It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #17

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

The gang gives a rundown on antinatalist terrorism, deportations to South Sudan, a potential DHS reality TV show, and Biden's pro-state cancer. Plus, updates on Palestine, the FBI, tariffs, and immigr...ation. Sources: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69775896/dvd-v-us-department-of-homeland-security/ https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282404/gov.uscourts.mad.282404.111.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282404/gov.uscourts.mad.282404.111.0.pdf https://www.refworld.org/policy/countrypos/unhcr/2024/en/147589 https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/09/south-sudan-incendiary-bombs-kill-burn-civilians https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5403712/supreme-court-tps-venezuelans https://bsky.app/profile/joshuajfriedman.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/qjurecic.bsky.social/post/3lppd7wq7jc2h https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/potential-ice-raid-thwarted-central-california-20335765.php https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/052025_ice_court_arrests/mayhem-as-ice-officials-arrest-multiple-people-immigration-court-phoenix/ https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2025-05-21/a-childs-obsession-with-fire-and-a-mysterious-cache-of-explosives-inside-the-palm-springs-bombing-probe https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-18/suicide-bomber-targeted-fertility-clinic https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/reddit-bans-anti-natalists-palm-springs-explosion-rcna207677 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/20/dhs-no-plans-immigrant-reality-show/83743897007/  https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/dhs-is-considering-reality-show-where-immigrants-compete-for-citizenship-47de277c  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspected-serial-killers-execution-trump-rcna207171  https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/middleeast/diplomats-israeli-fire-west-bank-intl  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/19/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-take-control-gaza-uk-france-canada-threaten-actionSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:02:01 gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is It Could Happen Here, Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world, and what it means for you.
Starting point is 00:02:43 I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by Mia Wong, James Stout, and Sophie Lichterman. This episode we are covering the week of May 15 to May 21. Joe Biden has prostate cancer, there's anti-natalist terrorism, and the DHS is maybe going to do a reality TV show? Probably not, but it's a bad plan. How are we doing this week? Oh, the trifecta from Hell. Yeah. It's so bad. but it's a bad plan. How are we doing this week? That was a trifecta from Hell.
Starting point is 00:03:06 Yeah. It's so bad. This one's so bad. It's really, I have to do the laughing like right here because good lord, like many, many of these weeks are bad. This one's particularly bad. I don't know. DHS reality show. We'll get to that at the at the ending segment. Sure. Hey, this is Gare from the future cutting in. We recorded this a few hours before some pretty major news.
Starting point is 00:03:34 The shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in DC. We will be talking about this in next week's executive disorder, as well as the new budget bill which targets trans healthcare. Now back to the episode. I think let's start with you know a brief acknowledgement of Joe Biden's prostate cancer. What was Jill doing to him? Oh my god. You could have said that start at the bottom and you didn't. I'm allowed to say that because I'm the most gay guy coded person on the podcast, which is saying something.
Starting point is 00:04:07 So, so yes. And now, because we live in a truly sick world, Scott Adams couldn't even let. He couldn't let him have his moment. He couldn't even let Joe Biden have his moment. This anti-Biden hatred has transcended so far that Scott Adams couldn't even let Joe Biden have his moment. This anti-Biden hatred has transcended so far that Scott Adams couldn't even let Biden have his moment and announced the same day that Scott Adams has the exact same type of prostate cancer. So two down, Biden down, Dilbert down,
Starting point is 00:04:39 big weak prostate cancer. And boy, how do you have people been weird about it on the internet? And boy, how do you have people been weird about it on the internet? Yeah, I'm not going to get into how long he maybe has known he's had it. He's had skin cancer removed before. I think that ship has mostly sailed. I think our opinions on Biden are pretty well documented. So I don't think we can dedicate much more time to this. Okay, the one important note that I will say is if you have a prostate,
Starting point is 00:05:06 get checked for prostate cancer. Yeah. Like get the screening, it's good, it'll help you. Unless you are over 75, in which case, I think most people don't get screened for it, right? Cause it's slow growing. I'm pretty sure Biden's over 75. Yeah, that's why I thought it was somewhat remarkable
Starting point is 00:05:24 part of the issue there. I mean, all I could say is about once a month, I think about how at the DNC, those thank you Joe chants lasted four seconds. I have actually been thinking about the thank you Joe chants for a lot of this time this week, frankly. You had to be there. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:43 It's one of the most horrifying things as they let this very clearly dying old man out to pasture. Because cancer diagnosis aside, very clear he was in some degree of decline. We don't need to retread this. This is pretty well known. But no, I have been thinking about how that whole auditorium broke out and chanting, thank you, Joe, for nearly five minutes. And then the following, the rest of the week,
Starting point is 00:06:09 not a single mention. It was done that day. It was wild. Anyways. So yeah, RIP Dilbert, I guess. Let's move on to anti-natalist terrorism. So I've learned this week that people don't know what anti-natalism is, which as someone who grew up in Portland is kind of surprising to me because there was some
Starting point is 00:06:32 very, very prominent anti-natalist protesters who would sit up downtown outside of Powell's books pretty frequently. And we kind of all grew accustomed to them. And honestly, I'm a little bit sympathetic to their arguments. I understand where they're coming from. Antinatalism is the belief that procreation is unethical. This could be based on the idea that there's been this rapid increase in human population, which has done extensive damage to the planet, or that simply being born is inherently a non-consensual act, especially being born into a world with high levels of suffering. So these people opt to not have children as this ethical standpoint.
Starting point is 00:07:08 Everyone's entitled to their own choice, you don't need to agree with it, but whatever. Now interestingly, this past weekend there was a quote unquote active terrorism that has been linked to anti-natalist philosophy. I'm just talking about this as it is an instance of kind of the brain ratification of this entire society and the reddenification of terrorism combined with this growing sense of like nihilism driving violent extremist actions. No one was killed except for the perpetrator, alleged perpetrator in this incident. But I still think this is worth talking about as it can be seen as in a sequence of weird terrorism.
