The Petrodollar Is Over | MBS on the Run | Musk Pulls the Plug on Ukraine

<p>Charlie opens with a question he’s been sitting on since a dinner with establishment friends: are we the weirdos? Peter’s answer is that the gap isn’t between sane people and doomers, it’s between smug people and people with their eyes open. The predictions of the dissident community on the Iran war have largely come true, right down to the Secretary of the Navy admitting the bases are gone, while the mainstream still frames everything as “the system is fine, just get rid of Trump.”Then the real story: Saudi Arabia. Aramco headquarters hit, Riyadh airport shut until at least the 17th, and the Wall Street Journal reporting that MBS is moving from bunker to bunker. Charlie argues that’s the end of the petrodollar and therefore the end of the dollar’s reserve status. Peter explains why Washington can’t help even if it wanted to: the munitions were burned up on the Houthis, and Trump expects rich allies to pay their own way. Peter also relays an unconfirmed Robert Barnes claim that Trump encouraged the strike on Sana’a out of vanity over Khamenei’s funeral crowds, and explains why replacing MBS solves nothing, why Saudi Arabia is far more fragile than Iran, and why Israel may be happy to accept its collapse as collateral damage.The back half turns to Ukraine: a bogus “Russian bots went offline” story, strikes on Kiev with no warning, and reports that Starlink has put a speed limit on terminals that effectively grounds Ukraine’s long range drones. Charlie’s take is that Musk may have accidentally done Ukraine a favor, like taking the keys from a drunk son. Peter is more cautious but says the Russian calculation is simple: any friction between Trump and Zelensky brings the end a little closer. Both agree this winter is the one to watch.00:00 Are we a couple of weirdos?01:09 Gaza and gas prices have broken through to the public04:09 This isn’t a cycle, it’s the end of US hegemony05:21 American smugness and the Israeli think tank calling US decline10:40 What the crisis will look like: energy, inflation, midterms12:02 Saudi Arabia and the end of the petrodollar15:07 Aramco hit, Riyadh airport shut, Trump “looking at it”16:50 If you designed a plan to kill the dollar20:49 MBS hiding from bunker to bunker: it’s over23:25 Did Trump push MBS into striking Sana’a out of vanity?28:22 Does Israel want Saudi Arabia to burn?38:41 How the US empowered extremists in Israel, Ukraine and Saudi41:03 Is Trump getting infinite bad options from AI?43:32 The bogus Russian bots st