Tangle - Week three of the government shutdown.

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

On Tuesday, the federal government shutdown entered its 21st day, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers at an impasse over a deal to reopen the government. The shutdown is now the longest full government shutdown in U.S. history; only the 35-day partial funding lapse in 2018–2019 lasted longer. On Monday, the Senate failed to pass a GOP-backed funding bill for the 11th time. Tangle is coming live — this week!We’re just a few days away from Tangle News: Live! at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Friday, October 24 — and I couldn’t be more excited. This show is shaping up to be one of our biggest events yet, and tickets are going fast. Today we have an exciting new announcement: We’re giving away VIP tickets to the show! If you win, you’ll meet me and our panelists after the show for a private reception, where you’ll have a chance to ask your questions personally. You can enter the VIP Giveaway here!Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by: Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life.

Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Hey, it's Greg from the Side Note podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 10, which for those of you who know me, no pixels are my favorite phone, so I was delighted when I was gifted one. Now the Google Pixel 10 comes with Gemini built in. It's essentially like an AI assistant that's there to help you at any time. It can go through my inbox and summarize it for me, which has been super helpful. I also struggle with meal prepping and it can make custom recipes based on the food that's in my fridge. Recently, I used it to help me plan a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Day one, start your day in old San Juan. Grab a coffee and light breakfast at a local cafe.

Again, the Google Pixel 10 has Gemini built in, so it helps me get things done faster, learn new things, and find inspiration seamlessly. Learn more about the Google Pixel 10 at store.gov.com. Not a billionaire. Not a problem. You can still do something legendary by leaving a gift to charity in your will. Even 1% in your will can change the game for a cause you care about without taking away what you or your family need. It's a powerful way to make your mark. Anyone can leave a legacy. Willpower shows you how.

Learn more at willpower.ca. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, and welcome to the Tango 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 on today's episode, we're going to be talking about the government shutdown. It's three weeks in, I think, at this point. So there's a lot to say. There's a lot going on. Going to share some views from the left and the right, and then, as always, my take.

Before you jump in, though, a quick heads up, we've gotten a lot of people writing in asking us to cover the young Republicans group chat controversy. I don't know if we'll get to that in a full newsletter or podcast. It's possible we do it tomorrow. We always have, like, kind of a few topics queued up and some research done and, you know, arguments organized. And then we kind of talk as a team and try to decide which way we're going to go. we did however talk about it pretty at length on the suspension of the rules podcast so i want to let you guys know that just if you scroll back a couple episodes you'll see the suspension of the rules uh artwork in your podcast feed and in that latest episode camille ari and i talked about the young republicans group chat

controversy among a few other things including the shutdown i thought it was i thought the part of the conversation where we talked about the young Republicans group chat was maybe the most interesting part of the show. So I highly encourage you to go check it out if you haven't yet. All right, with that, I'm going to send it over to John for today's main topic, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac, and welcome everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, a federal appeals Court ruled two to one that the Trump administration can mobilize and deploy members of the Oregon National Guard to Portland while a legal challenge to the move proceeds. The court's majority found that the administration was likely to prevail on the merits of its appeal. Number two,

construction crews began demolishing a portion of the White House's east wing as part of a construction project spearheaded by President Trump to build a White House ballroom. Number three, Amazon Web Services said that a sweeping internet outage originating from its cloud computing data centers was mostly resolved. The outage impacted sites and apps serving millions of users and businesses. Number four, the United States and Australia agreed to a critical minerals and rare earth's deal to partner on projects worth up to $8.5 billion in total. And number five, Japan's lower and upper house voted to elect Sanayay Takayichi as prime minister, making her the first female prime minister in the country's history.

The government shutdown has reached the three-week mark officially as we begin day 21 here with still no end in sight. Yesterday, the Senate failed for the 11th time to advance a House-passed measure that would fund the government. House Speaker Mike Johnson once again blamed Democrats for prolonging the shutdown, even as he keeps his House lawmakers out of session. That's going on nearly a month now. On Tuesday, the federal government shutdown entered its 21st day, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers at an impasse over a deal to reopen the government. The shutdown is now the longest full government shutdown in U.S. history.

