Speaker 1: Edward. Welcome to the other side of Midnight.
Speaker 2: Edward Walter, it's always a pleasure to be here. Thank
Speaker 2: you for having me on again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you're a great you have a great source
Speaker 1: of information about world affairs, military world affairs. Edward is
Speaker 1: a marine. I almost said former marine, but all marines
Speaker 1: are always marines. He has a unique perspective on the
Speaker 1: situation in the Straits of Harmus in the Middle East.
Speaker 1: And you keep saying this phrase to me over and
Speaker 1: over again that I think we should share, which is
Speaker 1: that we're fighting for wars. Is that correct?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct, Walter. And it's I mentioned a week
Speaker 2: or so ago that as soon as I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm watching a fief of soccer match with twelve nations
Speaker 2: teams on the field at the same time. It's very complex.
Speaker 2: But all of this craziness is affecting us here in
Speaker 2: the US and around the world. I mean, maybe see
Speaker 2: prices going up and all those kind of stuff, economics
Speaker 2: and what have you. So so yeah, I know it,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't want to go up into the
Speaker 2: weeds there. But there's a lot of stuff happening with
Speaker 2: Iran right the last over the last a few days
Speaker 2: and it started, I think with Friday with with Trump
Speaker 2: saying that he wanted to declare the straight up mus
Speaker 2: the territory of the US. And he said that in
Speaker 2: New York at a Republican function supporting candidates here, and
Speaker 2: then news picked that up. And I think he wants
Speaker 2: to do a you know, a Venezuela or you know,
Speaker 2: something like that. Who knows, really, but this has been
Speaker 2: on his mind since Greenland, you know, in Canada and Venezuela,
Speaker 2: and now he's talking about making the Strait and the
Speaker 2: territory of the US. But who knows?
Speaker 1: I mean, so which No, listen, I think it's hysterical. Frankly,
Speaker 1: there's no way in hell that would ever happen that
Speaker 1: he was that anybody is going to make it a
Speaker 1: US territory as a body of water. I don't know
Speaker 1: why it hasn't happened with Venezuela or why not. We Uh,
Speaker 1: we're still challenged in managing our territories, the ones that
Speaker 1: we have are still challenged.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Therefore and and oh yeah Greenland. Yeah, anyway, listen, what
Speaker 1: what are the four wars that we're battling right now?
Speaker 1: Can you sum it up? What are the four battles
Speaker 1: were focused on right now where we are. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: think and what you, as an expert think is going to.
Speaker 2: Happen, Well, you know, it's the US, It's US Iran war,
Speaker 2: it's the Israeli has ball of war in Lebanon. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, you have the Hooties that are right now
Speaker 2: engaged in war with with Saudi Arabia and they've blocked
Speaker 2: their street on the other side, the Red Sea side,
Speaker 2: they've blocked their street attacking Saudi Arabian ships, and they're
Speaker 2: at war with the country that they've got half of
Speaker 2: which is Yemen. So that's those things are going on.
Speaker 2: And then lastly we've got the Gaza situation is still
Speaker 2: not settled, you know, and it doesn't look like it
Speaker 2: will be because Menta Nahoo just does not want to
Speaker 2: go along with Trump's boarded peace plan. And I have
Speaker 2: good reasons why I think he doesn't want to do that.
Speaker 2: But those are the four main areas. So you and
Speaker 2: Iron's fingers are in all of this because they ran
Speaker 2: Is financing the Huti's, they're financing the Hesbalala in Lebanon,
Speaker 2: and they're financing hamas and you know what they did
Speaker 2: and TODs Israel over particularly on October seventh. So this
Speaker 2: is what's happening. And then there's some fringe stuff going
Speaker 2: on in Iraq, which the Iraqi militia is closely a
Speaker 2: militia is closely aligned with with they're on and they're
Speaker 2: acting up every now and then shooting at Syria. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff going on. But yeah, that those
Speaker 2: are the four and I don't see any of those
Speaker 2: really coming to fruition in the near term. I really don't.
Speaker 2: You know, each side is pretty hard nosed about where
Speaker 2: they are right now.
Speaker 1: Edward Jones, expert on military situations the Middle East, a
Speaker 1: former current marine. What about the price of gas.
Speaker 2: Well, gas prices, you know, I was on last Monday,
Speaker 2: a week ago, and they're still continuing this slow trend up.
Speaker 2: And what alarms me a bit is is that, you know,
Speaker 2: they had reached their lowest prices around the end of July,
Speaker 2: and now they've recovered all that lost that ground. They're
Speaker 2: backup to where they were beginning of August. And so
Speaker 2: the Brent crude, which is the major market indicator, is
Speaker 2: eighty eight seventy and eighty nine dollars a barrel regular
Speaker 2: gas is four h seven over the last two weeks,
Speaker 2: that's gone up about six and seven cents. The mid range,
Speaker 2: which we laugh about a little bit, that's four fifty
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, you have four point fifty seven, and then
Speaker 2: the premium is almost five dollars. It's four ninety six
Speaker 2: right now. Diesel is at five forty five. So this
Speaker 2: is national average gas prices Walters. So regions such as
Speaker 2: New York, you know, California, of course, you know region
Speaker 2: are going to see see higher prices here and there,
Speaker 2: depending on some retail conditions. But yeah, that's what's going on.
