It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #18

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

The gang discusses the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers, how the new budget bill targets trans healthcare, ICE arrests inside immigration courts, and deportations to Myanmar. Sources: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/5/22/live-israel-kills-87-in-gaza-shots-fired-near-diplomats-in-west-bank  https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/the-israel-embassy-shooter-manifesto  https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-elias-rodriguezs-leaked-chats?r=1aiy5i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ajc-access-young-diplomats-reception-tickets-1312062246499  https://www.ajc.org/events/washington  https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/22/us/israel-embassy-shooting-dc https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjyxay1zxg https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/1925468225665446272 https://x.com/netanyahu/status/1925650699414646909 https://www.ziprecruiter.com/c/Spectrum-Security-Services/Job/Detention-Officer/-in-Los-Angeles,CA?jid=2a4b6034cef9977e https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25954386-24a1153/ https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/myanmar-nationals-deported-by-us-being-held-in-notorious-junta-detention-centre/?tztc=1 https://www.patreon.com/posts/129696965See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. racing, resilient favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored. Listen to the Away Days podcast, Reporting from the Underbelly, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Listen to Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season Two of the World on Drugs podcast. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. with him at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the World Drugs Podcast Season Two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids,

the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. 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. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by James Stout and Robert Evans. Hello. What's up everybody? Who's got ED? Us.

You. Everybody. Yeah. We're giving you ED. This episode we're covering the week of May 21 to May 28. It was a really busy news week for the latter half of that week, so we're going to be mostly catching up with that. Jesus, yeah.

And let's start with the biggest news from late last week domestically, the shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC. The shooting took place around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, outside of an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. Prior to the shooting, the suspect was seen pacing outside of the building. According to witnesses and surveillance video, a 31-year-old man named Elias Rodriguez approached a group of four people leaving the event. As he walked past them, he turned to face their backs and shot two people, and continued to fire as they fell to the ground. One of

the victims, a 26-year-old woman, tried to crawl away after being shot. Rodriguez followed her and fired again. While he was reloading, she sat up, and then Rodriguez shot her several more times before throwing his gun into a bush. He ran into the museum after the shooting. Security let him in, thinking that he was a victim. Witnesses say he appeared traumatized and in shock. People from the museum event brought him water, and when they asked him if he was okay or if he was injured, Rodriguez requested the police.

When cops arrived, he allegedly admitted to the shooting, and according to witnesses, quote, grabbed a red keffiyeh out of his pocket and started free Palestine chants. Quote, there is only one solution, Antifada revolution, unquote. While being arrested and taken out of the building, he chanted free, free Palestine. Israel's ambassador to the US claimed that the two victims were deliberately targeted as Israeli embassy employees, and that Rodriguez mingled with attendees at the reception earlier that evening before raising suspicion and being asked to leave. Although the organization who put on this event, the American Jewish

Committee, disputes this account. They say that Rodriguez tried to register for their event, but was denied entry following a background check. Rodriguez is a lifelong Chicago resident. He got an English degree at the University of Chicago, legally bought a gun in Illinois, and flew with it to DC the night before the shooting. This event was an American Jewish committee access DC Young Diplomats reception. The description for the event reads, This special event brings together Jewish young professionals, aged 22 to 45, and the DC diplomatic community for an evening dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish

heritage. Join us for heavy appetizers, cocktails, conversations, and a special guest speaker. We are excited to introduce this year's theme, turning pain into purpose. Hear from members of the Multifaith Alliance and ISRAID as they delve into humanitarian diplomacy and how a coalition of organizations from the region and for the region are working together in response to humanitarian crises through the Middle East and North Africa regions." The two victims were a young couple, Sarah Milgram and Yaron Lissinsky, 26 and 30, who met through their work at the embassy. Lissinsky identified as a Christian, though he was born in Israel and moved to Germany as a kid, then returned to Israel and served in the IDF.

There is an alternative claim that he was born in Nuremberg and then moved to Israel and served in the IDF. There is an alternative claim that he was born in Nuremberg and then moved to Israel as a teenager, but most reporting says that he was born in Israel. In the aftermath of the shooting, politicians widely condemned this as anti-Semitic violence. The acting US attorney said that they are investigating the case as a hate crime and an act of terrorism. Dan Bongino, Deputy FBI Director, said the shooting was a quote, act of targeted violence. The Israeli Foreign Minister and Netanyahu have laid blame at college protesters and foreign government officials, including the leaders of France, Britain, and Canada, accusing

them of blood libel for talking about Israel's, quote, supposed genocide and crimes against humanity, unquote, and calling such rhetoric critical of Israel, quote unquote, incitement. Netanyahu said, quote, free Palestine is just today's version of Heil Hitler. Jesus Christ. They don't want a Palestinian state. They want to destroy the Jewish state. They want to annihilate all Jewish people who have been in the land of Israel for 3,500 years." This is obviously, I think, in a lot of ways, the kind of thing Netanyahu has been waiting for

and probably the kind of thing that a number of folks that Trump has put in federal law enforcement have been waiting for because it provides them with some opportunities to continue their push to criminalize student organizing and organizing against Israeli war crimes, right? Like the the the argument they want to be able to make is that just saying free Palestine is an act of terrorism and There was an act of terrorism here, right? Like, right shooting two embassy employees For the crimes of their government like that is a clear act of terrorism here, right? Like shooting two embassy employees for the crimes of their government. Like that is a clear act of terrorism, right? You can like feel however you want to about it,

but like that's the definition of what was done. But the things he was chanting were not part of the act of terrorism. The fact that he shot people to death was the act of terrorism. Yeah, it's the murdering people that's terrorism. Yeah, and that is already illegal by the way and and quite heavily I'll be interested we don't seem to know much about where he got the firearm yet that I've come across

So he legally purchased it in Illinois. Yeah, he bought it in Illinois Which has like fairly strict gun laws. Yeah, some of the strictest in the US. So it's one of those things where There's already quite a bit of regulation around everything that he did here. But fundamentally, if you're able to buy guns, which you are, because of this, you know, if there's an amendment, there will be people who carry out attacks like this. And I don't really know. There certainly didn't seem to be outside of this guy's personal chats with his friends, a lot of evidence that would have set him on anybody's radar.

