Speaker 1: Also media speaking of things that are on fire America.
Speaker 1: All right, I did my job, Garrison.
Speaker 2: What are we doing?
Speaker 1: Who are we?
Speaker 3: This is?
Speaker 4: It could happen here.
Speaker 5: Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the
Speaker 5: White House, their prombling world, and what this means for you.
Speaker 5: I'm Garrison Davis today, joined by James Stout and Robert Evans.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 5: This episode recovering the week of May sixth through May thirteenth. Yep, James,
Speaker 5: some small news items to open us up.
Speaker 6: My little grab bag of news stories.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: The United Kingdom parachute drop supplies and medical personnel into
Speaker 6: Tristan d'acunha last weekend to respond to the huntavirus outbreak.
Speaker 6: A man had got off the cruise ship when the
Speaker 6: outbreak began in April and returned to Tristan Tacuna, where
Speaker 6: he resides. I think the cruise ship stopped Tristan da
Speaker 6: Cuna this weekend. British paratroopers from the Path Find a
Speaker 6: platoon tandem jumped a doctor and a nurse onto the island,
Speaker 6: along with supplies, including oxygen, which was criticulally low on
Speaker 6: the island. The patient had reported symptoms two weeks after
Speaker 6: disembarking the cruise ship, and they'd spent that time on
Speaker 6: the island, and therefore there's a fairly high chance that
Speaker 6: that they've interacted with other people. Right, the island has
Speaker 6: no air strip. They was such a low supply of
Speaker 6: oxygen that there obviously wasn't time for a boat to
Speaker 6: get to Tristan Pacuna. So the UK conducted this fairly,
Speaker 6: I mean extremely You'm sure this is the first time
Speaker 6: the UK has ever done it. The island has a
Speaker 6: populaced around two hundred and twenty people and only two
Speaker 6: medical professionals who are obviously exhausted after delivering care to
Speaker 6: this person who's on oxygen for several weeks. Yeah, so
Speaker 6: they jumped a couple more in there. Fairly audacious response
Speaker 6: to the hunt virus. Secondly, and I think we can
Speaker 6: also agree of equally important Japanese snack food, Giant Cowbi
Speaker 6: is switching to black and white packaging for its Oh.
Speaker 2: No, Garrison is loading a gun right now.
Speaker 4: This is a significant portion of my daily diet.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Garrison won't be able to make it through this.
Speaker 6: One is going on hunger strike.
Speaker 2: They are wiring a crew detonator together. It looks like.
Speaker 4: I'm going to join Oran put an end to this madness.
Speaker 6: That is. This is because ingredients use for the ink
Speaker 6: on its normal colorful packages are hard to come by
Speaker 6: thanks to the war with a run and thanks. Yeah.
Speaker 6: So if you want, if you've got one of those
Speaker 6: little stickers that says I did that, and you've got
Speaker 6: a packet of black and white crisps, now you can
Speaker 6: combine the two.
Speaker 2: And your black and white laimash hips.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah. The one thing that gave us joy is gone.
Speaker 6: The Nigerian military has once again carried out an air
Speaker 6: strike on a market, killing at least one hundred civilians.
Speaker 6: Going to anasty International, The air strike on the Tumfo
Speaker 6: market is the second in a month to hit a market.
Speaker 6: The Nigerian military claims the area was to hide out
Speaker 6: for bandits, but it has yet to acknowledge the civilian
Speaker 6: death toll. Government in this area is more or less
Speaker 6: like only present through its ability to project force like this,
Speaker 6: and I've seen interviews with local suggesting the town was
Speaker 6: under the control of non state groups previously. People remember,
Speaker 6: the Nigerian government has suggested that anyone doing business with
Speaker 6: the people at targeting is also a legitimate target, which
Speaker 6: is how it has justified dropping bombs on crowded markets.
Speaker 6: Like this, CNN is claiming that the CIA facilitated a
Speaker 6: car bomb in Sinaloa. The article seems to have sources
Speaker 6: in or very familiar with the operations of Ground Branch.
Speaker 6: It also alleges that the US government employees who were
Speaker 6: killed in the car crash last month were members of
Speaker 6: Ground Branch. More than the fact of this story, it
Speaker 6: doesn't shock me that the CIA is killing people in
Speaker 6: weird ways in different countries. Now, that is one of
Speaker 6: the things that they do. That's like the CIA's job. Yeah,
Speaker 6: the fact that CNN has a source that is leaking
Speaker 6: Ground Branch operations, that is not usual for someone in
Speaker 6: the CIA to be talking to someone at CNN. Well,
Speaker 6: these operations are ongoing, right, and like, yeah, operations in
Speaker 6: Mexico are exceptionally high risk for these kinds of folks.
Speaker 6: Like in twenty twelve, some Mexican federal cops open fire
Speaker 6: on US government employees, presumably not acting on behalf of
Speaker 6: the federal government. Right, Obviously, it puts this mission at risk,
Speaker 6: which isn't already a high risk thing. But the fact
Speaker 6: that somebody has felt the need to leak this CNN
Speaker 6: is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 5: Speaking of potential CIA leaks, former director of the National
Speaker 5: Counter Terrorisment Center, Joe Kent claimed on X the Everything
Speaker 5: app that before the President launched the war in Iran, quote,
Speaker 5: the US intel community, including CIA, was an agreement that
Speaker 5: Iran wasn't developing a nucular weapon and that Iran would
Speaker 5: target US bass in the region and shut down the
Speaker 5: straight of hornor news if they were.
Speaker 2: Attacked by Israel and the US en quote.
Speaker 5: The Supreme Court extended access to remote prescription at melt
Speaker 5: delivery of the abortion pill with pristone until Thursday, May fourteenth,
Speaker 5: which is the day this episode releases.
Speaker 2: The night this episode releases.
Speaker 5: Around Thursday, they're expected to make a shadow docket ruling
Speaker 5: on whether Louisiana's ban on mail order abortion pills can
Speaker 5: go into effect as the case continues through a lower court.
Speaker 5: A golden statue of President Trump was unveiled at a
Speaker 5: Trump resort in Miami last week. The statue was blessed
Speaker 5: by evangelical pastor Mike Burns, who said, quote, let me
Speaker 5: be clear, this is not a golden calf unquote.
Speaker 2: God, it's so hard. I like you, you went through everything.
Speaker 1: You just like the little parade of horrors like you
Speaker 1: do every week, and then you just drop that that
Speaker 1: there's there's a priest blessing a golden statue, pastor, pastor, sorry,
Speaker 1: you're right, pastor. And I know that like they that
Speaker 1: he had dressed in the moment, like the whole golden
Speaker 1: cat thing of it all, which just funnier that like
Speaker 1: he knew I gotta say something like I gotta make
Speaker 1: a comment.
Speaker 6: That's what got me that he felt that he needed
Speaker 6: to address the golden cough in the room.
Speaker 2: Really genuinely funny.
Speaker 4: My, this is not a golden calf shirt.
Speaker 5: Has a lot of people ask few questions already answered
Speaker 5: by the shirt.
Speaker 4: Oh fuck, it's great, but yeah, grim stuff.
Speaker 2: Yep So.
Speaker 6: A natural survey of one thousand Americans by News God
Speaker 6: and YouGov suggests that about half of people in the
Speaker 6: United States surveyed think each of the attempts on Donald
Speaker 6: Trump's life was staged or they're not sure if it
Speaker 6: was real. For the White House Correspondent dinner attempt and
Speaker 6: the Butler Pennsylvania attempts, twenty four percent of those surveyed
Speaker 6: thought the attempts were staged. Thirty two percent were not
Speaker 6: sure in the White House Correspondents Dinner attempt, and twenty
Speaker 6: nine percent for the Butler Pennsylvania event.
