The Speak Easy

10/16/2026

In 1977, President Carter called Iran "an island of stability." 24 years later, President Bush called it part of the "axis of evil."

Same country. Same oil. So what happened?

In this Straight Talk long-form, Blake breaks down the through-line they don't teach — from Bretton Woods and the Saudi oil deal, to the 1953 CIA coup of Mosaddegh, the Shah, SAVAK, the 1979 Revolution and Hostage Crisis, the Iran-Iraq War, and the secret missile sales that became Iran-Contra.

And why the dollar still matters: how oil money flowing into U.S. Treasuries — a deal made secret in 1974 and only revealed in 2016 — created the sanctions power America uses today.

This is about oil, the dollar, and power.

10/15/2026

Follow Democracy Docket. Marc Elias is the attorney arguing for many of the voting rights cases on the front lines.

10/15/2026

Imagine someone warning you that the Ten Commandments were coming to your town and demanding we ban Christianity before it takes over America. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But replace Christianity with Islam and the Ten Commandments with Sharia Law, and suddenly people are sounding the alarm. Here's the thing: The Constitution protects your right to practice your religion, not your right to impose it on everyone else. That applies to Christians, Muslims, and every other faith. Freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom for just YOUR religion. And if we're going to start enforcing the Ten Commandments, I suspect a few politicians might want to revisit that one about adultery.
The Speak Easy News — Straight Talk. No Chaser.

10/15/2026

FROM NEW PRESS SECRETARY TO A POSSIBLE YEAR IN JAIL?
Well, this is awkward.
Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, has repeatedly described herself as a lawyer and even held the title of “general counsel.”
Just one little problem.
Nobody can seem to find her law license.
She graduated from Pepperdine Law School, but reportedly failed the California bar exam.
When a reporter asked where she passed the bar, she appeared to answer, “When I moved to China.”
China? Seriously?

10/14/2026

🚨 Russia is rearming Iran, and the "mission accomplished" story is falling apart.
• Oct. 9: Bloomberg reports that Iran kept its missile and drone factories and is rebuilding its arsenal
• A Western official says Russia is supplying Iran with missiles
• Sept. 30: Hegseth said we destroyed Iran's "entire defense base"
• The White House rejects the assessment, and Russia didn't comment
• Same week: Washington eased sanctions on Russian fuel to cut prices, with no public condition that Russia stop arming Iran
• Unverified: a claim that Iran is paying Russia in discounted oil for arms rests on one anonymous source so far
Full story up now on The Speak Easy News LLC Substack
Straight talk no chaser

10/14/2026

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The President says China and Russia are not helping Iran at all.

His own administration, the summit in August, and U.S. intelligence reporting say something different.

And since March, American satellite companies stopped releasing imagery of the war zone at the government's request. Chinese companies didn't.

Vibes don't intercept missiles.

10/12/2026

Who runs the Federal Reserve? Trick question nobody's supposed to.
Trump just created his own 3-person White House committee to investigate Fed Governor Lisa Cook over 2021 mortgage paperwork, with a closed-door hearing Nov. 5. The committee: Kevin Hassett, Keith Sonderling, Andrea Lucas. Cook denies it and has never been charged.
Why it matters: The Fed's 7 governors serve 14-year terms so no President can touch interest rates before an election. We tried the other way — Nixon/Burns in '72 led to 70s inflation, Volcker had to hike to 20% to fix it. Turkey fired its central bankers and hit 80% inflation.

If the Fed cuts because the boss says so, your long-term mortgage and car loan go UP, not down.
Full sourcing in comments. Straight talk. No chaser.

10/11/2026

Putin gets funds for his Ukraine invasion. Trump gets a headline. And America gets 15 hours of diesel.
My new article, The Diesel Loop, follows the whole circuit: Friday's Russian diesel deal, the 300,000 tons that covers roughly 15 hours of U.S. demand, the shifting explanations for high prices, and the drone war tying Iran, Russia, and your fuel pump together.If independent history like this matters, share it with one person who hasn't heard it.


Read the full sourced breakdown here: https://speakeasynews.substack.com/p/the-diesel-loop?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=14vnow

10/10/2026

I think we forgot what it actually means to be American.
It was never one race, one religion, one bloodline, or one language.
It was Native people who were already here.
People brought here in chains who forced this country to live up to its own words.
Chinese laborers who laid the track. Irish immigrants who took the jobs no one wanted.
Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, atheists.
Women who marched for the vote. Americans who sat at lunch counters where they weren't welcome.
America isn't perfection. It's the unfinished work of making "We the People" bigger.
E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
When did your family become American? Where did they come from?
Tell your story below — I'd love to read it.

10/09/2026

America’s story about Iran often starts with the hostages.
But what happens when you start with the coup?
Oil. A U.S.-backed ruler. A revolution. Secret American weapons sales that helped fund rebels in Nicaragua. And later, cooperation in Afghanistan—just before Iran landed on the “axis of evil.”

If that sounds contradictory, pull up a chair.

My latest Speak Easy article follows the decisions that turned Washington and Tehran into enemies—and the moments they found common ground.
Read “Iran and the United States: From Oil to Iran-Contra and Afghanistan.”

Straight Talk. No Chaser.

On New Year’s Eve 1977, President Jimmy Carter called Iran “an island of stability.” Just over twenty-four years later, President George W. Bush placed Iran on the “axis of evil.” Same country. Same oil.