It Could Happen Here Weekly 254

This is an "I Heart" podcast. Guaranteed Human. I'm Melissa Jeltsin, host of The What Happened to Her Podcast. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case the police wrote off as a suicide in a snowstorm. Her family never bought it, and the man they suspected wore a badge. "You never know who that devil is because he's wearing disguise, sometimes it's a police uniform." And you can get access to all episodes 100% ad-free with an I Heart True Crime+ subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts, available only to I Heart True Crime+ subscribers. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for I Heart True Crime+ and subscribe today. I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of SCAM Goddess Podcasts. The True Crime Comedy Podcasts all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. And now you can catch full episodes of my show on YouTube! Start listening to SCAM Goddess on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Hamza, and I'm Martin, and we're the hosts of Out of Character, the best podcast in the world. That's what they said. Wait, they said that? Yeah, they said that. The best podcast was two best friends who jabber and talk about topical, trendy, funny stuff, give our input on it. That's what you've needed, I think up until now, listener. Listen to Out of Character on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes I just feel like a burden. You're a bird. You fly. You're a morn. We are. Out of character podcasts. Dude, who may I stop the clip? There are thousands of podcasts that can tell you how to better yourself. What's worse with Kyle Pru is not one of those podcasts. So if you're interested in getting thinner, going to therapy, starting peptide, setting boundaries, taking supplements, making your better getting closer, then I would humbly recommend other podcasts. If you're interested in blackmail, love, bomb, and cloning yourself are getting revenge, then we've got a little something, something for a dastardly individual like you. Listen to GetWorks with Kyle Pru on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of Betrayal, Carl thought he was living a normal, drama-free life, until the messages started. Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. Every piece of evidence pointed to the wrong guy. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody. Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let you know this is a compilation episode, so every episode of the week that just happened is here in one convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to listen to in a long stretch. If you want, if you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, there's going to be nothing new here for you, but you can make your own decisions. Welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis, joined by Robert Evans. Hello. Hello, Garrison Davis. How are you doing today? I'm doing okay. I'm really, I'm getting prepared to vote. I'm, yeah. I'm psyching myself off. Just like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps told you to do, huh? I think that's what we want to start with. This isn't, this isn't, in general, this episode will be kind of going over the midterm polls as they are in early October, kind of what, what we can get a sense of the election about a month out. Now, there were just a few weeks away from the election. But a few weeks ago, the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Friends of the pod. Sure. At this, you know, at this point, man, it's one bad day full solidist, full, full, full solidist. I mean, that's more, it's a slightly different-ist, but a few weeks ago, the IRGC released a 26-page letter, not short, not, not, not strong on brevity, the IRGC. Addressed to the American people, a spokesperson from the IRGC, told Reuters, quote, "The American people are not knowledgeable about many developments. We believe if they knew more, they would think differently and take other decisions," unquote." You guys might have more faith in the American people than I do at this point. The start of the letter and how it's addressed reads, "To the honorable people of the United States of America, the scholars, the students, and the members of the media." I think that last part is important because at least some of them know that the American people are not reading a 26-page letter. This is going to be, most they read by journalists. This is going to be read by nerds on Twitter and Blues Getters. And nerds on Twitter. Yeah. Now, I actually was able to get a short video, the IRGC also released a short video kind of summarizing the letter, and I will play that here for Robert. So that's, yeah, that's the special video. Yeah, that really is. That's something else. So there's a few sections before. The bulk of the letter is arguing why Iran is the victor in the war, concrete evidence of Iran's victory. They have a section on the meaning of, quote, "Death to America," which reads, quote, "Death to America does not in any way express any ill will toward the American people who have themselves suffered through the same oppression. Death to America is a prayer for the eradication of the diabolical ruling elite whose seat of power is in the White House." And the letter goes on to say that the IRGC and the people of Iran have no feeling of hostility toward the American people. And then they ask, how can the US be saved? And this is what leads to the bulk of the letter, which is essentially trying to get Americans to vote harder, which you're, you're finished fascism. Oh, man. But there's also a few other interesting kind of like a name drops here, quote, "God will come to the aid of the American people if they decide to change course. Thankfully, Americans are waking up to the truth over the past two years Americans have participated in numerous demonstrations and cities across the US to express their outrage at Israel's genocidal actions in Gaza. Moreover, the no kings rallies that swept across the US last year and the IRGC were a nation right repudiation of the burgeoning autocratic tendencies within the American government. These powerful manifestations of collective action or evidence of a national awakening spreading through the US." Americans showed that the majority of Americans, especially younger Americans, no longer wish to be complicit in their government's crimes against other nations, unquote. Part of what makes this so funny to me is how dimensionically opposed it is to the messaging coming out of like, you know, US-based like Maoists or like anti-imperialists, you know, yeah, like the US far left absolutely. Yes. Yes. There's so much, so much more generous to the American people. And yeah, that's something that's really funny to me as for the vote harder section. Let's read one paragraph here. Your response may be that you do not accept these atrocious actions, but are powerless to do anything about them. This answer, however, is not acceptable. You are the ones who empower with your votes. The government had allowed to do what it wants, although American politicians often win your votes through deception of false promises, as Trump did. You can change the makeup of the government if you apply the criteria for good leadership and choosing the people you vote into office. See, guys, I got to tell you I smell that easy. First off, I've voted every time I've gotten the chance pretty much. I don't think I've ever empowered anyone with my votes. You know, it's one of those kind of Adam Curtis moments. Yeah. We have the IRGC advocating the ideal of electoral politics, something that does not exist really in Iran, either. It's consistent with, there's that one famous interview with an Iranian cleric where he's like, as Alexander to talk to who I'm sure all Americans have read one set. He's like, guys, you are way overestimating us. So yeah, if you have any sort of anti-imperialist impulses, as per the IRGC, get your voter registration up to date. Get your voter registration card and get out there. If you're in line, stay in line, that's right. So part of my newsletter was released is because it is just a few a few weeks away from the midterms. We are less than a month away from the 2026 midterm elections. And so I thought we should do a little update on polling and take a look at some of the close races. Sure. And let's start by talking about the current makeup of Congress right now in the house. 218 seats are held by Republicans, 214 by Democrats, and there's one independent who coxes with the Republicans. 218 seats are what's needed for a majority. This has been a very, a very small majority that the Republicans have been able to hold on to in the house these past, these past few years. The Cook Political Report is forecasting that the Dems will pick up around five to fifteen seats in the midterms, likely putting them in charge of the house. With anywhere between 220 to 230 seats. And this lead in polling, the and their projected victory has only grown these past few weeks. It's not becoming a closer race for the Republicans. No, this things don't look good for them because gasoline costs all of the money in your pocket now. That is a huge factor. That's a big part of the reason. I'll go over some of the kind of main issues driving the election for some pulling and gas prices is like number one or number two. Yeah, I have trouble imagining anything other than other cost of living stuff being like a larger impact on voters. Something that is interesting, the redistricting across Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, we'll likely have a minimal impact in the results like in total. There's obviously for the people actually impacted, the people whose votes are being diluted, especially not that this is not bad or a problem. It's just they have fucked up enough that it's not going to benefit them to the extent. That's what it seemed like to me that they're not going to benefit the way that they were. No, so I don't want to discount the impact of the erosion of the voting rights act by any means, or the just larger structural issues of partisan gerrymandering. But in analysis by Harvard estimated gain only two seats for Republicans in these midterms, though other estimates give them a few more seats anywhere between five to nine. So we're looking at somewhere between a couple seats. I think nine is probably a bit optimistic for the Republicans. Around two to five seats, they could net because of the redistricting measures. And could might, yeah, even that gain will likely be undone in the coming years going into 2028 when Virginia is able to push forward its redistricting again, which they tried to do earlier. But because of a procedural error, it was shot down. So that will also net Democrats a few more seats that will start to kind of even things out. And then we had this whole little fun redistricting for nothing. Yeah, it's a real just a marker of how badly they have botched their starting position going into this administration, just kind of a catastrophic series of political decisions. We'll see if any of that matters, but it really does highlight how pissed off people are. Now, obviously the Senate is kind of the big question here. Yeah, will Democrats be able to actually take the Senate? We'll be able to control all of Congress, not just the House. Yeah, currently the Republicans have a 53 seat majority plus a Federman and the vice president who vote. So that kind of really throws a wrench in all these numbers, the Federman factor and the Vance factor. Yeah, Democrats just have 45 seats plus two independence who caucus with the Democrats, like Bernie Sanders. So essentially things actually sit at like 54 to 46 adjusting for independence and Federman. So Democrats really need a net gain of like four to five seats to be able to have the Senate be a more of a competitive voting arena also considering J.D. Vance. There are 35 Senate seats on the ballot next month. So Democrats will need to flip around four to five seats like I said. And one of the seats Democrats have wanted to flip for a long time. And especially this year is Maine with Susan Collins. One of our worst lawmakers. Yes. And Republicans, as I reported on ED a few weeks ago, Republicans did that great investigation into military contracting corruption and a bribery involving Susan Collins. So Union logger Choi Jackson is trying to unseat Collins. Right now this race leans D or is a toss up. Marist has Jackson up four points ahead of Collins among registered voters. But with a margin of error of 3.8%. So that's essentially still almost within the margin of error. This is going to be a very close race, right? A margin of error like that. This is still basically a toss up. Other polling shows roughly the same results. Jackson up a few points, but within the margin of error. Per Marist, among the Maine electorate, 57% think Collins will win. That's not saying 57% want Collins to win, but they think that will happen. Right? That's what they think is more likely. A survey from the Maine People's Resource Center found Jackson ahead among independent voters. 58% to 33% for Collins. The Maine People's Resource Center is a progressive leaning institution. Obviously, this race and Maine has been a big shit show to say the least. And since Jackson has taken over as the nominee, Democratic Party's Absolute Consultants have really swooped into Maine and have been trying to keep Jackson on a tight leash. Jackson's campaign has not replicated the Platner style like intensive town hall strategy. I think that would be a bad idea. Like, it would be really obvious if he just tried to be Graham Platner without the scandal, right? Yeah. Let's try to be Graham Platner, but I think it is the style of campaigning is very different. Yeah. Jackson's on his accessible to the electorate. Consultants have tried to keep him from doing Q and A's at the events that he does end up doing. They've been dissuading him from talking about ICE and Israel and Palestine. So they've really been trying to keep him on a pretty tight leash. There's a story in New York magazine a few weeks ago that kind of details how Democratic establishment consultants have been trying to lead the Jackson campaign that if people are interested in that specific topic, I recommend they check out. So this is one of the races that Democrats really do need to flip. If they have a chance of winning the Senate and it is theoretically possible, he may be slightly ahead in the polls, but only very slightly, but I think this is essentially a toss up, especially looking back at 2020 when the Democrat in that race also was a little bit ahead and Colin still ended up walking away with it. Yeah. I think they're both trying to avoid having another partner who gets like out of control of them and is saying shit that the DNC does not want to have to stand by. And I think they are also hoping that Platoners campaign at least did enough damage to Collins that she isn't going to be able to like pull out a win this time. And maybe that'll be the case. That might wind up being a play that works. Definitely. It's not a great position to have someone who was doing as well as Platon or had been doing get dropped out with a scandal that fucked up like that's a that's not easy to handle. Yes, especially mobilizing that many people who are already kind of disillusioned with politics, giving them that sort of hope and then having that hope be ripped away. And then those people who maybe some of them who even still want to, you know, be politically engaged, the Jackson campaign is not letting them touch the campaign with it with the time to pull, which you maybe understand the reasons for, but there's a lot of like grassroots, you know, very like working class oriented activists who want to be involved in some way that are that are not being tapped. Yeah. And as strong as Platoners campaign was, it was because it was built on the work that they were doing. Yeah. Not just him as a person. Yeah. So that that those are sort of complicating factors in this race. And you know, it's a complicating factor in this podcast episode, Garrison. The fact that we have to pivot to ads in order to pay the bills, we have to pivot to ads right now. Yeah. Yeah. That is a complicating factor in our lives. And we're back. How do you feel about North Carolina, Robert? Of the Carolina's definitely my favorite. That's that's so true. Actually, the best of the Carolina's top 50% to Carolina. Start everyone in South Carolina. Not apology. I did not apologize. South Carolina, you need to know that. Well, North Carolina could also be one of the states that flip for the devs. Former Democratic governor Roy Cooper is facing a former RNC chair, Michael Watley, what a name, who is running to replace Republican Senator Tom Tillis. Those are both silly names. Have some sulfur. God damn it. This race is leaning Democrat. This is not a toss up. Yeah. Poles from late September have Cooper ahead five to 13 points. Yep. That's pretty good. And last week, a Republican super PAC pulled 30 million dollars of ad money out of the state to use in other races. So that's assigned that at least even among some Republicans, they're kind of giving up on this. Roy Cooper is a pretty strong candidate for this state. I should say as we're going through all of these candidates, this is not it can happen here endorsing any candidate just because they belong to one party or another. Not our thing. I'm just talking about this in terms of what the Democrats want in order to take back power and the sort of how these candidates relate to each state. Roy Cooper is a relatively liked figure in in North Carolina. That is reflected in the polling for this. His campaign has also helped by the fact he's not going up against in the company. He's not going up against someone who voters already are familiar with already like who they just want to keep in power. He's going up against a new guy, a former RNC chair. So this is one of those states where the Democrats will probably flip. You can kind of count this on the four to five states needed to flip. This is this is the most kind of certain one. There'd be a massive polling error if it goes the other way or some sort of fuckery, but And just just a total misread of the situation on the ground. Yeah. One of the more interesting kind of surprises is Alaska, which could also flip for Democrats. The former Democratic Congressman, Mary Peltola, is going up against sitting Senator Dan Sullivan. Peltola is definitely running more as like a centrist, very pro-fossil fuels in Alaska. Yeah. Pro-gun-to. Pro-gun. And her campaign slogan is, "Fish, family, freedom." Yeah. That makes sense. Not a terrible slogan for running in Alaska. Not bad for Alaska. And rather than attacking Republicans, a lot of her campaign messaging is focused on taking on, quote, "DC," you know, it's very much like Alaska versus DC. Yeah. Corruption is a massive issue for the whole electorate, so that makes sense. Like that's, yeah. Kind of the obvious play. And really prioritizing Alaska as like a, its own special interest because it's so different from every other state. Part of Peltola strategy is trying to, you know, is trying to attract certain Republicans. So why she's not really going hard against Republicans per se, but attacking a sort of like DC swamp establishment. That's her main strategy here. New York Times, Sanipole from late September to early October has Peltola up seven points. Yeah. That's a pretty solid lead. Alaska has been wavering the last couple of elections between blue and red. So this is not like a sea change, right? This is kind of an incremental change in some of the, the, and obviously the disaster that is this administration has pushed things further along than I think it otherwise would be. But this is, it's been moving in this direction a while. Yeah. And like Alaska hasn't had a Democratic Senator in like almost 20 years. This would be a significant event if this happened. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't mean to say it wouldn't. I've just been like this. This pattern has been occurring since before like Trump too, right? And obviously there's this general pattern of in the midterms usually, especially the house, but sometimes the Senate as well shifts to the opposition party. The opposite. Politics 101. This is a very basic pattern. And what we're looking at is this could be even stronger this year than some years previously, not as strong as 2018, but taking back the Senate and the House would, would be huge, especially because of how far they have to go in the Senate in order to retake it. Yeah. Now, the race in Alaska, this definitely used to lean Republican, right? This was not seen to be a very competitive race. But recently this went to a toss up, right? And now some models even have it leaning Democrat. So this is one race where there's been a lot of movement. And JD Vance was dropped in to Alaska to campaign for Sullivan last week. Something that they may not have needed to do or thought they needed to do a few months ago. But now, now this is competitive enough that they're sending in the vice president. Will JD Vance actually help Republicans win the state? That's certainly debatable. But I don't know if I would be putting JD in as my pension. That's the thing, right? I don't, like, I don't know who I put in as my pensioner right now in their Republican bench. But Vance would be the bottom of my list, like, honestly, send in Federman. No, I legitimately, yes, he'll do better for you in this instance. Heading in Federman to campaign for the Republicans would be, I think, probably a smarter move. Yeah. You could convince him to do it. What a nightmare. What a horrible situation. It's, it's all how things are really bad, buddy. Things are really bad. I know when, like, we were getting shot at by federal agents in Portland, things were bad, but things are a lot darker. Yeah. Well, I'm about to get maybe shot at by federal agents in like 20 minutes, so yeah, because they just shot a dude with an actual gun in New York, yeah. Time is a spiral. Yeah. Let's talk about Texas. Sure. Yeah. I'm excited to talk about Texas because this is the first time I get to be like a little optimistic about more than like two Texas elections actually. So yeah, I'm, I'm excited. Let's talk about Tala Frico, Tala Frico. In terms of the set up, the big, big question is Texas with James Tala Rico going up against Kenny Paxx. Ken Paxden. K Paxx is I like to call him. You probably didn't see that movie, Garrison. That's not good. No. No. I did just see out of sight the Steven Soderbergh movie. I don't know if I've seen that one from like the 90s. It's like, it's like the Proto-Ocean's 11. Okay. It's the hottest I've ever seen George Clooney. Oh, Clooney Tang. Okay. He plays like a serial bank robber. That's a good role for him who keeps going to jail, prison, then he breaks out and then it kind of cuts between a few different timelines as he gets into a sort of doomed romance with a federal marshal played by Jennifer Lopez. Okay. I was going to say I've seen this movie and then well, no, I have seen this movie with JLo. Yeah. I started to tell because like the first half of that description is like 18 different George Clooney movies. Exactly. He's like a bank robber. He keeps going to prison. No, especially like the late 90s, early 2000s. This is like his role. He had this like all along. The hottest bank robber you've ever seen. Yeah. People love a criminal. Speaking of Ken Paxed, not doing great in the polls. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Marist and New York Times, La Sienna, have Tolerico up six points as of late September. With a recent Fox News poll showing Tolerico at 51% to Paxton's 49%. Not good for old K-Pax. No. There's also this big enthusiasm gap that the Fox News poll really focused on. Among mega Republicans, 64% say they're extremely interested in the midterms. But for non mega Republicans, only 50% is extremely interested in the midterms. So that's almost like a 15% gap among Republicans for how much they're invested in these midterms. And this difference does not exist on the democratic side. The Fox News polling has Democrats broken down into two categories. Similar to you know, mega and non mega. They have DSA Democrats and non DSA Democrats, which is funny on its face. DSA Democrats are at 68% non DSAs at 67%. So basically no gap. Geez. And I think this has less to do with Tolerico's specific characteristics as a candidate and everything to do with the fact that Ken Paxen is the literal Christian devil. Yes. But I mean, these numbers are not just interesting because of the gap between mega and non mega Republicans. But also mega Republicans are at 64% for enthusiasm versus Democrats are at 67, 68. So that's a few points ahead just for enthusiasm against the mega kind of hardcore. And the other really worrying part of this for Republicans is that out of the percent that say that they will vote mega is at 76% non mega is at 65% that's an 11 11% gap. And similarly, this gap does not exist for the Democrats DSA or otherwise, that is really interesting. And it says a lot about mega Republicans that they have so hard to be given up any kind of like moral. Yeah. Do not care for their candidates. Do not care. It does not matter at all. A lot of the country Republicans and mega Republicans are synonyms, but that's not the case in a lot of Texas. Like Texas has a lot of Bush Republicans still. Yeah. And I mean, like those people still likely are going to vote for Trump in the presidential elections. Absolutely. But over simplifying, they're like all of their politics to mega is a, I think it's a sort of theoretical mistake. It's a mistake. Those people are not some of them are, but because there's, there's a chunk of Republicans that look like they're going to Tallariko, but it's not a huge chunk. It's more that some of them just aren't going to vote or are going to put in like a protest candidate. You know, I've read some interviews to that stance with like Republican voters who are on sort of the Bush Republicans side of things being like, I'm just going to put in a protest voter or something, which in this instance is just as good as voting for Tallariko in terms of stopping Paxton from winning again, because the Republicans who have some degree of moral fiber left are also disgusted with Ken Paxton. He's gross. I don't know if you saw this. Ken Paxton's ex-wife, who was a Texas state senator, was tapped for an election ad where she does not even say her ex-husband's name, not just a baby's people to vote for the quote Republican ticket to stay on the team. I want to play the ad. Yeah. God. This is great. I'm Texas Senator Angela Paxton. People have asked my thoughts about this election and turns out I have some. Let's talk about the elephant in the room. In a general election, it's not as much about the individual players on the team. It's about getting the whole team across the finish line. Either we hold every Republican seat or we hand the future of Texas to the other team. That's why I'm voting for the Republican ticket on November 3rd. Let's hold the line together. Texas Paxton's responsible for the content of this advertising. Rousing. Won't even say a saying. Rousing message. Crazy stuff. Wow, wild stuff. Hold your nose and vote for my shitty ex, the psychopath. That's why she goes. She starts by saying, let's entrust the elephant in the room and then doesn't, does not entrust the elephant can't bring herself to say his name. Oh my God. That's amazing. It's one of the most incredible political ads I've ever seen. Almost as good as I would. It may as well play this one, this is technically a house, a house ad. Unfortunately, we're going to drop it here in the Senate section, but in terms of talking about political ads. This is an ad running in Ohio in response to a series of anti trans ads that the Republicans have been blasting in the airwaves. Seeing these ads, they're a complete lie. Records show not only is this woman actually from Texas. He didn't have any surgery as a minor, but John Houston, he protected men who abused young girls by voting in the Senate to block the release of the Epstein files. Maybe that's because Houston took $116,000 from associates of Jeffrey Epstein, ten times more than any other Senator. John Houston should be ashamed. I'm sure Brown and I approve this message. It's that easy. It's that easy, folks. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the ads made for you, really. If the Republicans want to make, quote unquote, protecting young girls, the center of their politics, they fucking handed you the silver platter that the Epstein's right there. Yeah. It's frustrating because Taloriko has fucking recently made some kind of bows to the anti-trans kids and sports panic, shit, which was very washing flip flippy floppy not standing firmly where he should be, certainly. No, and I don't think that's helping him. Honestly, I think the primary thing helping him is that compactness is a bomb of a monster. He's awful. He's the devil. And to run against the devil, you simply have to not be the devil. I guess it's harder than that. Trump won't. And also offer people real things as well. I think I'm not being fair to the campaign. Like he has run a much better campaign than that. Well, I'm also just saying, like in general, I think the sort of running as just not Trump has that, yes, that's not one as a strategy. That's not enough. Taloriko has worked hard to portray himself as other than being a Democrat, like a Texas Christian that Texans can, you know, find respectable, right? Yeah. We'll talk a little bit more about Texas. But first, here are some ads. And we're back. I did want to mention one more thing about the K-Pax campaign. Paxton Senate campaign recently put out a series of missing posters demanding proof of life for James Taloriko. Oh, yeah, a little less than two weeks ago. He took sick with the flu. He got diagnosed on September 30th. And after that, he had to do it like attend. He attended like a Hispanic business council meeting via video that had been scheduled to attend in person. Yeah, he told attendees, I'm running a fever and I'm at my most contagious right now. And I guess I've been shaking too many hands on the campaign trail. So I want to keep everybody safe. He stated that if he passed his illness to somebody's grandmother or a baby, he couldn't live with himself. Totally reasonable thing. But Paxton's campaign put out this like old West looking like wanted poster of him demanding proof of life because he's been absent 12 days from the campaign trail. They're doing the fucking Mitch McConnell bullshit. Yeah, it's, it's nonsense. He's been making statements. He's just not, he's sick. That happens. He's booked for a CNN town hall in October 14th. There's been a pretty bad illness going around, whether I think there's probably a few. I know that there is a call. There is a, there is a COVID strain. And he's young for politics, but he's also at the age in which flus and shit hit yard, you know, like he's not, not a baby. I did see a clip from the president in the past few days talking about this. And he said that Paxton's hiding because he's been forced to eat meat when running. And so he's been vomiting up meat all the time. And that's why he's not what not visible. Donald, what the fuck? Trump's been, Trump just learned what veganism is. Yeah. And he said, he said, he says it really funny. And it's been like the main thing he's been attacking talent, talent freeco with is that the fact that he's like a legend, a legend vegan, right? Cause he's not a vegan. Yes. Like no, even if you were a vegan, if you wanted to win a major election in Texas, you would lie about that. Yeah. That's almost more of a disqualifying factor in Texas politics than being a Democrat. But yeah, that's been the main thing Trump's been trying to attack talent freeco for is this alleged vegan status. And the idea that talent freeco is having to fake being of meat eater has gotten sick from eating meat and is thus vomiting. And that's why he's out of the spotlight. Yeah. Of course, that's definitely it. Simple. You basic stuff. Politics 101. Yeah. Politics is something or other. The gubernatorial election is also going to be this year for Texas. And this is like the first time in a while that it's looked actually kind of competitive. Gina Hinojosa is running against Greg Abbott, who is right up there with Ken Paxden in terms of being an evil scumbag. Like he is just a monster, although a much more popular monster than Ken Paxden is with voters. But even so, Hinojosa is giving him a run for his money. Right now, the, the real clear politics average trend has Abbott at 48.1 and Hinojosa at 46.4. But there are several polls that have Hinojosa ahead, including you gov. The New York Times scene up poll has her up by three. Marist has her up by three. Okay. Recon MR scene has her up by four. Now, obviously there are some like Telemundo has Abbott up by seven. Okay. Box has Abbott up by five. And there are definitely more polls that have Abbott ahead. But this looks close enough that like it's being considered by a lot of people to be a toss up or close to a toss up. It's competitive. It's competitive. Like she really could pull it off. I'm not saying I think that's the likeliest thing to happen here because this is still Texas. And I I just can't be that optimistic about the gubernatorial race. But I would love it if Gina could unseat Greg Abbott because he is just a fucking monster. And yeah, she's running a really good campaign. Yeah, she's currently in the House of Representatives representing the 49th district. The Texas House or the federal in the Texas House. She's a state legislator. The Texas House. Okay. Got it. Yeah. And she worked for the AFL. Okay. Prior to that, she's been a lawyer for quite some time. She was part of the legal team that sued Tom Delay. The Heneoses are like a prominent North Texas family. I went to school with one of her. I don't know if it was her kid or like a cousin or something. But like the Heneoses are like a prominent wealthy family in North Texas. So it's very interesting that she's and I haven't enough of a deep dive. I think a lot of what's helping her is just the general unpopularity of the Republican party right now. And I do kind of suspect that Greg Abbott is being dragged down a little bit by Ken Paxton too. Like that just the general the overall trend. And also like I think Heneoses probably benefiting from some of the enthusiasm that Talarico's campaign has helped to generate too, right? Obviously, she's also made a lot of really good moves on her own that have increased enthusiasm. But in general, I think because Texas looks competitive in a way it really hasn't. It's benefiting probably both candidates a lot. Just that that is bringing more people out to volunteer. It's bringing more people out to donate. Just creating this impression that like this might be a winnable fight has done a lot. Yeah. So that's one to keep watch on. Again, I would say a gun to my head Abbott's still probably going to eat out a victory. But I can't say definitely, right? Yeah. He does have that sort of like incumbent advantage. And that's another factor with the Talarico Paxton thing. Paxton does not have that incumbent advantage. I think Corbin would be a much harder candidate for Talarico to beat. This wouldn't be an election if Corbin had won the primary. That's why we were sort of softly excited when Paxton won because as dangerous as it is for Pax to potentially be in the Senate, he has a much bigger attack attack radius or attack attack surface. It's hack surface. Then Cornyn does another one of these kind of long shots. Actually, I would say the biggest long shot for a flip is in Florida with progressive Democrat Angie Nixon running against Ashley Moody who took Rubio's seat. The best poll for Nixon as of a few days ago is by Florida politics. And according to them, the race is at a tie 45%. But a recent poll from Stetson University has Moody leading 51 to 40. So at 11 points, a UGov poll from late September to early October has Moody five points ahead with 5% of likely voters still undecided. Though actually, as of just a few hours ago, as of recording, we're recording this on Thursday night. Florida politics did another poll, which shows Moody at 47% and Angie Nixon at 45% within margin of error. So slight difference from the last poll that had them tied. This is one of those races that the Democrats as like the DNC is not actually expecting Nixon to win. They're not really pumping much money in or really any money in. They're not helping. All of this is the result of just Nixon being a really good politician. The fact that the race is this close. And in Nixon's sort of like sleeper candidate, like I was not familiar with Nixon until the primary. And since then, I've watched videos of her working in the statehouse from these past few years and then campaign appearances. She is great. She is really good. A really clear communicator of working class issues, issues impacting the black community in Florida, right? This is Florida's estate. We often like reduce to kind of the worst of the worst people, but there's a lot of good people in Florida as well. They just haven't been represented in politics for almost as long as I've been alive. Yeah. I mean, it gets forgotten, but there's like a reason why the 2000 election hinged on Florida. Yeah. And it was because it was really close. And I'm really interested to see what the results of this race is because this will indicate kind of how much Trump is hurting the Republicans if it's like a really, really close race. If, if the results are really close, and then we'll also point to Nixon's strength as a candidate. And I'm interested to watch what she does after this election, whether or not she wins. Now, of course, there's the other close race, which is in Michigan, which currently leans Democrat with a duel. I'll say you don't average pulling about 3% ahead of former Republican congressman, Mike Rogers. A Mars poll from late September has LSA at 51 to Rogers 44, a seven point lead. This LSA is most favorable poll on New York Times. The end of poll from mid-September shows LSA up five points. A fox poll has an up one point. If a dual wins, Dems could hold on to this seat, strengthening their chances of controlling the Senate, but this would not be a flip. So this is something that they really need to hold on to in order to have a chance, but this will not go towards the sort of four to five seats they need in order to flip. Before we close, I do want to just mention a few of the sort of underlying factors that could be influencing this election. One of the big ones just is Trump and how much everyone hates him. He has a 36% approval rating, which is the lowest pre-midterm approval rating in 50 years. Yeah. That makes sense. Not good. Not great. Not great for the rough public kids. Not what you'd want. Not what you would want. And remember, I was talking about the enthusiasm gap that the fox poll was showing. The latest KFF health tracking poll, it's from the organization formerly known as Kaiser Family Foundation, they found a very large enthusiasm gap between parties in their last poll with democratic voters, much more likely than Republican voters to say they're, quote, more motivated to vote this year, way more than usual. It's 63% to 38%. That's a huge gap. Yeah. Health care and gas tie as voters top affordability worries, a quarter of respondents so that they are very worried about affording each ahead of food utilities and housing. So 25% said they were very worried about affording health care, 25% said they're very worried about affording gas. So that's the tie. It's the 50% of the of the concern. It's those two. The democratic party has a clear edge over the Republican party on who voters trust to handle many top issues in the election, including cost of health care, 42% of respondents trust the Democrats more on these issues for cost of living, 39% respondents trust Democrats more to 25% for the Republicans. And the cost of living was the top issue for both Democrat and independent voters while Republican voters wanted candidates to discuss, quote, fraud. That's the big issue for Republicans right now. So, you know, JD Vance's task force, the post kind of doge thing is they're really obsessed with this idea of fraud and not really the type of fraud that Robert or I would talk about. You know, I think everyone's pretty familiar with how much we're all being ripped off all the time. Yeah. Scam culture is huge. A corporate fraud. The only culture. It's everything, right? And that's not what Republicans are interested in. They are wanting to kick people off the public benefits, right? That's the type of fraud that they are mostly interested in. To close, the most interesting part about this KFF poll though is the numbers around Medicare for all quote, two thirds of the public 66% said they favor Medicare for all. The highest share KFF has recorded since it began polling the idea in 2016. And this is the really crazy part quote, about half 52% said they would favor Medicare for all if it eliminated private health insurance companies, while 47% opposed. That is a huge change from like five years ago. This has been always this has been the biggest kind of protest against Medicare for all is the idea that it would take away your private health care. When respondents get told this in polling, historically, we've seen support for Medicare for all take a big dip. This is the first time a majority of respondents have said they would still support Medicare for all if it took away private health care to quote KFF quote, this marks a departure from one KFF last asked this question in October 2020 when the prospect of eliminating private health insurance companies led to lower support for Medicare for all at just 37%. So this is a huge thing and I would be remiss to mention you know, most of these candidates were talking about in the Senate, the Democratic ones, you know, Troy Jackson, Angie Nixon, Abdul Hellsade, they are running on Medicare for all. This has become a big, resurgent topic, this election across the healthcare is a big topic in these midterms and rather than doing this sort of Pete Buttigieg style Medicare for all who want it, you know, just kind of vaguely talking about having a public option, right? These candidates are being a bit more strict about Medicare for all as like an actual policy and as a policy guarantee, I think Abdul's policy has some slight differences where it does not completely eliminate private health care, but it says that private health care should become redundant and still has a focus on a universal single payer system, which is much closer to the Bernie Sanders version and this sort of like half-assed versions that we've seen from other progressive candidates, you know, running for president like six years ago. So it's something that you know, maybe two or three years ago, I felt like it's kind of like a political, you know, bygone, this focus on like Medicare for all is definitely coming back in a big way and people are not nearly as scared the prospect of them not having private insurance because private insurance sucks. Yeah, it's gotten even worse. Like we're, we're like two years after the mangeone assassination, things still suck. Everyone still hates health care companies. Yeah, only hate them more as time goes on. So yeah, that is the kind of rough overview of the issues affecting the midterms and where the polling stands now just a few weeks away from November. I want to say third, let's see if I'm right. I am right. Boom. We'll probably do a few more polling updates on executive disorder as we get closer to election day. Absolutely. But yeah, that's all from me here. Yeah. Remember guys, do what the IRGC would want you to do. We're not telling you to vote. No, the IRGC Iranian government, we're not good stuff. I'm Melissa Jeltson and in my new podcast, what happened to her, I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. Stories about women whose deaths were too quickly ruled a suicide. She was starting to get worried and get scared for her safety. Stories of survival. The only difference between me and her, frankly, was a little bit of luck because by all rights I should be dead. 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Because sometimes non-human romances can tell us the most about our desire, our fantasies, and what we actually want. Listen to Radio 831, a romance podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Ikidaf and here, a podcast with Ikidaf and here is France, and the IT is IT. I am your host, Mia Wong. And today, we are going to be talking about the enormous and incredibly militant student protest in France, and with me, talk about this is Faiza, who is a political analyst and feminist theorist in France, and Faiza, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Mia. Hello, everybody. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk with you about this because there has been so much unbelievably wild stuff happening, both good and bad, and like, oh my god, it's like hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, most of whom are like 15, 16, like, oh my god. It is so exciting to watch. I mean, I wanted to see such an uprising. We're so long, and it's finally starting to happen, like, yeah, it was a slow build-up this past couple of years, but I feel like something is maybe happening. And not just in France, like, the whole Gen Z world wide is really tired of this shit, and is hitting the streets, and I love it, and I'm here for it. It's amazing. It is. And yeah, we're going to be getting more into every other country that's also going home right now, because it's, you know, it's like, it's like India and Spain and Chile. You've seen a whole bunch of other countries in the past, like, six months go up. But I guess I want to start with going a bit in to sort of the background of this and going into what, what the political situation has been in France that's sort of been leading up to this and what kinds of conditions have been sort of producing this? Well, have you heard of neoliberalism? No, like seriously, like that, that, I mean, what we've had McColle, which is our very dear president. No, I'm kidding. We're fucking hate the guy. Yeah. The guy is right into his very core. So, yeah, he's been president for almost 10 years now. He's Christ. Yeah. And the other complete destruction of anything public, like public education, public health and everything, didn't start with him. But let's just say that he put the final nail on the proverbial coffin and he's been like dismantle like public education ever since he arrived and took his job as president. And if you want some analogy or something comparison with what's happening in the U.S., with respect to your public education, well, when I saw like 10 years ago Betsy Divos arrived as a security obligation, well, you remember her. She basically destroyed anything public education wise, like she wanted to follow all the money to private schools and charter schools and that basically what's has been happening in France too, like in these past 10 years. All the money has been funneled in more or less legal ways to private school. Yeah, I see more or less legal ways because there are a lot of loopholes and McColle and his governments are experts at using those loopholes. Basically, they can look at you in the eye and tell you that what they're doing is legal technically. Yeah. You know what I mean? And they will say that to your face while destroying everything you hold near and dear at the same time. So these past 10 years, the money allocated to education has decreased. The number of teachers has tremendously decreased, like dramatically decreased. Jesus. The number of a student by class has increased. The way this protest started is, well, a school year in France started in September. It's basically from September to June, July. And well, in the poorest areas of France, high schoolers arrived in their high schools and found basically no, not enough desks, not enough chairs, just no teachers, holes in the roof, water leaking in the classroom. Yeah. No AC, like that goes without saying, like we don't have AC, like this is not the standard thing in France. Yeah. You could have like a hundred degrees Fahrenheit in, you know, and with no AC, like people, what high schoolers were cooking in their schools during the winter, some of these schools, the poorest schools also don't have heat. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. So, yeah. Exactly. I let you imagine how you can, how can you learn anything in school while freezing by, I don't know, 50 degrees in your school. Yeah. Like, you know, like I absolutely think you like to buy his high school. It's like, well, we, like we occasionally had drowned rast falling out of the ceiling, but like at least, at least we had heat in the winter, like we would have all died. Like he is out of the window, like there's nothing left in some high schools, like really nothing. And the greatest thing is that you can have a very poor area with the poorest high schoolers with the most destroyed high school you, you can see. And in the town nearby, you will find the best high schools with the richest population. Like, for instance, in Paris, like you have Paris, the capital, and you have a, a, Parisian suburbs. Some are extremely rich and some are basically the poorest ones in the whole country. So what, what is happening is that we don't have states, we basically have regions and departments and stuff like that. Like the way French is cut, the map is cut like, like that. And so the president of, it's called the, of course, basically Paris is part of a region. The president of this region is a right-winger, pretty much far right, but officially she's only right-winger. And her specialty is to follow money, public money, to private schools, private capital schools. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Uh-huh. Of course. Yeah, many, many such cases. Very, very such cases. I know. Right. That's amazing. You see the similarities with that side of us? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, those two women are the same picture. Let's just say like that. So that president has been putting a lot of public money in private schools, in Paris, and in the Paris suburb, rich ones. But where is she taking that money? - Yeah. - Well, instead of distributing this money equally across the whole territory that she's leading, she's only distributing that money to private schools, Catholic schools and schools that are in the richest suburbs, in the richest area. - That makes sense. - So that's how you find yourself, when you're poor, when you're a poor kid growing up in a poor suburb, that's how you find yourself going in a high school that has holes, basically everywhere, that doesn't have enough teachers, that doesn't have enough desks, enough chairs, that is lacking basically everything that has rats running in the hallways. - Yeah. - Yeah, so came last September, like a month ago, high schoolers went back to school, and lo and behold, they found their school being just as bad as it was, just before, when they went to, like, for the summer holidays and stuff like that. And so they came back and they found no teacher. They found no desk, no chair, no nothing. And yeah, they were mad. And they were right. And so they started to protest to ask for teachers, money for desks for chairs. I mean, it's the most basic things. - Yeah. - They're not asking for, they're not asking for the latest, I don't know, iPhone or iPad or whatever. - Yeah. - Whatever the fuck. No, no, they're asking for, like, the most basic necessities. - Yeah, like, like, we're asking for to be a school, like desk plus teacher is like the most basic school. Like, what are we doing here? - And they're asking for a chance of life. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? We have a system, it's a system that's been in place since 2018. It started so under Michael again. And it's a very, very opaque system. It's a system that is designed, it's an algorithm basically. That is designed to pick for you what you're going to do next. Like, basically, when you're in 10th grade, so I was telling you that before we started taping, but high school in France only has three years in it, like 10th to 12th grade. So when you get in 10th grade, you have to choose in 10th grade what you're gonna do in college or university. - Which is ridiculous. - And it's like ridiculous, like dread it. Like awful, like, why? - You're 15. You're 15 and people are asking 15 years old to pay with high accuracy what they're going to do as adults for the rest of their lives. - That's, that is stressful. The level of stress these kids are facing is humongous. - It's ridiculous, yeah. - It is ridiculous and the level of attempted suicide among high schoolers has increased in a way that you cannot comprehend. Like, the number are terrifying. Also, that algorithm is a very racist one. It's a very classist one. - Yeah. - Yeah, it basically is a black box. Like, people, we, the public, we don't know what's in the algorithm. Like, we do not have access to it. The only thing that we know is the result. And the result is poor kids coming from poor areas have basically zero chance at getting access to a proper university or a university at all. - Yeah. - Like, you could end in a queue, but like the 5,000 kids in a queue to access a public university. I'm not talking about private schools. I'm talking about public schools. It's something that is deeply unfair. It's a system that when I was in high school, didn't exist. When I was in high school, like it was 20, 25 years ago, I'm old, I didn't see it. But yeah, when I was in high school, basically the only thing you had to do, you had an exam at the end of high school. And if you passed that exam, you could go to university and that was it. And then the only thing that matters was your grades in your university. That's it. - Which is also still like a stressful system, but it's like, we've made it worse. Like, it was a stressful system, but it made some sense. - Yeah, yeah, that there's one to one correlation. - Exactly. There was some logic behind it. The logic now is cruelty. It is violence. It is clax violence. It is race violence. It is ableism, obviously also. And kids, well, they're having high school, and they already know that like their life is crude. That's what's happening. So, and the government, the state doesn't give a fuck. - Yeah. - Which is basically why you're saying the footage you've been seeing for the last week is this is why the cops have been beating the shit out of high schoolers. Just they don't give a fuck. And also, they know that they don't have a choice. What they're going to do. - Yeah, so it reminds me so much of the protest in India, where it's like, yeah, you're phrasing the same thing of like, and this I guess is one of the, one of the things of neoliberalism was like on the one hand, education was supposed to be like your ticket out, right? It was supposed to be like if you, you know, like meritocratic, if you were like good enough, you could get into a like a university and now it's your ticket out of poverty. And then simultaneously, we're going to make that impossible. And yeah, I mean, just like thinking about like, yeah, like the stories of these kids were forced into this like unbelievably intense, like competitive pressure and are just getting screwed out of the ability to fight their way out of the poverty that they've been born into and just being like, fuck this. If they're going to rig the system where the only thing we can go do is fight them. Exactly. And, you know, you were talking about like meritocracy, like I'm putting it in between quotes for people who get seen me. Yeah, well, I mean, he was in that, that turn was originally a joke. No, it was originally a joke. It was a joke. Like, and it's the same thing with like pulling yourself up by your bootstrap. Yeah, the whole point of that is that you can't. It was a joke, but no, we've like, we decided this is the thing that exists in the world. You know, it doesn't. It's God makes me insane all the time. You cannot create a parody out of this reality. Like the, the level of like a comedy of dramedy is this got here. Yeah. I mean, but talking about that, like a few days ago, we on my stream were watching a clip from the news. I don't remember which news outlet it was. But they were basically talking about a high school, a very famous one, which is called how he get Henry the fourth. And this high school is inside of Paris. And it is well known for being like a very bourgeois high school. Like this is like basically as bourgeois as you can do, as you can get. Yeah, it's a rich kid one. The anchor, the news anchor introduced this high school by telling that it was basically poster child for Mary's talk for C. And I choked. I choked so my saliva. I was like, no, no, it's bourgeoisie. Like you miss to, but you used a word for it in another world. Like that's not very topically like that's bourgeoisie. But basically that's the same thing. And thank you for saying it out loud. Like it was like, thank you. Yeah. And it's so funny because it is in the original sense, which is that it was a joke about how it was just rich kids who got into college. But like it's