WEBVTT - It Could Happen Here Weekly 230 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.520 A media Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.559 to let you know this is a compilation episode. So 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.200 every episode of the week that just happened is here 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.239 in one convenient and with somewhat less ads package for 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.440 you to listen to in a long stretch if you want. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.000 If you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:22.759 there's going to be nothing new here for you, but 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:29.800 you can make your own decisions. Hey, everybody, this is 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.159 it could happen here and I am Robert Evans, and 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.720 initially this is supposed to be a slightly different episode. 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.159 I have been pondering over the fact recently that I 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:42.479 feel weirdly optimistic, particularly in the last couple of weeks, 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.080 especially compared to a lot of the people that I 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.800 know and spend time around. And I think it's because 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.560 I've been interpreting some of the same pieces of news 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.400 differently than they have, and because I've been coming across 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.720 some different pieces of information than they have. And I 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.960 wanted to kind of walk people through why I've been 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.400 feeling so optimistic, and so I wrote something and I 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.280 recorded it around Thursday of last week, and then over 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.320 the weekend a gunman attack the White House Correspondence dinner, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.240 and actually, this hasn't really changed any of my overall feelings. 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.959 We'll talk about that this week, probably on ED, but 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.080 I did make some alterations to the episode as a 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.800 result of that, although I do think it reinforces my 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.679 primary point, which is that the political era that we 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:33.119 now find ourselves in is one dominated by extremophiles. Extremophiles 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.959 are organisms with unique cellular and molecular mechanisms that allow 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.200 them to survive and thrive in extreme habitats. I'm talking 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.959 about places like volcanic events at the very bottom of 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.160 the ocean, or the Dead Sea. If you've ever wondered 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.880 why it's called the dead sea, it's because for a 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.520 very long time, people thought it was too salty to 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.480 host any life. Modern research has disabused us of this notion. 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.000 The dead sea hosts life. It's just weird life, because 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.600 the dead Sea is a weird place. The term extremophile 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.600 was coined in nineteen seventy four by R. D. McElroy 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.760 to describe microorganisms scientists were increasingly finding in places that 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.360 should have been devoid of life. The word is a 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.200 hybrid term that literally means love of extremes, and while 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.240 it is usually used in a scientific context to describe 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.839 small organisms and very odd locations, some experts have over 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.680 the years pointed out that the label might well apply 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:30.000 to humans too. In the journal article all about Extremophiles JOHNS. 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:34.520 Hopkins Universities, James A. Koker wrote that quote, despite common perception, 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.840 most of Earth is what is often referred to as 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.760 an extreme environment. Yet to the organisms that call these 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.280 places home, it is simply that home. They have adapted 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.120 to thrive in these environments, and in the process have 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.840 evolved many unique adaptations at the molecular and atomic level. 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.800 In our human centric view of the planet Earth, we 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.600 tend to think of ourselves as being in the Goldilock zone, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.680 not too hot or too cold, protected from radiation, and 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.519 filled with all the things next necessary for life to exist. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.560 To some extent, this is true. However, this view keeps 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.760 us from acknowledging several basic facts, including that the Earth 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.320 is mostly a cold place. Over ninety percent of its 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.320 oceans are at or below five degrees celsius, and it 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.400 has an average temperature of around fifteen degrees celsius, and 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.000 several conditions we humans consider normal i e. Twenty percent 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.440 oxygen in the air actually make us extremophiles from the 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:24.880 point of view of other species. 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:26.560 End quote. 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.000 Now, I have a bad tendency to want to apply 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.040 literal knowledge like this metaphorically to my understanding of politics. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.720 It's a bit of a sickness, but it also makes 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.440 more sense sometimes than you'd expect. There's a tendency among 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.000 many millennials and even Gen Z and Alpha kids too 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.240 young to have known the nineties to look back on 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.680 that decade as a sort of cultural goldilock zone, as 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.600 if the brief period post Cold War and pre nine 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.080 eleven was some sort of cultural peak for our species, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.320 and everything since has been a slow downhill slide. People 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:59.440 have different reasons for this. Some of them blame nine 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.200 to eleven. Some people will argue that we were in 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.360 that sweet spot where the Internet existed and could tap 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.560 you into cool and interesting things, but social media hadn't 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.800 come along yet and ruined it all. You know, different 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.920 people come up with different justifications for this, but this 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.280 view keeps people from acknowledging some very basic facts about 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.440 the nineteen nineties, which is that they were full of 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.120 genocides and Rwanda and Bosnia just named two, and repeated 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.640 US military adventures and misadventures in other parts of the globe, 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.200 some of which ended disastrously, as in Mogadishu. Our president 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:32.719 for most of the nineties was a sex pest, and 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.320 members of the far right staged a series of bloody 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.320 terrorist attacks, including the Oklahoma City bombing and Olympic Park bombing. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.120 And while all this was happening, a new and more 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:47.120 openly extremist Republican Party captured Congress, while hapless outmaneuver Democrats 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.880 gawked in awe. The reality is that the nineties were 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.880 a time of extremity, of extreme weirdness and darkness, just 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.000 like every other period of human existence, and the extremity 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.240 of the era helped birth a new conservative movement, one 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.960 radical enough to wrench power from the liberals and bring 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:08.320 us ultimately into the slavering jaws of the Bush era. Today, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.360 those same neo conservatives seemed tame next to their modern descendants, 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.920 the Maga movement, But in their own time, they were 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.840 the craziest bastards out there. And this hits at a 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.240 fundamental reality in American politics. If survival in extreme times 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.760 requires extreme adaptations, then It's no wonder that for much 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.400 of our lives, the extremists are the ones who have 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.960 primarily thrived electorally. Democrats like to forget this, but Bill 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.920 Clinton felt like a pretty big swing to folks exiting 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.760 the era of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.960 just as Barack Obama was seen as the most extreme 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.599 choice imaginable by roughly half of this country. In fact, 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.599 he was such an extreme choice that the Conservative movement 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.960 had to birth the Tea Party and eventually the Maga 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.520 Movement in order to unseat the Democratic Party and repeal 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.719 the changes from the Obama years in power. I like 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.159 thinking about this stuff because I find it interesting that 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.560 one common theme from evolutionary biology to modern politics is 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:08.320 this in extreme environments, extreme adaptations are necessary to survive. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.200 We Homo sapiens, have been in the business of extreme 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.240 adaptations for as long as we've existed. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:14.000 That's all. 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.600 Central heating and air, vaccines, antibiotics, and the AR fifteen 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.720 are adaptations to extreme environments and situations, many of them 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.719 extreme environments and situations that we created for ourselves. The 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.200 problem is our adaptations have a nasty tendency to drive 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.640 even more extreme circumstances, which in turn foster further adaptations, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:35.919 and so on and so forth until we invent the 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.159 Internet and satellite guided thermonuclear bombs. Extreme adaptations are not 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.839 always good, but once you've found yourself thrown into an 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.840 extreme environment, you can't just wish the weather was different. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.400 You've got to adapt. That's the bad news about our 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.240 current political situation. The good news is that the pendulum 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.520 has started to swing back our way. The extremism of 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.839 the Trump era is provoking its own equal but opposite reaction, 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.120 and you can see the first stirrings of that and 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.160 the popularity of Zoron Mandani, or the fact that a 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.840 former pillow of neo conservatism like Bill Crystal is currently 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.840 advocating for the abolition of ice. We are in the 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:17.000 process of deciding the next extreme that will dominate American politics, 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.280 which means we have the opportunity to adapt with policies 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.520 and changes that are every bit as good as the 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.880 ones that Trump administration has forced through our bad To 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.040 do that, we're going to have to be brave and 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.520 we're going to have to start getting our shit together now, 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.360 because this window of opportunity won't last long. The way 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.200 I see it. The GOP entered office this time around, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.160 intent on waging the political equivalent of a shock and 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.520 awe campaign. They burnt up any goodwill or benefit of 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.480 the doubt they might have had in an orgy of 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.160 careless and brutal cuts to basic government functions carried out 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.440 by the least sympathetic group of Groper's imaginable, one of 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.640 whom was nicknamed big Balls. A fleury of state and 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.120 local legislative pushes and criminal investigations aimed at hurting left 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:04.000 wing activists and queer, particularly trans people have done tremendous damage, 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.280 as have relentless ice raids on mostly non white Americans. 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.000 It's been bad, and yet we're still here. I won't 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.920 pretend we're in a good situation today, not at least 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.280 in terms of what we'd like good to mean in 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.040 the everyday sense of the word. Many of us haven't 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.360 survived the first sixteen months or so of the Second 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.160 Trunk presidency. Fewer of us are going to make it 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.720 to the end. But this regime came to power with 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.840 the knowledge that their success or failure hinged on speed 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.480 and violence of action. They had a limited window to 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.520 make resistance impossible, and they missed it. You can see 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.960 some evidence of this in our War of Choice against Iran. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.760 President Trump wanted a quick, brutal triumph that would look 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.319 good on the evening news, so he told his military 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.360 to bear down on Iran with all the speed and 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.720 violence of action they could muster. That plan failed, and 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.480 the reasons why are weirdly similar to how the Republican 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.280 Party has overplayed their hand in our ongoing culture war. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.439 Back in Trump's first term, the DoD established the Algorithmic 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.640 Warfare cross functional team nicknamed Project Maven. The goal of 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.920 the project, as per Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan, was to 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.240 automate the analysis of drone footage and other data humans 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.800 previously would have gone over by hand, in order to 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.440 speed up the rate at which targets were identified and 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.840 struck in wartime. Project Maban from the Jump was a 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.959 product of the worst kind of military thinking, How can 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.840 we automate as much of our planning of warfare as possible. 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.080 This is the kind of project you pursue when your 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.240 finest military minds still believe that victory is as simple 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.200 as killing or destroying a preset number of bad guys, 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:38.240 causing them to give up. The goal was to create 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.160 a system that could collate and synthesize huge quantities of 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.079 data in order to allow one thousand targeting decisions per hour. 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.320 Kevin Baker, writing for The Guardian, notes that this means 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.400 quote three point six seconds per decision, or from the 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:56.920 individual targeteer's perspective, one decision every seventy two seconds. Now, 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.000 we're going to talk about where this kind of thinking 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.320 has led us in our conflict with Iran. But first, 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:16.440 here's some ads we're back. Now. If you listen to 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.760 the advocates of this kind of military build up that 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.040 people who are really bullish on AI for military purposes 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.000 talk and their podcasts and on their blogs, the reasoning 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.120 behind why you need to be able to make a 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.000 thousand targeting decisions per hour is pretty obvious. They're obsessed 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.280 with the idea that a future war between the US 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.120 and a peer or near peer adversary, most prominently China, right, 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.199 that's what they're planning on now. The Chinese military is 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.640 also heavily invested in AI. There was a major New 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:46.920 York Times article earlier this month, in April of twenty 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:51.360 twenty six, titled Mutually Automated destruction the escalating global AI 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:52.040 arms race. 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:53.040 I'm going to quote from that. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.480 Now. China and Russia are experimenting with letting AI make 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.960 battlefield decisions on its own. Two US officials said China 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.040 is developing systems for dozens of autonomous drones to coordinate 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.079 attacks without human thought will Russia is building Lancet drones 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.800 that can circle the sky and autonomously pick targets, they said. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:11.840 Even as the specifics of the technologies remain veiled, the 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.800 intentions are clear. In twenty seventeen, mister Putin declared that 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.040 whoever leads a AI will become the ruler of the world. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:20.840 Mister z said in twenty twenty four that the technology 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.520 would be the main battleground of geopolitical competition. In January, 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.920 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed all branches of the US 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.960 military to adopt AI, saying they needed to accelerate like hell. 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:33.280 Now. 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.719 My interpretation of what I've read from most of these 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.600 guys is that they see future conflict as a massive 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.400 but almost instantaneous chess game. Right, Whoever has the AI 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.640 that can most quickly and effectively sort through their intelligence, 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.959 come up with target packages, and then strike those targets first, wins. 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:50.480 Right. 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:52.920 If we can make a thousand decisions and a thousand 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.120 strikes in an hour and they can only make eight hundred, 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.880 then we'll destroy more of them and will win the war. Right, 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.480 It all be decided right at the start. And this 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.439 may well be how a shooting war between China and 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.920 the US would proceed. But given that very few people 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.079 in either country want that war to happen because it 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.760 would kill us all, I think we might do best 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.440 focusing on the war our country is currently fighting, where 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.760 this logic has resulted in a catastrophic failure for at 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.840 least the second time in my life. In two thousand 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.200 and three, the United States invaded Iraq. After more than 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.720 a year of build up, in years of intelligence gathering, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.679 our military planners put together a list of fifty high 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.560 value targets. The idea was, if we could use our 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.360 incredible super advanced spying equipment and our precision guided weapons 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.960 to wipe out the most important figures of resistance in Iraq, 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.560 we could hobble any response to the invasion. All fifty 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.000 targets were struck, none of the people targeted were killed. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.160 Now that doesn't mean no one was killed. It just 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:47.840 means we missed all the people we thought we were 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.040 going to hit. To quote from Kevin Baker's great article, again, 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.640 the targeting cycle had been fast enough to hit fifty 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.920 buildings and too fast to discover it was hitting the 0:12:55.920 --> 0:13:01.400 wrong ones. Fast forward earlier this year, Administration orders the 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.120 launch of Operation Epic Fury and unleashed a nightmare arsenal 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:07.679 of hyper advanced weaponry on the people and leaders of 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.520 Iran alongside the Israeli Air Force. In the first two weeks, 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.760 US forces hit six thousand targets picked with the help 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.480 of Project Mavin. One of them was the Monob Girls 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.440 Elementary School, which was destroyed by a missile, killing one 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:25.440 hundred and fifty six and wounding ninety five. Now, Alex Karp, 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.720 the CEO of pallanteers hyper advanced AI and a multi 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.840 billion dollar network of satellites backed up by decades of 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.160 intelligence gathering by the CIA, and the massade wasn't enough 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.720 to drop us from striking a school that we knew 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.240 contained none of our targets. We had data that the 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.360 people we thought were there at one point were no 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.920 longer there, and it was a school now. But some 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.319 of the data Maven relied on was old and outdated. 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.440 And these machines aren't capable of real judgment and the 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.800 way we think of it. And because people trusted them 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.880 so much, no one thought to check before ordering the strikes. 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.640 This is a human error. This is not an AI error, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.000 but it illustrates a massive law in the fantasy that 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.320 winning a war could be as easy as building a 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.679 smarter machine. Got to be accurate, and it is important 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:10.960 to note a lot of those six thousand targets were 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.520 what we thought, and they were accurately struck and killed. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.000 In the opening salvel of the war, President Trump and 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.760 his mouthpieces celebrated their successful assassination of Iron Supreme Leader, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.920 alongside many other prominent military and governmental officials. This seemed 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.240 at first to be way more successful than the opening 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.520 strikes against a Rock. They didn't get any of those 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.520 fifty guys. We got a bunch of our initial targets 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.800 in this first wave of strikes. Maybe we just didn't 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.320 have the right technology when we invaded Rock. Maybe now 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.520 we're doing it right, you know, finally we'll be able 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.960 to win a war this way. However, that quickly proved untrue. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.440 All of those strikes put together were not enough to 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.520 break Iran's will or its capacity to fight and fight 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.320 back effectively. Now Donald Trump finds himself trapped in an 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:56.000 expensive quagmire, one that is already bleeding him advanced munitions 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.200 and equipment while it crashes the global economy. The most 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.520 recent ap the NARC poll, puts Trump's overall approval at 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.480 thirty three percent, which is down five percent since just 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.560 back in March. Only thirty two percent of Americans approve 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.680 of his leadership on Iran. Because most of this country 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.800 can still see a man shooting himself in the dick 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:18.040 for what it is. Pete Hegsath is our most lethality 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.440 obsessed Secretary of Defense and History, and in him we 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.720 see the result of a long sickness first incubated during 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.920 the Vietnam War, when embarrassed generals needed to spin their 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.680 failure to make progress as a kind of victory, so 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.440 they turned to bragging about how many fighters they had killed, 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.240 inevitably defining many civilian dead as enemy combatants, and bragging 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.120 about the tonnage of trucking that they destroyed based on 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.840 wildly incomplete and inaccurate intelligence. Ever since this calamitous era. 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.400 Informed students of military theory have seen doing body counts 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.200 as the death knell of a military entity's ability to 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.360 make intelligent decisions that move their forces closer to victory. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.840 But because the entire conservative project in this country is 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.800 built on the thoughtless worship of military pat prowess in power, 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.920 we've seen this kind of thinking trickle down to the 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.720 sarey cadra of influencers who call themselves right wing intellectuals. Today, 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.840 I'm talking about dudes like Matt Walsh and Chris Ruffo 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.840 who've built their reputations on picking targets to drum up 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.160 mobs against and uses the basis of attack ads. These 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.560 people have proven legitimately good at stirring up haate and 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.920 forcing laws all over the country restricting things like drag 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.840 shows or the use of chosen pronouns and government documents. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.960 All these people are by definition huge assholes, and so 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.280 are their followers, and thus when those people get radicalized 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.080 to take action in their communities, they make those communities worse. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.480 This pisses off their neighbors, which has resulted in significant 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.880 backlash across the country. As an example, Moms for Liberty 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.960 was formed in Florida on January first, twenty twenty one, 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.240 by Republican activists and former school board members who were 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.120 outraged about pandemic safety protocols and schools. They became a 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.960 vehicle for the parental rights movement, a nebulous and deeply 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.760 toxic force in American political life. It sees the parent 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:02.960 as a kind of absolute sovereign over the life and 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.760 mind of their child. Any influence that might lead that 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:07.560 child to become a different kind of person than the 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.000 parent envisions must be pruned away. The group used the 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.920 then fresh moral panic over critical race theory as a 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.080 lever from which to force themselves into American life. In 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.440 June of twenty twenty one, they started filing what would 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.520 become a long series of criminal complaints against books available 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.560 in specific school libraries across the nation. Schools started removing books, 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.600 and Moms for liberty inspired candidates began winning school board 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.800 elections around the country. It looked, for a little while 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.200 like a popular wave of hysterical fear might yank America 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.240 into a Fahrenheit four to fifty one style future, slightly 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.240 ahead of schedule, but just a couple of years later, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.040 a funny thing happened, Moms for Liberty backed candidates started 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.560 losing major elections, first a series of school board races 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.240 in twenty twenty three in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Iowa. But 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.840 even as the Biden administration kareemed towards a disastrous new 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.040 election in twenty twenty four, one in which the far 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.160 right seemed to have all the momentum, regular people kept 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.639 rising up and organizing to protect their schools. One of 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.320 the first was karen's Foboda, a mother of seven in 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.280 Duchess County, New York. In twenty twenty three, she told 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.680 NPR reporter Jim Zaroli, I looked into the local Facebook 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.720 page of Moms for Liberty and just browsed through some 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.720 of the social media of some of these individuals, and 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.760 what I saw was very upsetting. As a mom of 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:22.640 kids who were members of that community, it was very 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:24.560 concerning to think that these people would be trying to 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:26.520 get onto the school board, because what does that mean 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.560 for my kids? So she started a group of her own, 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:34.000 Defensive Democracy, which organized like minded parents in her community 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.000 to warn each other about Moms for Liberty. It defeated 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.840 an entire slate of Moms for Liberty backed candidates in 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.920 twenty twenty three, all with the infrastructure of a Facebook 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.560 page and weekly zoom calls. And the really remarkable thing 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.000 is that even while the twenty twenty four election took 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.280 over the national discourse and the Democratic Party completely shat 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.800 the bed, people kept connecting and organizing in school districts 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.240 across the country to fight for their children's educations. In 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.560 November of twenty twi, the Houston suburb of Cyprus, Texas, 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.800 saw Democratic candidates sweep three school board seats and take 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.600 the majority, ending two years of Republican dominance. This trend 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.600 was repeated elsewhere that same month, per a political article 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.840 by Liz Crampton and Madison Fernandez quote in Pennsylvania, Democrats 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.000 slipped at least two dozen school board seats, per an 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.360 ongoing tally from progressive recruitment group Pipeline Fund. The under 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.119 the radar trend was enabled by voters increasing weariness with 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.560 the culture wars that helped the MAGA movement engineer school 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.320 board takeovers and generate hyper local interest in politics as 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.800 the COVID nineteen pandemic raged. In addition to Texas, Republicans 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.320 lost seats in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio and the 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.480 national battleground of Pennsylvania the result of well funded campaigns 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.080 orchestrated by local leaders. Now, one of my favorite details 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:45.639 from that piece is a quote from one of the 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.080 new school board members, Leslie Gilmart, who stated, folks just 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.280 wanted their school boards to be boring again. They wanted normalcy. 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.920 Once the board was taken over by a superpartisan, extremist majority, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.600 folks across the political spectrum were dismayed. Now, I continue 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:02.280 to be an advocate of the thought that Tim Walls 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.800 might have made a more effective vice presidential candidate if 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.639 he'd kept calling the Republicans out for being freaks because 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.159 they are. Their obsession with the lives and behavior of 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.200 their fellow citizens and their naked slavering need to control 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.640 their neighbors is upsetting, an unnatural. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:17.200 The way I see. 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.679 It, we're in a time of incredible opportunity right now. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:21.840 The devil has played his hand and wound up slipping 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.040 on a puddle of his own flop sweat along the way. 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.400 The momentum is with anyone but these fucks, at least 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.040 right now, which is why a bunch of tertiary Trump 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.560 supporters like Tucker Carlson have been cutting bait. Donald did 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.240 the thing fascists off and do. He kept reaching until 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.360 he reached for something that exceeded his grasp. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:39.199 Now. 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:40.879 I don't know what's going to happen next in our 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.080 absolutely unnecessary struggle with Iran. I think there's a non 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.000 zero chance Trump tries to extricate our forces save for 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.840 some token s is rule, won't say we abandon them, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.200 and tries to take out the Cuban government next. Falso possible, 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.520 Wh'll escalate the violence against Iran in some massive, apocalyptic, 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.000 hideous way. In either case, the human cost will be nightmare, 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:02.840 But either action would just be the flailing of a 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.800 busted gambler putting everything he has on a fantasy that 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.600 Americans want to see foreign enemies broken while they can't 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.840 afford to fill their car at home. Every poll of 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.280 the American people seems to suggest that most of us 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:18.400 as a pretty low appetite for unnecessary wars. Outside of Florida, 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.440 it's hard to find regular people who are scared of 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.159 the Cuban government. The idea that they represent any kind 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.720 of threat to folks in Michigan or Kansas is absurd 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:30.119 on its face. The further Trump reaches, the angrier people get. 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.760 Fascist governments rely on the complicity of the masses even 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.520 more than their enthusiastic support. And many Americans have proven 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.320 themselves unwilling to be complicit in most of what the 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.920 Heritage Foundation and their friends want for this country. And 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:45.840 that's a nice note to roll to ads on. 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:56.840 We're back. 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:59.480 If you want a direct example of how weak the 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.240 cultural conservatives are right now, think back to the stunt 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.440 President Trump pulled with door dasherler in April. He ordered 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:07.920 several bags and had them delivered by a dasher who 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.520 was there to get photographed praising the president's no tax 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.000 on tips policy. While they were standing outside the Oval office, 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.560 Trump asked the dasher if they thought trans women should 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:19.320 be allowed to compete in women's sports. And the dasher 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.200 in question was fifty eight year old Sharon Simmons, who 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:24.399 was a I Mean, it's been widely reported, is a 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.280 Republican activist. She'd previously spoken out in favor of the 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:29.200 no tax on tips policy at the House Ways and 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.280 Means Committee field hearing, and even when she was under 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:35.119 the gun next to the President, Simmons wasn't willing to 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.000 agree with him on the weird anti trans stuff. She replied, 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.840 I don't really have an opinion on that, and I'm 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:42.440 not here to call her a hero for that. 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:42.919 She's not. 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.040 But it shows a crack in the rhetorical wall these 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.399 people have built for themselves. A Republican can't just support 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:51.360 low taxes. Now they have to endorse a whole raft 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.280 of psychotic vengeance politics and anti scientific views that are 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.160 deeply alienating to anyone who has a chance of being 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:02.320 called normalcushion of life after Trump nowadays has to include 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:04.920 an acknowledgment of the big, lurking question of our age 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:07.520 what if he won't give up power? And that's a 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:10.040 bigger question than the just Trump. A large number of 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.520 government officials, of elected leaders, military officers, and law enforcement 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:16.639 officers have implicated themselves in the crimes and what we 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.160 might call the oughta be crimes of this administration. It's 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.720 not unreasonable to ask what if they won't leave power 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.240 without a fight? And I don't have a comprehensive answer 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:27.280 for you that I feel comfortable putting in the last 0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:29.920 couple of pages of a podcast script, but I will 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:31.800 point out that just In the last month. As I 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.679 write this, Victor Orbon and his entire political movement faced 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:40.040 sweeping defeat at the polls. Orbon had been previously referred 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:42.840 to as a quasi dictatorial figure. He was the leader 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.320 of the Hungarian government, and he had led a massive 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:47.679 right wing crack down the detacked schools that attacked the 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:51.200 LGBT movement, and that became a major funder for much 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:53.239 of our own right wing movement. It's come out that 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.160 the Orbon government was sending money helping to fund Sea Pack. 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.359 They were sending money to specific right wing influencers like 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.560 Rod Dreyer. And despite the fact that Orbon was the 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:04.840 guy that people like Tucker Carlson a couple years ago 0:24:04.960 --> 0:24:07.879 was saying, this is the future of American politics, Orbanism 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.920 is what we want. Despite that fact, when they lost 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:14.439 an election, he and his cronies back down without a fight. Now, 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:17.800 ultimately they did this because they still think they're bulletproof. 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:19.000 Right, We've got enough people in. 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:22.000 The government that we can stop Peter Magyar, the new guy, 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:25.920 from doing any damage to us right and thus temporarily 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:29.320 leaving power is an acceptable sacrifice because that lets us 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:30.840 avoid a civil war and the rest of the EU 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:32.679 who won't look kindly on that. I'm sure that's a 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:35.280 lot of their thinking. And obviously the US is in 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:38.520 a very different position geopolitically. But the rapidity with which 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:41.679 some former Trump stalwarts like Marjorie Taylor Green and Alex 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:46.200 Jones and Tucker Carlson have abandoned MAGA suggests one thing. 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:49.520 They think it's more personally profitable for them to not 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:52.639 be seen standing next to the president or the MAGA 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:56.080 movement right now. And here's more good news. Remember how 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:59.120 basically every social network is now owned by an openly evil, 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:00.159 right wing billionaire. 0:25:00.359 --> 0:25:00.639 Well. 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:03.679 Americans have responded to this by discarding social media and 0:25:03.760 --> 0:25:06.840 ever growing numbers. This has been about one of the 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.520 most consequential shifts of the last few years, and just 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:12.720 this week, University of Amsterdam professor Peter Tornberg published a 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:15.359 study on shifts in US social media use from twenty 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:19.600 twenty to twenty twenty four. Quote online platform reached aclinent, 0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:22.359 driven by growth in the share of Americans, especially the 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:25.359 youngest and oldest cohorts who report using no social media. 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:28.920 Visiting and posting activity on Twitter, slash x, and Facebook 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:32.159 have fallen by nearly fifty percent since twenty twenty, with 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:35.240 the decline on Twitter x driven primarily by reduced participation 0:25:35.280 --> 0:25:38.880 among democratic users. Now, this is broadly speaking a good 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:41.240 thing for the mental health of Americans overall and for 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:44.000 the future of our body politic but the Americans who 0:25:44.000 --> 0:25:47.080 remain in social media aren't all doing so hot. Over 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:50.160 the same time period, traffic on Twitter and Facebook grew 0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:53.879 markedly more right wing as both sites shrank. In his paper, 0:25:53.960 --> 0:25:58.919 Tornberg warns as casual users disengaged while polarized partisans remained vocal, 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:03.560 online discourse comes narrower and more ideologically extreme, or in 0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:07.320 other words, as the algorithms that govern what gets seen 0:26:07.560 --> 0:26:11.720 on these shrinking social media sites reward more extreme content. 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:15.320 Less extreme users leave, and the ones who succeed and 0:26:15.400 --> 0:26:18.480 become more widely shared are the most extreme. It's, you know, 0:26:18.800 --> 0:26:22.520 another extremeophile kind of situation. Part of why the people 0:26:22.560 --> 0:26:24.919 near Trump all believe they're winning is they live in 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:27.240 these same Internet fever swamps, and they've gotten used to 0:26:27.280 --> 0:26:28.960 the Internet mattering a lot more than. 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:29.760 It does right now. 0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:31.920 I don't mean to suggest that what happens online is 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:34.879 an important but that importance has been softened by the 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:38.160 sheer deluge of AI, slop, spam, and weird right wing 0:26:38.160 --> 0:26:41.160 propaganda that we've been forcibly drowned in for years. Less 0:26:41.200 --> 0:26:43.440 people are using these things than they used to, which 0:26:43.480 --> 0:26:46.640 means their reach has declined because people find them off 0:26:46.680 --> 0:26:51.200 putting and gross. The data shows that folks, particularly over 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:53.720 sixty five and under twenty four, are increasingly fed up 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:56.000 with not just social media, but the whole state of 0:26:56.000 --> 0:26:59.160 affairs we've been locked in politically. In the recent Virginia 0:26:59.200 --> 0:27:03.960 governor's Racemocrat Abigail Spanberger won by a comfortable margin. Republicans 0:27:03.960 --> 0:27:06.399 devoted a huge amount of their budget against her to 0:27:06.560 --> 0:27:10.080 anti trans attack ads, writing high off their inaccurate belief 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:12.919 that anti trans propaganda had one trump the reelection in 0:27:12.920 --> 0:27:15.840 twenty twenty four, but only four percent of voters in 0:27:15.840 --> 0:27:20.000 that election listed transgender policies as a top issue. Now, 0:27:20.359 --> 0:27:22.840 that alone might just point to the overwhelming impulse towards 0:27:22.840 --> 0:27:25.840 centrism shared by much of the American middle class. People 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:29.200 don't like to stand out, particularly as a political radical. 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:32.640 But a year after Spanberger's election, a majority of Virginia 0:27:32.720 --> 0:27:36.439 voters approved a radical redistricting measure. This was entirely framed 0:27:36.440 --> 0:27:38.840 as a response to the Republican party fighting for their 0:27:38.880 --> 0:27:41.960 right to redistrict several states in their favor. The usual 0:27:42.040 --> 0:27:44.760 chorus of voices piped up to say, Oh, I don't know, guys, 0:27:45.040 --> 0:27:47.320 we shouldn't do the same thing they keep doing in 0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:51.080 order to defend ourselves. That doesn't seem fair. And this time, 0:27:51.160 --> 0:27:55.720 thank goodness, most people ignored them. The controversial measure outperformed 0:27:55.760 --> 0:27:59.480 Kamala Harris by eight points. And yes, the federal judge 0:27:59.480 --> 0:28:02.679 did immediately rule the measure unconstitutional, but you know how 0:28:02.720 --> 0:28:04.600 these things go. We're off to a series of court 0:28:04.640 --> 0:28:07.400 battles now, and however those end up. Two useful things 0:28:07.400 --> 0:28:10.160 have been accomplished. The liberal majority of a state has 0:28:10.200 --> 0:28:12.719 banded together to fight the Republicans on their own terms, 0:28:12.840 --> 0:28:14.800 and a clear message has been sent to those same 0:28:14.880 --> 0:28:18.280 people that Republicans benefit from a different set of laws 0:28:18.320 --> 0:28:22.760 than democrats. Now, any anarchist or left as political organizer 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:25.280 you've ever known would have told you the right wing 0:28:25.320 --> 0:28:27.800 always benefits from an interpretation of the law that she 0:28:27.960 --> 0:28:30.679 shucks seems to deny their opponents the right to do 0:28:30.720 --> 0:28:33.640 the same things in self defense. It's bad that things 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:35.879 work this way, But good for rank and file liberals 0:28:35.920 --> 0:28:38.560 to be reminded of that reality. If it weren't, the 0:28:38.560 --> 0:28:41.560 current gatekeepers of our news media wouldn't be rallying so 0:28:41.720 --> 0:28:44.600 hard against this measure. The same day I wrote all 0:28:44.600 --> 0:28:47.600 of this, the Washington Post published an opinion column by 0:28:47.680 --> 0:28:51.040 Theodore Johnson titled Why Virginia went back on its word. 0:28:51.520 --> 0:28:55.800 It opens with a particularly idiotic paragraph. Partisanship died its 0:28:55.840 --> 0:28:59.320 best impression of democracy in Virginia. On Tuesday, voters approved 0:28:59.320 --> 0:29:02.400 a referendum permitting the state's congressional districts to be redrawn 0:29:02.480 --> 0:29:05.920 to help Democrats win four additional seats. It's retaliation to 0:29:05.960 --> 0:29:08.920 recent redistricting by Texas to hand Republicans five more seats. 0:29:08.920 --> 0:29:11.160 At the best of President Donald Trump. It's a red 0:29:11.240 --> 0:29:14.280 versus Blue tit for tat over who can jerrymander more efficiently? 0:29:14.360 --> 0:29:18.200 A necessary evil, the parties say, to protect democracy. It's 0:29:18.240 --> 0:29:22.160 actually not necessarily I mean, not that it's a necessary evil. 0:29:22.200 --> 0:29:24.440 The parties say. It's that one party was already doing 0:29:24.440 --> 0:29:28.200 this for years. The Republicans and you didn't speak up 0:29:28.480 --> 0:29:31.120 the Washington Posts. You know, this guy didn't write the 0:29:31.160 --> 0:29:33.640 same column when this shit's been happening in other states. 0:29:33.640 --> 0:29:36.480 He only does it when Democrats do it in Virginia, right, 0:29:37.080 --> 0:29:39.560 And I also might point out to a majority of 0:29:39.640 --> 0:29:42.160 voters approving a measure is democracy. You know, if your 0:29:42.240 --> 0:29:45.520 only concern is the overall health of democracy, Redistricting that 0:29:45.520 --> 0:29:48.840 favors democrats really corrects a structural imbalance in our political 0:29:48.920 --> 0:29:52.120 system that favors loosely populated rural areas with an unfair 0:29:52.160 --> 0:29:55.160 proportion of political power and marginalizes the greater number of 0:29:55.200 --> 0:29:58.920 citizens who live in urban areas and tend to vote Democrat. Anyway, 0:29:59.400 --> 0:30:01.320 there are other good reasons to see hope for a 0:30:01.360 --> 0:30:04.400 fierce swing in American politics, not merely back to the middle, 0:30:04.880 --> 0:30:07.040 but far to the left. Simply as a matter of 0:30:07.040 --> 0:30:10.120 practical necessity, the Republicans have spent their time and power 0:30:10.200 --> 0:30:13.440 gutting the Parks Department, the Post Office, the VA, the FAA, 0:30:13.480 --> 0:30:15.880 and every other useful part of our state structure. And 0:30:15.960 --> 0:30:18.120 this is a big part of what's radicalized people, because 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:20.600 they've very quickly come to notice that things are missing 0:30:20.640 --> 0:30:24.120 and shit is not working right. For decades, the government 0:30:24.160 --> 0:30:26.680 has been the enemy to millions of Americans who went 0:30:26.720 --> 0:30:29.240 out in the world and relied on government services every 0:30:29.320 --> 0:30:32.480 day of their lives, and yes, that's irritating and unfair, 0:30:32.560 --> 0:30:34.160 and no, we don't have time to fix that up 0:30:34.200 --> 0:30:37.480 right now. What we can do is use the fact 0:30:37.480 --> 0:30:39.920 that the Republicans broke all these systems to point out 0:30:39.920 --> 0:30:43.160 to people, actually, you don't hate it when the government 0:30:43.280 --> 0:30:47.280 does stuff, You just hate the way Republicans run the government. 0:30:47.360 --> 0:30:50.120 And the fact that the Democrats have usually been too 0:30:50.240 --> 0:30:53.000 scared to push for policies as extreme as they need to. 0:30:53.240 --> 0:30:55.880 Right this is an opportunity to convince a lot of people, 0:30:55.920 --> 0:30:59.600 oh shit, paying taxes to support a vibrant civil society 0:30:59.680 --> 0:31:02.480 with the extensive and functional infrastructure is a lot better 0:31:02.520 --> 0:31:04.840 than letting big balls de leete half of civil service, 0:31:05.160 --> 0:31:08.640 right like. That's I think the opportunity we have right now, 0:31:08.840 --> 0:31:11.200 and pushing that basic line on as many Americans as 0:31:11.200 --> 0:31:13.760 possible in the next two years is I think one 0:31:13.800 --> 0:31:15.960 of the most important things we can do at the moment. 0:31:16.280 --> 0:31:18.640 Along with that, we need to keep building support for 0:31:18.760 --> 0:31:22.240 enforcement of consequences against the cadra of billionaires and their 0:31:22.320 --> 0:31:25.040 lackeys who have been robbing our shared heritage blind this 0:31:25.080 --> 0:31:27.640 whole while. If I had my way about it, I'd 0:31:27.640 --> 0:31:29.760 point out to people that there are an awful lot 0:31:29.760 --> 0:31:32.239 of billionaires who we knew colluded to take over the 0:31:32.240 --> 0:31:35.280 federal government put something like Elon Musk's doge in place. 0:31:35.480 --> 0:31:36.800 You can just see that in some of the texts 0:31:36.800 --> 0:31:40.640 between Mark Zuckerbergeting and Elon Musk. These people are enemies 0:31:40.680 --> 0:31:42.920 of the state with an awful lot of money that 0:31:42.960 --> 0:31:45.920 we could confiscate to do things like replace the books 0:31:45.960 --> 0:31:49.120 Moms for Liberty tore out of public libraries. Now, we 0:31:49.160 --> 0:31:51.440 also need to see consequences for the criminals who have 0:31:51.480 --> 0:31:53.840 weaponized the organs of the state to fight their war 0:31:53.840 --> 0:31:57.600 against transgender Americans. This is an issue you can, in fact, 0:31:57.760 --> 0:32:01.640 get centrist voters to support. The average swing voter may 0:32:01.680 --> 0:32:04.520 not be particularly woke on gender theory, but they don't 0:32:04.600 --> 0:32:07.120 like seeing the government bully people who are just trying 0:32:07.160 --> 0:32:10.240 to get by. The widespread suffering created by the MAGA 0:32:10.240 --> 0:32:14.440 movement also creates potential for widespread solidarity between its victims. 0:32:15.320 --> 0:32:17.800 If the midterms go badly for the GOP and the 0:32:17.800 --> 0:32:20.640 twenty twenty eight elections go even worse, the USA's new 0:32:20.680 --> 0:32:23.680 elected officials and surviving citizens will find themselves in the 0:32:23.680 --> 0:32:27.080 same situations. The man who just unseated Victor Orbon and 0:32:27.160 --> 0:32:30.800 his supporters, we all learned how temporary a victory can be. 0:32:30.880 --> 0:32:33.760 After twenty twenty four, I've seen more than a few 0:32:33.760 --> 0:32:36.880 comments online by liberals who decided Orbon's defeat was a 0:32:36.880 --> 0:32:39.680 good time to attack a straw man caricature of a leftist, 0:32:39.720 --> 0:32:42.880 and these posts were generally laughing at this idea that 0:32:43.040 --> 0:32:45.480 a lot of people on the left express that electoralism 0:32:45.600 --> 0:32:48.960 can't defeat fascism. Now, I do share a frustration with 0:32:49.000 --> 0:32:51.720 the blanket rejection of electoral politics that some people on 0:32:51.800 --> 0:32:55.400 the left champion, but every online and real life lefty 0:32:55.480 --> 0:32:58.600 that I know was thrilled to see Orbonde get the boot. However, 0:32:58.640 --> 0:33:00.840 they all did share a fear us. This one fear 0:33:00.880 --> 0:33:03.640 that I've seen in common with every analyst and expert 0:33:03.720 --> 0:33:06.640 on Hungarian politics that I've read, which is winning the 0:33:06.680 --> 0:33:09.920 election isn't going to be enough for Magyar Orbon is 0:33:09.960 --> 0:33:13.240 an extremist, someone who took power because things were extremely 0:33:13.280 --> 0:33:16.000 shitty in Hungary and voters got angry enough to vote 0:33:16.000 --> 0:33:18.640 for a guy who promised to burn things down. They 0:33:18.640 --> 0:33:21.600 did come to regret that, but things are still extremely 0:33:21.680 --> 0:33:25.080 bad in Hungary. Joe Biden was a moderate who tried 0:33:25.120 --> 0:33:28.560 to govern in an environment of raging extremes. His promise 0:33:28.680 --> 0:33:31.080 was that he would bring things back to the normal 0:33:31.160 --> 0:33:33.960 of the Obama era. He failed to do that because 0:33:34.000 --> 0:33:36.640 it's impossible, and his failure opened up the way for 0:33:36.720 --> 0:33:39.240 Trump two point zero. If we don't want to repeat 0:33:39.280 --> 0:33:42.280 that cycle, the failures and ultimate collapse of the MAGA 0:33:42.320 --> 0:33:45.560 movement have to be met with new strategies, new tactics, 0:33:45.600 --> 0:33:48.480 and new politics as we seek to fill the void 0:33:48.480 --> 0:33:51.720 that they're going to leave behind. I wrote and recorded 0:33:51.760 --> 0:33:54.000 the first draft of this piece, as I said earlier, 0:33:54.120 --> 0:33:56.200 just a few days before, a gunman stormed into the 0:33:56.200 --> 0:33:59.520 Correspondence dinner. His manifesto has made it clear that he 0:33:59.560 --> 0:34:02.160 wanted to arm the President and members of his cabinet. 0:34:02.440 --> 0:34:05.440 Within hours, his social media accounts were archived and his 0:34:05.480 --> 0:34:08.440 life was put under a microscope, as it always happens 0:34:08.440 --> 0:34:11.760 with gunmen these days. All of this revealed a liberal man, 0:34:11.880 --> 0:34:16.080 one who had previously expressed very common centrist opinions, including 0:34:16.080 --> 0:34:19.640 a dislike of firearms. I've seen this used by people 0:34:19.640 --> 0:34:23.240 to justify a conspiratorial narrative that immediately followed the attack. 0:34:23.440 --> 0:34:25.840 This guy is a perfect patsy. Obviously they cooked this 0:34:25.960 --> 0:34:27.879 up in a lab as an excuse to crack down 0:34:27.920 --> 0:34:30.799 on Democrats. I don't believe that, and here is not 0:34:30.840 --> 0:34:32.399 a place for an argument as to why. 0:34:32.440 --> 0:34:32.680 Again. 0:34:32.719 --> 0:34:35.000 We'll talk about that, I'm sure later this week. What 0:34:35.160 --> 0:34:37.400 is interesting to me is that before any of this happened, 0:34:37.480 --> 0:34:39.440 I had been planning to revise the ending of this 0:34:39.520 --> 0:34:42.160 episode by commenting on an article that came out in 0:34:42.200 --> 0:34:45.600 April of twenty twenty five. It's published by Oxios and 0:34:45.640 --> 0:34:48.680 the title was Democrats told to get shot for the 0:34:48.719 --> 0:34:52.000 anti Trump resistance. Here's a quote from that article. At 0:34:52.040 --> 0:34:53.839 town halls in their districts and in one on one 0:34:53.880 --> 0:34:57.040 meetings with constituents and activists, Democratic members of Congress are 0:34:57.040 --> 0:34:59.400 facing and growing thrum of demands to break the rules, 0:34:59.480 --> 0:35:02.680 fight dirty, and not be afraid to get hurt. One 0:35:02.760 --> 0:35:04.880 of the lawmakers that they talked to for that article 0:35:05.080 --> 0:35:07.239 related a conversation that he'd had in a meeting with 0:35:07.280 --> 0:35:07.960 a constituent. 0:35:08.200 --> 0:35:08.600 Quote. 0:35:08.719 --> 0:35:10.800 I actually said in a meeting, when they light a fire, 0:35:10.960 --> 0:35:13.400 my thought is grab an extinguisher. And someone at the 0:35:13.440 --> 0:35:19.040 table said, have you tried gasoline? So many regular Liberals 0:35:19.120 --> 0:35:22.600 are embracing extreme rhetoric and measures today because they know 0:35:22.920 --> 0:35:25.440 on some level that that's the only way you survive 0:35:25.520 --> 0:35:28.760 in an extreme environment. We see this in the thousands 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:31.440 of normies in Minneapolis who have been willing and eager 0:35:31.520 --> 0:35:34.879 to confront armed federal agents in bathrobes and risk their 0:35:34.880 --> 0:35:37.320 own life and limb to protect their neighbors from ice. 0:35:38.000 --> 0:35:40.600 And we've also seen a very dark reflection of that 0:35:40.719 --> 0:35:43.960 in the actions of that gunman last weekend. Now, the 0:35:43.960 --> 0:35:46.640 fact that an educated and informed thirty one year old 0:35:46.640 --> 0:35:49.040 man decided to buy a firearm that he hated and 0:35:49.080 --> 0:35:52.239 attack the president represents many failures. One of them is 0:35:52.280 --> 0:35:54.880 a failure of the Democratic Party and the Liberal project 0:35:55.080 --> 0:35:57.360 to provide him with anything that felt like a useful 0:35:57.400 --> 0:36:01.279 outlet for his rage and hopelessness. People start talking and 0:36:01.400 --> 0:36:03.919 acting like this guy was acting, you can either throw 0:36:03.960 --> 0:36:06.160 your hands up and back away, or you can try 0:36:06.239 --> 0:36:08.839 like hell to present them with a counter offer. In 0:36:08.880 --> 0:36:12.279 this case, I mean a set of policies, activist campaigns, 0:36:12.320 --> 0:36:15.480 and organized actions to make this country a less horrific place. 0:36:16.200 --> 0:36:19.640 The victory and wild popularity of Zoran Mamdani is proof 0:36:19.719 --> 0:36:21.800 that you can, in fact do this even in twenty 0:36:21.880 --> 0:36:26.000 twenty six. The widespread support for formerly extreme positions like 0:36:26.040 --> 0:36:31.320 abolishing ice, taxing billionaires, radically redistricting states, halting the construction 0:36:31.360 --> 0:36:34.520 of data centers, and expanding and packing the Supreme Court 0:36:34.840 --> 0:36:37.320 are more than enough evidence to show that people will 0:36:37.360 --> 0:36:39.720 get in line to back a candidate and a party 0:36:39.840 --> 0:36:44.680 who promises radical change. Moreover, everything I've seen lately suggests 0:36:44.680 --> 0:36:47.840 that people are starving for a movement like this, Hungry 0:36:47.880 --> 0:36:50.960 for their own candidate who feels like Mamdanni, hungry more 0:36:50.960 --> 0:36:54.960 than anything to feel hopeful again. When Oregon Senator Ron 0:36:55.000 --> 0:36:58.160 Whiten posted see you at Nuremberg two point zero after 0:36:58.280 --> 0:37:01.279 Christy Nome got fired, I watched a coalition of left 0:37:01.280 --> 0:37:04.480 wing radicals and centrist dims who never came together over 0:37:04.520 --> 0:37:08.480 anything else, express wild glee at the very thought we 0:37:08.560 --> 0:37:11.440 can do this. We have the tools, and we have 0:37:11.520 --> 0:37:14.840 the opportunity. It's going to take a big old step 0:37:14.920 --> 0:37:19.360 into the unknown, but that's our only option besides waiting 0:37:19.400 --> 0:37:21.440 until we get another chance to look through the social 0:37:21.480 --> 0:37:22.840 media ar types of a gunman. 0:37:34.960 --> 0:37:37.480 So by the time you hear this, the situation may 0:37:37.520 --> 0:37:41.759 have evolved in any number of directions. I'm speaking in 0:37:41.880 --> 0:37:45.160 the immediate week of the United States and Israel's brutal 0:37:45.360 --> 0:37:50.200 invasion of Iran. Thus far, over a thousand have been killed, 0:37:50.520 --> 0:37:54.200 including over one hundred school children and the Supreme leader 0:37:54.239 --> 0:37:59.080 of Iran, Ayatolda Ali Kameni. In response to this American 0:37:59.120 --> 0:38:02.760 is really aggression, Iran has retaliated by targeting both American 0:38:02.800 --> 0:38:06.840 bases and civilian and energy infrastructure in the neighboring countries 0:38:06.880 --> 0:38:10.560 that have facilitated American presence in the region. With the 0:38:10.600 --> 0:38:14.240 strategically and economically critical straight off home moods in jeopardy, 0:38:14.680 --> 0:38:18.360 with France, the UK, and Germany aka the usual suspects 0:38:18.600 --> 0:38:23.080 indicating potential involvement, and with the potential Russian and Chinese 0:38:23.120 --> 0:38:26.239 involvement also being floated in some circles, it seems to 0:38:26.280 --> 0:38:30.080 me that without any formal announcement, the war on the 0:38:30.120 --> 0:38:35.640 world has escalated potentially to a point of no return. Hello, 0:38:35.640 --> 0:38:39.360 and welcome to it grappen Here. I'm andrews Age andrewism 0:38:39.480 --> 0:38:43.200 on YouTube, and I'm joined again by It's James Hi, 0:38:43.239 --> 0:38:46.400 and how are you doing as well as I can be? 0:38:47.560 --> 0:38:49.440 Yeah, that's about the best we can hope for these days. 0:38:49.520 --> 0:38:49.839 Isn't it. 0:38:50.520 --> 0:38:52.880 Yeah, And in a time like this, I want to 0:38:52.920 --> 0:38:57.319 take a look back at history, particularly how past US 0:38:57.400 --> 0:39:01.959 interventions have left devastation in their week. Today I wanted 0:39:02.040 --> 0:39:05.480 to look at the fate of Libya, a country still 0:39:05.480 --> 0:39:08.040 dealing with his similar intentions following the end of the 0:39:08.080 --> 0:39:11.680 post intervention civil War. So I suppose we should begin 0:39:12.040 --> 0:39:15.840 in mid February in twenty eleven, and the Arab of 0:39:15.880 --> 0:39:19.640 Spring was sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Among 0:39:19.680 --> 0:39:22.160 the countries caught up in the fuva against the prevailing 0:39:22.239 --> 0:39:25.160 states was Libya, a North African state ruled for the 0:39:25.160 --> 0:39:29.040 previous forty two years by the Colonel Mumar al Gaddafi's government. 