It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #32

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

The gang discuss rumors of Trump’s declining health, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser acquiescing to the federal police occupation, and plans for federal deployment in Chicago. Plus, updates on tariffs and Ukraine. Sources: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/28/vance-training-president-trump-good-health/85852650007/  https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/07/memorandum-from-the-physician-to-the-president/  https://x.com/MayorBowser/status/1962951947436032219/photo/2  https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/09/03/chicago-illinois-crime-immigration-ice-national-guard-donald-trump-jb-pritzker  https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/trump-trade-supreme-court-tariffs-appeal.html  https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105.159.0_1.pdf  https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/29/business/trump-tariffs-appeals-court-ruling  https://chicago.suntimes.com/donald-trump/2025/09/02/donald-trump-national-guard-deployment-chicago-jb-pritzker-brandon-johnson-crimeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate.

Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell.

And the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. And I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology is already solving so many cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. CoolZone Media. No inappropriate joke, Robert, to start this episode.

Wow. I feel so clean. You know, I guess you could say I have some executive dysfunction today. This is it going to. happen here, Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world. What it means for you, I'm Garrison Davis. Today, I'm joined by Mia Wong, Robert Evans, and possibly Sophie Lichtenen, our producer. This episode, we are covering the week of August 28th to September 3rd. Happy fake Labor Day to everybody. And some breaking news

from this past weekend, Trump maybe died. Yeah, let's check in on that Garrison. as our official is the president to live correspondent. Let me do a quick Google search here. Oh, no, no, he's still around. Did everyone get tricked again? He's still okay.

The conspiracy theories this week were really fun. And then there was that thing, that video that went viral, of them like opening a White House window and throwing out a couple black trash bags. That was really funny. That was really funny.

I was like, there's way worse things going on in the world. I don't have time to care about this. But we never got information about that. That was just some weird shit. Not yet, not yet, Sophie. Sensational. I don't think we know what it was. I mean, it could just be that's them fucking cleaning shit, but I wouldn't be surprised

if they were destroying evidence. I wasn't aware those windows could open. I thought they were like bulletproof and like weren't supposed to open. I'm sure they're both bulletproof but have to be possible to open so that the Secret Service has more paths of egress in the event that some crazy disaster were to fall of the White House. Okay. You need to watch the documentary White House down, Sophie. This spells all of that out.

So Trump went a few days without a major public appearance. The man is just trying to take some time off. Though he was seen golfing between Saturday and Monday. But there's nothing on Trump's public schedule for three days during Labor Day weekend, where he essentially took a brief golfing holiday. And this fueled speculation that he was in a rapid health decline, spawning a whole bunch of conspiracy theories about him being in the hospital, Vance imminently taking over, and some comments from J.D. Vance during a USA Today interview released last Thursday

fueled some of this speculation over the weekend. Vance said, quote, I feel very confident the president of the United States is in good shape, is going to serve out the remainder of his term, and do great things for the American people. And if, God forbid, there's a terrible tragedy, I can't think of better on-the-job training than what I've gotten over the last 200 days, unquote. It sounds like he's ready to take the reins right now. Sure, man. Yeah, you're trained up now. Over the weekend, people spread AI-altered images of Trump's face

looking more swollen and sickly than it actually was, and rumors circulated that roads to Walter Reed Medical Center were closed. Yeah. When, in fact, there were no irregular closures and screenshots of maps supposedly showing these quote-unquote closures were actually just showing old security gates because, yeah, you can't just like walk or drive up to the front door of Walter Reed Medical Center.

Yeah. It's in a military base. This is the Ocent of idiots, right? Which is people seeing something that is described as being one thing in this like little clip that they get of it in social media and they don't actually do any further checkup. It's the same thing with like the Pentagon pizza

orders that people are like, oh, when pizza orders piqued to the Pentagon, where the U.S. is about to go to war. And it's like, no. Sometimes people just order pizza near the Pentagon because the Pentagon is surrounded by a city, right? There's like, there's people. The Pentagon Pizza Tracker was part of these weekend conspiracy theories that they were like trying to decide how to handle Trump's declining health. And people just like pizza guys. Like, it's one of those things. I'm certainly not saying there's no way you will wake up tomorrow to hear that Trump has died because you know what? He's seven It wouldn't be weird if his health took a sudden turn in the next day.

Just statistically, it wouldn't be weird because he's 79. But like the people pointing out, it's something they were doing with Biden, pointing out like, oh, like the marks on his hand. And it's like, yeah, that isn't it for both of them. This is evidence that they are older than you should be to be president. But like my grandpa had shit like that because my grandpa lived with us for the last like 10 years of his life. His hands looked a lot like that for like a decade. Like, so people live for a long time after it becomes clear that they're very. sick and old. It's not a, it's not a sign that they're about to kick off this weekend.

