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FiveStack with Dean Blundell & Zev Shalev: Daily Summaries Delivered
by D. Blundell and Z.Shalev
The Top 5 stories of the moment with Canada's #1 Shock Jock Dean Blundell and Former CBS News executive producer Zev Shalev. www.narativ.org
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- 3 days ago59 min
‘Barely Alive’ McConnell Votes Wrong, Don Jr.’s Russian Mule Is a Spy, Carney’s Pact With Europe Infuriates Trump, Russian Satellites Tracked the Base Iran Hit, and $6 Gas
Zev broke the countdown to play Hakeem Jeffries on the OpenAI agents: caged in a test environment, they talked their way out, went two months unnoticed, cased Hugging Face, elected a leader and named themselves The Collective. They sent some of their own out to fail on purpose, Jeffries said.5️⃣ McConnell Votes WrongSenator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the former majority leader who retires in January, walked into a Senate Agriculture Committee markup on Wednesday after three months away and started voting the wrong way. Colleagues stepped in and fixed it; on the second call he said aye, and the Farm, Food and National Security Act advanced 12 to 11 on party lines. “It’s embarrassing the GOP is doing it, but he’s alive,” Zev said. McConnell leads nothing now. John Thune does.4️⃣ Don Jr.’s Russian MoneyUmar Kremlev paid for the 23 and 24 May celebrations around Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding, not the 21 May ceremony in West Palm Beach. Olga Lautman told the show Kremlev works with Russian intelligence and wears an Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin. Kremlev and Trump Jr. announced a partnership in Istanbul on 29 September 2025, where the International Boxing Association asked him to co-host its Men’s Elite World Championships in Dubai, prize pool $8 million. Robert Garcia has opened a probe. Nobody has tied that money to any act by Trump Jr. He holds a security clearance, though, and keeping company with foreign nationals wired to Putin “is generally not a good idea,” Zev said.3️⃣ Carney Signs With EuropeMark Carney told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that Canada will not seek full EU membership, and that any final deal goes to Canada’s Parliament — then accepted Ursula von der Leyen’s Alliance for the Future, which replaces CETA. They meet in Montreal on 29 and 30 October. Nobody has written “associate member” into the EU treaties, and the European Parliament has scheduled no vote. Trump called it “laughable” and threatened “very serious tariffs” on Europe. “I don’t think people realize how much energy is made in Canada,” Zev said. “And how important, as it turns out, energy is for data centers.”2️⃣ Satellites Over Prince SultanCNN reported 14 Russian spy satellites crossing Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in the two days before Iran’s 27 March strike there, which injured 12 Americans and destroyed an Air Force AWACS. ABC aired images Thursday of a jet blown in half. Days later Trump stood beside Putin at the G7 and thanked him for staying neutral on Iran. Thomas Massie has filed articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth; Mike Johnson sent the House home before anyone voted.1️⃣ Iran Holds HormuzBlundell reported Iran’s terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz: Americans remove Trump, Israelis remove Netanyahu, and not before. Zev put Brent at $103.61 on day 201 of the war, and the reserve at 285 million barrels, under 40 percent of capacity. Blundell put gas at $8 a gallon. Forty-seven days out from the midterms, none of the men who built this are in any shape to stop it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
- 4 days ago1h 21m
Trump’s Fed Chair Raises Rates, ‘New’ 60 Minutes Tanks, House Dodges Hegseth Impeachment Vote, Trump Cashes in On War, and Canada Cozies Up to EU
