It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: DHS Voter Roll Purge, Cornell and Title IX, Hungary’s Anti-Corruption Crusade

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

We discuss taxpayer funded pro-Trump ads, the Supreme Court approving a widely inaccurate verification system to purge voter registration, the Chi Phi Snapchat gang assault at Cornell, Trump reinstating the 2020 version of Title IX, how Prime Minister Peter Magyar is cracking down on Orban’s corruption, and the upcoming election in Brazil. Sources: https://www.camp-oshad.org/  http://America.gov https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/inaugurating-the-era-of-super-intelligence/ https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2105292669303791687 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28680584-effective-altruism-opposition-research-file/ https://x.com/DoWCTO/status/2099536442594582922?s=20 https://x.com/DoWCTO/status/2100311000993997135?s=20  https://theintercept.com/2026/09/21/john-fetterman-fundraising-republican-gop/ https://time.com/article/2026/09/29/john-fetterman-democrat-turns-to-republicans-for-campaign-cash/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/palantir-top-supporter-cbc-foundation-annual-conference_n_6ab44468e4b05097ab6cd6c7 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/27/trump-administration-taxpayer-funds-2024-campaign-ad-01094567?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter https://www.facebook.com/cnnpolitics/videos/during-a-cnn-debate-california-gop-gubernatorial-candidate-chad-bianco-said-he-i/1532884141888808/ https://www.ksl.com/article/51628353/california-sheriff-unlawfully-seized-over-650000-ballots-and-must-return-them-state-supreme-court-rules  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/us/politics/nevada-voters-homeland-security-trump.html https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/26a308_pok0.pdf https://www.propublica.org/article/save-voter-citizenship-tool-mistakes-confusion  https://www.threads.com/@thegreatgatsbry/post/Dd6YGpzkane?xmt=AQGzqaZ-H3abT0EW2lfRTONANK8dwciIx844aGm48QTIrQ  https://www.lawcommentary.com/articles/lsu-football-player-rape-title-ix-suspension https://www.dw.com/en/magyar-hungary-fight-orban-corruption-system-return-democracy/a-77726207  https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/with-two-orb%C3%A1n-era-ministers-detained-magyars-operation-purge-takes-shape/ar-AA2ddhtr https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/09/brazils-presidential-election-more-just-another-polarized-contest https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-section-301-forced-labor-165346448.html  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/business/trump-tariffs-court-challenge.html  https://www.ttnews.com/articles/us-delays-tariffs-plan-china  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/g20-trade-ministers-open-talks-under-strain-of-trump-tariffs/ar-AA2dhyJI  https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/the-economics-of-the-tariff-regime-301846881/  https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/24/trump-tariffs-lawsuit-301-ieepa.html  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-reserve-renovation-watchdog-report-rcna600656  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. People wake up and go, oh, damn, wait a hold up. They change all of that. Yes. It's real.

This is a wholesale attack. It is targeting black people in every federal agency. It's raw. White folks have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on a lot. The IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you're a seasoned NFL fan or new to the game, there's one place to keep up with all of it, the league's newest podcast, the NFL report.

Hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano, it is your home for everything football, breaking news, expert analysis, game picks, and hear from your favorite players too. Join me at an all-star cast of experts for everything you need to know from around the league. Get new episodes to the NFL report Monday through Friday all season long. Report podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez. And I'm October Gonzalez, but you can call me Toby. We want you to join us on our new podcast, No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce, and all the nitty-gritty stuff we all think about, but just don't say out loud. You're probably just going to be some rich guy and he's going

whisk you away. Well, this is awkward. Listen to No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez on the IHeart Radio app. Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. The new NFL season is here. And you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. It is in the name.

NFL Daily. You'll have fresh content in your feed every day all season long. That game winning drive. Maybe it's Herbert. Maybe it's Gino. Maybe it's Mahomes. We'll have the highlights. If Fernando Mendoza or any of the rookies are balling out, we'll break down the tape. Join me, Greg Rosenthal, and an

All-star cast of co-hosts as we preview and recap every game. Listen to NFL Daily on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sycamam. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else.

Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanatic, or a die-hard Man, NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is It Could Happen Here, Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world, and what this means for you. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by Robert Evans and special correspondent Bridget Todd. Welcome. Thanks so much for having me.

excited to talk through some of the worst stuff imaginable with you, fine folks. Yeah, it is a hard week. This week that we are covering is September 23rd to September 30th. I'll start with a few shorter news stories that I think our little panel here might find interesting. On Tuesday, Donald Trump, the president, launched America.gov, a website to host an AI chatbot that pulls information from across the multitude of federal government. websites. America.gov and this little chatbot probably deserves its own focus in a future episode. But also on Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order to rename artificial intelligence to superintelligence after running polls on social media for the past week. And he also met with the

heads of six tech companies to sign the quote, White House Accord on Super Intelligence, which essentially promotes self-regulation in the age. AI industry. Speaking of superintelligence under Trump's signature on this document, the United States is written as the United States. Excellent work there. This document was also signed by Sundarvichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kajenzhen, Huang of Navidia, Greg Brockman of OpenAI, and Anthropics Dario Amade.

Does anyone have any notes on this little chatbot or superintelligence they'd like? to add? Not really. I mean, what is there to say? We can just move on. Yeah. Now, Dario's inclusion in the White House Accords is a little funny because earlier this week, a memo circulating the White House named Dario as a leading figure in the cultish,

effective altruism movement, which, according to the memo, is responsible for the AI doom panic threatening technological innovation and national. security. Robert, if you've not seen this memo, that document cloud link has it there. You should take a look. It's pretty funny. Oh, yes. No, yes. I have seen this. Yes. The memo covers Anthropics ties to effective altruism and identified effective altruism as a quote, heavily male, white, non-religious, politically left or center left, and usually vegan or vegetarian. I love that they throw in their diet, like a little detail. And I don't even fully agree with that statement. But okay. This memo tracks the, quote, AI doom pipeline back to

effective altruism, consequentialism, and long-termism, based on effective altruism's, quote, impartial maximization. Do the most good, wherever and whenever it occurs. Extend the calculation into the far future through long-termism, enter human extinction as the loss of potentially enormous future value, unquote. The memo also talks about, you know, shrimp consciousness, bestiality and killing babies, pulling from a variety of effective altruism,

like thought experiments and writing. Yeah, yeah. It's, this is why I don't really agree with calling them even a left or a center left, or at least there's elements of that, but there's elements of like,

classic far right, like eugenic thought. And this document even notes that. You know, it's talking about some of the stuff singers said about disabled kids and the like, but they're leaving out,

like, it's interesting to me that this seems to. I haven't done like a deep dive, but at least from what remember, and from what I'm looking over now, it does not seem to be mentioning Nick Bostrom. He's like the guy who is generally considered the father of long-termism within the EA subculture and is also like the biggest eugenicist within like the prominent chunk of that, that movement. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense that the Trump allies might not be talking about those aspects of

EA. Yeah. But, and like a lot of this memo does focus on anthropic and homicides. day. Yeah, because the government's been beefing with Anthropic for for months, especially following the Iran War and statements that Anthropic has made about military use of their technology, which has led to the War Department, publicly attacking Anthropic and, as of last week, effective altruism itself in a series of posts. What a time to be alive. Quote, Americanism, not effective altruism. The United States will continue to be AI dominant.

We're this close to Pete Hegseth talking about ALA. as a birthday gang bang as a matter of national security. And I for one am ready for this glorious day to come. Oh, man. Dark timeline. I want the younger listeners or anyone who's like, you remember like hanging out at parties in your early 20s with some like absolute dipshits. Now imagine the president. It's like getting really angry at those dipshits. And like you hate them, but he's not angry at them for a good reason. That's what this is like for those of us who've been following the EA movement. for years. Such a good analogy. It's like, well, these guys suck, but not for these reasons. The post that they put out, it's clearly AI generated. Oh, got it. Yeah. People should see it.

One of them, it almost looks like a really bad over-the-top AI generated flyer for like a theme night at a nightclub. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's pulling from a bunch. I mean, the whole War Department feed right now pulls from a whole bunch of like, I would have called downstream from telegram, a Yeah. And I think these follow that also. These are all descended from like the white boy summer aesthetics we were seeing four five years ago. Which of course is pulling from kind of like nightlife aesthetics as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really horrible mix of things. It's a ruberos. Another post from the Department of War. The United States will never be an effective altruist country. I agree. Pretty cool.