Only the 35-day partial funding lapse in 2018 to 2019 lasted longer. On Monday, the Senate failed to pass a GOP-backed funding bill for the 11th time. For context, on October 1st, federal funding lapsed, halting some government services and suspending pay to many federal employees. The Senate failed to reach the 60-vote threshold required to pass a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open, with Democrats pushing for a permanent extension of temporary Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans have maintained that health subsidy negotiations should be held only after the government reopens. We covered the beginning of the shutdown, and you can check that out

with the link in today's episode description. Services designated as essential, such as air traffic, control and federal law enforcement remain operational during the shutdown. However, many other government functions have been paused or disrupted, and federal agencies have begun furlowing workers or asking employees to work without immediate pay. On Monday, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for overseeing and modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile, announced it would furlough most of its staff. Separately, the administrative office of the U.S. courts said the shutdown would begin to affect its operations this week, and the Supreme Court will be closed to the public

due to resource limitations. In addition to the furloughs, the Trump administration has sought to lay off thousands of federal workers during the shutdown as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce the size of the government. On Wednesday, White House Budget Director Russell Votes suggested that over 10,000 jobs could be cut, saying, we want to be very aggressive

where we can be in shuddering the bureaucracy, not just the funding. However, also on Wednesday, a federal judge temporarily barred the administration from carrying out planned layoffs, then extended the order to a broader group of unionized federal workers on Friday. The judge suggested that the Trump administration was firing line-level civilian employees during a government shutdown as a way to punish the opposing political party. Separately, vote has paused billions in funding for projects in mostly Democratic-led cities,

calling them low-priority projects that may be canceled outright. The Office of Management and Budget Director has also frozen or canceled infrastructure and climate-related projects in major cities, drawing criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Today, we'll cover the latest on the shutdown with views from the left and the right, and then Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick break. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer.

The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit Medcan.com slash moments to get started. Need an escape from the city that actually feels like an escape? Just an hour from the GTA, Waterloo Region offers something truly unexpected. We're talking eerie corn mazes tucked behind farm gates, hidden garden patios where the cocktails tastes like stories, and indie festivals popping up in places you'd never expect. One minute, you're walking through an advanced tech hub.

The next? A harvest ho-down with goats, alpacas, and a mechanical bowl. And yeah, both feel right. Waterloo Region is where Old World Charm meets new school energy. Canada's largest October Fest celebration, interactive light festivals, craft cider sips, vintage shops, and maybe even a horse-drawn buggy cruising past your latte stop. This fall, don't just go somewhere. Go somewhere unexpected.

Stay Curious. Explore Waterloo Region. Plan your trip at staycurious.ca.ca. All right, first up, let's start with what the left is saying. Many on the left contend that Democrats should broaden the shutdown fight to address Trump's abuses of executive power. Some note that the shutdown has accelerated Trump's efforts to cut the federal workforce. Others say the politics of the shutdown are considerably different from past instances. In the American prospect, David Dayan argued, to win the shutdown, Democrats need a big switch.

In public, this is just a fight about a looming health care cliff, using the leverage of needing Democratic votes, at least under current Senate rules, to pass government funding to demand that Republicans a crisis of millions of people losing their insurance coverage or seeing the price of it double, day in route. In private, this is a fight about extreme executive power and autocracy, with Democrats demanding that any government funding they pass must actually be spent, not withheld, or rescinded, a no-kings budget, in other words. If there's a way to switch this out, to make the need for no-kings,

