Coffee with MarkZ. 04/14/2025
I think so. See if I can keep up with everybody this morning. It’s going to be coming fast and quick.
Adam turning 43 yesterday. Maggie’s birthday. Make certain I get that one.
There you go. It’s actually you are at which neck of the woods the cold North Carolina neck of the woods or the warm Puerto Rican neck of the woods. Hello, big dong guy Kenley’s for me.
Happy birthday at the wedding. It was enjoyable. It of course was cold, you know, so much the collapsing polar vortex rough weekend to come home right.
That the wedding it was beautiful. It was cold and windy. The sun came out hadn’t been out the whole time came out like two minutes before the service because it was on the beach with the wind came out like two minutes before the service and two minutes after the service as everybody was walking walking back off the beach to get headed towards reception, etc.
It nailed it. Mother Nature was as kind as Mother Nature could be. That was for certain.
Give a mom update mom is doing much better. She’s probably listening right now. Going to have to do some changes to routines and prescription line, but she was after proper rest and getting that straight she was much better so probably lots of doctors this week as they readjust nearly losing somebody over doctors is kind of spooky shake you up a little.
Also let you know how much you got to stay on doctors to make certain that they are paying attention. Oh, wait a minute. What happened to Derek.
Let me see if I can find that when somebody said condolences to Derek let me see if I can find that that is my boy, Derek, you guys. And there’s been fighting the good fight for quite a while. Too funny.
Oh no, there’s Derek lost my grandmother Friday for 1100 years in five months Derek brother sending condolences and prayers your way hundred years of that is quite an accomplishment. Oh, wait, what’s this Rick Saudi Arabia plans to pay off serious World Bank debts in this getting interesting. I got some things to add on Syria this morning least I hope I put that one in there.
I may not have. It will be a little bit shortened today, I will be heading back to to PR headed back soon as we finish today headed towards airport connecting flight in Miami, get back to the warm should be back to normal podcast up tomorrow. By the time we get into Tuesday evening we should be well settled back into the routine Sandy celebrating mom’s 89th birthday today.
Isn’t that awesome. Trying to keep up with you all, man is it going quickly I’m going to miss a lot. Let’s see husband’s 34 years will be 64 on the 16th.
That would make a great one. Let’s see if we can get it done. Kathleen my code for bio socks is MZ 25 you can see it at the top of the page right here.
MZ 25 to get that 25% off make sure you get the 25% off. Let’s see. Jessica I’m not certain you mean all those below if all those above tier four being nobody above tier four are getting paid yet.
Shell bells husband’s gonna be 64 tomorrow we’re going to celebrate tomorrow we’re going to celebrate for Haley right now the happy birthday Miss Haley big 13th proper teenager now. I need to get into it, we need to get started because I do have to call it a little bit short today that’s gonna be 80 and 79 in central North Carolina roughly 80 degrees today after it has been just brutally cold and 50 some degree I mean just, oh, it’s getting warm, just in time for me to leave. But that’s okay too.
Mike’s daughter turning 19 today happy birthday to little Miss Fuller and morning brother if we could all pray for young man named coasting, who has leukemia. His great grandmother is on our discord group please pray for his family as well. Wow, that’s a tough one.
Prayers for coasting with leukemia. XRP Poseidon is saying I’ve seen they’re saying the rate is point oh one I’ve not seen that anywhere. XR Poseidon.
Remy the big one yesterday and that awesome at three and more so oh man you guys enjoy it let’s see my husband drannon’s 55th birthday today. Some was 15 yesterday happy birthday to drannon doing the double nickels. I am setting meet and greet for the next trip may 5 we’ll do one in the triad area, the Winston Greensboro high point somewhere in that area, may 5 planning on one and considering one out and bell haven on may 8 on the Thursday, while I am back for my daughter’s graduation want to make certain I spend more time with you all.
Surfer allergies are talking to me already alright guys I need to stay focused a little bit at least swollen limbs joint pain inflammation skin aging and cognitive decline. Did you know these are just a few of the awful side effects you can experience due to poor blood circulation for you reach for that bottle of ibuprofen you may want to read the laundry list of scary side effects on the back of the bottle ineffective expensive downright dangerous especially for seniors temporary pain relief. It’s only masking the true problem to top it all off ibuprofen it doesn’t even get to the main cause which is inflammation.
