WEBVTT - It Could Happen Here Weekly 223 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:03.120 Also media. 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:05.720 Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:09.440 you know this is a compilation episode. So every episode 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.720 of the week that just happened is here in one 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.480 convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.040 listen to in a long stretch if you want. If 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.000 you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.200 there's gonna be nothing new here for you, but you 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.120 can make your own decisions. 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.280 Welcome to it could happen here show about things falling apart. 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.400 The thing falling apart this week is me after watching 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.680 nine hours of Clinton testimony. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.320 The past two days. Can relate. I'm Garrison Davis. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:47.280 I'm joined by Sophie LECHTERBD to discuss guys. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:49.360 Hey, Sophie, hey. 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.800 To discuss the Clinton testimony. I was gonna say, can 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:57.480 relate after you know you fortunately missed that Clinton speech 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.360 at the DNC in twenty twenty four. Clinton, that was 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.520 a really really, really really long hour of my life. 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.520 That's a long speech for a guy of that age too. 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.000 Yeah, but we were together during Hillary's speech. We did 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.759 catch that when we're in the pit. I think that's 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.480 when I got COVID. I got the Clinton COVID. Hillary 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:20.600 got COVID too at the DNC, so I think she 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:21.200 gave it to me. 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:21.920 There you go. 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:24.560 That's when we were up close and personal with the 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.039 Clintons last. Now they're back. 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.600 They've never been more back, They've never been more I 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.000 completely agree. If you don't want to hear the voices, 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:35.680 I've tried to limit it, but there's gonna be some 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.800 the voices of Hillary and or Bill Clinton. This is 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.200 your chance. If you want to hear me talk about 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:48.800 Hillary being asked about everything from spies to aliens and Quanon. 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.400 It's again, this is your sign to continue. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.160 Yeah, So I'm excited. Let's do this. 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.120 Yeah, let's get started, because there's probably more more to 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.680 cover than what we'll be able to so. On February 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.680 twenty sixth and twenty seventh, Hillary and Bill Clinton respectively 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.320 testified in closed door hearings about their relationship with Jeffrey 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.679 Epstein and Glaine Maxwell. The Clinton's refers to Penia to 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.520 testify in this Bipartisan House Oversight Committee investigation into the 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.639 DOJ's handling of the Epstein investigation back in August of 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.320 twenty twenty five. For months, they pushed back against having 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.239 to testify, arguing the process was politically motivated, that the 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:28.359 subpoenas were quote unquote invalid and legally unenforceable, and that 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.079 to any relevant information they had could be delivered via 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:36.120 assigned statement. In January twenty twenty six, Chairman James Comer 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.040 advanced two resolutions recommending the Clintons be held in contempt 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:43.280 of Congress for refusing to comply. Days before a vote 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.040 to hold them in contempt, the Clintons finally agreed to 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:47.800 testify in February. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:50.760 Yeah, to be fair, they did let other people give 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:52.200 little shitty statements. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:53.239 They so did. 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:58.120 That is something that Hillary specifically brought up during. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.040 Her deposition more than once. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.080 Yes, so let's start with Hillary's because that was the 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.079 first one. In her opening statement, she said she had 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.800 no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein's criminal activities, did not ever 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:14.800 recall incoun ding Jeffrey Epstein whatsoever, never flown on the 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:19.720 plane or visited his island homes or offices. Glaine Maxwell 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.160 dated a family friend around twenty ten named Ted Waite, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.640 who was a software developer. Waite brought Glaine to Hillary's 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.920 Daughters of Chelsea's wedding as a plus one guest in 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.959 twenty and ten, and Hillary says she was unaware of 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:38.160 any criminal activity relating to Glayne Maxwell, specifically before her 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:43.160 crimes republicly revealed a few years ago. Hillary was asked 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.440 to recount the origin of the Clintown Foundation, which Hillary 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.520 only joined the board of in twenty thirteen because she 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.920 was busy serving in office. Hillary was asked about Glene 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.120 Maxwell leading a breakout session on ocean conservation at a 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.280 Clinton Global Initiative conference in twenty thirteen. He said that 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.120 she was not involved in this selection process for those sessions, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.080 but that Glen Maxwell had been an internationally recognized ocean 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.160 advocate around that time. Hillary refused to answer a question 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.840 about whether her husband is a quote unquote smart guy, which. 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:15.560 Was who asked that question? 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.160 I forget, but I had that note written down some 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.560 of these things I was watching pretty pretty late. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.880 Yeah, yeah, what a great question. Hey, Hill, babe, is 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:31.839 your husband a smart guy? Wow? Glad our tax dollars 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:33.640 are funding such an important question. 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.000 She said that her husband had a limited relationship with 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.800 Epstein for a limited time, Yes used his airplane for 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:46.400 Clinton Foundation trips, and this connection began and ended before 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.840 any of Epstein's crimes were publicly revealed. Representative of Pat 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.400 Fallon with the Republican Majority talked about how Jeffrey Epstein 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.840 visited the White House seventeen times under the Clinton administration, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.680 this is mostly for White House Historical Association events and 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.320 donated money to the White House Historical Association, but said 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.799 that Epstein never visited under Trump or donated money to Trump. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.400 This could, in fact just be simply because the Trump 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.040 admin You know, Trump came into office after Trump's relationship 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.680 with Epstein fell through and Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:24.080 Correct. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.720 Trump got into office at twenty sixteen. Clinton was in 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.040 office in the early nineties. Yeah, that's why Epstein was 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.480 able to visit the White House for these public events 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.400 as a regular citizen, but did not do so when 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:36.760 Trump was president. 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.760 Yeah, prior to Epstein's like first conviction. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:42.080 Yeah, two thous eight. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:43.240 Yeah. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.520 Pat found also tried to characterize a twenty thousand dollars 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.000 donation to a joint campaign fund in the nineties as 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.000 a donation to Hillary's presidential campaign fund. Many years later, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.320 he was called on this being obviously incorrect. 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.960 Come on, man, that's so dumb. 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.120 There was a lot of stuff like that, So a 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.560 lot of small errors. Some of them may not have 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.320 been arrows right, some of them may have been ways 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.640 to make the transcript read a certain way if Hillary 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.400 or the lawyers weren't able to catch something. But both 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.599 Hillary and her team, but really mostly Hillary was really 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.039 on it for this entire hearing like very sharp. 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.480 This was peak Hillary. I feel like a lot of people, 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:23.839 you know, for a lot of the like analysis online, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.160 I saw you know, a takeover and over again that 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.359 that was like, why wasn't she like this when she 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:30.200 ran for president? 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:30.600 She was? 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:31.919 This is this is. 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.080 Hillary she was, and it's you know, it's impressive, but 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.240 also a little bit unlikable. For if you do that, 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.040 if you do that like all the time, right. 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.240 If you're like that all the time, it's a little 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.040 bit Oh, okay, I'm going to take a step back now. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:47.520 That's a lot, but you know. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.960 Yeah, we'll have we'll have more on her sort of 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.400 like intellectual sharpness later. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.600 I mean, she's fiercely intelligent. Yeah, fiercely intelligent, and. 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:00.359 That is that is that is on display for the 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:01.599 entirety of this deposition. 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.840 But I really hated the take where people were like, 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:07.479 if she was like this when she ran for president, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.800 maybe we wouldn't be dealing with Donald Trump. Now. It's like, no, 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:15.480 that's not what happened. No, this is who Hillary's been 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.000 her entire adult life. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:17.320 Thank you. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:20.920 Hillary said that she never solicited funds for Jeffy Epstein, 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.840 never had funds solicited on her behalf, and never invited 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.760 Epstein to any political fundraisers. When asked about her own 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.480 speculation on her husband, previous investigators, or the mind state 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.480 of Jeffrey Epstein and Glen Maxwell, she could not answer, 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.680 because that is speculation on other people's opinions or mind states. 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.560 About an hour in Nancy Mace asked Hillary Clinton if 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.320 she believes the Epstein files are quote unquote a vast 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:52.400 right wing conspiracy. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.520 I think if they are fully released, as the Transparency 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:05.520 Act requires, that would be fulfilling the responsibility of the 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.360 Justice Department. But it appears that there have been many 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.240 issues with the full release, so I'm not going to 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.000 characterize it other than to say I think that's a 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:17.520 well known fact. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:20.720 It is certainly an odd question to ask if the 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:25.400 files themselves are a vast right wing conspiracy, and Hillary 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.120 here just answered by talking about the issues that have 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.920 come up with the full release of the Epstein files. 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.959 After this, Hillary has asked about whether Jeffrey Epstein was 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.600 one of the most prolific sex traffickers in the world 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.800 and how the State Department worked to counter international sex trafficking. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:45.960 Would you say he's one of the world's most prolific 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:46.840 sex track reckers. 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:48.840 I don't know what to compare it to. There are 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.760 terrible sex trafficking rings all over the world. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.079 And you were you said you were Secretary of State 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.320 from two thousand and nine to twenty thirteen, and you 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.040 state your agency prioritized im batting sex trafficking internationally. Correct, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.040 that's correct. During your time as Secretary of State, did 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.559 you the State receive any intelligence cables or briefings mentioning 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.440 Epstein's foreign travel, pedophile island, or his network of pedophiles 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.280 and sex trafficks, Not that I am aware of. Now, 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:18.520 how did you miss it? If he's I believe, one 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.000 of the most prolific sex traffickers in the world, you 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:23.960 were Secretary of State, how did you miss it? 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.960 Well, that would have been a matter of the Justice Department, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:28.080 not the State Department. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.240 But in your opening statement, and your statements earlier. In 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.600 your opening statement, you stated that Secretary of Rubio should 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.880 be called to testify. You said that he has and 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.360 the administration has quote abandoned survivors using the same logic. 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:42.240 You were Secretary of State during a time period after 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.599 Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of being a pedophile and soliciting 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.520 children for sex. Why then, did you quote, using your 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.120 own logic, abandoned survivors. What is the question? 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:52.480 Please? 0:09:55.200 --> 0:10:00.200 I followed her comment. First of all, we focused on 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:06.119 whether there were laws that made sex trafficking, sexual slavery, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:11.360 domestic violence, other abuses of women on the books in countries. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.840 And then we tried to evaluate were those laws being 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:20.760 implemented and were judges appropriately trained and briefed about how 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:25.680 to implement those laws? Were governments taking them seriously? We 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:32.199 looked at the broad institutional approach to these very serious abuses. 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:38.440 This is an interesting exchange to me. Yeah, so Mace 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:43.320 here doesn't really understand the role of the Justice Department 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.400 versus the State Department. Yes, for the Justice Department investigates 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.040 crimes committed in the United States, versus the State Department 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.960 is this entity that pressures other countries to create or 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:59.120 improve sex trafficking laws and doesn't really understand this difference. 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.480 Right first to a part in Hillary's opening statement about 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.720 how Rubio's shrunk a specific office to combat international sex trafficking, 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.520 and she isn't quite able to like to understand how 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:14.240 Hillary is critiquing that while also saying that the Justice 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.480 Department mishandled the Epstein investigation while she was Secretary of State. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.920 It's this interesting just break in not really understanding how 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.880 the government works. And this clip also shows like how 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:27.839 sharp Hillary is being able to follow this line of 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.760 questioning better than her own lawyers in some instances be 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.760 able to actually like respond to what Mace is really asking. 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:35.400 Notice that as well. 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.360 Mace then continues to ask about how the US government 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.600 handled Jeffrey Epstein's first criminal case, and this is how 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:44.760 Clinton responded. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.120 Would you say the US government at that time, during 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:49.400 this time period was appropriate with the way that it 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:50.520 handled Epstein. 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:54.440 I don't think that you could say that was true 0:11:54.480 --> 0:12:00.040 about any of the government's prosecutorial efforts, starting with the 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.040 Southern District of Florida and alex Acosta and all those 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.400 who basically gave him a sweetheart deal and then I 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.600 think going up the chain, there was very little attention 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.120 paid that should have been paid. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:14.440 But what we had. 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.640 Laws on the books, they were not being implemented. But 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.560 that was not within my purview because what we were 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.320 looking at is what's the institutional structure and can we 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.200 do more to make sure countries take it seriously? Our 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.160 country had laws on the books, so this man was 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:31.120 not held to account. 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.040 You it was not in your purview when you were 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.360 Secretary of State. Then why is it today in Secretary 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:35.880 of Rubios? 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:40.240 Because what's happened is that the office that was actually 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.559 following what was going on around the world has been decimated. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.880 Seventy percent of the staff is gone. It's impossible to 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.800 carry out the functions of that office if you don't 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:57.199 have a critical number of people. So my question would 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.760 be to Secretary Rubio, is there more that can be 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:01.880 done out of time here? 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:07.560 Wow? Yeah, Nancy Mace, you suck, You suck. 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.679 Pretty clear articulation there, Yeah from Secretary Clinton. 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.920 Yeah, I fear that like that. Nancy Mace spent most 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.480 of this time trying to set Hillary up, and uh, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.000 I don't think she I don't think she succeeded. 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.240 No, Hillary was then asked if she was quote unquote 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:30.560 concerned when she sawt photos of her husband getting a 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.320 back massage or in a hot tub and what went 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.680 through her mind. Hillary refused to speculate on events in 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.400 which she has no context for and was not there. 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.079 We're going to go on a quick ad break now 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:55.800 and then return to continue the discussion on the Clinton testimony. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:13:58.920 All right, we're back. 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.199 I want to get a little bit into the background 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:06.280 of this hearing some more so. When the Clintons finally 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.280 agreed to testify in February, one of the things they 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.360 pushed for was that the testimony take the form of 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:17.520 public hearings broadcast live. Hillary addressed Terman Comra online saying, quote, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.280 you love to talk about transparency. There's nothing more transparent 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.120 than a public hearing cameras on unquote. There was a 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.000 brief back and forth negotiation on whether the depositions would 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.280 be open to the public. Ultimately they were not, but 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.960 they were recorded on camera and transcribed for later release. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.800 Part of the terms for this private hearing this deposition 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.400 was that press and photographers were not allowed inside the room, 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.080 and that deposition materials would only be released in full 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.640 through official channels after sensitive information like staffer names president, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.960 the deposition and off the record exchanges between lawyers were 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:59.040 properly removed or redacted. At about an hour and twenty 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.960 minutes into Hillary's deposition, the Clinton staff learned that one 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.040 of the Republican Committee members leaked a photo of Hillary 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:11.920 to right wing influencer Benny Johnson Crazy, who posted the 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:16.600 picture and wrote, quote breaking the first image of Hillary 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.119 Clinton testifying under oath about Jeffrey Epstein to the Republican 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:24.040 Oversight Committee. This is the first time Hillary has had 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:28.320 to answer real questions about Epstein. Clinton does not look happy. 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:30.600 Photo provided by Representative Lauren Bobert. 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:31.200 Quote. 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:36.240 Honestly, there's actually nobody more unprofessional than Lauren Bobert. 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.960 Will get into her unprofessional conduct later in this hearing 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.840 as well. Great, but here's a clip of Mclinton team 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:45.720 realizing that a photo has been leaked. 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.160 I have another photos that are being released of the 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.200 Secretary as she is testifying from inside this room. Can 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.240 you please advise me as to whether or not that's 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.600 permissible and consistent with the rules, particularly given that we 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.040 have asked for public hearing. There are photos that are 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.880 being released of the secretary, she is testifying. Can you 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:05.040 please explain. 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.640 How we've done with this? If you guys are doing that, 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:08.840 I am done. You can hold me a contempt from 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.120 now till the cows come home. 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.160 This is just typical behavior. 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.800 Oh, for heaven, I would like to understand how that's 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.040 permissible for the hearing was It doesn't matter. 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:22.360 We all are abiding by the same rules. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:24.320 Yeah. 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.120 Well, I would like to take a break at this movie. 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.280 I'd like to have I've done for now, fair up 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:30.440 the record. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.520 Pretty shocking stuff. 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.440 There's no defense for that. That's that's wild and uh 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:38.920 I would walk out as well. 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.760 When they went back on the record, Chairman Comer discussed 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.360 how he advised all members that no photos of the 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.480 deposition were to be released and that an instant like 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.680 this would not happen again. Lauren Barber later told reporters 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.600 that she took the picture before a testimony actually began, 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.680 and that she checked with committee staff about using the photo. 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:00.400 No follow up on. 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.640 That, Yeah, that chance, it's embarrassing. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:10.280 After returning from off the record, the minority, the Democrats, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.639 asked about the Justice Department illegally withholding certain files related 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:19.320 to the investigation from public disclosure. Hillary says that this 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.159 behavior by the Justice Department deserves the most thorough investigation 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:26.600 that Congress could carry out. This will be a longer clip, 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.560 about two minutes, but there's some good information inside. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.080 I think from the very beginning, the behavior of the 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:43.880 Attorney General and her staff has demonstrated either a gross incompetence, 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:48.200 which is bothersome because they are the keepers of information 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:56.199 that should be evaluated for law enforcement purposes, or a 0:17:56.320 --> 0:18:01.440 clear cover up because they are protecting the President and others. 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:06.520 Either one of those should be the focus of this 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.359 committee to try to get to the bottom. If they 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.239 are incompetent and they are incapable of complying with the 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.880 law that the Congress passed, we need to know that 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:20.720 because they are falling down on the job. They have 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.000 an FBI director is more interested in drinking beer in 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:30.520 a hockey dressing room after our team won the Olympics 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:36.480 rather than being responsive and complying with the law as 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:44.600 it has been promulgated. So I don't think it's unfair 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:49.040 to say that given the sequencing of the events, starting 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.199 with the way that President Trump made the release of 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:57.480 the files a key element of his twenty twenty four campaign, 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:03.000 the promise that he and then his attorney general made 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.080 that the files would be released, then a walking back 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.399 of that as they began to look at the files, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.200 an ignoring of what they had promised, including that they 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.800 had a client list on the desk of the attorney general. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:25.800 Reasonable people would have to assume they are engaged in 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:31.879 a massive cover up, which is infuriating as an American, 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.719 as a citizen, all of us should be, regardless of party, 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.560 wondering what are they hiding? 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:41.919 The thing says I watched sports more than calling it 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:43.480 a hockey dressing room. 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.120 Dressing room, I was. 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.400 Like Hillary, up with the times. 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:49.400 Uh. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.919 Hillary goes on to mention how the prosecutor the original 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.280 Epstein case, alex Acosta, was not asked to any questions 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:03.600 by Republicans during his Epstein deposition. About half an hour later, 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.639 Hillary and the Majority go into about a three minute exchange. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:09.560 The thing this is between Hillary and Nancy Mace. 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:14.399 About Howard Lutnick, Trump's Commerce secretary, who's frequently named in 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.560 the files, whom Hillary knew from being a New York 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:21.080 senator during the nine to eleven attacks where Lutnick lost 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.800 the highest number of employees out of anyone that day, 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.119 like over six hundred. So Hillary was asked how she 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.200 knows Lutnik. Hillary tries to respond by saying how they met, 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.719 which was the aftermath of nine to eleven. Mace claims 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.040 that this is like a distraction from answering the question 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.800 and that Hillary's trying to garner sympathy. Things get very 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.960 heated over over the course these like three minutes, as 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.800 they like argue about, you know, if she's actually answering 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.159 the question. Mace talks about being a survivor herself and 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:50.960 how she's trying to, you know, get the truth out 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.080 of these hearings. Hillary responds by talking about how she's 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:56.960 been very sympathetic to Mace's situation and respects the work 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.679 that she's doing in the Epstein hearings, but is trying 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.000 to answer the question specifically about Lutnik. It's a pretty 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.919 loud and contentious three minutes. About two minutes after that, 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:14.600 Republicans made Hillary read emails from the Epstein files. 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:17.160 Thank you for a fun night. 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:19.760 Your littlest girl was a little naughty. 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:21.720 How does that make you feel? 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:22.520 It makes me sick? 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.320 If you can also read the EFTA zero zero eight 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.080 seven eight four to two to one. This is also 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.120 another email. Can you just please provide the context. 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.399 It's an email to Jeffrey Epstein if you could just 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:40.600 read the context of what it is. 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:49.480 Of course, the O H Jesus, ohio, Jesus, I'm coming trick. 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.040 And the just the main body of the context of email. 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.479 Said that she felt God's presence next her when she 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.040 was in bed. She knows that Jesus watches over her 0:21:58.119 --> 0:21:59.960 and he helped save her life. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:01.920 Whoops, How does that make you feel? 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.800 It's bizarre. I don't know what it means. 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.560 The reason I asked you to read both of these 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.720 is because these emails were both sent by co conspirators 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.280 that were then given the plea deals and now have 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:20.240 been given victim status. Both of these women were also 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.199 named an FBI document, and they're on a number of 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:25.080 other emails. 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:28.280 What does that have to do with Hillary? 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.479 Yes, that's the exact thing that I wrote down. This 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.359 has no relevance to Clinton at all. This doesn't relate 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:35.640 to her. 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.600 They wanted soundbites of her reading weird things. 