It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #39

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

The gang discuss Graham Platner, Operation Midway Blitz, a shakeup in ICE leadership, and use of facial recognition to determine legal status. Plus, updates on tariffs, public lands, and Tylenol. James’ Food Bank Fundraiser thread: https://bsky.app/profile/jamesstout.bsky.social/post/3m4eymwspn22i  Sources: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-monitor-polls-24-states-compliance-federal-voting-rights-laws https://x.com/gavinnewsom/status/1981893887460544737?s=46&t=wjiWDhD7WaSqfSfZGiwlSw   https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-asia-trip-japan-10-27-25?post-id=cmh8yni6000053b6nah0oh7ol  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-was-fatally-hit-vehicle-fleeing-ice-virginia-highway-officials-say  https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/10/22/california-to-deploy-national-guard-to-support-food-banks-fast-track-funding-as-trumps-shutdown-strips-families-of-food-benefits/  https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/bay-area-food-banks-california-national-guard/3969875 https://www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-agents-are-scanning-peoples-faces-on-the-street-to-verify-citizenship/ /  https://www.energy.senate.gov/2025/10/lee-bill-fights-back-against-biden-s-border-chaos-destroying-america-s-parks-and-public-lands  https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/0DED04C4-18C7-4C1F-BCE4-DD5B79FB0264  https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/0DED04C4-18C7-4C1F-BCE4-DD5B79FB0264  https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1983273176907043070  https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571.94.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571.42.0_4.pdf  https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/28/judge-blasts-border-patrol-boss-greg-bovino-for-violating-excessive-force-order/https://apnews.com/article/chicago-illinois-bovino-ice-immigration-506c9c661ee75f3e955f346daeed5555  https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/1982959806173581456  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3864929/trump-administration-quietly-purges-ice-leaders-in-five-cities-sources/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-plans-install-border-patrol-officials-lead-aggressive-migrant-cr-rcna240102  https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffairs/others/20251029/korea-welcomes-trump-with-top-level-protocol https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/business/fentanyl-tariffs https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5579438-live-updates-trump-xi-meeting-government-shutdown/ https://www.npr.org/2025/10/30/nx-s1-5590754/trump-china-xi-meeting-lowers-tariffs https://centralnews.co.za/trump-becomes-first-us-president-to-receive-south-koreas-highest-honour-golden-crown-and-grand-order-of-mugunghwa-presented-in-historic-ceremony/ https://write.ellipsus.com/edit/aef875a8-f460-429d-af2a-66e197b3000f https://archive.vn/0s7cS https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/29/kat-abughazaleh-conspiracy-indictment-broadview-protests-donald-trump-deportation-campaignSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Yep, it could happen here. Electile disorder. Executive disorder, which is our weekly newscast, which we've been doing all year. So we should know what it's called by now. Yeah, that's why I'm so good at doing it. I'm naming it. This show covers what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world of what it means for you and me and everyone else.

I'm Garrison Davis. This episode, I'm joined by Robert Evans, James Stout, and Mia Wong, and we are covering the week of October 22nd to October 30th. Yep. So I think we should start off the bat by the same thing we started off last week with, which is that as you're listening to this... Happy Halloween! Yeah, well, that...

On the upside, Halloween, woo, spooky on the... The downside, like 40 million people lose their SNAP benefits the next day on Saturday. Yeah, but what's spookier than that? Look, one thing you can't say about the government is that they're not failing to celebrate the holiday. I am scared of the consequences. Yeah. Stock up on the trick-or-treater candy, I guess. Steal as much candy as you can after people, you're going to need it to stay alive.

See, a group of children, you run. past him. Kick them. Oh, they're kids. They can't stop you. Yep. Hold it above your head. They can't reach it.

No, it is extremely grim. And there seems to be no indication from the Republicans of the Trump administration that they are going to work with the Democrats to resolve this without sacrificing health care for millions of Americans. Yeah. So Gavin Newsom, a friend of the show, has deployed the California National Guard to assist food banks in the state. Oh, my God.

Yeah, like, look, the thing is when you participate in the largest crackdown on protected First Amendment speech in recent history, you don't get to show up and hand out snacks and feel good. And many food banks, including some in the Bay Area, have refused the help of National Guard members, right? Because they have this very obvious concern that some people might be reluctant to go to places where the soldiers who are standing right next to all the different immigration agents in L.A. are now working.

And so this will have the opposite of a positive effect in those instances, right? People are afraid to go to food banks and going to remain hungry. The consequences of this will be negative. Like the issue, I don't think, is a lack of person power. The issue is a lack of funding. The state has mobilized $80 million in funds, but millions of Californians will be going hungry. And because of the failure of state authorities to stop federal authorities

deploying the National Guard to L.A. and to other areas where immigration enforcement was happening, this stunt that Newsome is going for could have very negative consequences for food banks and for Californians who are hungry. Something sick and cool you can do if you have the means and the time is to pick up food from food banks for people who need it. A lot of people might be concerned. One of the biggest problems is how much food banks get food also through these programs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean support, yeah, food banks themselves are going to be struggling right now. So, like, I actually, I did a thread on blue sky where, uh, were you going to say

Lyft footer and then corrected to blue sky? I was going to say Lib Sky. Um, yeah, yeah, I fact checked myself. Uh, it's blue wave sky. There you go. You cannot get that past me. I could pick up on what you were doing immediately. Garrison Davis, like a viper struck.

Yeah, the core of my thought process. Yeah. So if you're on Skeeter, then you can find a little thread I'm made. I'll link in the show notes with food banks that are looking for donations, and you can also use that to find a food bank in your area if you're interested in that. But yeah, this is a serious problem. This should be the biggest news story. I'm thinking particularly of those folks in Alaska, right,

who found themselves as climate refugees due to this storm, right, which flooded their villages, and now not only facing the loss of their villages and their homes, but also all their cashed food. These are people who often would have hunted or fished or relied on storing food for the winter and now finding themselves then able to access federal benefits. Doing the thing that like, there's a representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana made a tweet today blaming snap recipients for not stockpiling a month's worth of food. Does he understand how this works? He said, try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4,200,

which is what people get on average per year, he says with SNAP benefits, in properly shopped groceries. Any American who's been receiving $4,200 per year of free groceries and does not have at least one month of grocery stock should never again receive SNAP because, wow, stop smoking crack. That's inhumane. Dealing with the shit that they talk about is almost pointless

because they're all liars. But like what you said, like people are on SNAP for a wide variety of reasons. they're largely employed. They're just not getting enough money to actually, like, survive and feed their family. And, like, the $4,200 a year for a family is not, in fact,

enough to stockpile a huge quantity of food. No, it's not. Like, it's remarkable how to attach the people who make our laws are from. Yeah. The working class experience. There is no way that guy knows how much a banana costs.