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And better yet for a limited time you can grab native path antarctic krill oil for up to 66% off by going to get native path.com forward slash mark Z for a free special well free shipping special offer again that is get native path.com forward slash mark Z. See, Remy that first part I bet the family had a good time on that one. Oh, little Barbara saying praise for Captain Kyle as well he’s in the hospital I did not know that speed racer was 62 yesterday. Sarah J we are pretty happy about 5027 here, Sarah J. I’ll try to send you some warm weather.
Charles what’s this sound out on kicking X. Good to see you in the house Charles. It’s going to be ripping Sierra had a birthday Saturday Greg’s daughter. Oh, how was that took the family see the Shen Yun yesterday classical Chinese ballet, simply breathtaking.
Oh, that is, that’s got to be neat going you have to tell me about it when I see you. Patricia some have but I totally don’t understand her question about those people being paid because we need a certain amount of them before we start. And they come before us not after us.
Jim B three, my niece had a wedding on Saturday. Captain Kyle they think he was poisoned, it is a scary thing right now. I’m trying to read a few of these and we got to get to it.
Brooke for today grandson Brooke. All right, we’re going to jump into it. Because we don’t have a tremendous amount of free time I don’t because I’ve got to get headed towards the airport.
Zester did not make it canceled flight too much to get through he wouldn’t have made it until after the actually he would have made it stateside about 30 minutes before the wedding but that wouldn’t have been time to get them to the wedding. But he’ll be back with me next month for graduation for his sister and get to go see family, grandparents, etc. So we good for him I did get to see a lot of good family.
All right, let’s get a let’s get into the news banner start through it, there will be quite a few questions I will have to leave hanging today because I have limited amount of time. We have a lot of information, and one that is I guarantee you going to get you guys super excited, at least one that is going to get you super excited. Parliament faces a constitutional challenge ready laws await vote and fate is in the hands of the blocks what are they trying to tell us, they’re telling it, it is ticking down, and they have a short time period to make all of these changes before they get into the election cycle so they are very pressured.
So they don’t have a constitutional crisis can handle their elections, look for a lot of activities what they’re telling us, look for budget HCL, a lot of agreements, suddenly occurring. This is important in my book because they are setting the stage right now. Economic is not possible to reduce the commercial dumping in Iraq I’ve been talking about this.
They simply don’t have the manufacturing base yet so they are going to have trade goods coming from out of country which causes trade imbalances. It is a mad scramble to get manufacturing up to speed and investment manufacturing in Iraq we’re doing the same thing in the US. This appears to be a global trend which personally I think is a good thing.
US congressman members visit Baghdad for key talks with Iraqi prime minister this is after all of the business folks now we are adding the political to speed up this massive amount of investment in Iraq from US investors. Iraq needs to be able to develop subsea oil pipeline we’re talking about upping the capacity to another should I say overall oil capacity to be able to pump another 2.4 million barrels per day. These offshore oil pipelines go out so that they can load unload tankers well this case unload tankers I mean load tankers so they can send it and sell it on the global market.
Big dollars for Iraq guys big dollars for Iraq. Here’s another fun one for you as we have Rubio sitting down with Barzani talking about just how things are going and how important the Kurdish region is to US. Continuing the friendship the alliance and how important it is to protect those US investments and Iraqi funds coming in from the Kurdish region.
In other words get the pipelines pumping that’s what it’s all about because they need it to support a new value it gets even better guys. Here’s a fun one. Plunging oil prices jeopardize Iraq’s budget will the government resort to dollar revaluation? In other words with oil falling Iraq is faced with some things if oil doesn’t change quickly they may have to go ahead and revalue their currency.
Being talked about right here in the news in Iraq talking about in the cycle and how they’re going to have to make some adjustments or they’re going to have to revalue. Right there guys see revaluation they’re talking about in Iraq right out in the open they’re not hiding it they’re discussing it that they may go ahead and pull that trigger if that doesn’t get you a little bit excited you’re dead. Right open conversation again right there we’re going to have to revalue which we’ve been waiting for and excited about right told you guys this is pushing us forward not backwards.
I wanted to share this one because this is something we’re going to start seeing in Iraq as well. April 18th is the final day to exchange the fifth issue of Kuwaiti currency and you have to exchange it with the central bank. Simply a reminder that the de-dollarization and the deleting a zeros program will lead to this down the road.
We will have a limited amount of time to turn in currency before the banks will start making them unacceptable their central bank will. I just wanted to show you that this mechanism exists for nations that change values. Expect it.
Speaking of changing values their Argentinian peso where’s the currency headed after the FX or exchange regime overhaul. They are going on to the free market after all of their changes. This is another currency that will be changing values soon it appears and again they’re talking about it right here mainstream news.