He had been at like a PSL, a party for socialism and liberation march in 2017 or something, but like this wasn't a guy who had a history of violence or anything like that. And quite frankly, that's just a reality of the country that we live in, is that when people like this decide to carry out shootings for whatever reason, the odds of catching them are extraordinarily low. It's very hard to flag for a guy specifically like this, because there's a lot of them out there. Yeah. And most of them don't do shootings.

Yeah. This act has been widely condemned, like pro-Palestine commentators have said that this style of adventurous terrorism does nothing to help the Palestinian people and in fact only hurts them and plays into what the Israel lobby and Netanyahu have been wanting to happen for a while. Yeah. I think Kat Abou-Ghazala, a Palestinian- American woman who's running for office in Illinois. Worked for Media Matters for years. Yeah. Does a lot of videos. Yep. Yeah.

Anyway, I saw that she'd shared something about how like, yeah, this was something that evidently should be condemned, right? That is wrong and is not advancing the cause of Palestinian freedom. Like I think adventurous terrorism is a good way to describe it. Yeah. And was just getting panned by people on the internet, which like, I don't know, people engaging with this like from a place it doesn't come from, like it's bad when random folks get shot and killed. No, people have used the horrific genocide as a way to channel their general societal frustration and find a way to act incredibly hostile to actual Palestinians.

Yeah. Who don't share the exact same anti-imperialist TM views that they might have. It's just permission to abuse people online. Yeah, deeply verbally violent and like, I don't know, psycho shit. And this guy engaged in that kind of stuff as well as we'll see. Well, let's talk about that. Let's get a little bit into his background. So he has a manifesto that he posted on his Twitter account. And it's cogent, like in terms of it's not the ramblings of like a madman or something. There's nothing like it at all.

He has an English degree, right? He knows how to write. Yeah. He has worked as a writer for like almost a decade. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that in terms of like, it's very clear what he's trying to say.

There's not any evidence here of like a disconnect or whatever. He's not doing this because he's blaming Israel for making the weather bad or whatever, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. The manifesto is titled Escalate for Gaza Bring the War Home, and he attempts to explain the rationale behind his actions. He starts by discussing the unknown total scale of dead Palestinians, writing that quote, atrocities committed by Israelis against Palestine defy description and defy quantification,

unquote. He writes about how, despite protests and shifts in public opinion, the US government has continually refused to reign in Israel and instead moves to criminalize dissent. He talks about armed action, quote, an armed action is not necessarily a military action. It usually is not. Usually it is theater and spectacle, a quality it shares in many unarmed actions. One quote. Yeah, and I do find, you know, one of the first things that happened it is theater and spectacle, a quality it shares in many unarmed actions." One quote. Yeah, and I do find, you know, one of the first things that happened when this

attack was carried out was people started theorizing that this had been some Nazi who was using this to using the pro-Palestinian cost to like camouflage as Nazism. And I don't think that the preponderance of evidence suggests that. There are two weird things. One of them is that this guy's previous Twitter name was Habbo88, and he was not born in 88, obviously, whenever you see an 88. And the other is the bring the war home reference in his manifesto, which is basically a reference to something that I believe was Louis Beam, who was a neo-Nazi organizer, said about trying to get Vietnam veterans to essentially

bring the war home to the United States in order to spark a race war. Those two little things are weird. However, the rest of this guy's fairly well-documented history and background does not suggest anything like that. So I don't think that that's the credible thing to blame this on, quite frankly. Yeah, I'll go over some of that background in brief. Yeah. He also talked about targeting government representatives. The impunity that representatives of our government feel at abetting this slaughter

should be revealed as an illusion. He then tells the story of a man who tried to throw Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara off a boat into the sea. He finishes with his thoughts on the morality of armed demonstration, where he discusses this tendency to dehumanize the perpetrators of atrocities as a method for us to cope with the monstrous evil that ordinary humans are capable of. Quote, this action would have been morally justified taken 11 years ago during Protective Edge, around the time I personally became acutely aware of our brutal conduct in Palestine. But I think to most Americans, such an action would have been illegible. It would seem insane. I'm glad that today, at least, there are many Americans for which an action would have been illegible. It would seem insane. I'm glad

that today, at least, there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible, and in some funny way, the only sane thing to do." It did find it interesting that on December 5, 2024, Rodriguez posted on his Twitter account that, quote, 80% of the country applauds the targeted annihilation of a healthcare insurance executive, unquote. As for his political background, Rodriguez identifies as a Maoist third-worldist and believes that the global South alone has, quote unquote, revolutionary potential. A friend of Rodriguez described his politics to journalist Ken Kleppenstein like this,

quote, he was a big proponent of the emerging resistance axis of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Assad, Syria. How'd that go? He seemed pretty vocally in favor of Hamas for years, way before 2023. He'd always hated Israel and would call it, quote, the little Satan, unquote. For fuck's sake. The Assad test during supreme as the fucking AB test for someone having shitty politics.

Yeah, with the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by Assad. Yeah, yeah, Assad who gassed his own people, who murdered little children. Including thousands and thousands of Palestinians, by the way. Yeah, yeah, I saw who gassed his own people who murdered little children including thousands and thousands of Palestinians by the way Yeah, yeah Like but again, you shouldn't expect coherence or particularly well-informed opinions out of folks I mean, yeah, this yeah his online presence mirrors what I would call like the typical like

Anti-imperialist TM poster where he's, where he's, he errors most of his frustration at the Democrats, sometimes at Republicans, but mostly, yeah, posts about being pro-Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, pro-Assad, and particularly the past few years, posting a lot about Palestine. Right. Yeah. With explicit defense and like veneration of Hamas.

The same friend that talked to Klippenstein also said, It's driving me crazy that people are calling it a false flag. This development is shocking, but not completely out of character. He always had strong political convictions. From the sound of the manifesto, he's the same as he was." Yeah. And I mean, that seems true. Again, we still don't have a perfect knowledge of all of this guy's you know online life

No, this is just a week away, but based on what kens posted based on this interview that makes complete sense Yeah, right. I like I don't have any trouble believing that for a number of reasons. No, absolutely This is this is not a false flag attack. That's that's conspiratorial nonsense. Yeah, I think that if this guy did a thing that he sincerely believed in and it seems like everything he'd been expressing in the year or two leading up to doing this, you know, was consistent with what he did. Rodriguez was affiliated with the Chicago PSL, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, back in 2017 and spoke to the media on their behalf.