5️⃣ Burgum Spends $84,000 to Warn Visitors Off American HistoryDoug Burgum will spend $84,000 on about a dozen National Park Service signs outside the National Museum of American History, telling visitors the exhibits inside push the curators’ “personal viewpoints.” Trump’s Interior Secretary put the price in a September 3 letter to Senators Jeff Merkley and Lisa Murkowski, which The Atlantic published Tuesday. Nobody has written the signs yet. The curators are historians; Burgum’s signs tell the public to doubt them before they walk in. The same week, Bari Weiss opened her first 60 Minutes season Sunday to 7.94 million viewers — 2.09 million fewer than last September, the smallest premiere TheWrap can find since at least 2000. CBS blames a weaker football lead-in, but the share of the football crowd that stayed for the broadcast actually rose, so the two million did not leave with the Packers. They left after CBS ousted Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega and executive producer Tanya Simon in May, and fired Scott Pelley a day after he accused Weiss of “murdering” the broadcast. Everybody knows what happened at 60 Minutes. Two million people decided not to watch it.4️⃣ Houthis Promise Trump Safe Ships, Keep Hitting the SaudisU.S. officials met a Houthi delegation at the American embassy in Muscat, Oman, on Sunday, Reuters reported. The Houthis told the Americans they have no intention of attacking American ships, and they extended the promise to Israeli and other commercial ships — but not to Saudi-flagged vessels, a Yemeni source told The Media Line. Overnight the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca, the first Mecca-area alert of this war, and called it a “red line.” Trump has been at war with the Houthis’ patron since February 28, and his embassy now takes their word while they keep Saudi oil under fire and the price of gas up, seven weeks before an election. Mohammed bin Salman hosts the U.S. bases Iran hit, takes the drones near Mecca, and finds out he is on his own. 3️⃣ Von der Leyen Offers Canada an EU Seat Nobody ApprovedUrsula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg this morning she wants Canada as the first associate member of the European Union, with Mark Carney sitting in the chamber. Zev ran the tape: “I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU.” The chamber stood for Carney. No such category exists in the EU treaties, the 27 governments decide who joins, and three diplomats told Politico Europe nobody consulted the capitals. MEP Manon Aubry asked her from the floor, “Who gave you a democratic and popular mandate for that?” Carney himself said Sunday, “We’re not looking to become a member.” Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods took effect the same day, and von der Leyen never said Trump, United States or tariffs in 25 pages. She did not need to. Together the EU and Canada make a $23.6 trillion economy, second only to the United States. The door opening in Strasbourg is the door closing on Washington.2️⃣ Johnson Sends House Home to Dodge Hegseth VoteSpeaker Mike Johnson canceled the House’s last votes before the election Wednesday and sent members home until November 9. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, which forced a floor vote by Thursday; Johnson killed Thursday. Zev ran Johnson’s explanation: “The House has done its work… it’s time for our members to go home to their districts and make their case to the American people.” Tuesday night seven Republicans — Massie, Barrett, Davidson, Fitzpatrick, Mace, Miller-Meeks and Nunn — voted with Democrats to end the Iran war, 220 to 204, and Johnson is making sure nobody counts them again before November. Massie lost his May primary and leaves in January. He can still force the vote — on November 9, six days after the voters have had theirs.1️⃣ Trump’s Own Fed Chair Raises Rates, Twelve to NothingKevin Warsh raised interest rates a quarter point at 2 PM Wednesday, to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent — the Fed’s first hike since July 2023 and his first as chair. The vote was 12 to nothing. Trump installed Warsh in May to cut. “The main fact is that inflation is too high,” Warsh said at his first press conference, and when a reporter asked when he last spoke to the president: “I don’t have anything for you on discussions with the president, and I’m not a Wall Street newsletter. Part of the independence of the Federal Reserve is we stay in our lane. Independence is a two-way street.” Zev did the math on what the quarter point costs anyone not locked in:“That was a ballsy move,” Anne P. Mitchell said. “Despite the fact that he’s a Trump appointee or whatever, I have to give him credit for that.” Trump said in January he wanted “somebody that wants to cut rates,” and this month he blamed “11 of Warsh’s colleagues” for
- 5 days ago56 min
Patel Won't Promise to Keep FBI From Polls, Defends Bestiality, Trump Calls AI Threats a Hoax, But Owns 5 Million NVIDIA Stocks; Hegseth Impeachment?