Starting point is 00:07:51 This is something that Roberts can be working on for a piece later down the line, right? This is not the first car bomb this year. We had the Tesla Cybertruck explosion earlier, which was similarly kind of a weird incident. That one was, I think, that one I think was the official inauguration of the years of lead paint, which we're perpetually living in now. Yes, yes. I mean, the gas leak here, if you will. So yes, on Saturday, May 17th, the car bomb went off outside a fertility clinic in Palm
Starting point is 00:08:21 Springs, California, killing the suspect 25 25-year-old man named Guy Edwards Barkas. The FBI is calling this a quote-unquote intentional act of terrorism. The clinic was closed when the explosion happened. The building was severely damaged, but no embryos were harmed. Investigators believe that the suspect attempted to live stream the bombing, with a website being found online that appeared to be in connection to the incident where the suspect describes himself as a quote-unquote pro-mortalist. It's slightly different from antinatalism. Correct. It is more of an affirmative version of antinatalism. Oh no.
Starting point is 00:08:59 Where you want to actually take concrete steps to decrease the population of the planet. Not necessarily in a way that's promoting the mass killing of individuals. He says quote, understand your death is already guaranteed, and you can thank your parents for that one. All a pro-mortalist is saying is let's make it happen sooner rather than later. To prevent your future suffering, and more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all other sentient beings. That's his definition of a pro-mortalist. It could be linked to other philosophies that encourage self-harm and ending your own life as a conscious
Starting point is 00:09:34 choice. On his website, he discussed his goal of quote, sterilizing this planet of the disease of life unquote, and declared the need for a quote-unquote, war against pro-lifers. His website also highlights other philosophies such as negative utilitarianism, ethylism, abolitionist veganism, quote, basically philosophies that have realized religion is R-worded, that there is objective value in the universe, and it lies in the harm being experienced by sentient beings. So although it may seem quote unquote dark, it's the polar opposite of nonsense like nihilism, unquote. Negative utilitarianism is something that comes up a few times on his site as well. This is the viewpoint that instead of positive utilitarianism,
Starting point is 00:10:25 we try to maximize, you know, human pleasure. This is trying to minimize suffering, human suffering and like the suffering tied to existence and the like aggregate suffering as well as if you if there's more people and there's going to be more suffering. So you should both make choices in your own life that that that may that may limit your suffering, but also make sure that you don't reproduce, because then even more suffering will happen because of your actions through your children. This is the most Bay Area shit I've ever heard in my entire goddamn life.
Starting point is 00:10:55 Very West Coast. This is like... 29 Palms is not the West Coast. Like a lot of this is in conversation with the rationalist subculture. Host rationalist.culture. Sure. Host rationalist. It's like. It offers different solutions.
Starting point is 00:11:08 These people shouldn't be allowed to use computers for like 50 years. Like just a ban on California using computers. This is all like deeply online stuff. Like these are popular websites, subreddits, like YouTube channels. These are people who are dealing with like, you know, pretty intense existentialism, depression, who then channel it into this like semi-niche like online community and online philosophy. Now Guy's best friend, a self-described quote,
Starting point is 00:11:37 vegan rad femme anti-natalist, recently arranged her own suicide by having her boyfriend to shoot her while she was asleep. What? What? What? Correct. Yes, this was the bomber's best friend who died very recently, like last month.
Starting point is 00:11:57 And Guy claims that they were both quote unquote anti-sex misandrists with borderline personality disorder. And he admits that her death quote quote unquote, put him over the edge. This is the most. This is the most online like, like, like best vegan rad femme best friend, anti-natalist has her boyfriend shoot her is the most even though her her anti-natalist, has her boyfriend shoot her is the most... Even though her anti-natalist Tumblr page has like women loving women, anti-gender ideology, misandry stuff, and yet still has a cisgender boyfriend in many such cases.
Starting point is 00:12:39 So yeah, you can see how this type of a community gets like fostered and people make online friends that encourage their own self-destruction. Yeah, we have to destroy the internet. A quote that he has on his website is quote, I've known for years now that I wasn't going to allow myself to make it past my twenties, unquote. And like this is a sentiment I hear even a lot of like young people saying is this like this like belief that they're not going to survive their twenties, like their belief that like the world is so bent on destruction
Starting point is 00:13:07 that I'm probably not gonna make it out of my 20s right now. And that changes the kind of choices that young people are making. And this is getting increasingly common. Yeah, for sure. I think it's a very different world to be growing up in than like the late teenage, early 20s of, you know, like millennial people. The millennial world. it's very different. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:26 And you even had manifestations of this in that millennial era, right? It got kind of pushed into this like nihilist school shooter culture, which you still see remnants of now in the true crime community. There is some crossover between an act like this and some of the school shooter fandom, the Colin Biner stuff, especially considering the resurgence of Colin Biner culture that we're currently seeing right now in the United States.
Starting point is 00:13:49 But yeah, the general sense of widespread dread and the interconnectedness of this is more unique. Yeah, I keep thinking about that Hunter S. Thompson quote about those poor bastards who were born after 9-11 don't know the party's over. The party is over. And yeah, welcome to hell. So, the suspect's dad said to reporters that Guy had a childhood obsession
Starting point is 00:14:10 with pyrotechnics. He set the family home on fire and burned it down when he was nine. He made rockets, stink bombs, smoke bombs as a child. Videos on YouTube, likely posted by Guy, show M80s exploding in the desert. A hydrogen balloon being set ablaze, and a bucket of radioactive uranium ore. Is that what he obtained that like out there in Wonder Valley? This is still being investigated.
Starting point is 00:14:33 His voice in these videos matches the 30 minute audio manifesto explaining his motivation for the attack, saying, quote, basically, it just comes down to I'm angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here. Basically, I'm anti-life and IVF is kind of like the epitome of pro-life ideology, unquote. This is out there. Is there any information on the, just because a lot of explosives and other munitions have gone missing. 29 Palms, for people who are familiar, is a town near-ish to Palm Springs, nearer to Joshua Tree. There's a large US Marine Corps base.
Starting point is 00:15:12 There's a pretty big military base. Yeah. Yeah. It's the big Marine Corps, like, desert warfare training. Explosives have gone missing there before. The base claims that they've been recovered. It is unclear what explosives he used at this point. It was a pretty large explosion.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Investigators are low-key impressed at this explosion. Like it was- Exactly, what they said in that official statement. If you read between the lines, they're like surprised at how effective this car bomb was. Again, this was a guy who spent a lot of time online, a lot of time on Reddit. It seems like he got obsessed with this.
