Behind the Bastards - It Could Happen Here Weekly 113

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file. You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today! http://apple.co/coolerzone See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much, like Easy Listening, but for fiction. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and I'm an architect of COSI. Come spend some time where everyone is welcome and the default is kindness. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts

or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a weird world out there, so lean into the weirdness with the Stuffed-Able Your Mind Podcast. Explore the nature of dreams and how dreaming has influenced culture. Appreciate the deep strangeness of terrestrial biology, as well as purely imagine creatures that reveal much about human nature. Explore topics scientific, historical, philosophical, and sometimes monstrous, on stuff to blow your mind. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeartRad Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is prop from the little politics with prop podcasts. And this what we do here, we take all these highfalutin political ideas and things in the news and explain it to you in the language that we all speak in. Just like, I don't know, take filibuster. Believe it or not, you already know what that is, because if you got a mama that don't play no games, you've been filibuster in your whole life. Hey, mom, no, look, listen, listen, listen, listen, month before you make your decision what had happened was everything said after that is filibuster. You just trying to stall her out to avoid the inevitable. Congress do it all the time. See you already knew. So listen to her

politics with prop on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Call the media. Hey everybody, Robert Evans here. And I wanted to let you know, this is a You get your podcast. Call the media. Hey, everybody. Robert Evans here. And I wanted to let you know, this is a compilation episode. So every episode of the week that just happened is here in one convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to listen to in a long stretch.

If you want, if you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, there's going to be nothing new here for you. But you can make your own decisions. All right, this is the official it could happen here, predictions episode. And to start off here, Gare has some of our wins and some of our losses from last years.

That's right. I took a peek back at our predictions of the past to see how correct we are. We got all of them right, great job folks. Let's continue on. No, I will say, obviously the big dub for the year goes to Sophie who said that Kissinger would die. Yeah, you got that one.

I did it! You said that! God, I don't, thank you for reminding me that I'm a genius. Wow. We all said no, there's no chance. He's too psychically powerful, but you maintained, and it turns out all we needed was a little hope.

That's all we needed. Wow, I really should use these powers. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Who are you gonna take out next? Yeah, we'll get there. Ooh, your prediction might, I don't think it's a prediction. Oh, I don't want a death prediction for us,

just for funsies. We once had a side note. We once had back in the beginning times when we actually went to an office, God. At I hurt, we once had a prediction of when George H.W. Bush was gonna die, and I was also right, so. Oh, okay, well, Sophie, now you have to be very careful

which ones you guess and where. Yeah, very careful. I've been watching a hard, I've been watching the show you, which is primarily about how being a serial killer is a great idea. And I feel, I feel like, why is Robert watching like my woman media?

Why is it, she, so that I can protect myself in case Sophie is secretly murdering people, which I just view to in a row to in a row. That's all I'm gonna say. If I was, it would be in your honor. So. So let's talk about two things Robert got wrong.

Robert said that there was a decent chance, which I think there was, but it just didn't happen. That Nick Fuentes and Kanye West would die together and under some mysterious circumstances. Okay, okay. I still feel like that's the best deal. Do us all the favor, Sophie. I think we got a shot. Honestly, I think so too.

But it didn't happen last year. The other thing Robert Prickettin is that there would be a scaw total supremacy. That obviously didn't happen. Oh, that's that happened. I'm predicted is that there would be a scot total supremacy that obviously didn't happen. That's that happened. I'm sorry. That happened. Did you miss me informing Cody Johnston about the Mighty Mighty Boss Tone's George Floyd album this year?

Because I did. And it was amazing. You unfortunately did. And if you have a lesson to that. One of the worst things to say about happening to human gun. Yes, there's some, please continue. It's fucking me up predicted that there would be kind of a new sort of like dissentist style Republican challenger approaching.

I think the fact that Ramaswamy perfectly fits the sort of thing that me I was talking about. If this kind of new figure that enters politics. But he also kind of gives Andrew Yang in a way as well. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's the of gives Andrew Yang in a way as well. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, he's the fascist Andrew Yang. He's fascist Andrew Yang and he's insufferable. He's in fucking insufferable.

Yeah, yeah, massive. So fucking insufferable. Mia also predicted that Mike Pence would try to run for president. Hey! The rest of us disagreed and Mia was proofing that. What? Yeah, her. Yeah. That's the truth.

That's easy for 50% on that. I don't know how much we'd say he really ran for press. It is. He shocked. He shocked it most. And then he realized the only person that would vote for him was a mother. And then he was like, I don't think she would. Yeah, I think she'll say she will,

but she's gonna pull the lever for Trump at the end of the day. Yeah, they are. Let's talk about some deaths. Mia said that Num Tronsky would die. Shereen said Jovine would die. I think although they didn't physically die, I am sure.

The last vestige of their like, respectability. Respectability. So that basically counts, right? Yeah, right. Basically, they torpedoed all the last bit of respect they had for people who would typically be aligned with them roughly. Biden has just been, he's looked like he's on death,

just death door for ever. I similarly thought that Stephen Crowder was going to die. And instead, he just kind of metaphorically died, because he made a series of portable business decisions, and now is ostracized from much of the online right. So that's cool. Now, the one that Sophie's upset about is that she wanted crypto.com to lose the name of the arena.

Instead, instead the Miami, instead the Miami, he to arena is no longer called the FTX arena. I'm happy about that as well. Crypto.com is still holding strong. So there we go. And I take that very personally and it is staple center. Thank you so much. Now I will say that's, I feel like I'm gonna roll that prediction into the next year.

Something short, secretive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's roll that out. Let's give it a roll. Let's roll that out. Now I'm gonna roll my Biden death prediction as well. That's the question. James, James said that there'd be more immigration bullshit,

which obviously happened as James has been covering that most of this last year. Also, James said that Twitter would die, which is true, because it's no longer Twitter. It's no longer Twitter. That is correct. It's just like how him and Kissinger changed his name. So true. Yeah.

I will say the most impressive kind of niche prediction is the last one that came from Shereen. Oh. Shereen said that there would be the return of the flip phone. And searches for flip phones were up 15,000% last year among Zhang Z and millennials, and foldable phones sold 44% more compared to 2022. So, 2023 really was the return of the flip phone. So, there we go.

I think it's gonna continue because of what's happening in the phone. It will. The tension that's going on over there, I think we're gonna continue seeing a switch away from iPhones. So that's proof of why we are all completely trustworthy and never wrong.

And what were you wrong about, Garrison? Oh yeah, you really skipped over your bit. Yeah, you really skipped over your bit, Garrison. Wow. Oh, wow comparison I thought that hairy styles would what would there to be some damning information that come out and he would just plummet unfortunately that didn't happen the styles is still is still hanging in there so still styling here's to open hey so Sophie's favorite musician not my favorite musician but puts on a good jump.

All right, all right, predictions for this next. Oh, wait, I need to take one other L, which is that I, I significantly overestimated my countryman and I thought that we'd see another wave of revolts when people dying from COVID and China and we didn't, I don't know, my coach, you've been suck ass. Like everyone else. That's because COVID is not real. We don't agree. All right. Well, let's, let's, let's blaze past that one.

And when we get back, when we get back from this, this break, we're going to start going through some predictions. directions. And we are back. Yeah, so that's why I just don't really think the vaccines were. So, 2024 is an election year, obviously. So, there'll be some election-related predictions. Let's do, I don't want to immediately just go to like, who's gonna win? I think we'll do some VP picks.

Let's do some VP picks, because this is gonna be a Joe Biden versus Trump race, right? Like, unless one of them drops dead before November. Here's the stuff. This is the stuff that goes in. Here's the whole thing. Yeah, shit, so. Ideally murder suicide. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke.

It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke.

It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke.

It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just a joke. It's just, yeah, the best person I think they could run is Whitmer. Like, if I'm like war gaming, the Democratic party, trying to get from the best shot, it's throwing Whitmer in. But at Joe Biden would have to let some of the,

I'll make a really fucked up joke. He's gonna stick, he's gonna stick with Kamala for sure. Yes. Yeah, but he's unfortunately, because there's bet definitely better, that it's like definitely, nowala for sure. Yes, yeah, which is unfortunately, because there's bet definitely better that it's like, definite, now I wouldn't say better. There's definitely like more strategic people, but I mean, if we were going by strategy,

we wouldn't, the Democrat, I mean. Yeah, here we are. We're going to be very jumpy. Yeah, it wouldn't be by, by and Trump again, if we were going by what's best for the country? Sure. As for Trump, last year I said that I think Herschel Walker could be a potential of EPV,

which I think is still true, but not as much as it used to be. And Trump would become the third organization to become completely screwed by picking Herschel Walker. Like three executive organizations have been everything on her shawakker and lost. There's no way. That's the biggest thing is that Trump doesn't like losers

and her shawakker's kind of only ever lost. Now, obviously we've talked about this before, the VEK, Ramoswamis is maybe a potential, but he could be too loud for Trump. He could kind of steal too much of the spotlight. And he's not popular. He doesn't want to share the attention. Okay, does each person want to go around the horn?

So, Garrison, who is your pick? I mean, I was mostly tossing between Vivek and Herschel Walker, but I'm not confident in either of those But there's there's no other names that really come to mind because mostly other people on the debate stage Either were too hostile to Trump or just didn't seem like people Trump would really get behind Yeah, I think Bobby Kennedy I think he could actually do it. I think Bobby Kennedy. I think he could actually do it. I think, okay, admittedly, admittedly, my biggest reason for

thinking this is not actual political analysis is that we live in the dumbest, volatile world. It would be the dumbest, volatile world is Bobby Kennedy. That is true. This is the dumbest timeline. Yeah. Maybe Nikki Haley, if he can ever come, is like in my impression.

I was thinking Nikki Haley just peered with me on, like, yeah, but when Haley, Haley's been kind of, not like attacking Trump fully, but she has not been super pro Trump on this stage. I think she may have alienated him too much. I was also thinking, like, you know, who's like a more like a docile woman that Trump would want to run beside?

But yeah. But Nick Hayley has the reach that I think she's maybe the smart one. And everyone is against every candidate until they're picked for fucking VP. Yeah. I think that there's several different people that he could pick.

He could pick Carrie Lake. He could pick Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He could pick, oh man, what is that governor's name? Christianome. Yes, thank you, thank you. He could pick Christianome. Welcome. But if he's going to go woman, he's going to go, I think, one of those three because I

think he's already bad mouth. He's already bad mouth, Nikki Haley enough. But I think what people are forgetting is he might just pick somebody that he knows won't turn on him. He might just pick his fucking daughter. Like, I was gonna say actually, his, I mean, he might pick Jared Kushner.

Yeah. The the Kush bomb. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get that in there. That's the fucking election I want. Robert, do you have a pick? I mean, I suspect he's that that Biden and a fucking

Harris are going to run. Although, you know, again, if I'm talking about who I think actually would be the smart pick for the DIMS, it's Whitmer and or Andy Beshear, who's the Democratic governor of Kentucky, super popular, like really good at talking to kind of working class voters has been successful in a red state. We're in this weird situation where almost anyone kind of a sides Kamala Harris who were to run against Trump would win easily. And if Trump were to be replaced by like Nikki Haley, she would just absolutely pants by this is what this is what all of the data shows at the moment.

So we're in this really odd moment of like, we have it, it's like, it's the opposite of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. It's like the very mobile object meeting the very light force. Yeah, it's their both just sort of sliding around the room. Uh, coughing, coughing baby versus coughing baby. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's two babies with tuberculosis in a steel cage while Joe Rogan narrates the fight, which I would watch one country. Uh, so I don't know. I don't know. The fuck Trump is going to pick. Uh, yeah, probably, probably his daughter, Jacob, he might, you

know, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be wildly shocked. If he were to go with, um, oh, Christ, what's her name? She ran as a Democrat last time. But, but, oh, Tosie, Gabard Gabard, Tosie, Gabard, Tosie, Tosie, Tosie, I would think about that too. She's fucking mental now. I would, she's, she's been out of her mind for a while. I would be shocked. I think she's a regular Fox News contributor. Yeah. I don't think he doesn't want someone who is like, I think he's Fox News now. The, the, the unpopularity until they, the Vakes him, he needs an unpopular enough that I think Trump might see him as a loser. Tossi's not a loser. She's also not a threat to him being in the spotlight.

And he might decide to roll those bones. Yeah, I didn't think about that. All right. Do we do we want to switch over to another category here? Sure. Does anybody have a general prediction that they would like to share? Sure. I think a daily wire host is going to have something funny happen to them. Anything related to based on how much there's going to be probably a whole bunch of rallies

happening in 2024 in the lead up to the election. I think this can be a lot more on the ground stuff that then there was in 2023. I think animosity has only really risen these past three years. And I think that we could see the return of pying as a widespread tactic. God, from your mouth to God's ears. Yeah, so. You can put that one together. All right, I'll go. My prediction is a two part, and it falls under the Kimye. My first prediction is that Kanye, people are going to forget. People are going to forget.

He's going to put out a new album and people, because he's already started to do the thing that Kanye does, where he plays an album at a random club or plays a listening party event. And yeah, people are going to forget. He's gonna do that. And then Kim has been hanging out with Ivanka a lot and she is almost out of law school and I think she is going to have some kind of a feeler into the field of politics this year.

Oh my God, what if she's VP? I actually did go through my brain, but I don't think she's there yet. We are not ready for a Trump card. She didn't take it. I'm sorry. He would win. I am moving back to Canada. That's simply not happening.

The whole reality TV ticket would be, you know, just so America of us. This is so worse. But yeah, there would be, you know, just so America about this is worse than Trump would have so acknowledged your Armenian genocide and would make relations with Turkey very difficult. That would be very good for our meaning. For the Kurds, it would be amazing. But like, but like, we're not about it. Kim Kardashian visiting the YPJ.

Since Trump's been out of office, Ivanka kind of went underground and, but like, but like Kim Kardashian visiting the YPJ since since Trump's been out of office Ivanka kind of one underground and You know most people have not been seen with her and in the last couple months She has been photographed with Kim Kim has posted her they've been doing things together they've been coordinating outfits. It's yeah and So I think we might see some kind of thing between the two of them there, or Kim is going to start making her way into a political career of some kind. Yeah, although I do think that not, you know, some of the work that she's

done helping getting innocent folks out of prison has been pretty dope, I will say. Yeah, that is my prediction, the Kim Ye. I hate this country. I think we probably will go back, we just did this episode, spoiler recording in 23-3. I predict by this time next year, we will probably go back to something approaching title 42. Unfortunately, yeah.