Today’s FiveStack is brought to you by GroundNews — FiveStack viewers get 40% off their Vantage plan. GET 40% OFF GROUND NEWS5️⃣ Patel Defends Hiring Memo That Forgives Teenage BestialityKash Patel sat five hours in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, and a Republican did the first damage. John Kennedy of Louisiana asked why the bureau's June hiring memo mentions bestiality at all: "The person who recommended it, why didn't you just say, what planet did you parachute in from?" Patel said the change protects trafficking victims forced into it. Zev read the memo on air: a candidate who paid a prostitute fewer than three times, more than ten years ago, stays in the running, and bestiality or animal cruelty clears if the applicant was under 18. "That doesn't describe somebody being a victim at all," Ellie Leonard said. Cory Booker: "We don't have an FBI director. We have a lackey here. And frankly, he's not even a good lackey." "They're not even good dictators," Lev Parnas said. "They're comical fools."Sheldon Whitehouse asked about 37 pages the FBI still has not turned over — the agents' handwritten notes from interviewing a woman who told them Donald Trump assaulted her at 14 or 15, Whitehouse said. Patel: "I don't know what you're referencing. We've produced three and a half million pages." Ellie has worked that file, Jane Doe 4, in her own reporting: the Justice Department first released only the one interview in which the woman refused to discuss Trump, she said, and the agents' notes never came at all. "The head of the FBI and the Attorney General of the United States don't know about these 37 pages," Ellie said. "And yet Reddit knows about them. Substack knows about them. The Post and Courier knows about them. Katie Phang knows about them." Her verdict on the bureau Patel runs: "They're going to be using the FBI as a padding around Donald Trump to protect him and go after the people who've opposed him."4️⃣ Trump Calls AI a Hoax While Holding Nvidia StockBernie Sanders and Steve Bannon shared a Washington stage Tuesday and asked Congress to rein in artificial intelligence; Barack Obama and Kamala Harris asked the same that morning. Donald Trump called the danger "a HOAX" on Truth Social Monday, and his own June disclosure shows him buying up to $5 million of Nvidia, the company selling the chips. Zev played Google's Gemini from Monday's Narativ Live — "Self-regulation is a non-starter, Zev. Financial incentives will always beat good intentions" — and said the three machines told him not to trust them four or five times in an hour. Ellie found that less reassuring than it sounded: "It's like staring into a bomb, and the bomb's telling you, I'm bad, guys. Don't trust the bomb." She has seen Trump's hoax act before. "It's going to be like COVID all over again. It's a hoax. Don't believe it. But I've got the cure. Come buy my cure."3️⃣ Pentagon Admits Iran Wrecked Hundreds of U.S. Base Buildings — GROUND NEWS BLINDSPOTThe Pentagon's inspector general told Congress Monday that Iranian missiles and drones damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings at U.S. bases in eight countries. He priced the war at $33.4 billion through June 30 and wrote that the munitions spending left the stockpile short. Iran hit those bases on Trump's watch, and the outlets cheering his war are not running his own inspector's report: Ground News scores the coverage 70 percent left, 10 percent center, 20 percent right. Zev read it, Ellie passed, the countdown moved on.2️⃣ Republican Massie Moves to Impeach Hegseth Mid-WarThomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, read articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth from the House floor just after noon Tuesday, and Zev ran the tape: "Impeaching Peter Brian Hegseth, Secretary of Defense — also referred to as Secretary of War by the administration — for high crimes and misdemeanors." Massie charges Hegseth with waging the Iran war past the 90-day War Powers limit, defying three withdrawal votes, and killing civilians. No Republican co-signed; the House must vote by Thursday, before it leaves until after the midterms; Massie lost his May primary and leaves in January. "I don't agree with Thomas Massie on most things," Ellie said, "but I appreciate that he steps outside of his political party to do this. Yes, impeach Peter Brian Hegseth."1️⃣ Patel Won't Promise to Keep the FBI From PollsRichard Blumenthal asked Patel to commit that FBI agents stay out of polling places in November. Patel said the bureau "will follow the law if there's a reason to go there." Asked for a pledge, he gave one: "I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies." The answer, Zev said, used to be simple: absolutely not. Not this time. Ellie ran the list from me