Starting point is 00:15:42 He had a fascination with explosives at a young age. So that obsession combined with this anti-natalist obsession and this urge for self destruction manifested in this action. This week Reddit banned an anti-natalist anti-life subreddit, allegedly frequented by Bomber. I do just want to say that this is I think the only IVS clinic in the Coachella Valley. So like, the people who are accessing those services, that's a serious disruption, right? Yeah. It sucks. So I, me and Robert are going to talk more about kind of this trend that we're seeing
Starting point is 00:16:16 in, in extremism or, or in extremist acts. I still don't like the nihilist violent extremism term, but we are seeing elements of that getting more and more common, especially combined with the true crime community, which essentially tries to encourage young girls to commit school shootings. Yeah, I guess to finish up, I do just want to say that like, I know it's a really hard time right now. A lot of people are trying to find ways to cope or feeling like they can't cope or feel like they're not enough, I guess. Hopelessness, this sort of like existential nihilism.
Starting point is 00:16:47 Yeah. And I combine that with a lot of people who work for the government, finally finding themselves out of work and, you know, the economic pressure that puts on people. And I understand that people are pretty in a tough spot right now. Who want to save very briefly, obviously, like the world is more beautiful with you in it. If you're experiencing suicidal ideation or mental health struggles, a couple of resources that I wanted to suggest are the Fireweed Collective and the Jane Addams Collective. Addams spelled with two Ds there, A-D-D-A-M-S. We will have links to both of them in the show notes. You can also put them into DuckDuckGo and they were the first responses that came up
Starting point is 00:17:23 for me. If you need those resources, reach out to those people. Yeah, it's good to see the sunrise, and it's better to see the sunrise with everyone you love in it. And that's a thing that you can make sure you do every day. All right. Thank you, James. Thank you, Mia. We're going to go on break and then come back to discuss immigration. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes,
Starting point is 00:18:02 but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. Bowne Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.
Starting point is 00:18:41 Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos.
Starting point is 00:19:13 It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting this series took us through the darkest corners of the internet
Starting point is 00:19:31 and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take
Starting point is 00:19:57 podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Away Days is my new project, reporting on countercultures on the fringes of society all across the world. Live from the underground, you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, resilient favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored. This is unique access with straight forward underground reporting. We're taking you deep into the dirt without the usual airs and graces of legacy media.
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Starting point is 00:21:14 But taking care of our mental well-being has never been more important. All of May is mental health awareness month. And on the Psychology of Your 20s podcast, we are taking a vulnerable look at why mental health is so hard to talk about and all the science and psychology behind some of life's hardest moments and transitions. Prepare for our conversations to go deep. Everything from grief to heartbreak, career burnout, anxiety, all of the things that you would only talk about with your closest friends. I spent the majority of my teenage years and my twenties just feeling absolutely terrified.
Starting point is 00:21:48 I had a panic attack on a conference call. Knowing that she had six months to live, I was no longer pretending that this was my best friend. So this Mental Health Awareness Month, take that extra bit of care of yourself and your brain. Listen to the psychology of your twenties on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're back.
Starting point is 00:22:14 James, I see the amount of text you have in this document. This is a very long section, James. Wall of text. I assume this is all good news. So let's hear it. Alright Garrison, I'm so glad that you have seen my wall of text, because I have been looking at court documents for days! So much fun on Pacer.
Starting point is 00:22:35 You have been Pacer posting in the group chat! Oh yeah, I have been a big court listener as well. Okay, so this is one of the more insane things I've seen on Pace for in a minute. Talking about the case here of Mr. N.M. who was identified at some point and we'll get to that. N.M. Yeah, it's not uncommon for migrants in these kind of high-profile cases to be anonymized where they can, right, just for their safety. So N.M. received a final removal order in Nebraska in 2023. And on the 7th of May, DHS attempted to report NM to Libya.
Starting point is 00:23:10 You'll remember that we covered that week's ED, right? They did not manage to do that. And in this court case, we've seen from another detainee that one of these detainees was given a document to sign and told that he would quote, be a free man in Libya after signing. Obviously unclear how one can be a free man when one is just dumped into a country where one doesn't speak the language, has no contacts, and there is a war. Doesn't make sense in any way.
Starting point is 00:23:35 This man is not from Libya. That is correct. None of these people are Libyan. And again, whenever someone says the word Libya, you have to figure out which Libyan government you are talking about, because there are multiple of them, because there is a fucking civil war going on there right now. So... Yeah, and whenever someone talks about people being free in Libya, we should bear in mind that migrants are literally sold into slavery in Libya.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Yep, by both governments. Yes. NN's English is limited. His main language is Karen, which of course is a language that people speak in Katoole, the Karen homeland which is part of Myanmar. On the 19th of this month, that's two days ago, I sent a notification to his lawyer saying that they'd read him a notice of removal in English that they were removing him to South Africa. Ten minutes later, they attempted to recall this message and then later that same day they notified his lawyer that they'd once again read a notice of removal to him in English that he was being removed to South Sudan. South Sudan, the world's youngest country,
Starting point is 00:24:33 if we're not familiar, a country in which conflict is escalating as we speak. The government's carrying out a barrel bombing campaign this very week. His council set up a video meeting at 9am on the 20th, but just before that meeting, his council found out that he had already been removed. Mr M had refused to sign the order of removal to South Sudan. And we're seeing right now in a court case, it's a class action, Mr NM is one of the members of the class, right, that there was a preliminary injunction against these people being removed because they are the same people who the Trump administration previously tried to remove to Libya. And at this point, they tried to remove them to
Starting point is 00:25:14 South Sudan. Before they are sent to these places, they're supposed to have a reasonable fear screening, right? That is where someone can articulate if they have a reasonable fear of being removed to that country, right? Like if they will be persecuted there, they're likely to face torture or violence or be picked on because of who they are, right? Then they're supposed to have a 15-day period opportunity to submit a motion to reopen if the Department of Homeland Security finds that they don't have reasonable fear, right? So there's supposed to be this process where they can say, I have a reasonable fear of going there. If I go there, I'll be persecuted.