0:39:29.800 --> 0:39:32.800 Masses had taken to the streets across the country, starting 0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:36.520 in Benghazi. The government had some successes in putting down 0:39:36.560 --> 0:39:40.279 the revolt, killing hundreds of rebels and demonstrators alike, and 0:39:40.400 --> 0:39:44.400 some failures as the masses managed to hold position. The 0:39:44.480 --> 0:39:50.520 people had many motivations Spanish Islamist democratic SI militant to tribal, 0:39:50.680 --> 0:39:59.560 to just disaffected against a government intent on its continued survival. Revolutions, uprisings, protests, revolts. 0:39:59.600 --> 0:40:02.520 They tend to messy your fears. I'm sure James, you're 0:40:02.640 --> 0:40:03.319 well away of that. 0:40:04.360 --> 0:40:04.600 Yeah. 0:40:04.760 --> 0:40:08.919 Yeah, I think it's really easy of like outside observers 0:40:09.040 --> 0:40:11.840 or when we're looking back at history to be like, oh, 0:40:11.960 --> 0:40:15.720 this revolution was an Islamist revolution, this was a Marxist 0:40:15.760 --> 0:40:18.480 learning this revolution, this one was an anarchist revolution. But 0:40:18.800 --> 0:40:23.080 every revolution that I have been at that I have 0:40:24.000 --> 0:40:29.080 witnessed happening, it's an everything revolution when it starts and 0:40:29.160 --> 0:40:32.360 it later becomes a something revolution. But especially in the 0:40:32.400 --> 0:40:35.520 Arab Spring, right like in that time, it was just 0:40:35.640 --> 0:40:39.640 like we've had enough of being under the boot of 0:40:40.000 --> 0:40:44.640 these regimes and it was extraordinarily heterodox, and that was 0:40:44.680 --> 0:40:47.600 quite beautiful in the early days. 0:40:47.600 --> 0:40:52.040 Exactly exactly. The heterodox nature of revolutions is really what 0:40:52.080 --> 0:40:54.600 I want to drill here, because I think it's it's 0:40:54.719 --> 0:40:58.880 very easy for people to caricaturize and sleep a broad 0:40:58.920 --> 0:41:01.560 brush and it's the t or this is and it 0:41:01.600 --> 0:41:04.560 gets to be around people are saying, oh, it's only monarchists, 0:41:04.920 --> 0:41:08.359 it's monarchists and Zionists going out in the streets when 0:41:08.400 --> 0:41:11.239 they will protesting when the situation on the ground is 0:41:11.239 --> 0:41:12.560 always more complex than that. 0:41:13.160 --> 0:41:15.640 Yeah, maybe I'll just take a second to address the 0:41:16.560 --> 0:41:21.240 annoying campus tendency. I understand that every time the United 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:23.800 States ranged down death on some part of the world, 0:41:23.840 --> 0:41:27.000 it's terrible, right, it's sad, as you just said, Andrew. 0:41:27.040 --> 0:41:31.120 In Iran, we've seen a girls' school bombed, not once 0:41:31.160 --> 0:41:34.040 but twice, it seems, right, like what they call a 0:41:34.040 --> 0:41:39.440 double tack attack. That doesn't mean that your response has 0:41:39.480 --> 0:41:42.200 to be to support the other people who are killing 0:41:42.280 --> 0:41:46.480 those same civilians in that same place. It is possible 0:41:46.520 --> 0:41:49.879 for two things to be bad, and like in Iran, Yeah, 0:41:49.880 --> 0:41:53.440 there is a monarchist opposition. It sucks. I spoke just 0:41:53.480 --> 0:41:58.720 this morning to a Kurdish group which is opposing the 0:41:58.760 --> 0:42:01.640 regime in Iran, and they had nothing but bad things 0:42:01.640 --> 0:42:04.719 to say about the monarchists. Right, they said, this is 0:42:04.719 --> 0:42:08.720 the PAK write the coast down Freedom Party I'm quoting here. 0:42:09.280 --> 0:42:11.560 They do not have a foothold in society to actually 0:42:11.600 --> 0:42:14.080 achieve anything. The lies and delusions of a group of 0:42:14.080 --> 0:42:17.839 people sitting in nightclubs cannot make any real impact. That 0:42:17.880 --> 0:42:19.799 You're free to use that one next time someone tells 0:42:19.800 --> 0:42:23.680 you all the opposition in around its monarchist, it's nonsense. 0:42:23.560 --> 0:42:27.520 Exactly, I mean, just on its face, it's obviously nonsense. 0:42:28.719 --> 0:42:32.200 This notion that these people are high minds. It's hilarious 0:42:32.239 --> 0:42:34.280 as notion that you see popping up again and again. 0:42:34.560 --> 0:42:35.879 Yeah, very orientalist. 0:42:36.080 --> 0:42:39.520 Yeah, anytime people step outside and they have something that 0:42:39.520 --> 0:42:43.200 they're upset about, they just get labeled with this one 0:42:43.320 --> 0:42:49.040 broad sweeping ideological monarcha, whether they subscribe to it or not. Yeah, 0:42:49.320 --> 0:42:51.839 And even within the ideological monikers, there's always a lot 0:42:51.920 --> 0:42:57.520 of nuance and how people understand those ideologies. You know, 0:42:57.520 --> 0:43:02.160 no to Islamists are necessarily not two monarchists ivan a 0:43:02.280 --> 0:43:05.360 necessarily alike, and those are both ideologies that I absolutely abhor, 0:43:06.000 --> 0:43:06.359 you know. 0:43:06.640 --> 0:43:10.040 Right, Yeah, I don't understand how you can be a 0:43:10.120 --> 0:43:14.520 leftist and spend your life like as such and then 0:43:15.000 --> 0:43:18.080 also think that in other parts of the world people 0:43:18.160 --> 0:43:20.920 don't want the same things like I believe it is 0:43:20.960 --> 0:43:25.120 inherently human, yeah, to want dignity and respect and the 0:43:25.120 --> 0:43:28.440 same for others, and to want our communities to govern themselves. 0:43:28.920 --> 0:43:30.920 And I don't believe that it's any less human if 0:43:30.960 --> 0:43:33.399 you live in North Africa or the Middle East, or 0:43:34.239 --> 0:43:37.120 South Africa, or an island in the Caribbean or an 0:43:37.120 --> 0:43:39.640 island in a Pacific like I believe it comes from 0:43:39.640 --> 0:43:42.360 our human nature, and so it strikes me as therefore 0:43:42.360 --> 0:43:45.239 obvious that there cannot be a country where people's human 0:43:45.320 --> 0:43:48.520 nature is fundamentally distinct and they're all just like knee 0:43:48.600 --> 0:43:51.400 jerk monarchists. I wouldn't see the world the way I 0:43:51.400 --> 0:43:54.359 see it if I was able to believe that. Yeah. 0:43:54.600 --> 0:43:58.120 Yeah, these movements, they're always composed by the choices and 0:43:58.200 --> 0:44:03.280 actions of sometimes millions of people, each with their own motivations. 0:44:03.800 --> 0:44:06.759 And now it's easy, particularly in retrospect, to pick particular 0:44:06.880 --> 0:44:11.560 leaders or organizations as representative of them all. That doesn't 0:44:11.600 --> 0:44:14.680 make it so. One of the things that defined the 0:44:14.760 --> 0:44:17.720 Art of Spring, as you mentioned it, was its leaderless nature. 0:44:18.480 --> 0:44:21.279 You had new liberals, you had monarchists, you had socialists, 0:44:21.320 --> 0:44:24.200 you had most of all, I would say, people without 0:44:24.239 --> 0:44:27.640 any ideological commitments at all. The majority of the human 0:44:27.640 --> 0:44:31.839 population is not ideologically committed one way or the other. 0:44:31.960 --> 0:44:34.120 Most people are just trying to live their lives and 0:44:34.160 --> 0:44:37.239 meet their basic needs, and they're submerged in society that 0:44:38.200 --> 0:44:41.120 lends them towards a particular inclination. But that's not set 0:44:41.120 --> 0:44:45.000 in stone. Most people in the Arab of Spring likely 0:44:45.120 --> 0:44:47.560 sought just the end of whatever it was they were 0:44:47.600 --> 0:44:51.480 suffering under before. And of course in these kind of incidents, 0:44:51.480 --> 0:44:55.719 geopolitical actors will choose to back particular factions, lend them 0:44:55.760 --> 0:45:00.439 creedoms and prominence according to their geopolitical interests, but don't 0:45:00.440 --> 0:45:02.839 give them undue credit. You know, during the Cool War, 0:45:02.880 --> 0:45:05.520 for example, the US would have backed rebellions they believe 0:45:05.640 --> 0:45:09.200 benefit them, and vice booths of the USSR backed rebellions 0:45:09.239 --> 0:45:11.479 they thought would benefit them. And even today, the US 0:45:11.520 --> 0:45:13.840 is claimant to care about freedom but has continued to 0:45:13.880 --> 0:45:18.360 work with the Saudis, who infamously invaded Bahrain to crush 0:45:18.400 --> 0:45:22.239 the Arab spring that occurred there. At the time, France's 0:45:22.320 --> 0:45:25.800 love for democracy didn't exactly match their offer to aid 0:45:25.920 --> 0:45:31.800 Algeria and Tunisia in putting down their own Arab springs. Now, 0:45:32.360 --> 0:45:36.200 as I've been saying quite often pointing out hypocrisy, it's 0:45:36.280 --> 0:45:39.520 kind of a baby's first geopistical analysis, right, none of 0:45:39.520 --> 0:45:44.839 these governments have any consistent values beyond their own interests. 0:45:45.480 --> 0:45:47.480 But I think it's important to make this kind of 0:45:47.640 --> 0:46:04.359 heterodoxy in movements clear to contextualize what happened next. There's 0:46:04.480 --> 0:46:10.840 another notion that the US intervention is entering these countries 0:46:10.960 --> 0:46:15.319 during these conflicts ahold humanitarian and aims to liberate the 0:46:15.360 --> 0:46:20.000 women or to liberate minorities in that region. The United States, 0:46:20.040 --> 0:46:23.080 like all the cover months, is opportunistic right. It is 0:46:23.120 --> 0:46:28.200 taking advantage of often genuine struggles by people to serve 0:46:28.239 --> 0:46:30.799 its own situation or goals without a care for what 0:46:30.880 --> 0:46:35.440 happens those people, either openly intervene in or covidly intervening. 0:46:35.960 --> 0:46:39.640 The most obvious recent example is with the goods in Syria. 0:46:40.360 --> 0:46:42.439 At the time, they were convenient to the United States 0:46:42.520 --> 0:46:46.040 interests until they weren't and they were abandoned. And this 0:46:46.080 --> 0:46:49.919 is especially the case when resources like oil come into 0:46:49.920 --> 0:46:55.480 the picture, and Libya is extremely oil rich. So tragically, 0:46:55.719 --> 0:46:59.160 the West saw this uprising in Libya as an opportunity. 0:47:00.120 --> 0:47:04.000 On a timeline and Encyclopedia Britannica. On the nineteenth of 0:47:04.040 --> 0:47:08.360 March twenty eleven, Libya was attacked by the combined forces 0:47:08.400 --> 0:47:12.440 of the United States, the UK, and France. These countries 0:47:12.560 --> 0:47:15.960 now condemned Kadafi as an oppressor of the civilians they 0:47:16.000 --> 0:47:19.000 were swooping in to say, though for years before the 0:47:19.080 --> 0:47:22.600 UK and France were selling in weapons they, alongside the 0:47:22.719 --> 0:47:26.520 Katari and Saudi allies, took advantage of the protests to 0:47:26.560 --> 0:47:29.520 assert their military might. This move was authorized by the 0:47:29.600 --> 0:47:33.239 UN Resolution nineteen seventy three, and NATO would soon take 0:47:33.280 --> 0:47:36.880 command of the operation. While claiming to protect civilians under 0:47:36.920 --> 0:47:41.120 a responsibility to protect doctrine, they bombed them. An allegedly 0:47:41.280 --> 0:47:45.640 humanitarian intervention led to the deaths of tens of thousands 0:47:46.160 --> 0:47:49.600 of a national population of just over six million. Key 0:47:49.600 --> 0:47:53.160 infrastructure was devastated by the Natal Woman campaign and by 0:47:53.200 --> 0:47:56.040 the struggles between the government and the now armed rebels 0:47:56.040 --> 0:48:00.200 of the National Transitional Council or NTC. A quick by 0:48:00.200 --> 0:48:03.799 the way, the NTC appointed themselves as the leaders of 0:48:03.840 --> 0:48:07.680 the movement, and despite the struggle being kickstarted by mostly 0:48:07.800 --> 0:48:11.920 working and middle class militants, often of an Islamic orientation, 0:48:12.680 --> 0:48:17.200 the NTC was composed mainly of regime defectors, businessmen and 0:48:17.320 --> 0:48:21.160 exiles who had a broadly pro Western, conservative and free 0:48:21.160 --> 0:48:24.520 market stance. Some of the elements in Gaddafi's government and 0:48:24.600 --> 0:48:28.400 military had defected to the rebels and equipped those previously 0:48:28.560 --> 0:48:32.200 unarmed protesters with firepower, and so up to now we 0:48:32.239 --> 0:48:35.759 only have estimates regarding the civilian death doll infrastructural devastation, 0:48:36.040 --> 0:48:41.080 and arbitrary detentions, disappearances and kidnappings carried out by both 0:48:41.239 --> 0:48:45.720 Progadafi and anti Gaddafi forces, not to mention the Liberate 0:48:45.719 --> 0:48:49.160 targeting of black Libyans and Sub Saharan African migrants by 0:48:49.160 --> 0:48:52.400 rebel forces that took place during and after the twenty 0:48:52.400 --> 0:48:56.239 eleven war, with the claim that they were Gaddaffi's hired mercenaries. 0:48:57.200 --> 0:49:00.440 Many of those Africans attempts to escape were met with 0:49:00.680 --> 0:49:03.120 callous disregard by Europe. 0:49:04.080 --> 0:49:07.480 Yeah, callous disregarded. I mean, there are no words strong 0:49:07.560 --> 0:49:10.560 enough to express the way I feel about the way 0:49:10.600 --> 0:49:15.160 the European Union has treated migrants in Liberated is absolutely 0:49:15.200 --> 0:49:19.200 disgusting and continues to be despicable. Yeah. Have you read 0:49:19.239 --> 0:49:20.600 Sally Hayden's book about this? 0:49:20.960 --> 0:49:21.560 No, I haven't. 0:49:21.920 --> 0:49:24.680 It's called My Fourth Time We Drowned. Very good book, 0:49:25.080 --> 0:49:28.600 difficult read, I would say, very much. It's some of 0:49:28.640 --> 0:49:31.480 the type of reporting that I try and do myself 0:49:31.480 --> 0:49:34.360 on migration, and that it talks about people, not numbers, 0:49:34.400 --> 0:49:39.000 and its centers migrants as individuals with stories. It's a 0:49:39.000 --> 0:49:42.279 great book, but probably not want to read, you know. 0:49:42.360 --> 0:49:43.320 Right before bed. 0:49:43.800 --> 0:49:45.799 I could imagine it sounds heavy. 0:49:46.280 --> 0:49:48.680 Yeah, definitely heavy gooing and so. 0:49:49.160 --> 0:49:53.000 Following steelmates between the pro and Goodafi camps, in late 0:49:53.120 --> 0:49:57.280 spring of twenty eleven, the rebels, assisted by netile forces, 0:49:57.400 --> 0:50:01.640 took Tripoli and toppled Goodaffi's got and the NTC was 0:50:01.680 --> 0:50:06.360 recognized internationally almost immediately as the legitimate government of Libya. 0:50:06.920 --> 0:50:10.400 As Matt will Gress notes in jackbn quote on the 0:50:10.480 --> 0:50:13.960 day Tripoli fell, the New York Times headline the scramble 0:50:14.080 --> 0:50:18.160 for access to Libya's oil wealth begins was telen Libya's 0:50:18.239 --> 0:50:21.040 vast oil reserves, along prized by the West for being 0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:24.319 the largest in Africa and incredibly close to Europe, were 0:50:24.360 --> 0:50:28.040 now open to business for foreign investors. As is the 0:50:28.080 --> 0:50:31.360 case with all imperial interventions, the attempts to get profits 0:50:31.400 --> 0:50:35.239 flowing from multinational corporations comes long before any ideas of 0:50:35.280 --> 0:50:40.320 reconstructure such as es central infrastructure projects or insurance services 0:50:40.680 --> 0:50:44.040 end quote. And really up to now that infrastructure has 0:50:44.080 --> 0:50:47.120 not been established, and even access to Libya's oil is 0:50:47.160 --> 0:50:49.919 not yet secured, even though they allegedly managed to loot 0:50:50.000 --> 0:50:53.640 some of that oil. In twenty twelve, Nakadafi himself fled 0:50:53.719 --> 0:50:56.920 after the fall of Tripoli, but he was found NATO 0:50:57.000 --> 0:51:00.799 bombed his convoy and he was captured alive, then executed 0:51:00.840 --> 0:51:04.840 by NTC forces in October twenty eleven, after which the 0:51:04.880 --> 0:51:08.279 war was declared over and the ANTC declared Libya and 0:51:08.400 --> 0:51:13.600 Islamic democracy in their constitutional declaration. The NTC estimated thirty 0:51:13.880 --> 0:51:17.160 thousand dead, and a UN report from twenty twelve estimated 0:51:17.160 --> 0:51:19.719 that more than nine hundred thousand people had to leave 0:51:19.719 --> 0:51:23.279 the country since February of twenty eleven. Many were not 0:51:23.400 --> 0:51:26.359 Libya nationals, but more than six hundred and sixty eight 0:51:26.360 --> 0:51:29.840 thousand Libyans also fled, and an estimated two hundred thousand 0:51:29.880 --> 0:51:35.480 people had been internally displaced, continuing without timeline. In twenty twelve, 0:51:35.520 --> 0:51:39.440 the NTC handed power over to the General National Congress, 0:51:39.640 --> 0:51:42.879 or GNC, and despite a formal end to the war, 0:51:43.320 --> 0:51:47.160 Grafi loyalists, local militias, and tribes shaped against each other 0:51:47.280 --> 0:51:51.520 and the GENC. The militias wouldn't disarm. The Graffi loyalists 0:51:51.600 --> 0:51:54.480 continued to fight, and the GNC failed to put forward 0:51:54.520 --> 0:51:57.600 a new constitution, so in twenty fourteen they were ousted 0:51:57.640 --> 0:52:01.240 by the newly elected House of Representatives and in twenty fourteen, 0:52:01.600 --> 0:52:04.560 a second civil war would begin in Libya, with the 0:52:04.640 --> 0:52:08.319 nation split mainly between the House Representatives or HR, with 0:52:08.400 --> 0:52:11.880 its Libya National Army or LNA, based in Tobruk to 0:52:11.920 --> 0:52:15.400 the east, and their rival, made up of mostly Islamists 0:52:15.480 --> 0:52:18.919 from the former gen C with their Libya Dawn Militia 0:52:19.000 --> 0:52:22.280 based in Tripoli to the west. They didn't win the election, 0:52:22.800 --> 0:52:25.400 they didn't consider it legitimate because of its low turnout, 0:52:25.719 --> 0:52:28.759 and they didn't appreciate the amount of former Gaddafi supporters 0:52:28.800 --> 0:52:31.080 in the new government, so they rose up to fight, 0:52:31.560 --> 0:52:35.759 claiming to be the National Salvation Government or NSG. So 0:52:35.760 --> 0:52:39.000 you have the HR and they have the NSG. Beyond 0:52:39.000 --> 0:52:42.160 these two factions, yours had an al Qaeda affiliated militia 0:52:42.320 --> 0:52:46.560 and the Islamic State, both engaged in insurgent struggle around 0:52:46.560 --> 0:52:51.640 the country, sometimes holding entire cities. Eventually, the two governments 0:52:51.680 --> 0:52:55.120 came together to sign the LPA, the Libyan Political Agreement 0:52:55.440 --> 0:52:59.120 to form the Interim Presidential Council and Government of National 0:52:59.200 --> 0:53:03.600 Accord or GNA in late twenty fifteen. With that attempt 0:53:03.600 --> 0:53:06.080 at cohesion didn't really work out, as the U went 0:53:06.200 --> 0:53:10.080 back to GNA, now based in Tripoli, couldn't consolidate power. 0:53:10.680 --> 0:53:13.520 By the end of twenty sixteen, factions affiliated with the 0:53:13.640 --> 0:53:17.720 NSG still resisted the GNA, and the HR, still based 0:53:17.719 --> 0:53:21.759 in Tobrook, refused to endorse the GNA's appointments, so they 0:53:21.800 --> 0:53:25.640 went from having two competing governments to kind of having three, 0:53:26.000 --> 0:53:28.759 though the main opposing forces when all the GNA and 0:53:28.800 --> 0:53:32.360 the HR. The JNA was backed by Tihi Qatar and 0:53:32.440 --> 0:53:36.360 the EU, especially Italy and the UN, while the HR 0:53:36.800 --> 0:53:41.520 was backed by Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Emirates, 0:53:41.560 --> 0:53:45.640 and to some extent, France, who technically recognized the GNA 0:53:46.120 --> 0:53:49.160 but also provided support to the HR for their struggle 0:53:49.239 --> 0:53:52.839 against the Isthmists. The US was also supposed to be 0:53:52.840 --> 0:53:56.320 back in the GNA, but Trump jumped out to praise 0:53:56.360 --> 0:54:00.680 the HR at one point, so the US's position was 0:54:00.760 --> 0:54:16.600 exposed as a lot more ambiguous in practice. Yeah, so, 0:54:16.760 --> 0:54:19.280 the GNA and the HR would keep on struggling against 0:54:19.320 --> 0:54:22.080 each other for control over the central bank and oil 0:54:22.120 --> 0:54:25.799 companies and territory over the years. By the end of 0:54:25.840 --> 0:54:29.160 one particularly significant offensive in twenty nineteen, which saw the 0:54:29.160 --> 0:54:33.200 country's largest oil field brought under HR control. The situation 0:54:33.320 --> 0:54:35.760 was such that the HR's leverage came from their control 0:54:35.840 --> 0:54:38.480 over the oil field, and the GNA's leverage was that 0:54:38.520 --> 0:54:41.920 it was internationally recognized and could legally sell the oil. 0:54:42.560 --> 0:54:46.440 GNA leader Fayez Al Seraje and HR leader Shalifa Afta 0:54:46.680 --> 0:54:49.919 seemed to be developing in cooperative relations, and in March 0:54:49.960 --> 0:54:52.840 or twenty nineteen they were supposed to have a national 0:54:52.960 --> 0:54:58.799 unity conference, but then the HR tried to take Tripoly whoopsie, 0:54:59.320 --> 0:55:02.680 so they and I had to put spone in that conference. 0:55:03.520 --> 0:55:06.040 The resultant fight and led to the hrt in st 0:55:06.440 --> 0:55:09.200 a major city between the Libya's east and west halves. 0:55:09.760 --> 0:55:13.239 With Turkish support, the JNA successfully repelled the HR from 0:55:13.280 --> 0:55:16.640 the Atropoli and situation was stabilized with a battle line 0:55:16.800 --> 0:55:17.680 just east oft. 0:55:18.040 --> 0:55:23.719 In twenty twenty, yeah, not just Turkish support, Turkey deployed 0:55:24.080 --> 0:55:29.040 the Syrian National Army aka the TFSA the Turkish Free 0:55:29.080 --> 0:55:34.960 Syrian Army. They are widely believed to be rebadged Islamist 0:55:35.120 --> 0:55:39.480 from previous iterations of various Islamist groups in Syria that 0:55:39.760 --> 0:55:42.640 Turkey has formed into kind of its own proxy force. 0:55:43.160 --> 0:55:45.040 I mean, I'm sure if you go to the Wikipedia 0:55:45.080 --> 0:55:48.520 page there are like seventeen million different war crimes listed, 0:55:48.560 --> 0:55:50.960 like they are there. They are well known for their 0:55:51.000 --> 0:55:52.240 affinity for war crimes. 0:55:52.320 --> 0:55:56.439 Yeah, I can imagine the fact that Turkey Turkey's back 0:55:56.480 --> 0:55:58.480 and then tells me everything I need to know I. 0:55:58.440 --> 0:56:03.200 Think, yeah, right, yeah, and that they're considered like a 0:56:03.280 --> 0:56:06.120 deniable proxy, right, like they could be like you can 0:56:06.160 --> 0:56:08.480 be like, oh, well that wasn't us, That was these 0:56:08.520 --> 0:56:11.040 Syrian guys who we happen to arm and equip and 0:56:11.120 --> 0:56:11.840 run air support for. 0:56:12.400 --> 0:56:15.640 Yeah, what is the situation now? Now that Turkey is 0:56:15.680 --> 0:56:17.839 kind of back in the new government in Syria. 0:56:18.040 --> 0:56:22.320 They have largely been folded into the stg's armed forces. 0:56:22.640 --> 0:56:26.520 So like Abu Humpsa is I think a general or 0:56:26.640 --> 0:56:29.120 brigadier I can't quite remember his rank, but as a 0:56:29.160 --> 0:56:34.000 guy who has been widely condemned is now a military 0:56:34.040 --> 0:56:37.160 officer within the stg's Ministry of Defense. 0:56:37.800 --> 0:56:42.319 Huh okay, So a more a great description than would 0:56:42.320 --> 0:56:47.400 be that Turkey sent their what criminal proxy is to 0:56:47.480 --> 0:56:51.439 support the GNA in repellent nat or premiature folie. Yeah, 0:56:52.080 --> 0:56:55.200 and the situation stabilized the battle line just east of 0:56:55.280 --> 0:56:58.399 thirty in twenty twenty, and after other times to reach 0:56:58.440 --> 0:57:02.400 an agreement field they agreed to share oil revenue, establish 0:57:02.440 --> 0:57:06.120 a prominencies fire, and get both Turkish forces and Russian 0:57:06.120 --> 0:57:10.279 mercenaries out of the country. So the Second Civil War 0:57:10.480 --> 0:57:15.120 was officially over in October twenty twenty. According to reporting 0:57:15.160 --> 0:57:18.440 by Al Jazeera. The UN initiated a new attempt at 0:57:18.480 --> 0:57:21.480 a unifying government in twenty twenty one, which was approved 0:57:21.520 --> 0:57:25.520 originally by both rival parliament, leading to the establishment of 0:57:25.560 --> 0:57:30.320 the Interim Government of National Unity or GNU in March 0:57:30.320 --> 0:57:35.160 twenty twenty one, thus replacing the previously un baked GNA. 0:57:35.440 --> 0:57:38.880 So we went from GNA to GNU, but then the 0:57:38.920 --> 0:57:42.480 GNU would be opposed by the HR, which withdrew from 0:57:42.520 --> 0:57:45.520 the GNU in September twenty twenty one and established the 0:57:45.560 --> 0:57:50.880 Government of National Stability or GNS in March twenty two. 0:57:51.840 --> 0:57:55.240 So the GNA was replaced by the GNU, and the 0:57:55.280 --> 0:57:59.240 GNU was now opposed by the GNS, and thus the 0:57:59.280 --> 0:58:03.360 country remained split into up to today between the UN 0:58:03.440 --> 0:58:07.160 back to GNU and the HR slash Libya National Army 0:58:07.160 --> 0:58:10.800 backed GNS. And in all of this chaos, people on 0:58:10.840 --> 0:58:13.480 the ground have been suffering they've been suffering human rights 0:58:13.520 --> 0:58:18.200 of uses, disappearances up to recently, the GNU imposed a 0:58:18.320 --> 0:58:22.720 morality police, and they even numerous reports about open slave 0:58:22.800 --> 0:58:27.000 markets in Libya where migrant Black Africans are auctioned to 0:58:27.040 --> 0:58:30.440 the highest bidder. This is a result of human trafficking 0:58:30.600 --> 0:58:34.480 and debt bondage, so not exactly the same as chattel slavery, 0:58:35.160 --> 0:58:38.880 but the experience and racial undertones are all too familiar. 0:58:39.880 --> 0:58:43.240 The suffering in Libya has also spread beyond its borders. 0:58:44.000 --> 0:58:47.840 Following Gaddafi's fall, the weapons of his military stockpiles ended 0:58:47.920 --> 0:58:50.440 up in the hands of militants across the Sahel region 0:58:50.480 --> 0:58:54.240 of Africa and even in Syria. You'll remember in my 0:58:54.320 --> 0:58:59.560 episode on the situation in Nigeria, some of those weapons 0:58:59.640 --> 0:59:02.600 ended up in the hands of Bokoharam and other Islamic 0:59:02.640 --> 0:59:08.560 militant groups in the region, Pulani herdsman as so on. Tragically, 0:59:09.480 --> 0:59:12.040 because Libya just cast seem to catch a break at all, 0:59:12.720 --> 0:59:17.960 September twenty three also saw catastrophic floods devastating the country. 0:59:18.440 --> 0:59:22.040 The hurricane strong Storm Daniel caused two dams to burst 0:59:22.040 --> 0:59:25.240 in the coastal city of Durna, which is within Jena's 0:59:25.360 --> 0:59:29.320 territory in eastern Libyia. The flooding killed at least four 0:59:29.360 --> 0:59:33.400 thousand people, though potentially even more, left on thousands missing 0:59:33.600 --> 0:59:37.560 and displaced more than forty thousand others. The nation, still 0:59:37.560 --> 0:59:40.840 wrought by civil war and still unrecovered from the devastation 0:59:40.960 --> 0:59:43.640 of the NATO Obomban campaign, surely could have mustered a 0:59:43.720 --> 0:59:47.480 more adequate response to the tragedy if not for those conditions. 0:59:48.080 --> 0:59:50.760 In fact, it is theorized that the tragedy could have 0:59:50.760 --> 0:59:54.640 been avoided altogether because, according to reports by the Middle 0:59:54.640 --> 0:59:58.000 East Eye, a Turkish company was supposed to reability to 0:59:58.080 --> 1:00:02.600 field dams, but the their works were reportedly interrupted by 1:00:02.640 --> 1:00:05.520 the twenty eleven uprising and subsequent civil war. 1:00:06.320 --> 1:00:10.040 Yeah, it's always the cost of war that we don't count, 1:00:10.080 --> 1:00:11.760 right Like, if you look at the twenty twenty three 1:00:11.840 --> 1:00:15.920 earthquake that killed people in Syria and Turkey, right Like, 1:00:16.880 --> 1:00:20.160 undoubtedly that would have done a lot less damage if 1:00:20.160 --> 1:00:21.680 that hadn't been for the fact that war had been 1:00:21.760 --> 1:00:24.120 raging in those places for so long, So like everything 1:00:24.160 --> 1:00:27.520 else got put on hold. All the normal infrastructure repair 1:00:27.640 --> 1:00:30.440 and in such that you would expect had to stop 1:00:30.760 --> 1:00:35.400 because of that. War that made things like the earthquake worse. Yeah. 1:00:35.560 --> 1:00:38.080 I don't think the people who rose up against Gaddafi 1:00:38.400 --> 1:00:41.400 and fought and died back in February or twenty eleven 1:00:41.880 --> 1:00:47.040 I'd sought this out come. Unfortunately, in a world dictated 1:00:47.120 --> 1:00:52.440 by the whims of imperiali spowers, this was the end 1:00:53.680 --> 1:00:57.720 of their actions. I don't want people to get it 1:00:57.760 --> 1:01:02.040 twisted though, because in the time since, as people have 1:01:02.080 --> 1:01:06.080 observed the devastation wrought by the civil wars, there has 1:01:06.120 --> 1:01:11.240 been an effort to most whitewash Kaddafi and to limit 1:01:11.320 --> 1:01:15.000 our vision of possibilities to a binary of either perpetual 1:01:15.080 --> 1:01:19.360 Gaddaffi rule on one end or perpetual civil war on 1:01:19.400 --> 1:01:24.200 the other end. Those are not the only possibilities. So 1:01:24.240 --> 1:01:27.680 we've discussed the legacy of nature intervention, which deserves condemnation 1:01:28.160 --> 1:01:31.760 in this episode, and it should be an indication that 1:01:31.960 --> 1:01:34.880 to the Western invasions and wars not going to liberate anyone. 1:01:35.360 --> 1:01:35.560 Yeah. 1:01:36.400 --> 1:01:40.320 But aside from that accurate analysis of Libya since the 1:01:40.320 --> 1:01:43.920 fall of Gaddafi, I want to bring in some conversation 1:01:44.480 --> 1:01:48.800 on the man himself in the next episode. Until then, 1:01:49.640 --> 1:01:52.240 all power to all the people. This has been it 1:01:52.240 --> 1:02:08.720 could happen here, have been Andre Sage peace, Hello and 1:02:08.760 --> 1:02:12.400 welcome to it happen here. I am andresige andraism on 1:02:12.480 --> 1:02:14.840 YouTube and joined again. 1:02:14.960 --> 1:02:16.480 By James again. 1:02:17.320 --> 1:02:20.560 Yes, I've noticed a phenomenon I'm not sure if you've 1:02:20.600 --> 1:02:26.720 noticed it too, where anti imperialists solidarity somehow goes a 1:02:26.720 --> 1:02:32.800 step beyond opposing imperialist aggression itself and crosses into lionizing 1:02:33.160 --> 1:02:38.040 or whitewashing the targets of that aggression, or rather the 1:02:38.080 --> 1:02:40.760 asensible leaders of the target to that aggression. 1:02:41.600 --> 1:02:44.480 Oh yeah, I have noticed this too. It's one of 1:02:44.560 --> 1:02:47.040 the things that makes me most angry in the world. 1:02:47.320 --> 1:02:50.400 What's been referred to as the anti imperialism of idiots. Yes, 1:02:50.840 --> 1:02:52.880 not so relevant now that I used to like to 1:02:52.920 --> 1:02:57.480 apply the sad test to anybody who claimed to be 1:02:57.520 --> 1:03:00.880 interested in the politics of liberation. Right if you if 1:03:00.920 --> 1:03:04.520 you think Bashar Alasad is a based anti imperialist people's 1:03:04.520 --> 1:03:08.840 socialist hero, then your politics are shit. I have nothing 1:03:08.880 --> 1:03:11.080 good to say about that. Like, you're an idiot. 1:03:11.520 --> 1:03:15.320 Yeah, yeah, it should be a fringe phenomenon, right, but 1:03:16.120 --> 1:03:18.160 I haven't seen it get an increase intraction. 1:03:18.960 --> 1:03:21.720 Yeah, even in like relatively you know, like I won't 1:03:22.200 --> 1:03:26.360 kind of start a war with various US leftist publications. 1:03:27.000 --> 1:03:29.800 But I went to pitch some people this last week, 1:03:29.920 --> 1:03:33.840 thinking like, there is speculation that the United States will 1:03:34.000 --> 1:03:37.200 once again ally itself with Kurdish groups. So I'm sure 1:03:37.240 --> 1:03:40.040 it had then planned to once again abandon when that 1:03:40.080 --> 1:03:43.120 became politically more expedient. But I happened to have some 1:03:43.200 --> 1:03:46.560 insight into these various Kurtish groups, having spent some time 1:03:46.600 --> 1:03:49.120 there and having contacts there, And so I went to 1:03:49.160 --> 1:03:52.800 the website of these various you know, big publications which 1:03:52.800 --> 1:03:55.160 are left or left leaning or even sort of liberal, 1:03:55.840 --> 1:04:00.040 and I saw these borderline campus takes on what's happening 1:04:00.080 --> 1:04:04.280 in Iran. And it's just so so frustrating to me, Like, 1:04:04.320 --> 1:04:07.600 it makes me so angry that people continue to view 1:04:07.640 --> 1:04:12.480 the world through this binary Marvel movie lens, which sees 1:04:12.520 --> 1:04:15.200 it as impossible that two things could be bad at 1:04:15.200 --> 1:04:17.920 the same time. Yeah, it's infuriating to me. 1:04:18.520 --> 1:04:22.960 Yeah, And if I was more inclined to conspiracy, I 1:04:23.080 --> 1:04:29.320 might say that this binary is intentionally constructed, you know, 1:04:29.520 --> 1:04:34.080 that it's it's by design that the most vocal anti 1:04:34.160 --> 1:04:39.160 imperiodist voices also just so happened to align themselves with 1:04:39.920 --> 1:04:44.280 state power. Yeah, and camp is on. But I'm not 1:04:44.600 --> 1:04:46.120 inclined to conspiracy, so. 1:04:46.640 --> 1:04:49.439 Yeah, yeah, one can make a pretty reasonable argument. 1:04:49.120 --> 1:04:52.560 For that, right, One could make that argument. Yeah, I won't, 1:04:52.680 --> 1:04:53.400 but one could. 1:04:55.600 --> 1:04:55.960 I might. 1:04:57.200 --> 1:05:00.400 I think one of the best examples of this is 1:05:00.440 --> 1:05:03.240 this sort of odd obsession that some people have with 1:05:03.760 --> 1:05:07.760 Colonel Wumar Algadafi. Now, last episode, we spoke about the 1:05:07.800 --> 1:05:12.080 long term consequences of Western intervention in Libya, beginning with 1:05:12.120 --> 1:05:15.000 the twenty eleven uprising during the Arab Spring against the 1:05:15.040 --> 1:05:18.440 forty two year rule of more Markedafi. What began as 1:05:18.440 --> 1:05:21.800 a broad, largely lead less protest movement was quickly shaped 1:05:21.840 --> 1:05:25.960 by foreign intervention. In Marshal twenty eleven, the US, the UK, 1:05:26.240 --> 1:05:29.840 and France launched a military campaign through NATO under the 1:05:30.000 --> 1:05:34.840 UN mandate to protect civilians. The war toppled Gaddafi, but 1:05:35.080 --> 1:05:40.040 killed tens of thousands and devastated infrastructure. In the aftermath, 1:05:40.160 --> 1:05:44.760 Libya fractured into rival governments, militias, and foreign backed factions, 1:05:44.960 --> 1:05:48.240 triggering yet another civil war in twenty fourteen, and despite 1:05:48.280 --> 1:05:51.480 a cease fire in twenty twenty, the country remains divided 1:05:51.480 --> 1:05:57.080 between competing administrations. While ordinary Libyans face instability, human rights abuses, 1:05:57.280 --> 1:06:00.760 and economic hardship. I think it's fair to say that 1:06:00.800 --> 1:06:04.320 the NATO intervention was a net negative for the country. 1:06:04.920 --> 1:06:07.560 But in this same breath, I cannot agree with those 1:06:07.600 --> 1:06:09.960 who seem to believe that Gaddafi's rule could have continued 1:06:10.000 --> 1:06:13.120 either that he was some force for good in the country. 1:06:13.760 --> 1:06:16.040 And in this episode, I really want to get into 1:06:16.040 --> 1:06:19.960 the y to identify and dissect the actions of the 1:06:20.000 --> 1:06:24.640 man Kaddafi. According to his biography and en Psycopoedia Britannica, 1:06:24.840 --> 1:06:30.640 Murma al Kaddafi was born in nineteen forty two near Sirte, Libya. 1:06:30.760 --> 1:06:34.040 Sixty nine years later, he would be captured and killed 1:06:34.480 --> 1:06:38.840 in Sirte, Libya. After spending his early years in at 1:06:38.880 --> 1:06:41.880 tent he graduated from the University of Libya in nineteen 1:06:41.960 --> 1:06:44.640 sixty three and then graduated from a military academy in 1:06:44.720 --> 1:06:48.320 nineteen sixty five. In nineteen sixty nine, at the age 1:06:48.360 --> 1:06:51.919 of twenty seven, Gaddafi pulled off a blood less coup 1:06:52.000 --> 1:06:55.160 to seize power from King Idris, the First of Libya. 1:06:55.880 --> 1:06:58.760 For the next four decades plus, he would be the 1:06:58.800 --> 1:07:03.000 de facto ruler of Libya. Gidraffi was both a passionate 1:07:03.080 --> 1:07:06.760 Arab nationalist and a Muslim in power, he tried to 1:07:06.800 --> 1:07:11.640 push both of his ideologies. He expelled Western military forces, 1:07:12.160 --> 1:07:17.040 expelled remaining Italian settlers and Jewish communities in Libya, nationalized 1:07:17.040 --> 1:07:21.240 the country's oil industry, banned alcohol and gambling, tried to 1:07:21.320 --> 1:07:24.680 unify with his Arab neighbors occasionally by attempting coups in 1:07:24.720 --> 1:07:29.920 their countries, and stood against normalization with Israel. So a 1:07:30.000 --> 1:07:35.280 very mixed bag. So far. Until nineteen seventy seven, Gaddafi 1:07:35.400 --> 1:07:39.640 ruled the Libyan Arab Republic, but the culmination of his 1:07:39.960 --> 1:07:43.360 Cultural Revolution period from nineteen seventy three to nineteen seventy 1:07:43.400 --> 1:07:47.680 seven would sideline his political and religious opponents, who would 1:07:47.680 --> 1:07:51.919 begin in to see him as unstable, huboristic, and authoritarian. 