is quite popular, the primary focal point of the shutdown fight, Democrats have a better chance of getting out of this with something, Dan said. But you don't want to drop the health care conversation entirely. There really is a risk of millions of people losing insurance when enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies expire in December, and people in Republican districts will be disproportionately hurt, raising stakes that White House officials are keenly aware of, even if they won't admit it in public. In the Los Angeles Times, Jackie Calms wrote, this is Trump's shutdown, but he's been dismantling the government all year. Trump has been dismantling many of the government's domestic programs for nine months,

with an abandon that disregards federal laws and the Constitution's separation of powers, as numerous lower court judges have found, only to be temporarily checked by the Trump-friendly Supreme Court, calm said. Even America's foreign rivals and enemies couldn't have conceived of a more shockingly self-defeating course than the one its commander-in-chief has his nation on, targeting education from pre-K through postgraduate studies, scientific and medical research, public health and general health care, clean energy, community development, and so much more. Yet even Trump and Company have had to tacitly admit repeatedly, they've gone too far.

They've called back some targeted federal employees or sought new hires for the Internal Revenue Service, the National Weather Service, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, columns were out. Democrats are right to demand that Republicans support continued health care subsidies before Democrats vote to reopen the government. But the ongoing shutdown is at least as valuable for drawing Americans' attention to the de facto Trump's shutdown that predates it, and that, unfortunately, will outlast it. In Bloomberg, Matthew Iglesias explored what makes this shutdown so different. This shutdown has a different dynamic. The public is displeased with both sides' behavior,

but on balance tends to put slightly more blame on Republicans than Democrats. That means President Donald Trump has strong incentives to minimize the visible pain of the shutdown, Eglacios said. More consequentially, Trump isn't letting a lack of authorized funds stop him from paying the troops or even maintaining the WIC program for pregnant women and young children. The legality of these moves is questionable. The White House is essentially daring Democrats to sue, in which case they would be responsible for the lack of military pay. But Democrats aren't taking the bait.

Leaving aside the dubious legality of it all, politically this is not the usual. form of pressure found in the shutdown playbook. The senators Trump is hitting by cutting funding to blue states are not the vulnerable frontliners who might be coerced into caving. There's safe seat Democrats whose constituents would rebel if they back down. Trump, as is often the case, is more interested in punishing his foes than winning an argument, Eglacius wrote. For now, there simply isn't meaningful pressure on either the White House or Senate Democrats to cave. The result is a standoff that, unless Republicans choose to resolve it on their own, could persist for a long, long time.

All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right says Democrats' shutdown strategy is a losing proposition. Some argue Republicans should hold firm on not extending ACA subsidies. Others say the shutdown is revealing parts of the government that should be permanently cut. In Newsweek, Josh Hammer said Democrats still haven't learned any lessons. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer defended his caucus's latest vote, opining, it's always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people

in terms of health care, in terms of housing, and in terms of safety. But to most Americans, such tendentious bloviating falls on deaf ears, Hammer wrote. Most common-sense Americans understand that there is no reason paying America's warriors should be held hostage to arcane debates over housing policy. Democrats seem to be unable to avoid tripping all over themselves. Illegal immigration and gender radicalism are perhaps the two least popular issues right now for Democrats. Yet they are arguably the two issues most at the forefront of the current Beltway standoff, or at least the debate over the scope of taxpayer funding is, Hammer said.

A rational political party interested in self-preservation and electoral success would certainly take a different approach. such a party would ditch the post-2008 obsession with identity politics and wokeism, and revert to the Clinton-era message of economic growth and cultural centrism. In USA Today, Dase Potus argued, Republicans have the perfect chance to stop wasting your money on the ACA. Republican leadership remains unwilling to negotiate until the government is reopened. However, there has been some openness within the Republican ranks to extend the Obamacare subsidies for another year, Potus wrote. That's something Republicans should reverse.