Speaker 1: It's more than half if you add them up, and
Speaker 1: I'm convinced.
Speaker 2: Super funny.
Speaker 6: I'll quote from the report here. Of the twelve percent
Speaker 6: of Americans who said all three attempts were staged, fifty
Speaker 6: five percent were Democrats, thirty eight percent were Independents, at
Speaker 6: seven percent were Republicans.
Speaker 5: According to the report, really interested in that seven percent, Yeah,
Speaker 5: what are they getting out of that?
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 2: Like, what way do they think?
Speaker 6: It was just like, hell, yeah, we're owning the Libs,
Speaker 6: we're staging. We did look at us go.
Speaker 1: I think it may just be like, well, I voted
Speaker 1: for Trump because I wanted my taxes to be lower.
Speaker 2: But I know he thinks that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is obviously worrying, and this, this trend is
Speaker 5: something we've been talking about for years. At this point
Speaker 5: is why I've been kind of such a such a
Speaker 5: hard ass about the about like the liberal conspiracism that
Speaker 5: is growing.
Speaker 2: I don't even find it worrying anymore. Garrison. I find
Speaker 2: it liberating that we're finally.
Speaker 3: Look at that.
Speaker 5: We're finally free from the shackles of truth. Yeah, everyone's
Speaker 5: everyone's down on the muck together. Nobody's nobody's standing pretty anymore.
Speaker 5: Everybody's just wallowing like a filthy pig and shit.
Speaker 6: That it's pretty much the status of the Yeah, the
Speaker 6: US news market right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm fine with it.
Speaker 6: God, it's fucking bleak. It's so bleak. Like I just
Speaker 6: I don't want to address like the factual elements of
Speaker 6: each thing because there's no point, right, But like.
Speaker 1: No, we we should all know that's useless by now, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just have we not gotten to a place free of that? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I know, I uh, I already don't know what
Speaker 6: to say about that.
Speaker 5: I mean, there are like real issues here. A conspiratorial
Speaker 5: base can be more easily recruited into reactionary thought, right,
Speaker 5: this is the idea of the cultic mill. You and
Speaker 5: we can see a version of this happening with certain
Speaker 5: portions of the left.
Speaker 4: Might engage with people like Tucker Carlson or Margie Taylor
Speaker 4: Mareen right now.
Speaker 5: But for me, kind of the biggest issue with this
Speaker 5: is that it's a refusal to understand or accept the
Speaker 5: particular moment that you find yourself with them, like a
Speaker 5: resistance to the self realization that you are living through
Speaker 5: history and that people are active agents in history. It's
Speaker 5: an ahistorical rejection of the fact that some people may
Speaker 5: look at some of the actions that someone like Trump
Speaker 5: is doing, whether regarding Ice or the war with Ron,
Speaker 5: and then choose to act in response, or in the
Speaker 5: case of the Butler shooting, the result of social disintegration
Speaker 5: or underregulation manifesting as someone's violent, nihilistic expression, similar to
Speaker 5: the mindset of like a school shooter. My last issue
Speaker 5: relates kind of to the second issue, Like the ahistorical element,
Speaker 5: how these false flag shooting conspiracy theories also prescribe Trump
Speaker 5: too much power by not just turning him into this
Speaker 5: like invincible god, but then also assuming that, like the
Speaker 5: US deep State is capable and competent enough to stage
Speaker 5: major world events like this like brainwash and groom patsies
Speaker 5: into doing these shootings, and like this also obviously removes
Speaker 5: the agency and the clearly defined history other people that
Speaker 5: do these own shootings, right. It rejects this Like like I said,
Speaker 5: this relates to the second thing. It rejects or refuses
Speaker 5: to understand the moment that you're living in and that
Speaker 5: people actually are active agents of history. And like the
Speaker 5: people that do these shootings have their own family and
Speaker 5: their own friends, They have their own history that we
Speaker 5: can show and prove. And assuming that all this is
Speaker 5: like fake, that like the government has like manufactured this
Speaker 5: or somehow like turned someone who's an army kind of
Speaker 5: liberal suddenly into like doing a shooting, or has like
Speaker 5: fake this backstory. Right, it gives the government so much power, Right,
Speaker 5: it assumes that the government has power like a magical
Speaker 5: wizard that totally controls reality.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Anyway, for our first main story today, let's talk about
Speaker 5: Turning Point USA. But first, on Sunday night in Seattle,
Speaker 5: a nineteen year old transgender girl was murdered. She was
Speaker 5: a student at University of Washington and was found with
Speaker 5: stab wounds in the laundry room of an off campus
Speaker 5: apartment that she lived in. No suspect has yet been identified.
Speaker 5: While horrific in and of itself, Turning Point USA was
Speaker 5: scheduled to hold an anti trans debate event just days
Speaker 5: later at the very campus this trans student attended. This
Speaker 5: event was going to be hosted by a far right
Speaker 5: anti trans lobbyist and influencer named Chloe Cole, a teen
Speaker 5: transitioner who subsequently de transitioned a few years later following
Speaker 5: an acid trip and then conversion to Christianity.
Speaker 2: Many such cases.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's fascinating.
Speaker 5: Yeah, most normal Christian d transitioner.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: She made an appearance at Trump's last State of the
Speaker 5: Union address when the president talked about restricting gender affirming
Speaker 5: care minors. After the murder in Seattle, Cole and TPUSA
Speaker 5: continued plugging their anti trans event online, prompting students to
Speaker 5: plan a protest to quote unquote shut the event down,
Speaker 5: calling to bring quote flags, drums, or anything to make
Speaker 5: noise unquote. Then on Tuesday, the National Turning Point USA
Speaker 5: organization decided to cancel the event, according to University Washington
Speaker 5: spokesperson Victor Balta. Later that night, Tuesday night, Chloe Cole
Speaker 5: announced the event was postponed because quote Antifa has assembled
Speaker 5: a local militia in their own words unquote.
Speaker 2: Oh that's that's alarming. A militia.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I was not able to find an instance of Antifa
Speaker 5: claiming to have assembled a quote unquote militia.
Speaker 1: Really, no photos of the militia, the documentation of the militia.
Speaker 5: Nor was this language, this this this claim of a
Speaker 5: militia in their own words, nor was this language included
Speaker 5: in right wing reporting of the planned protest.
Speaker 4: I cannot find a so horse fist.
Speaker 5: I really looked like I went through Fox articles, Post
Speaker 5: Millennial articles. There was nothing about Antifa using the word militia.
Speaker 5: No one, no, no counter, no protester that I could
Speaker 5: find was using the word militia now. Chloe Cole also
Speaker 5: claimed that they were quote explicit threats on my life
Speaker 5: and that the protest caused a quote level of attention.
Speaker 5: Our security team and the local PD are frankly unprepared
Speaker 5: for unquote.
Speaker 2: She shared an.
Speaker 5: Article from the Canadian far right outlet The Post Millennial
Speaker 5: documenting threats against the TPUSA event. Threats like one Twitter
Speaker 5: user in Canada saying that people should shut down the event,
Speaker 5: like Milo Unopolis's Berkeley campus event in twenty seventeen, writing quote,
Speaker 5: make them hurt for scheduling this. One other Twitter post
Speaker 5: with two likes read quote Luckily the bricks in Red
Speaker 5: Square are easy to grab this time of year. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's the evidence that Andy No used to claim that quote,
Speaker 5: far left extremists are urging their comrades to carry out
Speaker 5: deadly violence on two posts, just those two posts. That
Speaker 5: was That was the post that Chloe Cole was sharing
Speaker 5: via this post Millennial article, that that was the evidence
Speaker 5: for these deadly threats. Now, I do think it's worth
Speaker 5: reiterating that to these people. They also believe that just
Speaker 5: calling someone a fascist constitutes a threat of violence, right.
