It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: Bovino Calls It Quits, Prairieland Trial, War on Iran Continues

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

The gang discuss Polymarket gamblers harassing journalists to alter news coverage, the antifa terrorism case in Texas, threats to oil and gas infrastructure, 2,500 Marines being sent to the Middle East, and the resignation of Joe Kent. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iran-attack-damage-wipes-out-17-qatars-lng-capacity-three-five-years-qatarenergy-2026-03-19/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-vows-no-more-attacks-by-israel-iran-gas-field-after-it-violently-lashed-2026-03-19/ https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/19/strike-on-key-iranian-gas-field-is-a-new-phase-of-the-war-trump-blames-israel-00837052 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/19/why-targeting-kharg-island-could-backfire-on-trump-00834972?nid=0000015a-dd3e-d536-a37b-dd7fd8af0000&nname=playbook-pm&nrid=9f5c80e5-432f-4eff-99b5-c830ad9d5d94 https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/19/iran-war-live-updates-oil-prices-gas-field-strikes-pentagon-more-funds-trump-news https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/wrapup1-iran-targets-energy-facilities-across-gulf-after-israel-struck-its-key-2026-03-19/ https://apnews.com/article/ships-iran-oil-china-us-trump-hormuz-82a9acb473837f1bf7a821d0c3f95205 https://defector.com/trump-to-world-please-help-me-un-shoot-my-own-leg-off https://www.axios.com/2026/03/19/strait-hormuz-coalition-allies-statement-uk https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/19/european-nations-japan-to-join-appropriate-efforts-to-open-hormuz-strait https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/joint-statement-strait-hormuz-by-european-nations-japan-2026-03-19/ https://communityforums.atmeta.com/blog/AnnouncementsBlog/updates-to-your-meta-quest-experience-in-2026/1369435 https://x.com/NYCMayor/status/2033674470712353192?s=20  https://www.keranews.org/criminal-justice/2026-03-03/prairieland-ice-detention-center-shooting-trial-defendants-self-defense-third-party-defense-theory-judge-mark-pittman https://prairielanddefendants.com/court-notes/march-3rd-federal-trial-day-7/ https://prairielanddefendants.com/court-notes/march-6th-federal-trial-day-10/ https://prairielanddefendants.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Superseding-Indictment-2.pdf https://prairielanddefendants.com/court-notes/february-27th-federal-trial-day-6/ https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/antifa-cell-members-convicted-prairieland-ice-detention-center-shooting https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.410488/gov.uscourts.txnd.410488.366.0.pdf https://prairielanddefendants.com/court-notes/march-9th-federal-trial-day-11/ https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R41333 https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.410488/gov.uscourts.txnd.410488.367.0.pdf https://x.com/petrogustavo/status/2034111241409445916?s=20  https://x.com/LisaDNews/status/2033996104186970532?s=20  https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2032460946770202725?s=20  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gregory-bovino-border-patrol-to-retire-sources/  https://x.com/wartranslated/status/2033497141306405353?s=20  https://www.breitbart.com/border/2026/03/16/exclusive-border-patrol-sector-chief-gregory-bovino-to-retire-after-leading-largest-interior-immigration-operations-in-u-s-history/  https://www.cbp.gov/employee-resources/retirement/leo-cbpo/cbpo-retirement  https://www.cbp.gov/employee-resources/retirement/fers  https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/justices-will-hear-argument-on-trump-administrations-removal-of-protected-status-for-syrian-and-haitian-nationals/  https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/031626zr1_5h25.pdf  https://x.com/NotWoofers/status/2033733565838496020?s=20  https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/3/15/fpv-drone-slams-into-us-military-base-in-iraq  https://hengaw.net/en/reports-and-statistics-1/2026/03/article-8  https://hengaw.net/en/news/2026/03/article-17  https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/2033897242986209689?s=20  https://x.com/PressSec/status/2033932810709315865See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life. The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring podcast playlist is available now. Whether spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not, the stuff you should know, think spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the Stuff You should know Think Spring playlist on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract.

Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Joe Interesting, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And today I'm talking with my dear friend, Krista Williams. It can change you in the best way possible.

Dance with the change. Dance with the breakdowns. the embodiment of Pisces intuition with Capricorn power moves. So I'm like delusionally proud of my chart. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Good people. What's up?

What's up? It's Questlove. So recently I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation with actress and producer Jamie Lee Curtis from routines to recovery, true lies, and a certain Jermaine Jackson music video. Jamie Serreal and Raw, and it's something I really admire about her. I am so happy that I'm the head bitch in charge at 67,

that I have the perspective that I have at my age to really be able to put all of this into context. Listen to the Questlove show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Media. Welcome to Executive Dysphonia, a podcast about people who are in executive positions but can't hear well. Right? Isn't that what the show we're doing is? This is it could happen here, executive disorder.

Oh, I guess I have executive dysphonia. Our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis. That was Robert Evans, also joined by James Stout with a segment later on by Mia Wong. This episode, we are covering the week. of March 11th to March 18th. And I was wrong about dysphonia. That's just hoarseness. Okay.

Well, yeah, there probably are people in the executive branch who are horse. Yeah, yeah. Horse and wearing shoes too big for their feet. We have to start by issuing an apology. That's right, a serious apology. We have both failed you the audience and ourselves as an outlet

by neglecting to cover a story the way that it deserved to. Last week, we reported on the Buffalo Wild Wings, espresso protein. That's right. And promised an in-depth report on the drink upon delivery this past weekend, which was National Esprosso Martini Day. And there I was Sunday, March 15th,

on my phone, Googling to find the closest Buffalo Wild Wings. when I discovered that the espresso patini was in fact only to be served in five cities. Yeah. In Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, and the SeaWorld location in Orlando, Florida. And I failed myself and you by not traveling specifically to the SeaWorld location to try the espresso protein, which would have been the correct choice. That would have been the right move. to deliver the sort of coverage that you expect out of us. And deserve.

It's going to take a while to win your trust back, and we understand this, and we are hoping to be able to demonstrate that to you in the coming weeks. Gary, this isn't all your fault. You know, I knew years ago that we should have moved the entire production team to the Buffalo Wild Wings at SeaWorld. This was a foreseeable mistake. You know, Sophie and I are to blame for this as well, is all I'm saying. And we apologize.

Then obviously, as a British person, the sea world location in Orlando, Florida is our spiritual home. So that really should have been at the very center of my beer. Just imagine how much more sunburned you could be every single day we record this podcast, James. Yeah, you could be, I'm wearing a red shirt right now for listeners, but you could probably never tell if I lived in Orlando, Florida. If I was wearing a red shirt or just had excessive sunburns. Yeah. So yeah.

