August 12, 2025 • 16 mins
Some weeks are loud.
Some weeks are deafening.
This one isn’t just noise…it’s the kind of week that leaves the air heavy, the headlines sharp, and the ground under your feet just a little less steady.
I’m talking about moments when the news isn’t simply moving fast — it’s moving in ways that change the shape of the conversation, the rules, and maybe even the boundaries we thought were solid.
The kind of shifts you don’t notice at first glance, but you feel them in your gut.
This episode dives into a series of events that, on their own, would raise eyebrows — but together, paint a picture that’s impossible to ignore.
The pieces are on the table, the moves are being made, and the pattern that emerges is one you won’t want to miss.
Are these events just coincidence?
Or something far more sinister?
If you’ve been paying attention, you already know the signs. If you haven’t… now might be the time to start.
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a world gone mad.
This is a world gone mad, mad,mad, mad, mad.
Hello, I'm Jeff Allen Wolfe.
Welcome back to A World GoneMad, and it's time for Monday
Fallout.
The headlines are radioactive,the truth is buried in the
(00:21):
rubble and I'm here to dig itout Now.
Systems are breaking, Trustgone, power plays everywhere and
before I get into today'sfallout, I want to say this yes,
I hear you listeners.
(00:48):
I know a lot of you feel likethe news right now is a fire
hose hooked up to a cement truckaimed directly at your brain.
It's exhausting, it'soverwhelming, and sometimes it
feels like the only thing youcan do is curl up and wait for
the next round to hit.
But here's the thing we're notpowerless.
Step one is staying engaged.
Keep your eyes open, keepasking questions, keep refusing
(01:11):
to look away, even when you'drather scroll videos on TikTok
of raccoons stealing hot dogs.
Step two find your lane.
You can't fix everything unlessyou're secretly Batman, in
which case thanks for listeningto the podcast, but you can push
(01:33):
back where you live, where youwork, where your voice actually
lands.
And step three stay connected.
Talk to the people who care,who think, who challenge you,
people who don't just nod alonglike dashboard bobbleheads.
(01:56):
That's how you keep perspective, keep your sanity and keep from
throwing your phone into a lakewhen the big picture feels out
of reach and, most of all, staywatchful.
Okay, here we go, and here's thefirst headline the President of
(02:19):
the United States just tookover Washington DC's police
department.
United States just took overWashington DC's police
department.
Not advised, not coordinated,not sent them a nice fruit
basket with suggestions.
Took over the police department, handed control to his attorney
(02:46):
general, rolled in 800 NationalGuard troops, sprinkled in the
FBI, the DEA and ATF agents forflavor.
You know, it's like Avengers,the Avengers superhero team, but
if every superhero's power wassearch warrant?
Now, dc isn't a state, whichmeans and this is important it's
under a different set of rules.
(03:07):
In a real city with statehood,the president can't just walk in
and say nice police force,you've got here.
Shame if someone federallycontrolled it Because of the way
DC's home rule works.
There's a legal backdoor wherethe president can claim a public
safety emergency and takecharge.
(03:29):
That's what happened, and it'srare think comet landing on your
house.
Rare.
Trump says it's about crime,except crime in DC is down 26%
this year, which means thisisn't a fire alarm.
This is the guy pulling thefire alarm, then showing up with
(03:52):
a hose and saying don't worry,I'll handle this.
It's political theater witharmed extras.
And then here's the fun partTrump warned other cities this
would be coming their way.
Imagine your city's mayor's dayCoffee, emails and a
(04:14):
presidential threat that Trumpmight just waltz in and take
over your police department too.
This is the kind of thing thatdoesn't just happen in
democracies.
It happens in places where lawand order means my law, my order
.
Now I'm not saying this ismartial law, but it's definitely
(04:37):
shopping in the same aisle, andif we don't pay attention, one
day we might wake up and findthe carts already full.
And here's where it stops beinga hypothetical and starts
looking like a pattern.