That guy in Congress who looks like a turtle has had weird bruises on his body for as long as I can remember. But no, like accounts were baselessly theorizing that like Putin poisoned Trump during their last meeting. This is why he's in a rapid health decline. Oh my God. Why? Why would he need to do that? Why would that benefit him? So baffling. Yeah. When people noticed looking at the White House schedule, which they'd realize just existed a few days ago. But when looking on the schedule, they saw that, quote-unquote, the president was to give an announcement on Tuesday afternoon. And because of this, rumors spread that it would be Trump resigning for health reasons,

or Vance would come out and announce Trump died and he was the president now, like some, like, really bad Aaron Sorkin movie. That's how it works. Also, I just want to also put this out there. Yeah. That White House leaks like a fucking sieve. There is no way you could cover up the president dying without it being out immediately. Like, come on.

No, I'm sorry. Like, they couldn't keep it hidden when he got sick. You think they're going to keep the fact that he, they're going to weaken it Bernie's him? It's ridiculous. Yeah. When this press conference got delayed an hour on Tuesday, this too was used as evidence of Trump's declining hell. But sure enough, right before 3 p.m., Trump came out with a huge gaggle of people, which is probably why it was delayed, because he had like 20 guys with him who, like multiple people spoke to announce that they were moving space command. And Trump seemed normal. He seemed like normal Trump. Like, he is an old guy, but no, this was just normal Trump. Yeah. Does he seem older than he did in 2016? For sure, man.

He's slightly more wrinkled, but like he's older. Exactly like he did before these conspiracy theories started. Yeah. I mean, he looks older than he did 10 years ago. Yeah, I'm just saying... Oh, he's so much less coherent than then, but, like, yeah, he's not like... Yeah. Dying.

I don't have any particular reason to expect he's about to drop dead, like, as opposed to, like, three months ago or six months ago, you know? Yeah. Like, does it appear as if time is continuing to march on his face? Yes, of course. You know? Exactly. During said press conference, Trump himself was asked about his alleged imminent demise and responded like this. It's a completely different, but about a big viral social media trend over the weekend.

How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead? Do you see that? No. People didn't see it for a couple days. 1.3 million user engagements as of Saturday morning about your demise. Really? I didn't see that. You know, I have heard it's sort of crazy.

But last week I did numerous news conferences, all successful. They went very well, like this is going very well. And then I didn't do any for two days, and they said, there must be something wrong with him. Biden wouldn't do him for months. You wouldn't see him. And nobody ever said there was ever anything wrong with him, and we know he wasn't in the greatest of shape. No, I heard that. I get reports.

Now, you knew I did an interview that lasted for about an hour and a half with somebody, and everybody saw that was on one of your competitors. editors. That's a remarkably coherent Trump by Trump standards. Like No, and he's talking about how he was sending out very poignant truths over the weekend on truth.

Okay, that's for current Trump. Yeah. And yeah, he just took a nice little golfing, golfing holiday. And like, it is Drew. He is the oldest elected president, and the White House recently announced he was diagnosed with chronic venous

insufficiency a few months ago to explain his ankle swelling, and the bruises on his right hand have become more noticeable, which the White House is attributed to frequent hand-shaking and the use of aspirin. That is really funny. Yeah, he shook too many hands. He just can't stop shaking hands. That's actually hilarious. But the aspirin thing is real, and people of his age, frequent aspirin use can lead to hand bruising.

Yeah. But I just finished up my Bluenon research in the night, this whole weekend as I was like literally finishing those episodes this whole this whole giant wave of these like Trump health conspiracies just just completely took over and I felt like I was like losing it like everyone around me everyone everyone around me was indulging

this and like usually from this place of like half joking but not really joking like when yeah when that line gets blurry between are you indulging in this like ironically because it's fun or does it is it actually kind of altering your brain like is it actually slowly making you convinced

of this stuff in like a small way This gets to what is at the root of all conspiracy culture, regardless of like the political ideology, which is the need, the emotional need, to believe that you are the possessor of secret knowledge. Yeah. Right? Like that that is so much a part of this that like, no, no, no, I am privy to secrets about the world that the average person is not. And the degree to which that's like comforting and also emotionally necessary for quite a few people. And that's part of the problem with humoring this is that the instant you let it in to. your life, it starts taking more and more power because it becomes part of your ego. It becomes

part of your coping mechanisms. It becomes like, yeah, you become dependent upon it. Yeah. And I think it's also word noting, like, you know, people are confused all the time about how does the right come to believe all of these things? How does the right sort of, you know, like how does like vaccine conspiracism spread? How does like QAnon spread? It's like it spreads like this. Uh-huh. Right? This is what it looks like, and you're also not immune to it just because your politics are better. It's still really, really easy to fall down those pathways because they're addictive and fun. And that's spreading so much unhinged shit.