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:41.600 It's a humiliation ritual, right, It's yeah, there's no reason 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.000 for them to do this. That the majority just go 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.359 on to ask Hillary if the DOJ should reevaluate the 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.800 plea deals of these two people, something that Hillary has 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.320 no expertise for, Like, that's what she's here to testify 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:58.000 on her own knowledge relating to Epstein and Maxwell. This 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:00.920 is a complete non sequitor. This doesn't relate to her 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.720 in any way. It's just grosse. You're just you're just 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:05.959 getting a woman to read the Epstein files for your 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:11.520 own entertainment. Yes, it's disgusting. Yes, I have a few 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:17.280 clips here. This is about three clips about her intellectual 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:21.920 kind of ruthlessness and the ways that the questioners in 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:23.800 this committee were trying to get sir naces out of 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.159 her and she was able to either correct them or 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.680 navigate in an interesting way. I'll start with this first 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:36.040 one at three and a half hours in gosh, you've 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:36.800 watched a lot. 0:23:37.640 --> 0:23:41.800 In twenty fourteen, Epstein met with William Burns, who was 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:46.400 then a senior State Department official and later a CIA director. 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:48.639 Excuse me, could you say what year that was? 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:48.960 Again? 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:50.640 In twenty fourteen. 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.040 Twenty fourteen, he met with William Burns. 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:58.040 Epstein met with William Burns as as a Secretary of 0:23:58.040 --> 0:23:58.800 State at that time. 0:23:58.840 --> 0:23:59.800 Were you aware of that? 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:02.560 I wasn't secretary of state in twenty fourteen? 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:06.040 Okay? Were you aware of them? I was an aster burds. 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:10.240 Okay, embarrassing stuff. Yeah, she was not secretary state in 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:12.720 twenty fourteen. She served from twenty nine to two US 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:16.439 and thirteen. Asking a question about if she was informed 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:18.399 of something, well, secretary of state in twenty fourteen, she 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:20.920 simply was not there. She was not secretary of State. 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:24.000 The people in this committee should know this. They should 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:27.800 know when she actually served as Secretary of State. It's embarrassing. 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:31.679 They continued to get like dates wrong throughout this hearing 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:34.760 that this guy who's asking this question is his representative, 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:40.000 Eric Berlinson. He also mischaracterized Chelsea's wedding as Hillary's wedding, 0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:43.120 saying that Glen Maxwell attended Hillary's wedding and that Glen 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:47.760 Maxwell vacationed with Chelsea after the wedding. This event that 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:49.960 he's referencing, this vacation was actually a year before the wedding, 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:52.600 and who has a nine Hillary and her lawyers had 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:57.000 to correct all of that stuff. Specifically, Eric Berlinson did 0:24:57.040 --> 0:24:59.040 not seem to know what he was talking about. At 0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:02.159 all in this hearing, just constantly got little dates and 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:02.800 facts wrong. 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:05.760 That gives me pause for a number of reasons. But 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:09.080 it just makes me think about, you know, if they 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:13.679 were actually talking to somebody that they needed to deeply press, 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:17.040 that they would not get the results needed. It gives 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:19.920 me a major pause that they have lack of confidence 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:22.000 in this committee to do their jobs. 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:24.200 But it's just. 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:26.720 Frankly embarrassing that these are elected officials and they can't 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:28.480 even get their dates right. 0:25:29.160 --> 0:25:32.199 Yeah, this is an extremely serious matter, and these are 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:33.800 the people doing oversight. 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:35.760 This is not a laughing matter. 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:38.480 Yeah, they are totally incompetent. 0:25:38.600 --> 0:25:39.480 Yeah. 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:42.480 Lauren Barber then asked a very leading question about when 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:45.919 Hillary learned her husband was spending time with a registered 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:46.640 sex offender. 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:50.240 Missus Clinton, when did you first learn that your husband 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:54.280 was spending time extensively with a registered sex offender? 0:25:56.280 --> 0:26:00.840 He did not after he was convicted, years after Bill 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:01.919 stopped having any. 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:05.159 Were there any activities that raised any red flags to 0:26:05.200 --> 0:26:08.160 think that he could be charged of sex crimes during 0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:08.560 the time? 0:26:08.680 --> 0:26:12.440 Are you at has awareness yes, of Jeffrey Epstein. 0:26:12.960 --> 0:26:16.520 Of any red flags being brought to your awareness, to 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:20.240 your family's awareness, while your husband was spending time with 0:26:20.320 --> 0:26:21.120 Jeffrey Epstein. 0:26:21.240 --> 0:26:24.359 I have no recollection of anyone bringing any red flags 0:26:24.400 --> 0:26:24.639 to me. 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:28.040 They continued to ask about her husband, and she just 0:26:28.040 --> 0:26:29.919 had to She just had to keep reiterating it, like 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:33.560 the committee will have a chance to question her husband tomorrow, 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:36.199 Like they could ask him about his relationship with this 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:39.439 Epstein tomorrow. There's no use in her speculating about her 0:26:39.520 --> 0:26:42.760 husband's relationship. They can just ask him, literally in less 0:26:42.760 --> 0:26:45.080 than twenty four hours. But they just kept they just 0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:45.640 kept going. 0:26:47.320 --> 0:26:48.840 Classic No. 0:26:49.160 --> 0:26:56.200 One of the more bizarre moments, they quoted Epstein referring 0:26:56.200 --> 0:27:00.639 to Hillary being prettier in person. And this exchange is 0:27:00.640 --> 0:27:05.320 interesting because of the way it suggests the committee's interpretation 0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:07.320 of certain statements made by Epstein, when I think they 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:11.120 probably infer something to the opposite bizarre. 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:13.320 It's like weird misogyny going on. 0:27:14.160 --> 0:27:17.639 So regarding the Epstein files, there are many files where 0:27:17.720 --> 0:27:21.639 Jeffrey Epstein seems to speak as though he does know 0:27:21.760 --> 0:27:29.399 you personally. In one file FTA zero zero six five 0:27:30.040 --> 0:27:40.520 seven one one five, mister Epstein is commenting and he quotes, Hey, Hillary. 0:27:40.119 --> 0:27:42.360 Clinton is much prettier in person. 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:48.200 This was Tuesday, September twentieth, twenty eleven, and then another Congressman. 0:27:48.240 --> 0:27:49.520 I'm not going to object to that. 0:27:53.040 --> 0:27:55.680 Commress, can we see the documents because we. 0:27:55.640 --> 0:27:57.240 Don't think that we would get that present. 0:27:58.240 --> 0:28:01.800 I don't think the documents that you're not pretty. 0:28:02.040 --> 0:28:07.520 Jeffrey epstein Is also commented that meetings with Hillary are 0:28:07.520 --> 0:28:12.200 not easily discreet. Has he ever connected someone to meet 0:28:12.280 --> 0:28:12.639 with you? 0:28:12.840 --> 0:28:13.720 Not that I'm aware of. 0:28:14.240 --> 0:28:23.800 Okay, that was my first time seeing that clip. That's 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:29.560 so funny. First of all, very funny. Second of all, 0:28:29.920 --> 0:28:32.440 this is not what this is supposed to be. Why 0:28:32.480 --> 0:28:34.680 are you bringing that up? What does that have to 0:28:34.720 --> 0:28:35.480 do with anything? 0:28:35.760 --> 0:28:37.640 Yeah, I mean that they're trying to establish some sort 0:28:37.640 --> 0:28:40.920 of relationship between Hillary and Epstein. 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:42.200 Purely, but it doesn't exist. 0:28:42.240 --> 0:28:45.360 And to me, these exchanges just infer that, you know, 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:48.320 Jeffy Epstein had seen Hillary in person before, likely at 0:28:48.360 --> 0:28:50.760 these White House Historical Association events where she sees you know, 0:28:50.880 --> 0:28:52.720 hundreds of people who like walk by, right. 0:28:53.160 --> 0:28:54.400 But then Epstein. 0:28:54.080 --> 0:28:56.600 Himself like expressed that it's actually difficult to get a 0:28:56.640 --> 0:28:59.080 private meeting with her. So this doesn't prove that they 0:28:59.120 --> 0:29:02.680 had any actual, like personal knowledge of each other like mutually. 0:29:02.800 --> 0:29:05.920 Obviously Epstein knew who she was. She was the first 0:29:06.040 --> 0:29:07.320 Lady of the United States. 0:29:07.600 --> 0:29:10.440 Absolutely, it's ridiculous. 0:29:11.160 --> 0:29:13.520 About ten minutes later, and this is getting to the 0:29:13.640 --> 0:29:16.640 end of this hearing about, like you know, four hours in, 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:19.720 Hillary just kind of goes off a little bit after 0:29:19.760 --> 0:29:22.800 just being asked the same question again and again and again, 0:29:23.520 --> 0:29:26.400 and then also demonstrates like how much she actually knows 0:29:26.440 --> 0:29:27.880 about this committee's investigation. 0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:32.200 You have said that you've never been to mister Epstein's island. 0:29:32.240 --> 0:29:32.920 Is that correct? 0:29:34.640 --> 0:29:37.840 You know what, I am so tired of answering that question. 0:29:38.160 --> 0:29:41.320 If you have one sentilla of evidence to the contrary, 0:29:41.440 --> 0:29:46.240 put it forward. I have never been on his island period. 0:29:46.280 --> 0:29:51.040 I've never been in his homes, his offices, his anything. 0:29:52.240 --> 0:29:53.760 I don't know how many times you have to say 0:29:53.760 --> 0:29:57.680 the same thing over and over and over again, and 0:29:57.720 --> 0:30:00.960 I just am struggling with the relevance of all of this. 0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:02.640 But no, I never have been. 0:30:03.880 --> 0:30:06.320 And based off that response, I would include, you've never 0:30:06.360 --> 0:30:08.520 been to mister Epstein's Manhattan town home. 0:30:08.760 --> 0:30:10.960 I have not his New Mexico ranch. 0:30:11.160 --> 0:30:13.920 No, I have not his Palm Beach residence. No, I 0:30:14.000 --> 0:30:16.480 have not his Paris apartment. 0:30:16.720 --> 0:30:18.120 Did know he had one. 0:30:18.320 --> 0:30:20.520 I haven't been there, you know. 0:30:20.560 --> 0:30:22.880 I also find it very interesting because I went back 0:30:22.880 --> 0:30:29.800 and looked at the transcripts of all of your other depositions, 0:30:30.240 --> 0:30:35.800 and none of the Republicans asked a single question to 0:30:36.040 --> 0:30:41.720 any witness about Jeffrey Epstein or any question that would 0:30:41.760 --> 0:30:44.120 help provide answers for his victims. 0:30:44.840 --> 0:30:49.360 Hillary goes on to say that Republican Chairman Comer did 0:30:49.480 --> 0:30:54.000 ask Attorney General bar not about Epstein, but if he 0:30:54.120 --> 0:30:58.880 was aware of clinton involvement in the twenty sixteen Russia 0:30:59.000 --> 0:31:03.560 collusion invent instigation again in a deposition about the DOJ's 0:31:03.600 --> 0:31:10.239 handling of the Epstein files. Completely relevant, completely relevant to 0:31:10.280 --> 0:31:13.080 the to the matter at hand. And if these people 0:31:13.120 --> 0:31:15.560 want to pretend that they actually take, you know, what 0:31:15.680 --> 0:31:18.680 happened to these victims seriously, then they would have a focused, 0:31:19.240 --> 0:31:22.480 focused effort on the actual subject, not all these wild 0:31:22.760 --> 0:31:27.120 partisan threads. And I'm now going to discuss before before 0:31:27.120 --> 0:31:29.080 we before we go and break again about how this 0:31:29.400 --> 0:31:32.160 hearing kind of threwout it. But I've condensed down into 0:31:32.160 --> 0:31:37.120 one section, turned towards the weird multiple times in ways 0:31:37.120 --> 0:31:42.320 that are sometimes you know, relevant, but oftentimes not earlier. 0:31:42.360 --> 0:31:44.120 In this hearing, Hillary stated that she had never been 0:31:44.160 --> 0:31:48.320 briefed on whether Jeffrey Epstein had foreign intelligence ties while 0:31:48.360 --> 0:31:52.520 serving in office, but that speculation that Jeffrey Epstein could 0:31:52.520 --> 0:31:54.800 have been a foreign intel asset is a quote unquote 0:31:54.840 --> 0:31:58.480 fruitful area of investigation, although she was not made aware 0:31:58.520 --> 0:32:00.760 of any connection of this sort to well Scretary of State. 0:32:01.440 --> 0:32:04.760 She was also asked about a passport belonging to Epstein 0:32:04.960 --> 0:32:06.640 which bore a different name. 0:32:07.080 --> 0:32:09.800 This is actually a passport that was given. The individual's 0:32:09.880 --> 0:32:13.800 name is Marcus Robert Fortinelli. Do you think that this 0:32:14.080 --> 0:32:18.400 is a sign or a telltale sign of intelligence operations 0:32:18.440 --> 0:32:19.200 and pseudonames. 0:32:20.440 --> 0:32:21.360 I can't speculate. 0:32:21.440 --> 0:32:22.440 I don't know, okay. 0:32:25.280 --> 0:32:28.480 Victims have stated to this committee, both Democrats and Republicans, 0:32:28.520 --> 0:32:31.960 that during Epstein's time, during his day camp dreals what 0:32:32.040 --> 0:32:35.000 I'll call it, that he was also an active communication 0:32:35.120 --> 0:32:38.400 with Bush's CIA director. They also had stated that he 0:32:38.440 --> 0:32:44.120 had activities to Russia Israel. Eni Ron, given your status 0:32:44.160 --> 0:32:46.160 not just as the first Lady but also in your 0:32:46.200 --> 0:32:48.560 secretary position, have you ever been targeted by any of 0:32:48.600 --> 0:32:53.520 these countries as a means of a foreign intelligence gathering operation. 0:32:54.560 --> 0:32:56.560 I you were of potential vulnerabilities. 0:32:56.800 --> 0:32:59.720 Yeah, I was targeted by Russia in the twenty sixteen campaign. 0:33:00.080 --> 0:33:01.000 I mean, I think that's. 0:33:00.800 --> 0:33:04.560 Pretty well known. What about Israel, Ari Rand, I don't 0:33:04.560 --> 0:33:06.479 know about either Israel or Iran? 0:33:07.440 --> 0:33:07.760 Okay. 0:33:07.800 --> 0:33:10.880 Do you believe that Epstein was running potentially honeypot operation 0:33:11.000 --> 0:33:14.720 with intelligence gathering operations to collect information on how high 0:33:14.760 --> 0:33:17.720 profile individuals, both Democrat and Republican the United. 0:33:17.480 --> 0:33:22.680 States in an effort to sway are foreign policies. Is 0:33:22.720 --> 0:33:23.240 it possible. 0:33:23.280 --> 0:33:25.200 I have no direct knowledge, but I think it's one 0:33:25.200 --> 0:33:27.920 of the areas your committee should investigate. Do you think 0:33:27.920 --> 0:33:31.840 it's possible, Well, it's certainly possible. It's a tried and 0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:34.640 true technique of certain intelligence agencies. 0:33:35.000 --> 0:33:37.400 Do you believe that he was using honeypot's an effort to. 0:33:38.120 --> 0:33:39.040 I can't speculate. 0:33:39.080 --> 0:33:43.640 I don't know what This is such a weird use 0:33:43.680 --> 0:33:45.040 of their time. 0:33:45.720 --> 0:33:47.320 Later, she said that she had no reason to believe 0:33:47.320 --> 0:33:49.880 that personally she was the subject of an intel gathering 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:53.960 operation relating to Jeffrey Epstein or Glene Maxwell. And then 0:33:54.520 --> 0:33:57.120 right after she was asked if she was ever denied 0:33:57.200 --> 0:34:03.240 access to information about you, apse, that's an unidentified aerial phenomenon. 0:34:04.120 --> 0:34:06.320 Hilary said that she was never denied access because she 0:34:06.400 --> 0:34:09.960 never asked for access. When questioned, she said that she 0:34:10.000 --> 0:34:13.440 believes the American public deserves access to such topics, subject 0:34:13.480 --> 0:34:17.320 to national security implications. This bizarre off topic line of 0:34:17.400 --> 0:34:21.040 questioning continued nearly an hour later into the hearing. 0:34:21.320 --> 0:34:24.440 So I'm going to begin with some lighthearted different questions, 0:34:25.800 --> 0:34:28.520 and you're welcome to ignore them or if you want to. 0:34:28.600 --> 0:34:31.319 But while I have you here, I just have to ask. 0:34:31.480 --> 0:34:35.759 So, when your husband was president, it is Lawrence Rockefeller 0:34:36.080 --> 0:34:41.680 had an effort to try to disclose UFOs UAPs When 0:34:41.719 --> 0:34:45.160 you were running for president, John Podesta publicly stated that 0:34:45.320 --> 0:34:48.799 you would disclose these files with if given the chance, 0:34:48.840 --> 0:34:51.719 if you had been president. Are you pleased to see 0:34:51.719 --> 0:34:53.960 that these files may be disclosed? 0:34:54.000 --> 0:34:57.560 Finally, I am pleased, As I say, I think they 0:34:57.600 --> 0:35:01.840 have to be carefully and I so that no national 0:35:02.000 --> 0:35:04.920 security information is disclosed. 0:35:04.920 --> 0:35:06.479 But this is an. 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.160 Issue of real. 0:35:08.360 --> 0:35:12.279 Importance to so many people, and I think whatever can 0:35:12.360 --> 0:35:14.040 be disclosed should be disclosed. 0:35:15.520 --> 0:35:19.120 Was there a program that specifically that that was referencing 0:35:19.200 --> 0:35:20.040 that you were aware of? 0:35:21.520 --> 0:35:24.400 I was not, as you mentioned, John Podesta, who was 0:35:24.440 --> 0:35:29.760 one of my advisors, was deeply interested in the issue, 0:35:29.880 --> 0:35:33.520 and if I had been elected, I certainly would have 0:35:33.560 --> 0:35:34.960 listened to his advice. 0:35:35.040 --> 0:35:36.600 Well, thank you for indulgence on that. 0:35:38.040 --> 0:35:41.240 Very odd, completely off topic, no relevance to the actual 0:35:41.239 --> 0:35:44.759 subject of inquiry of A few minutes later, Hillary asked 0:35:44.760 --> 0:35:48.040 a clarifying question about why UFOs were brought up. 0:35:48.440 --> 0:35:50.160 It's a sort of like off subject. But didn't you 0:35:50.200 --> 0:35:56.960 all require in the latest Defense Authorization that the UFO 0:35:57.480 --> 0:35:59.080 information asked about what? 0:35:59.160 --> 0:35:59.799 They ripped it out? 0:35:59.800 --> 0:36:00.440 They killed it. 0:36:00.680 --> 0:36:01.680 Oh I thought. 0:36:01.560 --> 0:36:02.319 That had gone through. 0:36:02.480 --> 0:36:04.359 That was my amendment and it got ripped out. 0:36:04.480 --> 0:36:07.359 Oh okay, well you've just I didn't know that, So 0:36:07.400 --> 0:36:08.400 thank you for enlightening me. 0:36:08.560 --> 0:36:10.200 Okay, yeah, they've been killing that. 0:36:11.480 --> 0:36:15.480 So if alien disclosure questions weren't bad enough and you know, 0:36:15.640 --> 0:36:18.880 disrespectful to victims of epstein and sex trafficking. 0:36:19.400 --> 0:36:21.040 It did get worse. 0:36:21.280 --> 0:36:22.000 Yeah, I did. 0:36:22.440 --> 0:36:26.680 And we will get into the worse after this at break. 0:36:37.480 --> 0:36:40.920 All right, we're back. At nearly the four. 0:36:40.920 --> 0:36:46.680 Hour mark into Hillary Clinton's deposition, Lauren Bobert started asking 0:36:46.800 --> 0:36:49.360 about conspiracy theories. 0:36:50.080 --> 0:36:54.920 In past public statements, as in twenty seventeen speeches and interviews, 0:36:54.920 --> 0:36:59.720 you described pizza Gate as a baseless conspiracy theory, alleging 0:36:59.760 --> 0:37:03.120 you and others ran a child sex trafficking ring from 0:37:03.200 --> 0:37:08.040 a Washington Pizzeri based pizzeri basement. Have you reviewed any 0:37:08.120 --> 0:37:12.600 twenty twenty six Epstein files that were released that you 0:37:12.680 --> 0:37:18.080 believe reference or relate to those specific twenty sixteen claims. 0:37:18.480 --> 0:37:24.720 Regarding the Podesta emails comet ping pong pizza used as code, possibly, I'm. 0:37:24.560 --> 0:37:28.719 Sorry disasting her about whether she's reviewed emails in that 0:37:28.760 --> 0:37:30.120 Epsteine file was. 0:37:30.120 --> 0:37:32.760 Related to the wacky Pizzagate excuse. 0:37:32.760 --> 0:37:34.399 You could characterize it however you want. I just would 0:37:34.440 --> 0:37:36.200 like to know if she's familiar with any of them. 0:37:36.239 --> 0:37:40.120 So your question is about whether or not she has 0:37:40.200 --> 0:37:45.520 reviewed any emails in the Epstein release files about Pizzagate. 0:37:45.960 --> 0:37:53.560 Correct, Pizzagate was totally made up. It was an outrageous 0:37:53.760 --> 0:37:57.560 allegation that ended up hurting a number of people, that 0:37:57.680 --> 0:38:00.319 caused a deranged young man to show up with his 0:38:00.400 --> 0:38:06.800 assault rifle and shoot up a local pizzeria. I can't 0:38:06.800 --> 0:38:10.640 believe you're even referencing it. You should be there. 0:38:10.680 --> 0:38:14.520 There are connections to the language. 0:38:14.800 --> 0:38:15.560 Believe there are. 0:38:15.920 --> 0:38:18.280 I don't know what you have believe at. 0:38:18.120 --> 0:38:19.800 It completely unhitched. 0:38:19.920 --> 0:38:22.960 But why are we doing this? I have complete lack 0:38:22.960 --> 0:38:26.440 of faith in this committee. This is offensive to survivors 0:38:26.480 --> 0:38:29.719 of Epstein, and this is getting us no relevant information 0:38:30.000 --> 0:38:33.919 to the Epstein probe as they call it. This is ridiculous, 0:38:34.000 --> 0:38:37.600 This is infammatory. I mean, I expect nothing less from 0:38:37.680 --> 0:38:40.200 Loan and Bober, But you know, it's just it's insane 0:38:40.200 --> 0:38:40.920 and embarrassing. 0:38:41.440 --> 0:38:44.040 It's insane, and like there has been a resurgence of, 0:38:44.080 --> 0:38:47.400 you know, Pizzagate related conspiracy theories, people talking about Pizzagate 0:38:48.000 --> 0:38:51.600 since the files had been released, Since people can create 0:38:51.640 --> 0:38:55.600 their own patterns, right by selectively honing in on words 0:38:55.680 --> 0:38:58.640 or symbols which allow them to overlook what's right in 0:38:58.640 --> 0:39:00.840 front of their nose. Right, all of the very clear 0:39:00.880 --> 0:39:04.279 connections laid out in the Epstein files, those can be ignored, yes, 0:39:04.320 --> 0:39:07.720 and instead you focused on these like coded messages hidden everywhere, 0:39:07.800 --> 0:39:12.200 hidden in the backgrounds of videos, people carrying pizza boxes 0:39:12.239 --> 0:39:16.000 into the Clinton deposition, all this kind of stuff. It's 0:39:16.080 --> 0:39:18.600 it's it allows them to miss the very the very 0:39:18.600 --> 0:39:21.120 clear things that are actually outlined in the files. It is, 0:39:21.160 --> 0:39:23.400 you know, one of the negative side effects of, you know, 0:39:23.480 --> 0:39:25.720 of files like this being released is that it allows 0:39:25.719 --> 0:39:28.120 a lot of points of interest to be honed in 0:39:28.160 --> 0:39:32.280 on by people charting wildly conspiratorial matrices. 0:39:32.760 --> 0:39:36.280 I just don't even know how somebody like Lauren Barbert's 0:39:36.400 --> 0:39:40.239 on a committee like this, or an elected official or 0:39:40.880 --> 0:39:41.960 you know, employed. 0:39:42.000 --> 0:39:46.040 Frankly, Hillary went on to say I expected a lot 0:39:46.040 --> 0:39:49.000 of interesting questions today, but Pizzagate was not on the list. 0:39:49.880 --> 0:39:53.239 Lauren Bobert replied, that's okay, we're asking all sorts of 0:39:53.239 --> 0:39:57.840 things here, okay. A few minutes later, Bobert returned with 0:39:58.040 --> 0:40:01.839 even more Pizzagate questions, and things escalated to the point 0:40:01.880 --> 0:40:03.240 where they had to go off the record. 0:40:04.000 --> 0:40:06.400 That's lord, are. 0:40:06.239 --> 0:40:10.400 You aware of any files that were on Anthony Wiener's 0:40:10.440 --> 0:40:16.320 laptop and a folder that was titled Insurance Life Insurance 0:40:17.040 --> 0:40:20.320 with a ZIP file titled. 0:40:22.120 --> 0:40:22.480 Chairman. 0:40:22.560 --> 0:40:25.600 Is this within the scope? 0:40:25.680 --> 0:40:26.240 Mister chairman? 0:40:26.320 --> 0:40:29.680 Chairman rules that it's not based on what you said 0:40:29.719 --> 0:40:33.000 in the public hearing, Is this within the scope? For 0:40:33.040 --> 0:40:35.200 a moment, mister chairman, is this within the scope? 0:40:37.800 --> 0:40:40.959 So you couldn't quite make out what Bobart was referencing there. 0:40:41.360 --> 0:40:45.040 She was talking about the frazzle drip conspiracy theory that 0:40:45.200 --> 0:40:49.600 alleged Anthony Wiener possessed a video of Hillary Clinton conducting 0:40:49.640 --> 0:40:53.440 a satanic ritual murder of a child, cutting off this 0:40:53.560 --> 0:40:56.200 child's face to wear as a mask, to fill the 0:40:56.280 --> 0:40:59.319 child's blood with adrenochrome to be harvested. 0:40:59.640 --> 0:41:03.560 This is like twenty eighteen conspiracy. 0:41:02.920 --> 0:41:07.400 Theory, one of the more like graphic and gross aspects 0:41:07.440 --> 0:41:12.480 of QAnon. And here Robert is just openly asking Hillary 0:41:12.520 --> 0:41:18.000 Clinton about frazzle drip by name, completely inappropriate, has no 0:41:18.080 --> 0:41:21.800 bearing on the investigation. It's an insult to actual victims 0:41:21.840 --> 0:41:27.000 of child sex trafficking. So this whole conspiratorial angle of 0:41:27.080 --> 0:41:31.400 the Hillary Clinton deposition made up a significant chunk. Another 0:41:31.480 --> 0:41:34.359 chunk that made up a significant portion of time is 0:41:34.440 --> 0:41:37.560 just Clinton kind of advising and the committee members, both 0:41:37.560 --> 0:41:40.480 on the Republican and Democrat side, like asking for her 0:41:40.560 --> 0:41:45.080 advice on how to conduct their own investigation. She advised 0:41:45.120 --> 0:41:50.080 that they should follow Senator Widens compiled Treasury data on 0:41:50.239 --> 0:41:53.440 Epstein's financial transactions, and that that data should be subpoened 0:41:53.440 --> 0:41:57.319 from the Treasury Department. She was asked about how they 0:41:57.360 --> 0:42:01.480 could determine if Jeffrey Epstein was a spy. Hillary advised 0:42:01.480 --> 0:42:04.960 them to send document requests to subpoena the CIA, the 0:42:04.960 --> 0:42:09.799 Department of National Intelligence counterintelligence departments in the DOJ, saying 0:42:09.840 --> 0:42:13.239 to quote unquote, cast a wide net. She suggested cooperating 0:42:13.280 --> 0:42:16.680 with UK investigations into former Prince Andrew and trying to 0:42:16.680 --> 0:42:22.720 see if Israel will cooperate in sharing information regarding the investigation. Finally, 0:42:23.000 --> 0:42:27.080 Hillary suggested to Chairman James Comer that he should advise 0:42:27.160 --> 0:42:30.360 on how laws could be changed to prevent future abuse 0:42:30.680 --> 0:42:34.440 based on the committee's knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein's manipulation techniques 0:42:34.680 --> 0:42:38.600 and mode of operation. But there was like significant chunk 0:42:38.640 --> 0:42:40.640 of at least like, you know, thirty minutes where she 0:42:40.719 --> 0:42:44.239 was essentially being asked or advising the committee on how 0:42:44.280 --> 0:42:46.640 to do their own job. Just due to the sheering 0:42:46.680 --> 0:42:49.520 confidence that has been displayed and the clips that I've 0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:50.160 selected here. 0:42:50.719 --> 0:42:54.080 Well, I don't really have anything else to say besides 0:42:54.160 --> 0:42:55.120 that it's just like. 0:42:55.480 --> 0:42:58.120 Pathotic, yeah, I mean, and most of the interesting stuff 0:42:58.320 --> 0:43:00.960 is in the Hillary Hillary Clinton Yeah. A bill was 0:43:01.000 --> 0:43:03.959 deposed the next day. But for some of the logistics 0:43:04.040 --> 0:43:07.759 regarding this hearing, a source told The New York Post, 0:43:07.840 --> 0:43:10.040 so take that as you will sure that the Clinton 0:43:10.160 --> 0:43:14.040 team demanded specific quote unquote beauty lighting and camera. 0:43:13.800 --> 0:43:16.800 Positions relatable life fear to get. 0:43:16.680 --> 0:43:19.760 The most flattering angle of Hillary's face, and brought white 0:43:19.800 --> 0:43:23.000 tablecloths to bounce the overhead lighting onto the bottom of 0:43:23.000 --> 0:43:24.320 her face and into my shadows. 0:43:24.600 --> 0:43:25.160 Yeah. 0:43:25.360 --> 0:43:27.200 Pictures of the whole room also showed that the Clinton 0:43:27.200 --> 0:43:30.160 team was the only ones with these like nice orange 0:43:30.239 --> 0:43:33.680 upholstered chairs. The rest of the chairs were just like 0:43:33.719 --> 0:43:37.319 regular black folding chairs. The New York Post contains this 0:43:37.360 --> 0:43:43.360 little tidbit that the customized blue paneled backdrop was developed 0:43:43.360 --> 0:43:47.880 by a local specialized vendor within about seven hours after 0:43:47.960 --> 0:43:51.400 Clinton's team concluded it did not like the vibe of 0:43:51.440 --> 0:43:55.960 the original black curtains in the background unquote. So they 0:43:56.080 --> 0:43:58.800 like went in saw this, you know, white table with 0:43:59.719 --> 0:44:01.600 black curtains. They thought it looked too much like a 0:44:01.600 --> 0:44:05.080 criminal interrogation or or like a quote unquote hostage situation 0:44:05.239 --> 0:44:08.400 is what's quoted in the Post article, as opposed to 0:44:08.880 --> 0:44:12.240 like an official congressional deposition, you know, like an official 0:44:12.520 --> 0:44:16.440 government venue. So they got like a local carpenter to 0:44:16.520 --> 0:44:20.040 make this blue paneled backdrop in like a few hours 0:44:20.080 --> 0:44:24.280 to put behind Hillary. And that's just an interesting insight 0:44:24.320 --> 0:44:27.240 into like the thought process of the Clinton team regarding 0:44:27.239 --> 0:44:28.080 the optics of this. 0:44:28.080 --> 0:44:29.480 Hearing shop local. 0:44:30.440 --> 0:44:33.480 So let's briefly go through some of the sections on Bill. 0:44:34.080 --> 0:44:38.760 Bill started by saying that they should not have questioned Hillary. Quote, 0:44:38.960 --> 0:44:41.200 but I do think you should be talking to me. 0:44:41.440 --> 0:44:43.080 You should have called me. I did take those playing 0:44:43.120 --> 0:44:45.880 trips with him. You have a right to ask those questions. 0:44:45.960 --> 0:44:48.040 Unquote. He said that quote. 0:44:48.080 --> 0:44:49.719 I'll be honest with you, I'll be eighty eight years 0:44:49.760 --> 0:44:51.680 old if I lived my next birthday. I don't remember 0:44:51.719 --> 0:44:53.279 everything that happened twenty four years ago, but I do 0:44:53.320 --> 0:44:55.720 remember some things, and I'll tell you what I remember 0:44:55.880 --> 0:44:58.640 the best that I can un quote. When asked when 0:44:58.640 --> 0:45:01.880 he first met Jeffy Epstein, Bill referred to a photo 0:45:01.960 --> 0:45:05.560 of him shaking Epstein's hand in nineteen ninety three at 0:45:05.600 --> 0:45:08.719 a White House Historical Association event. But Bill said that 0:45:08.719 --> 0:45:11.080 he doesn't remember that, but this photo does exist. He 0:45:11.080 --> 0:45:13.120 shook a lot of people's hands, does not remember everyone 0:45:13.160 --> 0:45:17.680 he meets. He first remembers meeting Jeffrey Epstein for a 0:45:17.760 --> 0:45:21.279 Clinton Foundation plane trip in two thousand and two. He 0:45:21.280 --> 0:45:24.840 said he was connected with Epstein through someone named Larry Summers, 0:45:25.200 --> 0:45:27.880 who told Bill that Jeffrey Epstein made a large donation 0:45:27.920 --> 0:45:31.120 about ten million dollars to brain research and was a 0:45:31.200 --> 0:45:35.759 quote unquote information hungry person. Summers said that Epstein wanted 0:45:35.760 --> 0:45:38.560 to talk with Bill about economics and politics and offered 0:45:38.560 --> 0:45:41.320 to take Bill his staff and his secret service detail 0:45:41.320 --> 0:45:46.239 on Clinton Foundation trips for global humanitarian aid. So Bill 0:45:46.280 --> 0:45:48.000 saw this as a way to drive the price down 0:45:48.120 --> 0:45:51.080 for these trips. He took the last one of these 0:45:51.120 --> 0:45:54.120 flights in two thousand and three. When asked why this 0:45:54.160 --> 0:45:57.160 relationship ended, Bill said that the AIDS program. 0:45:57.360 --> 0:45:59.640 It was a humanitarian aid program to help with AIDS. 0:46:00.160 --> 0:46:02.480 That this AIDS program, you know, took off and more 0:46:02.480 --> 0:46:06.360 people that Bill knew better offered to help, and Jeffrey 0:46:06.400 --> 0:46:09.120 did not seem as interested in the AIDS program, so 0:46:09.160 --> 0:46:12.520 they kind of just naturally drifted apart. Bill characterized the 0:46:12.520 --> 0:46:15.120 relationship as friendly, but didn't know him well enough to 0:46:15.160 --> 0:46:17.839 be considered a friend, and so that he never talked 0:46:17.880 --> 0:46:20.800 about witness or participated in anything sexual. Relating to Jeffrey 0:46:20.800 --> 0:46:24.560 Epstein and young women and girls, Bill said he learned 0:46:24.560 --> 0:46:27.560 of Epstein's crimes in two thousand and eight. Bill said 0:46:27.600 --> 0:46:30.439 he had no indication Epstein was trafficking women. Quote There's 0:46:30.480 --> 0:46:32.279 nothing that I saw when I was around him that 0:46:32.320 --> 0:46:33.839 made me realize he was trafficking women. 0:46:34.200 --> 0:46:34.480 Quote. 0:46:34.960 --> 0:46:38.120 Bill was asked about if he communicated with a long 0:46:38.200 --> 0:46:39.760 list of people regarding Epstein. 0:46:40.920 --> 0:46:42.760 This was kind of a weirdly framed question. 0:46:42.840 --> 0:46:45.800 It was have you communicated with any of these people 0:46:45.960 --> 0:46:49.160 about Jeffrey Epstein. Bill had a hard time kind of 0:46:49.239 --> 0:46:51.520 understanding the nature of this question. It is kind of 0:46:51.520 --> 0:46:54.600 oddly phrased. Hillary was asked the same one. They just 0:46:54.640 --> 0:46:57.640 read a list of names. Bill recounted if he knew 0:46:57.719 --> 0:47:01.000 the person or not, and the lawyers had to specify, like, 0:47:01.040 --> 0:47:04.160 oh no, they're asking if you communicated with them about Epstein, 0:47:04.480 --> 0:47:06.719 not not if you knew them. So it kind of 0:47:06.719 --> 0:47:08.000 got some confusing responses. 0:47:08.239 --> 0:47:08.640 Okay. 0:47:08.920 --> 0:47:13.680 Interestingly, both Hillary and Bill laughed at the mention of 0:47:13.840 --> 0:47:18.120 nom Chomsky. Hill said that he never communicated with Chomsky 0:47:18.360 --> 0:47:21.520 and that Chomsky quote wasn't a big fan of mine. 0:47:21.640 --> 0:47:23.319 He thought I was too conservative. 0:47:23.680 --> 0:47:28.759 Fuck off, Nome, fuck off, nome crazy. 0:47:29.080 --> 0:47:31.840 Bill did testify that he thought that someone relating to 0:47:31.920 --> 0:47:34.439 law enforcement would ask him about Epstein in two thousand 0:47:34.440 --> 0:47:37.160 and eight when the news about Epstein's crimes came out. 0:47:37.840 --> 0:47:42.080 Considering that Epstein let Bill use the plane but no 0:47:42.120 --> 0:47:46.360 one ever did hmm. He said he never suspected until 0:47:46.480 --> 0:47:50.480 agency connections with Epstein and was at the time unaware 0:47:50.520 --> 0:47:53.600 of Epstein's visits to the White House while Bill was president, 0:47:54.040 --> 0:47:56.359 and there has only since been informed of this. In 0:47:56.440 --> 0:48:01.120 preparation for this testimony, Okay, Bill was asked about a 0:48:01.160 --> 0:48:06.160 New York Times article claiming to expound on Bill and 0:48:06.520 --> 0:48:13.320 Epstein's relationship in the nineties, characterized as chummy, which Bill denies. 0:48:13.719 --> 0:48:16.680 He said that he didn't even know Epstein really during 0:48:16.719 --> 0:48:19.440 this time, even though they may have been at the 0:48:19.520 --> 0:48:22.880 same events. He was asked about being asked to write 0:48:22.880 --> 0:48:26.560 a personal note to Jeffrey Epstein's mother. Bill said that 0:48:26.640 --> 0:48:29.320 he never met Jeffrey Epstein's mother and that he wrote 0:48:29.400 --> 0:48:30.719 a lot of notes to a lot of people that 0:48:30.760 --> 0:48:31.440 he did not know. 0:48:31.760 --> 0:48:34.240 He was unsure of who asked him to write this note. 0:48:34.719 --> 0:48:38.320 He was also asked about this passport appearing to belong 0:48:38.800 --> 0:48:43.440 to Epstein bearing a different name, with the questioner asserting 0:48:43.520 --> 0:48:47.120 that they believe Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence operative running 0:48:47.160 --> 0:48:51.840 a honeypot against the president. When later asked if he 0:48:51.920 --> 0:48:55.440 believes that he was targeted, Bill says that it's possible. 0:48:55.840 --> 0:48:58.479 The lawyers objected this based on speculation, but Bill says 0:48:58.520 --> 0:49:01.279 he doesn't know if he was targeted but would be surprised. 0:49:01.880 --> 0:49:04.480 Refers to Jeffrey Epstein as a quote unquote vacuum cleaner 0:49:04.520 --> 0:49:10.399 of information but was not overtly manipulative early on, saying 0:49:10.440 --> 0:49:14.640 that Epstein mostly asked about derivatives trading and stock market regulation. 0:49:15.680 --> 0:49:17.560 Bill was asked if you ever had contact with someone 0:49:17.640 --> 0:49:21.719 named Chante Davies who was a quote unquote flight attendant 0:49:21.719 --> 0:49:26.400 on Epstein's plane. Bill confirms that he did, and confirmed 0:49:26.440 --> 0:49:30.880 that a neck rub took place once with Chante Davies, 0:49:31.880 --> 0:49:33.640 but denied he ever went to the island. 0:49:34.640 --> 0:49:37.480 I don't know something about neck rub and Bill Clinton 0:49:38.120 --> 0:49:39.600 just mix messed. 0:49:39.360 --> 0:49:39.799 On my hurt. 0:49:40.480 --> 0:49:40.719 Yeah. 0:49:40.760 --> 0:49:43.040 He later says that he was unaware of the abuse 0:49:43.200 --> 0:49:46.719 happening to Chante Davies and says that he quote wish 0:49:46.840 --> 0:49:50.360 Chante had told me I liked her, but said that 0:49:50.360 --> 0:49:53.239 he did not think there was anything unusual. He said 0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:57.000 that massages on which people's planes and boats weren't uncommon. 0:49:57.360 --> 0:49:59.040 Was never aware of anyone under the age of eighteen 0:49:59.120 --> 0:50:01.279 all these flights, and if there were, that would have 0:50:01.320 --> 0:50:04.080 made him uncomfortable. He specified that Secret Service was with 0:50:04.160 --> 0:50:07.680 him for every single trip. He quote never signed off 0:50:07.800 --> 0:50:11.560 secret Service protection. He talked about specifically this neck rub incident, 0:50:11.600 --> 0:50:14.520 saying that he had a sore neck during one of 0:50:14.520 --> 0:50:18.960 the legs of these Clinton Foundation Aid trips and received 0:50:19.040 --> 0:50:20.760 a massage this one time. 0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:22.120 That's what he claimed. 0:50:22.960 --> 0:50:26.840 He was asked about the note in Jeffrey Epstein's fiftieth 0:50:27.000 --> 0:50:30.719 birthday book, Bill said that his own staff asked him 0:50:30.760 --> 0:50:33.279 to write a letter for the book, specifying that he 0:50:33.320 --> 0:50:36.920 sends out hundreds of birthday letters every year to friends 0:50:37.040 --> 0:50:40.520 or people he's only met a few times. A regular occurrence, 0:50:41.239 --> 0:50:44.080 he's asked to read a section of the letter that 0:50:44.080 --> 0:50:48.160 people had a hard time transcribing exactly, which makes a 0:50:48.200 --> 0:50:52.359 reference to Epstein having made errors in his life, and 0:50:52.440 --> 0:50:56.320 he was asked whether this errors referred to sex crimes. 0:50:56.960 --> 0:50:59.879 Bill said, no, in the life of someone fifty years old, 0:51:00.000 --> 0:51:03.560 they're gonna make mistakes. It was a throwaway line in 0:51:03.680 --> 0:51:06.279 one section of this very short letter. I don't think 0:51:06.320 --> 0:51:10.960 it's super relevant. Now around this time when they're reading 0:51:11.000 --> 0:51:14.920 from this letter is where there's this viral clip of 0:51:15.000 --> 0:51:18.120 Bill pulling back a copy of a photo from his lawyers, 0:51:18.200 --> 0:51:21.080 like while smiling. This is circulated a lot. It looks 0:51:21.120 --> 0:51:23.920 like he's no, like recounting like good memories or something. 0:51:24.880 --> 0:51:27.080 The piece paper he's pulling back is actually just a 0:51:27.120 --> 0:51:30.440 copy of a New York Times article. It's not a 0:51:30.680 --> 0:51:33.920 picture of him and Epstein. It's not a picture of memories. 0:51:34.080 --> 0:51:37.880 There may be a small photo framed in the picture 0:51:38.040 --> 0:51:41.240 included in this New York Times article. It's being passed around, 0:51:41.440 --> 0:51:43.080 but it's not like he's like flipping through like a 0:51:43.160 --> 0:51:45.680 year book of like a good moments with friends and like, 0:51:45.880 --> 0:51:49.080 you know, happily recounting. I think this this little clip's 0:51:49.120 --> 0:51:50.720 been decontextualized. 0:51:50.920 --> 0:51:51.640 I agree. 0:51:52.200 --> 0:51:55.400 I'm not trying to defend Bill Clinton here, no, but 0:51:55.560 --> 0:51:58.520 I'm adding context for what's actually happening in this hearing. 