It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #44

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, everybody. It's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist

Starting point is 00:00:19 that the whole family can enjoy. That's right. Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or Yo-Yo's, and a whole lot more. So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded.

Starting point is 00:00:37 I felt it ripped through me. In season two of RipCurrent, we asked, who tried to kill Judy Berry? And why? They were climbing trees, and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing.

Starting point is 00:00:54 I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of RipCurrent Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History, about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, How Southwest Airlines used cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is.

Starting point is 00:01:30 The most Texas story ever. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From NBA champion, Stefan Curry, comes shot ready, a powerful never-before-seen look at the mindset that changed the game. I fell in love with the grind. You have to find joy in the work you do when no one else is around. Success is not an accident.

Starting point is 00:01:55 I'm passing the ball to you. Let's go. Curry redefined basketball. Now he's rewriting what it means to succeed. Order your copy of the New York Times bestseller Shot Ready. Today at Stefan Currybook.com. CallZone

Starting point is 00:02:10 Media. This is It Could Happen here. Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis today. I'm joined by James Stout and Sophie Lichtenman. This episode, we are covering the week of November 24th to December 4th, an extra long week.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Somehow, they squeezed a few more days in there. To open us up, James, what are some important small stories we don't want to overlook? Okay, yeah, yeah, a lot because of our extra long week, right? Yeah. The United States is flying manned ISR flights over Nigeria and possibly parts of the Sahel as well. It's not entirely clear because the flights kind of go dark once they take off. of sources familiar with the matter have suggested that UAV strikes might begin soon. It seems that the ISR flights are targeting ISWAP and JNIM.

Starting point is 00:03:08 I'm going to write about this on my Patreon probably because I think it requires visuals and I think it's too much to go into in-depth here. But if you want to check that out, you can. Can you explain some of those acronyms? No, I just love to find out people with them. It's great when you report on military shit because it's just a war of acronyms. Okay. ISR flights.

Starting point is 00:03:27 These are intelligence flights, right? Intelligent surveillance reconnaissance, I believe, is the acronym. Got it. They're looking for stuff for UAV. Unmanned aerial vehicle? There's a gender neutral term that I can't remember. Unpilited aerial vehicle. Woke his back, hard.

Starting point is 00:03:46 That's the Biden era thing, right? When you get killed by an unaccountable drone, but it's gender neutral. The ISWAP, that's the Islamic State Wili in that part of the world. So like province, West Africa province, I think it stands for. These are the targets of these flights and strikes. And JNIM being another jihadist group that is not associated with the so-called Islamic State. Got it. Got it. Wow.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Yeah. Okay. Hit you with another acronym. A FOIA. I think we know that one. Filed by the Cato Institute has revealed that the FBI under Biden was investigating the SRA. That's a socialist rifle association. It didn't bring charges against any of the members.

Starting point is 00:04:25 but it did apparently investigate it for some time. Finally, the National Park Service has announced a new fee schedule and quote-unquote modernized graphics for passes. Is this the horrific image you sent us? Yes, it's a picture of Donald Trump. Yeah, that's how they've modernized it. It's not very nice. I know there are better things in the parks, I feel like, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:48 Half Dome is nice. The Yosemite Valley. Pretty cool shit in Wrangles. St. Elias, that you could do instead. That's like him trying to rename that Peace Institute after himself. He just keeps trying to put his face and name on everything. Yeah, well, when you're a dying man, legacy becomes very important. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:13 Yeah, exactly. But that's exactly it. The U.S. Institute of Peace is being renamed for Trump. Really? Yeah. Oh, I know. I miss that. great cool

Starting point is 00:05:26 feeling very similar to that he's just putting his face and name on everything yeah so two things right electronic passes for parks probably a good thing and a hundred dollar up charge for non-united states

Starting point is 00:05:42 I think it's residents as opposed to citizens in the 11 most popular parks how can they even check that they might just ask like this sounds like a tourism thing right like they just wanted people that are like visiting the states To be clear, other countries do this. I still think it's bad. Like some of the Grand Canyon is part of the cultural patrimony of all of humanity. Yeah. Yeah. The National Park Service itself is an

Starting point is 00:06:04 exercise in settler colonialism, but we can talk about that forever. Yeah. I've seen some stuff with Gate Rangers to be like I'm absolutely not asking for your green card. Yeah, no, that's silly. For your Rangers. But yeah, I think they were just kind of assuming good faith. A lot of other countries do do this. Like, it's not unusual. I still think it sucks. There's also an interagency pass. It's $2.50 for non-residents and $80 for residents. So those are there. The big changes there. Speaking of big changes, a pretty big update in a case that has lasted nearly five years. This morning, Thursday, December 4th, a suspect was arrested in connection to the pipe bombs placed around the capital the night before January 6th, specifically at the DNC and RNC headquarters

Starting point is 00:06:48 in Washington, D.C. The suspect has been identified as 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr., from a Woodbridge, Virginia. Federal law enforcement sources have told the New York Post that the suspect may have had, quote, unquote, anarchist leanings, unquote. This could mean anything, right? This could mean anything from, like, anti-government violent extremism,

Starting point is 00:07:11 like militia movement type extremism, boogaloo boys, accelerationalist, as well as possible left-wing anarchist leanings. Sure. It could be any number of things. There's still very limited information about this, even in the DOJ press conference that just wrapped up a few minutes

Starting point is 00:07:27 before we started recording. They're being pretty tight-left about details. And I think about his gate. Well, yes, people are asking about his gate and allegedly he had begun building explosive devices in 2019. Oh, wow. Okay. So, like, some background.

Starting point is 00:07:45 This arrest does partially discredit a report from The Blaze, which Robert has talked about on this show before, which falsely identified a four, former Capitol police officer as the bomber based on gait analysis. Yeah, if they prosecute someone else, the blaze is going to get sued out of existence, I would imagine. Yeah, critical support to former Capitol police officer

Starting point is 00:08:06 who puts the Blaze out of business. Wow. Pour one out for Glenn Beck. This suspect lives at a home associated with both their parents. It's unclear if their parents are still married. The suspect's dad runs a bail bond business, which the son is supposed to have worked for and the mom is a real estate agent.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Not much online presence can be found yet on Brian Cole Jr. I've spent hours looking and so far not much there, but we'll see if that changes over time. A developing story. Yeah, yeah. We'll do a whole episode if it merits it later, I guess.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Sure. Talking of terrible indictment, Garrison, would you like to hear about a terrible indictment out of Texas. I'm going to say yes. But no. I don't know if I'd like to for work reasons. I feel like you're going to do it anyway, so I'll play along.

Starting point is 00:09:03 Two Texas men have been indicted for a plan to invade a small island off Haiti, kill all the men, and sexually enslave all the women and children. What? I'm sorry. What? Yeah, this is a wild one. The indictment says they hope to, quote, lead an unlawful expeditionary force to the island of Gronave, which is part of the Republic of A.T.

Starting point is 00:09:25 For the purpose of carrying out their rape fantasies, Wisenberg and Thomas planned to purchase a sailboat, firearms and ammunition, then recruit members of the District of Columbia area homeless population to serve as a mercenary force as they invaded Gronave Island and stage a coup d'etat. Weisenberg and Thomas intended to murder all of the men on the island so they could turn all of the women and children into their sex slaves. That is what is alleged in the indictment, right? Look, be an interesting case. One of them had joined the Air Force in 2025 to get some military experience,

Starting point is 00:09:59 or was in the Air Force this year to get some military experience and has successfully been transferred to nearer to D.C. From where they hoped to recruit unhoused people to serve as mercenaries. This is absolutely insane. Who are these two Texas men? why do they think this is like a thing that can be like are it's borderline something i considered not including because like these people are probably pretty unwell it seems like are they just obsessed with like eric prince like i don't i don't under i don't yeah like if the guy

Starting point is 00:10:37 hadn't passed all the background checks to get into the air force i feel like this would be less remarkable right but while planning to invade a small island and enslave everybody he got into the Air Force that that in itself like should be a story and of course this is all alleged right it's all in an indictment we don't know

Starting point is 00:10:58 what the evidential basis for a lot of this is well that was disturbing yeah it's a wild one I guess we'll keep you informed what Garrison I like can't even compute

Starting point is 00:11:14 like that's one of the most insane things I've heard in a really long time. Well, first of the economic news, let's let's throw it to Tariffs. Let's go to Tariff Talk with Mia. Rocking, Casper, Rocking to Casper.