Speaker 5: This is something they've been repeating a lot since the
Speaker 5: death of Charlie Kurk, that just calling someone a fascist
Speaker 5: constitutes a deadly threat. In Chloe Cole's video announcing that
Speaker 5: the TPUSA event was, in her words, postponed, she said
Speaker 5: that after charlie'ssassination, quote speaking on a university campus in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty six can come with deadly consequences. But towards
Speaker 5: the end of the video, she stressed that quote this
Speaker 5: is not a win for antifa because truth will always win.
Speaker 5: I am not afraid of Antifa, and that a quote
Speaker 5: ragtag group of wanna be revolutionaries on cross sex hormones
Speaker 5: won't scare her. The enemy is both strong and weak.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, good for her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Yeah, that's how these people work now.
Speaker 5: While I was watching Chloe Cole's video, something sprank to mind.
Speaker 5: Last week, the White House released a new counter terrorism
Speaker 5: strategy that named three major threat groups the country is
Speaker 5: currently facing Narco terrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist terrorists,
Speaker 5: and violent left wing extremists, including anarchists and anti fascists.
Speaker 5: The document says that counter terrorism activities will quote prioritize
Speaker 5: the rapid identification and neutralization of violent, secular political groups
Speaker 5: whose ideology is anti American, radically pro transgender, and anarchist unquote.
Speaker 5: I did a full episode about this with Robert earlier
Speaker 5: this week, if you want to check that out.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 5: But the left wing, transgender, anarchist, ANTIFA stuff mix up
Speaker 5: just a handful of sentences in a sixteen page document
Speaker 5: which is mostly focused on Islamic terrorism, cartels and complaining
Speaker 5: about the Biden administration. For a TLDR, there's nothing new
Speaker 5: in this counter terrorism document pertaining to the left that
Speaker 5: wasn't already in National Security Presidential Memorandum number seven. It
Speaker 5: does not grant any new powers nor designate trans people
Speaker 5: as terrorists. Like NSMP seven. It essentially states that being
Speaker 5: quote unquote extremely pro transgender can be a motivating factor
Speaker 5: in carrying out terroristic violence or threats. Since last October,
Speaker 5: joint terrorism task forces across the country had been directed
Speaker 5: to investigate Antifa aligned groups and individuals quote engaged in
Speaker 5: acts of political violence and intimidation. This new document is
Speaker 5: just describing things that are already happening while building Trump's
Speaker 5: justification for military strikes on suspected drug boats in the
Speaker 5: Western Hemisphere, regime change in Venezuela, and the ongoing war
Speaker 5: in the Middle East. But in the wake of this
Speaker 5: new strategy being released, I wonder if tpusa's canceling of
Speaker 5: the event and Chloe Cole's language and the announcement might
Speaker 5: also be designed to coax Trump's Feds into going after
Speaker 5: radical transgender ANTIFA terrorists. Whether that may be individuals who
Speaker 5: possibly sent threats online that I just couldn't see or
Speaker 5: just made semi questionable posts on Twitter dot com, or
Speaker 5: who simply spread the protest flyer online, or the protest
Speaker 5: organizers themselves. Yeah, I think that is something to keep
Speaker 5: in mind. This new counter terrorist strategy. It mostly serves
Speaker 5: as a chilling effect for speech and for organizing. Like
Speaker 5: I said, it doesn't actually grant new powers, but it
Speaker 5: can scare people into thinking that the Trump administration is
Speaker 5: designating a whole class of people as terrorists and stuff
Speaker 5: like this, you know protests, right, that is one thing
Speaker 5: that they can investigate. Your threats online, that is something
Speaker 5: that they can investigate, right. That is, that is what
Speaker 5: they are actually looking into. They're not just investigating random
Speaker 5: and trans people as terrorists. They will be looking into
Speaker 5: you know, threats or questionable posts made on social media, right,
Speaker 5: those are the things they actually can look into. And
Speaker 5: I think some of Chloe Cole's language about the quote
Speaker 5: unquote deadly threats she received stuff like that could be
Speaker 5: used bunch up administration as a pretext to investigate people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, whether or.
Speaker 4: Not those threats even were real.
Speaker 5: Right, I did not see anything that I think constitutes
Speaker 5: a deadly threat based on the post millennials reporting, but
Speaker 5: her saying that might be enough for a local FBI
Speaker 5: field office to want to investigate you know, student activists
Speaker 5: at this university.
Speaker 2: Right, right, Yeah, I think that makes sense.
Speaker 4: So That's what I wanted to talk about here.
Speaker 1: This is by far the thing I'm seeing people freak
Speaker 1: out about the most right now is like overall the
Speaker 1: idea that like they've just declared it, you know, terrorism
Speaker 1: of violence, terrorism to be trans or to be anarchist,
Speaker 1: or to be you know, any of the things like
Speaker 1: anti capitalist mentioned in that in that document, And what
Speaker 1: I'm actually seeing on the ground so far is very
Speaker 1: much the same kind of prosecutions that they've been doing
Speaker 1: and the same kinds of like messaging that they've been making.
Speaker 1: And I think that, like, you're right on the money,
Speaker 1: this is something to pay attention to, Like does this
Speaker 1: get a response? Is there an actual like investigation. Do
Speaker 1: we wind up see someone get indicted for a Twitter
Speaker 1: post or you know, if someone made a threat that
Speaker 1: we're not privy to, do they get indicted for that, like,
Speaker 1: or do we see something that does look more like
Speaker 1: a witch hunt where they're going after like a protest organizer.
Speaker 1: That'll tell us a lot about kind of what's coming
Speaker 1: in the immediate future. But right now, I don't see
Speaker 1: anything different than what they've been doing, which is kind
Speaker 1: of like incompetently and haphazardly flailing at everything, sort of
Speaker 1: vaguely lefty.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know, I think including this in a
Speaker 5: document like the Counter Terrism strategy you know, also serves
Speaker 5: as a chilling effect. Right, this is this is to
Speaker 5: scare people into not doing anything, right, That is a
Speaker 5: part of their strategy.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 5: But you know they have investigated people for making death
Speaker 5: threats four years right, the Biden administration and their FBI is.
Speaker 1: Able to make death threats. By the way, if their
Speaker 1: actual death threats, that is illegal.
Speaker 5: The FBI under Biden investigatives top cop City. The charges
Speaker 5: against the protesters at Prairie Land started. That the investigation
Speaker 5: started before ns MP seven was even you know released, Right,
Speaker 5: this is not new, but it is something to to
Speaker 5: keep an eye on to see if they're if their
Speaker 5: scope is actually changing.
Speaker 2: Right, you know what else is changing in scope? Our sponsors.
Speaker 6: Are they not really no same ship? Yeah, and we
Speaker 6: are back and we are back to talking about the
Speaker 6: war in Ran. So I want to start off with
Speaker 6: President Trump's extremely vocal criticism of curtish groups. One can
Speaker 6: assume in Iran that it doesn't necessarily seem that his
Speaker 6: criticism is limited to curtiss groups in Iran. Let's play
Speaker 6: the clip.
Speaker 7: The level of ferocity for protests. You know, the people
Speaker 7: are watching that they want to go out on the streets.
Speaker 7: They have no weapons. They have no guns. We thought
Speaker 7: the Courage were going to give us weapons, but the
Speaker 7: Courads disappointed us.
Speaker 3: The Courage take, take, take, and they have a great
Speaker 3: reputation in Congress. Congress is Oh, they fight so hard.
Speaker 3: They fight hard when they get paid. So I'm very
Speaker 3: disappointed in the Curds. But they were given I said.
Speaker 7: It wasn't going to work. By the way, I just
Speaker 7: have to say it. I disagree with what they did.