Though he would later regret his association with the group, telling friends, quote, PSL sucks shit. I wish I had just done a misadventure with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization rather than the PSL, LOL, unquote. Yeah. Rodriguez remained somewhat politically active in Chicago. In 2023, he posted video from a local pro-Palestine march on his Twitter account.

Klippenstein spoke with at least five friends of his, who all claimed that they never heard Rodriguez express anti-Semitic sentiments. Now, one of Rodriguez's friends gave Klippenstein access to a years-old private WhatsApp group chat that Rodriguez frequently posted in, including up to a years old private WhatsApp group chat that Rodriguez frequently posted in, including up to a day before the shooting. Klippenstein says, quote, the messages don't reveal any hatred of Jews per se, but they do portray an often bitter man who hated all sorts of other things, especially Israel and its war in Gaza, unquote.

Yeah. And from what we can see of the chats that Kenneth's posted, this matches pretty well. A chat member wrote, quote, I'm almost surprised you're not anti-Semitic, Goliath. It usually goes hand in hand with the whole Stalin did nothing wrong mantra. Yeah. And his response to this was like Stalin ended, you know, among other things, Stalin ended the greatest anti-Semitic state in history, which I've seen as evidence that he wasn't pro-Stalin. He just supported Stalin, you know, defeating the Nazis. But he he says, like, among other things.

So he's really got a number of reasons he likes Stalin. Yeah. From the exchanges with his friends, guys clearly like a like a tanky anti-imperialist type. Yes. Yes. Yeah. A million such examples. like a tanky anti-imperialist type. Yes, yes. Yeah. A million such examples. The only time he talked about race explicitly was to lambast white people. Quote,

LOL, you probably would have to actually genocide white people to make this a normal country. Like even a very targeted and selective rehabilitation program would probably have to lead to the lifetime imprisonments of tens of millions of white people on Guelph. There's the Stalin did nothing wrong brain type that we were looking for. Well, and again, it's one of those things. We're talking about this because there's a bunch of guys who express similar views.

This is the only one who's done a shooting. When we talk about this making sense, we're not talking about this as evidence that like as evidence that someone who's a fucking tanky type is likely to commit a mass shooting. Right, that they go hand in hand. No, this is the first time a tanky's done anything. This is the first one of these I've heard of in quite a long time. It's just this guy, there's a bunch of people who express similar things to this guy, right? Yeah.

On October 7th, he celebrated the Hamas attack, quote, just saw an incredibly gory video of the aftermath of Israeli troops trying to get dressed for the ambush absolutely massacred by Hamas fighters. I-M-A-O. Love checking back in with the news every few hours, like, hmm, I wonder if Israel still exists.

You don't often get to credibly wonder if Israel is over yet, today or not, unquote, and again, that just kind of shows the general lack of knowledge. A level of political delusion. Yeah. Yeah, like a lot of kind of telegram propaganda consumption type worldview here. Yes, and can convince you that what's happening is different from the reality. Yeah. In this chat, he lamented to friends and expressed sorrow

at the deaths of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. And sometimes his ire was directed at other members of this leaked chat. At one point, going on an unhinged ableist rant attacking one of his friends for being privileged after they discussed the challenges of having a brother with schizophrenia. Quote, why not just have him committed?

You can't possibly be gaining anything from a relationship with a person like that. Just put him in a padded room and forget about him. Jesus Christ. If there was a person you loved, he's gone now. Let it go. Can you just chain him in the basement and slide meals under the door? I'm just tired of hearing about this guy. He's useless. We get it. Stop complaining and just dispose of him. Yeah. Jesus Christ. I mean, this goes with the, like, people who, I don't know, aren't useful to me or of no value, right?

Like, people don't have inherent value, and, you know, they don't agree with or are useful to him, then fuck them, they can die. Like, I guess there's some kind of coherence there. Robert, do you want to mention the... something awful? Yes, I do, Garrison. So, the other thing that came out in Ken's article is that

this dude was a poster. His friend described him as a dedicated poster, which is the worst thing you can be described as being. And noted that he had been... there had been some... when it came out that his former Twitter username had been, there had been some, when it came out that like his former Twitter username had been like Habbo88, that was very clearly a reference

to a game called Habbo Hotel. That if you're Gen Z, there's very good odds you don't remember, but it was a big thing for people who were on 4chan and who were on Something Awful. And Something Awful was the website that gave birth to 4chan. It's where I was raised on the internet. And many, many years ago, around the turn of the millennium,

I think, I don't remember the exact year, but we started gathering on this game for children. It was like an MMO for little kids and like pretending to be members of a cult in order to like confuse small children. And then 4chan did their own version of that that was a bit more racist, which is often the case. Yeah, many such cases.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, many such cases. Anyway, when this came out, there was a debate. Was this guy a chaner or was this guy a goon? You know, a member of the Something Awful forums. And a lot of people thought, I called goon. A lot of people thought chaner because of his age. He was a little bit young to have been a part of the Something Awful,

have a hotel thing, I think it's actually likelier he did both, but his friends described him as somebody who was really into something awful, right? As somebody who had been influenced by that, and particularly a subset of the Something Awful forums called FIAD, which stands for Fuck You and Die, which kind of pioneered a lot of the most toxic aspects of online discourse. Apparently, Jesus. Now folks have found at least one of his accounts that doesn't have a lot of posts.