Starting point is 00:11:35 Terry, if I like it, Rocky Casper, Rocky Casper. This is Mia Wong with Tariff Talk. So obviously the biggest tariff news right now is the impending Supreme Court ruling on the legality of a broad swath of the terrorists that Trump has imposed using unbelievably dubious legal and economic authority. And by unbelievably dubious, I mean, it is so patently illegal. It is an astounding demonstration of the complete abdication of the Supreme Court's pretensions at being. one of the branches of government that this hasn't already been overturned, but this ruling has not dropped yet. Everyone's waiting. So in the meantime, what we have is a bunch of Trump administration officials have been going on TV and talking about trade policy. And they're saying something

Starting point is 00:12:35 that we've been hearing for a while now, which is that they believe that they can use different set of legal authority to impose the same tariffs. Whether they can do this or not is, I mean, they shouldn't be able to do this. Like, all of the authority they're using is pretty ridiculous. But this has been, this has been their strategy. They've been reiterating their strategy. On the other side, we've seen some interesting movement in terms of the opposition, which is that Costco has become sort of the biggest company to join in this trend of companies

Starting point is 00:13:08 going to court with lawsuits to try to recoup the money that they've spent on these tariffs. because if the Supreme Court ruling overturns the legality of these tariffs, these companies can get their money back retroactively. Costco is the biggest company. We've seen so far sort of move to attempt to do this remedy to the courts. So we will keep an eye on this.

Starting point is 00:13:30 And this is, you know, I think, especially if this comes overturned, we're going to see a lot of companies trying to make moves for this. This is something that is going to piss off the Trump administration because they've been talking a giant game about how, oh, these are going to fund the like $2,000.

Starting point is 00:13:44 tariff checks you're never getting. Trump is literally talking about, and this is an old sort of right-wing thing, but he's talking about, oh, tariff's revenue is going to replace income tax, which, no, it's not, like, just nonsense, gibberish, numbers don't

Starting point is 00:14:00 work, orders the magnitude off, just nonsense, can't work. But, you know, these are things that they're saying, and there's probably going to be an increasing conflict between the sectors of capital that just want their money back from these tariffs, and the Trump administration, which, you know, once there's money for its, you know, nebless political purposes.

Starting point is 00:14:17 There's been some sort of interesting political developments in terms of Trump and Lula, so people will probably remember from listening to the show that there have been very, very high tariffs on Brazil that are effectively political tariffs for actually putting one Jair Bolsonaro in prison for, you know, the mere crime of attempting to overthrow the government to install himself as the ruler of Brazil. Now, there has been over the past few weeks. There's been some sort of ratcheting down of a lot of the tariffs.

Starting point is 00:14:50 There's been a bunch of goods that have been exempt from the tariffs as part of Trump's sort of widespread efforts to, like, lower food prices because there's a bunch of food goods that are being exempt from this stuff. And there was also very recently, we got an actual call between Trump and Lula, which seems to have gone fairly well. You know, at least it seems to have been cordial. The two seem to both be coming out of it saying, like, oh, we agree on things. it's going to go great. And this is, to a large extent, an attempt to do a replay of Lula's positive relationship with the Bush administration the last time he was in power, where, and this is, you know, this has been a trend in the, in the sort of the original pink tide and in this government where you have a kind of mix of the sort of pink tie center left governments in

Starting point is 00:15:33 Latin America, where, you know, Lula has traditionally been the one who's been sort of playing with the U.S. more. And, you know, as we're seeing right now, Now, you have the US gearing up for, you know, like potentially a war in Venezuela, and there's been a whole bunch of conflict with Colombia, but Lula seems to be trying to sort of play the role that he played in the 2000s. We'll see how that goes. Trump is astonishingly, significantly more unstable than George W. Bush, which is just good Lord.

Starting point is 00:16:09 Oh, God. Okay, but enough, oh, my God. finally found a president who's less coherent and more unhinged than George W. Bush. The final piece of news that we need to touch on is the U.S.'s chief trade negotiator gave an interview with Politico, and this is per Yahoo News, basically talked to Politico and told them that Trump is considering, you know, is talking about leaving or renegotiating the U.S.MCA, which is the trade agreements that he negotiated to replace NAFTA in 2020. roll this back again. This is his deal. He's talking about leaving or renegotiating his deal.

Starting point is 00:16:50 This was his big thing in 2020. One of his big things was, oh, I abolished NAFTA. Oh, I created this deal. And, you know, everyone at the time was like, well, this is just like NAFTA with like the edges filed off. You know, but like this is sort of the point that we're at in Trumpian trade policy where it's like, ah, we're getting ripped off by Mexico and Canada in the trade deal that I signed. As Garrison is fond of saying, the defining political question of our time is who is president in 2020. Brother, you, you did this. This was your trade deal. And somehow, somehow. Now, you know, in terms of real terms, right, this is actually a massive deal.

Starting point is 00:17:26 So this deal has a six-year term. It was negotiated in 2020, which means it's coming up next year. And this is a big enough deal that there's already sort of a full-corp press in the press. You can see the New York Times running it where every single faction of capital, not a single faction, but a whole bunch of factions of capital, we're getting every single think tank and lobbying group and, you know, like policy research institute or whatever together to be like, please don't get rid of this. Because the thing about the USMCA, and this is something we've talked about to some extent in terms of Canada and Mexico

Starting point is 00:17:58 tariffs. But one of the really important things about the tariffs that have been imposed on Mexico and Canada, and the tariff rates are extremely high, is that those tariffs haven't been applied to goods that are covered by the USMCA. And this is, been a crucial lifeline to allow trade to not be annihilated by those American tariffs. And if Trump pulls out of it, and suddenly those goods are covered by these tariffs, it's going to be a really, really significant economic hit for everyone in the world eventually. But for the U.S. and Mexico and Canada, this is going to be a massive deal. And I want to kind of close on a kind of broader point about this for a second,

Starting point is 00:18:41 which is that, like, we're not pro NAFTA. Like, no, NAFTA was bad. Part of the reason the Trump administration was able to do this was because of the ways that NAFTA sort of hauled out and destroyed vast sections to the American working class

Starting point is 00:18:54 and also the Mexican working class this has not been good for anyone really involved in this. One of the things that happens if you go into the economic literature, one of the episodes I did a while back talking about U.S. and Mexico in the history of like trade policy

Starting point is 00:19:08 there sort of talks about this, which is that if you go back into the economic literature, all of the economics people have had to admit that the leftists from the 90s or whatever were right, that this was not going to benefit the Mexican working class. It hasn't. But on the other hand, Trump's sort of, this is also not benefiting the Mexican or American working classes.