not, and it says you're trying to use it. Yeah, and they're literally listening to the joke. And I was like, yeah, you know what I can do about it? I can rip the joke out of it. And I can just keep the word and make it something real. How about it? Yeah, it's like, what if all of the metaphors became literal now? And that's like the world that we live in. Exactly. That's the second world we live in absolutely. The kids have no prospects. I mean, they don't have any in the US. Like Gen Z won't be able to buy a house. That's the same thing in France. Like that's the same thing in Spain. That's the same thing in Chile. That's the same thing in every capitalist state, capitalistic based society, basically. So yeah, what we're seeing worldwide and what we were seeing in France right now is the product of what you're seeing in the US. It's the product of what you're seeing in Spain. It's the neoliberal order, it's white supremacy. And of course, I mean, to be honest, it's the least surprising thing ever. Like, it's basically one plus one equals two. That's what we're seeing. It's a logical product of our society. So yeah, the kids are mad. If they have the bite to be, and I'm fully supportive, like really. Yeah. So, we're going to take an ad break because yeah, we too are subject to the horrifying violence and whimsy of neoliberal capitalism. I hear you. And we are back. So, let's talk about what the students have been up to. You mean on the streets, or do you mean on social media? Well, yeah, let's get into, I guess, the streets first. Like, what have the students been doing, what kinds of tactics have they been using? So, they've been using blockades, a lot of them, which is a clear first tradition. We're very good at that. Like, whatever there's a protest, especially high school protest and student protest, we build blockades. So, we go for destruction. So, the purpose is to disrupt high schools, just to disrupt universities and to push the adults, basically, to listen to the kids and what they want. So, that's what has been happening, except that our dear government basically says, "Fuck, we don't care," and ascend the fuss. So, so the cops have been answering to the protest by mutilating kids and mutilating adults, basically, that's been this government's response to any protest since 2017, since my call arrived in the LEC, which is our White House, basically. So, this time around, even you, Zanker, have been taken aback by the violence, coming from the cops. Yeah, because it's like, it's like actual children. It is. It's children, but on the other side, you have an authoritarian regime. Yeah. And what is evidently behaving as a police state? I mean, come on. Yeah, like your, your, your, your blowing kids hands off. Like, I, like, you know who they've been getting their inspiration from? The U.S. Ice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our government, when they saw ice, when they saw how, wouldn't it, what, effective ice is handling the public in a healing protest. Yeah. They didn't even hide those, those were their wood dreams. What we're seeing is the logical evolution of policing in a new liberal society. Like, the kids are asking for the most basic stuff and the most basic stuff could lead to assemblies of equality and they cannot have that. Yeah. So, let's just send the cops, let's just bit the shit out of the kids and terrorize the fuck out of adults. And let's teach everybody the whole population what protests looks like. It looks like blood. It looks like amputation. It looks like losing a knife. The purpose is very clear is to put the fear of God in the population. Most of the population is scared shitless. The sent population will stop protesting and start complaining. Yeah. Which, I will say, the kind of upside of drawing from the American ice anti-protest models, that that didn't work. Doing that stuff in the U.S. just pissed everyone off and it was only when they stopped doing that kind of confrontation and like move to this quiet, ethnic cleansing model, I guess, where they didn't do mask confrontation that like everything kind of, I don't know, that they were like really effectively able to carry out the ethnic cleansing. It was bleak at its own right, but like it did backfire on them, like sort of spectacularly. Yeah, but it was a polite ethnic cleansing. Like, what is scaring me and it's, it's not surprising, but it's still scary as fuck, is that you can do the most violent things with a polite tone and people just, yeah, stop looking at it and just keep living their lives as long as it's polite, as long as it doesn't make a lot of noise. As long as it's not disruptive. Yeah. And our government really understands that, but yours also does. Sort of. I feel like they're kind of like, like our government's like, because our entire government is like designed to produce content, it took them a while to figure out that this is the way that you should actually do it, because their initial instinct was just to like do these giant confrontations to produce content out of and then eventually they realize like, if you just do it quietly, then you can actually do it. And actually do the thing, but yeah, because if you do it quietly, then you get the liberals behind you, because liberals, at the end of the day, they're not disruptive. Like they want to keep on living their lives, they want to keep on like, being able to consume, they want to be able to go to the movies and go on vacation and like they need that kind of scope. Then a sense of normalcy to keep on going and protest, like, disrupt that sense of normalcy. So once you get back to a semblance of normalcy, you get liberals on your side, basically, or at least you stop having liberals against you. Yeah. And yeah, that's what has been happening in the US. That's how our government has been rolling for the past almost 10 years now. What has been happening though with this protest is that liberals have been watching their own kids being beaten up. Yeah, they've been watching their own kids are losing eyes, like being arrested, put up in jail, and stuff like that. And that is way to disruptive. This doesn't fly. So they're going to find another way to do things. I mean, I know how they're going to do with stuff. They're just going to point their fingers at black and brown folks. Yeah. And say that these kids are the bad ones. And they deserve what everything that's happening to them. And that they are manipulating the good white kids and stuff like that, like through social media, through what happened. So what our government also has been doing these past almost 10 years is really fine. Anything remotely left wing. Like, I don't know if you know Jolly Camino. Yeah, he's the kind of the media used to describe who has like Frances Bertie, but he's like. I actually, that's not so far fetched. I would say that he's not as left leaning as Bernie. Yeah, it's very funny because like when you read about him in the press, he gets described as like the hard left guy. He's like, no, he's not. These guys like to the right of like the PC app who were like. I know he's his political party. Friends in the past. Yeah. And so it has been categorized as far left. It's social democracy. Like it's not a democracy. Yeah. It's like, what are we doing here? Like they're not really saying. They're not anti-capitalists. They're trying to save capitalism for you. And you're like, no, your communist is like, no, they're not even socialists. Like they're. They're not a less harmful capitalism. But it's really social democracy. Like it's Bernie core basically. Yeah. But there might be a little bit more radical than Bernie here and there. Bernie can be more radical in some stances. But you know, none of them need their Bernie nor a mental or far far left. Like they're not. They're just not. Yeah. But when you have such reactionary politics in power. Yeah. Anything remotely left leaning seems far left. So this is how they've been presenting our opposition. And so coming back to what I was telling you, they're linking the protest to France and a batch party saying that it was created. Yeah. It originated from France and a batch and that this political party is instrumentalizing the protest and is basically. Yeah. It's a big puppeteer. I'm manipulating the youth. Yeah. This is like exactly the same shit they did in India. I don't know if the French government has pulled the Islamist card yet. That was the other one. Yeah. They're all the same. Like Scott. Islamophobia, transphobia. Those two things are at the very core of our reactionary figures, political figures. And as they are as yours and my like this is white supremacy. Basically, like they're defending what they see as whiteness and white femininity and Islam to them is a danger to white women. And so is the existence of trans folks. So yeah, they're coming there. They're trying to link everything even remotely left leaning to. And as folks Islam, Hamas obviously, of course, and yeah. the Muslim Brotherhood. - Jesus Christ, at least, I'm not gonna say at least, but that was the one thing in the U.S. to be at least kind of moved past was like, we at least kind of stopped accusing everything of being the Muslim Brotherhood because a bunch of people started taking money from the UAE and then it was like, okay, we're gonna quiet it out a little bit. - Yeah, this is something in France. The UAE have a lot of financial interest in France, but they're the good ones. Like, they still do a lot of brotherhood. - Yeah, they're the good Muslims because you know, they invest a lot of money. - Yeah, yeah. - So that's okay, we can do business with them. So if we want to do business with them, we have to be able to say that they're the good ones. So the UAE, the good ones. - Yeah. - Algeria, Palestine, and other Muslim countries, not so much, not so much. - I feel like we kind of moved from like, it used to be everything was the Muslim Brotherhood and then that changed it to everything is a mosque. But it's like, so at least we moved from one to the other. But it's like, no, no, we're still still doing the Muslim Brotherhood and they're like, God, dam it. - It's not gonna feel very so wrong, like so wrong. They don't even think about, like, are they Shi'ai? Are they Sunni? Are they like, no. - No. - They're like, not I don't like. - No. - That's like, the problem is Islam. The problem is brown and black people. And the problem is the left, which is defending Hamas, which is defending the Muslim Brotherhood, which is defending trans folks. Like, when you look at the arguments, that's basically what they're saying. Like, it's-- - Christ. - And I'm not even exaggerating. I wish I were because I'm not, and it's like, they're not even trying. Like, it's so obvious. But it's the same argument that has been fed to the population through our media for years now. So yeah, people like just eat it up. - Yeah, and I guess that leads into this question of like, how has the rest of French society been reacting to this? Have other sort of like movements been mobilizing? Yeah. - Well, I was going to say apathy, which is kind of true. If you look at people on the center and on the right, it's apathy, it is, they just want to be able to wear the head, their heads in the sand, and keep on going just like to doing business as usual. Left-leaning people, some of them are scared, some of them are in disbelief. Like, they want to believe that if things were as bad, as Jamesi is saying it is, they would have somehow managed to see it. And a lot of the majority of people still believe that the media are a honest actor, which they are not. They haven't been for years. And as long as, basically, as long as people keep believing what the media, like mainstream media, traditional media feeds them, then they're not going to be able to see the problem. - Yeah. - And it's the same thing in the US. I mean, if people keep watching CNN and MSNBC is like that, how can they possibly know how bad things are on the ground? They cannot. - Yeah. - They cannot. So that's where we are. And it's scary, but it's the truth. There's a quote from the sociologist who rules the veggie about how, basically, one of the things that social movements do is like in these moments of rupture, they act like bolts of lightning across the sky illuminating the darkness. And that's what social movements do to the actual fundamental nature of reality. They reveal the structures of power and domination in the world that are otherwise hidden by the sort of darkness. And that's what you're trying, but part of what you're trying to do with these protests just to like make the actual function of society clear for a moment where, I don't know if there is a more clear expression of what neoliberalism is, then we took all the money from the schools and gave it to the cops. - Yeah, yeah. A lot of science during the protest like down the streets explicitly say that. - Yeah. - Like the kids know where the money is. - Yeah. - It is funneled to the very rich through state subsidies and stuff like that. And then it's funneled to the cops, and to the military complex, defense complex, and contractors and stuff like that. They know where it's going. So they know there is money. Even when like our presidents say that there is no money left for anything. Like no, there's always money for the rich somehow. Go figure. - Yeah, yeah, there's always money for the police too. - Yeah, there's always money for the police. There's always more budget for the military. There's always more budget for the cops. There's always less budget for hospitals. There's always less budget for teachers and schools and stuff like that. So people are not stupid. So they kind of like can put things together. But people knowing what's happening and people acting on what they know that's two entirely different things. - Yeah. - And that's where the issue is is what people know. People feel the problem like every end of the month when they realize that they don't have any money left in the bank for food and for anything. - Yeah. - But they don't act on it. Like it feels impossible to get out of this way of life for the majority of people. - Yeah. - I feel that the liberal mindset also. Like, do you know thoughts slime? Like do you know the YouTuber thoughts slime? - They make me familiar. - They made a wonderful video about the way liberals think inside of a box and how even the most revolutionary thoughts are still imprisoned within that scope of thought for liberals. Like, that's a couple thought basically is what makes Bernie or Michelle far left to them. - Yeah. - Because it is so out of their possibilities to them that it feels revolutionary even though it is absolutely not revolutionary. - Yeah. - And that's why people stay in that empathetic state. Like it feels impossible to them to ask for the most basic stuff. And that's what keeps people in that loop of work going up, going to work, going back home and wondering how you're going to pay the bills, going to sleep and going back to work next morning. So I don't think that people don't know what the issue is. But I think the issue is that people feel like they have no leverage on their own lives and on their own governments. And if we stay in a liberal mindset, I think they're right, which is why we have to get out of that liberal mindset and which is how we have to like throw away the liberal playbook. Because if we keep on playing by those rules, we're fucked. - Yeah, you either get like more Macron or you get the just the the the the inheritors that you either get the in-direction heriters of the SS or you get the direction heriters the SS exactly exactly. And they're all defending the same thing but they're defending capitalism. - Yeah. - They're defending the very rich. And we already know who the very rich are. Like we saw that about a hundred years ago. So we know who they're rolling for. They're rolling for fascism. - Yeah. - That's all there is. So as long as we keep trying to adapt and keep on trying to save liberalism, we're not going to save us ourselves. Like we're not going to save the population. We're just going to save capitalism. It drives me crazy. - Speaking of doing things of like finding alternatives to saving liberalism. Like this is all happening at the same time as the giant sort of mass movement in Spain has kicked off. - Yes. - Which is about for people unfamiliar. The I guess that the short and incredibly bleak version is that they basically expand as the authorities affected a 80, 90 year old woman. - Yeah, 87 and she fucking died because of it. And this has set off a massive, massive series of protests. I think they put like a couple of days ago. So we're recording this on like Friday, October 9th. I think like I think on like the eighth, they put a hundred thousand people like in the streets of Barcelona over this. There's been reoccupying some of like the core sort of places where like the 2011 protests were born and like that sort of the thing that became occupied like the movement of the squares. - There still is a massive protest in Madrid and yeah, it is beautiful to see. The solidarity around that woman and around her situation, how she's been evicted. from the place she was living for over seven decades. - Yeah. - It resonated with so many people. - Yeah, it's social murder. But it's like normally social murder happens at like one more degree of remove than that. And this is like, no, actually, yeah, she was just murdered by the state and the landlords. - Exactly, exactly. - So directly. - And yeah, and for everybody to see. - Yeah. And so I guess my question is like, how were you and how are also like people in the streets kind of like, are people looking at this in the context of like the other movements that are happening at the same time where are we kind of still in that, what I would call it like 2018, 2019 mode of like isolation where it's hard for people to see themselves as part of like a broader thing. - That's a very good question. Oh, and I think it's the latter. I think that people aren't so liberal. - Yeah. - That it is hard for them to link like the most obvious linkable stuff together. - Yeah, or it's like you, you and the kids in India and it's a shame. - Exactly. - That's, I believe it is. - That's manufacture, right? The liberalization of your population mind, it's not random. Like to be able to keep us doing the 95 and complying and everything, they need a liberalized population. To keep on going forward. So I think that social media managed to get through Gen Z. So they managed to see that what's happening, what has been happening in France has also been happening in other countries. And they managed to put two into it together and they managed to see that yeah, the issue is capitalism, the issue is white supremacy, the issue is patriarchy and imperialism. But when you start looking at millennials, JVXers. - That's. - But which is also like, hey, if you're a millennia, we've literally, you've done this twice already. - I know. - We did 2011, we did 2020, I believe in us. I believe we can figure this out. I know we can do this. - There's a product made that believes in us, but there's also a part of me that knows how effective the capitalistic propaganda is. So the moment you start owning stuff like a house, you know, apartment and stuff like that, you start wanting to keep that stuff for yourself. Like you deserve it. Like suddenly, where you talk for a say, seems real. And that's where the danger's at. So I mean, I see people living their lives and having zero realization, like with respect to what's happening in the streets. Like it doesn't hit them at all. Like they keep on going, doing their stuff and they just don't see how it affects them. - Yeah. - Or they worse than that. They see how it affects them, but they seem to have accepted. Like. - Yeah, I don't think it'd be done about it. - Yeah, it's like, I've suffered. You are going to suffer. - Yeah. - That's how shit works. And to me, this is the scariest thing. This is the scariest thing. I don't have an answer to how I have to deal with that. I just know that again, we're going to mindset and we have to get rid of that. I don't think that we're going to be able to convince the majority of people that what we are doing is the right thing. But then again, a hundred years ago, when we're fighting against fascism and Nazism, the majority of people weren't resisting the majority of people were complying. - Yeah. - So we don't need a majority of people. - Yeah, this is the actual lesson of the storming of the Winter Palace. Like the actual lesson of the October revolution is that you don't need everyone on your side. You just need your enemies to stay home. - Exactly. - Exactly. - And then you can knock off Karetsky, like all you need is for them to stay home. Like your enemies to stay home and enough of your allies to come out and you can do this. - Like you can see this liberal mindset is so hell bent on trying to convince them majority of people. Like no, we're not going to make it. Like it's not going to happen. Like this is why the very rich are owning all the media. - Yeah. - Because they know, they know what you want to do and they see what you want to do and they have already put their like chess pieces in place to disrupt that. So you have to do something stuff differently. We have to organize differently. - Yeah. Speaking of doing something differently, I want to close on. So, okay, I think people in France kind of understand like logistically what it means when you're doing a blockade of a school. But for people, for example, in the US where like I guess I have seen schools, like I have seen colleges blockaded. But like I've never been involved in like a high school blockade. What does that actually just look like on a practical level? Like is it like we're like blockading the street leading up to the school? Is it like we're barring the entrance? Like what is that actually like physically look like? - Well, basically physically you are barring the entrance. Barring the the street is complicated because for a lot of legal reasons and like logistically reasons it can be really difficult to block a whole street. - Yeah. - But yeah, you can block the entry of this school. You can like put in front of this school whatever you want. Like trash bins, barriers, like you can whatever. Like you can take desks from the inside, put them outside, pile them up. Yeah, like anything. - Classic Fred Tripoli's very traditional. - That's like tackled the desks. - Like you know, it surprised me when you asked me that 'cause I was like, what people don't know that? Like you take shit and you like you put that in front of the door and that's, that's it. - Yeah, we have a little less of a tradition of that. - Exactly, just like burning like burning trash cans and stuff like that, that's, it's tradition. We do that all the time, that's the protest shit. Like of course we're going to burn the trash. Like it's normal, it's normal. But yeah, like it's really, it's that simple. The purpose is to disrupt. So you do everything in your power to stop people from getting in the school 'cause you don't want them to be able to get in the school because you want them to ask for the same thing as you do so that they can go back to school. - Into, yeah. - So yeah, you forbid them from getting into school and you push them to support you. That's the whole blockade mindset. - Makes sense. - That's how strikes work basically also. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, which I guess is the other angle of like, something I've been thinking about a lot talking to. 'Cause one of the things that struck me about these protests is the extent to which when you like read over the student grievances, it's like, oh, this is like exactly the same grievances you would have for a teacher strike. - Yeah. - Like it's the same thing. It's like, oh wow, class size too big. Don't have teachers, don't it? - That's very good that you're talking about that because our teachers are not really supportive. - Yeah, which is like, what is wrong with you? Like, you gotta go now. Like, if you want your conditions to suck class, you need to move right now. Like, this is the best you're gonna get. - Well, in France, like a few days ago, teachers used to be seen as left leaning, a left wing. They're no longer a left wing. They're, I'm sure they're like, like, wingers. Like they, they want to be paid more, which they deserve to be paid more. Like, really, they're paid, they're not paid enough. But, they're not asking for it, like, in a disruptive manner. And basically, they're not getting paid more. Oh, shocking, I know. But so, yeah, the teachers are not really supportive of their students, which shows you everything you need to know about the state of affairs, basically. - Yeah, which like, that has been like, one of the things that's been heartening in the US is seeing a lot of kind of like, like, students coming out to support teacher strikes and like, things like that, where like, teachers or sometimes like, are supporting like, student walkouts and stuff. And that's, that's really sad. 'Cause like, I don't know, like, if you were a teacher, like the thing that you have the responsibility to do is to care for your students. And if you're not doing that, then like, yeah, I mean, I guess you are just the kind of like, you're doing education in the Napoleonic sense if like, yeah, we're cranking you out, so you can like, be cannon fodder for like, the French imperial army. Like, exactly, no, that's what's happening. Like, again, neoliberalism is a deeply individualistic way of life. - Yeah. - And you can see that in the way teachers are not supporting their students who are asking for stuff that teachers are also asking. So logically, you should see teacher support students, but when you look at reality, they are not, so yeah, because they only think about what's in it for me. And we've been molded into only thinking about what's good for me, what's in it for me. And we've stopped thinking as a society, but just as a sum of individuals. And that's one of the biggest issues we're facing, politically speaking. - Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, do you have anything else that you want to make sure people know before we wrap things up? Yeah, well, I really want to stress the fact that what's happening in France and the problem is a dispute is the same problem that is happening in the US is the same one that is happening in Spain, in the UK, in Germany, and basically the whole of the West and even more like in Japan, in South Korea, in India, just like we were talking about, that is new liberalism, that is capitalism, that is imperialism, that is white supremacy, that is patriarchy, and we need to come together, I don't think that fighting within our borders is going to lead to anything, but we cannot change stuff by just fighting for our countries individually, like we have to fight together because well capital doesn't know borders, so we share the same enemy, we share the same enemy, and we have to coalesce and organize worldwide in order to fight back and have a chance at fighting back, probably. So yeah, organize internationally, talk to your French folks, your British folks, Spanish folks, etc, and yeah, teach what you know and learn from them, and I think that's the only way out of that shit. Hell yeah, Faiza, thank you so much, thank you so much for coming on, where can people find your work? Thank you for having me, Mia, people can find me on Twitch at Faiza, so F-A-Y-Z-A underscore at a score, and also on Instagram and Blue Sky and sometimes on TikTok. Cool, yeah, we will have links to that in the show notes. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on, and I don't know, I hope, I hope you all fucking win. Thank you, I also hope so, I hope that much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you again for having me. Yeah, it's been great. I'm Melissa Jeltson, and in my new podcast, what happened to her, I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. Stories of survival. The only difference between me and her, frankly, was a little bit of luck because by all rights, I should be dead. Cases that everyone else called closed. They can't convict her, right? Like, she has so much evidence. No child should ever experience that, and we were babies. She did all of these grave things and came out and spoke about it, and he got a year. I never know who that devil is because he's wearing disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform. Listen to what happened to her on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hamza, and I'm Martin, and we're the hosts of Out of Character. It's a podcast. I know there's a lot of them to listen to these days. I swear. I know, bold, but why don't we list some of the things we might talk about on a regular episode? And how nice they were, or if we tip them or not, come and find out. It's the one you're thinking about. Trust me. Or maybe we'll talk about music and what's happening in the underground, or drama music, or TV shows, or the Med Galan, what the actors wore. And if you want to see what that's like, come join us. It's a place where everyone can hang out, anyone, wherever you're from, whatever you're like, you're welcome. Listen Out of Character from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Pods, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of Scam Goddess podcast, The True Crime Comedy Podcast, all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Each week I bring on incredible guests like Conan O'Brien, Iowa Debris, Lamor and Morris and Nicole Byer. Ooh, I scammed them. What? You're a generational yapper, like me. That's why I had to make yapping a job. I also warn you and keep you safe against scammers. Call your grandparents, tell your parents to stop clicking on links, please. Get worse with Kyle Prue is not one of those podcasts. But if you're interested in blackmail, love bombing, cloning yourself, or getting revenge, then we've got a little something, something for a dastardly individual like you. Fake a back injury, get the spray tan, up your alcohol consumption. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them with a gun. You look the bear in the eye, and you say this isn't you. You don't need them. You only need one thing, and that's the Get Worse podcast. Listen to Get Worse with Kyle Prue on the iHarm Radio app Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's J.O. from Laugh with me the podcast. So why would you choose Laugh with me? Well, great question. Maybe you like comedy, maybe you like sports, maybe you like movies, ridiculous stories, terrible opinions, questionable rankings, and a grown man somehow turning everyday life into a personal emergency. Or maybe you just want to hear from a podcast host who has survived bad bosses, angry customers, questionable career decisions, and a pepper spray attack? Yeah, that's right. Other podcasts have hosts with broadcasting degrees. Laugh with me has a survivor. I'm Jeremy Odom, and every week I'm joined by comedians, friends, athletes, weirdos, experts, and occasionally, people who probably should have stopped answering my text. Authentic, raw, and just like you. Just jokes, stories, arguments, sports, pop culture, and whatever happened to me this week. Listen to Laugh with me, a podcast with Jeremy Odom on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. You're listening to it could happen here. My name's Carlos Verrios Polanco. And today I'm going to be talking about breadfruit, the climate change resistant crop that also works as a tool for emergency preparedness. But before I get into that, let me tell you why I started thinking about breadfruit in the first place. If you're anything like me, the effects of human cause climate change on the food that we eat and grow have been on your mind lately. Maybe you've been thinking about it because you saw a scary looking graph that shows the global temperature shooting up over the last few years and only increasing over the next couple of decades. When this type of graph comes up in an article about food, it's usually accompanied by a rice or cornfield so dry that the ground is cracked to show how bad it's gotten and how much worse it can get. Or maybe you're thinking about it because the price of foods that have become staples in your diet like rice, chicken, and coffee have gone up significantly year over year because of a mixture of different climate related causes has caused crop losses all over the world and for the very process of planting and harvesting to become more expensive. A process known is quote unquote climate flation. And in the case of more specialty foods like Florida oranges, for example, maybe they're not even available at the grocery store anymore because of how hard crops have been hit by extreme weather events and illness. To be clear, climate change isn't the only reason that food prices have gone up lately. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz because of the U.S. War on Iran has also certainly led to prices going up for everything across the board. But climate change is the main thing that has been and will continue to affect the way that we consume food into the future, especially as resources become scarcer. And we as a planet start realizing that what once worked to feed us isn't going to be viable forever. A study by the Climate Impact Lab found that every additional degree Celsius of global warming will lead to global production of six stable crops, corn, soybean, rice, wheat, cassava, and sorghum to decrease by 4.4%, which is roughly equivalent to a loss of 120 calories per person per day. As Solomon Cheon, one of the senior offers of the study and a professor of environmental sciences at Stanford Doer School of Sustainability told the UK Telegraph, "If climate warms by free degrees, that's basically like everyone on the planet giving a breakfast." This is pretty bad already, but it's going to affect the people already suffering from food insecurity the worst. And that's not to say that we're not growing enough food, just that it's not being distributed to the people who need it most. Free degrees of warming would also cause cataclysmic ecological effects for millions of people around the world. To include cities submerged by rising sea levels, months long deadly heat waves interned people into refugees by the millions. The region's most affected by climate change right now, like Africa, southern Asia, and the Caribbean would be the most affected by this. So I've really been thinking a lot about that lately, and I did what I always do whenever I start to think about collapse and cataclysm like that. I look for the ways that people around me are trying to deal with the effects of climate change in the best way that they can. That's why, on a recent Friday morning, I found myself about an hour away from my hometown of Gaguas in a tiny little neighborhood called Mariana that's nestled into the mountains of the municipal borderline between Jabucoa and Umakau. As I made my way for the labyrinth-like roads up to the mountain that definitely were not made to fit two cars side by side, I knew that I was getting close because I started seeing nearly 100-foot tall breadfruit trees reaching towards the heavens. I was there in late September right at the tail end of the breadfruit's harvest season. So the bright yellow green football sized fruits weren't as plentiful as they would be if I had come earlier in the month. If you've never seen a breadfruit or never tasted one, you should probably fix that as soon as you can. It's delicious. Breadfruit trees can grow up to 100-feet tall and are covered in large green leaves. The fruit itself can grow to be almost 15 pounds, but usually tops out at about 6-10 pounds. For the Breadfruit Institute in Hawaii, it's an energy-rich food and a good source of complex carbs, fiber, and minerals like potassium and calcium as well as vitamin B and others. Although some varieties grow with seeds, in my experience, the majority don't. Therefore about 90% of the time, you're more likely to see breadfruit propagated through root cuttings, or tissue cultures, or something like that, rather than from seed. Breadfruit trees grow extremely quickly, like up to 4 feet per year, and will begin producing fruit in about 3 years. And it produces a lot of fruit, like between 100 or 200 individual fruits per tree, although some trees could blow past that. Part of a season depends on where these trees are grown, but it's generally late summer to fall, usually. The tree itself doesn't need too much care or perfect growing conditions. Far from it, actually. As long as you can provide it with medium amounts of water and deep fertile and well-draining soils, it will grow for you. And even then, some varieties grow in a tolls that are shallow and sandy, according to the Breadfruit Institute, and it will also grow on hillsides. That's why it's often touted as a "climate resilient tree," because it'll grow in a bunch of different conditions. It's really the goat of trees, as to what their fruit tastes like, while it's in the name. When cooked, it tastes like bread, although I've read some people can describe it as kind of like a starchy and nutty potato, it can be used in a million different recipes, and used in all states of ripeness, from completely raw to overripe. Personally, my favorite way to eat it is cooked in Tutostenas, which are these kind of twice-fried, flattened fritters that are usually made from plantain, but I prefer when they're made out of breadfruit. I've been to Mariana before, about three years ago, to work on a story about how communities affected by the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Fiona in 2022. We're designing their just recovery through bottom-up methods, like a community aqueduct to help ale and neighborhoods decades-long water issues, as well as a community census to know who was the most vulnerable in case of an emergency, and make sure they got help first. And in a sense, I was back there to cover essentially the same thing, except that this time it was community preparedness through a breadfruit farm that they've planted at La Loma de la Niña Mariana, a kind of community park slash rec space. It's a really serene space, especially when it's empty. It's surrounded by breadfruit in other trees, so there's a lot of green, and the breeze is a welcoming reprieve from the near-triple digit temperatures we've been having lately. Mariana is the neighborhood that grows the most breadfruit in Omaha, Rosalina, which tells me. She's a community leader who's part of the neighborhood's non-profit organization, Arikba, which is in charge of community participation and development. As a quick note, I interviewed Rosalina in our native Spanish, but Mia from the cool zone team was gracious enough to read a translation of that interview here and in following sections. It's a tree with a strong root, it's resistant to hurricanes and any environmental changes, and a mature tree can yield a harvest of between 100 and 300 to 400 breadfruit. Therefore, the harvest is fruitful in abundance. Breadfruit has a long history here. Rosalina tells me that her family has always had a breadfruit tree or a couple growing near them, going back generations. Because of how much food it produces, and because when you preserve it, it can last months with proper refrigeration. In Puerto Rico, it was originally used as sustenance for pigs and other livestock, but little by little, people started paying attention to how good the fruit was, how many nutrients it provided, and people started using it for everything. Mariana has been hosting a breadfruit festival between the end of August and the start of September amid the peak breadfruit harvest for 38 years. The community has also created a breadfruit recipe book that I'm flipping through as I read this script, and it has dozens and dozens of different things you make with it from printers, to flan, and even juice. In Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 hurricane tore fruit Puerto Rico in 2017, leaving thousands of people dead and causing more than $91 billion in damages, Mariana was left more or less in communicated from the rest of the world. Rosalina told me years ago that it was like a bomb had been dropped in their neighborhood. But knowing that the government wasn't coming to help their small rural community, they knew that the only people they could count on were themselves. So they got to work and opened a food distribution center at La Loma where they were feeding members of the community with whatever food they had on hand and whatever food they could gather from the hundreds of breadfruit trees and others in the neighborhood. I've seen that when the need arises, people come here to look for breadfruit, and not only that, but the environment is full of trees that keep us cool that provide a natural space for growth. And eventually we know that we are going to be one of the neighborhoods best prepared for any situation that involves a food shortage. We're going to have breadfruit to share and to use. In fact, we have a kitchen here, a semi-industrial kitchen that opens to feed the neighborhood. During the time of Maria, we served 400 people daily that came looking for food here. We already have the kitchen, we have the trees planted. So we're already a step ahead for the survival of our people if an event occurs. Neighbors in Mariana have planted about 80 breadfruit trees throughout La Loma as a kind of disaster insurance policy. There is probably not a fruit tree that can really withstand a hurricane or severe flooding or something like that, but if a breadfruit tree goes down, it'll likely start to spring back up from the roots. Of the four people that I interviewed for this episode, all of them told me something similar. And if a breadfruit tree gets stripped of its leaves and it's fruits by a storm, it'll probably start sprouting leaves a few weeks after and will probably produce breadfruit next harvest season. Something similar, although to a lower degree, happened when Hurricane Fiona hit in 2022. Rosalina explained to me that in the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. government tried to take down breadfruit trees to grow potatoes, but they didn't take away the roots, so it just sprang back up again. She also says that Puerto Rico's farmers took the tree up into the mountains. It usually grows closer to the beach and other places where it has thrived ever since. It looks like a Christmas tree with its bulbs because each branch has two or three breadfruit. And when they're ripe, when it's harvest time, you look at it and it's really miraculous. Plus, it provides food, provides shade, it's resistant to the soil, meaning you can plant it in areas prone to landslides, and it will preserve the terrain so there's no collapses or landslides. So for many reasons, it's a tree we could consider miraculous. Breadfruit is one of the first crops to grow back in Puerto Rico after an extreme weather event. It also grows pretty much everywhere throughout the archipelago. this is super important because Puerto Rico is one of the countries most affected by climate change, ranking six on German watches climate risk index, which looks at how countries are affected by extreme weather events and how they cause loss of life and how it impacts their GDP. Puerto Rico has experienced several disasters, caused by extreme weather over the years, the biggest of which were hurricanes Irma and Maria and Fiona. Maria caused a loss of around 80% of the archipelago's crops or about $800 million worth of food, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, Fiona caused about $159 million in losses for the agricultural industry per the AP. Breadfruit has proven to be drought resistant. It's wind resistant after Hurricane Maria. We were eating bread first and we were eating local bananas and local bread and local plantings because they were highly affected by the winds, but they would come back. So it's very interesting how even if the fruits are smaller, it will be a fruit, especially in a drought. That's Maria Solvigeloos, a co-founder of Amasar, a company that sells breadfruit flour that's self-stable in can last years with no problems. Their farms in Hanyuja and in 2017 heard her husband, who's also a co-founder, had planted about two acres of their farm with breadfruit, but the saplings were little tiny sticks when Maria hid and only one survived. Maria Sol now calls it the "mature" tree. Nearly 10 years after that, their farm now has 500 breadfruit trees that are producing hundreds and hundreds of pounds of breadfruit that they turn into flour every year. They're one of the first farms in Puerto Rico to grow breadfruit and cocoa at the same time. The breadfruit trees provide the necessary shade for cocoa to grow. They've also planted several other native trees throughout their farms. If you wanted to produce breadfruit at an industrial scale, this probably isn't the best way to go. Most industrial agriculture has one singular crop planted over large swathes land to maximize production, ease of gathering, and resources. This is called monoculture. However, there's serious downsides to it, like needing to pump tons of fertilizer and compost into the soil to keep it growing the same thing over and over again, as well as increasing the risk that a pasture illness will wreck havoc throughout the crop. The way Matysol grows breadfruit is an ideal if they wanted to maximize production, but Matysol isn't really bothered by it. Instead, she thinks it's better that way because of its positive effects on the soil and on the plants. Some people say, "No, it might not be the best synergy. I see it in a way. You know, I'm enriching my model of agroforestry. And what we produce is what we produce, but if I have a more secure crop in terms of resilience and protection from sickness, as illnesses in place, I'm very happy with that." Puerto Rico grows very little of its own food, about 10 to 15 percent depending on the source that you look at. While breadfruit has been part of Puerto Ricans diets for centuries, production of it has been going down over the last few years as Puerto Rico becomes even more reliant on imports. Her data from the Archipelago's Department of Agriculture, production of breadfruit has gone down from 1991 to 2019, the last year for which public data is available by about 771,000 pounds. Only about 650,000 pounds of breadfruit were produced in Puerto Rico in 2019 according to the data. Meanwhile, imports have risen rapidly from 2015 to 2019, reaching about 830,000 pounds of breadfruit imported in 2019. So people are still eating breadfruit. They're eating more of it, but we just can't grow it fast enough. So we definitely have a great opportunity in Puerto Rico to increase local production and local consumption with a crop like breadfruit, and especially incorporating other crops with it, beans, vegetables, a lot of fatty nasios, tarot, plantains, all that, yeah. And even animals, you know, nice farms that have both things, silver pasture with trees and with the animals, and then we have a little bit more protein there too. So when we get back from the ad break, we're going to be talking about the history of breadfruit's voyage from the Pacific to the Caribbean and the rest of the world and how breadfruit is being distributed to help combat hunger crises everywhere. And we're back. I'm Patelos, your host for today's episode. And while breadfruit has become a staple in the Caribbean because of how easily it grows and its ability to be turned into a gazillion different things, it's not native here. Instead, it's originally from the Western Pacific, specifically from New Guinea and the Indo-Male region. Thousands of years ago, it was spread by the indigenous Polynesians who were the literal first people to travel across the region. They would travel on double-hold canoes that are nothing like what we know of as canoes today. Instead, each hole could reach up to a hundred feet in length. They had a sail and they could fit entire families as well as the food and resources they needed to settle on the islands they were traveling to. And one of the things they carried were breadfruit saplings because of how much fruit it would produce when planted. In the case of breadfruit, it was usually the little saplings that shoot up from the roots. They would cut them and pack them in a ball of earth and leaves and keep them moist so that they could plant them on the new island and have the same familiar foods that they were used to wherever they were coming from. That's Russell Fielding, an associate professor at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina who researches geography and environmental justice and who wrote the book Breadfruit, Free Global Journeys of a Bountiful Tree. He explained that one of the pacific people's earliest uses for breadfruit was roasting it in an earth oven, which is when you create a pit, put burning coals in there, then the fruit then more coals on top and then you cover it all with stones in soil. This type of cooking is common to a bunch of indigenous cultures across the world and it produces delicious food. Another way that the people of the pacific used breadfruit that Russell's never seen outside of the region is putting it into a dark pit, making sure there's no air flow and then letting it ferment. This turns it into a sort of pace that can be stored for a long time. It tastes kind of tart, almost like citrus. Russell told me, its name depends on which pacific island you're on, but the people of the Marquases call it ma. And so this fermented breadfruit was used as kind of an insurance against times of scarcity, where if you get a big crop of breadfruit, like you said, a single tree in a single season produces lots of fruit. So if it's more than you need for the time being, you can ferment some of it to store it away for later. And then maybe there's a drought or a famine at some point and you have to dip into your reserves. This shows that the history of breadfruit is an emergency preparedness tool goes back millennia. People and the breadfruit they carried continued spreading across the pacific. When the Europeans colonized the region, they essentially forced the people to switch from breadfruit to imports from the globalized market. Crops like coffee, pineapples, and sugar overtook the breadfruit groves and taro patches, while rice became a staple of the pacific diet according to Russell's book. It's a story anyone familiar with colonization or who's been a victim of it knows all too well. However, breadfruit has seen a resurgence in recent times in Hawaii. According to an article in civil-beat breadfruit production is booming, but similar to Puerto Rico, farmers can't keep up with demand. We'll get back to the modern day breadfruit situation in a second. But before that, let's talk about how breadfruit made its way all the way from the pacific to the Caribbean. It wasn't until the very end of the 18th century that breadfruit made its jump to the Caribbean. This was intentional. This was directed by the European colonialists. It was the British that eventually succeeded first, but they weren't the only ones trying. The French had also made efforts to bring breadfruit to the Caribbean. There's some hypothesis that the Spanish were also moving breadfruit around around the same time. But the British did it first. You might have heard this story before. The story of the mutiny on the bounty. Every time I mentioned to someone that I was working on this breadfruit project, they would mention the original 1935 movie "The Mutiny on the Bounty" or the 1962 remake with "Margol and Brando" to me. And I would be like, yeah, for sure. But let me be honest with you, dear listener, I did not know that these movies existed up until a couple of weeks before recording this episode. And to be honest, they're pretty good 3.5 stars on letterboxed. Anyway, as European colonization wrecked terror and death throughout the Caribbean, the British came up with a plan to transport breadfruit from their Pacific colonies to their Caribbean colonies, all of which had more or less the same climate to feed the enslaved people that they had kidnapped from Africa and forced to work on sugar plantations. So, the British assigned William Bli to the HMS Bounty and they traveled to Tahiti to load upon breadfruit. Blyh, as the Foraterians commonly do, was quick to anger and routinely verbally berated and physically assaulted his crew, who eventually mutinied and sent Blyh in his loyalist packing. However, Blyh eventually made his way back to England, where he would once again make his way back to Tahiti, and eventually reach his original goal of bringing breadfruit to the Caribbean. He first stopped in St. Vincent in 1793, then Jamaica shortly after. Then breadfruit was all over the Caribbean in a few short years, even reaching the state of Florida a few decades later, where it's still really the only place in the continental U.S. where it can grow outside without too much trouble. Although it really only mostly grows in the keys and the warmest parts of South Florida because it's super susceptible to a cold snap. It was specifically intended to feed people that were enslaved on sugar plantations or otherwise impoverished. I know that not every island was practicing slavery at the time that breadfruit was imported to that island, but breadfruit was never really intended as a food for everyone. It was for the poor and the enslaved. And unfortunately that gave breadfruit something of astigma or a negative reputation in a lot of places throughout the Caribbean. And you can even still find traces of that today, where it's referred to as, you know, poor man's food, or the community bottle, where it's still got that association today with poverty. Russell explained that while slavery was still going on, people that were able to eat something else absolutely refused to eat breadfruit. That's how hated it was, and who could really blame them. This reputation as a food for enslaved people or something that only people in poverty ate stuck around for decades. And one could make the argument that some of that sentiment still lingers today. Even if breadfruit's reputation has started to turn around, so much of that evil history of colonialism and slavery is inescapable. Even now, as I read this script, I think about how the communities where this fruit grows the most are some of the ones most affected by human cause climate change, which they contribute the least to. The Caribbean historically accounts for less than 1% of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the emissions database for global atmospheric research. Theoretically, there could come a day when breadfruit is not as bountiful as it once was, because of the heat or even refused to grow altogether. Even though breadfruit is certainly climate resilient and it can take a lot, it can't survive without soil and water, both of which are becoming harder and harder to come by day by day. The global south, a lot of which relies on breadfruit as part of their diet, will no longer be able to grow this bountiful tree if we reach certain levels of warming. As the hottest year on record morphs into the hottest year so far, the global north will likely get to experience breadfruit for the first time as areas that were once hostile to breadfruit become its new home. This seems to already be happening in the Marshall Islands, another place that is very, very, very affected by climate change, as in they're literally disappearing before our eyes. Their breadfruit, which they call Ulu, similar to other places in the Pacific, has seen better days. They're growing smaller and less bountiful according to one farmer, the civil-beat interviewed. He thinks its salt, getting into the soil or the aquifer, while breadfruit can resist some salt, the constant presence is killer. Per a study published in p-loss climate about how breadfruit can contribute to climate resilient food systems in areas near the equator, the area suitable for breadfruit cultivation in the tropics and subtropics is projected to decrease by 4.4% in a scenario where we stabilize emissions. A.K.A. where emission levels go down but do not reach net zero by the year 2100. And they'll decrease by about 4.5% in a high emission scenario, which essentially means if we burn even more fossil fuels by 2100. In these scenarios, the areas most affected will be Latin America and the Caribbean, where suitable range for breadfruit growth will decrease by 10.1% if we stabilize emissions and 11.5% in a high emission scenario. Meanwhile in Southeast Asia and the Pacific yield quality and consistency show minimal decreases under a high emission scenario, while the land where you can plant breadfruit will likely go up. In all regions, a high emission scenario will lead to reduce consistency in quality of breadfruit harvest. The narrative of the study ends by saying that breadfruit may play a role in alleviating current and future food insecurity, particularly in equatorial Africa. When instituted with an agroforestry model as Marisol is doing, it could be a potent climate adaptation strategy. This study also mentions that its role can be expanded in countries that already produce it to become even more of a staple in help address growing climate-related issues there. Ironically tropical regions are where you do find some of the world's underserved people, people with hunger and manutrition as part of their risks of daily living. So the kinds of tree that we plant and the need are very well matched. That was Mike McLaughlin, co-founder and secretary of the trees that feed foundation. A Chicago based nonprofit whose mission is to feed people, create jobs, and benefit the environment. Mike and his wife, Mary, whose president of trees that feed grew up in Jamaica where breadfruit is incredibly common. However, they didn't think of planting it until years later when they realized how badly climate change was affecting the environment as well as the problems it was causing around the world. And then they started thinking about what they could do about it. And the reason we wanted to plant fruit trees, it was kind of an easier sell. There were and there still are climate change skeptics. People that don't think anything is happening, they're not worried about super El Niño. They're not doing anything to reduce our fossil fuel use or carbon footprint. And so because of the skeptics, we said if we lead our effort with climate change and solving that problem, we kind of have to do more explaining. We're going to be more skeptics. But if we say we're planting trees to feed people, everybody understands that. They know that trees that feed gives breadfruit and other trees to farmers in more than 20 countries. Then teaches them how to take care of them harvest the breadfruit and process it so that it can be sold and used to feed their families. Part of the reason they have this emphasis with farmers is that it reduces reliance on imported food, which means that more money circulates in the local economy instead of going elsewhere. The organization also buys breadfruit flower and other breadfruit based products from processors and bakeries, then denates them to schools as part of their school feeding program, which serves more than 20 schools and orphanages in Haiti, which is the second country that they started working with, Mike explained. 