No way. Zero. No, he has no. idea. That man isn't shopped for himself in fucking 20 years. Yeah, yeah, that guy does not know how much it costs to buy a mac and cheese for your kids. And obviously, you know, we hear, we talk about storing food, about canning your own food, and there are things you can do even on a budget when you don't have much money to build a stockpile. And that's why I encourage people to pay attention to things like prices at the grocery store when things are a lot cheaper because

they're in season and learn how to do things like pressure can, right? And pickle different foods because there's there are ways that you can and this is why right it's not because you should be doing that of your irresponsible it's because we even when it comes to the social safety net you know that we have what little of one that we have you can't rely on it because at any given point it could become a fucking fucking football for Democrats and Republicans to fight over and go away right like none of this stuff is reliable which is why people ought to if it's at all possible be doing stuff like that, right? Not because they should have to do that,

but because you cannot rely on the government, right? And I don't say that as like a critique of people or to like shit on people. It's just like it's a fact. It's the fact that people need to increasingly accept because this is not going to be getting better in the long run. Yeah.

Let's talk about Graham Platner. All right. Oh, God. All right, let's do it. Talking about a touch of politicians. A couple of weeks ago, James brought up Graham Platner, who is running for Congress in Maine and some ads that he

had put out, which were really, and I still think our really good ads, not good ads in terms of, they were effective, objectively. He raised a lot of money. He was leading in the polls prior to us. We'll talk about a bunch of scandals coming out. He's no longer leading, but he was doing very well for a while.

So his campaign, the strategy that he was following, which was largely a mix of talking about and really pushing investments in social programs, and particularly health care, and attacking the billionaire class in very stark terms, talking about the need to effectively get rid of that as a group of people, like tax them out of existence. That's a popular, you know, and a good thing to campaign on.

And the success that he had early on is evidence that there's a lot of legs to talking about that kind of stuff in the way that he did. And he talked about it in a very combative way, right? This guy who was a former Marine, some sort of fisherman, I think, whatever kind of, he's like Oyster farmer, I think it's an oyster farmer or some shit. Whatever, they have up that nonsense state. Sorry, Maynites. And they're called maniacs, technically.

I think they're called Mainers. That can't be right, Garrison. So he was coming across as a very, like, blue collar guy, right? Like a very, and kind of crude, but crude in a like, I'm a straight talker sort of guy. And that worked. That was a good campaign. And we highlighted that because I think it struck, you know, James is the one who brought it to our attention, but I think it struck all of us as a, oh, yeah.

this is a guy who is kind of doing, talking to voters in a way that we wish more Democrats were, right? And then in the last couple of weeks, oh, God, so many scamps come out about this guy. The most well-known of them is that for the last 20 years of his life, he has had a Totenkov tattooed over his pectoral. That is the death's head. Now, it dates back before the Nazis. It was a, I don't know if this was the very first use of it, but the very first prominent use of it in military history, was as the insignia for a unit called the Death's Head Hussars, which was an elite German cavalry unit.

I mean, I'm sure I think they did still exist in World War I, but that was well past their prime. And it was then adopted by the SS. And it was worn by a number, by a lot of guys in the SS, but it was specifically the insignia of a unit called the Totenkov SS, which existed to guard concentration camps and death camps. So having one tattooed on you, bad. Yeah, not cool. Platner has said, basically, it was a dumb tattoo I got when I was young and just joining the Marine Corps, and I didn't know what it meant. And I am willing to believe that, like, a 19-year-old who joins the Marines would make a bad tattoo decision.

Because I have a lot of friends that were in the Marines, and they all have bad tattoos. Right? None of them have death heads. Also, you got it, well, in, like, Croatia, well, drunk with other Marines. I believe, yeah. And... Right. And he was hammered.

And, yeah, the probability of walking into a tattoo shop in Croatia and coming out with a Nazi tattoo is extremely high. Sure. Yeah. It's not low. Yeah, yeah. They're on the flash seat for Friday the 13th. They probably are.

If it had just come out that he'd had this for some period of time, being like, yeah, I got like, I was hammered in Croatia and I got a fucked up tattoo and realized it and got it covered, I'd have been like, not a story, right? like man gets bad tattoo as dumb kid but number one he kept it to he got it covered in like the last week or so let me tell you that was a real piece of art that he covered it with

which is a wild choice to just keep it for that long but also he claimed I had no idea until it like came out as a story because I forget what outlet but some news outlet found out that he had it and was going to publish it I think his team told Pod Save America

when he went on the Pod Save America when he went on the Pod Save America pod. Yeah, but he had heard that there was opposition research. Yeah. Yeah, because he had sent out to like another thing that he went on, like a picture of him with his shirt off, and they were like, wait, what? Like, there were a few of them floating around, huh?

If you've lived that kind of life, there's going to be pictures of you with the shirt off, you know, like. The refusing to acknowledge, yeah, I knew earlier in my life that it was a death. head and like there's reports from people who knew him that he called it a totengoff and joked about it i didn't know that let me be clear i don't actually think let graham is a secret nazi sleeper agent i i really don't i think he's a guy with really questionable judgment which is reason you know to be very critical of his campaign and uh yeah i i i take a lot

of issue with how he's responded to this because rather than again just kind of doing a mea coppa he's gone on the This is My Enemies in the Democratic Party trying to silence me thing And a very weird coalition Has propped up kind of around him Trying to argue that this is A circular firing squad kind of deal

Like there was a Jacobin article Being like it's fucked up That people are going after Graham And the Pod Save guys are defending him Like it is a weird coalition That's circling around this fella What do you think that Joe Rogan of the left meant Vives essay

We wanted a guy who took loads of steroids and didn't have problematic opinions. I'm never going to say this in any other instance about Joe Rogan, but he wouldn't have gotten that tattoo because he knows what a death is. I don't know if he knew in like 2007 or whatever. I think there's a very strong alternate world where 2007 Joe Rogan is traveling in Croatia. Joe Rogan gets a totem cough. And also accidentally gets a totem cob tattoo. It's not impossible.

You're right, you're right. I guess I'm just assuming he's watched enough World War II documentaries to know. Yeah, but watching those while, like, smoking weed, so he doesn't remember anything. That's fair. These are fair points you're making, Garrison. So a couple of surprising things about this, and this is not the only scandal that's kind of come out about him recently. But number one, it did not immediately take a strong hit to his polling. This seems to be primarily just because a lot of voters aren't aware of it.

because in polls where they at where they inform people that he had a Nazi tattoo, his support drops dramatically by like 30 points. That said, he was leading until like two or three days ago,

I think was the most recent poll that came out that had a main governor, Janet Mills, in the lead above him. We're not talking about the main race. We're still in the primary, right?

So he's challenging Janet Mills for the primary. Sure. And yeah, at present, according to SoCal Strategies, who did a poll, very recently, and this is the most recent poll. Mills has 41% from likely voters, and Platner has

36%, although about a fifth of respondents are undecided. And yeah, this is a pretty dramatic upset because prior to the whole Nazi tattoo news coming out, Platner was leading Mills by about 34 points. So this has gone from Platner look to have it in the bag to it's pretty close. Mills is ahead, not by a lead that's so commanding that it's a definite thing, you know, A standard polling error could have them basically be neck and neck. And we all should know at this point how frequently that kind of stuff happens. Yeah, polling. Never wrong.