Although that doesn't mean much because number one, he could have deleted a lot of stuff, which many people did when they got older. Number two, he could have had another account, which is also the case. The one account that people know was his was banned for shooting and killing two embassy employees. Um, there's, there's reasons given in the, in the ever lengthening something awful ban list when somebody gets banned. Obviously again, I don't think there's like a causative thing to him being

like him being on Something Awful didn't cause him to shoot two people, but him being on Something Awful was a natural part of the progression that led to him being the kind of like toxic online asshole that he was and sort of evidence of that is that one of the last things he had done online before the shooting was he had done online before the shooting was

he had gotten briefly onto blue sky and then gotten in trouble for repeatedly harassing Will Stancil, who's another annoying asshole on the internet, who was also a something awful goon, who was raised in this same chunk of the internet and who became a similar kind of asshole just with wildly different politics. And these two hated each other, and Elias threatened to murder him over the internet. Because he's like, again, these guys- He's that type of guy. He's that type of guy, which doesn't mean, again,

which doesn't mean this is why he did a shooting or had anything to do with that, because there's a lot of this type of guy, and almost none of them commit acts of terrorism. It just, like, his background makes complete sense for the kind of guy that we can see that he was online. The last thing I'll say about this is that, you know, beyond this like senseless loss of life, which is like an issue in and of itself, obviously, this also contributes to

further loss of life in the way this plays into like media capture, right? Now we have a whole week where the news cycle is dominated by two people getting murdered in the streets of DC. And this does not help the Palestinian people currently being killed by Israel. The exact same day that this happened, Wednesday the 21st, 93 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip. And that type of stuff does not really get reported anymore because that's how media capture works. Americans are really good at getting desensitized to this in a large scale media environment. But stuff like this only serves as a distraction and fuels Israel's own motivation for their

continued actions. Talking of media capture, Garrison, we have been captured by the advertisers in this show. It's true. There you go. Mm hmm. I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Await A's 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, Brazilian favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored. This is Unique Access with straight forward on the ground reporting, we're taking you

deep into the dirt without the usual airs and graces of legacy media. Awaiday showcases what the mainstream cannot access. Real underground reporting with real people, no 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. And it's going to take us to heal us. It's mental health awareness month and on a recent episode of just heal with Dr. J the incomparable Tar P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey.

So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort of way. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs. I still play like a kid. I laugh, you know, I love jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously. That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard.

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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects throughout your body. Not just your gut, but your mental health,

your metabolism, your immunity, your just your gut, but your mental health, your metabolism, your immunity, your risk of cancer, heart disease, almost any disease under the sun. Yep, you heard right. Probiotics might actually impact everything from your brain to your heart. So what's science and what's just really good marketing? On this episode of Dope Labs,

me and Zakiya cut through the hype and get into the real deal behind probiotics with help from gastroenterologist Dr. Roshi Raj. So yes, bacteria is definitely having a moment and I'm very excited about that. From probiotic drinks and gummies to face creams and pillows. Yep, we said pillows. The probiotic boom is everywhere. But how much of it actually works and what does it all mean for your gut, your skin, and even your mood?

Join us on Dope Labs where we break it all down into the lab like only we can. Listen to Dope Labs on iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. 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 multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One,

Taser Incorporated, on the iHeart Radio 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. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Fourth, ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And we are back. Another big news item from last week was the passing of the big, beautiful budget bill in the House.

We'll talk more about this bill as it churns through the Senate. But first, our co-host Mia Wong has a special report on how the bill targets trans health care. So we're going to talk a little bit about the budget bill that's currently working through a bunch of processes in the Senate that's been passed by the House. I am Mia Wong. And with me to talk about how this budget specifically is unbelievably bad for trans people is Maddie Castigan from Maddie Cast and Mira Levine from the Free Radical. Glad to have both of you two here. You've both been doing a bunch of journalism about this stuff specifically and what people

can do about it. First, can you explain what is going on in this budget with the ban on trans health care using Medicaid? Yeah, absolutely. So the budget bill also known as House Resolution 1 is This year's reconciliation bill which is Congress basically deciding next year's budget and how they're gonna allocate all their funds This time around Republicans decided it would be a great idea to push through so what it was at first was an intense limitation on what Medicaid could cover, essentially just humongous Medicaid cuts.

And this is what I began investigating first. Me and Maddie were talking about it a bunch. She's the one who took me off to it. They started off by implementing huge cuts to Medicaid that would result in millions of people losing access to their healthcare, not even just trans people. Shortly after they announced these cuts, for instance, ADAPT, a group of disabled activists, they are famous for being the ones who climbed up the steps of the, I believe it was the Capitol building in the 90s to raise awareness and help get the American Disabilities Act passed. They staged a protest on the United States Capitol during a hearing for this bill where Republicans were just talking about it and praising themselves. Multiple activists got arrested. They're all

fine now, apparently. Apparently they weren't treated too bad either, which is good to hear. But what ultimately happened is more and more came out and it came revealed that not only would disabled people be affected, but basically every marginalized group. Poor people of course being what we were focusing on given the beat. But this will impact essentially everyone, especially if you're low income, especially if you are a person of color, you are more likely to be impacted just by virtue of this bill and how sweeping it is. And Republicans implemented a ban for gender-affirming care for minors on it. It was a very milkquetoast ban that at the time

was projected to pretty much get over to into court right away if we were to pass. They didn't stop there though. They quickly evolved it and they tried to implement it into a sweeping ban on gender-affirming care for all ages on Medicaid and for any health insurance received through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. And ultimately, this

led to a lot of panic and a lot of people assuming that their care is going to be taken away immediately. That wasn't what's going to happen. On the minimum effective date that's currently in the bill is 2027. I'm telling people to prepare if it passes for 2026, because there's a decent chance Republicans will try to expedite it. Because it passed through the House, it passed through committees in the House, it was sent to the Senate. And I think that's what we'll give to Maddie

to talk about kind of what next steps for that are. Yeah, so like Mario was saying, there's a lot of really, this feels tremendous. They could talk for hours about it, but focusing on the trans parts, there's a ban on Medicaid funding, and there's also a ban on including trans-cares and essential health benefit and ACA plans. And the thing about both of these provisions is that normally with reconciliation bills, they're supposed to be focused on budget items, not policy items. So for example, you

couldn't say, hey, weed is legal everywhere now, or something like that, or raise the minimum wage, which Democrats tried to do in 2021, and they failed, because there are rules regarding how this process works. And so what we argued in our article was that there's a possibility that, you know, if activists and advocates reach out to their senators and advocated to point out that this part of the bill is completely against those provisions, against those procedural rules, the Senate parliamentarian could rule against it and basically strike that portion of the bill without it ever even becoming law. And you know, that would save people a lot of stress and anxiety and you don't

worry about the court battles and what happens with Scrimmety versus US, which is a Supreme Court case that's going to be ruled on on gender affirming care soon. So what we've been telling people and you know, including listeners for your show, is that people really need to reach out to their senators every single day, email, call and ask them to vote no on this bill on HR1 and specifically mention the trans healthcare aspects. And if you're, if you want, there's templates online on our website, or you can just, you know, ask them, Hey, we don't think this bill is good. We don't, we want you to challenge specifically the parts that are attacking trans people. And

I can confirm with you, I can't share too much information, but I can confirm with you that we are making real legitimate progress on killing this provision. And the more people we have calling in every single day, the better our odds are. But there's still more ways to fight back. And I want Myra to pick up on how people can fight back on the ground. Yeah. So in addition to reaching out to your senators, of course, to that, there's an email template. Maddie wrote up a great one.