Which will be terrible, given that, like, as Robert said, kind of increasing increased conflict all over the world, people are coming here, they won't be able to, that will have massively destabilizing of influence on Mexico as it did last time and impact on Mexico. I'm also really what my like concern prediction this year is violence against migrants in places where they're extremely vulnerable as we go through the election cycle, which would never to be demonized them from both fucking parties. So that's become a really big especially with this stupid practice of busing people across the country and then dumping

them onto the streets. that that's my big concern 24 Yeah You know what fucking I can be wrong. All right, so my this is my this is my my Thing that I've been waiting for to happen that's gonna be one of the just most one of the worst things that's going to happen. Eventually at some point this is going to happen. We're going to get an attempt by the Republicans to seriously come after interracial marriage. And it is going to form the most insane political coalitions you have ever heard of in your entire life. It is going to be like this nightmare word coalition of just like the open white supremacists, the like Asian MRA people, a bunch of, like you're gonna see a bunch of these completely deranged,

like, like nominally left wing Korean at the nationalist groups, I, you're gonna see like the like, and you take people, I, there's gonna be this, it's gonna have this, this just absolute Nightmare Coalition behind it, it's going to have this just absolute nightmare coalition behind it.

It probably won't work, but it is going to be one of the worst things. And I don't know. I hope it doesn't happen next year, but I think the election year someone could actually decide that this is going to be the time they're going to try to do it. That is the sort of shit that when I think about like what could upset the election in Joe Biden's favor, it would be the Republicans launching a crusade like that. And then like too hard to fast. Yeah.

And on something that like everyone up until the moment it happens would assume was just not up for debate, right? Like, I don't know, it might happen if they like go after game marriage, but everyone's kind of braced for that. If they would, if they would a launcher crusade against interracial marriage. Yeah, that is the kind of thing that might, might just sink them. Everyone might just go, well, I guess we have to get about for Biden again, because this is just out of its mind. I mean, one thing that Republicans have been talking more about, and I think it's maybe possible that there'll be one or two states that actually moves on this is abolishing a no fault divorce.

I think that is something that could happen in like one or two red states this year. I don't know how much I would actually impact national elections, but that is something I think the Republicans are starting to focus more on. Yeah. Specifically, like Republican media influencers. Yeah. Largely because they all had their wife sleep. Yeah.

Sure, Eene. Well, yeah, I do think that flip, flip phones are going to continue being popular, especially just dumbing down. No, I mean, first of all, I was right. Second of all, I have a couple of ones that I hope aren't true, but I think they will be. I have a feeling that, and I think there's going to be something similar to the Muslim band, but in specific, like about Palestine is real.

I think that there's gonna be something scary that targets an entire people that I don't want to be true, but it just feels like we're going up that route. So I feel like there's gonna be... I have a thing about what that's gonna be. I think what it's gonna be, and there's something we've been seeing in Florida, there's going to be a giant push

to ban Chinese citizens and voting property, because this is already happening in Florida. There's been this whole, and Florida's right now in the process of doing this thing where they're trying to prevent people who spent like one year in China from like being in universities. I think it's going to be this giant,

like, they're gonna do one of these like Chinese people can on property things. I mean, I didn't know that. That's really unsettling. They're closer than you would think. To already doing a version of a Muslim bad, not targeting Palestine, but I think. Well, and Trump has promised in countries.

That's what it's. No, I mean, that's, it happened before, like why wouldn't it happen again? It just feels really unsettling that it's, that's the possibility of it happening again. And Trump has promised that if he wins again, he's moving straight to deportation of Muslims. Like, I think we will, like that,

that he said that that's what we're gonna do. Yeah. I also think that there's going to be an uproar about a historical figure who was white being played by a black person. Like another, another one of those. Yeah, I mean, that's like every week. I mean, it's, what if it's, what if it's, what if it's, what if it's already, it's already starting Shireen, you are correct, because next year, what Denzel is going to be playing, playing Hannibal Barka in a movie about the second Punic War,

which any person who is not out of their mind is like, that's inspired, Cassie. Yeah, I have the next James Bond. Yeah, he's the best possible person. No, I have playing that guy, but it's gonna piss off a bunch of people. Even though, even though. Yeah, if you listen to that James Bond podcast, right?

Kill James Bond, that's the name of the podcast. Yeah, okay. I just gotta say this. T-Girl James Bond, it would set the world on fire. It would be the funniest thing that's ever happened. Yes. Do it. God.

At least the war. At least the war. That will begin because of Trans James Bond. You made it here first. Yeah. So true. I can see, I take a different tact, which is that we should find the most

occasion man alive and finally give the people what they want, which is Cajun James Bond. I mean, that would also go hard. Like James Bond making a, like instead of a martini, shake and not stir it, he likes a nice Etoufay. Like, come on, let's do it. Let's be heroes. I know we wanted to close with the death segment, I think, because of Kissinger, we already

took so many dubs there that one thing that is on my mind is, surely, it's possible they'll be more protests, popular mobilizations, like this summer before the election, but I'm more interested in what's going to happen after the election, because no matter who wins, which I either don't have a strong feeling one way or another, there's potentials for, obviously, if Trump wins, I think they'll be massive. Another journey or a six type of an or no, if Pussy Haps are going to come back. If Trump wins, there will be wins. That's my prediction.

There'll be like probably at least two strong weeks of intense rioting across the country. Yeah. I think we'll see more firm suppression than we did in 2020 in a lot of cases, which will be interesting because at this point, Biden will still be technically in charge, but everyone's gonna treat it like it's a Trump problem.

He just did. He lit it. if Biden wins, are we gonna get stopped to steal two or will a second or will or will a second to feed in a row, almost be more of like a death meal for this sort of like mega mobilization. I think that that's also a possibility that two losses in a row could just dissolution a whole bunch of people who otherwise kind of want to do a stop that's still two, but it may just not happen.

We literally can't, we can't let it drop. It's not, I'll tell you what'll happen is, because I am aware of the predictive programming that the Obama's have been putting out. We believe the world behind. We're going to have a military coup and they're going to use the Havana syndrome gun to knock us off. Yes.

While they re-fix politics, one way or the other. Don't know which side is going to do it, but somebody's going to drop the Havana syndrome gun. Yeah. Let's take a quick break and come back with our death predictions. How does that sound, everybody? [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ And we're back. Robert, who's gonna die?

Who's gonna die, Robert? You know what? My pick this year is everybody. I think this is the year we all get it. I think somebody's gonna die, who's gonna die, Robert? You know what, my pick this year is everybody. I think this is the year we all get it. I think somebody's gonna push the button and finally, finally, the world's atomic stock pile will bring us all sweet release. Okay, my series prediction, I think Putin will be assassinated.

Oh, that'd be cool. Dude, I was going to say, I haven't feeling that there's gonna be some type of assassination that will like rock the world. Yeah. Decent giants are so neat still, I was going to say, I have a feeling that there's going to be some type of assassination that will like rock the world. But yeah, decent chance of some eats it still, I think, I think. Especially with the world. God, you know, the only reason I wouldn't say that's like the guy I most want to see die in the world and probably won't be until he does.

But like, Erdogan's up there, but Assad just nobody, nobody else has that body count right now. No one can touch him. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. Bebe's going for it, but still he's got to kill, I mean, like Assad's at six, seven, hundred thousand people like that.

I, I just don't know. He's, he's a survivor, unfortunately. Like you have to, you do kind of have to acknowledge that about him. Like he's a survivor, unfortunately. You do have to acknowledge that about him. He's pretty good at not getting killed so far. I just don't know. Whereas Putin hasn't really been tested this way yet. I do kind of think there's a chance. I don't know that I think that there's a chance. I don't know that I think it's a high chance.

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think every day we get closer to an Elon Musk overdose. Yeah. Well, we have those on Elon Musk and all end our lives. So true, James. Yeah. Yeah.

My prediction is that with the will of God, Marcy will finally fucking die and Redus is that with the will of God, Marisee will finally fucking die and read us if he's annoying bullshit. Oh my God. Because, Wow, that is not what I was expecting. No, me neither. Great.

Yeah, in Shilah, we will see the end of Marisee this year, friends. Has everybody gone? Cause is it my turn with my power? Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Sophie, he's gonna off. Yeah, Marisee. I really, I'm not saying because is it my turn with my with my power? Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, Sophie, he's gonna off. Yeah.

I'm RSC. I'm really, I'm not saying where I see I'm really prick. I really thought about this and it's time. It's time David misgavage. It's fucking time. Okay. Uh-huh. He said it.

He's moving your first. Maybe. Maybe from the person who predicted Kissinger. Yeah, and someone else she picked someone else right who else did you get to if he? I don't know who else did I get. I don't have anything about when you were in the office. Oh, George H. Toby Bush. Oh, yeah.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, we could be two for two here. But but I think I think it's it's going to be a miscavage, but you know, but you know, he'll just jump into another body. Um, but um, no, I wish, this is a wish that I don't think will come true, but, uh, McConnell. I mean, that seems pretty, that seems pretty nice. He has a short circuit in front of the camera. No, yeah, we have, we'll die live on TV when he's gone. I feel like that has to,

we have seen the Android flip on and off multiple times. I think it's very clear that one day he just won't boot back up. Yeah, he could die too. No, I think McConnell's gonna die the way he lived with fentanyl that got snuck into his heroin. You know, that's just, I think, obviously. And on that note, uh, bye.

You have to the turtle. Bye-bye. Are you free? We're free. Bye. Bye. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, Nothing Much Happens. I'm an architect of Cozy, and I invite you to come spend

some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner on a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys, old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite fly, and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you, and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world.

Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The world is so much weirder than you think. If you want to find out why, join us on the science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Want to hear about how horses evolved to gallop entirely on their middle fingers and why some drawings show Julius Caesar's horse with human feet.

Or maybe about how some of the earliest experiments creating a vacuum in the lab were conducted by a guy who had the Batman symbol for a mustache. Fans of the show tell us they like the vibe. We try to keep things cozy, relaxed, and open-minded, but driven by curiosity and grounded in a skeptical and scientific perspective. On Stuff to Blow Your Mind, you'll hear everything from the story of how a 19th-century inventor created a sort of modified pipe organ that could speak English through a doll's head, too, why mud-dobber-ness or stuff like a filled pastry full of paralyzed spiders. Explore topics scientific, historical, philosophical, and sometimes monstrous on stuff to blow your mind.

Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up, y'all, this is Prop. I host a podcast called The Politics with Prop. I am a firm believer that if you grew up in some sort of struggle or inner city in America, you understand politics more than you think you do. It's just not been translated in a language that you speak. I am here to translate it for you.

For example, you know the filibuster is, yeah you do, because if you got a mama that don't play no games, you can filibuster in your whole life. Hey mom, no look, listen, listen, listen, listen, mom, before you make your decision, what had happened was when I came home, you know, I was with Joe, you remember Joe from church, his mama and the prayer group with you, you remember Joe. So I took the chicken out like you said. I remember I took the chicken because you said take the chicken out.

I had, did you remember I got an A on that on that map test? You remember I got that A. So I was gonna take that out and then work on you filibuster. You're just trying to stop her from making an immediate decision. That's all filibuster in it is. And the Congress do it all the time. So you know what I'm saying?

You already know this stuff. So you know what I'm saying? You already noticed stuff. So we take these seemingly complex, high ideas and break them down in a way that you and me actually talk. So listen to her, politics were propped on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to It Could Happen Here. It is 2024. A lie. It's 2023. Robert has just pissed everybody off for the last three minutes and 14 seconds.

Listener, Sophie is gaslighting you. It is still December. When they listen to this, it'll be 2024. You don't know that. I do know that. I'm in charge. Okay. Moving on, we're going to do some listener questions today, but I just wanted to give a shout out to each member of our team. We have Shari Loneunis, we have James Stout, we have Mia Wong, we have Garrison Davis, and we have Big Bobby E. That's right. That's right.

And we're going to answer some listener questions. Thank you for those who have submitted. Anybody else want to say anything before I start? Besides Robert. Thank you to about half of those who submitted. Yeah. Yeah. The rest you need to have a chat with yourselves.

You know who you are. I don't think they do. I don't think our listeners are very self-actualized. All right, so if you take it away. To each of you, any book recommendations for introduction to anarchist history and or theory? If I may. There's a book called Great Anarchist by Dog Session Press. It's written by Ruth Kinner, who's been on the podcast. It's got very short bios of different great anarchists. I think you

will enjoy it. I think you can get the PDF for free online. I like to print them out and put them in a little libraries that rich people like to have in their neighborhoods and red pill them, black pill them slowly that way. So yeah, great anarchists by Dog Section Press, from Dog Section Press by Reese McKinnon. My one is kind of, it's slightly more specialized, but anarchism in Latin America is a great book. Also the cover is just gorgeous, so you'll have that around all the time, but yeah, it's really good.

It basically goes country by country to Latin America and talks about all the tyrannicus movements, and it's great. Here. I guess not, it's sort of anarchist, I suppose, but I've been doing a lot of union stuff recently. So I've been thinking a lot about the concept of work. So I have kind of returned to this really good book,

Crime Think, put out titled Work, very basic look into sort of like anarchist, almost like anti-work theory. It's just an ice book to interrogate how the concept of like work and labor exists in your own head. I've appreciated that one through the years. Shireena, Robert, are there of you? I second all those answers. Amazing answers, everybody. Well, I cannot read, so I'm going to second those answers.

Robert recommends the book. Isn't it like the No Gods No Masters AK press one with the chaos star? Oh, I mean, that's that's that's got a lot of like old anarchist essays and shit starting in like the 1800s. So if you're interested in that kind of history, you can read that. All right, next question.

I think this will be different depending on the type of episode and what show people are writing it for. But I got several different people asking, you know, how long it takes to research right, like an average episode. So we're talking like not talking like a series such as Garrison's Stop Cop City series, but like an average episode where you're talking about something and it's a scripted episode but you're talking about something.

Sure, yeah, I mean, some episodes take months, but in an average episode, usually if I'm putting it together, it might take me like four days from the start to completion. Like I'm thinking of thinking of my DeSantis Fashwave episodes. Usually, you'll have maybe two days of more research and then two days of one day of scripting and then editing that script on the fourth day and you record. Yeah, maybe around that. Some episodes come together faster, some episodes come together longer. It really, really varies.