Let's go over some small news items. Meta is shutting down. It's VR Metaverse Horizon Worlds on June 15th. And they're just stuck being named Meta, huh? Yeah. The Horizon Worlds will continue to exist as a mobile phone-only application. The VR Metaverse portion is going to be sunsetted, like I said, on the 15th of June. I'll be on there in June 14th right up to midnight, just enjoying my final moment.

It's a beauty. Uh-huh. Is there a Seaworld Orlando that I can visit in the Metaverse? I bet there was. Too soon, James. Too soon. In the United District of Illinois, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss beat Kat Abugazali and Laura Fine. Biss won over 35,000 votes.

Kat won over 31,000 votes and fined the APEC backed candidate to got 24,000. Yeah. You know, it was a really impressive. first campaign from Kat, who's a friend of the show. We're proud of, you know, her and her whole team. And yeah, that's politics, baby. On to the next thing, I guess. Columbia student Lika Cordia was released from ICE custody after over a year in detention, after government lawyers declined to appeal a judge's third release order. Her name was one of the four on the list that Mayor Mnamboni gave to Trump during their last meeting.

Cuba is facing another blackout amidst its aging infrastructure in a United States-enforce blockade on the country. It has been running largely on thermoelectric, solar and natural gas sources of electricity as imports from Venezuela have ceased. The United States has threatened to tariff anybody sending oil to Cuba, but on Sunday, Claudia Shinenbaum, President of Mexico, did say that Mexico would continue to send aid to the Caribbean nation. Also checking in on the Shields the Americas, which we mentioned last week. Gustavo Petro, President Colombia, has responded to what appears to be an Ecuadorian bomb falling on Colombia. So we are a couple of weeks into this and Ecuador's already bombed the wrong country.

Oh, good. Not great. It was in an area very close to the border, but Petro posted today on eggs.com, the everything website. I'm blighted by the fact that Grok thinks it can speak Spanish better than me, so I'm just going to read whatever this shitty translation is, I suppose. It has been confirmed that the bomb in Colombian territory belongs to the Ecuadorian army. The investigation continues and a diplomatic protest note will be sent. So yeah, that's Ecuador playing with fire there. Yeah. Finally, PBS is reporting today that an offer is on the table from the White House to end the shutdown. I'm just going to read, I guess, the

the terms that have been offered by the White House. So the first one would be the expansion in the use of body-worn cameras by DHS law enforcement and they will increase congressional oversight by requiring retention of body-worn camera footage. The next one, they would limit civil immigration enforcement at certain sensitive locations. They go on to say sensitive locations include places like hospitals and schools, which is current practice. there were other places that were considered sensitive locations previously, not to be churches, right? But that is not a definitive list.

And does it mean they will return to the old sensitive places doctrine? It's a little unclear. Yeah. They talk again about increasing congressional oversight, particularly by creating mandatory review and compliance reporting from the respective gentleman of DHS. They talk about visible officer identification, and the administration would require officers.

to clearly verbalize their agency and identification upon request when engaging in official duties. And then finally, they will adhere to existing practices of law and practice of not deporting U.S. citizens. And then they go on so they don't need detain them if a crime has taken place. Some of these appear like concessions, but they kind of only matter in so much as you trust them. They've always got, like even the sensitive places has an exemption for like a terrorist threat given that, for instance, It was suggested very shortly after Alex Pretty was killed, that he was a terrorist attempting to kill officers, etc. Like, yeah. None of this matters.

And like, it's still going to be, this is we are policing ourselves, right? So perhaps we should move on. Talking of DHS, let's talk about a friend of the podcast, Gregory Bovino. Oh, Greg. Oh, Greg. Gregi B. Yeah. He's been a frequent cool zone.

all across the Cool Zone universe. Yeah, friend of the pod, but no, nothing gold can stay, you know? Nope. And sadly, Greg cannot stay at his job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And be fair, even before Trump took office, he was talking about retiring in like two years. Like, he's been talking about that for a while. Yeah.

This is not like super weird, but the timing of it is earlier than he'd previously talked about wanting to do. And I think pretty undeniably connected to, you know, him being made the sacrificial pawn of the regime. Yeah, and the fact that he, he for instance, said shortly after Alex Preti was killed by CBP agents, Prattie was planning to, quote, massacre agents. We have seen no evidence that that is true, right? He's currently the chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector.

Previously, he was CBP's commander at large of its interior enforcement operations. He was removed from that job in late January. he gave an exclusive interview to Brightbart News. Brightbart have a former Border Patrol agent who writes for him, so I'm guessing that's why, saying, quote, watching these agents out there, giving it their own in some of the most dangerous of environments we have ever faced was humbling. Cool. He will be retiring just a few days after his 56th birthday. The agency's mandatory requirement age is 57, and I've seen a lot of places citing that.

That applies to officers hired after the middle of 2008. But Vino was hired in 1996, but at 55 with 30 years of service, he would be eligible for optional retirement under the FERS. He hasn't reached the minimum retirement age, so I think that would impact the amount of retirement he gets. Oh, interesting. Oh, yeah, yeah, it usually does unless they make a special exception for him or something. Yeah, because previously, right, like previously Border Patrol agents were essentially, hired as like federal employees or civil servants. It was only after 2008 that their hiring, I guess, came slightly more in line with people in the armed services, for instance, or police.

And so, like, under first, you'd have to do the 30 years plus reach the minimum retirement age versus under the newer system when they have a mandatory retirement of 57. I do feel like this plus gnome, plus the stuff that you've mentioned up top, Garrison, it suggests that The tides are perhaps turning. Plus, we've seen Republican sheriffs in Florida opposing mass deportations this week, right? We've seen Republican Congress people making public statements about this. We are probably beginning to see the beginning of the end of the right being in lockstep behind mass deportations. I don't think that means we're going to see the end of ice raids.

I don't think that means we're going to see the end of ice raids. the end of massive detention and of massive deportation. But it is clearly, as we are looking towards the midterm, something that some parts of the Republican Party want to distance themselves from. And there's movement on this. And it shows that these forces are fluid and can actually be changed through taking like agency, like through imparting yourself upon the world. Like what's happened in Minneapolis for those, for those weeks to, you know, months showed that the world actually can be changed through mass action. Yeah, like border patrol and ICE went to Minneapolis to fight. And it seems like they came off worse, right?