Yeah. The root of a lot of madness comes with thinking that you're better than other people, and you're not cognitively. I can play around with this stuff without it affecting me the way it affects other people. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or just because this is, because the politics of this counterfactual belief system are better than their counterfactual belief system. This is not a counterfactual belief system. Totally.

Yeah. And like, we see this with the way some people talk about like Russia. And like, I've faced a little teeny bit of pushback on some of the ways that I was framing like Russiagate in the blue and on episodes. And like there is a difference between a social media disinformation campaign to influence elections, which Russia does. Like, we know this. Absolutely. That's not in question whatsoever. Yeah.

There's a difference between that and, like, straightforwardly stealing an election in such a manner that the election results are themselves illegitimate, right? And this is, the big question always, if you're saying, like, no, they literally did steal this election in the 2016 election, but they just, like, fucked up for 2020. They just, like, couldn't get their shit together in time for that one. Like, what's it? Or is it that they have influenced campaigns like everyone else and they're influenced, like, that doesn't mean saying that they're, like, that doesn't mean saying that

they're not problems, but it doesn't mean pretending that's the only reason shit broke their way, you know, in part, a big reason why things worked the way that they have and have worked the way that they have is that the disinfo campaigns that Russia, that the Russian government was engaged in, were complementary to campaigns of disinformation that have existed for decades on the U.S. right. Look at the way they were funding right-wing content creators through tenant media, right? And like, you know, same thing with Trump, like publicly encouraging Russia. is not the same thing as actual collusion.

And there is no clear indication that the 2016 Russian influenced operations or even like they're accessing of voter registration actually made a meaningful impact on the results of the election. And this is the same thing with, you know, like the rights legal methods of voter disenfranchisement,

voter suppression, or changing mail and voting rules, right? There's that versus talking about like hacking voting machines, right? The former doesn't mean that the election was quote unquote stolen. No. Just because they do voter suppression, right? The results still need to be accepted. Like, that's not a legal election interference. It's not good. We should oppose it. Yeah. But it's not a legal election interference. And like, this is kind of just like a coping method that passes the buck to avoid accepting that Republicans were better at winning these elections. Yeah. And it may be emotionally easier to like blame Russia than to actually like reflect on ourselves. And I've seen the same thing when people talking about how for the 2024 election, on election day, there were bomb threats to swing state polling places that were traced back

to Russia. And like, while this is nominally true, this did not influence the result of that election. And then this can very quickly devolve into like just like baselessly like just asking questions, right? Like, you can't prove it negative. And it, this just turns into like a very cartoon version of understanding reality, like with like people in ski masks, fixing elections or changing votes or like hackers compromising election like voting machines instead of just accepting that a lot of people voted for Trump and he won. Well, and it's the part of the other problem is that I think when you lose yourself in patterns of thinking like this, it also leads to a failure to accurately gauge the strengths

and the capacities of the enemy. Like if you're unwilling to see where they've made smart decisions and where they've made good investments that have paid off for them, then you are unable to follow and properly counter those kind of things. And I think part of why this is so difficult is that so many people, so many liberals and people on the left, I don't think, I think both sides have differences in how they do it, but I don't think there's a massive difference in the degree to which either side does it. But you find on both ends of the political spectrum, this emotional need to be like, these people are idiots. And the coelating factor with that is that like, and I'm not, right? Like,

I'm smarter because I'm not one of these people because I'm not one of these like fools who buys into this right wing propaganda and if you're more obsessed with that than you are with seeing where your enemy has made smart decisions then you're going to continue getting dunked on by them endlessly. You're going to get blindsliders. And that's

where we are right now. People are getting dunked on repeatedly because they refuse to see the things that Trump does that are based in actual intelligence and the things that the far right has done, the things the Republican Party of the architects of this movement have done that have been successful. You know who else is it successful, genius? The products that support this podcast.

Yeah, that's right. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. Hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not...

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I'd just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. On 22nd of July 2015,

a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club. A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes,

friend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating.

He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor? or not. To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case

that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught, and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's crime lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth?

Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aimed to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming and you don't know who's next to you.