Reuters doing an article look for positive changes coming to countries. How many is three and just at this morning’s news. Beverly they didn’t say down the road they just well which one are you referring to Argentina or Iraq.
Iraq simply setting the stage so nobody’s surprised when it happens and supportive. Let’s turn that banner off because we got a lot of other news that I am in a hurry this morning because I have to get to the airport. Reading a few of these I’m chilly.
That is one thing I do need to add in that. Let’s put that one up. I did get a contact excuse me an update out of bonds.
They said this weekend this past week has gone exceptionally well and they hope to achieve that point during this week. I’m glad you posted that one in there well timed on that one Jay. I still see people asking me questions I’ve already answered so I’m just going to leave them on the table.
Maybe you joined late. Not so fast. Lutnick says semiconductor tariffs are coming in a month or two.
Exemption is only temporary. This is one of their favorite negotiation negotiating tactics. You have a temporary hold on some of the semiconductor ones.
If they want to see a longer hold they will have to go ahead and commit to manufacturing development in the US. So what they’re giving them is a time period to put their dollars where their mouth is before they put the tariffs in place. They can get longer exemptions but they have to go and pull the trigger on the manufacturing in the US.
They said that they are going to domesticate all of the strategic industries to the US so that we are not reliant on other countries. Included in that is pharmaceuticals. So we’ve got chips and a massive move to domesticate pharmaceuticals as well.
I’m loving this one. We see common sense returning to government. All right.
Illegal immigrants on the terror watch list received Medicaid unemployment insurance according to DOJ. Many of them received student loans, tax refunds, food stamps according to the Department of Defense. Guys, terror watch list.
These folks came in under the Biden administration and received their benefits under the Biden administration. Many of them on known terrorist criminal backgrounds received all kinds of government aid including student loans to be here. This is unreal when you start reading through it.
According to the Post, republished by the White House, Customs and Border Patrol has so far identified a subset of 6.3 thousand individuals paroled into the United States in 2023 on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center watch list or with criminal records. Immigration parole allows an illegal immigrant to temporarily live… Okay, you get the idea here. It gets into specifics.
Of these 6,300 paroled with terrorism or criminal histories carried a social security number. 6,300 carried social security numbers. Out of these, 905 individuals collected Medicaid totaling $276,000 in payouts.
41 received unemployment insurance collecting $42k worth of benefits. In addition, 22 got federal student loans worth $280,000. 409 received $751,000 in tax refunds in just 2024.
Not counting 2023. And many were recipients of bootstamp benefits according to DOJ. In other words, we were paying terrorists to be in our country.
Or were paying terrorists to be in our country. Alright, we’re going to keep going. Trump authorizes the military to take control of federal land along the southern border.
What does this mean, guys? I find this interesting. I’m going to shoot this past some of my border control contacts and military contacts. President Trump on April 11th issued a memorandum authorizing the U.S. military to take control of a strip of federal land along the southern border to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
This one’s going to be important because there is a big one right here. Basically, it’s a 60-foot. There’s a little more, but we have a federal, call it a right-of-way, call it whatever, federal land right along the border in many of the regions and areas.
I do want to point this one out too. Illegal border crossings have dropped to historic lows since Trump started his second term. Border Patrol reported fewer than 7,200 illegal immigrants encounters in March along the southern border, down from 189,000 during the same month in 2024.
But here’s where we need to back up, because it is. They’ve got, and somewhere in here, okay, here it is. This memo does not apply to Native American reservations, but does extend to the Roosevelt Reservation, which is a 60-foot-wide corridor owned by the federal government running along the U.S.-Mexico border in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Now, this is where it gets really interesting. Trump also authorized Hegseth to treat areas where troops are deployed as military installations, granting him the authority to protect and maintain those zones and restrict access as necessary. Okay, they’re deploying them all along that 60-foot-wide border.
This is going to get interesting. At any time, Trump noted, Hegseth may expand operations to additional federal lands along the southern border in coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, and other relevant agencies. They can treat them as if they are a military installation in this zone to protect and maintain.
What does that mean? Theoretically, guys, they could shoot first, ask later. I am wondering if they have set this up. As you now have, you run the risk of being shot for illegally crossing that border.
That’s what it reads like to me when I get in here and I dive. And I know that may not make sense at some point. If I tried to cross into South Korea or North Korea, I’d get shot.
If I tried to cross the border into Russia, I’d get shot. If I tried to cross the border into most countries, I would get shot. I am thinking they are moving that direction to properly, completely shut it down.