Like they were not able to subdue the city in a meaningful way. And it has resulted in most of their leadership being removed. Yeah. Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about something that's happened this week that I kind of, I felt a deep sense of foreboding reading this article. It's going to sound like this is another piece of kind of Israel-Palestine reporting, but it's really not. I mean, that's where this particular story is set. But we're talking about something that's going to be an increasing factor in the lives of everyone gathering news and everybody consuming it, which is Polly Market, our gamble on everything happening in the world. app that apparently the world needed for some reason. So on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026, as, you know, hostilities

continued between Iran and Israel, a ballistic missile got past Israel's defense systems and landed near the city of Bates Chamesh, just outside of Jerusalem. It did not land near anything, but it looks like trees. You can see there was video captured of the explosion and posted by a journalist named Emmanuel Fabian, who wrote with his post, No injuries are reported in Iran's latest ballistic missile attack on Israel, the fourth today. One missile struck an open area just outside Bates Chamesh. First responders say, and footage shows.

And the footage does indeed show a ballistic missile impacting. There is an explosion. This does not look like fragments of a missile that were taken down, you know, based on what I know of ballistic missiles and based on what people who I know more than me know about ballistic missiles. this was an intact ballistic missile hitting. It didn't hit a target that was valuable. It didn't hurt anybody as far as we're aware.

But it got through the missile shield and it hit in Israeli territory. Normally, you would wonder like, why does this? I mean, this matters, you know, if you're a local reporter, obviously, but why would anyone else care? Well, the day after Manny Fabian posted this video and this brief bit of reporting, he started receiving emails, weird emails, mostly in Hebrew. and like here's one example from a Times of Israel piece that he wrote. Sorry for reaching out without a prior introduction,

but I assume we will get to know each other well. I have an urgent request regarding the accuracy of your report on the missile attack on March 10th. I would really appreciate a response of possible. There is an inaccurate report from you about the missile attack on March 10th, and it's causing a chain of errors. If you could reply to me tonight, you would be helping me, many others, and of course the state of Israel, and along the way, you would gain a good source. So that's really weird.

Yeah. What the fuck is going? If you're this guy, all you did was post, oh, hey, a rocket hit, but it didn't hit anything. Yeah. Like, not a big deal, you know, given the state of the war. And he starts getting spammed with a bunch of similar emails like this. And in addition to that, he's got people, like, on Twitter, responding, saying, like, hey, one person responded to one of his posts saying, there are people saying they've received word from you that the missile strike and Bates Chamesh on March 10th was, in fact, intercepted.

Is this true or did no such interaction occur? So people start posting and sharing in other places that, oh, I reached out to this guy and he said the missile was actually intercepted and it was just a piece that fell and he reported it wrong, which is not at all what this guy had reported. So he's really confused. He asked like, why are all these people bugging me about this very minor story and why are they spreading disinformation claiming that I debunked my own story when I didn't? Well, the obvious reason why is that people that day on Polly Market on March 10th were gambling on when Iran would strike Israel. There were $14 million wagered that there would be a strike on March 10th. The rules of the bet per polymarket stated, this market will resolve to, yes, if Iran initiates a drone missile or airstrike on Israel's soil on the listed date in Israel time, GMT Plus 2, otherwise this market will resolve no. missiles or drones that are intercepted will not be sufficient for a yes resolution right so that's why

fourteen million dollars was in the air it's people who had a lot of money on this event yeah yes specifically and these people don't care if anyone was hurt they don't care that a missile was fired all they care about is whether or not the missile made it through the defense network intact right because these were people who i guess had bet against that because they didn't want that to be the case right Right. He initially ignores these weird emails, and they start getting more and more aggressive. And people are like, when are you going to update the article, Daniel? Daniel, update the article. You have to update the article. You know you were wrong. And after the weekend, he starts getting messages like, you have exactly half an hour to correct your attempted influence. Despite the fact that you received countless inquiries, you insist on leaving it this way. If you do not correct this by 1 a.m. Israel time today, March 15th, you are bringing upon yourself damage. You have never imagined you would suffer. That's a Reddit user if I've ever seen one. And like, there's a bunch of shit like this. Someone said, after you make us lose $900,000, we will invest no less than that to finish you.

Like, this is insane. Yeah. But it's inevitable if you think about how polymarket works, right? That once people are putting fortunes on the line around stupid shit, you know, like betting whether or not, oh, does the missile make it through or not on this? That is dumb, right? missiles and stuff that's very serious to a lot of people who live in the region. But betting on it this way is fundamentally stupid. But it's all, Polymark, it's all stupid bets like this. And they are going to increasingly come after people once they realize, hey, maybe I can actually change and get a

winning resolution or whatever if I harass the journalist on the ground. There's a vested financial interest in going after people over stuff like this. So this is, this particular story is happening in Israel, involves reporting of an Israeli journalist. This isn't. going to stay limited to that conflict or to that region of the world. This is going to be thing that journalists all over the world increasingly deal with. This is an important story. And one that I think says some pretty bleak shit about the immediate future of news gathering in this country. Yeah. So that's cool. On the upside, Polymarket is about to open a splashy new bar in Washington, D.C., called the Situation Room. And I found Polymarket made a post on their

a substack in which they announced this, saying, the world's first bar dedicated to monitoring the situation. Imagine a sports bar, but just for situation monitoring. Live X-Feeds, flight radar, Bloomberg terminals, and polymarket screens. Grand opening this Friday, imagine. The first response... This is every bar in Washington, D.C.

The first response is just someone saying, drink your way through World War III, which is also every bar in Washington, D.C. Someone else says, this seems awful, but I guess that perfectly aligns with your company in general. Good on that person. Cool. Yeah.

So I love Polly Market. It's good that this is what we've turned society into. No notes. Yeah, I'll just add this to the list of things that prediction markets will destabilize geopolitically. Yeah. Great. Not just the insider trading problems of people with, you know, beforehand knowledge of military strikes or certain world events,

but trying to influence the reporting of events to sway the polymarket or Kalshi's decision on whether the market was correctly fulfilled. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Yep, interesting and yeah, foreboding. Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, here's some ads, you filthy animals. Canadian women are looking for more.

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Hey there. This is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life. The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring Podcast playlist is available now. Whether Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not, the stuff you should know, think spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the Stuff You should know Think Spring playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal chart, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini-driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic, Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom-loving and different perspectives,

and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius are misunderstood. A son and Venus and Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses and different places, but just an embracing of the isness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want to chart side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must listen.

Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm Clayton Eckerd. and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would.