In just days, trump will meetprivately, privately, with
(04:59):
Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The same Trump who justcentralized police power in the
Capitol will be sitting downwith a man who has perfected the
art of turning temporarymeasures into permanent control.
This isn't cute.
This isn't routine politics.
This is dangerous.
(05:22):
The question isn't whether DCwas a one-off stunt.
The question is what's next?
Tomorrow, next month?
And if you think it can'thappen where you live, ask
yourself how many times inhistory people have said exactly
that right before it did?
From seething control in DC toa closed-door session with
(05:46):
Vladimir Putin in Alaska, thisweek isn't just busy.
It's starting to look like amasterclass at how power gets
traded off the record.
Friday, trump will sit downwith Putin and here's the kicker
there will be no one in theroom to take notes, no American
transcriber, no official record,not even some poor intern with
(06:11):
a yellow legal pad pretending tokeep up.
That's the opposite of howpresidents are supposed to
operate.
Usually, you bring your ownperson to write down exactly
what's said, not for gossip, butso there's a factual,
accountable record of whatcommitments get made on behalf
of the United States.
(06:31):
Without that, the only truth weget is whatever Trump and Putin
decide to tell us afterward ordecide not to tell us afterward,
or decide not to tell us whichmeans we could get anything from
a polished White Housestatement to Putin's next year
in review calendar.
Second, this isn't just coffeewith a foreign dignitary.
(06:56):
This is Vladimir Putin, the guywho has spent decades
dismantling democracies.
Like other people collect snowglobes.
Ukraine is still under attack,nato is still holding the line
and Trump has openly floatedland swaps that would hand
(07:18):
Russia permanent control ofUkrainian territory.
That's not peacemaking.
That's basically sayingcongrats on your invasion,
here's the deed to the place.
And third, this isn't someminor diplomatic misstep.
This could be the totalcapitulation of Ukraine.
(07:40):
Lock, stock and barrel, hand itto Putin, because Trump is
willing to do his bidding.
All this without Ukraine'sinvolvement.
If that happens, it tells everyauthoritarian watching that you
can take what you want by force,and the United United States
(08:01):
might even gift wrap it for you.
That's not just dangerous, it'san open invitation for more
wars, more invasions and areshaping of the world map in
ways that will come crashingback on us.
No American witness, notranscript and remember, no
(08:21):
accountability.
No transcript and remember, noaccountability.
Just two men in a room, onedesperate to hold onto power,
trump, the other an expert atshowing him how to keep it,
putin.
That's not transparency, that'sa black box with global
consequences.
And if you thought the week'sinsanity stopped at a black box
(08:43):
in Alaska, think again.
Russia just whipped up its ownpromise not to deploy short and
medium range nuclear missiles.
That's right.
They had taken a self-imposedmoratorium, basically their
version of saying, hey, don'tworry, we'll keep these nuclear
missiles in the back of thecloset and then Russia just set
(09:08):
that on fire.
Medvedev's out there talkingabout NATO's hostile posture
like he's the aggrieved party,and within hours Trump answered
by moving nuclear submarinescloser to Russia.
It's like two guys in a barfight who've decided to skip the
punches and go straight topulling out chainsaws.
(09:31):
This is straight out of theCold War playbook, except now
the stakes are even higherbecause the players are less
predictable.
Dictators, I mean leaders, okay.
Less predictable dictators, Imean leaders Okay, I meant
dictators.
Back then we at least had backchannels, treaties, red phones,
(09:55):
something.
Now we've got Putin with zerorestraints, and Trump the same
Trump who just put the nation'scapital under federal control
and warned other cities theycould be next Walking into a
private meeting with Putin in amatter of days.
(10:15):
And remember again no Americanwitnesses, no transcript, just a
perfect opportunity for two mento discuss whatever they want
about nuclear posturing, with noone to tell us what was
promised or traded.
So is this Russian missile movedirectly tied to Trump's DC
takeover and their Alaskameeting?
(10:36):
Officially, no, there's nopublic statement linking them.
But in reality you have to lookat the timing.
In the same week, trump flexesraw federal power in DC
schedules a private sit-downwith Putin and Russia tears up a
major nuclear constraint.
It doesn't take a tinfoil hatto see this is a part of a
(11:00):
bigger reshuffling of power.
At the very least it's a stresstest On NATO, on US resolve, on
whether anyone will push back.
And here's the kicker listeners.
When a country like Russiareintroduces these kinds of
missiles, it's not just aboutpointing them at Europe, it's
(11:23):
about destabilizing the entiresecurity map.
It forces NATO to respond, itforces the US to posture and it
increases the risk of asplit-second miscalculation that
could trigger something nobodycan walk back.
Three moves in one week.
Trump federalizes the police inDC, warns other cities, meets
(11:46):
Putin privately.
Putin's government then ditchesthe nuclear restraint that's
been in place for years.
And now, add to all of this,ukraine's President Zelensky is
banging on the door, backed byNATO and the EU, just trying to
get into that Alaska meetingroom before decisions about his
(12:08):
country are made without him.
If you want the perfect imagefor where Ukraine stands now,
it's this A global scene at 2.17am.
Zelensky's message delivered,read and ignored.
While the big power swap landand war plans like they're
trading stories at a poker table, the only thing frozen might be
(12:32):
the fate of a nation.
This is in three separateheadlines.
It's one picture Domestic powergrabs at home, strategic muscle
flexing abroad and an allyfighting for survival, while the
US president meets hisadversary in private.
It's a reminder that whentransparency disappears and
(12:56):
power consolidates, thedecisions made in those closed
rooms don't stay there.
They spill out onto the worldwe all have to live in.
If that's all just coincidence,then so is the fact that
thunderstorms happen duringhurricanes.
Wolfpack listeners.
(13:18):
I know it feels like all of thisis out of control, and a lot of
it is, but not all of it.
There are things you can doright now, and it bears
repeating.
You've heard this before.
Call your local representative,your senator, your member of
Congress.
Tell them exactly how you feelabout what's going on.
Don't just yell into the void.
(13:39):
Make it viable, make itspecific and make it impossible
for them to pretend they didn'thear it.
Demand that Democrats findtheir voice and say something
out loud instead of letting thisslide in by silence.
And, while you're at it, stayconnected to the people who care
(13:59):
, who think and who are payingattention.
That's how you turnhelplessness into a little bit
of leverage, and leverage is howchange starts is how change
starts.
By the way, I want to thankeveryone who's been reaching out
the emails, the phone calls,the text messages.
It's been a lot lately andhere's the interesting part
(14:22):
About 99% of those emails andvoice messages have been from
brand new listeners, people whojust found the show, heard
what's going on and decided theyhad to speak up.
That's great.
I love that, but it also makesme wonder if these new listeners
can make the time to pick upthe phone and leave a voice
(14:44):
message or hit send with anemail.
What could happen if everyonelistening right now does the
same thing, including those ofyou who have been with me since
day one Did the same thing.
Imagine the noise we could makeif we all pushed together.
You could call me at833-399-9653, 24-7, free voice
(15:09):
mailbox, or email me atmadworldtalk at gmailcom.
M-a-d-w-o-r-l-d-t-a-l-k.
At gmail.
If you've got something to say,don't sit on it, say it, use
the phone, use the email.
You know, without hearing fromyou, I am sitting in a room
(15:32):
talking to myself.
Also, please leave a review onApple or Spotify.
It's the only way my podcastgets noticed instead of being
buried.
Hey, I show up every day tocall out people and news for
what they are.
Sure, you might have heard thissomewhere else, but not like
this.
I don't dress it up, I don'twater it down down and I sure as
(15:56):
hell don't run it through afilter.
This has been a world gone mad.
Monday's fallout edition.
I'm Jeff Alan wolf.
I'll be back Wednesday becausesomeone has to say this shit.
No one else will and apparently, apparently that job's mine.
Until then, wolfpack listeners,stay skeptical, stay focused
(16:18):
and, most of all, stay hopeful.
We need to stand up andpreserve our democracy.
This is a world gone mad.
(16:44):
This is a world gone mad, mad,mad, mad.
This is a world gone mad.
This is a world gone mad, mad,mad, mad, mad.
Hello, I'm Jeff Allen Wolfe.
Welcome back to A World GoneMad, and it's time for Monday
Fallout.
The headlines are radioactive,the truth is buried in the
(00:21):
rubble and I'm here to dig itout Now.
Systems are breaking, Trustgone, power plays everywhere and
before I get into today'sfallout, I want to say this yes,
I hear you listeners.
(00:48):
I know a lot of you feel likethe news right now is a fire
hose hooked up to a cement truckaimed directly at your brain.
It's exhausting, it'soverwhelming, and sometimes it
feels like the only thing youcan do is curl up and wait for
the next round to hit.
But here's the thing we're notpowerless.
Step one is staying engaged.
Keep your eyes open, keepasking questions, keep refusing
(01:11):
to look away, even when you'drather scroll videos on TikTok
of raccoons stealing hot dogs.
Step two find your lane.
You can't fix everything unlessyou're secretly Batman, in
which case thanks for listeningto the podcast, but you can push
(01:33):
back where you live, where youwork, where your voice actually
lands.
And step three stay connected.
Talk to the people who care,who think, who challenge you,
people who don't just nod alonglike dashboard bobbleheads.
(01:56):
That's how you keep perspective, keep your sanity and keep from
throwing your phone into a lakewhen the big picture feels out
of reach and, most of all, staywatchful.
Okay, here we go, and here's thefirst headline the President of
(02:19):
the United States just tookover Washington DC's police
department.
United States just took overWashington DC's police
department.
Not advised, not coordinated,not sent them a nice fruit
basket with suggestions.
Took over the police department, handed control to his attorney
(02:46):
general, rolled in 800 NationalGuard troops, sprinkled in the
FBI, the DEA and ATF agents forflavor.
You know, it's like Avengers,the Avengers superhero team, but
if every superhero's power wassearch warrant?
Now, dc isn't a state, whichmeans and this is important it's
under a different set of rules.
(03:07):
In a real city with statehood,the president can't just walk in
and say nice police force,you've got here.
Shame if someone federallycontrolled it Because of the way
DC's home rule works.
There's a legal backdoor wherethe president can claim a public
safety emergency and takecharge.
(03:29):
That's what happened, and it'srare think comet landing on your
house.
Rare.
Trump says it's about crime,except crime in DC is down 26%
this year, which means thisisn't a fire alarm.
This is the guy pulling thefire alarm, then showing up with
(03:52):
a hose and saying don't worry,I'll handle this.
It's political theater witharmed extras.
And then here's the fun partTrump warned other cities this
would be coming their way.
Imagine your city's mayor's dayCoffee, emails and a
(04:14):
presidential threat that Trumpmight just waltz in and take
over your police department too.
This is the kind of thing thatdoesn't just happen in
democracies.
It happens in places where lawand order means my law, my order
.
Now I'm not saying this ismartial law, but it's definitely
(04:37):
shopping in the same aisle, andif we don't pay attention, one
day we might wake up and findthe carts already full.
And here's where it stops beinga hypothetical and starts
looking like a pattern.
In just days, trump will meetprivately, privately, with
(04:59):
Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The same Trump who justcentralized police power in the
Capitol will be sitting downwith a man who has perfected the
art of turning temporarymeasures into permanent control.
This isn't cute.
This isn't routine politics.
This is dangerous.
(05:22):
The question isn't whether DCwas a one-off stunt.
The question is what's next?
Tomorrow, next month?
And if you think it can'thappen where you live, ask
yourself how many times inhistory people have said exactly
that right before it did?
From seething control in DC toa closed-door session with
(05:46):
Vladimir Putin in Alaska, thisweek isn't just busy.
It's starting to look like amasterclass at how power gets
traded off the record.
Friday, trump will sit downwith Putin and here's the kicker
there will be no one in theroom to take notes, no American
transcriber, no official record,not even some poor intern with
(06:11):
a yellow legal pad pretending tokeep up.
That's the opposite of howpresidents are supposed to
operate.
Usually, you bring your ownperson to write down exactly
what's said, not for gossip, butso there's a factual,
accountable record of whatcommitments get made on behalf
of the United States.
(06:31):
Without that, the only truth weget is whatever Trump and Putin
decide to tell us afterward ordecide not to tell us afterward,
or decide not to tell us whichmeans we could get anything from
a polished White Housestatement to Putin's next year
in review calendar.
Second, this isn't just coffeewith a foreign dignitary.
(06:56):
This is Vladimir Putin, the guywho has spent decades
dismantling democracies.
Like other people collect snowglobes.
Ukraine is still under attack,nato is still holding the line
and Trump has openly floatedland swaps that would hand
(07:18):
Russia permanent control ofUkrainian territory.
That's not peacemaking.
That's basically sayingcongrats on your invasion,
here's the deed to the place.
And third, this isn't someminor diplomatic misstep.
This could be the totalcapitulation of Ukraine.
(07:40):
Lock, stock and barrel, hand itto Putin, because Trump is
willing to do his bidding.
All this without Ukraine'sinvolvement.
If that happens, it tells everyauthoritarian watching that you
can take what you want by force,and the United United States
(08:01):
might even gift wrap it for you.
That's not just dangerous, it'san open invitation for more
wars, more invasions and areshaping of the world map in
ways that will come crashingback on us.
No American witness, notranscript and remember, no
(08:21):
accountability.
No transcript and remember, noaccountability.
Just two men in a room, onedesperate to hold onto power,
trump, the other an expert atshowing him how to keep it,
putin.
That's not transparency, that'sa black box with global
consequences.
And if you thought the week'sinsanity stopped at a black box
(08:43):
in Alaska, think again.
Russia just whipped up its ownpromise not to deploy short and
medium range nuclear missiles.
That's right.
They had taken a self-imposedmoratorium, basically their
version of saying, hey, don'tworry, we'll keep these nuclear
missiles in the back of thecloset and then Russia just set
(09:08):
that on fire.
Medvedev's out there talkingabout NATO's hostile posture
like he's the aggrieved party,and within hours Trump answered
by moving nuclear submarinescloser to Russia.
It's like two guys in a barfight who've decided to skip the
punches and go straight topulling out chainsaws.
(09:31):
This is straight out of theCold War playbook, except now
the stakes are even higherbecause the players are less
predictable.
Dictators, I mean leaders, okay.
Less predictable dictators, Imean leaders Okay, I meant
dictators.
Back then we at least had backchannels, treaties, red phones,
(09:55):
something.
Now we've got Putin with zerorestraints, and Trump the same
Trump who just put the nation'scapital under federal control
and warned other cities theycould be next Walking into a
private meeting with Putin in amatter of days.
(10:15):
And remember again no Americanwitnesses, no transcript, just a
perfect opportunity for two mento discuss whatever they want
about nuclear posturing, with noone to tell us what was
promised or traded.
So is this Russian missile movedirectly tied to Trump's DC
takeover and their Alaskameeting?
(10:36):
Officially, no, there's nopublic statement linking them.
But in reality you have to lookat the timing.
In the same week, trump flexesraw federal power in DC
schedules a private sit-downwith Putin and Russia tears up a
major nuclear constraint.
It doesn't take a tinfoil hatto see this is a part of a
(11:00):
bigger reshuffling of power.