Speaker 3: They gave it.
Speaker 7: I said, they'll never get there, and I was right.
Speaker 7: I like to be right in this case.
Speaker 3: Too bad.
Speaker 7: But we said some guns with ammunition, and they were
Speaker 7: supposed to be delivered, but they kept it. I said,
Speaker 7: they're going to keep it.
Speaker 2: But what do I know.
Speaker 7: I've only been doniced.
Speaker 3: What do I know?
Speaker 6: Yeah, fascinating his Diacuda asking him about this.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, mister president.
Speaker 8: Mister President, yesterday, you said you gave the Kurds arms,
Speaker 8: but they took it for themselves. US military officials says
Speaker 8: that the Kurds have noticived ony arms and the critics
Speaker 8: police the parties are denying to sing any army.
Speaker 4: It's wrong, and the.
Speaker 6: Officials the officials of wrong.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, well there's the Kurds. Could be so many things,
Speaker 1: like they just said that officials. I'm assuming the KDP
Speaker 1: and the p u K is either referring to. But
Speaker 1: that's just like the two big parties in Iraq, which
Speaker 1: isn't even all of the Kurdish parties in Iraq, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: not to mention all of the different armed groups in
Speaker 1: the But I have no idea who he sent guns to,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that he does, yeah, or if
Speaker 1: he did, he seems pretty confident that he did.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This is like the opposite of Iran contra, with the
Speaker 1: president saying like, get these sent them guns.
Speaker 2: I'm running guns.
Speaker 1: I was running guns, and everyone else is like, we
Speaker 1: have no fucking clue what he's talking about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I'm guessing this refers to his previous theory
Speaker 6: that they had supplied guns to Iranian Courtish groups in January.
Speaker 6: It's the time when they were large scale protests in
Speaker 6: Iran that those Iranian Courtish groups were expected to deliver
Speaker 6: to presumably Persian protesters, presumably in large cities such as Tehran.
Speaker 6: The Jerusalem Post has reported that Trump himself personally vetoed
Speaker 6: this exact plan in January after receiving pressure from Turkey
Speaker 6: to do so. There were some mind backs to January,
Speaker 6: but small arms, we've said before, would not really have
Speaker 6: tipped the balance here. Aram's army police besiege the IGC
Speaker 6: as we've seen since February, can survive assault from the
Speaker 6: US and Israel. It's not going to be toppled by
Speaker 6: a bunch of people with aks. They would have bombed
Speaker 6: the whole cities, so they had to. We covered this
Speaker 6: at a time in our episode about it with Gudayen,
Speaker 6: but most of the Curdish groups I've spoken to don't
Speaker 6: have responses at this time. But the PAK that's the
Speaker 6: Kurdistan Freedom Party sent me this comment regarding the protests
Speaker 6: in January.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 6: From the end of December twenty twenty five through approximately
Speaker 6: January twentieth, twenty twenty six, the Iranian regime committed an
Speaker 6: unprecedented massacre across the Ilam, Kamanchan and Lauristan. The mobilized
Speaker 6: hashtal Chaby militias into Persian cities and deployed a massive
Speaker 6: military presence into our territories. In order to defend our citizens,
Speaker 6: we targeted the outposts and military bases where these forces
Speaker 6: were stationed. We confirmed that, yes, we carried out these operations.
Speaker 6: So what they're confirming there is that they carried our operations,
Speaker 6: not where the weapons came from. That we saw those
Speaker 6: operations in January. Pull at Yan put at Yan famous,
Speaker 6: but I guess for being a founding member of the
Speaker 6: epigae or of fuendecard n SDF commander. He's also an
Speaker 6: author and the politician did make a statement which I
Speaker 6: thought was interesting. I'm going to read it at least
Speaker 6: a good amount of it because I think it's worth it. Quote,
Speaker 6: the Kurds are not mercenaries, Kurdish blood is not cheap,
Speaker 6: and the lives of Kurdish youth are not for sale.
Speaker 6: The Kurds are fighting for their freedom, dignity, and political rights,
Speaker 6: not to serve the temporary agendas of regional or international
Speaker 6: powers without any clear outcome for the Kurdish people themselves.
Speaker 6: At the same time, the Curds have repeatedly shown their
Speaker 6: willingness to cooperate in fighting terrorism, extremism, and instability in
Speaker 6: the Middle East. Kurdish force has played a central role
Speaker 6: in the defeat of ISIS and contributed greatly to regional security,
Speaker 6: but cooperation must be based on mutual respect, clarity, and
Speaker 6: long term political understanding. I do not know the actuity
Speaker 6: of the recent claims regarding weapons are literally sent to
Speaker 6: protesters inside i Ran. If such operations truly just died,
Speaker 6: then the American side should clearly explain which group, force,
Speaker 6: or individuals received those weapons. A nation of tens of
Speaker 6: minutes of people should not be collectively accused of vague
Speaker 6: and unverified statements. Yeah, it's pretty good.
Speaker 2: It sounds reasonable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it sounds like a
Speaker 2: really reasonable thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it does seem that Trump has some personal animus
Speaker 6: against the Kurds.
Speaker 1: I wonder if what he's referring to is that, like
Speaker 1: a year or so ago, the last time they sent
Speaker 1: over more weapons. If he sent some message more recently
Speaker 1: being like, hey, could you send some of those guns
Speaker 1: that we already gave you over to rebels in Iran?
Speaker 1: And they were like no, no, what do you mean?
Speaker 2: And he's pissed. I wonder if that's what he's pissed about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's so hard for me to say. Is he
Speaker 6: talking about the SDF. Is he talking about groups in
Speaker 6: southern Kurdistan that they did. Yeah, he asked him to
Speaker 6: like pass them alone. I have never seen large numbers
Speaker 6: of Americans supplied weapons among the Rogilati groups.
Speaker 1: Now, although they do. Some of their aks come from
Speaker 1: the US. If you look at like what's center, a
Speaker 1: bunch of and like body armor, a lot of like
Speaker 1: what the SDF like the armor they have came from Americans.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, and with their like highest speed SDF guys
Speaker 6: you'll see like m fhors but even like night vision
Speaker 6: like yat the anti terror forces and the SDF you'll see.
Speaker 6: But like on on the Iranian side, I have not
Speaker 6: seen that. And it's He's repeated this several times ever
Speaker 6: quite a long period of time. It seems to be
Speaker 6: something he genuinely believes, but I have seen no evidence
Speaker 6: aside from his claims, to support it. It doesn't matter,
Speaker 6: but it does matter in the sense that Trump clearly
Speaker 6: is personally mad at Kurdish groups and does not seem
Speaker 6: to be interested in supporting their aspirations for autonomy, which
Speaker 6: is disappointing. But I guess I don't know why. Maybe
Speaker 6: because he feels that he alone to take credit for
Speaker 6: the defeat of the Islamic State, like I can't. I
Speaker 6: can't quite work out what to cause this, other than
Speaker 6: maybe he perceives them to have slighted him by not
Speaker 6: giving weapons that we don't know anything about. Yeah, let's
Speaker 6: talk a little bit about the broader situation in Iran.
Speaker 6: I don't want to make this like true social review.
Speaker 6: I know I've read Trump's truth in the past. I
Speaker 6: have reached a point where I can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2: That's fair.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Like I can't. People are dying, right, they bombed
Speaker 6: a girls school, Like this is serious and horrible, and
Speaker 6: it's really hard to bring the gravity that needs to
Speaker 6: be brought to this and also read out the absolutely
Speaker 6: bonker stuff that gets posted. And Trump described a missile
Speaker 6: strike on Iran as a love tap. Yeah, this past week.
Speaker 6: So I'm just not gonna not gonna do that this week.