But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search for it. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped.

This season, an epic battle of He Said She Said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. Here's some James, you fill. the animals. Yeah, lucky you. First, I want to talk about the Supreme Court, and then I'm going to throw it to Garrison to talk about some other court stuff. This is our court segment. The Supreme Court has scheduled cases for the TPS, that's a temporary protected status pertaining to Syria and Haiti for April, meaning these statuses will remain in effect likely until the end of June or July. The justices didn't alter the position of the New York and D.C. judges who indefinitely postponed the

termination of the TPS. The Trump administration has hustled really hard to get this to the Supreme Court. They first tried to get the Supreme Court to let them remove people while it waited to weigh in on the case, and then they tried to get the Supreme Court to take the case before the Second Circuit had a chance to weigh in. This is called certiori before judgment, and it's how the case got to the Supreme Court. This, I should note, is different from the Venezuela case where the TPS was terminated because the numbers are much smaller, and therefore it's going to be a harder for the U.S. government to show harm, right? It pertains to 30, 40,000 people, if I had to guess. By contrast, it's very easy for people to show potential harm in Haiti or Syria, right?

Just to give an example of Syria, there has been violence directed against Alevites, Drew's people, and Kurds, largely unimpeded by the government since Assad fell last year. and Syria remains on the State Department's do not travel list. Yeah, you had some stuff about Prairie Land. Do you want to share in it? Yes. Let's talk about the Prairaland trial. Yeah.

We're going to be doing a more in-depth episode next week, the start of next week on Prairie Land. It's about double the length of today's summary. But I do want to go over some essential information about the trial that concluded last week. So last week, the Trump administration got their first conviction in an Antifa terrorism case. On Friday, March 13th, a people were convicted by a federal grand jury on charges of riot, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and providing material support to terrorists. One of the defendants was convicted of attempted murder of a police officer,

and another person was convicted onto accounts of concealing documents, bringing the total number of federal defendants to nine. This case stemmed from what the defense argued was a noise demonstration protest outside of an ICE detention facility in Prairieland, Texas last summer on the night of July 4th. After protesters threw fireworks and vandalized property, DHS personnel called local police for assistance. One officer arrived, drew his handgun, and yelled stop at a person in all black clothes who was running away. One of the defendants, named Benjamin Song, then yelled, get to the rifles. before firing toward the officer with an AR-15 hitting him in the neck. A week into the trial, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman, ruled that defense attorneys could not argue that the defendants,

including the accused shooter, were acting in self-defense or the defense of others against unlawful force just because the officer had already drawn and pointed his handgun before song fired. Prosecutors compared this to Waco. Judge Pittman ruled that the officer drawing and pointing his handgun and a fleeing suspect is not, quote, unquote, excessive as a matter of law because the officer did not actually use deadly force or shoot first. And he listed three federal precedents for this.

Let's get into this action and the role of Antifa in the court case. This action was originally planned on the encrypted messaging app signal and via an in-person, quote-unquote, gear check meeting the day before the action. Benjamin Song advertised the action in a larger group chat of dozens of quote-unquote trusted individuals. When asked about bringing firearms during action planning, Song repeatedly stated, I'm not going back to prison, I'm not getting arrested, I'm bringing guns, unquote. Throughout the trial, Song was characterized as the de facto leader of the Antifa cell or affinity group,

but he did not have a close relationship with all fellow defendants. At the gear check meeting on July 3rd, Song proposed to free detainees using quote-unquote suppressive fire, but this idea was shot down by other meeting attendees. Some of the defendants attended a daytime protest outside the ICE facility earlier that day on July 4th, after which they reported back to fellow defendants details regarding the facility's security prior to the nighttime action. Two defendants were neither in these planning chats nor attended the gear. check meeting. But all the defendants that attended the protest, carpooled in two vehicles, bringing a total of 11 firearms, body armor, I-Fax, and all wore Black Block, which were all

presented as government evidence exhibits. The government argued that the defendants were members of a quote-unquote, North Texas Antifa cell. The indictment describes Antifa as a, quote, militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law, unquote. Prosecution argued that this cell was linked through a triple-ven diagram of the Socialist Rifle Association, the John Brown Gun Club,

and the Emma Goldman Book Club, which is a local zine distro group that also put on community events. Prosecutions said that this Venn diagram converged on quote-unquote direct militant action. The government called on David Kyle Sheeter as an expert witness to testify about Antifa. Sheeter is a member of the Center for Security Policy, an SPLC designated hate group. Defense tried to object to this witness's expertise, but the judge informed the defense that they missed the deadline for such objections, which would have been in a pretrial motion. Much of this case was spent arguing over whether the defendants were quote-unquote Antifa,

what that even means, and if it's relevant to the charges. According to Prairieland Support Committee court notes, Judge Pittman asked the prosecution, quote, is it necessary to prove this stuff about Antifa? The prosecution responded that Antifa ideology, particularly Black Block, was how the group operated. The judge pressed, whether it's Antifa or the Methodist Women's Auxiliary, why does it matter? The prosecution argued they took direct action against the ICE facility. The prosecution argued Black Block and Antifa ideology were central to how the alleged attack was carried out, unquote. The government described

to Black Block for the purposes of this case as, quote, dark clothing with head and face coverings that concealed their identities, designed to hide each individual's identity, but also aid and abet those members engaged in illegal acts by making members indistinguishable from one another to law enforcement, unquote. Now, all of this raises the question, whether this prosecution is against the defendant's political ideology or the specific criminal acts of throwing fireworks.

or shooting at a police officer. Rather than being convicted of being members of Antifa the terrorist group, something that still doesn't really have legal precedent, prosecutors argued that the Antifa ideology, like left-wing anti-authoritarianism, played a role in inspiring defendants, formed the basis of political affinity that brought the collection of individuals together

and relates to a collection of security practices, subcultural practices, and associated tactics which were employed before, during, and after, the criminal acts related to the noise demo protest. There's been a lot of reporting on people being convicted for possessing zines. These are short political pamphlets, usually with some kind of radical political ideology. There's a lot of anarchist zines out there. Now, zines did play a role in this trial, a two-part role.

Prosecution argued that the presence of insurrectionary zines is indicative of an alignment with Antifa. even if possession of these zines itself is not a crime. The other relevancy of zines to this case relate to the concealing documents charges against Daniel Ronaldo Sanchez Estrada and his wife Marasela Rueira based on transporting a box of political zines from his wife's house to a friend's house in Denton, Texas.

The government claimed that Rueira called Sanchez Estrada from jail on July 6th, instructing him to conceal evidence by telling her husband to tow her vehicle, which was at the action staging site. Quote, tow it. My phone is in the back. Do what you got to do. Just tow it, unquote.

The defense claimed that she was worried about her car being repoed. Sanchez Estrada never got to the car or the phone, but Rada also said, quote, move whatever you need to move in the house, unquote. Sanchez Estrada mentioned already being at the house and replied, We're good, quote unquote, in reference to moving stuff from the house. Prosecution argued this meant moving evidence. Defense noted that Rada was talking about her pets at the time, according to support committee notes.

Sanchez Estrada and his wife Rada were found guilty of conspiracy to conceal documents and other objects that would implicate Rida in the role. riot and shooting at the Prairieland facility. Now, nine of the counts, count one, two, four, and five through ten cited Pinkerton v. United States 1946. The judge explained to the jury that a defendant can be criminally liable for the offenses committed by another co-conspirator if the offense was, quote, reasonably foreseeable and committed in furtherance of the conspiracy, unquote.

From very early on in the trial, prosecution argued that song firing on the officers was quote unquote reasonably foreseeable based on the planning of the protest and previous statements made by song. The jury found all defendants charged, guilty of counts one, two, three, and four. That's riot, material support terrorists, and explosives charges, but did not find other defendants besides Song, guilty of attempted murder or discharging a firearm, using this Pinkerton co-conspirator liability. Lastly, let's discuss two charges which now could carry worrying potential to be used against protesters in the future based on this case's precedent. First, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive and using and carrying an explosive during a riot.

the only explosives used were fireworks. And even the judge confirmed in this case that it was established that the fireworks caused no damage to the ice facility. Yet Stephen Brennaman, an ATS explosives as special agent, testified that fireworks still meet the statutory definition of explosives under 18 U.S.C. Section 844IJ because they contain gunpowder as defined in the statute. me and Robert have been to and reported on a 4th of July protest also in front of a government building back in 2020, where people launched a lot of fireworks up at that federal courthouse. A lot of fireworks and other places. And this was a very similar event with the launching a fireworks at federal property, which now under this precedent could be charged as a crime. Finally, let's talk about providing material

support to terrorists. That's 18 U.S.C. 2339. This statute has two sections. One relates to material support provided to a designated foreign terrorist organization. This is not what the defendants were charged under. They're not saying that Antifa qualifies as one of these designated foreign terrorist organizations. That's not what's being argued here. The defendants were charged under Section A, alleging they provided and attempted to provide material support and resources, including property, that can be money, services, training, communications equipment, like walkie-talkies, weapons, explosives, personnel, including themselves, and transportation, knowing and intending that they were to be used in preparation for and in carrying out

in offense identified as a federal crime of terrorism, or in carrying out the concealment, of an escape from said offense. The statute lists at least 28 possible terrorism offenses. Relevant to this case are three. 18 U.S.C. 844F. That's maliciously attempting to damage government property by means of fire or an explosive. Fireworks count.

18 U.S.C. 1361. Willful depredation against any property of the United States exceeding $1,000. This is property damage by other means, exceeding that $1,000 threshold, and 18 U.S.C. 114, killing or attempting to kill any officer or employee of the United States. The government accused the defendants

of providing material support to terrorists in these three different ways, but to convict the jury only had to decide there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt on one of these ways. They didn't need all three. To quote the jury instructions, quote,

if a defendant's speech, expression or associations were made with intent to knowingly provide material support or resources to be used to prepare for or carry out a violation of federal law or to carry out the concealment of an escape from such violation, then the First Amendment would not provide a defense to that conduct, unquote. Benjamin's Long now faces a minimum penalty of 20 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. Other defendants at Prairieland face sentences ranging from a minimum of 10,000, 10 years to up to 60 years in federal prison.

And the husband convicted of concealing documents faces up to 40 years in federal prison. Yeah, this is a very bleak case. And I don't really have much to add. It's very sad. Yeah. No, and it's worth understanding the specific way they're using this material support statute.

Yeah. Just establishing someone is a member of, quote-unquote, Antifa is not really what they're going after, but they're using Antifa as this way to link the defendants through this ideological unity to show that there's a conspiracy, some kind of like political conspiracy, that then can be tied to offenses

that are terrorism, like damaging government property with the intent to influence or intimidate government policy, right? That's the sort of framing that was used in the guilty pleas for some other former defendants of this case, and that's what the government's trying to argue here.

We're going to go on a break and return for a one. final segment touching on the economy and Iran. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart.

And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life. The Stuff You Should Know Think Spring podcast playlist is available now.

Whether Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not, the stuff you should know, think spring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the Stuff You should know Think Spring playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life.

And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic, Aquarian, visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom-loving and different perspectives. and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius are misunderstood. A son and Venus and Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses and different

places, but just an embracing of the isness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chartside view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a moment. must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm Clayton Neckard, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even big

bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search for it. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is love trapped. This season, an epic battle of He Said She Said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's check in with the Strait of Framuz, where things are going extremely poorly for the U.S., Israel,

and every country in the world that relies on oil and liquefied natural gas as well as helium fertilizer and a whole bunch of other exports. All attempts to actually open the straits have failed. Now, Iran has still been shipping a decent amount of oil out. To some extent, they've been able to send their own tankers through, and the U.S. and Israel have thought attacked them thus far. Now, there has been some developments in terms of attempts to open the strait. Israel claimed they would help reopen the strait.

We also got a report in Reuters that Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan have agreed to help overseas. the strait. This is a kind of weird group of countries. It is the G7, which is the good group of seven, which is a very sort of influential group of American allies. But it's the G7 minus Canada with the Netherlands in its place, which is sort of odd. Now, this is not going to do anything to actually open the straits. There are two reasons for this. One is that none of these countries have actually committed to do anything other than, quote, to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait and start, quote, preparatory planning,

which means absolutely nothing. And the second reason is that if all of these countries, you know, put every single naval asset at the disposal for some reason, to put all of them in the street and form news, it wouldn't do anything to actually open the straight. There's a good piece and defector about this called Trump to World, please help me unshoot my own leg off. where the author Albert Bernaco points out, and I think this is a very useful way of understanding the problem here, that these oil tankers are the size of skyscrapers. They're not getting oil takers to do the strait.