But yeah. So, I don't know, it's one of those. Somebody got angry at us on the subreddit being like, I can't believe they're hiding that, like, this has happened, you know, with this guy that they endorsed. Like, no, we didn't endorse him. And number two, like, this shit was breaking when we were recording the ED last week. We made, like, a reference about it. but not much had come out, and there certainly hadn't been time

for us to really look into what was going on here. And it's not, this is a main Senate primary. This is not like the very top of our list of crucial things to hit the second it happens. We can wait on something like this

to see how stuff's shaking out a little bit. No one's voting yet, so it's not like we're influencing the election by not coming out or whatever. Yeah, like, we only get to cover so much. We have one hour of like news roundup show a week. And the blue sky Twitter drama about Graham Planner is not as important as the fact that millions of people are losing their food this week. No.

One thing that is interesting, and I do think this is an important race just because of kind of what it says about what sort of strategies are working now and igniting the base and what kind of stuff does matter in terms of scandals. I think there are some things that are really relevant here. One thing that is interesting to me is that according to a poll, a very recent poll, the article came on October 26th, 2025. a majority of young Democrats still back Grand Platner even after the whole tattoo thing. And this is really interesting to me because the data shows that in general among likely voters, his potential support plummets when people are made aware that he had the tattoo. But young Democrats are by far the group most likely to have become aware of it as soon as the story broke because young people are much more online than older people. And among young people, he's still well ahead, which I really just do think.

speaks more than anything to the strength of the rhetoric he has been using the platform that he came out the gate with it's and the rhetoric right his combative rhetoric is really attractive to young voters especially explain your generation to us garrison why you like this i mean there there there's a lot of stuff that the zoron campaign kind of like ignited around yeah no you're you're right exactly absolutely rhetoric and then you know Sanders and aOC had their like anti- oligarchy tour which i mean i i we don't need to like debate like the the use of like that term. But no, there is a huge frustration at the geriatric Democratic Party.

And this sort of populist rhetoric is very popular among young people, as it has been since the Sanders campaign in 2016. This isn't like newer revolutionary information. The fact that this guy has gotten to this point has gotten either past scandals or navigating through it despite his like, you know, very questionable background, military in military private contracting, his misogynistic Reddit posts, which were unearthed

as like an attack against him, which I think he actually handled that scandal fairly well, using it as a parallel to chart his like own political journey. So, yeah, I can understand why a whole bunch of young people who are reading about this

aren't going to actually care at all about any of these stories and still vote for him because of what he's saying. Yeah, and I want to be clear. I didn't bring this up Because I think it's bad, even that, like, young people are still supporting him. I think this is something that people, especially in the Democratic Party, who care about winning, and I think it's people on the left who are trying to look at what can we do to get more progressive and combative candidates who are going to do something, both about the right and about the billionaire class.

What can we do to actually, like, when you should be paying attention to this because this rhetoric works. and because surely there's one other guy who can say these things that there's got to be another guy without a Nazi tattoo who can say this stuff right? Sure you can find one person who could use rhetoric as good on camera and has not had a

Totenkov tattooed on their chest for almost 20 years. Yeah and also the most wild part about this I don't even think is that it's that this guy was in Blackwater like so it's kind of it's Constellate But he calls it Blackwater. He was...

Yeah, that's the other scandal. Please, let's... He deployed to Afghanistan for Blackwater in 2018. That was the first Trump administration. No one in any point in this process went, hold on, wait, this guy went to fight in Afghanistan. Like, in 2018? Like, they prosecuted the guys from... Nisar Square.

From the Nassar Square Massacre, yeah, after the Square. Those people got prosecuted four years before that, and he joined Blackwater in 2018. And to be clear, because this is something James brought up when we talked about this in our chat previously, he didn't technically join Blackwater because Blackwater has changed its name, and I think merged with a couple of countries.

It was a different name. But, to be fair to me, he called it Blackwater. He said that I worked for Blackwater. there's a way in which like I'm okay with people fucking up if they acknowledged they fucked up right like I'm okay with him saying I did this and it was wrong

so I left and I regret doing it I mean that that is what he's saying though it was specifically after this deployment yes that this is where he says that like this marked his like political radicalization or like during the path of like how he viewed his life in politics

specifically was negative experiences during this deployment yeah yeah And I guess that is something I have really complicated opinions on because I'm not and I really have a lot of issues with folks on the left who are like anyone who was ever in the military is forever baby killer and deeply like I think that's yeah deeply deeply unsurious and incredibly counterproductive and I don't I think that like it's good that someone can do something as fucked up as joined Blackwater and realize that they did a horrible thing and changed. Maybe doing it in 2018 is too recently for me to want him in Congress as a progressive. I don't know. Yeah. It was like, that was, it was like a decade after, like, he was one of the, so he wasn't one of the, like, the torture guards. No, no.

Like, when he was a Marine, he was, like, one of the guys who was, like, assigned to guard Abu Ghraib. Yeah. Like, technically after the torture scandal. But it's like, it took you, it took you, like, a decade after that. Yeah. Is that maybe the thing I'm doing is bad. Like, I. I just, oh, God.

Well, yeah, and that's, that's kind of like the, because I don't, you know, I don't think, having been stationed to guard a place where horrible thing, like war crimes were committed, necessarily dams you forever, because, like, you don't choose where you're stationed to guard. Who knows when he became aware what was going on in the place he was guarding, but at some point he did. And that wasn't like the moment where he was like, oh, fuck, you know. And I, again, I have a lot of friends.

I have friends who were with the very first infantry unit into Iraq, one of whom, as they were invading, was like, you know, this is criminal guys, right? You know, we're breaking, you know, this is fucked up. You know, this war's bullshit. Pat Tillman was saying that, right? Like, during the invasion. This guy, this guy shipped out in 2016. Yeah.

Like, it took him a, I would I represent him. It took a minute. It took a minute. It took a minute. And also, when you read his interviews about it, he's like, I did it because it was fun which is just like that's that's honest yeah it's honest it makes me insane look i mean that's that's why people join the marines is they like money and or their adrenaline jockeys right i'd rather he was honest about that shit actually like like i yeah it's just like distressing i i i actually

like that and again i i do kind of like because there's not a there's not a perfect answer as to like well when should you have had a change of heart about something like this before you can, like, be trusted as a political leader on the left. And I actually don't really know. I think I would be inclined to be, like, give him the benefit of the doubt on that stuff more if it weren't for the Nazi tattoo. Yeah, if Nazi tattoo plus shift out with Blackwater, 2018, like, hold on, those things together are kind of sketchy. Maybe do a couple of tours as a dog catcher first. Like, you know, I'm seeing a lot of, because there's a whole lot of like, well, no one else who has a chance of winning in Maine is supporting the progressive policies he is, you know, you can't have it all be perfect or whatever. He's, you know, we should at least hope that he gets in and he does the things he's saying. And I guess like if he does get elected and it's not the most likely thing right now, but it's certainly not impossible. I guess I hope he does the good stuff he says that he's done. I just have a lot less faith.

in that, given both what's come out and his reaction to it, right? It's his reaction to it. It was really disqualifying for me. Like, there's a world I guess, I didn't know that he told people it was a totem cough. That's pretty fucking incriminating, but... Yeah, there's reports from people who've said that. It's unclear.