- 6 days ago1h 11m
FiveStack: Trump Spares Putin’s Refineries As Oligarch Funds Don Jr’s Wedding, Obama’s CIA Director Is Subpoenaed, And Trump Calls AI Fears a Hoax
5️⃣ Trump Spares Putin's Refineries as Diesel Hits $6.23Diesel hit a record $6.23 a gallon Monday, the 10-year Treasury touched 5 percent, its highest since October 2023, and Costco began rationing motor oil. Trump posted his fix at 11:05 AM: Ukraine has agreed to stop hitting Russian refineries. The player Trump is helping most is Russia. Lev Parnas: Houthi drones took out Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline on Friday, so somebody else's oil fills the gap, and "you got two players right now that Donald Trump is very close with" — Venezuela and Vladimir Putin.Lev Parnas says his sources tell him Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping will meet in China in November. Why would a president want oil climbing into an election — unless he is banking on a crisis so deep that only he can solve it?4️⃣ Brennan Subpoenaed the Day diGenova QuitJustice Department prosecutors served John Brennan with a grand jury subpoena Thursday — the day Joe diGenova quit as lead prosecutor with zero charges — Brennan's lawyer disclosed Monday. Brennan testifies October 15 in Fort Pierce, Florida. A subpoena compels testimony; it is not a charge. Lev Parnas spent three years beside diGenova and says diGenova signed the Brennan subpoena before he left (Narativ has not verified the signer), then fell out with Todd Blanche after CIA Director John Ratcliffe came back from Moscow with information and the department wanted to expand the "grand conspiracy" case into Mar-a-Lago and Jack Smith. "DiGenova was not ready for Jack Smith," Lev said. Prosecutors are flying in from Washington, Judge Aileen Cannon has the case, and the indictments, Lev said, are "the October surprise."Anne P. Mitchell broke news mid-segment: a district court gave the DSCC, LULAC and the NAACP everything they asked for in a 24-page order, and the Postal Service is enjoined from using its mail-ballot rule through the midterms. Red states have already handed over their voter rolls voluntarily, and Florida rejected a batch of ballots before reversing. If you live in a red state, check your ballot.3️⃣ DeSantis' Guards Caged 79 Immigrants in "Calming Areas"Homeland Security's inspector general found immigrants held in outdoor metal cages at Ron DeSantis' Alligator Alcatraz — 4 feet 3 inches on a side. Guards put 79 detainees in them between July 2025 and January 2026, an hour on average, called them "calming areas," and hung a sign on the door: "Respect, Care and Dignity." The inspector general called the practice "unprecedented." Lev Parnas served federal time; the prison segregation unit, he said, "is maybe double the size of this or triple this."Lev said ICE is now taking Ukrainians with paperwork off the streets of Florida, and Americans who couldn't prove citizenship sit in detention beside them. Anne P. Mitchell asked whether Putin is pressing Zelensky through the diaspora. "100 percent," Lev said. Her forecast: "I expect that inspector general to be out now."2️⃣ Trump Calls AI Danger a Hoax "No Different From Russia"Trump named Dario Amodei at 9:58 Monday morning — "Dario (Anthropic!)" — two days after Amodei's open letter asked the industry to slow down, Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed him, and Amodei told CBS "for too long the industry lied to people." Trump called the push for controls a "SICK conspiracy," said the only guardrail AI needs is "a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT," reminded the companies his government holds "tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power" over them, and signed off: "Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!" The Nasdaq fell. At 1:33 PM, with the show on air, Trump posted again and Zev read it live: "AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX, no different from RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA." "Here