It tells you everything you need to do. You can even leave a phone call to the script. It takes like five minutes. But more long term is this is not going to be the only attack on gender affirming care. It's not going to stop here. This is just the latest attempt that they're trying to do. Ultimately, we cannot rely on the government to give us essential health care. We cannot rely on the government to protect us and give us what we need because fundamentally, the

government and the laws that it aims to uphold are about protecting the rich, protecting the powerful, protecting the wealthy. The law is functionally something that gives police power to act as essentially an occupying army on the state and to persecute anyone who deviates from what those who are disproportionately rich and powerful decree. And we need to start focusing on building long-term solutions. Everything we can do with legislative activism is important, but ultimately it will not save us because there will be more attacks down the line. They'll keep coming and they only need to win once. We need to welcome that every time.

But there are long term solutions. My beat at this point is essentially just telling everyone to get plugged into your local mutual aid network, get plugged into people doing work on the ground in your state, in your area, who are focusing on a plethora of different issues. A bit of a self-plug here, but I wrote an article, for instance, last month where I interviewed a seasoned activist in the Twin Cities who told me just a lot about the history of radical praxis in the cities, especially in light of the George Floyd riots, and especially in light of corporate pride, rainbow capitalism, whole nine yards. I recommend reading it.

It's on thefreeradical.org. Check it out. But beyond, of course, my own writing and my own interviews, there are so many people doing work that doesn't get covered because it either isn't palatable to mainstream news audiences or it isn't seeking coverage for a variety of reasons. In every single major city, this I can guarantee there are people doing work. Most of the time it's not going to be able publicly visible, but they are there. I would recommend that everyone who is not currently plugged in get started with something that is much more entry level and something that is much more like meant to be kind of

for everyone who may not be willing to do more in depth and more crazy tech stuff. Food not bombs is the great thing I recommend for everyone to check out. Not every city has one. Most do. Every state has one. Beyond that, there are plenty of local mutual aid groups in every single locality. And if there's not one directly by you, there's probably one in your nearest major city. I would specifically

recommend, I'm a bit biased here, but I would recommend focusing on ones that are decentralized and non-hierarchical, ones that don't revolve around centralizing power and placing that power in the hands of people who are either good at smooth talking or who have a lot of money. Ultimately, the way forward for people of all different marginalized groups, not even just trans people, you know, undocumented immigrants, black and indigenous people of color, low income people, disabled people, and so forth, the way forward is by recognizing that our issues affect all of

us. Attacks on trans health care are not limited there. Inevitably, let's say they banned trans health care overnight, they're going to come for intersex people next, they're going to come for gay people next, they're going to come for everyone. So I would just say, get involved in your local groups and reach out. There are resources out there. If you need some, check out the freeradical.org. I recommend a ton of them. Thank you. And yes, our website for Maddy, MaddyCast is madycast.com. And you can find our templates for contacting your senators there. Thank you so much for helping yourself

and helping your community. Yeah, thank you so much for that. I want to close on, I want to read, I want to read a line from fucking Namix Manifesto from, from Andor. Remember that the frontier of the rebellion is everywhere and even the smallest insurrection pushes our line forward. And one of the arguments that Nimbic makes here that I think is just true is that in order to maintain their holds, these people have to win 100 battles across 100 fronts, you know, but this means that there are so many different things that you can do to resist them and to

make sure that this fucking budget that are trying to pass to make sure that everyone in this country suffers and specifically the trans people cannot use the health insurances that we need, use Medicaid use Affordable Care Act to pay for stuff. This stuff can be resisted in so many different ways you can as we've talked about, you can call your senators, you can yell at them, you can make their lives miserable until they agree to not do this. And then also you can join your local midway groups, you can join local activist groups, you can start, you

know, getting serious organizing other ways. You can, again, like, we've talked a lot about unions and the role of unions and trans struggle on this show. We've talked about so many things. I'm going to do a one second plug for the episode I wrote last year called You Already Know How to Organize, because you do already know how to organize. And yeah, none of the things that are happening here are inevitable. They can be stopped. And there are so many different ways for you to start stopping them. Yeah.

So we're back and we're talking about Gavin Newsom and particularly the intersection of the governor of California and Donald Trump, which is a lot more shameful than you'd expect. There was a big brouhaha publicly because a California transgender high school athlete won at the woman's eight feet triple jump. This is an 11th grade transgender athlete from Yoruba Valley High School near Riverside, California. And she won the Division III girls long jump and triple jump and placed seventh in the high jump at her Southern Section Championship. A few weeks later, there's going to be, I don't think it's happened yet, a championship meet that she qualified for as a result of this. And when this happened, it was immediately leapt on by the Trump administration and by

right wing media as evidence of this thing that they've been trying to push for forever, which is that trans athletes are a threat to women's sports. Right. Um, now this is something that number one, there's just not a lot of, uh, and this is also something that like, I think something like two thirds of Americans when polled say that they don't feel like trans athletes should be competing with, you know, quote unquote, naturally born women in, uh, women's sports. Right.