Starting point is 00:19:29 Nothing that these people do on either side really do. If you want to look at what actual sort of resistance in NAFTA looks like and what effective resistance in NAFTA looks like, look at the Zapatistas, whose rebellion was. sparked by NAFTA and who went into revolt on the day the NAFTA went into effect. But Trump has been able to very effectively kind of be the person who comes in as the I'm the champion of the workers, et cetera, et cetera, because I'm renegotiating the evil trade deals and now, like, our good American workers would no longer be exploited by, like, evil Mexican

Starting point is 00:20:02 or Chinese workers, which, you know, has been an extremely effective political strategy for him is, you know, also this sort of, this sort of, like, national fascists program that he's running is sort of based on, you know, on this kind of trade policy and on manipulating the sentiments people who got, like, actually screwed over by NAFTA. So, yeah, that's where we're going to close on this as Trump is thinking about pulling out. That is a huge deal. And, yeah, this has been Tariff Talk. Let's go to an ad break real quick. We'll be right back.

Starting point is 00:20:37 Hey, everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 days of Christmas toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy. That's right. Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or Yo-Yo's, and a whole lot more. So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb explodes in the front seat of environmental activist Judy Berry's car. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me with just a force more powerful and terrible than anything that I could describe.

Starting point is 00:21:31 In season two of Rip Current, we asked, who tried to kill Judy Bury? Barry and why. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. The man and woman who were heard had planned to lead a summer of militant protest against logging practices in Northern California. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. The timber industry, I mean, it was the number one industry in the area, but more than it was

Starting point is 00:21:58 the culture. It was the way of life. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If one of us wins, we all win. I'm Ashley Reifeld, and I'm the host of the women's skateboarding podcast. Good luck with that.

Starting point is 00:22:22 Good luck with that is a skateboarding podcast that is part cultural record, part news brief, mostly group therapy, and a place to talk about the past, present, and future of women and gender expansive skateboarding. This week, me and my co-host, Nora Vascenzelos and Alex White, we have Fabiana del Fino on the show, a professional skateboarder from Florida, whose grit was forged in a family of athletes. Tune in to hear how she broke into the boys' club, what it takes to be pro, and why, just being grateful, you're here shouldn't be the price of entry. Maybe the industry thinks that we just started skating five years ago, because that's when they maybe started paying attention. It's a no-fluff conversation about putting in the years, stacking clips and receipts, and still having to prove your worth while the industry. catches up. You break down the door. Sick. Now, like, hold the door for everyone. We created good luck with that because we want to share our experience of existing in an industry that wasn't

Starting point is 00:23:12 always built for everyone. So listen to good luck with that on IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Kelly, and some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel. If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family Matters. Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years. But both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters. Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with the black cast? When we were making the show, there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget.

Starting point is 00:23:49 Oh, girl, you got that right. The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about me. making the show. Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Harrison, tell me something less horrific than what James just told us before Mia's

Starting point is 00:24:32 tariff action. I missed a part. I missed a part. Do you want to guess how they were making money for part of this, according to the indictment? This is a Texas menu wanting to invade the island. How are they making money? Crypto. No, it's worse than that. That's a good guess, Sophie. But you said it's worse than that. Oh, no. Manipulating camgirls? In a sense, it appears they were producing child sexual abuse material. Oh. Yeah. Wow. I mean, obviously, it's still allegedly, but like, this is one of the worst things I've ever heard, and I don't even know how to react. Huh.

Starting point is 00:25:10 Yeah, he was, he received, he was prosecuted under the UCMJ for that. Previously? This year, yeah, I was prosecuted in, uh, I'm just reading a task and purpose article, which builds on the indictment, but there it says, uh, so he was arrested in July and has since been court-martialed. Ah. So good times. Good times in the Air Force. Yeah. Well, I can't believe the Air Force has done something wrong, finally. The first blight on our proud and glorious Air Force. Maybe the biggest national news story kicked off the day before Thanksgiving, not just because of what happened, but then all of the fallout that has resulted from this incident. which James will report on afterwards.

Starting point is 00:26:01 But let's go back to the day before Thanksgiving, or two National Guard troops from West Virginia on assignment in Washington, D.C., it's a part of Trump's crime crackdown, were shot on patrol a few blocks away from the White House. Other guard members fired back and tackled the shooter. One of the National Guard members, a 20-year-old named Sarah Bextram,

Starting point is 00:26:22 died from gunshot injuries on Thanksgiving. The other, a 24-year-old Andrew Wolf, has so far survived. remains hospitalized. Wow. Yeah. A 29-year-old man, Romagnula,

Starting point is 00:26:36 Lakenwall, is charged with first-degree murder and assault with intent to kill. The criminal complaint alleges he shouted al-Aqbar as he fired. Lockenwal came to the United States as a part of Operation Allies Welcome in 2021, which moved U.S. assets out of Afghanistan

Starting point is 00:26:54 as the Taliban gained control of the region. Lockenwell was later granted formal asylum under Trump this past April. Friend of the alleged shooter told the New York Times that Lachemwell joined the CIA-backed paramilitary squad Unit 03 to earn money for his family and get medical training rather than for ideological reasons. And when he returned from stints with the zero unit,

Starting point is 00:27:19 his personality changed and he was less socially outgoing, to quote from the Times, quote, Lachan Wall told others in his village that he had been shaken by seeing so many bodies and bloodshed in his role with the zero-three unit, unquote. According to a volunteer

Starting point is 00:27:36 who worked with his family, Lackenwall's mental health started rapidly declining in early 2023. He began self-isolating, withdrawing from work and family, stopped paying rent and faced eviction. In 2024,

Starting point is 00:27:50 this volunteer wrote in an email to an immigrant nonprofit group, which was obtained by the AP in the New York Times, which reads that Lock and well, quote, has not been functional as a person, father, and provider since March of last year. 23. His behavior has changed greatly, unquote.

Starting point is 00:28:07 When Lachemol emerged from, quote, unquote, dark isolation, it was to engage in, quote, unquote, reckless travel, according to this volunteer. Long, seemingly pointless road trips across the country. Yeah. And he seems to be behaving in a way that, like you said, suggest he has some PTSD or, like, No, PTSD from engaging in combat. This is very common among veterans and mental health support for specifically these people in this paramilitary unit.

Starting point is 00:28:36 Probably doesn't exist. Right, it's not exist the same way it does for veterans of the United States military, which already is a lacking service. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, I mean, the shit that these guys did was dark. I've included in the show notes a link to a human rights watch report,

Starting point is 00:28:52 but like there's a reason that they weren't specifically under, In theory, they were under the Afghan, like, Ministry of Defense command. But in practice, they operated outside either chain of control. They did kill or capture missions. There were multiple reports of them killing everybody in a house and then it being the wrong house, like, really stuff that is going to stay with someone, right, unless they're, like, you know, pretty nuts. No, extremely horrifying.

Starting point is 00:29:22 Yeah, terrifying stuff. pretty much immediately after the Trump administration began calling for various immigration restrictions based on this, right? Now, it's worth noting that Lackenwal entered the United States as part of Operation Allied Welcome, right? But then he received asylum under the Trump administration. So that would have been this year, right? Like, I'm not entirely sure where he went asylum rather than a special immigrant visa, then both the pathways that are open to Afghan people, right? S.O.V has some benefits, but also it has some different things that they'd have to jump through.

