Tangle - A special podcast from Isaac.

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

Four years ago, we picked a fight with partisan media in the United States. Nearly every weekday since, we've published news with an eye toward elevating debate, broadening people's perspectives, and bringing balance back to the media landscape.Tonight, for the first time ever, the Tangle community will be gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In an effort to bring the experience of the newsletter live to the stage, I'll be moderating a conversation between Anastasia Boden, Mark Joseph Stern, and Henry Olsen on the latest Supreme Court term. Three guests, three very different worldviews, and one night to have them make their cases to a live audience.There are a few tickets still available if you want to join us! Tickets here.You can find the articles we referenced on the latest Trump Indictment here, a left view here, and a right view here.You can find the articles we referenced on the U.S. credit downgrade here, a left view here, and a right view here.You can find the articles we referenced on the Facebook Files here, a left view here, and a right view here.You can read today's podcast here and today’s “Have a nice day” story here. You can also check out our latest YouTube video here.Today’s clickables: Quick hits (2:58), Trump indictment (3:50), U.S. credit rating (5:53), The Facebook files (7:21), YouTube and Event announcements (8:15) Have a nice day (9:21)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and today we have a fairly special episode for you. This is a little bit different for a few reasons. So we're going to start off today with a special note. Four years ago, we picked a fight with partisan media in the United States.

Nearly every weekday since, we've published news with an eye toward elevating debate, broadening people's perspectives, and bringing some balance back to the media landscape. Tonight, for the first time ever, the Tangle community will be gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In an attempt to bring the experience of this newsletter and podcast live to the stage, I'll be moderating a conversation between Anastasia Bowden, Mark Joseph Stern, and Henry Olson on the latest Supreme Court term. Three guests, three very different worldviews, and one night to have them make their case to a live audience. As anyone who has ever put on a live event knows, bringing something to an audience in person

requires a great deal of preparation, focus, and work. To that end, we're going to be publishing a little bit of a skinny podcast today, as the entire Tangle team is busy running around Philadelphia getting ready for the big night. We'll also be off tomorrow, as I plan to take my team out after the event tonight to celebrate this milestone, four years of Tangle and all the hard work we've been putting in. Appropriately, though, the event is coming in the wake of some pretty significant news in the United States. Another Donald Trump indictment, the Facebook files, the downgrading of our nation's credit rating. On a normal day, any of these stories would be worthy of an entire podcast. Today, we're going to point you to some pieces

you can read for more information on those stories, and then we'll give them the full tangled treatment next week. In the meantime, I want to thank you all so much for your support. If you are still considering coming to the event, please know that we do have a few tickets left for sale. You can buy them with a link in today's episode description. And if you are coming to the event, please know that we do have a few tickets left for sale. You can buy them with a link in today's episode description. And if you are coming to the event, please know that doors open at 6 p.m. Eastern for VIP ticket holders and 7 p.m. Eastern for general admission ticket holders. However, at 6 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl opens its full-service Blue Ribbon restaurant downstairs, and we encourage all guests to stop by early and eat, have a few drinks. We want to support this amazing venue. There's a link to the full dinner menu in today's episode

description as well. All right, with that out of the way, we're going to jump in, as always, with some quick hits. First up, gas prices rose by 15 cents in the past week after a heat wave in Texas and Louisiana slowed processing at oil refineries. Number two, the gunman in the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 was sentenced to death. Number three, the IRS announced plans for a paperless processing initiative in the 2024 tax filing season. Number four, former President Trump is expected to appear in court in Washington, D.C. this afternoon to face federal charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Number five, the State Department announced the evacuation of non-emergency

embassy personnel from Niger after soldiers staged a coup in the West African nation last week. All right, that is it for our quick hits. And as part of our little skinny podcast today, we're going to give you a breakdown of three of the stories that are percolating in the news right now. First up is the Trump indictment. In the latest of his legal troubles, former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Washington, D.C. grand jury in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The indictment was filed by special counsel Jack Smith and accuses Trump of conspiring to defraud the United States, obstructing an official government proceeding, which was tallying the Electoral College vote, and depriving people of

a civil right, which was the right to have their votes counted. Six co-conspirators were referenced, and though they are not named or charged, details suggest two are Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman. We've got some more from the Wall Street Journal, and there's a link in today's episode description. If you're looking for a view from the left on this story, Charles Blow wrote about the must-read Trump indictment for the New York Times. The indictment is the harrowing true life story of how a former president pushed our democracy perilously close to the edge and remains a threat to push it over, Blow said. If you're looking for a view from the right, National Review's editors wrote about why this indictment should not stand. Now, through a special counsel it appointed for this precise purpose, the Biden Justice Department is attempting to use the criminal process as a

do-over for a failed impeachment, the editor said. Thank you. or journalism throughout the United States, including outlets like the Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and the Institute for Nonprofit News, among others. To learn more about their work, go to ArnoldVentures.org. That's ArnoldVentures.org. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chin credit rating, which was downgraded. On Tuesday, the credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the U.S. government's top credit rating from AAA to AA+, drawing an angry response from the White House and a temporary stock market dip.