Shushu, yeah, I would agree with that timeline. I think three to four days sounds about right. I've been trying to take an extra day just to read through the script like multiple times, just because I've been, it's just better for like my performance as like words that sounds. So yeah, I would say like when you write a script, the worst thing you can do is immediately read it after you finish writing it. And I've made that mistake before. I definitely have. So taking time is important. Yeah, James, Mia, Robert, anything you want to add? important. Yeah, James Mia Robert anything you want to add? I spent 35 years preparing for the sheet podcast. Yeah, it really depends on the episode. If it's an interview, I'll spend maybe a couple of hours, you know, studying up on everything the person has said. If

it's a scripted episode, a scripted half hour to 45 minutes of the show was generally five to seven pages. That's maybe an hour or two to write and then four to six hours of research, although it kind of depends, you know, because a lot of it's based on just sort of like ongoing research, right, whereas like something will happen in the news and we'll do some

studying up on that event, but we're also keeping in touch with like when we have episodes on terrorist attacks and whatnot, like I don't know how to actually like lay out how much time goes into those episodes because a large part of it is just the process of like keeping up with the way terror is evolving in American politics. Totally. We all have beats, right? Like, we all have stuff that we just keep up with. Yeah, like, we're not counting all the time that we spend like, in telegram, just like, watching, right? But the gram, but yeah. Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure. That's a calling it. Second time this year,

Garrison's found themselves too old to understand a youth reference. Second time this year, Garrison's found themselves too old to understand a youth reference. My next question. What could Spears' ethereal or unsolved mystery do each of you believe in? Dangerous question for us to answer on air? I just want to point out that Garrison said to me this question to ask. So there must be an answer in mind. said to me this question to ask. So that must be an answer in mind. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. You're a garrison danger Davis. OK. Well, I don't know what even, I'm not sure if I believe in anything that would be classified as a conspiracy theory. I would have to think on this, actually. I don't know. I don't believe in it. By fucking love, think on this, actually. I don't know. I don't believe in it, but I fucking love Bohemian Grove stuff. It's like one of the OGs,

you know, from like the beginnings of the internet, and it's can't get enough about people who have just never deviated from the Bohemian Grove. Like, dude, who went there with the combination AR-15 Shotgun and tried to, like, destroy Bohemian Grove legend. I love reading about that stuff. It's nonsense, but it's fun. I mean, like I certainly have, oh, oh, no, go please. Please, yes. Okay, we're doing, we're doing this one.

Okay, if you were on the live show, you've heard this. If you were not on the live show, you have. Which is that. Okay, from the late 1970s until the early 1980s when it was busted by the Italian police, the Italian government is run by a rogue-masonic law which is called the P.T. organization. Oh my god. I know it's propaganda, do a various elements. Okay, so there's this thing going on. There's various elements used in red brigades as a way to assassinate Eldon Morrow. They take him to a hotel that is like, it's run by like one of the red cardinals

Is one of the sort of the communist cardinals is like in this building is like a NATO weapons like someone a NATO weapons dealer I think I see a red laser I think I see a red laser hovering over this is all real this was I read a laser hovering over this is all real this was this is the right now look this is the preparation of your time in 1883

the thing is okay so every conspiracy theory on earth is real but it was only real from about 1977 to nineteen eight three in Italy like all of them are there at the same time like between the Aldermoro assassination like the two groups trying to free Aldomoro are the Pope on the one hand. And then, well, I should ask you, there's there's the Pope who's working through, it's really guy in the Kessnet. And the other one trying to free him is the PFL piece. She's got all of them. The Israelis, the H like a cork for this.

The H like a cork for this. Like it's a strange ring. How do you get this? We've only gotten, okay, like one of the guys who make sure that the elder moral dies is, he's like a now insane Alex Jones conspiracy guy, like he's on Alex Jones all the time. He was like, he's the hostage guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's a regular fixture. Yeah, so's the guy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's a regular fixture. Yeah, so like, the people try to kill it, like the US, the Soviets, independently of each other are both trying to make sure this guy dies. Say what the East Germans on the fucking, oh, what's it called?

The Biden-Minehoff group, the weird German man. House, they're also involved. All right, I would assume. Yeah. Meanwhile, I am, I am a 9-11, Truther in there. Oh my god. I don't believe that when you call 911, it goes anywhere.

I think I think they're just hookin' you up to an AI. It's a con people. Oh shit. Rudy Giuliani has to pay those Georgia election workers $150 million. Absolutely. I feel like he's got that. Yeah, I feel like he's got that hanging around. It'll be good.

No, but he literally defamed the shit out of this lovely, lovely people. He, I mean, defamation is like 80% of what he does. Okay, new, new favorite conspiracy theory. Um, Panera Bread made the Deadly Lemonade on Purpose as a... Who cares? It's quite genocide, that's what I mean. See, I fully support the lemonade that kills you. I think we need more lemonade that kills people.

We're gonna take a quick guide break. We'll be are back. What are you most excited to work on this year, Slash? Be a part of create. What are we most excited to work on next year? And I've been stockpiling a lot of f***ing and f***ing. So I got some plans, I got some plans,

I got some plans. Do we believe f***ing they're not? That's the real question. Yes, that's someone else's job to decide. I can tell you from experience that the ATF will visit your employer if you include instructions on how to make f***ing and you'll work. It's legal. Go ahead. So they'll still believe. Go ahead, Garrison.

I'm planning to attend a whole bunch of more kind of occult conferences or paranormal conventions and get get more into the high-strangeness world this year. That's something I'm excited about. I'm really excited. We're launching a weekly show with Jimmy Loftus starting in the spring that I'm very excited to be producing. So look out for that. I've been working on this for a fucking year now, but it's coming next year, which is my my episodes on the lab leak stuff

I have a cork board that makes that entirely rant I made look normal. I have spent so many hours talking to epidemiologists yeah, losing my mind, but it's coming it will happen. I'm very excited about it. You you haven't talking about these episodes for quite a while. Literally a year. Robert. I mean, near Paloosa. I have agreed to do a podcast that is going to be a nightmare,

but you'll all love it. You'll all love it as it ruins my life. And I don't know, probably eventually the Robert E. Lee episodes. Well, we'll get those out. You know what? I've been doing, I eventually the Robert E. Lee episodes. We'll get those out. You know what? I've been doing, I've been working on a TE Lawrence series of episodes that I'm very excited about.

Amazing. Lawrence of Arabia, the guy who invented the concept of insurgency. So that'll be good. That'll be a good series. I hope, Robert and I get to go back to Myanmar and do maybe a visit to some different groups. That would be cool. I would like that. I'm excited to do more migration stuff. Yeah. It's been more time. And on different parts of the migration journey, because I think that's something I've wanted to do for a long time. And like, I see a lot of people do really shitty versions of it.

So I'm excited to give you a crack at not doing a cringe voyeuristic version of that. Everyone else have an answer to that? Did you answer Shrewini? I didn't. I feel like I have two answers. Like, one, I'm not excited at all because I feel like the most, when I'm most motivated, it's when I'm the most angry. And so I'm not excited for things to make me angry and upset, but I am looking forward to, I think I like when I have people on that are like experts or they have knowledge that I don't.

And so I like the possibility of having more conversations that are enlightening, I suppose. And so I would like to talk more about corn and food. So maybe I should focus on that. Maybe I should focus on fun things. Maybe I should focus on fun things. Yeah, that's something I look forward to. Something to be fun.

We definitely want to do more farm animal episodes. And more food, more food episodes. But no, as you're bringing up a good point about how this kind of whole show works, is that all of the best stuff we make in my opinion is always related to things that we're passionate about. And passion can come in a few forms, anger, is something that is a big driver of passion, but that's usually less fun.

So it's always nice and we can be able to cover something that we are passionate about, but it comes from not a place of anger, but it comes from a place of like genuine intense interest. Yeah, like I genuinely love corn. And I love the conversation about sheep. So I look forward to the possibility of making things not just when I'm like enraged and more.

And I'm like, that's a good point. That's a good point that passion can come from different things. Because I was just as passionate, talk about corn, then I was talk about an important thing that happened. So. Yeah, I have a specific question that I've added to James ahead of time, which is, do you have any stories about meeting fans or listeners, IRL?

I do. I've not just happened once you're in New going to, you're going to, you're going to, you're trying to, please approach Robert when he's buying groceries. But, but, yeah, yeah, no, do do it. Don't do that. He's very ticklish. I, I, I, I am always armed in the grocery store. So please don't do that. So why are you going to tick him? Don't tickle Robert, guys, it's weird. Yeah. So loads of people are not loads, but a lot of people who've listened to our podcast are come to help in a cumber and they're all very nice. And I have enjoyed building it and making sandwiches and ladling out beans with them immensely. And it genuinely does make me really happy because it can like, when we do the podcast,

we see like each other in our little rooms and then it just goes out into the ether and you never know who's listening. And so it's really cool when people listen and then show up and do something that meaningfully makes the world a better place. And that makes me feel very hopeful. And that's another passion thing. I think, especially the mutual aid stuff we've done at the board, it makes me feel really hopeful that we can do things just fine without the state and without the resources of masters of capital and without any major sort of orgs or institutions behind us that we can just help each other and do amazing things. So, yeah, when people show up for that, it's cool. It's slightly weird when they show up listening to the podcast and I hear myself in their car.

It's not okay, but other than that, I just try to catch up. They're trying to catch up. Yeah, yeah. I too would be trying to catch up if I had to listen to all the stuff we put out. I think it's honestly really cool that people show up for that kind of stuff. It makes so much of the weird parts of being a podcast host worth it. One stuff like that is. That's something that me has been pointing out recently,

how we seem to be one of, in terms of like podcast that cover the sorts of things we do, where our fan base seems to be relatively offline in a lot of ways, and a lot of the people actually do a lot of real-world stuff, which is great. That's kind of the entire point, is that most of the things we talk about, there's ways that you have the power to change it in small ways. It's no like large immediate effects.

You solve the problem immediately, but there's always small things that can slowly change the tide of many of the problems that we discuss every day. Yeah, we're gonna throw it in ad break here unless you have cooler zone media and Android listeners. That is coming soon. It's a little bit out of our control on that end, but we do ask about it constantly and

it will be happening. If you have a cooler zone account, you cannot die. That's fun. That's a good, it's a true fact. Purchase it. Render yourself immune to the passage of time. And we're back. I'm going to ask, what's everyone's favorite Christmas movie? Okay, so I have already talked about my annual Batman Returns Watch Party, which was a great success this year.

It was a big hit. I made tons, I made about probably like four dozen lotkas. It was a lot of fun. We got to. That's a lot. Cause. Wow, wow, Robert. You should do this for jobs.

This is your. This cup kind of humor. That's crazy. Well, for a job. You're the best. You're the best. Off the cuff kind of humor. That's crazy. Well, what a dub. But no, we got a nice group of people to Google at Danny DeVito, vomiting, black goo for approximately two hours. So that was a big win.

It's by far the best Christmas movie in my- No, I agree. It's my favorite one by far. Banger. Yes. Me and my family have lost shit. Consist, like since I was like a child, like since I was like two years old, we just were obsessed with it.

I don't remember if you said this last year, and I already, this is like a repeat of the conversation, but I agree, that's the best Christmas movie I can think of. Yeah. Michael Keaton total domination, here we go. Best Batman by far. By far far miles he's just miles away from so when i was growing up my parents used to ditch my brother and i go to the like your game on christmas and we just explain so much that's really good yeah every just like so much so, Fee, I'm sorry. I think I love you, I love you parents.

And I respect it. But my brother and I used to watch like, we would spend the entire day watching all the, like, hoppin' in Lord of the Rings movies. Nice, nice. That just feels, that feels like Christmas to me. Sure, I mean, yeah. Especially, the animated ones definitely have that kind of,

like, fantasy, joolly kind of feel totally. Yeah, I, uh, yeah. Anybody else? I like to watch love actually, but it's very pretty. Oh, James, it's so basic of you. I know, yeah, I'm secretly a basic white lady, but every time I watch you there's something else problematic that I hadn't previously talked with before. And it's getting to the point where I should probably stop talking about it in public. That's amazing.

Yeah. Now the audience knows who the biggest wife guy on the team is. Affinity, L.J. Yeah. Yeah. This is a question for Robert. Looking back on season one of it could happen here. Do you still see a second civil American Civil War as a likely or plausible event in our near future?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's possible we're going to look back on where we are right now as the earlier stages of it, right? Civil conflict is pretty widespread. I think one of the differences, like, for example, one of the big differences with that, the Texas California Alliance. Yeah. The A24 Civil War movie is it's clearly imagining like a large scale military conflict. I don't find that particularly likely, but you do have one major political party stating that when we take power in 2024, our guy is going to act

as a dictator. He's going to imprison and execute his political opponents. And you have widespread acts of violence and violent threats that are occurring as part of like a, as part of like the, the political conflicts that have existed in this country for a while, they have all transitioned to being kind of explicitly active of public violence or at least public threats of violence. And you're seeing this around, for example, a lot of the discourse surrounding what's happening in Gaza, right? You just had that case where like some fucking like grade school teacher

threatened to cut students' throat for criticizing Israel. Like the the degree to which people who are if you'll forgive the less technical term pieces of shit feel emboldened to use and threaten violence and the furtherance of their political agendas is is something we may wind up seeing is like, yeah, we were in it by this point. So again, I'm not a believer. And a big part of it could happen here is like, I don't, I don't think any mass civil conflict in the United States is going to be army fighting over states, right? Yeah. Because that's that's simply not realistic, but I do think we are in what any reasonable person

would call a mass civil conflict. My big question is whether or not we're going to see it as a civil conflict or as an extension of a global conflict, which includes outright shooting wars, but also mass information warfare in this kind of planetary struggle between the idea at least, if not the promise that like democracy is the kind of goal and the strongly held belief by large groups of people that we need an authoritarian system governed effectively by the people who are presently in power, right? Like you are seeing this kind of struggle between the idea that we should have a system in which people are allowed to pick their leaders and this idea that like the winners of the last 20 years of capitalism and politics should be able to solidify their hold forever.