Fair. He's right. He's right. Pretty cool. Moving on, about a week after Pennsylvania Senator John Vetterman sent a little video to the Republican Midterm Convention, the Intercept reported that Federman has been fundraising using GOP email lists with campaign fundraising emails coming from the address, quote, info at gop squad.com. Now, one of these GOP linked fundraising emails said it was from Friend of the Pod, James' favorite senator, Mike Lee. who wrote in this email, quote, friend, I just got an email from John. He's basically a Republican now.

Wow. I need your help to draft him. Sign here, unquote. And then there's John Federman, you know, campaign insignias below this little email chain. So cool stuff there. Two great tastes to go great together, Federman and Mike Lee. And while speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival this past Sunday, Federman did a little Freudian slip.

Let's take a lesson. Hindi from Dallas and they ask, why not become an independent? Because I'm a lifelong Republican. Democrat. Every time, every time it's funny. That's a moment right there. That's clippable, ladies and gentlemen. Circulate.

Go, go, go, go. Internet. Spin wildly. Wildly spin Internet. I guarantee you, that's going to break through. That'll get clipped. Yeah, I'm a lifelong Democrat. crack, though. You're not spinning. He just said he was a Republican. There's no spin to do.

Yeah, that'll get clipped. Doing my part, I guess. Yeah, man, that's that. I just love the, like, they're going to take this out of context. No, the context was you called yourself a Republican, man. Like, yeah, it was a slip-up, but it's, like, no one's taking it out of context. Like, you said it. You just said that. Speaking of our totally cool Congress, Palantir was named as a, quote, top supporter. of the Congressional Black Caucus at their annual charitable gala this month with Palantir's name plastered on tables at the event

and a big thank you banner in the convention center. Oof. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has very publicly returned donations from Palantir. Yeah, I was at the CBC here right in Washington, D.C. Yeah, that was, I wasn't my fave. You know, when you went into the building, there was this image that was like a

orange image of the late Shirley Chisholm, who is one of my idols. Yeah, Shirley Chisholm's awesome. She's awesome. Unbought and unboss. She was the first black woman elected to Congress. It's her picture with Palantir's branding on her image. That's fucked up. That was like getting kicked in the nuts right when I went in.

And, you know, I just, I can't imagine that anything about what Palantir is doing Chisholm would have been down for. No. Yeah. It was not my fave. No. That sucks. For some positive Shirley Chisholm representation, though,

if you watch the relatively new history of the world by Mel Brooks TV show that was on, I think, Hulu, I forget which streaming platform, Shirley Chisholm plays a major role in it. It's a loving tribute. I need a pallet cleanser. I might have to watch that tonight. Yeah. It's not bad, actually. In a statement to Huff Post, Palantir said there, quote,

proud and honored to support the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's mission of creating pathways for promising young people to enter public service who may not have the networks or financial means to do so without support, unquote. Basically, we want to own them, yeah. Surveil them, track them, get them into our databases.

I mean, and you can't fault some of these guys who are in their 80s and 90s who don't really know what Palantir is necessarily. By you can't fault them, I of course mean you should be faulting them. They shouldn't be in office. They should, they're too old. The former chair and current influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus, 86-year-old, Jim Clyburn recently told Box that he only learned what ChatGPT was earlier this summer.

I think I'm too old to be an elected leader now because when people bring up like TikTok or influencers, I just black out and find myself holding a gun these days. So like I can't imagine being 80 and trying to keep up with this shit. You don't think of yourself as an influencer at all, Robert? Oh, gosh. I make media. That was a rage bait question and you fell for it, my friend. I want Robert doing makeup tutorials on blue sky.

I could do that, yeah. Paint dazzle camouflage on your face. Anyway, sorry, Gary. Well, with just a little over a month left until the midterms, the federal government has begun airing pro-Trump television ads paid for by U.S. taxpayers. These are, for all intents of purposes, Republican campaign ads paid for by you.

There's at least three different ads in circulation. And one of them, a single black and white shot of Trump walking down a hallway with a voiceover talking about, quote, a final battle with you by my side to demolish the deep state globalists and warmongerers. And if that little last part sounds a bit outdated, that's because this was literally a Trump 20204 campaign ad. Yep. But with one important change, the on-screen text at the end of the ad reads, paid for by the U.S. government, unquote. This ad is played during sports games and on Fox News. Another one of these Trump ads airing on TV is edited in the form of, like, a hype video

with like quick flashing images on screen, with text reading, largest tax cuts in history, re-igniting American manufacturing, and defend law and order and police. Too many hands. So as images of Trump and these little phrases flash on screen, the song Love Me by JMSM plays in the background. Let's take a listen. Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America. America will never be a communist country.

Oh, God. Paid for it by the U.S. government. Yeah, that should be illegal. Probably is illegal. Adding this to the ever-expanding bucket of, Is that legal? How are they allowed to do that? Now, the White House has defended these federally funded, but clearly partisan ads to influence the midterms by calling them public service announcements akin to Biden's PSAs about the COVID-19 vaccines. Are you fucking kidding me? Sure, man. Public service announcements about how our great leader is perfect and can do no wrong.

Love me, love me. To quote the White House, the announcements are very clearly not campaign ads. President Trump is not on the ballot, and there is no call to action. Instead, the announcements are a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it's worth defending at home, at the border, and abroad, unquote. Their country? That's not what they were singing, love me to. They were singing love me to pimps images of Donald Trump with his arms wide open. like the fucking Jesus at Rio.

Like, it's wild. It's bad. I don't like this, yeah. Well, a few other kind of election related points I want to hit. Last Thursday, the California Supreme Court ruled that Sheriff Chad Bianco violated state election law by seizing 650,000 ballots for the Prop 50 special election on redistricting as a part of his quote unquote election fraud. investigation. Now, I think it's worth noting that emails leaked in 2021 revealed that Sheriff Chad,

Bianco, was a dues-paying member of the Oathkeepers since at least 2014. And in a debate earlier this year during the sheriff's unsuccessful bid to be the Republican nominee for governor, Bianco said he was proud of his affiliation with the Oathkeepers. You're an Oathkeeper. We all know that. And I'm very proud of it. Well, you should. I'm very proud of it. And everybody that wants to like, again, lie and emotionally get all spun up about the oathkeeper organization. I just would, before you do that, and I know none of you have, I want you to go read the mission statement of the oathkeeper mission statement and the ACLU. I saw them on CNN attacking the Capitol. And the ACLU. I saw a politician molesting kids. Does that mean you molest kids? What? Exactly. Really compelling stuff from Sheriff

Oathkeeper. But this is a lot of you. whole story gives us an interesting look into possible election interference done on like a county level with chud sheriffs just seizing huge swaths of ballots to try to invalidate as many as they can after an election based on vague allegations of quote discrepancies in the count but now going forward at least in california there will be protections against this tactic you know you said that it was found that he did this and that he violated state election law, will he be facing any consequences? It doesn't look like he'll be facing consequences, no. He has, the ballots will be returned and destroyed, but no, this is not going to result in anything for him personally.

He just can't continue his investigation. Oh. Speaking of allegations of election fraud, earlier this summer, Trump and DHS secretary Mark Wayne Mullen claimed they had uncovered hundreds of thousands of non-citizens who were registered to vote. And we didn't report on these claims in depth because the White House provided no evidence for these extraordinary claims. But in communications to stay election officials following this big public announcement, the Trump admin already began to de-emphasize the certainty of these large figures. Nevada was first told by DHS that they had as many as 15,903 non-citizens on their voter rolls.

But in a meeting between state officials and DHS last month, DHS said that that number might not be totally accurate because each voter had not yet been manually reviewed and the true number may be closer to 185 voters. After this meeting, DHS emailed Nevada officials clarifying, quote, we did not reduce the 15,903 to 185. We've manually reviewed some of the 15,903 and confirmed 185 are not U.S. citizens, unquote. So still keeping open the possibility that there could be upwards of 16,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls, which have been flagged, but then DHS themselves narrowed that down to at least 185 confirmed cases. So, after this, state officials then checked those 185 alleged non-citizen voters and found that every single one was actually a U.S. citizen. In a letter obtained

by the New York Times through an open records request, the Deputy Attorney General in Nevada, Gray Goat wrote to DHS, as for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens. You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise. Nevada's Secretary of State said in a statement, quote, our records do not support DHS's claims and DHS has still not provided evidence to change that. Instead, DHS officials continue their attempts to intimidate election officials into compliance and deter voters with huge claims of fraud with no evidence. Repeating unsupported claims does not make them true. Unquote. All of this relates to our first main story this episode. On September 25th, the Supreme Court ruled six three on ideological lines

to allow the Trump administration to use a janky citizenship database from DHS to purge voter rolls. Though, the worst potential effects of this will be delayed until after the midterms. Now, we've talked before about the ongoing legal battles over Trump's attempts to restrict mail and voting. This new shadow docket ruling centers on the implementation of the other half of Trump's March 2025 executive order to, quote, protect the integrity of American elections. The creation of a new list of verified U.S. citizen voters. After Trump signed the election integrity order last year, DHS began to expand something called the Save Database so that it could be used to verify large batches of voters.

Quickly, voting rights organizations sued and a district court blocked the order, finding that the overhauled save program, quote, trampled on the, privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. But the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to stay the district court's ruling. And last week, without a full briefing or oral argument, the Supreme Court granted that stay, clearing the way for Trump to implement the new Save Database. The Save Database was created decades ago to verify the citizenship and immigration status of people applying for public benefits like Medicaid and food stamps.

But the newly modified save system incorporates confidential data from the Social Security Administration and allows authorities to conduct bulk searches of multiple individuals at once. Currently, 27 U.S. states used the safe system to verify voters, and last year, some states began testing the newly modified database. More on that later. In the lawsuit that first prevented the government from using this newly overhauled database, the plaintiffs alleged that the integration of Social Security Administration data violates multiple privacy protections. And that the use of the data to purge voter rules

risks irreparable harm to voters who are mistakenly removed from the roles due to inaccurate or out-of-date information in the database. And this part is really crucial because Social Security Administration data does not necessarily reflect someone's current immigration or citizenship status. And SSS data is not just your social security number,

but also names, dates, and places, of birth, citizenship indicators, death records, and any information obtained while processing requests for Social Security numbers. So there's a bunch of very, very personal, very private data that gets stored here. It's not just your, you know, however many digit number. So if this new database flags someone or a search comes up inconclusive, voters could be required to take additional affirmative steps to prove their citizenship or naturalization, possibly within a very short time window, or they risk being removed from the voter rules and unable to exercise their right to vote. In the dissent penned by Justice Jackson, she echoed the concern of the

plaintiffs that, quote, the staleness of Social Security Administration's citizenship records risked disenfranchising recently naturalized U.S. citizens, unquote. And absolutely, if someone's afraid that they might get into trouble or ICE might go after them, for registering to vote even if they are legally allowed to, or if that fear prevents them from taking certain actions, that is real and active harm. And this type of stuff isn't just future speculation. According to a ProPublica report from last February, quote, DHS has had to correct information provided to at least five states after Save misidentified some voters as non-citizens. In particular, in Texas, one woman had her voter registration revoked without her knowledge,

and two more people had to provide proof of citizenship to maintain registered voter status per Jackson's dissent. So this can also happen to you and you not know about it. So you can be removed from your voter role, not actually know necessarily. Maybe they tried to contact you

and that just didn't work, that just didn't happen. So then you think that you're registered to vote, but you actually aren't, which of course then makes you unable to vote. These are all real actual harms, but the majority opinion of the Supreme Court didn't actually consider any of these harms posed to lawful voters, but just focused on the harm that the government could suffer if they weren't allowed to use this new save database. And weighing the legality of DHS using what's otherwise protected confidential data from the Social Security Administration,

which the majority ruled DHS was allowed to do based on the illegal immigration reform and immigrant responsiveness. Act, Section 1373. And this is the big kind of legal debate regarding, is this database actually legal? Are they allowed to use this protected data? The district court said no. The dissent says no. The plaintiffs say no. But the federal government and now Supreme Court majority says yes. And I want to get more into kind of the weeds of this legal argument in a future episode. Because to quote Jackson, the argument being made by the majority is implausible, and they are very clearly misreading a federal law.

It's just a very plain misreading and interpreting a specific law in a way that no one else has interpreted it before and would fundamentally alter privacy protections in this country and goes directly against the Clinton administration's interpretation of this law as well. But I'll get more into that kind of in a future episode about the various efforts to undermine election. going into the midterms. So as bad and bullshit as all of this is, this ruling will, quote,

likely have a minimal short-term impact, according to Jackson. And that's because the National Voter Registration Act prohibits states from, quote, systematically removing the names of ineligible voters from their rules in the 90 days prior to any primary or general election. So they cannot do these massive bulk searches that this database is designed to do. They can't just like remove tons of people all at once from the rules. But that doesn't mean that this will have no impact on the midterms. Because the government is still allowed to use this new safe program to conduct, quote, individualized inquiries per the majority. So they can still go after individual people, just not bulk searches. Jackson writes that states will quote, at most conduct individualized

voter rule maintenance using the modified save system. And she concludes her dissent by saying, quote, the harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the non-existent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take, unquote. I'm glad she named that in her dissent because I can't get over that bit of, what about the harm to the government? That's wild to mean.

Yeah, no, there's another line I have saved in my full report of this, which is so funny. She writes, it cannot be that the government is injured whenever it is prevented from violating the law. That's kind of a really good sum up of like most Supreme Court kind of debates during Trump's second administration, is that the government is just constantly. claiming that they're going to suffer harm if they're not allowed to break the law. Considering all of this, I think it's important to reiterate that non-citizen voting is relatively rare and statistically insignificant. It's not something that is altering election results or causing harm, but what could cause harm or alter results is the mass disenfranchisement of voters, scaring naturalized citizens

into not voting and DHS forcibly deregistering, lawful U.S. citizen voters because of their wildly inaccurate voter verification system. Now, regarding the massive numbers thrown around by the Trump admin, like 300,000 non-citizen voters, 16,000 flagged in Nevada, it's not yet clear if the new save system is where DHS is getting those numbers. But considering the fact that the 185, quote, manually confirmed cases in Nevada, turned out to be all U.S. citizens, you cannot take anything DHS is saying at face value. Basically, this whole illegal voting panic is functionally a sci-op to purge U.S. citizen voters. It's to convince as many states as possible to use this new save system using threats and intimidation, with the ultimate goal of purging voter rolls, which they're not allowed to do

in the three months before the midterms. But going forward after the midterms, DHS now has the ability to do bulk searches and removals ahead of future elections. So this is definitely something we will keep an eye on going into 2028. Anyway, let's go on an ad break and then return for some bad news. The music you love. I heart radio. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about.

All in one place. And it's free. I heart radio. Whatever you want to hear. Listen anytime. Anywhere. Music, radio. Podcasts.

Unlimited audio. It's on the free IHurt Radio app. Let's go. One app. No subscription. Always free. Grab the free app. I heart radio.

Everywhere you go. Download the free IR Radio app today. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sikima. Have you ever watched a game and wondered what really made the difference beyond the final score? That's exactly why we created NFL Pro. Got a man wide open. Stayhawks!

Every week, we use exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content to break down the biggest stories, matchups, and moments from around the league. We go beyond the box score to uncover the numbers, the tendencies, and details that help explain what actually happened on the field. Fires it out in the flat to Barclay who beats one man, spins past another, leaps over at third. And don't worry, this isn't just a show for stats experts. We use advanced analytics to help tell the story behind the game, turning the numbers into insights that every fan can understand and enjoy.

So whether you're a casual fan learning more about football or a hardcore fan who can't get enough analysis, our goal is to help you see the game in a whole new way. If you've ever wanted to know why a playwork, how a matchup was won, or what most fans missed on Sunday, NFL Pro delivers insights you simply can't get anywhere else. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

You broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of betrayal, we meet Carl Bryant. Carl thought he was living a normal drama-free life until the messages started. You will have hell to pay. For nine months, someone infiltrated every aspect of Carl's life threatening to ruin him. Cyberstalking, swatting, extortion, impersonation. And then the text threats escalated.

Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. Yes, apartment. is playing out in real life, not just on the phone. Every piece of evidence pointed to one man. But every piece of evidence was a lie. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health.

I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. On this show, I'll be talking to top researchers and top clinicians, asking them your burning questions and bringing that information about women's health and midlife directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause. It can be such a struggle for our quality of life, but even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? The types of symptoms that people talk about is forgetting everything. I never used to forget things. They're concerned that one, they have dementia, and the other one is, do I have ADHD? There is unprecedented promise with regard to cannabis and cannabinoids, to sleep better,

to have less pain, to have better mood, and also to have better day-to-day life. Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer on the Iheart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you're listening now. I'm former U.S. Women's National Soccer team player, Carly Lloyd. I'm Fox Sports reporter, Jenny Taft. And on our new podcast, whatever it takes, we're talking motherhood, marriages, careers, and figuring out how to balance it all. And we'll discuss the game that brought us together, because nothing is off limits. Do you remember your initial reaction when Fox called you to be a part of the World Cup?

I was like, no, I don't want to do it. You said no? I played with players that didn't, I don't think that they really, truly love the game. I found the love with the ball at my foot. But in my head, it was the long game. It was like, I don't care what I'm being asked to do at Fox. I'm going to go get some reps and I'm going to learn it and love it and embrace it. He said, this group of people will never be in the same room as part of the same team ever again in your life. And it is your job to make sure that you enjoy the moment. You're proud of what you accomplish together. Listen to whatever it takes with Carly Lloyd and Jenny Taft on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we are back. Let's turn to Bridget Todd for our next main story. Yeah, thanks, Gare. And I have to give a quick heads up in the form of a trigger warning that this segment deals with some pretty rough stuff. Sexual assaults, drugging, so just know that before we talk about it. Cutting in here just to say, if you would like to skip this section on Cornell and Title IX, you can skip to the next ad break, which should be around the 50s.

I can't know the exact time stamp because that depends on the ads that are loaded into your individual podcast feed. But the next section by Robert Evans should be around the 55 minute mark after the next ad break. So y'all have probably been hearing about what's happening at Cornell right now. And I want to start by walking through the timeline because this case did not just suddenly emerge this month. The New York Times actually had a really detailed breakdown at the timeline that was super helpful in me kind of just understanding what's going on. All of this happened almost two years ago, but there is a reason why folks are talking about it right now. So back in October of 2024, according to Jane Doe's lawsuit, earlier that night, she had been out at bars and Greek life events. Around 11 o'clock, she goes to the Kai Phi fraternity house to meet a male Cornell student.

She's also a student at Cornell at this point. She said that she thought of this student as a friend to her. Now, according to this lawsuit, she was then pressured into consuming drugs and alcohol, including ketamine, and that seven men sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated from the drugs and alcohol and weaving in and out of consciousness. I looked at the lawsuit that she filed.

The details that are laid out in this lawsuit are truly horrific, to the point where I don't even, necessarily feel comfortable like getting into all of them here, stuff like her being forced to snort ketamine off of an erect penis. Oh, God. Yeah, it's pretty bad. And her suit says all of this went on for hours. According to her complaint, one of the men posted a message to the fraternity Snapchat group during the night that said, quote, free pussy. Obviously, her suit interprets this as an invitation for other fraternity members to join in the room and join in the assault. This is not even like super in dispute.

You can find pictures of that Snapchat message and like see the replies to it. And even the do nothing district attorney who I'll be talking about more in a moment has since described those Snapchat messages as quote, morally disgusting. And he said that his office was examining whether or not those Snapchat messages could have criminal significance. So three weeks later, on November 8th, Jane Doe goes to the Cornell University Police. And, you know, I don't make anybody surprised to hear that in situations like this, there's always some victim-blaming fuckery. So here is some victim-blaming fuckery.

So that Do-N-N-N-A., the Tompkins County District Attorney Matt Van Houghton, said that Jane Doe's original statement to the police described at least some of her drug use and sexual activity that night as voluntary and consensual. That's his words in our mind. He says that that was a major reason that his office determined at the time that there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges. So when I heard that, I kind of did that Scooby-Doo, like, what the fuck do you mean? That seemed absurd to me. So I looked into this, and I only learned this from researching the situation, but there is a wrinkle in New York state law that critics have called the voluntary intoxication loophole, which is basically that under New York law, if you voluntarily get even extremely drunk, the fact that you were too intoxicated to meaningfully consent does not by

itself legally established that you were incapable of consenting to sex, which to me is, I mean, I, maybe I'm a polliana, but I did not know that. I was learning that for the first time from researching what happened at Cornell. out. Like, I get legally, especially in a situation like a party where multiple people are drinking, like, how do you adjudicate after the fact without like blood tests and stuff, the level of intoxication of everybody? Like, I understand how there's like complications there, but it seems like something other than just not addressing it would be the right thing to do legally. Yeah. And basically this law posits that you essentially have to be, if you're talking about consensual drinking,

you basically have to be incapacitated to the point where you cannot move or speak on your own in order for that and that alone to establish that you were incapable of consenting the sex. So if you're, you know, drinking but still talking, even if you're like extremely, extremely drunk, that by itself does not legally establish that you were not capable of consenting. So I really take your point, but it seems to me that like, okay, well, we'll just codify that into law seems rocky to me. And there are lawmakers. It just seems like they've abrogated their, like, making an actual, like, decision on any of this and just sort of picked, I don't know.

Like, it doesn't seem like where you should draw the line, right? Like, just, okay, when somebody's passed out, like, in nothing before, that just really, it just seems very irresponsible and incomplete. Totally agree. And there are lawmakers who are actively working on changing this intoxication loophole. And I'm glad that you said that, Robert, because to me, this is just me editorializing, I think it raises a fundamental question about how consent works because a person can voluntarily use drugs or drink and be sexually assaulted. A person can consent to one sex act and then not consent to another. Consent is... Absolutely. Yeah, and I think that we just have to,

I want for us a society where we have more conversations about what consent actually looks like and how it works so that more people kind of fully understand that. I don't feel like we're having those conversations now, unfortunately, like in wider society, particularly with young people. Yeah. So that Do Nothing, DA, that I told you about, Van Houghton, he also has pushed back on this sort of emerging claim that Jane Doe's original statement was fragmentary or incomplete

or this idea that the investigators just did not do a good enough job of getting a detailed account from her. He says that Jane Doe gave police a comprehensive statement and made more than 20 handwritten corrections to that statement before signing it. So that's what he says is why his office declined to pursue charges. But Jane Doe's attorney disputes all of this, including the idea that her original statement means that her current allegations are inconsistent with what she originally reported.

Her attorney has argued that she was traumatized and incapacitated and that authorities failed to adequately investigate what actually happened to her. So I should say that Cornell did take some actions following this report, According to both Cornell and third-party reporting, the university did temporarily suspend the Chi Phi fraternity and impose some temporary suspensions or restrictions on students accused in connection with this incident while they investigated. Cornell University Police did contact that DA, which like, okay, a lot of good that did. And prosecutors, again, reviewed the allegations and ultimately decided not to, you know, pursue criminal charges under New York state law. Then, in January of 2025, Jane Doe filed a formal Title IX complaint with Cornell, triggering a totally separate university review process. So in case you don't know, Title IX is the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding and dictates rules around how colleges are required to respond when a student reports something like sexual assault or sexual harassment.

According to the New York Times, by May, Cornell's Title IX. Committee had held at least 12 hearings involving these allegations in this situation. So Cornell now says that this investigation eventually resulted in what they describe as serious disciplinary sanctions, what they describe as things like suspensions and expulsions, and that the Kai Phi chapter that was involved in this is still barred from campus. However, we don't actually know exactly what happened to each individual student because Cornell has declined to publicly disclose any of those details, citing federal student privacy laws. Jane Doe's attorney told CBS News that two of the seven students were expelled, and at least

some of the men who were named in the lawsuit have denied allegations through their attorneys. So if you've heard about this situation, you've probably heard about one particularly grim detail, and that is the essays. So Jane Doe's civil complaint alleges that several of the accused students were, quote, afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell, like written papers that you would write in a class. Cornell has since pushed back on that claim, but in a way that I find interesting because they did not say that none of the students involved were made to write an essay to mitigate, you know, their conduct. What Cornell said was, quote, none of the individuals charged were offered

the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement. So like, it kind of does sound like maybe they were made to write essays. Like, I'm not sure what that exactly means. So Cornell says the disciplinary process resulted in a range of sanctions, including suspensions and expulsions. But again, we don't really know what all went down there. So after that, the story kind of fell from public view until very recently this month. This month, Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against the defendants, including Cornell University, Kai Phi, her sorority Delta, Delta, Delta, university officials, and seven men that she says participated in this assault. And that lawsuit has really pushed this whole situation more

into public view, like how did the university handle it? How did the authorities handle it? And I have to really champion the student journalists at the Cornell Daily Sun here, which is Cornell's independent student newspaper. The Daily Suns, the Daily Suns, journalists have been reporting on these allegations going back to 2024, and they have been aggressively pursuing and covering the lawsuit and the university's response. There is a really good Qaeda with one of the student editors, Cuis Cusba, in the cut, about what it was like to break and cover this story. And one of the things that she said was that weirdness around whether or not these students were asked to write essays to mitigate this like really, really awful behavior,

But it clarified that for me because she basically says that Cornell treats sexual assault on campus as a more of an education issue, not a public safety issue. And she really describes the kind of environment where like it would make sense that the university would think that having students do workshops or write essays would be an appropriate way to mitigate harm. She told the cut, when you search the task force website, you see what they're doing as classes, workshops, and website links. It's pretty easy to assume that those who would often commit the sexual assault will most likely not be the ones attending the voluntary and optional sexual assault workshops. Within the editorial committee, we feel that sexual misconduct cannot be solved in the same way we try to attempt to solve plagiarism. These are very fundamentally different issues, she told the cut.

So if you have seen the names of these men circulating publicly, that is because of the Cornell Daily Sun. On September 21st, the Cornell Daily Sun's editorial board published the names of all of the men who were named as defendants in this lawsuit. They said that they believed Cornell had failed in its obligation to protect the students and to adequately account for its handling of the allegations. So I do have a couple of updates. On September 28th, that Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houghton, you know, that do nothing DA, I was describing earlier, while he announced that his office was actually going to do something, and that is to reopen this criminal investigation.

Van Houten says that his office has assigned a senior prosecutor with experienced prosecuting sex crimes and is preparing to present the case to a grand jury. Also, New York Governor Kathy Hockel called for an outside counsel to conduct a transparent, independent review of how the university handled Jane Doe's situation. Specifically, she wants this review to determine whether or not Cornell met its obligations to protect students

and pursue justice. So that's kind of where the Cornell situation sits right now. I have a couple of other sort of pieces there. I don't know if you would call this person a journalist. I'm going to refer to him as a substack troll. Oh, no. Are you going to talk about who I think you're going to talk about? It's Michael Tracy.

Oh, yes. God, damn it. It's time for Michael Tracy. Oh, damn it. Is this not his first appearance on the pod? No, we've talked about Michael and him being sure the Americans were about to invade to help Ukraine because he wound up accidentally at a U.S. Embassy in Poland. We've talked about Michael a few times because he's always wrong about everything, he says. Well, you might not be surprised then to find out that he is trying to reveal Jane Doe's identity.

This is not the first time he's gone after a survivor. Yeah. Yes, he tweeted, if you happen to know who this Cornell Jane Doe is, get in touch. and I would be happy to publish her name and identifying information. And yes, this is 100% permitted under the First Amendment. Whatever threats or emotional blackmail people might want to deploy. So just a real lovely guy, real lovely addition to this whole shit show. There's been a few other kind of far-right content creators who've tried to docks this woman, have put out identifications that,

who knows, if they are real or not. But this is definitely not just Michael. This is not just a Michael problem. This is across the whole kind of Twitter, America First, Groyper sphere as well. Yeah. And I'm glad that you mentioned that. You know, when I was researching for this, I actually found myself in the behind the bastards or cool zone subreddit. And one of the posts on there caught my eye, which was, I think this person is right, but basically asking, does it seem like there's an uptick in kind of, quote, gender wars stuff being.

used in insidiary ways. Yes. And he was talking about some of the conversation around the Lindsay Clancy trial. And I do, I mean, I'm lucky that I've, on my side of pocket of the internet, everybody is, you know, supportive of Jane Doe. And they want a more transparent, clear process for when this kind of thing happens. But I do think we're seeing an uptick in this kind of thing being used to divide and insight.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Lindsay Clancy here, whatever in his case, I'm also seeing used a lot of, lot that way and the right of like women want to be able to murder their babies and stuff. Like there's definitely a concerted effort to push gender conflict shit. Yeah. And I'm, I hate that it is effective.

I hate that it's a kind of cultural issue that really can move people along these lines. And, you know, I think it's important that we know that this situation at Cornell is like not isolated. Camp is rapist is not an isolated thing. And there's actually another story that you might. be hearing less about a student at Louisiana State University named Kendall Francis. Basically, Kendall Francis is a student at LSU, a young black woman. This is from law commentary. LSU found a football player responsible for sexual assault and forcible rape through its

Title IX process, then reduced his one year suspension on appeal to two years of probation without restrictions, subsequently allowing him back on the LSU football team. So this finding remained in place in that case is now under criminal investigation. So you're probably thinking, what the fuck? Basically, law commentary reports that Francis, the student at LSU, filed a formal Title IX complaint in January of 2026. After investigating these allegations and the player's accounts, the university did find him responsible for sexual assault and forcible rape. LSU initially imposed a one-year suspension. That player appealed. The university upheld the sexual misconduct finding, but then reverse the suspension, replacing it with that

two years of, quote, disciplinary probation without restrictions. This, of course, allowed him to return to campus, campus life, campus activities, including returning to the LSU football team. So the student has been saying, you know, I've been made an incredibly anxious by this. Like, I wanted to be on campus and live my life. But the idea that the person that the university agrees assaulted me is just allowed back on campus is unacceptable. So in response, she filed a criminal complaint and that complaint was brought to the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office for a review on September 22nd, 2026, where they are now investigating. And that's kind of where we're at right now. But LSU says that they're standing by what they did. They said that they

followed the policies and the process correctly and that they're, you know, working with law enforcement to solve the matter. She's been speaking. up on social media, you know, using her real identity, which is an incredibly fraught thing to be doing. I wanted to play just a little bit of a video that she posted to social media. We had a pretty rough hearing. The hearing was not the best. And then LSU said that he was accountable for rape and then proceeded to suspend him for a year. Even though for rape, the suspension is two to three years. even with him admitting on the record that he did rape me they still just gave him a lesser sentence in which he then appealed during this appeal process it took so long and they took a long long time to give it back to me and i ended up coming back to lSU because at first he was suspended and i did not think that they would suspend him because they had already found or unsuspend him because they had already found him responsible for rape after the appeal process ls u s u.s.

decided to send me the email of the appeal process during my class. So I ended up reading the appeal in my class and during the letter it said that he was still responsible for rape, but he's able to play football, join orgs and everything like that. And so that made my anxiety really, really bad because I don't want to face this person. So this caused me to go online full time and now I'm just trying to speak on my story because LSU does really protect their athletes, especially their football players. And I'm sorry for anyone else who has gone through something. Similarly, this, my DMs are opening. You guys are more than welcome to message me. I really just wanted to bring awareness upon this situation because I'm just dealing with a lot right now, and I think that this story needs to be heard. Thank you guys for listening to my story, and I hope you guys all have an amazing day.

So she's been really speaking out on social media, and, you know, I'm really happy that we are galvanizing around Jane Doe at Cornell. And I think that all survivors and victims deserve to have their stories shared, deserve to have support, deserve to be believed. And so I just wanted to also highlight what's happening at LSU with this Title IX complaint as well. And coincidentally, I do have some Title IX news because on September 28th, the very same day that that DA announced that they were reopening the Cornell investigation, the Trump administration formally reinstated the Title IX regulations that were. created during Trump's first term. This has been a little bit of a political and legal tug of war back and forth for years. During Trump's first term, his administration rewrote the Title IX rules

back in 2020. Among other things, the regulations that he changed narrowed what kinds of sexual harassment schools were required to address under Title IX and also strengthened procedural protections for students who were accused of misconduct. The Biden administration, rewrote those rules again in 2024. Those Biden rules broadened protections against sex discrimination to include explicitly extending those protections to discrimination

based on sexual orientation and gender identity and changed how schools could handle sexual harassment complaints. But those rules then got tied up in lawsuits and in January of 2025, a federal judge struck them down nationwide. So the 2020 Trump rules

were effectively kind of back in place. But what happened this week is that the Trump administration made that official. The Education Department formally removed those Biden-era regulations from the books and restored those Trump-2020 regulations. So if you ask me, those rules make it more difficult for some students who experience sexual harassment or misconduct or assault to come forward and get real help from their schools. Now, to be clear, the Cornell case and this Trump change are different developments.

They're not, you know, related. but it is hard for me not to sort of read them concurrently because it feels like we're watching this Cornell case raise all these questions about what happens when a student reports, you know, sexual assault or sexual misconduct. Who believes them? Who investigates what the university does, what they are, what they have to do if they're getting federal funding,

what law enforcement does, you know, while the federal government is simultaneously deciding what obligation schools have when students come forward with stuff like this. Yeah, and I mean, to the degree to which the Title IX issue was motivated by transphobia as well, which shows how much transphobia ends up hurting everyone. You know, you're going to talk about, you know, keeping women safe in locker rooms, and that's why you're going to attack trans people. But then you're actually going to be reinstating a version of Title IX with less sexual assault protections.

Oh, yes. I have said this many times. It's like that Beyonce quote, when you play me, play yourself. When you dabble in transophobia, ultimately, you are hurting everyone. You're making everyone less safe. Thanks for that report. Bridget.

We'll have one more ad break. And then Robert will have a special report with Darren Tootin. The music you love. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about. All in one place. And it's free.

I heart radio. Whatever you want to hear. Listen anytime. Where. Music, radio, podcasts, unlimited audio. It's on the free IHart Radio app. Let's go! One app, no subscription.

Always free. Grab the free app. I heart radio. Everywhere you go. Always free. Download the free IHR radio app today. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sikima.

Have you ever watched a game and wondered what really made the difference beyond the final score? That's exactly why we created NFL Pro. Got a man wide open. Seahawks! week, we use exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content to break down the biggest stories, matchups, and moments from around the league. We go beyond the box score to uncover the numbers, the tendencies, and details that help explain what actually happened on the field. Fires it out to the flat to Barclay who beats one man, spins past another, leaps over at third.

And don't worry, this isn't just a show for stats experts. We use advanced analytics to help tell the story behind the game, turning the numbers into insights that every fan can understand and enjoy. So whether you're a casual fan learning more about football or a hardcore fan who can't get enough analysis, our goal is to help you see the game in a whole new way. If you've ever wanted to know why a playwork, how a matchup was won, or what most fans missed on Sunday, NFL Pro delivers insights you simply can't get anywhere else. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Wherever you get your podcast.

You broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of betrayal, we meet Carl Bryant. Carl thought he was living a normal drama-free life until the messages started. You will have hell to pay. For nine months, someone infiltrated every aspect of Carl's life, threatening to ruin him. Cyberstalking, swatting, extortion, impersonating.

And then the text threats escalated. Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. It's playing out in real life, not just on the phone. Every piece of evidence pointed to one man. But every piece of evidence was a lie. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcasts. I'm former U.S. Women's National Soccer team player, Carly Lloyd. I'm Fox Sports

reporter Jenny Taft. And on our new podcast, whatever it takes, we're talking motherhood, marriages, careers, and figuring out how to balance it all. And we'll discuss the game that brought us together because nothing is off limits. Do you remember your initial reaction when Fox called you to be a part of the World Cup? I was like, no, I don't want to do it. You said no? I played with players that didn't, I don't think that they really truly love the game, I found the love with the ball at my foot. But in my head, it was the long game. It was like, I don't care what I'm being asked to do at Fox. I'm going to go get some reps and I'm going to learn it and love it and embrace it. He said, this group of people will never be in the same room

as part of the same team ever again in your life. And it is your job to make sure that you enjoy the moment. You're proud of what you accomplish together. Listen to whatever it takes. with Carly Lloyd and Jenny Taft on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Adriah Health Institute in New York City. On this show, I'll be talking to top researchers and top clinicians, asking them your

burning questions and bringing that information about women's health and midlife directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause. it can be such a struggle for our quality of life, but even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? The types of symptoms that people talk about is forgetting everything. I never used to forget things. They're concerned that, one, they have dementia,

and the other one is, do I have ADHD? There is unprecedented promise with regard to cannabis and cannabinoids, to sleep better, to have less pain, to have better mood, and also to have better day-to-day life. Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening now. And we're back. So in April, earlier this year on this very show, I celebrated the massive upset parliamentary elections in Hungary, which saw right-wing authoritarian Prime Minister Victor Orban forced out of office. Over the past decade in change, Orban had disintegrated what checks and balance has existed in Hungarian democracy as he cracked down on political opponents.

destroyed academic independence and censored the media so effectively that his regime was used as a model by the U.S. right wing ever since. Hungary started hosting its own CPAC, and people like Tucker Carlson produced vaunting coverage of Orban's regime in an effort to copy it here. Then came Peter Magyar, whose name is the Hungarian equivalent of a guy in the U.S. being called Pete America. As centrist conservative, Magyar rose to power promising to take back Hungarian democracy and punish Orban and his cronies for their years of outrageous corruption. on the campaign trail, he called Orban's government a mafia state. Magyar laid out a road to jail program in which he promised consequences for right-wing politicians and appointees who abused their power, and this was a massively popular part of his campaign, and it's something that Democrats in the United States should be paying attention to. After Magyar's Tizza Party won among the celebrations was a tinge of very real worry.

What if Peter turned out to simply be a different kind of authoritarian? Or what if he was just feckless and did the same kind of, of thing our own political leaders did in the U.S. when Trump lost in 2020. In other words, what if he completely failed to hold Orban and his people to account out of fear? There was good reason to worry that the Road to Jail program would get dropped entirely now that Magyar and his Tizepardi were in power. As Kino Versaq noted in an article for Deutsche Well, quote, Orban had laid out plans that stretched decades into the future.

In the event of his party losing the election, civil servants who would be difficult to replace would sabotage the work of new governments. In addition, billions were scrolled away to continue financing Orban's network. They were left in Hungary with kind of the same problem we are going to have in the U.S. If we ever do get Trump and his people out of office, which is that you can't just beat them in an election. You have to undo the stuff they did and punish them in order to cripple their networks and stop them from rising again. And that was an open question after Magyar won in Hungary, and it's now looking after a few months like he is committing to going after Orban and his network.

With a two-thirds majority in Parliament, TISA has launched what I've seen translated as Operation Purge or Operation Pergatory on different news sites. I'm not really sure what's a more accurate description of what Magyar actually meant. I think Operation Pergatory, because, as Deutsche well notes, Peter has a known penchant for religious and historical symbols. On Monday, Hungarian prosecutors detained two of Orban's former ministers over corruption allegations. These guys are still incarcerated. Parliament had previously voted to lift their immunity. Per Euro News article by Sandor Zeros. Zestak, who served as development minister from 2014 to 2018,

is suspected of taking around 30 million euros in bribes linked to bus tenders. Honko is being investigated over the disbursement of 46 million euros in cultural funds to public figures, which the authorities largely regard as campaign financing. Now, both men deny any wrongdoing, and I don't know how this is going to shake out, but I suspect it looks like the government is going, after them pretty hard. And I think this story is important to watch, both because obviously

Hungarian democracy matters, but also because this should be taken as a model by Democrats if they ever do manage to unseat the Republicans and take back some form of control. Magyar isn't just going after Orban and his people because they broke the law. He's doing it because it's excellent politics. Political analyst Sablek's Dole told Euro News that fighting corruption has been a major source of Magyar's continuing popularity. In other words, voters continue to support him going after Orban. Quote, this is the core issue of Peter Magyar's politics. He has always had the greatest success in the campaign by promising accountability,

confrontation and consequences. One of these elements is that he will hold those responsible for the past period to criminal proceedings and even send them to prison, the promise of handcuffs and bars many times. Now, the elephant in the room here remains Orban, just as Trump would be if things were reversed here. Victor Orban has not yet been charged with any crimes, but Magyar's part of the president. has been hard at work building the judicial infrastructure to make that possible, and I also consider this very relevant for Americans. The heart of Operation Purge is a new government office, the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, which is dedicated to going after people

who robbed the government during the time that Orban's very corrupt party was in power. This new body has been empowered to take over corruption investigations from traditional prosecutors, as well as to start new investigations and to issue warrants. They have several other Orban cronies in their sights at present, and it looks likely that Victor himself will soon face charges over his criminal liability in a case involving two Ukrainian cash couriers who were illegally stopped and had their money confiscated. As you'd expect, Orban's Fidesz party has issued complaints about their treatment, calling it arbitrary and complaining that tisatirants want to imprison half the country. Within Parliament, Magyar has also faced resistance. His own immunity was lifted

at the request of the prosecutor's office over a minor theft claim that just makes him seem cooler. In May of 2024, he stole the phone of a man who was filming him dancing at a nightclub and threw it in the Danube, which honestly is pretty sick. That's just proper etiquette. Yeah, that's just awesome. That's just rad as hell, bro. It's also worth me noting that Magyar and Tisa have been busier than just this. During his first month or so in office, he had Parliament-approved cuts to the salaries of lawmakers and ministers and introduced a new maximum limit to the time that a prime minister can hold office.

two terms, which is really noteworthy, both that, like, his party's in power and they're voting to give politicians, including themselves less money and limit their own power in office. That's a really good sign. Yeah. In terms of, like, him actually giving a shit about restoring Hungarian democracy. Also on Tuesday of this week, the Hungarian parliament passed a raft of anti-corruption measures. I'm going to keep covering this as Magyar continues going after Orban. I think this is really worth watching.