Fitch cited fiscal deterioration in the United States and the growing debt burden of the U.S. government, as well as a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, setting multiple down-to-the-wire debt-ceiling negotiations. The White House said it defies reality to downgrade the United States at a moment when President Biden has delivered the strongest recovery of any major economy in the world. There's more from Reuters on this story in a link in today's episode description. If you're looking for a view from the right on this story, the Wall Street Journal editorial board asked why anyone was surprised. The downgrade to AA plus from AAA may even be an

overly optimistic assessment of the U.S. fiscal outlook, and it ought to be a warning to the political class, which will ignore it, the board said. If you're looking for a view from the left, the Washington Post editorial board called it a weird downgrade. Yes, the United States has a long-term debt problem, but the situation has improved slightly in recent months after President Biden and House Republicans struck a deal to avert a debt ceiling crisis, and the U.S. economy has performed better than expected, the board said. And next up is the Facebook files. Last week, Representative Jim Jordan, the Republican from Ohio, shared what he called smoking gun evidence that the Biden administration attempted to censor Americans. Then on Wednesday, Fox News published an article about White House officials pressing Facebook for special access to tools for targeting

vaccine-hesitant users. The documents released by Jordan and Fox News show a wide-reaching effort by the Biden White House to press Facebook to more actively target posts on its platform that spread misinformation or encourage skepticism about the vaccines. We've got more on this story from Fox News with a link in today's episode description. For an opinion from the left, you can read Oliver Darcy's piece in CNN about Jim Jordan. The hyper-partisan Ohio Republican still on an unsuccessful years-long journey to dishonestly portray Silicon Valley as unfairly censoring American conservatives, is now wielding the power of the federal government in his quest to besmirch meta, Darcy said. For an opinion from the right, you can read Jonathan Turley's piece in The Hill. The newly released Facebook files revealed a

concerted effort by the Biden administration to censor not just false information, but also true information, along also true information, along with jokes that its functionaries simply found annoying, Turley said. All right, that is it for our three main stories. Before we get into our Have a Nice Day story, a quick heads up. First of all, we have a new YouTube video up and live on our channel on media bias. I think it is a really important and fascinating video that is tied directly to our mission here at Tangle. And I encourage you to look up Tangle News on YouTube and go check it out.

Second, if you can't make the event tonight, which you should be coming to the event tonight, but in the event you can't, you can follow along on Instagram, tangle.news. Please go check out our Instagram handle, and we're going to be posting some updates there all night. So if you're missing the event, but you want to keep an eye on it, please go find us on Instagram and check that out. And last but not least, our have a nice day story. In 1983, teenagers Julie Kelly, an American citizen, and a man surnamed Cheng from Singapore,

began exchanging letters as part of a pen pal program. Majors Julie Kelly, an American citizen, and a man surnamed Cheng from Singapore began exchanging letters as part of a pen pal program. The two hit it off through mail and remained in regular contact throughout high school, forging a close relationship. But their correspondence became more sporadic after Cheng joined the Singaporean National Service and Kelly went off to college. At the end of a tumultuous marriage, Kelly decided to search for Cheng, reaching out to the Singaporean English-language news organization Mothership for help.

Mothership correspondent Ashley Tan went to work and eventually found Cheng, getting them in contact once again. When Tan told Kelly the news, she said she was beyond excited. Ashley Tan wrote about her efforts in reconnecting a friendship separated by thousands of miles and dozens of years. Mothership has that story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to support our work, please go to readtangle.com forward slash membership. And don't forget the event tonight, Philadelphia.

We're going to be out there. A few tickets still left for sale. We'd love to fill up this room. Please come out. Come meet the Tangle community in person. It's going to be awesome. Some great food in the Brooklyn Bowl restaurant beforehand. Some VIP tickets for a meet and greet. We can hang out, have a few drinks, talk to Supreme Court. It's going to be a blast. We'll see you then. If not, we'll be right back here on Monday. Have a great weekend. Peace.

Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by John Law. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bukova, who's also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more on Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website. Thanks for watching! background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.