Starting point is 00:30:02 Like, one of them would be, I believe, to get an officer to write a recommendation, and maybe CIA folks aren't into doing that. So following this, the U.S. immediately began to call for a crackdown on Afghan migrants, and as we'll see more broadly on migrants, I think it's important to contextualize, is globally because it's part of a crackdown on a nation which has seen nearly half a century of war, right? 90% of the 10 million people who fled Afghanistan reside in Pakistan or Iran, I've reported on this before on this show, but Iran has deported more than a million Afghan people since

Starting point is 00:30:38 2003, right? And they have very few pathways to permanent residency anywhere. among refugees. Afghan people have it particularly difficult. On Tuesday, the U.S. CIS Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memo ordering its employees to place on hold all asylum, green card and citizenship form applications from quote unquote high-risk countries and to investigate all arrivals from them since 2021. They are also placing a hold on all forms I-589. which is the application for asylum

Starting point is 00:31:18 and for withholding of removal regardless of where the person is from. So we have this specific halt on asylum for Afghan nationals. It comes first and then following that we have these 19 high-risk countries. The high-risk countries are listed in Presidential Proclamation 10949,

Starting point is 00:31:38 which was issued back in June. I'll just read out the name so people are aware. Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congress, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. If you recall us covering this back then, you will remember that the reason cited in that proclamation is percentage of visa overstays. This doesn't have anything to do with risk, right, other than risk of overstaying one's

Starting point is 00:32:12 visa, they do not justify the inclusion of these countries based on the potential for people there to do terrorism, right? At least not all of them. Yeah. It's worth pointing out, I guess, that percentage visa overstays isn't that useful of a figure because if you have 10 people and one overstays, then that's only one person, but it's also a 10% overstay rate, right? Like, so it doesn't look at like raw numbers. Nonetheless, this would mean, from the way I'm reading it, that any application with these people on it might be paused. So that could include, like, if someone had applied to have a spouse or family member come over and obtain legal status, right? Or if someone was sponsoring someone and they were at Juul National,

Starting point is 00:33:00 they're like a Burundian American, for example. We will see how long this lasts. Trump has previously failed to get a total asylum ban. But for the meantime, like, this is catastrophic for people attempting to seek asylum or permanent residency in the US, the only sort of upside that I can see on an upside, but like, you know, not terrible thing is that I don't think this would pause the work permit clock. So people have been listening to my series this week. They will have learned about the work permit clock, right? Because this is government action, not an action from individuals. I don't think it will pause that clock. I guess to just wrap up the migrant crackdown stuff, Trump announced via a truth that, quote,

Starting point is 00:33:42 I am as president of the United States hereby terminating, effectively immediately the temporary protected status program for Somalis in Minnesota. In the Thanksgiving message, he also repeated a number of claims about migrants and used a slur to describe Tim Walz. Yeah, he called him R-worded, I think it is worth saying. Yeah. He has reiterated this multiple times on camera when asked by reporters. Yeah, great stuff.

Starting point is 00:34:07 And this is specifically in reference to reporting which has come out of Minnesota about a series of like fraudulent claims based on like COVID-19 food and housing assistance programs this state was running and people who were abusing those programs for their own financial benefit and some of these specific instances are now being used to attack the entire Somali community in Minnesota. Yeah, it's worth noting that the percentage of the Somali community which is on TPS is very small. It's probably a few hundred people. I don't know how those COVID assistance programs like overlap with one's immigration status, right? But it's worth noting that.

Starting point is 00:34:45 It's also worth noting, like, I've linked to the statue in the show notes. The Somali TPS extends until March of 26. It probably won't be renewed then, right? That's what the Trump administration has been doing is sunsetting TPSs for all kinds of people. The statute does not give the president power to end the TPS, certainly not on a state-by-state basis, right? Yeah, that's a good point. The notice of revocation would appear in the Federal Register, and the TPS would then have 60 days.

Starting point is 00:35:15 If it was being revoked, the people would have 60 days to act on that information, right? You can't just post it. That's not how this works. As of today, when I checked the Federal Register, the last entry for the Somali TPS with its renewal last year. So there appears to have been no actual legal action taken on this. But nonetheless, there has been ICE enforcement, right? There are videos of ICE officers specifically asking people if they are Somali. in Minnesota, which is troubling.

Starting point is 00:35:42 I think that's about all the ice crackdown stuff I have. I guess Greg Bovino's in Louisiana now. So there's been a lot of discussion this week and house hearings about the drone strike that began the United States campaign of drone strikes against small boats in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, right? So-called narco-terrorists, James. Yeah, I think so-called is. doing a lot of work there.

Starting point is 00:36:10 There seems to be a lot of debate about whether Pete Hegsess directly ordered a second strike on survivors from the first strike. Hexs had denied this saying, quote, the thing was on fire and it exploded. You can't see anything. This is called the fog of war. That's not the fog of war. Yeah, it's not what it means. You're not at war.

Starting point is 00:36:31 You're in a suit in a room watching a TV screen. It doesn't refer to like literal smoke and fog. I'm sorry. This is, like, absurd. Yeah, this is a ludicrous claim, right? Yes, there have been times where I have been in places, like, for instance, I was in Rojava a couple of years ago and we were being bombed, right? The way for me to get information, it was better for me to, like, go online and find stuff because access to information on the ground in conflict times can be difficult.

Starting point is 00:36:58 That is not the case when you're in D.C. watching a screen readout, right? That is why we have people who are not in combat making these decisions. The White House has claimed that Admiral Bradley, who was J-Soc commander at the time, ordered the strike. Tom Cotton today claimed that two people in the video were trying to roll the boat to get back in the fight. What? That's not a thing that one can do. They're not in, just to be clear, they're not in like a kayak here. Like, this is in what I would call a cigarette boat, like a fast speed boat.

Starting point is 00:37:30 You can't roll those like that. I don't understand. They were not engaged in combat. No, like, I don't see any evidence of these people were equipped to, like, certainly not to fight against a drone, right? No. I guess why does this matter, right? Because these people are dead regardless. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:37:50 Why does the emphasis on this second strike matter more than simply attacking them the first time? Why is could this result in Hague Seth being in a degree of trouble? Why are they so defensive about the second strike? Fair question. It is a very clear violation of the US military's own law of a war manual, which I have linked and the Geneva Convention to kill someone who's demonstrably ordered combat, right, like out of combat, i.e. a shipwrecked sailor, i.e. a wounded soldier who's thrown away their weapon.

Starting point is 00:38:21 These people were very clearly not fighting from every report that we've seen. This has been part of the way that war is conducted for centuries, right? Like picking up shipwrecked sailors after sinking a boat, etc. I'm not saying this has always happened. the U.S. has done double-tap strikes for a long time. Yeah. There has been, I should just clarify, I guess there has been some debate about the semantics of the word double-tap.

Starting point is 00:38:45 First of all, that's not important. What is important is that they killed people who were not fighting, who are out of combat and who are clinging to a burning shipwrecked boat. A double-tap does generally refer to a strike and then a subsequent strike which is focused on killing the people who came to rescue the people hitting the first strike.

Starting point is 00:39:08 There was no one to rescue these people. But I don't think that like that's not what's at stake here, right? It doesn't matter what term we used to describe this other than war crime. There were double-trap strikes at the time that I spoke about when I was in Rojava when they did bomb ambulance crews

Starting point is 00:39:26 and yeah, that shit is absolutely reprehensible but what happened here is also reprehensible. as it's being recounted to us. Eventually this video will come out, I'm sure. More broadly, the United States seems to be signaling intent to continue its campaign against Maduro, saying it will begin land strikes

Starting point is 00:39:43 quote-unquote soon. What? Yeah, like, this is extremely worrying, right? Yeah. Trump, of course, a great peace president who has ended, what is it, like nine wars. Trump the dove, I think, is what he prefers to be called. Sure, okay, perfect.

Starting point is 00:39:58 It's a hell of a visual. The people of Venezuela are the ones who are going to suffer, right? Like, it's not going to be regime officials for the most part. Yeah. Venezuela is a vast mountainous, jungly country. It's an easy place for us to do land war. None of particularly easy place for us to do drone warfare either. You know, I've written a lot about the United States drone campaign in Syria

Starting point is 00:40:24 and the disaster that was, right, in the amount of what they consider to be acceptable, civilian casualties. We don't have any indications from this DOD or from Hegsef that he will seek to minimize those, right? This could be shaping up to be a disaster for the people of Venezuela. I mean, yeah, I find it unlike that Hegsef will actually fall into trouble international law because of this, people always get away. And I mean, you can see how Trump already pardoned number of war criminals earlier this year. And in his first administration, right? And in his first administration. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:00 As much fun as it is to be like, ha-ha, I like to see old Pete Hengseth wiggle his way out of this jam. Yes, he will. I think he's expected to do so quite easily. I mean, international law doesn't exist for people in the global north. It's a thing that they do to prosecute African people for the most part. But yes, very unlikely that we will see Pete Hegseth in the Hague for this. Still bad, though.