1:07:52.480 --> 1:07:56.360 That period would instead cement Gaddaffi as the sole ruler 1:07:56.720 --> 1:08:00.120 of what he would rename the Socialist People's Libya and 1:08:00.320 --> 1:08:04.800 Arab Jamahiria, as recounted in Libya The History of Gaddafi's 1:08:04.840 --> 1:08:08.680 Pariah State by John Oakes. Jamahiria was a term he 1:08:08.760 --> 1:08:12.520 coined in his Green Book, likely inspired by Mao's Little 1:08:12.520 --> 1:08:17.280 Read Book, published during the Libyan Cultural Revolution period. Jamahiria 1:08:17.520 --> 1:08:20.879 was his idea of a state of the masses governed 1:08:20.920 --> 1:08:25.280 by people's congresses and popular assemblies. And if it's one 1:08:25.320 --> 1:08:29.200 thing that makes a political movement, it's empowering. It's slapping 1:08:29.320 --> 1:08:33.280 the people's and popular label on everything, regardless of any 1:08:33.280 --> 1:08:38.439 additional context. So they had these democratic local assemblies called 1:08:38.479 --> 1:08:42.559 basic People's Congresses that met three times a year, and 1:08:42.640 --> 1:08:47.160 those congresses appointed executive people's committees which did most of 1:08:47.160 --> 1:08:49.640 the day to day stuff, and above it all was 1:08:49.680 --> 1:08:54.360 the General People's Congress. This period was simultaneously an effort 1:08:54.479 --> 1:08:59.080 to encourage popular participation through these congresses while suppressing descend 1:08:59.240 --> 1:09:02.679 through his control over the secret services. It was clear 1:09:02.680 --> 1:09:05.839 that Gaddaffi was still in charge even after he stepped 1:09:05.840 --> 1:09:09.160 down from his formal position as Secretary General in nineteen 1:09:09.200 --> 1:09:14.240 seventy nine and simply and humbly dubbed himself the brotherly 1:09:14.360 --> 1:09:16.240 leader and guide of the revolution. 1:09:17.000 --> 1:09:20.800 Yeah, he gets some of his like hubristic stuff, Like 1:09:21.400 --> 1:09:26.160 his rhetoric is his outfit. His reference to himself is 1:09:26.240 --> 1:09:30.200 like you couldn't parody some of it. It is where 1:09:30.240 --> 1:09:32.519 like the parodies of dictators in this part of the 1:09:32.520 --> 1:09:35.519 world come from. Is Goaddafi's kind of affect. 1:09:35.640 --> 1:09:39.760 I guess, yeah, he was a character, Yes, that he 1:09:40.000 --> 1:09:43.599 was here, he was a definitely a character. Yeah so, 1:09:43.880 --> 1:09:48.799 I mean, anarchist critiques of democracy are easy to find, 1:09:49.800 --> 1:09:54.439 and although Gadaffi's Libya is never solely directly democratic, even 1:09:54.600 --> 1:09:58.479 in his project, you could see some of the flaws 1:09:58.520 --> 1:10:00.960 and the issues that anarchist of identify guide in this 1:10:01.040 --> 1:10:04.800 approach to popular power as the congresses, the People's Congresses 1:10:04.880 --> 1:10:10.400 were poorly attended and easily manipulated. Issues were often raised 1:10:10.720 --> 1:10:14.479 and rarely resolved, And of course compounding those flaws was 1:10:14.479 --> 1:10:17.639 the fact that these people's Congresses had no actual power 1:10:18.120 --> 1:10:21.519 over the things that mattered in Libya, the oil industry, 1:10:22.080 --> 1:10:26.639 the armed forces, the security services, and foreign policy, where 1:10:26.680 --> 1:10:30.640 Kadafi and his compatriots still ruled. Gaddaffi decided where the 1:10:30.680 --> 1:10:33.120 oil money went, and he directed some of it to 1:10:33.200 --> 1:10:36.480 a great man made of a project that would extract 1:10:36.520 --> 1:10:39.479 from the ancient and non renewable aquifer under the Libyan 1:10:39.479 --> 1:10:42.639 desert to supply the course for some more stable water supply. 1:10:43.600 --> 1:10:46.639 Frustratingly for him, I could assume Kaddafi did not get 1:10:46.680 --> 1:10:50.680 what he wanted out of the revolutionary people's congresses, so 1:10:50.720 --> 1:10:55.920 he created revolutionary committees to mobilize the people and safeguard 1:10:55.960 --> 1:11:00.639 their rule through commandos that answered to Gaddafi directly. These 1:11:00.680 --> 1:11:06.920 revolutionary committees could arrest counter revolutionaries, establish revolutionary courts, and 1:11:07.120 --> 1:11:11.680 eliminate enemies of the revolution at home and abroad. The 1:11:11.720 --> 1:11:16.559 people he called stray dogs. All of this for the people, 1:11:16.680 --> 1:11:18.439 of course, and for the revolution. 1:11:29.040 --> 1:11:29.320 So on. 1:11:29.400 --> 1:11:34.240 People his system had some degree of people power and 1:11:34.280 --> 1:11:39.320 people voice, but in practice he exercised near total control 1:11:39.640 --> 1:11:43.320 and suppression of opposition, both within the country and outside 1:11:43.320 --> 1:11:46.800 the country. The same went for workplaces. 1:11:47.080 --> 1:11:47.599 Of course. 1:11:48.200 --> 1:11:51.160 He spoke about worker partnership and power in the Green Book, 1:11:51.600 --> 1:11:54.600 but it was a state controlled and state distributed economy 1:11:54.720 --> 1:11:58.519 in Libia, run by oil money, with very few worker 1:11:58.680 --> 1:12:02.800 run enterprises. There was also no real freedom of organization 1:12:03.040 --> 1:12:06.559 or strike in Libya, as independent unions were banned and 1:12:06.640 --> 1:12:13.360 Gadaffi explicitly rejected class struggle despite claiming to be a socialist. 1:12:13.880 --> 1:12:18.120 So in the Return of Mormon Gadaffi by Tunisian academic 1:12:18.160 --> 1:12:21.880 hate M. Gussemi, he hadised the cult of personality that 1:12:22.000 --> 1:12:24.720 was forged over the years of Gaddafi's rule that has 1:12:24.760 --> 1:12:28.479 resurfaced up to today. His opponents often pointed the good 1:12:28.560 --> 1:12:32.040 that he did for the country, establishing basic social services, 1:12:32.360 --> 1:12:36.680 free health, gain, education, howies in and land distribution, accessible 1:12:36.720 --> 1:12:41.120 loan programs, women's rights and so on, and with that 1:12:41.200 --> 1:12:45.040 welfare state came naturally some base of popular support for 1:12:45.160 --> 1:12:49.439 people who had little to nothing before. Other fans of 1:12:49.439 --> 1:12:52.960 Gadaffi point to what I like to call hype moments 1:12:53.000 --> 1:12:56.400 and aura. So there was a time when he was 1:12:56.479 --> 1:12:59.400 in the UN General Assembly and he was supposed to 1:12:59.439 --> 1:13:02.639 be a short time to speak, and he just went 1:13:02.760 --> 1:13:05.400 on and on and on and on and on and on, 1:13:06.000 --> 1:13:10.840 and he tore up the UN chatter hyperments and aura, right, 1:13:11.080 --> 1:13:13.800 and yeah, that's like something that a lot of people 1:13:13.840 --> 1:13:15.960 point to. He was also, at one point in time 1:13:16.000 --> 1:13:18.920 the Chairman of the African Union, and he wanted to 1:13:18.960 --> 1:13:22.479 keep that position permanently, and he was proposing a whole 1:13:22.600 --> 1:13:25.799 United States of Africa, like he had a whole period 1:13:26.000 --> 1:13:28.720 of African solidarity, which we'll get to. 1:13:29.280 --> 1:13:33.280 Yeah, okay, good, Yeah, His Pan Africanist arc is is fascinating. 1:13:33.680 --> 1:13:39.920 Yeah. So none of this, however, erases his dark dark side. 1:13:40.120 --> 1:13:43.160 For one, for all the women's rights that he put 1:13:43.200 --> 1:13:46.160 forward in Libya. He was not that great to women. 1:13:47.160 --> 1:13:50.240 The Green Book presents Gaddafi as someone who cared about 1:13:50.240 --> 1:13:54.120 women's dignity and rights. But even in that book you 1:13:54.160 --> 1:13:58.640 see a very complimentarist take on women's place in society. 1:13:59.040 --> 1:14:01.280 It's like, yeah, the equals to men, but also their 1:14:01.360 --> 1:14:04.720 role is in the household. They're supposed to be mothers 1:14:05.280 --> 1:14:07.960 above everything else. Yeah, he was like, they need to 1:14:07.960 --> 1:14:11.600 be mothers, but they shouldn't be treated as property or objects. 1:14:12.000 --> 1:14:13.720 Yeah. I think he based a lot of this in 1:14:13.840 --> 1:14:16.960 like his interpretation of Hadi thought the Kuran, like his 1:14:17.160 --> 1:14:20.720 idea that like there was some kind of divine guidance 1:14:20.800 --> 1:14:21.960 on gender roles. 1:14:22.040 --> 1:14:22.240 Right. 1:14:22.720 --> 1:14:25.880 I've actually seen this in recent days, Like you can 1:14:25.960 --> 1:14:30.320 go and find harmonised tweets, right, like like Ayatollah Hamani 1:14:30.439 --> 1:14:32.599 not his son, and like you can see his stuff 1:14:32.600 --> 1:14:34.800 where he's like you should not mistreat your wife. You 1:14:34.840 --> 1:14:38.200 can literally find in his timeline on Twitter. Right. He 1:14:38.240 --> 1:14:42.960 was a big poster and people have somehow attempted to 1:14:43.000 --> 1:14:44.960 like construe this as like he was a leader of 1:14:45.080 --> 1:14:49.000 enlightened feminist regime like in Iran, which I don't know. 1:14:49.400 --> 1:14:53.639 It's benevolent patriarchy. Alough again, Yeah, I like you. 1:14:53.640 --> 1:14:56.880 You have to be really on a special fucking truth 1:14:56.960 --> 1:15:02.120 trajectory to convince yourself that that is the case. Like, 1:15:02.680 --> 1:15:07.000 it takes a remarkable capacity for self delusion to rather 1:15:07.080 --> 1:15:11.439 than listening to women in Iran, women from Iran, many 1:15:11.479 --> 1:15:13.600 of whom I have spoken to, to look at the 1:15:13.640 --> 1:15:17.360 evidence of the killing, for example, with you know, Amini 1:15:17.439 --> 1:15:20.000 right to be like, I know, I found this tweet 1:15:20.000 --> 1:15:22.920 from twenty thirteen, so we were good. Here is this 1:15:22.960 --> 1:15:26.120 is fine. It's just remarkable people's tendency to do that. 1:15:26.840 --> 1:15:29.080 Yeah, it's remarkable and stupid. 1:15:29.920 --> 1:15:31.559 Yeah, yeah, stupid It is a good word. 1:15:32.160 --> 1:15:36.280 Yeah. And going back to Gaddafi aside from that sort 1:15:36.320 --> 1:15:40.840 of benevolent patriarchy take on women's equality. 1:15:41.520 --> 1:15:41.720 Yeah. 1:15:41.880 --> 1:15:46.880 Investigative reporting by anaka Jin also gathered testimony since his 1:15:46.920 --> 1:15:52.400 fall that alleged his procurement, collusion, and sexual abuse of 1:15:52.479 --> 1:15:57.960 women inside his compound, heeded by a network of officials. Unfortunately, 1:15:57.960 --> 1:16:00.120 many of these women are far too a free to 1:16:00.160 --> 1:16:03.719 come forward even all these years after his death, due 1:16:03.720 --> 1:16:09.919 to the persistence of prograd Afi sentiment in the country 1:16:10.360 --> 1:16:14.200 up to today. So not the best for women. What 1:16:14.320 --> 1:16:19.360 about for Africa, right, his whole pan Africanist are He 1:16:19.479 --> 1:16:23.280 styled himself as a Pan African who would support the 1:16:23.439 --> 1:16:27.719 struggles of people like Mandela and would fund infrastructure projects 1:16:27.760 --> 1:16:31.840 around the continent. But he had a history of attemptant 1:16:31.920 --> 1:16:36.320 over through governments in Africa and support oppressive ones, including 1:16:36.439 --> 1:16:41.680 Idi Amin of Uganda and Charles Taylor of Liberia. So 1:16:41.720 --> 1:16:45.560 his Pan Africanism was never concerned with the freedom or 1:16:45.640 --> 1:16:49.519 well being of African people. It was I think very 1:16:49.560 --> 1:16:53.240 much according to his own self aggrandizement. 1:16:54.280 --> 1:16:58.080 Yeah, didn't He proposed like an African Union, which was 1:16:58.160 --> 1:17:02.640 more akin to like a United States, like Federal Africa. 1:17:02.280 --> 1:17:04.719 The United States of Africa. That was his proposal. 1:17:05.080 --> 1:17:07.120 Fantastic, Yeah, yeah, correct. 1:17:08.240 --> 1:17:12.599 And as he is proposing this Pan African vision within 1:17:12.720 --> 1:17:17.400 Libya itself, he was pushing for an Arablivia. Yeah, the 1:17:17.439 --> 1:17:24.080 Amazek and other non Arab Africans in Libya were mistreated, 1:17:24.280 --> 1:17:26.800 you know. His vision of an Arab Libya led to 1:17:26.840 --> 1:17:30.720 this suppression of the Toaregs, the tables and the Amazek. 1:17:31.360 --> 1:17:34.400 He had policies, as reported in the BBC in New 1:17:34.479 --> 1:17:37.800 Internationalists aljaz right elsewhere, he had policies that included the 1:17:37.840 --> 1:17:41.760 bannon of minority languages, the bannon of minority names, the 1:17:41.840 --> 1:17:46.799 discourageon of cultural expression, and sometimes denying citizenship to groups 1:17:46.840 --> 1:17:50.439 outside the Arab identity. So naturally, many of these minorities 1:17:50.479 --> 1:17:53.320 took part in the twenty eleven movement, and after Gaddafi's 1:17:53.360 --> 1:17:58.960 fall there was a revival of language, cultural institutions and publications. However, 1:17:59.000 --> 1:18:01.799 the NTC and these that followed have continued to ignore 1:18:02.040 --> 1:18:07.760 the minority plight. Minority groups are still struggling for constitutional recognition, representation, 1:18:08.280 --> 1:18:10.759 and equal rights in a country that is, of course 1:18:10.920 --> 1:18:15.240 still divided, and some minorities have chosen to boycott the 1:18:15.320 --> 1:18:21.479 national political process entirely in favor of pursuing local self governance. Also, 1:18:22.000 --> 1:18:26.080 minorities were not the only people being persecuted in Gaddaffi's Libya. 1:18:26.680 --> 1:18:29.840 On the political front, Despite coal and himself a socialist, 1:18:30.160 --> 1:18:34.920 Gaddaffi was really all over the place ideologically now internationally, 1:18:35.000 --> 1:18:38.120 he may have backed the Palestinian struggle, the Irish struggle, 1:18:38.320 --> 1:18:42.600 the African American struggle, but he was consistent in suppressing 1:18:42.760 --> 1:18:46.479 actual leftists in Libya. Marxis dot Com identified some of 1:18:46.479 --> 1:18:50.960 these repressive efforts in their article on Gaddafi quote. Gaddaffi 1:18:51.080 --> 1:18:55.120 was very clear in expressing his anti communism. In nineteen 1:18:55.160 --> 1:18:58.160 seventy one, he sent a plane full of Sudanese communists 1:18:58.200 --> 1:19:01.720 back to Sudan, where they were execut by Nimri. In 1:19:01.800 --> 1:19:04.920 nineteen seventy three, the regime publish an official document to 1:19:04.920 --> 1:19:08.240 commemorate the fourth anniversary of Gadaffi's rise to power under 1:19:08.240 --> 1:19:13.360 the title Holy War against Communism end quote quite the center. 1:19:14.120 --> 1:19:17.760 Later on, however, he would get more chummy with the ussry. 1:19:18.040 --> 1:19:22.280 But Gadaffi was no marxisilatist, and communists and leftists and 1:19:22.360 --> 1:19:26.920 workers were not legally capable of organizing independently in Libya. 1:19:27.560 --> 1:19:29.960 Aside from them, you also had the murder and torture 1:19:30.000 --> 1:19:34.400 of civilians and journalists, the assassinations of rivals and Libya 1:19:34.439 --> 1:19:38.439 and around the world. It was not the free speech 1:19:38.560 --> 1:19:41.680 utopia that Kadafi tried to paint that as instead of 1:19:41.680 --> 1:19:45.919 emboldening the left to sermons, he emboldened these tribal groups 1:19:46.560 --> 1:19:51.760 and set the foundation for the Libya that we see today. 1:19:52.439 --> 1:19:56.439 His consistent through line is that he liked strong men 1:19:56.960 --> 1:19:59.599 and sees himself among them and wants to associate himself 1:19:59.680 --> 1:20:02.760 with them. At some point in the early two thousands, 1:20:02.800 --> 1:20:06.800 he was supporting Yorg Hyder, a neo fascist in Austria, 1:20:07.720 --> 1:20:10.360 and telling Europeans they needed to get past their obsession 1:20:10.400 --> 1:20:14.120 with the Second World War. He had no like consistent politics. 1:20:14.520 --> 1:20:17.920 Well, I mean that tracks with his expulsion of Jewish 1:20:17.960 --> 1:20:21.480 communities in Libya. Yeah, he didn't only expel Jewish settlers, 1:20:22.000 --> 1:20:25.960 He expelled Jewish communities that had arrived prior to Italian colonization, 1:20:26.800 --> 1:20:28.920 that had existed in Libya for centuries. 1:20:29.360 --> 1:20:32.439 Yeah that maybe, I guess Anti Semitism can often be 1:20:32.479 --> 1:20:34.960 the link that brings terrible people together. 1:20:36.560 --> 1:20:39.760 He had a lot of other notorious incidents of suppression, 1:20:40.439 --> 1:20:44.040 but one of the most significant was the Abu Salem massacre. 1:20:45.360 --> 1:20:48.680 In short, as recounted by John Ooks, Abu Salem was 1:20:48.680 --> 1:20:51.519 the site of a prisoner's protest on the twenty eighth 1:20:51.560 --> 1:20:55.040 of June nineteen ninety six. The prisoners escaped their cells 1:20:55.040 --> 1:20:58.000 and were protesting them as treatment as gods shot at 1:20:58.000 --> 1:21:01.040 them from the roof. Two tops of officials came and 1:21:01.080 --> 1:21:04.320 took command, ordering the shooting to stop and promising to 1:21:04.320 --> 1:21:07.240 address the prisoner's complaints if they returned to their cells 1:21:07.439 --> 1:21:10.080 and gave up the guards they had hostage, and the 1:21:10.160 --> 1:21:15.120 following day shots fired from eleven am to one thirty 1:21:15.160 --> 1:21:20.040 five pm, a mass slaughter of approximately one thy two 1:21:20.120 --> 1:21:24.320 hundred of the sixteen to seventeen hundred prisoners in Abu Salins. 1:21:24.960 --> 1:21:27.880 The families who suffered a blow were among the first 1:21:28.040 --> 1:21:31.920 on the streets of Benghazi twenty eleven, but those families 1:21:31.960 --> 1:21:35.080 were not originally told that they loved ones had been killed. 1:21:35.840 --> 1:21:39.439 Some of them continued to visit the prison for weeks, months, 1:21:39.520 --> 1:21:44.080 years after, bringing gifts for their relatives who were already 1:21:44.520 --> 1:21:49.440 long dead. In the twists and turns of Gaddafi's ideological 1:21:49.479 --> 1:21:53.680 development or lack their of. Following the fall of the USSR, 1:21:53.880 --> 1:21:59.120 Gaddafi would also pursue economic liberalization. He started opening up 1:21:59.160 --> 1:22:02.519 to the West slightly. There was slow progress and a 1:22:02.520 --> 1:22:05.880 brief hiccup, but by two thousand and three, free market 1:22:05.880 --> 1:22:11.040 advocate Chukri Ganim was appointed Prime Minister. Before long, three 1:22:11.120 --> 1:22:15.479 hundred and sixty state enterprises were privatized. By two thousand 1:22:15.479 --> 1:22:17.880 and seven, Libya was laying off as many as a 1:22:17.920 --> 1:22:22.519 third of the government workforce four hundred thousand public sector workers. 1:22:23.040 --> 1:22:25.839 According to a New York Times article from twenty eleven. 1:22:26.360 --> 1:22:30.400 The IMF had actually praised Libya's economic reforms, So why 1:22:30.520 --> 1:22:34.479 twenty eleven conditions were so unbearable for so many workers, 1:22:34.560 --> 1:22:37.639 especially young people. There's no wonder that some of them 1:22:37.720 --> 1:22:51.920 fought with nothing to lose. The last aspects of Goodaffi's 1:22:51.960 --> 1:22:53.920 rule that I want to touch on was his complex 1:22:54.000 --> 1:22:58.879 relationship with Western powers Billionais rule in the seventies and eighties. 1:22:58.920 --> 1:23:02.320 He did style himself an anti imperist revolutionary, and that 1:23:02.439 --> 1:23:04.640 is the image that our people uphold of him to 1:23:04.680 --> 1:23:10.160 this day. Libya funded an armed revolutionary and Milson movements worldwide, 1:23:10.479 --> 1:23:13.679 from the African National Congress or the ANC, to the 1:23:13.720 --> 1:23:18.360 Palestine Liberation Organization or PILO, to the Irish Republican Army 1:23:18.600 --> 1:23:22.120 or IRI. He aligned himself with the so called radical 1:23:22.160 --> 1:23:26.439 camp in the Middle East, including Bathist Syria and Iran, 1:23:27.200 --> 1:23:31.719 and Western governments accused Libya of supporting international terrorism. Libya 1:23:31.800 --> 1:23:35.559 was considered a rogue state, but as noted by Syrian 1:23:35.600 --> 1:23:40.800 anarchist Mazen Kamalmas in an interview with Jose Antonio Guitairez quote, 1:23:41.080 --> 1:23:45.840 even when Gaddafi was declaring himself an anti imperialist long ago. 1:23:46.000 --> 1:23:48.120 It was just a lip service while he engaged as 1:23:48.120 --> 1:23:51.880 an authoritarian in trivial terrorist acts that never meant to 1:23:51.920 --> 1:23:57.360 support the libertarian objectives of the victims of imperialism end quote. Still, 1:23:57.840 --> 1:24:00.920 Reagan called him a mad dog, and the US bombed 1:24:00.960 --> 1:24:03.920 Libya in nineteen eighty six after attacks in a West 1:24:03.960 --> 1:24:08.759 Berlin nightclub were attributed to Libyan agents. Those bombans narrowly 1:24:08.800 --> 1:24:13.000 missed Gaddafi himself, but they killed his adopted baby daughter. 1:24:13.800 --> 1:24:16.320 Libya was also blamed for the nineteen eighty eight bombing 1:24:16.520 --> 1:24:19.920 of PanAm Flight one O three over Lockerby, which led 1:24:19.960 --> 1:24:22.760 to sanctions both the United Nations and the US, which 1:24:22.840 --> 1:24:28.280 isolated Libya economically and diplomatically. In the nineties, however, with 1:24:28.479 --> 1:24:32.600 four of the USSR, Libya began solely shifting toward cooperation. 1:24:33.280 --> 1:24:36.040 They handed over the suspects in the Lockerby bombing, and 1:24:36.200 --> 1:24:39.640 sanctions began to loosen as they attempted to normalize relations. 1:24:40.200 --> 1:24:44.439 Western intelligence services soon started cooperating with Libyan intelligence against 1:24:44.560 --> 1:24:48.439 Islamist militon groups, including the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which 1:24:48.479 --> 1:24:51.840 is a thorn in Gaddafi's side. The early two thousands 1:24:51.880 --> 1:24:55.759 had Libya renounce its weapons of mass destruction program following 1:24:55.800 --> 1:24:59.519 the invasion of Iraq. The US and the unsuresequently lifted 1:24:59.600 --> 1:25:03.879 sanction and diplomatic relations were restored fully with Western countries. 1:25:04.400 --> 1:25:08.479 Gadaffi hosted Tony Blair of the UK, Nicholas Sarkozia France, 1:25:08.800 --> 1:25:11.360 and met with Obama as well, and many of these 1:25:11.439 --> 1:25:15.320 meetings with Western leaders produced multi billion dollar energy in 1:25:15.400 --> 1:25:21.519 business deals BP Royal, Dot Shell, Excellent, Mobile, Chevron, Total Energies. 1:25:21.920 --> 1:25:24.960 They were all get in pieces of Libya's wealth. As 1:25:25.040 --> 1:25:29.600 Libya began adopting more neoliberal economic reforms like currency devaluation, 1:25:30.000 --> 1:25:34.000 trade liberalization, and more openness to foreign investment. Libya was 1:25:34.040 --> 1:25:37.560 also able to cooperate closely with Western intelligence during the 1:25:37.600 --> 1:25:40.840 war and terror, including assist in the CIE and MI 1:25:41.080 --> 1:25:45.679 six in rendition and torture, as uncovered by Human Rights Watch. 1:25:46.360 --> 1:25:49.960 So by the mid two thousands, Libya had mostly reintegrated 1:25:50.080 --> 1:25:52.960 into the Western their global system, and the West, for 1:25:53.040 --> 1:25:57.120 their part, simply ignored Gdaffi's continues. Human rights abuses. The 1:25:57.200 --> 1:26:01.280 counter terrorism cooperation, the oil and gascon tracks, and don't 1:26:01.280 --> 1:26:05.280 forget the brutal African migrant control were all too valuable 1:26:05.800 --> 1:26:07.200 for America and Europe. 1:26:07.680 --> 1:26:09.960 I remember this this period quite well. It was when 1:26:10.000 --> 1:26:13.599 I was in my undergraduate university and Gaddafi was invited 1:26:13.680 --> 1:26:17.080 to speak the Oxford Union. I did my undergraduate there 1:26:17.520 --> 1:26:19.519 and myself and a number of friends. 1:26:19.880 --> 1:26:20.719 So you met Gadafi. 1:26:21.479 --> 1:26:26.280 No, he spoke. He spoke via video conference, okay, which 1:26:26.840 --> 1:26:32.000 they paused while they removed us for protesting Gaddafi's Like, 1:26:32.280 --> 1:26:34.680 it just seemed like this decade of abuse of his 1:26:34.800 --> 1:26:37.080 own people have been completely forgotten, right, because he was 1:26:37.160 --> 1:26:40.479 now prepared to do abuse of other people that was 1:26:40.560 --> 1:26:43.920 beneficial to the United Kingdom of the United States. And 1:26:44.520 --> 1:26:47.800 we felt like that was apparent and wrong, so we 1:26:47.880 --> 1:26:52.160 went to make our feelings known. And the Oxford Union's 1:26:52.240 --> 1:26:55.280 very silly institution, right, which prizes itself on free speech, 1:26:55.360 --> 1:26:58.439 and really it just does kind of class reproduction for 1:26:58.520 --> 1:27:01.040 the most part, right, And of course there was not 1:27:01.240 --> 1:27:03.000 freedom of speech for people who are going to be 1:27:03.080 --> 1:27:05.080 rude to someone who was in charge of a state, 1:27:05.160 --> 1:27:07.519 even if they were being rude on behalf of the 1:27:07.640 --> 1:27:12.000 thousands of people he's had murdered and tortured. And yeah, 1:27:12.040 --> 1:27:15.439 that was my little personal running with Goodafi when I 1:27:15.560 --> 1:27:18.400 was what like eighteen. But yeah, I can't remember if 1:27:18.400 --> 1:27:21.320 we were like not allowed in or we were booted out, 1:27:21.680 --> 1:27:25.040 because I am like two decades and half a dozen 1:27:25.120 --> 1:27:29.280 traumatic brain injuries since my teenage years. But yeah, I 1:27:29.360 --> 1:27:32.240 do remember just being like, people are triating with I 1:27:32.240 --> 1:27:35.680 guess some kind of fucking novelty, and this person has 1:27:35.800 --> 1:27:38.120 real blood on his hands, like real people have suffered 1:27:38.120 --> 1:27:40.680 tremendously and died because of actions he's taken, like it's 1:27:40.760 --> 1:27:42.479 not funny or cute. 1:27:42.640 --> 1:27:43.840 Wow, what year was that? 1:27:44.680 --> 1:27:47.760 It would have been in the early two thousands, the 1:27:47.880 --> 1:27:51.200 Bush era, because that's when I was in my undergraduate 1:27:51.760 --> 1:27:55.120 second Bush term, so like it would have been brought 1:27:55.120 --> 1:27:57.200 in two thousand and six some of somewhere there. 1:27:57.640 --> 1:28:01.040 Yeah, thankfully I never had any run ins with good Yea. 1:28:01.840 --> 1:28:05.400 Even at that time, I can remember just being sort 1:28:05.400 --> 1:28:08.479 of somewhat pulled by the Marxist learning this tendency to 1:28:08.640 --> 1:28:11.479 excuse crimes against humanity if as long as they were 1:28:11.520 --> 1:28:14.439 done by people who who said the right things, who 1:28:14.520 --> 1:28:19.680 had the right vibes, who condemned the right people, and 1:28:19.920 --> 1:28:23.000 the liberal tendency to excuse crimes against humanity so long 1:28:23.040 --> 1:28:25.800 as they were done in service of capitalism and the state. 1:28:26.840 --> 1:28:30.000 Yeah, yeah, shockingly similar tendencies in some ways. 1:28:30.960 --> 1:28:35.160 Yeah, right, like this fundamentally not rooted in the idea 1:28:35.280 --> 1:28:38.160 that people have a right to dignity. Both of them 1:28:38.240 --> 1:28:41.000 hold people as less valuable than other things, right, be 1:28:41.120 --> 1:28:46.439 it capital or I mean the Marxis learnings tendency, honestly, Like, 1:28:46.560 --> 1:28:49.320 it's not even the revolution that they believe it's more 1:28:49.400 --> 1:28:55.240 valuable than people. It's the revolutionary rhetoric. Yeah, like with 1:28:55.400 --> 1:28:57.920 a sad right, Like you can murder your own people 1:28:57.960 --> 1:29:01.519 with chemical weapons so long as you pretend to give 1:29:01.560 --> 1:29:05.919 a single shit about Palestinians, even though you've spent decades 1:29:06.080 --> 1:29:08.360 using your weapons to kill your own people and never 1:29:08.479 --> 1:29:12.280 once use him to actually help the people of Palestine, 1:29:12.360 --> 1:29:13.440 to actually protect. 1:29:13.160 --> 1:29:18.800 People, exactly exactly, So at this point, now you know, good, 1:29:18.800 --> 1:29:22.320 after he's trying to be your chummy with dus after 1:29:22.400 --> 1:29:25.679 he spent some time being chummy with Africa, and spend 1:29:25.720 --> 1:29:30.360 some time being chummy with USSR and with rebel groups 1:29:30.400 --> 1:29:32.640 around the world. But that was just the thing, right, 1:29:32.760 --> 1:29:37.600 he had this track record of flip flopping, you know, 1:29:38.120 --> 1:29:41.120 and even though relations had normalize, these Western powers could 1:29:41.160 --> 1:29:43.760 not trust him. They still saw him as that mad dog. 1:29:43.960 --> 1:29:48.559 They still saw him as unpredictable and unreliable. In fact, 1:29:48.600 --> 1:29:51.160 even while he was cutting deals with these multi billion 1:29:51.160 --> 1:29:55.000 dollar corporations for the oil contracts and so on, when 1:29:55.000 --> 1:29:57.320 he wasn't getting what he wanted, he would threaten to 1:29:57.439 --> 1:30:03.000 nationalize to get what he wanted. And so to West, 1:30:03.200 --> 1:30:07.479 being opportunistic, we're just waiting for an opportunity. They were 1:30:07.520 --> 1:30:11.320 done with playing his game, and that opportunity came when 1:30:11.360 --> 1:30:15.080 the people organically rose up against Kadafi in twenty eleven, 1:30:15.920 --> 1:30:20.320 not long after NATO intervened, and the years since Libyans 1:30:20.320 --> 1:30:24.360 have suffered and died with no end in sight. It 1:30:24.439 --> 1:30:29.080 shouldn't be uncontroversial to say this Gadafi was not a 1:30:29.200 --> 1:30:32.720 true antime perialist. I don't think it's possible for a 1:30:32.760 --> 1:30:37.479 statesman or a government to be truly anti perialist. Government 1:30:37.680 --> 1:30:43.960 is foundationally exploitative internally and when turned externally, that drive 1:30:44.080 --> 1:30:48.240 exploitation is what we understand as imperialism. All the markers 1:30:48.320 --> 1:30:53.479 of imperialism worthy of condemnation, be it economic exploitation, cultural dominance, 1:30:53.560 --> 1:30:57.200 military violence, et cetera, is carried out under the label 1:30:57.280 --> 1:31:01.160 of governance when done within its own borders when done against, 1:31:01.160 --> 1:31:06.080 for example, the non Arab minorities in Libya. I think 1:31:06.120 --> 1:31:10.799 what's missing from now popular anti imperialist narratives is that connection, 1:31:11.479 --> 1:31:15.200 that analysis and a gap in the analysis is what's 1:31:15.240 --> 1:31:18.800 creating this false consciousness that leads people to combs to 1:31:18.920 --> 1:31:23.120 conclusion that anti imperialism means that XYZ government is anti 1:31:23.160 --> 1:31:27.040 imperialists and good, and ABC government is imperialists and bad. 1:31:27.800 --> 1:31:30.760 That's not how the world works. States are never going 1:31:30.800 --> 1:31:34.320 to be liberatory. They're not able to produce a liberatory framework. 1:31:34.760 --> 1:31:38.240 At their best, they function as a welfare state. At 1:31:38.280 --> 1:31:43.799 their worst, you get mass suppression and culture personality. Sometimes 1:31:43.840 --> 1:31:46.960 you get a combination of both, as with Libya and 1:31:47.080 --> 1:31:52.000 a Giraffi. And that's my message for today. Please stop 1:31:52.000 --> 1:31:58.360 Lionis and leaders stay woke. Yeah, and all power for 1:31:58.600 --> 1:32:02.080 all the people. I've been and youre siege. This is 1:32:02.120 --> 1:32:03.840 a Kapania peace. 1:32:17.680 --> 1:32:20.960 On Sunday, April twelfth, I went to the Basement nightclub 1:32:21.120 --> 1:32:24.800 in Queens. Like usual, someone scanned my ticket at the 1:32:24.840 --> 1:32:27.560 Big gate off Flushing Avenue. I had to wait in 1:32:27.600 --> 1:32:31.360 a winding line outside the door, went through security, and 1:32:31.560 --> 1:32:35.320 finally reached the DJ and bar, but instead of the 1:32:35.479 --> 1:32:39.519 regular collection of twinks, dolls, and bisexuals, the room was 1:32:39.600 --> 1:32:44.720 full of city workers, politicians, journalists, and DSA members, a 1:32:44.840 --> 1:32:49.320 decent number of which probably were bisexual. I suppose technically 1:32:49.439 --> 1:32:53.280 we were directly above the Basement nightclub in the Knockdown 1:32:53.439 --> 1:32:58.240 Center event venue. Gathered this Sunday afternoon to attend Mayor 1:32:58.400 --> 1:33:03.240 Zoron Mamdani's one hundred day address. I'm Garrison Davis. This 1:33:03.520 --> 1:33:06.120 is it could happen here. I show about things falling 1:33:06.160 --> 1:33:10.000 apart and sometimes putting stuff back together. This one is 1:33:10.080 --> 1:33:14.160 one of those rare episodes focused on the latter. Earlier 1:33:14.240 --> 1:33:18.799 this April marked Mayor Mamdani's first one hundred days in office. 1:33:19.479 --> 1:33:22.840 This episode, I'll discuss what Zoron has done these first 1:33:22.880 --> 1:33:25.800 one hundred days, some of the challenges he's faced, if 1:33:25.840 --> 1:33:28.439 he's been able to deliver on the promises of his campaign, 1:33:28.800 --> 1:33:31.320 and how he's adapted to the power and constraints of 1:33:31.439 --> 1:33:34.840 running the biggest city in the country, and finally, what 1:33:35.280 --> 1:33:37.840 all this could mean for the future of working class 1:33:37.960 --> 1:33:42.080 and left wing politics in the United States. Let's first 1:33:42.160 --> 1:33:45.960 return to the one hundred day Address above the Basement nightclub, 1:33:46.920 --> 1:33:49.240 upon entering the venue, you found yourself in a museum 1:33:49.360 --> 1:33:53.160 of the administration's first one hundred days. This little installation 1:33:53.360 --> 1:33:57.280 displayed the Mayor's snowshovel from the historic blizzard during Zoron's 1:33:57.320 --> 1:34:00.840 first few weeks in office, a tenant organizing suggestion board 1:34:00.960 --> 1:34:04.719 from the rental ripoff hearings, and a child sized mayoral 1:34:04.800 --> 1:34:08.320 podium used to announce a new free childcare program for 1:34:08.520 --> 1:34:13.000 two year olds. Museum plaques detailed victories for labor and 1:34:13.160 --> 1:34:16.960 tenants rights, as well as infrastructure accomplishments like scaffolding reform 1:34:17.200 --> 1:34:20.040 and a pothole blitz that filled over twenty thousand potholes 1:34:20.160 --> 1:34:24.800 in just three days. Before the mayor's speech, a Bronx parent, 1:34:25.000 --> 1:34:28.160 two tenant organizers, and a city worker from the Department 1:34:28.200 --> 1:34:31.240 of Transportation spoke to the crowd about how life is 1:34:31.320 --> 1:34:36.040 different under the new administration. Mamdani's speech was effectively a 1:34:36.200 --> 1:34:38.840 state of the Union for New York City. The mayor 1:34:38.920 --> 1:34:42.439 outlined the campaign promises the administration has fulfilled so far 1:34:42.640 --> 1:34:46.040 in their short time in office, and connected his style 1:34:46.080 --> 1:34:49.519 of governing to the Sewer Socialists of Milwaukee from the 1:34:49.600 --> 1:34:52.800 first half of the twentieth century. Who focused on strengthening 1:34:52.920 --> 1:34:54.439 public services. 1:34:54.520 --> 1:34:57.360 Because for too long, City Hall had not just failed 1:34:57.720 --> 1:35:02.040 to meet expectations, it had low them. After years of 1:35:02.120 --> 1:35:05.240 broken promises, no one in this city could be blamed 1:35:05.320 --> 1:35:08.960 for doubting that government held either the ability or the 1:35:09.040 --> 1:35:11.320 ambition to upend the status quo. 1:35:12.280 --> 1:35:12.320 It. 1:35:12.439 --> 1:35:15.519 As I said on that freezing January afternoon to more 1:35:15.560 --> 1:35:18.120 than eight and a half million New Yorkers, we will 1:35:18.200 --> 1:35:26.360 make no apology for what we believe. I was elected 1:35:26.400 --> 1:35:28.960 as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a 1:35:29.040 --> 1:35:30.160 democratic socialist. 1:35:32.760 --> 1:35:35.840 This speech was really the first time since the inauguration 1:35:36.240 --> 1:35:38.519 that the Mayor has talked at length about what it 1:35:38.720 --> 1:35:42.719 means to govern as a democratic socialist and the example 1:35:43.040 --> 1:35:45.439 that New York City can set for the rest of 1:35:45.520 --> 1:35:49.759 the country. The address was mostly attended by city workers, 1:35:49.960 --> 1:35:52.679 who the Mayor invited to enter into a ticket lottery. 1:35:53.400 --> 1:35:55.320 For most of the speech, I was pinned between a 1:35:55.360 --> 1:35:59.479 group of uniformed Department of Sanitation employees and workers from 1:35:59.560 --> 1:36:03.479 the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. The event in 1:36:03.640 --> 1:36:08.799 general was focused on uplifting civil servants and celebrating public service, 1:36:09.320 --> 1:36:12.879 whether that be bus drivers, school teachers, or the sanitation 1:36:13.000 --> 1:36:16.640 workers that kept the city running during the worst snowstorm 1:36:16.800 --> 1:36:19.919 in years. It feels like for the past few decades, 1:36:20.280 --> 1:36:24.000 the only public sector job that gets regularly celebrated as 1:36:24.080 --> 1:36:27.000 noble by those in government or in the media and 1:36:27.160 --> 1:36:31.439 promoted by pop culture is being a police officer. Being 1:36:31.479 --> 1:36:33.880 a cop is the only public sector job that gets 1:36:34.000 --> 1:36:38.320 uplifted with propaganda. Zoron's little videos promoting three point one 1:36:38.560 --> 1:36:41.479 city call center workers is to quote front of the 1:36:41.560 --> 1:36:46.920 pod Ben Lorber, rolling back decades of neoliberal propaganda reasserting 1:36:46.960 --> 1:36:51.280 the dignity of public sector work and workers. A common 1:36:51.400 --> 1:36:54.479 turn of phrase uttered by Mayor Mumdani is if you 1:36:54.600 --> 1:36:57.840 can't solve the smallest task in someone's life, why would 1:36:57.840 --> 1:37:00.640 they ever trust you to solve the biggest one. So 1:37:00.920 --> 1:37:04.040 let's go over some things big and small that Mamdani 1:37:04.080 --> 1:37:06.679 has been able to do in his first one hundred days. 1:37:07.600 --> 1:37:11.599 One of Mamdani's core campaign promises was to freeze the rent. 1:37:12.360 --> 1:37:16.320 On February eighteenth, Mayor Mamdani appointed six new members to 1:37:16.439 --> 1:37:20.040 the nine member Rent Guidelines Board, which each year is 1:37:20.160 --> 1:37:23.880 tasked with determining the rent increase percentages for the more 1:37:23.920 --> 1:37:27.479 than one million rent stabilized apartments. In the city under 1:37:27.520 --> 1:37:30.879 airic Adams, the board approved a three percent rent increase 1:37:31.320 --> 1:37:33.719 for one year leases and a four point five percent 1:37:33.800 --> 1:37:36.840 increase for two year leases in just a few weeks. 