WEBVTT - Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #5 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:07.440 Cool media. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.520 This is it could happen here? Executive that Disorder. Our 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.120 weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, Yes, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.880 the crumbling world and what it means for me and you. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.440 I'm Garrison Davis today. I'm joined by James Stout and 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.520 Robert Evans. Yes, this week we're covering the week of 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.479 February nineteen to February twenty sixth. 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.240 Boy, if you thought we had ed before, do we 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:32.640 have ed now? 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.800 We still haven't got that HYM sponsorship, but will yeah crying. 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:38.720 We're gonna keep working at it. I'm also looking to 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.479 get us a penis pump sponsorship. Speaking of penis pumps, 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:47.760 let's talk about the Germans. So, Germany had its election 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:53.280 very recently after their most recent coalition collapsed. The way 0:00:53.280 --> 0:01:00.000 their government works is that periodically governments can't continue being governments, 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.000 and so they have to have a very sudden election. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.840 I'm not going to explain it much more than that, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:09.040 but the actual results of the election were pretty interesting, right. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.000 The primary winner was off Day AfD Alternative for Germany 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.600 would be kind of the closest English translation of the 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.560 name of the party. This is a far right party. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:25.600 It is primarily popular in East Germany now, but it 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.520 has surged massively after years and years of being decidedly 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.040 on the political fringe. One of the reasons it has 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.479 always been on the political fringe is that German parties, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:42.080 both centrists, Conservatives and the left, have had a tacit 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.280 agreement since the end of World War Two called the 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.560 Court on Santaire. It's not just Germany, this is the 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.440 thing that used to be present in all of Europe. 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.160 And basically the gist of the Court in Sanitaire is 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.480 you don't form a coalition because these are parliamentary democracies, right, 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.080 so usually no one party has fifty percent or more 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.080 of the vote. So you know, a party with twenty 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:06.000 and a party with fifteen and a party with eight 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.800 and they form a coalition government. And the norm for 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.200 up until now, and thankfully is still the normal we'll 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.080 talk about that is that you don't coalition with AfD, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.280 which is a part of why that and kind of 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.600 lingering stigma about the Nazis kept them from being a 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:27.000 major force in German politics until you know, over the 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.480 last eight or so years they have grown substantially to 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.520 the point where in this recent election they doubled their 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.440 support from around ten percent to a little over twenty percent. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:43.400 This makes them they're not the largest single block in 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:45.440 the German in the Reichstag. 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.639 They're number two though, right they are number two, I believe, 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:50.040 which sucks. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:51.200 Yeah, it's not great. 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:57.160 Yeah, the CDU is still significantly larger, although not like 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:03.560 overwhelmingly larger to be clear. So basically right now, the CDU, 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.520 which is the centrist party and it's kind of like 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.400 center right, a little center right, has two hundred and 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.280 eight seats in the Reichstag. AfD has one hundred and 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.959 fifty two, the Social Democrats have one hundred and twenty, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.119 the Greens have eighty five, and the Left Party has 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:24.600 sixty four. So AfD is a minority in the government 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.560 compared to all of the people who didn't vote for AfD, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.040 but the rate at which they're increasing is a serious problem, 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.160 especially since most Germans list immigration as their primary voting 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:40.040 concern right now, this most recent election had unusually high 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.400 voter turnout. Twenty twenty one election, seventy six percent of 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.640 the country or so voted. More than eighty two percent 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.120 of the country voted in this most recent election, so 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.640 the fact that like you have record high turnout and 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:58.680 AfD doubling its support is deeply chilling. Now it's not 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.640 one hundred percent bad news because one of the other 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.360 stories here is the new Left Party, well not super new, 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.560 but the Left Party, which is kind of came out 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:13.760 of East Germany's Communist Party, massively increased their support too. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:18.040 And they actually for the first time, like very significantly 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.000 increased their share of the vote, which had been under 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.599 this kind of five percent threshold before and is now 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.279 at about eight point eight percent. So they went up 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.840 by an amount. Actually it's not like as much as 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.440 AfD went up, but like in terms of a percentage 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:38.920 of their prior vote, it's a similar increase. So there's 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.640 another party that had significant gains in this and it's 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.080 it's kind of a newer party called the BSW, which 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.640 is you could say they do a little bit of 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.760 like a Red Brown Alliance kind of thing, where there's 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.520 some left wing messaging in what they're saying with they're 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:59.400 also like super anti immigrant and they're not, you know, 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.479 it's not kind of like to the extent that the 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.720 AfD is. But when they came on to the scene, 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.680 they were expected by some people to pull votes away 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:14.320 from the AfD this election, and that's really not what happened. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.599 And in fact, a lot of the votes they pulled 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.960 were from Social Democrats and the left parties, so that 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.800 was one of the you know, it's because the way 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.320 the parliamentary system works, which is more rational than our system. 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.279 This didn't like hand the whole election to off day. Again. 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.360 This is the benefit of a system like the Germans had, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.120 which is pretty explicitly set up to make it a 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.440 lot harder for a right wing dictator to get in again. 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.880 But it is interesting to me that that kind of messaging, 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.160 I mean, it's further kind of evidence of what's been 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:51.719 happening everywhere, which is when your party positions itself to 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.560 try to win over far right votes by kind of 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:57.760 mixing in Well, okay, what if we did some sort 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.800 of you know, liberal lefty policies, but we also got 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.120 really racist. You don't take votes from the far right, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.320 but you do wind up pulling the worst people from 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:13.240 the left. Yeah, and yeah, I guess that's kind of 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.080 like the broad strokes. Now, like this is bad, although 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.240 it's also not comprehensively a nightmare. One of the things 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.520 that's kind of hot. I don't know, positive may not 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.000 be the right. Wait, but interesting to me is if 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.039 you looked at the twenty twenty one election maps of 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.000 the strongest party by constituency in the twenty twenty one election, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.440 and I found a good article German election results explaining 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.159 graphics on DW dot com. If you just google that, 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.320 you'll find it. In twenty twenty one, off Day obviously, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:49.279 like the whole northeast was you know, their territory, but 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.280 they also had strong inroads into the northwest parts of 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.120 the country, right, you know, primarily like rural areas and 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.000 the like. But like there was a there was a 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.160 lot of red on that map orthwest portion of Germany. 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.040 In the new election that's all black, which is the 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:12.120 CDU right, Which means while off Day's representation of the 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.760 Reichstag and like number of voters increased substantially, their geographical 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.520 reach has been kind of cauterized, would be, in a 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.920 fair way of saying it is, which is interesting to 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.440 me hard to say too much, like does that mean, 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.000 you know, I think some of what has happened here, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.200 Because it's important both to note that this is bad, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.960 it's bad that the Nazis got doubled their share of 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.040 the vote, but also it was expected to be a 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.480 little worse than it was. You know, there's some evidence 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.160 that after JD Vance made his speech introducing AfD, their 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.800 pollings started to like freeze a little bit. And it 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.040 may be the fact because a lot of older voters 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.240 came in and they they seem to have primarily gone 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.360 with the CDU, with this sort of center right party. 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.720 So the story here is you can maybe look at 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.360 it as a lot of older, more conservative Germans who 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.680 are also old enough to really not like the idea 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:13.000 of the AfD came out and voted for, you know, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.720 the center right party in order to kind of cut 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.480 off their power. The other thing, though, that's kind of 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.120 a lot less optimistic, is that AfD is most popular 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.960 among people under thirty, who widely don't view it as 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:31.520 an extremist party, which is deeply, deeply concerning. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.520 And AfD won the majority of like working class, unemployed 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.079 and male votes. Yes, yes, pretty substantially. 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.840 Yes, they did extremely well with young men and unemployed 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:47.240 young men in particular, and that's all deeply concerning. So 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.280 you know, there's a few things going on here. All 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.280 of which are very interesting to me, but the power 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.200 often they continues to have with younger, really young Germans, 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:02.440 is frightening. That said, there's allso some evidence here that 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.160 the situation in the United States has galvanized a chunk 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:11.480 of the German voting populace to attempt to stop off 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.400 day and kind of one of the positive things that 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.280 came out is prior to this election, there was a 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:19.120 lot of talk about whether or not the CDU would 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.960 choose to coalition with the AfD and thus into the 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.720 Cordon sanitaire. And to make a long story short, they're 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.880 not going to do that. They're looking to coalition with 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.200 the Social Democrats, which is a good thing. You know, 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.160 it doesn't mean no one will do that in the future. 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.959 And unfortunately, a majority of German voters suspect AfD will 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.720 be in a coalition by twenty thirty, but it hasn't 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.040 happened yet. And that's as good as things get right now. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.120 And that's what I got to say about Germany. 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.520 Yeah, I mean, and people frame these results is like 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:56.560 slightly better than expected, slightly Previous pulling showed AfD being 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.040 being slightly better in results, and that dip for Vance 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.720 and Musk started started really trying to push AfD both 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:09.480 in person and digitally, So you saw a slight dip there. 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.400 Yes, And this is the other thing that's kind of 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.400 worth noting that kind of like red Brown Party, in 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:21.360 addition to being kind of pro social programs, anti immigration, 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.439 they're also very anti United States. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:25.440 Okay, so. 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.160 That may explain some of that too. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.079 Yeah, it does seem like things are changing a lot. 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:33.920 And one of the things that we've seen, like as 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.320 we've spoken before, like not just in Germany, being Canada, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.720 was that like people hate Musk and Trump so much 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.360 in the rest of the world that like their endorsement 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.719 could be something of a kiss of death electorally. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:46.240 Yeah. 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.760 Yeah, Like the Conservative Party in Canada has been growing 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.840 pretty exponentially in terms of like popular support the past 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.720 few years as the Liberals have like tanked, and now 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.440 those trends actually started to reverse. The Canadian like liberal 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:00.560 pulling is up ten points that can sort of pulling 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.520 us down. Conservatives might not even be able to control 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.760 Parliament in the next election, as they were like expected to. 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.319 And it'll be interesting to see like if this if 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.120 this anti like far right United States trend continues to 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.520 more countries beyond, like Germany in Canada, but I'm still 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.000 I'm still eagerly, eagerly waiting for the next Canadian election. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.360 And this is part of the story that is really 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.400 interesting right now, where we've talked a lot about the 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:29.360 transnational fascist coalition. You know, the fact that Trump and 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.040 his people have had the quasi dictator of Hungary, you know, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.679 over at mar A Lago, and have repeatedly cited him 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.880 as an inspiration for how to take and centralized power. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.840 You know how close Bolsonaro was in the last Trump administration, 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:47.560 Like you know, obviously the Republican parties increasing closeness and 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:52.040 embrace of Putin's Russia. But what also is happening right 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:56.880 now is people like countries that had been heading at 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.720 a very a more authoritarian right wing direction and turning 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.320 around in part due to the war in Ukraine and 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.960 turning away from kind of the international right wing movement, 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.760 as Poland being the best example right where had Polish 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:18.040 politics have changed substantially in the last several years, and 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.280 a big part of that is the war in Ukraine. 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.680 And there are a lot of Poles who I think 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:24.959 otherwise would have been more on board for a lot 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.800 of the socially conservative shit who are like, well, but 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:33.360 all these fuckers are pro Russia and we're Poland, Like, no, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.200 all right, let's go on a break and return to 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:56.240 talk more about the crumbling world. And you said, yeah, 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.559 all right, we are back. I'm gonna ther to James 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.960 to to do a segment on usaid. 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.920 Yeah, we are back. And before I talk about USAD, 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:07.559 I do want to talk about something else that has 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.959 been advertised along with whatever products and services support this show. 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.720 That is the Gold Card. So the Gold Card, if 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.000 you're not familiar, is something that Trump floated this week 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.280 to replace the EB five investor visa. Trump suggested that 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.440 the Gold Card it would require a five million dollar investment. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.120 Well investment, I think that it's just a charge, right, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.400 You're just giving the money to the United States government, 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.679 and in return you will receive a Green card plus privileges, 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.320 and it will be not a Green but a Gold card. 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.720 So that's great. That is the EB five visa if 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.480 you're not familiar, required you since twenty twenty two, it's 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.840 been one million and fifty thousand dollar investment and the 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.400 creation of ten jobs. So it had some kind of 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.120 like it trickled down economics. It's not a real thing. 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.800 It's a lie that they tell you. But it had 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.480 some idea that these rich people would create jobs in 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.360 the US people who are less wealthy. The gold card 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.000 seems to not have that. You just have to be rich, right, 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.359 So that's say, that's an interesting change to the immigration system. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.000 The other thing I want to talk about today is 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.880 a United States Agency for International Development, better known as USAID. 