And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we are back. So on Tuesday, the mayor of D.C. ordered that the city will continue cooperating with federal law enforcement past the expiration date of Trump's crime emergency declaration, which is set for September 2. 10th. She has established the, quote, safe and beautiful emergency operations center for DC to indefinitely coordinate with Trump's safe and beautiful task force. This is like a caving and like an acquiescence to prevent some kind of larger legal fight over Trump's ability to exert power

over DC. It's giving him a little bit of what he wants while trying to maintain a degree of like sovereignty, but in doing so, you kind of just play into what he actually wants in the end. This operations center will work on, quote, centralized communications, formulate post-emergency planning and operations, and ensure coordination with federal law enforcement to the maximum extent allowable by law within the district, unquote. Later in her order, she, quote, unquote, requests that federal partners adhere to effective community policing practices to maintain a community confidence in law enforcement, such as by not wearing masks, clearly identifying their agency and providing identification during

arrests and encounters with the public. Great. Quote, the safe and beautiful emergency operations center will continue to prioritize DC National Guard for typical mission-focused activities, unquote. So they are requesting that federal partners not wear masks, and that's kind of the strongest amount of pushback the mayor is allowing in regards to Trump's federal control

of over law enforcement in D.C. Great. That'll solve it. You know, a while back, I said that like one of the most important sources of support that the Trump administration has is a bunch of the Democratic mayors and governors and, oh,

boy, is this one of them? Yeah. Uh, however, it's worth noting that this has not been the response of all of the Democratic governors, and I think we're going to turn here towards the impending occupation of Chicago. Yeah. So Trump has said that he is going to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, ostensibly

also because of crime. As of 2.32 Pacific time on Wednesday the 3rd, we don't have a timeline for the National Guard deployment. That could change. The situation is evolving rapidly. We will get you more in a second. We also have conflicting reports where Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has said that the Texas National Guard is being staged to sort of participate in this sort of occupation of Chicago. Grave Abbott has denied this.

We sort of don't know what exactly is going on with that. But it is worth noting that both Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been very, very clear that they do not want a federal deployment in Chicago. they have said go home There isn't really Because this is a federal deployment There isn't really much They can do about it Outside of legal stuff

And the Trump administration Has been a lot more careful about this And they were in L.A in terms of how they're doing the deployments legally So we'll see what happens With the National Guard deployments However And this is something that I think

is getting very very little coverage which is that the actual threat model on the ground in Chicago and the day this is going up we will have run in an interview the day before with Raven who's a journalist from the Chicago-based outlet unraveled

about what the response in Chicago has been to all of this and how people are repairing and what the threat model is. The actual thing people are worried about in Chicago is not the National Guard so much. It is the deployment of federal agents from Homeland Security, including ICE and the Border Patrol,

very, very specifically there is significant concern about Border Patrol because while there has been ice operation in the city and it's obviously very bad as we sort of talk about there really hasn't been

any significant Border Patrol deployments and that seems like it's about to start as an indication of how fast the situation is moving so that interview was recorded Wednesday morning September 3rd

yes September 3rd in the time between that recording and now which was maybe three hours we got more information about the federal deployment. So the Sun Times is reporting based on reports from government officials that 230 agents, including Border Patrol, are being sent from L.A. to Chicago. 30 agents are already here.

They've been doing training in anti-riot stuff with flashbangs. They've also apparently moved 140 unmarked vans to this neighbor. base, not really in Chicago, we'll get to that in a second, but they've moved 140 on Mark Vans to do these kind of raids. This very much suggests that they're going to do the kind of smash and grab raids. We've been seeing in L.A. That's the thing people are very worried about. And we've seen, you know, TikToks from the senior leadership at the Border Patrol talking about how they're-tukes. I know. It's bleak. Yeah. No, literally it's like, it's TikToks of him going like we're trading our Palm Tree. for skyscrapers. Cool. Jeez. It's really bad. It seems like they're going to be deploying

the kind of smash and grab raids they did in L.A. But, comma, there's one final thing I want to get to. This naval base is not really in Chicago. It is really far north of Evanston, which is like a thing that's like not Chicago. It's like, this naval base that they're deploying from is closer to Kenosha than it is, like, Kenosha, Wisconsin than it is to like,

even the north side of Chicago. it's like really, really far north. Again, like even getting to, I mean, neighborhoods that are pretty far north, it's like an hour out, right? It is a multiple hour drive into the center of the city. So it's going to be kind of difficult

for them to deploy in the middle of the city. This is something I talked about with Raven. It looks like they're trying to hit the more outlining areas more with raids because those areas are less well defended and there's not as much sort of rapid reaction stuff there. that's sort of what this looks like people are preparing because I guess there's one more important thing which is the naval base is where they're running their operations out of but the naval base has declined the request to house them so they're probably going to be in hotels people are going to target those but yeah that that's that's where things that are at as of Wednesday they're staging in this weird naval base that is really not close to the city Yeah, I mean, the real focus on this anti-crime crackdown is also a way to, like, Trojan horse, slightly obscured ice operations.