1:37:37.000 --> 1:37:40.360 The new board will hold a preliminary vote to freeze 1:37:40.560 --> 1:37:44.719 or raise rents before their final vote in June. Public 1:37:44.760 --> 1:37:49.679 testimony on rent adjustments is currently underway. Housing in general 1:37:49.880 --> 1:37:53.000 is one of the top issues affecting affordability in the city, 1:37:53.360 --> 1:37:55.960 and the Mayor's approach has not been limited to filling 1:37:56.040 --> 1:37:59.919 vacancies on the Rent Guidelines Board. After Zora's and aaugurations 1:38:00.000 --> 1:38:03.000 beach on January first, he went to a neglected apartment 1:38:03.040 --> 1:38:06.439 building just east of Prospect Park to sign an executive 1:38:06.520 --> 1:38:10.439 order revitalizing the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants and appointed 1:38:10.439 --> 1:38:14.200 a tenant organizer to lead the office. This apartment building 1:38:14.360 --> 1:38:19.080 was owned by a literally bankrupt landlord called the Pinnacle Group, 1:38:19.640 --> 1:38:23.000 who was responsible for more than five thousand housing violations 1:38:23.400 --> 1:38:28.200 and fourteen thousand complaints. The revamped Office to Protect Tenants 1:38:28.280 --> 1:38:32.680 and the Mayor intervened in the bankruptcy proceedings and successfully 1:38:32.760 --> 1:38:36.679 secured thirty million dollars in repairs and upgrades for tenants 1:38:37.240 --> 1:38:41.639 as well as protection from future displacement. Through this office, 1:38:42.000 --> 1:38:44.919 the administration has continued to crack down on bad landlords 1:38:44.960 --> 1:38:48.439 who violate New York City law and mistrey tenants. Just 1:38:48.479 --> 1:38:51.080 a few weeks after the inauguration, Momdanni announced a two 1:38:51.120 --> 1:38:53.360 point one million dollar settlement from A and E real 1:38:53.439 --> 1:38:57.400 Estate Properties for tenant harassment and hazardous conditions across fourteen 1:38:57.439 --> 1:39:00.880 buildings in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queen's As a part of 1:39:00.880 --> 1:39:03.160 the settlement, A and E was also required to correct 1:39:03.240 --> 1:39:07.720 more than four thousand building condition violations. In February, the 1:39:07.840 --> 1:39:11.800 Department of Housing, Preservation and Development released a public list 1:39:12.000 --> 1:39:14.479 of the two hundred and fifty buildings with the most 1:39:14.600 --> 1:39:17.800 severe housing code violations a city wide and put them 1:39:17.840 --> 1:39:22.200 under heightened oversight via the Alternative Enforcement Program, with the 1:39:22.280 --> 1:39:25.440 city stepping in to make repairs, then billing the landlords 1:39:25.720 --> 1:39:27.760 if they failed to address violations. 1:39:29.200 --> 1:39:32.200 Since January first, we have won more than thirty four 1:39:32.320 --> 1:39:39.839 million dollars in settlements, judgments and repairs for tenants, delivered 1:39:39.920 --> 1:39:43.360 improvements to six thousand and seventy apartments so far, and 1:39:43.479 --> 1:39:46.760 issued one hundred and ninety five thousand, eight hundred and 1:39:46.920 --> 1:39:52.439 twenty nine violations New York City will no longer tolerate 1:39:52.600 --> 1:39:54.559 exploitation as a business model. 1:39:57.000 --> 1:40:00.519 In March, Mayor Mumdani announced a quote unquote landmark victory 1:40:00.920 --> 1:40:05.760 against famously bad landlord Seth Miller of Egis Realty. You 1:40:05.840 --> 1:40:11.240 can say the landlord was egregious at Realty. The city 1:40:11.320 --> 1:40:15.320 brought a case against Miller for dangerously direct conditions at 1:40:15.479 --> 1:40:18.240 nine to one to nine Prospect Avenue in the South Bronx, 1:40:18.600 --> 1:40:21.759 and for the first time ever, courts imposed the maximum 1:40:21.840 --> 1:40:26.160 penalties under the city's nuisance abatement law, a one thousand 1:40:26.280 --> 1:40:30.320 dollars fine per day until housing violations are addressed and 1:40:30.720 --> 1:40:35.520 two point one seven four million dollars in retroactive penalties. 1:40:36.320 --> 1:40:38.719 During the first one hundred days, the city held five 1:40:39.160 --> 1:40:42.920 rental ripoff hearings, one in each borough, providing New Yorkers 1:40:42.960 --> 1:40:46.040 a platform to discuss various problems with their landlord, from 1:40:46.280 --> 1:40:50.280 poor conditions to repair delays or junk fees. This was 1:40:50.320 --> 1:40:53.120 a dedicated public forum for tenants to speak directly to 1:40:53.200 --> 1:40:58.240 city officials and collectively shape housing policy going forward. A 1:40:58.360 --> 1:41:01.759 month into office, the mayor announced a thirty eight million 1:41:01.840 --> 1:41:05.639 dollar investment to install modern heating and cooling in seven 1:41:05.760 --> 1:41:08.880 hundred and twelve of New York City's public housing units 1:41:09.240 --> 1:41:13.200 at the Beach forty first Street houses in Queens And 1:41:13.320 --> 1:41:15.880 technically this is after the first one hundred days, but 1:41:15.880 --> 1:41:18.040 I think it's worth mentioning that just a few days ago, 1:41:18.280 --> 1:41:22.200 zorunannounced a two point five billion dollar investment in public 1:41:22.240 --> 1:41:25.320 housing to deliver new energy efficient lighting and faucets to 1:41:25.479 --> 1:41:28.640 forty five thousand homes, heat pumps in twenty thousand, and 1:41:28.840 --> 1:41:33.320 ten thousand new induction stoves, all affecting the Nische public 1:41:33.479 --> 1:41:37.160 housing in New York City. On Zoron's very first day 1:41:37.200 --> 1:41:40.200 in office, he also signed two executive orders to accelerate 1:41:40.280 --> 1:41:43.759 housing construction by building on city owned properties to increase 1:41:43.800 --> 1:41:46.439 the supply of affordable housing and cutting red tape to 1:41:46.479 --> 1:41:49.639 make it faster and more affordable to build. The development 1:41:49.640 --> 1:41:52.880 approval process for building affordable housing has been reduced by 1:41:52.920 --> 1:41:56.439 more than two years by the administration's implementation of the 1:41:56.520 --> 1:42:01.280 new voter approved Expediated Land Use Review recedure, combined with 1:42:01.320 --> 1:42:04.720 a new program called the Neighborhood Builder's Fast Track, which 1:42:04.720 --> 1:42:07.799 will pre select qualified developers to shorten the pre development 1:42:07.880 --> 1:42:11.840 timeline by eight months for certain projects. On city owned land. 1:42:12.920 --> 1:42:17.560 Another of Zorn's core campaign promises was universal childcare. On 1:42:17.680 --> 1:42:20.720 his eighth day in office, Mayramdani announced a partnership with 1:42:20.840 --> 1:42:24.519 Governor Kathy Hockel to provide free childcare for thousands of 1:42:24.600 --> 1:42:26.840 two year olds in New York City with a one 1:42:26.920 --> 1:42:31.080 point two billion dollar increase in state funding. Since then, 1:42:31.240 --> 1:42:34.320 the mayor has expanded the free three K program for 1:42:34.439 --> 1:42:37.080 three year olds to more than half of all school 1:42:37.080 --> 1:42:40.439 districts in the city, and announced two K fall enrollment 1:42:40.600 --> 1:42:44.439 for school districts eighteen, twenty three, ten six, and twenty seven, 1:42:44.960 --> 1:42:49.120 which serve lower income neighborhoods. Two K applications open for 1:42:49.200 --> 1:42:52.439 the first time on June second, with the program operating 1:42:52.520 --> 1:42:54.800 on a full day schedule from eight am to six 1:42:54.880 --> 1:42:58.320 pm all year round. As a part of the three 1:42:58.439 --> 1:43:03.120 K expansion, seven new early childcare education centers are opening 1:43:03.240 --> 1:43:06.360 in Western Queens, Staten Island, South Brooklyn, and the South 1:43:06.400 --> 1:43:09.960 Bronx and On March thirtieth, the mayor announced the city's 1:43:10.040 --> 1:43:14.040 first pilot program for free on site childcare for city workers, 1:43:14.520 --> 1:43:18.320 based at the David Dinkins Municipal Building, with applications opening 1:43:18.479 --> 1:43:22.040 on April thirtieth. The city also created a new accessible 1:43:22.160 --> 1:43:25.719 childcare provider map with interactive features to filter by location, 1:43:26.080 --> 1:43:28.880 age group, and cost. The mayor says that all these 1:43:28.920 --> 1:43:32.240 steps will lead to free childcare for every three year 1:43:32.280 --> 1:43:34.560 old and two year old in the city by the 1:43:34.760 --> 1:43:38.840 end of his first term. Another key promise was fast 1:43:38.960 --> 1:43:42.400 and free buses. The administration is making headway on the 1:43:42.600 --> 1:43:46.240 fast part by building more bus lanes, redesigning streets, as 1:43:46.280 --> 1:43:49.240 well as adding protected by clanes on mcguinnis Boulevard, thirty 1:43:49.280 --> 1:43:54.320 first Street in Astoria, Ashland Place across Flatbush, East, Flatbush, Midwood, 1:43:54.600 --> 1:43:59.240 and Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues in central Brooklyn. Amdani restarted 1:43:59.400 --> 1:44:03.559 the Stall Madison Ave bus lane redesign to make buses 1:44:03.680 --> 1:44:07.599 faster and more reliable for ninety two thousand daily riders. 1:44:08.240 --> 1:44:10.679 The city announced a new bus lane for the Bronx 1:44:10.800 --> 1:44:14.400 crosstown bus service to Yankee Stadium and restarted the Fordham 1:44:14.479 --> 1:44:17.719 Road bus Lane project to improve the busiest bus corridor 1:44:17.760 --> 1:44:20.400 in the Bronx, servicing an average of one hundred and 1:44:20.520 --> 1:44:24.599 thirty thousand daily riders across four routes. Just this week, 1:44:24.800 --> 1:44:28.400 construction began in Brooklyn for the redesign of Flatbush Avenue 1:44:28.760 --> 1:44:30.760 with the goal of improving bus speeds by over forty 1:44:30.800 --> 1:44:33.759 percent for one hundred and thirty two thousand daily riders, 1:44:34.439 --> 1:44:38.120 and before the World Cup this summer, Zoron has promised 1:44:38.160 --> 1:44:42.120 to complete new bike lanes and pedestrian upgrades in Lower Manhattan. 1:44:43.080 --> 1:44:46.519 As for the free part, that will be a bit harder. 1:44:46.920 --> 1:44:49.559 Mamdani maintains that his administration is working with the state 1:44:49.600 --> 1:44:53.000 government in Albany and the MTA to eventually make New 1:44:53.120 --> 1:44:56.439 York City buses free, and proposed a five week free 1:44:56.640 --> 1:45:00.799 bus pilot program during the World Cup. Nope, it's unclear 1:45:00.920 --> 1:45:14.559 if that will happen. It's not all sunshine and rainbows 1:45:14.640 --> 1:45:18.519 in New York City. Upon taking office, Mayor Mumdani discovered 1:45:18.520 --> 1:45:21.360 the city was facing an unexpected financial crisis in the 1:45:21.439 --> 1:45:24.920 form of a hidden twelve billion dollar deficit left by 1:45:25.080 --> 1:45:29.080 former Mayor Eric Adams, stemming from years of fiscal mismanagement 1:45:29.360 --> 1:45:31.880 and the under budgeting of essential services like rental and 1:45:31.960 --> 1:45:36.679 cash assistance, shelters, health insurance, and special ad as. Mayor 1:45:37.120 --> 1:45:40.320 Eric Adams covered up this massive budget deficit by leaving 1:45:40.400 --> 1:45:44.160 the gaps grossly understated, gaps that were made worse by 1:45:44.280 --> 1:45:47.240 divestment in New York City by the state under former 1:45:47.280 --> 1:45:51.080 Governor Andrew Cuomo. The mayor is actually required by law 1:45:51.240 --> 1:45:54.479 to have a balanced budget, so rather than sweeping this 1:45:54.600 --> 1:45:57.080 under the rug by continuing to cook the city's books 1:45:57.160 --> 1:46:01.519 like his predecessor, Zoron chose transparency about the financial crisis 1:46:01.680 --> 1:46:05.360 he's inherited and signed an executive order to designate chief 1:46:05.520 --> 1:46:09.840 savings officers in every city agency to streamline processes and 1:46:10.000 --> 1:46:14.280 eliminate waste. Some of these savings so far include canceling 1:46:14.640 --> 1:46:19.000 twenty thousand dollars of Slack subscriptions to saving one hundreds 1:46:19.040 --> 1:46:23.160 of thousands of dollars by foregoing vacant office space. Through 1:46:23.240 --> 1:46:26.439 his relationship with Governor Kathy Hochel, the mayor secured one 1:46:26.520 --> 1:46:30.439 point five billion dollars in state aid in February that, 1:46:30.800 --> 1:46:34.240 combined with higher than expected Wall Street revenues and savings measures, 1:46:34.760 --> 1:46:39.679 shrunk the deficit to five point four billion. Zoron's preliminary budget, 1:46:39.760 --> 1:46:44.480 released last February, sparked criticism for failing short of promises 1:46:44.560 --> 1:46:49.439 to increase funding to parks and libraries. While campaigning, Zoron 1:46:49.479 --> 1:46:52.880 advocated for city libraries to receive zero point five percent 1:46:53.000 --> 1:46:56.760 of the city budget, but the preliminary budget only allocated 1:46:56.880 --> 1:47:00.000 point three nine percent, which is actually a twenty nine 1:47:00.080 --> 1:47:03.479 nine million dollar cut from the last Adams budget down 1:47:03.560 --> 1:47:07.800 to four hundred and fifty six million dollars. Meanwhile, the 1:47:07.880 --> 1:47:11.240 park budget remained effectively flat at about zero point five percent, 1:47:11.880 --> 1:47:13.840 rather than boosting it to one percent of the total 1:47:13.840 --> 1:47:18.960 budget as Mamdani previously hoped. Though in March, Mayor Mamdani 1:47:19.000 --> 1:47:23.000 announced new capital investment of fifty million dollars to reconstruct 1:47:23.360 --> 1:47:28.080 ten parks in underserved neighborhoods. This February budget is preliminary 1:47:28.160 --> 1:47:31.479 and subject to change as Zoron's negotiations with the city 1:47:31.560 --> 1:47:36.320 council and the state continue. In February, Mamdani reversed a 1:47:36.439 --> 1:47:41.240 previous policy against the force removal of homeless encampments after 1:47:41.360 --> 1:47:44.599 twenty people died in the street during a horrific blizzard 1:47:44.760 --> 1:47:48.280 and sudden cold snap in late January. Despite the efforts 1:47:48.400 --> 1:47:52.080 of outreach workers visiting known homeless people every two hours 1:47:52.160 --> 1:47:54.679 to offer warm shelter and check if they needed help, 1:47:55.640 --> 1:47:59.080 fourteen hundred people were placed into shelters and warming centers 1:47:59.200 --> 1:48:03.480 during that first time freeze, with eighty five people involuntarily 1:48:03.640 --> 1:48:07.560 moved or hospitalized. The new encampment SPEEP policy will be 1:48:07.680 --> 1:48:10.439 led by the Department of Homeless Services rather than the 1:48:10.640 --> 1:48:14.479 NYPD as they were under Eric Adams, which mcdonnie said 1:48:14.520 --> 1:48:17.080 put homeless New Yorkers in danger and was ineffective in 1:48:17.200 --> 1:48:20.840 moving people into shelter or housing. Under the new plan, 1:48:21.080 --> 1:48:24.519 after posting a removal notice, outreach workers will visit encampments 1:48:24.560 --> 1:48:27.360 every day for a week with the goal of connecting 1:48:27.360 --> 1:48:30.360 people to shelter and establishing a pipeline to stable housing, 1:48:31.000 --> 1:48:34.559 while opening new shelters across the city, including New York 1:48:34.600 --> 1:48:38.879 City's first ever pet inclusive transitional housing facility for families. 1:48:39.880 --> 1:48:43.120 Much of the criticism levied at Zoran revolves around his 1:48:43.240 --> 1:48:47.719 choice to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tish, something he announced 1:48:47.800 --> 1:48:51.320 before of the election. Zoron did cancel and Eric adams 1:48:51.439 --> 1:48:55.960 plan to add five thousand more NYPD officers, but as promised, 1:48:56.040 --> 1:48:59.879 their budget remained effectively the same despite the financial deficit. 1:49:00.600 --> 1:49:04.680 But Tish specifically has been seen as a rare moderating 1:49:04.840 --> 1:49:08.200 force in the administration, an outlier that may be preventing 1:49:08.320 --> 1:49:12.360 police reforms that Zoron campaigned on like disbanding the SRG, 1:49:12.560 --> 1:49:16.280 the Strategic Response Group tasked with responding to both protests 1:49:16.560 --> 1:49:20.000 and terrorism, as well as getting rid of the NYPD 1:49:20.240 --> 1:49:24.040 gang database. Critics have noted that Zoron seems to be 1:49:24.120 --> 1:49:28.080 moving towards quote unquote reforms of the gang database rather 1:49:28.120 --> 1:49:31.120 than his previous call to get rid of it, saying 1:49:31.160 --> 1:49:34.000 in early April, quote I've made my critiques of the 1:49:34.080 --> 1:49:37.800 database clear, and the NYPD has also implemented a number 1:49:37.840 --> 1:49:41.000 of reforms as per the recommendation that came through, and 1:49:41.120 --> 1:49:44.000 the implementation of those reforms and the results of that 1:49:44.280 --> 1:49:47.879 are part of the active discussion that we are having unquote. 1:49:48.920 --> 1:49:51.280 The gang database in New York has shrunk by forty 1:49:51.320 --> 1:49:55.200 percent in the last two years. As for the SRG, 1:49:55.920 --> 1:49:59.400 Mayor Mamdani still maintains that he remains quote steadfast in 1:49:59.479 --> 1:50:02.320 my commitment to disband the SRG, to do so in 1:50:02.360 --> 1:50:04.800 a manner that upholds both First Amendment rights of New 1:50:04.880 --> 1:50:07.800 Yorkers and keeps New Yorkers safe, and that is the 1:50:07.880 --> 1:50:11.599 subject of an active conversation that we are having unquote. 1:50:12.400 --> 1:50:16.000 Commissioner Tish has been particularly resistant to the idea of 1:50:16.120 --> 1:50:20.240 disbanding the SRG, though earlier this month, Mayor Mumdani's chief 1:50:20.280 --> 1:50:24.080 of staff, Elbasgard Church, said on the News that the 1:50:24.120 --> 1:50:27.960 administration remains committed to fulfilling the campaign promise of disbanding 1:50:28.000 --> 1:50:30.400 the SRG, and that a delegation of City Hall and 1:50:30.560 --> 1:50:34.519 NYPD officials traveled to Columbus, Ohio to learn about their 1:50:34.640 --> 1:50:38.840 protest policing model focused on quote communication and quote de 1:50:39.080 --> 1:50:42.599 escalation over mass arrests and aggressive force. 1:50:42.920 --> 1:50:47.160 The commitment is to disband the SRG, and I think 1:50:47.280 --> 1:50:51.360 that the Columbus visit showcases that we are committed to 1:50:51.439 --> 1:50:53.840 a really disciplined approach here. We want it to work, 1:50:53.880 --> 1:50:56.640 and we want to do it in collaboration with the NYPD. 1:50:57.160 --> 1:51:01.040 So the Mayor is in regular conversation with his police Commissioner, 1:51:01.200 --> 1:51:03.960 and our teams also meet regularly so that we can 1:51:04.040 --> 1:51:07.639 design something that is best suited to that commitment being 1:51:07.680 --> 1:51:10.960 fulfilled and not compromising any of the safety and the 1:51:11.000 --> 1:51:12.280 protection that New Yorkers deserve. 1:51:12.840 --> 1:51:15.360 In an April interview, may Or mam Donni did express 1:51:15.360 --> 1:51:17.760 to The New York Times that when unable to reach 1:51:17.760 --> 1:51:20.200 an agreement with TISH, he does have the power to 1:51:20.320 --> 1:51:24.519 overrule her on police policy if needed. Quote. Ultimately, I 1:51:24.680 --> 1:51:28.280 hold the final decision, no matter which department or agency 1:51:28.360 --> 1:51:32.000 we're speaking about. On quote, Mam Donnie has not exercised 1:51:32.040 --> 1:51:36.040 this power with the NYPD as of yet. In March, 1:51:36.280 --> 1:51:39.840 Zoron took the first step in establishing the Department of 1:51:40.000 --> 1:51:44.360 Community Safety by opening the Office of Community Safety, led 1:51:44.400 --> 1:51:48.160 by Deputy Mayor Ronita Francois, who directed de Blasio's Action 1:51:48.360 --> 1:51:52.320 Plan for Neighborhood Safety and advised Campaign Zero, which opposes 1:51:52.439 --> 1:51:56.080 the Gang Database. The new Office of Community Safety will 1:51:56.080 --> 1:52:00.599 develop strategies and coordinate efforts to combat gun violence, mental health, 1:52:00.640 --> 1:52:05.640 crisis response, hate crimes, and substance abuse issues. At the announcement, 1:52:05.760 --> 1:52:09.120 Francois said, quote, the evidence is clear. Addressing what ails 1:52:09.160 --> 1:52:13.040 our communities, whether that be crumbling physical infrastructure, social disconnection, 1:52:13.600 --> 1:52:16.800 or a lack of access to economic opportunity, is how 1:52:16.880 --> 1:52:19.519 we best ensure that our communities are safe. 1:52:20.000 --> 1:52:20.439 Unquote. 1:52:21.160 --> 1:52:23.799 It's too early to judge the impact of the office, 1:52:24.360 --> 1:52:27.360 but such an office or city department has the potential 1:52:27.479 --> 1:52:31.800 to challenge the police's monopoly on public safety. The other 1:52:32.080 --> 1:52:36.160 common critique of Mumdani is based on his endorsement of 1:52:36.400 --> 1:52:39.519 liberal Governor Kathy Hochel and his decision to focus on 1:52:39.600 --> 1:52:43.559 governing rather than dedicating resources and political capital towards further 1:52:43.880 --> 1:52:48.360 uphill primary challenges. Zoran has said, quote, the success of 1:52:48.400 --> 1:52:51.599 our movement will be defined by the success of our government. 1:52:52.479 --> 1:52:56.280 Through his working partnership with Governor Hokeel, the mayor has 1:52:56.320 --> 1:52:58.800 been able to extract wins from the state, particularly for 1:52:59.040 --> 1:53:02.160 universal childcare and the one point five billion dollars in 1:53:02.320 --> 1:53:07.280 state aid. In the realm of discourse, some leftists, anarchists 1:53:07.439 --> 1:53:11.519 or ultras have jumped on any fault or policy shift 1:53:11.880 --> 1:53:14.840 as a sign that Zoron has wholly moved to the 1:53:14.960 --> 1:53:19.200 right or betrayed the movement. Such opinions are rewarded by 1:53:19.280 --> 1:53:22.560 the social media economy, which tends to encourage whatever is 1:53:22.600 --> 1:53:26.280 seen as the most radical, extreme, or divisive opinion. This 1:53:26.400 --> 1:53:29.759 tendency has been present even among some of Zoron's earliest 1:53:29.880 --> 1:53:34.360 online supporters. Behind this tendency is a willingness and frankly 1:53:34.520 --> 1:53:38.160 hunger to turn on Zoron, not necessarily for anything he 1:53:38.400 --> 1:53:41.679 has or has not done, but because of the position 1:53:42.040 --> 1:53:47.120 he now occupies. Zoron used to be an outsider challenging 1:53:47.240 --> 1:53:51.479 the democratic establishment embodied by Andrew Cuomo, but now he's 1:53:51.520 --> 1:53:54.479 one of the most popular Democrats in the country. DNC 1:53:54.680 --> 1:53:58.320 social media accounts are hosting Zoron memes and hype videos. 1:53:59.320 --> 1:54:02.479 This could be viewed as a massive accomplishment evidence that 1:54:02.520 --> 1:54:06.000 the Democratic Party can be forced to bend toward left 1:54:06.040 --> 1:54:09.400 wing populism because of the working class voters and mass 1:54:09.520 --> 1:54:12.840 organizing that put Zoron in the position he's currently in. 1:54:13.520 --> 1:54:17.920 But others view Zoron's acceptance and select promotion within the 1:54:18.040 --> 1:54:22.800 party as a sign he's been corrupted, co opted, recuperated, 1:54:23.160 --> 1:54:27.679 or made palatable. Both of these things can be partially true. 1:54:28.520 --> 1:54:32.480 The Democratic elite certainly have their own motives for dipping 1:54:32.560 --> 1:54:35.960 their toes into the Mamdani hottub, just as Zoron and 1:54:36.040 --> 1:54:39.200 the New York City DSA have their own aspirations for 1:54:39.320 --> 1:54:42.080 influencing the direction of the party towards social democracy and 1:54:42.160 --> 1:54:46.240 democratic socialism. In general, there's a lot of confusion or 1:54:46.320 --> 1:54:50.040 disagreement on what it means to be a democratic socialist 1:54:50.240 --> 1:54:53.960 in a position of power. As an executive, Zoron is 1:54:54.000 --> 1:54:57.000 in a unique position that not many other DSA members 1:54:57.160 --> 1:55:00.840 have ever had, being in such a position of power 1:55:01.400 --> 1:55:05.160 informs and shapes the way someone interacts with the systems 1:55:05.280 --> 1:55:08.600 of party and state in a way that those outside 1:55:08.640 --> 1:55:15.040 of power cannot fully understand. It filters ideology into material actions. 1:55:15.600 --> 1:55:20.400 This idea frightens many, but differences in political horizons also 1:55:20.480 --> 1:55:24.160 affect the way people interact and move with these systems. 1:55:25.000 --> 1:55:27.440 The question is not what should Zoron do if there 1:55:27.480 --> 1:55:30.880 were no constraints on his power, because then obviously he 1:55:30.960 --> 1:55:35.640 should just implement utopian communism. But his power obviously does 1:55:35.800 --> 1:55:38.360 have constraints if the goal for the left is to 1:55:38.440 --> 1:55:41.560 build a working class movement to that end, as a 1:55:41.680 --> 1:55:45.320 function of Zoron's constraints, it may actually be more effective 1:55:45.320 --> 1:55:48.680 for him to operate down certain state pathways that allow 1:55:48.800 --> 1:55:52.040 him to facilitate the building of a working class movement 1:55:52.640 --> 1:55:56.560 and avoid other more extreme pathways that, because of the 1:55:56.680 --> 1:55:59.760 current constraints on executive power, would either be in af 1:55:59.800 --> 1:56:04.600 fect at best or self destructive at worst. As the mayor, 1:56:04.800 --> 1:56:08.200 Zoron's job is to run the biggest city in the country, 1:56:08.800 --> 1:56:12.320 and as a democratic socialist that means using government to 1:56:12.440 --> 1:56:16.160 make life better for the working class. His task is 1:56:16.240 --> 1:56:19.440 to govern in a way that alleviates economic conditions to 1:56:19.480 --> 1:56:22.520 make it easier to organize and build a working class movement. 1:56:23.120 --> 1:56:27.880 But building that movement is not his job. It's yours. 1:56:28.480 --> 1:56:30.720 It's the job of the people, and such a movement 1:56:30.880 --> 1:56:34.920 is the only way of holding elected leaders like Zoron accountable. 1:56:35.800 --> 1:56:38.760 Zoron is not a revolutionary nor is he an organizer. 1:56:39.320 --> 1:56:41.880 He's the mayor of New York City, and as mayor, 1:56:42.040 --> 1:56:44.680 he has to serve more than eight million New Yorkers, 1:56:45.200 --> 1:56:48.680 not just the fourteen thousand members of New York City DSA. 1:56:49.400 --> 1:56:52.080 The mayor may join the picket line with striking nurses 1:56:52.200 --> 1:56:54.880 and fight for working class New Yorkers in city Hall, 1:56:55.640 --> 1:56:58.600 or even open an office of mass Engagement, like Zoron 1:56:58.640 --> 1:57:02.160 has done, but it is up to those outside city 1:57:02.200 --> 1:57:05.840 Hall to move in tandem by working to rebuild a 1:57:05.960 --> 1:57:10.200 labor movement. Assuming that Zoron or some random public official 1:57:10.520 --> 1:57:13.520 can just do whatever is the most extreme radical thing 1:57:14.400 --> 1:57:17.520 mistakingly sees the state as having more power than it 1:57:17.600 --> 1:57:21.800 actually does. People often see the state as an ahistorical, 1:57:21.960 --> 1:57:25.600 abstracted seat of power, but no, the state is just 1:57:25.760 --> 1:57:29.240 the mediator between capital and labor. The power of the 1:57:29.280 --> 1:57:32.360 state to support labor is exercised by doing things that 1:57:32.440 --> 1:57:35.480 are in the interest of labor and society as a whole, 1:57:35.960 --> 1:57:39.400 rather than just capital. But this ability is directly linked 1:57:39.600 --> 1:57:43.320 to the extent that labor is organized. So if labor 1:57:43.440 --> 1:57:47.080 is largely unorganized, then Zoron is more restrained in what 1:57:47.280 --> 1:57:50.440 he can do. What he can do then is use 1:57:50.560 --> 1:57:54.000 his position to help build working class power, which will 1:57:54.040 --> 1:57:57.160 then enable him further so on and so on. The 1:57:57.240 --> 1:58:01.400 state has no power against capital outside of the power 1:58:01.560 --> 1:58:06.120 that labor gives it. Our situation is one where capital 1:58:06.280 --> 1:58:09.600 is very strong, which means when the state serves capital 1:58:09.680 --> 1:58:13.280 it's quite strong, but in its function of serving labor 1:58:13.800 --> 1:58:16.680 it's rather weak. Because the left is failed to reckon 1:58:16.760 --> 1:58:20.920 with the fact that right now labor is actually quite weak, 1:58:21.440 --> 1:58:24.600 which means that state actors, even those on the pro 1:58:24.800 --> 1:58:28.280 labor left, are very constrained. So the main thing they 1:58:28.360 --> 1:58:31.880 can do to strengthen labor is providing better conditions for 1:58:32.000 --> 1:58:36.960 which labor power may be built, and importantly, organizers must 1:58:37.120 --> 1:58:42.040 utilize those conditions to build the labor movement. Zorn's other 1:58:42.160 --> 1:58:45.720 task is to demonstrate that left wing working class politics 1:58:46.160 --> 1:58:49.880 can actually govern, not just critique whether or not he 1:58:50.000 --> 1:58:53.160 succeeds at governing and delivering for working class New Yorkers, 1:58:53.720 --> 1:58:58.720 determines the perceived viability of democratic socialist politics nationally going forward. 1:58:59.200 --> 1:59:02.480 As Mamdani has said, the worth of an ideology can 1:59:02.560 --> 1:59:16.240 only be judged by its delivery. Mamdani is not the 1:59:16.360 --> 1:59:19.360 first democratic socialist to be put in such a position. 1:59:19.960 --> 1:59:23.240 In his one hundred day address, Mayor Mumdanni spoke about 1:59:23.320 --> 1:59:26.880 the so called sewer socialists of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who one 1:59:27.000 --> 1:59:30.480 hundred years ago quote built the greatest public park system 1:59:30.600 --> 1:59:33.200 in the nation, and whether the Great Depression better than 1:59:33.240 --> 1:59:37.640 almost any other American city, Milwaukee purged corruption, built the 1:59:37.760 --> 1:59:40.960 first municipally sponsored public housing development in the nation, and 1:59:41.200 --> 1:59:46.480 transformed the city's sewage disposal system unquote. Mayor Mamdani is 1:59:46.560 --> 1:59:50.480 trying to revive this legacy of municipal socialism by acting 1:59:50.560 --> 1:59:53.440 on his mantra there is no problem too big, no 1:59:53.640 --> 1:59:57.760 task too small. On day six of office, Mamdani fixed 1:59:57.800 --> 2:00:02.520 the infamous Williamsburg break bump that has long plague cyclists, 2:00:03.040 --> 2:00:07.120 and in response to the historic winter damage affecting city streets, 2:00:07.360 --> 2:00:11.640 the administration launched a five borough pothole blitz filling one 2:00:11.760 --> 2:00:15.040 hundred thousand potholes in less than one hundred days. 2:00:16.320 --> 2:00:20.080 This is pothole politics, our twenty twenty six answer to 2:00:20.160 --> 2:00:25.160 sewer socialism, where government is not too busy, not too 2:00:25.240 --> 2:00:28.440 self important, not too mired in paperwork, to fix the 2:00:28.560 --> 2:00:31.240 problems of the city, no matter their size. 2:00:31.840 --> 2:00:35.919 This quote unquote pothole politics has extended to scaffolding reforms, 2:00:36.280 --> 2:00:40.080 reducing the time that sheds clutter our sidewalks. In January, 2:00:40.200 --> 2:00:43.840 the mayor announced a new program to expand modular public restrooms, 2:00:44.280 --> 2:00:47.440 and starting this summer, the roof of the historic David 2:00:47.480 --> 2:00:50.240 Dinkin's Municipal Building will be open to the public for 2:00:50.440 --> 2:00:54.800 free viewing and tours. Fighting for workers from within city 2:00:54.880 --> 2:00:58.240 Hall isn't just an abstract ideal. In the first one 2:00:58.320 --> 2:01:02.120 hundred days, the administration secured nine point three million dollars 2:01:02.240 --> 2:01:02.920 in restitution. 2:01:03.720 --> 2:01:07.520 No longer will city government be afraid of its own shadow. 2:01:08.080 --> 2:01:11.080 If anyone should be afraid, it is those who take 2:01:11.160 --> 2:01:12.560 advantage of working people. 2:01:13.240 --> 2:01:16.080 On January fifteenth, the city filed a lawsuit against a 2:01:16.160 --> 2:01:20.240 predatory delivery app called Moto Click for violating worker laws 2:01:20.400 --> 2:01:23.680 like minimal pay rate. At the end of January, Zoron 2:01:23.680 --> 2:01:26.840 announced more than five million dollars in worker restitution and 2:01:26.920 --> 2:01:31.080 penalties due to minimum pay rate violations from three major 2:01:31.200 --> 2:01:35.480 restaurant delivery apps, Uber Eats, Phanton and Hungry Panda. This 2:01:35.640 --> 2:01:39.040 money will be paid to almost fifty thousand workers, and 2:01:39.120 --> 2:01:41.480 as a part of the settlement, Uber also agreed to 2:01:41.560 --> 2:01:46.600 reinstate ten thousand wrongfully deactivated delivery workers. In March, the 2:01:46.640 --> 2:01:50.200 administration won almost two million dollars for over eight hundred 2:01:50.280 --> 2:01:53.320 fast food workers at Taco Bell and retail workers for 2:01:53.520 --> 2:01:58.480 violations of worker protection laws against unpredictable scheduling. The mayor 2:01:58.600 --> 2:02:02.880 signed executive orders strengthening consumer protections by targeting hidden junk 2:02:02.960 --> 2:02:06.919 fees and impossible to cancel subscriptions, and expanded the protected 2:02:07.040 --> 2:02:11.720 time off law to four point three million previously unprotected 2:02:11.760 --> 2:02:15.840 workers and issued compliance warnings to nearly sixty thousand employers. 2:02:16.560 --> 2:02:20.280 Speaking of sewer socialism, at the end of March, Mayrormamdani 2:02:20.320 --> 2:02:22.920 announced a one hundred and eight million dollar investment to 2:02:23.080 --> 2:02:26.160 upgrade and replace more than six thousand and seven hundred 2:02:26.560 --> 2:02:31.320 water catch basins to combat flooding. This quote unquote pothole politics, 2:02:31.840 --> 2:02:36.880 least the groundwork of public trust needed for larger systematic transformations. 2:02:37.160 --> 2:02:40.040 If government can't do the small things, how could you 2:02:40.160 --> 2:02:43.160 ever trust it to do the big ones? How can 2:02:43.240 --> 2:02:46.320 we promise to transform our city if we can't pave 2:02:46.560 --> 2:02:47.120 your street. 2:02:48.120 --> 2:02:50.360 At the end of the one hundred day Address, Mayor 2:02:50.400 --> 2:02:54.520 Mamdani made a series of announcements. The administration is restarting 2:02:54.600 --> 2:02:58.560 trash containerization and will make buses faster for one million 2:02:58.680 --> 2:03:02.360 New Yorkers by speeding up buses by twenty percent along 2:03:02.520 --> 2:03:06.520 forty five priority corridors and constructing new rapid bus routes 2:03:06.640 --> 2:03:08.920 for one hundred thousand New Yorkers who live more than 2:03:09.080 --> 2:03:12.560 half a mile away from a subway or rail stop. 2:03:13.160 --> 2:03:16.280 But the big announcement was an update to another of 2:03:16.440 --> 2:03:20.960 Zoron's core campaign promises. The first of five city owned 2:03:21.040 --> 2:03:24.640 grocery stores will open next year, with one store being 2:03:24.720 --> 2:03:28.320 opened in each borough by the end of Mamdani's first term. 2:03:28.880 --> 2:03:31.800 The location of the Manhattan Municipal grocery store has already 2:03:31.840 --> 2:03:36.120 been selected. Le Marquetta in East Harlem, a public market 2:03:36.320 --> 2:03:40.280 opened by the New Deal era Mayor Pharaoh LaGuardia. The 2:03:40.400 --> 2:03:43.280 city will build a nine thousand square foot store at 2:03:43.320 --> 2:03:47.360 the site to offer cheaper groceries than the capitalist competitors. 2:03:48.120 --> 2:03:50.600 I know there are many who use socialists as a 2:03:50.640 --> 2:03:54.680 dirty word, something to be ashamed of. They can try 2:03:54.800 --> 2:03:57.320 all they want, but we will not be ashamed of 2:03:57.440 --> 2:04:00.280 using government to fight for the many, not simply the few. 2:04:06.800 --> 2:04:09.200 We will not be ashamed of adding more heat pumps 2:04:09.200 --> 2:04:11.920 to knights of buildings in the Rockaways, or building more 2:04:12.000 --> 2:04:17.240 supportive housing in Harlem, or standing steadfast alongside our trans neighbors. 2:04:23.320 --> 2:04:26.040 We will not be ashamed of investing in youth mental 2:04:26.120 --> 2:04:29.200 health clinics, or working to close rikers, or fighting for 2:04:29.320 --> 2:04:39.040 immigrants targeted by ice. To any New Yorker, whether you're 2:04:39.120 --> 2:04:42.480 under attack from the federal government's cruelty or suffocating under 2:04:42.520 --> 2:04:51.280 the affordability crisis, we will stand beside you because government 2:04:51.440 --> 2:04:54.960 is a series of choices, and socialism is the choice 2:04:55.000 --> 2:05:01.120 to fight for every New Yorker to extend democracy from 2:05:01.120 --> 2:05:03.520 the ballot box to the rest of our lives. 2:05:04.800 --> 2:05:08.880 Three days after Mamdanie's one hundred day address, on Tax Day, 2:05:08.960 --> 2:05:12.880 April fifteenth, the mayor announced that he and Governor hokel 2:05:13.120 --> 2:05:16.800 had agreed to a new tax the Rich proposal. New 2:05:16.920 --> 2:05:20.320 York State will have its first ever heated tear tax, 2:05:21.160 --> 2:05:23.760 a wealth tax on second homes in New York City 2:05:24.160 --> 2:05:28.600 valued above five million dollars owned by out of state elites. 2:05:29.400 --> 2:05:31.920 This tax on the ultra wealthy is projected to generate 2:05:32.200 --> 2:05:36.640 five hundred million dollars in annual revenue. And if owners 2:05:36.760 --> 2:05:39.560 want to avoid the tax by moving into the residence, 2:05:40.120 --> 2:05:42.920 that's fine too, because then they'll have to pay New 2:05:43.000 --> 2:05:47.520 York resident taxes, So you get taxed either way. Part 2:05:47.600 --> 2:05:52.480 of pushing back against the libertarian ethos in America by 2:05:52.640 --> 2:05:56.080 showing that government can actually make your life better is 2:05:56.120 --> 2:05:59.920 actually showing people what local government is doing. Since taking office, 2:06:00.200 --> 2:06:04.040 Zoron has employed the same widely successful messaging style that 2:06:04.240 --> 2:06:07.440 helped get him elected to make psays and inform New 2:06:07.520 --> 2:06:10.080 Yorkers about what the administration has been able to accomplish. 2:06:10.800 --> 2:06:14.200 This is something Democrats have largely failed to do by 2:06:14.280 --> 2:06:17.360 either just not doing this sort of outreach while governing, 2:06:17.920 --> 2:06:21.960 making any outreach inaccessible or hard to understand, or having 2:06:22.040 --> 2:06:24.800 your outreach come off as cringe or out of touch. 2:06:25.400 --> 2:06:28.640 Regardless of how much effort is put into outreach, the 2:06:28.760 --> 2:06:32.360 people have to also see the improvements being talked about 2:06:32.720 --> 2:06:35.560 in their own lives or in their own neighborhoods. A 2:06:35.640 --> 2:06:38.760 dense population and having a cohesive city culture like New 2:06:38.840 --> 2:06:43.080 York helps with that. Millions of cyclists cross the Williamsburg 2:06:43.160 --> 2:06:46.120 Bridge every year, so when the mayor fixes the bump 2:06:46.280 --> 2:06:49.520 during his first week in office, that's an easy reference 2:06:49.600 --> 2:06:53.760 point for people. The success of the administration's comm strategy 2:06:54.000 --> 2:06:57.960 has been by using Zoron's popularity to promote the public 2:06:58.000 --> 2:07:02.440 sector and public sector workers while actually showing people how 2:07:02.680 --> 2:07:06.880 social services help city residents. As the mayor says, New 2:07:07.000 --> 2:07:11.320 York belongs to all who live in it. While in office, 2:07:11.600 --> 2:07:16.640 Zoron has largely declined to explicitly talk about how his 2:07:16.680 --> 2:07:21.200 administration may impact the future of democratic socialism across the country, 2:07:21.840 --> 2:07:25.560 instead keeping his vision laser focused on improving the lives 2:07:25.640 --> 2:07:29.040 of working New Yorkers and making this city more affordable. 2:07:29.560 --> 2:07:32.240 To quote the mayor, we cannot burden ourselves with the 2:07:32.320 --> 2:07:36.320 question of what this means beyond this city. But before 2:07:36.400 --> 2:07:39.520 the mayor went on stage at the one hundred day address, 2:07:40.120 --> 2:07:42.920 they played a clip of the Progressive New Deal Mayor 2:07:43.240 --> 2:07:47.200 Fiorello LaGuardia saying that the greatness of New York City 2:07:47.360 --> 2:07:50.600 is in the services to its people, where public problems 2:07:50.640 --> 2:07:53.800 are really the problems of all the people, quote. And 2:07:54.000 --> 2:07:58.280 if we succeed here, surely it can be done elsewhere. 