knew exactly where they wanted to end up.
Read more →
That’s the grift for today. Share what’s useful, ignore what isn’t, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
// Go Deeper
Latest Posts
Intelligence Operations
Steve Bannon
Cover-Ups
If this is useful, tip the writer.Venmo | PayPal | Ko-fi
Podcast Sources
Iran Prediction Market Bets on Polymarket Raise Questions Over Insider Activity - Bloomberg
Potential Insiders Made $600K Predicting US and Iran Ceasefire on Polymarket - Yahoo Finance
Newly Created Polymarket Accounts Profit from Insider Bets on US-Iran Ceasefire - NYC Today
With Casino Empire Gone, Trump Family Bets on Prediction Markets - CNN
Trump Administration Sues Three States Over Attempts to Regulate Prediction Markets - NPR
Trump Says US Could Charge for Strait of Hormuz Passage Amid Iran War - Al Jazeera
Trump Floats a Toll-Charging Venture with Iran in Strait of Hormuz - Washington Times
Iran Demands $1 Per Barrel of Oil Passing Through Strait of Hormuz, Paid in Crypto - The Hill
Trump Says Lebanon Not Included in US-Iran Ceasefire Amid Israeli Assault - Al Jazeera
Israel Says Iran Ceasefire Doesn’t Apply to Lebanon, Strikes Central Beirut - PBS
Iran War Updates: Israel Kills 254 in Lebanon After US-Iran Agree Ceasefire - Al Jazeera
Pete Hegseth’s Broker Sought Defense ETF Before Iran Attack - Salon
Morgan Stanley Broker Explored Defense Investment for Hegseth Ahead of Iran Strike - AdvisorHub
Trump Wants Strait of Hormuz Open Without Limitation During Iran Ceasefire - CNBC
Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe