# Knicks Joy From the Canyon of Heroes. Plus: Trump’s Iran “Losing Deal”. “The Game is Rigged” - Why 45% of America is Now Independent.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/knicks-joy-from-the-canyon-of-heroes-plus-trump-s-iran-losing-deal-the-game-is-rigged-why-45-of-america-is-now-independent
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Podcast: [Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff](https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737)
Published: 2026-06-18T22:26:25+00:00
Episode link: https://bleav.com/shows/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff/episodes/knicks-joy-from-the-canyon-of-heroes-plus-trumps-iran-losing-deal-the-game-is-rigged-why-45-of-america-is-now-independent/
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Duration seconds: 1180

## Resource

It was a split-screen American day. In New York, two million people packed the Canyon of Heroes for a Knicks parade that felt closer to VE Day than a basketball celebration — kids out of school, FDNY Ladder 10 in the crowd, fans flying in from Sydney. In Washington and overseas, the president was busy selling an Iran deal that even Mike Pence and Nikki Haley are calling a loss. Ballistic missiles intact. Regime intact. Strait of Hormuz still under their thumb. Thirteen dead Americans still unaccounted for in the moral math. Paul Rieckhoff calls it what it is — a sucking chest wound for our military posture and our economy, dressed up as diplomacy.

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