0:51:58.880 --> 0:52:01.520 And his lawyers are passing around a copy of a 0:52:01.560 --> 0:52:04.960 New York Times article which he's being questioned about, and 0:52:05.000 --> 0:52:06.400 that's the context for that clip. 0:52:07.000 --> 0:52:10.759 And like this clip went pretty viral, and so I 0:52:10.840 --> 0:52:12.879 was talking about it actually with my mom my mom, 0:52:12.880 --> 0:52:16.640 and my mom's first reaction held some weight with me. 0:52:16.760 --> 0:52:18.600 She was like, that's just Bill Clinton's face. 0:52:18.800 --> 0:52:20.760 He's kind of this happy, goofy guy. 0:52:20.719 --> 0:52:25.680 Like he's generally like a smiley guy. And you know, 0:52:25.920 --> 0:52:30.960 I think that makes sense contextually. Here again not defending 0:52:31.280 --> 0:52:34.000 Bill Clinton, but yeah. 0:52:34.200 --> 0:52:37.319 I did want to play one clip about Trump. Bill 0:52:37.440 --> 0:52:39.640 was asked if the committee should talk to Donald Trump, 0:52:39.680 --> 0:52:42.360 since it's a name appears more frequently in the thousand 0:52:42.360 --> 0:52:44.800 almost any other person. Bill says that's up to the 0:52:44.800 --> 0:52:48.320 committee and mentions an instance where he talked with Trump 0:52:48.440 --> 0:52:52.280 about Epstein on a golf course for a charity tournament 0:52:52.280 --> 0:52:54.200 around two US and two to TWOISM three, and they 0:52:54.239 --> 0:52:56.640 talked about Epstein because Trump somehow knew that Bill had 0:52:56.680 --> 0:53:00.399 flown on the plane. But besides this incident, he had 0:53:00.400 --> 0:53:04.480 no other conversations with Trump about Epstein or Maxwell. 0:53:05.040 --> 0:53:10.640 The day I was there, he would typically Donald Trump 0:53:10.640 --> 0:53:14.280 would come out and play a few holes with us, 0:53:14.960 --> 0:53:20.200 and he somehow knew I had flown in Jeffrey Epstein's aircraft. 0:53:20.280 --> 0:53:22.880 And he said, you know, we had some great times 0:53:22.880 --> 0:53:27.920 together over the years, but we fell out all because 0:53:27.960 --> 0:53:32.000 of a real estate deal. And he said I'm sorry 0:53:32.080 --> 0:53:33.319 it up. That's all. 0:53:34.680 --> 0:53:37.480 Do you recall whether President Trump was the first one 0:53:37.520 --> 0:53:40.800 to affirmatively bring up the subject of Jeffrey Epstein. 0:53:42.800 --> 0:53:45.719 No, but I'd be shocked if I did. I just 0:53:45.760 --> 0:53:47.120 don't do that, you know. 0:53:48.440 --> 0:53:51.359 Do you recall whether President Trump elaborated at all on 0:53:51.440 --> 0:53:53.880 the great times that he had with Jeffrey Epstein. 0:53:54.840 --> 0:53:57.200 No, and I took at the time. I took. No, 0:53:59.040 --> 0:54:04.920 I didn't put any you know, sexual spin on it. 0:54:05.239 --> 0:54:08.120 And as far as you recall, President Trump characterized the 0:54:08.200 --> 0:54:11.920 nature of the ending of their friendship as being solely 0:54:12.000 --> 0:54:13.320 due to the real estate. 0:54:15.920 --> 0:54:20.319 Interestingly, here Bill recounts that Trump's reason for breaking with 0:54:20.360 --> 0:54:23.600 Epstein was due to a real estate deal, not the 0:54:23.600 --> 0:54:28.040 poaching of employees at mar A Lago, as alternatively reported. 0:54:28.719 --> 0:54:32.600 Right the minority, the Democrats referred to statements from three 0:54:32.680 --> 0:54:36.640 Jeffrey Epstein victims in statements, including Bill in some way. 0:54:36.680 --> 0:54:39.880 Starting with someone named Maria Farmer, an Epstein employee who 0:54:39.880 --> 0:54:43.400 first reported abuse to the NYPDNFBI in nineteen ninety six. 0:54:44.600 --> 0:54:49.040 She claimed that she acknowledge that Bill visited Epstein's house 0:54:49.080 --> 0:54:53.440 multiple times. Bill denies this. Someone named Virginia Roberts Druffey 0:54:53.719 --> 0:54:58.920 remarked that she had knowledge that Bill was at Epstein's island. 0:55:00.080 --> 0:55:03.040 Bill responded by saying that ultimately this person quote unquote 0:55:03.160 --> 0:55:06.719 reached a different conclusion, and den I declaimed that he 0:55:06.760 --> 0:55:09.120 flew in a helicopter with Glen Maxwell to the island. 0:55:09.960 --> 0:55:14.120 The committee member referenced a diary entry as the piece 0:55:14.120 --> 0:55:19.680 of information asserting that Bill was on the island. Bill's 0:55:19.760 --> 0:55:23.279 lawyers asked about the dates for this entry so that 0:55:23.280 --> 0:55:27.080 they could determine whether Bill was in a different part 0:55:27.080 --> 0:55:29.759 of the world around this time. But this gets moved 0:55:29.760 --> 0:55:32.799 on pretty quick. They briefly bring up this picture of 0:55:32.880 --> 0:55:36.239 Bill in a hot tub in Brunei. He says that 0:55:36.280 --> 0:55:37.839 he was staying at a hotel during one of these 0:55:37.880 --> 0:55:40.359 AIDS trips and briefly went to a hot tub. Other 0:55:40.360 --> 0:55:44.239 people were present from this trip secret service. That's about 0:55:44.239 --> 0:55:48.640 a bizarre painting of Bill Clinton wearing Monica Lewinsky's blue 0:55:48.719 --> 0:55:52.080 dress found in Jeffrey Epstein's apartment. Bill said he'd never 0:55:52.120 --> 0:55:54.800 seen it before. Was asked to speculate why this painting 0:55:54.920 --> 0:55:57.960 was made. Lawyers said that the committee can. 0:55:57.880 --> 0:55:58.640 Ask the artist. 0:55:59.320 --> 0:56:01.400 Lauren barbart I was on a very poor line of 0:56:01.480 --> 0:56:05.520 questioning regarding a conversation transcert between two people, and this 0:56:05.560 --> 0:56:07.759 line of questioning requires deposition to go off the record 0:56:07.760 --> 0:56:10.759 to figure out what exactly she's talking about. Billa and 0:56:10.840 --> 0:56:14.120 she responds to a question stating that he never felt 0:56:14.120 --> 0:56:16.640 that he owed to Jeffrey Epstein any favors and never 0:56:16.680 --> 0:56:20.680 participated in any quote unquote to Island Orgies since he 0:56:20.719 --> 0:56:23.400 never traveled to the US of virgin Islands with Jeffrey Epstein. 0:56:24.040 --> 0:56:27.279 About two hours in Bill Clinton is asked if he 0:56:27.440 --> 0:56:31.640 thinks Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, something they never asked. 0:56:31.760 --> 0:56:32.160 Hillary. 0:56:32.600 --> 0:56:33.359 I'd just like. 0:56:33.360 --> 0:56:36.000 To ask you personally and directly, do you believe that 0:56:36.080 --> 0:56:37.600 Jeffrey Epstein killed himself? 0:56:37.680 --> 0:56:40.160 Are you asking him to speculate on how mister Epstein died? 0:56:40.560 --> 0:56:43.839 I am asking what miss the President thinks, So you're 0:56:43.880 --> 0:56:48.719 asking his opinion, mister President, was your friend Jeffrey Epstein. 0:56:48.840 --> 0:56:51.000 Clasifying him as a friend who he has testified that 0:56:51.040 --> 0:56:53.200 he was a friend in a letter he said he 0:56:53.280 --> 0:56:55.520 was friendly, but not you've asked for his test. 0:56:55.400 --> 0:56:57.840 As your president. Do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein was suicidal? 0:57:00.239 --> 0:57:02.320 Do you know was he ever suicide. 0:57:03.200 --> 0:57:03.640 I don't know. 0:57:03.680 --> 0:57:07.919 I only know what the medical founding was. I think 0:57:08.000 --> 0:57:11.280 maybe he finally got caught. 0:57:12.920 --> 0:57:13.399 I don't know. 0:57:14.360 --> 0:57:16.480 I've accepted it my own mom. 0:57:16.600 --> 0:57:18.880 I don't know what happened, Miss President. What did you 0:57:18.920 --> 0:57:21.160 accept that he killed himself or that he did not? 0:57:21.680 --> 0:57:22.240 But he did? 0:57:22.520 --> 0:57:23.280 But I don't know. 0:57:23.800 --> 0:57:26.320 Yes, sir, none of us know. 0:57:26.520 --> 0:57:27.240 We weren't there. 0:57:27.360 --> 0:57:29.080 Miss President has been an honor, Thank. 0:57:28.880 --> 0:57:29.880 You, thank you. 0:57:31.560 --> 0:57:34.600 Why would you ask him that? That makes no sense? 0:57:35.040 --> 0:57:37.080 I mean again, this is Lauren Bobber, the same person 0:57:37.120 --> 0:57:40.040 asking about pizza Gate. She's trying to yeah, donkey in 0:57:40.120 --> 0:57:42.640 as many of these conspiracy theory questions as she can, 0:57:42.760 --> 0:57:45.120 because that's that's like who she is, right, she has 0:57:45.240 --> 0:57:48.040 she she is a conspiracy theorist herself. She made not 0:57:48.080 --> 0:57:50.920 a characteristic that way. But she's trying to, you know, 0:57:51.200 --> 0:57:54.080 go off a checklist of like epic owns against the 0:57:54.200 --> 0:57:58.360 evil child eating Clinton's A few other few other small 0:57:58.640 --> 0:58:01.320 notes that I think are interesting. Bill was asked about 0:58:01.760 --> 0:58:05.680 emails being sent to Glene Maxwell by one of his assistants, 0:58:06.080 --> 0:58:07.920 and Bill says that he never sent these emails and 0:58:08.000 --> 0:58:11.160 he's only ever sent two emails in his life, which 0:58:11.240 --> 0:58:14.600 I do believe I can too. 0:58:14.640 --> 0:58:15.960 It's so crazy. 0:58:16.840 --> 0:58:18.520 Oh Bill Wow. 0:58:18.840 --> 0:58:22.240 Bill's asked about a statement that Epstein made saying that 0:58:22.360 --> 0:58:26.760 Bill quote unquote likes them young. Bill Lawyers asked, you 0:58:26.800 --> 0:58:30.040 know if Bill's being asked to speculate on Jeffrey Epstein's mind. 0:58:31.240 --> 0:58:33.320 Bill says that this isn't true, that he quote unquote 0:58:33.400 --> 0:58:36.560 likes them young and never went to the island again. 0:58:37.320 --> 0:58:40.120 Mace later asks if it's unusual for a quote unquote 0:58:40.160 --> 0:58:44.320 sitting president to receive a massage. Bill Sawyer has had 0:58:44.360 --> 0:58:46.560 to argue back and forth because Bill was not a 0:58:46.600 --> 0:58:50.840 sitting president during the time where this neck massage incident occurred. 0:58:51.680 --> 0:58:53.920 Bill's once again asked if he was the target of 0:58:53.920 --> 0:58:56.600 an intel operation. He says, I doubt it. There was 0:58:56.640 --> 0:58:59.800 then an extended argument between Mace and Lawyer's the reference 0:58:59.840 --> 0:59:03.040 to Daily Beast reporting on a statement Bill made after 0:59:03.120 --> 0:59:06.800 Jeffrey Epstein's to as a nineteen arrest, mischaracterizing two instances 0:59:06.840 --> 0:59:10.280 where Jeffrey Epstein visited the Clinton office and Bill once 0:59:10.360 --> 0:59:13.440 visited Jeffrey Epstein's New York ampartment, which he later remarked 0:59:13.600 --> 0:59:16.720 Jeffrey Epstein was not even present for and Nancy Mace 0:59:16.880 --> 0:59:20.000 kept asking if Bill lied about only meeting Jeffrey Epstein 0:59:20.000 --> 0:59:22.800 at these two times based on the phrasing of the 0:59:22.880 --> 0:59:26.720 Daily Beast article, But the full statement that the Daily 0:59:26.760 --> 0:59:31.080 Beast was quoting from also lists the four plane trips, 0:59:31.120 --> 0:59:35.160 which contained a total of seventeen stops. The Beast article 0:59:35.200 --> 0:59:38.120 just mischaracterized this as only being two incidents, and Mace 0:59:38.280 --> 0:59:40.720 was referring to the article, not the actual original statement. 0:59:40.840 --> 0:59:44.320 That's resulted in a pretty extensive argument. This leads us 0:59:44.360 --> 0:59:47.040 to the final clip that I'll play, which I think 0:59:47.160 --> 0:59:53.000 is kind of the only interesting question across the nine 0:59:53.000 --> 0:59:55.160 hours of testimony, The only question I think is actually 0:59:55.560 --> 0:59:59.240 kind of interesting and worthwhile, and it's not actually followed 0:59:59.280 --> 1:00:03.000 up on in any substantial way. Nacy Basica asks why 1:00:03.040 --> 1:00:08.040 the Clinton's still associated with Gleade Maxwell after Jeffrey Epstein's 1:00:08.080 --> 1:00:12.840 first conviction, knowing that Maxwell was one of Epstein's closest associates. 1:00:13.920 --> 1:00:26.640 First of all, when the wedding occurred, she was with 1:00:27.880 --> 1:00:31.680 Ted White, and she was for several more years. 1:00:32.920 --> 1:00:33.880 We did not know. 1:00:35.880 --> 1:00:43.080 When Epstein was arrested that she was still involved with him. 1:00:43.240 --> 1:00:45.080 I think that clears a lot of this up. We 1:00:45.120 --> 1:00:49.560 didn't know, and I don't want all of me to 1:00:49.560 --> 1:00:52.720 get we're all getting in a lad. There's a logical explanation. 1:00:52.880 --> 1:01:01.439 We didn't know, and I'm sorry for what she did 1:01:01.520 --> 1:01:04.240 and what she allowed her like to become, and now 1:01:04.280 --> 1:01:05.120 she's let them with it. 1:01:05.960 --> 1:01:08.160 They do not follow up on this at all, the 1:01:08.200 --> 1:01:12.000 fact that the Clinton's, knowing that Maxwell was like Epstein's 1:01:12.040 --> 1:01:14.240 number two guy, spent a peaston amount of time with 1:01:14.400 --> 1:01:16.480 on these four playing trips, the two US and two 1:01:16.520 --> 1:01:19.960 to two US and three on these humanitarian aid Clinton 1:01:19.960 --> 1:01:23.080 Foundation trips, you know, a lot of time with Glaine 1:01:23.360 --> 1:01:26.520 and Epstein. The committee did not follow up on why 1:01:26.560 --> 1:01:30.040 they continued to associate even loosely, like very loosely, with 1:01:30.160 --> 1:01:33.680 Glaine after the two estate conviction. Yeah, that's a pretty 1:01:33.720 --> 1:01:36.640 reasonable question to have, and it just doesn't even get 1:01:36.760 --> 1:01:39.640 focused on very much. Instead, they started talking about this 1:01:39.680 --> 1:01:43.560 report from an Epstein victim about Bill Clinton allegedly walking 1:01:43.600 --> 1:01:46.920 into the offices of Vanity Fair and threatening them to 1:01:47.000 --> 1:01:50.160 not write sex trafficking articles about Jeffrey Epstein, something that 1:01:50.240 --> 1:01:53.240 Bill obviously denies, and there would be other witnesses for 1:01:53.280 --> 1:01:57.040 this event. But like this, this question about the Clinton's 1:01:57.520 --> 1:02:01.440 extended relationship with Glaine Maxwell after the first conviction is 1:02:01.440 --> 1:02:04.000 one of like the very last questions asked. It takes 1:02:04.000 --> 1:02:06.280 them nine hours to get there. Yeah, they don't even 1:02:06.280 --> 1:02:09.800 follow up on it, and it just kind of ends 1:02:09.920 --> 1:02:11.200 very very flaccid. 1:02:11.760 --> 1:02:15.600 I'm sorry to the survivors, Like you're not getting any 1:02:15.680 --> 1:02:22.200 kind of justice. This committee is incompetent, embarrassing, and repugnant. 1:02:22.960 --> 1:02:25.600 Yeah, and that kind of sums up the hearing, all 1:02:25.640 --> 1:02:30.200 of the hearings they were inconfident, embarrassing, and repugnant, really 1:02:30.200 --> 1:02:34.360 spending more time on weird conspiracy theories than asking like new. 1:02:34.240 --> 1:02:36.200 Questions on Pizzagate. 1:02:36.880 --> 1:02:38.840 Yeah, because like they asked Hillary and Bill basically the 1:02:38.880 --> 1:02:41.520 same two questions over and over again, giving the same answers, 1:02:41.760 --> 1:02:44.520 wasting hours and hours of time. The only new questions 1:02:44.560 --> 1:02:48.440 they asked are these insane conspiracy ones. It's it's embarrassing, 1:02:48.440 --> 1:02:50.760 it does not hold any relevance to the investigation, and 1:02:50.840 --> 1:02:52.800 it's nine hours of my life I'll never get back. 1:02:53.080 --> 1:02:53.360 Yep. 1:02:54.160 --> 1:02:57.600 Well that does it for us here at it could 1:02:57.640 --> 1:02:59.880 happen here. We'll keep following some of these, some of 1:02:59.880 --> 1:03:03.560 these hearings and depositions as this continues. I know there 1:03:03.600 --> 1:03:09.440 was new FBI documents about witness statements regarding President Trump 1:03:09.520 --> 1:03:12.800 released as I was writing this, like last night, and 1:03:12.840 --> 1:03:15.280 we'll probably be talking about those in executive disorder and 1:03:15.560 --> 1:03:17.720 later on throughout our coverage. 1:03:18.200 --> 1:03:33.720 Bye bye, Welcome to. 1:03:33.760 --> 1:03:36.360 It could happen here a podcast where the economy is 1:03:36.360 --> 1:03:38.880 falling apart a new and exciting ways faster that I 1:03:38.880 --> 1:03:43.760 can write about it. I am your host, Mialong. Welcome 1:03:43.840 --> 1:03:48.680 to what has turned into a kind of emergency? Is 1:03:48.720 --> 1:03:52.720 the economy Collapsing episode? This episode was originally supposed to 1:03:52.760 --> 1:03:56.400 be about tariffs, but while I was writing the tariff episode, 1:03:56.440 --> 1:03:59.280 a bunch of shit happened, like we invaded or run 1:04:00.080 --> 1:04:03.520 and Coast b which is the leading Korean stock market index, 1:04:04.040 --> 1:04:08.280 had its largest single drop in its entire history, which 1:04:08.440 --> 1:04:11.560 triggered its circuit breaker. Circuit breakers are a thing that 1:04:11.560 --> 1:04:14.640 stock markets have now where if the stock market collapses, 1:04:15.360 --> 1:04:18.480 like if it loses points too fast in a certain 1:04:18.480 --> 1:04:21.400 period of time, all trading will automatically stop for a bit, 1:04:22.440 --> 1:04:26.600 so it hits its circuit breaker. The TIE index also 1:04:26.720 --> 1:04:30.080 hits its circuit breaker, and then in the wee hours 1:04:30.120 --> 1:04:34.280 of sort of Monday morning, American time. I start seeing 1:04:34.320 --> 1:04:36.680 a bunch of people posting that Coastby hit the circuit breaker, 1:04:36.720 --> 1:04:40.280 and I'm very confused because that happened on like Wednesday, 1:04:40.840 --> 1:04:44.080 right like this already happened. No, no, no, no, wrong, wrong, 1:04:44.160 --> 1:04:49.440 happened again. It's two circuit breakers in like four sessions. 1:04:50.360 --> 1:04:55.720 So this has turned into an unbelievable crisis. Yeah, so 1:04:56.200 --> 1:04:58.520 we're gonna get the tariff episode at some point, talking 1:04:58.560 --> 1:05:01.120 about the Supreme Court tariff rulings and stuff like that. 1:05:01.120 --> 1:05:03.640 That will happen. There's a lot of interesting stuff there, 1:05:03.840 --> 1:05:06.520 But right now we need to answer the question is 1:05:06.800 --> 1:05:13.360 the economy about to collapse? And tendatively it has been 1:05:13.560 --> 1:05:17.520 held off at least for a little bit. Now. This 1:05:17.640 --> 1:05:22.600 is being recorded early Monday afternoon on March ninth. By 1:05:22.600 --> 1:05:24.520 the time this goes out on March tenth, who the 1:05:24.720 --> 1:05:28.640 fuck knows what will have happened. But let's talk about 1:05:28.640 --> 1:05:31.400 what happened in the run up to all of this, 1:05:31.560 --> 1:05:34.840 because it's very important. So in the lead up to 1:05:35.080 --> 1:05:39.040 the open of the American markets, we had a massive 1:05:39.160 --> 1:05:42.080 spike in oil futures, like one of the largest single 1:05:42.120 --> 1:05:45.760 day spikes in oil futures ever. It looks like it's 1:05:45.800 --> 1:05:47.640 going to be the apocalypse for the markets. And the 1:05:47.680 --> 1:05:50.560 reason it looks like this is because and this is 1:05:50.600 --> 1:05:57.640 something that's genuinely astounding. So one fifth of the world's 1:05:57.640 --> 1:06:01.280 oil moves through the strain of for Moose. We're going 1:06:01.280 --> 1:06:03.800 to talk about this in more detail later. And obviously 1:06:03.880 --> 1:06:06.480 there is now a war, which means that you can't 1:06:06.600 --> 1:06:12.480 move oil through it, and people suddenly realized that, oh 1:06:12.560 --> 1:06:14.600 my god, this is going to raise oil prices. 1:06:14.680 --> 1:06:14.960 Now. 1:06:15.720 --> 1:06:17.880 When I was originally writing this episode in the housey 1:06:17.960 --> 1:06:21.880 in days of Friday of last week, part of this 1:06:21.960 --> 1:06:25.439 episode was about why oil prices were not spiking because 1:06:25.440 --> 1:06:28.400 they didn't spike immediately upon the start of the war, right, 1:06:29.000 --> 1:06:31.520 And I was very confused about this because the explanation 1:06:31.560 --> 1:06:34.000 at the time was that people were like, Oh, I'll 1:06:34.000 --> 1:06:37.160 be fine. The US Navy can escort oil tankers through 1:06:37.240 --> 1:06:40.000 the straight ocrewer moves. No, they can't, like the narrowest 1:06:40.040 --> 1:06:42.680 part of it's twenty three miles wide. Like what are 1:06:42.680 --> 1:06:43.360 we doing here? 1:06:43.480 --> 1:06:43.560 What? 1:06:43.720 --> 1:06:43.919 Wait? 1:06:43.960 --> 1:06:46.360 Like, forget drones. You can hit these oil tankers with 1:06:46.400 --> 1:06:49.440 like a fucking trebuchet. What are we doing here? What 1:06:49.520 --> 1:06:52.600 was the administration telling to oil companies right, and then 1:06:52.640 --> 1:06:55.760 a few days later everyone collectively realized, oh my god, 1:06:56.120 --> 1:06:59.080 we can't move oil, and yeah, no shit, you can't 1:06:59.080 --> 1:06:59.600 move oil. 1:06:59.680 --> 1:07:00.000 Jeseuz. 1:07:00.000 --> 1:07:06.520 This is christ like, this is unbelievable stuff. From the 1:07:06.520 --> 1:07:09.720 people who are in the oil markets, from the oil executives, 1:07:09.800 --> 1:07:13.400 from the golf monarchies, from all of the people planning this. 1:07:14.120 --> 1:07:16.320 Why would you think this wouldn't happen? And we're gonna 1:07:16.360 --> 1:07:19.000 get into that actually in a little bit, because there 1:07:19.040 --> 1:07:21.040 is apparently a reason why they thought this was going 1:07:21.080 --> 1:07:25.000 to happen, which is some combination of just pure lies 1:07:25.280 --> 1:07:29.640 and willful belief and some of the worst strategy planning 1:07:29.680 --> 1:07:33.280 I've ever seen in my entire life. But you know, 1:07:33.400 --> 1:07:35.600 the ability to close the straight up from news is 1:07:35.640 --> 1:07:39.320 the reason why even if you are like President Donald Trump, 1:07:39.360 --> 1:07:41.479 the kind of person who doesn't give a shit if 1:07:41.720 --> 1:07:45.480 you know your army burns a running and children to death, right, 1:07:45.960 --> 1:07:48.920 even if you don't care that you fucking bombed a 1:07:49.000 --> 1:07:54.000 fucking school, you don't fight this war because it fucks 1:07:54.000 --> 1:07:57.600 with the money. Now, in anticipation of what looked like 1:07:57.680 --> 1:08:01.040 it was going to be just a market pounding, Trump 1:08:01.120 --> 1:08:06.600 gave a phone interview with CBS's senior White House correspondent 1:08:07.280 --> 1:08:12.120 Weija Jang, who posted this on Twitter. This is her 1:08:12.360 --> 1:08:15.720 reporting of his statements. This is from Donald Trump, quote 1:08:16.120 --> 1:08:19.040 I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They 1:08:19.080 --> 1:08:21.880 have no navy, no communication, they've got no air force. 1:08:22.560 --> 1:08:25.759 He added that the US is quote very far ahead 1:08:25.760 --> 1:08:27.960 of his initial three to four week timeframe. 1:08:29.160 --> 1:08:29.360 You know. 1:08:30.439 --> 1:08:32.759 He also said that ships are moving through it now. 1:08:34.120 --> 1:08:38.360 But he's also quote thinking about taking it over, which 1:08:39.560 --> 1:08:42.679 what is officially conquering the straight up on moves instead 1:08:42.680 --> 1:08:46.240 of merely like protecting it with the American fleet assets. 1:08:46.520 --> 1:08:50.280 This is completely unhinged. And then he also said, quote 1:08:50.320 --> 1:08:52.719 they've shot everything they have to shoot, and they better 1:08:52.760 --> 1:08:55.160 not try anything cute or it's going to be the 1:08:55.280 --> 1:08:56.200 end of that country. 1:08:57.280 --> 1:08:57.559 Now. 1:08:58.080 --> 1:09:02.960 Okay, So the part of this right that went to 1:09:03.000 --> 1:09:05.760 the markets is that he thinks the war is over now. 1:09:05.960 --> 1:09:07.599 The part of it where he says if a rawn 1:09:07.640 --> 1:09:10.439 fights back in any way, quote, it's going to be 1:09:10.560 --> 1:09:14.360 the end of that country apparently did not hit the markets. 1:09:14.400 --> 1:09:16.760 The people running the markets are really really dumb. They 1:09:16.760 --> 1:09:19.320 think and act like herd animals. This is, I guess 1:09:19.360 --> 1:09:21.719 slightly an ansult to herd animals, because herd animals react 1:09:21.720 --> 1:09:23.960 that way for a reason. These people are human beings. 1:09:24.000 --> 1:09:26.320 They have the capacity for logic and reason. They have 1:09:26.320 --> 1:09:28.080 the same capacity for logic and reason that we do, 1:09:28.160 --> 1:09:31.360 and they still act like this. But this has calmed 1:09:31.400 --> 1:09:34.559 the markets down and it's sent oil prices back down again. 1:09:35.200 --> 1:09:38.600 We're going to get into why that's kind of nonsense 1:09:38.960 --> 1:09:42.800 in a little bit. But it's also worth noting in 1:09:42.880 --> 1:09:44.720 terms of Trump saying the war is nearly over, that 1:09:44.800 --> 1:09:49.559 every single other quote Trump has said about this war 1:09:49.960 --> 1:09:52.519 has been He's in this for the long haul. He's 1:09:52.520 --> 1:09:55.160 thinking about troops on the ground. He is not going 1:09:55.160 --> 1:09:56.960 to get bored with it. He doesn't care the gas 1:09:57.000 --> 1:10:00.360 prices are going up. Someone asked his press secretary about 1:10:00.360 --> 1:10:02.360 whether he ruled out the draft, and she said no, 1:10:02.439 --> 1:10:04.559 he hadn't, which is I mean, like they're not gonna 1:10:04.560 --> 1:10:07.680 do a draft, But like, that's ridiculous, why would you 1:10:07.720 --> 1:10:11.760 say that. It's also worth noting that so he has 1:10:11.800 --> 1:10:15.679 a a two hundred and fifty year anniversary commission thing 1:10:16.000 --> 1:10:18.320 that he set up that he's very very excited about. 1:10:18.360 --> 1:10:20.240 That's like it's America's two hundred and fifty year blah 1:10:20.280 --> 1:10:23.080 blah blah blah blah, and that commissions like one of 1:10:23.080 --> 1:10:26.800 their big people was ringing the opening bell wall shake 1:10:26.880 --> 1:10:31.000 this morning. So, you know, I suspect that there's a 1:10:31.000 --> 1:10:33.160 lot of sort of motivated reasoning here going on with 1:10:33.200 --> 1:10:34.960 Trump saying, oh, that's fine, it's gonna be fine. The 1:10:35.000 --> 1:10:39.600 war's nearly over. Do do do do do? Okay, So 1:10:40.520 --> 1:10:43.040 I quite frankly do not believe the President when he 1:10:43.080 --> 1:10:44.840 says that the war is nearly over. I mean, I 1:10:44.840 --> 1:10:47.120 guess maybe there's a scenario where everything we're about to 1:10:47.160 --> 1:10:51.680 talk about causes a crisis that is large enough to 1:10:52.520 --> 1:10:56.479 you know, actually set off Trump pulling out of the 1:10:56.520 --> 1:11:01.720 war under pressure from his allies in the region, which 1:11:01.800 --> 1:11:03.920 is to say, the air of monarchies. I don't know 1:11:04.040 --> 1:11:08.400 to what extent that's actually going to happen, but let's 1:11:08.840 --> 1:11:15.000 talk about what the crisis here is. So the US's 1:11:15.040 --> 1:11:19.040 war against Iran has triggered what could be the start 1:11:19.160 --> 1:11:22.760 of a full on energy crisis. The energy crisis has 1:11:22.800 --> 1:11:27.360 been postponed for one day, I guess as of again 1:11:27.520 --> 1:11:31.640 time of recording, Monday, March ninth, But this could be 1:11:31.640 --> 1:11:33.760 the start of fall on energy crisis and it's not 1:11:33.800 --> 1:11:36.479 just me saying this. Here is the subtitle of the 1:11:36.520 --> 1:11:40.400 Wall Street Journal's big piece on this quote, Traffic through 1:11:40.400 --> 1:11:42.960 the Straight of Furmuz has ground to a virtual halt, 1:11:43.439 --> 1:11:46.519 unleashing the most severe energy crisis since the nineteen seventies 1:11:46.520 --> 1:11:50.320 and threatening the global economy. So that's not good. Now. 1:11:50.400 --> 1:11:53.519 I began this episode talking about a collapse on South 1:11:53.560 --> 1:11:56.559 Korean and high markets, and I was also mentioned by 1:11:56.600 --> 1:11:59.040 the way that like when that collapse happened, all the 1:11:59.080 --> 1:12:01.360 other Asian markets kind of eight shit. The Chinese markets 1:12:01.360 --> 1:12:03.720 were sort of more stable for reasons we'll get you 1:12:03.720 --> 1:12:06.120 in a second, but like Japan, like the nik was 1:12:06.120 --> 1:12:08.280 down like four percent, like all of the other Asian 1:12:08.320 --> 1:12:11.559 markets kind of eight shit, right, Taiwanese market. And the 1:12:11.680 --> 1:12:15.799 reason for that is well, again, as I said above, 1:12:16.080 --> 1:12:19.240 one fifth of the world's oil supply crude oil is 1:12:19.240 --> 1:12:22.479 shipped through the Strait of Framus. And this is an 1:12:22.520 --> 1:12:25.960 issue for a country like South Korea, which imports almost 1:12:26.040 --> 1:12:28.760 all of its oil, you know, and whose economy, like 1:12:28.840 --> 1:12:31.840 manufacturer economy in particular, is very very heavily dependent on oil. 1:12:31.920 --> 1:12:34.280 This is true of a lot of other countries in 1:12:34.320 --> 1:12:37.639 that region, and South Korea and Thailand and Taiwan and 1:12:37.960 --> 1:12:40.880 Japan are not countries like China, which have much of 1:12:40.920 --> 1:12:43.439 oil stockpiles and have the ability to get oiled through 1:12:43.439 --> 1:12:46.920 other ways. Now, I want to take a second to 1:12:46.960 --> 1:12:50.320 actually explain what the Strait of Framuz is. So the 1:12:50.320 --> 1:12:52.200 Strait of Fromuz is a straight it's like there's a 1:12:52.200 --> 1:12:54.680 little bit of water, but it's close to land. I 1:12:54.720 --> 1:12:56.800 talked to said earlier that the narrowest part of it 1:12:56.840 --> 1:13:00.519 is twenty three miles, so it's very narrow, and it 1:13:00.600 --> 1:13:03.760 is a passage between the Persian Gulf and effectively the 1:13:03.760 --> 1:13:06.080 Indian Ocean right and what you're out into the Indian Ocean, 1:13:06.120 --> 1:13:09.120 you can get to the rest of the world that is, 1:13:09.360 --> 1:13:12.719 you know, east of that, which is all of Asia, 1:13:13.080 --> 1:13:15.719 most of the rest of the world that's not west 1:13:15.800 --> 1:13:21.000 of you. Right now, she's bordering the Persian Gulf. Who 1:13:21.080 --> 1:13:23.639 are in the area who need to ship their oil 1:13:23.760 --> 1:13:29.439 out through here include a run Araq, Bahrain Cotter, the UAE, 1:13:29.640 --> 1:13:33.200 and Saudi Arabia. Those are a bunch of oil producing countries. 1:13:33.600 --> 1:13:33.840 You know. 1:13:33.880 --> 1:13:36.040 They are now also countries that are embroiled in this 1:13:36.120 --> 1:13:37.920 war because they are part of the American Alliance, and 1:13:37.960 --> 1:13:41.240 you can ask the very reasonable question, Okay, so if 1:13:41.240 --> 1:13:44.320 you're part of the American Alliance, why the fuck would 1:13:44.360 --> 1:13:48.559 you be like, okay, with the United States launching this 1:13:48.560 --> 1:13:50.640 attack on Iran. On a more vulgar level, you can 1:13:50.680 --> 1:13:52.599 ask the question, how the fuck was this allowed to happen? 1:13:52.680 --> 1:13:56.200 This is the money, this is the global economy that 1:13:56.280 --> 1:14:00.400 you are fucking with right now. The things that the 1:14:00.439 --> 1:14:03.840 Wall Street Journal talks about is that officials in the 1:14:04.000 --> 1:14:07.639 US and Israel told the Gulf States that there wouldn't 1:14:07.640 --> 1:14:13.400 be retaliation by Iran, right, that Iran wouldn't target oil facilities, 1:14:13.439 --> 1:14:16.479 they would just target American military bases. They had a 1:14:16.520 --> 1:14:18.439 whole thing about how, oh well three tree in the 1:14:18.439 --> 1:14:20.840 war with Israel, they did only target American military basis. 1:14:20.880 --> 1:14:24.439 They didn't like bomb any oil infrastructure. They were sending 1:14:24.760 --> 1:14:28.880 mister Bean memes in their group chats about how weak 1:14:29.040 --> 1:14:32.559 the Iranian retaliation was going to be. So this is 1:14:32.640 --> 1:14:36.280 not just a situation of pure you know, motivated reasoning. 1:14:36.280 --> 1:14:38.280 We relying to them, et cetera, et cetera. Like the 1:14:38.320 --> 1:14:43.479 Americans appeared to have actually believed some of this, that 1:14:43.560 --> 1:14:46.920 Iran's retaliation was going to be weak. I've seen reports 1:14:46.920 --> 1:14:48.600 that they thought that Aram was out of drones. I 1:14:48.640 --> 1:14:51.400 don't know why you would think this, in baffling. Their 1:14:51.479 --> 1:14:54.760 drones are extremely cheap to produce, like they've used them, 1:14:54.760 --> 1:14:58.120 but why would you think they didn't have more? And 1:14:58.439 --> 1:15:00.320 I just want to point out right, so point of 1:15:00.360 --> 1:15:03.200 reference here was oh Iran showed restraint in the war 1:15:03.240 --> 1:15:05.479 with Israel. You know, this is a twelve day conflict 1:15:05.479 --> 1:15:08.320 where Israel and a rol and sort of fired missiles 1:15:08.360 --> 1:15:11.439 at each other and stuff after Israel assassinated a bunch 1:15:11.479 --> 1:15:16.360 of people for doing nuclear stuff. But okay, let's look 1:15:16.360 --> 1:15:19.040 at this for a second. My brother in Christ, you 1:15:19.240 --> 1:15:23.080 killed the fucking Ayahtola. This is an existential war for 1:15:23.160 --> 1:15:26.200 survival of the regime. Of course, they were going to 1:15:26.280 --> 1:15:29.720 target your oil facilities. Are you fucking kidding me? Your 1:15:29.760 --> 1:15:33.439 goal here was regime change. You literally assassinated their fucking 1:15:33.479 --> 1:15:37.920 head of state. You literally killed him. What the fuck 1:15:38.160 --> 1:15:41.640 did you think was going to happen? Oh my god. 1:15:41.479 --> 1:15:46.080 These people are so fucking dumb, Like you know, and 1:15:46.280 --> 1:15:49.960 it's obviously not clear exactly like who knew what about 1:15:49.960 --> 1:15:52.559 this plan? But again, like it seems like the plan 1:15:52.680 --> 1:15:54.439 was put into place because they had the opportunity to 1:15:55.520 --> 1:15:59.000 to kill Ahtola Committee. And like, okay, if that's true, 1:15:59.680 --> 1:16:03.800 and presumably the Gulf States would know that, why the 1:16:03.840 --> 1:16:05.920 fuck would they not expect retaliation? 1:16:06.240 --> 1:16:08.920 I expected this. I'm a podcaster. I mean, I know, 1:16:09.000 --> 1:16:11.360 I'm very smart, but like these people are These people 1:16:11.360 --> 1:16:14.200 and their advisors are running fucking like some of the 1:16:14.200 --> 1:16:17.519 most important governments in the entire world. I don't know, monarchy, 1:16:17.600 --> 1:16:21.240 bad system of governments. Electing Donald Trump also apparently bad 1:16:21.280 --> 1:16:26.639 system of government. You're getting just oh my god, holy fuck, 1:16:26.720 --> 1:16:30.639 these people are stupid. Oh my god. They really truly 1:16:30.720 --> 1:16:34.120 they really truly believed that Iran was not going to 1:16:34.200 --> 1:16:36.600 pick up the weapon that it has always had, that 1:16:36.680 --> 1:16:39.200 has always been the thing for what the reason why 1:16:39.240 --> 1:16:41.639 you don't fight this fucking war, even if you don't 1:16:41.640 --> 1:16:44.639 care about Iranian lives, that you're willing to spend American lives? Right, 1:16:45.080 --> 1:16:47.680 they really thought they wouldn't do it. I just, I 1:16:47.760 --> 1:16:52.599 just I can't get over this. I just oh my god, 1:16:54.320 --> 1:16:58.800 Oh I don't know, I don't know. Okay, we're gonna 1:16:58.840 --> 1:17:01.000 go to ads a mad hell. I'm not gonna take 1:17:01.000 --> 1:17:15.040 it any more. Here's some ads Okay, calming down a 1:17:15.080 --> 1:17:17.880 little bit, let's get back to the actual oil of 1:17:17.920 --> 1:17:20.880 it all. So let's talk about the quality of the 1:17:20.920 --> 1:17:24.000 oil here now. Sharp eared listeners may remember that when 1:17:24.000 --> 1:17:27.439 I talked about Venezuelan oil battery nor Executive Disorder episode 1:17:27.439 --> 1:17:30.479 about the previous war a couple of months ago, a 1:17:30.560 --> 1:17:33.720 sentence so unhinged I had to go back check the 1:17:33.800 --> 1:17:36.240 date to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating. But no, 1:17:36.600 --> 1:17:40.240 it was January third, twenty twenty six, when we had 1:17:40.280 --> 1:17:43.160 our last war with a major oil producer where read 1:17:43.280 --> 1:17:45.599 in some way incapacitated or killed the head of state. 1:17:45.600 --> 1:17:48.920 By the way, we're still just like holding Maduro hostage. 1:17:49.080 --> 1:17:51.000 This is just still a thing that we're doing right now. 1:17:51.280 --> 1:17:55.599 Incredible stuff, incredible like normal government shit, bad things happening. 1:17:56.280 --> 1:17:58.000 But in that episode, which would have been the Executive 1:17:58.040 --> 1:18:01.479 Disorder that came out on Friday the January ninth, I 1:18:01.520 --> 1:18:06.320 talked about how Venezuelan crude oil is not very good. Right, 1:18:06.320 --> 1:18:09.559 It's extremely sour, kind of sucks. The Kumbo composition is bad. 1:18:10.040 --> 1:18:11.800 The oil in the golf is not like that. This 1:18:11.840 --> 1:18:14.240 is good oil. This is one fifth of the world's 1:18:14.240 --> 1:18:18.280 crude oil. Supply, right, And also it is now because 1:18:18.280 --> 1:18:21.559 of cutters like liquified natural gas production. This is now 1:18:21.640 --> 1:18:25.200 also a shutdown of a significant portion of the world's 1:18:25.520 --> 1:18:29.040 liquified natural gas, which is again extremely important to the economy. 1:18:29.040 --> 1:18:31.439 And also, you know, one of the biggest sort of 1:18:31.520 --> 1:18:34.120 climate hoaxes in all of this, right, and I'm saying 1:18:34.120 --> 1:18:36.760 climate hoaxes here. There's been a whole push to be like, oh, 1:18:36.760 --> 1:18:39.320 we should transition to natural gas because it's cleaner than oil, 1:18:39.360 --> 1:18:42.840 and like kind of a little bit in the sense 1:18:42.880 --> 1:18:46.679 that like dunking your head into a swamp is probably 1:18:46.720 --> 1:18:50.439 cleaner than dunking your head directly into like a shitful toilet. 1:18:50.920 --> 1:18:54.840 And also it's only cleaner assuming that no methane escapes 1:18:54.840 --> 1:18:57.639 through the production process. But the thing is, methane fucking 1:18:57.760 --> 1:19:00.600 escapes during the production process of natural as all the 1:19:00.680 --> 1:19:03.920 fucking time. And methane is like to get a sense, 1:19:03.960 --> 1:19:07.040 So we're talking about greenhouse greenhouse gases here, right, and 1:19:07.120 --> 1:19:09.679 obviously we're familiar with CO two is like the major 1:19:09.720 --> 1:19:13.480 pollutant that we that we produce. Methane is a greenhouse 1:19:13.520 --> 1:19:17.720 gas that is so fucked that it is better to 1:19:17.920 --> 1:19:20.160 light it on fire and have it burn and have 1:19:20.200 --> 1:19:22.320 it admit that CO two into the air. That is 1:19:22.439 --> 1:19:25.040 better for the environment than letting fucking methane into it. 1:19:25.040 --> 1:19:28.200 It is that fucked of a greenhouse gas, right, And 1:19:28.320 --> 1:19:30.040 you know a lot of this stuff escapes and and 1:19:30.560 --> 1:19:32.040 this this is the point that I've been, you know, 1:19:32.280 --> 1:19:33.839 trying to find a thing to put in this episode. 1:19:33.920 --> 1:19:34.080 Right. 1:19:34.920 --> 1:19:37.720 One of the big things here is why are we 1:19:37.880 --> 1:19:41.599 still using oil to this extent? And you know, it 1:19:41.640 --> 1:19:44.439 has to do with sort of, I mean just just 1:19:44.479 --> 1:19:47.280 the the the utter cowardice and evil and short sighted 1:19:47.320 --> 1:19:50.920 profit motive chasing of the entire world ruling class. It 1:19:50.920 --> 1:19:53.160 has to do with specific efforts by the oil lobby 1:19:53.640 --> 1:19:55.920 in order to make sure that politics would happen like this. 1:19:56.479 --> 1:19:59.000 You know, we can talk about like the role of 1:19:59.080 --> 1:20:02.880 Pennsylvania and like fracking as like an electoral thing. We 1:20:02.920 --> 1:20:05.439 can talk about sort of the kind of Andreas Molm 1:20:05.439 --> 1:20:09.559 fossil capital thesis about the place that you want to 1:20:09.680 --> 1:20:13.280 produce things being a place that both has stable energy 1:20:13.320 --> 1:20:16.000 and also a sort of I don't know, I guess 1:20:16.000 --> 1:20:18.640 the capitalists would call it disciplined workforce, but like a 1:20:18.680 --> 1:20:23.160 workforce that's not like organized, and that's not militant, so 1:20:23.200 --> 1:20:25.720 you can exploit them. And the places where those things 1:20:25.720 --> 1:20:29.240 are true, for example, like this century largely has been China, 1:20:29.280 --> 1:20:32.120 where you know, if you try to do independent union organizing, 1:20:32.120 --> 1:20:35.080 they will arrest you. Sometimes you will get disappeared. And 1:20:35.120 --> 1:20:38.200 that also coincides with you know, they have an energy grid, 1:20:38.240 --> 1:20:41.880 and the energy grid is extremely pollution intensive. It still 1:20:42.080 --> 1:20:44.439 is even as you know, trying to sort of renewable 1:20:44.520 --> 1:20:47.400 energy push has been happening, is still extremely carbon intensive. 1:20:48.520 --> 1:20:53.040 So okay, obviously, like we're in this nightmare because a 1:20:53.040 --> 1:20:57.160 whole bunch of people who really really really really desperately 1:20:57.680 --> 1:21:00.160 want us to burn the entire world of lives. They 1:21:00.160 --> 1:21:03.000 can keep making money. But we're turning to the original 1:21:03.040 --> 1:21:04.960 thing before I got pissed off about people saying that 1:21:05.040 --> 1:21:07.400 natural gas is cleaner than oil. It's like, just fucking 1:21:07.479 --> 1:21:12.000 use literally any other way to generate energy that's not 1:21:12.360 --> 1:21:16.559 fucking oil or natural gas or coal or I guess 1:21:16.640 --> 1:21:20.120 nuclear too. But like, we have other ways of generating power. 1:21:20.200 --> 1:21:22.320 We could do this. But because we haven't done this, 1:21:22.320 --> 1:21:25.639 this massive decrease in oil supply because again nothing's fucking 1:21:25.640 --> 1:21:27.519 going through the Gulf. There's like a couple of ships 1:21:27.520 --> 1:21:30.160 have gone through. This is causing a crisis in the 1:21:30.200 --> 1:21:32.200 global economy. I'm going to quote the Wall Street Journal. 1:21:32.840 --> 1:21:35.360 If the Strait is still closed this Friday, output in 1:21:35.400 --> 1:21:38.000 the region could fall by more than four million barrels 1:21:38.720 --> 1:21:43.000 kind of analystical quoting earlier estimates, the decline could reach 1:21:43.040 --> 1:21:45.639 about nine million by the end of March, representing almost 1:21:45.680 --> 1:21:49.920 a tenth of global demands. Now it's worth noting here, 1:21:50.080 --> 1:21:52.400 right that you know, you look at a tenth of 1:21:52.439 --> 1:21:54.439 global demand and you go, oh, okay, so it's like 1:21:54.439 --> 1:21:56.720 a ten percent reduction, but it's actually way worse than that, 1:21:56.880 --> 1:22:01.639 because again, people have this tendency to look at oil 1:22:01.840 --> 1:22:04.599 as just liquid money that moves freely around the world. 