My big question is whether or not we're going to come to see where we are right now as early stages of a civil conflict that's going to get progressively more violent and have a progressively higher body count. Or are we going to see this as part of a global military and political struggle that is going to kind of shake out the next hundred years of kind of the political status quo on Earth. And in a similar way to like World War II, you know, more or less laid out the next 80 or 90 years, something like that. I've got two more questions. Sounds good. First, do you, each of you have a favorite episode you've put out?

We're all trying not to say the come episode the same time. I really, I really have some bad, I have have some bad news. We got it all. We got it all. We got it all. We got it all. I really have some bad news. That was the most downloaded episode of 2020. Yeah.

Yeah. Everybody loves, look, everybody loves, loves talking about, come. Yeah. You fucking sick of this. Yeah. I'm with you, Sharini, with you. Sorry, so if you've been outvoted, we must. I'm never outvoted.

I have ultimate veto power. I see. Actually, you're seeing guys struggle between diplomacy and desperation. This is the exact problem that we're talking about right here. Sophie's on the musk side, disgusting. I mean, it's certainly hard to even pick one episode just from this year.

I mean, but it's the comic episode. Yeah. I will say the, the com the episode was fun to put together. I we we really delved into the, uh, the trenches there that few, few people are brave enough. Would you say it? Would you say it really came together?

Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna answer these questions for each of you with each of your work because I'm a fucking professional. Gerson StopCop Citywork has been just, I really, I tell this to you all the time, they're the most amazing storyteller. You really feel like you are, you're able to visualize everything going on with the words that they say. And I think it's an important story that they've been on top of since the beginning. I don't think anybody covers labor issues in the way that Mia does and I think

Mia has really done that in 2023 and we'll continue that in 2024 in a way that's not being covered in mainstream media and I think that those stories are extremely important and have made a significant impact on labor and union culture and strikes and fighting for what's right. James! Man, it's like I want to say I want to say the work you do at the border, but I really love when you talk about things that are silly. I think they're equally as important, but James talking about sheep and the joy that James had when he talked about sheep is really special.

But also the work that you've done talking about the Word Myanmar and helping people at the border has been extremely impactful to our listeners. Shushu is a historical almanac to all things the Middle East and has, I think, educated, not just the audience, but also all of us on things that really everyone should know. And I think that she's brilliant and I love you, Shari. Robert. Hey.

Sophie. It's the come episode, right? Definitely not the come episode. But it's really hard to pick my favorite Robert Ebersome because I record with him like most days. But I think that what Robert has done specifically within Bastards this in 2023 was really get on top of the Bastards were all surviving right now.

Which I think he did a really great job talking about Andrew Tate. I think he did an incredible job getting an episode out immediately about Stockton Rush. The guy who killed those people under the... Oh, really, really the hero of the year, right? The guy responsible for the great feel good story of 2023. Yeah. So much better over time.

We need, I feel like we can solve most of the world's problems with another 11 or so of those subs. And a similar socioeconomic group on board them. You're definitely not not wrong there. I just like to say, you know, if you're wondering why the New York Times and the Washington Post are two big at cowards to do a come episode like we did. There's an old quote. If you want to know who rules you, ask who you can't criticize. It's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying, Garrison.

I see you. I see you doubting me, but you know it's true. You know it's true. Anyways. Yeah. It's us slash no fat. Anyway. Alright, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, Thank you James. Thank you James. I appreciate the teamwork James.

Someone had to. It's not really Robert, but I thought I should. My apologies to Ian for this night in urban edit, but yeah, anybody have any final thoughts? Anything, anything, James, do you have anything you want to plug in terms of donations or anything? Yeah, I do actually. So we have the fundraiser for what we're doing at the border. It would be really lovely if you could give us some of your money because I have spent all of the money that I have.

And so many that I don't have. It's gofundme.com slash Hacumba, hyphen migrant hyphen camps, or tinyurl.com slash border aid, Gm how do they spell Hukumba that's a good question because that's probably yeah um b a so like it's Spanish but yeah you can also tiny or else slash border a gfm tinyurl.com that's that's an easy one to remember. Great. And we'll be back tomorrow because this is a day show. Bye. Tune in to the new podcast, stories from the village of nothing much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you.

I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, nothing much happens. I'm an architect of Kozy, and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys, old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite fly

and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The world is so much weirder than you think.

If you want to find out why, join us on the Science Podcast, stuff to blow your mind. Want to hear about how horses evolved to gallop entirely on their middle fingers, and why some drawings show Julius Caesar's horse with human feet? Or maybe about how some of the earliest experiments creating a vacuum in the lab were conducted by a guy who had the Batman symbol for a mustache. Fans of the show tell us they like the vibe. We try to keep things cozy, relaxed, and open-minded, but driven by curiosity and grounded and skeptical and scientific perspective. On Stuff To Blow Your Mind, you'll hear everything from the story of how a 19th-century inventor

created a sort of modified pipe organ that could speak English through a doll's head. Two, why mud-dobber-nesses are stuffed like a filled pastry full of paralyzed spiders. Explore topics scientific, historical, philosophical, and sometimes monstrous on stuff to blow your mind. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up, y'all! This is Prop. I host a podcast called The Politics with Prop. or wherever you make your decision, what had happened was When I came home, you know, I was with Joe You remember Joe from church is mama in the prayer group with you. You remember Joe So I can't I took the chicken out like you said. I remember I took it because you said take the chicken out

I did you remember I got a on that on that. Do you remember I got an A on that map test? You remember I got that A? So I was gonna take that out and then work on you filibuster. You're just trying to stop her from making an immediate decision. That's all filibuster in it is. And the Congress do it all the time.

So you know what I'm saying? You already know this stuff. So we take these seemingly complex, high ideas and break them down in a way that you and me actually talk. So listen to her, politics with prop on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to what could happen here. Podcast returning from our holiday break to discuss the exciting topic of infectious diseases

in Gaza. And for that we're joined by an all-star cast of experts. We have joining us today, Saskia Popezcu, who's an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Maryland. Welcome, Saskia. Thank you for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, of course.

Yeah, you're welcome. It's not just you. We've also got Carvee's back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. Baby, I'm back. This is actually my first time, this is Cherine also, I'm here.

This is my first time meeting Carve. So this is a real true for me. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I've done your wrong, Cherine. I'm sorry, I didn't introduce you. It's okay, it's probably in the description or something that I'm here. It's no one's trust.

Yeah, you look like a valuable contribution. People will know you're here. But yeah, it's one of us. And yeah, we're talking today because like, I think the origin and sorry of this particular episode is that like a few weeks ago, there was a very funny thing on the internet about people in the IDF getting diarrhea. Yeah, which is funny.

Objectively. That's what the DN IDF stands for, actually. Yeah, that's what the kid is saying. But sorry, sorry. No, it's funny. That's what the DN IDF stands for actually. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know the kids are saying. But sorry. No, it's funny. It's don't you ever apologize for your reader? Yeah, you do not apologize for that. No, no. But the opportunity just to sit on them. You're good. Yeah, yeah, expect many. It's half an hour at least of this. Don't be driving because you might laugh too much and crash. But no, it's very funny. It's the name of our group chat.

It's the Israeli diarrhea forces. But aside from that, like this raises a more important question, right? Which is that people in Gaza don't have access to very many medical supplies to begin with with things in embargo, like tour are embargoed, like 20k, which is spoken about in this podcast before. They also have obviously a very resource constrained environment to begin with, and then a number of their hospitals have been bombed since then, which obviously further

reduces their access to medical care. Also, they have less access to things like running water now because they're being bombed to an incredible degree. And so, SARSQ's joined us today to explain the risk of the spread of infectious disease, maybe give us an update on what's already happening and the risks of what could happen. So, I guess maybe we should start off with really basic stuff and explain what infectious diseases are and how they're different from non-communicable diseases. Guess people aren't familiar. Would one of you like to do that? And I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that's why I think that sources. Human to human, like influenza, there's things like anthrax that you can't equalize, campula-bacter that you can get from soil, from food, and the zoonotic diseases that they

are also spread through animals. So things like Ebola, MERS, which is Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. So infectious diseases are viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and they really love to take advantage of the highest stress environments for bread. And unfortunately, this is one of them. So this is a very, what we see with infectious diseases a lot is that conflict and environments where people are stressed, resources are stressed, and the environment is under a continuous bombardment. There's densely populated spaces, no access to health, food and water, etc. I could probably go on for five minutes about what makes an infectious disease spread, is going to amplify it.

So these are diseases that take advantage of these environments. I'll add that the situation is just a perfect setup for infectious disease to run rampant. There's over 1.9 million people that have been displaced. Of that, 1.4 million are living in overcrowded shelters at this point. And in the best scenario from what I've seen, there's one toilet for every 220 people. Now, if you ever lived in like a house of like five people, and there's like one case of diarrhea,

you'll realize how terrible that is. Now, you amplify that to 220 at the minimum. And that's the best case scenario. I've heard as high as one per 700 people in some places. And then, you know, people have to go in the streets. They have to go where there's water supplies and you're going to be infecting those areas. There's one shower for every like 4,500 people, again, in best case scenario. So it's a huge number of people getting concentrated into smaller and smaller areas and without

the infrastructure there to handle that in any way. And when that happens, I mean, we are going to see, I am really worried about seeing in the end of this more deaths from infectious disease than from the bombardments. Yeah. Well, that's like a, it almost feels like a double, another weapon that they've used because they're not letting them have a chance to recuperate or have a sanitary place to do surgeries or anything because if they're doing surgery with unsanitary conditions, they can get infected and that's a whole other thing

or even just like having waste in the street, like having it faster. It's really, I think people forget that it's not just like a building was destroyed or people were killed. It's there's lasting effects that linger for probably generations. It's just, I don't know, it really is infuriating. I think the crazy part is the World Health Organization so the WHO recently released

some data as to what is being reported to them in terms of disease. And this said so far, and I'll keep in mind, these are just reported numbers. And that means it's just the tip of the iceberg in most cases. 100,000 cases of diarrhea. And those are in young children. So half of those are in young children on the age of five, which means it can be deadly. And this number is just 25% higher than what we have seen reported pre-conflict. And in terms of respiratory infections, the things like COVID, influenza, pneumonia,

under the 50,000 cases. And that's just the numbers that we know about. But we're also seeing cases and outbreaks of things like meningitis, skin rashes, gavies, lice, chickenpox, which is highly infectious. And we worry in those cases about when people are in these close quarters and their bodies are already strained because one thing we do know is that when your body is physiologically under stress, meaning no sleep, malnutrition, not access to clean water to wash your hands, not your dehydrated, etc. You're at an increased risk for disease and severe disease.

So that means that people are at higher risk to get it and then to spread it in these environments. And that's what's really scary because it becomes a hot spot for transmission. And you mentioned that this feels like a secondary effect in many ways. It's almost like a secondary conflict, if you will, and one that will leave lasting implications because what we do know is that disease and conflict go hand in hand. When I think about it a lot, it's, and we've seen this, unfortunately, throughout time, is that conflict can bring disease and it can amplify disease. When I say bring disease, we know that people in these spaces, soldiers can bring in diseases

that are being spread around, but we've also seen sexually transmitted diseases in the past being spread through sexual assault and sexual violence. And that's one thing I definitely worry about, and unfortunately, we know that's happening, and it's not something we're going to see reported for a while, but things like that can and do occur. And it's a very scary situation. If I can tack on a little bit to diarrhea subject here, because I am a GI and liver doc,

I mean, in a typical month in Gaza, there is about 2,000 cases of diarrhea in kids under five. And in the last month, there was over 40,000 cases. And for kids that aren't getting water, they're not getting the recommended amount of daily water. Like, it's like seven to eight leaders in refugee situations is what's recommended.

These people are getting like one to two leaders per whole families. So they're not staying hydrated. And these are kids that are most vulnerable. That's the part that is really hard for me. And I've actually seen people sort of downplay it like just like, well, it's diarrhea, you know, that's what you get.

But in these situations, it's going to be very serious for these kids. And the other thing we're seeing is cases of jaundice. They're noting that people are becoming, which to me suggests that there's hepatitis A and hepatitis E, which is, you know, you get through fecal oral contamination. And hepatitis E in particular is what concerns me

because there is pregnant women, and when pregnant women get hepatitis E, it's worse for them. That's a really bad situation. And when that happens, I mean, these are women who are already not getting support. They're already under nourished, they're not able to produce breast milk.

They're gonna be sick, they're not gonna be able to feed their kids. It's, I mean, I can't imagine. Honestly, I mean, I know it's funny. We can say these things. We can talk about the numbers, but it is like to actually wrap my brain around it, breaks my brain.

I cannot like imagine the numbers of people that are sick and are in these hospitals, not just being treated, but like the Nasser Hospital, which is one of the two hospitals in Gaza, they're like a 350-bed hospital. They're already over 1,000 patients, and not to mention the many thousands,

over 70,000 people just staying there, you know, for refuge. It's absolutely a nightmare. I can't write my brain around it. Yeah, like often I know when I speak to colleagues who are there or other journalists, they'll go to hospitals A, and they'll be safe, which has been proven to be true sadly, which is pretty messed up, but B, you know, they have maybe generators, right? So they can charge and tell the world what's happening or try to, seems like some of the world isn't listening. But yeah, their hospitals are incredibly overcrowded. I wonder, like, if we could go back to diarrhea,

yeah, I know it's not like a fun topic to talk about. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, Godfrey. It's just a score. Yeah, it's really my time to shine. Yeah, it's this life's work score. Yeah, it's really my time to shine. This life's work. So like, I think I was diarrhea that I read, kills more people than conflict annually. Yeah, yeah, world wide.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, Sasuke probably has better numbers on it than I do actually, but worldwide, yeah, it's probably the number one, um, number one killer. So like, let's just break that because I most of like by the very nature of this being a podcast right, most of our people listening are in the kind of the neoliberal core or the global north, whatever you want to call it, right? Like they have

a smartphone and they've downloaded this and it might be difficult to understand how you die from diarrhea, which is like an inconvenience in a lot of places. So can you just explain that for people so they can understand how the conditions that we're seeing in Gaza would compound that? Sasuke, do you want me to go first? Oh, all you. I'll talk about how it spreads, you can talk. Okay.