Okay, there's reports. Got it. We don't know objectively, but people have talked to the press who knew him and said that he described it as a toten cough to them several years ago. Okay, yeah. If his response had been like, oh, fuck, I didn't know. Let me get that code up in immediately.

But his response was so bad to defend it and to be like, there's a conspiracy against me. It's really bad. It's that failure. And it also just shows like a lack of judgment and a lack of ability to like be critical of his own actions, which is worrying. It shows the kind of Trumpian fancifulness that really worries me. Yeah.

Demagoguery kind of thing. A lot of populists are like this. Like this is, this is a part of populism. I don't think you can fully decouple it. That's probably true, Garrison. That's probably true, but I don't know. I'm not going to tell you how to vote. I've made a habit of never telling people how to vote.

So if you're in Maine, enjoy your Mc Lobster and do whatever your heart tells you is the right thing to do, my friend. But also, please don't eat a Mc Lobster. It's clearly poisoned, you know, avoid a McLobsters at all costs. Yeah, buy an oyster instead. The strongest endorsement, Robert Evans, can make. Yeah.

Is it not buy a Mclobster? Yeah. Avoid a McLobster at all costs. Yeah, if you're on the West Coast, avoid shellfish in some months at all costs because you can get paralytic shellfish poison. Oh, yeah. I mean, some people, that's just basically getting free muscle relaxers, James. Let's do it out, break.

For muscle relaxers. Okay. Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, Here We Go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer,

and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lily Singh, and Bill Nye.

When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon.

This person writes, My neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult? Hold up, Sophia. A real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue.

But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling, and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did, and now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways, all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult 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 podcasts. What's up everybody? This is Snacks from the TrapMirr's podcast, and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long. Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear-inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Silent Hill, me and Tony bringing back fire team on Left for Dead too. and we're just going to be going over some of the greats. Also in October, we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movie and figure out why black people always got to die further.

The umbral reliquary invites any and all fooling, brave enough, to peruse its many curiosities. But take heed, all sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly. With a full episode read and a commentary special. And we will cap it all. with horror movie battle royale Jason versus Freddie Michael Myers

versus the 80th thing with the little tongue muster October, we're doing it Halloween style listen to the Trabner's podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHard Radio app

Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts A combat surgeon with secrets a world built on power and privilege and the most unexpected creative duo of the year as an actor for so many years

I would always walk into other people stories and they thought well why don't I give it a shot You know, and try write up my thought. This week, bookmarked by Reese's Book Club goes live from Apple Soho in New York City with Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben,

the powerhouse team behind Gone Before Goodbye. Now a New York Times bestseller. I think we both knew right away that this was going to happen. It's a conversation about fear, ambition, and what happens when two master storytellers collide? I'd never seen a woman in kind of a James Bond world. Come for the chills. and stay for the surprises

and find out why readers can't put it down. Listen to Bookmarked by Rees's Book Club on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are back. Can I do my Halloween ice, Nazi?

Sure. Bovino segment. Is that how you say his name, Bovino? Great. Gregory Bovino. It looks like a Bovino to me. Sure, why not.

So we're going to talk about him playing dress-up and how Border Patrol disrupted a Halloween parade. So last weekend, while conducting an immigration enforcement reign, Border Patrol disrupted the route of a children's Halloween parade in Old Irving Park in Chicago, using tear gas and arresting several people, including two U.S. citizens. A crowd gathered around after Border Patrol arrested a 35-year-old construction worker who is lived in Chicago since he was four years old. Jesus. Neighborhood residents said that federal agents then deployed tear gas without warning.

That following Tuesday, the architect of Operation Midway Blitz, Greg Bovino, appeared in federal court as a part of a lawsuit alleging excessive force and violations of a TRO restricting the use of tear gas and crowd control munitions. Bovino seems to be flagrantly violating this TRO. as he was photographed personally throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd in October 22nd during a raid on a laundromat and Home Depot. The DHS says that protesters were throwing rocks and Border Patrol issued warnings, though this account is contradicted by video of the incident. U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis told the Border Patrol chief, quote,

kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of law enforcement officers, they just don't, and you can't use riot control weapons against them, unquote. This TRO requires that crowd control munitions may only be used if someone poses an immediate threat to law enforcement, with agents instructed to give two verbal warnings before tear gas or pepper spray can be deployed, and to wear body cams, badges, or visible IDs. This order was issued on October 9th, and to get an idea of how closely this is being followed, but Vino himself still does not wear a body cam, and told Judge Ellis, quote, I have not received a body-worn camera, nor the training, unquote.

Yeah, so Border Patrol agents have generally, just to give some context here, not worn, body-worn cameras for a number of reasons. Firstly, they just don't want to. Secondly, no one is making them. Thirdly, they believe that it is possible for people to detect the Bluetooth signal that the camera gives out and thus find them. This is something that is theoretically possible, as best my research can take. you can make your own judgment as to which those factors is weighing most heavily on their choice,

not to wear them, but that they have never been required, like, as a group to wear body-worn cameras all the time. No. This judge is trying to force them to. They're just refusing to follow the order, despite Bevino saying that 99% of agents have these cameras, which is a bizarrely specific claim. Yeah, like... Yeah, is he the 1%?

Like, I guess He's just so obviously lying. It's just, oh, God. Yeah, it's just, it's lying. I think that should be enough to say. Yeah, I don't know if I said they'd never wear them. To be clear, they have gone forward and back on wearing them, but it was earlier this year the specific security risk.

They have access to the cameras. Yes, yes. They're just refusing to follow this order. Yeah, yeah. Now, the same complaint that alleged, that Bovino threw a canister with a justification into this crowd. Also details an incident from the next day, October 23rd, where agents, without wearing identification, as required by the order,

shot a protester in the neck with a pepperball from five feet away, and while driving away, pointed a pepperball gun, and I'm going to read from the complaint, quote, and then a real gun at declarant Chris Gentry, a combat veteran who was lawfully standing on the side of the road, voicing his opposition as agents were driving by in their vehicles. the agent who pointed the real gun at Mr. Gentry's face said, quote, bang, bang, you're dead liberal, unquote.

Great. Cool. Anyway, plaintiffs have requested body cam footage of this incident, which has yet to be provided. Yeah, and I think it's worth noting that they do this every single time there is any kind of protest. They do stuff like this. They've been pointing guns at people the entire time. They've been here. They've been putting a lot of guns the past few ones. As we have reported, they have, they have shot two people.

They've shot more than two people, yeah. Yeah. That saying something like this is insane. Yeah, no, yeah. It shows obviously like a complete lack of concern for accountability, right? No. Like, like absolutely no thought that you could be held accountable for this. Yeah.