Starting point is 00:25:49 And if the DHS says, no, we don't believe you, then they have 15 days to submit more evidence. Right? Are they being allowed to do that or no? No. That is what this case hinges on. Right? So they were informed possibly hours before they were moved to South Sudan,
Starting point is 00:26:06 that they were being moved to South Sudan. Then they were taken to a secure facility where they couldn't contact their lawyers. And in at least the case of Mr. NM, he had scheduled an appointment with his lawyer and was deported before he could do so, right? And this has happened a few times before as well. Yeah, that's correct. In the past few months. That's right, yeah. And specifically, there was a preliminary injunction against this, right? So, quoting from Judge Murphy, who is the judge in the Massachusetts District Court where this is being held, the government's actions are unquestionably violative of this
Starting point is 00:26:37 court's order. The government said they have complied with my order because they didn't hear anyone yelling at their jailers that they are afraid to go to South Sudan. Jesus. This is clearly insufficient." Yeah. So what he's articulating here is like this chance to articulate reasonable fear, right? I do want to point out that in Biden's asylum ban that he passed in 2024, they move from a question of, are you afraid to go back to your home country, to what's called a shout test, where the migrant has to articulate that reasonable fear unprompted,
Starting point is 00:27:11 right, to have a chance at asylum in the United States. So this again, like all these immigration things, I'm not saying things for the same under Biden, but I am saying that there is a pathway to how we got here and it goes through Biden's executive order. And like Miller is very willing to use anything in his toolbox. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Anything that, look, for decades, castoral liberalism has built a series of tools which
Starting point is 00:27:35 now lie in the hands of a very illiberal government, right? And they are being used against people for whom those who supported cast rule liberalism may have some sympathy. That is how we got here. That's a good way of putting it. So the situation we are in right now is that these people were flown seemingly in a Gulfstream jet. Gillian Brockhell, who's a Formula Washington Post reporter who we're going to have on the show next week, was able to identify this jet based on where it took off and its call sign. It stopped in Shannon in Ireland. Notably Shannon
Starting point is 00:28:10 is an Irish civilian airport, right? It's not a US Air Force base. And this does raise some questions within Ireland, within Irish politics about Irish neutrality here, right? The jet then flew on to Djibouti, which it is believed is where the migrants are right now. In court, the discussion probably half an hour before we recorded this, DHS is claiming that they can do their credible fear interviews there on the tarmac in this plane, which people are saying is in Djibouti, right? There's suspicion that it's in Djibouti. DHS is claiming that the location of the plane is classified, but there's widespread belief that this plane is currently in Djibouti, including, as I say, Gillian was first, NYT published something that didn't
Starting point is 00:28:54 credit her, should have credited her. So to do the credible theory, they have to have a chance to research what will happen to them in South Sudan. They have to have access to a lawyer. Most of these people, like Mr. NM, will also have to have a translator, right? Then they will also have to have privacy, right? That their credible fear may be something they don't want to share with everyone else on that plane. Cause that could also put them in danger. Yes.
Starting point is 00:29:16 Also just like that's a baffling place to suggest somebody have that intimate or private of a conversation. It's just such a violation of their human rights. Yeah, many human rights being violated here. I mean, the US has a big base in Djibouti, right? So I imagine that's why they're there. Remember that they have that 15 day period. So if DHS finds that they don't have credible fear, then they will have 15 days to bring another to reopen that.
Starting point is 00:29:49 Where will they be housed? Somewhere in fucking Djibouti, presumably, if that's where they are. There are many, many unanswered questions at this point. Now last night we learned that one of the Burmese people, it appears that there are two Burmese people. We know this because the Department of Homeland Security today started tweeting mugshots of these people. Yeah, claiming that they were convicted of various crimes. Among them were two Burmese men, and M appears to be Njomjint, and the other appears to be Kjormir. Both of these men have
Starting point is 00:30:24 been accused of various, have been convicted, I believe, of sex crimes. That's where they got their removal orders. Other people, among the dozen or so people on the plane, have been convicted of some of them, like one of them is South Sudanese, and he was convicted of removing the serial number from a firearm and of armed robbery. Others murder and various other fairly serious know, fairly serious crimes, right? None of that means that you should just get dumped in South Sudan, right? That it's not a punishment in US law.
Starting point is 00:30:51 It is not a morally or legally acceptable thing to do. It's just truly baffling, honestly. Like that's, that's what they're doing. That's the move. Yeah. The move is to send them to South Sudan where it's worth noting that South Sudan's government have said it will probably send these people back to their home countries. Evidently, the reason they are not being sent there is because they have articulated a fear
Starting point is 00:31:14 of going there or they have protection. It's called withholding of removal, right? So they can't be removed to that country. And basically, that is where we're at. Evidence, they managed to remove, apparently, somebody to Burma today or late last night. I'm still waiting on my sources in Myanmar to confirm that the Burmese hunter is as leaky as a sieve. If those people are land that we will know about it pretty soon. We have pretty good sources in Burma, so if that happens, we will know. They
Starting point is 00:31:46 also discuss another party, someone who goes by OCG, a gay Guatemalan man who asserted credible fear of being returned while in immigration court. He was deported to Mexico, where he also asserted credible fear. Mexico gave him the choice of remaining in Mexico and going to Guatemala. He went to Guatemala, where he is now in hiding. The DHS claimed he said he didn't have credible fear and then later reversed that and said they didn't ask. So the judge is now asking how on earth they got this conclusion. He didn't have credible fear and deported him. He's saying he might potentially put DHS officers on the stand to explain how this happened. In other immigration news, ICE just today, this is Wednesday, has apparently been dismissing court cases against people who turn up for
Starting point is 00:32:32 a hearing in immigration court and then immediately arresting them. What the fuck? Like right there. Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah, like it's a little unclear what the move is here, but clearly they're trying to remove them in a more expeditious way, right? They have a court case trying to remove this person, they're saying. Because the court case has like, you know, a certain amount of time needs to process,
Starting point is 00:32:52 if they dismiss the court case, then they have a right to appeal and Yeah, but if it's dismissed, then they can expedite other like non judicial removal. Yeah. Well, they can do what they're doing here. Yeah, they can try and run people out before they have a chance to get to their lawyer. That seems to be the underlying theme of all of these things, which is that your due process and your rights under the law are too time consuming, so we're going to try and make an end run around your rights by sending you to somewhere fucking horrific. That is the underlying theme here.