1:22:04.680 --> 1:22:09.439 But that reduction in supply is not evenly distributed across 1:22:09.479 --> 1:22:13.000 the world. Right, There are countries who have extraordinary needs 1:22:13.000 --> 1:22:15.280 of it who get their oil from the Middle East. 1:22:15.280 --> 1:22:17.759 This is the places like for example, Korea from Thailand, 1:22:17.800 --> 1:22:19.360 b and mar We're gon We're gonna get to you 1:22:19.400 --> 1:22:21.720 in a little bit, are places who are relying on 1:22:21.760 --> 1:22:24.240 this oil. And you know, for South Korea, it's like 1:22:24.280 --> 1:22:26.800 seventy percent of their oil comes from this region, right, 1:22:26.840 --> 1:22:30.360 So that ten percent of global demand is not spread 1:22:30.360 --> 1:22:33.519 eatingly across the world, is intensified into acute crises and 1:22:33.680 --> 1:22:39.360 very very specific economies. And this is a compounding crisis because, 1:22:39.880 --> 1:22:42.840 as the Wall Street Journal points out, like it's not 1:22:43.000 --> 1:22:45.040 just that the strait is closed for the first time ever, right, 1:22:45.040 --> 1:22:48.040 this rait has never been closed, Like there was a 1:22:48.040 --> 1:22:50.760 point where the US was like escorting things through a 1:22:50.840 --> 1:22:53.280 dream the Iron of Rock War, But like it's never 1:22:53.400 --> 1:22:56.599 just been closed before. It's not just that, like you know, oil, 1:22:56.720 --> 1:22:58.920 natural gas and fertilizer isn't coming out of there either, 1:22:58.960 --> 1:23:01.160 which is a real fun problem that we'll talk about 1:23:01.160 --> 1:23:04.679 in a second. This is not just an immediate crisis 1:23:04.720 --> 1:23:07.200 of we can't move the oil that we have out 1:23:07.600 --> 1:23:10.240 there is a secondary crisis, which is that where the 1:23:10.280 --> 1:23:13.439 fuck do you put the oil? Right? If you get 1:23:13.439 --> 1:23:15.120 one thing out of listening to me talk about oil, 1:23:15.160 --> 1:23:18.559 it's that again, it's not just liquid money. It's a 1:23:18.640 --> 1:23:22.200 material substance. And the actual substance of oil and what 1:23:22.240 --> 1:23:24.960 it is and how it's produced has really wide reaching 1:23:25.000 --> 1:23:27.680 political effects, right, because when you take your stuff out 1:23:27.680 --> 1:23:30.400 of the ground, the system is designed so that it 1:23:30.520 --> 1:23:33.720 is moved extremely quickly. Now there are countries like a 1:23:33.800 --> 1:23:37.160 rock that you could in theory still produce oil, right, 1:23:37.400 --> 1:23:39.240 but there aren't enough containers to store it, so they 1:23:39.280 --> 1:23:41.080 have to shop production down. Now you could be like, okay, 1:23:41.080 --> 1:23:43.320 well but why don't they just ship it out through 1:23:43.320 --> 1:23:45.240 the Mediterranean, and the answers that the pipelines and the 1:23:45.240 --> 1:23:48.720 shipping equipment there just don't have the throughput. Oil distribution 1:23:48.920 --> 1:23:51.639 is very, very flexible, and this is what makes disrupting 1:23:51.720 --> 1:23:54.640 it harder than something like coal used to be. But 1:23:55.120 --> 1:23:58.280 it is designed to a point to be sort of 1:23:58.439 --> 1:24:02.240 nodal and flexible and able to sort of deal with 1:24:02.600 --> 1:24:07.800 supply reduction crises, right. It's not designed to deal with this, 1:24:08.400 --> 1:24:11.840 which is a full on energy crisis level, like, oh 1:24:11.920 --> 1:24:14.479 by god, we can't get oil out through the trade 1:24:14.479 --> 1:24:16.719 of removes. This is a scale of issue that can't 1:24:16.720 --> 1:24:19.240 simply be solved by just moving the supply around and 1:24:19.240 --> 1:24:21.800 distributing it differently. This is not a solution to this, 1:24:22.720 --> 1:24:27.080 and so these are having these interlocking effects right because 1:24:27.080 --> 1:24:29.320 also again, these things are designed to be going constantly 1:24:29.720 --> 1:24:31.120 and it's not just a thing where you can just 1:24:31.160 --> 1:24:32.640 turn it off and turn it back on again. It 1:24:32.640 --> 1:24:35.320 doesn't work like that. These are actual, very very complicated, 1:24:35.400 --> 1:24:38.200 tendic goal processes. If you turn these things off, this 1:24:38.240 --> 1:24:41.360 is again very important. If you turn these wells off, 1:24:41.360 --> 1:24:43.720 some of them will never turn back on again. So 1:24:43.760 --> 1:24:48.160 we're talking about permanent damage to the supply. Right, even 1:24:48.280 --> 1:24:52.240 if tomorrow, right like the war is suddenly over and 1:24:52.400 --> 1:24:54.760 everything quote unquote goes back to normal, we're talking about 1:24:54.760 --> 1:24:57.240 still like permanent damage to the supply. And this is 1:24:57.240 --> 1:24:58.920 where again you can be like, well, okay, but like, 1:24:59.360 --> 1:25:01.439 why don't we just condition from oil? And again you 1:25:01.439 --> 1:25:03.000 can also ask like why should we give a shit 1:25:03.040 --> 1:25:16.360 about this? There's a few reasons when I say this 1:25:16.400 --> 1:25:18.840 is a compounding crisis. The Wall Stree Journal talked about 1:25:18.880 --> 1:25:21.040 this a little bit, but in every article you read 1:25:21.080 --> 1:25:24.120 about this, you will see people making the argument that, oh, 1:25:24.160 --> 1:25:26.760 it's fine, Like the US is more insulated than it 1:25:26.880 --> 1:25:29.599 was from oil prices in the seventies when it just 1:25:29.640 --> 1:25:33.400 like caused a major global crisis. And that's kind of 1:25:33.439 --> 1:25:35.320 true to a certain extent, Right, the US is an 1:25:35.360 --> 1:25:38.760 oil producer, but also again, oil is not just something 1:25:38.800 --> 1:25:41.759 that's used for cars, right, and our domestic economy doesn't 1:25:41.800 --> 1:25:44.439 just rely on oil like you can't just you know, 1:25:44.479 --> 1:25:45.920 you can you make plastics out of oil? 1:25:46.000 --> 1:25:46.120 Right? 1:25:46.120 --> 1:25:51.120 But even that, you don't just make things wholesale out 1:25:51.120 --> 1:25:55.120 of oil. Like everything you consume has other things in it, 1:25:55.880 --> 1:25:59.599 and it relies on products like, for example, aluminum and 1:26:00.280 --> 1:26:03.720 things like copper and everything from basic commodities to sort 1:26:03.720 --> 1:26:09.639 of like refined goods that rely on there being oil. Right. 1:26:10.080 --> 1:26:14.080 Like again we're talking about South Korea's economy. South Korea produces. 1:26:14.160 --> 1:26:16.080 There's a whole bunch of microtrip production stuff that goes 1:26:16.120 --> 1:26:18.920 on there. You know, there's like Samsung, right, major foam manufacturer, 1:26:19.439 --> 1:26:21.519 So there's all of this very very high tech stuff too. 1:26:21.520 --> 1:26:23.120 On the sort of on the bottom end, we're talking 1:26:23.120 --> 1:26:26.559 about like you can't refine a luminum anymore, you know, right, 1:26:26.680 --> 1:26:28.479 not that you can't, like like places are shutting down 1:26:28.479 --> 1:26:30.400 their cassidy to do it because they can't get oil 1:26:30.720 --> 1:26:34.040 or they can't afford this oil. To the extent that 1:26:34.080 --> 1:26:36.400 we're seeing something called force maith Zura and being deployed 1:26:36.400 --> 1:26:38.600 by a whole bunch of companies across the world in 1:26:38.600 --> 1:26:41.040 different sectors and forced majoritam is this is this legal 1:26:41.080 --> 1:26:42.840 concept you can apply that It's like it's like an 1:26:42.880 --> 1:26:45.320 act of God where for example, like I don't know, 1:26:45.360 --> 1:26:47.439 if there's like a once in a century earthquake and 1:26:47.479 --> 1:26:50.040 it like obliterates your factory, You're not legally liable to 1:26:50.080 --> 1:26:52.479 pay stuff out to people because it's an act of God, 1:26:52.600 --> 1:26:54.599 like you, you can't be legally held liable for it. 1:26:54.960 --> 1:26:58.360 And people are doing this for their aluminum production to 1:26:58.360 --> 1:27:00.479 say like yeah, sorry, we can't meet our tracks, we 1:27:00.479 --> 1:27:02.880 can't meet our quotas that you bought from us, Like 1:27:03.360 --> 1:27:05.439 not our fault, nothing we can do about it. It's 1:27:05.479 --> 1:27:10.120 happening with oil producers. Because it's also worth noting that 1:27:10.840 --> 1:27:13.600 it's not just that the Strait is closed. Iran is 1:27:13.600 --> 1:27:17.920 also hitting oil facilities. Israel is also hitting oil facilities 1:27:18.280 --> 1:27:22.080 in Iran. They hit one in Tehran, like a massive 1:27:22.120 --> 1:27:25.160 one in Tehran that's releasing all of these fucking toxic 1:27:25.240 --> 1:27:30.120 chemicals into the air, and that has set off a 1:27:30.160 --> 1:27:35.240 massive ecological crisis because all of these people are Enormous 1:27:35.280 --> 1:27:37.000 numbers of people in Iran are going to die because 1:27:37.040 --> 1:27:38.880 of this, not just because of the bombings, but because 1:27:39.160 --> 1:27:40.800 it turns out when you fucking blow up an oil 1:27:40.800 --> 1:27:43.519 facility releases a bunch of extremely toxic chemicals into the 1:27:43.560 --> 1:27:46.880 air that caused fucking cancer and stuff like that. And 1:27:46.920 --> 1:27:50.160 so what you're dealing with, right, is this crisis in 1:27:50.240 --> 1:27:55.160 which all of these different aspects of the economy that 1:27:55.200 --> 1:27:58.479 rely on oil are impacted. Right, it's basic commodities, it's 1:27:58.520 --> 1:28:01.920 highly advanced like parts of of like subig conductor manufacturing. 1:28:02.000 --> 1:28:04.960 It's you know, all of these things that rely on 1:28:05.040 --> 1:28:10.040 oil are suddenly constrained, and suddenly the supply chains are fragmenting. 1:28:10.720 --> 1:28:13.920 You know, the US gets things from all over the world, 1:28:14.000 --> 1:28:18.080 but the crisis right now has mostly been hitting East Asia. Right. 1:28:18.120 --> 1:28:21.720 I talked about Korea, we talked about high Land. The 1:28:21.760 --> 1:28:24.200 thing is, right, crises in East Asia do not stay 1:28:24.280 --> 1:28:28.080 in East Asia. Like the Asian market collapse, heralded a 1:28:28.120 --> 1:28:30.960 whole bunch of other debt crises. This is the Asian 1:28:30.960 --> 1:28:33.640 market class in the nineties, right, Herald's a bunch of 1:28:33.640 --> 1:28:36.320 debt crises in places like Mexico. Heralds the collapse of 1:28:36.360 --> 1:28:39.160 the US economy and draining the dot com bubble. It 1:28:39.800 --> 1:28:42.320 as say it with me, long time listeners of the show, 1:28:42.400 --> 1:28:44.960 is what causes the reverse Plaza Accords try to bail 1:28:45.000 --> 1:28:47.840 out the entire world economy, which is where the US, 1:28:48.000 --> 1:28:53.120 like nuked its own manufacturing economy. By reversing Reagan's attempt 1:28:53.200 --> 1:28:54.680 to force all of the rest of the countries in 1:28:54.720 --> 1:28:57.719 the world to increase the value of their currencies relative 1:28:57.720 --> 1:28:59.960 to the dollars of the US, he compete in manufacturing better, 1:29:01.120 --> 1:29:03.160 you know. So it affects all these places, you know, 1:29:03.200 --> 1:29:07.280 and that that effect will boomerang back here. But as 1:29:07.360 --> 1:29:10.720 as is always true with American imperialism, the people suffering 1:29:11.200 --> 1:29:16.400 from this the most are not Americans. It's people in Iran, right, 1:29:16.479 --> 1:29:20.960 It's people who are getting fucking blown up. It's people 1:29:21.160 --> 1:29:25.200 who are breathing in toxic chemicals as people whose lives 1:29:25.240 --> 1:29:29.799 have been destroyed and ruined by American imperialism. And beyond Iran, 1:29:30.000 --> 1:29:34.000 it's Pakistan, it's India, it's Bangladesh, it's Taiwan, it's Thailand, 1:29:34.040 --> 1:29:38.479 it's the Philippines, South Korea, it's Mia and mar like 1:29:38.880 --> 1:29:42.360 it's Indonesia designan to lesser sent in Genesia. But you know, 1:29:42.880 --> 1:29:47.599 we're talking about potential crop failures from lack of fertilizer, right, 1:29:48.120 --> 1:29:52.680 We're talking about economic ruin. We're talking about the destabilization 1:29:53.080 --> 1:29:55.400 of the world economy, or talking about people dying for 1:29:55.560 --> 1:29:59.160 fucking cancer when we're talking about the global economic effects 1:29:59.160 --> 1:30:02.640 of this. That's what we're really dealing with here, regardless 1:30:02.640 --> 1:30:06.240 of what happens on the American stock markets, is a 1:30:06.320 --> 1:30:08.920 whole bunch of people who never had anything to do 1:30:09.000 --> 1:30:13.759 with this fucking suffering and dying because of the fucking 1:30:13.920 --> 1:30:16.839 greed and pride and vanity and hatred of the American 1:30:16.920 --> 1:30:21.120 ruling class. Now, I'm going to close on a slightly 1:30:21.200 --> 1:30:24.960 lighter note, which is people who follow the economy very 1:30:25.000 --> 1:30:28.320 closely will be talking about how kost B, the Korean index, 1:30:28.320 --> 1:30:31.040 had a massive bubble and that's why it collapsed, and 1:30:31.080 --> 1:30:33.000 that's why it had like two circuit breakers, and that's 1:30:33.000 --> 1:30:36.800 why it's going down so much. That's kind of true, right, 1:30:37.080 --> 1:30:42.000 But that bubble is an AI bubble. Now it is 1:30:42.040 --> 1:30:45.559 a larger and more concentrated version of the American AI bubble. 1:30:46.479 --> 1:30:50.719 But you know, the American economy is an AI bubble. 1:30:51.320 --> 1:30:54.559 And the thing about AI is that it's propped up 1:30:54.600 --> 1:30:55.599 by gas prices. 1:30:55.720 --> 1:30:55.920 Right. 1:30:56.320 --> 1:31:02.720 AI is enormously enormously fuel intensive, but it wastes a 1:31:02.960 --> 1:31:07.400 staggering on a hinged amount of energy, right, And it 1:31:07.400 --> 1:31:10.040 could only really function as long as those oil prices 1:31:10.040 --> 1:31:13.639 are very cheap, and as long as natural gas prices 1:31:13.680 --> 1:31:16.320 are cheap. And it's also worth noting that, you know, 1:31:16.479 --> 1:31:19.000 these AI things are also do a physical infrastructure. Because 1:31:19.000 --> 1:31:23.000 these people are just like absolute clowns. They've been buying 1:31:23.040 --> 1:31:26.920 into the Golf monarchy's attempts to attract a tech sector there, 1:31:27.000 --> 1:31:29.200 so they've been hit and Iran has been taking advantage 1:31:29.200 --> 1:31:31.559 of this by hitting Amazon data centers in the Golf States. 1:31:32.080 --> 1:31:36.040 So that's another way where this can potentially just sort 1:31:36.080 --> 1:31:39.479 of toss a nuke into the global economy, is that 1:31:39.600 --> 1:31:43.120 like the price of running all of these AI things 1:31:43.439 --> 1:31:48.120 suddenly starts to increase. And the kind of worst case 1:31:48.120 --> 1:31:51.000 scenario scenario for this, right, the one that we've been 1:31:51.000 --> 1:31:53.160 looking at in terms of what could happen to the 1:31:53.160 --> 1:31:57.800 world economy is what's been being discussed more and more, 1:31:57.840 --> 1:31:59.880 which is a version of the Crisis of the seven, 1:32:00.120 --> 1:32:04.080 which is an economic crisis of increasing inflation and also 1:32:04.120 --> 1:32:08.800 increasing unemployment that completely reshaped the entire global economy. It's 1:32:08.840 --> 1:32:11.639 why we have deoliberalism, you know, it's a complete collapse 1:32:11.640 --> 1:32:13.920 with the social democratic system that I come before. It 1:32:13.920 --> 1:32:17.439 it changes the entire global world order. Right, the US 1:32:17.560 --> 1:32:20.680 goes off the gold standard, like things change that had 1:32:20.720 --> 1:32:22.840 never changed before. And we're going to talk about that 1:32:23.000 --> 1:32:26.160 more on the tariff episode. But that, to a large 1:32:26.200 --> 1:32:29.400 extent to the ruling class is what is at stake here, right, 1:32:29.920 --> 1:32:35.320 It's whether it is worth destroying the global economy in 1:32:35.439 --> 1:32:37.479 order for Trump to kill what people and I wrong. 1:32:38.560 --> 1:32:39.720 This has been Nickuldoppen here. 1:32:48.439 --> 1:32:51.120 Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here, and this is it could 1:32:51.240 --> 1:32:54.840 Happen Here. Today, We've got a special episode for you. 1:32:55.280 --> 1:32:58.080 This is a guest episode by all of a Minneapolis 1:32:58.120 --> 1:33:02.400 resident and movement legal worker who hosts the Outlaw podcast. So, 1:33:03.040 --> 1:33:05.520 without further ado, here's Olive. 1:33:19.240 --> 1:33:24.480 Minneapolis Print put hi, and welcome to the first crossover 1:33:24.560 --> 1:33:28.439 episode of It Could Happen Here and Outlaw, an anti 1:33:28.520 --> 1:33:32.400 oppression podcast where we demystify how the law is used 1:33:32.520 --> 1:33:34.799 to neutralize descent in the US. 1:33:35.920 --> 1:33:39.840 I'm your host, Olive. I live in Minneapolis, and if 1:33:39.880 --> 1:33:42.799 you've read a single headline over the last two months, 1:33:43.120 --> 1:33:46.240 you probably know that we are battling the largest immigration 1:33:46.439 --> 1:33:51.599 enforcement operation in US history. Since early December, Minnesota has 1:33:51.640 --> 1:33:56.080 been occupied by three thousand agents from Immigration and Customs 1:33:56.160 --> 1:34:03.440 Enforcement ICE and Customs and Border Protection who have already abducted, imprisoned, 1:34:03.800 --> 1:34:07.759 and deported at least four thousand people. In the face 1:34:07.840 --> 1:34:12.240 of this devastating federal occupation, people are showing up every 1:34:12.360 --> 1:34:18.080 single day to defend their migrant neighbors in unimaginably beautiful ways. 1:34:18.120 --> 1:34:22.240 And on the other side of this effective resistance is 1:34:22.320 --> 1:34:26.599 expansive legal repression all of the many ways the state 1:34:26.800 --> 1:34:30.160 uses the law and its enforcement mechanisms to crush dissent. 1:34:31.080 --> 1:34:34.560 More than four hundred people have been arrested for protesting 1:34:34.600 --> 1:34:38.479 ICE or following ICE vehicles, with thirty five of them 1:34:38.720 --> 1:34:44.520 now facing federal charges under eighteen USC one eleven assaulting, resisting, 1:34:44.600 --> 1:34:48.360 or impeding a federal officer. I think it's really important 1:34:48.400 --> 1:34:51.320 for those of you outside of Minnesota to know how 1:34:51.400 --> 1:34:55.600 law enforcement and political prosecution are working here because it 1:34:55.680 --> 1:34:58.080 might come to where you live to and it's different 1:34:58.120 --> 1:35:01.840 than other kinds of movement repression I've seen. Instead of 1:35:01.880 --> 1:35:06.479 the agencies that normally police citizen protesters, like local and 1:35:06.520 --> 1:35:10.959 state cops or the FBI, it's primarily ICE and CBP 1:35:11.320 --> 1:35:15.400 who are carrying out arrests, and its Homeland Security investigations 1:35:15.800 --> 1:35:20.599 doing the investigations. It's happening this way because arrests are 1:35:20.600 --> 1:35:24.160 mostly happening when people are responding to ICE activity, and 1:35:24.240 --> 1:35:27.639 so those are the agencies who are present to make arrests. 1:35:28.320 --> 1:35:31.559 This impacts everything from how arrests go down and the 1:35:31.600 --> 1:35:34.880 conditions of incarceration to the kinds of charges that people 1:35:34.920 --> 1:35:39.320 are catching. To understand what all this actually means, you 1:35:39.439 --> 1:35:42.240 need to hear from those who are experiencing it, the 1:35:42.320 --> 1:35:45.719 people who have been detained and prosecuted for protesting ICE. 1:35:46.360 --> 1:35:50.040 So in this episode you'll hear two interviews from Minneapolis 1:35:50.120 --> 1:35:54.719 rapid responders. First, you'll hear from Clem and Ray about 1:35:54.800 --> 1:35:58.599 their experience being arrested out of their car and taken 1:35:58.680 --> 1:36:03.120 into ICE attention. And second, Lucy and Isabelle will talk 1:36:03.160 --> 1:36:07.960 about catching charges and navigating cases during the surge. Stick 1:36:08.000 --> 1:36:10.240 around at the end for a special treat, a poem 1:36:10.280 --> 1:36:13.840 from isabel and a new song out of Minneapolis that 1:36:14.000 --> 1:36:17.960 responds to the surge, and just the heads up before 1:36:18.000 --> 1:36:20.360 we get into it. In this episode, you're going to 1:36:20.439 --> 1:36:24.439 hear people talk about their first hand experiences with police violence. 1:36:24.680 --> 1:36:28.719 So take care of yourself and if you like the episode, 1:36:28.920 --> 1:36:31.599 check out the other episodes of Outlaw wherever you listen 1:36:31.640 --> 1:36:33.280 to podcasts. 1:36:33.400 --> 1:36:38.840 Indigenous, from the North, from the South. 1:36:39.000 --> 1:36:39.840 From everywhere. 1:36:40.800 --> 1:36:43.800 Welcome to Outlaw. You're both here to talk about legal 1:36:43.840 --> 1:36:47.080 oppression of ice Watch in Minneapolis over the past two months. 1:36:47.520 --> 1:36:51.040 Can you both introduce yourselves briefly and your connection to 1:36:51.080 --> 1:36:51.879 the Twin Cities. 1:36:52.760 --> 1:36:57.880 I am ray Is they then pronouns. I'm from here, 1:36:57.880 --> 1:37:00.280 I grip here and have lived most of my life 1:37:00.320 --> 1:37:03.680 in the Twin Cities, and I now live in Potterhorn 1:37:03.760 --> 1:37:07.400 Park that's in South Minneapolis. 1:37:06.760 --> 1:37:10.439 Site of high ice activity, the highest I believe. 1:37:10.880 --> 1:37:14.360 I would think that is true, and quite close to 1:37:15.640 --> 1:37:19.960 the sites of George Floyd as well as Renee Goods murders. 1:37:20.560 --> 1:37:21.479 My name is Clem. 1:37:22.240 --> 1:37:27.240 I've lived in the Cities for like five years maybe now. 1:37:27.680 --> 1:37:31.280 I grew up in the Southwest, and I also live 1:37:31.960 --> 1:37:34.480 on the border of Powder Horn in the Central neighborhood, 1:37:35.120 --> 1:37:38.200 so kind of yeah, halfway between where Renee was shot 1:37:38.240 --> 1:37:40.080 and where George Floyd was killed. 1:37:41.720 --> 1:37:44.840 So you both were arrested while you were doing ice 1:37:44.880 --> 1:37:48.080 Watch in your car. For people who are listening, this 1:37:48.160 --> 1:37:50.920 gets called commuting here. It can look different ways, but 1:37:51.000 --> 1:37:53.840 it often involves a hyper local signal call with a 1:37:53.920 --> 1:37:58.000 dispatcher and commuters to be able to notify and dispatch 1:37:58.080 --> 1:38:02.360 rapid responders. When ICE is around, Commuters track ICE vehicles, 1:38:02.400 --> 1:38:06.479 oftentimes following them around, which ICE doesn't like. So my 1:38:06.600 --> 1:38:09.400 question for you two is what kinds of tactics have 1:38:09.479 --> 1:38:12.519 you witnessed agents used to stop this kind of rapid 1:38:12.560 --> 1:38:13.680 response organizing. 1:38:14.520 --> 1:38:17.240 I feel like they have escalated and it always depends 1:38:17.240 --> 1:38:20.599 on the agent, But there's times where they'll just slow 1:38:20.680 --> 1:38:23.639 roll and drive like a normal person. There's times where 1:38:24.120 --> 1:38:27.920 they'll run red lights, they'll break check you, they'll just 1:38:27.960 --> 1:38:29.920 like go in loops around the city to try and 1:38:29.960 --> 1:38:35.200 lose you. And then depending on however they are, they'll 1:38:35.680 --> 1:38:38.880 try and pull you over and intimidate you, or they'll 1:38:38.880 --> 1:38:41.640 try and lead you to like a police station or 1:38:42.320 --> 1:38:45.920 have a share of pull you over. And they've threatened 1:38:45.960 --> 1:38:51.880 people with like stocking charges and stuff like that. And yeah, 1:38:51.920 --> 1:38:55.840 we personally have been We've had agents come up to 1:38:55.880 --> 1:38:57.840 our windows when we were commuting, the two of us, 1:38:57.960 --> 1:39:01.120 we've had we followed its like all the way to 1:39:01.240 --> 1:39:06.880 northeast and a long time, probably like an hour, and 1:39:06.920 --> 1:39:10.120 then eventually downtown they had sheriffs pull up on us 1:39:10.160 --> 1:39:13.559 and pull us over and tell us to stop following. 1:39:15.439 --> 1:39:18.360 And then we have the other thing that I'm sure 1:39:18.880 --> 1:39:20.840 you won't to talk to us about. 1:39:21.960 --> 1:39:25.280 A lot of what we've been seeing is just this recklessness, 1:39:25.320 --> 1:39:29.800 like speainning through red lights and not signaling, just like 1:39:29.840 --> 1:39:32.960 a lot of like traffic violations, and then once you're 1:39:33.479 --> 1:39:36.600 pulled over, just having your windows smashed it and like 1:39:36.720 --> 1:39:41.280 them using all these intimidation tactics but like not necessarily 1:39:41.400 --> 1:39:42.320 detaining people. 1:39:42.800 --> 1:39:46.360 Yeah, and all of these vehicles don't necessarily look like 1:39:46.400 --> 1:39:48.479 a cop car. It's pretty rare for them to like 1:39:48.520 --> 1:39:51.479 actually turn on their lights and sirens. So when they're 1:39:51.479 --> 1:39:56.040 going through intersections as quote unquote law enforcement, it's pretty 1:39:56.120 --> 1:39:58.200 rare for someone to see them. And there are times 1:39:58.240 --> 1:40:00.400 where we almost witness like t bones of that just 1:40:00.520 --> 1:40:02.240 recklessly running a red light. 1:40:02.720 --> 1:40:03.679 Yeah, all the time. 1:40:03.920 --> 1:40:07.800 There's been a good number of car accidents also involving 1:40:08.040 --> 1:40:09.679 their cars. 1:40:09.400 --> 1:40:12.439 Right, Yeah, and like not even caused by communing. 1:40:12.520 --> 1:40:15.400 They've just slipped on ice and ran into poles, and 1:40:15.400 --> 1:40:18.639 then they tear gas observers who were hackling them because 1:40:18.680 --> 1:40:20.560 they don't know how to drive in Minnesota. 1:40:21.280 --> 1:40:22.080 Yeah, exactly. 1:40:23.360 --> 1:40:28.360 Let's turn to January seventh, twenty twenty sixth, the same 1:40:28.479 --> 1:40:31.920 day Renee Good was killed by Ice. You both were 1:40:31.960 --> 1:40:34.240 out commuting. Can you tell me about how that day 1:40:34.280 --> 1:40:35.120 started for you? 1:40:35.840 --> 1:40:41.519 It was me picking up Clem and immediately there was 1:40:42.080 --> 1:40:44.920 like a sus car that like zoomed off and then 1:40:45.280 --> 1:40:48.320 Clem checked the plate and it was Ice that we 1:40:48.360 --> 1:40:53.639 think was just waiting outside of the house to intimidate. Unclear, 1:40:53.800 --> 1:40:58.120 but I mean it certainly felt that way. Had anything 1:40:58.160 --> 1:41:00.879 happened like that to you before Clem with them targeting 1:41:00.920 --> 1:41:02.680 the house, wasn't there something that. 1:41:02.960 --> 1:41:06.000 I think at that point because they've used the tactic 1:41:06.080 --> 1:41:09.559 too of like when an observer is tailing them, they'll 1:41:09.960 --> 1:41:14.120 run your license plate and then drive you back to 1:41:14.360 --> 1:41:16.800 your house that the car is registered to as an 1:41:16.800 --> 1:41:20.200 intimidation tactic, and they'll get out and take pictures of 1:41:20.240 --> 1:41:22.479 the house. But I think at that point, me and 1:41:22.520 --> 1:41:25.720 my roommates that hadn't happened yet. But we had spent 1:41:25.800 --> 1:41:29.280 a lot of time at Whipple, like just observing the 1:41:29.320 --> 1:41:31.160 cars going in now the gates and trying to record 1:41:31.200 --> 1:41:33.920 all that data. And when you're there, there's just like 1:41:34.080 --> 1:41:37.280 intimidation vehicles that will just like drive up right next 1:41:37.280 --> 1:41:40.520 to your driver's side window and film you and take pictures. 1:41:40.560 --> 1:41:43.120 So it was certainly in some sort of database at 1:41:43.120 --> 1:41:48.719 that point. But what's whipple Whipple is the federal building 1:41:48.760 --> 1:41:51.840 that is near Fort Snelling State Park, which is by 1:41:51.880 --> 1:41:55.040 the airport, and that's where ICE has been operating out of, 1:41:55.080 --> 1:41:58.719 and it's the command headquarters for like the entire Upper Midwest. 1:41:58.800 --> 1:42:03.000 So wass gone in Minnesota? The Dakota is I think 1:42:03.040 --> 1:42:03.679 Iowa too? 1:42:04.560 --> 1:42:08.400 Okay, So the day starts off, there's an ICE agent 1:42:08.439 --> 1:42:10.880 outside your house and you get in the car to 1:42:10.920 --> 1:42:15.040 start commuting. Tell me about what happens next. 1:42:15.600 --> 1:42:18.920 The abandoned car, Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:42:18.920 --> 1:42:22.040 The first thing I responded to is near Little Earth, 1:42:22.080 --> 1:42:25.479 which is like a gated community but for like people 1:42:25.520 --> 1:42:29.160 who were like an urban reservation is what it calls itself. 1:42:30.400 --> 1:42:32.840 And there was a call of ICE at a park 1:42:32.920 --> 1:42:36.240 nearby there, and we showed up and there was just 1:42:36.280 --> 1:42:40.559 an abandoned car. And when I went and talked to 1:42:40.640 --> 1:42:42.519 someone on the street you staying next to it, basically 1:42:42.560 --> 1:42:45.519 explained the situation of ICE rolled up on them and 1:42:45.560 --> 1:42:48.360 they ran on foot and left the car, and they 1:42:48.400 --> 1:42:51.679 basically had to push the car out of the road 1:42:51.720 --> 1:42:54.520 and then they ended up locking it because the person's documents. 1:42:54.640 --> 1:42:58.960 So I was staying with the car and calling TOATRA 1:42:59.080 --> 1:43:01.479 companies that have offered free toes for people who have 1:43:01.479 --> 1:43:04.800 gone inducted. And so we were probably there for like, 1:43:05.720 --> 1:43:10.080 I don't know, more than thirty minutes, and I think 1:43:10.160 --> 1:43:12.799 as that was happening is when Renee was shot. 1:43:12.960 --> 1:43:14.360 So neither of us were like. 1:43:14.320 --> 1:43:17.800 On the call or looking at shots or anything, and 1:43:18.160 --> 1:43:20.200 we like went home for a break, and that's when 1:43:20.360 --> 1:43:21.559 we heard the news of that. 1:43:22.560 --> 1:43:25.599 Yeah, because I lived really close by to there, and 1:43:25.680 --> 1:43:29.559 there was a lot of swirling information, so people saying, 1:43:29.920 --> 1:43:33.400 you know, someone was shot, and then at first people 1:43:33.400 --> 1:43:37.160 being like, come down to this area, and then you know, 1:43:37.360 --> 1:43:40.559 very shortly after people being like it's totally cordoned off, 1:43:40.600 --> 1:43:43.479 don't come down. There's also enough observers and we need 1:43:43.520 --> 1:43:47.559 people to be out there doing this still, because like 1:43:47.640 --> 1:43:50.200 we can't invest all of our resources into this. 1:43:50.120 --> 1:43:51.679 One thing that's happening. 1:43:52.080 --> 1:43:56.440 And probably within the hours when we got the message 1:43:56.520 --> 1:43:58.840 that was saying that there were vehicles staged in a 1:43:58.880 --> 1:44:03.479 parking lot the street, So we drove down there and 1:44:03.640 --> 1:44:08.679 there were already observers, people in cars and on foot, 1:44:09.800 --> 1:44:16.120 probably around thirty people, and it was kind of a 1:44:16.160 --> 1:44:24.080 standoff of these vehicles, probably around five fish vehicles and 1:44:24.120 --> 1:44:27.160 then people blowing whistles, honking horns, and so Clem and 1:44:27.160 --> 1:44:29.800 I were there in the car doing that. 1:44:31.000 --> 1:44:35.400 So you see the news that Renee was killed and 1:44:36.400 --> 1:44:39.720 for doing exactly what you were doing, driving around your 1:44:39.760 --> 1:44:43.000 neighborhood to look out for your neighbors, and you get 1:44:43.040 --> 1:44:43.400 back in. 1:44:43.320 --> 1:44:46.360 The car and you keep going. Yeah, that didn't stop us. 1:44:46.479 --> 1:44:51.760 I mean, if anything, it you know, made us feel 1:44:51.800 --> 1:44:54.400 like we need to be out here because they're not stopping. 1:44:54.479 --> 1:44:55.519 We're not going to stop either. 1:44:56.439 --> 1:44:59.960 So you said, you arrive at the next scene, where 1:45:00.000 --> 1:45:02.000 how are you and what is Ice doing there? 1:45:02.800 --> 1:45:06.080 Yeah, it's the Dollar Tree parking lot, which is like 1:45:06.560 --> 1:45:11.840 on Lake Street and the Uptown area. And yeah, there's 1:45:11.880 --> 1:45:16.240 five vehicles presumably staging because what we've been calling out 1:45:16.280 --> 1:45:18.960 when they're just like parked planning what they're going to 1:45:19.040 --> 1:45:22.439 do next. And there weren't any agents out of car. 1:45:22.479 --> 1:45:25.040 It was just a bunch of cars sitting there that 1:45:25.080 --> 1:45:26.040 we knew were Ice. 1:45:26.640 --> 1:45:29.720 And a bunch of observers were responding. 1:45:29.479 --> 1:45:31.559 Yeah, we were just like in the parking lot. They 1:45:31.600 --> 1:45:34.800 could still have driven around us, like there was room 1:45:34.880 --> 1:45:37.040 on either side of our car that they could have 1:45:37.120 --> 1:45:40.760 driven past us. And then in addition to that, they 1:45:40.800 --> 1:45:44.080 could have driven around like there were just several options 1:45:44.080 --> 1:45:47.360 for them to get around us. At that point, I 1:45:47.400 --> 1:45:49.599 think some agents got out and were like move. 1:45:49.479 --> 1:45:52.040 Your vehicle, move your vehicle, and. 1:45:53.200 --> 1:45:57.680 One of the cars this like huge suv ramm to 1:45:57.720 --> 1:46:01.120 the back of my car to get it out. 1:46:00.960 --> 1:46:02.880 Of the way while you were in it. 1:46:03.960 --> 1:46:06.200 What we were in it, Yeah, And I think at 1:46:06.200 --> 1:46:08.639 that point Clem turned to me and was like, they're 1:46:08.680 --> 1:46:10.920 gonna smash out the windows, and I was like yep. 1:46:13.320 --> 1:46:14.559 And so at that point I think we were both 1:46:14.560 --> 1:46:19.040 prepared for for what was going to happen, I guess though. 1:46:19.080 --> 1:46:21.639 Also I mean once they smashed the back of the car, 1:46:21.880 --> 1:46:23.479 I was thinking like, Okay, they got us. 1:46:23.360 --> 1:46:25.000 Out of the way, like that might be it. 1:46:25.920 --> 1:46:28.360 But then so the cars out of the way, but 1:46:28.479 --> 1:46:32.960 they all got out of their vehicles. They first maced 1:46:33.200 --> 1:46:36.000 the windows so it's like they have a die in it. 1:46:36.000 --> 1:46:41.120 It's like a bright orange and they maced the passenger, 1:46:41.240 --> 1:46:45.439 the driver, and the windshields windows, and then they came 1:46:45.479 --> 1:46:48.960 around on they smashed both both of the passenger and 1:46:49.080 --> 1:46:56.840 driver windows and then sprayed bear mace through Clem side 1:46:57.600 --> 1:47:03.000 into both of our faces right before they smashed the windows. 1:47:03.680 --> 1:47:06.920 We grabbed each other's hands and we just held hands 1:47:07.000 --> 1:47:12.479 as it was happening around us. And then I saw 1:47:13.800 --> 1:47:18.720 that bright orange mace coming from the passenger window, so 1:47:18.720 --> 1:47:22.840 they sprayed it directly in Clem's face, and then they 1:47:22.880 --> 1:47:27.160 reached over and sprayed me, and they were able to 1:47:27.200 --> 1:47:32.120 open up the doors with the windows smashed, and they 1:47:32.880 --> 1:47:37.000 dragged us out and he punched me in the jaw, 1:47:38.120 --> 1:47:42.599 like in the lip really while they cuffed me, and 1:47:42.760 --> 1:47:44.440 they used pain compliance. 1:47:44.960 --> 1:47:45.559 It's like a. 1:47:47.280 --> 1:47:48.120 I mean, it's torture. 1:47:48.360 --> 1:47:52.439 So they've pulled my wrist up or my hand up 1:47:52.479 --> 1:47:57.599 against my arm with the cuffs on, and then pulled 1:47:57.640 --> 1:48:01.680 me or like up against the vehicle where I was 1:48:01.680 --> 1:48:06.000 detained separately from the Clem. You can talk about what 1:48:06.040 --> 1:48:07.479 happened to you at the same time. 1:48:08.760 --> 1:48:12.479 Yeah, So I could feel the door open, and then 1:48:12.880 --> 1:48:15.679 they tried to yank me out and under my seat 1:48:15.720 --> 1:48:17.479 belt and I was holding onto the seat belt and 1:48:17.880 --> 1:48:22.040 eventually they got that undone and I was just like 1:48:22.120 --> 1:48:25.320 trying to hold on to you as tired as I 1:48:25.360 --> 1:48:27.960 could until they were able to break that grasp, and 1:48:29.000 --> 1:48:32.360 then two agents pulled me out and slammed me on 1:48:32.400 --> 1:48:36.040 the floor and got on top of me and put 1:48:36.040 --> 1:48:38.160 me in cuffs, and I'm still just have my eyes 1:48:38.160 --> 1:48:43.160 closed so the mace doesn't get in them. And yeah, 1:48:43.200 --> 1:48:46.640 from there, I fell a few times and kept just 1:48:46.680 --> 1:48:50.439 being dead weight, and they kept trying to take me 1:48:50.479 --> 1:48:52.720 to cars, but they didn't know which car they were 1:48:52.720 --> 1:48:55.280 supposed to go to where they would go to a car, 1:48:55.320 --> 1:48:57.320 and they didn't have the keys for it, so I 1:48:57.360 --> 1:49:00.439 would just like kept getting walked in circles, not seeing 1:49:00.479 --> 1:49:02.840 what was going on, and like hearing the confusion of 1:49:02.840 --> 1:49:06.280 all of them, until eventually I got put in the 1:49:06.320 --> 1:49:09.439 back of a car and you got put into a 1:49:09.479 --> 1:49:10.240 separate car. 1:49:11.120 --> 1:49:14.280 And the way there, I mostly just was focused on 1:49:15.360 --> 1:49:19.000 breathing through the pain on the way to Whipple, and 1:49:19.320 --> 1:49:22.160 like what was so disgusting to me? I mean, it 1:49:22.320 --> 1:49:24.840 was so fresh in our minds that Renee had just 1:49:24.880 --> 1:49:29.920 been killed, right, And I'm hearing them singing on the radio. 1:49:30.120 --> 1:49:32.280 There was one agent who is singing like I got 1:49:32.280 --> 1:49:34.360 a pucket, got a packet for the sunshine or something 1:49:34.439 --> 1:49:38.519 like that, and a lot of laughter. I remember the 1:49:38.560 --> 1:49:47.400 phrases fucking Somali's and later one of them complaining about 1:49:47.560 --> 1:49:51.400 all these fucking whistles, and I remember thinking like, oh, fuck, yeah, 1:49:52.320 --> 1:49:58.479 they're working, and wasn't too long before we arrived in 1:49:58.520 --> 1:50:04.960 the garage. It's just giant garage where they process people 1:50:06.080 --> 1:50:12.800 and there are mostly agents vehicles, and people have been detained, 1:50:12.840 --> 1:50:14.800 like a line of people have been detained. 1:50:16.400 --> 1:50:17.320 Yeah. 1:50:17.479 --> 1:50:19.639 I just want to point a couple of things out 1:50:19.680 --> 1:50:22.080 in what you both have said. That's a little bit 1:50:22.160 --> 1:50:26.240 different than we normally see in protests related legal repression, 1:50:26.320 --> 1:50:31.560 which is one detention of people who are citizen protesters 1:50:31.760 --> 1:50:35.479 or just people arrested for protest activity by ICE, by 1:50:35.479 --> 1:50:39.200 immigration enforcement, or by federal agents in general. That's usually 1:50:39.240 --> 1:50:43.280 something that is done by state or local law enforcement 1:50:43.320 --> 1:50:46.200 cops or sheriffs, and people are taken to the local 1:50:46.240 --> 1:50:49.479 jail for processing. But here what's happening is you're being 1:50:49.520 --> 1:50:52.800 taken to Whipple, which is the ICE detention center where 1:50:52.840 --> 1:50:56.360 all non citizens detained by ICE for immigration reasons are 1:50:56.400 --> 1:50:59.800 also taken and processed. But you're also being brought there, 1:50:59.840 --> 1:51:03.760 so you're getting a window into ICE operations and you're 1:51:03.800 --> 1:51:06.920 taken into a place that people also normally don't have 1:51:07.120 --> 1:51:11.439 access to. It's a pretty high security building that they 1:51:11.479 --> 1:51:14.640 don't like people from the outside inside. 1:51:15.439 --> 1:51:17.760 But there you are in the garage. 1:51:17.840 --> 1:51:19.160 Right, Yeah. 1:51:19.200 --> 1:51:22.360 So we're on our knees, and at one point I 1:51:22.439 --> 1:51:27.479 commented on how young the people looked that were holding clem, 1:51:27.520 --> 1:51:31.240 and they pulled us apart and they brought me to 1:51:31.280 --> 1:51:35.599 the opposite side of the garage and they're still using 1:51:35.640 --> 1:51:38.960 the pain compliance They're filming me. 1:51:39.040 --> 1:51:39.799 The whole time. 1:51:39.920 --> 1:51:41.840 There was just a bunch of agents that were filming me, 1:51:41.920 --> 1:51:45.360 and like three guys that were like on me, and 1:51:47.160 --> 1:51:49.799 I said to them, I said, make it hurt, daddy, 1:51:50.680 --> 1:51:53.160 and I was being mouthy, and just this one guy 1:51:53.160 --> 1:51:55.120 in particularly seems really freaked out by that, and they 1:51:55.960 --> 1:51:59.040 he pushed me to the ground with my face to 1:51:59.080 --> 1:52:02.280 the floor, and he said, you like the dirt, queer. 1:52:03.080 --> 1:52:08.479 And my reaction for a lot of the time that 1:52:08.560 --> 1:52:11.120 this is happening is I just was laughing and laughing, 1:52:12.080 --> 1:52:14.479 and I said, yeah, I fucking love the dirt, like 1:52:14.520 --> 1:52:18.200 I love the dirt more than anything. And I don't 1:52:18.200 --> 1:52:21.519 know how long I was like that, but they kept 1:52:21.560 --> 1:52:24.960 me on the ground and then eventually brought us in 1:52:25.080 --> 1:52:26.240 to bring us to the cells. 1:52:27.040 --> 1:52:30.880 We walked past like this central command hub with all 1:52:30.920 --> 1:52:34.800 of these people who are working in this so called 1:52:34.840 --> 1:52:39.439 metro Surge operation, and then on the left were cells 1:52:39.479 --> 1:52:42.719 of people who had been detained. I think we passed 1:52:43.520 --> 1:52:46.080 at least five cells from what we could see, and 1:52:46.120 --> 1:52:48.360 they were filled just like wall to wall of black 1:52:48.400 --> 1:52:52.400 and brown people that yeah, I had like one toilet 1:52:52.439 --> 1:52:54.800 in there, so probably at least like two or three 1:52:54.880 --> 1:52:55.840 hundred people in there. 1:52:56.840 --> 1:53:02.880 The desolation sticks with me and they led me to 1:53:02.920 --> 1:53:06.680 a separate cell. Then Clem and this other person that 1:53:06.720 --> 1:53:09.799 we were detained with, and these were seemingly like the 1:53:09.840 --> 1:53:13.479 remaining cells that were available in the in the whole area, 1:53:13.680 --> 1:53:16.439 because I mean it was just full of like they 1:53:16.479 --> 1:53:18.679 were like completely a capacity with a number of people 1:53:18.720 --> 1:53:31.800 they've abducted. Clem and I are were in there for 1:53:31.920 --> 1:53:36.880 hours with mace in our eyes and like. 1:53:36.880 --> 1:53:37.880 No relief from that. 1:53:39.080 --> 1:53:42.000 And I remember just laying on the ground and an 1:53:42.080 --> 1:53:45.680 agent coming in pretty soon after being an asshole, and 1:53:45.720 --> 1:53:49.720 he was like, we've got gourmet potato and chicken and 1:53:49.760 --> 1:53:53.280 Brussels sprouts or something, and he hands me this like 1:53:54.200 --> 1:54:00.599 little plastic container with like this just this white haste 1:54:00.680 --> 1:54:02.840 or like just new you know, just. 1:54:02.720 --> 1:54:07.560 Like a microwave meal of goop, just disgusting goop. 1:54:08.040 --> 1:54:12.320 But we were in there for a while before being 1:54:12.360 --> 1:54:16.800 taken back, and I think they took me back first, 1:54:17.320 --> 1:54:21.080 and I refused to say anything without a lawyer obviously. 1:54:21.880 --> 1:54:26.360 They hand me a piece of paper and after reading 1:54:26.400 --> 1:54:29.599 me or my rights, and they said, actually, we need 1:54:29.640 --> 1:54:32.520 you to read these back to us to confirm that 1:54:32.680 --> 1:54:35.640 you speak English and understand English. 1:54:35.680 --> 1:54:37.040 And I was like, weird, but okay. 1:54:37.560 --> 1:54:39.920 So I start to read it and it's all pretty normal, 1:54:40.000 --> 1:54:43.680 and then I get to a paragraph that says something 1:54:43.720 --> 1:54:47.720 to the effect of like, knowing these rights, I wave 1:54:47.800 --> 1:54:52.240 my rights. So I was being tricked into waving my rights, 1:54:52.320 --> 1:54:54.840 which I thought I was going crazy. I did not 1:54:55.000 --> 1:54:57.800 understand at the time, and I stopped halfway through the 1:54:57.840 --> 1:55:02.080 sentence and I read it over and over, trying to 1:55:02.080 --> 1:55:04.840 make sense of it. And I said to them, I 1:55:04.880 --> 1:55:06.720 was like, I don't understand what I'm being asked to read. 1:55:06.800 --> 1:55:08.880 I'm not going to keep reading this and they were like, 1:55:08.920 --> 1:55:11.280 that's okay, we have what we need and they took 1:55:11.320 --> 1:55:15.200 it back and then I got a phone call Clempton up. 1:55:15.960 --> 1:55:18.400 We got taken into the interrogation room and it was 1:55:19.120 --> 1:55:23.560 like too homeland security, I don't know, like detective or whatever. 1:55:23.760 --> 1:55:27.280 But they like opened it with saying like I know 1:55:27.360 --> 1:55:29.640 this is all like can be a lot right now, 1:55:29.680 --> 1:55:31.280 so feel free to just like let it loose in 1:55:31.320 --> 1:55:32.280 this room. 1:55:32.560 --> 1:55:34.360 And I just like kind of looked at them, like 1:55:34.360 --> 1:55:35.520 what are you talking about? 