Speaker 6: I am going to say that both sides have repeatedly
Speaker 6: and openly violated the ceasefire, which Trump describes to reporters
Speaker 6: and dr Oz as being on quote massive life support. Meanwhile,
Speaker 6: Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibath has said quote around forces
Speaker 6: are ready to deliver a well deserved response to any
Speaker 6: aggression mistaken strategy and mistaken decisions will always lead to
Speaker 6: mistaken results. The whole world has already figured this out.
Speaker 6: We have prepared for all options. They will be surprised.
Speaker 6: This comes as Trump calls Iran's peace demands quote a
Speaker 6: piece of garbage and quote a stupid proposal. Iranian demands
Speaker 6: allegedly included an end to Israeli aggression in Lebanon and
Speaker 6: sovereignty over straight at Hommus. Trump has also alleged that
Speaker 6: they walked back an agreement to surrender and rich Ranian.
Speaker 6: We've also found that Iran has retained a large number
Speaker 6: of their missiles and their launch capacity. This week, It's
Speaker 6: also been reported by Jim Laporter, who is one of
Speaker 6: the few people still doing decer reporting at CBS, that
Speaker 6: Pakistan has provided safe haven for Iranian aircraft, shielding them
Speaker 6: from US strikes. Allegedly, some civilian aircraft also sheltered in Afghanistan,
Speaker 6: but then had to be moved when Pakistan began bombing
Speaker 6: Afghanistan in March. Iran has friends everywhere.
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 6: The United States sent a ballistic missile submarine to Gibraltar
Speaker 6: this week. These O higher class submarines provide the survivable
Speaker 6: element of the nuclear triad, or the most survival element
Speaker 6: of the nuclear triad.
Speaker 1: You can't strike a nuclear submarine before it gets a
Speaker 1: chance to strike. It's it's basically impossible.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's that's the reason that they exist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, guarantees that you will get to do your thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, for mutually assured destruction reasons. It's not super normal
Speaker 6: to announce their presence in places I don't think, but
Speaker 6: the Navy did this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it can't be. It depends on like
Speaker 1: the situation depending is a little weird.
Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, yeah. The Pentagon seems to be planning to
Speaker 6: rename the war in Iran Operation Sledgehammer. This seems to
Speaker 6: be an attempt at end run around the nineteen seventy
Speaker 6: three war Howars revolution. They claimed already where we spoke
Speaker 6: about this last week, the claiming epic fury is over
Speaker 6: now and that this is a new and distinct operation.
Speaker 6: In a congressional hearing, Hexseth denied that they needed an
Speaker 6: authorized use of military force. Let's play the clip.
Speaker 9: It doesn't appear that hostilities have ended, and so the
Speaker 9: question to you is whether or not the administration has
Speaker 9: has considered or had intended to seek an authorization of
Speaker 9: use of military force from the Congress.
Speaker 8: Senator, our view is that should the President make the
Speaker 8: decision to recommence.
Speaker 6: That we would have all the authorities necessary to do so.
Speaker 9: Do you think that it would be helpful to the
Speaker 9: president if it was made clear that, in fact, the
Speaker 9: Congress did allow did provide an AUMF I think the
Speaker 9: president our you is that he has all the authorities
Speaker 9: he needs under Article two to execute.
Speaker 6: Thanks, Chairman, that's more or less heigth'st saying they don't
Speaker 6: need Congress, which is great.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Heccess face pointed questioning from the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees,
Speaker 6: he repeatedly batted away questions about munitions depletion and suggested
Speaker 6: that it wasn't appropriate to answer them in public on
Speaker 6: the record like this, Oh, I'm sure. He also did
Speaker 6: not directly confront the cost of the war, which is
Speaker 6: now approaching thirty billion, instead saying, quote, what is the
Speaker 6: cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon? And the fact
Speaker 6: that this president has been willing to make a historic
Speaker 6: and courageous choice to confront that it comes with cost,
Speaker 6: and we recognize that kind of an exercise in an
Speaker 6: evasion on excess part there, apart from his pretty emphatic
Speaker 6: statement that he didn't think that they needed any permission
Speaker 6: from Congress to continue with this war. So we will
Speaker 6: be back next week to keep you updated on what
Speaker 6: might be operations sledgehammer.
Speaker 2: Great great stuff, very exciting.
Speaker 1: So on May twelfth, twenty twenty six, the former mayor
Speaker 1: of Arcadia, California, Eileen Wang, pled guilty to acting as
Speaker 1: an unregistered agent of a foreign government and is being
Speaker 1: sentenced in the near future for being an unregistered agent
Speaker 1: of a foreign government. People have taken this news normally
Speaker 1: the foreign government is China.
Speaker 2: I did a.
Speaker 1: Quick little bit of googling before coming around here and
Speaker 1: found some fun headlines.
Speaker 2: One of them in.
Speaker 1: The Lion California mayor pleads guilty to serving Communist China.
Speaker 1: And that article was written by John Ransom, who's a
Speaker 1: senior contributor at The Lion and also has written for
Speaker 1: The Epic Times, which itself is like the agent of
Speaker 1: a foreign power effective. Yeah, the WCBM had a headline
Speaker 1: this Democrat mayor just came clean about working for Communist China.
Speaker 2: She could come clean clean.
Speaker 1: She pled guilty and for that, you know, and then
Speaker 1: from the House Committee. On China's website, Mulinar warns of
Speaker 1: CCP influence after California mayor charged in foreign influence plot.
Speaker 1: These charges highlight the very real threat of the Chinese
Speaker 1: Communist Party's attempts to influence are free and open society. Well,
Speaker 1: it denies freedom and liberty for the Chinese people. The
Speaker 1: CCP is actively working to subvert our institutions and divide
Speaker 1: us against one another. In this case, an elected mayor
Speaker 1: acted at the direction of CCP handlers, coordinated with Chinese
Speaker 1: intelligence linked individuals, and used a local news platform to
Speaker 1: spread CCP propaganda. And so let's talk about that.
Speaker 2: How much of this is true, right, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean technically, yeah, Like that's that's kind of what happened,
Speaker 1: except for the part where they were like coordinating to
Speaker 1: drive Americans apart from each other and create unrest and whatnot.
Speaker 1: That's not what the purpose of this thing that Eileen
Speaker 1: got wrapped up in was. She and her former fiance,
Speaker 1: a fellow named Sun who got sentenced before she did
Speaker 1: Mike's son, are accused of basically having run like content
Speaker 1: farms at the behest of Chinese government officials, like they
Speaker 1: were putting out articles on the alleged genocide in Zinjang,
Speaker 1: denying like the Chinese government had done anything wrong there
Speaker 1: there was any genocide at all in the region, and
Speaker 1: so it's kind of like propaganda stuff like that. They
Speaker 1: were serving as like a fire hose of propaganda, per
Speaker 1: the Justice Department. In June of twenty twenty one, a
Speaker 1: PRC official contacted Wang and other individuals via the we
Speaker 1: chat encryptid messaging application with pre written news articles, including
Speaker 1: a PRC official written essay in the Los Angeles Times
Speaker 1: that stated China's stance on the Zinjang issue. There is
Speaker 1: no genocide in Zinjang. There is no such thing as
Speaker 1: forced labor in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading
Speaker 1: such rumors due to fame China Joy's enjaying safety and stability,
Speaker 1: weaken local economy and suppress China's development. Minutes later, when
Speaker 1: posted the article on her own website and responded to
Speaker 1: the PRC official with a link to the article on
Speaker 1: her website, the others in the group did the same.
Speaker 1: The PRC official responded, so fast, thank you everyone.
Speaker 2: And this is bad.