5.8 million Haitians, a little more than half of the country's total population, face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, according to the United Nations World Food Program. More than 250,000 children aged 6 to 59 months are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition between June 2026 and May 2027 for a UN analysis. Some people in Haiti are forced to eat mud cookies, which are exactly what they sound like, a little bit of earth, salt and oil that's meant to curb hunger pains. It's the saddest thing Mike's ever heard of, he told me. Trees that feed foundation have tried to substitute that where they can, with gone by the type of bread that's dense like cake or a breadfruit porridge. These recipes were co-produced with bakers in Haiti and North America, according to the organization's website. Part of the trouble of growing so much breadfruit is that it ripens really quickly, like within a couple of days, it might start rotting if you don't refrigerate it. So to combat that, Mike helped create a solar dehydrator that can dehydrate breadfruit so that it can be stored without refrigeration without affecting the nutritional benefits of the food. This means that it can be stored for up to several years and still maintain the same nutritional value. What trees that feed is doing, using breadfruit as a tool for sustainable development, is part of its history all along Russell, who's also a board member of the organization told me during our interview. When Indigenous communities were carrying it across the Pacific, they were hoping to feed themselves wherever they settled. Although it was a weapon in service of the evils of slavery, the British brought breadfruit to the Caribbean to provide food when it became scarce. In large part because of their own actions, planting monoculture sugar plantations everywhere to be clear. Meanwhile, in modern times, it continues spreading across the world as an attempt to feed people suffering through hunger because of climate change. and other crises. It's time to further add, but when we come back, we'll wrap this episode up by talking about how the real power of Red Fruit might have been the friends that we made along the way. (upbeat music) You're listening to It Could Happen Here. I'm your host, Fridae Carlos. And one thing I haven't mentioned yet is about what we call Red Fruit in Spanish. It has a bunch of names depending on where you are. You get the idea, they're all red-related. However, what I and millions of other Puerto Ricans call it is Bana, which is exactly the same way that we refer to a close friend. A direct translation would be something like Buddy or Homey. So every Red Fruit is a friend, this fruit that grows quickly and produces hundreds of pounds of food from a single tree that has accompanied people into the unknown and been turned from a weapon that sustained humanity's greatest evil into a food that now helps sustain millions and millions of people every day. That has started sprouting weeks after disaster raised every other crop that will grow tall and wild without much help and almost always has something to give is literally named friend. That's the kind of beautiful and surreal that only real life could ever be. As a theory about why it's called Pana that I think is worth sharing. We have a very strong relationship in Puerto Rico with our Godfathers and is that relationship of the parents of the Godchild with the Godfather and Godmother of that child. So if I were to visit in the 1800s and we were very, very, very poor, extremely poor and a lot of male nutrition, if I were to visit a friend, I would bring a Pana with me and here's the Pana, so it was kind of like that connotation of, I'm giving you something to help nurture your family so that's something very special. So if you're really my Pana, you're dear to me, I will protect you, I will take care of you and I will have your back. - I want to end this episode by returning back to La Loma de la Niña Mariana. After my interview with Rosalina, when I was on my way out, I stopped to take a photo of a mosaic made with hundreds of little pieces of colorful tiles. It depicts about a dozen hands together in a circle like they're about to go free to one go team. There's a breadfruit at the center of the circle, almost as if it's the thing they've put their whole faith in. Put the inscription under the mosaic, glory to the hands that work, makes it clear that even though breadfruit might be at the center of this art and one of the most important things in this community, the real greatest thing that this neighborhood has are its people, the ones that are putting in the work when it's needed, the ones that are making sure to help their neighbors when they need help, the ones that are using all this breadfruit and have used it to cook for years and years whenever this crisis. It can't happen without them. Breadfruit might grow super quickly. It might be incredibly abundant as a source of food, but it can't be used to feed people without the community putting in the work to gather it, cook it, store it, and then bring it back out when it's needed. Because to us, if we've done anything, it's that we've seated solidarity. I mean, whenever a situation happens here, people show up and immediately ask, how can I help, what can I do, where can I pitch in? People get here hauling water with whatever they have at home, hands of beans, rice. Look, I have this and you can start cooking. People say, I can get to such and such a place because I have the right equipment. What can I do? We have that in abundance. This community's greatest resource is its people. We've always said so. We might not have the vast financial resources, but we do have the people. And that is the primary resource we work with and the people to whom we owe everything we have here. I've been thinking about that mosaic pretty much every day since I was at La Loma. Bob Breadfruit is at the center. It's the people that are putting in the work who are actually able to help one another by using breadfruit. It's a powerful reminder that the only way out of a crisis is through. That the only way through is together. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) - I'm Melissa Jeltsin and in my new podcast, what happened to her, I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. - She was starting to get worried and get scared for her safety. - Stories of survival. - The only difference between me and her, frankly, was a little bit of luck because by all rights, I should be dead. - Cases that everyone else called closed. - These stories all start in the same place. With a woman failed by a system that didn't believe her, that didn't protect her, that didn't see her. - No child should ever experience that. - And we were babies. - She did all of these grave things and came out and spoke about it and he got a year. - I never know who that devil is because he's wearing disguise. - Listen to what happened to her on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. - I'm Hamza and I'm Martin and we're the host of Out of Character. It's a podcast. I know there's a lot of them going around but why should you listen to ours? - Well, we're only the best podcast in the entire world and we talk about pretty much everything under the sun. For example, music we're listening to, underground music, trending music, drama in music worlds. Yes, sometimes we even talk about just everyday mundane situations in our lives like the cool Uber driver we just had or the food we just say that is surprisingly delicious. Or we'll talk about the Med Gal and the looks that they wore. Are they awesome? Are they trendy? Come find out because our opinion matters and so does yours. And this is a place where all of our minds can come together and connect. - So what are you waiting for? Come connect with us. Listen to Out of Character from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Pods or wherever you get your podcasts. - I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator and host of Scam Goddess Podcasts. The True Crime Comedy Podcasts all about robbery, fraud and those who practice it. Each week I bring on incredible guests like Conan O'Brien, Iowa Debris, Lamor and Morris and Nicole Buyer. - Ooh, I scammed them. - What? - I could talk to you for an hour. - You're a generational yapper, like me. - That's why I had to make yapping a job. - And the scams run the gamut. I'm talking about scams from the 1800s. All the way up to today. So if you like fun, if you like comedy and you like learning and protecting yourself from criminals, start listening to Scam Goddess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪ Got it, got it ♪ - There are thousands of podcasts that can tell you how to better yourself. Fake a back injury. Get the spray tan, up your alcohol consumption. - Kill 'em. - Kill 'em. Kill 'em with a gun. - Listen, it's already over. - The next time a bear is running at you, you just calmly stop what you're doing, you look the bear in the eye, and you say this isn't you. - Do not preserve relationships. You don't need them. - Listen to Get Worse with Kyle Pru on the IHR Radio app Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Vampires, Minotars, 12-foot skeletons, and apartment doors? It's a Monster Romance Extravaganza and Radio 831, a romance podcast. So join me, St. John Abasker, and my co-host, Tyler McCull, as we dive into the strange, horny, and wonderfully thoughtful world of falling for something not quite human. I give Tyler a crash course in Monster Romance, and the villain-edit author, Rosie Dannon, joins to talk vampires, blood play, and finding tenderness and a monstrous love interest. And it's a doozy, but, spoiler alert, Tyler emerges ready for more monster tales, because sometimes non-human romances can tell us the most about our desire, our fantasies, and what we actually want. Listen to Radio 831, a romance podcast on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to It Could Happen Here to show about things falling apart. I'm Robert Evans. We all know what happened at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Those events were so consequential and infamous that I feared people have forgotten how they felt about the possibility of an attack on the Capitol by a mob of citizens on January 5. That's not something I can forget, as I spent my first days of January that year digging through thousands of comments on social media and MAGA-focused message boards. I came away from my research convinced an attack on the Capitol was possible and I tried to warn people. I was not the only researcher who wrote about the possibility of an attack on the Capitol before January 6. None of our warnings were heated, in part because the authorities, like most people, considered the odds of a mob successfully occupying the Capitol to be right around 0%. The United States is the most powerful nation in history, the argument went, and the Capitol building and nearby government facilities are some of the most hardened targets on Earth. There's no way a mob of mostly unarmed protesters could just storm them like the Winter Palace and put lawmakers' lives at risk. Your fears are a fantasy, you're just trying to scare people. Shut up. Well, we were correct about January 6 and over the last few years I've begun to worry about something new. The name I've given this fear is nuclear January 6. Now, I'm not talking about an all-out nuclear war here and I'm certainly not talking about a nuclear strike on the U.S. Capitol, although that's one possible way this could occur. You're all readily familiar with the possibility and consequences of atomic holocaust and I'm not using that term for the possibility of a terrorist organization or their non-state actor acquiring a nuke or dirty bomb, which remains possible, but let's say unlikely. A nuclear January 6 would be a lot like its namesake, a catastrophic event that would have seemed impossible even laughably so before it occurred and involves the use of a nuclear weapon. A nuclear January 6 would be a fuck-up, either a disastrous nuclear error caused by incompetence or a limited nuclear deployment inspired by incompetence. Either way, the scenario I'm envisioning doesn't mean the end of the world, it means one or at most a small number of warheads are detonated for a very stupid reason, and we're all left to move forward in a world that is now permanently less safe. In 1989, American political scientist Robert Jarvis published a book titled, The Meaning of the Nuclear Revolution, Statecraft and the Prospect of Armageddon. Looking out at the international situation at the tail end of the Cold War, Jarvis argued that war between nuclear powers was now "unthinkable." Within the context of that conflict, he was correct. Both the US and the USSR, despite their separate battalions of war hawks and substantial doses of paranoia, avoided stepping over the nuclear brink. The men who ran both nations clearly considered nuclear war "unthinkable." In the decades since the Cold War's end, the nations of the world have continued to avoid nuking us all into Kormak McCarthy's, the road. But there is an unfortunate amount of evidence that some of the people in charge of the great powers of our time no longer find deploying a nuke to be unthinkable, even against other nuclear powers. The clearest example of this comes from the Russian Federation and its activities in Ukraine. Back in January, the bell, an independent Russian news site reported on building support in the Kremlin for the battlefield use of a tactical nuclear weapon. This was thought to most likely occur over Crimea, a 2022 US intel assessment independently estimated 50 percent odds that Putin would order a nuclear strike if the defenses around Crimea began to fail. Russian nuclear doctrine today supports the use of atomic weapons against an existential threat, and is Kieran monks' rights and a peace for I news. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said this morning this meant encroachments on Russia or its territorial integrity by aggressors, including those who may possess such weapons, could prompt us to use these weapons in the worst-case scenario. The loss of Crimea, which Putin calls an inseparable part of Russia, could technically reach that threshold. Said Dr. Pavel Podvik, a senior researcher and specialist on Russia's nuclear forces at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. Now, my understanding of the situation in Ukraine is that Crimea is not under imminent danger of being retaken by Ukrainian forces, somewhat unfortunately. However, the vagueness of Russia's nuclear line being an existential threat means that they might well decide one day that these refining facilities count, given the centrality of oil exports to their economy. Sergei Karaganov, head of a defense industry think tank in Moscow, and former adviser to Putin, is among Russia's largest nuclear hawks. He has recently argued for a limited nuclear strike on Ukraine's European allies. I bring this up not because that's a scenario I'm discussing today, if Russia nuked a NATO country that would be a de facto strike on a nuclear power and would likely end up being much worse than my nuclear January 6th theory. I bring this up because comments like this from Russia have contributed to an unfortunate trend in US defense circles. Serious discussion about the need for expanded low yield and tactical nuclear options, and folks remember, when we're saying low yield nuclear weapons, we're still often talking about stuff at least on par with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, if not still considerably more powerful, those count as low yield weapons today. For most of our lifetimes, the US has focused its nuclear research and build up on what we might call big civilization ending doomsday nukes. I'm using a little hyperbole there, but not much. Most of our standing nuclear weapons are strategic in nature, that means they're very big and they're meant to deter an enemy from launching a full-scale nuclear attack on us. A bulletin of atomic scientists estimates that about 94% of all actively deployed US warheads are long-range strategic weapons. As Gabriel Hunrata noted in an article for Asia Times, this makes tactical nukes a "small, specialized component of overall US nuclear posture". You and I might consider that a good thing because any nukes small enough to use safely is likely to get used. However, when defense planners here, the US has very few tactical nukes, alongside news articles about Russia threatening to use small tactical nukes, a funny thing happens. They begin to worry about a gap between our capability and that of an adversary. Fears of that gap have been further exacerbated by recent significant modernization of China's nuclear arsenal. In the last few years, the Chinese military has massively increased the quality of their nuclear weapons and the related equipment, the delivery devices and such. I'm not going to go into a nerdy, fear-monger-y deep dive about the exact capabilities of these new tools, but it doesn't really matter today. What does matter is that in August of 2026, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy-Albridge Colby initiated a policy review of the nation's nuclear posture. The stated goal of this review is, per coverage by Breaking Defense, "focused on providing more options for the White House." Under Secretary Colby expressed the need for what he called "rational nuclear options to deal with the changing threats from China and Russia," and, as Hunter Rader wrote in his article, "the policy review comes amid longstanding US DOD concerns over foreign deployments in low-yield warheads, which risk leaving the US without proportional non-strategic responses." An expansion in the number of, and potentially the in-theater deployment of, low-yield nuclear weapons does not guarantee their use. Low-yield nukes have been deployed to hot zones or potential hot zones before, albeit decades ago, during the height of the Cold War. But I have trouble looking at this current administration in the US and so much of the bombastic, kill-obsessed rhetoric that comes out of the Department of War these days, and believing that the terms "low-yield and tactical" won't be interpreted as "safe to use." In fact, there's a real chance that just by accepting the need for more of these weapons and deploying some near-conflict regions, we'll start a countdown whereby some of our current defense thinkers convince themselves there's a ticking clock, and they need to find a target for a low-yield nuclear strike to prove we've got the guts to use this thing. If that sounds far-fetched, I want you to think back to April of 2017, when the US conducted an air strike in Afghanistan using the largest non-nuclear weapon we've got, the MOAB. There were some logical reasons for such a strike. ISIS fighters were using a tunnel network in the MOAB is meant to penetrate and take out such underground targets. That said, there's no evidence this facility or the 36-ish ISIS fighters killed in the blast represented a threat to US interests in the region necessitating such a dramatic response. Many pundits suspected the real reason we dropped this big bomb had more to do with Trump's campaign promise to bomb the shit out of ISIS. Faisal Perves, an analyst for the military intelligence forum Stratford, told Vice His suspicions, "We drop a bomb that weighs 21,000 pounds. That's so big. I think a part of it or some part of it is the messaging and the symbolic significance that the US is sending out to countries such as Russia, that we are the premier military in the world. We are the biggest power. We have the tools and weapons to show you that this is the case." Well, the same man who dropped that bomb is back in power now. We are fighting a losing war with Iran that has endangered his power. Back in April of 2026, President Trump threatened Iran by saying a whole civilization will die tonight if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened. More recently, he's muse that Iran might take out Los Angeles or San Diego with a nuclear weapon someday, which he viewed as a small price to pay for the permission that would give the US to annihilate Iran in return. We'll keep talking about this, but first, here's some ads. We're back. If more low yield nuclear weapons are built and deployed, they will become in startlingly short time, just another option on the menu for military planners. We might expect decade-standing traditions against using such weapons to count for something, but as you're aware, Pete Hegseth has purged a huge number of veteran leaders from the Department of Defense. Similar brain drains have occurred across all of our primary national security institutions. There are fewer cooler heads to prevail. Hegseth has also made lethality and kill count into our military's primary measure of operational success. More to my point today, the entire Trump administration runs on social media. Truth social, Twitter, and TikTok aren't just organs the regime uses to disseminate propaganda, they are where Donald Trump and his advisors go for information and to take the pulse of the nation. Let's consider one possible chain of events. Some months from now, Trump orders a tactical nuke deployed with our forces attacking Iran. The plan isn't to use it, but to threaten the enemy and generate a groundswell of rage among Trump's domestic enemies, which is always something he thinks about. Soon after the weapon arrives, Iranian forces score a major hit. Maybe one of their ballistic missile strikes and damage is a naval vessel killing soldiers, maybe they hit a base and cause an unprecedented loss of lives in material. Such a strike is not impossible, it could happen tomorrow, and it would not need to debilitate or cripple our military forces long term to provoke Donald Trump into a nuclear response. All it would need to do is embarrass him. At his footage spreads, a fire raging atop an aircraft carrier or a burning frigate listing at sea or wounded and dying US soldiers near a base, Trump's followers begin howling for blood on social media. One cry sounds out louder than all the others. Nukh the bastards. Trump might. Such a strike would be unlikely to cause an immediate apocalyptic cascade into nuclear war. There would be international outrage, but not outright retaliation. Even so, in a stroke, Trump would have dissolved any remaining stigma against the use of nuclear weapons and war. This would make Russia much likelier to use a tactical nuke in Ukraine. It might change Chinese calculations, Ari Taiwan, but what it would inarguably do is make nuclear weapons a normal, conceivable, usable tool of conventional war. I don't know how long it would take the breaking of that taboo to generate a larger nuclear war, but I believe after this point such a future would become almost inevitable. It is still quite possible, even likelier, that Russia would be the first nation-state to break the taboo and use a tactical nuke for the reasons I've just outlined. This might lead to a similar outcome worldwide, although I'm less certain of that, Russia is considered an international pariah to many in ways that the United States still isn't quite. That said, I have no doubt that the ultimate chain of events leading to such a deployment would be just as stupid as they would be in the United States. China feels less likely to be the direct cause of such a deployment. Their nuclear policy originated from Mao Zedong. He did not love nuclear weapons, calling them a paper tiger and talking shit on the US and the USSR for building so many of the damn things. When China became a nuclear state in 1964, Mao stated the only use for this thing, his term for the bomb, was to deter other nuclear armed countries. As a result, China has always had an official no-first use policy with their nuclear arsenal. This differs from the US and Russia, who operate by launch on war, and in other words, if we think you're going to nuke us, we will nuke you. China's official policy is minimum deterrence. That's generally translated to mean, we keep our arsenal at the minimum level necessary to deter our adversaries. However, in an article on the evolution of China's nuclear posture, the website Defcon Warning System notes. This declaratory posture also embodies China's strategic ambiguity. For one, minimum deterrence remains undefined. Chinese officials have never quantified what a minimum nuclear capability means in practice. Is it a few dozen warheads able to strike back a few hundred? As China's arsenal grows, the goal posts appear to shift. Similarly, what constitutes an arms race is left vague. Beijing's current build up by far its largest and fastest ever, ostensibly does not violate its pledge to avoid arms racing, at least in its own view. Crucially, China's nuclear doctrine has begun to stress achieving strategic counterbalance with other powers, though not officially defined this phrase suggests Beijing sees its nuclear forces as vital to shaping the global power equilibrium. It implies a more assertive role for nukes, not merely to deter an attack on China but to offset the overall military might of rivals, particularly the United States. This nuanced shift in language contributes to uncertainty. This counterbalance means China seeks nuclear parity with the US, or simply a survivable second strike, the lack of clarity keeps observers guessing. Now, I don't bring any of this up with the interest of fear-mongering over China, but because the questions and ambiguities outlined in that segment are a real cause for concern to the defense analysts who study China, not just for the US government, but over in New Delhi. The Indian state is locked into continuous, low-level border conflict with China, alongside their border conflict with Pakistan, also a nuclear-armed state. Both China and India have been extremely careful to avoid bringing nuclear threats to the table, but that only underlines how much leaders in both nations fear the possibility. And over on their border with Pakistan, nuclear threats have come up recently. 