1:55:36.480 --> 1:55:39.720 Like it's it was jarring to go from dealing with 1:55:39.920 --> 1:55:44.320 a month of seeing only these people in masks and 1:55:45.720 --> 1:55:50.320 just like as this like horrible monstrosity of like a fascist, 1:55:50.600 --> 1:55:53.280 and then being inside of there and like seeing that 1:55:53.320 --> 1:55:55.680 command setter of all those people working on the computers 1:55:55.760 --> 1:55:59.520 like making this whole thing work, and then all these 1:55:59.520 --> 1:56:02.440 detectives who like think they're detached from it and think 1:56:02.520 --> 1:56:04.280 that they're not a part of what's going down on 1:56:04.320 --> 1:56:07.600 the streets right now just because they're working inside the building. 1:56:08.280 --> 1:56:11.320 And yeah, so the same thing happened. They try to 1:56:11.320 --> 1:56:15.840 ask me questions and I said I wouldn't say anything 1:56:15.840 --> 1:56:18.280 without a lawyer president, and I asked for a phone call, 1:56:18.480 --> 1:56:22.120 and they did the same thing with the rights where 1:56:22.120 --> 1:56:24.240 they were going to read them to me, and then 1:56:24.640 --> 1:56:26.680 what the other detectives said, actually, we don't need to 1:56:26.680 --> 1:56:29.320 do that, and so one of them just left for 1:56:29.400 --> 1:56:31.280 a bit, and so I was just like left in 1:56:31.320 --> 1:56:36.080 the room with the like assistant detective and he just 1:56:36.080 --> 1:56:38.720 like asked me some how's your day going question? And 1:56:38.720 --> 1:56:40.520 I just kind of dead stare at him for like 1:56:40.560 --> 1:56:44.680 twenty minutes, which felt pretty good because he was very 1:56:44.720 --> 1:56:49.400 uncomfortable and kept just like avoiding eye contact. And I 1:56:49.400 --> 1:56:51.640 don't know, it's the small amount of power you can 1:56:51.680 --> 1:56:56.920 have when you're in a cage. And I got taken 1:56:56.960 --> 1:57:00.280 back to my room and tried the intercom and stuff 1:57:00.280 --> 1:57:03.600 i could get a phone call, and they said I'll 1:57:03.600 --> 1:57:06.640 get a phone call after booking. So I was pretty 1:57:06.680 --> 1:57:11.600 worried about what was going to happen. Actually they said 1:57:11.680 --> 1:57:14.960 they had lawyer president and yeah, these two real cool 1:57:15.040 --> 1:57:17.880 lores were there that we know and are friends with, 1:57:18.240 --> 1:57:22.920 and they explained that we'd be out pretty shortly. 1:57:23.960 --> 1:57:28.720 And yeah, and then we were able to get out 1:57:29.000 --> 1:57:36.400 and go home. But I feel really haunted by the 1:57:36.480 --> 1:57:39.879 fact that we were in there for maybe a handful 1:57:39.960 --> 1:57:42.160 of hours, and of course there are all these people 1:57:42.200 --> 1:57:44.880 that are stuck there that aren't going to be able 1:57:44.920 --> 1:57:48.680 to go home. The way we did, and then I 1:57:48.720 --> 1:57:54.280 took the most painful shower of my life because the 1:57:54.320 --> 1:57:59.000 water just I did the cold water thing, and my 1:57:59.080 --> 1:58:01.480 lawyer friend had and me about it was like, you know, 1:58:02.160 --> 1:58:04.160 try not to get it in your bits, but I 1:58:04.240 --> 1:58:08.960 totally did and it was excruciating. 1:58:10.800 --> 1:58:13.240 One of the things we talk about on the show 1:58:13.400 --> 1:58:17.480 is how to counteract the chilling effects of oppression and 1:58:18.120 --> 1:58:21.400 just the trauma of a day like this that having 1:58:21.560 --> 1:58:26.840 violent interactions with law enforcement can cause. And I really 1:58:26.920 --> 1:58:32.640 appreciate you both sharing and going back into this experience 1:58:32.640 --> 1:58:35.800 that happened now almost exactly a month ago from when 1:58:35.880 --> 1:58:41.960 we're recording today. I'm curious if you have thoughts on 1:58:42.000 --> 1:58:47.400 what you've learned and moving through this experience, lessons you've 1:58:47.480 --> 1:58:50.920 learned that you'd want others to know about about how 1:58:51.000 --> 1:58:54.760 to move through something like this and keep getting out 1:58:54.800 --> 1:58:55.960 there as I know you both have. 1:58:57.080 --> 1:59:00.160 I don't really know how to move through it, but 1:59:00.200 --> 1:59:02.400 it's yeah, I feel like it still lives in my body, 1:59:02.600 --> 1:59:07.480 and that fear has definitely changed me. But it's been 1:59:07.600 --> 1:59:11.640 nice to have friends and community, and there's been a 1:59:11.640 --> 1:59:16.600 lot of like free sort of like bodywork, and I 1:59:16.640 --> 1:59:20.760 tried acupuncture for the first time, which was really nice. 1:59:21.080 --> 1:59:24.280 Yeah, just having people that have your back. 1:59:24.120 --> 1:59:28.240 And knowing that, like, you're not alone in this, Like 1:59:29.400 --> 1:59:32.640 since we've been arrested, there's been hundreds of people in 1:59:32.680 --> 1:59:36.000 the same exact boat as us, And yeah, it feels 1:59:36.040 --> 1:59:38.240 good to know we're not an outlier. 1:59:37.800 --> 1:59:43.640 Here unapologetically, unapologetically. 1:59:42.800 --> 1:59:48.360 Myself, like most anti ICE protesters arrested here during the surge. 1:59:48.560 --> 1:59:52.080 Clem and Ray were released pending charges, but the legal 1:59:52.160 --> 1:59:56.040 landscape is rapidly shifting. At least thirty out of the 1:59:56.160 --> 1:59:59.640 thirty five federal cases from the past two months, we're 1:59:59.720 --> 2:00:03.400 charged retroactively in the past few weeks. To give you 2:00:03.440 --> 2:00:06.280 a sense of how these cases might unfold and what 2:00:06.320 --> 2:00:09.200 it's like to face these charges. You'll hear from two 2:00:09.320 --> 2:00:14.640 Minneapolis based anti ICE protesters facing criminal charges for responding 2:00:14.680 --> 2:00:18.440 to a raid at Takaia las Cuatros Muthbus that took 2:00:18.480 --> 2:00:23.160 place back on June third, twenty five. Isabel Lopez faces 2:00:23.200 --> 2:00:26.960 federal charges and Lucy faces state charges from that day. 2:00:27.640 --> 2:00:31.520 Their June cases are still open today, and Lucy also 2:00:31.560 --> 2:00:34.840 caught federal charges after responding to an ICE raid that 2:00:34.920 --> 2:00:37.640 took place during Operation Metro surch. 2:00:38.160 --> 2:00:41.520 We shouldn't be so concerned with everything. 2:00:41.960 --> 2:00:43.440 Welcome, Isabel and Lucy. 2:00:43.760 --> 2:00:46.680 We're going to talk today about legal oppression you both 2:00:46.720 --> 2:00:51.360 are experiencing for protesting ice in Minneapolis. But before we 2:00:51.680 --> 2:00:55.560 even start that conversation, can you both introduce yourselves, your 2:00:55.600 --> 2:00:58.320 connection to the Twin Cities and share a little bit 2:00:58.360 --> 2:01:02.240 about who you are side of the topic of today's conversation. 2:01:02.800 --> 2:01:04.080 Isabella can start with you. 2:01:04.640 --> 2:01:08.440 Je. Hi'm my name is Celle La. 2:01:08.960 --> 2:01:14.640 I'm a community I don't know, organizer, helper, and I'm 2:01:14.680 --> 2:01:19.240 also spoken word poet. I've been writing and doing performances 2:01:19.280 --> 2:01:21.960 here in the Twin Cities for like since like twenty twenty, 2:01:22.080 --> 2:01:25.040 but the old George Ford thing. Yeah, and I've also 2:01:25.280 --> 2:01:28.760 done other organizing when it comes to the climate justice 2:01:28.760 --> 2:01:30.240 movement and also indigenous rights. 2:01:30.560 --> 2:01:33.400 I have supple Tech Benzara Asis and like that's just 2:01:33.520 --> 2:01:34.120 important for me. 2:01:34.200 --> 2:01:35.160 So yeah. 2:01:35.320 --> 2:01:38.800 But I was born in Chicago, race here in the 2:01:38.800 --> 2:01:39.480 Twin Cities. 2:01:40.280 --> 2:01:44.520 Hi, Lucy, I've been in Minneapolis since I don't know, 2:01:45.360 --> 2:01:51.280 the early twenty tens, but I lived in Minnesota forever. 2:01:51.880 --> 2:01:55.160 I mean, I've been in and out, but I feed people. 2:01:56.040 --> 2:02:00.960 I'm allowed bitch, I'll make noises, I make songs, make 2:02:01.000 --> 2:02:01.600 good trouble. 2:02:02.640 --> 2:02:05.720 Okay, So you were both arrested and charged after a 2:02:05.800 --> 2:02:09.000 multi agency raid that took place back on June third, 2:02:09.040 --> 2:02:12.800 twenty twenty five at Las Quatro Milpas, a Mexican tacorea 2:02:12.960 --> 2:02:16.760 in South Minneapolis. Officials still say that it was not 2:02:16.840 --> 2:02:19.600 an ICE raid and that they were executing a warrant 2:02:19.680 --> 2:02:23.760 for drug trafficking, but ICE agents were confirmed on site 2:02:23.840 --> 2:02:28.000 alongside ten other federal agencies and local cops, and the 2:02:28.040 --> 2:02:31.080 owner of the tacorea ended up in ICED attention. The 2:02:31.200 --> 2:02:35.680 raid and response went pretty viral. The operation was heavily militarized, 2:02:35.960 --> 2:02:39.680 and hundreds of neighbors turned out in protest. Lisa, you 2:02:39.720 --> 2:02:43.640 were charged with three counts of obstructing, impeding, or assaulting 2:02:43.680 --> 2:02:47.280 a federal officer and a fourth count of impeding a 2:02:47.320 --> 2:02:52.000 federal investigation. And Lucy you're facing state level charges from 2:02:52.000 --> 2:02:56.240 that day and federal assault charges. I'd love to hear 2:02:56.480 --> 2:02:59.839 from you both a little bit about your experiences getting arrested, 2:03:00.160 --> 2:03:03.200 catching charges. What do you want people to know about 2:03:03.240 --> 2:03:04.480 what that experience was like. 2:03:05.160 --> 2:03:09.680 Yeah, so I wasn't arrested until like three or four 2:03:09.720 --> 2:03:12.040 days later, because it happened on June third, and then 2:03:12.040 --> 2:03:13.240 I was rested on June ninth. 2:03:13.600 --> 2:03:18.040 It felt very planned and just like a Poppet show. 2:03:18.960 --> 2:03:19.560 I remember. 2:03:19.800 --> 2:03:22.800 I think it was the day after two senators from 2:03:22.840 --> 2:03:26.920 the House here in Minnesota were shot. And Georgia Ford, 2:03:26.960 --> 2:03:29.160 you know, was a really close community friend of mine. 2:03:29.200 --> 2:03:33.200 We're both from the East Side, and she called me 2:03:33.280 --> 2:03:36.880 to do an interview. I was kind of unsure about it, but. 2:03:37.040 --> 2:03:38.720 She just assured me that she just wanted to hear 2:03:38.720 --> 2:03:39.200 my story. 2:03:39.640 --> 2:03:42.160 And yeah, I didn't really think much of it, and 2:03:42.200 --> 2:03:43.800 so then I went I did the interview. 2:03:44.120 --> 2:03:46.400 I was still very shaken up about what happened that day. 2:03:47.200 --> 2:03:50.200 By around like four, I think or Thic three. 2:03:50.080 --> 2:03:52.560 I was coming out, and by that time in downtown 2:03:52.600 --> 2:03:55.040 there's a lot of things going on in Saint Paul. 2:03:55.440 --> 2:03:57.120 It's kind of a dead city by that time. 2:03:57.720 --> 2:04:00.200 And so as I was coming out, that's when and 2:04:01.000 --> 2:04:05.320 for officers came from behind me and arrested me and 2:04:05.400 --> 2:04:07.520 pushed me to the ground, and my shoulder hit the 2:04:08.800 --> 2:04:15.200 concrete and I started bleeding, and they took me in 2:04:15.240 --> 2:04:18.640 a black STUV and they waited there for a second, 2:04:19.080 --> 2:04:21.840 and you know, just when Georgia came out and saw 2:04:21.880 --> 2:04:25.000 everything that was happening and started recording, and you know, 2:04:25.400 --> 2:04:29.160 from there, let the community knew about what happened. And 2:04:29.280 --> 2:04:32.320 so after that, that's when I kind of started realizing 2:04:33.000 --> 2:04:37.120 what this administration is trying to do. And it felt 2:04:37.240 --> 2:04:43.960 very orchestrated. It felt very calculated. Even after, especially after 2:04:44.240 --> 2:04:48.200 there's a lot of news about my arrest and adding. 2:04:47.960 --> 2:04:51.640 My face to this whole drug rade and my case 2:04:51.680 --> 2:04:51.960 to it. 2:04:52.640 --> 2:04:55.560 So yeah, I know other people were arrested, but my 2:04:55.720 --> 2:04:59.880 arrest felt very like intentional and calculated and kind of 2:05:00.760 --> 2:05:03.120 this is an abuse of power, and this isn't okay, 2:05:03.280 --> 2:05:04.800 Like I don't care who you are, I don't care 2:05:04.840 --> 2:05:08.040 how you see things, Like I'm like barely not even 2:05:08.080 --> 2:05:11.240 five to three, five to two, and you know, these 2:05:11.280 --> 2:05:14.960 men that were huge felt the need to tackle me. 2:05:15.520 --> 2:05:18.240 This is all allegedly right, But at the same time, 2:05:18.520 --> 2:05:21.360 I think that I want people to understand that they 2:05:21.360 --> 2:05:23.680 can make their own calls and own judgment, and how 2:05:23.760 --> 2:05:26.640 like this justice system isn't that. 2:05:26.560 --> 2:05:27.280 Right now at all. 2:05:27.400 --> 2:05:28.160 It's repression. 2:05:28.720 --> 2:05:32.160 Am I also remembering correctly that I maybe had seen 2:05:32.400 --> 2:05:35.480 you post a video on Instagram about that raid because 2:05:35.520 --> 2:05:37.760 I feel like, in my impression, had also felt like 2:05:37.800 --> 2:05:43.600 maybe retaliation for you speaking out. Yeah, definitely, your case 2:05:43.640 --> 2:05:47.200 feels important for people to know about. Especially in the 2:05:47.240 --> 2:05:51.840 past two weeks here in Minneapolis, twenty eight people have 2:05:51.960 --> 2:05:55.080 been charged with assault on a federal officer and are 2:05:55.120 --> 2:05:58.480 facing federal charges. Now there was a handful before that, 2:05:58.600 --> 2:06:01.600 but we've just seen it massive spike of people who 2:06:01.600 --> 2:06:04.640 were charged after being released pending charges. 2:06:05.280 --> 2:06:08.600 So your case does feel like this test case. 2:06:08.360 --> 2:06:10.400 That's being looked to is how are they going to 2:06:10.480 --> 2:06:13.040 handle this and what's going to happen. So I appreciate 2:06:13.080 --> 2:06:25.360 you talking about it. I would love to turn to you, 2:06:25.440 --> 2:06:28.760 Lucy and hear a little bit about what you're facing 2:06:28.800 --> 2:06:30.040 and what your experience has been. 2:06:30.160 --> 2:06:33.360 Like I think they charged me with assault and then 2:06:33.400 --> 2:06:37.080 they downgraded it to like less degree assault because it 2:06:37.120 --> 2:06:40.520 was ridiculous. Well yeah, I like they had like six 2:06:40.600 --> 2:06:43.720 cops tackle me, and my shoulder's never been the same. 2:06:44.440 --> 2:06:47.920 But that was that was in June, and then in 2:06:48.040 --> 2:06:52.480 another instance, I also have charges for assaulting a federal officer. 2:06:53.040 --> 2:06:55.640 Seems like they just charge everyone, you know, and like 2:06:56.040 --> 2:06:59.600 all of these legal observers are also getting docked by 2:06:59.640 --> 2:07:02.760 the age. They're trying to raise the stakes of resisting 2:07:02.760 --> 2:07:05.840 the administration as much as possible because it is a 2:07:05.880 --> 2:07:10.760 popular movement. It's like generally popular to hate ice, but 2:07:10.840 --> 2:07:15.760 they're trying to make it as expensive and as irrevocably 2:07:15.840 --> 2:07:20.640 life destroying for US citizens as it is for people 2:07:20.720 --> 2:07:22.280 who aren't US citizens. 2:07:22.960 --> 2:07:25.560 I think it's super important to highlight the ways in 2:07:25.600 --> 2:07:30.440 which these targeted political prosecutions are being used to raise 2:07:30.480 --> 2:07:35.360 the stakes of showing up to defend your community from abduction, 2:07:35.640 --> 2:07:41.000 from death, from surveillance and intimidation and fascist violence. 2:07:42.080 --> 2:07:44.160 Do you know who else was arrested that day? 2:07:44.440 --> 2:07:47.080 There was two people arrested on June third. 2:07:47.440 --> 2:07:50.080 They were both arrested in the same interaction with a 2:07:50.080 --> 2:07:53.280 police officer. A young woman was standing in front of 2:07:53.320 --> 2:07:58.360 a police vehicle and an officer approached her like super rapidly, 2:07:59.000 --> 2:08:03.320 and then someone approached that officer, and from the video, 2:08:03.760 --> 2:08:07.800 it seems like that person ripped off a thin blue 2:08:07.840 --> 2:08:11.720 line lapel velcro from the officer, and then that officer 2:08:11.760 --> 2:08:15.120 proceeded to assault that person, and then that person was 2:08:15.160 --> 2:08:18.600 accused of assault, and then my federal charges. The government 2:08:18.640 --> 2:08:21.640 has motioned to dismiss them, but we are motioning to 2:08:21.680 --> 2:08:26.520 dismiss them with prejudice. And during that interaction, I can't 2:08:26.520 --> 2:08:29.879 really speak to what happened between me and federal officers, 2:08:30.600 --> 2:08:36.400 but a pregnant woman was assaulted by federal officers. People 2:08:36.400 --> 2:08:41.480 were tased, people were hit with batons, and that woman 2:08:41.640 --> 2:08:44.360 had like a ICE agent on top of her for 2:08:44.520 --> 2:08:47.680 like I don't know a half hour. People said that 2:08:47.760 --> 2:08:51.000 she miscarried, she was pregnant. Everyone was saying she was pregnant. 2:08:52.360 --> 2:08:54.920 She was dragged by one arm between the legs of 2:08:54.960 --> 2:08:58.520 the ICE officer. They said that she spray painted a 2:08:58.560 --> 2:09:02.040 car and that was the reason for the arrest. They 2:09:02.080 --> 2:09:04.120 also said that there was no proof of that either. 2:09:05.320 --> 2:09:09.600 And that incident, which was one of the first immigration 2:09:10.520 --> 2:09:13.520 operations in the surge or one of the earlier ones 2:09:13.560 --> 2:09:16.520 that went pretty viral. There was a lot of coverage. 2:09:16.520 --> 2:09:19.040 It was a huge raid, big community turn out. It 2:09:19.120 --> 2:09:22.240 was also like ICE was on the wrong block and 2:09:22.280 --> 2:09:24.680 they were in a Somali neighborhood and people were mad 2:09:24.880 --> 2:09:28.080 and people were showing up and not letting them get 2:09:28.080 --> 2:09:30.240 away with it. Also, I think there was a lot 2:09:30.240 --> 2:09:33.600 of response. My understanding was to ICE having their knee 2:09:33.640 --> 2:09:37.080 on this pregnant person's back for such a long period 2:09:37.160 --> 2:09:41.080 of time from what I've seen in the complaint for 2:09:41.200 --> 2:09:44.120 that day for your case, which is a public record, 2:09:44.120 --> 2:09:47.800 and I not asking you to speak to whether or 2:09:47.800 --> 2:09:50.440 not it's true or anything about it, but part of 2:09:50.480 --> 2:09:54.000 what you're being charged with is I believe de arresting 2:09:54.760 --> 2:09:58.520 that person, the pregnant person, while they were dragging her, 2:09:58.640 --> 2:10:02.800 and as result you got assault on the federal officer charges. 2:10:03.520 --> 2:10:07.160 So just some context for people listening for the case 2:10:07.280 --> 2:10:10.440 as we're following it. Those are the public allegations that 2:10:10.520 --> 2:10:13.320 the government has made. But it was one of the 2:10:13.400 --> 2:10:17.520 earliest federal cases during the surge and one of the 2:10:17.560 --> 2:10:22.480 earlier assault cases of this kind. So interesting to hear 2:10:22.560 --> 2:10:25.160 that it looks like it's headed for a dismissal and 2:10:26.000 --> 2:10:29.440 exciting for you, but that is the case, Isabelle. There's 2:10:29.480 --> 2:10:33.640 been community mobilization to support you starting back in June. 2:10:34.480 --> 2:10:37.480 Could you speak to what's been effective about that and 2:10:37.720 --> 2:10:43.280 what you've learned fighting these charges related to this political prosecution. 2:10:43.640 --> 2:10:45.760 I mean, the grand scheme of things. 2:10:46.400 --> 2:10:50.400 I think that there's just been so much repression when 2:10:50.400 --> 2:10:53.600 it comes to just you know, the Brown community. We've 2:10:53.600 --> 2:10:56.880 lost mcgous and Dad, which is a really dope place 2:10:57.080 --> 2:11:02.280 on Lake Street, right across the street from Happened from Less. 2:11:03.000 --> 2:11:04.840 You know, it's like raising fun so they don't close, 2:11:05.640 --> 2:11:07.520 and you know, I think I think that starts reviewing 2:11:07.560 --> 2:11:10.400 really stuff for Latino businesses around businesses. They've lost like 2:11:10.440 --> 2:11:14.920 forty six million dollars this past month. So what I'm 2:11:14.920 --> 2:11:17.080 trying to say with that is that my community is 2:11:17.280 --> 2:11:21.920 very much on the scarcity, you know, like it's almost like. 2:11:21.880 --> 2:11:26.040 We're being dragged to the point. And so when my community. 2:11:25.640 --> 2:11:27.440 Showed up for me that day, like it just showed 2:11:27.560 --> 2:11:30.240 for me like how resilient we are and how much 2:11:30.360 --> 2:11:33.680 like it's scary, but we can't keep having other people 2:11:33.680 --> 2:11:37.680 in our communities disappear, you know, people that we can't afford. 2:11:38.480 --> 2:11:42.080 And for my case, because I'm a US citizen, I 2:11:42.160 --> 2:11:47.200 feel very like responsible and very like wanting to like 2:11:47.480 --> 2:11:50.040 being present in community because I think that's really what 2:11:50.080 --> 2:11:54.400 I can do. I can't really like do a lot 2:11:54.600 --> 2:11:56.720 because of the fear that like if I come into 2:11:56.720 --> 2:11:58.920 certain spaces, am I being launched? 2:11:59.280 --> 2:12:00.840 You know, And they've have shown. 2:12:00.720 --> 2:12:03.600 Like hinting having an eye on me basically throughout this 2:12:04.520 --> 2:12:07.520 but like you know, being present with community and being 2:12:07.560 --> 2:12:11.400 there when you know we're organizing, and knowing you know, 2:12:11.440 --> 2:12:14.320 your rights and things like that. I think has helped 2:12:14.560 --> 2:12:16.760 a lot of people in my community to one be 2:12:16.760 --> 2:12:19.360 a lot more careful, but to know that like what 2:12:19.440 --> 2:12:23.280 we're going up against and how it's a way of 2:12:23.320 --> 2:12:26.520 survival to keep going and like you know, to have 2:12:26.800 --> 2:12:29.800 our right speed to at least grow during these times. 2:12:30.680 --> 2:12:33.680 And we've had like observer trainings, We've had a lot 2:12:33.680 --> 2:12:35.720 of low key, smaller trainings. 2:12:36.240 --> 2:12:38.720 We're not like trying to tell too many people about. 2:12:38.440 --> 2:12:42.680 It for the same reason, and for my case in particular, 2:12:42.840 --> 2:12:46.400 it's been really hard just because like a lot of 2:12:46.400 --> 2:12:50.160 people are scared, and a lot of people are very 2:12:50.200 --> 2:12:54.000 intimidating to speak out and you know, advocate for what's 2:12:54.040 --> 2:12:56.840 been going on in my case, because you know, they 2:12:56.880 --> 2:13:00.320 want us to keep having this scarcity mentality and you know, 2:13:00.400 --> 2:13:02.920 being afraid of like what's to happen, what's to come. 2:13:03.280 --> 2:13:05.760 So for me, it's just been really important for me 2:13:05.800 --> 2:13:08.120 to be with community, to be with people, and like 2:13:08.280 --> 2:13:11.120 to share my story in the small ways that I can. 2:13:11.760 --> 2:13:13.920 And you know, we've been doing phone baking campaigns and 2:13:13.960 --> 2:13:16.480 also just writing in letters. They have a radar on 2:13:16.600 --> 2:13:20.280 me for sure and know like or where I'm at, 2:13:20.320 --> 2:13:22.400 where I stand. But I also know that I have 2:13:22.600 --> 2:13:25.480 a really big community behind me, and I know it's 2:13:25.520 --> 2:13:27.760 not just about me. It's about the fact that it's 2:13:27.760 --> 2:13:31.680 bigger about what could happen to somebody else in our community. 2:13:32.840 --> 2:13:35.920 And it's been hard, but I think it's it's you know, 2:13:35.960 --> 2:13:38.080 it's important for us to know that, like, you know, 2:13:38.480 --> 2:13:41.520 we can keep pushing and like be together in community 2:13:41.960 --> 2:13:45.920 despite all this, and so, yeah, it has been kind 2:13:45.960 --> 2:13:49.240 of hard, especially with the searge. It got even more messy, 2:13:49.400 --> 2:13:51.720 you know, just with a lot of people trying their 2:13:51.760 --> 2:13:54.120 buzz to keep their head above the water and helping 2:13:54.280 --> 2:13:56.720 the families that they can, because a lot of families 2:13:56.720 --> 2:13:58.080 haven't been able to leave their house. 2:13:59.120 --> 2:14:02.280 When you say we've and hosting trainings, are you referring 2:14:02.400 --> 2:14:05.960 to your support committee. You've been doing like events that 2:14:06.000 --> 2:14:10.040 are joint raising awareness about your case and also helping 2:14:10.040 --> 2:14:11.120 community get trained up. 2:14:11.160 --> 2:14:11.800 Is that what you mean? 2:14:12.000 --> 2:14:12.120 Oh? 2:14:12.200 --> 2:14:14.120 Yeah, I think I mean it's one and the same. 2:14:14.160 --> 2:14:16.240 I feel like the people that I'm working with, they 2:14:17.000 --> 2:14:20.640 work and do a lot of grassroot things in the 2:14:20.680 --> 2:14:24.240 community and so I know, me just showing up to 2:14:24.320 --> 2:14:26.440 those trainings and just talking about my case like that, 2:14:26.440 --> 2:14:28.680 that helps a lot. So it's like that, and we've 2:14:28.720 --> 2:14:30.160 done a couple events here and there where we talk 2:14:30.200 --> 2:14:32.800 about immigration. We did one in June or no in July, 2:14:32.840 --> 2:14:33.480 i think. 2:14:34.040 --> 2:14:35.959 And like we still have said to do. 2:14:35.920 --> 2:14:38.600 More things with community to just know that, like you know, 2:14:38.680 --> 2:14:40.360 we're all we're all here in it. 2:14:41.200 --> 2:14:42.440 But it has been very interverackering. 2:14:42.480 --> 2:14:44.480 It's been really hard just because like I don't I 2:14:44.520 --> 2:14:46.560 don't know who's watching, I don't know who's in the room, 2:14:46.920 --> 2:14:48.080 I don't know who I can trust. 2:14:48.920 --> 2:14:51.120 But I know I'm not alone. So that's that's the 2:14:51.160 --> 2:14:51.960 best part about it. 2:14:52.000 --> 2:14:56.920 So, yeah, there's so much intentional isolation of people facing charges. 2:14:56.960 --> 2:15:01.360 That's so much of how repression works is to isolate people, 2:15:01.440 --> 2:15:03.280 make them scared to go be in community and do 2:15:03.360 --> 2:15:06.720 important work. So thanks for continuing to show up. It's 2:15:06.760 --> 2:15:09.800 cool to hear you speak to both like navigating the 2:15:09.840 --> 2:15:15.400 fear and continuing to show up where you can. Yeah, 2:15:15.760 --> 2:15:19.560 I'd love to hear you both speak a little bit more. 2:15:19.920 --> 2:15:22.680 I know you just spoke about this a little bit, Isabelle, 2:15:22.720 --> 2:15:26.680 But what it's been like navigating these cases amidst the 2:15:26.720 --> 2:15:30.520 past couple months of the surge here in the Twin Cities, 2:15:31.080 --> 2:15:35.120 it's a pretty unique moment to also have these pretty 2:15:35.200 --> 2:15:38.520 high stakes cases going on, Lucy, if you want to start, 2:15:38.840 --> 2:15:39.600 it just sucks. 2:15:39.640 --> 2:15:41.880 I mean, there's lots of ways of doing things, but like, 2:15:42.480 --> 2:15:44.000 I don't want to be afraid that I need to 2:15:44.040 --> 2:15:46.840 call my pre trial release person every time a cop 2:15:46.880 --> 2:15:49.880 talks to me, Like I don't know, Like I not 2:15:49.960 --> 2:15:52.520 that I interact with cops all the time, but I'm 2:15:52.560 --> 2:15:57.240 in Minneapolis and like keep talking to the probation guy 2:15:57.280 --> 2:16:00.360 about this. I'm like, you know, if a cop drives 2:16:00.360 --> 2:16:02.240 by me, is that a police interaction? If I'm on 2:16:02.280 --> 2:16:05.040 the street and the fucking fedser in in the street 2:16:05.080 --> 2:16:07.080 in front of my house, is that a police interaction? 2:16:07.960 --> 2:16:11.360 Like it just makes you so stressed out, Like Renee 2:16:11.400 --> 2:16:15.920 Good was shot in front of me, and it's like 2:16:15.920 --> 2:16:18.960 like normally I'm not the kind of person that runs 2:16:19.000 --> 2:16:22.720 away from a situation like that. I'm like would go 2:16:23.120 --> 2:16:26.960 towards where what happened to like make sure people are okay, 2:16:27.080 --> 2:16:30.040 or like see if there's anything I can do. And 2:16:30.760 --> 2:16:33.200 in that situation, I was like what if I just 2:16:33.480 --> 2:16:37.000 am gonna go to jail like for trying to like 2:16:37.800 --> 2:16:41.760 do something. So it's just like it's just contrary to 2:16:41.800 --> 2:16:46.600 my instincts that if I see someone getting brutalized in 2:16:46.640 --> 2:16:49.480 the street or they're like they say, you can go 2:16:49.520 --> 2:16:52.840 to a protest, but that's just what repression is. You know, 2:16:53.400 --> 2:16:55.320 they come into your house and they look in every 2:16:55.360 --> 2:16:59.440 single room. You know that they say that you need 2:16:59.480 --> 2:17:02.160 to go and do drug tests and that you can't 2:17:02.200 --> 2:17:04.199 have a firearm, and they wanted me to have twenty 2:17:04.240 --> 2:17:06.480 four to seven monitoring. I don't know if you had 2:17:06.560 --> 2:17:10.080 that kind of shit, but it's just like this shit's insane, 2:17:10.560 --> 2:17:14.240 like and it's over fucking nothing. And so that's why, 2:17:14.320 --> 2:17:16.880 like I see people on the internet being like, oh, 2:17:16.879 --> 2:17:19.120 but like all those charges get dropped or whatever. I 2:17:19.160 --> 2:17:21.959 was like, then fuck you, like you never dealt with this, 2:17:22.280 --> 2:17:25.000 Like doesn't matter if the charges get dropped. I'm gonna 2:17:25.000 --> 2:17:27.279 try and apply to fucking Target to be a cashier 2:17:27.440 --> 2:17:29.200 and then they're gonna be like, actually, you have an 2:17:29.240 --> 2:17:32.200 active case. I tried to work at a theater and 2:17:32.200 --> 2:17:34.640 they were like, can you come explain what happened here? 2:17:35.240 --> 2:17:37.280 Doesn't matter if you end up going to jail. Yeah, 2:17:37.320 --> 2:17:40.520 going to jail sucks, but repression is like it's the 2:17:40.560 --> 2:17:41.720 thing in and of itself. 2:17:41.720 --> 2:17:43.080 The cruelty is the point. 2:17:43.440 --> 2:17:45.520 I want to hear from you too. Issavell, I just 2:17:45.560 --> 2:17:48.360 want to say for people listening that what Lucy's talking 2:17:48.440 --> 2:17:54.680 about are release conditions. So when the cases initiated against you, 2:17:54.760 --> 2:17:56.760 the government could argue that you should be held in 2:17:56.800 --> 2:17:59.600 detention while the case is ongoing, or they could ask 2:17:59.640 --> 2:18:03.880 for cons of release. And those are conditions that are 2:18:03.959 --> 2:18:09.520 enforced by a pre trial probation officer, like person who 2:18:09.680 --> 2:18:11.600 might come to visit your house or you have to 2:18:11.640 --> 2:18:16.480 call when you have cop interactions, or who facilitates drug testing, 2:18:16.520 --> 2:18:19.600 depending on what your conditions are. So just some background 2:18:19.640 --> 2:18:21.400 on that for anyone who's unfamiliar. 2:18:22.320 --> 2:18:24.920 Yeah, I think Lucy kind of said it best. Was 2:18:25.040 --> 2:18:30.280 like crely questioning your instincts. You're questioning like what can 2:18:30.360 --> 2:18:35.600 you do? And I've tried my best to be as 2:18:35.640 --> 2:18:40.400 creative as i can with it, but yeah, it's so 2:18:40.520 --> 2:18:43.000 hard to I'm finding myself having to mobilize in a 2:18:43.000 --> 2:18:44.760 different way and like show up the community. 2:18:44.760 --> 2:18:46.080 So I've kind of pivoted to art. 2:18:46.879 --> 2:18:49.800 Yeah, doing things when it comes to like screenprinting and 2:18:49.879 --> 2:18:52.920 just again showing up a community and just try to 2:18:53.040 --> 2:18:56.480 play face or be face, like be real, you know, 2:18:56.840 --> 2:19:00.760 be with community. But yeah, it has been hard because again, 2:19:01.040 --> 2:19:04.199 you never really know what you can and cannot say. 2:19:04.320 --> 2:19:07.600 Like the other day, I had a really good friend 2:19:07.920 --> 2:19:10.640 they admitted a graphic for me talking about explaining my 2:19:10.680 --> 2:19:12.800 case and things like that. You know, I can't really 2:19:13.040 --> 2:19:15.840 post too much about my case people start tagging me 2:19:15.840 --> 2:19:18.200 in it. I tried resharing one of it. I only 2:19:18.240 --> 2:19:20.879 shared like one of reshared one of the tags, and 2:19:20.920 --> 2:19:23.520 then I tried resharing another tag that kind of explained 2:19:23.520 --> 2:19:26.600 what to do to help with my case, and like Instagram, 2:19:26.600 --> 2:19:29.000 don't let me post it. You know, these are this 2:19:29.080 --> 2:19:31.280 is like minor shit, like this isn't like that big 2:19:31.320 --> 2:19:34.840 of a deal. But it's also just like okay, like yeah, 2:19:34.959 --> 2:19:38.920 they want to make sure that you're not being seen 2:19:39.000 --> 2:19:42.959 or heard. And I'm pretty fortunate to have like a 2:19:43.080 --> 2:19:46.520 job where like they're paying me to do community work 2:19:46.760 --> 2:19:49.520 and they have known me, so like I'm I feel 2:19:49.560 --> 2:19:53.400 really lucky. At the same time, it's also just been 2:19:53.800 --> 2:19:56.480 really hard because, like you know, some people are more 2:19:56.520 --> 2:19:58.840 reluctant to have me in the room when it comes 2:19:58.879 --> 2:20:02.119 to like organizing, are doing certain things because of that, 2:20:02.200 --> 2:20:05.680 because like you know, of where my case stands, and 2:20:05.800 --> 2:20:08.440 some people have like you know, actually kind of walked 2:20:08.440 --> 2:20:11.160 away from being my friend because you know that they 2:20:11.200 --> 2:20:14.200 were also there that day on June third, and just 2:20:14.240 --> 2:20:16.480 also kind of being afraid about what would happen to them. 2:20:17.600 --> 2:20:19.080 But on the other side of that, you know, there's 2:20:19.080 --> 2:20:21.480 also been friends that are like I'm gonna be here, 2:20:21.520 --> 2:20:24.160 I'm down, like, don't don't like know you where you know, 2:20:24.640 --> 2:20:25.400 which has been great. 2:20:26.320 --> 2:20:28.640 Yeah, don't ditch your friends. 2:20:29.640 --> 2:20:32.520 Like I had, like my roommate being like I'm gonna 2:20:32.600 --> 2:20:37.360 i gotta leave, like I'm gonna dip, and people being 2:20:37.400 --> 2:20:40.200 weird to you, and it's just like, I don't know, 2:20:40.800 --> 2:20:42.880 maybe you just should just be better about your like 2:20:43.680 --> 2:20:45.279 security in general. 2:20:45.040 --> 2:20:47.520 Because like sooner or later, we're all going to have charges. 2:20:48.320 --> 2:20:50.240 I don't know, maybe it's not going to be that bad, 2:20:50.400 --> 2:20:56.560 but we're all domestic terrorists in Minnesota now, Uh fuck? 2:20:56.640 --> 2:21:00.920 I mean as as per ice, you know, making list 2:21:01.280 --> 2:21:04.959 and I don't know, they can't tell everybody. 2:21:05.920 --> 2:21:08.080 It's just been really hard navigating I get. 2:21:08.160 --> 2:21:10.080 I guess, like the sense of morality that comes with it, 2:21:10.120 --> 2:21:12.680 because it's like for me and I feel like you know, 2:21:12.760 --> 2:21:15.320 Lucy can relate to this, is that like you act 2:21:15.360 --> 2:21:17.400 on the things that you believe in, you act on 2:21:17.480 --> 2:21:21.879 the things that you know is worth participating. And now 2:21:21.920 --> 2:21:25.280 this administration is you know, gaslight. I don't even think 2:21:25.280 --> 2:21:27.080 gasline is a right word. I think it's just like 2:21:27.520 --> 2:21:30.600 imposing a lie of just like what is right and 2:21:30.640 --> 2:21:35.520 what is wrong and seeing everybody also just being very 2:21:35.560 --> 2:21:38.039 gas lit and having you know, the news, having a 2:21:38.040 --> 2:21:40.320 certain narrative of like what is right, what is wrong, 2:21:40.360 --> 2:21:41.840 what has been said, what has not been said, what 2:21:41.959 --> 2:21:45.680 really happened, what didn't happen, And also just arresting independent journalists. 2:21:46.320 --> 2:21:50.360 I think just goes to show how much constitution has 2:21:50.400 --> 2:21:51.439 not been constituted. 2:21:51.560 --> 2:21:55.280 Like the human rights that we believed and we thought 2:21:55.320 --> 2:22:00.680 that we have are no more. So it's like what 2:22:00.840 --> 2:22:02.680 goals and what doesn't go you know? 2:22:02.760 --> 2:22:05.560 And I think that for me, the only real hope 2:22:05.560 --> 2:22:08.640 I have is like community and like creativity, because it's 2:22:08.680 --> 2:22:11.360 like people have shown up for me, because I've been 2:22:11.360 --> 2:22:13.920 showing up since like twenty twenty. So it's like how 2:22:13.920 --> 2:22:17.120 can we inspire a sense of like a sense of 2:22:17.160 --> 2:22:20.879 hope and spirit to keep going. How can we keep 2:22:21.240 --> 2:22:25.240 have people know that there is there is hope at 2:22:25.240 --> 2:22:28.040 the end, that you know, there can be another side 2:22:28.080 --> 2:22:31.440 that right now what we're seeing is just another world unfolding. 2:22:31.760 --> 2:22:33.520 And the only way that we can really understand that 2:22:33.520 --> 2:22:35.640 new world is when we understand the truth. 2:22:35.680 --> 2:22:39.360 That we've been walking on. And so my friends have 2:22:39.920 --> 2:22:42.039 been so good to me, and some of them have been. 2:22:42.000 --> 2:22:44.560 You know, they've made like graphics and really cool like 2:22:44.760 --> 2:22:48.320 shirts with my face on it just a way to like, 2:22:48.360 --> 2:22:52.480 you know, welcome me home and things like that, and 2:22:52.520 --> 2:22:56.720 creating different images of like what this new world can be. 2:22:57.120 --> 2:22:58.680 And you know, one thing that I did with some 2:22:58.720 --> 2:23:01.080 of the NDI and collective, we made this really dope 2:23:01.120 --> 2:23:03.640 graphic that says Motherland on it and it's all the 2:23:03.640 --> 2:23:06.920 Americas having roots from the global South, you know, and 2:23:06.959 --> 2:23:10.800 being supple thick like has been really like so key 2:23:10.840 --> 2:23:12.880 for me to know that like I have every right 2:23:12.959 --> 2:23:16.000 to be here, that like a lot of the legitimacy 2:23:16.440 --> 2:23:20.680 that is constituted quote unquote for me, that doesn't come 2:23:20.720 --> 2:23:23.160 from for me, that's not my truth. 2:23:22.879 --> 2:23:25.400 Of like why I move and why I believe to do. 2:23:25.440 --> 2:23:26.320 Is right to me. 2:23:26.440 --> 2:23:29.240 I do what is right because of the history that 2:23:29.280 --> 2:23:31.800 I come from, because of like you know, who my 2:23:31.920 --> 2:23:34.520 dad is, and like the people that I know that 2:23:34.560 --> 2:23:37.080 I come from. You know, I'm not like native to 2:23:37.160 --> 2:23:39.119 the northern plains, but I do have friends that are, 2:23:39.520 --> 2:23:42.240 and I do respect and love them so much. Where 2:23:42.280 --> 2:23:44.320 I want to see the traditions be fully and thrived. 2:23:44.320 --> 2:23:47.280 And I know that my power and my liberty is 2:23:47.320 --> 2:23:50.680 tied with theirs. And I know that we like have 2:23:50.760 --> 2:23:52.440 every right to be here from the people that are 2:23:52.440 --> 2:23:54.800 from the global South as well, because of the fact 2:23:54.800 --> 2:23:57.360 that we haven't been able to like fully thrive in 2:23:57.360 --> 2:24:01.160 the motherland. We haven't been fully thrived in all the Americas. 2:24:01.600 --> 2:24:04.000 And you know, a lot of people don't want to immigrate. 2:24:04.040 --> 2:24:06.320 A lot of people don't want to migrate. They don't 2:24:06.320 --> 2:24:09.560 want to leave their motherland. But I know that we 2:24:09.680 --> 2:24:12.960 have built homes here, we have built communities here, and 2:24:13.280 --> 2:24:13.800 I think. 2:24:13.600 --> 2:24:15.840 That for me, that that's the other side of. 2:24:15.840 --> 2:24:17.879 It, is that we can we can thrive, and that 2:24:17.959 --> 2:24:21.240 we can be in this place together, that we have 2:24:21.440 --> 2:24:26.360 every right to, like in this constant last night together, 2:24:26.400 --> 2:24:27.880 we are America. 2:24:28.000 --> 2:24:32.120 So yeah, I also just want to ask what support 2:24:32.200 --> 2:24:37.080 asks you have for listeners, either for your defense campaigns 2:24:37.240 --> 2:24:39.680 or for anti ice organizing more broadly. 2:24:40.560 --> 2:24:46.680 Yeah, for me, we're having people call in to Daniel 2:24:46.760 --> 2:24:49.960 Rose to draw the charges and to send in letters. 2:24:50.360 --> 2:24:55.240 That's our community ask. And also to donate to the gulfunding. Yeah, 2:24:55.280 --> 2:24:57.720 I'm finding myself needing more support when it comes to 2:24:58.000 --> 2:25:05.320 just people on the side and just yeah, getting people 2:25:05.520 --> 2:25:09.240 also sustained through the movement as well through that, So yeah, 2:25:09.320 --> 2:25:12.480 don'tate to my hofund me And also if they. 2:25:12.320 --> 2:25:18.880 Can, it's inn ano letter call in and yeah. 2:25:17.640 --> 2:25:20.640 I'll just say, yeah, talk to everyone. You can, talk 2:25:20.640 --> 2:25:23.280 to your neighbors, talk to your relatives. It should be 2:25:23.360 --> 2:25:27.080 impossible for them to convict anything in Minnesota because no 2:25:27.240 --> 2:25:30.520 jury is sympathetic with these people. And the only way 2:25:30.520 --> 2:25:34.039 that happens is if there's a broad understanding of the 2:25:34.120 --> 2:25:36.560 violence that is being perpetuated in our communities in a 2:25:36.560 --> 2:25:38.680 broad support of those that are resisting it. 2:25:39.560 --> 2:25:44.600 Well, I know you both have shared the importance of 2:25:44.680 --> 2:25:48.360 creative work for you, Isabelle, do you have a poem 2:25:48.400 --> 2:25:50.119 you'd like to read or anything you want to share? 2:25:50.760 --> 2:25:52.840 Yeah, I can read a poem real quick. 2:25:53.800 --> 2:25:55.560 Since I can't really speak much about what happened that 2:25:55.680 --> 2:25:59.880 day I wrote this. When I walked outside, I saw 2:26:00.280 --> 2:26:03.680 staring back at me, cold presence stirring an earthquake in 2:26:03.720 --> 2:26:06.520 my body. Do I freeze or do I run? I 2:26:06.560 --> 2:26:09.000 ask myself? Did my parents have the time to ask 2:26:09.040 --> 2:26:12.480 themselves this when they left the Motherland? If I run, 2:26:12.520 --> 2:26:14.600 I might slip into its breue arms and be caught 2:26:14.640 --> 2:26:17.440 by its cages. If I freeze, will it drown out 2:26:17.480 --> 2:26:18.600 all the warmth of my family? 2:26:18.680 --> 2:26:19.400 Let inside of me? 2:26:20.000 --> 2:26:22.080 Will the couffing freeze the southern sun and my blood 2:26:22.160 --> 2:26:24.280 veins just to be as numb as them? 2:26:24.800 --> 2:26:28.160 The cold thrives in control. The order of ignorance can 2:26:28.200 --> 2:26:32.000 thrive an unconscious and vulnerable pride. I never thought their. 2:26:31.800 --> 2:26:34.760 Hands could be as brown as mine, as young as mine, 2:26:34.800 --> 2:26:37.959 as desperate for safety. That it folds into another version 2:26:38.040 --> 2:26:41.920 of insanity. The wrong ice is melting, and the warmth 2:26:42.000 --> 2:26:43.920 of brown and black bodies are freezing. 2:26:44.360 --> 2:26:45.400 Can I walk back. 2:26:45.240 --> 2:26:47.920 Into the pattern of survival? My lineage taught me to 2:26:48.080 --> 2:26:51.320 flourish instead of freezing in the numbing of society. 2:26:52.320 --> 2:26:54.560 Wow, thank you? Does that have a name? 2:26:55.120 --> 2:26:59.000 Yeah, it's ice or ice freeze something like that. 2:27:00.040 --> 2:27:00.640 Still am. 2:27:02.480 --> 2:27:07.000 Unapologetically, unapologetically myself. 