Starting point is 00:41:25 We'll go on another ad break and be right back. Hey, everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 days of Christmas toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy. That's right. Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or Yo-Yo's, and a whole lot more. So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb explodes in the front seat of environmental activist Judy Berry's car. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me with just a force more powerful and terrible than anything that I could describe.

Starting point is 00:42:24 In season two of Rip Current, we asked, who tried to kill Judy Bear. Mary and why. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. The man and woman who were heard had planned to lead a summer of militant protest against logging practices in Northern California. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. The timber industry, I mean, it was the number one industry in the area, but more than it was the culture. It was the way of life.

Starting point is 00:42:53 I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If one of us wins, we all win. I'm Ashley Reifeld, and I'm the host of the women's skateboarding podcast. Good luck with that. Good luck with that is a skateboarding podcast that is part cultural record, part news brief, mostly group therapy, and a place to talk about the past, present, and future of women and gender expansive skateboarding.

Starting point is 00:43:24 This week, me and my co-host, Nora Vascenzelos and Alex White, we have Fabiana Delfino on the show, a professional skateboarder from Florida, whose grit was forged in a family of athletes. Tune in to hear how she broke into the boys' club, what it takes to be pro, and why just being grateful you're here shouldn't be the price of entry. Maybe the industry thinks that we just started skating five years ago, because that's when they maybe started paying attention. It's a no-fluff conversation about putting in the years, stacking clips and receipts, and still having to prove your worth while the industry. catches up. You break down the door. Sick. Now, like, hold the door for everyone. We created good luck with that because we want to share our experience of existing in an industry that wasn't always built for everyone. So listen to good luck with that on IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

Starting point is 00:44:10 you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Kelly. And some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel. If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family Matters. Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years, but both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters. Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with the black cast? When we were making the show, there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget. Oh, girl, you got that right.

Starting point is 00:44:44 The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about making the show. Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are back. We would like to now expand and clarify some of our previous previous discussion of Zoran's White House meeting with Donald Trump and some statements around

Starting point is 00:45:30 ice raids and ICE detainers. Let's start by clarifying this 170 serious crimes number. Yeah. While answering a question, Zoran said, quote, we discussed ICE in New York City, and I spoke about how the laws we have in New York City allow the city government to speak to the federal administration about roughly 170 serious crimes, unquote. This 170 number is in reference to Local Law 58 Administrative Code 9-131, which was passed in 2014, and strengthened New York's sanctuary laws, and required that they only honor ICE detainers when presented with a judicial warrant issued by an Article III federal judge, or federal magistrate judge based on probable cause,

Starting point is 00:46:23 and when the subject of the detainer and warrant is either listed in a terrorist database or has been convicted of a violent or serious crime. Now, the term violent or serious crime refers to a list of approximately 170 crimes, which is listed in Local Law 54. I think there's a five-year limit as well, right? like, it has to be within five years.

Starting point is 00:46:50 So there's a number of, like... They, like, stack on each other. Yeah, like, this is just a one of many, like, amendments strengthening their sanctuary laws. And I'm mentioning it specifically to clarify where this 170 number comes from and where people can find all of the criminal codes that are listed, which is, again, approximately 170 crimes. Yeah. And the change of this local law did is that this person does not have to just be accused

Starting point is 00:47:17 of one of these crimes, but actually be convicted or listed in a terrorist state of base. Yeah. And these are mostly, like, violent felons. Yeah. The law that Garrison refers to lists them by penal code number. So I'm working on expanding those into a list of, like, words that human beings can understand.

Starting point is 00:47:35 Yeah. Sure. Just because I think people generally don't understand sanctuary protections. The sanctuary laws are not like a, they're not the same in every state. They're not the same in every state. And I think a lot of people have an understanding of them, which could do with being improved. So I'm going to probably do a whole episode on that. I think with regard to the list of crimes in New York, I would prefer to do that as a print piece

Starting point is 00:47:59 because it's just better if someone could find it on the internet. And that doesn't work as well with podcasts. Other stuff regarding this, just so people are aware, right? Like, federally, one could be deported for a huge range of crimes. From violent crime to theft to over $10,000 to a vast range of, quote-unquote, crimes involving moral turpitude. The problem, of course, is that we have 50 different states with 50 different sets of laws and we have to map federal regulations onto them. There is some Supreme Court case law about how we do that. Crimes involving moral turpitude can be things that you

Starting point is 00:48:33 might consider extraordinarily minor like turnstile hopping. Yeah, I'm going to do a whole episode on these because, again, I think you could see in that press conference, so when Zoran spoke about immigration, Trump tried to move the topic to deporting criminals. Yeah. And the people who are being deported as criminals, like, whilst the DHS Twitter feed wants to highlight people who have been convicted of murder and things, that that's by far look at an edge case. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:00 And I think that's why he mentioned the 170, like, serious or violent crimes. And, like, specifically that those are the ones that the New York sanctuary laws do have this, quote-unquote, cooperation on. And, like, in a meeting, Zoran said that he and Trump talked about how current ICE operations in New York City have, quote, unquote, very little to do with serious crime, with these crimes listed on these detainers. Yeah, and that's a broad thing across the United States, right? Like, even, you know, we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago, but, like, if you look at Charlotte, right, where they have, they are legally bound to honor all rights detainers by HB10, you've still got ICE out and about raiding people, and you have, sheriffs complaining about ICE, not picking people up, right? The detainer, I guess I should explain what a detainer is as well. A detainer is an extra 48-hour hold. It doesn't mean that

Starting point is 00:49:55 you just lock them up forever. It means that you hold them for 48 hours such that ICE can come and collect the person. Because ICE is so focused on, I don't know what you want to call it, grabbing people off the street. Yeah. It seems that they're not collecting these people. There's been some pushback like on straight up economic grounds in some states because like detaining people is quite expensive right so detaining people for long periods of time and ice just not showing up i can see how not not to give support to sheriff's departments or whatever but like rural sheriff's departments which run limited budgets would start to get pissed off after a time about holding people but yeah that that is what a detainer is got it ice doesn't necessarily have to

Starting point is 00:50:41 abide by local sanctuary laws and what we have seen is that like cops are cops and they will make mistakes and if someone gets handed over you can't take them back if the cops fuck that up yeah and this is part of the other things that zirang campaigned on to like strength and sanctuary protections and specifically in the section of his policies on quote trump proofing new york city he talks about like ending illegal ice cooperation on rikers island where ice is currently stationed which does go against sanctuary laws and you talked about ending that, as well as providing $165 million

Starting point is 00:51:17 in funding for immigration legal defense services in the cities, which would be a massive increase than what is currently provided. As well as just limiting interactions with police, right? Because the more you interact with the police, the more likely is that you might accidentally

Starting point is 00:51:31 or quote-unquote accidentally get put into trouble, even though police in New York are not supposed to ever ask someone what their immigration status is or cooperate with ICE requests. that do not, you know, fall under these, this specific retainer law. But, I mean, in terms of, like, ways to limit interactions with police,

Starting point is 00:51:48 this goes back to some very basic ideas on, like, you know, addressing the economic conditions that create crime in the first place, as well as the Department of Community Safety, which Soron intends to create, which will provide new mental health services, crisis response, and homeless outreach outside of the NYPD. Yeah, like, not criminalizing homelessness and not criminalizing parking, are probably two of the most meaningful things that you can do to limit