2:07:59.440 --> 2:08:03.520 When former Socialist Mayor Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance 2:08:03.920 --> 2:08:07.360 during Zoron's speech, the Senator spoke about how what's happening 2:08:07.440 --> 2:08:10.320 in New York is influencing those outside the city. 2:08:11.160 --> 2:08:13.560 And I want to tell all of you and the mayor, 2:08:14.600 --> 2:08:17.360 but what you guys are doing here in New York City, 2:08:18.200 --> 2:08:20.720 it's important not only to the people here. 2:08:21.720 --> 2:08:23.920 What you are doing, what the mayor is. 2:08:24.000 --> 2:08:30.280 Doing, is providing hope and inspiration not only to people 2:08:30.520 --> 2:08:35.560 all across our country, but honestly all across the world. 2:08:37.560 --> 2:08:40.960 As a part of Mamdani's first one hundred days press circuit, 2:08:41.520 --> 2:08:44.720 he was asked on CBS News about the future of 2:08:44.800 --> 2:08:49.320 the Democratic Party and if his socialist politics are really viable. 2:08:49.680 --> 2:08:51.680 You know, what I find is that New Yorkers asked 2:08:51.680 --> 2:08:53.960 me less about how I describe my politics and more 2:08:53.960 --> 2:08:57.000 about whether my politics includes them. And I think what 2:08:57.120 --> 2:09:00.440 we can see is that a democratic socialist politics is 2:09:00.480 --> 2:09:03.280 one that should be judged on its delivery, like any ideology, 2:09:03.440 --> 2:09:06.120 and what we're showing in this city is we can 2:09:06.280 --> 2:09:09.280 pursue the big things like universal childcare and do the 2:09:09.320 --> 2:09:11.800 pothole politics at the same time that we're showing and 2:09:11.920 --> 2:09:14.440 not just filling in the potholes, changing the catch basins, 2:09:14.480 --> 2:09:16.920 but also repaving over a thousand miles of roadway. 2:09:17.040 --> 2:09:20.960 But mister Mayor, presidential and statewide elections are often decided 2:09:21.000 --> 2:09:23.360 in battleground regions that do not look like New York City. 2:09:23.440 --> 2:09:26.040 Yeah, I'll be honest with you. Before I was the mayor, 2:09:26.080 --> 2:09:27.680 I was an assembly member of a story in Long 2:09:27.720 --> 2:09:29.720 Island City. At that time, I was told that you 2:09:29.800 --> 2:09:32.880 could only be a Democratic socialist in Northwest Queens. Then 2:09:32.920 --> 2:09:34.840 I became the mayor. Now the next question is the state. 2:09:34.920 --> 2:09:36.880 Then it'll be the next question will be the country. 2:09:37.040 --> 2:09:39.480 I think that this is a politics that can flourish 2:09:39.520 --> 2:09:42.040 anywhere because, frankly, there is only one majority in this 2:09:42.080 --> 2:09:44.160 country that's the working class, and it's time we have 2:09:44.200 --> 2:09:46.400 a politics that puts them at the heart of what 2:09:46.520 --> 2:09:47.600 it is that we're pursuing and not. 2:09:47.800 --> 2:09:52.320 As part of the appendix, Mamdanie still has over thirteen 2:09:52.520 --> 2:09:55.960 hundred days left in his first term, and there will 2:09:55.960 --> 2:09:59.000 be more challenges along the way, Challenges with the NYPD, 2:09:59.280 --> 2:10:03.840 the MTA, state government, federal government, the billionaires, and the 2:10:03.880 --> 2:10:08.400 bloodsucking monsters among the Democratic Party elite. Attempts to hold 2:10:08.560 --> 2:10:13.000 politicians like Zoron truly accountable to their politics will require 2:10:13.120 --> 2:10:18.360 more than Twitter, maoists and your small DSA caucus. Navigating 2:10:18.360 --> 2:10:21.560 all these problems will require not just principal leadership with 2:10:21.680 --> 2:10:25.720 a commitment to working class politics, but also growing the 2:10:25.880 --> 2:10:30.160 mass organizing apparatus that helped get Zora elected, and continuing 2:10:30.240 --> 2:10:33.360 to build power in city hall, state government, and in. 2:10:33.440 --> 2:10:34.680 The workplace. 2:10:35.800 --> 2:10:36.640 That does it today. 2:10:36.760 --> 2:10:39.880 For it could happen here, see you on the other side. 2:10:55.240 --> 2:10:58.880 This is it could happen here. Executive Disorder, our weekly 2:10:58.920 --> 2:11:01.480 newscast covering what's happening in the White House, They're crumbling world, 2:11:01.520 --> 2:11:03.680 and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis today 2:11:03.680 --> 2:11:07.560 I'm joined by James Stout and Robert Evans. This episode 2:11:07.600 --> 2:11:11.839 recovering the week of April twenty second April thirtieth. Anything 2:11:11.880 --> 2:11:13.280 anything interesting happened this week? 2:11:13.560 --> 2:11:16.640 Very little? Not much news? Oh not much? 2:11:16.680 --> 2:11:20.080 I mean, Garrison, you've joined the ranks of the vaccine injured, right. 2:11:21.680 --> 2:11:25.000 Right, Yeah, yeah, got full, so joining us of four 2:11:25.080 --> 2:11:27.000 live vaccines inside Garrison's podies. 2:11:27.440 --> 2:11:29.800 Thank you, thank you for having me and my four 2:11:29.880 --> 2:11:33.240 live vaccines, which have obliterated my body and mind this 2:11:33.360 --> 2:11:35.400 week as I scrambled to finish them. 2:11:35.400 --> 2:11:36.200 I'm Donnie piece. 2:11:37.000 --> 2:11:41.000 But news happens whether or not I feel bad, So 2:11:41.200 --> 2:11:42.000 let's get to it. 2:11:42.440 --> 2:11:44.240 In fact, I seem to happen a lot when we've 2:11:45.360 --> 2:11:47.400 they need you sometimes conspire us that way. 2:11:47.920 --> 2:11:50.520 Now we will talk about the thing. Obviously, we'll talk 2:11:50.560 --> 2:11:55.320 about the thing, but first some smaller news items to start. 2:11:55.960 --> 2:11:59.920 Congress has voted to end the seventy six day DHS 2:12:00.120 --> 2:12:03.680 shut down without funding for ice or border patrol. The 2:12:03.720 --> 2:12:06.880 bill now goes to Trump today and if he signs it, 2:12:06.960 --> 2:12:10.680 the shutdown will be over. The House voted to reauthorize 2:12:10.880 --> 2:12:14.960 FAIZA section seven oh two, the warrant list of surveillance authority. 2:12:15.480 --> 2:12:19.320 Forty two House Democrats voted to reauthorize twenty two Republicans 2:12:19.400 --> 2:12:22.720 voted against the bills, expected to be stalled in the 2:12:22.760 --> 2:12:25.480 Senate at least this version of the bill, as it 2:12:25.640 --> 2:12:29.200 included an amendment about digital currency, which the Senate will 2:12:30.040 --> 2:12:33.680 fight over. The ATF released a new list of proposed 2:12:33.720 --> 2:12:38.400 reforms and regulations repealing the Biden pistol brace rule, as 2:12:38.440 --> 2:12:41.880 well as requiring quote unquote biological sex be used on 2:12:42.040 --> 2:12:46.440 ATF forms. The State Department is releasing a limited edition 2:12:46.520 --> 2:12:49.200 passport for the United States two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, 2:12:49.480 --> 2:12:53.320 featuring a portrait of President Trump superimposed on the Declaration 2:12:53.400 --> 2:12:57.400 of Independence and an American flag with his golden signature below. 2:12:57.840 --> 2:12:59.840 Google Trump Golden Signature for more. 2:13:00.120 --> 2:13:02.400 Look, I'm just gonna say, if we have any foreign 2:13:02.520 --> 2:13:06.480 border Control agents listening, you have to detain anybody you 2:13:06.520 --> 2:13:07.960 can see that pass forward. 2:13:10.320 --> 2:13:13.839 It is now possible for Nicki Minaj, and only Nicki Minaj, 2:13:14.080 --> 2:13:17.680 to assemble the most unique collection of United States government 2:13:17.720 --> 2:13:20.440 documents in history if she becomes a citizen, because she 2:13:20.600 --> 2:13:23.880 is apparently the only recipient of the Gold Card that's 2:13:23.920 --> 2:13:28.480 the Golden Visa. Yeah, yeah, she could, really, she could 2:13:28.520 --> 2:13:31.120 really get a unique but you know, Pokemon combination here 2:13:31.200 --> 2:13:33.760 of I guess she'd have to advance pretty quickly for 2:13:33.800 --> 2:13:36.280 a moment you would. I'm not clear how one goes 2:13:36.280 --> 2:13:38.960 from Gold Card citizenship, and the only way we'll find 2:13:38.960 --> 2:13:40.960 out is by closely following Nicki Minaj. 2:13:41.640 --> 2:13:44.960 The DOJ indicted former FBI doctor James Colemy for the 2:13:45.040 --> 2:13:48.680 second time, this time for posting an Instagram image with 2:13:48.800 --> 2:13:51.040 the numbers eighty six forty seven. 2:13:52.560 --> 2:13:53.040 Once again. 2:13:53.280 --> 2:13:57.800 Trump's FCC is going after Disney's ABC licenses by directing 2:13:57.840 --> 2:14:01.440 Disney to file an early renewal order after Jimmy Kimmel 2:14:01.480 --> 2:14:03.680 made a joke a few days before the White House 2:14:03.680 --> 2:14:07.360 Correspondents Dinner about First Lady Milania Trump having the quote 2:14:07.520 --> 2:14:11.040 glow of an expectant widow. It pains me to say 2:14:11.120 --> 2:14:15.000 critical support to Jimmy Kimmel. President Trump, David Allison, Todd 2:14:15.040 --> 2:14:18.520 Blanche Stephen Miller, Barry Weiss, Paramount's chief legal officer, and 2:14:18.680 --> 2:14:23.200 several CBS journalists met in a closed door dinner in Washington, 2:14:23.240 --> 2:14:25.960 d C. Last week, as the Paramount buyout of Warner 2:14:26.040 --> 2:14:31.560 Brothers and CNN progresses nightmare blunt rotation. Main Governor Janet 2:14:31.680 --> 2:14:36.160 Mills vetoed the state's eighteen month data center moratorium, the 2:14:36.200 --> 2:14:39.160 first of its kind in the country. Days later, Mills 2:14:39.240 --> 2:14:41.160 dropped out of the Senate race, paving the way for 2:14:41.360 --> 2:14:45.160 populist candidate Graham Plattner to receive the Democratic nomination and 2:14:45.280 --> 2:14:47.640 go up against Susan Collins in the midterms. 2:14:48.160 --> 2:14:50.920 Mister dem seemed to already be behind Amosaur post from 2:14:51.000 --> 2:14:53.760 the Democrats account Patrick Graham. 2:14:54.400 --> 2:14:57.040 Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how the 2:14:57.280 --> 2:14:59.720 Democratic Party kind of falls in line behind this guy, 2:15:00.320 --> 2:15:03.440 given the fairly unique degree of controversy over the Nazi 2:15:03.560 --> 2:15:05.600 tattoo and a couple of other things that have come up. 2:15:05.640 --> 2:15:09.040 But this has been in general, the gap between kind 2:15:09.080 --> 2:15:13.520 of how random progressives and Democrats online talk about Platner 2:15:13.640 --> 2:15:16.040 and how people in Maine feel about him has been 2:15:16.120 --> 2:15:17.760 massive from the jump, and I think a lot of 2:15:17.840 --> 2:15:19.920 it has to do just with the fact that this 2:15:20.120 --> 2:15:23.880 guy went about campaigning in a very dedicated way. He 2:15:24.000 --> 2:15:27.960 visited basically every county that like he could, and it 2:15:28.120 --> 2:15:30.880 goes to show that the consensus that builds online around 2:15:30.920 --> 2:15:34.040 candidates will never matter as much as like what they're 2:15:34.080 --> 2:15:38.000 out there actually doing in the world. And it's useful 2:15:38.080 --> 2:15:40.080 to get a reminder of that, whether or not you 2:15:40.160 --> 2:15:43.200 think this is a tremendous disaster, just the degree to 2:15:43.280 --> 2:15:45.920 which all of the talk about this guy online had 2:15:45.960 --> 2:15:49.320 no impact on his ability to actually like win. Now, 2:15:49.360 --> 2:15:52.440 this is a unique case. There aren't a whole lot 2:15:52.560 --> 2:15:55.080 of seats that are like the seat that he's going 2:15:55.160 --> 2:15:57.960 to be taking, right in terms of like both the 2:15:58.080 --> 2:16:01.640 weakness of your primary right and the weakness of the 2:16:01.720 --> 2:16:04.080 other party if you should happen to win the primary. Like, 2:16:04.160 --> 2:16:07.480 this is not every congressional district, but it's still kind 2:16:07.480 --> 2:16:09.000 of an interesting case study. 2:16:09.360 --> 2:16:13.080 Maine is also like it's not California, you know, like Californian, 2:16:13.160 --> 2:16:15.840 so discourse happens on LANs We're of vast state and 2:16:16.080 --> 2:16:18.560 you know these big cities Inserche and Maine is different. 2:16:18.600 --> 2:16:21.640 Like he has good ground game and that matters more there, 2:16:21.760 --> 2:16:22.160 it seems. 2:16:22.720 --> 2:16:26.200 And this signifies like a rejection of democratic establishment, yes, 2:16:26.320 --> 2:16:29.320 sessions like a hunger for change yep. And the fact 2:16:29.320 --> 2:16:31.560 that someone with all the controversies that come with Platner 2:16:31.680 --> 2:16:34.840 was able to beat the Democratic establishment I think shows 2:16:34.840 --> 2:16:39.920 how hungry, how hungry people are to upseat these these 2:16:39.959 --> 2:16:40.920 bloodsucking monsters. 2:16:41.560 --> 2:16:44.480 Yeah, we'll keep reporting on that. I'm kind of interested 2:16:44.520 --> 2:16:45.040 in this race. 2:16:45.760 --> 2:16:48.600 Yes, no, absolutely, I mean Susan Collins plays a unique 2:16:48.680 --> 2:16:52.000 role in the Senate right now. M Finally for me, 2:16:52.760 --> 2:16:56.160 On Saturday, a car bomb exploded at a police station 2:16:56.400 --> 2:17:01.040 in Dunmurrae, Northern Ireland outside Belfast. A group calling itself 2:17:01.080 --> 2:17:04.320 the quote unquote New IRA claimed responsibility and a sixty 2:17:04.360 --> 2:17:06.080 six year old man has been arrested. 2:17:06.760 --> 2:17:12.520 Yeah, new IRA, sixty six year old man. Well, the 2:17:12.600 --> 2:17:16.200 new IRAS's it grows out of the real IRA. Right. 2:17:16.520 --> 2:17:19.160 Was it the new IRA who killed the journalist a 2:17:19.200 --> 2:17:22.520 few years back in Belfast? You know what, I don't know? 2:17:23.320 --> 2:17:26.880 The new Ira yep admitted responsibility. Yeah, yeah, that's the 2:17:26.920 --> 2:17:29.480 new IRA as well. Lara McKee is the name of 2:17:29.600 --> 2:17:32.720 the journalist who was killed. Okay, I think just out 2:17:32.760 --> 2:17:35.920 of negligence and incompetence during an action these people were 2:17:35.920 --> 2:17:36.240 a part of. 2:17:36.440 --> 2:17:39.840 Yeah, this is like just before COVID at times. Yeah, 2:17:40.040 --> 2:17:40.720 I do remember. 2:17:41.680 --> 2:17:41.720 So. 2:17:42.360 --> 2:17:45.120 Two large vessels, including a tanker, have been seized by 2:17:45.200 --> 2:17:51.039 pirates off Somalia. Another attempted hijacking by pirates was prevented. 2:17:51.400 --> 2:17:55.000 I'm just going to quote the ukmto here quote the 2:17:55.160 --> 2:17:57.400 master of a cargo vessel was approached by two small 2:17:57.400 --> 2:18:01.119 fishing vessels with armed persons support. One vessel approached within 2:18:01.200 --> 2:18:04.519 six hundred meters, warning shots were fired and the suspicious 2:18:04.560 --> 2:18:07.960 craft returned fire. The suspicious boat moved away and made 2:18:07.959 --> 2:18:10.800 clear of the vessel. All crew are safe and accounted for. 2:18:11.400 --> 2:18:13.480 Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report and 2:18:13.520 --> 2:18:17.560 the suspicious activities to UK MDO authorities are investigating. I 2:18:17.680 --> 2:18:21.480 saw another incident where a ship had fired a flare 2:18:22.080 --> 2:18:24.920 people who were allegedly attempting to board it right that, 2:18:25.160 --> 2:18:27.880 it seems like there has been an uptick an incidant, 2:18:28.240 --> 2:18:32.440 especially as ships generally are having a hard time right now. 2:18:32.560 --> 2:18:34.560 The United States has also been boarding a number of 2:18:34.680 --> 2:18:37.400 vessels to inspect them as part of its blockade on 2:18:37.480 --> 2:18:43.960 Iran and Iranian goods. Secondly, j NIM that Ali Islam 2:18:44.200 --> 2:18:48.200 while Muslimin and the Asquad Liberation Front in Mali launched 2:18:48.240 --> 2:18:51.280 a shock offensive this week that saw them sweep into 2:18:51.320 --> 2:18:54.920 Mali's capital, assassinate the defense minister, and force the military 2:18:54.959 --> 2:18:58.240 Hunter and its allied Russian forces to abandon whole cities. 2:18:58.680 --> 2:19:01.640 They also abandoned a number of bases right there. J 2:19:01.760 --> 2:19:05.160 and I AM have captured like massive amounts of Russian 2:19:05.200 --> 2:19:09.960 Africa core material. But this is a pretty ground shaking offensive, 2:19:10.520 --> 2:19:14.680 a big change for Mali. The Hunter in the Ammar 2:19:15.360 --> 2:19:18.160 I still keep calling them that they've rebranded themselves as 2:19:18.160 --> 2:19:22.120 a civilian government. They're not now min A Lang gets 2:19:22.200 --> 2:19:24.680 retired as a general and just become president and change 2:19:24.720 --> 2:19:27.600 closed and done the same shit like the Hunter reclaimed 2:19:27.640 --> 2:19:31.400 Falam this week, which using Chin State. It's capital of 2:19:31.520 --> 2:19:35.200 Chinn State. Fighting has been happening there for months. I've 2:19:35.240 --> 2:19:37.520 been talking to people pretty regularly who are taking part 2:19:37.600 --> 2:19:41.640 in the in the battle there. They're obviously, you know, 2:19:41.680 --> 2:19:45.160 they lost friends in the battle. They are not happy 2:19:45.200 --> 2:19:47.080 about this, but I think it's fair to say that 2:19:47.200 --> 2:19:50.959 spirits among the resistance generally remain pretty high, and they 2:19:51.040 --> 2:19:54.600 hope that they will return to Palam soon enough. Doug 2:19:54.800 --> 2:19:59.279 Bergham has announced a United States Geographic is it geographical 2:19:59.360 --> 2:20:02.440 or geological USGS geological server? 2:20:02.600 --> 2:20:05.760 Yeah, I know that because of the film Evolution starring 2:20:05.840 --> 2:20:08.160 David Dukovn not familiar. This is an important piece of 2:20:08.240 --> 2:20:10.040 news for the listeners. There was a brief period of 2:20:10.080 --> 2:20:13.160 time in between X Files and Californication where we thought 2:20:13.200 --> 2:20:16.800 that David Duchovny might have a career as a comedic actor. 2:20:16.920 --> 2:20:19.720 And no, he did not that he might have a career. 2:20:22.800 --> 2:20:24.720 I loved he said a great. 2:20:25.360 --> 2:20:31.240 Just not as a comedic actor. Yeah, Okay, So, Doug 2:20:31.280 --> 2:20:34.200 Bergen has announced that the United States Geological Survey found 2:20:34.440 --> 2:20:39.520 enough lithium to replace three centuries of imports in Appalachia. 2:20:39.200 --> 2:20:41.400 Enough left the end to do that or make one 2:20:41.440 --> 2:20:43.720 American small town normal for a weekend. 2:20:46.680 --> 2:20:50.160 Yeah, I want to read from this because it's kind 2:20:50.160 --> 2:20:53.360 of interesting. Quite the southern Appalachians hold an estimated one 2:20:53.400 --> 2:20:56.200 point four to three million metric tons of lithium oxide 2:20:56.959 --> 2:21:00.920 concentrated in the Carolinas, and the Northern Appalachians estimated nine 2:21:01.040 --> 2:21:04.800 hundred thousand metric tons concentrated in Maine and New Hampshire, 2:21:05.120 --> 2:21:08.640 according to estimates in a new USGS scientific paper. That 2:21:08.800 --> 2:21:11.840 is like, I guess Big Appalachia like going up into 2:21:11.920 --> 2:21:18.519 Maine there Leaving that aside. Lithium mining is incredibly disruptive 2:21:18.720 --> 2:21:21.880 to the environment. Right Generally, there's two ways you could 2:21:21.879 --> 2:21:23.640 do it. You can extract it from brine like they 2:21:23.680 --> 2:21:26.119 do in Chile, and I think other places think they're 2:21:26.120 --> 2:21:29.440 trying to do that in California. Otherwise it's open pit mining. 2:21:30.440 --> 2:21:33.760 The water use, energy use, ecological damage will be huge. 2:21:33.959 --> 2:21:38.520 Potential for disasters is not zero, and the people of 2:21:38.520 --> 2:21:41.960 apple Lecture should be more than familiar with how this 2:21:42.160 --> 2:21:44.480 tends to go right. This is the long history of 2:21:45.240 --> 2:21:49.720 mining and mining disasters. Moving on, Donald Trump has reposted 2:21:49.760 --> 2:21:53.680 a tweet about changing the name of Ice to nice 2:21:54.760 --> 2:21:57.520 nice Agents. They should do this. I want them to 2:21:57.600 --> 2:22:03.400 do this. It would be absolutely disastrous for audio journalism. 2:22:03.480 --> 2:22:05.840 It's it's it'd be like, look, we understand, you know, 2:22:05.879 --> 2:22:08.000 it's nineteen forty three. People have a lot of issues 2:22:08.040 --> 2:22:11.240 with the Gestapo. We're gonna call them the funestoppo now. 2:22:11.600 --> 2:22:16.240 Yeah, the nice stoppo. Yeah, the great style process now 2:22:16.280 --> 2:22:17.560 stands for super sweet. 2:22:17.800 --> 2:22:24.120 Actually, the White House account and the DHS account have 2:22:24.480 --> 2:22:28.480 posted nice images or hype videos since this as well. 2:22:28.600 --> 2:22:31.400 Yeah, you have to consider there's like a forty chance 2:22:31.440 --> 2:22:32.480 this happens at least. 2:22:32.640 --> 2:22:33.880 Yeah, no, this might happen. 2:22:34.120 --> 2:22:36.960 If this could very much happen, Like we're laughing, but 2:22:37.080 --> 2:22:38.120 this could be the future. 2:22:38.520 --> 2:22:42.480 Yeah. What does the END stand for national? National? It's 2:22:42.600 --> 2:22:45.640 just it's what they call a backronym. I know, Garrison 2:22:45.720 --> 2:22:47.400 with these guys, the N could have stood for a 2:22:47.480 --> 2:22:53.039 couple of things, you thinks. Yeah, so, uh Trump truth, 2:22:53.280 --> 2:22:57.240 great idea do it? That is how policy is made 2:22:57.360 --> 2:22:57.920 these days. 2:22:58.400 --> 2:23:01.440 This is hugover and policy works now via via truth. 2:23:01.520 --> 2:23:01.680 Yeah. 2:23:01.720 --> 2:23:03.400 Yeah, this has made something clear to me that I 2:23:03.520 --> 2:23:05.080 was kind of dancing around for all, which is that 2:23:05.160 --> 2:23:07.480 I am in support in general of any policy that 2:23:07.680 --> 2:23:11.200 just pulls the wool off of people's eyes like this. 2:23:11.520 --> 2:23:13.240 This is one of those things where it's now should 2:23:13.240 --> 2:23:15.800 be clearer to even the really stupid people, where we 2:23:15.879 --> 2:23:17.520 are as a country when we do so, when something 2:23:17.560 --> 2:23:20.000 like this happens, and so I'm supportive of it, Like 2:23:20.120 --> 2:23:22.640 we can't have any artifice. The more you dress things up, 2:23:23.040 --> 2:23:26.280 the more people get deranged. So at least this everyone 2:23:26.400 --> 2:23:27.200 knows what's happening. 2:23:27.640 --> 2:23:30.080 Yeah, really clear. I'm also Germany in favor of like 2:23:30.160 --> 2:23:32.200 they have a budget, it is vast, but it is 2:23:32.240 --> 2:23:34.080 fixed and if they want to spend it all rewrapping 2:23:34.120 --> 2:23:37.760 their vehicles to say nice, yeah fine. Also it's gonna 2:23:37.800 --> 2:23:38.840 make them feel lame. 2:23:39.160 --> 2:23:41.920 Are they gonna do that by buying end stickers or 2:23:41.959 --> 2:23:43.360 do they have to get the whole new sticker? Do 2:23:43.400 --> 2:23:44.880 you think right? Are they slap the end? 2:23:45.160 --> 2:23:48.440 I hope they just slap it in. I know, if 2:23:48.480 --> 2:23:51.120 we want to open the open door and I'm having 2:23:51.160 --> 2:23:54.800 stickers with in on that, yeah, who knows? Garrison they 2:23:55.400 --> 2:23:57.600 had previously spent quite a lot of money wrapping vehicles, 2:23:57.680 --> 2:24:00.160 so it's not beyond them to get Maybe they'll get 2:24:00.200 --> 2:24:02.560 a whole rebrand. Maybe it'll be nice and a picture 2:24:02.560 --> 2:24:05.240 of someone like holding cake. Or they got to find 2:24:05.320 --> 2:24:08.720 some way to spend the seven bajillion dollars. Yeah they have, so. 2:24:09.160 --> 2:24:11.160 Either that or you know, when we get someone better 2:24:11.240 --> 2:24:13.760 in We could keep the name, but just create like 2:24:13.840 --> 2:24:16.600 a brand partnership with the city of Nice. And I'm 2:24:16.680 --> 2:24:18.760 going to say that like it's like and turn them 2:24:18.760 --> 2:24:22.120 into advertising instead of pulling people away from their families. 2:24:22.200 --> 2:24:24.320 They can tell people about all of the new deals 2:24:24.360 --> 2:24:26.440 on airfare to France that are available right now. 2:24:27.240 --> 2:24:28.720 We don't even need to abolish Nice. 2:24:28.760 --> 2:24:29.560 We can just perform it. 2:24:29.680 --> 2:24:31.400 Yeah, we could just we could just perform it to 2:24:31.520 --> 2:24:34.840 a totism agency for one city in France. 2:24:35.080 --> 2:24:36.880 There is a type of biscuit in Britain which I 2:24:36.879 --> 2:24:39.560 suspect maybe comes from Nice Finish Germany referred to as 2:24:39.560 --> 2:24:43.240 a Nice biscuit because it has Nice stamped on the biscuit. Sure, 2:24:43.320 --> 2:24:46.039 so perhaps we could instead of guns, give them biscuits 2:24:46.240 --> 2:24:47.480 and they can hand those out. 2:24:48.320 --> 2:24:50.760 Think of how much better it'll be Some guy shows 2:24:50.840 --> 2:24:53.720 up for his like, you know, immigration court meeting, and 2:24:53.800 --> 2:24:56.320 he finishes that. On his way out, there's a delegation 2:24:56.440 --> 2:24:58.840 of guys from from Nice just being like, you want 2:24:58.840 --> 2:25:01.800 to go on vacation from one of France's top five 2:25:01.920 --> 2:25:02.640 or six cities. 2:25:03.840 --> 2:25:07.200 I assume the niceise cops. Yeah, they give you like 2:25:07.280 --> 2:25:09.600 one of their special salents they make there with. Yeah, 2:25:09.920 --> 2:25:12.680 so many. Yeah, it could be great. Hit us up, 2:25:12.720 --> 2:25:14.120 it could be this could work. Yeah, if you're the 2:25:14.160 --> 2:25:18.440 mayor of Nice, we can we can introduce you. Yeah. Finally, 2:25:18.560 --> 2:25:21.400 the United States has indicted the governor of Sino Law 2:25:21.640 --> 2:25:26.600 on drug grafficking charges, which is a pretty significant thing. 2:25:27.320 --> 2:25:28.360 Well that's not as funny. 2:25:28.800 --> 2:25:30.640 Yeah, no, no, no, Well I'm not going to be 2:25:30.680 --> 2:25:32.959 brand rebranding it as clearly are they. 2:25:33.800 --> 2:25:37.360 Speaking of not being funny? Let's actually talk about the 2:25:38.200 --> 2:25:39.680 bad news this week. 2:25:40.200 --> 2:25:40.440 Yeah. 2:25:40.760 --> 2:25:44.240 On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana voting 2:25:44.360 --> 2:25:50.520 map as a quote unconstitutional racial gerrymander unquote that effectively 2:25:50.600 --> 2:25:54.840 created a black voting district. The ruling was split six 2:25:55.040 --> 2:25:59.240 three on ideological lines. Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, 2:26:00.000 --> 2:26:04.080 saying that the district violated the equal Protection Clause of 2:26:04.160 --> 2:26:09.280 the Constitution. The new ruling substantially undermines the nineteen sixty 2:26:09.320 --> 2:26:14.040 five Voting Rights Act, reinterpreting Section two provisions against racial 2:26:14.080 --> 2:26:20.280 discrimination to require evidence of intentional racial discrimination, not just 2:26:20.680 --> 2:26:25.959 discrimination as the effect, so in the future, proving discriminatory 2:26:26.080 --> 2:26:29.320 motives may be needed in order to win legal challenges 2:26:29.400 --> 2:26:33.680 against gerrymandering. By citing the Voting Rights Act. This ruling 2:26:33.720 --> 2:26:39.080 specifically depowers black voters while enabling Republican jerrymandering to continue. 2:26:39.840 --> 2:26:41.680 Republicans in the South will now be able to redraw 2:26:41.800 --> 2:26:45.240 house district maps that lean Democrat that have a high 2:26:45.360 --> 2:26:49.400 number of Black voters, and pr strates. At least fifteen 2:26:49.680 --> 2:26:53.640 house districts are now at risk of elimination. In the dissent, 2:26:54.120 --> 2:26:58.200 Justice Alanna Kagan wrote that court's decision will set back 2:26:58.280 --> 2:27:01.960 the foundational right to Congress rented of racial equality in 2:27:02.160 --> 2:27:07.400 electoral opportunity unquote. Yeah, this is that this is possibly 2:27:07.480 --> 2:27:11.520 the worst escalation of the continued undermining of the Voting 2:27:11.640 --> 2:27:12.080 Rights Act. 2:27:12.560 --> 2:27:16.600 Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, I mean, this is inarguably the 2:27:16.640 --> 2:27:18.640 most important thing going on this week, even with the 2:27:18.680 --> 2:27:20.720 shooting that we haven't talked about, like the gutting of 2:27:20.800 --> 2:27:24.240 laymore people died for like the Voting Rights Act has 2:27:24.280 --> 2:27:26.960 a body count attached to it. Yeah, the court has 2:27:27.080 --> 2:27:29.760 to be packed the next Like, if there's ever another 2:27:30.160 --> 2:27:34.400 democratic or left of center administration and they don't pack 2:27:34.480 --> 2:27:38.360 the court, there's simply no chance of improving or fixing 2:27:38.400 --> 2:27:39.840 any of the problems this country has. 2:27:39.959 --> 2:27:42.840 Like it's a necessary prerequisite. It's no coming back from this. 2:27:43.160 --> 2:27:45.120 DC and Porto ricurls need to become states to have 2:27:45.200 --> 2:27:50.720 their own congressional representation. Any future opposition administration has to 2:27:50.840 --> 2:27:52.400 go completely glove sauce like. 2:27:52.959 --> 2:27:55.080 Yeah, and we have to imprison a bunch of the 2:27:55.120 --> 2:27:57.360 people currently running things. Yeah, Like, there's a lot of 2:27:57.360 --> 2:27:59.400 stuff that has to happen, but one of those is 2:27:59.440 --> 2:28:01.680 the Supreme Court needs to get packed, because by god, 2:28:01.800 --> 2:28:04.040 these people are not going to approve of anything that 2:28:04.160 --> 2:28:04.920 isn't insane. 2:28:05.440 --> 2:28:08.840 It's unclear if this rulely will have immediate impacts on 2:28:09.000 --> 2:28:12.280 the upcoming midterms, but by twenty twenty eight they will 2:28:12.440 --> 2:28:13.720 certainly have impacts. 2:28:13.920 --> 2:28:18.040 Yeah. Yeah, they had filed for an emergency decision on 2:28:18.680 --> 2:28:23.920 redistruting or I guess not redistruting like predistricting. I don't know. 2:28:23.920 --> 2:28:26.480 What you would call that, but to get this in 2:28:26.520 --> 2:28:27.600 effect before the midterms. 2:28:27.640 --> 2:28:30.640 Basically, Yeah, the Supreme Court also sent us to a 2:28:30.680 --> 2:28:33.800 lower court to work out more details. It's going to 2:28:33.840 --> 2:28:36.760 obviously be ongoing little litigation about it, just as there 2:28:36.800 --> 2:28:40.760 will be about Florida's redistricting measure that they are trying 2:28:40.800 --> 2:28:42.880 to finalize before the midterms as well. 2:28:43.040 --> 2:28:46.200 Yeah, and indeed, Californias, I think there have been some arguments, 2:28:47.200 --> 2:28:49.160 may like, now that this decision has been made by 2:28:49.160 --> 2:28:51.080 the Supreme Court, right, like, other states will have to 2:28:51.120 --> 2:28:52.640 consider this in their redistricting. 2:28:53.240 --> 2:28:56.760 Should we take a break, we shall, and then we 2:28:56.840 --> 2:29:11.039 can talk about the dinner. Yeah, okay, we are back. 2:29:12.680 --> 2:29:14.560 Let's talk about the dinner. Let's talk about the shooting 2:29:14.600 --> 2:29:16.080 that happened at the dinner, the thing that everyone else 2:29:16.120 --> 2:29:18.880 has been talking about for the past five six days. 2:29:19.840 --> 2:29:23.080 So yeah, on April twenty fifth, during the White House 2:29:23.160 --> 2:29:26.080 Correspondence dinner, Everyone's favorite event. 2:29:26.160 --> 2:29:27.200 It's a shame we weren't there. 2:29:27.720 --> 2:29:30.000 It is unfortunate that we were not there to point 2:29:30.040 --> 2:29:33.240 our vertical video at our face as the news happens 2:29:33.240 --> 2:29:33.840 in front of us. 2:29:34.240 --> 2:29:36.320 Oh, I would have been filming just your face. 2:29:36.400 --> 2:29:39.440 Garrison and just like really tight in like to the 2:29:39.480 --> 2:29:41.480 point where it's it's difficult for you to get up 2:29:41.520 --> 2:29:45.000 and move. I keep wedging, no garrison, face the camera. 2:29:45.080 --> 2:29:46.560 Come on, people need to see this. 2:29:47.480 --> 2:29:50.120 I'd be assuming the war fight aposture. 2:29:51.080 --> 2:29:54.000 You're gonna get up like Haanksteth and the storm around. Yeah. 2:29:55.320 --> 2:29:59.720 I would also be shielding myself behind Stephen Miller's wife. 2:30:00.480 --> 2:30:04.920 Hed have been protecting the white I know either way. 2:30:05.000 --> 2:30:06.800 Ye, yeah, yeah, it's funny. 2:30:06.840 --> 2:30:10.000 Yeah, at least at least Miller wasn't wasn't getting cooked, 2:30:10.760 --> 2:30:12.039 unlike the FBI director. 2:30:12.480 --> 2:30:18.640 Yeah, that is funny that he abandoned his wife. Yeah yeah, girlfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend. Sorry, 2:30:19.360 --> 2:30:22.240 I guess we should just go. Let's recap the events 2:30:22.320 --> 2:30:24.120 for people who live under a rock. 2:30:24.760 --> 2:30:30.240 So shortly before eight thirty pm, the alleged shooter approached 2:30:30.360 --> 2:30:34.920 the Secret Service security screening checkpoint located on the terrace 2:30:35.040 --> 2:30:38.560 level of the hotel. This was the level above the 2:30:38.680 --> 2:30:43.200 ballroom level where the actual dinner was taking place. James, 2:30:43.240 --> 2:30:45.680 we should probably just read from the court document. 2:30:46.320 --> 2:30:48.840 Yeah, I think I'm just yet, I'm going to read 2:30:48.840 --> 2:30:52.800 this straight from the government's DFJ statement in the court 2:30:52.920 --> 2:30:55.800 right before the dependent approach to checkpoint, he discarded a 2:30:55.959 --> 2:30:59.200 long black coat that concealed a twelve gage pump action shook. 2:30:59.800 --> 2:31:02.760 That defendant then sprinted through one of the magnetometers at 2:31:02.800 --> 2:31:05.120 the checkpoint and ran in the direction of the stairs 2:31:05.280 --> 2:31:07.440 leading to the ballroom, where the President and members of 2:31:07.480 --> 2:31:10.800 his family and cabinet were located. As the defendant did so, 2:31:11.000 --> 2:31:13.360 he held a shotgun in both hands in a raised 2:31:13.400 --> 2:31:16.840 position parallel to the ground. A United States Secret Service 2:31:16.879 --> 2:31:20.120 officer observed the defendant fire the shotgun in the direction 2:31:20.280 --> 2:31:23.680 of the stairs leading down to the ballroom. The Secret 2:31:23.760 --> 2:31:26.560 Service officer and others at the checkpoint heard the gun shot. 2:31:26.920 --> 2:31:29.680 The Secret Service officer drew his service weapon and fired 2:31:29.760 --> 2:31:33.000 five times the defendant. The defendant fell to the ground 2:31:33.040 --> 2:31:36.320 and was restrained by law enforcement and was placed under arrests. 2:31:36.959 --> 2:31:39.640 The defendant suffered a minor injury to his knee, but 2:31:40.120 --> 2:31:44.119 was not shot. We can in a second talk about 2:31:44.280 --> 2:31:47.160 whether he shot the Secret Service officer. 2:31:47.560 --> 2:31:51.080 Yeah, because there's an interesting Washington Post review that's out 2:31:51.200 --> 2:31:51.720 too now. 2:31:52.920 --> 2:31:56.200 Yeah, and a couple of court documents just filed today. Yeah, 2:31:56.440 --> 2:31:59.000 let's talk a little bit about the just circumstances this right, 2:31:59.360 --> 2:32:03.120 this person had purchased. According to court documents, he purchased 2:32:03.120 --> 2:32:05.880 two weapons from separate firearm stealers in California, buying the 2:32:05.920 --> 2:32:09.320 shotgun on or about August seventeenth, twenty twenty five, and 2:32:09.480 --> 2:32:13.199 the pistol on or about October sixth, twenty twenty three. 2:32:13.440 --> 2:32:15.600 Yeah, the pistol for a while. The shotgun was a 2:32:15.760 --> 2:32:17.040 more of a recent purchase. 2:32:17.879 --> 2:32:23.160 Yeah. Yeah. The pistol is a fascinating choice, amazing choice. 2:32:23.280 --> 2:32:27.720 Thirty eight super Yeah, I have never seen a thirty 2:32:27.800 --> 2:32:31.880 eight super hanggun outside of the They're they're common in 2:32:31.959 --> 2:32:35.879 Mexico because they have a certain cachet and cultural value. 2:32:36.840 --> 2:32:39.840 Every thirty eight superhandgun than I have personally held was 2:32:39.920 --> 2:32:41.760 embossed in gold and silver. Yeah. 2:32:41.840 --> 2:32:45.080 Yeah, and usually a Mexican flag, but not exclusively. 2:32:45.400 --> 2:32:48.840 Yeah, or like some sort of heraldry that denotes but 2:32:48.840 --> 2:32:53.039 it's associated sometimes with organized crime, Like I'm not when 2:32:53.080 --> 2:32:56.240 I say associated with organized crime. A few weeks ago, right, 2:32:56.280 --> 2:32:59.440 I talked about a material support for terrorism case which 2:32:59.520 --> 2:33:02.480 centered on on a firearms dealer who was selling grips 2:33:02.560 --> 2:33:06.800 for thirty thirty eight super pistols with images that are 2:33:06.840 --> 2:33:10.760 associated with cartels, Like when you buy a thirty eight super. 2:33:11.080 --> 2:33:13.320 Someone at the ATF gets an email. I bet like 2:33:13.720 --> 2:33:16.880 these things that are very rare and they have a 2:33:16.959 --> 2:33:18.600 certain consumer base. 2:33:19.320 --> 2:33:22.240 Now, obviously there are normal thirty eight super pistols that exist. 2:33:22.320 --> 2:33:25.000 They're just like today, most people buy because it's a 2:33:25.040 --> 2:33:27.880 weird moon round too. There's not a it's not a 2:33:28.000 --> 2:33:30.120 normal like. It's not there's nothing wrong with it, but 2:33:30.160 --> 2:33:33.440 it's not a round that's commonly carried. It's expensive. It's 2:33:33.520 --> 2:33:37.000 primarily something that has like cachet for drug dealers. But 2:33:37.120 --> 2:33:42.160 I guess also my interpretation and I guess we're I know, 2:33:42.200 --> 2:33:44.080 maybe this is getting too much into my SA side 2:33:44.080 --> 2:33:45.840 of things, But I do have a theory as to 2:33:45.920 --> 2:33:48.040 why he would have picked this gun and the shotgun 2:33:48.120 --> 2:33:48.600 that he picked. 2:33:48.680 --> 2:33:50.520 But we can talk about that later if you want. 2:33:50.640 --> 2:33:51.480 We'll get that in the sac. 2:33:51.560 --> 2:33:56.000 Yeah, he also had a I believe, two knives and 2:33:56.160 --> 2:34:00.440 four daggers. Yeah, six bladed weapons. Really want to see 2:34:00.480 --> 2:34:03.360 pictures of those bladed weapons? They are in the court documents, buddy, 2:34:03.680 --> 2:34:05.920 let me have you. Let me let me just find 2:34:05.959 --> 2:34:06.480 those for you. 2:34:06.840 --> 2:34:08.959 We have an enhanced image of some of them too. 2:34:09.959 --> 2:34:13.200 Yeah, so we should talk about this. The government submitted 2:34:13.240 --> 2:34:17.760 a quote unquote enhanced image. In the court case, mister 2:34:17.879 --> 2:34:21.200 Allen took a picture of himself at about eighth three pm, 2:34:21.480 --> 2:34:25.360 so about half an hour before he rushed past the magnetometer. There. 