2:27:07.879 --> 2:27:10.800 We recorded this episode in the first half of February 2:27:10.840 --> 2:27:14.080 in twenty twenty six. It's March now, so here's a 2:27:14.080 --> 2:27:18.200 couple updates. Since recording, eight of the federal defendants have 2:27:18.280 --> 2:27:22.480 had their charges dismissed and many have been offered misdemeanor deals. 2:27:23.200 --> 2:27:25.959 We also now know that there are over one hundred 2:27:25.959 --> 2:27:31.520 protesters facing state level charges, mostly misdemeanors. The aftermath of 2:27:31.600 --> 2:27:34.560 repression in the form of criminal cases from this time 2:27:34.959 --> 2:27:38.320 will likely continue for years, if not decades to come. 2:27:39.400 --> 2:27:43.320 And another update, thousands of agents have left the Twin Cities. 2:27:44.200 --> 2:27:46.320 I get to see my neighbors out of their houses 2:27:46.400 --> 2:27:49.720 a little more often now, but daily life is still 2:27:49.760 --> 2:27:54.760 colored by ongoing abductions, disappeared family members, and shock waves 2:27:54.800 --> 2:28:00.320 of state violence that have hit our migrant neighbors. I 2:28:00.360 --> 2:28:02.760 know I said it in the beginning, but just to 2:28:02.800 --> 2:28:06.520 say it to close. As much as there is devastating 2:28:07.040 --> 2:28:12.920 violence and terror happening here, there is incredibly magnificent resistance 2:28:13.400 --> 2:28:18.160 and community connection happening every single day. Neighbors are showing 2:28:18.280 --> 2:28:22.560 up and stopping abductions, They're watching people get killed in 2:28:22.600 --> 2:28:25.080 the street for doing it, and they're showing up the 2:28:25.120 --> 2:28:29.959 next day to continue. There's a kind of fearlessness and 2:28:30.000 --> 2:28:32.640 a kind of love that is in this community that 2:28:32.680 --> 2:28:36.960 I've never seen anywhere else. So as much as things 2:28:37.000 --> 2:28:41.800 are horrible, things are also beautiful. And I want you 2:28:41.840 --> 2:28:47.120 to know that. The theme music you heard in this 2:28:47.240 --> 2:28:51.080 episode was the song Star by twofa one, a Dakota 2:28:51.120 --> 2:28:53.600 and bariqua artist based out of Minneapolis. 2:28:54.120 --> 2:28:54.959 Check out their other. 2:28:54.920 --> 2:28:58.000 Music from the South from Everywhere. 2:28:59.480 --> 2:29:02.040 If you like this episode, check out the show Outlaw 2:29:02.120 --> 2:29:05.600 wherever you get your podcasts, throw us a rate review, 2:29:06.000 --> 2:29:10.039 and follow Outlaw pod on Instagram and Blue Sky. To 2:29:10.080 --> 2:29:13.680 close the episode, here's a song written in Minneapolis during 2:29:13.680 --> 2:29:18.000 the surge. I think it captures some feeling of being here. 2:29:47.440 --> 2:29:58.520 Never broad someone back from the dead. Justice never broad 2:29:59.400 --> 2:30:08.680 someone back from the dead. Justice never broad someone back 2:30:08.720 --> 2:30:16.279 from the dead, just as never brid someone. 2:30:16.000 --> 2:30:17.560 Back from the dad. 2:30:18.000 --> 2:30:20.359 Just that, never. 2:30:21.560 --> 2:30:24.920 Broad someone back from the dead. 2:30:25.080 --> 2:30:28.959 Way are you telling me, wait. 2:30:30.280 --> 2:30:32.879 Like someone wealth be saved? 2:30:33.400 --> 2:30:34.920 Are you telling me? 2:30:35.120 --> 2:30:38.600 Are you telling me that justice were. 2:30:38.560 --> 2:30:46.840 Somehow saved, never gonna get back their days? 2:30:58.600 --> 2:31:02.720 Welcome to It could Happen, a podcast about tariffs and 2:31:02.760 --> 2:31:05.800 how to justify them. I am your host, Mio Wong, 2:31:06.720 --> 2:31:11.000 and today we are talking about tariffs, the Supreme Court 2:31:11.120 --> 2:31:16.440 ruling and how Trump is manufacturing a crisis to justify 2:31:16.520 --> 2:31:20.280 the next set of tariffs that he has imposed. Oh boy, 2:31:20.440 --> 2:31:24.440 So all right to recap our last tariff segment, so 2:31:24.480 --> 2:31:27.080 people understand what I'm talking about when I talk about 2:31:27.080 --> 2:31:30.080 the Supreme Court ruling from a few weeks ago. So, 2:31:30.640 --> 2:31:33.760 Trump had been claiming the ability to do tariffs under 2:31:33.760 --> 2:31:38.040 the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, an act that famously 2:31:38.120 --> 2:31:42.440 never says the word tariff, and the Supreme Court was like, no, actually, 2:31:42.520 --> 2:31:45.720 that the International Economic Powers Act does not give you 2:31:45.879 --> 2:31:48.240 the power to levy tariffs, a thing that it does 2:31:48.280 --> 2:31:51.960 not say that you can do. So Trump got extremely 2:31:52.000 --> 2:31:55.800 mad about this, and he imposed a ten percent tariff 2:31:55.840 --> 2:31:59.119 across the board using a different law, as he said 2:31:59.160 --> 2:32:02.039 he was going to do. Now, this ten percent across 2:32:02.080 --> 2:32:04.920 the board tariff was run through section one twenty two 2:32:05.160 --> 2:32:08.080 of the Trade Act of nineteen seventy four. We're going 2:32:08.160 --> 2:32:10.720 to get into that, okay. So he imposes a ten 2:32:10.760 --> 2:32:14.119 percent tariff using this like different authority from section one 2:32:14.160 --> 2:32:17.560 twenty two, and the next day he goes, I'm going 2:32:17.560 --> 2:32:19.600 to raise the tariff right to fifteen percents, and this 2:32:19.680 --> 2:32:22.560 is the teriff rate on the entire world. But then 2:32:22.600 --> 2:32:24.760 he just forgot to do it because he got distracted by, 2:32:24.920 --> 2:32:29.160 i think, invading Iran. So he has never actually, you know, 2:32:29.560 --> 2:32:31.920 raised the tariff rate to fifteen percent, which he said 2:32:31.920 --> 2:32:35.000 that he had done. So it's now just at ten 2:32:35.040 --> 2:32:38.080 percent on the entire world instead of you know, all 2:32:38.120 --> 2:32:40.600 of the sort of individual country terifts that have been 2:32:40.640 --> 2:32:44.160 in place before. And that's sort of the focus of 2:32:44.200 --> 2:32:47.600 today's episode is about these tariffs, because these tariffs are 2:32:47.640 --> 2:32:52.640 already being challenged in court, and I think that that 2:32:52.760 --> 2:32:56.320 challenge has a very very good chance of winning fairly easily. 2:32:56.800 --> 2:33:00.440 And the reason that those tariffs have a very good 2:33:00.520 --> 2:33:04.120 chance of being overturned by the courts is that unlike 2:33:04.600 --> 2:33:08.879 the IEPA tarriffs that he was using, where he was 2:33:08.920 --> 2:33:12.440 claiming illegally the authority to just do whatever he wanted. 2:33:13.160 --> 2:33:14.400 This is why you would wake up in the morning 2:33:14.440 --> 2:33:16.760 and there's like one hundred percent teriff on China, like 2:33:16.879 --> 2:33:19.920 seven hundred percent tariff of Vietnam. Blah blah blah blah blah. 2:33:20.160 --> 2:33:22.560 Trump was claiming that that Act let him do whatever 2:33:22.600 --> 2:33:25.240 he wanted. It did not. Court found that he did not. 2:33:25.680 --> 2:33:29.000 But that was how he was using tariffs, and it 2:33:29.040 --> 2:33:32.080 was the basis of how he was using terrors for diplomacy, right. 2:33:32.720 --> 2:33:34.600 You know, he would put a tariff on someone at random, 2:33:34.600 --> 2:33:37.520 claiming this power, and then he would like enter negotiations 2:33:37.520 --> 2:33:40.400 with them. And he can't do that anymore. Now what 2:33:40.440 --> 2:33:44.040 he's done in its place is again imposed this terriff's 2:33:44.080 --> 2:33:47.720 using section one twenty two of the Trade Act. Now 2:33:47.840 --> 2:33:52.080 this authority is very, very different than the authority Trump 2:33:52.120 --> 2:33:54.800 was claiming before. I'm just going to read it because 2:33:54.800 --> 2:33:58.080 it mostly explains itself. Do not worry about the international 2:33:58.080 --> 2:34:01.040 payment problems or balance payments deficit that it mentions at 2:34:01.040 --> 2:34:03.000 the beginning. We're going to go over that in a second. 2:34:03.480 --> 2:34:06.520 What's important for our purposes here is that in order 2:34:06.600 --> 2:34:12.480 to put tariffs into effect, quote, whenever fundamental international payment 2:34:12.560 --> 2:34:17.520 problems require special import measures to restrict imports one to 2:34:17.640 --> 2:34:21.920 deal with large and serious United States balance of payments deficits, 2:34:22.320 --> 2:34:26.240 two to prevent an imminent and significant depreciation of the 2:34:26.360 --> 2:34:30.240 dollar in foreign exchange markets, or three to cooperate with 2:34:30.320 --> 2:34:34.520 other countries in correcting an international balance of payments disequilibrium. 2:34:34.840 --> 2:34:38.240 The President shall proclaim for a period not exceeding one 2:34:38.320 --> 2:34:41.640 hundred and fifty days, unless such a period is extended 2:34:41.640 --> 2:34:45.000 by a Nact of Congress, a temporary surch charge not 2:34:45.120 --> 2:34:47.560 to exceed fifteen percent out of lorum in the form 2:34:47.600 --> 2:34:50.680 of duties in addition to those already opposed if any 2:34:50.920 --> 2:34:54.000 article is imported into the US. Okay, so let's look 2:34:54.000 --> 2:34:58.560 at the limits first, right. Instead of any rate of 2:34:58.600 --> 2:35:01.280 tariff on any country, which is what Trump had been doing, 2:35:01.680 --> 2:35:04.520 Section one twenty two only lets you set an up 2:35:04.520 --> 2:35:06.920 to fifteen percent tariff on every country in the world 2:35:07.520 --> 2:35:10.199 and only lasts for one hundred and fifty days unless 2:35:10.200 --> 2:35:12.680 Congress votes to approve it. This sets up a giant 2:35:12.720 --> 2:35:15.800 fight in Congress that Trump is not going to win. Now. 2:35:15.840 --> 2:35:17.960 We may never get to that point because the same 2:35:18.040 --> 2:35:20.680 right wing legal group who funded the lawsuit that overturned 2:35:20.680 --> 2:35:24.119 the IEPA stuff is going after Section one twenty two 2:35:24.760 --> 2:35:27.120 and they're going to win now. They're going to win 2:35:27.240 --> 2:35:30.760 because Section one twenty two has literally never been implemented before. 2:35:30.840 --> 2:35:35.160 The tariffs specifically never been implemented. There is a reason 2:35:35.280 --> 2:35:40.200 for that, and the reason is that to even deploy 2:35:40.320 --> 2:35:43.280 Section one twenty two tariffs in the first place, you 2:35:43.440 --> 2:35:48.840 need quote fundamental international payment problems. One to deal with 2:35:49.000 --> 2:35:52.760 large and serious United States balance of payments deficits to 2:35:52.800 --> 2:35:55.600 the print dollar depreciation, and cooperation with other countries to 2:35:55.840 --> 2:36:00.119 correct international ballots of payments disequilibrium. So those are very 2:36:00.120 --> 2:36:02.560 specific conditions. What does that mean? What does it mean 2:36:02.560 --> 2:36:04.359 for there to be a problem with balance of payments? 2:36:04.879 --> 2:36:08.640 This requires us to understand what the fuck balance of 2:36:08.680 --> 2:36:10.680 payments is. And it is here where I am fulfilling 2:36:10.720 --> 2:36:13.520 my promise from that Executive Disorder episode where I said 2:36:13.520 --> 2:36:15.360 I will explain it in the full episode. All right, 2:36:15.400 --> 2:36:18.480 we're doing it, and oh fucking boy, are you in 2:36:18.520 --> 2:36:23.879 for it, because Jesus Christ, oh my god, holy shit, 2:36:23.959 --> 2:36:29.000 this stuff is annoyingly convoluted. But it is also extremely 2:36:29.000 --> 2:36:32.280 important to how the global economy functions, how it's changed, 2:36:32.840 --> 2:36:35.760 and you know, it's not really relevant for the US 2:36:35.840 --> 2:36:37.520 at all, for reasons we will get into, but it 2:36:37.600 --> 2:36:40.240 is extremely relevant for the economies of a bunch of 2:36:40.280 --> 2:36:45.199 developing countries. So, okay, let's start off with balance of payments. 2:36:45.360 --> 2:36:48.040 So what is the balance of payments? I'm just gonna 2:36:48.080 --> 2:36:51.240 start off by quoting the Saint Louis Federal Reserve Balance 2:36:51.280 --> 2:36:54.840 of payments. Quote is a summary of all the transactions 2:36:54.879 --> 2:36:59.160 involving goods, services, and investments between one country and all 2:36:59.200 --> 2:37:03.360 other countries over a given time. Any transaction that causes 2:37:03.440 --> 2:37:06.680 money to flow into a country is a credit to 2:37:06.720 --> 2:37:11.720 balance payment accounts, and any transaction that flows out is 2:37:11.760 --> 2:37:16.240 a debt. So this is a record of literally every 2:37:16.320 --> 2:37:18.480 purchase in capital movement that goes in and out of 2:37:18.520 --> 2:37:23.000 a country. Right, So it's goods services, debt payments, and 2:37:23.080 --> 2:37:25.040 things can either be credits or debts. This is the 2:37:25.080 --> 2:37:28.360 FED explains. You know things that are debts, right, Things 2:37:28.400 --> 2:37:30.880 that like make your account go lower is you know, 2:37:31.000 --> 2:37:35.520 debt payments, capital transfer payments, like buying imports. If you 2:37:35.560 --> 2:37:38.120 were importing stuff from China, that is a debt. And 2:37:38.120 --> 2:37:39.840 then there are things that are credits to make account 2:37:39.879 --> 2:37:43.160 go up. So that's other countries paying for exports, capital 2:37:43.160 --> 2:37:47.320 transfer receipts, and you know financial assets and that's other 2:37:47.360 --> 2:37:50.600 countries paying for your exports. So this is tracked in 2:37:50.879 --> 2:37:55.080 like two accounts. There's a capital and finances account. I'm 2:37:55.080 --> 2:37:56.800 just gonna call it the capital account because that's the 2:37:56.800 --> 2:37:59.240 most common name for it, and it's shorter. So there's 2:37:59.280 --> 2:38:01.760 the capital account that is all movement of capital in 2:38:01.800 --> 2:38:04.440 and out of the country, and then there's a current account, 2:38:04.720 --> 2:38:07.560 which is like a trade record of all goods and services. 2:38:08.320 --> 2:38:11.000 Technically there's also stuff from like interest from an investment 2:38:11.080 --> 2:38:12.840 goes there, but we don't really care about that for 2:38:12.879 --> 2:38:16.680 our purposes. The current account is the account that's like trade, 2:38:17.160 --> 2:38:19.359 and then there's a capital account, which is the account 2:38:19.400 --> 2:38:23.240 that's all of the capital moving in and out. Now, importantly, 2:38:23.959 --> 2:38:28.160 these two accounts, right, these two accounts compose balance of trade. Right, 2:38:28.360 --> 2:38:30.080 this record has two accounts in it. Those are the 2:38:30.080 --> 2:38:32.480 two accounts. If you line up all the credits and 2:38:32.480 --> 2:38:35.200 debits and then they cancel out and equal zero. The 2:38:35.320 --> 2:38:37.720 value of all goods being imported or exported, as as 2:38:37.760 --> 2:38:40.440 services and stuff like that too, is the same as 2:38:40.440 --> 2:38:42.520 the amount of capital moving in and out of the country. 2:38:42.800 --> 2:38:45.360 The two accounts will cancel out. And this is what's 2:38:45.400 --> 2:38:48.360 really confusing about balance of payments, because why the fuck 2:38:48.400 --> 2:38:51.039 is that true? Right? Why are the capital flows and 2:38:51.080 --> 2:38:55.119 trade balance Why can't you have an imbalance? And the 2:38:55.160 --> 2:38:58.920 answer is that's how the accounting system works. And the 2:38:58.959 --> 2:39:01.840 reason the accounting system like that is because of what 2:39:01.959 --> 2:39:04.600 balance of payments is now. Weirdly, if you want a 2:39:04.640 --> 2:39:07.280 more detailed explanation, there are a billion detailed explanations that 2:39:07.320 --> 2:39:11.120 are extremely convoluted and annoying. The Reserve Bank of Australia 2:39:11.600 --> 2:39:14.359 weirdly has like a readable one for people who aren't 2:39:14.400 --> 2:39:18.480 like engrossed and financial stuff. However, come up, I'm going 2:39:18.560 --> 2:39:21.320 to try to explain it. So, balance of payments is 2:39:21.360 --> 2:39:25.200 the record of everything that moves in and out of 2:39:25.240 --> 2:39:28.360 a country, you know, So that's goods, that services, that's money, 2:39:28.400 --> 2:39:31.600 it's stocked. When I say it tracks everything, right, was 2:39:31.600 --> 2:39:35.440 a record of everything? That means it's recording both sides 2:39:35.480 --> 2:39:38.200 of a transaction. So what does that mean? Okay, imagine 2:39:38.520 --> 2:39:40.800 a receipt, right, it's a receipt for a burger. You 2:39:40.840 --> 2:39:45.080 have bought one hamburger. On the receipt is the thing 2:39:45.120 --> 2:39:48.879 you bought, the burger and how much it cost, which 2:39:48.920 --> 2:39:51.760 is the money you pay for it. Balance of payments 2:39:51.840 --> 2:39:55.640 tracks both the burger and the money you paid for it. 2:39:55.840 --> 2:40:00.440 Because it tracked international trade, right, it's tracking international movement 2:40:00.480 --> 2:40:03.840 of stuff, and because both the burger and the money 2:40:03.920 --> 2:40:08.280 changed hands across borders. Right, it tracks both of them. 2:40:08.560 --> 2:40:11.520 And that is why when you put all the credits 2:40:11.520 --> 2:40:14.879 and debts from both accounts together, it adds to zero, right, 2:40:15.160 --> 2:40:18.760 because you know, think about like the net transfer of 2:40:18.879 --> 2:40:22.320 funds on that burger. Right, on the one hand, there 2:40:22.400 --> 2:40:25.080 is the burger, and on the other hand there is 2:40:25.640 --> 2:40:27.560 you know, how much money you paid for the burger, 2:40:27.640 --> 2:40:29.800 and those two things are equivalent. Right. The value of 2:40:29.800 --> 2:40:33.720 the burger is how much it's worth, So okay, that 2:40:33.840 --> 2:40:37.000 means that in the accounting of it, right, the account 2:40:37.080 --> 2:40:39.879 on the receipt, which shows both of these things is 2:40:40.000 --> 2:40:42.720 balanced because it's tracking both of them, right. And this 2:40:42.800 --> 2:40:45.720 is the same way it works for an investment. You 2:40:45.800 --> 2:40:49.120 buy shares of a company, So okay, there's the money 2:40:49.120 --> 2:40:52.040 for the shares and the shares themselves, and they're both 2:40:52.240 --> 2:40:54.840 being tracked and they both go into the record that 2:40:55.200 --> 2:40:59.000 balance of payments keeps. So there are some convoluted things 2:40:59.040 --> 2:41:01.320 about this, and this is the reason why you need 2:41:01.360 --> 2:41:04.120 to combine both accounts instead of each account being balanced 2:41:04.120 --> 2:41:09.000 by themselves, because sometimes the record of the burger goes 2:41:09.040 --> 2:41:11.440 in one account and the record of the money for 2:41:11.520 --> 2:41:14.400 that burger goes at a different account This is convoluted. 2:41:14.400 --> 2:41:17.400 It's because of how income is classified. It's a mess. 2:41:17.440 --> 2:41:19.200 You can go read the Berserve Bank of Australia. But 2:41:19.240 --> 2:41:22.840 that's why you need both accounts together to get the 2:41:22.879 --> 2:41:27.080 balance of payments, right, because both the burger and the 2:41:27.160 --> 2:41:30.760 money for the burger are in the balance of payments somewhere, 2:41:31.000 --> 2:41:32.800 but they might go in different accounts, so you need 2:41:32.840 --> 2:41:34.640 to put them together. And that's how you get the 2:41:34.680 --> 2:41:37.320 balance of payments. And see that's why it's called the 2:41:37.360 --> 2:41:40.080 balance of payments, right, they balance out. See now you're 2:41:40.080 --> 2:41:41.680 getting it. Now you're getting it. This is why it 2:41:41.720 --> 2:41:44.240 always bounces out to zero because it's the balance of 2:41:44.320 --> 2:41:48.760 both the money and the object. Right. So sharp eared 2:41:48.800 --> 2:41:51.240 listeners may be going, wait, hold on. So Section one 2:41:51.280 --> 2:41:53.560 twenty two, which is where the tarifts are from, is 2:41:53.600 --> 2:41:56.320 about a deficit in the balance of payments. How can 2:41:56.360 --> 2:41:58.800 you have a deficit if it always balances out to zero? 2:41:59.320 --> 2:42:02.720 And the answer is, technically speaking, you can't. So Okay, 2:42:02.720 --> 2:42:04.640 what the fuck is going on here? Why is Trump 2:42:04.760 --> 2:42:06.920 using and Trump stifically is claiming that there's a balance 2:42:06.920 --> 2:42:09.200 of payments deficit and there's a crisis in order to 2:42:09.240 --> 2:42:13.480 impose these tariffs. So what is going on here? Why 2:42:13.680 --> 2:42:17.520 does this law exist? You will find out after these 2:42:17.560 --> 2:42:34.600 ads whoa cliffhanger? A. So to explain what is going 2:42:34.640 --> 2:42:37.640 on here, we need to take a detour back in 2:42:37.720 --> 2:42:40.600 time to when this was written. This Act was written 2:42:40.600 --> 2:42:42.840 in nineteen seventy four, but we need to go back 2:42:42.879 --> 2:42:46.600 a little further to nineteen seventy one. Now, in nineteen 2:42:46.640 --> 2:42:51.320 seventy one, Richard Nixon makes probably the most consequential in 2:42:51.400 --> 2:42:56.000 a macro sense, change to how currency functions on a 2:42:56.040 --> 2:42:59.920 global scale in probably half a millennia when he pulled 2:43:00.280 --> 2:43:03.240 US off the gold standard. So what does this mean? 2:43:03.600 --> 2:43:07.119 It means that Nixon ended what was called dollar convertibility, 2:43:07.240 --> 2:43:09.959 or the ability to go to the government and trade 2:43:10.000 --> 2:43:13.720 your dollar for a certain amount of gold. So this 2:43:14.480 --> 2:43:17.039 fixes the value of the dollar to the value of gold. 2:43:17.120 --> 2:43:19.400 So the value of your currency is sort of relatively 2:43:19.480 --> 2:43:23.200 constant in that like it's this much gold, right, But 2:43:23.959 --> 2:43:26.640 it means that your macroeconomic policy is constrained by your 2:43:26.680 --> 2:43:31.039 gold supply. So why did Nixon take the US off 2:43:31.040 --> 2:43:33.480 the gold standard? And what does SAVA do with balance 2:43:33.480 --> 2:43:39.400 of payments? Surprisingly everything? So, okay, what I've been describing 2:43:39.400 --> 2:43:42.880 about balance of payments. I've been describing modern balance of payments. 2:43:43.680 --> 2:43:46.360 If you go back and read stuff from the FED 2:43:46.440 --> 2:43:49.879 from this era, when they talk about balance of payments 2:43:49.959 --> 2:43:53.199 or talking about flows of gold. In this period, every 2:43:53.240 --> 2:43:56.119 dollar that leaves the country represents an amount of gold, 2:43:56.840 --> 2:43:59.360 and the more of it that leaves the country, the 2:43:59.360 --> 2:44:02.240 more sure that puts on the US gold reserves, because 2:44:02.280 --> 2:44:04.520 you know, there's less and less of it. This is 2:44:04.560 --> 2:44:07.760 what they're talking about when they talk about balance of payments. 2:44:07.840 --> 2:44:08.160 Right now. 2:44:08.640 --> 2:44:11.119 What's what's interesting here, and this is something that's important 2:44:11.200 --> 2:44:14.520 for our modern purposes, is that the problem that the 2:44:14.640 --> 2:44:17.800 US was facing in the fifties and sixties that causes 2:44:18.040 --> 2:44:20.920 Nixon to do this when they're talking about having balance 2:44:20.959 --> 2:44:23.240 of payments deficits, which they are in this period, right. 2:44:23.240 --> 2:44:25.119 And this is why this law is written, is because 2:44:25.120 --> 2:44:26.880 this is a period where this stuff is talked about. 2:44:28.040 --> 2:44:30.680 The problem isn't a trade deficit, right, And this is 2:44:30.760 --> 2:44:34.200 very important. Trade deficits and balance of payments deficits not 2:44:34.320 --> 2:44:36.480 the same thing at all. In fact, in this whole 2:44:36.520 --> 2:44:39.200 period when the US is running these massive balanced payments 2:44:39.200 --> 2:44:43.320 deficits to become a problem, they have a trade surplus. Right, 2:44:44.200 --> 2:44:47.160 they have a trade surplus. So like, okay, how are 2:44:47.200 --> 2:44:50.480 they like losing gold then, right, like, how are dollars 2:44:50.520 --> 2:44:54.039 flowing out of the country. Well, it turns out that 2:44:54.640 --> 2:44:57.720 what's actually making this a balance of account deficit, where 2:44:57.720 --> 2:45:00.440 like dollars are leaving the economy, which means gold leaving 2:45:00.520 --> 2:45:03.760 the US's vaults, is that the US is spending too 2:45:03.800 --> 2:45:06.760 much of its military. It's always speaking military spending. It 2:45:06.840 --> 2:45:10.160 is always fucking military spending. Holy shit, It's the reason 2:45:10.200 --> 2:45:14.080 everything is broken. It's it's literally just always military spending. 2:45:14.080 --> 2:45:17.040 We're spending too much gold on the damn military. Right. 2:45:18.040 --> 2:45:20.320 So the deficit and you were you're talking about a 2:45:20.400 --> 2:45:23.320 bounce payments deficit. The actual deficit is that in order 2:45:23.440 --> 2:45:26.520 to pay for wars and to do military bases, they 2:45:26.520 --> 2:45:30.480 are spending money in other countries. And this is technically 2:45:30.600 --> 2:45:32.080 like part of the bounce of payments, right, because it's 2:45:32.080 --> 2:45:35.560 money leaving the country. And you know, like technically speaking, 2:45:35.640 --> 2:45:38.440 the balance of payments as we've been talking about it, right, 2:45:38.520 --> 2:45:42.680 like the account is balanced, but we keep spending dollars 2:45:42.680 --> 2:45:45.000 in order to obtain military bases and then also in 2:45:45.080 --> 2:45:47.920 order to bomb Korea and Vietnam, and the dollars have 2:45:47.959 --> 2:45:51.039 to come from somewhere. Now, again, the dollar at this 2:45:51.120 --> 2:45:55.280 point is gold. It represents a fixed amount of gold 2:45:55.560 --> 2:45:59.560 that the US has, and those dollars are coming from 2:45:59.600 --> 2:46:01.920 the US government, so that that's what the actual quote 2:46:01.959 --> 2:46:04.840 unquote deficit is in this case. Right, you will see 2:46:04.840 --> 2:46:06.760 this described as like, oh my god, they're paying for 2:46:07.320 --> 2:46:09.080 stuff from the current account for the capitol count. 2:46:09.080 --> 2:46:09.320 No. 2:46:09.200 --> 2:46:12.160 No, no, technically yes, but like, like, what's actually happening 2:46:12.160 --> 2:46:14.920 here is that the US, Right, it's gold leaving the 2:46:14.920 --> 2:46:17.360 country because the US is having to buy shit for 2:46:17.360 --> 2:46:20.760 a military basis, right, and it's not getting enough gold 2:46:20.840 --> 2:46:23.960 back from trade to replenish the amount of gold that 2:46:24.000 --> 2:46:28.240 the US is spending on these military bases. Now, in theory, 2:46:28.280 --> 2:46:31.080 this is fine because it's technically speaking, you're spending dollars, 2:46:31.160 --> 2:46:34.680 and as long as no one tries to actually convert 2:46:34.720 --> 2:46:39.240 those dollars into gold, you'll be okay. Enter one Charles 2:46:39.280 --> 2:46:43.680 de Gaulle, president of France, who begins to unmasks convert 2:46:43.720 --> 2:46:46.640 American dollars into gold in order to end the dollar's 2:46:46.720 --> 2:46:48.960 reign as the world reserve currency. Because it was pissed 2:46:48.959 --> 2:46:51.120 off at the US running the world. This is not 2:46:51.320 --> 2:46:54.240 like Charles de Gaull, anti imperialist. De Gaull does not 2:46:54.440 --> 2:46:57.000 want like the end of imperialism. Degaull wants there to 2:46:57.000 --> 2:46:59.720 be equal footing, or more equal footing between the different 2:46:59.720 --> 2:47:02.960 impure powers. Right. He just wants France to be like 2:47:03.000 --> 2:47:17.680 a major world power, imperialist power as well. Right. The 2:47:17.720 --> 2:47:20.800 power the US gets from being the world reserve currency 2:47:20.840 --> 2:47:24.600 is extremely important. So what is the reserve currency? The 2:47:24.640 --> 2:47:27.440 reserve currency is the currency that, like all global trade 2:47:27.600 --> 2:47:31.000 is done in. And because it's the currency that all 2:47:31.040 --> 2:47:33.440 global trade is done in, all of the world's central 2:47:33.480 --> 2:47:36.080 banks have to hold like a bunch of that currency, right, 2:47:36.120 --> 2:47:38.879 And that that's why it's called the reserve currency. But 2:47:39.000 --> 2:47:41.320 I say all of the world central banks have to 2:47:41.360 --> 2:47:43.800 hold it except for the United States, which does not 2:47:43.920 --> 2:47:46.120 have to hold dollars because it's our fucking currency and 2:47:46.160 --> 2:47:49.080 if we want more, we can just print more. Right. 2:47:49.480 --> 2:47:52.160 So this is time they called like seniorage privilege. But 2:47:52.240 --> 2:47:54.920 like that, the power of this right is enormous, and 2:47:55.240 --> 2:47:58.240 the dollar status is the reserve currency is actually really 2:47:58.240 --> 2:48:00.840 important to us in terms of explaining these sort of 2:48:00.920 --> 2:48:04.480 balance of payments deficits and crises. So, okay, here's a 2:48:04.480 --> 2:48:07.320 Saint Louis fed on why countries have to hold wood 2:48:07.360 --> 2:48:08.240 reserve currencies. 2:48:08.640 --> 2:48:09.119 Quote. 2:48:09.520 --> 2:48:12.040 Governments and or es. Central banks keep you know, like 2:48:12.160 --> 2:48:16.440 reserve currency on hand for several reasons, including exchange management, 2:48:16.959 --> 2:48:20.439 insurance against sudden loss of ability to pay for imports 2:48:20.480 --> 2:48:23.920 caused by a halt capital inflows such as foreign direct 2:48:23.959 --> 2:48:27.440 investment to the domestic market, foreign purchases of domestic stocks 2:48:27.520 --> 2:48:30.160 or balls, or domestic borrowing from the rest of the world. 2:48:30.959 --> 2:48:35.720 Insurance for other economic contingencies such as wars or natural disasters. Now, 2:48:36.000 --> 2:48:39.800 the second one is what's of concern to us, right, 2:48:39.840 --> 2:48:43.720 it's insurance against sudden loss of ability to pay for imports. 2:48:44.280 --> 2:48:47.240 And that's what's commonly known as a balance of payments 2:48:47.280 --> 2:48:49.959 crisis in the current day, when you run out of 2:48:50.040 --> 2:48:52.040 dollars to pay for your imports or to pay for 2:48:52.080 --> 2:48:54.400 your foreign debt, which is a real issue too, right, 2:48:54.480 --> 2:48:56.320 Usually your money goes to the foreign debt and then 2:48:56.320 --> 2:48:58.480 you're out of currency and then you can't you know, 2:48:58.600 --> 2:49:01.800 like import more shit. This is a balance of payments crisis, 2:49:02.320 --> 2:49:05.680 and they're actually pretty common or decently common in a 2:49:05.720 --> 2:49:09.720 bunch of developing countries, and they are almost always completely catastrophic. 2:49:10.040 --> 2:49:12.760 It's one of the foremost causes of modern revolutions because 2:49:12.760 --> 2:49:14.480 when you have one of these balance of payments crises, 2:49:14.480 --> 2:49:16.959 you can't afford to fucking import things because you don't 2:49:16.959 --> 2:49:19.360 have enough dollars. You can't import oil or you know, 2:49:19.520 --> 2:49:22.840 fertilizer or food because you don't have enough dollars to 2:49:22.879 --> 2:49:24.520 do it, and your government has gone through all of 2:49:24.520 --> 2:49:26.840 the dollar reserves. As I talked about in the ED, 2:49:27.440 --> 2:49:29.720 Sri Lanka is probably the most recent example that the 2:49:29.760 --> 2:49:32.400 country you know, just ran out of dollars to purchase 2:49:32.440 --> 2:49:36.360 shit with, and the ensuing unbelievably hideous shit that everyone 2:49:36.360 --> 2:49:38.400 had to suffer through cause people to burn down the 2:49:38.440 --> 2:49:41.480 president's fucking mansion. You will know, and I said, this 2:49:41.520 --> 2:49:43.600 is before you will know if the US has a 2:49:43.640 --> 2:49:45.840 bounance of payments crisis, because you will see the smoke 2:49:45.879 --> 2:49:48.280 and flames outside of your window, and it's such. It's 2:49:48.280 --> 2:49:50.480 like Sri Lanka, right like the revolution in Sudan. Like 2:49:50.480 --> 2:49:52.160 the reason that there's a civil war in Sudan right 2:49:52.200 --> 2:49:54.480 now to some extent is because of one of these 2:49:54.560 --> 2:49:57.840 crises that set off a revolution. Even though you know 2:49:57.959 --> 2:50:00.680 What usually happens in these cases, right, is that a 2:50:00.720 --> 2:50:03.760 country has one of these crises, and that someone, usually 2:50:03.840 --> 2:50:07.120 the International Monetary Fund, will give them a loan, and 2:50:07.160 --> 2:50:09.400 so they will give them dollars in exchange for you know, 2:50:09.600 --> 2:50:11.800 like turning the entire economy of that country into a 2:50:11.800 --> 2:50:15.360 debt servicing machine, which means, you know, like taking food 2:50:15.400 --> 2:50:17.240 out of the mouths of babies to pay that debt back. 2:50:17.520 --> 2:50:20.680 And this also often causes revolutions, right, Like, so, like 2:50:20.720 --> 2:50:22.879 Sudan had a balance of payments crisis and in like 2:50:22.920 --> 2:50:25.960 twenty eighteen, late twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, and they eventually 2:50:26.000 --> 2:50:28.720 got an IMF bailout deal, but like the price of 2:50:28.760 --> 2:50:31.400 bread increased by two hundred fifty percent and people drove 2:50:31.480 --> 2:50:35.160 omer al Basher out of power. However, come U, you 2:50:35.200 --> 2:50:37.240 will note that I have been saying that these crises 2:50:37.280 --> 2:50:41.040 are caused because countries run out of dollars. But we 2:50:41.080 --> 2:50:44.959 can't run out of dollars because those are United States dollars. 2:50:45.120 --> 2:50:48.320 We can just fucking print them. We literally cannot have 2:50:48.640 --> 2:50:52.240 this kind of bounce of payments crisis because it's all 2:50:52.400 --> 2:50:56.240 our own money, and we can just print shit in 2:50:56.920 --> 2:51:02.520 our own money. Jesus Christ, this is so silly, losing 2:51:02.520 --> 2:51:05.520 my mind, Like it's not possible, you can't do it. 2:51:05.600 --> 2:51:10.160 Oh my god. Now, however, why is the law like this, right, Like, 2:51:10.200 --> 2:51:13.120 why is there a law written talking about the US 2:51:13.200 --> 2:51:16.400 as if it could have a bowets of payments deficit? Again, Like, 2:51:16.680 --> 2:51:19.560 right up until nineteen seventy one, when Nixon took the 2:51:19.680 --> 2:51:23.840 US off the gold standard, it actually was possible to, 2:51:24.720 --> 2:51:26.520 you know, make the US run out of dollars because 2:51:26.520 --> 2:51:27.960 you could run out of gold. And this is what 2:51:28.040 --> 2:51:29.680 like the goal was trying to do, you know, by 2:51:29.760 --> 2:51:31.800 like making the US convert all his dollars into gold. 2:51:32.560 --> 2:51:34.360 But Nixon just said, fuck it. The dollars of floating 2:51:34.360 --> 2:51:37.840 currency now, and since its value isn't pegged to a 2:51:37.840 --> 2:51:40.880 certain amount of anything else, right, And that's the way 2:51:40.879 --> 2:51:43.080 it's been ever since, we can't have these crises. Now. 2:51:43.080 --> 2:51:45.800 The countries that have these crises in modern day are 2:51:45.879 --> 2:51:49.720 ones that peg their currency to like a specific amount 2:51:49.760 --> 2:51:52.960 of dollars, right, And they tend to run out of 2:51:53.000 --> 2:51:55.320 the reserves trying to like stabilize the value of their 2:51:55.320 --> 2:51:59.199 currency by offering conversions of their currency into the dollar 2:51:59.240 --> 2:52:02.000 at the official rate, by like letting people go convert 2:52:02.080 --> 2:52:05.879 their currency as of dollars. But again, we can't have 2:52:06.040 --> 2:52:10.280 that because it's dollars. We owe shit in dollars. And also, 2:52:10.320 --> 2:52:12.080 in order to have like a full on balance payments 2:52:12.080 --> 2:52:15.560 crisis where you can't pay for things right, it requires 2:52:16.000 --> 2:52:18.400 no one to be like willing to lend you money. 2:52:18.600 --> 2:52:21.200 And it's like, okay, like who is not going to 2:52:21.280 --> 2:52:23.760 lend the United States of America money? Like are you 2:52:24.080 --> 2:52:25.879 kidding me? This is this is the fagas crisis of 2:52:25.920 --> 2:52:28.800 all time. This bill, however, was passed again in like 2:52:28.879 --> 2:52:32.039 nineteen seventy four, and it was only three years after 2:52:32.080 --> 2:52:35.440 the US was off the gold standard, and so people 2:52:35.440 --> 2:52:37.959 were like, Okay, we're going to do this thing in 2:52:38.080 --> 2:52:40.040 case we ever go back to a situation where this 2:52:40.080 --> 2:52:44.279 stuff is possible. But right now, like we literally structurally 2:52:44.360 --> 2:52:47.840 cannot have a balance of payments crisis, Like we can't 2:52:47.840 --> 2:52:51.279 have one. You can't have a balance of payments deficits. 2:52:52.040 --> 2:52:55.199 This is not the same as a trade deficit. Trump 2:52:55.240 --> 2:52:57.119 is trying to argue that's, oh, we have a trade deficit. 2:52:57.200 --> 2:52:59.440 Our current's account, which is like the trade account is 2:52:59.480 --> 2:53:03.200 like four percent below balance. But then if you look 2:53:03.240 --> 2:53:05.120 at the capital account and you put them together a 2:53:05.200 --> 2:53:08.000 balances because that's just how it works. Oh, that means 2:53:08.000 --> 2:53:12.279 we're in trouble and nonsense, absolutely bullshit. He's also claiming 2:53:12.280 --> 2:53:14.680 that there's like fundamental international payment problems, which I know 2:53:14.720 --> 2:53:17.720 there aren't, because fundamental international payment problems means you can't 2:53:18.480 --> 2:53:23.879 pay for your imports or like your debt, and if 2:53:23.879 --> 2:53:28.800 we weren't able to do that, you would all know. So, ah, 2:53:28.840 --> 2:53:31.440 they're going to lose this lawsuit because this is the 2:53:31.480 --> 2:53:35.720 fakest crisis that has ever existed. And now you know 2:53:35.800 --> 2:53:39.920 how fake it is, and also what balance of payments 2:53:39.959 --> 2:53:42.320 is you know? Okay, I'm going to close on a 2:53:42.400 --> 2:53:45.600 story about this, which is that there is a scenario 2:53:45.640 --> 2:53:50.720 in which this knowledge has actually saved countries before, and specifically, 2:53:50.760 --> 2:53:53.920 like the country that this saved was Cuba. There's like 2:53:53.959 --> 2:53:57.760 the Cuban Revolution, right, and immediately after the Cuban Revolution, 2:53:58.240 --> 2:54:01.320 the government it's not like at their communists. Yet there's 2:54:01.360 --> 2:54:03.640 this very very short window where it's like not quite 2:54:03.800 --> 2:54:06.320 entirely clear what the fuck is going to be going 2:54:06.320 --> 2:54:09.879 on with this new like Cuban government, and the government 2:54:10.040 --> 2:54:13.400 sends chay Guevara to the US to negotiate with a 2:54:13.400 --> 2:54:18.360 bunch of American banks, right, and che Guevara actually understands 2:54:18.360 --> 2:54:20.560 this stuff, right, he knows a balance of payments is, 2:54:20.600 --> 2:54:23.440 he knows he's able to like talk to all of 2:54:23.480 --> 2:54:25.520 the sort of Manhattan bankers who are talking about this 2:54:25.560 --> 2:54:28.959 stuff on their terms, right, and like they literally literally 2:54:29.000 --> 2:54:30.640 the line they say about it was like, yeah, he 2:54:30.640 --> 2:54:32.640 talks like a banker, right, he understands bounce of payments, 2:54:32.680 --> 2:54:35.280 He understands all of this stuff and what he's able 2:54:35.360 --> 2:54:38.680 to do. And this is critically like why the nation 2:54:38.840 --> 2:54:43.120 of Cuba, like like why the Cuban Revolution succeeded was 2:54:43.160 --> 2:54:45.880 that he was able to get the US to give 2:54:45.959 --> 2:54:49.199 him all of his gold. But because he was able 2:54:49.240 --> 2:54:51.640 to convince these bankers, because he understood what they were 2:54:51.680 --> 2:54:54.240 talking about in their language, and these able convinced the 2:54:54.360 --> 2:54:57.080 US governments to get him all this fucking gold because 2:54:57.080 --> 2:55:00.640 he understood how the shit works. And that's why Cuba 2:55:00.680 --> 2:55:03.119 was like functional as a country after that, because they 2:55:03.120 --> 2:55:05.120 had managed to get all of their gold reserves, which 2:55:05.120 --> 2:55:08.320 previously had been being held in the US. So you know, 2:55:09.000 --> 2:55:11.240 you never know when you too might be at the 2:55:11.240 --> 2:55:13.880 head of a better revolution or you might be the 2:55:13.920 --> 2:55:17.160 one person in the new Revolutionary Coalition who understands what 2:55:17.240 --> 2:55:19.520 balance of payments is and you too, can get your 2:55:19.520 --> 2:55:21.879 gold out of the United States before the government realizes 2:55:21.879 --> 2:55:24.240 that you're communists and like would have like locked it 2:55:24.280 --> 2:55:29.879 down and frozen it and taken the gold. So this 2:55:29.959 --> 2:55:31.920 is what it could happen here, the podcast that helps 2:55:31.959 --> 2:55:35.879 you take your country's gold reserves like che guevara, Oh. 2:55:35.680 --> 2:55:56.240 Boy, this is it could happen here. Executive Disorder our 2:55:56.240 --> 2:55:58.600 weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House. They're 2:55:58.600 --> 2:56:01.240 crumbling world and what it means for you. I'm Garrison 2:56:01.280 --> 2:56:04.280 Davis today and joined by James Stout Robert Evans, with 2:56:04.360 --> 2:56:08.039 a segment later on by Mia Wong. This episode, we 2:56:08.080 --> 2:56:11.440 are covering the week of March fourth to March eleventh. 2:56:11.959 --> 2:56:14.879 Some small news items here at the top. Ahead of 2:56:15.160 --> 2:56:18.560 National Espresso Martini Day this Sunday, Buffalo Wild Wings is 2:56:18.640 --> 2:56:23.800 releasing a wing flavored espresso Proteiny cocktail made with muscle 2:56:23.840 --> 2:56:27.520 milk protein powder infused with the Buffalo Dry rub, which 2:56:27.560 --> 2:56:29.080 also coats the rim of the glass. 2:56:29.400 --> 2:56:33.640 I gotta say when we stationed a reporter permanently at 2:56:33.640 --> 2:56:37.200 Buffalo Wild Wings headquarters. A lot of people said why 2:56:37.200 --> 2:56:39.840 not somewhere in one of the many war zones in 2:56:39.879 --> 2:56:42.360 the world. You know, why not in Washington, DC in 2:56:42.400 --> 2:56:45.880 the press corps. And I shouted that person down until 2:56:45.879 --> 2:56:49.160 they cried. And today today I've been proven right. 2:56:49.640 --> 2:56:52.120 We will be doing a detailed report on the espresso 2:56:52.240 --> 2:56:57.600 proteiny next week, anxiously awaiting the release of it this weekend. 2:56:57.800 --> 2:57:01.000 Yeah, I'm not touching that shit. Yes, I am excited 2:57:01.040 --> 2:57:04.200 that they have finally decided to put muscle milk powder 2:57:04.400 --> 2:57:06.039 in an espresso martini. 2:57:06.200 --> 2:57:09.400 It's one of the fouls. Every word in this sentence 2:57:09.440 --> 2:57:12.280 gets worse. The dry rub, I think, is much more dangerous. 2:57:12.280 --> 2:57:17.280 Frankly, it's the dry raum muscle milk combo. You're gonna 2:57:17.280 --> 2:57:20.720 be sneezing as you drink it. It's imagine if someone 2:57:20.760 --> 2:57:23.480 had just come out with spicy packs of muscle milk, 2:57:23.800 --> 2:57:25.440 like pre mixed muscle milk that. 2:57:25.600 --> 2:57:28.959 Was on spice. I'd be shocked, and that didn't already exist. 2:57:29.000 --> 2:57:31.840 To be honest, I mean it, it'll kill you, It'll 2:57:31.920 --> 2:57:32.720 kill your toilet. 2:57:33.360 --> 2:57:36.280 What is beautiful to me though, and what I should not? 2:57:36.440 --> 2:57:39.879 This goes back to our sponsor's buffalo wild wings caring 2:57:40.000 --> 2:57:43.120 very deeply about human beings. Muscle milk is in the 2:57:43.160 --> 2:57:46.560 bottom third of protein powders when it comes to lead exposure. 2:57:47.160 --> 2:57:49.200 Now that's still more lead than you're supposed to have 2:57:50.480 --> 2:57:51.320 the bottom third. 