And when people are talking about, like, National Guard deployments to cities nationwide, the actual main mode that National Guard will be operating in is logistical and like paperwork support for ice operations. Yep. At least for these like broader nationwide deployments with the specific deployment in D.C. and in Chicago, there's there's more. preparation for like carrying out ordinary law enforcement actions. But those actions also exist in coordination with immigration crackdowns. And like that's a lot of what these like more militarized occupations are going to be focused on. Yeah. And it's worth noting like just logistically, like they're not going to be sending the guard into the parts of Chicago where there like are is crime sometimes. Although again, it's worth noting crime rates at way that

fuck down. Yeah. But also like every story about this is like, oh, there were shootings over the weekend and it's like, yeah, it's not good, but, like, the National Guard is not going to be deployed to stop shootings. They literally can't get there again. It's like three hours out. No, they can't get to the north side of Chicago. And as we all know from the song Bad Bad Libroi Brown, the south side of Chicago is the baddest part of town. Jesus Christ. I'm just going to ignore that. Yeah, you should just ignore that. There are places in North said they could deploy, but if you're trying to get to the actual Southside, it is at least a three-hour drive. And that's like assuming that

the traffic isn't bad. Like, it's at least three hours. It's possibly larger than that. I didn't even bother checking it because I looked at where this was and I was like, this is basically in Wisconsin. What are we doing here? So, like, this is, this is as I was saying, this is a giant show of

force thing and it's, but it's mostly just this is the sort of shock and all thing to frame this as crime so that people aren't focusing on, I mean, obviously, like, it's bad having just, like, troops in the streets, but, like, the ICE enforcement and the Border Patrol deployment is what the actual threat is here. And, yeah, and, like, yeah, the Pentagon and the Trump admin are planning a lot of different scenarios that they would like to enact.

But Trump's actual comments on, like, a larger, like, military style deployment to Chicago have been a little bit flip-floppy. I think they're still trying to reach some kind of deal to, like, work with the local government and state governments in a way that is less bombastic than like a completely adversarial deployment would be. Yeah. Even in that press conference where the shambling corpse of Trump made an appearance, his comments about the possibility of deploy to Chicago is seemed still pretty exploratory.

Like there's still like conversations being had about how to actually do this. They are not as brazen as what they were in L.A. and they don't have as much justification to do what they did in D.C. to a city like Chicago. So they're still trying to work out some kind of deal with, like, the local governments. Yeah, and it's really unclear to me that they're going to be able to reach a deal with Brennan Johnson and with Pritzker who's leading it. It seems that Brandon Johnson's less willing to work with Trump on this than the mayor of D.C., so props to him for that, I guess. Yeah, and it's just also a thing where Brandon Johnson is, like, very deeply unpopular. in Chicago. However, comma,

the actual federal deployment there is so unpopular that you have you have the fact that the Sun Times is pointing out in the reporting of this that crime rates are down, which they have never done ever, that's not a thing they ever talk about. It's so unpopular that there is really, really significant

pressure on both Pritzker and Johnson not to do this. And maybe they cave. I have a kind of low opinion of them from my like time in the city doing politics there. But I don't think they're going to on this. And I think what that means is that it's mostly going to be the Homeland Security like ICE Border Patrol deployments. Yeah, because Chicago does fall into our very loose

definition of like a border town. Uh-huh. Yes, which most towns are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of J.B. Pritzker, I mean, he has a lot of corporate interests. He may have stock in one of the companies advertising on our show. We'd have no way of knowing. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not like...

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one. one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house.

So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the Onyx. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit.

Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age.

And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security? prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth.

Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months.

The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, it's Honey German. And my podcast, Grasas Come Again, is back.

This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment with raw and honest conversations with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't audition in, like, over 25 years. Oh, wow.

That's a real G-talk right there. Oh, yeah. We've got some of the biggest actors, musicians, content creators, and culture shifters sharing their real stories of failure and success. You were destined to be a start. We talk all about what's viral and trending with a little bit of chisement, a lot of laughs,

and those amazing vibras you've come to expect. And of course, we'll explore deeper topics dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash because at the end of the day, you know, I'm me. But the whole pretending and code, you know, it takes a toll on you.

Listen to the new season of Grasas Has Come Again as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We're back. I just got a text from J.V. Prisker. Oh, yeah? He's recruiting for the private people's militia to defend the free municipality of Chicago. That's right. So he's recruiting horse archers for the con. The con of the planes.

Yeah. Yeah. It rises. be able to lose 12 arrows a minute from the back of a war pony in order to in order to make the cut. Protesters did shoot arrows at the cops at Hong Kong. So it's not, it's not without precedent. Yes, they did. Yes, they did at the university. Yeah. Well, and you know, if Florida National Guard deploys to Illinois, they may be able to use biological warfare because the Florida Surgeon General has just vowed to end all of the state's vaccine mandates, equating them with slated.