And so far, I'm pretty optimistic about what's going on there. No, especially in terms of how much. Orban's regime was like the blueprint for Trump's second term. Exactly. This gives us, you know, this look into a what if potential. You know, we've talked about the outrageous levels of corruption in the second Trump administration. And I don't think many people are very confident that the Democrats, upon taking power, will actually hold the Trump admin accountable. I sure am not.

But I think looking at stuff like this, it gives us a good barometer to kind of hold the Democrats to a certain extent. Yes. Yeah. This can work. And this can work electoral. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you said it was excellent politics, Robert, I agreed with that.

And I was like, and that's how I know they probably aren't going to do it. The Democrats probably aren't going to do it. Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately. I do, before we leave, also want to turn our attention briefly to another nation that recently ousted a right-wing wannabe tyrant, Brazil. And this is a somewhat less optimistic story. Several years now after Jair Bolsonero's ouster, which he's in prison now for the coup

that was launched after he lost his election in 2022. Brazil is in the thick of another election that many fear might return the right and the Bolsonaros to power. The most recent polling from 30th of September by Mio slash idea showed Lula the current president with 39.4% of the vote and Flavio Bolsonero with 38.4% of the vote. They go through like multiple, this is the second round of voting, right? And that is still a statistical tie. Although this does represent Lula has widened his first round lead against Bolsonaro, but it's still like statistically a tie. Right. Neither of them can win with the numbers they're putting up. Things are drastically close still. There's another vote on Sunday, October 4th. And as it stands, about 32% of voters say that they might change their vote before Sunday, October 4th, right? So it is very hard to tell what's going to happen here. And Bolsonero's son could, in Flavia was Bolsonero's kid, could very well win this election. It's entirely possible. Writing for Chatham House, Dr. Christopher Sabatini said of this election, quote, a Bolsonero victory would mean Trump-aligned,

governments dominate South America. Now, I won't have time to cover this election in detail, but it's worth noting that the incumbent Lula de Silva is 80, whereas Flavio Bolsonaro is 45. That said, it's unclear to me if age is a major factor in this. I doubt it's a non-factor. But these numbers are not far from the 2022 numbers, right? Lula won his way back into power with 50.9% of the vote to 49.1% for Jair Bolsonaro, after polls consistently undercounted Bolsonaro support.

right? One thing I'll say is this doesn't look like a massive shift. They were pretty close to tied when Lula won and they're pretty close to tide now, right? Per Dr. Sabatini's analysis, quote, this year's contest is more than a familial grudge match. For one, it looks a lot like recent presidential elections in the region. In June, elections in both Peru and Colombia went to a second round. Each resulted in a narrow victory for conservative candidates who, like the Bolsoniaros, are aligned with the regional diplomatic agenda of U.S. President Donald Trump. Both Lula and the younger Bolsonaro face high levels of voter rejection. More than 54% of Brazilian voters disapprove of Flavio, according to one poll.

Lula does little better in the same survey, with 52% against the president running for a fourth term. Brazil also suffers from much of the same electoral malaise that we do. Only 37% of Brazilian voters say they are satisfied with their democracy, a drop of nearly 50% since 2013. The highest levels of dissatisfaction are, of course, seen among Bolsonaro voters. And, as a recent Guardian editorial noted, most voters disapprove of most men. In tracing the significant developments of this campaign, the Guardian summarizes, quote, Lula's social programs are extensive, but frustration at Brazil's enduring failure to match its economic record to its potential may hobble him, especially with growth slowing.

Violent crime remains a top issue. Then came the Banco Master Financial scandal, which has snowballed into a corruption case spanning Brazilian politics in the judiciary. First, Flavio Bolsonaro was caught on tape asking the failed bank's playboy owner, Daniel Vorkaro for almost $27 million to make a film about his father. He denies wrongdoing. Then compromising messages between Mr. Vorkaro and the Supreme Court judge who led the prosecution of the ex-president Bolsonaro were revealed.

The allegations fed the perception that politicians are all dirty and bolstered the unfounded far-right claim that Mr. Bolsonero's senior was stitched up. So this is incredibly close. A Bolsonaro could wind up leading Brazil again very soon. And if it does, a big part of the reason is that nobody presented Brazilian voters with a candidate they liked. Right? Like Lula is very popular among like the Western left, but he's not popular in Brazil right now, right? He's more popular than Flavio Bolsonero, but they're both disliked by a majority of the country. So if there's a warning that every other

country should take out of it than that, it's make sure whoever you run against the far right is someone people like, right? Again, excellent politics. Hope we do it. Yeah. Anyway, That's Brazil. We'll see how that goes. I hope Lula wins because I really, I don't want to see a Bolsonaro running Brazil again. But whoever wins, I have one prediction for Brazil, which is that Jaira Bolsonaro will wind up in a hospital again within the next three months. That's, I mean, that's barely a prediction. That's just a statistical certainty, I think. But no, this is a really good wake-up call and a reminder that, like, as fun as it is to have these kind of grandpa's on the left, you have to pass off leadership to new people. Like, you have to

pass the torch. Even if they're guys who've done some really good stuff in the past, 80's too fucking old. It just is. I think I saw like Ryan Grimm musing about running Sanders again for 2028, like recently. I'm like, dude, what the fuck are you talking about? I still, I have fond feelings for Bernie. He's too old. He's too old. He'd be like 90 years old, dude. We got to, we got to move on, people. Get real. Get real. Get real. I'm sorry. Before we close this episode, let's pivot to Mia Wong for a special tariff talk segment. So let's talk tariffs.

As Trump's trade war with Canada continues with no sign of any agreement in sight, Trump's tariffs are finally getting their day in court. But not the 50% tariffs that Trump levied against Canada using what can at best be described. as the extremely dubious powers, quote-unquote, of the 1930s, Smoot-Hawley Terrif Act. Oh, no, the tariffs that have finally reached the U.S. Court of International Trade are the Section 301 tariffs that Trump levied back in July. Now, by the time you are listening to this, a couple of days in the future, it is going to be October.

Now, the first lawsuit against these tariffs was filed. again in late July, and it's now October, and we're getting, you know, we're getting the initial arguments on, like, September 30th. Meanwhile, the 10 to 12% tariffs on almost all U.S. imports remain in effect, and probably will continue to remain in effect while this case winds its way through this court, probably an appeals court, and then probably also the Supreme Court, despite the fact that these tariffs are just obviously absurd use. of Section 301. So for those you've forgotten, Section 301 are supposed to be the tariffs for unfair trade practices. The July tariffs are, once again, on 99.4% of all imported goods. And these

ones are nominally supposed to be about forced labor. There's like a whole, the thing about Section 301 tariffs is that you can't just impose them immediately. You have to do a whole investigatory process, at least nominally, about the specific unfair trade practices that the country is doing. But, you know, so these are supposed to nominally be about forced labor, but they're on an unbelievable number of countries that just happen to, again, constitute 99% of all imported goods in the U.S. And as the litigants in this case have, you know, begun to argue in front of the U.S. Court of International Trade, it doesn't actually make sense to just have two categories of tariff levels and then just be like, oh, yeah, all these countries did force labor. or weren't harsh enough about cracking down in other countries doing forced labor, so we're just going to set this tariff rate for all of them.