Starting point is 00:33:24 Unfortunately, this removal will likely now affect a lot more people because the Trump administration has removed the 2023 temporary protected status of Venezuelan people. We talked about TPSs in my Darien series. The TPS provides protection from deportation to people who are already present in the USA when it passes. Generally, it's if a country has experienced war or other instability that makes it dangerous. You have to apply for the TPS. They don't provide a pathway to permanence or citizenship, but they do give people work authorization, and they often have to be frequently renewed by the executive branch. You have to be in the US the day it's issued, so you can't enter after,
Starting point is 00:34:04 despite what you might have seen on Twitter or whatever, that's not the case, right? It also doesn't count as a legal entry, so you can't use the bridge to a green card. Trump stripped this protection from about 350,000 Venezuelans under the 2023 TPS. This does not impact... There are two different TPSs for Venezuelan people. They're in a bit of a unique situation. The quarter of a million people covered by the 2021 TPS are still for now covered by that, but it doesn't exactly bode well for them, right? This appears to be the largest blanket removal
Starting point is 00:34:38 of legal status from a group of people in United States history. And it's a little unclear what this means for the 350,000 Venezuelan people currently residing in the US under TPS, right? But it's another case of like, by their compliance, Isolatory probably knows where they live. So these people, it's possible that we will see deportations of these people back to Venezuela. Again, the situation in Venezuela is dire. It's a place where-
Starting point is 00:35:06 That's just so many people too. Yeah. And like, I think, again, if people haven't listened to my Darien series, I would like that because I've got a lot of myself into it, but I have a great affection for Venezuelan migrants. I've spent a lot of time in Caracas when I was younger and I've spent a lot of time with them in the Darien Gap and when they arrive in the United States. And it's really fucking heartbreaking to hear. Like, when you think of 350,000 people understand that a good number of those people will be little children. People
Starting point is 00:35:35 who never had any agency, people whose parents risked their lives to give their kids a chance at a better future. And that's been ripped away from them right now with the consent of the Supreme Court. Like if you're removing 300,000 people from our country, that's just straight up an ethnic cleansing. Like that's what that is. It's about a third of the Venezuelans living in the United States right now, right? Like it's way more than decimating. Yeah, obviously. meeting. Yeah, obviously, we will see what legal recourse these people have. We'll see how this goes down. But obviously very concerning for these people whose country is falling apart and being returned there will be terrible for them, right? Like not only will they likely have none of their savings, all of the resources they poured into getting here, but they're also likely to face political persecution.
Starting point is 00:36:26 So yeah, that's all the exciting and uplifting news I have from the immigration side of things. Thanks for keeping us updated on that, James. We're going to go on break and return to talk about the FBI Palestine and some exciting new reality TV. And tariffs! I'm sad. [♪ music playing, video game sounds playing, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, video game sounds stop, shoot your gun. Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.
Starting point is 00:37:17 Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser, Inc. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser, Inc. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, really, really bad. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos.
Starting point is 00:38:15 It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle
Starting point is 00:38:36 against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy and I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Away Days is my new project, reporting on countercultures on the fringes of society all across the world. Live from the underground, you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, resilient favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored. This is unique access with straightforward underground reporting. We're taking you deep into the dirt without the usual airs and graces of legacy media. A way that showcases what the mainstream cannot access. Real underground reporting with real people, no
Starting point is 00:39:46 excuses. For the past decade I've been going to places I shouldn't be, meeting people I shouldn't know. Now you can come along too. Listen to the your way days podcast, reporting from the underbelly, on the iHeart radio app, apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I have a question for you, and I want you to be honest with me. How are you? It's a really hard question to ask. It's a harder one to answer, but taking care of our mental wellbeing has never been more important.
Starting point is 00:40:20 All of May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and on the Psychology of Your 20s podcast, we are taking a vulnerable look at why mental health is so hard to talk about and all the science and psychology behind some of life's hardest moments and transitions. Prepare for our conversations to go deep, everything from grief to heartbreak, career burnout, anxiety, all of the things that you would only talk about with your closest friends. I spent the majority of my teenage years and my twenties just feeling absolutely terrified. I had a panic attack on a conference call. Knowing that she had six months to live, I was no longer pretending that this was my best friend. So this Mental Health Awareness Month, take that extra bit of care of yourself and your brain.
Starting point is 00:41:01 Listen to the psychology of your twenties on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back. First, I want to do some quick updates about the FBI. Aakash Patel has announced that he's shutting down the FBI's DC headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover building. Around 1,500 agents will be transferred around the country. In this same interview, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino went on TV to say that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide. And of course, Megha reacts very normal to this.
Starting point is 00:41:42 What do they have on those? Deep state scott. You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don't believe it. Well, I mean, listen, they have a right to their opinion, but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who's been in that prison system, who's been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who's been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that's what that was. He killed himself. Again, you want me to—I've seen the whole file. He killed himself. I'm upset because I forgot that Dan Bongino was a person for, like—
Starting point is 00:42:19 Yeah, me too. Oh, I have not forgotten. This is my beat. I have not forgotten. So yes, of course, Meg is acting very normal about the affirmation that Epstein killed himself. Quote, okay, now I'm losing confidence in them both. This is not good at all. Quote. Let me read one. Let me read one. Let's do this. This is fun. Okay. Oh, let me read one. Let me read one. Let's do this. This is fun. Sad to see cash and regino have been compromised.
Starting point is 00:42:54 Mia your turn. Dan blink twice if they threaten you or your family. Now I got a DIY right? Yeah. Yeah. Deep state traitor. DEI hire. Oh classic. Oh there it is. There it is. I knew it was coming as much as he likes to wear his Kuyu hunting gear. But no, there's thousands of comments from these like mega-queue people who feel betrayed that people like Patel and Bongino have spent years doing content creation, talking about this grand, estestein conspiracy that now they claim isn't real or they are in fact covering up the real conspiracy that Donald Trump was
Starting point is 00:43:32 friends with Jeffrey Epstein. So yeah, there's also an interview clip where Trump was asked if he was going to release the whole file and at first he said yes, then he caught himself and was like, well, actually no, we'll probably have to be careful about releasing the whole file and at first he said yes, then he caught himself and was like, well actually no, we'll probably have to be careful about releasing the whole file because it could compromise people. What kind of people are you talking about there, Dawn? Anyway. We have a chance to swing the F-scene demographic, now is our time!
Starting point is 00:44:00 Division to our enemies! The next thing of the doc is I found interesting, Gerson. Oh, this is just one piece of uplifting news. Yeah. This is, I'm just gonna read the headline from NBC because I simply can't improve on it. No, it's perfect. Quote, Suspected serial killer shouts out Trump in last words before he's put to death.
Starting point is 00:44:22 Keep making America great! And last words before he's put to death, keep making America great. Glenn Rogers once told police he had killed about 70 people. He was executed by lethal injection Thursday in Florida. That's the way that I knew it would be Florida. Literally seconds before he got the lethal injection, he said, President Trump, keep making America great. I'm ready to go. Last words.
