“Reaching for the scars” is John’s theme this week — most people reach for the stars; the powers that be are reaching for our scars and inflicting fresh ones.

“Don’t Spy on Me” — a week of surveillance stories that read like satire: Flock cameras swarming an innocent man with armed police, garbage trucks that spy on you (your car already does), AI facial recognition at the grocery outlet, and an AI web where “we’re just rats in the walls.”

John Titus and Catherine Austin Fitts open with the U.S. 250th anniversary and preview Titus’s “War for Bankocracy” episode 4A on Alexander Hamilton, the Bank of New York, and private credit addiction.

John Titus and Catherine Austin Fitts argue the Iran conflict can be “lost” on three circuit breakers—military, energy, or financial—and contend the U.S. effectively lost due to inflation, energy constraints, and financial pressure rather than battlefield outcomes.

John Titus and Catherine Austin Fitts discuss their theme “Who’s in charge?” as geopolitical and market “theater” intensifies, focusing on Iran’s surprising strikes, the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed, Yemen’s Red Sea ban on Israeli-linked shipping, and the idea that the U.S. is banking on economic war while Iran pushes militarily, with central bankers and the bond market ultimately “calling the shots.”

John Titus and Catherine Austin Fitts frame the episode around “American Psychos,” comparing public officials’ cheerful talk of violence and confiscation to American Psycho, then discuss Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bragging about seizing Iranian crypto and properties without due process.