refuse. Not only can America not afford to continue subsidizing a failing health care plan, but it is the right political decision as well. It should be an easy choice. Health insurance premiums have skyrocketed since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. This rise in premiums can be chiefly attributed to the flurry of regulations imposed on health insurance companies under the ACA. Guaranteed issue and community rating regulations are expensive regulations that have driven up the cost of health care, POTUS said. Democrats are right that the people will lose health care, but the cost of keeping the enhanced subsidies far outweighs the downside. However, the existing subsidies under the base contents of the ACA,

which will remain in place regardless of the outcome of this political fight, are still rather generous. In the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Huff wrote, government shutdown? No, an efficiency audit. Since 1981, four major shutdowns have generated data about what government actually needs to function. furlough rates have ranged from about 15 to 40%. The current 2025 shutdown sits at the low end, suggesting agencies have broadened their understanding of operational minimums, Huff said. Shutdowns like Congress run an experiment it would ordinarily never attempt, close the whole thing down, and see what breaks.

This is what Elon Musk did at Twitter. He fired 80% of the staff, watched what broke, and restored only what proved necessary. This approach, furlough broadly, identify failures and restore specific functions, is vastly more efficient than conventional budget cutting. For example, the fiscal 2014 shutdown generated data on which services generated outcry when suspended, national parks, which created safety risks, fewer inspections by the Food and Drug Administration, and which caused surprisingly little disruption, Huff wrote.

Each funding impasse has collectively produced the world's largest organizational efficiency study, not a simulation or theoretical analysis, but a real-world test of which positions government can fund function without. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take. All right, that is it for the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So nothing about the shutdown actually feels normal. Perhaps most importantly, there just isn't a real centerpiece issue here. In 2018, the shutdown

was about Trump's demand to fund a border wall. In 2013, it was over the Affordable Care Act. In 1995, it was about cuts to Medicare and education being demanded by Newt Gingrich. What is this shutdown about? Democrats want to make it about health care and Affordable Care Act subsidies, but the shutdown isn't really about health care.

It's about power. It's the Ezra Klein argument that Democrats need to stand up and fight back against Trump because funding a government operating the way his government is operating is no longer tenable. Republicans wanted to make the debate about Democrats trying to fund health care for illegal immigrants, but that story is misleading to the point of fabrication. Now, Republicans have all but abandoned that argument and pivoted to the idea that they are the party of health care, who's trying to reopen the government while Democrats refuse to.

Truthfully, though, Republicans are fine if the government remains shut down because President Trump doesn't care if the government remains shut down. Which brings me to the second odd thing about this standoff. Nobody seems interested in actually reopening the government. There are no urgent meetings between president and the House Speaker. Congress is not even convening to find a solution. Democratic politicians feel their bases behind them, even government workers, and why not? The threat of layoffs is not so harrowing, given that Trump clearly doesn't need the pretext of a shutdown to fire people.

Instead, he invited Doge and OMB to slash government staff when the government was open. At least now, Democrats can tell those government workers and their constituents that they are fighting back. Many Republicans, meanwhile, view the shutdown as a live audit, an opportunity to purge government employees and programs that they see as extraneous. If you're quiet enough, you can hear Russ Vaught rubbing his hands together. Of course, Republicans would be pivoting if it were politically advantageous, but they think they'll win the messaging war, the longer the shutdown goes on. And with Trump's bullhorn, they may be right. The third thing that is so odd about the shutdown is that something specific has actually brought us to this point, and almost nobody is talking about it. It isn't Trump being a fascist. It isn't Democrats trying to subsidize

health care for immigrants here illegally. It's much more mundane. It's that shutdowns are always about funding the government, and our current government funding is totally unsustainable. The Washington Post editorial board is one of the few places I've seen pointing out this dynamic explicitly. Remember, the Affordable Care Act, however well-intended and popular, is still not affordable for the government. During the pandemic, President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats passed a massive expansion of emergency subsidies to support health care programs like the ACA. Those emergency subsidies for health care, student loan forgiveness, and food stamps were supposed to be temporary. But, as is typical, if voters acclimate to a government

benefit, that program becomes much harder to cut. This was the traditional conservative argument. These won't be temporary. In this case, they were right. Congress massively expanded its spending during the pandemic without providing a funding mechanism for it and has not undone those expansions. Meanwhile, Trump came into office with a dire fiscal situation that needed to be resolved by some combination of raising taxes or cutting federal costs. Instead, he tried to pass off the job of fiscal responsibility to Doge. But that initiative was a farce that extended maximum pain onto government employees and acts to overseas programs for little more than table scraps.