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.560 It's been a target of like the anti woke right 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.760 for some time because they fundamentally don't understand what Joseph 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.840 Nia would have called soft power, right, their power to persuade, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.960 the power to influence outcomes around the world with things 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:33.600 other than tanks and bonds. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.800 Oh and again, if your power is soft right now, 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:42.280 you might consider trying Hymns or one of our other sponsors. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:43.720 Gyms is not a sponsor. 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.720 Sorry, James, we needed to do that, But I have 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:51.840 been diverted. But returning to my topic, Yeah, the agency 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.680 has been massively impacted by DOGE and Trump administration cuts. Right. 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.120 The Trump administration suspended all foreign aid January via executive 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.440 order on the twentieth of January in order to assess 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.440 if it was quote serving US interests. The State Department 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.480 then issued guidance that seemed to go beyond the executive 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.840 order and cut nearly basically all usaily expensive On the 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.440 thirteenth of this month, that's February if you're listening, later, 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.760 a judges shued a temporary restraining order. This TIERRO didn't 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.960 really stop them from doing what they were doing, because 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.760 it told them to continue with existing contracts. And what 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.520 the State Department claims that it's doing is implementing clauses 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.080 that are already in the contract, so the contracts will 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.400 have some kind of kill clause, right, and that they 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.240 claim that they're implementing that, so they think they've found 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.680 a fun work around. Rather than talking extensively about court battles, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.680 I want to talk about what this means. These are 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.480 cuts made by the richest man in the world that 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.320 have had a direct, tangible, and devastating impact on the 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.240 poorest people on the planet. In Sudan, eighty percent of 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.600 emergency kitchens have been closed. That means that close to 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.480 two million people will go without food. Local groups who 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.480 organize the kitchens are running out of money. The way 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:12.840 this works is that even when Rubio issued a communication 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.120 talking about continuing food aid, it's unclear exactly what that means, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.320 because in this case and in other cases, USAID is 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.840 sending them money in order to provision themselves locally, as 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.200 opposed to sending them food as an inkind donation. 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:27.800 Right. 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.600 Whatever he communicated, these people are not getting food an 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.920 as a result. The people who run these mutual aid 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:39.480 kitchens it's a mutual Aid coalition of Sudan are facing 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.640 the horrible decision of having to turn people away it 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.280 or deciding who to feed, which is pretty bad. On 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.080 the border between Thailand and Myanmay, a place where Robert 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.320 and I have been to report, I've heard that people 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.560 are having babies right now outside lat of clinics and 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:55.880 life support machines have been removed for it to people 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.320 who were relying on those life support machines obviously. 0:16:58.200 --> 0:16:59.960 And at least one person has died. 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.720 Yeah, and I'm sure many many more people than that 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:03.480 have done. Yeah. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.960 I mean that's just what's reported, Like it's a lot 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.040 of most of what happens there does not get out. 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.040 Yeah. I will try in not too long to be 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.199 there and report on that, but it's pretty devastating right 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:17.680 now that Robert and I have met the people who 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.560 run some of these clinics and they are some of 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:24.040 the most incredible people doing amazing work. And yeah, they 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.200 relied on USAID funding. There's lots of other places do 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:31.919 and that's not happening now. The State Department has exempted 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:36.919 quote life saving humanitarian assistance programs from the cuts, but 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.040 no one really knows what that means. Right. The order reads, 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:44.560 quote life saving humanitarian assistance applies to core life saving medicine, 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:49.239 medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance, as well as 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.160 supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.080 As I mentioned before, the mutual AIDS who are in 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:00.479 coalition was receiving financial assistance to help it provision, right, 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.320 which is much better than the US going through all 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.360 the infrastructure spending of being able to deliver that aid 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:12.760 itself or through USAID contractors. Other contractors implementing partners of 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.400 USAID are still owed money for work that they completed 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.040 before January, before the stop work orders stopped payment to them. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.639 For work to begin again on any of these contracts, 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.080 they need the contract officer to sign up on it, 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.280 and it's at a lunclear exactly how many of these 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.040 contract officers are still employed at USAID because of the 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:38.160 federal employment cuts. So essentially USAID has stopped all over 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.840 the world. In addition to this, in this country, four 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:46.399 hundred and ninety million dollars worth of US grown food, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.000 which is in the USAID pipeline to go to people 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.719 who very desperately needed food, is currently at risk of 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.400 spoilage according to USAID. So it's not just that people 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.919 are starving, it's that we are allowing food to go 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.800 bad here while people starve in other places, which is 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.080 pretty bleak. I will just really briefly hear plug the 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.280 mutual aids who don't coalition. If you'd like to help, 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.280 you can direct to them directly, And it's mutual aids 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:13.879 who donig If you'd like to do that, it'll be 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:15.840 into show, not to if you're driving or whatever. 