Starting point is 00:44:42 Wow. So that kind of shows you the current like well-spring of Trump's support right now. That's really hitting his prime demographic of suspected serial killers. I just have to say that had big Florida energy. For real. Mia, I think it's time to hear the Lucid Lullaby of Tariff Talk. Tareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rockin' the Casbah Tareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rockin' the Casbah You know, alright, before everything gets so, so, like, I do the most depressing segment I've maybe ever done on here, uh, Tariffs!
Starting point is 00:45:23 That can't be true. No, not the Tariffs, the next one I genuinely think is the most depressing segment I've ever done on here. Tariffs. That can't be true. No, not the tariff. The next one I genuinely think is the most depressing segment I've ever done on here. But the tariffs, so our negotiations with China that we're supposed to solve all of the tariff problems are already breaking down. Both sides are sniping at each other.
Starting point is 00:45:37 This is not gonna work. It structurally cannot work. The US's demands on the negotiating table, which is again, the political and economic rationale behind this is that the US should not have a trade deficit with China. That can't be solved. And it's already breaking down, the talks are going to almost certainly going to fail and we're going to be right back to where we were.
Starting point is 00:45:55 It's also worth talking about a bunch of companies have been doing price raises. And I think it's worth going back a little bit to some of the some of the economic work we've done in this show with the people at strange manners and talking about in our previous episodes about inflation about how price works, because this is really, really badly understood by just about everyone, which is that the way that people think about tend to think about price is as like, okay, it's supply and demand, there's two X's that meet on a graph. That's not how price is set. Price is set by like specific people in supply chains, right?
Starting point is 00:46:29 Like they're constrained by certain factors. And one of the biggest things, and one of the things, the biggest things they're constrained about is that if you raise prices, people get pissed at you. But the way that they actually do pricing strategies is cost plus markup, right? There's a cost of the physical good,
Starting point is 00:46:42 and then they do a markup, and the markup is profit margin and The thing about tariffs right is that the way that tariffs affect supply chains is that each part of the supply chain now? That's moving that's importing stuff right each part of those things now has an additional cost So they have to have to put into their like costless market ratio now Trump wants all these companies to just fucking eat shit and eat the price of the tariffs He's been tweeting about this or posting about it. I think on truth social and possibly also on Twitter truth I got all of his truths have been Reposted on X now. Yeah re-truthed
Starting point is 00:47:17 But the thing is right and in theory right like Walmart could just like take this right in theory Like like, you know, like the really smaller, really, really big companies could in theory do this. They won't like a lot of any other thing is like these companies have an incentive not to raise prices because it pisses consumers off. And also because Trump is just like directly threatening sanctions on companies that raise prices. Mattel, who are the people who make Barbie said that they were going to raise prices on toys and Trump is now threatening them with 100% sanctions Or 100% tariffs only three dolls Yeah, so so that's you know Completely handy situation we've gotten here. We're gonna have doll quotas
Starting point is 00:47:58 But you know again again, it's worth mentioning right that like in theory for a little bit of time Some of these companies can sort of eat this or they can fuck with the supply chains companies are talking about this the problem is the suppliers because the distributors tend to have pretty high margins right like your Walgreens like Amazon is so except like the margins are okay and like Amazon makes most of its money from government computing contracts anyways so it's not as catastrophic but the suppliers operate on very low margins, the shipping companies, everything else along the supply chain operates on really, really low margins, right. And those people have to raise their price, because otherwise they're just going to die. And when they raise their price, right,
Starting point is 00:48:38 that ink, that's an increase to the next company's costless market, which increases the next company's costless market, which increases next companies. And we're starting to see this ripple through the supply chain things are disappearing from grocery stores they're going to continue disappearing from grocery stores and as as this goes on and as presumably the tariffs from china come back into effect when these negotiations break down and the next round of tariffs goes into effect and the liberation day tariffs come off their 90-day pause and go into effect this is all going to get worse The Christian Day Tariffs come off their 90-day pause and go into effect. This is all gonna get worse. This has been Tariff Talk.
Starting point is 00:49:06 Lovely. This, unfortunately, was the fun part of the episode. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's gonna get worse. Three, two, one. Okay, so when I said this might be the bleakest segment I've ever done on this show, we need to do an update on Palestine, because things have gotten... Like, when I was kind of opening this episode, I thought it was gonna mostly be about Trump's So we need to do an update on Palestine because things have gotten... Yeah. Like, when I was kind of opening this episode, I thought it was going to mostly be about
Starting point is 00:49:29 Trump's plan to like deport the entire population, not to happen, to like deport most of the population of Palestine to Libya. That's not even the immediate crisis. The immediate crisis is that, and that's not even short, I'm saying the immediate crisis. Last week, I thought the crisis was going to be the 11 week bucket of Gaza and the fact that everyone is about to starve. Yeah. And so the actual specific thing that we're getting to right now is Israel is attempting to evacuate. That's their wording. What they're actually doing is ethnically cleansing basically the entire population of Khan Yunus by just forcing everyone out of the city. Right. The United Nations has said that
Starting point is 00:50:04 nearly a,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza in the last four days as Israel has been expanding its ground invasion to the Gaza Strip. This has been combined with the 11 week long blockade of Gaza, I think by the end of this week, it might be week 12. This has set off an enormous risk of famine.
Starting point is 00:50:22 I'm just gonna read this from Al Jazeera quote, some 70 days after the Israeli military halted the entry of food, water, medicine, and all other life-saving supplies into Gaza, the report said, this is a report from a UN, a UN-backed food security group of analysts. The report said, quote, goods indispensable for people's survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. Quote, the entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity with half a million people, one in five, facing starvation, it said. Approximately 93% of Gaza's population is experiencing acute food shortages, it added. The report also said that like one in five people could starve between now and November. People have already started starving to death.