The $20 billion Argentina bailout Trump just approved costs roughly double the combined savings from all of Doge's cuts, roughly $1.4 billion, and Congress's $8 billion in USAID funding cut. As we keep saying, in order to seriously cut the budget, the government has to reduce spending and Social Security, health care, and defense. The president hasn't touched the first two, and he continues to approve historically large military spending bills, all while the Pentagon remains incapable of even passing an audit.

Then, on the other side of the coin, Trump has extended tax cuts from his first term that were also meant to be temporary. So, here we are, $37.9 trillion in debt. No plan to pay for the most popular, important, or expensive government programs, and nothing to do but to do. try to distract voters into hating the other side on fabricated or irrelevant grounds.

Frustratingly, infuriatingly, none of that has anything to do with ending this shutdown. For that, we'll have to see when Americans start to really feel pain and who they'll blame it on. Ultimately, Democrats are the ones holding up a funding CR for their demands, and the biggest pain point for Democrats in the past may have been when food assistance programs and health service for seniors started to run dry. Today, though, the Democratic-Based, is wealthy and highly educated. It's a crude political calculation, but this shift may make Democrats more tolerant of these issues than they had been in the past. Conversely, a lot of Republicans are sounding the alarm about this coming cliff, and in a relatively new development, it might be more

politically perilous for Republicans if these entitlement checks stop flowing. Instead, the biggest pain point of this shutdown for Democrats may be when the lack of normal operations starts to impact day-to-day life. Thanksgiving week will be a key test. How chaotic and broken can U.S. airports get with limited TSA and air traffic control staff? How tolerant will Democrats be of such a public mess when they can reopen the government with a vote at any time? For Trump and Republicans, the biggest pain points are already arriving, but the president is trying to find ways to mitigate them. When military pay was supposed to freeze last week, Trump took unconstitutional, read, illegal action, to keep checks flowing to active duty soldiers. Republican senators describe the move as varying degrees of inappropriate,

but none seemed eager to take back the power of the purse. Meanwhile, Democrats are unwilling to hold the president accountable for paying military personnel. And in the end, I doubt many Americans noticed or cared, except for active duty soldiers and their families, whom I presume are quite relieved. The president seems keen to use a similar process to restart loans for struggling farmers who are being hit hard by his tariffs or keep other politically popular programs alive. Basically, the government is shut down, but the party in powers finding emergency funding to make it all a bit less painful for their favored constituents. It's anyone's guess what happens now.

We're barreling toward the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Republicans have a governing trifecta, but also can't move the ball without Democratic votes and seem keen to sit tight. They're displaying a sort of governing by breaking it attitude, first adopted by Trump, but now taken up by the party wholesale. Meanwhile, Democrats have the strength of their health care argument, costs go up if nothing is done, but conveniently have no plan to pay for the billions in funding that four years ago was sold to the public as emergency and temporary. Truthfully, my best guess is we see little to no movement until the problems become untenable for the public.

It'll take nightmares travel delays, disappearing food stamps, and possibly long waits to resolve health care snafus, and reports of degraded military readiness before anyone comes back to the table. And then, unfortunately, we'll have to wait for Congress to actually agree on something. All right, that is it for my take. Ari Weitzman, our managing editor, has a staff dissent. So I'm going to pass it over to him for that. This is Tangu's managing editor Ari Weizman with today's staff dissent.