2:34:25.920 --> 2:34:28.440 In the picture we can see he is wearing black 2:34:28.879 --> 2:34:33.000 suit pants. He is wearing a black shirt. He has 2:34:33.040 --> 2:34:36.360 a red tie which inexplicably is tucked into his pants. 2:34:37.040 --> 2:34:41.120 He has a shoulder holster and a large k by 2:34:41.200 --> 2:34:45.480 knife in a in a downwards draw configuration. He is 2:34:45.760 --> 2:34:49.400 carrying a pair of pliers and a pair of wirecutters 2:34:49.560 --> 2:34:53.160 in a holster on his left side. On his right side, 2:34:53.280 --> 2:34:56.480 he is carrying a small leather bag which allegedly contained 2:34:56.560 --> 2:35:01.040 more shotgun rounds, and the nineteen leve is in a 2:35:01.520 --> 2:35:05.960 crusteral showd to holster right. None of this screams highly trained. 2:35:06.320 --> 2:35:09.480 The quote unquote enhanced image was basically a zoomed in 2:35:09.680 --> 2:35:13.240 the oh yeah copy of this photo that, if I 2:35:13.440 --> 2:35:16.520 were to guess, the word enhanced means that they use 2:35:16.560 --> 2:35:20.400 some kind of sharpening or AI image sharpening tool. 2:35:20.680 --> 2:35:24.520 Yes, yes, none of which are real In terms of like, 2:35:24.600 --> 2:35:27.320 none of which are actually enhancing or sharpening. 2:35:27.560 --> 2:35:30.840 The details that you are seeing should not be allowed 2:35:30.920 --> 2:35:33.920 in to be like viewed in court, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. 2:35:33.800 --> 2:35:37.440 The AI is guessing there's not extra data in the photo. 2:35:38.000 --> 2:35:41.279 The AI is uncovering, Like, the AI is basically attempting 2:35:41.320 --> 2:35:43.960 to clean up an image. Which is fine if you 2:35:44.080 --> 2:35:46.200 have like a blurry photo of you and like your 2:35:46.280 --> 2:35:48.440 wife when you got in your first apartment together that 2:35:48.520 --> 2:35:49.280 you want cleaned up. 2:35:49.360 --> 2:35:52.320 Yeah, but that's not it's not should not be, should 2:35:52.320 --> 2:35:55.160 not be. Yeah, I'm sure we'll see the defense challenge 2:35:55.400 --> 2:35:57.200 and I'll be interested to note, like what AI they 2:35:57.360 --> 2:36:00.880 used and did they did they also very iterations of 2:36:00.959 --> 2:36:03.600 the enhancement or did they you know, like this will 2:36:03.640 --> 2:36:07.920 be interesting. I don't think it materially inserty anything. We 2:36:08.000 --> 2:36:10.400 can see the same Samsung phone. I can see the 2:36:10.440 --> 2:36:12.200 handle of the knife in both imagies. I can see 2:36:12.200 --> 2:36:13.320 the handle of their hangguns. 2:36:13.400 --> 2:36:15.880 This is more of like a principal thing. Yeah, then, like, 2:36:16.280 --> 2:36:20.400 did this specifically affect the photo in this case in 2:36:20.440 --> 2:36:23.280 any way that would lead to the evidence being more useful? 2:36:23.440 --> 2:36:26.279 Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, this is a bad slippery slope. 2:36:27.080 --> 2:36:29.280 So talking of his phone, he kept it with him 2:36:29.280 --> 2:36:32.760 as he traveled across the country on a train, taking 2:36:32.840 --> 2:36:35.560 notes about the landscape as he went Amtrak. Yeah, yeah, 2:36:35.600 --> 2:36:38.120 he took Amtrak and like he was enchanted by like 2:36:38.200 --> 2:36:42.800 the deserts and the he liked Chicago. He thought the 2:36:42.840 --> 2:36:44.480 woods on the East coast were greatly. 2:36:44.600 --> 2:36:46.360 He kept like a like a journal where he wrote 2:36:46.360 --> 2:36:47.119 about the trap. 2:36:47.040 --> 2:36:49.520 Yeah, in the notesap of his phone. Yeah, and then 2:36:49.680 --> 2:36:54.040 the day of his attempted shooting, he used open sources 2:36:54.080 --> 2:36:57.320 to track the present movements. Should we move on to 2:36:57.440 --> 2:36:58.400 did he fire his gun? 2:36:58.600 --> 2:36:58.800 Yeah? 2:36:58.840 --> 2:37:00.320 That's a big because because that is that's a big 2:37:00.360 --> 2:37:02.800 question right now. Yeah, that's one half the question. The 2:37:02.879 --> 2:37:05.760 other half is did he shoot a Secret Service agent? 2:37:05.879 --> 2:37:06.119 Which? 2:37:06.440 --> 2:37:06.600 Right? 2:37:07.080 --> 2:37:08.320 Did he shoot anybody? 2:37:08.959 --> 2:37:11.720 H The DOJ is saying he fired a gun. 2:37:12.120 --> 2:37:17.560 The DOJ claims that, but is not really affirmatively saying that. 2:37:17.680 --> 2:37:18.560 He shot an agent. 2:37:19.080 --> 2:37:19.320 Yeah. 2:37:19.560 --> 2:37:22.640 No, they they've said a couple of different things. They've 2:37:22.640 --> 2:37:25.920 said that an agent was struck by gunfire. They've said 2:37:26.040 --> 2:37:29.880 that it was not friendly fire. But they have not 2:37:30.200 --> 2:37:34.000 said that he was struck by the assailant shotgun, by 2:37:34.040 --> 2:37:38.480 the gunman's actual weapon. And that's partly because there's not 2:37:38.760 --> 2:37:42.320 hard evidence yet that the gunmen actually fired his shotgun. 2:37:42.600 --> 2:37:44.800 Let me read you what they fired in court today. Yeah, 2:37:45.320 --> 2:37:48.199 the evidence gathered analyzed to date establishes your client fired 2:37:48.240 --> 2:37:51.039 his Mossburg twelve gage pumpatch and shotgun at least one 2:37:51.120 --> 2:37:54.240 time as he rampast some magnetometis on the terrace level 2:37:54.280 --> 2:37:57.160 of the Washington Hilton on April twenty fifth, twenty twenty six, 2:37:57.800 --> 2:38:00.680 when the weapon was recovered, had once been ard case 2:38:00.760 --> 2:38:03.080 in the chamber, which has been identified as having been 2:38:03.160 --> 2:38:06.480 fired in the mos Bog shotgun. The government's preliminary ballistics 2:38:06.600 --> 2:38:08.840 video analysis show that your client fired his shotgun in 2:38:08.920 --> 2:38:13.960 the direction of Secret Service Officer VG, which Officer VEG observed. Additionally, 2:38:13.959 --> 2:38:16.400 at least one fragment was recovered from the crime scene 2:38:16.760 --> 2:38:20.040 that was physically consistent with a single buckshot pellet. That 2:38:20.200 --> 2:38:22.720 fragment was recovered from a location at the scene consistent 2:38:22.760 --> 2:38:26.000 with your client firing his shotgun in the direction of 2:38:26.120 --> 2:38:29.480 Oppicer VEG. The government is aware of no physical evidence, 2:38:29.520 --> 2:38:32.560 digital video evidence, or witness statements that are inconsistent with 2:38:32.640 --> 2:38:34.680 the theory that your client fired his shotgun in the 2:38:34.800 --> 2:38:38.560 direction of Officer VG or the officer of VEG was 2:38:38.600 --> 2:38:42.240 indeed shot once in the chest while wearing a ballistic vest, 2:38:43.080 --> 2:38:45.760 they go on them further to say, the government also 2:38:45.840 --> 2:38:48.840 recovered five spent nine millimeters LUGA cartridge cases, each of 2:38:49.480 --> 2:38:52.160 which was determined to have been fired from Officer Veg's 2:38:52.160 --> 2:38:55.920 service weapon. The government also identified five separate bullet holes 2:38:56.000 --> 2:38:59.320 in the walls opposite from Officer VG, consistent with the 2:38:59.400 --> 2:39:03.880 direction of Sevigi fired his service weapon. That's like the 2:39:04.200 --> 2:39:07.920 most Yeah, that's the most detail that we've seen from 2:39:08.000 --> 2:39:09.120 them of their case. 2:39:09.320 --> 2:39:09.440 Right. 2:39:10.160 --> 2:39:13.320 His defense had previously suggested that the because of some 2:39:13.440 --> 2:39:15.680 of the public statements Attorney General Blanche have made, the 2:39:15.720 --> 2:39:20.400 government may have exculpatory evidence either that he didn't fire 2:39:20.440 --> 2:39:23.320 his gun or that he didn't shoot the Secret Service 2:39:23.360 --> 2:39:24.279 agent in question. 2:39:24.560 --> 2:39:26.480 Which administration officials have gone on in the news to 2:39:26.560 --> 2:39:29.480 say that the Secret Service agent did not shoot himself, 2:39:30.320 --> 2:39:34.840 which yes, is not saying that another Secret Service agent 2:39:34.920 --> 2:39:36.199 did not shoot him though. 2:39:36.520 --> 2:39:41.360 Yeah, yeah, And it doesn't seem like he shot into 2:39:42.240 --> 2:39:44.360 a plaster board wall, it seems right, so he didn't 2:39:44.440 --> 2:39:45.879 maybe get splashed back, which. 2:39:45.720 --> 2:39:48.280 Is you know, the only holes we've seen look like 2:39:48.360 --> 2:39:51.080 they came from pistols, and that's something the Washington Posts 2:39:51.120 --> 2:39:54.840 actually did like look into, because there's at least one. 2:39:54.959 --> 2:39:57.440 There's a couple I think of livestream videos that showed 2:39:57.800 --> 2:40:01.280 like holes from a bullet in the wall. But the 2:40:01.320 --> 2:40:04.160 Post talked to Rick Vasquez, the firearms consultant and former 2:40:04.240 --> 2:40:08.600 chief of the firearms Technology branch at the ATF or 2:40:08.680 --> 2:40:10.560 what was then the ATF, who said that the holes 2:40:10.600 --> 2:40:14.040 were consistent with handgun rounds. Now, that's not like a 2:40:14.320 --> 2:40:16.440 firearms technology. There's a lot of WU there, but it's 2:40:16.440 --> 2:40:19.200 also pretty easy to look. I mean, sometimes it could 2:40:19.200 --> 2:40:21.640 be kind of messy because like the balls and like 2:40:21.720 --> 2:40:25.120 a double lot buck shotshell are kind of similar in 2:40:25.240 --> 2:40:26.000 size to nine. 2:40:25.879 --> 2:40:28.960 Millimeter right somewhere in the thirty caliber range, right, but 2:40:29.120 --> 2:40:29.680 they don't tend. 2:40:29.600 --> 2:40:31.560 To hit with the same kinds of patterns, right, Like, 2:40:32.280 --> 2:40:34.640 there does tend to be a significant difference, especially that 2:40:35.000 --> 2:40:38.680 kind of range. The night of the shooting or within 2:40:38.720 --> 2:40:41.840 a few hours of a Trump posted security camera footage 2:40:42.400 --> 2:40:45.199 and the Post got a hold of a higher resolution 2:40:45.760 --> 2:40:47.960 copy of that footage and they went through like a 2:40:48.040 --> 2:40:51.080 frame by frame analysis of it because, as you noted, James, 2:40:51.120 --> 2:40:54.440 they claimed that cold has charged his shotgun while he 2:40:54.640 --> 2:40:57.800 was passing through the magnometers. The magnetometers, right, they didn't 2:40:57.800 --> 2:40:59.520 say it happened to elsewhere. They said it like as 2:40:59.560 --> 2:41:01.800 he was going to that checkpoint that you can watch 2:41:01.879 --> 2:41:04.640 him sprint through like he's fucking rudo running his way 2:41:04.760 --> 2:41:09.000 into the correspondence dinner. And in their frame by frame analysis, 2:41:09.080 --> 2:41:11.959 the Post only found evidence of four muzzle flashes, all 2:41:12.040 --> 2:41:15.720 of them from the agent who was allegedly struck by 2:41:15.800 --> 2:41:16.840 something's weapon. 2:41:17.000 --> 2:41:18.320 Right, So, first off, I. 2:41:18.320 --> 2:41:20.400 Mean, and you can hear in other footage, you can 2:41:20.480 --> 2:41:24.080 clearly hear more shots than that, Like I don't doubt 2:41:24.160 --> 2:41:26.360 that there were that he discharged five shots, but the 2:41:26.440 --> 2:41:30.199 video only shows four, and crucially, it does not show 2:41:30.600 --> 2:41:34.040 Cole's shotgun firing, and the video follows him until he 2:41:34.120 --> 2:41:37.800 goes off screen. So maybe whoever wrote that out should 2:41:37.840 --> 2:41:40.640 have written after passing through the magnanometers. 2:41:40.680 --> 2:41:42.640 But they seem to pretty clearly be saying. 2:41:42.800 --> 2:41:45.280 It was while he was in that little security area, 2:41:45.760 --> 2:41:48.520 and there's not evidence in the footage of him firing. 2:41:48.600 --> 2:41:52.200 We don't see anything that looks like firing, Like nobody 2:41:52.320 --> 2:41:55.560 reacts as if he has fired, Like there's just no 2:41:55.959 --> 2:41:58.960 evidence that he shot. And you know, they're hinging a 2:41:59.000 --> 2:42:01.080 lot on the fact that there's this spent cartridge in 2:42:01.240 --> 2:42:04.520 the chamber of his twelve gauge. But number one, that's 2:42:04.560 --> 2:42:07.360 actually not an uncommon way to store that kind of 2:42:07.400 --> 2:42:09.800 twelve gage shotgun with a spent shell in the in 2:42:09.920 --> 2:42:12.760 the breach, because it makes it easy if something were 2:42:12.840 --> 2:42:14.960 to happen. It makes it easier to basically get a 2:42:15.000 --> 2:42:18.560 fresh round in without needing to have a chambered round 2:42:18.640 --> 2:42:21.080 at all times, which a lot of people, most people don't. 2:42:21.000 --> 2:42:24.440 Like to do. Yeah, and that'll drop say five that like, 2:42:24.520 --> 2:42:25.720 it's a bad idea to do that. 2:42:26.280 --> 2:42:28.760 You don't want to do that with a shotgun, you know. 2:42:28.959 --> 2:42:31.039 Is it possible that he was storing it that way? 2:42:31.480 --> 2:42:35.040 Is it possible that he loaded one an empty round 2:42:35.080 --> 2:42:37.800 in there intentionally because he didn't actually he was hoping 2:42:37.840 --> 2:42:39.720 to do a suicide by cop and he didn't intend 2:42:39.800 --> 2:42:43.680 to actually shoot anybody. Is it possible he just fucked up. 2:42:43.840 --> 2:42:47.080 It's also perfectly possible he fired later. But it's really 2:42:47.160 --> 2:42:49.880 weird that they wrote it out that way if that's 2:42:49.920 --> 2:42:53.840 what they're alleging, because we see him when he's at 2:42:53.959 --> 2:42:58.000 the security checkpoint at the magnanometer and he doesn't fire 2:42:58.160 --> 2:42:59.199 in the footage. 2:42:58.800 --> 2:42:59.120 That we have. 2:42:59.640 --> 2:43:03.200 Yeah, there's been a lot of press statements that are 2:43:03.840 --> 2:43:09.320 sort of talking around exactly not making the explicit statement 2:43:09.560 --> 2:43:12.240 he fired his shotgun and he shot the officer in 2:43:12.320 --> 2:43:16.280 the chest, right, and certainly, like I'm not sure about 2:43:16.320 --> 2:43:18.320 the distance we're talking about, Like, and then then thus 2:43:18.440 --> 2:43:20.840 the spread that would happen with that, it. 2:43:20.840 --> 2:43:23.800 Would be minimal spread even with a sod off in 2:43:23.879 --> 2:43:25.640 a narrow corridor like that. 2:43:26.680 --> 2:43:29.280 Yeah, I mean you go by an inch per yard, right, Like, 2:43:29.400 --> 2:43:32.560 that's the amount that yeah, really spreads. And then it's 2:43:32.560 --> 2:43:34.520 so if you hit this person once, assuming this person 2:43:34.600 --> 2:43:38.080 has a chest at twenty inches wide, Yeah, that doesn't 2:43:38.120 --> 2:43:40.360 line up, right, Yeah, it might be different with bugshot. 2:43:40.360 --> 2:43:43.320 I mean, obviously, if they had evidence that the secret 2:43:43.360 --> 2:43:47.160 cerviationent was shot by mister Allen, we'd have seen it. 2:43:47.280 --> 2:43:49.240 They would be running with that. The fact that they 2:43:49.280 --> 2:43:52.560 do not have evidence that the agent was shot by 2:43:52.720 --> 2:43:55.879 Allan is shown in the way that they're like talking 2:43:55.959 --> 2:43:56.800 about this, like. 2:43:56.920 --> 2:44:01.080 He was shot, yeah, and the guy discharged to separate 2:44:01.160 --> 2:44:04.520 statements exactly two separate statements. Yeah, they're still affirming that 2:44:04.560 --> 2:44:07.640 the agent did not shoot himself, which does not mean 2:44:07.720 --> 2:44:11.760 that he was not shot by another agent. Yeah, yeah, 2:44:12.040 --> 2:44:15.760 And there's a in that Washington Post article. They talked 2:44:15.800 --> 2:44:19.280 to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and asked him to explain, 2:44:19.400 --> 2:44:21.360 like why why are you guys never willing to say, 2:44:21.440 --> 2:44:22.760 like where the round. 2:44:22.560 --> 2:44:24.560 That hit the officer came from? Right? 2:44:24.640 --> 2:44:26.400 They asked him the question that we've been asking, and 2:44:26.480 --> 2:44:28.600 Blanche answered, we want to get that right. 2:44:28.720 --> 2:44:30.920 We're still looking at that. There you go, right, And 2:44:31.000 --> 2:44:32.080 that is a big change. 2:44:32.120 --> 2:44:34.920 As the Post notes of a day earlier, he told 2:44:34.959 --> 2:44:38.039 ABC that officials believe the gunman had shot the officer, 2:44:38.160 --> 2:44:40.840 so he has pulled back, which leads me to think 2:44:41.400 --> 2:44:43.560 maybe this guy didn't shoot at all, or maybe he 2:44:43.720 --> 2:44:46.360 fired later, maybe even totally by accident, maybe when he 2:44:46.440 --> 2:44:49.680 was falling down he like discharged. But so also you 2:44:49.720 --> 2:44:52.280 would think there'd be a photo somewhere of where he 2:44:52.440 --> 2:44:57.280 discharged the shotgun. It's surprisingly easy for bullets to get lost, right, 2:44:57.400 --> 2:45:00.280 and by that, I mean just get so destroyed and 2:45:00.360 --> 2:45:02.320 what not by impact that there's not really much of 2:45:02.360 --> 2:45:06.000 anything to find. That happens all the time. It's really rare, 2:45:06.160 --> 2:45:08.840 and I would argue impossible to discharge a twelve gage 2:45:08.879 --> 2:45:12.720 shotgun with any kind of shot shell in a fucking 2:45:12.840 --> 2:45:15.879 hotel like this and not have there be some sign 2:45:16.000 --> 2:45:18.640 of what you They make holes in things, that's what 2:45:18.680 --> 2:45:22.000 they're full. They make multiple holes. Yeah, unless it's a slug, 2:45:22.080 --> 2:45:24.360 but then they make a really big hole. And cold 2:45:24.360 --> 2:45:26.840 had specifically written that he was not intending to use 2:45:26.920 --> 2:45:30.080 slugs in his manifesto suicide know, whatever you want to 2:45:30.120 --> 2:45:32.680 call it. He specifically stated that he was using a 2:45:32.800 --> 2:45:35.760 twelve gage loaded with buckshot because he wanted to reduce 2:45:35.840 --> 2:45:39.480 the chances of overpenetration and of injuring or killing someone 2:45:39.560 --> 2:45:40.600 he did not intend to hit. 2:45:40.760 --> 2:45:44.360 Yeah, let's talk a little bit about his background, maybe 2:45:44.360 --> 2:45:47.600 a few other things from that manifesto. I know, Robert, 2:45:47.640 --> 2:45:50.560 you've done some digging into that. I did the. 2:45:50.600 --> 2:45:53.920 Normal thing that at least one of us does, generally 2:45:54.000 --> 2:45:56.160 all of us do in some form. Ever, after every 2:45:56.240 --> 2:45:59.480 kind of mass shooting or like publicly notable terror attack 2:45:59.560 --> 2:46:00.119 or whatever. 2:46:00.080 --> 2:46:03.199 And just found myself looking through a stranger social media. 2:46:03.680 --> 2:46:06.040 Yeah, there's been a bunch a couple of good articles 2:46:06.160 --> 2:46:08.480 out about him now most of like the first things 2:46:08.520 --> 2:46:11.320 that we knew about this guy, Like the very first 2:46:11.400 --> 2:46:13.680 fact is when his name came out, there were two 2:46:13.800 --> 2:46:16.599 different guys who kind of lived in the Torrents. 2:46:16.160 --> 2:46:18.320 Area who were immediately like there were. 2:46:18.240 --> 2:46:23.000 Responses under Cole Thomas Allen or Cole Allen, and one 2:46:23.080 --> 2:46:25.520 of them was like some fucking white dude who worked 2:46:25.520 --> 2:46:27.200 at it was a consulting firm or something. 2:46:27.200 --> 2:46:27.480 I don't know. 2:46:27.520 --> 2:46:29.600 It wasn't very but he just looked like he might 2:46:29.640 --> 2:46:32.160 have been thirty. And the other was Cole Thomas Allen 2:46:32.200 --> 2:46:34.280 and it was him winning a Teacher of the Year 2:46:34.440 --> 2:46:37.560 award at the He worked at a company that was 2:46:37.560 --> 2:46:40.000 basically doing like top college test prep tutoring. 2:46:40.280 --> 2:46:41.920 Right, Yeah, so he was a teacher. 2:46:42.120 --> 2:46:44.280 Some people that are really angry at the description of 2:46:44.360 --> 2:46:45.959 him as a teacher because they're being like, he's trying 2:46:46.000 --> 2:46:47.880 to like bad mouth public school teachers. He's not a 2:46:47.920 --> 2:46:50.360 public school teacher, but there are other kinds of teachers. 2:46:50.680 --> 2:46:54.000 He was a teacher of the months at the tutoring 2:46:54.040 --> 2:46:57.240 academy that he worked at. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had 2:46:57.320 --> 2:46:59.240 found by the time I got there, which is like 2:46:59.320 --> 2:47:03.200 twenty minutes after the name started spreading the Facebook page 2:47:03.320 --> 2:47:05.360 of the school that he worked or of the tutoring 2:47:05.360 --> 2:47:07.160 academy whatever that he worked at, which I'm not going 2:47:07.240 --> 2:47:10.160 to name, but it was hundreds of posts already being 2:47:10.280 --> 2:47:12.879 like good to see this is who's teaching your kids, 2:47:13.040 --> 2:47:15.720 you know, like you hired a terrorist all this kind 2:47:15.760 --> 2:47:19.720 of like yeah, yeah, it's it's it's bleak. It's the 2:47:19.800 --> 2:47:23.000 normal thing that happens, you know, with anything related to 2:47:23.120 --> 2:47:26.960 this in this case. Right after that, Trump posted a 2:47:27.040 --> 2:47:31.200 picture of the detained and stripped, mostly naked gunman that 2:47:31.400 --> 2:47:34.120 was obviously the Cole Allen who had won the Teacher 2:47:34.160 --> 2:47:36.200 of the Month, like immediately visible, like you could do. 2:47:36.320 --> 2:47:39.000 It was a positive idea was very quick from that 2:47:39.120 --> 2:47:41.720 point on. So at that point a couple other things 2:47:41.920 --> 2:47:44.959 started coming out because you know, I had looked through 2:47:45.600 --> 2:47:47.879 from that Facebook page, I had found a couple other 2:47:48.480 --> 2:47:51.600 posts about Cole Thomas Allen or different places where he 2:47:51.680 --> 2:47:54.040 had accounts, which made a couple other details of his 2:47:54.120 --> 2:47:58.280 background obvious. He was a mechanical engineering student in Caltech 2:47:58.560 --> 2:48:02.280 kind of during the first Trump administration. Yep, you know 2:48:02.560 --> 2:48:05.920 that was honestly, like most of what was like immediately 2:48:06.000 --> 2:48:08.680 obvious is that like he'd been an engineering student at Caltech, 2:48:09.240 --> 2:48:11.480 he'd worked as a teacher, and he'd been a part 2:48:11.520 --> 2:48:13.240 of In his LinkedIn, you can see that he'd been 2:48:13.280 --> 2:48:16.560 a part of Caltech's Christian Fellowship and the NERF Club. 2:48:16.879 --> 2:48:21.520 Right yeah, now, Ken Klippenstein talked to one of his 2:48:21.959 --> 2:48:24.400 co fellow peers during this period of time. He knew 2:48:24.440 --> 2:48:26.760 that while he was at NERF Club, cal had like 2:48:27.040 --> 2:48:29.480 kind of led there was like a conflict within the 2:48:29.560 --> 2:48:33.000 club over people modifying and otherwise altering their NERF guns 2:48:33.040 --> 2:48:36.000 to make them more resemble real weapons, as NERF has 2:48:36.000 --> 2:48:37.959 also come out with more guns that look like real 2:48:38.040 --> 2:48:41.240 guns over the years, and he was really against this, Like, 2:48:41.320 --> 2:48:44.000 he was very against the idea of like NERF guns 2:48:44.080 --> 2:48:46.480 that were modified to look like real guns, or just 2:48:46.600 --> 2:48:49.320 like people playing with things that looked like real guns. 2:48:50.040 --> 2:48:53.960 Now, fast forward to the actual day of the shooting. 2:48:54.360 --> 2:48:57.800 His blue sky account got found fairly quickly alongside the LinkedIn. 2:48:58.240 --> 2:49:01.480 Obviously that got deleted in very short order, but it 2:49:01.640 --> 2:49:05.760 was archived, thankfully by a very nice person who realized 2:49:05.760 --> 2:49:08.440 that it would probably be useful to have actual documentation 2:49:08.560 --> 2:49:10.879 about what this guy was doing online rather than rely 2:49:11.040 --> 2:49:13.680 on a bunch of different articles making claims. So I 2:49:13.800 --> 2:49:15.880 went through all of that, you know, as soon as 2:49:15.920 --> 2:49:18.520 it came out. He had about five hundred followers who 2:49:18.560 --> 2:49:21.080 was following about one hundred and fourteen people. He did 2:49:21.120 --> 2:49:25.039 not post often on his own, but when he did, 2:49:25.320 --> 2:49:28.000 in like the two different occasions I could find of 2:49:28.080 --> 2:49:30.480 him like posting on his own in this incomplete archive 2:49:30.600 --> 2:49:33.160 of his Blue Sky. One of them was him posting 2:49:33.400 --> 2:49:37.520 in like sympathy and solidarity with Ukraine, which is something 2:49:37.560 --> 2:49:40.280 that was very consistent. He reposted a ton of different 2:49:40.320 --> 2:49:43.680 fundraisers from different Ukrainian military units that was. 2:49:43.680 --> 2:49:46.359 At his user bio as well's support for Ukraine. 2:49:46.840 --> 2:49:51.240 Yeah, he was massively supportive of Ukraine and very angry 2:49:51.520 --> 2:49:54.959 at the Trump administration's failure to follow through with US 2:49:55.080 --> 2:49:57.960 obligations in that regard. And the only other post of 2:49:58.080 --> 2:50:00.040 his that was like him writing something that I I 2:50:00.160 --> 2:50:04.920 saw was him basically critiquing an article about using AI 2:50:05.080 --> 2:50:07.360 in the classroom, and like people who were advocated use 2:50:07.400 --> 2:50:09.280 of AI in the classroom, he's very much against that. 2:50:09.640 --> 2:50:12.160 He was a reposter, though he was a reposter, and 2:50:12.200 --> 2:50:14.120 we'll talk about like some of the things he reposted. 2:50:14.560 --> 2:50:17.400 His bio read hi, I'm a random Californian guy, with 2:50:17.480 --> 2:50:20.480 posts about American politics, support for Ukraine, and observations of 2:50:20.520 --> 2:50:23.480 small creatures. And then he includes a quote, I choose 2:50:23.560 --> 2:50:26.000 my own battlefields, not through my blood, but with my heart. 2:50:26.160 --> 2:50:28.200 I stand on the battlefield to protect what I want. 2:50:28.840 --> 2:50:31.440 So that is I like type that quote in and 2:50:31.600 --> 2:50:33.680 that is a quote from an anime, the same anime 2:50:33.800 --> 2:50:38.920 that his his profile picture was also from this specific anime, 2:50:39.040 --> 2:50:42.840 which is Kagura. I don't know how that's pronounced. I 2:50:42.879 --> 2:50:45.920 think the character that he had is PfP of was Kagura. 2:50:46.240 --> 2:50:49.240 It's this like red haired lady with these weird like 2:50:49.600 --> 2:50:52.600 ball things on either side of her hair. Like I 2:50:52.640 --> 2:50:55.040 don't fully know how to describe this lady's hairstyle. It's 2:50:55.120 --> 2:50:58.760 kind of like vaguely Princess Leiah esque. And that appears 2:50:58.879 --> 2:51:04.039 to be whos his PfP photo is. Okay, the series 2:51:04.160 --> 2:51:07.080 is called Gintama. I don't know much about this. I've 2:51:07.120 --> 2:51:09.560 heard people online being like, oh, he was a fan 2:51:09.640 --> 2:51:13.800 of like this anime that means something or other, but like, 2:51:13.879 --> 2:51:16.440 I don't actually understand enough about the anime to give 2:51:16.640 --> 2:51:18.960 much of an analysis of that. I think it's just 2:51:19.000 --> 2:51:21.520 people being like, because of the character he likes, it 2:51:21.640 --> 2:51:23.480 makes sense that he's a guy who would do something 2:51:23.840 --> 2:51:26.160 very extreme. I don't know enough about the anime to 2:51:26.480 --> 2:51:30.040 say how relevant that is, But the quote kind of 2:51:30.120 --> 2:51:33.360 does sound relevant to what he actually did, Like I 2:51:33.560 --> 2:51:35.520 stand on the battlefield to protect what I want. 2:51:36.000 --> 2:51:38.200 And you can read stuff like that in his manifesto. 2:51:38.480 --> 2:51:40.440 Yeah, you can read stuff like that as manifesto, which 2:51:40.440 --> 2:51:44.000 we'll talk about. His actual reposts are very normal lib coded. Yeah, 2:51:44.040 --> 2:51:47.480 he's a liberal hugueally supportive of Ukraine. Nothing about Palestine 2:51:47.760 --> 2:51:51.280 in there, nothing about Israel in there. Photo has since 2:51:51.320 --> 2:51:52.960 come out that appears to be a legitimate of him 2:51:53.000 --> 2:51:55.080 wearing like an IDF shirt some time ago. 2:51:56.120 --> 2:51:58.039 He doesn't say anything. Again in the. 2:51:58.120 --> 2:52:00.000 Limited we don't also have we don't have his whole 2:52:00.160 --> 2:52:03.000 bluesky in here. In the limited archive we have, I 2:52:03.040 --> 2:52:05.320 don't see anything of him like him talking at all 2:52:05.560 --> 2:52:07.720 about Israel. So I don't have enough to say that, 2:52:07.840 --> 2:52:10.840 like he was strongly supportive, but he certainly there's a 2:52:10.959 --> 2:52:14.240 real discrepancy between how he talks about Ukraine and and 2:52:14.360 --> 2:52:17.520 him mentioning anything at all about what's happening in Gaza. 2:52:17.680 --> 2:52:17.840 Right. 2:52:18.080 --> 2:52:21.080 Yeah, what is believed to be his Twitter accountter has 2:52:21.080 --> 2:52:24.120 also been scraped and not as well archives, but there's 2:52:24.160 --> 2:52:29.440 there's screenshots of reposts on Twitter reposting Brianna Wu with 2:52:29.600 --> 2:52:35.080 some criticism of pro Palestine protesters or things that are 2:52:35.120 --> 2:52:38.720 critical of Palestine and in a nominal way supportive of Israel. 2:52:39.360 --> 2:52:41.119 Yeah, And it's kind of hard to tell. 2:52:41.320 --> 2:52:43.400 Was he just more quiet about this online because he 2:52:43.440 --> 2:52:47.640 wanted to avoid, you know, getting dogpiled, or is this 2:52:47.920 --> 2:52:50.560 just something that as the genocide gout worse and worse, 2:52:50.600 --> 2:52:53.440 he became less willing to talk about. I don't know, 2:52:53.560 --> 2:52:55.600 but it's it's kind of it's just noteworthy how much 2:52:55.959 --> 2:52:58.560 like how absent that kind of discussion is next to 2:52:58.720 --> 2:53:00.039 how often he talks about grain. 2:53:00.080 --> 2:53:00.960 Next to the Ukraine stuff. 2:53:01.000 --> 2:53:01.200 Yeah. 2:53:01.440 --> 2:53:01.600 Yeah. 2:53:01.840 --> 2:53:04.720 He also posted a bunch of very normal posts. There 2:53:04.840 --> 2:53:07.440 was one from a user you know, if you guys remember, 2:53:07.480 --> 2:53:09.520 like a week or so ago, the New York Times 2:53:09.600 --> 2:53:13.480 published an interview with Hassan Piker, the streamer, and the 2:53:13.879 --> 2:53:15.800 article was titled the rich don't play by the rules, 2:53:15.920 --> 2:53:17.760 So why should I? Why petty theft might be the 2:53:17.800 --> 2:53:21.120 new political protest. It's where Hassan tried to introduce the 2:53:21.200 --> 2:53:23.720 term micro alluding to the discourse, which I don't support 2:53:23.760 --> 2:53:25.840 at all, but it was like a pro shoplifting kind 2:53:25.879 --> 2:53:28.280 of like are you kind of getting a casual and 2:53:28.480 --> 2:53:31.959 jokey pro shoplifting argument, right, I don't want to People 2:53:32.000 --> 2:53:33.880 have blown this out of proportion, but it's interesting that 2:53:33.959 --> 2:53:37.160 he came down against Hassan's side on that. He was 2:53:37.240 --> 2:53:40.920 basically reposting someone who was like, Hey, I've spent a 2:53:40.959 --> 2:53:43.080 lot of time in countries where graft and grifting are 2:53:43.160 --> 2:53:45.600 like normal, and it's really bad for that to happen. 2:53:45.640 --> 2:53:48.240 You don't want that to happen to your country. So 2:53:48.560 --> 2:53:52.280 he's certainly not like the on the far left, like 2:53:52.560 --> 2:53:56.280 direct action is good. I love committing crimes anarchist side 2:53:56.320 --> 2:53:58.400 of things. He is not at all that kind of guy. 2:53:58.959 --> 2:54:02.400 He's a Will Stancilite. He is a lot of Will 2:54:02.440 --> 2:54:05.480 Stancel reposts, a lot of Will stancil posts. Yeah, yeah, 2:54:05.680 --> 2:54:07.680 he reposted me a couple of times. He posted me 2:54:07.800 --> 2:54:10.800 like talking about like the Pope, right, like because making 2:54:10.840 --> 2:54:13.720 fun of Trump for calling the Pope soft on crime, 2:54:14.240 --> 2:54:17.400 like not any of my like spicy. 2:54:17.080 --> 2:54:20.440 Takes, right, just like viral posts on Blue Sky. 2:54:20.800 --> 2:54:23.680 He didn't do a lot of spicy tapes. He reposted 2:54:23.720 --> 2:54:26.040 a lot of normal viral stuff you'd expect. He was 2:54:26.080 --> 2:54:29.480 really angry about COVID nineteen. He hates Elon Musk. He 2:54:29.560 --> 2:54:32.320 reposted a lot of like, you know, Elon Musk wants 2:54:32.400 --> 2:54:35.800 poor African children to die, like kind of content talking 2:54:35.800 --> 2:54:38.040 about that after some of the more recent articles about 2:54:38.280 --> 2:54:41.200 how many people died as a result of like the 2:54:41.520 --> 2:54:44.480 American like aid cuts, that Musk was a major pardon. 2:54:44.760 --> 2:54:48.280 He was very angry about that. He reposted Bill Crystal 2:54:48.360 --> 2:54:51.280 saying abolish ice, okay. And there's a couple of different 2:54:51.320 --> 2:54:54.400 posts that he shared about or from people who were 2:54:54.440 --> 2:54:58.720 criticizing the White House Correspondence dinner, and particularly like when 2:54:59.080 --> 2:55:01.880 Jake Tapper fucking made a post about, like here's the 2:55:03.160 --> 2:55:06.160 napkins that we've got that have like freedom of the press, 2:55:06.240 --> 2:55:09.200 you know, the First Amendment stuff on it that like 2:55:09.720 --> 2:55:11.600 is supposed to be like this is our protest against 2:55:11.600 --> 2:55:14.880 the president, right, Like we've got these these monogram napkins, 2:55:15.280 --> 2:55:16.760 And he made fun of that, like a lot of 2:55:16.800 --> 2:55:19.640 people did. He was generally critical of anyone who would 2:55:19.680 --> 2:55:23.000 be at the correspondence dinner, which was reflected in his 2:55:23.120 --> 2:55:26.440 manifesto where he said that like the journalists and the 2:55:26.520 --> 2:55:28.640 other people at the event who are not in the 2:55:28.680 --> 2:55:31.880 administration aren't my targets. And you know, he said he 2:55:31.959 --> 2:55:35.320 didn't want to hit them, but also he was quote 2:55:35.360 --> 2:55:37.680 I would still go through most everyone here to get 2:55:37.720 --> 2:55:39.800 to the targets if it were absolutely necessary, on the 2:55:39.840 --> 2:55:42.320 basis that most people chose to attend a speech by 2:55:42.360 --> 2:55:44.800 a pedophile, rapist and trader and are thus complicit. 2:55:45.000 --> 2:55:46.400 But I really hope it doesn't come. 2:55:46.280 --> 2:55:46.920 To that, right. 2:55:47.240 --> 2:55:52.400 Yeah, Another interesting bit from his manifesto's quote administration officials, 2:55:52.760 --> 2:55:57.280 not including mister Fatel, they are targets prioritized from highest 2:55:57.400 --> 2:55:58.320 ranking to lowest. 2:55:58.520 --> 2:55:58.720 Yeah. 2:55:59.200 --> 2:56:01.480 Interesting, interesting parenthetical. 2:56:02.120 --> 2:56:04.360 I wonder if that's just because some people were joking 2:56:04.480 --> 2:56:06.960 after that article came out about how Cash betel they 2:56:07.000 --> 2:56:08.800 had to like break down his door because he was 2:56:08.879 --> 2:56:12.200 too drunk to reach. People were joking like, maybe it's 2:56:12.280 --> 2:56:14.560 best if Cash stays in office because he's so I 2:56:14.680 --> 2:56:15.480 wonder if that was. 2:56:15.520 --> 2:56:16.600 The joke he was making. 2:56:16.840 --> 2:56:19.240 Unclear what he meant by that, But he doesn't give 2:56:19.280 --> 2:56:21.440 us any reason to believe aso, and he doesn't share 2:56:21.480 --> 2:56:24.160 any jokes like that, right, So that is kind of 2:56:24.440 --> 2:56:25.400 legitimately baffling. 2:56:25.480 --> 2:56:28.879 Now, most of the manifesto is like apologizing to people 2:56:29.000 --> 2:56:32.120 he knows yep, for how this will be like disruptive, yeah, 2:56:32.200 --> 2:56:35.000 and then talking about his own rules of engagement, yes, 2:56:35.600 --> 2:56:38.440 which he says, quote probably in a terrible format, but 2:56:38.560 --> 2:56:41.480 I'm not military, so too bad un quote Yeah. 2:56:41.800 --> 2:56:45.160 And it's it's interesting because he had also shared at 2:56:45.240 --> 2:56:47.360 least one post on Blue Sky that was like kind 2:56:47.360 --> 2:56:49.400 of pro gun control, that was like talking about how 2:56:49.600 --> 2:56:52.360 it's bad to have a gun, basically like it increases 2:56:52.400 --> 2:56:54.240 the danger that you're in, which it did for this guy. 2:56:55.080 --> 2:56:58.760 But it is interesting in terms of the firearms he chose, 2:56:58.840 --> 2:57:01.320 because this is clearly a guy who supports more gun control. 2:57:01.440 --> 2:57:05.439 He seems to find it distasteful certainly to like celebrate 2:57:05.720 --> 2:57:09.920 guns right and celebrate like military style weapons. I kind 2:57:09.920 --> 2:57:12.400 of wonder if he picked the firearms he picked because 2:57:12.400 --> 2:57:15.080 they did not look like the pistol didn't look like 2:57:15.160 --> 2:57:17.920 a glock or like the standard police guns that he 2:57:18.000 --> 2:57:20.400 sees people owning, and a shotgun doesn't look like an 2:57:20.600 --> 2:57:23.480 AR fifteen AAR fifteen. Yeah, I kind of wonder, although 2:57:23.480 --> 2:57:25.960 he says it was to minimize penetration, so maybe that's 2:57:26.000 --> 2:57:26.520 more likely. 2:57:26.760 --> 2:57:28.080 The other thing I want to mention is because the 2:57:28.120 --> 2:57:30.680 shotgun was purchased in August, and he does make a 2:57:30.720 --> 2:57:34.480 few references in the manifesto too, Yes, like thinking of 2:57:34.560 --> 2:57:37.240 having done something like this for quite a while, but 2:57:37.400 --> 2:57:40.480 this was his first opportunity that he saw that seemed 2:57:40.720 --> 2:57:41.600 semi possible. 2:57:42.320 --> 2:57:42.520 Yeah. 2:57:43.040 --> 2:57:45.760 And I also had the thought that, well, when he 2:57:45.879 --> 2:57:48.640 bought the shotgun, because he specifically states that he wants 2:57:48.640 --> 2:57:51.680 to use a shotgun to minimize like casualties, then the 2:57:51.760 --> 2:57:54.120 date at which he bought the shotgun might be the 2:57:54.200 --> 2:57:56.360 date at which he decided he was going to do this, right, 2:57:56.440 --> 2:57:58.640 or it might be the point which he started taking actions. 2:57:59.320 --> 2:58:02.040 It would make some that maybe that would be around 2:58:02.120 --> 2:58:05.320 when he had started planning to do this. And you know, 2:58:05.720 --> 2:58:08.800 there's so much different shit happened around August of twenty 2:58:08.840 --> 2:58:11.440 twenty five, it's kind of impossible to say this is 2:58:11.520 --> 2:58:15.480 definitely it. I did notice that August twenty fifth, twenty 2:58:15.520 --> 2:58:18.760 twenty five, is when Trump issued his additional measures to 2:58:18.800 --> 2:58:22.200 address the crime Emergency in the District of Columbia Executive Order. 