Like this is a thing that the right has built a lot of support for because they have made this a political issue for so long, and they've been largely successful in that. The state of California and California lawmakers have been pushing back against this. There have been state bills in order to allow these girls to continue to compete. But Gavin Newsom has not expressed the same degree of support. And this kind of largely came out earlier this month when he had a meeting with

conservative personality, Charlie Kirk on his new podcast. As Newsom said, Kirk pushed so hard on the topic that Newsom said he felt like he had to address it. Here's how Newsom characterized it. And then he asked me, that Newsom said he felt like he had to address it. Here's how Newsom characterized it. And then he asked me, tell me that's not fair. And I looked at him, I said, you're right, that's not. And so it wasn't some grand design. And I know, I know that hurt a lot of people, but respectively, I just disagree with those

on the other side of this. Now, this brought a backlash against Newsom. He was attacked for flip-flopping because again, like the California Democratic Party's position on this has been to defend trans athletes. But Newsom kind of flipped as soon as he was in a room with Charlie Kirk. Now, Newsom will argue that he also tried to stick up for trans athletes to Charlie Kirk. To be clear about that, this is exactly what he said to Charlie. Completely fair on the issue of fairness. I completely agree.

So that's easy to call out the unfairness of that. There's also a humility and grace that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression. And the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with as well. So both things I can hold in my hand. How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think you know is inherent in you, but not always expressed in the issue?

And first all, there's no decency inherent, Charlie Kirk. And second, there's also a humility and grace that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide. What does that mean? What does that mean, Gavin? That's not a sentence. Also, like just, I made my living exercising for most of my 20s, right?

Like your professional athlete, yeah. Like, and then I've done all kinds of other shit where I still got paid to race my bike. Right. Like sports are unfair. It fucking sucks. I coached people who worked way harder than me. They trained super hard. They slept well.

They ate better. They trained super hard, they slept well, they ate better. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they were not able to get to the same level. That sucks, but like sport is inherently unfair. The idea that like the only difference is like this, like your XX or XY chromosomality is nonsense. Like especially in high school sports, kids will develop at different times. That is unfair. Some kids will excel and then other kids will get better. The function of high school sports is not to find who can go like higher, faster, stronger. It's to teach people

to play nicely with one another and to communicate inclusion and excluding trans kids is completely contrary to that. Yeah. And that's like, yeah, I think that's a great point, James, is that like, number one, this is all being entirely made about like who places how, which is always going to be based largely on things that like people can't control because, like, people's bodies are different, you know? Yeah, and they develop differently. Like there are people who I beat at bike races when I was a kid who have won stages at the Tour de France. Yeah. Like if our bodies develop differently, that's completely normal. Yeah, and it's this, again, the thing that should matter here is not treating a community of people hatefully,

which is the entirety of the reason the right has made this an issue. It has nothing to do with fairness. It has nothing to do with sports. It's entirely about hurting a group of people. Yeah, if these people gave a single shit about women's sports, they'd have been there when women weren't getting paid the same. They'd have been there when they didn't get the same TV coverage. They'd have been there when they didn't get the same prize money.

And they were mostly making fun of women's sports at that point in time. Yeah. Now, I do think one thing that's funny here is that when people asked rightly, like when California legislators were pushing to protect trans athletes, why didn't you bring up that you felt this way? And his answer was, I didn't have a podcast. I wasn't having that conversation. I was out there on the campaign trail

in the big blue bubble, on the big blue bus, and the big blue crowds having big blue conversations. And then he went on to say that basically the backlash to him agreeing with Charlie Kirk on this has convinced him, I always thought the right overstated how judgmental my party was and I'll be candid with you, I have a deeper understanding now of that critique than I ever ever ever understood. It was like now that people are angry at me, I believe there's a problem with my party being judgmental. Yeah, now that I've faced a consequence for my shit, I hate trans people even more.

Yeah. It must be so hard to be Gavin Newsom. It's gotta be tough. And betray your constituents to get the approval of a millennial right-wing podcaster who goes around. Who still hates you. Touring college campuses to debate 17-year-olds. That must be so hard for you, Gavin. It's gotta be tough. Gotta be tough, Gavin. He did say in his podcast that his kid likes Charlie Kirk.

Not surprising. Maybe this is all just a ploy to be a cool dad. Yeah, I'm not surprised he sucks at being a dad. Gavin used to mix you'd wants to be a cool dad energy. It's embarrassing. Reminds me that Jake Tapper just said his kid's not really into politics. He's just into World War II and gaming.

Great. I'm part of World War II, Tapper! Curious. Curious. In many such cases. Doesn't his kid want to be a cop? Is that Jake Tapper? Yeah, that makes sense.

That sounds like Jake fucking Tapper's kid. So look, earlier this week on Tuesday, President Trump shared a truth social post, a truth threatening to, yes, he re-truthed a post threatening to withhold federal funding from California over the participation of this high school trans athlete in the upcoming California interscholastic federation state track and field championships. And he said that under the leadership of radical left Democrat Gavin Newscombe, California continues to illegally allow men to play in women's sports. The governor himself said it is unfair, Trump wrote.

First off, the fact that Gavin agreed with Charlie and his podcast did nothing to change the rhetoric around him. He's still radical left Democrat Gavin Newscombe because you can't make these people unhappy because it's not about fairness It's about hurting people right you can you can fight this the governor of Maine has been I wanted to talk about Maine Yes, yeah, so Trump made this same threat to the state of Maine when the governor of Maine refused to stop allowing trans people to compete in women's sports and The administration attempted to freeze funds intended for a Maine child

nutrition program. No more food for your kids because woke. No more food for poor kids because woke. And in response, the governor of Maine was like, all right, let's fucking go to the mat. And they filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture and the Trump administration settled. Like they, they backed down. They agreed to stop freezing the funds if Maine dropped the lawsuit.

Right. Like as soon as Maine sued Trump back down. Right. And rather than attempting to do that, even though there's ample evidence that the administration backs down and to be fair, nothing against Maine. California has got a lot more weight to throw around. Yeah. It's the fifth largest economy on the planet. They have some fucking heft behind them. And like, Newsom clearly has no moral principle other than advancing his own career and personal power and wealth, right? No. But like, even if that is the case, it's so easy to be like, yeah, I'll fight him on this,

I'll fight for the trans kids and get some like resistor points. But he's just too much of a fucking coward. The first rule of fighting these people is don't give them anything. Don't treat them like people. They're monsters, they're scum. You fight them every step of the way, right?

Like it doesn't matter what you feel about the issue. You never give pieces of shit like this a win. Yeah. Right. That's just not the way you fight them. This is the problem with people like Gavin, who just, whose entire politics is just chasing the zeitgeist. Yeah.