I think Isaac is leaving out one major power player in his discussion over the standoff between Democrats, read the Senate and Chuck Schumer, and Republicans read President. and that person is House Speaker Mike Johnson. Isaac is right to remind us that funding shutdowns are always about funding, but the person whose job it is to shepherd the appropriations process is the Speaker of the House. And when Johnson first took the gavel, he said he'd bring fiscal responsibility to that process. The House still does not issue periodic funding, as Johnson said it would when he took the gavel, and it still can only get one on-the-bust spending bill that could pass the Senate out any given year. That leaves partisans in a permanent state of fighting over

what to remove from a permanently underfunded budget. As I said in my take, when we initially covered the government shutdown a couple weeks ago, Johnson did not invent house dysfunction, but he did say he'd help to resolve it. He decidedly has not. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish.

Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit Medcan.com slash moments to get started. Need an escape from the city that actually feels like an escape? Just an hour from the GTA, Waterloo Region offers something truly unexpected. We're talking eerie corn maces tucked behind farm gates, hidden garden patios where the cocktails tastes like stories, and indie festivals popping up in places you'd never expect. One minute, you're walking through an advanced tech hub.

The next? A harvest ho-down with goats, alpacas, and a mechanical bowl. And yeah, both feel right. Waterloo Region is where Old World Charm meets New School Energy. Canada's largest October Fest celebration, interactive light festivals, craft cider sips, vintage shops, and maybe even a horse-drawn buggy cruising past your latte stop. This fall, don't just go somewhere. Go somewhere unexpected.

Stay Curious. Explore Waterloo Region. Plan your trip at staycurious.ca.ca. All right, that is it for my take and a staff dissent, which brings us to your questions answer. This one's from Rory and Princeton, New Jersey, who said Stephen Miller said President Trump has plenary authority. What does that mean? Okay, first the definition. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, plenary authority means power that is complete, comprehensive, and not subject to significant limitation. As for the comment,

Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, who has been responsible for much of President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policy recently cited plenary authority to justify the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland. While giving an interview to CNN on Monday, Miller said under Title X of the U.S. Code, the president has plenary authority before pausing during the interview. The network said that a technical glitch resulted in audio from a different channel being sent to Miller's earpiece, causing him to pause. When the interview resumed, Miller clarified his point. Under federal law, Title X of the U.S. Code, he said, the president has the authority any time he believes federal resources are insufficient to

federalize the National Guard to carry out a mission necessary for public safety. Title X is a portion of federal law covering the military. Miller is correct that the Constitution and federal law do give the president authority to deploy troops in the U.S. to respond to an invasion or insurrection, or if law enforcement is unable to execute the law without assistance. The president also does have narrow plenary authority power over the number of troops descend on deployment. However, Miller's argument that the situation in cities justifies the use of this authority is not nearly as straightforward. For context, Miller has been publicly constructing an argument that broad illegal immigration and lawlessness in U.S. cities

justifies federal troop deployment. He has laid the groundwork for this argument. by referring to illegal immigration as an invasion, and more recently describing a confrontation between protesters and ICE agents outside Chicago as domestic terrorism and seditious insurrection. Federal judges have blocked troop deployments to Los Angeles and Chicago under the president and Miller's rationale,

but an appeals court just allowed the guards deployment to Portland. So while the president does have meaningful authority over military deployments, Miller's one-time and potentially accidental characterization of that authority as plenary, is much more dubious. All right, that is it for today's Your Questions Answered. I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod,

and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't forget Los Angeles this Friday tickets in the episode description if you want to come see us live and in person. There are also some VIP tickets for a meet and greet at the bar at the theater after the show, and we hope to see you guys there. Have a good one. Peace. Thanks, Isaac. Here's your under-the-radar story for today, folks. On Saturday, a U.S. military demonstration that involved shooting live fire artillery rounds over