No, it also shows a desire to kill liberals. Yes, yeah. Which liberals need to be aware of. I mean, yeah. Yeah. You can't let this organization continue to exist, nor can you let the people doing this stay free if you ever take power again. There has to be accountability, and there has to be an end to the ability of any law enforcement agency to exist knowing that they are unaccountable and cannot be punished for the violence that they do to civilians. Yeah, I guess I'll take this point to mention that we have come.

covered CBP and DHS's previous shootings in previous years, and the internal review process they have for those which has led to a lack of accountability, even when compared to other law enforcement officers. Yeah. During this hearing this last Tuesday, the judge declined to alter the TRO to ban the use of tear gas completely, saying that she believes Bovino, quote, understands where I'm coming from, and quote, I don't know that we're going to see a whole lot of tear gas being deployed over the next week, unquote. Cool. Great. Amazing, amazing stuff coming out of our judiciary.

Greg's picking up on the vibe, so we should be fine now. Yeah, this Bonvino guy seems incredibly trustworthy, though Judge Ellis did instruct Vivino to meet with her every weekday evening throughout Operation Midway Blitz till the next hearing in November to provide instant briefings on use of force. Though just one day later, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Judge Ellis's order requiring these daily reports. In some other Bovino moves. Earlier this week, news broke that top ice field office chiefs are set to be reassigned and replaced by Senior Border Patrol and CBP officials, with the goal of netting more arrests to boost deportation numbers. Yeah. So the role of Border Patrol generally is to patrol the physical border

and to do enforcement in that 100-mile border zone, right, the role of ice. The majority of ICE agents are not the people that you see out there jumping out of cars and doing these, these smasher grabs, right? The majority of ICE agents, people who will work in office who will check in with migrants through their intensive supervision program, which is one of their quote unquote alternatives to detention, right? Both of these agencies, you know, are relatively aligned with what I'll call like Donald Trump's agenda. But Border Patrol particularly has made a name for itself. Like Bovino himself and other Border Patrol chiefs were, there was a time when it looked like they were going to force Bovino to retire. And that time was

23, a briefing against a Biden administration, right? Bavino has been kind of particularly emblematic of this new Border Patrol approach. And it is particularly BP that has been aligned. Just with a lot of things that, you know, they had issues getting people vaccinated, right? Like with this whole kind of political social milieu that is representative of the modern right, we see with ICE agents, like some of these people, I'm not. I'm going to say they joined, like, looking to help, you know, make the world a happy place. But, like, they are, they are reasonable civil servants, right?

Like, I've talked to plenty of migrants who have gone to there, and, you know, and you'll hear from some of them in a scripted series next month. Gone to their eyes check-ins have been, like, that was fine, that person was professional, that they seemed genuinely concerned for things I'm facing. And, you know, I was not unduly harassed made to feel uncomfortable, et cetera, et cetera. Now, the Border Patrol agents are, like, particularly brutal. I have not heard that same. That was a reasonable professional about Border Patrol agents from migrants.

Yeah. Border Patrol also has a pretty high churn, right? So they have a lot of people who have joined since, let's say, the first Trump admin. Yeah. And that may kind of change things because those people are joining specifically because they want to fuck with migrants. And while that's always been a thing for Border Patrol, a lot of people joined Border Patrol because it's the easiest way to become technically a federal agent? Yeah.

And it can be a path to becoming a better kind of federal agent. Sure. It's a career thing, which is part of why there's so much churn, part of why. BP, just to like characterize some of the issues the organization has had, right, has consistently offered waivers for the academic qualifications that other agencies would not offer waivers for. They have a problem, a serious problem with sexual assault, not just of migrants, but of women in the Border Patrol.

They call the women in the Border Patrol the Fierce 5%. because this is an agency that has not succeeded in getting more than 5% of its agents to be women. Like, it is an agency that has, I guess, for one of the better term, radicalized, even, even, you know, within DHS agencies. Yeah. I mean, all of the most brutal incidents of use of force in, like, Portland in 2020, that came from Fed's was Border Patrol. That was Bortek. Yeah, Bortak. Yeah.

I would encourage people if they want to get a sense of how Border Patrol sees itself, to go to the social media page that Bovino curates and has curated for a while to look and again he was my understanding like hemmed up for his social media post in the Biden administration he's obviously not being restrained in that way now

go and look at I think it's called Border Patrol Special Operations Command or DHS Special Operations Command which includes Bortak go and look at their pages right like these guys they see themselves in the realm of like a military branch or a paramilitary police

And that is what they're doing in Chicago. Yeah. NBC is reporting that the White House has approved the reassignment of at least a dozen directors of ICE field offices with sources telling Fox News that the cities will include Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Philadelphia, El Paso, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, and New Orleans. This is almost half of the ICE field offices in the country. This turnover is being orchestrated by DHS Secretary Christine Nome and DHS Senior Advisor. Corey Lewandowski with some of the replacements being hand-picked

by Bovino. This is like Bovino being able to shape ice how he sees fit using his border patrol like background. And these changes are reportedly motivated on differing views on tactics across agency leadership with the ICE strategy

and the Tom Homan strategy of focusing on targeted removal of known criminals or immigrants with pre-existing deportation orders. versus the Border Patrol tactic of doing these large sweeps and round-ups around places like Home Depot, laundromats, restaurants,

neighborhoods, urban centers. So Bovino has been on this for a minute, right? Like, I'm now realizing we need to cover his career in more depth. But like I've seen this, oh, where did Bovino come from stuff? In 2010, when he was out of the Blythe Border Patrol station, I believe, Blythe, California, for those not familiar, Bovino was part of a raid on bus and train stations in Las Vegas, right? Like these broader kind of drag nets have been something that he seems to have,

there have been a characteristic of his career, right? So that would make sense for him to be the guy advocating for this now. The official statement made by DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin at this point says, quote, while we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump administration remains laser-focused on delivering results removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country. She followed up this statement with a tweet,

naming a whole bunch of people involved in all of these news stories, including Bovino and, like, praising them for their patriotism. Let's take a look at two pictures of Bovino here for his courtroom attire. Who wants to describe what Bovino is wearing here? It looks like a statue of Stalin. He looks like a guy in the SS is dressed. as a guy in the SS for Halloween.

I don't think it's very stolid. I think it's very German, actually. That is an SS-looking coat. I'm sorry. It's intense. He has the little stars on his collar. And yeah, this, this, like, boxy wool trench coat, it's very, with the, like, shaved sides of his head, it's very clear what he is trying to evoke.

This is a little bit coy, but, like, come on. come on dude and to follow this up like DHS is really is really pushing Bevino now as like the face of this mass deportation push and they're making fucking like

Fashwave hype edit reels of show it go out it's mad of Bovino and I will I'll play the whole thing but really it's the first two seconds that demonstrate what's what's going on here this will be linked in the notes I didn't realize it was

I had never listened to that Yeah, that's a choice We're not going to play much that audio Garrison, we're going to play all of that audio We are not playing 30 seconds of copyrighted audio But just the first, literally the first two seconds of him doing what is very clearly a C. Kyle and then transferring it in just like military hand signals.

But like, come on, dude. And then throughout this, the rest of the little Fashwave edit, it's like pictures of him in his like, you know, tactical gear. And then pictures of him in what I would describe as an SS-inspired military dress uniform with the little, you know, the stars, the trench coat. It's like very clear what he's doing.