At the very least it's a stresstest On NATO, on US resolve, on
whether anyone will push back.
And here's the kicker listeners.
When a country like Russiareintroduces these kinds of
missiles, it's not just aboutpointing them at Europe, it's
(11:23):
about destabilizing the entiresecurity map.
It forces NATO to respond, itforces the US to posture and it
increases the risk of asplit-second miscalculation that
could trigger something nobodycan walk back.
Three moves in one week.
Trump federalizes the police inDC, warns other cities, meets
(11:46):
Putin privately.
Putin's government then ditchesthe nuclear restraint that's
been in place for years.
And now, add to all of this,ukraine's President Zelensky is
banging on the door, backed byNATO and the EU, just trying to
get into that Alaska meetingroom before decisions about his
(12:08):
country are made without him.
If you want the perfect imagefor where Ukraine stands now,
it's this A global scene at 2.17am.
Zelensky's message delivered,read and ignored.
While the big power swap landand war plans like they're
trading stories at a poker table, the only thing frozen might be
(12:32):
the fate of a nation.
This is in three separateheadlines.
It's one picture Domestic powergrabs at home, strategic muscle
flexing abroad and an allyfighting for survival, while the
US president meets hisadversary in private.
It's a reminder that whentransparency disappears and
(12:56):
power consolidates, thedecisions made in those closed
rooms don't stay there.
They spill out onto the worldwe all have to live in.
If that's all just coincidence,then so is the fact that
thunderstorms happen duringhurricanes.
Wolfpack listeners.
(13:18):
I know it feels like all of thisis out of control, and a lot of
it is, but not all of it.
There are things you can doright now, and it bears
repeating.
You've heard this before.
Call your local representative,your senator, your member of
Congress.
Tell them exactly how you feelabout what's going on.
Don't just yell into the void.
(13:39):
Make it viable, make itspecific and make it impossible
for them to pretend they didn'thear it.
Demand that Democrats findtheir voice and say something
out loud instead of letting thisslide in by silence.
And, while you're at it, stayconnected to the people who care
(13:59):
, who think and who are payingattention.
That's how you turnhelplessness into a little bit
of leverage, and leverage is howchange starts is how change
starts.
By the way, I want to thankeveryone who's been reaching out
the emails, the phone calls,the text messages.
It's been a lot lately andhere's the interesting part
(14:22):
About 99% of those emails andvoice messages have been from
brand new listeners, people whojust found the show, heard
what's going on and decided theyhad to speak up.
That's great.
I love that, but it also makesme wonder if these new listeners
can make the time to pick upthe phone and leave a voice
(14:44):
message or hit send with anemail.
What could happen if everyonelistening right now does the
same thing, including those ofyou who have been with me since
day one Did the same thing.
Imagine the noise we could makeif we all pushed together.
You could call me at833-399-9653, 24-7, free voice
(15:09):
mailbox, or email me atmadworldtalk at gmailcom.
M-a-d-w-o-r-l-d-t-a-l-k.
At gmail.
If you've got something to say,don't sit on it, say it, use
the phone, use the email.
You know, without hearing fromyou, I am sitting in a room
(15:32):
talking to myself.
Also, please leave a review onApple or Spotify.
It's the only way my podcastgets noticed instead of being
buried.
Hey, I show up every day tocall out people and news for
what they are.
Sure, you might have heard thissomewhere else, but not like
this.
I don't dress it up, I don'twater it down down and I sure as
(15:56):
hell don't run it through afilter.
This has been a world gone mad.
Monday's fallout edition.
I'm Jeff Alan wolf.
I'll be back Wednesday becausesomeone has to say this shit.
No one else will and apparently, apparently that job's mine.
Until then, wolfpack listeners,stay skeptical, stay focused
(16:18):
and, most of all, stay hopeful.
We need to stand up andpreserve our democracy.
This is a world gone mad.
(16:44):
This is a world gone mad, mad,mad, mad.
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