Speaker 1: Genocide denials bad. The spreading slop content on behalf of
Speaker 1: a foreign government is like bad. It is important to
Speaker 1: note that this is not like spying or sabotage in
Speaker 1: any meaningful way. She's not acting to like try to
Speaker 1: damage the United States. She's acting as like an unregistered
Speaker 1: pr agent for the Chinese government, or at least that's
Speaker 1: what she had done up to this point in her life,
Speaker 1: and like everything that she was doing was legal if
Speaker 1: she had disclosed who she was working for, which I
Speaker 1: think is also an important thing to note because shit
Speaker 1: like this happens all the time, and in the media,
Speaker 1: like we all see, there's tons of content that is
Speaker 1: the result one way or the other of some government's
Speaker 1: influence op and for the majority of the time when
Speaker 1: it happens, nobody gets tripped up, you know, either because
Speaker 1: they have friends in power or because they don't quite
Speaker 1: cross a line. And I Leen and her friends were
Speaker 1: not very savvy about what they were doing, but they
Speaker 1: were also not operating on a very large level, like
Speaker 1: this is not a big operation. One of the notes
Speaker 1: in this charging document is that Eileen sent this Chinese
Speaker 1: government official at screenshot showing that the article had been
Speaker 1: viewed fifteen one and twenty eight times through her site,
Speaker 1: which is like not, we're not talking like big deal
Speaker 1: influence ops here. We're not talking like sweeping powers over
Speaker 1: like public opinion. Now, perhaps that's what they hoped Eileen
Speaker 1: would kind of rise to over time. She didn't seem
Speaker 1: to be like a kind of rising star in local
Speaker 1: government in southern California. She got endorsed by some prominent
Speaker 1: Democratic Party officials, and she was still in touch with
Speaker 1: her Chinese government handlers at this time. This whole period
Speaker 1: in which she's like being charged for working as an
Speaker 1: agent of the Chinese government, it's like twenty twenty through
Speaker 1: at least twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: So yeah, this is like, you.
Speaker 1: Know, a bad thing, and it's good that this got
Speaker 1: found out and that she's not continuing to be the
Speaker 1: mayor of Arcadia.
Speaker 2: But also, this is.
Speaker 1: Not like the scary thing that the right wing press
Speaker 1: is making it out to you. She was not here
Speaker 1: to like subvert the US so that it could be
Speaker 1: invaded or destroyed. She was there to try to stop
Speaker 1: people on the internet from being mean to the Chinese government.
Speaker 1: Like that was the primary use that they had with her.
Speaker 1: It's just not that like actually scariest story or anything.
Speaker 1: It's just the kind of thing that happens. This lady
Speaker 1: happened to become mayor of a small down basically, which
Speaker 1: is wild.
Speaker 2: It's crazy that that happened. But like this is going
Speaker 2: on all the time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think, I yeah, people have lost their minds
Speaker 6: about this one in a way that like.
Speaker 1: It's a perfect California city, like it's a southern California town,
Speaker 1: and she's the government female spy.
Speaker 2: Like a course of course.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5: Back when Eric Swalwell was still a relevant human being,
Speaker 5: there was some attacks on him for associating with a
Speaker 5: quote unquote Chinese female spy like man ten years ago,
Speaker 5: and that was like one of the lines of attack
Speaker 5: against him. Sure because like someone someone he had like
Speaker 5: relations with in like twenty fourteen what was alleged or
Speaker 5: found to be a working as a spy for the
Speaker 5: Chinese government. It's interesting that they're doing this type of
Speaker 5: stuff at like the exact same time that Trump just
Speaker 5: got just like it is like arriving in China.
Speaker 2: Yeah right now, Yeah, it's really great timing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, curious timing there.
Speaker 6: But I'm guessing she took them leave. This had been
Speaker 6: a period of some time, right, like her fiance.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, because first first her former fiance got busted,
Speaker 1: and then she was like, I.
Speaker 2: Didn't do anything wrong, and then it became clear that
Speaker 2: she very much hadh right.
Speaker 1: So there was this was like a thing that, yeah,
Speaker 1: this has been going on for a little while. It
Speaker 1: just sort of once she pled guilty, then you could
Speaker 1: do the article like California mayor pleads guilty to working.
Speaker 2: For the Chinese government.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, just funny timing. Yeah,
Speaker 5: speaking of timing, here are some ads. Great, yay, Okay,
Speaker 5: we are back for one of our last main stories.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about Virginia and the redistricting efforts. Last week,
Speaker 5: in a four to three ruling, the Virginia Supreme Court
Speaker 5: blocked the voter approved redistricting map that passed in April
Speaker 5: with almost fifty two percent of the vote. The court
Speaker 5: found the process used to advance the referendum violated the
Speaker 5: state constitution. According to Virginia's constantation, the legislature has to
Speaker 5: vote twice to pass any proposed constitutional amendment before it
Speaker 5: gets put on the ballot for Virginia voters, but these
Speaker 5: two General Assembly votes must be separated by a state
Speaker 5: General election. The first General Assembly vote for this redistricting
Speaker 5: amendment passed in October twenty twenty five, before the November
Speaker 5: general election, and the second vote to approve the referendum
Speaker 5: happened next January, so a few months ago. The Republican
Speaker 5: challengers to the new voting map argued that because early
Speaker 5: voting had already begun, the General Assembly's first vote in
Speaker 5: October did not actually occur before a general election, and
Speaker 5: that was the grounds the State Supreme Court used to
Speaker 5: block the voter approved amendment. The four judge majority ruled
Speaker 5: the intervening election requirement was violated because the general election
Speaker 5: quote began on September nineteenth, twenty twenty five, and just
Speaker 5: ended on election day, November fourth.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I feel like you're kind of outside the spirit
Speaker 6: of what they were going for with that one.
Speaker 4: But no, this on the face sounds quite absurd.
Speaker 6: It's one of those things that's technically correct, but at
Speaker 6: the same time.
Speaker 5: Well, and there's some complicating factors because of Trump's own
Speaker 5: attempts to restrict early voting or deem early voting like
Speaker 5: not constitutionally like appealpriate, or like it defies the federal
Speaker 5: government's definition of the word election. And so now you
Speaker 5: have some groups in Virginia who are trying to pass
Speaker 5: this amendment, Democrat groups who are using kind of.
Speaker 4: Similar rhetoric as Trump.
Speaker 5: We'll get to that in a sec So Justice de
Speaker 5: Arthur Helsey wrote to the majority opinion, saying, quote, this
Speaker 5: violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote
Speaker 5: and renders it null and void. Early Virginia voters unknowingly
Speaker 5: forfeited their constitutionally protected opportunity to vote for or against
Speaker 5: delegates who favor or disfavor amending the constitution by not
Speaker 5: anticipating a legislative vote on a constitutional amendment four days
Speaker 5: before the last day of voting, unquote. So the court
Speaker 5: said that the reason why they have this to vote
Speaker 5: requirement across two different general assemblies is to give voters
Speaker 5: enough time to not just support or not support a
Speaker 5: constitutional amendment on the ballot, but then also vote for
Speaker 5: state lawmakers who will either approve or not approve the
Speaker 5: constitutional amendment in the legislature itself. Right, So that's what
Speaker 5: they're saying. It's like this, this process of having these
Speaker 5: two votes is to ensure that voters have a say
Speaker 5: both in who they put into office as well as
Speaker 5: on the ballot, and they're saying that this process was
Speaker 5: violated because early voting had already commenced by the time
Speaker 5: that the legislature acts actually voted on this proposed amendment.
Speaker 5: Chief Justice Cleo. Powell wrote in the dissent that the
Speaker 5: majority quote broadened the meaning of the word election as
Speaker 5: used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period.