As long as a run wants to do this. Every week I say this, and every week a bunch of people go, oh, they're going to open the straight. Ooh, do do do do, there's all these press cycles, and like the stock market and oil prices go down and the stock market goes up. and then everyone collectively realizes it's not true, and then the herd animals go back to raising the stock prices. So this leaves us in the same situation we were before,

except everything has gotten significantly worse, because on Wednesday, Israel hit the largest natural gas field in the world. When they attacked Iran's South Pars gas field, now, as political points out, these are the fields that fueled Iran's domestic energy grade, which means any hit to them is extremely painful, because it means that people lose, like, heat and power. Now, Trump did very quickly make an extremely funny post that is sadly too long to read here,

begging Iran not to attack Qatar, saying the U.S. didn't know anything about it, and that Carter didn't have anything to do with the strike. There's been a bunch of contradictory information. Netanyahu has claimed publicly now that the U.S. didn't know anything about the strike and Israel did it unilaterally. There's also been reports that the U.S. do it was going to happen. This whole, the U.S. didn't. know anything about it. Please don't hit Cotter. Seems to be a kind of PR strategy on their part.

It didn't work. Iran ignored it and retaliated on Thursday by hitting Cotter's massive liquid natural gas processing facility. This is one of the largest facilities in the world for liquid natural gas, of which Cotter is one of the world's largest suppliers. I think they're the second largest of liquid natural gas. I'm going to read this from Reuters because this is what the straight-laced analysts are saying now, quote, we are now well on the road to the doomsday gas crisis scenario said Saul Kavonek an energy analyst at MST Financial. Even once the war ends, the disruption to liquid natural gas supply could last for months or even years. Reuters got some statements from Carter State Natural Gas firm saying that they had lost

17% of their internal export capacity and that that was destroyed for three to five years. That is catastrophic for significant parts of the economy worldwide, as we are going to talk about in a second, all of this is also happening in the context of Trump's threat to destroy Karg Island, which is where 90% of Iran's oil imports flow through, which would likewise be absolutely catastrophic for the Iranian economy because it would take a significant amount of time to repair. However, comma, these are all kind of empty threats. Well, when I say empty threats, I don't mean that the U.S. or Israel won't do it. I mean that it doesn't solve the problem, because the problem with any threat you can make against Iran is like you already killed the Ayatollah.

Like what else are you going to do, right? You can completely destroy Iran's economic capacity for a significant period of time. But if you do that, then the Iranian government is still just going to not open the strait. Right. The more you attack them, the more incentive they have to continue to retaliate. And that's what's going to happen if you continue this campaign, which it seems like the U.S. and Israel are determined to do. There just all this talk about like, we've entered a new thing.

phase of the war and the war is going to now last like several months longer. And again, the problem here is that the more that you attack critical infrastructure inside Iran, the more that the Iranian government gives less of a shit about, again, destroying significant portions of the world's natural gas supply or hitting more oil facilities or, you know, and this is the one that I really haven't seen any talk about, but is a thing that Iran could do if they decided that, you know, this is like the end for our people is starting to hit desalilization plants in places like the UAE and Cotter, which are, I mean, infrastructure that will make the countries uninhabitable. And right now, there haven't been any attacks on them because that's a

really hideous thing to do. And it's also the sort of absolute last resort. But it's a thing that, like, you know, if you keep hitting them, they're going to keep hitting more and more targets that are going to significantly impact the lives of everyone in the region and around the world. Now, on the sort of economics end, we've been kind of Kind of in this little bouncing up and down stasis lock. A little bit of this has been broken because of, again, we're now seeing, instead of just the already very, very bad damage of nothing can get through the strait. We're now starting to see permanent damage to oil infrastructure, right? And by the way, it's also worth noting Royer's reports that the estimated damage, I think both from revenue lost and from to actually repair the facility, that Cotter State Run gas company is talking about, they're talking about 20,

billion dollars of damage. This has finally caused a sort of tank in the Asian markets, which are down around 3% in a lot of places. We're seeing like somewhere between 2 to 3% for things like the D.K in Japan. We're seeing like 1% down

in Shanghai. And, you know, this is because a lot of these countries, particularly in Asia, use a large quantity of not just oil, but also natural gas from the Gulf. Which means that these are the countries that are on the front lines of this crisis.

Now, the Brent crude index, which is your sort of base mark for oil prices, is over $100 now. It's staying over $100. Experts are saying it's only going to increase, which yes, no shit. Of course, it's only going to increase. There's just going to be continued to be more attacks. I have seen some reporting saying that like worst case scenario, we could see it at $200. $200 is like a nightmare, like the $9 gasoline, unbelievable hideous nightmare. I'm not going to weigh in on whether we're going to get to that point before Trump like bailes out of this war, but it's going to continue to go up as both the actual global oil supply is reduced and also as the capacity for a rebound once if this war ends is decreased by the continued destruction of oil infrastructure.

So all in all things continue to be extremely bad. and the outlook for the global economy is very bad, the outlook for the people of Iran is very bad, the outlook for people across the world is not good. Thank you, Mia. And for a final segment, I'm going to talk about the ongoing war against Iran, which I guess we're still deciding if it's a war or not.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump denied the existence of uncrewed surface vessels, something Garris and I talked about in a podcast that came out earlier this week. I'm just going to pay you the clip. So they put out phone to phony shirate the kamikaze boats. The kamikaze boats don't exist. They're fake. And you can almost see that when you look at them. It looks great, yeah.

Because if they did exist, we'd hit them just like we hit other boats all over the place. But they don't exist. In fact, some of the people say, where are the boats? How come nobody's seen the boats? You know why? Because it's AI generated. It's fake. And I found, I realized this before we started, but Iran is known for a lot of fake news.

And they deal with our fake news. And I actually think it's pretty criminal because our media companies who have no credibility whatsoever are putting out information that they know is false. Yeah, so uncruitsy vessels are real? Yes, they sure are. They've been used massively in Ukraine, among other places. Yeah, in fact, Robert, would you like to hear about CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper talking about uncrewd surface vessels? I will always listen to someone named Brad James. You know that about me. Okay, yeah.

Here you see a photo from March 1st of a naval drone storage facility located near the Strait of Hormuz. So as you can see, naval drones, uncrewed surface vessels. This is going to be an issue in this conflict and many others going forward. People are going to deny any reality that they don't want to engage with by saying that it is AI. Yep. And that's deeply troubling. So let's talk about what has been happening since we last spoke. Haag Island, an island in the Persian Gulf that is replete with oil infrastructure and storage facilities.