Starting point is 00:52:14 police interaction and specifically police interactions from documented people. Yeah, and I mean, in terms of like turnstile hopping or like fair evasion, it's complicated in New York. I mean, this isn't going to be a something that they honor a detainer for, but in terms of like, you know, just talking about like the, yeah, how weird and specific each state's laws are,

Starting point is 00:52:33 like, turnstile hopping can be a misdemeanor crime in New York due to, like, theft of services. it can also just be a civil infracture but it's up to the officer to decide whether they want this to turn into a criminal misdemeanor or a civil infracture and just pay a $100 fine. Even this is like caused confusion among like immigrants and immigrant rights attorneys

Starting point is 00:52:54 over like dealing with like old fair evasion cases and being like does this now like disqualify me from certain things or does this like you know present a threat of being deported And if I declare this in like whatever citizenship or the green card meeting, they may have scheduled. And yeah, not criminalizing fare evasion would be huge. And if someone's able to make, you know, free buses, that'll do, you know, a considerable dent

Starting point is 00:53:21 in preventing cases where fair evasion could be used as like a pretext to federally report someone. Yeah. Yeah, because that person could leave New York and be somewhere else, right? Or they could just get swept up in a nice workplace raid and that could be used as a pretext. There are many reasons way, even if it's sanctuary protected, that person could still be vulnerable because of that prosecution, like you said. Yeah, I mean, and those sorts of raids are still happening in New York. An attempted raid happened in Canal Street last week. It was prevented from being carried out by people who literally blocked ice from leaving the parking garage that they were in.

Starting point is 00:53:56 And that NYPD then arrested a few protesters. It remains to be seen how Zoran will handle incidents like this going forward. He still does not become the mayor for about 30 days. Right. But a spokesperson for the mayor-elect has said that, so on, quote, has made it clear, including to the president, that these raids are cruel and inhumane and failed to advance genuine public safety. New York City's more than three million immigrants are central to our city's strength, vitality, and success. The mayor-elect remained steadfast, and his commitment to protecting the rights and dignity of every single New Yorker, upholding our sanctuary laws, and de-escalation rather than use of unnecessary force, unquote. I believe that last sentence could be read as in reference to the police conduct, well, hand, anti-yte's protests. Yeah, quote-unquote de-escalation rather than use of unnecessary force. But this is not something that they have talked about much. Curious to see when he's actually the mayor, what will happen here.

Starting point is 00:54:48 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a part of like what governing is going to look like in this case, which is just kind of, it's hard to say. We've never really had a high profile, like, you know, DSA person who previously advocated, like defunding or abolishing the police, become the mayor of the city. Yeah. And I think this kind of relates to like so much of what the project in New York is around New York City, DSA and Zoran to rather than just like, you know, be like chasing electoral cars and then crashing once you have control, like Zorans more interested in like actually running the city and providing a legitimate example that democratic socialist policies can deliver on promises for workers and improve life in New York. And if this project succeeds, it can be pointed to and replicated by others. And there's a very strict focus on like making sure that. he's able to succeed on a section of economic policies.

Starting point is 00:55:38 He's not in a federal position, right? He's not running on abolishing ICE as he can't as the mayor of New York. And, like, I think it's very unclear right now, like, what a politics of abolishing ice really looks like outside of, like, this, like, contemplative, like, reflexive and, like, judgmental politics, which falls further and further away from, like, taking steps to, like, do action, right? Yeah, I mean, a politics of abolishing ice looks like the United States up until 2001. on, right? Like, we didn't have ice. Well, but like from now, like, what would it mean to

Starting point is 00:56:08 actually stop deportations completely? Like, what will that look like? What can be done politically to do that, right? And Zoran's not doing this because Zoran's the mayor of New York City. He cannot run for president. People in his orbit could run for the House and set it and push forward bills to do this. And they might over time. But, like, there is a difference between being the mayor of a local municipality and like what a legitimate politics of actually stopping our current process of deportations

Starting point is 00:56:38 what that really looks like and how to actually achieve that which very little thought is being put towards among the American left right now and it kind of it falls back on these reflective or like contemplative statements yeah there have been proposals put forward for a long time on what it would look like

Starting point is 00:56:56 to create better legal pathways and fewer deportations right like those who have existed Sure. Like, you can look specifically at what people were trying to get Biden to do in 2020, right, which he obviously completely failed to do and, in fact, made things much worse. But, like, those policy proposals exist and they're well thought out and well planned from people who've been working into space for decades, right? What Mbani can do is, like, what they call in political science, like the coattails effect.

Starting point is 00:57:24 Totally. Right. As a very popular candidate, people can ride on his coat tails. And I think it's important in that. sense that he continues rhetorically to oppose what ISIS is doing, which like that statement you read, did, right? But it's very important that he, if he's able to successfully have his administration in New York, and like, we will see how shit goes in that regard. But if he is, and there is an electoral project that can arise based on that, then, like, it is very important

Starting point is 00:57:54 that they remain in lockstep that, like, we are not going back. We're not going to have a Democrat come president 28 and just do a Joe Biden again, right, where things get worse. Like, yeah. So in that sense, I think it like, it needs to be something that everyone in that movement retains, uh, I guess like, not uniformity is her own word. You know, but you know what I mean? It continues to be something of a North Star for whatever. Yeah. It's emerging to the left of the DNC. Yeah. And like I, it's also like, I guess, clarify some things I would have said last week and not claiming that sheerly the

Starting point is 00:58:28 process of honoring these detainers will vaguely in a causal sense results in less ice raids in a city. These detainers are, they are legally required even under the sanctuary laws to be followed. And I think part of what

Starting point is 00:58:45 Zorna was doing was trying to redirect the president's thought away from these larger raids to these specific serious crimes. And I think And some of this is based on Trump kind of has like the last person in the room syndrome of he kind of just likes or or follows or parrots whoever the last person in the room was and like what they told him. I'm not saying that like honoring these these legally required detainers is like is simply harm direction in that sense. This is more so in reference to the ongoing negotiations between Mamdani and Trump to limit ICE action in the city outside of these detainer requests which do address serious crime, which Trump.

Starting point is 00:59:25 and Mamdani saw as a point of commonality on is they want New York to be a safe place for people. Focusing on that as opposed to these general ice raids. And there's been like some slight movement on this. Raids have continued, but there's been slight movement in terms of Trump

Starting point is 00:59:41 at least for now pulling out of his plans to deploy National Guard to assist ice. And like that is the single point where we see some movement on. And this will be something that in terms of raids like on Conall Street, we'll see if this actually makes a larger impact once he takes office and continues these negotiations.

Starting point is 00:59:58 If National Guard are assisting ICE, is that like, because they can't directly do the immigration enforcement, right? Well, I mean, assisting ICE in the way that they have in Washington, D.C. Yeah, like in terms of, like, quote, unquote, protecting officers or quote, yes, yeah. And, you know, the proposals to do so in Chicago

Starting point is 01:00:17 and Portland, which are caught in, like, legal limbo. But, I mean, the Portland was more specifically for the ICE facility. Yeah, protect. federal buildings, this kind of deal. Versus in Washington, D.C., they were, like, on patrol with ice. Like, they were, like, roving around and doing roadblocks and shit. Yeah, and, like, much of this, quote, unquote, crime crackdown, as Bridgett's reported on our show, really is actually a way to do, like, enhanced immigration enforcement.