Starting point is 00:51:10 Israel has been blocking aid from getting through. They symbolically allowed a small number of trucks in, but aid groups on the ground, and I want to emphasize that this reporting is coming directly from the Times of Israel. If you want to understand how bad the situation is, the Times of Israel is reporting that A groups on the ground say that none of the A's gotten through, none of it has been distributed. This is, I don't know how to convey how bad it is. Indescribable numbers of people are on the verge of starving to death and the Israelis are simply not letting any food arrive. They keep talking about how they're going to let food arrive because this is actually
Starting point is 00:51:48 this is the first thing I've seen them do that's actually seriously gotten. I mean not even seriously but it's like gotten a lot of their Western allies pissed at them because they're just very obviously trying to exterminate entire population by starving to the death. Yeah. And this has caused the UK, Canada and France to issue a joint statement coming out against the Israeli policy and telling them to fucking stop and let food through. So these people don't starve. The UK is talking about suspending free trade agreements with
Starting point is 00:52:17 Israel. They're talking about like sanctions at West Bank settlers. The whole group has threatened that they're going to take more actions unless the Israelis let food in Now the Israelis because of the Israelis Shot at a bunch of diplomats who are visiting a refugee camp in Janine. This was like a few days ago Yes, like a few days ago. Yeah. Yeah, and so that's that's not been like making anyone less angry at them it's genuinely remarkable that we've reached a place where like angry at them. It's genuinely remarkable that we've reached a place where like the UK, Canada, and France who are all major weapon suppliers to Israel are like
Starting point is 00:52:49 talking about sanctions, but like even targeted sanctions like yeah you know and like the UN's like Human Rights Commission was like well this is bullshit you can't just do targeted sanctions it's the entire government doing this but like you know the fact that they're doing something is an indicator of just how apocalyptically bad the situation is right now. Yeah, I want to read this quote from the Guardian from just perennial most fascist guy in the Israeli government. But he's saying something. Yeah, who's their fucking finance minister who said quote,
Starting point is 00:53:26 minister, who said, quote, now we conquer, cleanse and stay until Hamas is destroyed, he told a news conference, along the way, what remains of the strip is also being wiped out. Cleanse, conquer. Yeah, normal things to say. The extent to which they are simply doing a genocide here has reached a point where even a bunch of Israel's closest allies are going, what the fuck? I don't know. I really hope that people are able to force their governments to actually fucking do something about this because if they don't, it's gonna continue to get really bad.
Starting point is 00:53:55 Yeah, and I mean, I guess right now that's mostly like, if you're in like the UK, Canada or France, and you think you can apply more pressure on your government, like go for it. Do it, that like I don't know I don't know to what extent pressure can even be mounted on the Trump administration but it's yeah I think that's pretty much a dead end right yeah like but seeing these countries align outside of any US influenced to potentially recognize the Palestinian state according to Lamond? Like is significant and yeah, like people in those countries
Starting point is 00:54:29 should absolutely like stay in the streets. Yeah, because like, and this is the thing here, right? Like these countries, the stuff that they're, even the stuff they're threatening to do is not enough to really make a difference here, but like, if they're willing to do this, they can be pushed further. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:42 So. Yeah. You have to get your foot in the door. Yeah. And Carney has also seemed susceptible to further. Yeah. Yeah. You have to get your foot in the door. And Carney has also seemed susceptible to this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. As there has been a block on arms deals to Israel for the past few months in Canada. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:54 We're gonna close with another story of, like, anti-humanity, but just a slightly different flavor. And I know this does, the show does often just end up feeling like a bad news roundup, and that is because there's a lot of bad news. I have a does, the show does often just end up feeling like a bad news roundup and that is because there's a lot of bad news. I have a little good news for the end, actually. That's good thing we'll have some good news. Yeah, as a treat.
Starting point is 00:55:13 Part of the good news here is that this probably will not end up happening, but it's still useful insight into the minds of these ghouls. And I've long advocated that reality TV is basically inherently satanic. I think it's a spiritual darkness. Is this offensive to Satanists? It is. It is a spiritual darkness that has plagued the United States for far too long. I think it's ushered in a degree of evil that is nearly unfathomable. And the current administration is essentially a reality TV administration on a very clear
Starting point is 00:55:45 and obvious level. Yes, but did I enjoy watching the secret lives of Mormon wives? No. Yes, I did. I think watching it is actually a personal moral failure. I think you're channeling darkness into your soul. And loving it. Last week, multiple outlets reported that the Department of Homeland Security was considering
Starting point is 00:56:04 participating in a reality TV show where immigrants compete against each other to gain U.S. Multiple outlets reported that the Department of Homeland Security was considering participating in a reality TV show where immigrants compete against each other to gain U.S. citizenship. The proposed series would be called The American. This nightmare has been dreamed up by Duck Dynasty producer Rob Worsoff, and apparently he's been trying to make this since Obama's second term, but only now has made progress on getting the necessary backing from the DHS after sending Trump's DHS a 35 page pitch. Warsaw wants it to be quote unquote, the biggest loser for immigration, which again, reality
Starting point is 00:56:41 TV is inherently evil. That's fucking insane. Yeah. It should not be tolerated on any aspect of human society. No. which again, reality TV is inherently evil. That's fucking insane. It should not be tolerated on any aspect of human society. No. The Wall Street Journal header reads, quote, this isn't the Hunger Games for immigrants, says the producer behind the pitch.
Starting point is 00:56:58 If you have to say, this isn't the Hunger Games for immigrants, that means this is the Hunger Games for immigrants. That means this is the Hunger Games for immigrants. Getting a lot of questions about my This Isn't the Hunger Games for Immigrants shirt already answered by the shirt. To quote the Wall Street Journal, quote, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said that she had spoken to the producer of the proposed television reality show and that consideration of the idea was ongoing. It
Starting point is 00:57:25 is, quote, in the very beginning stages of that vetting process, she said, adding that, quote, each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval, unquote. McLaughlin was also quoted in the Daily Mail as saying she thought the television show was, quote, unquote was a good idea. The pitch details that the immigrant contestants would board a train called The American and ride across the country to meet interesting Americans and learn about the local history and culture while competing in region-specific heritage challenges to prove they are the
Starting point is 00:58:03 most American. Such cultural contests would include balancing on logs in Wisconsin, building a rocket at the Florida NASA headquarters, assembling a Model T Ford in Detroit, and collecting gold in a San Francisco mineshaft. Prizes would be, quote-unquote, iconically American, like 1 million American Airlines points, a $10,000 Starbucks gift card, or a lifetime supply of 76 gas. Immigrants would be split into teams that compete head-to-head across one-hour episodes, ending with an elimination challenge, followed by a town hall and a final vote.