That’s the way I’m reading this one. And then we got just another interesting, the most important four minutes on America’s Middle East wars we have ever heard. Boy, I tell you, I do very much enjoy Mr. Sachs.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs strikes again, this time by dropping truth bombs at Saturday’s Antalya Diplomacy Forum. Below is a clip of his main stage speech, and you guys can listen to it if you want. I think this would be a great deep dive for some of you folks.
He told the audience while discussing regime change in Syria and America’s legacy in the region to look up the CIA’s Operation Timber Sycamore. While pointing out that this region, the Middle East, has been manipulated by Britain, France, and the U.S. for over 100 years since the Treaty of Versailles. It will not have safety or peace until the U.S. is out of the region.
If you think your big friend, the U.S., is going to do your bidding and help you get your way, Sachs asserted, empires divide rule. They’re not doing the bidding of Syria, Turkey. You’re calling the U.S. to balance Iran.
This is going to work out well. It’s not going to work out well. What he’s referring to is Timber Sycamore, classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States CIA and supported by the U.K. and some Arab intelligence services, including Saudi Arabia.
The aim of the program was to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. It supplied money, weapons, and training to Syrian opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces in Syrian civil war. It led to unrest.
It led to, quite literally, millions of dead civilians as we attempted regime change by supplying guerrillas, overthrow governments. We have a long history of this, or should I say the CIA has a long history of this. We have seen it throughout, and I love when he just points out the reality that we have to stop playing God in other governments.
K.C. Sweet, a friend and I watch air traffic borders. Very interesting between Yuma and Nogales. Much military hidden trails.
We have suspect military action for a couple weeks. K.C., I’ve been told very, very specifically that there are ongoing military operations now based on border and cartels. It is only a matter of time.
If you’re in a cartel, it’s only a matter of time before your whole compound’s just going to be boop. You’re going to get smart missiles going in your front door. It would be a heck of a good time to retire and get out.
I got through that faster than I thought I could possibly get through that. You can. I don’t know.
I could not touch the number of emails that came at me over this period. Many of you folks, just well wishes for my mother, the health, the wedding. But to say inundated would be an understatement.
There are probably going to be many hundreds of emails left untouched, unopened, and erased from the weekend just because it’s humanly impossible to touch them since the end of last week. Exactly. I need to get headed to the airport, get back to the warm, and back to Penny.
I’m looking forward to getting Penny. One thing I learned with this one, I need to spend more time back and forth, see the folks, see the family, see my mother. Jackie’s birthday, happy birthday.
Let’s sing happy birthday, but I will be doing a lot more over the summer and back and forth. I need to get things a little more settled on both sides of the, how do you put that? Both sides, both down there and here. I’m going to have to balance that with work.
You guys are probably going to get tired of seeing me. It does give me an opportunity to do a lot more in the way of events with you all, though. Blues Dog, 68 today.
Happy birthday, Blues Dog. I will see you guys this evening. I don’t land down there until almost 10 o’clock tonight, so it’ll be a fairly late night getting in the bed.
Where was I going on this one? Let me make certain I get all of the birthdays in. Let’s see what the market’s doing real quickly before I jump. They were hiding a lot of news coming out of the Asian markets, but we’re up 400 points so far this morning.
Gold down $18, $32.10. Silver sitting at $32.27. All that’s because the market’s up. People are unwinding positions so they can go back in the market in hopes of earning big dollars. Number one daughter, HB.
Happy birthday to Lex. Lex’s birthday. All right, stick a finger in it.
Wait. Arizona, I’m not having a Monday night podcast. That’s why I’ll see you tomorrow morning.
Makes it work out well, doesn’t it? All right. We have Gina, River, Adam, Maggie, Kinley, Haley. Wow.
And probably some of the worst handwriting I have ever, ever had. I couldn’t tell you what this other one, other than I think it starts with a D. Allie’s birthday as well. So they tell me it’s your birthday.
Well, happy birthday, darling. May you live, may you love. May all your dreams come true.
Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to all those celebrating. No podcast tonight.
No Monday night. We don’t do Monday night podcasts. Definitely not doing one tonight.
I see a number of people asking for some reason. I guess I wasn’t very clear on that one. So I’ll see you guys in the morning.
Shall be traveling today. Whip. We should have been doctors, right? Whip just said it’s okay, Mark.
I can’t read my handwriting either. We should have been doctors. Somebody want to know what? Ah, Shrim Daddy’s birthday.
Happy birthday. Somebody want to know what happened? Mother’s blood pressure dropped because of a bad prescription line. Dangerously, dangerously low.
All right. Now I can get out of here. See you folks in the morning.