So, I mean, there's a couple of issues that can happen. There's a lot. But, I mean, dehydration is going to be a major one in loss of electrolytes. These people can get so badly dehydrated that their circulatory system isn't working properly, or they can lose the amount of electrolytes that they need and they're not replacing, and that can cause cardiovascular issues as well. So it's a terrible way to die. I mean, you know, cholera and these terrible, like, diureal epidemics that, you know,

we think of mostly in the past, they're terrible, they're terrible ways to go. And especially if you don't have the, I mean, it's treatable, usually it's treatable. You know, you get fluid rehydration, you get electrolyte management. It's pretty manageable in the right situation. But if you don't have that, it's going to, it's going to be a devastating thing to the body over time. And for young kids sooner rather than later. Yeah. So maybe we should get, explain how it spreads. Yeah, I mean, the scary part, so there's multiple packages that can cause diarrhea illness.

And for the most part, we see bacteria and viruses. If you've had neurovirus, which is the cruise ship bug, that is highly transmissible, meaning it just goes through households and environments. Very, very quickly, during outbreaks, you can't just use hand sanitizer and a simple disinfectant. You need bleach. And if you're thinking about the best case scenario, and I've seen, you know, diureal illnesses go through schools, hospitals, you may admit, we still struggle to contain those.

Now, put yourself in an environment with this level of stress. And, you know, the 36 hospitals in Gaza, Gaza 26 have been damaged. 21 are not functional at all. 13 are partially functioning and two are barely functioning. So we know that access to care is a challenge. The resources, I can't even imagine. So that means the capacity to treat patients

with antibiotics, with fluids, everything, and now contain it, which is the disinfection, you know, all the infection prevention essentially. And I don't even want to think about contact tracing and public health interventions, because it doesn't exist. It's an entirely collapsed system. You know, this is a humanitarian crisis. So when, you know, when you have people in close quarters, and there's a lot of high touch items, because a lot of high touch items because

a lot of diureal illness is spread through touch. It's contaminated hands and objects and then you touch your mouth, you eat with your hands etc. That's all these things are spread. So between the bathroom, not having access to restrooms, we mentioned the toilet situation. There's also one shower for every 4500 people. So we know that people are not able to clean themselves effectively. And this is a ripe condition for diarrheal illness to spread.

And they, it spreads very quickly, very efficiently, and it is exceedingly hard to get rid of. And it worries me because a lot of these diseases, it's not just like you get it one time and you have immunity to it, it can keep going around. And if you have a situation like that where you cannot clean effectively, you can't treat effectively, then we're just going to see it continuously compound. And that's absolutely terrifying because, you know, we were talking about pregnant women earlier, there's 50,000 pregnant women right now in Gaza. And they are malnourished. That's just the tip of the iceberg. And we see that so many children there are malnourished.

And these are very dangerous infections for vulnerable people. And on the best of days, we struggle to contain diurel illness. So my big concern is this and respiratory viruses, to be honest with you, because when you have this many people in close quarters and ignore the fact that they are extremely physically drained and stressed right now, which is when your immune system struggles, it's going to spread and it's going to be exceedingly hard to contain it. So this is an environment where we're going to see diarrheal illness spread and it's going to unfortunately kill a lot more people than we will even realize it's going to unfortunately kill a lot more people

than we will even realize it's going to take years to understand the implications of this. If we even consider that access to clean water and food, we've been talking a lot about malnourishment, which is huge, but I'm also concerned with the quality of food that they're getting to and the water, all of it. Everything about the situation

is going to spread to the uses. I know that sounds quite dramatic, but it's entirely true. No, I mean, I'm glad you're emphasizing that because I don't think people realize the gravity of a second wave of death. Like that happens, not with weapons. But no, I'm glad you emphasized that. Let's take our first break. We'll be right back.

And it reminds me too of when we saw UN peacekeepers in Haiti and they introduced cholera. And you know, and that's, it's an unfortunate reality when you are bringing in groups of people to, and this, you know, for in Haiti, they were trying to help the situation. In this case, it's not surprising. I mean, there's, there's a really good book called Contagions in Chaos that actually talks about how infectious diseases can amplify conflict or create it. And ultimately, I think we're just going to see this as a rolling health issue until there's a ceasefire and until there's really substantial work in there to re-source and to take care of people. I mean, it's scary. to resource and to take care of people. I mean, it's scary.

Kavi, you mentioned that you had a question for Saskia. I do. You know, you've written and you talked a lot about the intersections of science and policy, particularly in terms of COVID-19. We've seen that global threats elsewhere can affect Americans. And I'm wondering, is there a way to try and appeal to Westerners who aren't that interested yet in why they should

care about infectious diseases that are rising or become rampant in other places. Is there an argument you can make to these people who may not care that much about the Palestinian people per se? Oh, there's the political answer I should give you and then there's the real answer, which is, you know, political answers are saying that, you know, people do care and, you know, we're just having to have the concern reminded, but the real answer is, look, we just came out of three and a half years of a pandemic and at this point, if people don't give a shit, they're not going to. And I know that's crumed for me to say, but it's, I've been working in this, and we've seen it from Ebola to Murz to M-pox.

And in now coming out of COVID, I think we can safely say that, it's not a matter of if but when, but people really like the saying that is infectious disease knows no borders. And to a certain extent that is true, infectious diseases, they don't know that, but it ignores the fact that some countries are more equipped to handle them.

And that borders our poorest concept. So in this case, I think from an American perspective where it is a very complicated relationship Americans have and I'm not getting into that when it comes to Israel. The reality is that it shouldn't matter if it's a conflict. If you see an outbreak somewhere, you should be worried for those people and it shouldn't matter if it's going to impact you. But now that we have lived through a pandemic, a historical event, I would like to think people would see this and realize any one of these diseases can come to the states, a can strain global resources.

And I'm hopeful that with the amount of attention that's coming to this and that the work that the WHO and the UN have been drawing attention to it, that will change. But I get a little nervous every time we talk about infectious diseases and conflict areas because I find that Americans and it's not just us that people in high-income countries disassociate because that is a conflict-related issue. But it's not. Conflict can mean many different things and it's essentially saying this is an issue that's going to bubble out of control and if we were in a situation where there was no clean food and water, we had no access to health services and medicine, fuel was an issue and power, no communication. And I just, you know, read that three Palestinian internet providers went down so they have no way to contact outside world, they housing, they pass us, et cetera, any one of those impacted us. We would be experiencing

it. And I will leave that question with one comment to say, we are a very well-resourced country. The US invests so many resources into health, global health security, vital preparedness, all of the above. We were one of the worst performers when it came to COVID response. I say that having worked in healthcare during that and doing epidemiology, and I think this should be a continuous wake up call that it's we're one disease away from an international crisis and when we see this it should really speak to the fact that it is global health, it's not national health, not local health, it is global health. That's my TED Talk. The good tech talk. I guess I give I could piggyback on that, I think there is not a single

war that I have covered either remotely or in person where I have not been seen those people arrive. I bought it where I live. Like I was in Syrian Kurdistan in October. I am seeing people leaving Turkey, more and more Turkish Kurdistan, but also Syrian Kurdistan or people who went to Syria when we were back to Turkey at our southern border right now. I am seeing people from conflicts all over the world at our southern border right now and every single conflict, because we tend to stick our nose into every single conflict, it ends up here, right? Because we tell people we support them and then we abandon them and they come here thinking that we

were going to support them. I also add that every time there is infectious disease outbreak going forward, it will be used in the same way that COVID was to prevent asylum. I throw it to Title 42 that was used to quote unquote catch and release migrants at the southern border, allowed border patrol to reject people without processing their asylum came. That's a public health law. It's done in migration law. Biden's already indicated that he would love to do the same thing again. And like, you don't even need an excuse with this infectious disease stuff. Right. The law is already there. And it was already in place for several years. So it's kind of stood the test of the courts. And this will impact, even if you don't give a shit

about people in Palestine and maybe you should examine what's up with your morality if you do. Like this will impact you because people will come here and it will impact you because people who should come here won't be able to. And that will mean that people who have done nothing wrong who trusted us when we lied to them, you know, people Americans seem to care about Afghans

or other people. I've spoken to hundreds of Afghan women in our border and like they was stuck on their title 42 in a very dangerous situation in places like Mexico. So even if you only care about those people, you should still care about this, I guess. Can I add something to, I think, please, you know, to avoid fueling isolation is on because I think that happens all the time when we talk about these global health issues. Every resource that has to be put to help in this health crisis, that is probably not a humanitarian crisis, is a resource that's not back where it's supposed to be addressing

global health issues. Meaning, so for example, when we saw the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, after there were, you know, we started to actually realize the implications in malaria control, tuberculosis, HIV. So when we have to throw a bunch of emergency resources at a crisis. Those are coming out of somewhere else. And I worry too that people don't realize that we're, you know, as the WHO, the UN, everywhere MSS is having to help this situation because there's no access to care. And again, it is a health crisis.

That means we're going to start to see other things pop up elsewhere. And that really worries me because we are already very stringed when it comes to global health resources. We just, again, came out of the pandemic. Though everyone's tired, everyone's burnt out. We've got health systems and a lot of, and we're seeing it in the US where a lot of funding for like the CDC is being pulled and NIH.

So now that we're out of kind of coming back into this Hennic neglect cycle, I worry that a lot of the resources that we're having to pull to address this crisis are going to then ultimately leave a lot of other places at risk or infectious diseases for long-term health implications. So it is a lot bigger than one area where people, you know, having to flee to the US, it's all of these things. And too often we approach this with a very short side in this. And we have finite resources when it comes to global health response.

And when we have to use them because, you know, we're not approaching this effectively or appropriately, then we're gonna see larger implications. Yeah, even like, we can just keep building off each other's stuff and not hear from the other two. Even recently I was trying to buy some humanitarian daily rations for the border, which people are unfamiliar,

they're like, MREs for refugees, a maturine eat one on a live show once. Yeah, it was very salty. Yeah, very salty. Yeah, very salty. How it's good for the electrolytes. But there's a state department that's buying the back-off surplus retailers at the minute, which means that there's obviously a critical lack of supply of these things, same with UNHCR shelters.

And that means that someone else doesn't get to eat, right? Because we've just massively increased the burden of people who desperately need to eat. And like it's not like these things were chilling before, like they're, they're, you know, hunger is still a massive problem in the world, despite us having so much food here. And so like the say, yeah, the same is true of medical supplies. Like you said, right? That means that somebody else doesn't get them that money doesn't go to something else. Very important that it could be going to. Can I ask about something I just learned about the past couple of days. So on December 25th, the Jerusalem Post reported that an IDF soldier died of a fungal infection. And apparently,

he was hospitalized and eventually he died. And at least 10 other soldiers have been diagnosed with infections of some sort. I think what kind of made me annoyed is that there is a headline from the Times of Israel that said, as a soldier with fungal infection dies, fears grow of Gaza diseases spreading into Israel. And apparently they're examining whether the infections originated from the Hamas tunnels and all the stuff. I think while I- That's right, it's a plague tunnel.

That's really bothered me because I looked at all these articles, I mean most of them are obviously Israeli sourced, but it still was the same rhetoric of there is diseases in Gaza and our soldiers are getting them. And honestly, the takeaway in all of these was we have to worry about Israeli public health and the Israeli citizens. It wasn't about anything about the gossens or anything like that. And I was just, I guess I wanted to ask, is there any truth at all to the idea that there can be certain infections localized to that degree, even though it's like a very

small country in general. And I guess it's, it's really, I feel like it's a spear mongering tactic using health as a weapon, but I don't know, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Even the fungus has gone woke. I can't believe it. They've weaponized fungus. Sasuke, I'll let you address it, but I would say this. I mean, I think the fear, I just did an episode of my podcast on funguses and talking about the last of us and seeing the truth that there's really concern, especially with global climate change. And it is, I mean, the thought of a fungus affecting humans in that way, who are not in some way under their body under stress or immunosuppressed, it's not that likely. And I definitely agree from what I'm hearing that like, this is just another way to be like, look at these dirty people.

We should bomb them to the, to the, to the right of the fungus. Yeah. Everything related to Palestinians is, oh, they're all, it's all the plague. Like they're scary, they're barbaric, and also they're going to make you sick. It's, it's really infuriating. They're just going at every angle. I just, I found the quote that made me mad. Can I read it?

Okay. I'm going to read it. Basically, it says, the war between Israel and Hamas has led to the destruction of large swaths of Gaza and internal displacement of the vast majority of its population, resulting in what is called humanitarian crisis for the Palestinians. I just called that because it is that bodywadid blood. These conditions have led to the outbreaks of various diseases which can potentially threaten the well-being of hundreds of thousands of IDF troops fighting in Gaza. They can also ultimately spell trouble for public health in Israel.

I just can't believe that's the takeaway. I'll let Sasuke do you want to address the spread of fun goal infection in a situation like this? Yeah, I mean, look, again, this is a situation where disease is going to be spread and that includes IDF soldiers. They are a risk because guess what? They all have to go back to their bunks and sleep at night and close quarters. Do we see diseases spread easily in militaries?

Of course. I mean, it would be insane not to think that, but trying to, you know, source it in Palestinians and Gaza is slightly ridiculous because there's no epidemiological evidence of that, but it's also kind of weird to me that they're saying a fungal infection. That's a very specific thing. Fungal infections aren't fast infections. For the most part, you know, when we do see them, I think from a regional perspective, if you live in the Southwest, like I do, valley fever is a fungal infection.

It's in the dirt, though. It's a spore in the dirt. And it's not spread between people, though. That's the key part. It is you inhale it and you get it. And it takes months in a lot of cases. But, you know,. But can you see fungal infections? Yeah, that could be contaminated water, inhalation through showers, things like that. There's ways for that to happen, but we really just, for the most part, see those infections spread from an individual source,

not an individual person. They tend to really not be, they're environmentally spread. I'm not a fungal expert. I can just speak to the ones that I've seen and really we don't see them spread between people And so I think that it's it's a weird choice to say and I worry a little bit that they're just Again to your point trying to say like oh look our our soldiers are getting sick, you know the sacrifice They're making right. It's so much. And here's the thing, conflict is where we're going to see disease spread no matter what. And if you're so worried about soldiers getting fungal infections from Gaza, then maybe

keep the people in Gaza safe. And then there, you know, either way you paint this, if you're trying to blame it on them, they keep them safe, and they won't be able to spread disease. Very simple. Yeah. They did site contaminated soil. Okay. That's a contamination thing like in part of menal.