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.920 And there is like ongoing legal fights over this issue. 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.440 On Tuesday, February twenty fifth, another judge ordered the Trump 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:32.000 administration to resume hundreds of million dollars of funding towards USAID, 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.680 and there's no indication Trump's going to follow that order. 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:43.040 They're already planning to appeal again. They have already appealed before. 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.720 And we've seen them continually deny court orders from judges, 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.800 fine loopholes, fine workarounds, and Musk and Trump continue to 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.480 just openly float like defying the order of the court. 0:19:54.920 --> 0:20:00.600 Representative Andy Ogeles introduced articles have appeachment against a specific 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.520 quote unquote activist judge. This will go nowhere. They don't 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.320 have nearly enough numbers to make anything like this happen. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.119 Yeah, it's a frontal assault on the separation of powers. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.639 It's what he's proposed, right, And like they don't have 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:15.480 their numbers. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.399 Yet, yes, well, and then they have openly floated just 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.040 like defying orders because they're interpreting the actions of the 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:26.280 judges as like themselves, unlawful. But Musk has himself called 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.200 to impeach judges who violate the law, and I believe 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:36.639 his most recent pinned pinned x posts ye reads quote 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:41.000 if any judge anywhere can block every presidential action everywhere, 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.480 we do not have a democracy. We have a tyranny 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:44.600 of the judiciary. 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:47.760 So what a great legal mind. 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:53.440 Shit we were saying and back in twenty twenty three. 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.879 So this will continue. I mean, I'm really really waiting 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:00.600 for a final showdown between Trump Elon and you know, 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.520 maybe the Supreme Court and seeing if they will actively 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.240 defy a ruling from the Supreme Court, if they indeed 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.360 rule against Trump and Musque. But until then, I feel 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.439 like we're just kind of all chugging along as the 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.480 Trump administration, you know, very very unconstitutionally defies the authority 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.720 of the Court. In some related news, last week, President 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.600 Trump signed in executive order stating that the president can 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:29.720 change laws erroneously, citing Article two, which only calls for 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:34.239 the presidents to quote faithfully execute the law. I'm going 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.359 to quote from the order the President to and the 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.040 Attorney General, subject to the President's supervision and control, will 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.880 interpret the law for the executive branch, instead of having 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:49.520 separate agencies adopt conflicting interpretations. The next section is titled 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:54.440 reigning in independent Agencies. It reads the Federal Trade Commission, 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.359 the Federal Communications Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission have 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.720 exercised enormous power over the American people without presidential oversight. 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.560 These agencies issue rules and regulations without the review of 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.400 the democratically elected president. They also spend American tax dollars 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.600 to set priorities without consulting the president, voters, and the 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:17.760 president can now hold all federal agencies, not just cabinet departments, 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:24.240 responsible for their decisions as the constitution demands. This is absurd. 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.560 This is like extremely dangerous, one of the most like 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:31.800 blatant like attempts at power that we've seen since Dick Nixon. 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.359 Like this is gonna get litigated, but this is crazy. 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.000 The the fact that we have that we have a 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.840 president saying that he has the ability to interpret the 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.760 law something that specifically he cannot do. That's why, it's 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:47.040 why we have three branches of government, just like openly 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:50.800 openly claiming that power is like very worrying. Again, like 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:53.480 I feel like I have every episode on Executive Disorder, 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.400 I say that, you know, I'm very worried. I'm very concerned, 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.359 but that does continue to be the case. 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.720 Yeah, it is very concerned. I don't know what more 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:05.080 to say, because it's mad, like we're watching a coup 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:08.960 happen on the timeline while everyone just continues to go 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:12.359 shopping and stuff like it's it's it's pretty weird. 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.880 Speaking speaking of shopping, I just got a fantastic Swedish 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.560 M ninety feel jacket. It looks great, it fits tight. 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:21.040 I'm very happy, incredible. 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:22.479 Garrison's becoming a mills Up. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.440 We will go on break once again to come back 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:41.680 to talk about the Navy and the FBI. All right, 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:47.320 we are back. Let's now talk about the Navy, arguably 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:50.439 one of the gayer branches of the military, besides the 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:52.520 besides the drone operators. 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:55.760