Amazing stuff. Not just the COVID mandates, all vaccine mandates across the state. After he announced this, he got like over 30 seconds of applause, like nonstop. I will play a little bit of the end of this announcement. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery. Okay. Who am I as a government or anyone else or who am I as a man standing here now? to tell you what you should put in your body.

Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body? I don't have that right. Your body, your body is a gift from God. He really wanted to say your body your choice. Uh-huh. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God. I don't have that right Oh really? Oh really?

Oh wow Unless it's trans health care In which case you simply cannot A little on the nose there Yeah It's frankly wild Yeah Oh motherfucker

It's like It's like that commercial That was I don't know You might be too young for this case There's this commercial with this old man With like a dollar on a fishing rod Going you almost got it It's literally that

It's literally that. No, very close into walking into a full-body autonomy argument there, even though, you know, for reproductive health care that is unrelated to general public health, which is why these mandates exist, which can affect people besides you. Yep. Ronda Santos announced during the same press conference the creation of Florida's own, Make America Healthy Again Commission, which will enforce Robert F. Kennedy's policies to the fullest extent in their state. Grand.

He was the least charismatic person we saw speak at the RNC last year, just saying. Yeah. DeSantis? Yeah, in my opinion. No, no. Who was worse? J.T. Vance. Yeah, Vance was there.

Yeah, that lady did fall asleep. Man, and people were outwardly contemptuous of Vance at the RNC. Like, Republicans were contemptuous. But remember the Women for Trump? The woman who fell asleep next to us while watching the Vance speech. And then Malte. He's so dry. Yeah, yeah, that was really good.

Yeah. But I would say DeSantis is a solid number two, maybe Abbott three. I don't know. Maybe they should have got a vaccine to boost their charisma stats. That's right. That's how that works. Yeah. Loxora.

So this is really dangerous. This is going to put a whole bunch of kids in harm's way. Yep. Worrying trend. Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about Ukraine. Ukraine. Specifically, kind of the present situation of the war in Ukraine, just kind of another little update because people catch little bits here and there on the news about what's

happening. And I felt like we should probably update people as to like what's been going on. Kind of the most recent news you've probably heard is that Russian forces have been advancing in the Danesk Oblast and recently broke into an eighth region of Ukraine and started taking villages in the Denipro-Petrovsk region, which is like a major industrial center that's next to the Denet's region, where Russian soldiers had not been recently. At this point, gains in this new region by Russia have been, seem to be fairly minimal. They've entered two villages in the eastern part of the region. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that they captured both of the villages.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has said, well, they're in the area and they're basically contesting them, but they haven't entrenched or built fortifications. fighting is ongoing. I'm sure neither country is giving out perfectly accurate data, but it seems certainly fair to say and verifiable to say that Russia has made an incursion into this region and the fighting is ongoing. However, solid their gains may or may not be. This is not the entirety of what's going on in the conflict. Overall, basically the whole line of contact with Russia, which is about 1,000 miles long, is in play at the moment. But there have not been like massive gains over the last couple of months. And in fact, as of August of 2025, Russian forces occupied

about 19% of Ukrainian territory. They first hit 19% back in October of 2022, right before Ukrainian forces liberated a large chunk of the Kersan Oblast. So basically what we're seeing here is Russian forces reached this peak like three years ago. A Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed them back. And over the last three years, Russian forces have kind of clawed their way back to where they were near the end of 2022, right? If you're looking for like, what is the overall progress of this war over the last three years? So that's obviously not going well for Ukraine, but it's also not, this is not a situation where Ukrainian forces are in any kind of collapse. Like you're looking at, it took Russia three years to get back to where they were three years ago. So this is, I mean, this continues to be a grinding and hideous. conflict, but it does not look like one at which the end is in any way in sight still, even with the kind of pulling of support from the U.S. of Ukraine, with a reduction in arm shipments and whatnot from the United States to Ukraine. There's not any signs of like a generalized collapse. And in fact, over the last couple of years, there's been a fairly minimal increase

in occupied territory. Right now, the pace of Russia's advance in Ukraine per a recent AP article has slowed by 18% just over the month of August. So Russian forces took about 460 kilometers of territory in August and had been seizing more like 5,600 square kilometers of territory a month in a couple of months prior to that. So that's kind of what you're looking at in terms of the overall pace of the conflict. One of the major changes that we've seen over the last, like, really specifically, like a couple of quarters in the conflict is Ukraine has been increasing their capacity

to hit Russian strategic targets behind the line, like, well, behind the line, we're talking fuel and we're talking power infrastructure, which has been extremely successful. One of the things that's allowed Ukraine to hit these further back targets has been, they've started producing an indigenous style of cruise missile, codenamed the Flamingo, which has an 1100, almost 1,200 kilogram warhead and a 3,000 kilometer range, which puts at about 1,000 kilometers past kind of the maximum range, the one-way attack drones, like these one-way suicide UAVs, which had been Ukraine's like furthest in way to strike Russian territory. Those only reached in about 2,000 kilometers.