2:57:51.720 --> 2:57:52.720 It's one of the better ones. 2:57:52.840 --> 2:57:54.000 It's one of the better ones. 2:57:55.120 --> 2:57:59.760 Few other small news items. Erica Kirk has been appointed 2:57:59.760 --> 2:58:02.520 to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors. 2:58:02.840 --> 2:58:06.720 Obviously, Aerica air Force makes sense. 2:58:07.480 --> 2:58:08.959 Charlie Kirk also is heard on this board. 2:58:09.320 --> 2:58:13.119 And Ben Shapiro's eyebrows are not actually that big. Those 2:58:13.200 --> 2:58:16.280 videos are manipulated media. 2:58:16.920 --> 2:58:19.440 I saw those and I knew they were fake and 2:58:19.640 --> 2:58:22.640 chose not to prove to myself that they were fake 2:58:22.760 --> 2:58:25.360 because I needed something that day. But I guess I'm 2:58:25.400 --> 2:58:26.080 okay today. 2:58:26.720 --> 2:58:30.320 I haven't seen these. Oh wow, I'm just seeing these 2:58:30.320 --> 2:58:31.080 for the first time. 2:58:31.800 --> 2:58:32.240 Wow. 2:58:32.720 --> 2:58:34.880 It's like a caterpillar has crawled up there. 2:58:35.480 --> 2:58:37.320 The beauty of how the meme worked is that I 2:58:37.360 --> 2:58:39.120 saw it for the first time right after waking up, 2:58:39.200 --> 2:58:40.720 and I was like, well, that's got to be fake. 2:58:40.760 --> 2:58:43.440 And then I saw five more pictures of different pictures 2:58:43.440 --> 2:58:46.880 with the eyebrows, and so I got this beautiful moment 2:58:46.920 --> 2:58:48.480 and it was it wasn't more than about a minute, 2:58:48.520 --> 2:58:50.840 but this moment of magic, like when you're a child 2:58:50.879 --> 2:58:54.280 on Christmas morning, like this might be real. Maybe this 2:58:54.400 --> 2:58:54.800 is real. 2:58:55.760 --> 2:58:59.760 It's one of the more useful uses for ai jen 2:59:00.400 --> 2:59:01.800 a altered videos. 2:59:02.120 --> 2:59:03.080 It's turned me around. 2:59:03.360 --> 2:59:05.440 You could apply like the you know, these these very 2:59:05.480 --> 2:59:08.760 subtle changes to a lot of different videos fairly quickly. 2:59:08.800 --> 2:59:11.120 So it's not just one you know, photoshopped or like 2:59:11.160 --> 2:59:13.800 you know, visual effects video, but there's like five, you know, 2:59:13.879 --> 2:59:17.160 handheld cell phone videos that look pretty genuine and if 2:59:17.160 --> 2:59:19.080 you just make enough of them, you're like, oh this this, 2:59:19.080 --> 2:59:20.400 this seems this seems real. 2:59:20.800 --> 2:59:22.800 Yeah, And I mean, Garrison, you're bringing up the part 2:59:22.840 --> 2:59:25.320 of this that actually is evidence of a danger. But 2:59:25.400 --> 2:59:29.440 let's all just enjoy this for just a second more. Okay, 2:59:29.560 --> 2:59:30.160 we're done. 2:59:30.840 --> 2:59:34.000 Hundreds of people have returned to a free after having 2:59:34.040 --> 2:59:37.400 been removed nine years ago, in some cases by Turkey 2:59:37.520 --> 2:59:40.680 proxy forces and s and a many of them will 2:59:40.680 --> 2:59:43.440 have returned to find their orchids and their homes destroyed, 2:59:43.800 --> 2:59:46.640 but at least now they can begin to rebuild. 2:59:47.200 --> 2:59:49.160 For an idea of how important a fhrene was like 2:59:49.280 --> 2:59:51.560 one of the most common nom du gueers that I 2:59:51.600 --> 2:59:55.039 came across when talking to YEPG and WYITEPG fighters was 2:59:55.080 --> 2:59:57.879 have Al Lafreen, Like it's a name that you pick 2:59:58.040 --> 3:00:00.160 because you're not going to use your real name as 3:00:00.160 --> 3:00:02.520 a revolutionary fighter. And a lot of people, some of 3:00:02.520 --> 3:00:04.120 them came from a friend, some of them was just 3:00:04.160 --> 3:00:06.840 a symbol of you know what the Curds had lost 3:00:06.879 --> 3:00:09.480 due to Turkish military aggression. Yeah, but this is a 3:00:09.560 --> 3:00:10.560 very big deal for them. 3:00:10.959 --> 3:00:13.920 Yeah, it's like, I know I've been critical of STG, 3:00:14.040 --> 3:00:15.920 but like I'm glad to see this happening. 3:00:16.280 --> 3:00:16.520 Yeah. 3:00:16.959 --> 3:00:20.320 Also in Syria, Sipan Himo has been appointed as a 3:00:20.400 --> 3:00:24.680 Deputy Minister of Defense for Eastern Syria, which would be 3:00:24.800 --> 3:00:26.600 I guess the way they're dividing up now would be 3:00:26.600 --> 3:00:29.439 the area which include Syrian Kurdistan. 3:00:29.959 --> 3:00:30.840 And we just. 3:00:30.840 --> 3:00:35.240 Learned today very sadly that Salam Muslim, who's one of 3:00:35.280 --> 3:00:38.600 the co chairs of the PYD, the Democratic Union Party, 3:00:39.040 --> 3:00:42.039 has passed away, which is yeah, pretty sad. 3:00:42.040 --> 3:00:42.640 Rest in peace. 3:00:43.480 --> 3:00:46.480 Last week, the Department of Justice finally released some of 3:00:46.520 --> 3:00:50.440 the missing files related to four interviews between nineteen with 3:00:50.520 --> 3:00:53.600 a protected source who claimed that Epstein introduced her to 3:00:53.640 --> 3:00:56.280 Trump in the eighties when she was between the ages 3:00:56.320 --> 3:00:59.200 of thirteen and fifteen, and that Trump has actually abused her. 3:00:59.680 --> 3:01:04.200 The released documents r FBI memos summarizing three interviews and 3:01:04.280 --> 3:01:08.480 a crisis intake form. Yeah, this victim received a financial 3:01:08.480 --> 3:01:11.040 settlement from the FSCNA state in twenty twenty one. An 3:01:11.160 --> 3:01:14.320 NPR found that there are still thirty seven missing pages 3:01:14.640 --> 3:01:16.039 related to these interviews. 3:01:16.600 --> 3:01:20.400 Yeah. It's also worth noting that the FBI is currently 3:01:20.920 --> 3:01:25.600 looking into Zoro Ranch. What was lunch Zoro Ranch in 3:01:25.920 --> 3:01:30.000 New Mexico. This was Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico property, and 3:01:30.040 --> 3:01:31.960 it's where he talked a lot about when he would 3:01:32.000 --> 3:01:35.160 talk about his plans to like breed a bunch of 3:01:35.240 --> 3:01:38.560 children and stuff with his DNA or whatever he like. 3:01:38.680 --> 3:01:41.800 Zoro Ranch was the epicenter of this, and it's become 3:01:41.879 --> 3:01:44.640 clear in the documents release that in terms of the 3:01:44.680 --> 3:01:48.520 amount of trafficking and the amount of abuse of trafficked 3:01:48.640 --> 3:01:53.080 children that was done there at least equal to his island. Now, 3:01:53.560 --> 3:01:56.360 this ranch goes under a new name and it's owned 3:01:56.440 --> 3:02:02.640 by a new person, and we'll talk about who exactly 3:02:02.680 --> 3:02:06.200 that is in a second. But there were several attempts 3:02:06.240 --> 3:02:09.520 by local law enforcement to investigate the ranch, particularly to 3:02:09.520 --> 3:02:13.040 dig for human remains, but those were kind of stymied 3:02:13.120 --> 3:02:18.360 by ongoing FBI investigations that seem very shady in retrospect, 3:02:18.400 --> 3:02:20.920 given how long they waited to look for bodies on 3:02:20.959 --> 3:02:23.160 the ranch. But they're doing that now. I don't know 3:02:23.160 --> 3:02:24.879 if they're going to find anything. A lot of the 3:02:25.040 --> 3:02:30.040 talk about bodies is in like individual anonymous reports that said, 3:02:30.480 --> 3:02:33.920 I'm glad they're looking. They should be looking at this ranch. 3:02:34.680 --> 3:02:37.440 And now I can give the promised punchline, which is 3:02:37.440 --> 3:02:40.000 that the current guy who owns Jeffrey Epstein's ranch is 3:02:40.080 --> 3:02:44.959 Don Hauffines, who's running for state comptroller in Texas and 3:02:45.000 --> 3:02:47.280 who used to run one of the big dealerships in 3:02:47.320 --> 3:02:51.080 my childhood. Huffines has it in this case, Huffins might 3:02:51.120 --> 3:02:56.960 have evidence that Jeffrey Epstein murdered people. Great is that 3:02:57.160 --> 3:02:57.520 is bleak. 3:02:58.440 --> 3:03:02.240 Let's start with Christy no As we reported last week, 3:03:02.480 --> 3:03:04.959 it looks like Christi Nome's time at the Department of 3:03:05.080 --> 3:03:08.520 Homeland Security is about to come to an end. Did 3:03:08.560 --> 3:03:11.600 seem that at the time that Trump announced this via 3:03:11.760 --> 3:03:16.400 truth Noome was unaware of her removal and at this 3:03:16.520 --> 3:03:21.600 footage of her speaking at an event as people become 3:03:21.680 --> 3:03:24.240 aware that she's lost her job. But shortly afterwards, she 3:03:24.280 --> 3:03:28.039 posted on x dot com the Everything website, thank you 3:03:28.120 --> 3:03:31.120 at potus for appointing me as a special envoy for 3:03:31.200 --> 3:03:35.000 Shield of the Americas. When you see this Shield of 3:03:35.040 --> 3:03:37.360 the America's this is not Christian. When you see the 3:03:37.360 --> 3:03:40.000 Shield of America's website, you will fucking be laughing. Then 3:03:42.560 --> 3:03:46.279 at SEC Rubio and a SEC War are incredible leaders 3:03:46.320 --> 3:03:48.400 and I look forward to working with them closely to 3:03:48.440 --> 3:03:51.640 dismantle cartels poured drugs into our nation and killed our 3:03:51.720 --> 3:03:53.280 children and grandchildren. 3:03:54.200 --> 3:03:57.120 That There's a lot more in this tweet. Yeah, I 3:03:57.200 --> 3:04:02.080 appreciate how Trump congratulated on being an excellent Secretary of 3:04:02.160 --> 3:04:09.600 in quotation Mark's homeland. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, good stuff. Yeah, 3:04:09.680 --> 3:04:10.240 it was great. 3:04:10.720 --> 3:04:14.320 There has been some speculation about known being fired because 3:04:14.360 --> 3:04:18.120 of vehicles that she purchased for DHS. I've linked to 3:04:18.160 --> 3:04:22.160 a bunch of those contracts. I found the contracts that 3:04:22.400 --> 3:04:25.560 money is relatively trivial when you look at the massive 3:04:25.600 --> 3:04:27.879 budget that they have, and I'm really not sure that 3:04:27.920 --> 3:04:29.800 this was a reason, and I've seen no evidence to 3:04:29.840 --> 3:04:33.440 suggest that it was. What I have seen is that 3:04:33.480 --> 3:04:36.760 Gnome is going to be replaced by Mark Wayne Mullen. 3:04:37.200 --> 3:04:41.480 Mullen is a bombastic MAGA supporter. He's probably best known 3:04:41.760 --> 3:04:44.880 with trying to start a fight in Congress with Sean 3:04:44.879 --> 3:04:50.600 O'Brien and generally being an extremely loyal support of Trump 3:04:50.800 --> 3:04:53.480 in all cases, apart from January sixth, where for a 3:04:53.520 --> 3:04:58.279 while he supported prosecutions. Now he's much more like equivocating 3:04:58.320 --> 3:05:01.280 on that. He also at one point attempted to set 3:05:01.360 --> 3:05:05.760 up his own evacuation of US citizens from Afghanistan during 3:05:05.760 --> 3:05:10.880 the Biden deministration. He is an enrolled citizen the Cherokee Nation, which, 3:05:11.400 --> 3:05:13.520 as I commented before, has been the source of far 3:05:13.560 --> 3:05:17.080 too many democratic critiques which are really kind of disgusting 3:05:17.120 --> 3:05:17.720 and bigoted. 3:05:17.840 --> 3:05:18.480 Yeah. 3:05:18.520 --> 3:05:20.840 God, there are so many things to be upset about 3:05:20.920 --> 3:05:24.000 Quae Munnin about, and being Cherokee is not one of them. 3:05:24.040 --> 3:05:26.800 And like policing how you think indigenous people should look 3:05:26.920 --> 3:05:29.879 or suggesting that like, yeah, he doesn't fit your trope 3:05:29.920 --> 3:05:33.200 of indigenous people is in itself bigoted and offensive. 3:05:33.400 --> 3:05:37.040 Yeah, as a general rule, if you're like finding reasons 3:05:37.600 --> 3:05:39.920 or reading someone else who's finding reasons to say this 3:05:40.000 --> 3:05:42.840 person who has lived their entire life as a member 3:05:42.879 --> 3:05:45.760 of this tribe, isn't really that you're basing it on 3:05:45.959 --> 3:05:49.760 some form of racist US government logic from one decade 3:05:49.879 --> 3:05:52.959 or another, because it's changed over time, as opposed to 3:05:53.400 --> 3:05:57.320 how the tribe actually considers membership. Right, which, yeah, is it? 3:05:57.480 --> 3:05:59.879 I guess what should matter most. I don't. I shouldn't 3:05:59.879 --> 3:06:01.200 have an opinion on it either way. 3:06:01.280 --> 3:06:04.600 But it's not what you claim, it's who claims you away. 3:06:04.600 --> 3:06:07.160 I've had it right right exactly. It's like the way family. 3:06:07.400 --> 3:06:09.000 I don't know. I shouldn't say anymore because it's not 3:06:09.000 --> 3:06:09.720 my fucking place. 3:06:10.120 --> 3:06:13.199 Yeah, I wish other people would adopt the same science. 3:06:15.000 --> 3:06:18.800 Mullin is a really big border hawk. He's been incredibly 3:06:18.840 --> 3:06:22.879 combative in Congress. I don't think that this will make 3:06:23.040 --> 3:06:27.720 DHS any less aggressive or violent. Clearly, Gnomes Tenure had 3:06:27.800 --> 3:06:30.800 become unpopular right in the same way that Baveno had 3:06:30.840 --> 3:06:34.160 become unpopular. But I don't think this signals a dramatic 3:06:34.400 --> 3:06:38.400 change in DHS leadership or you know, towards respecting people's 3:06:38.400 --> 3:06:41.760 basic dignity and rights. Now, I want to talk a 3:06:41.800 --> 3:06:45.160 little bit about the Shield of the Americas. The program 3:06:45.160 --> 3:06:48.240 was announced last weekend at Trump's golf resort in southern Florida. 3:06:48.720 --> 3:06:51.760 It currently has a web page with it a really 3:06:51.800 --> 3:06:55.240 incredible placeholder graphic. Maybe I should just share this. If 3:06:55.240 --> 3:06:57.480 you go to Shield of the America's. 3:06:56.959 --> 3:07:00.879 Dot site, I was wondering if that was a real website. 3:07:01.000 --> 3:07:03.480 I think it is, like, do we know that that's 3:07:03.520 --> 3:07:04.400 actually what they. 3:07:05.240 --> 3:07:08.080 So I'm a little unsure because I couldn't find like 3:07:08.120 --> 3:07:13.600 a government contract for like the website hosting right that. 3:07:13.800 --> 3:07:15.720 I don't think I've ever found a government contract to 3:07:15.760 --> 3:07:18.840 the website hosting. So it's a placeholder. And then it 3:07:18.879 --> 3:07:23.320 has videos. If you click access content, it appears to 3:07:23.360 --> 3:07:27.119 be essentially like a drop box huh for videos of 3:07:27.440 --> 3:07:30.680 the Shield of the America's event. Yeah, it seems to 3:07:30.720 --> 3:07:31.240 be real. 3:07:31.600 --> 3:07:33.800 It does seem to be based on the inclusion of 3:07:33.840 --> 3:07:37.039 these videos. But the main page with the with the 3:07:37.080 --> 3:07:37.840 little shit. 3:07:37.800 --> 3:07:38.879 That's definitely their logo. 3:07:39.280 --> 3:07:42.119 Yeah, it looks like it's from two thousand and five 3:07:42.440 --> 3:07:44.400 in the most enduring way possible. 3:07:44.560 --> 3:07:47.959 You know, someone booted up Microsoft paint and went to 3:07:48.040 --> 3:07:48.600 town on this. 3:07:49.040 --> 3:07:51.199 Someone had graphic design as a passion. 3:07:51.320 --> 3:07:53.880 Yeah, it looks kind of Gi Joe ask, it looks 3:07:53.920 --> 3:07:57.400 kind of like American Ninja Warrior ass Yeah. Like it's 3:07:57.520 --> 3:08:01.519 it's a very specific, like an era of of design choices. 3:08:01.160 --> 3:08:07.039 Here this shield graphic, it's fascinating much to discuss anyway, 3:08:07.360 --> 3:08:10.720 Moving past a graphic currently, the agreement. The Shield of 3:08:10.800 --> 3:08:15.600 America's agreement was signed by representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Costanica, Ecuador, 3:08:15.680 --> 3:08:20.080 El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, of Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, 3:08:20.120 --> 3:08:24.080 and the United States. Evidently, for those keeping track of 3:08:24.120 --> 3:08:28.000 countries in the Americas, it's leaves Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela, 3:08:28.040 --> 3:08:31.200 along with other Caribbean island nations. There was also a 3:08:31.240 --> 3:08:34.720 representative from Chile's president elect, who obviously couldn't sign because 3:08:34.720 --> 3:08:37.480 they don't have the authority to do so. Yet, what 3:08:37.640 --> 3:08:41.879 it seems to be is an extension of what we've 3:08:41.920 --> 3:08:45.680 seen already right of the quote unquote Donroe doctrine. 3:08:46.920 --> 3:08:49.280 Can we just call it the Trump doctrine? Why do 3:08:49.320 --> 3:08:49.880 we gotta do this? 3:08:52.160 --> 3:08:54.120 I think the don Road auction actually is the correct 3:08:54.160 --> 3:08:55.360 way to refer to it, as. 3:08:56.160 --> 3:09:00.760 I just Trump himself has used it and it annoys me. Unfortunately, 3:09:00.879 --> 3:09:02.920 so annoys me. Yeah, me both, buddy. 3:09:03.040 --> 3:09:05.160 I know it's what he calls it, but it annoys me. 3:09:05.240 --> 3:09:06.519 It's extremely unfortunate. 3:09:06.720 --> 3:09:08.680 But it also links it to an actual lineage of 3:09:08.959 --> 3:09:10.440 US foreign policy behavior. 3:09:10.600 --> 3:09:13.000 Yes, yes, yeah, yeah. 3:09:13.040 --> 3:09:15.600 The Trump corollary to the Monroe doctrine would perhaps have 3:09:15.680 --> 3:09:17.840 been a more conventional way. 3:09:18.080 --> 3:09:20.840 That would be the dignified way to refer to it. 3:09:20.959 --> 3:09:23.160 That would be the way like a historian would hope 3:09:23.200 --> 3:09:24.160 to refer to it. 3:09:24.600 --> 3:09:27.880 The Unfortunately, dignity is not a thing that it's abounding. 3:09:27.400 --> 3:09:28.720 At this time. No, it's not. 3:09:29.080 --> 3:09:32.320 It's not first as tragedy, second as first yeah, and 3:09:32.360 --> 3:09:33.560 then it's really big fast. 3:09:33.879 --> 3:09:36.240 I guess the best way to explain Short of America 3:09:36.280 --> 3:09:38.560 is is to explain the conference it was hosted the 3:09:38.720 --> 3:09:41.960 day before at Trump's golf resort, which was the Department 3:09:42.000 --> 3:09:45.199 of Defense, sometimes referred to as the Department of War. 3:09:45.160 --> 3:09:48.440 But not when they're talking about military action in Iran, 3:09:48.560 --> 3:09:50.480 in which it's the Department of Defense again. 3:09:50.680 --> 3:09:53.120 Yeah yeah, yeah, Well, because that's not a war. The 3:09:54.040 --> 3:10:00.000 DD hosted the America's Countercutel Conference. The correct a brief 3:10:00.360 --> 3:10:03.119 and according to the Secretary of Defense is AC three. 3:10:03.959 --> 3:10:06.200 Just so you know, and I think it's best to 3:10:06.240 --> 3:10:09.480 explain this with the strikes that were carried out just 3:10:09.520 --> 3:10:11.000 a few days before this, right on the third of 3:10:11.040 --> 3:10:13.880 Marty in the six so much southcomb so that that 3:10:13.920 --> 3:10:17.520 would be the US Regional Command, which encompasses South America 3:10:17.520 --> 3:10:22.400 and Central America, announced it quote launched operations against quote 3:10:22.640 --> 3:10:25.279 designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador. 3:10:26.040 --> 3:10:28.119 We saw videos of. 3:10:28.080 --> 3:10:32.800 Like these very small, very isolated jungle outposts being struck, 3:10:33.720 --> 3:10:36.520 and then we saw videos of helicopters deploying troops who 3:10:36.560 --> 3:10:39.840 did not appear to be United States troops. It's uncle 3:10:39.959 --> 3:10:42.440 exactly like what the munitions or what the thing doing 3:10:42.480 --> 3:10:45.320 that the strike at the start of those videos were. 3:10:45.920 --> 3:10:49.080 But it seems that the US is working at the 3:10:49.160 --> 3:10:53.040 very least with Ecuadorian troops. Potentially, the US is just 3:10:53.160 --> 3:10:56.120 there to quote unquote train, advise, and assist, right, but 3:10:56.240 --> 3:11:02.240 it signals a much more like VI approach to this 3:11:02.360 --> 3:11:07.800 anti cartel mission. Yeah, in this case, the two groups 3:11:07.840 --> 3:11:11.040 Los Jooneiros and Los Lobos, they were both listed as 3:11:11.040 --> 3:11:17.400 foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists in September 3:11:17.440 --> 3:11:18.520 of last year. 3:11:19.360 --> 3:11:20.359 I haven't seen. 3:11:20.160 --> 3:11:24.800 That link made anywhere else explicitly in reference to this strike, 3:11:24.879 --> 3:11:27.760 but the fact that they used They didn't use FTO 3:11:28.120 --> 3:11:31.840 in the statement, right. They used dto designated terrorist organizations, 3:11:31.920 --> 3:11:34.320 and there are a few different ways an organization can 3:11:34.360 --> 3:11:37.720 be designated as a terrorist. But given that there are 3:11:37.720 --> 3:11:40.240 two that are listed as ftos, and that those two 3:11:40.280 --> 3:11:42.400 are the most acquid in the region, I think we 3:11:42.480 --> 3:11:47.800 can assume that that's who it was against. They also 3:11:47.840 --> 3:11:51.320 added the Clandale Golfer right. The golf cartel would be 3:11:51.360 --> 3:11:53.920 how people refer to in English in December of twenty 3:11:53.959 --> 3:11:56.080 five to the FTO list. I didn't pick this up 3:11:56.080 --> 3:11:58.280 at the time, and again I haven't seen a great 3:11:58.280 --> 3:12:02.160 deal of reporting on it. The reason this concerns me 3:12:03.040 --> 3:12:06.879 is that it pertains to the trig bar terrorism related 3:12:06.959 --> 3:12:11.760 in admissibility guidelines. The trig bar can bar people for 3:12:11.879 --> 3:12:14.680 being admissible to the United States, and it could be 3:12:14.680 --> 3:12:21.560 a serious barrier to migrants. Organizations can be considered terrorists 3:12:21.640 --> 3:12:23.520 for the purpose of the trig bar if they are 3:12:23.560 --> 3:12:28.879 not ftos, But the addition of the golf Cartel to 3:12:29.040 --> 3:12:33.240 the FTO list will make it very hard for people 3:12:33.320 --> 3:12:37.720 seeking asylum in the United States who have crossed a Darien, 3:12:38.360 --> 3:12:41.240 because it is not possible for them to do that, 3:12:41.320 --> 3:12:43.240 at least if they are coming from south to north, 3:12:43.240 --> 3:12:46.400 which was a durction of travel until twenty twenty five, 3:12:47.080 --> 3:12:49.680 without transiting golf Cartel territory, and it would not be 3:12:49.720 --> 3:12:53.000 possible for that to happen without interacting with them in 3:12:53.040 --> 3:12:57.240 some way. And so this is just potentially very concerning. 3:12:57.240 --> 3:12:59.000 I want to do more reporting on the trig bar 3:13:00.320 --> 3:13:03.720 pursuing that with some public records requests, which will just 3:13:03.760 --> 3:13:07.920 take some time. Trump has very clearly made the link 3:13:08.000 --> 3:13:12.200 between this coalition and the much larger international coalition against 3:13:12.240 --> 3:13:16.520 the Islamic State. I've said this before, but he clearly 3:13:16.560 --> 3:13:20.920 sees Operation Inherent Resolve as a very successful model for 3:13:20.920 --> 3:13:21.760 foreign policy. 3:13:22.040 --> 3:13:22.640 Yeah. 3:13:22.840 --> 3:13:24.720 I especially think the. 3:13:24.720 --> 3:13:27.840 Model of the it was called talent anvil, but the 3:13:27.920 --> 3:13:30.959 strike cell that they had in Syria is one that 3:13:31.000 --> 3:13:33.879 he thinks is a very successful model. I've written about 3:13:34.320 --> 3:13:35.760 a link to a piece I wrote about this in 3:13:35.760 --> 3:13:39.440 my newsletter. But Robert, do you want to go ahead there? 3:13:40.560 --> 3:13:43.680 Yeah? I mean I should start with a little update 3:13:43.879 --> 3:13:47.760 on our ongoing story, which is that America is out 3:13:47.840 --> 3:13:51.240 of bullets. Or running out of bullets, not literal bullets, 3:13:51.600 --> 3:13:54.000 there's plenty of those, yeah, and also those in America. 3:13:54.120 --> 3:13:57.560 But the actual munitions that we use to intercept both 3:13:57.640 --> 3:14:01.280 drones and ballistic missiles, couple of things have happened since 3:14:01.320 --> 3:14:04.560 the start of our war with Iran. We've moved a 3:14:04.640 --> 3:14:08.240 significant chunk, if not the absolute majority, it's a little unclear, 3:14:08.720 --> 3:14:12.320 of the anti missile and anti drone weaponry, the major 3:14:12.360 --> 3:14:15.480 stuff that we had protecting other parts of the world 3:14:15.480 --> 3:14:18.120 that the United States has bases in like South Korea, 3:14:18.680 --> 3:14:21.600 over to the Middle East and over to intercept Iranian 3:14:21.640 --> 3:14:24.640 missiles primarily headed either towards US forces or most often 3:14:24.640 --> 3:14:27.680 to Israel. But even with all of the shit that 3:14:27.720 --> 3:14:31.000 we've redeployed from other areas, there's only so many of 3:14:31.040 --> 3:14:33.520 the munitions that we use because they're very expensive, and 3:14:33.560 --> 3:14:36.600 particularly the drones that are on is using, like the 3:14:36.640 --> 3:14:40.360 Shahed drones, are very cheap. So starting at kind of 3:14:40.400 --> 3:14:43.000 the start of hostilities, we were looking about six point 3:14:43.040 --> 3:14:48.760 seven percent Iranian drones got through. The intercept got through. 3:14:48.760 --> 3:14:50.680 And this is just in the UAE, but you can 3:14:50.760 --> 3:14:54.760 assume that it's fairly accurate to other theaters, right because 3:14:54.760 --> 3:14:56.520 we have a lot of missile defense and a lot 3:14:56.520 --> 3:14:58.760 of drone events in the UAE. So at the start 3:14:58.760 --> 3:15:01.600 of hostilities, about six points seven percent of Iranian Shaheed 3:15:01.680 --> 3:15:04.880 drones we're getting through the UAE's differences. 3:15:05.000 --> 3:15:09.000 Stop it, huh, there is a thing, rubbit that younger 3:15:09.000 --> 3:15:09.520 people do. 3:15:10.680 --> 3:15:13.280 Yes, the six seventh thing. Yes, I know, it's funny. 3:15:13.720 --> 3:15:17.240 Aron did that just for the Zoomers or the jinn 3:15:17.280 --> 3:15:22.600 Alfas whatever. Anyway, that's February, like twenty eighth. By March tenth, 3:15:22.680 --> 3:15:25.440 more than twenty five percent of Iranian drones are getting 3:15:25.440 --> 3:15:29.360 through the UAE's interception defenses. Oh wow. There hasn't been 3:15:29.360 --> 3:15:32.280 a massive change in the rate of ballistic missile interceptions yet, 3:15:32.560 --> 3:15:35.279 which suggests that at least we're not running on empty. 3:15:35.800 --> 3:15:40.879 But that's not good, right, that's a massive change. Like, 3:15:40.959 --> 3:15:43.760 that's a massive issue. So we'll continue. I'll be doing 3:15:43.800 --> 3:15:46.440 a whole episode on how the US is running out 3:15:46.440 --> 3:15:49.360 of bullets. Bullets being you know, a stand in tern 3:15:49.400 --> 3:15:51.720 for more advanced munitions. But I've got something else to 3:15:51.760 --> 3:15:55.959 talk about right now that's also involved in the Iranian theater. Particularly, 3:15:56.000 --> 3:15:58.440 I'm going to talk about mines in the Strait of Hormuz. 3:15:59.440 --> 3:16:01.640 Let's do some adds for products that you may not 3:16:01.800 --> 3:16:05.640 be able to buy if naval traffic is interdicted through 3:16:05.680 --> 3:16:09.480 the Strait of horm Moos so by him now, so 3:16:09.560 --> 3:16:24.680 get him now books. So there's an evidence that's come 3:16:24.720 --> 3:16:26.800 out kind of in the last couple of days. I 3:16:26.800 --> 3:16:29.840 start broken on the New Republic, But I believe CBS 3:16:29.879 --> 3:16:33.240 News was the origin point that Iran started laying minds 3:16:33.320 --> 3:16:37.840 in the Strait before Donald Trump publicly declared he was going, 3:16:38.080 --> 3:16:41.320 he wanted to take it over. So basically, after we 3:16:41.440 --> 3:16:43.800 killed a huge chunk of the Iranian government, Trump started 3:16:43.800 --> 3:16:46.000 public amusing, maybe we'll just take over the Strait of 3:16:46.000 --> 3:16:49.680 horror moves, and Iran started mining the shit out of it. Now, 3:16:50.080 --> 3:16:52.080 this is a problem for a lot of reasons. For 3:16:52.160 --> 3:16:56.240 one thing, the Strait is probably the most I mean, 3:16:56.280 --> 3:17:01.039 it's arguably the most important energy transit point on planet Earth, 3:17:01.120 --> 3:17:03.600 right Like, it's about a fifth of all crude oil 3:17:03.640 --> 3:17:06.959 shipments go through the Strait. Ye, that's not the only 3:17:07.080 --> 3:17:09.320 thing that goes through there, but it is an incredible 3:17:09.320 --> 3:17:13.240 amount of the world's crude oil supply travels through this strait. 3:17:13.760 --> 3:17:17.240 And Tehran's always kind of had the option of closing 3:17:17.240 --> 3:17:19.400 it by just dumping a bunch of mines in there. 3:17:19.760 --> 3:17:23.560 Mines are incredibly cheap. You can drop mines from very 3:17:23.600 --> 3:17:27.000 small boats. The US Navy is very good at blowing 3:17:27.080 --> 3:17:29.360 up big boats, but if you have a shipload of 3:17:29.360 --> 3:17:32.240 small boats that have a shitload of mines, it's basically 3:17:32.280 --> 3:17:36.200 impossible to stop an adversary like Iran from laying a 3:17:36.200 --> 3:17:40.520 fuckload of mines. And that will make it basically untenable 3:17:40.600 --> 3:17:43.840 financially for anyone to run oil through the strait. If 3:17:43.840 --> 3:17:46.200 you never know if one of your boats is going 3:17:46.240 --> 3:17:48.959 to get hit by a fucking sea mine, it makes 3:17:49.000 --> 3:17:51.280 it hard to get insure to run a boat through 3:17:51.320 --> 3:17:53.520 the strait of horn moves. Most of these mines are 3:17:53.520 --> 3:17:55.320 not capable of I mean, these minds in general are 3:17:55.320 --> 3:17:57.800 not capable of destroying the kind of bolt callars that. 3:17:57.760 --> 3:17:58.600 Move crude through. 3:17:58.720 --> 3:18:00.120 They're not going to blow the boat out of the 3:18:00.160 --> 3:18:02.640 water immediately, but they're going to damage it, and they 3:18:02.640 --> 3:18:04.520 have a very good chance, because these boats are filled 3:18:04.520 --> 3:18:07.360 with crude fucking oil, of lighting them on fire. And 3:18:07.400 --> 3:18:10.560 that causes a serious problem for the crew. 3:18:10.320 --> 3:18:11.000 Of any boat. 3:18:11.240 --> 3:18:13.360 I want you to I shouldn't have to explain why 3:18:13.360 --> 3:18:15.160 that creates a serious problem with the crew of any 3:18:15.200 --> 3:18:18.760 boat that's filled with crude oil. Right, it's pretty obvious 3:18:19.240 --> 3:18:23.000 that once it became clear that Iran started laying had 3:18:23.040 --> 3:18:25.800 started laying mines in the Straight, US forces claimed to 3:18:25.800 --> 3:18:29.400 have sunk sixteen mine layers. That was from US Syncom, 3:18:29.959 --> 3:18:32.959 although it's kind of unclear because at least half of 3:18:32.959 --> 3:18:34.920 those seem to have been inactive at the time, So 3:18:34.959 --> 3:18:37.039 these may have just been bigger mind layers that we 3:18:37.160 --> 3:18:39.320 hit at the start of our attacks on their navy, 3:18:39.480 --> 3:18:41.120 and then when we realized there's going to be a 3:18:41.120 --> 3:18:43.520 news cycle about mines in the Strait, let's claim, you know, 3:18:43.760 --> 3:18:46.960 right whatever. After it came out that around had in 3:18:47.000 --> 3:18:50.280 fact been laying mines, President Trump truthed, we want them 3:18:50.280 --> 3:18:53.039 removed immediately. If for any reason, minds were placed and 3:18:53.080 --> 3:18:55.360 they are not removed forthwith I've never heard them use 3:18:55.400 --> 3:18:56.160 fourthwith before. 3:18:56.280 --> 3:18:58.039 Yes, city won for him, Yeah, yea, yeah. 3:18:58.080 --> 3:19:00.480 The military consequences to Iran will be at a level 3:19:00.520 --> 3:19:02.120 never before seen. If, on the other hand, there were 3:19:02.200 --> 3:19:03.760 movement may have been placed, it will be a giant 3:19:03.760 --> 3:19:07.160 step in the right direction. That sounds kind of desperate, 3:19:07.640 --> 3:19:10.320 and it sounds kind of desperate because the United States 3:19:10.400 --> 3:19:13.840 is in a uniquely dog shit position to deal with 3:19:14.120 --> 3:19:19.760 c minds right specifically now, we made a really funny decision, 3:19:19.800 --> 3:19:23.280 and by we, I mean the Trump administration made a 3:19:23.320 --> 3:19:30.359 really funny decision basically immediately before we declared war on Iran, 3:19:30.800 --> 3:19:33.680 a country we've known has always threatened to mine the 3:19:33.680 --> 3:19:35.720 strait of horror moves every time we fucked with them, 3:19:36.120 --> 3:19:39.800 And that funny decision was in January, the Navy decommissioned 3:19:39.840 --> 3:19:44.000 for Avengers class mine countermeasureships, which were the last mind 3:19:44.080 --> 3:19:48.400 countermeasureships we had in the Persian goal. Now we have 3:19:48.480 --> 3:19:51.600 other boats that were pretty sure can do the job, 3:19:51.959 --> 3:19:56.360 but we've never tried. And the funny thing about the 3:19:56.400 --> 3:19:59.440 boats that we're currently going to be using for to 3:19:59.480 --> 3:20:02.000 take out my mind is that they're pre existing boats 3:20:02.000 --> 3:20:04.600 that were not built to take out mines. We basically 3:20:04.640 --> 3:20:09.800 have like they're called like operations packages that you add 3:20:09.840 --> 3:20:13.160 to the boat to add capability. One of the capabilities 3:20:13.160 --> 3:20:15.440 they have these little like basically drone torpedo things that 3:20:15.480 --> 3:20:17.640 can go out and seek out mines. They've got an 3:20:17.720 --> 3:20:20.040 enhanced like radar package I guess or whatever. They're better 3:20:20.080 --> 3:20:23.199 at looking for mines because the boats that they added 3:20:23.200 --> 3:20:26.560 these packages to were not initially meant for d mining. 3:20:26.760 --> 3:20:31.400 They're littoral combat ships. Lcs's widely considered to be the 3:20:31.440 --> 3:20:34.080 worst boats in the entire US Navy. In fact, in 3:20:34.120 --> 3:20:38.119 the Navy, the acronym LCS stands for little crappy ships 3:20:38.360 --> 3:20:42.959 because they're bad. They've been very bad. Basically every time 3:20:43.040 --> 3:20:46.160 we have like tested how will these things function and 3:20:46.280 --> 3:20:49.879 like a real fight, it's the answer has been like terribly. 3:20:49.879 --> 3:20:53.480 They're not good ships. They kind of suck ass. Now 3:20:53.640 --> 3:20:57.039 we'll see if the mind countermeasures that they put on 3:20:57.320 --> 3:21:02.160 these boats like make them superior to the old Avenger class. However, 3:21:02.680 --> 3:21:05.520 there's a lot of issues with the mind countermeasure packages 3:21:05.520 --> 3:21:07.600 that they've they've been making for these and I want 3:21:07.600 --> 3:21:10.640 to read a quote from an article published by famous 3:21:10.760 --> 3:21:15.640 leftist and thus untrustworthy news source, the US Naval Institute. Quote. 3:21:15.680 --> 3:21:18.800 Initially set for an initial operational capability in twenty fifteen, 3:21:19.080 --> 3:21:22.000 the MCM package went through a development process punctuated by 3:21:22.000 --> 3:21:24.760 stops and program failures. For example, the first craft that 3:21:24.800 --> 3:21:26.880 could tow the AQS twenty son are to hunt the 3:21:26.879 --> 3:21:30.120 bulk of minds suffered reliability problems and was scrapped. The 3:21:30.160 --> 3:21:33.240 service also canceled a plan for the IMAGE sixtys to 3:21:33.240 --> 3:21:36.120 toe the AQS twenty. After years of program changes, the 3:21:36.120 --> 3:21:40.360 packages coalesced around a few core main systems. So the 3:21:40.400 --> 3:21:43.840 development of these mcum mission packages has been troubled for 3:21:43.879 --> 3:21:46.760 a very long time, which is what delayed the retirement 3:21:46.800 --> 3:21:50.400 of the Avenger class minehunters previously. And the Navy's now 3:21:50.440 --> 3:21:52.760 saying they totally work now and we're all going to 3:21:52.840 --> 3:21:55.680 find out in real time if they do. And the 3:21:55.760 --> 3:21:57.959 last funny thing I have to say is the four 3:21:58.120 --> 3:22:01.320 decommissioned to venture anti MIAs ships. Two of them at 3:22:01.400 --> 3:22:04.200 least have hilarious names. Two of them makes sense. One 3:22:04.200 --> 3:22:07.120 of them was the USS Century, perfectly reasonable name for 3:22:07.400 --> 3:22:10.320 a d mining ship. Okay. The other was the USS Dextrous. 3:22:10.560 --> 3:22:13.000 Kind of a weird name, but whatever. And then you 3:22:13.040 --> 3:22:16.720 have the USS Devastator and the USS Gladiator. What is 3:22:16.720 --> 3:22:21.240 a mine shift devastates? It's for dem it's to stop 3:22:21.360 --> 3:22:25.720 things from getting devastated. Anyway, that's my report, Okay, good 3:22:25.760 --> 3:22:28.959 to know, and let's pick up with Iran. I want 3:22:29.000 --> 3:22:32.200 to start by talking about, like the speculation regarding partner forces. 3:22:32.240 --> 3:22:35.240 I think some of it has been just like a 3:22:35.280 --> 3:22:39.400 little bit misinformed. Starways people have been talking about the 3:22:39.400 --> 3:22:43.160 Blochistan Liberation Army. They were only added to the United 3:22:43.160 --> 3:22:47.240 States FTO list last summer, which leads me to believe 3:22:47.240 --> 3:22:50.240 that the Trump administration is not positively. 3:22:49.600 --> 3:22:52.240 Disposed towards him. Right, if they've just put them on 3:22:52.240 --> 3:22:54.879 the FTO list in August of last year, one. 3:22:54.720 --> 3:22:58.119 Of the odds anyone in that administration knows where Blakistan is. 3:22:58.520 --> 3:23:02.040 Yeah, it happened shortly after they killed some some Pakistani 3:23:02.160 --> 3:23:05.200 military personnel, So I'm guessing that, yeah, just got asked 3:23:05.240 --> 3:23:06.920 to do it. It was part of the negotiation. 3:23:07.040 --> 3:23:07.200 Yeah. 3:23:07.280 --> 3:23:10.120 Yeah. It also seems very unlikely that Trump is now 3:23:10.160 --> 3:23:14.960 willing to back a Kurdish land incursion. Invasion wouldn't be 3:23:14.959 --> 3:23:17.840 the right word. If people going into Kurdistan, it's not invasion. 3:23:18.480 --> 3:23:19.840 I have a short video here. 3:23:20.320 --> 3:23:21.520 We're about kind. 3:23:21.360 --> 3:23:22.480 Of an autonomous region. 3:23:22.560 --> 3:23:24.760 Enough they did, it's Syriami, right, We're not happy. 3:23:24.879 --> 3:23:26.680 We're not looking to the courage going in. 3:23:28.000 --> 3:23:29.600 We're very friendly with the courage, as you. 3:23:29.640 --> 3:23:31.960 Know, but we don't want to make the war any 3:23:32.000 --> 3:23:33.760 more complex than it already is. 3:23:33.879 --> 3:23:36.720 Double we don't want. Yeah, I have wrote it down. 3:23:36.800 --> 3:23:38.120 I don't want the curs going in. 3:23:39.000 --> 3:23:42.560 I don't want to see the Kurds get hurt, get killed. 3:23:43.440 --> 3:23:45.200 We've had a good relationship. They were want need to 3:23:45.240 --> 3:23:47.680 go in, but we really I've told them I don't 3:23:47.720 --> 3:23:49.840 want them to go in there. 3:23:49.840 --> 3:23:50.200 You're wrong. 3:23:50.480 --> 3:23:53.400 I just think it's the worst complicated enough without. 3:23:53.160 --> 3:23:56.959 Having Yeah, sure you would want the war to get complicated. Yeah. 3:23:57.240 --> 3:24:00.760 Also the audio quality on Fox News, say absolute, the atrocious. 3:24:01.080 --> 3:24:03.000 Yeah, it's hard. That's plains sometimes. 3:24:03.240 --> 3:24:06.560 Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, they're in a difficult situation. Yeah. 3:24:06.640 --> 3:24:09.440 So I've spoken to a couple of these Kurdish groups 3:24:09.440 --> 3:24:12.280 that people have been speculating about in the last couple 3:24:12.320 --> 3:24:15.160 of weeks. Here's part of a statement that I received 3:24:15.160 --> 3:24:19.200 from the PAK that's a Kurdistan Freedom party that refers 3:24:19.240 --> 3:24:22.760 to the US's vacillation on supporting them. Quote, the United 3:24:22.800 --> 3:24:25.120 States is working in the best possible way to mantle 3:24:25.160 --> 3:24:28.560 the Iranian regime and eliminate terrorism in the region. For 3:24:28.600 --> 3:24:30.879 over three decades, we have been fighting to expel the 3:24:30.920 --> 3:24:35.040 IIGC from Kurdistan and liberate our land. Therefore, we cannot 3:24:35.080 --> 3:24:37.039 and must not base our policies on the shifts in 3:24:37.160 --> 3:24:40.560 US rhetoric. America has its own plans regarding the overthrow 3:24:40.600 --> 3:24:43.360 and subsequent administration of Iran, and we have our plan 3:24:43.480 --> 3:24:47.560 for the liberation administration of Roger lad rojolatt referring to 3:24:47.560 --> 3:24:48.560 eastern Kurdistan. 3:24:48.680 --> 3:24:48.880 There. 3:24:49.400 --> 3:24:49.959 Yeah. 3:24:50.400 --> 3:24:53.560 Meanwhile, of course, for the last week, we've seen consistent 3:24:53.640 --> 3:24:57.800 bombing of Iran, including the targeting of oil and water infrastructure. 3:24:58.440 --> 3:25:02.879 Hengar is reporting horrible overcrowding and food shortages, as well 3:25:02.879 --> 3:25:07.560 as increased militarization of the Gazol Jesar prison, which holds 3:25:07.600 --> 3:25:11.640 more than sixteen thousand people. As I highlighted last week, 3:25:12.200 --> 3:25:15.120 Iran was in a water crisis before this new campaign began. 3:25:15.400 --> 3:25:18.400 Hitting water infrastructure will only increase the odds of massive 3:25:18.520 --> 3:25:22.320 human suffering and death. This is especially true it seems 3:25:22.360 --> 3:25:24.480 that Trump is somewhat growing. 3:25:24.280 --> 3:25:26.080 Tired of the war with Iran. 3:25:26.760 --> 3:25:28.760 He said in a press conference this week it would 3:25:28.760 --> 3:25:32.920 be quote inappropriate to target the newly chosen Supreme Leader 3:25:32.959 --> 3:25:36.640 of Iran. In the same press conference, Trump also repeated 3:25:36.640 --> 3:25:40.680 his claim that Iran was quote going to take over 3:25:40.720 --> 3:25:44.680 the Middle East and would have had quote a nuclear 3:25:44.720 --> 3:25:47.240 weapon within a matter of weeks if it were not 3:25:47.280 --> 3:25:51.280 for last year's Operation Midnight Hammer. He also talked about 3:25:51.280 --> 3:25:56.680 an Iranian nuclear site quote protected by granite. Both Fordoh 3:25:57.280 --> 3:26:01.200 and Natans were struck last year and have underground elements. 3:26:01.480 --> 3:26:05.879 Four DOH is about eighty meters below ground. Yeah, and 3:26:05.920 --> 3:26:08.800 that was the site that required a US strike. Israel 3:26:08.879 --> 3:26:12.039 did not have the means to knock that one out. 3:26:12.120 --> 3:26:15.280 But to the best of my knowledge, FOURDOU is now 3:26:15.320 --> 3:26:19.600 out of commission following the strikes in Operation Midnight Hammer. 3:26:20.160 --> 3:26:23.360 Rehich happening in twenty twenty five. Perhaps he's referring to 3:26:23.400 --> 3:26:28.560 another subterranean site, or perhaps he's confusing this with earlier information. Evidently, 3:26:28.600 --> 3:26:31.360 you can't just destroy uranium, right, Like, if there is 3:26:31.400 --> 3:26:34.240 a rich nuclear material, then then that is still there. 3:26:34.600 --> 3:26:36.960 Well, yeah, we talked about this the last time. But like, 3:26:37.240 --> 3:26:39.840 the thing that's time consuming is enriching the uranium. And 3:26:40.000 --> 3:26:43.000 there's there's no evidence that any of this has reduced 3:26:43.040 --> 3:26:44.680 the amount that Aron has access to. 3:26:44.959 --> 3:26:49.640 Yes, exactly, And according to Senator Chris Murphy, it doesn't 3:26:49.640 --> 3:26:52.520 seem like that is particularly the target at this campaign. 3:26:53.080 --> 3:26:55.680 He said most of the targets are conventional weapons facilities 3:26:55.680 --> 3:26:59.680 like drones and missile facilities. The Iranian Navy is Robert mentioned, 3:27:01.080 --> 3:27:04.440 it does not seem like they're particularly interested in regime change, 3:27:04.720 --> 3:27:07.760 and as Robert mentioned, the IIGC is still able to 3:27:07.920 --> 3:27:12.480 use many of its small civilian vessels fast attack vessels 3:27:12.480 --> 3:27:15.160 and drones. I spoke to quite a few people who 3:27:15.160 --> 3:27:19.240 are in this sort of shipping security world, and one 3:27:19.240 --> 3:27:22.640 of their concerns is, like, when they say fast attack vessels, 3:27:22.680 --> 3:27:25.680 they're talking about very small boats with mounted machine guns, right, 3:27:26.080 --> 3:27:31.279 operating in large groups and swarming tankers or other ships 3:27:31.320 --> 3:27:33.560 going through the straight ofform moods, which would be quite 3:27:33.600 --> 3:27:38.240 challenging to defend ships from, especially of their like large 3:27:38.280 --> 3:27:41.480 civilian ships, right. I know some people have been speculating 3:27:41.520 --> 3:27:46.080 about the CM three to ZHO two missiles that around 3:27:46.160 --> 3:27:50.080 ordered from China. Those are like quote unquote carrier killer missiles. 