DHS Twitter account has been doing these little cute Nazi posts for a long time now. They know what they're doing. Yeah. But specifically, this now being like the new kind of face of this whole operation, both by

playing a hand in restructuring the leadership of ICE and deploying to the forefront of places like Chicago as he leads and orchestrates the mass deportation operation. Yeah. Like Operation Midway Blitz? Like Blitz? Really blitz? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting.

Un-fucking believable. The fact that this guy was not canned by any previous Democrat administration, like abolishing ICE is obviously like not enough here because as we're talking about the way that like Border Patrol has actually been the ones leading the most brutal of these raids.

I think like there is a specific focus on like ice because that's like a safer target, I get. Like it feels like because like people know what you're talking about. All of DHS we need to get rid of. Yeah, the fact that this guy wasn't fired is going to be looked back upon in the same way that, like, Allende promoting Pinochet is looked back on. Just. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, how, how else do you describe it?

Yeah, like, if there was going to be a free country, all of this shit, all of the DHS agencies, all of this needs to cease to exist as a minimum, and these people need to be, like, hold in front of a, Nuremberg Tribunal and that's the minimum viable there might be a democracy after that. We need so many Nuremberg's. Yeah. And like it's not I don't want to gloat about this. It's not hard

to have seen this coming. We have talked about this for years right. Yeah. This began in the 1990s with Operation Gatekeeper, Operation Hold the Line. We've documented this extensively. We've documented the fact that under the Biden

administration, there was virtually no oversight, right? That they were able to detain people outdoors without food, water, or shelter, and deny that those people were detained. This is all stuff that we've covered. If it wasn't in your news diet, then you should question the news sources that you were using, but, like, it was very easy to see this coming. And as Mia said, very little was done to prevent it during the last four years. Yep.

And somewhat more amusing news during the ongoing tribut. over the different federal agents deployed to Portland and the necessity of that federal deployment and potentially the mobilization of National Guard troops in Oregon being sent to Portland, which is still being fought over in the courts. Portland police were brought up on the stand and testified that during one night out at ICE, federal officers gassed Portland police

and fired pepper balls at one officer. And when Portland Police confronted federal, not ice, sorry, but these are federal FPS agents outside of the ICE building. Yeah. And when Portland Police confronted the FPS agents afterwards, they responded, help or get out of the way. And this is simply, there's no actual, there's no rules of engagement, right? Rules of engagement for, you know, soldiers and the like are supposed to be. Stuff like, you don't fire until a certain standard of danger. exists right you don't you there are rules at which point you are allowed to engage with which

kinds of weapons right your ROE may say one thing about using a nightstick or or mace and it will say something else about using tear gas or whatever uh there's no actual ROE for these guys they're allowed to just kind of fire whenever they want and they're not well trained they're not very good at what they do most of them have not actually had the kind of training agreement supposed to have with these weapon systems they're using And they're just kind of firing willy-nilly, which is why they've been hitting cops repeatedly. Most FBS agents are contractors. They're not full-time, nor enforcement offices.

Right. Talking of things that it would have been easy to see coming, I want to talk about ICE's facial recognition app. So I've seen a piece in 404 Media. 404 Media is the most annoying outlet to read pieces in because they will send you 17 emails a day. 404Media suggests that ICE is claiming, a facial recognition match in its app Mobile Fortify is a definitive determination of somebody's status. They're quoting here, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Benny G. Thompson, as saying, quote, mobile fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ice, and it puts American citizens a risk of detention and even deportation.

He also said that, quote, ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a definitive determination of a person's status, and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship, including a birth certificate, if the app says the person is an alien, ICE using a mobile biometrics app in this way, in ways it's developers that CBP never intended or tested is a frightening repugnant and unconstitutional attack on Americans' rights and freedoms.

Thompson is misguided if he thinks that, like, this is new. It is new in that it has impacted U.S. citizens. Yes. This article, for reasons I cannot explain, does not mention CBP1, right? This is often a case on immigration reporting that we see now. It's completely lacking in context. The context here is that CBP1 is an app developed in the first Trump administration. It's often referred to as a Biden app because the definitive political question of our time is who was president in 2020. There's just no way to know. It's impossible to say. You can't. There's no data on.

on anything happening that far back. Unfortunately, I have a new one, which is more recent, which we're going to talk about next. GROC, is this, is this real? Yeah, but CBP1 was effectively determinative for migrants, right? We've covered this in great detail here. There were some public records about CBP1 that I've looked at extensively. It did sort of too long, didn't read versionist.

The app did not work well on Android phones, especially previous generation Android phones, which are very common among people coming from the global south. The facial liveness scan, so what the facial liveness scan does is that, let's say, Robert is coming to the US, right? They wanted to check that the phone is being held by Robert, that it's not been held,

and someone's not holding up a photograph of Robert in front of the camera. Right. So you sort of move it around, and it determines that it's a real 3D face, not a photograph. It really struggled with black faces. I've seen this firsthand. All this stuff does.

It's the same thing with like how there have been like motion-activated faucets and stuff that wouldn't recognize dark scale. Yeah, it's a data set that they put in, right, to my understanding. The results of those scans were determinative for migrants, right? It could determine their ability to make an asylum appointment and therefore to enter the US and make a claim for asylum. This caused people to remain in various, very dangerous situations. it has probably led to people dying.

It's another example of why we have to pay attention to the border if we want to know what's coming down the pipe domestically. And talking of shit that is coming down the pipe from the border domestically, I want to talk about public lands again because Utah Senator Mike Lee is back on his bullshit. This time he has another bill. People will remember that Mike Lee tried to insert in the budget reconciliation bill a massive sell-off of public lands, right?

And what Lee does is he uses whatever terminology he thinks will make people support this crusade he has against land zoned by the public fair if we want to access. The last time, he tried to wrap it up in language about affordable housing. If you read the bill, you would have seen that it wasn't going to result in any affordable housing.

This time, he's wrapping it up in the language of border security. And this is where we're going to return to the defining. political question about time who is president, because Lee, who introduced a bill in October of 2025, said, and I quote, Biden's open border chaos is destroying Americans' crown jewels. Families who want to enjoy a safe hike or camp out are instead finding trash piles, burned landscapes, and trails closed because rangers are stuck clearing up the fallout. Cartels are exploiting the disorder using these lands as cover for their operation.

This bill gives land managers and border agents the tools to do. to restore order and protect these places for the people they were meant to serve. Diligent observers will notice that Biden is no longer the president of the United States. And further diligent observers will notice that many people currently working for the federal government on public lands are being laid off or furloughed due to the government shutdown. What Lee's bill would do is allow DHS to identify illegal roads in public land areas. and then to upgrade them to navigable roads. This is important because the 1964 Wilderness Act

doesn't allow motorized access to wilderness areas. And what Lee is proposing is that they would identify these illegal roads within a hundred-mile zone. He is proposing a blanket change to the 1964 Wilderness Act to allow the construction of roads, which would completely change the nature of wilderness in the United States And, like, sometimes a slippery slope argument can also be a fallacy, but in this case, building roads into the wilderness will permanently change the nature of that wilderness and will lead to other losses of protection on public land. Lee makes the argument that it's important for search and rescue and for border access.