Speaker 5: This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and
Speaker 5: federal law define an election. By extending elections in the
Speaker 5: Commonwealth of Virginia beyond a single day, the majority's formulation
Speaker 5: would directly conflict with the federal mandate that elections for
Speaker 5: federal officials be held on a single day quote. So
Speaker 5: under the Supreme Court of Virginia's new ruling, the district
Speaker 5: map drawn in twenty twenty one must be used for
Speaker 5: the upcoming election this November. The midterms, the new map
Speaker 5: would have won Democrats four more House seats, but considering
Speaker 5: this ruling by the state Supreme Court, Dems are now
Speaker 5: eight seats down in the national redistricting battle, which the
Speaker 5: latest gutting of the Voting Rights Act will only make worse.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Over this past weekend, Virginia Democrats Hakim Jeffries and Governor
Speaker 5: Abigail Spanberger held discussions on what to do about this ruling.
Speaker 5: The New York Times reported that Virginia Democrats expressed determination
Speaker 5: to win two or three of the Republican held seats
Speaker 5: even with the current map, but also discussed a few
Speaker 5: long shot options to change the ruling or push forward
Speaker 5: the map anyway. One of the more extreme measures debated
Speaker 5: was the possibility of replacing the entire Virginia Supreme Court
Speaker 5: by lowering the mandatory retirement age from seventy five to
Speaker 5: fifty four and then having a new court rehear the case.
Speaker 6: Sounds great, let's do it in between now and Novem.
Speaker 5: So it seems the Democrats decided against this path ultimately
Speaker 5: in part because the State Department of Elections deadline for
Speaker 5: congressional maps is May twelfth, which is a day before
Speaker 5: we're recording.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they kind of ran out of time on this.
Speaker 5: It's also unclear if they really would have had the
Speaker 5: bravery to pull such a an extreme maneuver. Right, something
Speaker 5: that may be the correct thing to do, and maybe
Speaker 5: something they should just do anyway if they have the
Speaker 5: power to fully replace their Supreme Court. Why not, Because
Speaker 5: the Democrats are currently in a majority of control of
Speaker 5: the state legislature right now, why not do this anyway
Speaker 5: to a certain extent, Also, Abigail Scanberger can only serve
Speaker 5: one term, so you know you're not going to lose
Speaker 5: much political capital by pulling a kind of insane move
Speaker 5: like this. But it's not going to happen at least
Speaker 5: right now. Yeah, nope, Virginia State Senate majority leader Scott
Speaker 5: Sortiville told The New Republic quote, as a practical matter,
Speaker 5: the move would not be capable of being implemented given
Speaker 5: the time frame now. Despite that May twelfth deadline, On Monday,
Speaker 5: Virginia Attorney General J Jones and Democratic state lawmakers filed
Speaker 5: an emergency appeal asking the US Supreme Court to put
Speaker 5: the state Supreme Court order on hold for the upcoming
Speaker 5: midterm election, arguing that the state court based their ruling
Speaker 5: on misreading the federal definition of election and by adopting
Speaker 5: its own definition, the State Supreme Court infringed on the
Speaker 5: state Legislature's power to regulate federal elections quote by forcing
Speaker 5: the Commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different
Speaker 5: from those adopted by the General Assembly pursuant to a
Speaker 5: constitutional amendment the people just ratified. The Supreme Court of
Speaker 5: Virginia has deprived voters, candidates, and the Commonwealth of their
Speaker 5: right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts. This case will
Speaker 5: be initially decided by Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles
Speaker 5: the emergency appeals from states covered by the Fourth Circuit
Speaker 5: Court of Appeals, but the US Supreme Court may argue
Speaker 5: that they don't have the authority to intervene because the
Speaker 5: Virginia Supreme Court ruling cites state law, not federal law.
Speaker 5: And The New Republic also reported that state Senate Majority
Speaker 5: Leader Scott Saureville confirmed that even if the Supreme Court
Speaker 5: gives them a good ruling, that ruling could be unlikely
Speaker 5: to impact this upcoming election cycle due to this May
Speaker 5: twelfth deadline.
Speaker 6: I guess it's just what we're saying that, like the
Speaker 6: nature of this midterm will be very important for the
Speaker 6: way you get to vote in America going forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they're they're pulling out all the stops,
Speaker 1: like they're throwing any kind of plausible deniability in the trash,
Speaker 1: because this is the get it the lose it moment
Speaker 1: for the right, you know, Like that's very much how
Speaker 1: they're looking at this.
Speaker 6: Yeah, this is a locking in forever.
Speaker 2: We'll see. Yeah.
Speaker 5: A few years ago, Ohio pushed through unconstitutional maps, but
Speaker 5: maps that were deemed unconstitutional by by state courts. One
Speaker 5: federal court did authorize them to use these maps in
Speaker 5: like an interim period, and they're still using them. And
Speaker 5: in a piece by the Nation, they mentioned this option
Speaker 5: was said that they would need to have the backing
Speaker 5: of the state Board of Electors, and Virginia might not
Speaker 5: have that. There's lots of people on the Democratic side
Speaker 5: that are much more rule followy than a lot of
Speaker 5: the Republicans as we have seen now. Virginia may be
Speaker 5: able to still pass this redistricting map in the future
Speaker 5: by spreading out the process over a bigger period of
Speaker 5: time to not create this confusion about the early voting period.
Speaker 5: But the map will not be able to go into
Speaker 5: effect before the midterms, but it still may be able
Speaker 5: to go into effect in the future. I do think
Speaker 5: it's also worth noting that the same day that Virginia
Speaker 5: filed this appeal, with the Supreme Court. The US Supreme
Speaker 5: Court also paved the way for Alabama to eliminate one
Speaker 5: of two majority black districts before the midterm elections by
Speaker 5: overturning a lower court order that blocked the use of
Speaker 5: a report public impacked map from twenty twenty three. So
Speaker 5: the Supreme Court is currently weighing in on not exactly
Speaker 5: the same but similar similar things in other states.
Speaker 6: That was because it was basically pointy twy s Louisiana
Speaker 6: ruling and saying like, we've ruled on this.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is right.
Speaker 4: This was following the Louisiana ruling.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, okay, that makes sense. PANO great videos Democratic
Speaker 6: Process Voting Rights Act Ooh.
Speaker 1: So, there's an increasing movement in the United States, both
Speaker 1: at the state and the federal level to repeal gas taxes.
Speaker 1: So in the United States, there's federal gas taxes that
Speaker 1: that everybody pays. The current federal gas tax rate is
Speaker 1: about eighteen point three cents per gallon for gasoline and
Speaker 1: gas a hall, which is the actual official name of
Speaker 1: fuel mixed with unleaded gas that's like unleaded and ethanol together,
Speaker 1: is actually just called gas a hall.
Speaker 6: Okay, I never knew that what yes, love, Yeah.
Speaker 1: They couldn't think of anything better. And then twenty four
Speaker 1: point three cents per gallon for diesel fuel.
Speaker 2: Right. And then some states have their their own like
Speaker 2: Oregon has its own like gas.
Speaker 6: Taxes California centy does at both levels.
Speaker 1: Like the federal gas tax is there in short because
Speaker 1: it helps to pay for the roads, right, like that,
Speaker 1: that's why we need a federal gas tax is because
Speaker 1: it funds what's called the Highway Trust Fund or the HTF,
Speaker 1: which is a big part of what keeps our interstate
Speaker 1: infrastructure functional. And then state level gas taxes are often
Speaker 1: also like supporting like state local roads.
Speaker 2: Right. And so Trump has.
Speaker 1: Talked about temporarily repealing the gas tax for like a
Speaker 1: couple of months. There have been Democratic proposals that are
Speaker 1: very similar. Graham Platner, who's about to be a congressman
Speaker 1: from Maine, it's a Democratic nominee. Yeah, who's currently the
Speaker 1: nominee but is almost certainly going to win.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, the presumptive nominee, i think.