So then when you interpret the zeitgeist as like swinging against your previously held progressive DEI woke LGBTQ plus values, then you just go along with that swing and you would actually don't even care about getting this, getting this points anymore. Cause you think the culture is going in a different direction and all you care about is being in the cultural zeitgeist, you don't actually stand for anything. Like you're just, you're just nothing.

Yeah. And everyone can see that as opposed to understanding what governor Frey of Maine understands, which is that, no, you stand there, you accept that the zeitgeist is a screen door and it's going to bounce off of you and back in another direction if you stand for something, right? Gavin decided not to stand for something. And immediately after Trump made that tweet threatening to withhold funds from the state

of California and the Department of Education has opened Title IV investigations into leagues that have allowed trans athletes, including CIF, which is California's high school sports governing body. Right after Trump made this most recent truth, the CIF released a statement saying that it had made the decision to pilot an entry process for the championship that's coming up that will alter the way they hand out awards. It will expand qualification opportunities for biological female student athletes, is the exact way that they have phrased this.

And basically what they're going to be doing is giving an award for biological men, biological women and then trans competitors. Right. So there will be like three long jump awards. It's like a segregated scoring field. Yeah. And it's, I guess you could say it's not as awful as trying to ban people, but also it's kind of like you're not even taking any kind of stance here.

It's nothing. It's nothing, it's nothing. Now, Newsome spokesperson Izzy Garden said, CIF's proposed pilot is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness. The governor is encouraged by this thoughtful approach. And I should note here, this has done nothing

to actually calm the right or get conservatives to back down, right? No, because they don't want trans kids competing at all. They don't want trans kids in public life. They don't want trans kids in public life. They don't want trans kids existing. Yeah. And so like the conservative Californians are still angry.

You can't take them for their word for it. Yeah. They don't care about fairness in sports. This is all about just eradicating transgenderism from public life. Like as Michael Knowles said at CPAC, like two years ago, like that's what they actually care about. Yeah, and there's, you know and there's been a bunch of statements.

Some Democrats and the legislative LGBTQ caucus have been like, well, Gavin's otherwise been a good ally for LGBTQ people. And I don't agree with, this is something that Assemblymember Chris Ward said, basically, I don't agree with this particular move, but he's been a good ally for a long time. Has he, though? Has he, though? Yeah.

I mean, when it's convenient to him, I guess. I prefer caucus member Alex Lee said that Newsom was, quote, just commenting on how he personally feels. He mentioned it on his dumb podcast. He never intended it to be a policy direction announcement. Hell yeah. It is a dumb podcast. Yeah. it to be a policy direction announcement. Hell yeah. It is a dumb podcast. I mean, you should be concerned that he has a dumb podcast where he demonizes trans people.

He signs vetoes all the time. Again, I found a KCRA article on this that quotes Republican Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, who wrote a bill that would have banned trans athletes from competing in girls' high school sports earlier this year. And this is what she said about CIF's rule chains, pilot policy. It's incredibly weak. We're angry. We're pissed at this. How every day that goes by, no one is protecting our girls. This is inexcusable.

We need to have something done. Governor Newsom needs to pick a side, do something, do the right thing. So again, this gets you nothing with them, right? It benefits you not at all. There's another quote I want to read here from a state Senator Scott Weiner, who is the leader of the Senate Budget Committee and again a member of the LGBTQ rights caucus. Trump is now targeting California just like he targeted Maine, threatening to withhold federal funds if California doesn't follow his illegal edicts targeting transgender people. California law protects trans people. That

won't change. Maine won in court, so will California. If there's only one answer to a bully, no. And as main governor Janet Mills said, see you in court. Sorry, I got, I don't know why I said governor fray earlier. But anyway, the point here is that you have Californian legislators saying the right thing, and then you have fucking Newsom being like, no, no, no, actually we're totally gonna cave. And in a way that won't even make the Republicans happy.

It's just frustrating to me that you do have Democrats trying to do the right thing here in California politics, and Newsom absolutely having CIF do a runaround on them out of pure cowardice. Anyway, that's what I got. Get him out of there. Get him out of there. Fuck Gavin Newsom. There was a recall, but it was not for the right reasons. Yeah, the last time we recalled a California governor it was a real mixed bag. Yeah.

Speaking of a mixed bag. That's right. I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. Awadeyes 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, Brazilian favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored. This is Unique Access with 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 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. And it's going to take us to heal 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. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs. I still play like a kid. I laugh, you know, I love

jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously. That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard. 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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects throughout your body.

Not just your gut, but your mental health, your metabolism, your immunity, your risk of cancer, heart disease, almost any disease under the sun. Yep, you heard right. Probiotics might actually impact everything from your brain to your heart. So what's science and what's just really good marketing? On this episode of Dope Labs, me and Zakiya cut through the hype and get into the real deal behind probiotics with help from gastroenterologist Dr. Roshi Raj. So yes, bacteria is definitely having a moment

and I'm very excited about that. From probiotic drinks and gummies to face creams and pillows. Yep, we said pillows. The probiotic boom is everywhere. to face creams and pillows. Yep, we said pillows. The probiotic boom is everywhere. But how much of it actually works? And what does it all mean for your gut, your skin, and even your mood?

Join us on Dope Labs, where we break it all down into the lab like only we can. Listen to Dope Labs on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that 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 multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. 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. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And we're back.

Okay, we're back. We're back. James, do you want to finish us up here? I do, Garrison. I would like that very much. I want to talk about a couple of things. I'm going to try do, Garrison. I would like that very much. I want to talk about a couple of things. I'm going to try and keep this fast. I know it's already been a long episode.

Let's start with ICE agents have been arresting people in immigration court around the country and placing them in expedited removal proceedings. If you want to know more about exactly what the expedited removal proceedings are and how they work, you can go back to our episode, which will appear the day before you hear this and that will explain and I talked to an immigration attorney there and explain a little bit more about how that works. This includes people whose cases were not dismissed. So previously it was reported that ICE was dismissing cases of people who had arrived less than two years ago and placing them under 240 expedited removal proceedings. less than two years ago and placing them under 240 expedited removal proceedings. Apparently, they are also detaining other people. I am not sure how that works. I have not seen any

justifications for this to give me an explanation for it. I'm not sure how much that matters anymore. These people are going to have to fight their removal from detention, which is obviously going to be a pretty unpleasant experience, right? Detention in these core civic or geo group facilities is pretty bad. I'm aware of cases where ICE misidentified the person being detained, cuffed the wrong person, and I'm aware that there are spectrum services who are an ICE detention officer provider, officers, at least outside some of these facilities, I believe also inside. Spectrum Services, I've noticed, have been posting a lot of job adverts recently.