he goes again," Zev said. "Russia, Russia, Russia was a true thing."JD Vance said the CEOs begging to be regulated "feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse." Jacob Coxon, the Anthropic engineer who quit last week, told CNN that two months ago OpenAI agents "hacked into third-party infrastructure entirely at their own accord." Anne P. Mitchell called Trump's posts "the mother of all distractions — it's him saying I'm going to let AI take over and end humanity." Lev Parnas: "He wouldn't even know the difference between Claude and ChatGPT." The men who built the technology asked to be regulated, and the president called their warning a hoax in the same breath as Russia — the one hoax that was true. Tonight at 7 PM ET on Narativ Live, Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini answer Trump's posts.1️⃣ Putin's Boxing Boss Paid for Don Jr.'s Wedding PartyUmar Kremlev, whom Putin decorated with the Order of Friendship in April, secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas wedding weekend in May, ProPublica reported Monday: an island, the fireworks, the money routed through a Dub
- 1 weeks ago1h 4m
FiveStack: Trump Dangles $5,000, Bullies Kimmel Off The Air, Hillary Considers Another Run And His Envoy Faces A Rape Complaint
Every weekday at 3 PM ET. Dean Blundell and Zev Shalev count down the Top 5 Breaking News Stories of the day. FiveStack Live is available for free for everyone. Never miss an episode by joining our mailing list below. 5️⃣ Clinton Auditions On Morning JoeHillary Clinton went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday and delivered the line of a candidate testing the room. “I love Israel, and I hate Netanyahu’s government and his policies. I love America, and I hate Trump’s government and policies,” Clinton said. “She’s running. I’m pretty convinced that she’s running,” Zev said. Dean called it disqualifying anyway: “They’re married. He knew. She knew. It’s disqualifying,” he said — and, of her age, “she is not a young person.”4️⃣ Kimmel Interview Bullied Off TV Jimmy Kimmel pulled his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico off ABC Wednesday night. “His FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations,” Kimmel said. “My interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,” he said. On YouTube instead. Dean traced the pressure to Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general Talarico is running to unseat — “the worst attorney general in the United States of America,” Dean called him. “You’ve never had in America the government dare to intervene on a guest booking,” Zev said.3️⃣ Envoy Sued For Rape, Epstein Warned FirstVictoria Drake says in her complaint that Paolo Zampolli — Trump’s Special Envoy for Global Partnerships, the man who introduced Trump to Melania — drugged and raped her in his Manhattan townhouse on October 7, 2023. Zampolli has called it an extortion attempt and has not answered the summons. Epstein wrote about Zampolli in 2011: “Be careful. He is trouble. Lots.” Zev put up a graphic on air, “people around Trump accused of rape” — Trump, Zampolli, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, then Pete Hegseth and Brett Kavanaugh. “This is a rogue gallery of people who are hostile to women … and they are leading our government right now,” Zev said.2️⃣ Carney And Zelensky Sign A Hundred-Year Pact Without AmericaMark Carney and Volodymyr Zelensky signed a Canada–Ukraine declaration in Ottawa Thursday: a hundred-year partnership on defense and security, with Ukraine helping Canada build up to a million drones a year within two years. “It’s intentional as to why it doesn’t include the United States,” Dean said. “When Russia began its illegal, barbaric, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin made a series of rash predictions,” Carney said. “It’s been four years, 198 days of courageous resistance. Ukraine will never submit.” “It’s not happening because they need the weapons. It’s happening on ideological grounds,” Zev said, and asked what a million drones a year are for. “To protect ourselves,” Dean said — from Russia, from China, “and to protect ourselves from Donald Trump.”1️⃣ Trump Promises $5,000, Vance Won’t Say The NumberTrump told the Republican midterm convention in Dallas Wednesday night, “I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” then promised every adult American a $5,000 