Interstate 5 in California dropped metal shrapnel onto a California Highway Patrol protective services detail for Vice President J.D. Vance. The CHP said that the shrapnel was from an explosive ordinance that detonated prematurely, and some of it struck a CHP patrol vehicle and motorcycle. No one was injured and the Marines stopped firing additional live-round ordinances over the highway after they were notified of the incident. But California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the Trump administration for carrying out the exercise without coordinating with the state, calling the decision reckless. The Los Angeles Times has this story and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of appropriations bills

needed to fund the U.S. government that Congress has passed is zero out of 12. The approximate amount of federal spending temporarily withheld during the 2018-2019 partial government shutdown was $18 billion. According to CNN, 89% of employees at the Environmental Protection Agency have been furloughed during the current shutdown, the highest share of any federal agency. Approximately 334,900 Defense Department employees have been furloughed. the most of any federal agency. According to an October 2025 AP N-O-R-C poll,

54% of U.S. adults see the government shutdown as a major problem, and 35% of U.S. adults see the government shutdown as a minor problem. 37% of Republicans see the government shutdown as a major problem, and 45% of Republicans see the government shutdown as a minor problem. 69% of Democrats see the government shutdown as a major problem, and 28% of Democrats see the government shutdown as a minor problem. According to in October, U.Gov Economist poll, 33% of U.S. adults primarily blame Democrats in Congress for the shutdown,

while 39% primarily blamed Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown. And 20% of U.S. adults blame both sides equally for the shutdown. And last but not least, R have a nice day story. Ryan Ramos had an unusual request for the theme of his fifth birthday party. his 39th president, Jimmy Carter. Ryan first became interested in President Carter when his preschool class celebrated President's Day in 2024, and Ryan's mother has done her best to indulge his interest. Her stories about planning his party, complete with a Carter cake and a cardboard cutout, went viral on TikTok, where they even reached the former president's family,

who sent Ryan a personalized goody package, including family recipes and memorabilia from the late president's 100th birthday. WSBTV Atlanta has this story and there's a link in today's episode description All right everybody that is it for today's episode As always if you'd like to support our work Please go to retangle.com Where you can sign up for a newsletter membership

Podcast membership or a bundled membership They get to a discount on both We'll be right back here tomorrow For Isaac and the rest of the crew This is John Law signing off Have a great day, y'all Peace Our executive editor and founder is me

Isaac Saul and our executive producer is John role. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior editor Will Kayback and associate editors Hunter Casperson, Audrey Moorhead, Bailey Saw, Lindsay Canuth, and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website at retangle.com. at medcan we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health from the big milestones to the quiet winds that's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led

full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer the healthier you means more moments to cherish take control of your well-being and book an assessment today Medcan, live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Hey, it's Greg from the Side Note podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 10, which for those of you who know me,

no pixels are my favorite phones, so I was delighted when I was gifted one. Now the Google Pixel 10 comes with Gemini built in. It's essentially like an AI assistant that's there to help you at any time. You can go through my inbox and summarize it for me, which has been super helpful. I also struggle with meal prepping,

and it can make custom recipes based on the food that's in my fridge. Recently, I use it to help me plan a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Day one, start your day in old San Juan. Grab a coffee and light breakfast at a local cafe. Again, the Google Pixel 10 has Gemini built in, so it helps me get things done faster, learn new things, and find inspiration seamlessly. Learn more about the Google Pixel 10 at store.gookle.com.

Need an escape from the city that actually feels like an escape? Just an hour from the GTA, Waterloo Region offers something truly unexpected. We're talking eerie corn mazes tucked behind farm gates, hidden garden patios where the cocktails taste like stories, and indie festivals popping up in places you'd never expect. One minute, you're walking through an advanced tech hub. The next? A harvest ho-down with goats, alpacas, and a mechanical bowl.

And yeah, both feel right. Waterloo Region is where Old World Charm meets new school energy. Canada's largest October Fest celebration, Interactive Light Festivals, Craft Cider Sips, Vintage Shops, and maybe even a horse-drawn buggy cruising past your latte stop. This fall, don't just go somewhere. Go somewhere unexpected. Stay Curious.

Explore Waterloo Region. Plan your trip at staycurious.cairious.ca.