There is already mechanized access for search and rescue, right? Like search and rescue helicopters, for instance, can access wilderness areas, that they have agreements in place with land management agents. agencies, which allow them to do this already when there is a risk to human life. The bill also talks about removing invasive species and reducing fire risk by removing fire fuels down by the border. Again, I'm guessing what this would do would be. I mean, if you fire fuels, like look at the southern border near where I live, right? Like think of the California sagebrush chaparral, like clearing fire fuels there would completely change

that landscape forever. but it would remove much of the value that this wilderness has, not as untouched, right? People have lived in this area for 10th of thousands of years and that they have touched that nature and they have lived alongside it and worked with it, but it is an area that is significantly less damaged than most of the United States, right?

The bill would also inventory fires and damage to wilderness caused by migrants. I guess this is just an attempt to say another bad thing about migrants. It also prohibits any housing of migrants on federal lands unless it is in a prison. It's Lee taking this border hawk stuff and strapping it onto this crusade that he has been on for a long time to deprive people in the United States and people visiting the United States of access to their public lands and eventually to sell those lands off to the

highest bidder. He introduced it on October 2nd. It's in the committee stage right now. this probably is one of the things that folks could call a representative about and suggest it's a very bad idea. Talking bad ideas, Maduro has announced a formation of an international brigade to defend his incredibly corrupt regime in Venezuela. I say this is someone who has been to Venezuela and written a PhD about the Spanish Civil War. This is a very bad idea. Don't do this.

This is, this is, this is, this is, like, no, Maduro does not need you. help, fuck that guy. Talking of things that don't need your help, here are some adverts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself?

You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili,

Sing and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute. Sophia. You know she's a cult leader. Luckily, it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes,

My neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling, and her neighbors are not happy.

Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did, and now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So, do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult 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 podcasts.

What's up, everybody? This is Snacks from the Trap Nerds podcast, and we're bringing you the horror every week all October alone. Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you. you all my greatest fear-inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Silent Hill. Me and Tony Bringing Back Fire Team on Left for Dead 2. And we're just going to be going over some of the greats.

Also in October, we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movie and figure out why black people always got to die first. The umbral reliquary invites any and all fooling, brave enough, to peruse its many curiosities. But take heed, all sales are final. weekly horror side quest written and narrated by yours truly. With a full episode read and a commentary special. And we will cap it off with horror movie battle royale. Jason versus Freddie.

Michael Myers versus the 80th thing with the little tongue muster. October, we're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Trave nurse podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your broadcast. A combat surgeon with secrets, a world built on power and privilege, and the most unexpected creative duo of the year. As an actor for so many years, I would always walk into other people stories.

And I thought, well, why don't I give it a shot, you know, and try it right up my thought. This week, bookmarked by Reese's Book Club goes live from Apple Soho in New York City with Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, the powerhouse team behind Gone Before Goodbye, now a New York Times bestseller. I think we both knew right away that this was going to happen.

It's a conversation about, fear, ambition, and what happens when two master storytellers collide? I've never seen a woman in kind of a James Bond world. Come for the chills and stay for the surprises. And find out why readers can't put it down. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. the People's Republic of Venezuela under the bus like that, as they're

facing down war with the United States of America right now. Standing in the breach against imperialism, yeah, I read all about it. What happened is hashtag solidarity, James? Sorry, I read about it on the Grey Zone, and I'm changing my opinions having spent more time than

I'm sure half the staff of the Grey Zone in Venezuela. Speaking of spooky, the shit Trump's getting is part of parapheritiations. Woo. Rocky Casbah Rocky Casper Terry I don't like it

Rocky Casper Rocky Casper All right So as we talked about last week Trump has been in East Asia to do a bunch of meetings for conferences already happening And this is where

Terrific negotiations have been being handled This has been being held in South Korea South Korean president Lee J. Myeong presented Trump with South Korea's highest honor and also gave him a giant golden crown. Have you all seen the giant golden crown? It's that easy, folks.

All you got to do is all you got to do is just these little stupid things. And then he loves you. Giant gilded crown. I haven't seen the crown. I'm going to look at the crown right now. Look up the crown. I am beseeching you all.

I, however big you think this crown is, it is way larger than that. It is. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, it's, uh, Jesus. Wow. It's like the size of a fire hydrant. Yeah, yeah. Maybe they directly, uh, they directly took the one that they took from Prince Andrew

for being a nunce and melted it down or something. It's, it's really something. Now, now, Lee J. Myeong is a name you might recognize. because he's the guy who was famous for that video of climbing over the fence to stop the coup last year, and one year later he is giving Trump what I think might be the largest crown I have

ever seen. Now, this crown is being described as, quote, a gilded replica, so I don't know how much of this is actually gold. I suspect it's gold paint or whatever. I don't know. I do not have confirmation on it. But, you know, great, great things

happening in sort of like a revolutionary anti- coup movement. which has ended with giving Trump the giant golden crown. Yeah, and apparently they got like a kind of favorable sort of okay-ish kind of trade deal out of giving the president of the United States giant golden crown. So in terms of tariff news, while in China, Trump had his long-awaited meeting with Xi Jinping, they struck a deal. Trump decreased the quote-unquote fentanyl tariffs to 10 percent. which leaves the tariff rate for all Chinese goods at 47% down from its previous 57%. China has agreed to not do rare earth mineral restrictions that we talked about last week

and has also pledged to buy U.S. soybeans. Again, it's deeply unclear how much of this is actually going to happen. I think my guess is that they probably won't do the harshest of the rare mineral restrictions, but I will believe the soybean purchases when I see it, and I haven't seen it yet. there's also been some interesting news out of the Senate where there's been a couple of symbolic votes

against some sets of tariffs the Senate voted 50 to 46 to end the state of emergency that supposedly allows Trump to do the Canada tariffs and also voted to block tariffs against Brazil the four people

who voted against both of these who voted with the Democrats are Mitch McConnell Rand Paul, Susan Collins and Lisa Murowski which it kind of makes sense because Collins and Morowski are supposedly the two moderate

Rand Paul is like just hates tariffs He's a free trade hardliner who Whenever I talk about this I will say he has had As much as all of this is his fault He has had one great light ever Which is I have a trade deficit with my grocery store

It's like Actually really good Is he like an Austrian like economist Like libertarian type Like I know he's like a libertarian guy I'm just trying to figure out what specific flavor he is He's like an awesome he's like one of the Austrian like gold standards, but also

like those people are still free trade people like really hard line. The last time I heard Charlie Kirk talk in person. He was debating like five Austrian economists. Wow. The most annoying people in the entire world. I honestly I wouldn't wish that

on anyone. That sounds like you know, yeah. That sounds like why would you agree to do that? Especially if you're already rich I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Now, okay. It's also worth noting, though, that despite these votes, none of this is going to take effect because the House right now effectively does not exist as a legislative body.

It sure does it. Yeah, it doesn't exist in general because they keep not calling sessions. Because every time they try to call a session, the Democrats, in the one political theater thing that, like, is kind of a good idea, but they're still bad at it. They keep being like, you have to release the Epstein files, and the Republicans keep being like, no, so we kind of don't have a House of Representatives. I keep thinking about that one. seen from Mars attacks where the president's like, you've still got two out of three branches

of government, and that ain't bad. Yeah. Except in this case is very back. We basically have one branch of government. We have one branch of government. Yeah, we have one branch of governments. But that doesn't work as a Mars a tax joke. Yeah.