Starting point is 01:00:41 Yeah. There's a lot of fear in New York and discussions with people in New York on, like, how are we going to handle this happening here? Yeah. And this is, like, the one point of movement that we've seen is Trump's pulling out of these plans, which previously were quite certain. he wants to, like, go one by one, like, invade these cities. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:00:57 New York, you also have, like, the added factor that, like, New York is technically in that border enforcement zone, right? So, yeah, I mean, as is Chicago. Yeah, I guess most of these places have been Chicago, Portland is, Los Angeles is, because of the, like, so in Los Angeles, they deployed border patrol, right? That's another thing that could happen in New York, but, like, thus far hasn't on a massive scale. But, yeah, it remains to be seen, right?

Starting point is 01:01:22 like Trump has this like operation at large that Bovino controls that he could deploy to New York and it'll be yeah deployed to Boston where Michelle Boeuf has like taken a different approach like and yeah I guess we'll have to continue waiting and seeing it's really heartening to me that people showed up in New York as well you know like oh yeah that people in New York showed up on Canal Street like that is uh yeah and prevented ice from doing any detention or arrests. Yeah. And I think like they like, like ice eventually had to leave to New Jersey.

Starting point is 01:01:58 Is that right? Like they had to go through the tunnel or whatever, like to, yeah. The tunnel of shame. Yeah, yeah. But like that is, like that is what kept those people safe, right? They didn't have to wait for Eric Adams or Mombani or anyone else. Like it was members of their community. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:02:16 Yeah. Which is cool. Talking of communities, do you want to talk about the campus, campus community and how freedom of speech is under threat on our campuses? Well, freedom of religion is under threat, James. Okay. Religion to...

Starting point is 01:02:30 I'm so, so tired. I'm so tired. To cite a vibes-based interpretation of the religion. I mean, yeah, this, unfortunately, this story didn't infringe upon my freedom to not read horrible college essays. Garrison, that is a freedom that I have not had for many years. No, no, and this is why I'm interested in your thoughts on this. A transgraduate instructor has been suspended from the University of Oklahoma

Starting point is 01:02:56 after issuing a failing grade to a student's assignment to write a 650-word response to a study on if gender conformity is linked to popularity or bullying in middle school. This 20-year-old psychology major, a junior, wrote in her response that she does not consider bullying a problem because, quote, God made male and female and made us different from each other on purpose and for a purpose, unquote. The response was entirely personal opinion. It does not even properly cite specific scriptures in the Bible.

Starting point is 01:03:32 If I was to write like an unhinged, like Christian response, the least you could do is cite specific things. Should that be valid? No. But even this was not done. It's like Bible fanfic. These are the vibes I get from Jesus. Well, yeah, and she just gestured to her own interpretation of biblical

Starting point is 01:03:50 gender roles. Sure. Sure. Quote, women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our heart, unquote. She's women, like females, I guess. Maybe she was going for a...

Starting point is 01:04:08 It's all circular reasoning like this, all based on these, like, biblical gender roles. And later, the essay goes on to self-contradict itself on ideas of gender norms versus gender stereotypes, and it's all just very poorly written. James, did you read the whole essay? No.

Starting point is 01:04:28 Okay, it's not long. We are not going to read it all on air. I'll read it right now. I want you to read the whole thing and just give me your immediate thoughts. I dropped it in the Zoom chat. You have to understand that I might experience, like, what's called a trauma reaction. It's only two pages. So it's based on a review of an article.

Starting point is 01:04:47 Based on a review of an academic study. Yeah. on if gender conformity impacts bullying or popularity in middle school. Okay. Jesus Christ. That's what she said. But not yet. She hasn't cited him specifically.

Starting point is 01:05:04 No, she never cites Jesus. Yeah. God. Mm-hmm. Oh, hell yeah. I love it when they get into like Hebrew. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:05:15 Yes. I'm just getting to penultive paragraph. Oh. What class is this in? Psychology, a psychology course. I would assign this for a psychology close. Wow. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:05:31 Can I just read like the last part out loud? Okay, Sophie, you can read the last part. Yeah. My prayer for the world and specifically for American society and youth is that they would not believe the lies being spread from Satan that make them believe they are better off another gender than what God made them. I pray that they feel God's love and acceptance as who he originally created them to be. So if you really inhabited that role beautifully. Thank you.

Starting point is 01:06:03 Yeah. Thank you. Previously, in like the paragraph before, I... Do you want me to do it? Yeah, you could do it, Sophie. I unfortunately feel like I could really embody... You're going to be better equipped. Yeah. Emboddy this horrific person. Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be, whatever they want to be, is demonic and severely harms American youth. I do not want kids to be teased or bullied and stuff. That's not. That's not fine. So, James, as a college, college professor, what is your thoughts on this? It's just a bad response to the question, right? There is not a single citation. The person has not done what they're instructed to do. They have just, it's a classic example of that you have answered the question

Starting point is 01:06:49 And you wanted me to ask, not the question I have asked, genre. Sure. And in this case, like, I'm presuming there was some kind of rubric for grading. Like, it seems like a, like a, the sort of assignment that you would set once a week, right? I don't know if it's an online course or they're just using an online LMS, but the comment is clearly from an online LMS. Yeah, they do have the rubric that TPUSA published. The rubric was that you must write this 650 word reaction paper. demonstrating that you have read the assigned article and includes a thoughtful reaction to the material presented in the article.

Starting point is 01:07:25 Please remember that your reaction paper should not be a summary, but rather a thoughtful discussion of some aspect of the article. Possible approaches to reaction papers include a discussion of why you feel the topic is important and worthy of study or not, or an application of this study or results to your own experiences. That's a broader prompt than I had otherwise imagined. The other section is Reaction papers are graded on a 25-point scale and are evaluated based on the following. Does the paper show a clear tie

Starting point is 01:07:56 to the assigned article, 10 points? Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article rather than a summary 10 points and is the paper clearly written, five points? The best reaction papers illustrate the students have read the assigned materials and engaged in critical thinking

Starting point is 01:08:09 about some aspect of the article. Yeah, I mean, the way you would do that is to reference the article more than in the first line of your paper and then never again, right? Sure. Which is what this person has done here. Like at no point do they quote from the article

Starting point is 01:08:24 mentioned anything specifically the article says other than that it was very thought-provoking and then like they've seen the word gender and just gone off like a dog after a squirrel, right? Like, yes. And then completely gone off on one about God. Yeah, that's a pretty broad prompt. It's broader than I would generally write a prompt.

Starting point is 01:08:43 But that's okay, with different approaches. they haven't specifically said in the prompt that they want people to cite their sources which I normally do but yeah they haven't really shown any engagement with the article right this isn't a fresh of it this isn't a software this is

Starting point is 01:08:58 this is a junior well well into this semester the response from the instructor was quote please note I'm not deducting points because you have certain beliefs but instead I'm deducting points where you're posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions

Starting point is 01:09:12 for this assignment contradicts itself heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class and is at times offensive. While you are entitled to your own personal beliefs, there is an appropriate time or place to implement them in your reflections. I encourage all students to question or challenge

Starting point is 01:09:27 the course material with other empirical findings or testable hypotheses, but using your own personal beliefs to argue against the findings of not only this article, but the findings of countless articles across psychology, biology, sociology, etc., is not best practice, unquote. Yeah. So, this is a science class, I guess, right, Lee. Like, this is not a scientific response. It is. Yeah. No. Entirely vibes-based. Before becoming a national news story, this grade was reviewed by another instructor. This isn't just one instructor who happens to be trans. This isn't just their personal grade. This was reviewed by another instructor. But on Thanksgiving, TPUSA used this story to start a media blitz targeting this quote-unquote.

Starting point is 01:10:15 mentally ill professor, this graduate student instructor, which has resulted in her being placed on leave as the university reviews this incident concerning illegal discrimination based on religious beliefs. That's not what that is, right? I have watched a short-form video about discrimination many times over my years instructing students, and this person wasn't discriminated against because of their beliefs.