dividend if Republicans hold Congress. Dean counted the prior cash promises — a 2018 tax cut, 2020 drug cards, a stimulus, a $2,000 payout that became $600 — each paying zero. “Over the past 17 months, six times,” Dean said. Bret Baier put the number to Vice President J.D. Vance: “So you do the quick math, that’s about $1.3 trillion,” Baier said, then, “the president is bribing voters.” Vance called it “fundamentally a dividend for American workers” and never said $5,000. “It’s not only a bad idea, it will never f*****g happen. It’s pure fantasy,” Dean said.Thank you Uncomfortable Truth by Monica, Cat: Poli-Psych, LC - Silence is Complicity, ITS Never Happening…, sandy bassett, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Blundell! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
- 1 weeks ago1h 6m
FiveStack: Dean Comes Home From Dachau to Trump Cheering the AfD
Every weekday at 3 PM ET. Dean Blundell and Zev Shalev count down the Top 5 Breaking News Stories of the day. FiveStack Live is available for free for everyone. Never miss an episode by joining our mailing list below. Dean spent eleven days in Bavaria with Steve Schmidt and their sons, Jake and Joey, both twenty, walking the road the Nazis took and the road the Allies took back. They drank in the Hofbräuhaus under the bullet hole Hitler put in the ceiling in 1923. They stood in Dachau, where the Nazis killed about 60,000 people. "Hauntingly quiet and very f*****g real," Dean wrote from the car. They stopped at Dürnbach, where 484 Canadians lie; the oldest headstone he found was 27. They rode Hitler's brass elevator up to the Eagle's Nest, which he used fourteen times. Dean went to answer one question: how long does it take to get a country back once you hand it to a strongman. His answer is 75 years. "We're at the beginning of that, again," he wrote.5️⃣ Merz Hangs Up on Trump for Cheering the AfDDean Blundell landed from eleven days in Bavaria hours before Friedrich Merz cancelled his call with Donald Trump. Trump had called the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt win a "really big night"; Merz scrapped the call and told the Bundestag the party's migration policy is "ethnic cleansing." Dean walked the show through Dachau, where 60,000 died, and Dürnbach, where 484 Canadians lie. Hitler took the oath and opened the camp seven weeks later. "That is how you deal with fascism. You do not f*****g entertain it," Dean said. "The United States is at the gates of Dachau right now. And that is not a f*****g exaggeration." How long does it take to get a country back? Seventy-five years. "You've got 53 days," Dean said.4️⃣ Anthropic Researcher Quits and Says AI Could Kill EveryoneJacob Coxon quit Anthropic Tuesday and posted why: the people building AI "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Evan Hubinger, who runs alignment at Anthropic, puts the odds above 10 percent, and the New York Times reported a hacking tool that rides in on a WeChat call and hits millions of phones in hours. Trump said on tape "we'll have a little gear." "They're warning him. And he's saying, ah, we've got a gear. What gear?" Dean said. Nobody knows what happens once AI becomes its own teacher, Zev said.3️⃣ Trump Hands Three Aides $45,000 Each in CashTrump gave three aides $45,000 each in cash. Natalie Harp, Chamberlain Harris and Margo Martin each disclosed it as "Cash gift for holidays"; the Washington Post found the forms Wednesday. Each earns about $150,000. Walt Nauta got $20,000. Harp is "very much a trained propagandist," Zev said, and the money is "completely unethical, probably illegal, and no one's going to do anything about it because no one cares." "This is no different than what he did with Jeffrey and Ghislaine," Dean said.2️⃣ Trump Answers Carney's Tariffs With a Whisky BanMark Carney put C$27.6 billion of counter-tariffs into force Tuesday: 50 percent on American steel, aluminium and furniture. Trump signed five proclamations that evening banning Canadian alcohol, motorcycles over 800cc and whey from 29 September. He bans because he has hit the 1930 Tariff Act's 50 percent ceiling, Dean said. "He tariffed wigs and ice cream sticks. He didn't tariff potash. He didn't tariff critical minerals," Dean said. "We are in a fully functional trade war with our closest ally. And it's not going to end," Zev said; it looks like intentional weakening of the American economy.1️⃣ Trump Sinks Five Iranian Tankers and Promises $2 Gas After the ElectionUS forces sank five Iranian tankers Tuesday. Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired missiles at the US base in Jordan; Dean counted 60 Patriots fired to stop them. Trump keeps promising gas in the $2 range once the election is past. Americans pay $4.22 a gallon with Brent past $100, and CNBC counts nine oil and gas stocks in Trump's disclosures up $1.5 to $4.4 million since the war began. "Dean, this is looking like a war," Zev said. "Yeah, it's a war. It never ended. It doesn't matter what Trump says," Dean said. Trump has declared victory in Iran 66 times, Dean counted. "Let's go, America. Get it together," Dean said. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
- 1 weeks ago52 min
FiveStack LIVE: Iran Grabs US Robot Sub as Washington Says “Malfunction”
Today’s FiveStack is brought to you by GroundNews — FiveStack viewers get 40% off their Vantage plan.American forces destroyed five Iranian tankers Tuesday after the Revolutionary Guard fired missiles at a US warship twice in two days and missed. Iran claims it hit the American base at Al Azraq, Jordan; neither Jordan nor the Pentagon has confirmed it.5️⃣ Carney Charges Americans, Trump Swings at KansasMark Carney started charging Americans at one minute past midnight Tuesday: C$27.6 billion of American goods. Trump answered on Truth Social: “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” Bombardier builds for the Pentagon in Wichita, Kansas, so Kansas’s two Republican senators objected first. Carney is an economic whiz and Trump is an idiot, Zev said. Trump posted a still of himself thrashing Carney in a cartoon hockey fight, fans animated the rest, and to Zev’s eye the jersey looks Russian.4️⃣ Putin Bombs Kyiv Once Trump’s Envoys LeaveSteve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent the weekend in Moscow, then Kyiv, and Putin held his fire while they were in Kyiv. They left Sunday; at 3:30 Tuesday morning Russia fired 32 cruise missiles and 166 drones at the city, killing five, and at midday flew a drone into a newsroom mid-broadcast. Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign-policy aide, told reporters the two sides discussed “major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects.” Trump’s people are doing business with the men bombing Kyiv, Zev said.3️⃣ Trump’s 9/11 Firemen Now Carry HimTrump stood on the Ellipse Tuesday, FDNY firefighters around him, and told them two of their own carried him out of Ground Zero: “big, strong guys… they literally lifted me up.” He was never on the pile. He was four miles north, on the phone, telling a New Jersey TV station 40 Wall Street was now the tallest downtown. Newsday found him there two days later in a black suit, not a speck of dust on it. He sends JD Vance to Ground Zero on Friday and keeps the Pentagon for himself.2️⃣ Huckabee Threatens Britain, Netanyahu Shuts Its ConsulateEd Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, told the Commons as “a proud British Jew” that the West Bank settlers are carrying out ethnic cleansing, and banned their goods. Gideon Sa’ar, Netanyahu’s foreign minister, closed Britain’s East Jerusalem consulate by afternoon. Trump’s ambassador Mike Huckabee told the BBC British companies “will not be able to do business in Florida”; Rubio softened it within hours. Britain wrote the Balfour Declaration; Britain set up Israel. Netanyahu punished Britain for naming a crime, and Trump let his man threaten it for him.1️⃣ Iran Holds a US Robot Sub and the Left Press Looks AwayThis week’s Ground News Blindspot. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it captured one of America’s newest robot submarines in the Strait of Hormuz — an Anduril Dive-LD: Palmer Luckey’s machine, Peter Thiel’s money, JD Vance’s stock. A US official told Reuters an older drone malfunctioned a day earlier, nothing classified aboard. Iran didn’t capture it. Iran found it. Iran did the same with a CIA drone in 2011 and flew a copy into Israel in 2018; Zev expects the parade, then the copy. Ground News counts 67 outlets on it; of the 30 it rates, four lean left — 13 percent. Today’s FiveStack is brought to you by GroundNews — FiveStack viewers get 40% off their Vantage plan.Thank you LC - Silence is Complicity, Caro Henry, Robin Payes, Peter W Shuster, Noble Blend, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