Yeah, this one of the tebbiologists said that these soldiers have come back with serious antimicrobial resistant infections, that they've picked up their contact with contaminated soil among other factors. Like one, I feel like it's like a very direct statement. There's a lot to unpack there. Again, though, if it's in the soil, it's an environmental exposure. That's not anyone's fault.

From an anti-microbial perspective, I mean, a hard time believing that. Valley fever, as I mentioned, is really hard to treat. So sometimes it's not responsive to some of the medications you give, but you know, you're going to get antimicrobial infections more so for people in contaminated objects, because that means that it has to have been exposed to antibiotics and become resistant to the infections. But there's, that feels like very messy.

Reporting on their part are communications because not a lot of that makes sense to me. And either way, if they're saying it's from the environment, congratulations, you've just proven you're not getting it from people. Yeah. Thank you for getting into that. I just, the Hamas tunnels,

the Hamas terror tunnels, sorry, in their words, they're terror tunnels. They're gonna investigate whether infections have originated from there. It's also just, that doesn't make any sense. So I'm glad to have two doctors here agree, and that's all I wanted. I mean, I will say this coxidiumicosis is valley fever, and we like, you know, she just mentioned it's, we see it here here in California it's a reason why we used to say if you're driving down Central Valley California down the i5 you should roll up your window and and not breathe in the air because there's

a possibility of getting it from that so they say that well they I don't think they do so much anymore there's a whole number of reasons why you don't want to be breathing it yeah there's a lot of cow farms out there too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It gets a little bit nasty out there in the I5, but, but I mean, this one is an endemic thing. It's like if they don't want to be exposed to it, stay out of that area. Yeah. Yeah.

But you're not going to get it from other people. That's the kicker. It's not spread from people. Yeah. It is very common to attribute effective diseases that come from conflict to your enemy. Right. Like if you look at like the 1918 pandemic flu and all the different things that people call that flu and the people to whom they attribute to it, like you can see that we've

been doing that for more than a hundred years. It's part of the process of dehumanizing people who you're trying to kill. It happened with COVID, too. No, it's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was a whole different situation. I mean, I guess humans just don't learn, I suppose.

So, I wonder... Sasuke, like, we... obviously, this is a terrible situation and it's one that's like super easy to feel very disempowered with because, you know, as much as you march around and do things, it doesn't seem to be stopping. Is there anything that people can do advocate for, like take action on that could make this slightly less bad? I'm going to cease fire. I encourage people to donate to UNICEF and obviously, you know, MSS, a lot of the wonderful

organizations doing work there. And probably my biggest one right now, especially since we're around the holidays and people are spending a lot of time with family and likely getting some heavy conversations around the dinner tables, make sure you lot of time with family and likely getting to some heavy conversations around the dinner tables. Make sure you're well informed and you're not spreading misinformation and disinformation online because that's been a huge aspect of this.

We saw with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Russia took direct action to spread misinformation and disinformation and we're struggling with that in the United States right now with this. So I encourage people to stay informed of this, to really utilize good resources and not pull things from social media. If you're going to share something, do so from an accurate source. I really, you know, the WHO UN have been really good at doing continuous updates and sharing that information. Human rights watch at all of the above. And on top of, again, donating

and really being an advocate for a ceasefire, to me is the biggest thing because also reminding people, hey, this is currently a localized crisis, but infectious diseases a localized crisis, but infectious diseases and humanitarian crises, crises, excuse me, rarely stay that way. I would also plug the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, the PMRS, they're on the ground, people, they've been there since 1979, they're founded by Palestinian doctors, it's mostly

Palestinian run, and they're doing, I think, really good work down there as best they can. And there where actually the WHO gets most of their information, or a lot of it, at least it's coming from their updates from the PMRS people on the ground. So that's another local source to look at if people are interested in getting involved.

Perfect. You got to go. Sure, Ian. I'm not gonna wrap it up involved. I think you got to go. Sure. I'm not gonna wrap it up yet. I was just thinking how unfortunate it is that people don't care enough so you have to be like, it's not only gonna stay localized.

Like it's not just that, I mean, I hate that we have to go there because especially after going through pandemic yourself, if that is still not enough for you to have any kind of empathy, that's just insane to me. That's the one consistent thing I've seen is a lot of people say, oh, this conflict is very, there's a lot of history and I don't really want to get involved.

And yeah, and to us, I do understand that there is a long, complicated history that not a lot of people are well informed of, but inform yourself. And that doesn't mean you can't have empathy. You can denounce a mass and also denounce anti-semitism. Yeah, these things are not really good. And it's impressive to me that we're still after, you know, it's not even been three months and we've lost 20,000 people that we know of in this. We're seeing journalists killed left and right as well. It's impressive to me that people are still saying, oh, I don't really want to comment on that or, you know, it's very messy.

It is and it's not though. In the medical, I'm sorry, James, in the medical world, I've seen doctors complain about more about the word provider and how it's used than the fact that 300 medical professionals have been killed, some of them while doing their duty in the hospital. That's a part that kind of surprised me from a medical perspective. I think I mentioned it to you before. I'm grateful for coming on your show because I think a lot of the overlaps between doctors who listen to our show and they

listen to yours. And they're very vocal and they're online. And they are the ones who are really giving me hope in these situations because there's a lot of people in medicine. This is a medical issue. I mean, I'm not even talking about any of the history. That's nothing. That's not what I'm, that's not what it's important to me right now. It's about this healthcare crisis that is worsening and progressively worsening. And I, it is, it is a bit of a bummer that I'm not seeing a little bit more interest in addressing it. Yeah. I would hope also that most people like insider outside of medical community could maybe agree that like the correct number of hospitals to bomb is zero hospitals and that Yeah, there is an reason why you bomb our abilities

I mean Anthony Blinken said like a year or what about Ukraine and Russia Russia bombed hospitals in schools There's no way that's normal and like there there's a video where it's cross-sectioning into right now how he's like, we're always gonna support Israel. So it's like, no, it's not normal. Bomming hospitals and schools is never normal or okay. It's crazy that Israel went from being like, we would never bomb a hospital to bombing dozens of them

and nothing happening. But, I guess just for like, like completion, it's not okay when turkey bombs hospitals in Northeasternia either, like I was there when they bombed one, they bombed another one since, it's not okay when the hunter and me and my bombs hospitals, I know this one hospital less standing in the whole of Karene State right now

and it's happening there too. We're not like not caring about those people because this is a topic of the day or whatever. It's also not okay to use white phosphorus on our civilians. Yeah, across the board. Yeah, like in general, it's horrific and I just I think it's it's you know, and there was there were a couple of reports And I think that there's still data coming out about it that bodies had organs stolen from them. Yeah, which is just horrific Jesus and Yeah, it doesn't really have to be the one that's real has done for a while though Israel's

They said they stopped it and then they're continuing to do it, but it's like they said they stopped it and then they're continuing to do it. But it's like, their notorious for bringing to returning bodies that have been like autopsy or having all their organs removed. And I want to just point out that for Muslim burials, the body is like, it's very important that the body is whole and the same for Jewish burials. But it's just really disgusting, just point blank and then also really disrespectful.

But yeah, sorry, interrupted. Sorry. No, I mean, it's, and again, I think there's still a lot of information coming out about that and how many, that occurred, et cetera, because, like I mentioned before, I think information right now is really challenging, accurate information, of course, is exceeding me difficult. So I'm always very careful, we say. But to me, the Washington Post just released a really good article and in-depth analysis of the attacks on the Al-Shifa hospital, because that's the biggest

hospital in Gaza. And for a while, IDF was saying, well, this is where Hamas has been operating, they have tunnel networks, and there was a good breakdown of why this is inaccurate. And at the end of the day, no, there's no acceptable reason to bomb a hospital and drawing attention to the fact that this was occurring and misinformation is being shared as huge. So I'm hopeful that, you know, and very grateful to be on this podcast and talk with you all, because the more information we can communicate about this situation, but also about the fact that there are much larger consequences of this from just even an infectious disease perspective is so critical because I don't think people realize that.

And again, they disassociate when they hear of the conflict, it's a result of conflict. It is so much larger than that. It will, you know, we will see it in the States. We will see the ramifications of this. And if nothing else, again, coming out of COVID, I'd like to think that we realize that we are a part of a much larger interconnected world and infectious diseases are simply a plane flight away.

Yeah, very true. Thank you both so much for your brains and your knowledge. And for coming on the show. It's, uh, yeah. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for having us.

Of course. And before we go, I'd like to ask you guys, if you have anything you'd like to plug, like where people can find you, good, you've mentioned a couple of good resources, but other information resources, that kind of thing that you'd like to share. So in terms of the resources, I am following a couple of members of the PMRS. They have a Twitter feed, but it's not very active, but the WHO gets a lot of the same information and they do a good job of updating. In terms of where you could learn more, I just did an episode on the healthcare crisis in Gaza on my podcast, The House of Pod, which James has been on.

And Shreen, I'm trying to get you to come on. I'm down. I'm going to keep working on you. And Sasuke too. I mean, you're all invited. I'm recording this. I'm just going to release it on you and Saskia too. I mean, you're all invited. I'm recording this. I'm just going to release it on my podcast as well. And yeah, so listen to us there.

I'll be doing more episodes on this topic as well in the coming months. Cool. Perfect. Saskia, how about you? I mean, all of those resources I really have been looking to, of course, I'm a public health nerd. So WHO, you know,

Seth Human Rights Watcher, my big go-tos, as you know, again, is all the sources we've already mentioned. And I really, I want to give a shout out to a colleague of mine, Jessica Altirovera, who is really, really wonderful in the space and has been doing a lot of science communication on her Instagram. I tend to be a little bit more on the cesspool that is formally Twitter, but I think there's some really wonderful people out there. This entire group included that are actively working to share information, but also how people can get engaged

and involved. So we shout out to her and just all the hard work that a lot of key journalists are doing in this space. Because again, if you have no communication out, it's really hard to get accurate information. Well, thanks guys for listening. Why are you laughing, James? Can I wrap us out? Or is this too monotone of an album?

No, you're crushing it, Shrine. Send it. No, that's the show. Thanks again for both of you being so outspoken, I think especially reminding everyone that it's actually not complicated, because it's also like a medical issue. It's not exactly, when you just look at the numbers,

look at body count, look at families, that's I think what our main focus should be. And I appreciate you both, because I know it's tricky out there to be outspoken, so thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks, somewhere. Thank you, guys. Thanks, somewhere.

Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but perfection. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and you might know me from the bedtime story podcast, Nothing Much Happens. I'm an architect of Cozy cozy and I invite you to come spend some time where everyone is welcome and kindness is the default. When you tune in, you'll hear

stories about bakeries and walks in the woods. A favorite booth at the diner and a blustery autumn day. Cats and dogs and rescued goats and donkeys. Old houses, bookshops, beaches were kite fly, and pretty stones are found. I have so many stories to tell you, and they are all designed to help you feel good and feel connected to what is good in the world. Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of Nothing Much

on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The world is so much weirder than you think. If you want to find out why, join us on the science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Want to hear about how horses evolved to gallop entirely on their middle fingers and why some drawings, so Julius Caesar's horse with human feet? Or maybe about how some of the earliest experiments creating a vacuum in the lab were conducted by a guy who had the Batman symbol for a mustache.

Fans of the show tell us they like the vibe. We try to keep things cozy, relaxed, and open-minded, but driven by curiosity and grounded in a skeptical and scientific perspective. On Stuff To Blow Your Mind, you'll hear everything from the story of how a 19th century inventor created a sort of modified pipe organ that could speak English through a doll's head. Two, why muddobber nests are stuffed like a filled pastry full of paralyzed spiders. Explore topics scientific, historical, philosophical, and sometimes monstrous on stuff to blow your mind. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

What up y'all this is prop. I host a podcast called The Politics with Prop. I am a firm believer that if you grew up in some sort of struggle or inner city in America you understand politics more than you think you do. It's just not been translated in the language that you speak. I am here to translate it for you. For example, you know what a filibuster is? Yeah you speak. I am here to translate it for you. For example, you know the filibuster is? Yeah you do, because if you got a mama that don't play no games, you can filibuster in your whole life.

Hey mom, no look, listen, listen, listen, listen, mom, before you make your decision, what had happened was when I came home, you know, I was with Joe. You remember Joe from church, his mama and the prayer group with you, you remember Joe, so I took the chicken out like you said. I remember I took the chicken, cause, so I took the chicken out. Like you said, I remember I took the chicken

because you said take the chicken out. I, did you remember I got an A on that, on that math test? You remember I got that A. So I was gonna take that out and then work on you filibuster. You're just trying to stop her from making an immediate decision. That's all filibuster and it is.

And the Congress do it all the time. See what I'm saying? Hey, you already know this stuff. So we take these seemingly complex, high ideas and break them down in a way that you and me actually talk. So you know what I'm saying? Hey, you already noticed up. So we take these seemingly complex high ideas and Break them down in a way that you and me actually talk. So listen to her politics with prop on the iHAR radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast Welcome to it could happen here the show about the slow end of the world and all the small little things that are kind of pushing us that way Isn't that exciting? New year new me not Not really. I'm kind of doing the same, same stuff. Mostly staring into the abyss and seeing what's tears back.