That's not what Section 301 tariffs is supposed to be for. They're supposed to be for, you know, like deliberate, very specific targeted tariffs on a country for a specific thing, not we want to impose a 10% tariff again and our last thing that was letting us impose a 10% tariff is failing. So we're going to do this one now. And as you sort of,

might expect. The initial arguments do not seem to be going well for the administration who, you know, showed up in front of the court with the bumbling ineptitude they have become known for

when they're forced to defend administration decisions in recent times. There's a bunch of reports of, you know, one of the representatives of the administration is like giving this,

starting to try to give this like giant speech about the evils of forced labor and what are the judges just like, immediately interrupts him. And they're doing, again, another thing that's a staple of if you've, if you listen to or seeing clips of like any administrative proceeding for like anything this administration

does in court, you will see administration representatives be asked basic questions about a case and just not know the answers to them. So this is already going poorly on day one. However, again, like this is the first of like three courts they have to go through and probably these are going to be in effect until, I don't know, probably the Supreme Court gets to it. So incredible, incredible stuff happening in the U.S. legal system where the president can just impose whatever tariffs he wants by making up legal authority. And then they just stay in, in fact, until a bunch of months later when they're found to be illegal,

which point he's moved on to the next tariff. Again, we're one tariff cycle behind with the Section 301 tariffs, right? He's already using Holly Smoot for the Canada tariffs. Now, it is worth noting. This is part of the reason I'm talking about the Section 301 tariff. is that Trump is also threatening to do a different set of Section 301 tariffs to do these, they're called quote unquote excess capacity tariffs that he's had these like investigations going for a while now. So excess capacity is, it is a thing that exists in the world. It refers to, you know, steel is the context in which it comes up the most. It refers to, oh yeah, there's actually like a lot more steel production than they're supposed to be.

in these countries that are producing more steel than they need and pumping it all on the market to depreciate steel prices. They're nominally doing investigations about a range of goods with excess capacity.

I did an entire episode about this last year about the sort of core economic causes of this and the way that this sort of like chronic overproduction and underconsumption where you have a bunch of stuff

being produced that's going to waste because people can't use it because they don't have any money. This is a structural feature of capitalism. Yeah, I did an episode last year when there was another big fight over steel tariffs. That was about overcapacity. It's called the economics of the tariff regime, if you want to go more into the steel overcapacity stuff. But these tariffs mostly seem to be another attempt to do basically the same thing as the other Section 301 tariffs that he just

levied. So it's to have some kind of another way to impose a broad percentage tariff on a whole bunch of different countries. And these are the kind of tariffs that Trump has been salivating over ever since he took office and he's been trying to find increasingly obscure ways to do them. Sent his Supreme Court overruled his initial, extremely bizarre claiming of powers that he used to do it last time. Now, to close out my section here, let's wrap up the story of, I guess now ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell.

who, if you will remember, Trump attempted to have investigated by federal prosecutors nominally for corruption around the remodeling of the Federal Reserve building. This is a whole thing that Trump and all those people were pushing at the time in the middle of this conflict he was having where Trump was trying to get Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. But that's like not a thing that the president is supposed to be, you know, pressuring the Fed to do that defeats the entire purpose of the independence of the Fed. and you know Trump was going on TV all the time and talking about like ah they're like turning the Fed into like a palace they've like using all your government money to to like make giant like glowing

bathrooms and stuff which is really funny when you like look at all of the shit that Trump was doing like does all of the unhinged weird golden like renovation quote unquote stuff that was happening in the White House and the whole sort of ballroom bullshit real sort of classic case of projection But these, like, very absurd charges led to a fairly serious situation where you have Jerome Powell getting subpoenaed by the Justice Department. And this is unprecedented, right? And then he ends up as a response releasing what I can, like, really only describe as like a preemptive hostage video where he's just talking about like, hey, yeah, I am like the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. And I am being persecuted for political beliefs by the president of the president of the president. the United States. And this, you know, caused kind of enough of a firestorm, even among Republicans

in Congress, that eventually this federal investigation is dropped in exchange for Trump's nominee for Fed chairman Kevin Warsh getting a hearing in the Senate. And the end result of that was that this investigation was sort of moved to the Fed's independent watchdog. And this week, the Fed finally released a really like 126 page long report that clearly, that clearly, is Jerome Powell of any criminal wrongdoing, which like, I mean, yes, obviously he, like, didn't commit a bunch of crimes in this remodeling. There is a bunch of stuff there about, like, ah, there were cost overruns and they should have had like a cap on costs, but I don't know, like, A, the Fed funds itself, like, it's not even tax dollars. It's like, they fund itself

from fees. And B, like, look, I'm not a Federal Reserve fan, but like, oh my God, there were cost overruns from subcontractors doing bullshit in a construction project is like like, come on, like what are we doing here? Yeah, yeah, no shit. Of course, there were cost overruns

on a pseudo-government construction project from like costs increasing. Like, okay, this whole sort of chapter appears to largely be over. Although it still remains to be seen whether we're going to get a confrontation

between Kevin Warsh and Trump over interest rate cuts, Warsh has been kind of bailed out. Like at least this quarter by inflation data was like slightly better than people was expecting. But, you know, there is also still just a chance that, you know, next quarter inflation goes up and we see like a direct conflict between Warsh and Trump over what's going to happen with the interest rates. Once again, as, as happened with Jerome Powell. And if that happens, we will keep you informed. Finally, here is a quick message from James Stout, who was out in the field.

Hey, everyone, it's James. I wasn't able to join the rest of the gang for ED today because I was in Lochial, Arizona, where a group of people have been defending a cottonwood tree against destruction for the building of the border wall. They have so far been able to stop construction. I believe it'll be 66 or 67 days. if you hear this on the day it comes out, and they have done so by occupying this giant cottonwood tree 24-7. If you're not familiar with cottonwoods, they're very important trees in this ecosystem. They often grow near water. In this case, these cottonwoods are several hundred years

old, and there used to be a contiguous canopy between what is now Mexico and what is now the United States. At one point, there was a tree sitter in Mexico, also occupying one of those cottonwood trees, they were asked by landowners to come down. After those landowners were threatened by border patrol, according to people I spoke to on the ground. But the tree sit in the United States side is still ongoing. In between those two trees, there were other old cottonwoods that were, they weren't cut down. They were pushed or pulled down by excavators.

You can see where their root balls have been torn out of the ground. It's really, really, really horrible to look at. If people are interested, there is a day of action. on the 4th of October, and they are also able to look at the camp website. If you want to look at the camp website, it's very new, but it should be ready by the time you hear this, and it is camp, C-A-M-P-O-Shad-O-S-H-A-D dot O-R-G. I will also include that in the show notes. You can find updates from the camp there.

And if you want to know more about the planned day of action, you can click on the Get Involved tab at the top of that website. I noticed that they also have a list of things that they need, which people can drop off if they are in Tucson, Arizona. All right, that does it for us here at It Could Happen here. Bridget, where can people find you and your work online? Yeah, you can check out my audiobook about how tech companies and AI companies are using our deepest, darkest thoughts to exploit us called Love at First Prompt, AI and the Future of Intimacy.

You can check out my podcast, our Our Our Girl's on the Internet, and you can follow me on Instagram at Bridgett Marie in D.C. Awesome. Thank you, Bridget. Thank you so much for joining us this episode. We reported the news. We reported the news.

It could happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources where it could happen here

listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast. Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency. It does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack.

This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going, they are playing y'all for fools. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Infomerate. Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the IHart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you're a seasoned NFL fan or new to the game, there's one place to keep up with all of it, the league's newest podcast, the NFL report, hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano. It is your home for everything football, breaking news, expert analysis, game picks, and hear from your favorite players, too.

Join me at an all-star cast of experts for everything you need to know from around the league. Get new episodes to the NFL report Monday through Friday all season long. Listen to the NFL Report podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez. And I'm October Gonzalez. But you can call me Toby. We want you to join us on our new podcast, No Safe Words, with October and Tony Gonzalez. We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce, and all the nitty-gritty stuff we all think about, but just don't say out loud.

You're probably just going to be some rich guy and he's going to whisk you away. Listen to no safe words with October and Tony Gonzalez on the IHeart radio app. Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. The new NFL season is here. And you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61. It is in the name NFL Daily. You'll have fresh content in your feed every day all season long. That game winning drive.

Maybe it's Herbert. Maybe it's Gino. Maybe it's Mahomes. We'll have the highlights. If Fernando Mendoza or any of those. rookies are balling out. We'll break down the tape. Join me, Greg Rosenthal, and an all-star cast of co-hosts as we preview and recap every game. Listen to NFL daily on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor

Sycamma. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week, we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanag, or a diehard fan. NFL Pro will help you analyze the game

like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.