So this puts a significant amount of like Russia's infrastructure within Ukraine's ability to target. They're currently producing, I think, they're hoping to get up to by the end of the year, seven missiles a day by October. now these these new cruise missiles are fairly easy to shoot down with like modern air defenses but modern air defenses are in short supply so it's a matter of if you're able to produce an increasing number of these and you're flinging as many of them as you can out every day the russians will have to make choices in terms of what infrastructure are we actually going to devote anti-missile assets towards and you know that's that's always going to be

less than the total like number of targets there are to hit. And the in terms of like evidence that these strikes have been successful, there has been increasing limitations on personal fuel use inside the Russian Federation and increasing power outages. Like all of that has gotten more common over even just like the last several months in particular. So kind of overall what we see if we're looking at this conflict is a grinding high casualty endeavor where the Russians are slowly pushing back Ukrainian lines at the cost of a pretty nightmarish number of casualties, right? Like, this is still a meat grinder conflict, and that dimension on the ground for the Russians hasn't changed. The main thing that has changed is Ukraine has gotten better at striking behind the line, which has been met by a significant acceleration in Russian strikes, particularly even on, like, civilian assets in Ukraine.

like there have been more missile campaigns, more drone bombardment campaigns on the Capitol and civilian targets than previously, like some of the largest raids just took place like three or four days ago. You know, that's kind of a broad update as to what's going on. It continues to be a very ugly war. One of the main things that we've learned about what modern warfare is going to look like is that it is almost impossible for infantry forces without air supremacy to break and make large advances and then hold that. territory if they do not have air supremacy. When you're looking at two peer combatants, that's almost impossible to do. And so a significant amount of the fighting devolves into who can fling drones and missiles behind the lines and hit different sort of strategic assets with more efficacy. And that's what the war has bogged down to at this stage. Speaking of aerial strikes, do we want to at least reference the attack on the Venezuelan

alleged drug smuggling vessel that was announced during Trump's death press conference. Yeah, we blew up a boat. We did it. A boat in international waters that was claimed to be a Trind de Agua, which is a Venezuelan, kind of analogous to a cartel, organized criminal organization. One of the biggest boogeymans of the second Trump term. Yes, their primary, like, Latin American boogeyman. And, yeah, we blew them up.

the administration is claiming it was, you know, filled with fentanyl or whatever, I don't believe there is as of yet any independent evidence that this boat was in any way affiliated with Trindagua or carrying drugs or headed to the United States. We simply don't know. A lot of times, like just the way that Trindagua works, this is not like the Sinaloa cartel. This is not a cartel that has a massive degree of international capacity that extends to the United States. Like, there's even significant debate as to how much they are extended into other parts of Latin America. They've had like really limited success expanding into Colombia because different insurgent groups like the FARC and the ELN have provided a significant countervailing force to them.

And I wanted to note because one of my sources is an article on Trindagua by America's Quarterly and in talking about their kind of troubled expansion into Colombia, this article notes Tellingly, even in these spaces, TDA operatives subcontract smaller local gangs and authorize them to use their name to generate fear and compliance with their victims. And this is a really common thing with Trindagua, where when you're seeing, oh, this is, you know, TDA affiliated or whatnot, these guys may have no actual communication or very much to do at all with the centralized group. They're just kind of using the name for branding purposes because it, you know, scares off other gangs because it allows them to like act as if they're connected. to this larger organization, but they really are not in a very meaningful way. In the same way, a lot of, you'll see a lot of articles that will be talking about, like, these are Trinda Agua tattoos.

Like, none of them are actual, like, tattoos affiliated with the group. This is, like, largely nonsense because Trindagua doesn't have a tattoo tradition, per the people who are actually experts on Trindagua. There's a lot of good articles, particularly in Insight Crime, Jeremy McDermott, being one of the authors that have tried to bust a lot of these myths about TDA. We'll be doing more coverage on them in the future. But, like, yeah, that's kind of the situation. Speaking of international shipments...