Starting point is 01:10:41 They weren't discriminated against, they were graded for their response, which was poor. For failing to follow the rules of the assignment. And again, not even as like a freshman who needs more clear, like, you know, like, first year at uni, like. No. Yeah. This is a psychology major in her junior year. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:11:03 Writing this response as a part of it as a part of a scientific psychology course, where it's not about science at all. You're just talking about your own impression. of what God wants out of gender roles and citing, not even citing, but like pointing towards the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Father. Yeah, and some Hebrew shit that you've translated. I know that most instructors who teach at universities now are very concerned about exactly this, right? About a student writing a paper, which is just bad, and then then going to pretty much

Starting point is 01:11:39 T.P. USA specifically. Right? And being like, yes, they came a paper. against me because they hate Jesus. And I can imagine that that is worse for trans and gender non-conforming and otherwise queer instructors from conversations, right?

Starting point is 01:11:53 No, absolutely. And like, TPUSA first gained popularity for its like professor watch list where people could report their like woke, liberal professors. And this is the core part of the TPUSA model is attacking academics and people who work in university. in this instant has like caused speculation of like how much of this essay was genuine versus

Starting point is 01:12:17 was this a intentionally bad essay to provoke this response which we can't we can't say you gotta wonder that but the student has like risen to the ranks of like a minor conservative celebrity in these in these past two weeks because of this incident and is doing like TPUSA like speaking speaking appearances

Starting point is 01:12:37 news appearances there's been dozens of articles across right wing outlets on this. It's turned into a legitimate story for them. Yeah, I do want to say as well, like it appears, Garrison, I discussed this before, but it appears that this person is a grad student and not like a,

Starting point is 01:12:54 not a 10ured professor. Yes, certainly not tenured, right? Sure. Therefore, they are much more vulnerable and that they have many fewer protections than a tenured professor would have. I don't know if they're unionized. It depends on where they're teaching, right?

Starting point is 01:13:09 But like... University of... Oklahoma, that is questionable. Yeah, I mean, possibilities points to know. But, like, this is a serious fucking problem for anybody teaching in these fields, right?

Starting point is 01:13:22 Especially graduate students, like I say, especially, I mean, imagine you're a graduate student on a student visa, right? Like, how do you approach teaching this when you know that you could end up on the TPUSA Instagram? It's trying to chill speech, right?

Starting point is 01:13:38 This is part of what they're doing. They're turning this into a, of, free speech crusade for religious discrimination, but what this is actually doing is chilling speech at universities by making it so that you can't teach certain topics, especially if you happen to be trans yourself. Otherwise,

Starting point is 01:13:53 TPUSA in the right-wing mediocre system is going to turn your life into a living nightmare. Yeah, I've repeatedly seen a First Amendment cited in reference to this. This has not got anything to do with the First Amendment. Like, the First Amendment doesn't give you the right to get a good grade for saying what the fuck you want.

Starting point is 01:14:09 That's not in the First Amendment. But, yeah, like Garrison said, it is chilling speech. Good news. Oklahoma University Workers United is a union. Sick. Okay, cool. And it includes grad student instructors. Unclear.

Starting point is 01:14:22 Okay. Hit us up. OU. And let us know. Before we close, I do want to mention another story that's happened this week, which is going to prompt of a future episode, probably next week. The online gambling platform, Kalshi?

Starting point is 01:14:40 I've never said it before. I'm saying Kalshi has... Is that a serial? Partnered with... That's Kashi. I don't even know what you're talking about anymore. But the online gambling platform, Kalshi, is partnered with CNN and CNBC

Starting point is 01:14:54 this past week to allow the news companies to use quote-unquote real-time prediction data for TV news segments and online content. This is not entirely surprising if people have been watching CNN like I have. like a complete maniac, because specifically this past November, like this whole election season, news pundits on CNN have been using betting odds in place of polling data to weigh the likelihood of candidates winning elections. This has become an increasingly common practice,

Starting point is 01:15:26 specifically at CNN, and now it appears spreading to other news platforms like CNBC. How she announcement of the CNN partnership reads, quote, CNN chief data analyst, Harry Enten is an expert in translating what data and polling are saying on any given issue. And through this integration, he can tap into real-time prediction markets data to better inform and fact-check his reporting, unquote. What? Fact-checking his reporting with gambling data, gambling odds from people who are betting on, like, if people are going to starve in Gaza, right?

Starting point is 01:16:05 This is this sort of stuff that they bet on on Khalish, not just who will. wins elections. Obserge. Jesus. I like that you've pronounced the name of this company several different ways. See, I used to call it Kelly. This is the problem. I think it's,

Starting point is 01:16:21 I think it's Kalshi. I think Kalshi is correct. There is one possible benefit to this. Will it stop Nate Silver being so fucking annoying? No, it'll cause them to be more annoying, James. How can you not see that? This is a part of the Nate Silverification of everything. Oh, God.

Starting point is 01:16:39 And this is, this is, This is what I want to talk about in the full piece. But no, there was a scene in news segment in October 2025 where this data analyst talked about how the odds of Democrats winning the midterms are going down via citing the Kalshi odds. And then he did like three minutes of analysis using selective midterm voting data from 2017 and 2018 to support the movement in the gambling odds. Like that was the core piece of data he was trying to explain. What the fuck? How big is this marketplace? Pretty big. Pretty big.

Starting point is 01:17:12 Okay. So I couldn't just come in with like $500 and tip it. No, it depends on what you're doing. For like these sorts of big, these like big races, no. But part of the real problem is if you're just tuning in to CNN and reading the graphics, it's really hard to tell that these are gambling odds. You're just seeing big percentages. And they're only going to mention that it's from quote unquote betting markets or prediction markets.

Starting point is 01:17:35 Like once at the beginning of the segment, after that, they treat the numbers like, actual polling data. So it's really, really manipulative. And unless you're like super paying attention to this whole segment, it'd be very easy to interpret these like gambling numbers as genuine, as genuine poll information. Wow. It's incredibly dangerous to democracy.

Starting point is 01:17:57 And overall, kind of bad and fucked up. And it's going to be spreading. The Kalshi competitor Polly Market partnered with X the Everything app and Yahoo finance earlier this year to integrate their, quote-unquote, prediction data into content on X and Yahoo Finance. It's only going to become more and more common. Well, you're going to do a long-form episode on this. I will. Yeah, this sucks. I'm just looking at this website now. It's bad. This sucks. I don't like this at all. If you would like to email us, you can do so by reaching out to CoolZone Tips at Proton.me.

Starting point is 01:18:38 That does it for us that it could happen here. We reported the news, and now you can bet on the news. We reported the news. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, visit our website, poolzone media. on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources where it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 01:19:20 Hey, everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 days of Christmas toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy. That's right. Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or Yo-Yoes, and a whole lot more. So listen to the

Starting point is 01:19:43 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me. In season two of RipCurrent, we asked, who tried to kill Judy Berry

Starting point is 01:19:58 and why? They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 01:20:21 I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Dr. Lari Santos from the Happiness Lab here.

Starting point is 01:20:55 It's the season of giving. And this year, my podcast, The Happiness Lab, is partnering with Give Directly, a nonprofit, that provides people in extreme poverty with the cash they need as part of the Pods Fight Poverty campaign. Our goal this year is to raise $1 million, which will bring over 700 families out of extreme poverty. Your donation will put cash directly in the hands of these families in need, and they'll get to decide how to use it, whether that's school transportation, purchasing livestock, or starting a business. Plus, if you're a first-time donor, your gift will be matched by giving multiplier, which means more money for those in need.

Starting point is 01:21:31 Visit give directly.org slash happiness lab to learn more and to donate. That's give directly.org slash happiness lab. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

It Could Happen Here - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #44

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