This is something I sometimes keep an eye on, right? Like right before the end of Title 42, I saw they were advertising for ICE contractors to transport detainees, right? So this is sometimes a sign that bad things are afoot in the immigration world. I'm guessing in this case, it's either this or a plan to further expand detention capacity, which is also something the Trump administration has been talking about, right? So they also have these various subjective orders authorizing more budget and the budget

bill authorizing more budget for detaining migrants. Secondly, the South Sudan case. Rokby's covered this last week, a DVD at Alvers's Gnome. We also covered it earlier in this week. If you go back to our episode, which aired on Wednesday, you can hear more about the sort of blow-by-blow timeline of that case. In the South Sudan case, the Trump administration seems to have gone directly to the Supreme Court to try and get an emergency stay on the injunction which afforded due process rights to the migrants who are currently detained in Djibouti. The administration asked for a stay of the court's injunction. The court's injunction had given them 10 days to assert their reasonable fear of torture and then a further 15 the injunction to make their

claim that they have a fear of torture, right? South Sudan has said that if these people aren't South Sudanese, it will just return them to their country of citizenship. So if the United States can't return them there because they have a fear of torture, it just seems like the whole South Sudan thing is just an end run around the convention against torture, right? That their obligation not to return people to places where they will be tortured. Talking of returning people to places where they will be tortured. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has deported 20 people to Myanmar.

This is according to reporting in Myanmar now. I've also written about it on my page, Patreon page. I've linked both of those in the show notes, but it should be noted that Myanmar now broke the story and it's getting very little coverage in the United States. I can speculate as to why, but you probably don't need to hear me to sort of join the dots there. This is atrocious. Robert and I have both spoken to people with extensive experience of

detention in Myanmar and like when we talk about the worst detention conditions in the world, we get to a point where it doesn't really make any sense for us to say like A is worse than B. Right. Right. That this is worse than Sednaya or whatever, but it's on like the level, which was Assad's torture prison in Syria. As such, but Cheree for human beings.

We're talking about that level. Yeah, like, I mean, things that I have heard people have been electrocuted to death. People are waterboarded. People have acid poured in their mouths. Bodies are found without organs. People are beaten to such an extent that their entire bodies are covered with bruises and contusions. Many times people will only know that their family member is detained when they disappear and then a few days later they get a call telling

them to pick up the body. Conditions in Burmese hunter detention facilities are atrocious. These people are currently being held at the Ong Ta Pya Interrogation Center. It appears that seven of the earliest, so this has been happening since March, it appears that some of these people have been released. The rest are being held by SAC, that's the Burmese junta, a military intelligence units, who will almost certainly torture them. Myanmar does have a temporary protected status but I think I've seen a couple of posts about this so I just

want to clarify the TPS doesn't apply to people who entered after the TPS was granted or to people who have committed certain crimes. We know that at least one of the men they returned had been convicted of a crime. Not all of these crimes are like, particularly heinous felonies, right? You can do a certain number of misdemeanors and also be deported under a DPS. But I'm trying to find out who these people are. I know that you can't download our podcast in Myanmar, which is a huge dub for us. But I know a lot of Burmese people do listen. So if you have any particular insight into this, you could reach I know a lot of Burmese people do listen, so, you know, if you have any particular

insight into this, you could reach out to us. We'll drop the email address in a little bit here. It does seem very unlikely that these people were given a chance to make a claim of fear of torture, right? Because it would be a very easy claim to make given every major human rights organization on the planet has documented torture of detainees in Myanmar. I was just reading a report this morning about harassment of trans women in prisons in Myanmar. But that same thing goes for cis folks, for straight folks, for everyone, right? No one comes out of there the same they went in.

Yeah. I can't believe that these people were given a chance to claim a credible fear because it would have been such an easy claim to make. Yep. And they wouldn't have been returned there. So yeah, I wish this story was getting more reporting. I wish more people in the media in this country cared about Myanmar, but that's a drama I have been beating for four years now and I don't think shit's going to change anytime soon. So I guess all there is to say is that I really appreciate those of you who do, especially those of you who listen to the show and take an interest in all

things Myanmar. But yeah, if these people have been returned to a country that the U.S. press was more familiar with, there'd be a lot more noise about this, but this is absolutely unconscionable. Yeah. Yet these people will be tortured. It would not shock me if some of these people died. Yeah.

No, this is, I mean, there have been cases so far of, I think at least seven of the people that have been sent over previously in the last like year or so by the US have been released from this prison. So it's not a necessarily a death sentence, but for a good number of them, it will be. Right. Yeah. Especially since there are also Rohingya people who will be deported in the near future and presumably directly back to the same place.

Yeah. I mean, it's documented that people deported from Thailand are immediately conscripted and sent into the military, right? So if they get out of prison, there's a good chance of that, especially if they're men, that they will be, and women do get conscripted too in Myanmar. But there's a good chance that that will happen too. They've been conscripting a lot of Rohingya people. So yeah, the outcomes of this will be very poor.

And yeah, the only way torture stops in Burma is when the revolution succeeds and liberates the prisons. Like there is no reasoning with the Burmese hunter. Yep. That's about all I got. It's pretty fucked. Speaking of fucked, let's listen to the tariff song. There's no tariffs this week.

No. Fuck it. Well, let's just listen to it and then have the end of the episode. Just get some nice song. Let's just listen to it now. We don't have time to listen to it. This is the end of the episode. Wow.

Garrison took it away from you. Mm-hmm. Complained to them online. The constant ageist attacks on the clash have not stopped. Sorry fellas. All that money for nothing. 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. 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, Brazilian favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored.

Listen to the Aw days podcast reporting from the underbelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Listen to Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season Two of the War on Drugs podcast. podcasts. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers,

but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap away, you gotta pray for yourself, as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.