NOTE: This episode was recorded hours before the announcement of the 2-week ceasefire on April 7th.

Just a day after Donald Trump made a national prime-time address on April 1st claiming the US is “winning and winning big” in the war on Iran, an American F-15E Strike Eagle fighter plane was shot down over a mountainous region of eastern Iran, kicking off a frantic search-and-rescue and a covert misinformation operation by the CIA within Iran. The U.S. military has over 200 F-15E planes, at a cost in 2026 dollars of $65 million each and the next-generation F-15EX set at about $100 million each. The war on Iran has cost about $43 billion so far.

But at an Easter luncheon earlier on April 1st, Trump also said he told Russel Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, “Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care.” and went on to say, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things,” saying that the federal government’s priority should be wars and weapons while people still go hungry, without housing and without healthcare. And he’s effectively threatened genocide against the Iranian people and the entire region.

The Trump administration and Project 2025 have been shaking the core of civilization like an earthquake shakes a building. The question of what comes after this structure breaks is at the core of how we move forward.

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