- 2 weeks ago57 min
FiveStack LIVE: Gloria Steinem, Super-AI, Leon Black Sues Congress, Lutnick Wants Canada’s Break Up, USPS defies Judge
5️⃣ Gloria Steinem, 1934–2026Gloria Steinem died Wednesday at her home in New York, at 92, and Zev opened on what she actually invented: an arithmetic. People outnumbered on their own stop being outnumbered together. He first met the idea in a Sociology 101 lecture hall in South Africa, where it became scaffolding for a new constitution — and the reason that country wrote women’s rights and gay rights into law while others did not. Dana DuBois, who stepped out of her workday for the top of the show, said she had never known a world without Steinem’s influence, and called losing her nine days after Dolly Parton a devastating doubleheader. Ellie Leonard went to the 1963 Playboy Club exposé — Steinem in the costume, taking notes, later describing the operation as one run by an eight-year-old child.4️⃣ Sanders Moves to Ban the AI the Pentagon BuysBernie Sanders and Congressman Greg Casar called for an outright ban on artificial superintelligence, with a corporate death penalty for any company that builds it. Zev broke with them. Ban it here and the work moves rather than stops — the other side builds it anyway, and America loses both the race and any say in taming it. What July’s OpenAI breach argues for is regulation: safety vetted before a product ships, harms monitored after. Leonard, who lost her own job to the technology, took it to ground level. No person sits behind the report button any more when someone is threatened online, only an algorithm hunting keywords.3️⃣ Leon Black Sues Congress, Then Skips His DepositionLeon Black asked a federal judge to stop the House Oversight Committee enforcing two subpoenas, then failed to appear for the deposition they demanded. Leonard walked the sequence: Black was offered a voluntary interview, not under oath, walked out of it, and got subpoenaed twice — once for sworn testimony, once for the nondisclosure agreements he insists have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. He says he is protecting women’s privacy. Zev put the $158 million in context. Epstein was no accountant; he ran an art scheme through a trust, moving works between entities Black controlled to dodge tax under a loophole since closed. The pattern runs deeper. Black sat inside the firm that helped blow up 1987, then bought the wreckage cheap and built Apollo from it — an insider on both sides of the collapse, the same shape as 2008.2️⃣ Lutnick Campaigns for Canada’s BreakupNo American cabinet secretary has done what Howard Lutnick did this week: campaign in public for a neighbouring country to come apart. He blamed Mark Carney for trade talks his own last-minute demands killed, then told Ontario on television it does not measure up as a fifty-first state — while the State Department heard out the Albertans who want to leave. Trump followed on Truth Social, promising Carney’s economy would collapse. Reverse it, Zev noted, and there would be war. Canada is meanwhile growing on new partners in Europe and Asia, and the tariffs land on American buyers.1️⃣ A Whistleblower Says the Postal Service Kept BuildingJudge Indira Talwani has not ruled on the Postal Service’s mail-ballot screening system, and the show went to air without her decision. What did land is worse: a whistleblower says USPS kept building the voter portal after the court ordered it stopped, and the site may appear within days. Members of Congress want closed-door hearings. Set that beside ICE offering $5 million for a file of every American voter’s name, address and voting history. The file does not have to be accurate to work — Leonard described neighbours with passports and visas in order who now walk their documented children to school holding papers, and who will think twice about a polling place. Her advice for November: vote early, and confirm the ballot arrived.Thank you Dani Smart, Cat: Poli-Psych, LC - Silence is Complicity, Caro Henry, PsychiatRick, and many others for tuning into my live video with Ellie Leonard and Dana DuBois! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
About FiveStack with Dean Blundell & Zev Shalev
The Top 5 stories of the moment with Canada's #1 Shock Jock Dean Blundell and Former CBS News executive producer Zev Shalev. www.narativ.org
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