2025 saw a large skirmish between India and Pakistan that included cross-border aerial raids, after several days of this Pakistan's foreign secretary issued a statement on May 28th. We will not hesitate to use any weapon in our arsenal to defend our territorial integrity. This was interpreted as a nuclear threat and caused a massive international ruckus, which prompted a spokesman for Pakistan's government to clarify that that was not the intent. We all looked out that the May 2025 conflict did not occur at the same time as another uptick and hostility between Beijing and New Delhi, but it's easy to imagine something like that might occur. In the event of such a conflict, Pakistan would rely heavily on their naval forces armed with nuclear weapons to complete the third leg of their nuclear triad. Having a nuclear triad, which means having separate land, sea, and air-based weapons systems that can deploy nuclear weapons, is considered the gold standard for nuclear deterrence. Most nations that have one fulfill the third leg of the triad with nuclear armed attack submarines. The most advanced of these are, inarguably, the deadliest weapon systems ever devised by man. Pakistan is generally considered to be the nuclear power with the least reliable protections for their arsenal. These have long-inspired fear that Pakistan might lose control of a weapon or that rogue elements of their security services might give one to a terrorist group. That's not my concern here. One of my sources for these episodes was an article in the Defense and Security Analysis Journal. Its authors point out that in recent years Pakistan has gone a decent job of sealing some of the former security holes in their nuclear weapons systems. However, as one researcher noted in 2014, parts of Pakistan's nuclear management system, like its command element, have been reasonably transparent. Other parts like the physical security and surety human reliability elements have been at best translucent, and in the near areas there are only bald assertions that programs and methods have been put into place with very few details provided. One of the parts of their management system we know least about is the rules under which ship board nuclear weapons operate. In theory, any nuclear weapons used by Pakistani forces would have to be authorized by a special 10-man committee. It's believed but not known that some systems require both a civilian and military key to be provided in order for the weapons to become operable. This is because Pakistan's military has a long history about running the shop. Today, civilian leadership is meant to have much more oversight. One example of this is the fact that all air and land-based nuclear weapons in Pakistan are stored separate from their delivery systems. This makes them harder to steal and makes it more complex for say rogue military leaders to get a hold of a piece of the arsenal. But we already know that Pakistan's naval nukes do not work exactly the same way. Per that journal article, quote, "Little information is available for the naval leg of Pakistan's deterrent currently based on the Bobber III submarine-launched cruise missile. First test fired in 2017 and described by Pakistan's inter-services public relations as a second strike capability because of its naval requirements, the Bobber III is assumed to be pre-made and contained within a vertical launch system or similar canisterized device." Procedures meant to inhibit the use of nuclear weapons outside authorized uses are called negative controls. We do not know what negative controls Pakistan has for their naval weapons. It is entirely possible, the military remains in total control here and justifies that as necessary for guaranteeing their ability to launch retaliatory strikes against India. I want you to think right now about a fun new development in technology that we've all witnessed, the growth of generative AI tools that can convincingly mimic both human posters on social media and create believable fake videos, including fake news videos. These and similar tools make it possible to flood any region with targeted disinformation and make it seem legitimate, at least for a short span of time. Earlier this year, in March of 2026, the bulletin of the atomic scientists published a theoretical article by Herbert Lin. He's a Stanford fellow, an expert on cyber warfare operations who in 2016 worked for the Obama administration. Back in the 1980s, he was a staff scientist for the House Armed Services Committee, so he's a guy with some knowledge of this area. The article he put together envisioned several scenarios in which AI tools might help cause or exacerbate a nuclear conflict. None of his scenarios involved anything like Skynet. The dangers he foresees from AI come not from its intelligence so much as its ability to automate the production of targeted bullshit and influence the decisions of political leaders. And speaking of targeted bullshit, here's some ads. We're back and I was talking about an article for the bulletin of the Atomic Scientist written by Herbert Lin. One of his scenarios envisioned a blockade of Taiwan in which the Chinese military deployed an army of AI chatbots to lie about military maneuvers in order to create the impression of high military readiness to deter U.S. intervention. I don't consider this specific scenario very likely but I do think he's on to something with passages like this. The accounts adopt personas of professionals or students isolated by the crisis and connect with foreigners through the full suite of channels described above. These spaces attract not only their regular users but also journalists and even mid-level Pentagon staffers looking for unfiltered intelligence. In one instance, a botnomaking a 28-year-old engineer named Lee Wei claims "I saw convoys with TELs heading east" DF-26 is probably referring to mobile, transporter or rector launches used to launch ballistic missiles and land-based dual-capable DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Before adding, sirens everywhere, evacuations starting. Then, screenshots start flooding the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, amplified by coordinated sock puppets. The bots' adapts seamlessly to queries, cross-referencing real-time U.S. open-source chatter for added plausibility. A user of Tinder, a dating app in Washington, D.C. matched with Wang Mei, a fabricated nursing z-men who relays her alleged eyewitness panic about explosions near the port and prepping of hypersonic weapons, which aligns with the partial satellite imagery glitches caused by Chinese jamming and begins to see doubt in U.S. intelligence assessments. State media subtly echoes these stories, framing them as grassroots outrage at U.S. provocation. In the United States, some of this material migrates into expert discourse, open-source intelligence, journalists, journalists, and think tank experts incorporate screenshots and chat logs in a maps, timelines, and situation reports, and present them on cable news and in policy briefs as independent confirmations of missile movements. Congressional staffers and allied governments cite these products in their own assessments, generating a feedback loop in which fabricated chats appear as triangulated multi-source evidence. I think the only weakness of Lin's article is his focus on scenarios that lead to mass nuclear exchange, and in his insistence on considering nation-states as the only relevant actors in most of these escalation cycles. But the basic process he outlined there, a bad actor flooding regional social media with disinformation designed to look like O-cent that suggests an imminent attack, that's entirely possible, and you wouldn't need a nation-state level actor to pull it off. Let's say you have a well-funded non-state group of ideological hardliners, let's imagine them as partisans of India or Pakistan, right? You could also imagine they're just trolls, eager to add confusion for the lulls. Or more insidiously, you could imagine them as motivated to pull off a massive score gambling on world events by betting on a limited nuclear attack and then making one happen. Returning to our hypothetical border conflict between India and Pakistan, let's imagine another outbreak of actual shooting, like May of 2025. Imagine whichever of those hypothetical non-state groups you like to pick floods the region with reports of Indian nuclear forces mobilizing or even weapons in bound. This would occur alongside the already-nightmarish disruption of communication and commandant control that will occur during such times of conflict. Is it so crazy to imagine that one of those Pakistani ships chooses to fire its payload? There's a very good reason why most nuclear arm nations do not give military leaders direct control over how and when to fire these weapons. We don't know how Pakistan governs the use of their naval nukes, not really, and that means we cannot discount such a possibility. The kind of decisions made in nuclear war planning tend to come with a timer of less than a half hour. New weapons systems like hypersonic missiles have shortened that even further. This means any decision about when to deploy nuclear weapons is likely going to be made on a very short time frame by frightened people. After equally terrifying vision of that scenario could lead China, Pakistan, and India to each conclude based on a mix of real movements by neighboring forces and a flood of AI disinformation to activate and position their nuclear arsenals just in case. Once you have nuclear weapons assembled, deployed, and aimed, the odds rise exponentially that something might go wrong even if no one chooses to fire them. And the same sort of concerted digital disinformation attack executed by a state or non-state actor could happen today during literally any tense international situation with a potential for nuclear escalation. As I said, my interest here is not an apocalypse narrative, but in the possibility of a limited nuclear fuck up. Let me propose another that might occur in this situation. In the US, all nuclear weapons are built to be what's called one point safe. This means the weapon has a probability of less than one and a million of causing a nuclear detonation if the weapon explodes unintentionally. We had had nuclear weapons destroyed in plane crashes, and so far they have never detonated in a proper nuclear explosion on accident because they're one point safe. Other nations do not necessarily abide by the same safety rules in their nuclear weapons, and we simply do not know if Pakistan's nukes are safe in the same way. Imagine then, as the border conflict teets up, Pakistan's military assembles their arsenal and begins flying it in theater, a plane crashes or gets shot down, and the weapon inside detonates in a proper nuclear fireball. Every one of my nuclear fuck up scenarios relies on terrible decision making. Clear thinking civilian and military leaders do not take the kind of risks that would lead to a nuclear January 6th. Alas, clear thinking civilian and military leaders are thin on the ground these days, especially where I live. As I noted earlier, the decision makers in any of these situations, regardless of national identity, might have only minutes to make their decisions. They'll be frightened and probably sleep deprived. And what do frighten sleep deprived people turn to these days when they need to get work done? That's right. AI. In a CNN article from earlier this year, Katie Lillis and Zachary Cohen write, "Across the US military and the intelligence community, officials are pushing to weave AI into nearly every facet of their work from analyzing the huge volumes of raw intelligence the US collects and selecting targets for strikes to warm and dain applications like managing budgeting, logistics, and supply chains." Just a few months ago, back in the spring of 2026, one member of the Intel community, an analyst, asked one of these chatbots to analyze intelligence around a Chinese vessel sailing to the Middle East. The bot was likely an internal tool, but as one senior US official told CNN, the internal tools are mostly just copies of the commercial stuff wearing lipstick. Said bot did what bots do best, it mixed a bunch of different sources together to create a product for its user. This analysis, based on a mix of Ocent and Secret Intel, concluded that the Chinese ship was carrying components used in the production of nuclear weaponry. The analyst asked his AI tool to take its finding and produce an intelligence report, which was sent up the chain of command. Since the vessel was headed in the general direction of Iran, and since China does sell conventional weapons to Iran, this sparked a panic. For that CNN article, the US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes were in the air, one of these sources and another source familiar with the incident said. "There was only one issue. The AI chatbot that analyst used had hallucinated. Every piece of that report was wrong. China was not sending nuclear weapons equipment to Iran, or anywhere else because of fucking course they weren't, but we came calamitously close to attacking a Chinese ship with military force due to that hallucination." In January, Pete Hegg's F gave a speech outlining our Department of Defense's new AI strategy. He insisted, "We will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus our investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI." All that says to me is that these tools will only become more critical to the production of intelligence products than ever before, and we know they'll continue to hallucinate too. This change isn't just happening in the United States, it's occurring in governments and militaries all across the world, and it's happening at the same time as some nuclear armed nations seek to expand their low yield stockpiles. Simultaneously, the US war against Iran and the ongoing war in Ukraine have made it clear to every nation-state actor that the only real guarantee of national sovereignty is a nuclear arsenal. More nations will work to acquire nukes in the near future. This means more nuclear weapons and more conflicts where they might get used, alongside an even wider proliferation of tools like the ones I just described. I'm not trying to be apocalyptic here, because again, that's not really the immediate worry. The worry is that a mix of increasing acceptance that it's okay to use small nukes and increasing reliance on these AI tools, alongside the conflicts that we have always had between nations, lead to a situation in which a very limited nuclear fuck-up not only is disastrous to people in the ground you're wherever it occurs, but changes the very nature and all of the decision-making calculus in the world that we live in. I hope it doesn't happen, but who I'm thinking about these days. That's everything for today, we'll be back tomorrow. I'm Melissa Jeltsin and in my new podcast, What Happened to Her. I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. Stories of survival. Cases that everyone else called closed, they can't convict her, right? She has so much evidence. And we were babies. Listen to what happened to her on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hamza. And I'm Martin and we're the hosts of Out of Character. It's a podcast. I know. I swear. I know. Bold. But why don't we list some of the things we might talk about on a regular episode? Trust me. Listen out of character from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Pods, or wherever you get your podcasts. Each week I bring on incredible guests like Conan O'Brien, Iowa Debris, Lamorne Morris and Nicole Buyer. Oh, I scammed them. What? So if you like fun, if you like comedy, and you like learning and protecting yourself from criminals, start listening to SCAM Goddess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. SCAM Goddess! So if you're interested in getting thinner, going to therapy, starting peptide, setting boundaries, taking supplements, making your better, getting closure, then I would humbly recommend other podcasts. But if you're interested in blackmail, love, bombing, cloning yourself, or getting revenge, then we've got a little something-something for a dastardly individual like you. Fake a back injury. Kill them. Kill them. The next time a bear is running at you. Just calmly. Stop what you're doing. You don't need them. Listen to Get Worse with Kyle Pru on the I-Harm Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's J.O. from "Laf with me the podcast." So why would you choose "Laf" with me? Maybe you like comedy. Maybe you like sports. Maybe you like movies, ridiculous stories, terrible opinions, questionable rankings, and a grown man somehow turning everyday life into a personal emergency. Yeah, that's right. "Laf with me has a survivor." I'm Jeremy Odom and every week I'm joined by comedians, friends, athletes, weirdos, experts, and occasionally people who probably should have stopped answering my texts. Listen to "Laf" with me, a podcast with Jeremy Odom, on the I-Harm Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. This is, it could happen here, executive disorder, our lead newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the grumbling world, and what this means for you. I'm Garrison Davis, today I'm joined by Mia Wong, Robert Evans, and Sophie Lichterman. Not allegedly. Yeah, no, that's definitely Sophie, so you can't prove it to me. I can prove it to you. Sophie. You have no idea where I am, Sophie, or what I'm doing. I know exactly where you are and know exactly what you're doing. This is the first episode where we're testing AI, Robert. Oh, no. We're not tested. There's no AI, Robert. Don't yell at me on blue sky. It is shit. You'll know there's no AI, Robert, because they would have trained an AI, Robert, unlike the subreddit and all of the different jokes that I can no longer do because people take it too seriously. That's true. Like, if I start talking about a child hunting island, like, you'll know it's the AI, me. The bagel throwing reference from like nine years ago. Yeah. All of a sudden, you start talking about Doritos, like you did 10 years ago. Cool. Yeah, I talked about Doritos like 10 years ago. I talked about the Jamie Loctis murder thing, which I don't do anymore, because now there's a real serial killer in the area that people are making comments about. And being like, was it Jamie? Like, guys, there's really people dead. We don't keep the bit up at this point. All right. Here. This episode we're covering the week of October 7th to October 14th. And we're actually going to jump straight to our first main story. Last Thursday afternoon, October 8th, ice shot a 28 year old man named Oscar Belgaul in the New York City neighborhood of Marble Hill, which is physically located in the Bronx, but technically in the borough of Manhattan. Oscar was in a car with his five year old son. Her video released by the NYPD around 4 p.m. just in the middle of the day, masked plain closed agents, some wearing yellow construction vests, ran up to a parked car with guns already drawn. The driver, Oscar, started backing away, and then an agent began hitting the car windows with the butt of his gun. Oscar then pulls into the street and drives off screen. As agents point their guns at the windshield. The actual shooting itself is not captured on this video, but I'll play it here for us to reference. This is security camera footage. Yeah. One of the things that was noticeably unsettling besides all of it was the fact that these guys were dressed like crossing guards, construction workers crossing guards. They had like, on his normal clothes and then just like a high vests, which, you know, somebody in a high vests and a machine gun comes towards me. That's scary. They look like, like, especially the guy with the long gun, he looks like a mass shooter. They look like fucking mass shooters. Like, I would not assume those were police officers, and I might take steps to defend myself in that situation because they just look like fucking mass shooters. Correct. Mayor Zorn Mamdani said, quote, there was no reasonable way to identify them as ice agents. People had just gotten out. The street was crowded with families and children, unquote. So according to the NYPD, at least one agent fired seven shots. We do not have footage of the actual shooting. As I said, Oscar's five-year-old son was in the backseat of the car. Now, thank God he is physically unharmed, but of course, he still had to watch masked men with guns run up, shoot his dad in the Nazis and drag his body away. Jesus Christ. DHS Secretary Mullins said that agents were not aware a kid was in the car. Uh-huh. Because they didn't care. They're a check. Shoot first, ask questions later. The child's mother told Governor Hocal that her son is traumatized and won't talk, quote, the child is not speaking. That's terrible. Yeah. Sure. Of course. Jesus. That's horrible, you guys. I mean, I can't really think of anything worse that could happen to a child than to watch their parent shot in the neck at random when like in a normally safe situation like that. Jesus Christ. The ice is still not released body cam footage of the shooting. And DHS said that they were conducting a, quote, targeted enforcement operation. And that Oscar, quote, weaponized his vehicle. This is the thing they always say in something like this happens. Boylar played a statement. DHS also claimed that after a vice shot and arrested Oscar, agents, quote, rendered for a stay. and then took him to the hospital. This is a lie. This did not happen. This is a plane, a plane-faced lie from DHS. Body camera footage released by NYPD from when they first got to the scene, when the cops got to the scene, show Oscar just sitting in the street bleeding out with his hands handcuffed behind his back, surrounded by ice agents. We're just standing in a circle around him offering no assistance. - Yeah, and they do this all the fucking time when they shoot someone. They just like stand there and handcuff them. - The NYPD rushes over in this footage, picks up and carries Oscar, who now appears to be going unconscious. They take Oscar into a squad car. They render aid, put pressure on the wound, and drive him to the hospital down the street. - Do you know how hard it is to have less concern for human life than the New York police department? - My God. - Like that's just like, donation. - That's, that's, that takes some work. - Jesus Christ. We're reaching average Los Angeles sheriff's deputy, the levels of empathy here, like it's, it's okay. - It's like the CPD detectives, they brought in to do torture after 9/11. Like, that kind of shit. - We don't really know what would have happened if NYPD did not get to the scene as quick as they did, because in the body camera footage of them carrying Oscar, like his body is fully limp. Like he is, he's out of it. He looks like he's been shot in the neck. - Now NYPD had no involvement in the federal operation prior to this point, prior to the shooting. - Quite frankly, this kind of shit isn't what they do. They do other bad things, but they don't just like shoot and like charge people's cars with guns when they're like driving away from school with their, like that's just, that's, this is so much of an escalation of like our normal police bullshit is what I'm saying. - DHS has tried to justify their targeting of Oscar, calling him a quote criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic. And pointed to prior arrests and a criminal conviction for Grand Larcy. And claim Oscars quote associated with a gang. That's the word they keep using, associated or association. They won't, they won't even say he's like a member. They'll say he's associated with a gang. - Yeah. - I'll play a short clip here from the mayor's press conference later that evening, just down the street from this side of the shooting. There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a five year old in the car. There is no explanation. We are standing here so close to the site of where this actually took place and look at how many people live right here. This is a residential neighborhood. We are right here by a subway. And the pretext of ICE is in their words to keep this country safe. How is it keeping anyone safe to have, as you just heard from the police commissioner, individuals wearing construction vests in masks with long guns, residents have no idea if these are law enforcement agents or if they are simply attacking someone on the street. And when it comes to ICE, it begs the question, what's the difference? There is no explanation for this. - After the shooting, soon to be DSA Congresswoman Daria Liza Abilashaviay, quickly went up to the Bronx and saw that federal agents were going door to door, quote-unquote, "collecting evidence," and trying to question residents about the shooting, running down people's names and numbers. So Daria Liza followed behind these HSI agents informing residents that they did not need to speak to or answer questions from these federal agents. I mean, while soon to be former congressman, Adriano Espayat, and Oscar's own family weren't allowed to see Oscar at the hospital. - Jesus. - Now outside the hospital where Oscar is being treated a few hundred New Yorkers gathered to protest ICE and the shooting of one of their neighbors. Earlier in the evening, ICE vehicles were driving through protesters, but pretty quickly NYPD arrived to do crowd control and cleared the street for vehicles to enter and exit the hospital. This led to violent-shoving matches over metal fence barricades that NYPD was trying to set up but around the street. Daria Liza moved to this protest and she was trying to de-escalate conflict, but NYPD got very aggressive and Daria Liza was shoved to the ground by a community affairs officer, the NYPD blue shirts, the ones that are, you know, so supposed to like de-escalate conflict at protests. - Yeah, like average example of community affairs is shoving Congressperson to the ground. - Yeah. - I arrived at the hospital just after this first big clash over police barricades during which NYPD arrested five protesters. After that, things seemed to settle down for a little bit. The crowd got smaller and about like a little over an hour later just before 11 p.m., police rapidly cleared the street again, pushing protesters onto the sidewalk as a small caravan of feds departed the hospital at dangerously high speeds. They were zooming by. (crowd chattering) (crowd chattering) - Ice just pulled away. The crowd chased them a little bit. It's 10.40 p.m. We've got a group of NYPD now leaving the area and the crowd is falling behind, yelling at them as well. Again, NYPD is putting off into two directions. The Oscar was in one of these vehicles leaving the hospital. After the feds left the hospital, the crowd continued to dwindle to about 40 people who then marched up over the bridge to protest in front of Zoran's press conference. At the press conference, Zoran said that for the past two hours, he had been on the phone negotiating with President Trump and Secretary Mullen for Oscar's release, but that those negotiations were unsuccessful. I think it is worth noting here that early this year, Trump did release someone from ICE custody following a request by Mayor Mamdani. With the cries of protesters heard in the background, the Mayor reiterated calls for ICE to be abolished, saying, quote, "Ice is rotten to its core, operates with impunity, so it's chaos and terror across our country, and they have killed far more of our neighbors than they could have ever claimed to save." I stand here not just as the mayor of our city, but as someone who is proud to be an immigrant in our city. And I know that these kinds of raids, this kind of terrorizing of this city leaves the three million immigrants of this city asking if they are safe here, if they belong here, if this too can be their home here. We will not normalize ICE's viciousness. We will not accept its cruelty. We know, and I have said this directly, whether to the president or to the public, ICE undermines public safety. It makes us less safe. New York City will not stand by while ICE agents shoot New Yorkers. And we will not back down from the demand that so many, including myself, have put forward time and again, this is an agency that must be abolished. Commissioner Jessica Tish then gave some more details about the shooting, some of which I've already echoed. But also red-off Oscars NYPD rap sheet. Average commissioner Tish move. Including two prior arrests, one for robbery, which he pleaded guilty to, and received probation, and another for drug possession. When Zorong got the microphone back, he again undermined ICE's legitimacy and said that while negotiating with the president and secretary Mullin, he requested ICE agents leave the scene entirely and demanded that ICE stop its enforcement actions in the city. There is no justification for what we have seen today and we know that what we have seen today is but a microcosm of what ICE does on a daily basis across this country. How can that be how we describe public safety? It can't be. And I've shared that with the president. I've shared that with the secretary. This city wants ICE out. We want ICE out of our city, ICE out of our schools, ICE out of our hospitals, ICE out of our streets, ICE away from our kids. We want that