Speaker 2: My sister who's out in Long Island. My Bell weather
Speaker 2: person said, well, what about heating oil, and I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: heating oil is that's something I started to take a
Speaker 2: look at. And heating oil right now, you know, in
Speaker 2: this area anyway, Northeast area is about four twenty seven
Speaker 2: wholesale a gallon, but you know, retail is up around
Speaker 2: four point fifty five for seventy five a gallon, and
Speaker 2: that's trending up. Also the economy, I just want to
Speaker 2: touch on this too, because oil and gas are used
Speaker 2: in many, many, many products. I mean, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: everything every every plastic, everything from from detergents and the
Speaker 2: detergents that can contain us for in the plastics, the
Speaker 2: rubbery things, the tampons. I mean, all of this stuff
Speaker 2: has been going up and they're going to continue to
Speaker 2: grow go up. Groceries have gone up nationally three percent
Speaker 2: in the last the last year of h to where
Speaker 2: we are today. And yes, so all of these things
Speaker 2: are are just going to keep keep pushing inflation. And uh.
Speaker 2: And again, as I said Monday, I just I continue
Speaker 2: looking at this because the negotiations have stolled. And by
Speaker 2: the way, today is a very very significant day, Walter. Uh.
Speaker 2: Today the m o U, the is Alamabad mo o U.
Speaker 2: That's the official title of that MoU. That memorandum of
Speaker 2: understanding expires today.
Speaker 1: Oh so the original thin memo of understanding expires today.
Speaker 1: Haven't heard about that on traditional media. Very glad you
Speaker 1: on this alternative media show was able to remind us
Speaker 1: that the original memo of understanding between the United States
Speaker 1: of America and Iran is over.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a fact that HiT's over. And maybe if
Speaker 2: we just scoop some of these big guys again, I
Speaker 2: don't know what.
Speaker 1: Well they're useless. I'm telling you, you know, and I
Speaker 1: know how big guys work because I hung around them
Speaker 1: for much of my career. The way they all work,
Speaker 1: traditional news media all work is they watch each other
Speaker 1: and they feel they are successful if they have exactly
Speaker 1: the same stories in exactly the same order. They look
Speaker 1: at that each of the nightly news says, well, what
Speaker 1: they have with it, and they watch it and they
Speaker 1: believe that if they get exactly what the other guy got,
Speaker 1: that's the success. To me, there couldn't be a greater failure.
Speaker 1: But that's how they think.
Speaker 2: That's right. You're exactly right, and you know, independence can
Speaker 2: can get the sources that you know they don't have
Speaker 2: and what have you. But I just want to quickly
Speaker 2: say that this really occurred to me here Walter, is
Speaker 2: something that's really I think striking. And to Trump's credit,
Speaker 2: I really see this. He's out there. They're coming up
Speaker 2: now with an idea that they're going to you know,
Speaker 2: bankrupt you know, I mentioned Secretary Treasury Besson to the
Speaker 2: adults in the room there. You know, they're going to
Speaker 2: keep lairing on sanctions, you know, blockade that they say
Speaker 2: that they can maintain the naval blockade indefinitely, all to
Speaker 2: create economic pain in Iran. So they closed all the
Speaker 2: imports coming into the country. And now they're talking about
Speaker 2: the land blockade. Walter, and this is where he gets interesting. This.
Speaker 2: I'm fascinated with this because Trump is creating a NATO,
Speaker 2: if you will. It looks like they're going in this
Speaker 2: direction among countries that are surrounding in the area surrounding
Speaker 2: Iran and some I'll just rattle off a couple We're
Speaker 2: not going to go there, just to let you know
Speaker 2: what he's building. He's building a NATO in this region
Speaker 2: of the world, Okay, an even NATO like organization. And
Speaker 2: you know these are countries Iraq, which we mentioned. Iraq
Speaker 2: has the Kurdistan region where it occurred to love him.
Speaker 2: They love us there, Okay. So he has Iraq, which
Speaker 2: is on board the Kurdistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, by the way,
Speaker 2: was hold on the side, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia. These countries
Speaker 2: together would create an enormous land blockade to the north
Speaker 2: of Iran. And this is what they're putting together, which
Speaker 2: I think is really remarkable because you know the name,
Speaker 2: don't folks the Europeans kind of turned the back, and
Speaker 2: by the way, the Koreans turned the back on us,
Speaker 2: and he's sort of hammering them now. He canceled the
Speaker 2: military exercises with South Korea because.
Speaker 1: And he said, now now that you're now that you're
Speaker 1: mentioning South Korea, it's more than my brain can handle.
Speaker 1: But I appreciate what I appreciate what you're saying. He's
Speaker 1: forming a NATO in the Middle East, and that takes
Speaker 1: quite the president. Edward Jones, an expert on the Middle East,
Speaker 1: an expert on military operations, always makes things simple for
Speaker 1: my simple brain. Thank you very much for being on
Speaker 1: the other side of midnight