2:58:22.400 --> 2:58:24.480 Yeah, the military occupation of DC. 2:58:25.000 --> 2:58:25.280 Yeah. 2:58:26.360 --> 2:58:28.160 So, and this is when Trump is really and a 2:58:28.200 --> 2:58:30.400 bunch of there's a bunch of different news stories around 2:58:30.400 --> 2:58:33.280 Trump trying to deploy the National Guard in US cities, 2:58:33.320 --> 2:58:34.880 And I kind of wonder if maybe that's when he 2:58:35.440 --> 2:58:37.840 but that's purely theoretical. There was a lot of other 2:58:37.920 --> 2:58:41.400 bad stuff happening that, you know, so who's to say. 2:58:41.520 --> 2:58:44.720 He also seems to be angry about our war against Iran, 2:58:45.120 --> 2:58:46.920 like the fact, like the war of choice that Trump 2:58:47.000 --> 2:58:49.480 launched against Iran. He didn't get a post a lot 2:58:49.560 --> 2:58:52.520 about it. But there are some references in the manifesto 2:58:52.640 --> 2:58:55.000 that kind of make me feel like that that may 2:58:55.080 --> 2:58:57.959 have also been like a major thing that helped push 2:58:58.080 --> 2:59:01.880 him to make this decision, because he specifically stated that 2:59:02.040 --> 2:59:04.160 I'm a citizen of the United States of America. What 2:59:04.280 --> 2:59:07.560 my representatives do reflects me, and I am no longer 2:59:07.600 --> 2:59:09.720 one to permit a pedophile, rapist, and trader to coat 2:59:09.800 --> 2:59:12.360 my hands with his crimes, right, Like, there's some reasons 2:59:12.400 --> 2:59:14.640 to believe that that probably played into it as well. 2:59:15.240 --> 2:59:20.800 Interestingly, he does sign the manifesto with his blue sky username. 2:59:21.000 --> 2:59:22.600 Sure does Cold Force. 2:59:22.879 --> 2:59:25.960 Yeah he thought that was cool. Yeah, perhaps that was 2:59:26.000 --> 2:59:28.760 her name he used. I don't know, and there's nothing 2:59:28.800 --> 2:59:31.560 activities or like it was. Maybe that's something to him. 2:59:31.760 --> 2:59:34.320 Another thing that's probably worth talking about because Trump has 2:59:34.400 --> 2:59:36.560 made the claim several times. This guy was anti Christian. 2:59:36.640 --> 2:59:39.520 That hatred of Christianity is what drove him. As I 2:59:39.720 --> 2:59:41.840 said before, in Caltech he was a member of the 2:59:41.920 --> 2:59:43.760 Christian group. I'll talk about that in a second. But 2:59:43.879 --> 2:59:47.400 in his manifesto he specifically justifies what he's doing as 2:59:47.480 --> 2:59:50.039 a Christian. There is a segment in there where he's 2:59:50.040 --> 2:59:52.040 going through like some objections he knows people in his 2:59:52.160 --> 2:59:55.240 life will have, and kind of rebutting them. An objection 2:59:55.360 --> 2:59:57.199 one is as a Christian, you should turn the other cheek. 2:59:57.480 --> 2:59:59.720 Rebuttal turning the other cheek is for when you yourself 2:59:59.760 --> 3:00:02.280 are oppressed. I'm not the person raped in a detention camp. 3:00:02.320 --> 3:00:04.680 I'm not the fisherman executed without trial. I'm not a 3:00:04.720 --> 3:00:06.840 school kid blown up, or a child starved, or a 3:00:06.879 --> 3:00:10.160 teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Right, 3:00:10.520 --> 3:00:14.960 So he specifically is justifying this as a Christians on 3:00:15.120 --> 3:00:18.320 Christian grounds. He thanks his church, which seems to have 3:00:18.400 --> 3:00:20.920 been a major part of his life. So there's a 3:00:21.040 --> 3:00:25.720 quote from Ken Klippenstein's article about his time at Caltech. 3:00:26.120 --> 3:00:28.800 He was pretty prominent at the Caltech Christian Fellowship, pretty 3:00:28.840 --> 3:00:31.360 Christian and mellow. If I didn't see his face eating carpet. 3:00:31.400 --> 3:00:33.560 I would have never believed it. And then I found 3:00:33.560 --> 3:00:36.160 a Christianity Today piece that just came up a few 3:00:36.240 --> 3:00:39.280 hours ago, and a line from that is Alan's father, 3:00:39.400 --> 3:00:42.000 Thomas Allen, was listed as an elder at Grace United 3:00:42.040 --> 3:00:45.160 Reformed Church and Torrance and an evangelical congregation that describes 3:00:45.160 --> 3:00:48.240 itself as preaching a gospel that is Christ centered, covenental, 3:00:48.320 --> 3:00:51.080 and confessional. The church's leadership page and social media pages 3:00:51.120 --> 3:00:54.720 have been pulled down, and yeah, it's fucked up. They 3:00:54.760 --> 3:00:57.280 had to have like security guards, armed guards, like escort 3:00:57.360 --> 3:01:00.240 worshippers inside and out this weekend just because of like 3:01:00.360 --> 3:01:04.600 all of the press around this. Elizabeth ter Linden, who 3:01:04.640 --> 3:01:06.360 also knew him at the time, told The New York 3:01:06.440 --> 3:01:09.640 Times he was definitely a strong believer in evangelical Christianity. 3:01:09.640 --> 3:01:10.920 At the time that I knew him, she was in 3:01:11.000 --> 3:01:14.320 the Caltech Christian Fellowship with him. So this guy appears 3:01:14.360 --> 3:01:17.840 to have been like a very strong evangelical Christian, like 3:01:17.959 --> 3:01:19.080 a liberal Christian. 3:01:19.800 --> 3:01:20.840 We don't exactly know. 3:01:21.200 --> 3:01:23.960 Was he always was his Christianity always like progressive and 3:01:24.200 --> 3:01:27.280 liberal tinted, or was he kind of more conservative at 3:01:27.320 --> 3:01:29.400 a different point in his life we do know that 3:01:29.600 --> 3:01:31.680 within the last couple of years he got involved in 3:01:31.800 --> 3:01:35.200 left wing activism in Los Angeles. His sister told law 3:01:35.240 --> 3:01:38.680 enforcement that after he got more involved in left wing activism, 3:01:38.760 --> 3:01:41.960 particularly a group who called themselves the White Awakes, which 3:01:42.160 --> 3:01:46.280 was referencing an anti slavery protest in the eighteen sixties. 3:01:46.600 --> 3:01:48.200 Oh yeah, okay, right, Like these were some of the 3:01:48.240 --> 3:01:50.840 people who like back Lincoln. So he joined some group 3:01:50.959 --> 3:01:53.080 and Alick has called the White Awakes for some period 3:01:53.160 --> 3:01:56.200 of time, he starts talking more radically, starts showing up 3:01:56.200 --> 3:01:58.360 to more protests, and I think he's helping with a 3:01:58.400 --> 3:02:00.760 couple of different kinds of things with the cup different groups. 3:02:01.280 --> 3:02:03.400 But that's when his sister says, he starts making like 3:02:03.720 --> 3:02:06.880 a lot more radical statements and maybe sometimes aggressive statements. 3:02:06.920 --> 3:02:08.600 And that lines up with when he buys a gun 3:02:08.920 --> 3:02:12.120 and he starts training after twenty twenty three. So this 3:02:12.280 --> 3:02:14.440 may have just been a thing where he he didn't 3:02:14.480 --> 3:02:17.199 have a full plan at that point, but he accepted 3:02:17.280 --> 3:02:20.280 the possibility that he might need to do violence in 3:02:20.400 --> 3:02:23.400 order to support, you know, his his ideals. We don't 3:02:23.440 --> 3:02:26.440 really know, but that's that's all we've gotten in terms 3:02:26.480 --> 3:02:27.000 of a journey. 3:02:27.120 --> 3:02:29.800 Yeah, in October of twenty twenty four, he did make 3:02:29.879 --> 3:02:34.039 one donation to the themircial campaign via. 3:02:33.959 --> 3:02:35.280 Act twenty five dollars. 3:02:36.120 --> 3:02:39.120 Yeah, but not a lot of not a long history 3:02:39.160 --> 3:02:41.080 of donations to the party, not a long history of 3:02:41.200 --> 3:02:44.360 like volunteering for the Democratic Party specifically. Seems to have 3:02:44.400 --> 3:02:47.080 been a pretty loyal voter. Yeah, but this is a 3:02:47.160 --> 3:02:49.600 guy who I think really, during like the it would 3:02:49.600 --> 3:02:51.360 be during the Biden years, gets more involved in like 3:02:51.440 --> 3:02:55.240 left wing protests and organizing. He becomes angrier, and then 3:02:55.280 --> 3:02:58.280 after twenty twenty four, he gets really really angry at 3:02:58.400 --> 3:03:02.320 Trump and Evince, probably some time late last year, decides 3:03:02.360 --> 3:03:06.359 to take action, and for whatever reason, picks the Correspondent's 3:03:06.360 --> 3:03:08.920 dinner to do it. It's probably also worth noting that 3:03:09.640 --> 3:03:12.879 he sends this manifesto thing out right before he carries 3:03:12.920 --> 3:03:15.080 out the attack, Like he's staying in the hotel for 3:03:15.160 --> 3:03:15.600 a couple of. 3:03:15.680 --> 3:03:18.720 Days before all this happens. He booked two nights. 3:03:19.000 --> 3:03:21.400 We actually get him to reflect a little on the 3:03:21.520 --> 3:03:24.960 security that he's experienced while he's been there, and that's 3:03:25.000 --> 3:03:28.640 a really interesting part of this. He says, I expected 3:03:28.680 --> 3:03:31.240 security cameras at every bend bugged hotel rooms, armed agents 3:03:31.280 --> 3:03:33.920 every ten feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got, 3:03:34.000 --> 3:03:36.560 who knows, maybe they're pranking me, is nothing. No damn security, 3:03:36.640 --> 3:03:38.280 not in transport, not in the hotel, and not in 3:03:38.320 --> 3:03:38.640 the event. 3:03:38.879 --> 3:03:38.920 Like. 3:03:39.000 --> 3:03:40.800 The one thing that I immediately noticed walking to the 3:03:40.800 --> 3:03:42.680 hotel is the sense of arrogance. I walk in with 3:03:42.800 --> 3:03:45.200 multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the 3:03:45.240 --> 3:03:46.600 possibility that I could be a threat. 3:03:47.200 --> 3:03:47.880 Crazy stuff. 3:03:48.360 --> 3:03:50.880 Most of the security seemed to be isolated around the 3:03:50.959 --> 3:03:54.640 actual ballroom and the levels immediately above and below. 3:03:54.680 --> 3:03:56.920 And again, he doesn't get anywhere close to the president 3:03:57.080 --> 3:04:01.480 or any other important person, right, So you could argue 3:04:01.520 --> 3:04:04.120 the security did its job. He was just in the 3:04:04.240 --> 3:04:07.680 same hotel. But yeah, crazy stuff. 3:04:07.720 --> 3:04:09.160 I don't know. I don't have anything else. 3:04:09.640 --> 3:04:13.320 Yeah, let's go on ad break and then return to 3:04:13.400 --> 3:04:17.120 briefly discuss some of the conspiracy theories that have spawned 3:04:17.640 --> 3:04:32.120 after this alleged shooting. Love it, okay, we are back. 3:04:33.400 --> 3:04:38.320 Immediately after the event took place, tons of conspiracy theories 3:04:38.440 --> 3:04:42.240 started cropping up, obviously piggybacking off of the Butler Pennsylvania ones. 3:04:42.760 --> 3:04:46.439 This was not helped by the confusion in early reports, 3:04:46.520 --> 3:04:49.880 because once you get every journalist in DC in one 3:04:50.000 --> 3:04:52.960 room and then an event happens, that means every journalist 3:04:53.040 --> 3:04:55.760 has a kind of different version of the event that 3:04:55.879 --> 3:04:59.040 gets immediately blasted out online and on the news. So 3:04:59.440 --> 3:05:01.800 there was no not a clear sequence of events. In 3:05:01.879 --> 3:05:05.080 the immediate aftermath of the shooting, there was reports that 3:05:05.280 --> 3:05:08.400 maybe was just dishes being dropped. Eventually it was clear 3:05:08.440 --> 3:05:11.680 that no, there was an actual shooting, and Wolf Flitzer 3:05:11.760 --> 3:05:14.400 did lose a shoe in the course of the events. 3:05:14.560 --> 3:05:15.240 He sure did. 3:05:16.080 --> 3:05:16.560 Poor Wolf. 3:05:16.680 --> 3:05:20.840 Now also not helping things. Trump was basically live truthing 3:05:21.040 --> 3:05:23.800 this investigation on the night of the shooting, uh huh, 3:05:24.080 --> 3:05:26.440 And it was not clear to many people that the 3:05:26.440 --> 3:05:29.320 shooting did not happen on the ballroom level, yeah, and 3:05:29.360 --> 3:05:31.640 that the shoot did not get close to the targets. 3:05:32.360 --> 3:05:32.520 Well. 3:05:32.600 --> 3:05:35.640 Also, the people in the main room were still very 3:05:35.800 --> 3:05:38.680 scared because like, oh, they had no real context on 3:05:38.840 --> 3:05:42.360 what was happening, and everyone around them just started freaking out. 3:05:42.840 --> 3:05:45.760 Yeah, because there's the military running around, secret Service running around. 3:05:45.760 --> 3:05:47.840 They heard gunshots. Yeah, it is a frightening thing. You're 3:05:47.879 --> 3:05:51.279 seeing jd. Vance get pulled off stage. Trump's stucking down. 3:05:51.240 --> 3:05:54.320 What I do feel is kind of interesting about this 3:05:54.680 --> 3:05:57.760 is you've got this whole DC class of like press 3:05:58.040 --> 3:06:01.000 and other important people who are not empower themselves but 3:06:01.040 --> 3:06:03.320 are close to it, and they do a lot of 3:06:03.360 --> 3:06:05.680 the things that they do because they like being close 3:06:05.760 --> 3:06:08.800 to power, and there's this illusion that comes with that. 3:06:08.959 --> 3:06:10.680 I think for a lot of these people of importance 3:06:10.720 --> 3:06:13.280 that gets ripped away when the Secret Service pulls all 3:06:13.320 --> 3:06:15.160 of the people who are important out of the room 3:06:15.240 --> 3:06:17.800 and you're just left wondering if you're in danger, Like 3:06:18.560 --> 3:06:20.440 that's what it'll be like if there's a nuclear war. 3:06:20.520 --> 3:06:24.039 All of these people will suddenly have the few folks 3:06:24.080 --> 3:06:26.280 who have a detail get ripped out of the room, 3:06:26.640 --> 3:06:28.959 and then you'll just hear the sirens start and have nothing, 3:06:29.040 --> 3:06:31.879 no idea what's happening, and realize that your whole life 3:06:32.000 --> 3:06:34.200 in pursuit of being close to power has brought you 3:06:34.320 --> 3:06:38.359 no security. Crazy stuff, wild times anyway, Garrison. 3:06:38.720 --> 3:06:40.960 What are the core pieces of quote unquote evidence that 3:06:41.080 --> 3:06:43.080 was used to assert that the shooting was some kind 3:06:43.120 --> 3:06:47.119 of false flag or syop? Was a comment made by 3:06:47.320 --> 3:06:51.840 Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt shortly before the dinner. This speech 3:06:51.879 --> 3:06:54.480 tonight will be classic Donald J. 3:06:54.600 --> 3:06:54.920 Trump. 3:06:55.280 --> 3:06:58.120 It'll be funny, it'll be entertaining, there will be some 3:06:58.280 --> 3:06:59.400 shots fired tonight. 3:07:00.959 --> 3:07:01.560 Great stuff. 3:07:01.800 --> 3:07:04.959 Poor choice of words. There on behalf of the press secretary. 3:07:05.760 --> 3:07:06.960 Excellent choice of words. 3:07:07.080 --> 3:07:07.280 Yeah. 3:07:08.520 --> 3:07:11.039 Also, though, like it's not a Dann Brown level when 3:07:11.040 --> 3:07:13.480 people are actually plotting conspiracy, they did go around leaving 3:07:13.520 --> 3:07:17.000 the little easter eggs for you to find, of course. 3:07:17.240 --> 3:07:19.200 Yeah, why why else would there why else would the 3:07:19.240 --> 3:07:23.080 deep state orchestrate like a top a top level secret 3:07:23.400 --> 3:07:28.320 secret syop and not not decide to leave little clues beforehand? 3:07:28.640 --> 3:07:31.600 Yeah, they got they have to leave little clues, Garrison. 3:07:32.120 --> 3:07:34.560 Have you listened to Alex Jones. That's part of the 3:07:34.640 --> 3:07:36.880 deal they make with the demons is that they have 3:07:37.000 --> 3:07:39.359 to They have to leave little clues for the evil. 3:07:39.120 --> 3:07:40.640 That they're doing while they're doing it. 3:07:40.840 --> 3:07:42.560 They call that the Riddler's law. 3:07:43.360 --> 3:07:45.400 Uh huh, that's right now. 3:07:45.520 --> 3:07:50.120 Another thing that got amplified in the conspiratorial miliu was 3:07:50.280 --> 3:07:54.680 a Twitter account with a Pepe profile picture wearing the 3:07:54.760 --> 3:07:57.360 same outfit as President Trump for the night of the Dinner, 3:07:58.040 --> 3:08:02.000 who tweeted the alleged shooter's name about two and a 3:08:02.080 --> 3:08:06.680 half years ago. This post is the account's only visible post. 3:08:07.720 --> 3:08:09.760 The banner image of the account is a bunch of 3:08:09.800 --> 3:08:12.240 streaks of color. But if you overlay the image of 3:08:12.280 --> 3:08:14.440 Trump holding its fist up in the air at Butler, 3:08:14.760 --> 3:08:18.280 the color streaks and the darkened areas line up with 3:08:18.600 --> 3:08:22.480 the Trump Butler photo. Now, the alleged shooter also had 3:08:22.520 --> 3:08:25.440 an undergraduate research fellowship at NASA for the summer of 3:08:25.520 --> 3:08:28.360 twenty to fourteen, and the name of this Twitter account 3:08:28.400 --> 3:08:31.160 matches the name of someone at lockeed Martin who published 3:08:31.200 --> 3:08:34.240 a NASA paper at the same time that the shooter 3:08:34.440 --> 3:08:37.960 was at NASA, and the shooter worked for the Jet 3:08:38.080 --> 3:08:41.800 Propulsion Lab, the same labs that those scientists who have 3:08:41.840 --> 3:08:47.880 gone missing also have been working out of. When I 3:08:47.959 --> 3:08:49.760 saw this, I started feeling a little bit scared because 3:08:49.760 --> 3:08:53.680 I thought I was getting too I don't know, I 3:08:53.879 --> 3:08:58.840 was afraid, needing help. But this is But that's not 3:08:58.920 --> 3:09:04.119 all because the Pepe the Pepe Twitter account was also 3:09:04.240 --> 3:09:08.480 connected to a time travel study, because the color streak 3:09:08.560 --> 3:09:10.920 banner photo was traced to a website on how to 3:09:11.000 --> 3:09:13.880 build a time machine, and this photo was used on 3:09:14.000 --> 3:09:19.240 the web page for the time machine study. So what's 3:09:19.720 --> 3:09:23.560 what's really going on here? First of all, this quote 3:09:23.600 --> 3:09:27.080 unquote time Machine website is actually a europe based project 3:09:27.160 --> 3:09:31.760 for quote three D digitalization of cultural heritage, scanning like 3:09:32.200 --> 3:09:35.199 artifacts and uploading them online as like three D models. 3:09:35.720 --> 3:09:39.560 That's their quote unquote time Machine is preserving cultural heritage. Yes, 3:09:39.640 --> 3:09:43.960 an archive, and actually this color streak image has actually 3:09:43.959 --> 3:09:45.680 been floating around the Internet for a long time. I 3:09:45.920 --> 3:09:49.040 found versions of it since at least twenty eighteen. There 3:09:49.080 --> 3:09:52.440 are hundreds of people named Cole Allen in the US 3:09:52.600 --> 3:09:56.040 on data broker sites. Right now, the first archive of 3:09:56.200 --> 3:10:00.480 this pepe Twitter account whose profile picture only mat Trump's 3:10:00.480 --> 3:10:03.800 because it's a tuxedo, one of the most common outfits 3:10:04.000 --> 3:10:05.640 from men at events like this. 3:10:05.879 --> 3:10:07.920 Yeah, yes, it is the same outfit that Trump was 3:10:07.959 --> 3:10:10.280 wearing at the dinner. It's also the same outfit Trump 3:10:10.360 --> 3:10:12.480 is worn at every dinner, because it's what you wear 3:10:12.520 --> 3:10:14.680 at dinners if you're the president at TEXIEDA. 3:10:16.520 --> 3:10:20.000 But the first archive of this post is from after 3:10:20.120 --> 3:10:22.080 the shooting, so we don't know what this account looked 3:10:22.120 --> 3:10:25.040 like prior to the shooting. Now, this account could have 3:10:25.520 --> 3:10:28.600 tweeted tons of random names and then deleted all the 3:10:28.680 --> 3:10:32.280 other posts to pull a stunt like this or people 3:10:32.440 --> 3:10:34.840 at Twitter, like you know, x everything up. The people 3:10:34.840 --> 3:10:37.680 who work there could have backdated the account and the 3:10:37.760 --> 3:10:41.560 post to boost engagement on the platform. Now, those aren't 3:10:41.560 --> 3:10:44.920 any more likely than just a simple coincidence, But there 3:10:45.000 --> 3:10:49.400 are other explanations other than gesturing vaguely towards a pre 3:10:49.600 --> 3:10:54.280 planned psyop spreading images of this. A Twitter account isn't 3:10:54.360 --> 3:10:58.400 necessarily putting forward a specific conspiracy theory. He just gets 3:10:58.480 --> 3:11:02.240 used as a data point other unconnected data points to 3:11:02.360 --> 3:11:07.279 sew public mistrust and undermine reality inferring meaning from odd coincidences. 3:11:07.400 --> 3:11:07.800 Right this is? 3:11:07.879 --> 3:11:10.720 This is seeing patterns that aren't there and literally in 3:11:10.840 --> 3:11:14.080 the case of seeing the Butler photo in a splash 3:11:14.160 --> 3:11:17.480 of colors, and again like why would quote unquote they 3:11:18.400 --> 3:11:19.600 drop hints beforehand? 3:11:19.760 --> 3:11:20.040 Right is? 3:11:20.120 --> 3:11:24.240 This is this predictive programming. But predictive programming isn't really 3:11:24.360 --> 3:11:27.920 necessary to get the public to accept an event like 3:11:27.959 --> 3:11:32.080 an attempted assassination. In fact, that would only sew suspicion. 3:11:32.800 --> 3:11:35.520 Dropping these little hints just so suspicion for an event 3:11:35.560 --> 3:11:37.360 like this, It doesn't actually make it more acceptable. Right 3:11:37.400 --> 3:11:41.360 The whole idea of predictive programming is sowing seeds to 3:11:41.520 --> 3:11:44.880 get the public to accept an otherwise unacceptable thing, and 3:11:45.080 --> 3:11:49.840 that's not necessary for a presidential assassination. Yeah, Now there 3:11:49.879 --> 3:11:52.720 are some other things that propped up in this conspiratorial 3:11:53.200 --> 3:11:56.720 uh shenanigans. In the wake of the shooting, a Fox 3:11:56.800 --> 3:12:00.520 News reporter was calling in to report herk's varience at 3:12:00.520 --> 3:12:04.640 the dinner and suddenly cut out when she started talking 3:12:04.680 --> 3:12:07.880 about something that Carolyn Levitt's husband said to her. 3:12:08.600 --> 3:12:10.680 He kind of leaned over and said, you know, I 3:12:10.720 --> 3:12:11.440 watched your on TV. 3:12:11.480 --> 3:12:13.720 DoD a great job. You need to be very safe. 3:12:14.040 --> 3:12:16.240 And he was just very serious when he said that 3:12:16.280 --> 3:12:18.039 to me, and he kind of looked around the room 3:12:18.080 --> 3:12:19.800 and he said, you know, there are. 3:12:19.760 --> 3:12:30.040 Some sounds like we lost Ayisha's phone there. 3:12:30.760 --> 3:12:36.320 Well, well, well what so her audio actually cuts out 3:12:36.360 --> 3:12:40.959 at different points during this televised call. The anchor said 3:12:41.000 --> 3:12:43.080 that she was having sell service issues, and later on 3:12:43.480 --> 3:12:46.000 x this reporter posted that she was about to say 3:12:46.440 --> 3:12:49.480 that Carolyn Levitt's husband was quote telling me to be 3:12:49.600 --> 3:12:53.720 careful with my own safety because the world is crazy unquote. 3:12:54.400 --> 3:12:57.040 But it does make for a funny moment, a funny 3:12:57.440 --> 3:12:58.000 of television. 3:12:58.280 --> 3:12:59.039 That's a good moment. 3:12:59.160 --> 3:13:01.280 That's an incredible time for your call to cut out, 3:13:01.760 --> 3:13:03.160 Like just awesome stuff. 3:13:03.320 --> 3:13:03.520 Yeah. 3:13:04.600 --> 3:13:10.000 There's other other viral posts spreading video of the military 3:13:10.160 --> 3:13:13.280 storming past the red carpet or people in military fatigue 3:13:13.320 --> 3:13:16.800 storming past the red carpet after the shooting, with one 3:13:16.920 --> 3:13:20.560 person writing quote, law enforcement doesn't act like this. Neither 3:13:20.640 --> 3:13:23.200 does the military. This is a staged event with a 3:13:23.240 --> 3:13:27.280 shitty script and pre positioned cameras. Unquote. The cameras are 3:13:27.320 --> 3:13:32.000 there because they're they're to film the red carpet, the physition. 3:13:32.080 --> 3:13:35.160 Yes, because this is an organization where all the press gathered. 3:13:35.480 --> 3:13:38.400 This is a press event. That's why there's pre positioned cameras. 3:13:38.959 --> 3:13:41.480 Yeah, it's it's how you do you know the White 3:13:41.520 --> 3:13:42.640 House correspondence dinner. 3:13:43.400 --> 3:13:45.400 Yeah. Oh so you're going to see some types of 3:13:45.480 --> 3:13:48.760 cops you have never previously seen when someone tries to 3:13:48.760 --> 3:13:50.760 assassinate the president. Oh yeah, there are a whole lot 3:13:50.760 --> 3:13:52.800 of people whose job it is to stop that happening, 3:13:53.720 --> 3:13:57.160 Lots of them on necessarily uniformed offices who you see 3:13:57.200 --> 3:13:58.880 every day in the Secret Service. Yeah. 3:13:59.240 --> 3:14:01.800 Other people also thought it was odd that Trump has 3:14:01.840 --> 3:14:06.520 skipped every correspondent to dinner across his two terms. Except 3:14:06.680 --> 3:14:09.080 for this one, and then all of a sudden there's 3:14:09.120 --> 3:14:11.320 a shooter in the lobby. How did the shooter know 3:14:11.720 --> 3:14:14.720 that Trump would go to this one? Because the shooter 3:14:14.879 --> 3:14:17.480 planned planned this since early April. How would the shooter 3:14:17.600 --> 3:14:21.680 know this? Well, it's actually quite simple, because Trump announced 3:14:21.720 --> 3:14:25.279 he was attending this dinner in early March, and according 3:14:25.280 --> 3:14:28.560 to Core documents, Cole Allen started searching for information about 3:14:28.600 --> 3:14:32.560 this dinner in early April. A month later, before then 3:14:32.600 --> 3:14:36.520 booking two nights at the Washington Hilton, Trump already announced 3:14:36.520 --> 3:14:39.040 that he was going to be attending the dinner. The 3:14:39.360 --> 3:14:44.360 oddest aspect of the conspiracism post this event is that 3:14:45.080 --> 3:14:50.240 Trump needed to stage this not for any national security 3:14:50.280 --> 3:14:53.400 reasons or to seize more power, but to construct the 3:14:53.520 --> 3:14:56.440 White House ballroom, which has been the main thing that 3:14:56.520 --> 3:14:58.680 people on the right have been talking about after the shooting. 3:14:58.920 --> 3:15:00.480 The people on the right have not been using this 3:15:00.720 --> 3:15:04.680 shooting to go after liberal terrorists, but have been talking 3:15:04.800 --> 3:15:09.040 NonStop about how this security breach demonstrates the need to 3:15:09.120 --> 3:15:12.320 construct Trump's massive ballroom, and that's the main thing they're 3:15:12.360 --> 3:15:16.000 talking about. It's so funny the idea that they would 3:15:16.040 --> 3:15:17.600 stage that the deep state it's going to stage a 3:15:17.680 --> 3:15:21.160 false flag just to push for the ballroom. 3:15:21.600 --> 3:15:25.280 Yeah, is to me, frankly very funny. Yeah. 3:15:25.360 --> 3:15:27.879 We don't get an enabling Act in our new fascists. 3:15:27.920 --> 3:15:31.200 We just get a fucking ballroom. Yeah yeah, right, Like okay, 3:15:32.440 --> 3:15:34.840 I mean I guess I prefer this, Yeah. 3:15:35.040 --> 3:15:39.920 The reichstick fire to construct a nice dance floor. 3:15:40.200 --> 3:15:43.520 Yeah yeah, just yeah, I mean a lot of this 3:15:43.760 --> 3:15:48.520 was like centered on the safety and security exemption which 3:15:48.680 --> 3:15:52.000 was provided in the injunction against the building of the 3:15:52.080 --> 3:15:52.760 new ballroom. 3:15:53.160 --> 3:15:53.280 Right. 3:15:53.640 --> 3:15:56.080 The issue here is that the Trump administration already filed 3:15:56.120 --> 3:15:58.960 on the third of April a claim that the entire 3:15:59.080 --> 3:16:02.279 building was a contiguous hole. They couldn't do the security 3:16:02.360 --> 3:16:07.080 part without doing the fantasy dance floor part, right, Like, yes, 3:16:07.560 --> 3:16:10.959 Trump has also truced about this. Previous to this event, 3:16:11.040 --> 3:16:13.879 this wouldn't have really added anything. Yeah, they did try 3:16:14.120 --> 3:16:17.840 and get the National Trust for Historical Preservation to withdraw 3:16:18.040 --> 3:16:21.800 their court case, which they didn't against. Subsequently to this, 3:16:23.040 --> 3:16:25.000 the events of the White House correspond. 3:16:25.600 --> 3:16:27.520 So yeah, that's most of what I have on the 3:16:27.600 --> 3:16:30.640 conspiracy stuff. There's certainly more, but that's. 3:16:30.520 --> 3:16:31.160 Oh dose more. 3:16:31.320 --> 3:16:33.440 Yeah, We're going to leave it there's always going to 3:16:33.520 --> 3:16:36.120 be more right, Like, that's that's the way how it is. 3:16:36.440 --> 3:16:39.480 We don't have good data on like the widespread belief 3:16:39.600 --> 3:16:41.320 of this theory. There was there was a poll that 3:16:41.440 --> 3:16:45.520 circulated that said like something like forty seven percent of 3:16:45.680 --> 3:16:51.280 Democrats thought the attempted assassination was staged. But this poll, 3:16:51.320 --> 3:16:53.360 which is from the Manhattan Institute, so take that with 3:16:53.440 --> 3:16:57.120 a grain of fascism. This poll is actually pulling the 3:16:57.240 --> 3:17:01.240 Butler shooting, not this recent one, and people did not 3:17:01.959 --> 3:17:05.080 acknowledge that when they were spreading this poll around. So 3:17:05.959 --> 3:17:07.600 we don't know how many people actually believe that this 3:17:07.720 --> 3:17:12.880 shooting was staged, but you can certainly see a lot 3:17:12.920 --> 3:17:15.440 of people asserting as such on the internet. 3:17:16.320 --> 3:17:16.760 Mm hmm. 3:17:18.160 --> 3:17:20.840 Shall we move on to a couple of other topics 3:17:21.240 --> 3:17:21.880 we need to cover. 3:17:22.680 --> 3:17:25.520 Yes, this will be a super super sized episode, but 3:17:26.920 --> 3:17:27.560 it is what it is. 3:17:27.760 --> 3:17:30.520 Yeah, let's go talking to people talking about thinks of 3:17:30.520 --> 3:17:32.800 the internet. I think some people got this one get 3:17:32.840 --> 3:17:37.480 a little carried away. As three zero decision of a 3:17:37.640 --> 3:17:42.640 panel of Second Circuit Court judges has rejected ICE's mandatory 3:17:42.720 --> 3:17:46.480 detention of people seeking to deport with a few exceptions. 3:17:47.120 --> 3:17:50.520 The opinion was written by Judge Bianco, who is a 3:17:50.560 --> 3:17:54.880 Trump appointee, stated that quote petitioner entered the United States 3:17:54.920 --> 3:17:56.960 and lawfully in two thousand and four or two thousand 3:17:57.000 --> 3:17:59.920 and five and has resided here ever since. He's there 3:18:00.120 --> 3:18:02.720 for deemed to be an applicant for admission by section 3:18:02.840 --> 3:18:05.320 one two to five A, that he is not quote 3:18:05.440 --> 3:18:08.160 seeking admission because he is not requesting law ful entry 3:18:08.160 --> 3:18:11.680 into the United States after inspection authorization. The government's attempt 3:18:11.720 --> 3:18:16.240 to muddy these textually clear waters defies the statute's context, structure, history, 3:18:16.320 --> 3:18:19.640 and purpose, contradicts of Supreme Court dicta in Jennings and 3:18:19.720 --> 3:18:23.320 long standing executive branch practice, and its interpretation of statute 3:18:23.440 --> 3:18:27.200 raisive serious constitutional questions that should be avoided even if 3:18:27.200 --> 3:18:33.160 the statutory language were ambiguous. The statute in question here 3:18:33.800 --> 3:18:37.560 is the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 3:18:37.680 --> 3:18:42.119 nineteen ninety six, and specifically the fact that it has 3:18:42.200 --> 3:18:45.520 a mandatory detainer for people quote unquote seeking admission to 3:18:45.640 --> 3:18:51.560 the USA. Now, this ruling puts the Second Circuit in 3:18:51.760 --> 3:18:54.879 agreement with over three hundred and seventy judges across the nation, 3:18:55.000 --> 3:18:57.720 but notably odds with the Fifth and Eighth circuit. 3:18:57.879 --> 3:18:58.000 Right. 3:18:58.680 --> 3:19:02.640 Judge Bianco, in a a really incredibly New York and 3:19:02.640 --> 3:19:06.520 analogy here for seeking admission wrote, if someone sneaks into 3:19:06.640 --> 3:19:09.160 Yankee Stadium at the start of the game with no 3:19:09.280 --> 3:19:12.040 ticket for admission and no intention of ever paying, and 3:19:12.160 --> 3:19:14.320 he is later found by security in a seat in 3:19:14.360 --> 3:19:16.840 the seventh inning, no one would consider that to be 3:19:16.920 --> 3:19:20.280 seeking admission to the game. So hopefully that's that they 3:19:20.320 --> 3:19:23.240 explained to people that the argument that the government is 3:19:23.280 --> 3:19:25.800 making here is that someone who has been in the 3:19:25.840 --> 3:19:29.400 country for a long period of time is still seeking admission. 3:19:29.800 --> 3:19:29.920 Right. 3:19:30.640 --> 3:19:34.720 The Trump administrations place itself odds with other administrations. Right, 3:19:34.760 --> 3:19:37.720 this has been lost into nineteen ninety six, as Bianco wrote, 3:19:38.080 --> 3:19:41.200 quote for five presidential administrations have nearly three decades. It 3:19:41.280 --> 3:19:45.320 did consistently release detainees on bond, whom the government now 3:19:45.520 --> 3:19:48.000 argues are covered by Section one two two five B 3:19:48.200 --> 3:19:51.360 two A. Even in President Trump's first term and the 3:19:51.520 --> 3:19:53.960 first few months of his second, the agency adhered to 3:19:54.040 --> 3:19:57.039 the decades old understanding and the relative scopes of sections 3:19:57.080 --> 3:19:59.640 one two two five and one two two six. The 3:20:00.080 --> 3:20:03.080 these circumstances, the fact that no president has ever found 3:20:03.160 --> 3:20:05.680 such power in the statute is strong evidence that it 3:20:05.840 --> 3:20:09.800 does not exist. That pretty much explains itself, right. What 3:20:09.920 --> 3:20:12.360 I have not been able to work out is whether 3:20:12.440 --> 3:20:15.360 this pertains to people who are detained as in who 3:20:15.360 --> 3:20:18.280 are arrested in the second circuit, or people who are 3:20:18.400 --> 3:20:21.560 held in the second circuit or both. My guess would 3:20:21.600 --> 3:20:24.840 be both, because it is the law in the second circuit, right, 3:20:24.920 --> 3:20:28.560 so it applies in the second circuit. Certainly, most attention 3:20:28.640 --> 3:20:30.360 facilities are not in the second circuit. A lot of 3:20:30.400 --> 3:20:32.280 them are in the Fifth, which has come down the 3:20:32.280 --> 3:20:35.280 opposite way on this. This is why the Supreme Court exists, right, 3:20:35.440 --> 3:20:39.800 big disagreement between these several circuit courts here. Moving on 3:20:40.440 --> 3:20:43.520 to talk about the border wall. Before leaving office, Secretary 3:20:43.680 --> 3:20:47.480 no massigned several waivers for border war construction. This was 3:20:47.520 --> 3:20:50.920 not in the week before she left office, but this year. 3:20:52.160 --> 3:20:55.680 One of them waived twenty eight laws in the Big 3:20:55.879 --> 3:20:59.840 Bend area of Texas. The waiver included a hundred and 3:21:00.000 --> 3:21:02.840 empty five miles of the riverfront of the Rio Grande, 3:21:03.200 --> 3:21:06.119 including parts of the State Park, National Park, and federally 3:21:06.200 --> 3:21:09.800 protected river. These some of these areas are very popular 3:21:09.920 --> 3:21:13.160 for outdoor recreation. These waivers are now being challenged in 3:21:13.240 --> 3:21:16.120 court by the Center for Biological Diversity. They're atteditus on. 3:21:16.240 --> 3:21:18.480 You'll see them in a lot of border legal cases. 3:21:19.600 --> 3:21:23.440 The Friends of Roridosa Church and a telling were river 3:21:23.560 --> 3:21:27.200 guide named Billy Miller. It's an interesting coalition, right that 3:21:27.280 --> 3:21:30.400 we don't often see, like a church group has the 3:21:30.560 --> 3:21:34.400 sort of approach to this that it would destroy historical 3:21:34.560 --> 3:21:38.280 and cultural heritage to build the wall there. Obviously, the 3:21:38.400 --> 3:21:41.240 river guy, Billy Miller, Mister Miller has the claim that 3:21:41.320 --> 3:21:44.040 it would be disruptive to have business and to people's 3:21:44.160 --> 3:21:48.760 enjoyment of nature on the river. Currently, what they are 3:21:48.800 --> 3:21:53.560 doing is focusing on Chispa Road. That's it's Neil like Valentine, 3:21:53.600 --> 3:21:56.960 Texas northwestern MafA where are carrying out road improvements that 3:21:57.040 --> 3:22:00.000 they did not notify county officials about, which is obvious 3:22:00.040 --> 3:22:02.640 the course of disruption. I've actually ridden my bike out 3:22:02.680 --> 3:22:04.960 there a fair bit, did some work making a film 3:22:05.000 --> 3:22:07.240 out there a few years ago. It's a really beautiful 3:22:07.240 --> 3:22:08.959 part of the country. I'm sure a lot of people 3:22:08.959 --> 3:22:11.680 will be familiar with Marfa, which is nearby. Oh, it's 3:22:11.680 --> 3:22:15.520 a great city, great Muffa's great. I love that area Texas. 3:22:15.760 --> 3:22:18.760 Yeah, I watched it all burned down one beautiful, beautiful 3:22:18.920 --> 3:22:22.360 afternoon when the horrible fire started. Yeah, it was wild, Yeah, 3:22:22.360 --> 3:22:23.160 I bet geez. 3:22:24.000 --> 3:22:28.120 Luckily, Marfa has recovered a great place to visit. You 3:22:28.240 --> 3:22:32.360 can go and see the Prata Store, which people now 3:22:32.520 --> 3:22:36.440 think is AI generated, which is great. Our reality is cool. 3:22:37.000 --> 3:22:40.600 You can go see the Jud Foundations or the Chinnati Foundation, 3:22:40.760 --> 3:22:42.600 the Donald jud Museum. You know, a lot of other 3:22:42.640 --> 3:22:47.000 good stuff out in Marfa. Pretty good geez sandwich restaurant. 3:22:47.640 --> 3:22:51.720 Pretty fancy glamping set up there as well. Ye. So 3:22:52.280 --> 3:22:55.400 I checked out the CBP smart All Interactive map, which 3:22:55.520 --> 3:22:58.400 sometimes like they don't always have to give notice when 3:22:58.400 --> 3:23:01.520 they're changing their plans, or sometimes find out via the 3:23:01.600 --> 3:23:06.240 smart Wall interactive map. And right now it shows vehicle 3:23:06.360 --> 3:23:10.520 barriers and patrol road planned inside the National Park. Right 3:23:10.720 --> 3:23:13.600 so this will cause damage far far beyond the riverfront. 3:23:14.280 --> 3:23:17.080 Evidently to build barriers at the riverfront, they have to 3:23:17.120 --> 3:23:20.080 build roads to get to riverfront, which will also spread 3:23:20.120 --> 3:23:23.960 this damage over an area that like, especially in Texas. 3:23:24.040 --> 3:23:26.480 Texas is not a state which is abundant with public 3:23:26.560 --> 3:23:29.840 land now. It is not like those states further west 3:23:29.959 --> 3:23:32.240 in that regard. And I know this is an area 3:23:32.280 --> 3:23:34.440 which is very special to a great deal of people. 3:23:35.080 --> 3:23:36.880 I'm really interested in rating more about this, so like 3:23:37.000 --> 3:23:39.879 especially people in the outdoor industry or folks in that region, 3:23:39.920 --> 3:23:42.400 I'd love to hear from you. You can do cal 3:23:42.480 --> 3:23:45.240 Zone tips at proton dot me if you want to 3:23:45.280 --> 3:23:47.520 talk about that. Do you want to do that? 3:23:48.360 --> 3:23:50.959 We reported, We reported the news. 3:23:51.400 --> 3:23:54.600 All of it. Yeah again. Call Zone Tips at proton 3:23:54.680 --> 3:23:58.600 dot me for story tips. For your marketing emails, you 3:23:58.600 --> 3:24:01.680 can just go ahead and flush those we reported the news. 3:24:07.760 --> 3:24:10.880 Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week 3:24:11.000 --> 3:24:12.879 from now until the heat death of the universe. 3:24:13.640 --> 3:24:16.120 It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 3:24:16.320 --> 3:24:19.360 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 3:24:19.480 --> 3:24:23.000 Coolzonemedia dot com for check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 3:24:23.120 --> 3:24:26.640 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 3:24:26.720 --> 3:24:29.039 now find sources where it could Happen here listed directly 3:24:29.080 --> 3:24:31.320 in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.