Starting point is 00:58:39 To quote the producer, quote, along the way, we will be reminded what it means to be American through the eyes of people who want it most, unquote. I feel like even this will humanize migration to the United States too much for them. They will be afraid of that, like of these people articulating their desire to be here and what it means to them and Like I feel like that doesn't end well for the administration that this might be too liberal for the Trump Yeah, it could be too little. I'm not even joking This is a concept just should be the death knell for the idea of America like oh
Starting point is 00:59:20 America as an experiment it we tried it it failed. This is the most America thing I've ever heard. Like it's over. Yeah. As an experiment, the American project was a fucking disaster and we need to, it needs to stop because this is what it's done. No more, no more American project. The pitch has pre-vetted contestants first arriving at Ellis Island aboard a boat called the Citizenship. There, they are greeted by the show's host, quote, a famous naturalized American who was
Starting point is 00:59:51 also born in another country, unquote. The pitch recommends Sofia Vergara or Ryan Reynolds. Upon arriving, the host would gift each of them a personalized baseball glove. America's pastime. There's no way Sophia Vergara or Ryan Reynolds would ever fucking do a show like this. That's batshit. Yeah. I fucking hope so.
Starting point is 01:00:14 To quote the producer's pitch, quote, We'll join in the laughter, tears, frustration and joy. Hearing their backstories as we are reminded how amazing it is to be American through the eyes of 12 wonderful people who want nothing more than to have what we have." This is one of the most evil things I've ever heard of. The live finale would have the winner getting sworn in on the steps of the US Capitol by a quote top American politician or judge with F-16s flying overhead.
Starting point is 01:00:50 There won't be a dry eye in the house unquote. They have actually been like high spectacle single individual awards of citizenship before. I'm thinking for example, Herman Boccia was a he's often known as like the one man army of Boona. Herman John Boccia, he was I believe living as an undocumented person in the United States when he joined the Abraham Lincoln brigade, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he was an officer. He then joined the United States military and fought again in World War Two. During the Battle of Buna, he personally led a charge against several Japanese pill boxes, which he eliminated with grenades. He then had his eardrum perforated, and I believe he was shot in the arm. He was
Starting point is 01:01:46 awarded, I think he wasn't awarded the Medal of Honor, but he was recognized for his bravery. Congress passed an act to make him a citizen and he declined to attend the ceremony because he wanted to get back to the front lines. That rules. Yeah, bit of a legend. A little bit cooler than the live grand finale of The American. The pitch clarified that the losers would not be immediately deported, and that the contestants would have a leg up in applying for citizenship the more traditional way,
Starting point is 01:02:18 based on being pre-vetted for the show. So it's good that he had to clarify that they would not be immediately deported upon getting eliminated. That's that's a good sign. Yeah, yeah. Another thing that you should always have to clarify a TV pitch. At a Tuesday congressional hearing, Kristi Noem denied having knowledge of the reality TV show despite reporting to the contrary, while also defining a habeas corpus in this hearing as a, quote, constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, unquote. So, there you go.
Starting point is 01:02:52 Yeah, that's not what that means. Christi Noem is a disaster. That is kind of the opposite of what habeas corpus is. And there is substantial reporting showing that DHS staff are looking at this pitch. It might not go through now based on all this backlash, but they were looking through the pitch, including possibly Corey Lewandowski. But yeah, that is the reality TV news. James, do you have anything to end on here?
Starting point is 01:03:22 Please, James, please. Yeah, I know, something a little bit nice. So, for those of you who, like me, enjoy a strawberry, ice agents arrived at the West Coast Berry Farms facility in Oxnard, California earlier this month, where they were met by a gatekeeper who demanded a warrant and refused to let them enter the facility without one and eventually managed to turn them away. So this is a rare dub, I guess. Clearly as we enter the time of year when things need to be picked in the fields, this will be a place where ICE sees the opportunity to conduct its enforcement operations.
Starting point is 01:04:05 And it is genuinely positive to see that this company, I guess, critical support to this company that obviously underpays and takes advantage of migrant labor, that they have provided them according to an anonymous source in SFGATE with Know Your Rights training. And in this case, the gatekeeper was able to not let the ICE agents enter and eventually they left. Like ICE isn't impervious. Like, all week ICE has been releasing statements complaining about being compared to the Gestapo. Once again, right?
Starting point is 01:04:37 Like another thing that you shouldn't have to be releasing statements about. My I am not the Gestapo shirt has people asking a lot of questions. Yeah. And they're also publishing false stats about ICE officers being assaulted in the line of duty. So like, obviously they are, they're facing some kind of like fear even among their own agents. That's why they're all like covered up wherever they go. They're trying to prosecute people or posting information on ICE agents in your area.
Starting point is 01:05:01 Yeah. Yeah. Like, but like I say, they're not impervious. There is a difference between a judicial warrant and a warrant that ICE has essentially made itself, right? The latter not being signed by a judge. And it appears that the gatekeeper was aware of that. We still have courts.
Starting point is 01:05:15 You still in theory have rights. Well, it depends, but yeah. Yeah, theoretically, I'm saying that was a pivotal word. But yeah, shout out to the gatekeepers at the Oxnard strawberry plant Yeah, and they could they could be stopped by a doorkeeper like they can be resisted They can be stopped from doing things Yeah and like it is genuinely important that this person understood the difference between a judicial warrant and these documents that ICE might produce and
Starting point is 01:05:45 between a judicial warrant and these documents that ICE might produce. And it does illustrate the value of being educated and educating people in your communities about these things if they might be at risk for this. All right, we reported the news. Boy, howdy did we. We reported the news. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone 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 for It Could Happen Here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. underground you'll discover no rules fighting, Japanese street racing, Brazilian favela life and much more. All real completely uncensored. Listen to the away days podcast reporting from the underbelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's gonna take us to heal
Starting point is 01:06:59 us. It's mental health awareness month and on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. I never let that little girl inside of me die. To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Being able to say, I feel like crying, so I will cry. Today, I'm a little depressed. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Deeply Well is a sanctuary for your healing. I'm Debbie Brown, healer, wellbeing expert, teacher, and fellow seeker.
Starting point is 01:07:47 And each week we explore what it means to become whole through sole expanding conversations and practices. Today. Wow. I feel really powerful and ready to serve and use my skills. And it's like, that's the heart of what it is to be an authentic woman. To hear this and more ways to prioritize your piece, listen to Deeply Well from the Black Effect Podcast Network
Starting point is 01:08:09 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.
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