It's the island through which a large amount of Iran's oil exports travel. Yeah, there's a basically, so most of the coast of Iran is too shallow. for the huge vessels that are necessary to actually move crude oil. And Karg Island is like a very rare deep water port, basically. So it's kind of the hub. Yeah. I was struck by the United States last weekend of raid. The claim that the raid only hit oil infrastructure on Karg Island,

it's very hard to get any independent information from Iran currently because of blackouts, because of the lack of connectivity and because of regime oppression, right? We just, it's quite possible that what the US is saying is not true is also quite possible what the Iranian state is saying is not true. We can confirm that there were strikes there using all kinds of information from our satellite imagery, open source, flight tracking, etc. The flight strikes definitely happened. Strikes this week by the IDF also killed Ali Larajani and Basijunit Qamada Holamereza

Soleimani. Shortly after these claims first surfaced, a note was published in Larigiani's handwriting, but it is fairly certain now that he is dead. Larijani's assassination, I guess, or killing, whatever you want to call it, by the IDF, is notable because he's one of the people who would have had the sway in the regime to negotiate with the United States. You could make a case that the IDF killing him is a way for a negotiated peace to be even harder, right, for this conflict to continue even more. He is also a person who is responsible for

massive crimes against the citizens of Iran, including the violent, murderous clampdown on protests that we saw in January of this year. The United States is also deploying the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Middle East as part of an amphibious response group that includes the USS Tripoli. In fact, it's approximately 2,500 Marines who will be deployed. This is the closest we've seen to any official communication of United States boots on the ground in the region. There's a number of things that a marine expeditionary unit could do.

One of them is to do search and rescue or provide evacuations for people on vessels in the straight-of-hormuz that are struck, right? another of them is to assault or take islands where Iran may have based its military infrastructure so to do things that are not possible or not easy with air strikes. Another one is to add more air power that's closer to the region. The Tripoli can carry their F-35 lightnings. So it could be that. Another one is for these 2,500 Marines to invade Iran, right?

to begin a land war, to attempt to... They could also be training Iranian opposition groups, right? That's possible. It's not like a core, marine corps mission. There's a special forces mission. But there's a number of things they could be doing. There are also a number of more marine expeditionary units and other forces that could be moved to the region.

It's interesting to see this just a few months after we saw that national security strategy, which focused heavily on the Western Hemisphere. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, right. The U.S. isn't going to involve itself in Forever Wars in the Middle East anymore. I can't believe it. Yeah, shocking. What's the status of these Marines right now?

I believe they are motoring to the region, right? So, Tripoli is a big boat. It's called an amphibious assault boat, but that makes it sound like it's like a Higgins boat. Yeah, yeah. Like, this is not the boat that you see in the D-Day movies. In fact, I don't think it can actually this particular one, if I understand correctly, doesn't count. carry those kinds of boats.

It's not set up for doing a beach landing or amphibious assault, but these marine expedition units are like the first response, I guess. They have their own air power, they have helicopters. Obviously, they come on a boat, they can move quite quickly, they have

the Marines who are capable of doing infantry stuff, so it makes sense that this would be what they would send. Talking of US forces in the region, a US KC-135 aircraft crashed over Iraq last week. This is not a combat aircraft, right? It's not a fighter bomber, but

to my knowledge, the only way out of these planes is bailing. And all six crew members on border confirmed to have died. The United States, St.Com says, has flown over 6,000 sorties since OEF began. OEF is Operation Epic Fury?

Yeah, it's great, because Operation Enduring Freedom had the same acronym, and I'm sure that's not a mistake. But yeah, this is Operation Epic Fury. it's a very high tempo, right? And it's a very crowded airspace. The 6,000 authorities. Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot.

Yeah. Accidents like this will happen, right? Not everybody who dies in warfare, dies in combat. And sadly, this means that another six people are coming home from Iraq and coffins, as they have been since before many of our listeners were born. And of course, a lot of people in Iraq who have no quarrel with anyone or will also be innocent victim to this. I don't mean by any means to suggest it's only U.S. service people who are the victims here. I want to talk about the conflict between the United States and Hachdal-Shabee.

The U.S. has carried out a series of airstrikes against PMF groups. So these are popular mobilization forces for Shia groups in Iran for the Islamic State. A strike on a house in Baghdad killed the leader of Khatib, Hezbollah in Iraq. The strike was confirmed on Sabrine News. News is like their telegram outlet. It's like an aligned telegram news outlet for the group. Yeah,

for the PMF. Okay. And they made the statement, quote, we announced you the martyrdom of Hajabu Ali al-Azkari. In the days since he's killing, we have seen many attacks on United States facilities in Iraq. The embassy's C-RAM. C-RAM is

counter-rocket artillery and mortar. When you see videos of drones being shut down, when you hear like a, you hear like a r and then you see a burst of like trace of fire and the drone explodes. It's normally the C-Ramp. So the embassy C-Ramigate and has destroyed a drone. But other footage posted online shows an FPV drone. That's the first person view drone. FPV drone, it looks like you're flying as opposed to like you're looking directly down.

Flying over the embassy compound for almost two minutes. I'm guessing it was a fiber optic control drone, right? So there's no means of like jamming the signal. But this is still a monumental failure for security, right? At the same time, we saw two drones at least enter and explode in the victory base, which is near Baghdad Airport. The videos from those are bizarre. It seems like the drone gets into the base and then it's just like,

well, what the hell? It didn't seem like they had a clear target. It kind of flies around and it seems so shocked that it was able to penetrate this supposedly impenetrable area. How much of these security systems are designed to counter drones versus originally designed to counter older types of aerial threats? Yeah. Drones is a broad category, I guess. So you have like your Shaheed drone, which kind of blurs the line between a drone and a missile, right? It's like a missile that can take a more varied flight path.

It doesn't just go in an arc, ballistically. In those cases, there are things that you can do to shoot them down, right? You can have your Patriot missiles, you can use your C-RAM, you can shoot them down with various weapon systems on an aircraft. If we group FPV and drop-a-drones, there's commercial off-the-shelf drones. This is the thing, right? The United States has been supporting Ukraine since before 2020, but it's including since 2020. but it's including since 2022 with the full-scale invasion. It has not been supporting the revolution in Myanmar,

but clearly they have not learned enough from those two conflicts, right, in terms of the use of these small commercial off-the-shelf drones. And this is now showing up as a weakness in their defense strategy. Like, this is a serious thing for the US government, for someone to be. Yeah. And for them to just fly a recon drone, over the embassy. Obviously they now know where everything is.

