There's little doubt that one topic dominated financial headlines in the first half of 2018...and it took most investors by complete surprise. Trump's trade wars are only being eclipsed (temporarily) by the drama swirling around the soon-to-be vacant Supreme Court seat, and what a solidified conservative majority on the highest Court will mean for America. In fact, our friends hosting Stansberry's sister podcast, MarketCast, Scott Garliss, Greg Diamond, and John Gillin are even going so far as to say that they "can't recall a time when politics has been more important for markets." And with politics ruling the day for now, we've pulled together a "Stansberry July Fourth Special" for listeners to check in on a political exile we haven't heard from in a while - none other than the second person the Stansberry Investor Hour team interviewed, Wikileaks' besieged founder Julian Assange.His once-prolific Twitter handle has been silenced since Ecuador cut off his Internet access in the embassy he's been holed up in since 2010. For obvious reasons, he can't make public statements.But anyone who followed our interview with Assange last summer could have seen this coming. You'll recall, he was never even charged with a crime before having to flee. And with "Russia-gate" still raging, you'll want a refresher on why Democrats seem so determined to link him with Vladimir Putin, and why Putin himself isn't doing much to dispel the notion of their supposed partnership. Hint: It has to do with Putin's very real weakness on the world stage, as he leads an economy the size of South Korea's.