because we want to keep the city safe. We do not need them to do so. All they do is terrorize the city. - Now, the people chanting outside the press conference weren't just protesting ICE, but also the NYPD and Zorong himself with chance of quote, "Mom Donnie is complicit." Most of the IR directed at Mayor Mom Donnie was due to NYPD facilitating ICE's exit by clearing protesters in front of the hospital, and off the street before the agents sped off. After leaving the hospital, DHS moved Oscar to New Jersey, and then back to New York, where he's currently in federal custody at the Metropolitan Attention Center. On Monday, Oscar's lawyers released a statement, quote, "Mr. Belgoll is living through an unimaginable nightmare." While he is currently in solitary confinement, a bullet remains lodged in his neck. The left side of his face is numb, and he can barely hear out of his left ear. Doctors have told him he urgently needs surgery, unquote. - Awful. - A federal judge is also temporarily blocked, Oscar's deportation. The day after the shooting, Daria Lisa called for NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tish to step down in a statement, quote, "Last night, the NYPD and Commissioner Tish violated the spirit, if not the letter, of our sanction. actuary city policies and fuel the Trump administration's attempts to demonize our communities. The NYPD's strategic response group or the SRG must be disbanded as quickly as possible and Commissioner Tish must step down. New York City DSA also released a statement of which I'll quote a small portion of ISIS devastating shooting of a New Yorker in front of his child cannot stand neither can the NYPD's attack on New Yorkers who stood up for their neighbors. ISIS is a terrorist agency that must be expelled from New York City and abolished. Jessica Tish must get ice out of New York and end NYPD complicity with these terrorists. If the commissioner can't put a stop to these injustices, she must be fired. Unquote. Now, initial reports claim that SRG, the strategic response group, was deployed to handle this protest at the hospital. And this is notable because there's a run on disbanding the SRG. And right now, any SRG deployment must get approval from city hall according to reporting from Politico. So the idea that Mamdani like personally sent the SRG to crack skulls of anti-ice protesters, fueled a lot of the anger coming from protesters that night. The SRG or the strategic response group is a specialized unit within the NYPD, which focuses on counterterrorism, but also policing protests. They're sort of the city's de facto riot cops. The unit has been long criticized for violently suppressing political protest. The SRG did not respond to that protest, though. Instead, NYPD sent officers from community affairs, as mentioned, and the transit bureaus quote, anti-terrorism unit, which doesn't need city halls direct sign off. So while Zoran did not personally send the SRG to crack down on this protest, the violence from NYPD demonstrates that this issue is bigger than just one specific unit. But there is this larger question of like crowd control at these protests. And I think this question demonstrates the diverging interests on the part of protesters and city hall. Some protesters want no NYPD crowd control. People want to directly fight ice and they're willing to put their body on the line. Yeah. Even if that means they might get hurt, as you've seen in other cities, physical confrontations against ice could result in DHS sending more troops to New York, possibly triggering a political crisis, which some on the left also desire. There is a sort of like acceleration is spent towards some of these protests. They kind of want this political crisis. And they want to directly fight in a pose ice. On the other hand, for someone in Zoran's position, there's a desire to prevent ice agents from hurting more people, whether by running people over or shooting more New Yorkers. I think all these questions definitely exist in the shadow of Minneapolis. And furthermore, the mayor wants to limit the amount of DHS and ice agents deployed to the city. So to that end, NYPD may end up doing some level of crowd control to limit protesters interactions with ice to avoid provoking a larger deployment. So even if protesters and Zoran have similar ultimate goals vis-a-vis ice, their respective positions lead them to contradictory impulses. Zoran has said that he will not justify the use of force against protesters on Thursday night and told MSNOW he'll be conducting a review of the entire 24-hour period, quote, "from the ice shooting to the NYPD response to the incident and the ensuing protests to ice's use of a privately owned parking lot as a staging location to every tool that we have at a disposal to keep New Yorkers safe." On one of those last parts, AOC has also mentioned this that ice has been using the rooftop parking lot of a target in the Bronx to stage before going out to do arrests. And that's something that elects are looking to crack down on if they can. But Zoran has said that there are no plans to replace Commissioner Tish, pointing to her history of uprooting NYPD corruption and the later Adams administration and the record low number of murders, shootings and shooting victims. But Zoran has reiterated multiple times this week his intention to disband the SRG and said he will provide an update on that timeline in the coming months. So to the dismay of the police union, the mayor announced this week that his administration will be conducting the first comprehensive review of NYPD use of force policies and practices for the first time in a decade and will crack down on officers getting out of misconduct proceedings by retiring before disciplinary action can take place. After this was announced, there was a very angry statement from the police union about this. And because New York has already ended qualified immunity, the biggest thing to the whole could do to undermine police power is to move certain public safety and administrative rules outside of the NYPD, which Zoran wants to do with the Department of Community Safety. But that is face budgetary constraints, especially following the discovery of the $12 billion deficit left over by mayor Adams. Now 10 months into his administration, Zoran has not been eager to spend political capital taking on the NYPD where he has been spending political capital. It's mostly been to strengthen labor, investing in the Department of Consumer and Work of Protection, creating and enforcing a new click to cancel rule to crack down on impossible to end subscriptions, winning hundreds of millions of dollars for delivery workers, fighting to pass the delivery protection act to strengthen Amazon workers right to unionize and partnering with labor unions to modernize the process of applying for city jobs and launching the mayor's office of worker power. And this is in addition to universal childcare and the rent freeze, which just went into effect earlier this month. But after attending protests this week, my general sense is that when it comes to NYPD and ICE, protesters want more than just well-worded statements in these reviews, they want to see more actionable change, whether that's using his position as mayor, as a sort of bully pulpit to rally the masses against ICE or employ more direct measures to protect New Yorkers from ICE, what those measures may be is not entirely clear. And if the left wants to be effective in agitating for larger social change, beyond making just general demands of electeds, it may be worth closely considering why an elected is taking certain actions. The constraints of their power and the contradictions inherent to holding office so that those not in office can apply targeted outside pressure to counteract the pressure coming from the federal and state level and just the pressures of governing itself. Though firing Tish may please some of Zoron's left wing base more broadly it is politically risky and could damage Zoron as he tries to enact his economic agenda while contending with a centrist governor and a very hostile federal administration. From City Hall's perspective, choosing to go to war with the NYPD right now could undermine Zoron's ability to protect New York from ICE, whether by limiting the scale of ICE operations or ideally keeping ICE out of the city entirely. Of course, none of this means that people should stop protesting. The protesting is the crucial thing that could apply pressure here, but it's also going to have to be more than 400 of New York's most left-wing protesters. It's going to have to require mass engagement. But the thing I wanted to emphasize here at the end is that a socialist elected to an executive position and a protestor and an organizer outside of government are very different kinds of political actors whose positions strongly influence the actions they take or may be inclined to take. Protests supply an important pressure on city leaders to pursue certain names, but our political analysis must take account of the balance of forces within the state. Is anyone else on this? I'm sure Mia does. Yeah. I think part of what's happening here on a broader scale is that one of the reasons that ICE has been successful over the last three or four months in significant escalations of raids. We talked about this a little bit on this show, but there have been huge escalations in raids in Texas and raids in Florida. There's also been beneath the notice of people who aren't there or really significant escalation in places like Minneapolis, but they're doing it quietly. They're not fighting with protesters. They're going in, they're grabbing people and they're leaving. I think this is one of the things the protesters are thinking about to some extent, which is in part of what their calculus is different in the mayor's office, because one of the things that's been allowing all of this to happen is that ICE has been able to do this smoothly. The fact that they will do it smoothly quietly and without disturbing the broader public order is a big part of how they've been able to really ramp up raids without the kind of mass resistance that we saw earlier in the year. But it leaves you like a structural problem with the position of someone holding office, which is that like a holding office in the US does not give you a monopoly on violence because the police are effectively a semi-independent force. You can do oversight on them to some extent, but as long as you're sending them there, even if you tell them, hey, don't beat up protesters, like they're going to go beat up Congress people. And then you have a secondary problem, It's just that like if you're running the garbage. of New York your job is to maintain public order. Yeah. And the way that you defeat ice is through breaking public order. And this puts you inherently in tension with the state itself in a position where Moundani ends up being aligned, but structurally with the police trying to do protest control. Right. And this is just, this is just sort of like the structural limits of what kind of power you actually hold in the United States when you are elected. Because yeah, like no, like we're keeping on fucking Adam's era police commissioner because if you want to try to have the body that's nominally enforcing your legitimacy on violence, like you have to go to war with people who can fight you. And that's just like that's just like a huge structural problem with power in the American government. Yeah. And and and Tish was also like retained essentially following requests from Hocal as a sort of like, yeah. Signed to Hocal that like Zorn will still be like a competent administrator. Essentially it was it was it was it was a sign to her to kind of get her on board during the general election. Yeah. And then also, you know, extract economic wins and revenue from the state so that Moundani can have the funding for things like universal childcare. And it's that was one of the calculations that was made. And he did like announce his intention to retain her during during the campaign. So this was it. Is it this isn't necessarily one of his campaign promises the way abolishing SRG is. Yeah. And which he seems to be still trying to work on and you can apply, but as we see from, you know, NYC DSAs or on a political home, a pressure can still be applied on both of these things. Yeah. And and should be in that pressure is necessary even if that means you're going to be going against someone who is like, you know, an economic ally, right? In terms of in terms of how he's trying to run the city. But there's the argument that there are going to be these contradictions that part of the left winning power in these places means we have to deal with those contradictions. You have to go through them, not just avoid them. You can't just avoid conflict here. You have to pursue it with like focus and determination. I think sometimes at least in conversations in New York over the NYPD aspect, I definitely do not want to distract from, you know, the ice the ice angle here as there's a man with a bullet still literally in his neck. Yeah. And I hope that that gets some more focus in these next next few days. Yeah. Because that situation is not resolved itself. Yeah. In the episode description, I will link New York City's immigration resources, the immigration legal support hotline, the intake form for the rapid response legal collaborative for people facing the threat of detention or deportation, as well as the know your rights booklets that the city offers in multiple languages. It's time for us to go on and add break and then we will return for more news because it has been a busy week. We are back. Let's now go through some of our small things here. Mia, do you want to start us off? Yeah. So speaking of the filmed shooting of people in America, Pete Hegseth has announced that he is yeah, planning to livestream the execution by firing squad of the 2009 Fort Hood shooter. He announced this by quote tweeting a CBS news tweet about the Pentagon's plan with a quote tweet that says quote correct. And that's that's how it was announced by the US government that we were going to execute a man by firing squad. A thing that the military hasn't executed someone in 65 years and live streamed. The live streaming part specifically is that is 30s lynching shit. That's crazy. Like to be honest, I don't support the death penalty for the military. Like the state shouldn't be doing that in my opinion. Yeah. But among death penalty options, I don't care about like a firing squad like it's I actually think that's more ethical than the fucking lethal injections they're doing. But live streaming is depraved. It's sick shit. Yeah. That also just more so points to the brutality of lethal injection despite it being this. Yeah. You know, think it's marketed as like as as like peaceful and like civil. I'm not saying it's nice to she's yeah, it's also horrible. It's much worse than shooting them. Like yeah, the fact that lethal injection is by all accounts actually a more horrific way to die that night. Then then a then a literal firing squad is it self crazy? Yeah. If you know what you're doing, a bow it's quick. Like but I mean, this the live streaming thing is insane. Yeah. It's horrible. Like obviously there's a widespread condemnation of this. The people who have been really in support of this have been a bunch of the worst Silicon Valley fascists. There was a quote from Palmer Lucky who is one of the founders of andrial, which is a Silicon Valley weapons manufacturer. We've talked about they make drones. They make a bunch of other shit who said quote. And then there are those who suggest any revel in the death of those who truly deserve it is an indicator of a broken or diseased bind to the contrary. It is normal good and aligned with our national order that it has not been done here in 60 years as an indictment in and of itself. And the thing I would say about this is to everyone who but wants to do this. Like, are you sure you want to live in the world where you've opened this door? Yeah. Like, are you sure you want what follows? Do you want us to talk about live streaming executions? Because I will tell you, I don't think a lot of Americans want to watch this execution live streamed, but there are some executions I can imagine a lot of Americans would want to watch on a live stream. Read up on your request you. He's all I'm saying about this. Like get your poll numbers and read about Chuchescu. Yeah. You can't help but think of like when our term comes, we shall make no excuse for the terror. Like, yeah, I'm there, baby. I've never understood those words so much as I do now. Yeah, I prefer that door remains shut because I don't think you should be publicly executing people. I don't think you should be publicly executing people on live stream, but like, you're opening this back what we're doing. And like, it's like, I can I can agree perhaps the country would be better if everyone couldn't buy an AR 15, but you open the door. So I have like six. Right. Yeah. It's also it has been reported that Trump is debating, cancelling the live stream, only after he learned that the shooter was paralyzed, which is very interesting. My every now and then you get like a little insight into the fact that Trump does have some kind of moral schema in his head. And it's always baffling when you get a hint of where how it really looks. Yeah. It's always just completely unhinged. Yeah. I mean, that just might be an optics thing too. Like, yeah, yeah, we did. Yeah. That is an optics thing. But like that, it's showing his awareness of the moral component and the optics. Yeah. Exactly. It's just nuts. It's just like that was your line, huh? Maybe like, okay. All right. Quick update here. On Thursday, President Trump did, in fact, cancel the planned live stream of the Fort Hood shooters execution. Moving on, on Monday, DHS and HSI Homeland Security Investigations rated the DC home of Minnesota representative, Ilhan Omar. This follows confirmation at the midterm RNC from Secretary Mullen that there is an investigation into the allegations of immigration fraud made against Omar based on a year's old racist conspiracy theory. After the raid on Monday, Ilhan made a statement, quote, I'm okay. Make no mistake. This is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For 10 years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced. On, quote, also we're noting like we're coming up on the elections. And this is the shit that's happening right now. Quick update here shortly after recording the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration's investigations into representative Omar is specifically aimed at building a case to strip her of her US citizenship and ultimately deport her. We will likely talk about this more next week. I do want to take us a little bit further from the United States to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There's a long ongoing conflict there between the Congolese government and the rebel group M23, which is backed by the Rwandan state. Eric Prince and his mercenary corporation, Vectis, have been contracted by the Congolese government to fight against M23. What I'm talking about actually happened on September 17th, but we just found out about it within the last couple of days during intense fighting in the Mininue Highlands. A group of Prince's mercenaries were ambushed and roughly 20 of them were killed or injured. This came after a clash earlier in September, which several Colombian contractors were killed. During this most recent ambush, a New Zealand military veteran was killed and an American named Tim Kennedy who was a former green beret and then after being a green beret, a former UFC fighter was badly injured. I think he got shot three times in the leg. Sounds like there's a good chance to lose a leg, but I don't really know for certain. And was evact and wound up eventually at a US military hospital in Germany. So there's a couple of things about this. First off, I've seen people being like, why is the US military paying for the health care for mercenary because he's a veteran. It's not weird that he went to a military hospital. He's entitled to that to health care of that kind. The bigger issues that Eric Prince has a mercenary corporation that's active in the Congo, things do not seem to be going well for Prince or for Vectus in the Congo. Although again, we don't know that we just know 20 injured and killed. I don't know how many killed. I don't know what their nationalities were. They're not a real military. So they don't have to tell anybody that's shit, right? Yeah. Once James is back, I'm sure we'll put together an episode covering in more detail like what's happening in the Congo, because that's important. It's not really a topic we've covered a lot on this show as a little bit of a fun note because this really pissed off a lot of people on X the everything app, like a lot of right wingers who are angry that turns out US special forces. Guys aren't nearly as bad asked with that air support. Yeah, they can just killed in the jungle like anybody else. Yeah. Well, let's don't discriminate on how much training or whatever you have. How cool you look in pictures. So this started a discourse that ended ultimately with a poll and a week long discussion as to whether or not all of Europe in 1939 could conquer modern 2026 Africa 78 percent of X voted. They believe 1939. Yeah. Let me tell you something, folks. This is objectively true. Anyone who knows anything about modern 20% real warfare will tell you it wouldn't take all of Africa. Egypt alone could wipe out 1939 Europe to the man militarily without a single soldier landing in Africa, they have Rafale fighters. They have 1100 Abrams tanks. Even if you were to take somehow and magically transport all of the tanks of in Europe in 1939. And remember in 1939, none of the cool shit from World War II existed yet by the way, the German army, I mean, it ended the war horse base, but it was really horse based in 39, right? Yeah. All of the tanks every armored vehicle and put them against just Egypt's Abrams tanks. And by the way, there's 690 tanks or something like that in Algeria. I don't know how many Abrams tanks fucking Morocco has, but it's a lot. But if you take just Egypt's Abrams tanks, there was not a single man or vehicle portable weapon on the planet that could pierce Chabam armor in 1939. It would let like the battle would be over in seconds. Anyway, one of the more amusing pieces of derangement online lately. Oh god, I just love it when people look crazy. That's what I got. One of the other things that James, I assume James, I want to talk more once he gets back is early this week, JD Vance as part of his fraud task force announced big crackdowns on H1B visas at Microsoft and J1 visas at universities. So this is something that does deserve more dedicated focus in a future episode. Netflix this week has laid off about a thousand employees. It's roughly 6% of their workforce. Oh, it sucks. Before yeah, Paramount acquired Warner Brothers. Netflix was a trying to acquire Warner Brothers. Yeah. In election news, but an even cooler kind. Sean Fane and his left wing slate at United U.I.W. It's just swept the United auto worker elections. We have the incumbents now. Yes, yes, yes, just totally demolished. And look, do some of us find it entertaining that his name sounds a lot like the Irish political party Sinn Fade, of course. That's all I have to say. How much to be won by gay? Sean Fade won with 67, huh? 0.98% to runner up Rich Boyer's 14%. That's where Chris. I'll do literally nail that. You really you really have to sign guys there, my man. You think that like regular politicians haven't come to the advantage you have never seen a union election. Oh my god, especially a union election for a guy who like made things better in the union like damn. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's just a Catholic school in Oregon that fired their football coach because he like one by too much. Oh, yeah. He was like, he was like scoring points when it was just kind of like mean. I feel that way about Sean. I was like, okay, man. Did you really need 67% of the four details? By the way, that guy ran an onsite kick before half time up 57. So that's so sick of shit, but awesome. I did not know Sean had game like that. Yeah. Starting this week, the lighthouse has a new press secretary Katie Zachariah and oh my god, be the first to say she's doing great. She's amazing work. You know, no, no, I think we can move on, right? I adore my family. I love them. They are my priority. They I love being with my kids. The idea of not spending evenings with my kid is kids are is completely unacceptable. So my president excuse me, my husband. That's a good one. My husband is out here. Incredible. Oh my god. Incredible slip. Oh my god. Is she the one that was like claiming to be a lawyer? Yes. Yes. In China. In China. She has the bar in China. Let me let me be clear. No, she did it. I would bet my life. She did not pass the bar in China. Like I am that certain. Wow. Like I am as certain of that as I am certain that 90% of people who write about Taiwanese politics can't name three Taiwanese cities. Like I don't know me. She seems to have a pretty solid grasp before in policy. Let's hear her Mandarin. Here's her talking about Venezuela. He had a historic one day war. And now we are have a boom economy and a great relationship with Venezuela. Incredible. I'm looking forward to covering her. I don't know what you're talking about. This is going to be great. By the way, for for people who can't see this clip, the amazing part is she when when she stops before she says Venezuela, she is looking down at the page. She looks down at her notes. To remember what country she's talking about. Incredible stuff. We can do a whole episode about this first press conference. There's some there's some there's some great clips going around if you want to have fun. Good. Less fun on the afternoon of October 7th in Sacramento a day after the county began mailing out ballots. And SUV pulled up to a USPS mail truck. A masked man got out of the SUV and stole trays of mail from the truck. Residents have reported their mail in ballots are now missing great stuff happening here. Love this country. A few days later, the National Guard were video standing in front of. Yeah. Ballot drop boxes in DC. They claimed that they were not legally guarding the boxes because that's illegal. But they were meandering in front of ballot drop boxes. Yeah. God. Not great stuff. Just a few weeks before the election. Lastly, while addressing a mega crowd in Tennessee, Trump made this very accurate comment. No, it's true. No, there's such love. It's like, like, I mean, it's amazing. When you stand up here, it's just like the love. I could say the stupidest things and you're clapping. Oh, I love you so. I'm sure. But we don't say the stupidest things. We say things of common sense. So clapping. He knows his fans. What can you say? He certainly does. And speaking of fans, I have a segment here for us. It is sports season for me with the WNBA and MLB playoffs going on and the NBA season starting. It's exciting. I have not approved this message. Fuck off. It's exciting for me, but it also means I'm exposed to television commercial advertising besides the. It's so bad. Besides the alarming number of sports betting ads, a new trend I'm upset about is AI ads targeting seniors. Let's take a take a listen. Can you go to my calendar and find me a half an hour tomorrow so I can mail some of these cookies to my grandson? I've added a post office trip at town. Parts here. We're ready. Chat Cheapy T-Boys. Chat Cheapy T-Boys got a whole lot more useful. It's no longer just answering questions. It's better at getting things done. Let me show you an example. Can you go into my finances and let me know if you see any duplicate charges? She's sure. Checking your accounts. Okay, it looks like you're paying twice for a magazine called Sound in stereo. Well, that's odd. Can you cancel the duplicate and send an e refund? Of course. So you're just giving it access to your bank details as an old person. That doesn't seem like it leads you to getting scammed anymore. Yeah, I was pretty angry when I first saw that. I thought I was being a rational angry, but now I think I'm just rational in that it sucks. I can't think of anyway in which a chatbot that pulls for its answers from places like Reddit and the social internet would spread like bad advice on what old people should do with their money once it has access to their bank accounts. I can't imagine that causing a problem. So I don't see what your issue is. It's very concerning since Dr. Stacey would clinical neuropsychologist and professor at Scrips College, older. Other people are maybe less aware of the algorithms power, like how they work. It's really hard for them to discern what's credible and what's not. Older people are also taking up AI and mass. Huge data from February found that a full 23% of senior citizens use chatbots, and 42% of those aged 50 to 64 are the same. And you know, like, keeping up with tech is not necessarily a bad thing, but Dr. Sissy Wood says it's slippery slope. As people age would know, they also tend to be more likely to believe something is true. Because it is simply repeated to them over and over. And they're generally more susceptible to socialize and highly partisan content. I can say the dumbest things and you people would clap for me. Yeah. One of the issues as you stated, Sophie, is that like it's actually more important, I think, for the elderly to be aware of what AI is capable of than a lot of other groups because they're being targeted so relentlessly by different kind of AI-based scams. Unfortunately, that usually gets translated into you should be using AI, which is going to make a lot of these people more vulnerable to scams. Yeah. I mean, like, I don't like that there's this trend that AI can replace like human contact for our seniors. No. You guys, Gary and Robert, you saw a number of products at this year's CES that were targeting seniors in that way. We saw one or two reasonable ones and a lot of bad ones. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I guess slippery slope, but this commercial comes on a lot with different versions of seniors, almost always seniors that are women, doing things, and, you know, the chat GPT or whatever AI, helping them. I just don't see a reason why chat GPT should have access to these people's calendars, finances, that kind of a thing. I don't see this ending well for so many folks. It lacks security and I'm angry about it and I wish it wasn't a trend that I see increasing, but that seems to be the path we're going on. Yeah. That's what I had on that. I just felt it was worth mentioning because it was on the mind. Yeah. Yeah. Another story that's come out this week is that a bunch of anthropic researchers are now, at least there's been stories in San Francisco and you should always take this stuff with the grain of salt. But this is consistent with a lot of internal conversations that a lot of them have been taking up smoking because they're like, hey, I'll cure cancer, right? And this has been occurring alongside like there's just an interview with an AI researcher on the Delphi podcast. Part of the issue here is that if you try to engage with what these people are saying, then you wind up sounding to a lot of folks like you're just like ignoring the potential of AI and the things that it is actually capable of doing. But you have to engage with what the people making it or saying and everything that the company's making this stuff is saying, it's nuts. It's bullshit. It's lies and it's insane. Yeah. And that doesn't mean that these are not incredibly powerful and very dangerous tools they are. They are extraordinarily dangerous because among other things, they have automated the ability of small groups of nation states, of non-state actors to carry out massive digital attacks with a level of penetration and speed that was not possible before. And that's a huge problem. These things are very capable tools. It's just that everything being said by the people making them is insane bullshit. It makes it very hard to have reasonable conversations about what should be done anyway. That's a really good point. Fuck these guys. Yeah. Let's go to ads real quick. Enjoy these hopefully non-AI products. Yeah. And we're back. And I think it's time for us to head south of the border that is south of the Polish border to talk about Ukraine. I don't know why I decided to lead in that way, but I did baffling. These have unfortunately been very spicy in Ukraine over this last week. Last Friday, President Donald Trump announced that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and he had made a deal to release 300,000 tons of Russian diesel fuel to quote the American and global marketplace immediately. This came as a massive surprise to everyone because last month Trump signed a massive sanctions law to stop Russia from making money selling oil and gas to fuel their war against Ukraine. The midterm crunch is really hurting. It's really making strange, not strange, but I guess normal bedfellows. All of this seems to be in response to continuing disastrous polling numbers of Republicans in the midterms. An AP and ORC poll published on October 1st showed that most Americans disapprove of Trump's war with Iran and blame him personally for higher gas prices because he's why we have higher gas prices. He has destroyed a generation of work. It's a time to tell people that President does not control gas prices by finding the only possible weight. He's definitely dead. This is the first time that's been true. This is like the first time we've been in what is effectively a recession. You can say no, it's directly his response to the current policies, like literally direct, like, I mean, obviously the 2008 crash, a lot, Bush did a lot to do with it, but most of that didn't hit until anyway, you know what I'm saying, right? I did that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So Trump's goal was to make a deal with Putin to lower diesel prices in particular as diesel prices have been debilitating to American farmers who tend to support Trump. And I think also just a lot of the ads that have been running with farmers being like Trump fucked me are really bad for Donald and for Maga. In addition to the immediate 300,000 tons of diesel promise to be released and other 500,000 tons of Russian diesel were to be released by Russia in November and 1 million more tons were to be released immediately hereafter. It's not actually clear if this is any kind of formal deal or if any of this is like actually promised anywhere, what these numbers are based on. A lot of what Trump says, it's just like nonsensical like. So he says that like in November, we'll get another half million and then another million immediately hereafter and then 3 million more tons within a short period of time, but that's not what, what are you at? How much fuel is supposed to be released? This might be market manipulation genuinely. This might just be market manipulation. It's entirely possible. As that probably lead you to believe there are serious doubts as to whether anything, like what Trump has promised is possible to get out of Russia right now. And I will talk about the ethical and like Ukraine stuff, but I'm just talking about like, can they do this? Right? Like do they even have the ability to get this feel on the marketplace? Per an article in the LA Times, quote, Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, question whether Russia could deliver at all, citing his embassies reports of fuel shortages even in Moscow and serious sources saying Ukraine has damaged about half of Russia's refining capacity. He asked on X. So where will the surplus's for export come from? Now, well, he says half of Russia's refining capacity has been damaged. That doesn't necessarily mean that like they're down by 50%. The IEA, the International Energy Association estimates that Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have cut Russia's diesel output by 30% or so. That also could mean that their like gas fuel output is by more than it averages to 50. I don't fully know. I don't know anyone has other than the Russian government exact numbers on how much Russia's refining capacity has been damaged. Russia's deputy prime minister has tries to repost claims like what the Polish deputy minister said or foreign minister said arguing that Russian exports would rise in November in December as previously damaged refineries returned from maintenance. And obviously, I don't doubt that the Russian state is actively repairing and refurbishing damaged facilities and that some of them will come back online periodically. But they also will continue to face targeting for Ukrainian drone strikes. This current phase of the war is largely focused on deep-ranging drone strikes into Russian territory with retaliatory drone swarms and missile attacks from Russia into Ukraine as the front remains locked in a relatively stable position. Ukraine's hitting 1,500 miles beyond the line of contact now with drones, which is nuts. That's air power levels, right? Yeah. There's a lot of convection about like OAA is going to change warfare. We've already seen the biggest change in warfare that I think will occur in my lifetime. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's drones. Careful, careful what you wish for. Yeah. I may be biased because a drone tried to kill me once, but I have trouble imagining something altering the experience of the regular soldier on the ground, more than drones have. Robert, I'm so excited for the plague weapons. We'll see. Obviously, I'm not counting the possibility of like currently illegal weapons like biologicals or nuclear weapons. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Trump announced this deal, Ukrainian president Zelensky issued a furious statement on his nation's behalf and give a protest gathered at the memorial to fallen soldiers in the Maidan to express their anger within a matter of hours after Trump's announcement. Ukraine hit the loading terminal to Russia's Nova Shocktinksk oil refinery causing a massive fire. For weeks prior, Trump had begs Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. Even as Russia has continued to hit Ukraine's energy infrastructure, when news broke of this new Ukrainian strike, Trump reacted with fury, telling Ukraine that it needed a new president and blaming Zelensky for losing 30% of your country. He claimed two million people had been killed in a war that never should have been started. I agree. Putin shouldn't have started the war. Trump has repeatedly stated his belief that it wouldn't have occurred if he'd been president. You know, when Biden was, I think that's nonsense. By the way, his numbers also rock. Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory, not 30%. We don't have official death tolls for this war. We know Russia has lost at least about 500,000 soldiers killed. So it's reasonable to assume Ukrainian civilian and military fatalities would be somewhere in that ballpark. I should also note that Trump made this announcement, you know, complaining about Ukraine hitting Russian energy infrastructure and promising to buy Russian diesel directly after 20 civilians in Ukraine were killed by Russian strikes, including three children. has continued to devote significantly. an effort to striking Ukrainian civilian property and infrastructure. On October 13th and 14th, Russian strikes cut power to more than 600,000 Ukrainians. This came just four days after Trump licensed imports of Russian diesel. It also came after an energy ceasefire that Trump unilaterally announced during the weekend in response to Ukraine's strike on that binary. Trump was like, there's an energy ceasefire now. Nobody's striking and then there were strikes and he was like, nobody's striking diesel. And then there were more. Right. And Zelensky pointed out on a Monday that Russia had already violated the ceasefire. Since his announcement, Trump has escalated his efforts to afraid blame for the high cost of gas and his current strategy is blaming high diesel prices in the states on Ukrainian resistance. He is in speeches. He is saying like, Ukraine is why your diesel so expensive, which it's not. And again, they've been fighting in Ukraine for years. Diesel prices didn't skyrocket until Trump decided to fuck with a rot. On October 11th, Ukraine also struck a facility belonging to Yandex, which I would casually describe as Russian Google. This facility hosted a massive supercomputer. Two massive supercomputers actually used to train neural networks. It also part of like the Yandex facility there was like a military research facility by any term. This is a valid target in war, by the way. Just I wanted to make that clear. The strikes caused massive disruption to Yandex services across Russia. Yandex is an interesting company. The founder, Arcadia Velaz, was not willing to fall in line and support Putin after the expanded invasion of Ukraine. He went so far as to condemn the war. This forced his exit from working in Russia and a deal was arranged in 2024 to put Yandex under criminal control. This is why Arcadia wins my least problematic Russian billionaire award. The strike on that Yandex hub was Ukraine's third major hit on Russian tech infrastructure in four days. It cut access to huge numbers of services for Russians. And people, not just Russians, write a number of countries that border Russia, including countries that are worried about getting invaded by Russia. Yandex is still like an important service for them. And this was not just like they lost access to Google. They lost access to like ride sharing apps and like AI, like all their AI apps like it did a bunch of damage to just like people being able to use the internet the way that people are used to in the 21st century, not just in Russia, but in bordering countries. This has caused confusion online. And the immediate wake of the strikes reports began to spread that Yandex going down had cut bot traffic to huge portions of the internet. That is objectively true. What bot traffic means is often misinterpreted. Specific claims were made that traffic had plunged for off day, the German far right party, but like their people commenting and like pro off day boards and stuff had like fallen off a cliff and that the conservative subreddit, you know, was also down that there were no more megabots online that the Russian bots were had declined. And evidence for these claims was posted in the form of cloud flare graphs that purported to show plunging bot activity. And again, some of those graphs were real. Some of them weren't, there is plunging bot activity. The problem is that and I made a joking comment about like this is why we should keep air striking data centers and and then tried to follow it up by claiming like, look guys, I don't know. It has to abide by the truth and politics anymore. Like why should we? Right. But the reality of the situation is that bot traffic did drop precipitously as a result of this attack cloud for reported that Yandex bot traffic is like 0.4% of the max number of HTTP requests that had been reported over the prior two weeks. But that doesn't mean there are fewer Russian bot accounts on the internet. Right. I'll refer to an analysis by Brandon Beebe that he put together on his sub stack that is a good job of explaining the disconnecting many people's understandings. The bots that dropped are mostly Yandex's own search engine crawler. They aren't troll accounts. No primary data shows that Russian social media bots went offline. None shows that engagement reform UK, the off day or mega accounts fell because of the strikes. Here's what matters in cloud fairs language. A bot is any automated web request nearly all automated traffic from Yandex's network is Yandex bot. It's search crawler, which is Russia's version of Google bot. Right. So that's what has declined. Now, while the people who are saying like, no, it's wrong that like Russian bot, you know, influence operations collapse as a result of these strikes. That's also led some people to say like, there's been no impact in Russia's influence operations. There's also these strikes. I can't imagine that's true. It's just not true in the way people online assumed it is. Right. Like they they lost a massive access to a massive supercomputer center that the military used. Right. This has certainly done some degree of damage. It certainly frustrated some to some degree, some of the shit that the Russian government does online. It just hasn't gotten rid of all of the bot accounts because that's just like not how any of this works. No. Like there's not like a death star you can blow up that like make Russian influence operation go away. Like no, it's bad for Russia that he's got struck right. They prefer that not happen. And that will presumably have impacts that are broader ranging and that are probably kind of obscure to us on a number of their operations. But it's not as simple as all of the bots went away. That's just not what happened. Interesting. Interesting and informative. So let's close with a segment. I am calling dispatches from a world and revolt with the starting claim that yeah, we're kind of back by which I mean we're kind of back in what appears to be at least the beginning of another global area of mass protests along the lines of sort of 2011 or 2019 2020. We have talked about some of these protests on the show. We're going to be going through a few areas that have seen large protests here. Today we are mostly going to be focusing on India. Now previously on the show, we've talked about the massive wave of student protest in India under the banner of the meme cockroach Janta party, which is named after a Supreme Court Justice calling unemployed use their cockroaches. So it's a play on the BJP. It's like the BJP that's the CJP because it's cockroaches. Okay, with that out of the way, those original protests from a few months ago have sort of won the CJP declared victory recently after forcing the resignation of the Minister of Education after government officials leaked the answers to standardized tests. But comma protests in India have continued and they have continued over the BJP's attempt to remove 130 million people from the voting rolls. Now Mia, I've never done a number before. Is that a lot of people? That would be the 12th largest country on earth that is larger for the population of the Pan. It is slightly slightly less than the population of Mexico, but they are trying to try and just strip from the voting rolls. The rhetoric coming out of the BJP is in a lot of ways very similar to the rhetoric you see from fascist parties around the world. They are screaming about like illegal Muslim aliens casting fake votes. Basically, they're doing on the scale of 130 million people. I think that you see in the US where they go through the voting rolls and purge everyone with a non-white name and a here. They're purging people with Muslim names at the scale of the 12th largest country on earth. So in response to this, India's, I would call them largely feckless opposition parties actually finally did something and they deployed their so Congress, which is like the main I and C are India's main opposition party. They are the party that is like the party that did Indian independence and they have connected their legacy to Gandhi. And so they deployed their one strategy, which is throwing gondis at the problem. So they staged a protest outside of the electoral commission. That's that's not honestly an enjoyable mental image. I'm just I'm just saying, literally physically is what they're doing. They threw or will gondis gondis we got. Get them out of that. They have a lot of Gandhi descendants. Like they got a lot of his family tree down the ground that the gondis are these days. That's good to know. Yeah. So they they were will gondi and his sister who's also in the party is like a high ranking party. Official roll gondis is like the opposition leader. They went and were it nominally they were trying to like, they went to the electoral commission. We're trying to talk to the guys in charge of the electoral commission. And they got arrested like multiple times. There's a bunch of scenes of like we're all gondi trying to like crawl out of a bus that he was being held in this. This is like this was like a week ago Wednesday. Yeah. On on on October 7th or maybe it was like let's say I was probably like six or seven. Basically it was it was last week from when when we were recording this. And this has led to a bunch more protests including the CGP like the cockroach party like going out against these electoral purges. But it's also led to a sort of astonishing level of repression in India and particularly in the capital of New Delhi that has turned it over over the last weekend into effectively a fairly overt police state. On Saturday, Indian police arrested the founder of of the cockroach party as an attempt to try to stop the protest. There was a huge militarized police deployment in New Delhi itself trying to stop anyone from being able to assemble and form protests in the first place. They've also shut down the mile long road to Junter Munter which is basically there's there's there's a road there that has been a massive sight of protests since like the 90s. Basically whenever someone's doing a protest in the capital or you show up here and you do a protest on the street and you like occupy the street for a while. And this was also a huge hub of the cockroach movement was a giant sit in here. And like the entire street has been declared like not a valid site of protest by the police and the police have been trying to funnel protesters into other sites around the city that are like significantly further from the center of the city. Man, sometimes the just international like reflexive solidarity between police officers is just really beautiful. You know, it's always the same the same move. No, no, you can't do it there though. Can't do it there. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, this is - It's not a free speech zone. - Yeah, it's a free speech zone. Yeah, they always do this. Like, oh, but there, no, it's fine what you're doing, but not there. - Yeah, yeah. Like over the weekend, there were these massive attempts to stop the protests and that did kind of cut down on numbers. But on Monday, the 12th, the Congress party, the troubled all G is mildly confusing to Americans, but yeah, like a lot of like Congress political leaders and a bunch of protesters were able to take the streets again on Monday. On Tuesday, cockroach protest leaders like tried to retake that street and a bunch of their leaders got arrested after trying to take the main square. The protests do not seem to be slowing down as of now. Congress has been trying to turn this into a sort of sustained attempt. The challenge mode is rule, I think, even as he's trying to, you know, purge 130 million people from the voting roles, which would be the end of anything even remotely, like democratic in the Indian system. This is a real moment of weakness for him and the escalation of these protests has been very damaging for the regime, even after they were kind of able to like slow down and stop the original cockroach protests. Now that's been reignited and Congress has been throwing their base into it. So we're going to continue to fill you in on what's going on there. - Do they have any like specific demands when it comes to the voter role purchase? - Yeah, the main one obviously like they want, they want everyone put back in and they want the chief of the electoral commission to resign. - Okay. - Those are the demands that everyone seems to agree to basically. Congress and the cockroach protestors aren't one-to-one overlapping political bases, right? - Sure, you know, it's a bit complicated there, but yeah, those are the main demands that we've seen so far. I want you to turn to Europe where we've also seen continuations of, while both the protests in France and Spain, there were large French student protests over the weekends. I've seen numbers that suggest it's down to about 160,000 down from like 300,000 the week before. You know, and obviously the police have continued to attack student protesters. Things are still really bleak. There's like a horrifying picture of like kid getting crushed by a gate that a bunch of like a giant metal gate that a bunch of cops are pushing. Yeah, so they're still doing absolutely horrific stuff there. We've did a larger episode about this earlier this week. Now, the student protests have also begun to spread although kind of in small forms as of this week. We've seen versions of them break out in Greece, Albania and Belgium. Greek protesters, student protesters put up tents in Stigmata Square, which is another historic protest site that was, I mean, it's been the core of 100 million protests, but it's notably was one of the places that was the core of the protest in 2011, which, you know, I think links back in a lot of ways to the ways that the protests in Spain have been reoccupying a lot of the like 2011 historic protest sites. The Albanian ones, I think, have been pretty small so far. The ones in Belgium are interesting because there have been kind of multiple fairly large protests going on. There was a student protest on Monday, but then also earlier in like last week, there was a giant anti austerity protest. There's about like 10,000, well, it's about like 10,000 people. Pretty large, much smaller than the sort of full scale stuff in France and Spain, but also, yeah, similar cops have been attacking them, fairly significantly. The cops arrested 10 people, like 90 who are minors. So the student protests are very of a very similar sort of composition of like it's like these high school students going into revolt that you see in France. Meanwhile in Spain, there was like another massive round of the giant protest they've been having. A bunch of the occupations are still going. We're probably going to talk to James. Next week, a bit more in detail about what's been happening there. I think it's also fairly notable that there's been a pretty significant attempt by the, okay. So this is where we have to make a distinction between socialist party and like socialist. The socialist party government of Pedro Sanchez with the caveat that in Spain, the socialist party has been kind of the equivalent of the Democrats for like many, many, many years now. They're like the socialist party was like one of the two parties that were like the protest in 2011 were like against, which led to the formation of Podemos. That's a whole other story. But Pedro Sanchez has been trying to use these protests to save his government, even though it has also been his government that has been presiding over the sort of the housing crisis and these evictions. He's been attempting to co-op the protest in order to save his flagging electoral things, which like obviously yeah, it would be worse if the far right took power. And that's kind of what things have been looking towards. But yeah, because then like the far right killed two like pro-tenant bills and parliament like earlier this month. Yeah, and then he's kind of used that and the protests to call for an election. Yeah, but this has also been paired with attempts to sort of like directly co-op the protest themselves, which there's been a whole bunch of stuff around that there that we can get into with detail with later. But that's a dynamic that we're going to see frequently here. I mean, you don't often get one as blatant as the like, "Hey, this is the government that did this." That's like now trying to use your group to do something, but yeah, this is a very common dynamic in protests like this. And yeah, we're going to be seeing it more and more as protests continue and we will let you know what other places sort of having mass protests like. I'm just going to briefly note that there were some, like also education protests a little bit before this in Chile. There's been an anti-ball scenario protests happening all over Brazil, but yeah, we will keep you updated as we get more like really large protest waves. Yeah. All right. That doesn't for us here at it could happen here. If you want to send James a marketing email, you can do so at CoolZone Tips at proton.com. Yeah, he loves. He will hunt you down with predator vision. Do not send marketing emails to him. That email is actually for news related tips and information. Put a trans goal in your couch. We reported the news. Hey, we'll be back Monday with more episodes every week from now until the heat death of the universe. It could happen here is a production of CoolZone Media. From our podcast from CoolZone Media, visit our website. CoolZoneMedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case the police wrote off as a suicide in a snow storm. Her family never bought it. And the man they suspected wore a badge. You never know who that devil is because he's wearing disguise. And you can get access to all episodes 100% ad-free with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription, exclusively on Apple Podcasts, available only to iHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe today. Each week I bring on an amazing guest. 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