Speaker 1: Has expressed support for ending the gas tax outright. And
Speaker 1: his basic plan was something like, you have wealthy corporations
Speaker 1: pay the money that the gas tax is currently going
Speaker 1: to and you put that burden onto corporations instead of people.
Speaker 1: And it's not uncommon, by the way, for the gas
Speaker 1: tax to be temporarily repealed. During the early months of
Speaker 1: the most recent escalation of the Russian invasion into Ukraine
Speaker 1: and the Biden administration back in twenty twenty two, Biden
Speaker 1: temporarily paused the federal gas tax. Right, So this is
Speaker 1: the thing that happens. It's just always a bad idea
Speaker 1: because it's the reason why you see people in the
Speaker 1: left and right make suggestions like this repeal state or
Speaker 1: federal gas taxes is because it's really easy. It's an
Speaker 1: easy way to say, like, I'm looking out for you.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to take care of regular people. Gas is
Speaker 1: too darn expensive already. We've got to do everything we
Speaker 1: can to make your life easier. The problem is the
Speaker 1: Highway Trust Fund, which is absolutely critical for our roads
Speaker 1: being functional, is already always running at a deficit. Twenty
Speaker 1: four it was a deficit of about thirteen billion dollars.
Speaker 1: The main reason for this is that, like transportation, infrastructure
Speaker 1: is aging every single year and falling behind, and at
Speaker 1: the same time that gas tax is not like peg
Speaker 1: to inflation or anything. So it has not been keeping
Speaker 1: pace with the actual needs of the Trust Fund. So anyway,
Speaker 1: we're already in a really bad situation with the HTF.
Speaker 1: Every time we pause these taxes, it gets much worse.
Speaker 1: And I'm worried right now that as reasonable it may
Speaker 1: sound and say something like well, we should just have
Speaker 1: the rich pay for that, you're never going to have
Speaker 1: any kind of like move that does both of those
Speaker 1: things at once. They're going to start by repealing the
Speaker 1: gas tax and then they'll never get around to replacing
Speaker 1: it with anything, and then the roads will just be
Speaker 1: bad forever. I think this is a bad idea, and
Speaker 1: I think you should be a little wary of politicians
Speaker 1: doing this because it's an e way to get a win.
Speaker 1: But that said, damn near everybody is, so how wary
Speaker 1: can you actually be. It's just a really irresponsible, bad
Speaker 1: idea that has a lot of bipartisan support.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Really, Ever since the no tax on tips thing, there's
Speaker 5: there's been this wave of of you know, people have
Speaker 5: called this like slopulist policies or like things that are
Speaker 5: that are that are you know, populist in framing, but
Speaker 5: have certain like economic problems or or get dispersed in
Speaker 5: weird ways, you know, as me has talked about some
Speaker 5: specifics around the no tax on tips policy, But there's
Speaker 5: there's there's been like a wave of these you know,
Speaker 5: small targeted tax cuts on on on various little things
Speaker 5: to kind of lift lift the financial burden that Americans
Speaker 5: are facing, you know, the better ones, you know, ones
Speaker 5: like like like Platinum Strategy, which has a part of
Speaker 5: his plan increasing taxes on billionaires and oil corporations. But
Speaker 5: these words of taxes are just like little band aid
Speaker 5: solutions and that are almost like consolation prizes for not
Speaker 5: being able to raise the corporate tax rate or income
Speaker 5: tax brackets. Right, And it's it's like we're adopting these
Speaker 5: consolation taxes for this presumed impossibility of just actually raising
Speaker 5: taxes to the level of you know, if you look
Speaker 5: at the United States in like the nineteen fifties, super
Speaker 5: super high, super high level of the taxes that actually
Speaker 5: funded social services. And one thing that could be frustrating
Speaker 5: about these these sorts of more like sloppulist tax angles is,
Speaker 5: you know, it undermines the vital role of taxes to
Speaker 5: actually fund social services.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 5: Now, should more of those taxes be funded by corporations
Speaker 5: and billionaires? Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, but I think that should
Speaker 5: be the focus rather than these little itty bitty kind
Speaker 5: of you know, cutting away at the corners of like small,
Speaker 5: small targeted taxes that are that are again like used
Speaker 5: used as like you know, consolation prizes, rather than actually
Speaker 5: addressing the pretty significant you know, tax reforms that need
Speaker 5: to happen in this country.
Speaker 1: And it's it's just dangerous because it acts as if
Speaker 1: what the gas tax is there the fund is optional,
Speaker 1: is not like necessary, like, well, we don't really need this,
Speaker 1: so we'll pause this whenever like things get bad because
Speaker 1: we don't need them, but we you do, like our
Speaker 1: society is reliant upon the maintenance of that fund, and
Speaker 1: we shouldn't act like it's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is very frustrating to me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you can see why the gas tax in particulars
Speaker 6: appealing right now. Right now, Yes, people are struggling, like
Speaker 6: it is literally seven dollars a gallon in pods of California.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's fucking nuts.
Speaker 6: Like people who like a lot of people who struggle
Speaker 6: to make it are really struggling to make it now, Yeah,
Speaker 6: why our society is set up, means it's very hard
Speaker 6: for people to exist without a car. So you're like, yes,
Speaker 6: the populist appeal is obvious, and.
Speaker 1: As is always the case with this sort of thing,
Speaker 1: the fact that it has an appeal is based on
Speaker 1: ignorance because when roads are poorly maintained, it hosts regular
Speaker 1: people huge amounts of money, and the damage it does
Speaker 1: to their car far more than the gas tax costs.
Speaker 1: This has been established. This is not like I think
Speaker 1: we have to wonder about. There have been studies into this,
Speaker 1: like you pay more money when the roads are bad
Speaker 1: because your car gets fucked up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And it's reasonable for people to say, well, a
Speaker 6: country has enough money, can't we unfunck the roads and yes,
Speaker 6: not charge me a lot of money. Unfortunately, we just
Speaker 6: spent thirty billion fucking invading Iran, so no we can't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to not do some of the other
Speaker 2: things that we're doing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that it's not up for grabs in the current
Speaker 6: political atmosphere, right, and even your dure like mainstream Democrats, Yeah,
Speaker 6: aren't going to ride for that.
Speaker 5: No, I mean it requires pressure against mainstream Democrats and
Speaker 5: obviously the Republican establishment as well, right, Like part of
Speaker 5: Platner's plan is a fifty percent per barrel windfall tax
Speaker 5: on big oil profits, which.
Speaker 4: Would be significant.
Speaker 5: But there will be a lot of pushback against this,
Speaker 5: including among the democratic establishment, and that might require getting
Speaker 5: rid of a whole bunch of these democratic establishment figures
Speaker 5: who are currently occupying seats of power.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, well everyone think about that.
Speaker 6: On that hopeful note.
Speaker 5: That note where can people send us a news related tips, James.
Speaker 6: They can do that by emailing who Zone tips at
Speaker 6: proton dot me. If you want to keep it a
Speaker 6: little bit more encrypted, you can do it from a
Speaker 6: proton email address so it doesn't bother you. Go ahead
Speaker 6: and send it. If you have a marketing email, you
Speaker 6: can not send it. Trying not to be so rude
Speaker 6: to the marketing people.
Speaker 5: No, I think part of part of those anarchists that
Speaker 5: left being and streamers threats might be against the marketing corporations.
Speaker 5: If James keeps a keeps threatening again at the end of.
Speaker 6: This episode to prison, I'll just blog I'm not advocating violence.
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna blog your email. Okay, Well, well, I
Speaker 6: will make sure that we never hear from you again.
Speaker 6: It won't just be me blocking it all of us
Speaker 6: Here at cool zone.
Speaker 2: Media, we reported the news. You reported the news. We
Speaker 2: reported the news.
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