And for them to publish that footage, it's like a public somewhat like humiliation, right, the sort of security infrastructure. So finally, I guess a couple more things. Iran is now militarizing the area of Kurdistan between the Iranian and Iraqi states. So that's the Iran-Iraq border in Kurdistan, right? it seems to have issued orders preventing people moving around the region as they habitually would.

People move around because they've always moved around. People move around with their animals, right? The Iranian government appears to have ordered its troops to shoot people who it perceives to be moving around without permission. People often gather near the border with a rock to access cell signal. And the government forces appear to have left their bases in the region in favor of occupying the mountains, as well as local educational institutions and sports facilities, right? So that means that people in town are now at threat. And Hengar has some incidents where people have been shot by security forces in that region.

Finally, then, I want to talk about the resignation of the director of the National Countess Terrorism Center Joe Kent. Kent resigned this week saying, quote, Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation. it does seem that that is where a lot of people stopped reading anything Kent said. Yeah, or people who did not know who Joe Kent is. Right, and don't have access to Google for reasons that I don't understand. Yeah. Yeah, some really incredibly shitty reporting on this. Kent went on in his note to, among other things, talk about the death of his wife, which is genuinely tragic.

Kent has some disgusting views, right? Like, but it does seem like the death of his wife was kind of a, I guess, a turning point. Is that fair to say, yeah? Like, you've looked at Kent a lot, like in his politics. He talks about it a lot, yeah. Yeah, it's very load-bearing for him. Yeah. So his, just with people on the way, his wife, Shannon, was a cryptologist and linguished

attacked to the ISA, intelligent support activity, sometimes called Task Force Orange. She was in Mambige in Syria when she was killed by. Islamic State suicide bomber. She was in the buffer zone. That was the buffer zone that Turkey had forced to exist. He calls that in his resignation statement, quote, a war manufactured by Israel. And he also seems to suggest that Trump was conned by Israel

into starting the war with Iran. Far too much reporting has missed this context. So he's essentially using what on the face of it as an anti-Semit, like saying, I mean, yeah, he like is. he is like an anti-Semitic fascist. Yes, his reason for retiring is like explicitly anti-Semitic. Yeah, this is the same justification that someone like Nick Fuentes uses to oppose the war in Iran, not out of, you know, principled solidarity.

These people don't care about civilians dying in Iran. No, and it's not actually about any sort of like notion of anti-imperialism. No, it's anti-Semitism. They believe that this is a Zionist occupied government. in the Zog meaning of the term, like there's literally, literally like a total Jewish control over all state operations,

not linked to actual lobbying groups that lobby for Israel within the United States, but a conspiratorial framework invoking anti-Semitic troughs and stereotypes. This is the sort of an army that Joe Kent comes out of as we are recording this,

Joe Kent has an interview dropping with Tucker Carlson. Yes. or he's going to expound on this. Oh, God, thank God. Carlson has similarly voiced these sorts of objections based on, if any intelligent person, you know, reads into it, based on anti-Semitism, not actually based on, again,

principled solidarity with oppressed peoples or anti-imperialism. Yeah. And I think if you're reading news sources that are like, oh, wow, Trump is beginning to lose people and they have imagined any of this, really consider if you want to be reading those news sources. I was to say that I guess Caroline Levitt responded with a post on X saying, quote, the commander-in-chief determines what does and does not constitute a threat because he is the only one constitutionally empowered to do so and because the American people went to the ballot box

and it trusted him and him alone to make such final judgments. That is a remarkable statement for those of us who live through the whole Iraq has WMD's era. But the United States has long history of involvement in the Middle East and the extent to which we are partnering with Israel is often in support of our other objectives in the Middle East and our ability to use Israel as like a proxy state. That's why the United States government has such a large interest in Israel, is we have other reasons for wanting to be active and control parts of the region or influence the region. Yeah, often the priorities of Israel, and not always, right, like in the first time the United States invaded the Persian Gulf,

that often they are fighting alongside each other because they have similar interests, not because of any nefarious Jewish conspiracy. Yeah. Which very frustrating that it continues to be something that needs to be reiterated. Yeah, even on the left, but it does. The first time I started seeing people

who had previously been doing other campus shit start using the phrase Zog, I was like, okay, we've come full circle. Everything's where it was always going to be beautiful. The normalization of Zog and like goy across parts of the online left is from Anna Kasparian of the new Turks, the young Turks, whatever the fuck they, TYT they call themselves. The young Turks is fall in. Yeah, well, let's be honest. Choosing that name didn't predispose them to be anti-genocide.

She has always been, like, she's sucked for a while, but just seeing her use the phrase, the word goy like that was like, whoa. Oh, wow, yeah, I haven't seen that. Oh, okay. I used to have to go to Telegram to see people posted shit like that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's sort of shit you would hear like home radio. Like, it's just like old school racism. Yeah.

No, there is this interesting emergence of like a red-brown alliance specifically targeting, like, Israel or people's notions of Israel's global influence. Yeah, yeah. Not great. Not great stuff at all. Yeah. So we should just say, since this is going to be, One of the big news stories this week and coming into next week,

the New York Times has published in article with very extensive sourcing, including from people very close to Cessor Chavez, who reported that he sexually assaulted, raped, molested, and abused mix of girls and women, including a lot of girls, pre-teened girls, started grooming them as young as eight or nine in some cases. There's evidence of molestation of girls as young as. like 1213. And then Dolores Huerta, who was his very famously, one of his organizing partners

for quite a long time, came out and said that he sexually assaulted her on at least, raped her on at least two occasions, which led to pregnancies. So that is all coming out now, and it's all pretty horrific. But yeah, I, like, there's not much more to say. You can read the article. Yeah. And should. Yeah. We'll link to in the shirt. If you'd like to email us, you can send a message to Coolzone Tips at Proton.me. That's for tips. That's for news gathering tips. Yes, it is for, it is not for you to pitch your boss to come on Robert's podcast. It is not for you to tell us about your new book.

It is not for you to share how much you enjoy a podcast. That's very sweet. If you want to send that kind of stuff, You can do it to Coolzone Media at iHeartMedia.com. If you, as a public relations company, send a large number of emails to our tips list, I will block you. I will find you. Yeah, believe me, buddy.

If people keep trying this shit, we're going to have a list and we're going to read it at the end of every. And I will give them your email address. I will do anti-advertiser. I will accuse your boss that you want to go on my podcast, a very, crimes. And thanks to my understanding of libel laws in the United States, I should be fine. Yeah. Or is that slander? I always forget. Yeah, I don't know. We'll do both. It'll be fine. Yeah. All right. It will say it. We'll post it.

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