{"podcast":{"title":"Freedom Unaffiliated","slug":"freedom-unaffiliated-6377441","podcast_index_feed_id":6377441,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/independence-institute-fu/","website_url":"https://thinkfreedom.org","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/560ed20e-bd0d-4345-a03d-e5dbbf2a1bd7/xXlFVqlrZPsYyna95eX6pwIf.png","author":"Independence Institute","episode_count":194,"summary":"Did you know 46% of the voters in Colorado are unaffiliated? Have you ever wondered why? Hear from the experts at Independence Institute talk about the issues important to Colorado and how to bring some sanity to this increasingly leftist state.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-10T06:20:14.080106+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441"},"episode":{"title":"Taking a Big-Picture View of the War in Iran","slug":"taking-a-big-picture-view-of-the-war-in-iran","published_at":"2026-04-23T18:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441/taking-a-big-picture-view-of-the-war-in-iran","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441","url":"https://thinkfreedom.org","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/f32b669f-af21-40ab-9245-9fda531d9808.mp3","summary":"Obviously, that hasn’t come to pass. There’s little doubt that congressional Democrats who’ve attacked Trump’s every move in this Iran war would be praising a Democrat president who had the foresight and courage to do so on his watch. None did, but if one had, most patriotic Republicans would have surely cheered him on. As for the dominant liberal media, the negative spin in their news stories and commentary about the war have been blatantly dishonest about this overwhelmingly successful campaign. From the very start of the war the stock market plunged, crude oil prices and gasoline at the pump spiked, and an uptick in the CPI signaled price inflation. This was to be expected. The market hates shocks and uncertainty and is very short-sighted. But this war is for long-term security. Stock prices have already recovered, and gas is up less than a buck-a-gallon, that’s still lower than it was during Bidenflation. This isn’t a large-scale war and not likely to last very long. Sacrifices to consumers will be trivial compared to WW II when rationing stamps were issued to all Americans for four long years limiting meat, butter, dairy, coffee, gasoline, coal, tires, cars, shoes, nylon, paper, metal products, and much more. Public opinion polls casting this as an “unpopular war,” are foolishly simplistic and the disapproval percentage is misleadingly skewed by the mass of knee-jerk Democrats who oppose anything associated with Trump. Wars, by their nature, are unpleasant. The small number of U.S. military casualties has been, thankfully, astonishing. (Compare it to the hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides in the Russian war against Ukraine.) To be sure, this war is far less popular with the ayatollahs on the receiving end. The essential justification for the war is the…","meta_description":"Obviously, that hasn’t come to pass. There’s little doubt that congressional Democrats who’ve attacked Trump’s every move in this Iran war would be praisi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":351,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441/episodes/taking-a-big-picture-view-of-the-war-in-iran/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441/taking-a-big-picture-view-of-the-war-in-iran.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}