And also, it's worth noting the House voted to not allow any tariff legislation until March 26, a thing that it could apparently do. It is totally durable. Sure. Oh, wow. Yeah. You know, so speak of things that are turned. normal. We're going to close this with

Trump getting mad at Canada because he saw an ad they were running. I think they were the World Series that was, oh God. It was a bunch of clips of Ronald Reagan being like tariffs bad because Reagan's domestic protectionism took the form of currency devaluations and not tariffs

etc., etc. But like, yeah, and Trump saw this, lost his mind, said that it was AI. There's a whole saga here about him claiming that it was like also unauthorized usage of footage which is a fiasco and then also all of the the tariff negotiations that have been happening to the u.s and canada have been called off and he just put another 10% tariff on them because he was mad about it go jays which yeah totally

you know i i totally absolutely a thing that like an elected head of government does and not a a guy who just received in a massive golden crown oh garrison That's not a Blue Jays hat. But, you know, this is a Blue Jays hat, Mia? How fucking dare you try to, uh, she's playing my own, my own country to myself. Yeah, it's Toronto's team, right? Garrison's wearing a hat for those who are not working for Cool Zone media. Yes, it's the Toronto Blue Jays.

Oh my God. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Toronto Blue J. I thought it was the Toronto Blue Jays, yeah. Yeah, but there's not a J on it. Why? Well, no, it just has the maple leaf. But it's only three points.

It's not a, not a traditional maple leaf either. Are you going to she-splain my own country to me? Garrison, when it comes to birds and leaves. I am going to Canada's splayed to you. It rocks. Yeah, but that's fun. That's just how tariff policy is set now, is you pissed off the king,

and he decided to put a tariff. This is... I don't know. I don't really know how to do analysis of the fact that we just have a child king setting tariff policy, it's great. Look, quick fact check, do you read, can you read this? Oh, wow, it does say Blue Jays.

It does. Do you read this? Genuine MLB merchandise, okay? Wow. Wow. Yeah, no one would ever put that in fake MLB merchandise. It simply wouldn't be allowed. I've never seen any genuine MLB merchandise in markets in a rock, for example.

Yeah. Hey, I'm the owner of a proud thing. fix-and-shirt that I bought at a market and her bill. All right. All right, everybody. Okay. I think it's politically important

for the Blue Jays to win the World Series and contribute to the American Century of Humiliation. James, I still have my my Tumberland boots that I bought in Syria. I have a 5.1.1 jacket. Oh, and I've got a great Adodos track suit when I was in Istanbul. Do you want to do this?

That election monitoring right now or next week. Yeah, let's do it now. Let's talk about talking of things which are not as they seem. California Attorney General. Look at that, Garrison. That is why they pay me the medium bucks. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is warning. That's such a fake-ass name.

I'm sorry. Sorry to continue. Garrison is wearing that hat for those not watching this podcast on top of the head in the fashion of a fez. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is warning about election interference by the federal government. The federal government has sent monitors to California, to a number of different counties in California, in order to monitor the elections that are happening here on the 4th of November. To be clear, federal monitoring is not uncommon.

The Biden administration did it in more than 80 places in 2024, for example. But Bonta seems convinced this monitoring is going to lead to election. denial, election interference. Here's Gavin Newsom talking on X about this. So today, the Trump administration announced they're sending election monitors to five specific counties here in the state of California. They have no business doing that. They have no basis to do that. In fact, we have a statewide election for a statewide constitution. This is about voter intimidation. This is about voter suppression, period, full stop. And it's a pattern, isn't it? It's consistent with what they've done with the federalism.

of the National Guard and the intimidation and the chill that that's created. They'll do that right around Election Day as well. Same thing with ICE and Border Patrol, mass men. Watch that space showing up in and around polling booths and voting places. But this is a bridge too far. And I hope people understand it's a bridge that they're trying to build the scaffolding for all across this country in next November's election. They do not believe in fair and free elections.

Our republic, our democracy is on the law. line. We all need to wake up. I'm actually a lot more concerned with the stuff around, I think he's probably right that we will see, like, more federal agents around polling places in election time. What California is doing in response is assigning monitors to monitor the federal monitors, which will be interesting. And it seems unusual, right, for the federal monitors to be monitoring. One of the things that's on the ballot this year is Prop 50, right, which would redistrict California. It's gerrymandering.

the gerrymandering proposition to... It's revenge, gerrymandering, let's be clear. It's gerrymandering. The bill is specifically we, not we're going to do this, but we're going to do this if there's redistricting in Texas. Yeah. Yeah, it's, yes, it's an attempt to rectify the very obvious gerrymandering in Texas. It's kind of mad, mutually assert destruction is applied to gerrymandering.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, neither of these things are great. That's here we are. I think that's all I had on this, actually. Cool. Yep. I think that's... That a sowed?

That's where we're at. All right, everybody. Well, until... Well, what... Breaking autism news. Oh, God. Texas is suing Tylenol, specifically a pharmaceutical company,

Johnson & Johnson, for marketing Tylenol to pregnant women and failing to disclose what Attorney General Ken Paxton calls, quote, a significantly increased risk of autism and other disorders, unquote. They don't market it to pregnant women.

Like, generally... They says, if I'm not mistaken, it says on the bottles, don't take if you're nursing you're pregnant, probably. We covered this in a previous episode, but generally drugs are not very few drugs are marketed to pregnant people, right, be the women or otherwise. Yeah, no, the only thing you're supposed to take is a pregnant woman is cocaine. And you've got to make sure it's pure. Non-binary people tell you can take anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're not pregnant, it's okay to do whatever. Yeah, if you are pregnant, not a woman, it's okay. Go right ahead. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. I guess. Wait, no, I don't think that that's how it works. Do you do a transmastate double?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, true. I think if you have a fetus gestating in you, you're only supposed to do cocaine. Definitely the least autistic group of people, non-binary people. Yeah, definitely. Definitely, they can just take whatever. Or do you, or do, or do take whatever? Yeah, do you have many drugs, like, they'll say that you should consult with your doctor. Consult a doctor.

Yeah, and none of them are risk-free, but it's a cost-benefit analysis, right? we covered this. The autism and Tylenol, like, correlation versus causation based on that one Swedish study. This is, I'm interested to see how Johnson & Johnson argues this in court and if that will have effects across, you know,

the rest of the Trump administration's anti-tylonal push, if they're able to successfully defend their product against Ken Paxton. So critical support to Tylenol, I guess. Welcome to the resistance, Big Pharma. Jesus. Jesus, yeah. If people want to listen to more on that We can go back and find our previous episode

All right everybody Until next time Try not to be on a fishing boat Anywhere south of the U.S. southern border It's not safe right now Good luck trick-or-treating Happy Halloween Yeah, good luck trick-or-treating

It's not safe right now Oh yeah, don't be trick-or-treating in a boat this year We've reported to news That sucks Yeah We reported the news. It Could Happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media,

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