Staring at the abyss with me today is me a wang. Hello. Thank you for joining me. Oh boy. The abyss is looking, is looking real choppy today. Real abyssel, you could say. The waves coming out of it are staring back at you real hard. Yeah, yeah. So we're in the talk today about anti-semitism. So I guess content warning in case you don't want to hear a whole bunch of anti-semitic stuff. I'm not just going to be repeating anti-Semitic

things. This is just the topic for the whole episode. So yeah, the past few months, there has been a pretty dramatic rise in anti-Semitism, ranging from physical attacks, vandalism, and lots of rhetoric. Now, there is a few factors that I think make this a little bit tricky to talk about, which is why it's taken me a while to put this together. Firstly, I want to avoid getting into like a pressional infix here, right? Talking about one bad thing does not negate

many other bad things that are happening concurrently. Having a discussion about a very troubling rise in anti-Semitism and a state-backed ethnic cleansing do not need to be mutually exclusive topics of discussion, right? We can say both of these things are actually pretty bad. And today, we're going to be talking specifically about anti-Semitism. And I think this show has had a history of reporting

on anti-fascist movements and attempts to stop fascist entryism and promoting anti-Semitism. So this topic is well within our regular wheelhouse, and there is a decent bit to talk about. Now the second thing that makes this topic a little bit tricky is that some of the big extremism research groups that typically do the most accessible cataloging of antisemitic incidents have proven themselves to be slightly unreliable on this topic for the past four months. And that's not just my opinion. That's also the opinion of current and former ADL employees who have been coming out against director Jonathan Greenblatt's leadership choices, particularly since the October 7th Hamas attack. Now, due to the nature of their job versus my job, ADL analysts have a lot more dedicated time

and resources to cataloging alleged anti-Semitic incidents. But under Greenblood's direction, the whole of their data from the past four months is heavily skewed to include anything expressing anti-Zionism as being included in their data about anti-semitism. And even anything deemed too sympathetic to Palestinians as being a driver of anti-semitism. So that's the kind of situation we have here with, you know, there's many issues the ADL has had in the past, which we may talk about in the future. But typically, they've done an okay job the past few years, specifically cataloging anti-semitism

during the rise of the alt-right. Their data is often relatively reliable on this topic. Some of their other data and other practices are very open to criticism. But this is kind of one other factor that's going to make this a little bit tricky. Now as, like, in example, right, this right, we can talk about these things in abstract. I'm going to talk about something from Atlanta because this is something I have some experience in. So on the ADL's big map of anti-Semitic incidents from October 7th to the present, if you zoom in to Atlanta, there's two incidents that are right next to each other.

One is a banner drop done by the Goiom Defense League, which is a group of neo-nazis. Oh, God, it's a stupid thing. Basically, they made some banners expressing pro-hittler statements alongside slogans like free Palestine and they put them up above a really big road in Atlanta, right? So this is pretty standard neo-Nazi anti-Semitism using kind of anti-signism as this sort of mask, but I mean, I mean, if you're Hitler stuff like that.

Yeah, very thin. Oh, yes, exactly. It's not really, it's not really masked because you also have a Hitler banner, but like, you know, if someone only sees one banner, be like, oh, it's a Palestine banner, but no, it's actually an Nazi banner. So we have this incident logged. We also have another incident logged right beside it from a protest, a few days later, which was an inner faith rally in support of Palestine against the ongoing ethnic cleansing that's happening in Gaza with thousands and thousands

of people being killed. So we have this banner drop and we have this rally. And both of these things are labeled as an anti-Semitic incident. They're both like equal in the eyes of this data, which just isn't true. I was at this rally. I did not hear anything anti-Semitic coming from the speakers. Many of the speakers, if not the majority of the speakers were Jewish. There were a group of Jewish counter protesters who showed up, who started many fights, fights which were very quickly de-escalated

by the people who were putting on the rally. There was this one woman who was carrying an Israeli flag on this flagpolepole who kept hitting people with it. So there was a lot of, there was a lot of things going on at this rally, but this was not an anti-Semitic rally. And in fact, the Jewish counter protestors were extremely vitriolic. They were expressing explicit desire for genocide of Palestinians, like very, very gross stuff. It was, it was really disgusting. So both of these incidents, though, are seen as equal, which just show, that's just an

easy example to kind of show how this data isn't really reliable that the ADL is putting together here. Now I really don't feel like it's my place to go through the ADL's database and decide what is and is not anti-semitism, right? Like that's, I don't have the time, nor the money, nor really the authority to be like the arbiter of what is and isn't anti-semitic. Yeah, Gareth Gares and turning into the anti-semitism commissar. Yeah, that's not me.

I have a background in anti-fascist research. I have a background in neo-Nazi-driven anti-Semitism, these are the things I usually specialize in. But still, this is a massive field. Anti-Semitism is a complicated topic. Rhetoric can be complicated, and having not attended or reviewed every single rally or incident in question, I'm simply not equipped to make informed judgments. So for that reason, this episode I will focus mostly on physical attacks, threats, and vandalism, as opposed to the much more murky waters of rhetoric, online rhetoric, and you know, just these, these, there's been probably thousands of rallies

across the United States. I've not been to everyone. I've not watched every single speech. I've not heard every single offhand comment. So I'm not going to deal with those. Instead, I'm going to be focusing on physical, like in like IRL and things that have a very clear result of the action. So this mostly attacks throughout spandalism. Anyway, moving on though, I guess actually the one other thing about stats is that when talking about this rise and anti-Semitism, because there's been a lot of articles from mainstream news outlets being like, here's the rise and anti-Semitism in, here's the stats.

Another thing pointing towards why these stats are unreliable and the reason why I'm not going to be using them largely is because many of the stats included in these articles are crime stats. And these crime stats are also proving to be heavily unreliable. For example, the Metropolitan Police claimed that there was a 1,350% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in London during the first two and a half weeks of October. With 218 anti-Semitic offenses in London during that time period compared to only 15 in 2022. But included in these stats are incidents like the police and London arresting a man for

tearing down some of those hostage posters. That's one of the hate crimes that they include in this. And also the met said that that's the Metropolitan Police said that chanting from the river to the sea near Jewish people or near Jewish buildings during a protest would be deemed unlawful. And I think there is a debate to be had whether if you're just protesting outside of a random Jewish building that's probably not great and it could be an indicator of anti-Semitism. But having that chant be deemed unlawful for just being near other Jewish people, like I said at the rally in Atlanta, there was a whole bunch of Jewish counter protesters who came to start fights. So like, you're going to be around Jewish people. If you're a march, you're marching around or if you're outside in Israeli embassy, that's a, that's in, in my opinion, very valid target for protest.

That would be considered a Jewish building. So all of these stats are heavily, heavily skewed by these, by, by these sorts of reasons for how, how, how the net is including things as being anti-Semitic hate crimes. Yeah, and I mean, like the, like, if you just think about what the rationale is there for a second, like, is, is a group of anti-scientists Jews chanting from the river to the sea around themselves a hate crime? Exactly, right?

Like, this is nonsense. Yes. So, and also, you know what I mean? And also, like, this is the British police. Like, those are the most anti-Semitic motherfuckers this side of like the Ukrainian neo-Nazis or something. And like, I do not doubt there was an actual increase of anti-Semitic attacks,

the Los Mites speech. That is what we're talking about in this episode. We will be getting into many incidents, but it is difficult to pin down some of what these really big stats actually represent. Because if tearing down one of those silly, Hamas wanted posters is being labeled a hate crime on the same level as drawing a swastika on a synagogue

That data is basically useless and now I think it's also worth mentioning just very very briefly The metropolitan police also recorded a 140% increase in Islamophobic incidents during those first two and a half weeks of October That's that's 42 incidents in 2022, compared to 103 incidents in 2023. And while that percentage is lower than the anti-Semitic stat, it also indicates how much more common is lamophobia in London is, because the regular amount of reported incidents

from last year is so much higher than the regular reported amount of anti-Semitic incidents. Like having 42 incidents per like two and a half weeks, the normal stat is not great. Maybe someone should look into why British people are so... Islamathobic. That's a whole episode in and of itself. Islamathobic in the UK is a massive, massive

problem. But just as a comparison I thought, I may as well say that, we will, we will get to Hanukkah next, but it has already been 13 minutes of me talking about stats and giving disclaimers. So that means it's time for an ad break. I'm not going to do a silly ad transition, just listen to the ads. Alright, we are back. Since we just finally escaped the holiday season, let's begin by talking about Hanukkah. Public Menoras, often without any extra iconography tying them to the state of Israel,

were a frequent target of vandalism and antisemitic messaging during the month of December. A far-right member of parliament in Poland used a fire extinguisher to blow at the candles on a menorah in the lobby of parliament. A public menorah in London had its light bulbs smashed with a free Palestine sticker placed onto the front, and then days later it was found toppled over and left in pieces. There's many of these incidents.

I'm just going to name a few more just because at a certain point it kind of becomes redundant, but I think these things are worth talking about. An 11 foot 350 pound menorah next to Lake Mary in Oakland was cut up and destroyed in mid December with pieces being thrown into the nearby lake. A message was graffiti that led, we're gonna find you, you're on alert. It was also reported that there was graffiti left nearby that read free Palestine in Arabic,

but I can't confirm that the picture they have online does not match what free Palestine in Arabic, but I can't confirm that the picture they have online does not match what free Palestine in Arabic looks like, but an on an expert on Arabic. So I just can't confirm that, but that is being reported in local Jewish newspapers. Menorah Sanskulpshire commissioned in Palm Beach was destroyed and left defaced with a swastika outside a synagogue in a suburb of Washington, DC. Menorah was toppled over on the eve of Hanukkah, and two menorahs were vandalized and damaged in Brooklyn

in early December by massed individuals. So, one other similar incident I will talk about, which is kind of interesting, is that there was this propelstein protest at Yale, where one of the protesters climbed up onto this massive, I don't know how tall it was, but it was huge. They had to climb up pretty high on this big public menorah and placed a Palestinian flag

kind of around one of the little arms on the menorah. But very quickly, within seconds of this happening, other propelists and protesters, noticing this is kind of disrespectful, asks this person to take it down, almost immediately. This is a very quick exchange. And this kind of sparked some people talking about, is it okay to put Palestinian flags on Manoras? Is it okay to vandalize Manoras?

Which, the answer is no. The answer is you shouldn't vandalize a menorah. That's generally not great, but people were saying, and specifically pointing towards pictures of IDF soldiers who have been taking territory in Gaza, who have been putting up menorahs in Gaza or the Israeli military doing these photo ops with big menorahs in different parts of Gaza

as being like, hey, when there's this active ethnic cleansing going on and soldiers are using this religious iconography and it's being associated directly with this with this ongoing ethnic genocide. How can you blame people who are going to be treating this symbol with hostility? And I think there's a few problems with this idea. I'm going to quote from this Jewish artist who goes by underscore a non-narray, who I think phrase this really well. Quote, Jewish symbols shouldn't be associated with Zionism or seated to them just because Zionists abuse them. If the menorah were put up by Zionists as some explicitly Zionist display, then putting

up a palestating infig would be an active resistance. If it's not, then it's just cementing the Zionist conflation and exploitation of Jewish identity. There are more non-Jewish Zionists than there are Jews. And this gets at a point, which I think is really important when you're talking about anti-Zionist activism. Attacking symbols of Jewish culture in the name of anti-Zionism only strengthens the cause of Zionism by affirming the conflation of Judaism and Zionism or Judaism and the state of Israel.

This conflation helps Zionists shield their actions by abusing the Jewish identity and making these two things be more like intersectional. So I think that is one, a strategic reason for why this is a bad idea. And two, it's maybe slightly anti-semitic. So that is my little holiday section just because I saw a whole bunch of stuff around these manoras and I didn't feel good about it. Yeah, like the socks, like, please don't do this. And I've seen some people like also using the comparison of like, please don't do this. I've seen some people also using the comparison of like, would you also criticize indigenous people in America for graffitiing or taking down images of like Christian iconography?

And like, no, because the oppression faced by Christians and the oppression faced by Jewish people are two different things. Like these are actually historically, these are very different things. So no, these things actually cannot be compared in my opinion. But now I'm gonna talk about some international incidents

because I think we have a tendency to over-focus on America when there's a whole bunch of other stuff happening in the rest of the world. Back in October, a historic synagogue in Tunisia was burned down by a mob of hundreds of people in response to reports that an Israeli air strike hit a hospital in Gaza. This sucks. I shouldn't have to explain why burning down a historical synagogue is ecstasymetic because you don't like something

the state of Israel did. That's just isn't like, that's just not C-Shit. Like come on. Yeah. So, a month later in November, someone posted the video online of themselves pouring fuel and setting fire to the only synagogue in Armenia. The entrance was damaged in the arson attack, but no one was hurt. The only synagogue in Vortswacht, Poland, sorry, a privateer that, but it is a hard word.

But the only synagogue in this town of Poland to survive the Holocaust was defaced with graffiti that read, quote, Israel criminals and murderers, unquote. And then like a week, I guess earlier that week, a group of teenagers also destroyed a manora in this same town. In mid-October, Moltaf cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in Berlin. After Hanukkah in Belgium, a Jewish cemetery was vandalized with swastikas on gravestones. In late November, a multi cocktail was thrown

at a Jewish community center in Montreal. Earlier that month, shots were fired at two different Jewish schools in Montreal in three different incidents. And four Holocaust memorials in Germany were vandalized with a mix of antisemitic and anti-signist messages. So again, like when I was looking at these ones in Germany, mix of anti-Semitic and anti-zionist messages.

So again, like when I was looking at these ones in Germany, the actual content of about half of these messages were not anti-Semitic, but the act of doing this at a Holocaust Memorial, just is, like it gives me the ink and there's arguments could be made that this does actually play into anti-Semitic tropes. Like you're what, you're blaming dead Jewish people for the actions of the current state of Israel.

Like it's just, I also have half of these messages left at these Holocaust memorial sites, we're also just blatantly anti-Semitic, like very clearly, like Nazi-style stuff. I didn't have time to go over all of the incidents across Europe. There is a great deal, many. There's many, many, many that I've not mentioned. These are just a few, like I said, I'm focusing on vandalism, very, very clear cut stuff,

people doing arson attacks, right? It's just very, very basic stuff. This stuff in Montreal, not great. Montreal, Canada, get your shit together. Although unfortunately not surprising, but still upsetting, is Jews being barred from shops across Turkey, and there's a whole bunch of very gross government sponsored

anti-Semitism across Turkey campaigns to prohibit the sale of land, to Jewish people. A lot of bad stuff in Turkey, but that's not incredibly surprising. Yeah, I mean, it's Erdogan. Like, he fucking sucks ass. And he, oh yeah. Erdogan is a man who has personally ordered children to be burned alive with fire bombs, so, you know, this is not out of character for him.

Yeah. And I guess, finally, this one other thing about Hanukkah is that so last month, right after the end of Hanukkah, bomb threats were sent out on mass to more than 400 Jewish centers and synagogues across the United States. This was most likely orchestrated by the same kind of small number of individuals.