Oh, boy. That's good stuff. Jesus Christ. Okay, so nobody being murdered in cold blood to post... a video on X.com, the everything app in this one, but... But probably

it's its own fair share of harm. Yeah, so at the end of last week, the official, like, end of the de minimis exemption for packages under $800. Finally, fully went into effect. We're going to talk about this more next week when it's more clear what

the large-scale ramifications of this are. We have been talking about this for a very, very long time. The other really big news this week, and this is, I think most of what's been going on here has been the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that most of the tariffs that are in effect are illegal. Now, the court also basically put in a thing saying that this ruling doesn't go into effect until October 14th so that Trump can have time to appeal to the Supreme Court. He's already appealing to the Supreme Court trying to, he wants a, quote, expedited ruling from the Supreme Court. he started ranting about how

if the tariffs go back into effect are not allowed to be in effect the US will quote turn into a third world country or may turn into a third world country Oh no! Yeah, so... Not a third world country. Oh, God.

The American Century of Humiliation continues to chug on. So, okay, it actually is worth talking about this case a little bit because it goes to the core of what's been happening with these tariffs, which is that... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so in the Constitution, if you read it,

it says that the power of taxes and tariffs lie with Congress. It really explicitly says this. I'm going to read a thing from the ruling. This is a quote from the ruling, quote, the Constitution grants Congress the power to, quote, lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, and to, quote, regulate commerce with foreign nations. This is the Constitution

Article 1 Section 8 and I'm going to stop here to note that everything that's in the Bill of Rights was not in the original draft of the Constitution

that got tacked on later so like freedom of speech and like freedom of assembly and like freedom of religion were considered less important by the people writing this than Congress or the other people who could do taxes

I'm going to keep reading from this ruling tariffs are attacks and the framers of the Constitution expressly contemplated the exclusive granting of taxing power to the legislative branch when Patrick Henry expressed concern that the president, quote, may easily become king. Debates in several state conventions. Jonathan Elliott 1836. James Madison replied, this would not occur because, quote, the purse is in the hand of the representatives of the people.

So. I cannot believe that we have a president doing a T-tax for foreign tax. Harris. I know. I know. Where's Boston when you need it? Robert, do the voice. No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not your fucking monk. See, this is the only way to stop Robert from doing the voice is to try to get him to because of oppositional defiance. Yeah, that's, that's what, that's what rules me. Yeah. Okay, speaking of what rules us, so Trump has been using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and he, like, declared a state of emergency over like drug trafficking in order to do this.

This is nonsense, gibberish. And this is actually where, I think there's a very, very significant part of this case here, which is like, okay, like, what power does Trump actually have? Like, can he continue to just sort of rule the United States? Many people are asking this question. I'm going to read this line from CNN, which is quoting the court draft. Quote, notably, when drafting the International Aburgency Economic Powers Act, Congress did not use the term

tariff or any of its synonyms like duty or tax the court said in its majority ruling the absence of any such tariff language in the act contrasts with statutes where Congress has affirmatively granted such powers and

included clear limit on that power so this law does not say that he could do this he has simply been doing this the whole time with using a law that it literally explicitly does not say the word tariff in it. So the

court is extremely unhappy about this. Ladies and gentlemen, we got them. It really is. I think this is genuinely, just on a basic constitutional level, this is one of the most staggering ones of these I've ever, in terms of just like, does the Constitution still exist?

The answer is like this is Article 1 of the Constitution. It's Article 1. This is the first shit they wrote, this was like literally the whole point of the American Revolution was that the king can't levy taxes. It has to be the parliamentary representatives of the people. That's like the whole thing. It was the slogan was no taxation without representation. Yes. Yeah. And like obviously that's

the stated goal of it. You can obviously go and see her. Right. There's like a million other things. You can go into your like territorial expansion and go into your slavery, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, this is what it was supposed to be about and has just claimed this. power from himself, and we're going to get a real test in the Supreme Court. So the Supreme Court goes back from their recess in like a month. So we're going to probably get a real test on how far the Supreme Court is willing to let Trump just straight up rule by executive fiat. But in the meantime, all these tariffs are still in effect. And yeah, this has been tariff talk. We have talked about the tariffs. Excellent. Well, I believe that does it for us here at it could

happen here. All right, everybody. Until next time, you know, just, if anyone tells you the precedence is dead, assume they're telling the truth and go live your life. We reported the news. 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, poolzonemedia.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 just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story.

Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast.

So we'll find out soon. This person writes, My boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Honey German,

and I'm back with season two of my podcast. Grazias, come again. We got you when it comes to the latest in music and entertainment with interviews with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't auditioned in like over 25 years. Oh, wow.

That's a real G-talk right there. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about all that's viral and trending with a little bit of cheeseman and a whole lot of laughs. And of course, the great bibras you've come to expect. Listen to the new season of Dacias Come Again on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced.

He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.