Episode Details

Monday, June 1, 2026, Istanbul

The same people who goaded Donald Trump into launching a war of choice against Iran that would be over in a few days or weeks are now signaling that the US president should just stay the course for another two-and-a-half years!

This comes as the US and Iran again exchanged fire overnight Sunday to Monday. The US hit Iranian missile bases along southwestern Iran’s coast. Iran responded with missile strikes on US positions in Kuwait. No casualties were reported by either side.

On today’s edition of badlands, I discuss delusions and propaganda disguised as policy with Brett Erickson, a dynamic analyst at the risk advisory firm Obsidian whose razor-sharp takes on the Iran conflict stand out.

As both negotiations and low-level warfare continue, the world economy, is in deep trouble, he warns.

“The problem is basically we’re in energy war right now,” he tells me. “And unfortunately Iran can withstand this much longer than the global economy can.”

Erickson notes that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is costing the world 12.8 million barrels of oil per day. “We’re above 1.1 billion barrels lost in total now,” he says. “And it’s going to take time to conduct mine-clearing operations. It’s going to take time to negotiate this memorandum of understanding still. We then need to get tankers out of the Gulf and get them back into the Gulf. And it’s just a long timeline that could extend quite significantly.”

Also on today’s show, I discuss the latest in Iran with updates on the diplomatic struggle to end the conflict in a pair of interviews with India’s NewsX World.

Plus, why Israel has stepped up its war efforts in Lebanon.

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