All of the messages were very similar. None of these were incredibly credible, but it still sparked a whole bunch of bomb sweeps and concerned, because when Jewish synagogues get bomb threats, that's not an empty threat either. Like this is, like there is historical precedent. Yeah, and I also, like I think the other thing

that's important about this too is this is one of the things is the combination of everything that rights were doing for the last eight years has been the development of this cadre of people who do bomb threats. Calling in bomb threats as a tactic. Yeah. The concerted effort for bomb threats at hospitals that provide transgender care, abortion clinics, there was a string of weirdly organized bomb threats against schools about a year or two ago that I think Robert didn't

episode on. Yeah, and now we're here at bomb threats you can send out dogs, which is terrifying. According to the secure community network and nonprofit security organization that tracks threats made against Jewish communities, bomb threats and swatting incidents, basically trying to get a SWAT team to show up somewhere because you lied about their being like an ongoing crime or something, but bomb threats and swatting incidents targeted against Jewish centers

saw over a 500% increase in 2023 compared to the previous year, which I have no reason to believe is incorrect. So, on that note, I don't really think we can have a bomb threat segue to ads. I really don't know. Don't do bomb threats typically. Typically. Anyway, do you know what else is debaum?

These ads, okay, fine. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay is definitely not true. Yeah, okay, okay, you're right. Okay. So, during this last section, I'm going to talk a little bit more about data aggregation. So, like I said previously in this episode due to the nature of what my job is and the nature of what an ADL analyst's job is, They just have a lot more time to dedicate towards specifically logging anti-Semitic incidents. So I did look through their data set and I've made some extrapolations based on some of the findings and some of the open source data that they have regarding specific

incidents. So on that note, the ADL has logged around 1,100 anti-Semitic incidents since October 7th, not related to protest rallies. So this is specifically all the incidents that are not related to these big pro-Palestinian interfaith, many Jewish-led rallies. Now, I'm not saying that nothing anti-Semitic has not happened at any of those rallies. But these rallies were logged simply as, quote, anti-Israel rallies, which featured over anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and or expressions of support for terror. So, crammed in the middle of that explanation is just anti-Zionism. So that is one thing they are just counting as being

enough to be logged as an anti-semitic incident. So again, I'm not going through the over like 1,000 rallies that they have logged here just because I don't have the time and I don't feel like it. But yes, just for full transparency, that is the information I'm not going to be looking at, instead I'm looking at these 1,100 other incidents not related to these protests. So, these 1,100 harassment and vandalism incidents include things from anti-sionist slash anti-Israel stickers and graffiti being left at universities and synagogues,

the latter, which I believe is in poor taste, but also swastika is being painted on synagogues, the latter which I believe is in poor taste, but also, you know, swastika is being painted on synagogues, extremely anti-symmetric messages, being left at Jewish centers, and street harassment targeting visibly Jewish people, as well as just overt neo-Nazi activity under the banner of free Palestine. Now, of these over 1,100 incidents, I'd say that a very small minority of them are principled anti-scientist activism, which has been mislabeled. Most of the data in these 1,000 incidents is just blatant anti-semitism.

I heard specifically directed towards just regular Jewish people, people writing kill Jews and bathroom stalls, threats being sent to Jewish people, mentioning Hitler or Hermas, a lot of just extremely gross stuff. Like there's too many, there's too many just like threats that mentioned the word Jews that I just can't even read them all. Nor do I want to, because it's just gross. Like there is a truly upsetting number, which is why I wanted to make this episode in the first place, it's because I've been seeing this pretty big rise in anti-semitism. Other people have as well. I felt like this wasn't probably being as talked about as much as it should be

among the anti-fascist left, because everyone's focusing on this ethnic cleansing that's happening because that is very bad. But meanwhile, there's this other massive problem that if you care about fascist entryism, if you care about anti-Semitic behavior and actions being either allowed to happen in leftist spaces or just happening in general. Like a lot of the stuff that's being done by fascists who are not, you know, going to a pro-Palestine rally because they believe in anti-imperialism.

But there's just a lot of this stuff happening, which is why I think it is needing to be talked about. Now, there are a number of instances that are logged in these 1,100 incidents here, such as, you know, I'm just going to pull from actual examples, but also this is kind of generalizing because this was also reflecting a small trend. Things like pro-Palestine phrases being yelled at random Jewish people on the street, having anti-sianist stickers being poorly placed

in different locations like at a Jewish cemetery, vandalizing non-political Jewish-owned businesses with anti-sianist phrases, even breaking the windows of random Jewish owned businesses with notized to Israel or the IDF and leaving anti-Zionist phrases or propile-time phrases, graffiti next to these broken windows. Now while the content of what's being actually said in these incidents may not be like anti-Semitic in nature by itself, right?

Like just having very basic anti-Zionist phrases being graffiti, that may not be anti anti-semitic in nature by itself, right? Like just having very basic anti-signist phrases being graffiti, that may not be anti-semitic itself, like that combination of words. This sort of activity, though, plays into a classic anti-semitic kind of trope as if every like random Jewish person is somehow in part responsible for the actions of Israel and it also conflates Jewish identity with Zionism, which is the problem that we were talking about before when we started this episode, right? We were when I was talking about the stuff with Hanukkah just a few hours ago as of time of recording

the Corralis antifascist branch, I guess. Yeah, I think I think they're a member of Torch. Put out this thread about how the GDL, the Goomb Defensely, if you talked about them previously in this episode, they're a big group of organized neo-nazis that spread a lot of anti-Semitic stuff, how they hijacked a city council meeting to spread anti-Semitic stuff during a discussion of a ceasefire resolution. And I think they kind of ended their thread by talking about how it is extremely important to call out the conflation of the Jewish people with the genocidal actions of the seat of Israel and assertions that the media is controlled by Jews or that regular Jews have some kind of say in everything that's happening, right? It gets in this kind of like a cabalish notion.

Now back to kind of the data that I was talking about, these sorts of incidents are vastly, vastly outweighed by the number of just over Jew hatred invoking of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, calling for the death of Jews and Swastika's. But I still think it's extremely important to mention, because the targeting of random Jewish people and businesses itself, that is a form of anti-Semitism. And this activity helps to reinforce the abuse of the Jewish identity by inextricably linking it to Zionism, which only strengthens the Zionist ideology. So that's my little mini rant

about the way we've been seeing some of these things play out. Now, many of these over a thousand incidents logged use anti-Zionism as a sort of cover for just spreading anti-semitism, particularly from known white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. The GDL is a good example. There's also groups like White Lives Matter and a number of others that I could name that when you're looking through the ADL's data on these 1000 or so incidents, a large, large amount of them are done by the Gauilleum defense league, the GDL.

And this is a strategic thing for them, right? They're seeing the kind of moment that people are in culturally, the way people are talking about Israel. And if they can find a way to squeeze in their neo-Nazi talking points kind of under this very, very thin Palestine kind of veneer, that's great for them. If they can get people to start almost mindlessly repeating their style of talking points, that's great for them, right? This, it makes sense why they're pretty so much time

and dedication to this, because they're trying to use this moment and abuse the thousands of people who might be more susceptible to this right now to spread their ideology and to do an entriusum, like this is a part of what their tactic is. So while it's true that many of these incidents do come from explicitly Nazi groups. There's also a really upsettingly and shockingly large number of them that come from students, students from middle school to college who are ostensibly anti-Israel but are going about it via targeting random Jewish people and spreading anti-Semitism, whether that's intended or not. But a lot of

the talking points are just anti-Semitic talking points. intended or not. But a lot of the talking points are just anti-Semitic talking points. Now, I can, I'm not in the heads of anybody. I'm not talking to the 12 year old in some middle school in Colorado who's leaving anti-Semitic messages in a bathroom stall, but the effect is kind of the same.

And just the sheer number of, specifically like middle school school junior high high school Instance that are locked among this thousand was just incredibly discredibly distressing Yeah, and I mean I think I Think a lot of what's going on here is that like US is a culturally Christian society, right like it has like of the developed countries the US is a culturally Christian society, right? Like it has, like of the developed countries, the US is like one of the most Christian

and American Christianity, and this is true of like in different ways of like just basically all of the major Christian denominations are enormously anti-Semitic. Like, and the righty-smitic inferior in different and different in weird ways, like I mean, I spent some time recently for something else, like reading about like this argument between like the evangelicals who are like we need to have all the Jews go back to Israel so that we can bring about the second coming, and they were gonna fight with the hard line like right wing Lutherans.

And the hard line right wing Lutherans are like, what the fuck do you mean? Like no, like the holy lamp belongs to us, not the Jews, what the fuck do you guys doing? Right, it's like, this is the baseline of American society, right? It's unbelievably anti-Semitic in ways that, you know, are just sort of passed down through like, like culturally received and absorbed in ways that are just sort of passed down through,

like culture, or culturally received and absorbed in ways that people don't like see or understand or think about, because it's the water that America, that you know, you swim in in American culture in this sort of like, this hegemonic Christian society. And that means that like even people with like, at least in their heads, good intentions get caught up in this shit and it's fucking bad.

And there's also at the same time, a very concerted effort to slide in the anti-Jewish extremism anti-Semitic rhetoric to slide that in. Sometimes covertly, sometimes not, into lots of mainstream discourse and exchanges and social media, specifically TikTok. It's been really, it's been really bad at this, which is where a lot of young people spend

probably the majority of their day if they're gonna be looking at their phone. And it's, I said I didn't wanna get into like social media rhetoric, but also just like, as someone who spent a lot of time on 4chan and 8chan, looking specifically at Nazis, the way Twitter currently works is like, it is just 4chan, 8chan level stuff pretty commonly. Like if I look at the quote tweets of any,

of almost any tweet made by a Jewish person, there is just some of the most atrocious, unmoderated, anti-semitism that I've seen on a platform like Twitter. This is really like eight-chan level stuff. I think, and this isn't intentional to slide this stuff in to make it look normalized. The ADL reported a nearly 1000% increase in the daily average of violent messages mentioning Jews and Israel in white supremacist and right wing extremist channels on telegram in the days following the October 7th massacre. So this is something that is specifically being done in far right spaces.

I'm going to quote again from this Corralis against fascism. The struggle for the liberation of Palestine is one of the most pressing of our time. It's imperative that we shut down anti-Semitic attempts to co-op that struggle immediately, which if you care about the liberation of Palestine and Palestinian people, this is something you also need to be concerned about about because these two things are linked. There is 27 assaults have been reported around eight of these assaults are standing from fights which broke out at protest rallies. I'm not gonna get into those ones as much

because that can be tricky because I've seen Zionists start fights like right next to me before and then claim a victim of hood. No, you're the one that started that you swung a flagpole at these people and then they de-escalated very quickly. And I'm sure there's incidents of the reverse happening, but a majority of these assaults

that have been reported are very clear cut anti-Semitic attacks targeted against Jewish people, some of which are quite frightening to read about. There's been a large number of a vehicle attacks. There was this one incident of someone breaking in to a Jewish family's home and assaulting people inside their own home. Then also there's been a number of incidents of just assaulting people as they leave synagogues. I've seen very sinus start fights with people right next to it. That is kind of what I had to say about this rise in anti-Semitism because I saw this being a major problem that was being not talked about as much as it should be because this is it is higher than what we've seen in years.

Not to even mention the rise in Islamophobia, which is also a massive rise in Islamophobia has been happening the past four months, including resulting in murders, right? Just in the four weeks after October 7th, the council on American Islamic relations logged in unprecedented number of Islamophobic incidents. The research and advocacy director Cory Sailor said in the statement, quote, both Islamophobia and anti-air racism are out of control in ways we have not seen in almost 10 years. The 1,283 complaints we have received over the past month represent a 216% increase in

requests for help and reports of bias. The Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric that have been used to justify both violence against Palestinians and Gaza and silent supporters of Palestinian human rights here in America have contributed to this unprecedented surge in bigotry. It's just been bad the past four months. It's just things have been bad. There's been murders, there's been assaults, it's horrible. And I think both of these things are things that need to be interrogated more, the Islamic public incidents as well as anti-Semitic incidents.

So that's what I wanted to talk about as I have been slowly logging more synagogue attacks, more death threats, all of these sorts of stuff. So yeah, that's kind of all I have to say today. Yeah, it's, it's real bad. I don't know, I mean, it's bad out there. I mean, if you care about the struggle of the liberation of Palestine and the people in Palestine, you need to, if you see, if you see anything that plays in to these sorts of anti-Semitic tropes that we've talked about, blaming just random Jewish people for what's going on, attacking random Jewish owned businesses

without any ties to the IDF, without any ties to the state of Israel, just all of this stuff. It needs to be called out because this actually, this sort of thing only strengthens the ideology of Zionism. So if you call yourself an anti-Zionist, it is your imperative duty to be on the watch for this sort of thing and stop it if you see it. That's kind of the thesis at the end of this. All right, well, without further ado, I think we will end this episode. Stay safe out there, everybody.

Hopefully this new year won't be complete chaos for all of us. Hey, we'll be back Monday with more episodes every week from now until the heat death of the universe. It could happen here as a production of CoolZone Media. For more podcasts from CoolZone Media, visit our website CoolZoneMedia.com or check us out on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for it could happen here, updated monthly at CoolZoneMedia.com slash sources. Thanks slash sources.

Thanks for listening. Tune in to the new podcast, Stories from the Village of Nothing Much. Like easy listening, but for fiction. If you've overdosed on bad news, we invite you into a world where the glimmers of goodness in everyday life are all around you. I'm Catherine Nicolai, and I'm an architect of COSI. Come spend some time where everyone is welcome and the default is kindness.

Listen, relax, enjoy. Listen to stories from the village of nothing much. On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a weird world out there, so lean into the weirdness with the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Explore the nature of dreams and how dreaming has influenced culture.

Appreciate the deep strangeness of terrestrial biology as well as purely imagine creatures that reveal much about human nature. Explore topics scientific, historical, philosophical and and sometimes monstrous on stuff to blow your mind. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is prop from the Little Politics with Prop Podcasts. And this what we do here, we take all these highfalutin political ideas and things in the

news and explain it to you in the language that we all speak in, just like, I don't know, take Philip Buster. Believe it or not, you already know language that we all speak in. Just like, I don't know, take filibuster. Believe it or not, you already know what that is. Because if you got a mama that don't play no games, you've been filibuster in your whole life. Hey mom, no look, listen, listen, listen, listen, mom. Before you make your decision, what had happened was... Everything said after that is filibuster, you just trying to stall her out to avoid the inevitable. Congress do it all the time.

See you already knew. So, listen to her, pilot six with prop on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's do it all the time. See you already new. So listen to Hoodpilot6 with prop on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.