3:27:50.640 --> 3:27:53.360 I don't believe they have those yet, though they do 3:27:53.440 --> 3:27:55.240 will probably find out soon enough. 3:27:55.360 --> 3:27:56.760 Yeah boy, that would be a big day. 3:27:58.040 --> 3:28:01.320 Yeah boy, yeah, yeah, that would These things will get 3:28:01.360 --> 3:28:02.680 quite bad if if that happened. 3:28:02.760 --> 3:28:07.360 Yeah yeah, yeah. I honestly like that might be for 3:28:07.760 --> 3:28:11.879 this administration. A tactical nuclear scenario like that, it would 3:28:11.879 --> 3:28:14.800 be an unprecedented loss. They'd have to do something insane 3:28:14.800 --> 3:28:15.480 to save face. 3:28:16.080 --> 3:28:20.080 Yeah, I assume US carriers have means of defense, are 3:28:20.080 --> 3:28:20.600 supposed to. 3:28:21.200 --> 3:28:24.400 They're very hard to kill. Yes, Yeah, that's. 3:28:24.280 --> 3:28:26.520 A particular like matchup that no one has seen yet 3:28:26.560 --> 3:28:29.000 because no one has been wild enough to try it. 3:28:29.280 --> 3:28:29.520 Yeah. 3:28:29.760 --> 3:28:34.400 They say these are carrier killers. They're theoretically carrier yet 3:28:34.480 --> 3:28:37.920 of the defensive systems on carriers as regards missiles like 3:28:37.959 --> 3:28:40.400 that are theoretical too, because it hasn't happened. 3:28:40.640 --> 3:28:43.120 Yeah, it's not many people have aircraft carriers, and the 3:28:43.160 --> 3:28:44.600 people who do, you don't want to piss off. 3:28:44.680 --> 3:28:45.640 Yeah. 3:28:45.840 --> 3:28:48.760 Finally, I guess I want to talk about the Senator 3:28:48.760 --> 3:28:54.680 Blumenthal who raised the alarm in a congressional briefing this week. 3:28:55.040 --> 3:28:55.879 He's a clip. 3:28:56.760 --> 3:29:03.199 I emerged from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, 3:29:04.080 --> 3:29:10.360 as I have from any past briefing in my fifteen 3:29:10.440 --> 3:29:15.840 years in the Senate. I am left with more questions 3:29:15.920 --> 3:29:23.200 than answers, especially about the cost of the war. My 3:29:23.360 --> 3:29:30.640 questions have been unanswered, and I will demand answers because 3:29:30.680 --> 3:29:36.000 the American people deserve to know. And I guess I 3:29:36.040 --> 3:29:42.959 am most concerned about the threat to American lives of 3:29:43.080 --> 3:29:48.240 potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iran. 3:29:48.840 --> 3:29:53.240 We seem to be on a path toward deploying American 3:29:53.320 --> 3:29:58.320 troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of 3:29:58.360 --> 3:30:07.199 the potential objectives here and there is also, as disturbingly 3:30:07.280 --> 3:30:12.920 as anything else, the specter of active Russian age to 3:30:13.160 --> 3:30:17.800 Iran putting in danger American lives. 3:30:18.120 --> 3:30:20.480 The last part references reporting that came first from the 3:30:20.520 --> 3:30:25.000 Washington Post. Russia is providing targeting info to Iran, chiefly 3:30:25.080 --> 3:30:29.120 using its advanced satellite imaging capacity, to quote from the 3:30:29.120 --> 3:30:32.000 Peace Quote. Since the war began on Saturday, Russia has 3:30:32.040 --> 3:30:34.720 passed it around the locations of US military assets, including 3:30:34.760 --> 3:30:38.360 warships and aircraft. This might explain how Iran has been 3:30:38.400 --> 3:30:42.200 able to hit some soft targets like the temporary structure 3:30:42.240 --> 3:30:45.000 in q Weight, where at least six people were killed. 3:30:45.080 --> 3:30:48.400 We've now learned that many more people were seriously injured, 3:30:49.080 --> 3:30:51.800 as well as hitting some over their horizon radar systems 3:30:51.800 --> 3:30:55.240 that we spoke about last week. Finally, the US is 3:30:55.320 --> 3:31:01.039 carrying out operations against hashtaal Shabby popular mobilization forces in 3:31:01.080 --> 3:31:04.160 a rack. This is getting a lot less reporting, but 3:31:04.240 --> 3:31:06.279 it seems like if there are boots on the ground 3:31:06.360 --> 3:31:09.680 anywhere right now, this would be where they would be right. 3:31:09.879 --> 3:31:13.240 They're using things like apaches in a tens, They're not 3:31:13.480 --> 3:31:17.640 using standoff munitions delivered from a great distance, and so 3:31:18.400 --> 3:31:22.440 anything that is likely to result in either needing people 3:31:22.480 --> 3:31:25.520 to support targets or needing people to rescue a pilot 3:31:25.520 --> 3:31:29.560 of a playing or a helicopter gets shut down, would 3:31:29.640 --> 3:31:31.640 more likely at this point be there. 3:31:31.600 --> 3:31:34.360 In it rack. That's about all I have. 3:31:35.120 --> 3:31:37.400 We'll go on one more ad break and return with 3:31:37.440 --> 3:31:39.480 a special segment from Ema Wong. 3:31:50.800 --> 3:31:52.039 So we need to intro the music. 3:31:52.600 --> 3:32:01.640 If you want to play the music, you can rocket jazzbot, 3:32:01.840 --> 3:32:12.640 sorry locking rocket jazz rocking jazz Bot. Onto the economy, 3:32:12.800 --> 3:32:14.840 we have been seeing over the past week what I 3:32:14.879 --> 3:32:18.560 would effectively describe as a will they won't they? With 3:32:18.800 --> 3:32:22.240 are the stock markets going to collapse? Where markets have 3:32:23.200 --> 3:32:29.279 imploded and then immediately rebounded, basically in line with Trump 3:32:29.720 --> 3:32:31.840 saying that the war is going to be over very soon. 3:32:32.440 --> 3:32:34.400 This was the sort of state of things on Monday. 3:32:34.840 --> 3:32:37.280 You know, there had been massive collapses in the Asian 3:32:37.320 --> 3:32:41.440 market from rising oil prices, and then Trump said that quote, 3:32:41.560 --> 3:32:44.280 the war is very complete, pretty much in a phone 3:32:44.320 --> 3:32:47.560 interview with the journalist from NBC, and this caused a 3:32:47.600 --> 3:32:51.280 resurrection of the markets. Now, this is completely disconnected from 3:32:51.320 --> 3:32:54.160 the actual reality of the war and functioned entirely to 3:32:54.320 --> 3:32:58.120 again just calling these markets on Tuesday, So that was Monday. 3:32:58.240 --> 3:33:03.199 On Tuesday, Trump speech quote, We've already won in many ways, 3:33:03.280 --> 3:33:06.720 but we haven't won enough. We go forward more determined 3:33:06.760 --> 3:33:09.560 than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this 3:33:09.720 --> 3:33:15.520 long running danger once and for all. Which, Okay, that's gibberish. Now, 3:33:15.760 --> 3:33:18.640 Trump has specifically begun to address the fact that again 3:33:18.720 --> 3:33:20.880 you can't move oil tankers through the straighter four moves 3:33:20.879 --> 3:33:23.200 because Iran is going to just carry out strikes on them, 3:33:23.680 --> 3:33:27.320 and he said, quote, We're also focused on keeping energy 3:33:27.360 --> 3:33:29.280 and oil flows to the world, and I will not 3:33:29.360 --> 3:33:32.440 allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and 3:33:32.520 --> 3:33:35.760 attempt to stop the globe's oil supply. And if Iran 3:33:35.920 --> 3:33:38.560 does anything to do that, they'll get hit at a 3:33:38.760 --> 3:33:42.480 much much harder level. I will take out those targets 3:33:42.520 --> 3:33:46.440 that were easy and that I mentioned before, We'll take 3:33:46.480 --> 3:33:49.360 them out. So quickly, they'll never be able to recover. Ever, 3:33:49.480 --> 3:33:51.200 if they want to play that game, they better not 3:33:51.320 --> 3:33:54.240 play that game. In the long run, oil supplies will 3:33:54.280 --> 3:33:58.480 be dramatically more secure without the threat of Iranian ships, drones, missiles, 3:33:58.560 --> 3:34:02.160 nuclear menace, or anything. So what he's saying here is 3:34:02.240 --> 3:34:06.440 that if Iran keeps the straight closed, he's going to 3:34:07.200 --> 3:34:11.080 destroy them. But A, he's already in a war with them, 3:34:11.520 --> 3:34:13.840 and B this just means it as long as it wrong, 3:34:13.920 --> 3:34:18.160 keeps it straight closed, then the war keeps going, which 3:34:18.240 --> 3:34:21.640 keeps a straight closed longer, which keeps the war going. 3:34:21.959 --> 3:34:26.480 So this is great. Trumps also directly asked by a 3:34:26.560 --> 3:34:28.760 reporter about whether the war is going to keep going. 3:34:29.280 --> 3:34:31.600 Quote thank you, thank you, mister president. You said the 3:34:31.720 --> 3:34:34.840 war is quote very complete. But your Defense secretary says, 3:34:34.920 --> 3:34:37.360 this is just the beginning. So which is it? And 3:34:37.520 --> 3:34:39.800 how long should Americans be prepared for this war to 3:34:39.920 --> 3:34:44.880 last for? And he immediately starts going into metaphysics. Quote well, 3:34:45.000 --> 3:34:47.080 I think you could say both the beginning. It's the 3:34:47.120 --> 3:34:50.520 beginning of building a new country. And then he eventually says, 3:34:51.200 --> 3:34:53.080 so you know, you could look at that statement. We 3:34:53.480 --> 3:34:55.680 could call it a tremendous success. Right now, as we 3:34:55.800 --> 3:34:57.600 leave here, I could call it, or we could go further, 3:34:57.680 --> 3:34:59.880 and we're going further. But the big risks on that 3:35:00.080 --> 3:35:02.480 war have been over for three days. We wipe them 3:35:02.520 --> 3:35:05.279 out in the first two days. So that says nothing 3:35:05.760 --> 3:35:08.120 other than probably the war is going to keep going. 3:35:08.200 --> 3:35:08.320 Now. 3:35:08.400 --> 3:35:11.360 Trump has been claiming there will be navy escorts through 3:35:11.480 --> 3:35:14.359 this trade of four moves. This is an absolute unhinged 3:35:14.440 --> 3:35:16.960 lide that Trump came up with to calm oil prices. 3:35:17.320 --> 3:35:20.160 And on Wednesday we had reporting from Reuters that obviously 3:35:20.360 --> 3:35:24.320 know the Navy has been turning down requests for escort. 3:35:25.000 --> 3:35:26.520 I'm going going to read a quote from that Raiders 3:35:26.600 --> 3:35:30.320 piece quote the US Navy has refused near daily requests 3:35:30.320 --> 3:35:33.039 from the shipping industry for military escorts through this trade 3:35:33.040 --> 3:35:35.680 of from mows since the start of the war on Iran, 3:35:35.840 --> 3:35:38.120 saying the risk of attacks is too high for now, 3:35:38.200 --> 3:35:41.680 according to sources familiar with the matter, which yeah, no shit, 3:35:41.800 --> 3:35:45.040 of course isn't happening. There's no way for it to happen. 3:35:45.160 --> 3:35:48.400 Have you seen an oil tinker. The largest of these 3:35:48.440 --> 3:35:51.920 things is two fifths of a kilometer long, right, and 3:35:52.040 --> 3:35:54.440 some of them are you know, half that size, so 3:35:54.520 --> 3:35:58.080 they are like one fifth of a kilometer long, but 3:35:58.640 --> 3:36:01.160 you can't escort that through straight is and I kind 3:36:01.160 --> 3:36:03.560 of emphasize this enough twenty three miles wide at its 3:36:03.640 --> 3:36:04.320 narrowest point. 3:36:04.600 --> 3:36:04.720 Now. 3:36:04.840 --> 3:36:08.640 Iran has also started mining the Straits to some extents. 3:36:08.760 --> 3:36:11.560 On Wednesday, Trump claimed the Navy had destroyed Iron's mining 3:36:11.560 --> 3:36:14.720 ships and the Strait was safe across. Iran immediately proved 3:36:14.760 --> 3:36:17.360 this to be a lie by hitting a whole bunch 3:36:17.400 --> 3:36:20.160 of oil tankers in various places around the Golf. And 3:36:20.320 --> 3:36:22.880 this is one of the substantive issues with trying to 3:36:22.920 --> 3:36:26.800 get one fifth of the world's oil supply through this Golf. 3:36:26.879 --> 3:36:28.880 On top of and also and again like this is 3:36:28.879 --> 3:36:31.000 being reported a little bit less, but we talked about 3:36:31.040 --> 3:36:33.840 this in my episode earlier in the week. It's not 3:36:34.080 --> 3:36:38.400 just oil, it's things like critical chemical components for fertilizer 3:36:38.720 --> 3:36:42.080 that comes through here. It's natural gas. It's also helium, 3:36:42.240 --> 3:36:44.960 which is a very very critical element for a whole 3:36:45.000 --> 3:36:47.240 bunch of heavy industry that is actually very scarce, and 3:36:47.280 --> 3:36:49.080 a huge amount of the world's helium supply has to 3:36:49.120 --> 3:36:52.800 travel through the Gulf. And there are so many kinds 3:36:52.840 --> 3:36:55.800 of munitions besides mines that iron cans use to hit 3:36:55.879 --> 3:36:58.200 boats from rockets and missiles to drones, just shooting at 3:36:58.240 --> 3:37:00.600 them with the guns on boats. That thing if apparently 3:37:00.640 --> 3:37:03.480 done now now. Trump also said that he was waving 3:37:03.600 --> 3:37:07.800 oil related sanctions on certain countries to reduce prices. It's 3:37:07.840 --> 3:37:11.760 not clear what this means. It's probably Russia. Reuters has 3:37:11.800 --> 3:37:14.960 claimed that it's about the US temporary allowing India to 3:37:15.040 --> 3:37:18.360 purchase Russian oil that's been like stranded at See, it's 3:37:18.600 --> 3:37:22.000 very unclear what's going on there. On Thursday, we got 3:37:23.440 --> 3:37:25.800 we got a bunch of claims from the administration that 3:37:26.120 --> 3:37:29.280 escorting tankers through the Strait was their planned the whole time, 3:37:29.440 --> 3:37:32.120 which no, it wasn't. This is just going to continue 3:37:32.160 --> 3:37:35.560 to be an absolute nightmare because if Trump can't figure 3:37:35.560 --> 3:37:38.520 out a way to get oil through there, he's either 3:37:38.560 --> 3:37:40.400 going to have to end the war or the world 3:37:40.440 --> 3:37:43.280 economy is going to just implode. Yeah, we'll be tracking 3:37:43.360 --> 3:37:48.119 that situation. There's also another crisis that has begun to brew, 3:37:48.600 --> 3:37:51.360 which is the crisis in the so called private credit market, 3:37:51.720 --> 3:37:53.680 which is this is stuff that used to be called 3:37:53.720 --> 3:37:56.680 shadow banking. I'm going to go into more detail on 3:37:56.920 --> 3:38:00.320 this later as it becomes more and more a sort 3:38:00.320 --> 3:38:03.720 of relevant. But private credit slash shadow banking is a 3:38:04.959 --> 3:38:08.840 series of things that are like a bank, but they're 3:38:08.879 --> 3:38:13.760 not regulated, So we are talking about trillions of dollars 3:38:13.800 --> 3:38:16.920 of assets. There has been a huge run basically on 3:38:17.040 --> 3:38:20.520 the shadow banks, to the point where several very large 3:38:20.560 --> 3:38:24.320 banks have paused the ability to take money out of them. 3:38:25.200 --> 3:38:27.680 Now it's difficult to report on this because we don't 3:38:27.840 --> 3:38:31.680 actually know anything about how many people are pulling their 3:38:31.680 --> 3:38:33.440 money out or what the effect on this is because 3:38:33.440 --> 3:38:36.800 there are no reporting requirements because eise are shadow banks, 3:38:37.040 --> 3:38:38.520 and the whole point about them is that they're not 3:38:38.640 --> 3:38:41.160 subject to the regular regulations that regular banking will be 3:38:41.200 --> 3:38:45.920 subject to. So that's another looming economic crisis that we're 3:38:45.959 --> 3:38:47.520 all sort of just going to have to deal with, 3:38:48.120 --> 3:38:50.040 on top of Trump attempting to sort of destroy the 3:38:50.080 --> 3:38:55.920 economy with this war and Iran. And finally, I want 3:38:56.000 --> 3:38:58.200 to close by talking about a very good piece and 3:38:58.320 --> 3:39:01.400 crime thing called history is Repeating Itself, a Lebanese perspective 3:39:01.400 --> 3:39:04.960 on the war in palestein Lebanon and Iran. That is 3:39:05.040 --> 3:39:08.080 an interview with friend of the show Iliau talking about 3:39:08.760 --> 3:39:11.440 a part of this war that hasn't basically ignored in 3:39:11.520 --> 3:39:15.640 the media, which is to quote Ilia. Israel has ordered 3:39:15.640 --> 3:39:19.640 the forced evacuation, effectively the ethnic cleansing of the entirety 3:39:19.680 --> 3:39:23.600 of southern Lebanon, the Hey and parts of Becca. This 3:39:23.680 --> 3:39:27.480 has been a horrifying campaign that has involved Israel bombing 3:39:27.560 --> 3:39:30.680 major Lebanese cities, including repeated bombings of Beirut, as well 3:39:30.680 --> 3:39:35.119 as a systematic destruction of Lebanese villages by Israeli army 3:39:35.280 --> 3:39:38.840 in the areas they've occupied in the south. The Israeli 3:39:38.920 --> 3:39:42.160 invasion has killed six hundred people in Lebanon so far, 3:39:42.200 --> 3:39:43.959 and that number will be higher by the time we're 3:39:44.000 --> 3:39:47.320 listening to this. This campaign does not seem to have 3:39:47.360 --> 3:39:51.160 an endpoint and is continuing as the American and an 3:39:51.200 --> 3:39:56.520 Israeli war in Iran also continues to grind on. Yeah, 3:39:56.560 --> 3:39:59.840 put a transgoal on your couch, Thank you, Mia. 3:40:00.640 --> 3:40:03.520 I have a few more news stories before we close 3:40:03.520 --> 3:40:06.520 out this episode. Trump has delayed his endorsement in the 3:40:06.680 --> 3:40:09.760 Republican Texas primary to build pressure on the Senate to 3:40:09.879 --> 3:40:13.560 pass the Save Act, the Voting Restriction Act to gain 3:40:13.600 --> 3:40:17.400 favor with the President. Ken Paxton has announced he'd back 3:40:17.480 --> 3:40:20.320 out of the race if this Senate passes the Save Act, 3:40:20.640 --> 3:40:24.520 which Trump later called his number one priority. Paxton knows 3:40:24.560 --> 3:40:26.560 that the passing of the Act is very unlikely, but 3:40:26.680 --> 3:40:30.160 by signaling support for the President's number one priority, he's 3:40:30.200 --> 3:40:33.160 hoping to gain favor and maybe even steal the endorsement 3:40:33.200 --> 3:40:36.840 away from Cornyn or convinced Trump not to give an endorsement, 3:40:37.200 --> 3:40:39.440 which would help him in the runoff election. 3:40:39.920 --> 3:40:40.200 Okay. 3:40:40.560 --> 3:40:44.320 Politico has reported that Trump was quote irritated when news 3:40:44.440 --> 3:40:48.720 articles from axiosen The Atlantic published Wednesday declaring that Trump 3:40:48.879 --> 3:40:52.200 was quote unquote expected to endorse Cornyn. According to a 3:40:52.240 --> 3:40:55.320 Republican operative, Trump and others in his orbit hate when 3:40:55.400 --> 3:40:59.320 stories get out ahead of official announcements. Unquote. I sympathize 3:40:59.360 --> 3:41:02.320 with the president here. I am also often irritated by 3:41:02.400 --> 3:41:04.280 news articles from Axios and The Atlantic. 3:41:07.640 --> 3:41:11.320 Yeah, yeah, an't we all? Let's see. 3:41:11.440 --> 3:41:13.520 I think it bring us together as a country, right. 3:41:13.800 --> 3:41:15.400 It will be interesting to see what Trump does here. 3:41:15.400 --> 3:41:15.600 I mean. 3:41:15.640 --> 3:41:18.879 Trump is previously called Cornyn like a rhino, and Paxton 3:41:18.959 --> 3:41:22.480 is way more popular with the megabase despite having more 3:41:22.600 --> 3:41:29.000 electoral liabilities. For the general election day on March fifth, 3:41:29.800 --> 3:41:34.040 seven of the biggest tech companies signed President Trump's rate 3:41:34.320 --> 3:41:38.520 Payer Protection Pledge, empowering the private sector to build their 3:41:38.560 --> 3:41:42.760 own power infrastructure like power plans, microgrids, and substations, while 3:41:42.879 --> 3:41:47.160 also agreeing to quote bring or buy new generation resources 3:41:47.280 --> 3:41:50.760 and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades 3:41:51.000 --> 3:41:54.360 required for their data centers, ensuring such expenses are not 3:41:54.480 --> 3:41:57.600 passed to American households unquote. And that is per the 3:41:57.760 --> 3:42:01.800 White House. So this expounds on the rate player Protection 3:42:02.000 --> 3:42:04.840 Pledge that Trump announced during his State of the Unit address. 3:42:04.840 --> 3:42:07.560 We have a little bit more details now. The pledge 3:42:07.600 --> 3:42:12.840 has been signed by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Open Ai, Oracle, 3:42:13.040 --> 3:42:18.959 and Xai. These companies will quote unquote voluntarily negotiate new 3:42:19.320 --> 3:42:23.800 separate rate structures with utilities and state governments wherever they 3:42:23.879 --> 3:42:27.120 build new data centers, and will quote commit to pay 3:42:27.200 --> 3:42:30.920 these rates for the power and related infrastructure brought online 3:42:31.000 --> 3:42:34.240 to service their data centers, whether they use the electricity 3:42:34.440 --> 3:42:38.160 or not, unquote, to prevent blackouts and power shortages. The 3:42:38.320 --> 3:42:42.040 pledge also promises that AI companies and hyperscalers will also 3:42:42.200 --> 3:42:46.760 quote coordinate with grid operators to make backup generation resources 3:42:46.760 --> 3:42:49.720 available at times of emergency, contributing to a more reliable 3:42:49.760 --> 3:42:54.080 grid unquote. This pledge is not legally binding, but like 3:42:54.160 --> 3:42:56.840 I said, it will empower the private sector to develop 3:42:57.320 --> 3:42:58.560 power plant infrastructure. 3:42:59.360 --> 3:42:59.640 Great. 3:43:01.560 --> 3:43:06.560 Last Saturday, March seventh, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a 3:43:06.680 --> 3:43:09.800 protest outside of the New York City Mayor's residence, Gracie 3:43:09.879 --> 3:43:13.920 Manson dubbed stop the Islamic takeover of New York City. 3:43:14.320 --> 3:43:18.200 Stop new York City public Muslim prayer unquote. 3:43:18.560 --> 3:43:21.360 Incredibly frustrating guy. Yeah, I know that's his goal, but 3:43:21.560 --> 3:43:26.040 like very frustrating. Well, he's high off the fact that 3:43:26.160 --> 3:43:28.640 he was able to ignite a news cycle by lying 3:43:28.720 --> 3:43:29.520 about jet. 3:43:29.400 --> 3:43:33.520 Yeah, after getting chased out of Minneapolis by people with 3:43:33.640 --> 3:43:35.720 water pistols and rescue by aunt lady. 3:43:35.920 --> 3:43:36.120 Yeah. 3:43:37.000 --> 3:43:37.160 Now. 3:43:37.280 --> 3:43:42.080 During this protest on Saturday, two teenagers who traveled from Pennsylvania, 3:43:42.560 --> 3:43:47.760 a Mere Blat and Ibrahim Kyumi, allegedly attempted to detonate 3:43:47.879 --> 3:43:53.160 two improvised explicit devices amongst the protesters, and after being apprehended, 3:43:53.440 --> 3:43:57.640 both suspects stated allegiance with ISIS. According to US Attorney 3:43:57.640 --> 3:44:00.600 for the Southern District of New York, J. Clayton, the 3:44:00.959 --> 3:44:04.400 homemade explosive devices were Mason jar sized and packed with 3:44:04.520 --> 3:44:09.640 metal shrapnel and contained the high explosive tatp oh Wow. 3:44:10.040 --> 3:44:13.439 One ied was ignited and thrown towards the group of protesters. 3:44:13.800 --> 3:44:17.800 Another was dropped in front of several NYPD officers, but 3:44:18.040 --> 3:44:19.920 neither device successfully detonated. 3:44:20.600 --> 3:44:23.680 It is hard to make bombs. That is why very 3:44:23.760 --> 3:44:26.959 few domestic terrorists in the US go the bomb route. 3:44:27.720 --> 3:44:27.920 Yeah. 3:44:28.840 --> 3:44:32.280 Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed that the bombers quote 3:44:32.480 --> 3:44:36.640 allegedly sought to inflict mass casualties in service to ISIS 3:44:36.680 --> 3:44:39.080 with the hope of exceeding the carnage of the Boston 3:44:39.160 --> 3:44:42.760 marathon bombing unquote. Bilot was asked if he wanted to 3:44:42.840 --> 3:44:47.040 accomplish something akin to the Boston bombing during interrogation, to 3:44:47.200 --> 3:44:51.199 which he allegedly replied, no, even bigger. It was only 3:44:51.320 --> 3:44:55.920 three deaths unquote. During interrogation, Caumi stated that he had 3:44:55.959 --> 3:45:00.000 watched ISIS propaganda videos on his phone. The Criminal Complaints 3:45:00.000 --> 3:45:03.920 says that en route to the NYPD precinct, Bilot told officers, quote, 3:45:04.080 --> 3:45:06.600 this isn't a religion that just stands when people talk 3:45:06.920 --> 3:45:08.840 about the blessed name of the prophet. 3:45:09.240 --> 3:45:10.039 We take action. 3:45:10.240 --> 3:45:12.160 If I didn't do it, someone else will come and 3:45:12.240 --> 3:45:15.240 do it unquote, and he later pledged allegiance to the 3:45:15.360 --> 3:45:18.600 Islamic state in writing along with the phrase die in 3:45:18.720 --> 3:45:19.320 your rage. 3:45:20.720 --> 3:45:22.360 The only thing weird about it is that there's not 3:45:22.440 --> 3:45:24.560 a whole lot of that going on right now. But 3:45:25.520 --> 3:45:27.240 this is very similar to the people who are carring 3:45:27.240 --> 3:45:29.720 about sympathetic eyes as attacks, you know, during the height 3:45:29.920 --> 3:45:34.360 of military action and Mosul same death. Yeah, gies. 3:45:35.000 --> 3:45:39.080 The timing is odd unusual yet given past to the 3:45:39.320 --> 3:45:43.160 territorial Katapha, etc. They have been propagandizing a bit more 3:45:43.200 --> 3:45:45.440 in the last five six months. 3:45:46.200 --> 3:45:49.160 Yeah no, and it makes sense that they choose this 3:45:49.200 --> 3:45:49.840 as a target. 3:45:50.160 --> 3:45:50.360 Yeah. 3:45:50.760 --> 3:45:54.520 But thankfully again, most people who try to make bombs 3:45:54.680 --> 3:45:56.960 fail and that was the case this time too. 3:45:57.600 --> 3:45:59.960 Yeah for our last main store. 3:46:01.400 --> 3:46:04.880 Since the war on Iran began, the Trump administration has 3:46:05.080 --> 3:46:08.840 increasingly been talking about Cuba as being the next target 3:46:08.959 --> 3:46:12.960 of US intervention. In the immediate aftermath of military strikes 3:46:13.000 --> 3:46:16.560 in Iran, The Atlantic reported that Trump is eyeing Cuba 3:46:16.720 --> 3:46:20.400 as the next target, with an administration official saying the 3:46:20.520 --> 3:46:23.240 President is feeling like I'm on a roll, like this 3:46:23.480 --> 3:46:26.960 is working unquote, And I seen an interview about US 3:46:27.000 --> 3:46:31.600 military success in Iran. Last Friday, Trump started talking about Cuba, saying, quote, 3:46:31.879 --> 3:46:35.200 Cuba is going to fall pretty soon, by the way, unrelated, 3:46:35.480 --> 3:46:38.240 but Cuba is going to fall too. They want to 3:46:38.360 --> 3:46:40.880 make a deal so badly. They want to make a deal, 3:46:41.200 --> 3:46:43.360 and so I'm going to put Marco over there and 3:46:43.480 --> 3:46:47.240 we'll see how that works out unquote. That same day 3:46:47.400 --> 3:46:50.480 in Florida, Trump was asked about this Cuba deal and 3:46:50.600 --> 3:46:51.880 what do it mean for the US. 3:46:52.400 --> 3:46:55.800 And it may be a friendly takeover, it may not 3:46:55.920 --> 3:46:58.400 be a friendly taker. It wouldn't matter because they're really 3:46:58.440 --> 3:47:04.600 in They're down to as they say, fumes. They have 3:47:04.760 --> 3:47:10.039 no energy, they have no money, they're in deep trouble 3:47:10.280 --> 3:47:14.720 on a humanitarian basis, and we don't want to. 3:47:14.720 --> 3:47:18.000 See that may or may not be a quote unquote 3:47:18.080 --> 3:47:19.200 friendly takeover. 3:47:20.160 --> 3:47:24.200 Uh huh, Yeah, I mean I think that's really helps you. Yeah, 3:47:24.240 --> 3:47:27.760 it sounds like he's threatening Batista too, basically, even going 3:47:27.800 --> 3:47:29.600 back further than that, but yeah. 3:47:30.280 --> 3:47:34.760 Does he consider Venezuela to have been a friendly takeover? Like, 3:47:34.879 --> 3:47:37.080 because he's very friendly with Delsey now right, Like you 3:47:37.120 --> 3:47:39.879 can see her tweeting all the time about their great partnership. 3:47:40.320 --> 3:47:43.040 I think he would consider that an unfriendly takeover, which 3:47:43.080 --> 3:47:47.360 has now become friendly. But I think he's like referring 3:47:47.440 --> 3:47:49.400 to the amount of like actual like you know, kinetic 3:47:49.520 --> 3:47:52.320 force as a part of a takeover versus just a 3:47:52.720 --> 3:47:56.560 diplomatic deal done by Rubio. But in his scene an 3:47:56.600 --> 3:48:00.800 interview from from Friday, Trump DIDs us that the administration 3:48:00.840 --> 3:48:03.880 is quote unquote really focused on Iran right now and 3:48:04.000 --> 3:48:05.720 that they have quote plenty of time. 3:48:06.080 --> 3:48:07.720 But Cuba's ready after fifty years. 3:48:07.760 --> 3:48:09.640 I've been watching it for fifty years, and it's fallen 3:48:09.800 --> 3:48:15.400 right into my lap because of me unquote. The before this, 3:48:16.720 --> 3:48:19.640 Trump mentioned how Rubio wants to finish up operations in 3:48:19.720 --> 3:48:23.240 Iran before trying anything in Cuba. Quote, we could do 3:48:23.320 --> 3:48:25.560 them all at the same time, but bad things happen 3:48:25.800 --> 3:48:27.800 if you watch countries over the years, if you do 3:48:27.879 --> 3:48:29.800 them all too fast, bad things happen. 3:48:30.080 --> 3:48:33.240 Unquote do them do the countries do them? 3:48:33.400 --> 3:48:33.600 Yeah? 3:48:34.280 --> 3:48:35.440 I see. Fascinating. 3:48:35.600 --> 3:48:40.880 That's the reference to these regime change decapitations doing the country. 3:48:41.080 --> 3:48:43.280 Yeah, right, got it good to know. 3:48:43.840 --> 3:48:47.080 At a presentation for the Shield of the Americas on Saturday, 3:48:47.640 --> 3:48:51.959 Trump said, quote, as we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela. 3:48:52.320 --> 3:48:55.480 We're also looking forward to the great change that will 3:48:55.600 --> 3:48:58.520 soon be coming to Cuba. Cuba's at the end of 3:48:58.560 --> 3:49:00.640 the line. They have a bad regime. 3:49:02.280 --> 3:49:04.960 It is wild to see him just like I don't 3:49:04.960 --> 3:49:06.480 want to be like, you know, like baby Ruth used 3:49:06.480 --> 3:49:07.920 to point to where he's going to hit the baseball. 3:49:08.440 --> 3:49:11.480 That's probably not the best analogy there, but you know 3:49:11.520 --> 3:49:13.800 what I mean, it is bonkers just to see. 3:49:13.680 --> 3:49:14.760 They're very confident right now. 3:49:14.840 --> 3:49:18.160 Yeah, yeah, yeah, they haven't gotten a serious pushback. 3:49:18.440 --> 3:49:20.920 You know, we're starting to see gas prices rise, the 3:49:21.000 --> 3:49:23.040 cost of living is going to rise, but we haven't 3:49:23.120 --> 3:49:25.600 suffered any sort of major military loss. 3:49:26.000 --> 3:49:29.960 I eight Americans have died in the operations against Iran. 3:49:29.760 --> 3:49:32.520 Right, like, yeah, and I doubt Trump has noticed. 3:49:32.320 --> 3:49:35.120 But I mean for him, that's not serious, it's not now. 3:49:35.240 --> 3:49:37.960 But he seems to have literally shrugged it off, almost 3:49:38.040 --> 3:49:41.440 impressed conferences. We did learn today that a great deal 3:49:41.600 --> 3:49:44.440 more people suffered more serious injuries when we thought in 3:49:44.520 --> 3:49:47.480 that particular drone striking Q eight. But there won't be 3:49:47.520 --> 3:49:49.960 electoral consequences, right. I think that's one of the reasons 3:49:50.040 --> 3:49:53.840 why they like these astrike heavy very light ground footprint 3:49:54.080 --> 3:49:56.440 models because it's not Americans who. 3:49:56.360 --> 3:50:00.640 Die, No, it's it's Iranians who are primarily dying. Yeah yeah. 3:50:01.560 --> 3:50:05.080 Shall we close with this brief discussion on proton mail. 3:50:05.480 --> 3:50:07.080 Yeah, it's important. Yeah yeah yeah. 3:50:07.200 --> 3:50:10.920 So last week four h four media reported that the 3:50:11.080 --> 3:50:15.080 end to end encrypted email service proton mail quote helped 3:50:15.360 --> 3:50:20.200 FBI unmasked anonymous stop Coopcity protester unquote. 3:50:20.640 --> 3:50:21.560 That is their headline. 3:50:22.160 --> 3:50:24.960 So what happened here is that in January twenty twenty four, 3:50:25.280 --> 3:50:29.400 the FBI sent Swiss authorities a mutual Legal Assistance treaty 3:50:29.520 --> 3:50:33.520 request for information tied to the defend the Atlanta Forest 3:50:33.600 --> 3:50:37.480 at ProtonMail dot com account. The FBI believe that whoever 3:50:37.520 --> 3:50:41.080 had access to this email would likely have administrative access 3:50:41.160 --> 3:50:44.680 to the now defunct scenes from the Atlanta Forest blog, 3:50:45.400 --> 3:50:49.240 which hosted sabotage report backs, calls to action, and some 3:50:49.640 --> 3:50:55.000 instructional information on possible criminal acts people could commit. After 3:50:55.160 --> 3:51:00.000 Swiss authorities verified the FBI's request, proton mail was legally 3:51:00.240 --> 3:51:04.240 required to submit payment data, which identified a name tied 3:51:04.320 --> 3:51:07.520 to the account through a credit card. Swiss authorities then 3:51:07.600 --> 3:51:10.280 forwarded that information to the FBI via the Mutual Legal 3:51:10.320 --> 3:51:13.880 Assistance treaty. This individual has not been charged with the 3:51:13.960 --> 3:51:18.120 crime and no email contents were provided to either the 3:51:18.160 --> 3:51:22.040 Swiss authorities or the FBI. This is Edwards shown the 3:51:22.080 --> 3:51:25.960 head of communications for Proton quote, Proton only provides the 3:51:26.080 --> 3:51:29.360 limited information that we have when issued with a legally 3:51:29.480 --> 3:51:33.120 binding order from Swiss authorities, which can only happen after 3:51:33.280 --> 3:51:37.000 all Swiss legal checks are passed. This is an important 3:51:37.040 --> 3:51:42.560 distinction because Proton operates exclusively under Swiss law. Proton accepts 3:51:42.600 --> 3:51:47.240 payments via cryptocurrency, cash and also credit card. If you 3:51:47.400 --> 3:51:50.360 use a credit card, we do have access to the 3:51:50.440 --> 3:51:53.560 payment identifier, which can be used to identify the credit 3:51:53.680 --> 3:51:57.640 card holder from the card issuer. We check all legal 3:51:57.760 --> 3:52:00.840 orders received from authorities, and we understood that a law 3:52:00.920 --> 3:52:03.960 enforcement officer was shot and explosive devices were involved, and 3:52:04.080 --> 3:52:08.920 we verified that Swiss legal requirements were met unquote. That's 3:52:08.960 --> 3:52:13.360 their main statement regarding the handover of this credit card information. 3:52:14.360 --> 3:52:16.880 This has always been my understanding of how Proto Mail works. 3:52:17.400 --> 3:52:19.880 They are a business, They are not an activist organization. 3:52:20.080 --> 3:52:22.720 They are they are a business, and Swiss privacy laws 3:52:22.720 --> 3:52:25.640 are stronger and they would have not been able to 3:52:25.680 --> 3:52:29.440 hand over financial information identifying the person if this account 3:52:29.720 --> 3:52:34.000 paid in cash mailed to Proton or be a cryptocurrency, 3:52:34.000 --> 3:52:36.800 which would have been way more difficult to identify. 3:52:36.560 --> 3:52:37.520 Depending on the crypto. 3:52:37.640 --> 3:52:40.560 But yeah, I've operated many many proton mail accounts through 3:52:40.600 --> 3:52:43.480 the years. I've never tied any of them to financial information. 3:52:43.880 --> 3:52:46.400 You do not need to pay for most of the 3:52:46.520 --> 3:52:49.520 services that they provide, like I even have Proton VPN 3:52:50.360 --> 3:52:52.960 without paying for like the expanded VPN option. 3:52:54.040 --> 3:52:56.560 Yeah, they've always been very clear that they're a Swiss 3:52:56.600 --> 3:52:58.680 based company and they comply with Swiss privacy law. 3:52:59.240 --> 3:53:02.360 Yeah, this is how and before they have responded to 3:53:02.520 --> 3:53:03.600 FBI requests before. 3:53:03.840 --> 3:53:05.240 I don't know how many off ther requests they have 3:53:05.280 --> 3:53:08.000 responded to. I know they've responded to requests from other 3:53:08.080 --> 3:53:09.000 countries in Europe. 3:53:09.040 --> 3:53:10.440 It's one around twenty twenty. 3:53:10.760 --> 3:53:14.160 I know they've responded to French authorities about environmental protesters. 3:53:14.560 --> 3:53:17.080 The fact that's what authorities did send this information to 3:53:17.240 --> 3:53:21.160 FBI is newsworthy. This is notable, But this doesn't mean 3:53:21.240 --> 3:53:24.560 that Proton is getting increasingly compliant Like this is from 3:53:25.240 --> 3:53:29.640 early twenty twenty four, following the standard procedure via the 3:53:29.760 --> 3:53:34.560 mutual legal assistance treaty, and importantly, the actual end to 3:53:34.760 --> 3:53:38.960 end email contents were not given because Proton themselves don't 3:53:38.960 --> 3:53:39.800 even have access to those. 3:53:40.120 --> 3:53:42.920 Yeah, and for clarity, Proton has given info to the 3:53:43.040 --> 3:53:45.400 FBI before. I found a case back in twenty twenty 3:53:45.440 --> 3:53:47.240 two where the FBI was able to get data on 3:53:47.400 --> 3:53:50.920 us proton mail user who was being investigated for harassment. 3:53:51.600 --> 3:53:55.120 They responded in twenty twenty one to six nine hundred 3:53:55.120 --> 3:53:58.960 and ninety five legal orders and complied with about six 3:53:59.080 --> 3:54:01.920 thousand of them, only twenty one it was about five 3:54:02.440 --> 3:54:04.840 and twenty twenty about three thousand. I think this generally 3:54:04.920 --> 3:54:07.760 reflects the rate at which Proton has grown, rather than 3:54:08.440 --> 3:54:10.960 them becoming more likely to respond to these requests. 3:54:11.520 --> 3:54:14.440 Yeah, and by responding to the requests that that doesn't 3:54:14.440 --> 3:54:17.800 really give us a good insight into what they're actually responding. 3:54:17.400 --> 3:54:20.120 With, right, Yeah, Yeah, that's the other thing, right, Like 3:54:20.280 --> 3:54:24.400 this person's email inbox was not opened to the FBI. 3:54:25.200 --> 3:54:27.880 That is a different thing, very important. 3:54:28.200 --> 3:54:30.200 There was the name linked to their credit card. 3:54:30.400 --> 3:54:32.840 Yeah, I think, like you said, this is reportable, but 3:54:33.000 --> 3:54:36.280 it's it was a little over sold in the headline. 3:54:36.280 --> 3:54:37.880 I know ify one does that these days. 3:54:37.760 --> 3:54:41.320 But yeah, it's good for people to understand how proton 3:54:41.480 --> 3:54:43.480 actually works as like a privacy email. 3:54:43.600 --> 3:54:44.880 Yes, yes, and they are not. 3:54:45.280 --> 3:54:46.840 They are not an activist group and that is an 3:54:46.880 --> 3:54:49.840 important sanction. They are a Swiss business that will follow 3:54:49.920 --> 3:54:52.080 the law. And if you understand how to use Proton 3:54:52.080 --> 3:54:54.720 as a service to maximize your privacy, then it can 3:54:54.800 --> 3:54:58.800 be a very useful service, but it will not protect 3:54:58.880 --> 3:55:02.600 you in every way. If you're handing them over payment 3:55:02.600 --> 3:55:06.080 information or information tied to your name that is not encrypted, 3:55:06.480 --> 3:55:09.640 that can open the possibility of an account being identifiable. 3:55:10.200 --> 3:55:12.280 Yeah, so I know a lot of people had contacted 3:55:12.360 --> 3:55:15.880 me about a proton mail address, Like, hopefully now you 3:55:16.000 --> 3:55:18.040 have the information that you need to decide it's that 3:55:18.080 --> 3:55:18.640 it's something you. 3:55:18.680 --> 3:55:19.480 Want to use or not. 3:55:21.200 --> 3:55:22.760 Speaking of proton mail. 3:55:23.600 --> 3:55:26.120 Yeah, speak of protemail. We still have a proton mail address. 3:55:26.160 --> 3:55:27.680 Now you know a little bit more about how you 3:55:27.840 --> 3:55:30.400 can use it. If you want to cool zone tips 3:55:30.440 --> 3:55:33.360 at proton dot me. If you would like to send 3:55:33.440 --> 3:55:36.040 us a pitch for you or your boss to be 3:55:36.160 --> 3:55:38.200 on behind the Bastards, if you would like us to 3:55:38.320 --> 3:55:41.680 plug your book, if you want us to talk about 3:55:41.760 --> 3:55:44.480 your fucking time share. You can send all of that 3:55:44.720 --> 3:55:49.920 to Coolzone Media at iHeartMedia dot com. Especially if it's 3:55:49.960 --> 3:55:50.560 the last one, I. 3:55:50.520 --> 3:55:51.080 Will block you. 3:55:51.680 --> 3:55:53.920 Oh no, I'm looking for a time share that seems 3:55:53.960 --> 3:55:55.240 like a good investment. Sick. 3:55:55.640 --> 3:55:59.800 But that is the email for non tips for things 3:55:59.840 --> 3:56:02.200 that not related to news tips, you can use the 3:56:02.280 --> 3:56:06.920 calls on media at iHeartMedia dot com email address dot com. 3:56:07.240 --> 3:56:10.400 Talking of tips, I have a tip garrison for marketing people. 3:56:10.440 --> 3:56:14.880 If you email anyone ten times a day, you gotta 3:56:14.920 --> 3:56:17.040 piste them off. They're not gonna want to fucking hear 3:56:17.080 --> 3:56:17.320 from you. 3:56:17.600 --> 3:56:18.000 Stop it. 3:56:18.800 --> 3:56:21.680 Some of you aren't. Well you're not emailing them. You've 3:56:21.680 --> 3:56:22.880 got an AI doing it. 3:56:22.960 --> 3:56:25.480 It's got to be AI. Yeah, that's that's not a person. 3:56:26.160 --> 3:56:29.160 If it's a marketing person. There are other people who 3:56:29.240 --> 3:56:30.400 email ten times a day. 3:56:30.760 --> 3:56:33.920 Yeah, I mean this was a marketing person who was 3:56:34.000 --> 3:56:37.480 emailing some of our work addresses try and get us. 3:56:37.480 --> 3:56:40.360 To plug their podcasts, which on our podcast is. 3:56:40.400 --> 3:56:43.400 To stop it, grow up, have some self respect. 3:56:43.720 --> 3:56:43.960 Yeah. 3:56:44.600 --> 3:56:46.560 What's really fun is if you go on Reddit, you 3:56:46.680 --> 3:56:50.400 can find a subreddit for those kind of marketers. Well 3:56:50.400 --> 3:56:55.000 they're worth they'll complain about journalists not responding, and it's beautiful. 3:56:54.600 --> 3:56:57.000 Yeah, you can't see because podcasts. I'm raising both my 3:56:57.080 --> 3:56:59.760 middle fingers at this time. Like anyway, this has been 3:56:59.880 --> 3:57:04.160 us swining about marketing people. I hope you will have 3:57:04.240 --> 3:57:04.840 a lovely week. 3:57:05.680 --> 3:57:09.440 I will be as a hug as many of those 3:57:09.840 --> 3:57:10.840 proteins as. 3:57:10.800 --> 3:57:16.680 I can, Garrison, if you want to start really bulking up, 3:57:16.760 --> 3:57:19.400 you need at least one hundred grams of protein a day. 3:57:19.880 --> 3:57:21.440 And there's ten and he'll die. 3:57:22.520 --> 3:57:26.520 It's only ten day. 3:57:26.920 --> 3:57:28.720 You could pour them in a camel back and go 3:57:28.880 --> 3:57:29.600 about your day. 3:57:32.400 --> 3:57:34.000 Just make sure you dip the end of the camel 3:57:34.080 --> 3:57:35.520 back in the buffalo. 3:57:35.320 --> 3:57:38.560 Dry rope, the dry rope for the nozzle. Have a 3:57:38.600 --> 3:57:40.240 little Shika, have a little. 3:57:41.800 --> 3:57:43.040 We reported the news. 3:57:44.000 --> 3:57:45.200 Oh god, did we? 3:57:45.800 --> 3:57:46.720 We reported the news. 3:57:51.040 --> 3:57:54.160 Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week 3:57:54.280 --> 3:57:56.160 from now until the heat death of the Universe. 3:57:56.960 --> 3:57:59.080 It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone 3:57:59.120 --> 3:58:02.160 Media from what podcasts from Cool Zone Media. Visit our 3:58:02.200 --> 3:58:05.280 website Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 3:58:05.320 --> 3:58:09.240 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 3:58:09.720 --> 3:58:11.600 You can now find sources for It could Happen Here, 3:58:11.680 --> 3:58:14.640 listed directly in episode descriptions, Thanks for listening,