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But yeah, so Muhammed Ali again no relation. His successors, Sayid and Ismail, took things to the next level after he passed on with some major infrastructure projects. They were building railways, they were expanding canals, they were gonwa the urban development, and they need a bunch of skilled workers for a lot of that. So they brought in Italians, Greeks, Syrians, Dalmatians, and of course they use their local Egyptian laborers as well.

Many of those workers came to work on the famous Suez Canal, of course, and that required a massive workforce.

Egypt was already considered something of a place of refuge for political exiles, so it's not very surprising that anarchism was starting to gain popularity around that time, particularly with the Italians in Egypt.

of the figures responsible for the Italian unification. And then you also had other radicals, forming Thought and Action, a political association with Massinian principles. Messini, by the way, Giuseppe Mussini was an Italian Republican who advocated for liberty and democracy and class collaboration and all that. Jazz Marx once called him an everlastin old ass which is just really funny and I had to include that there. He's just

like me for real anyway. And then in eighteen seventy six more radical splinter group became an official section of the First International in Alexandria, which is one of the earliest attempts to create a worldwide association of workers and socialist groups. I don't know if it could happen. He has ever discussed, like the history of the International.

someone whose ideas he's also stolen, like by volume. Like one of his most famous, like one of the things that you get designed to read from marks in college is the German Ideology, which is like four hundred page of him being annoyed by people whose ideas are slightly different than his. It's like like, this is this is this is an ancient tradition.

quote unquote East. They want to take the ideas of the First International beyond chest European communities, you know, try and reach out to the locals. Unfortunately, for those familiar the history of the First International, it fizzled out, so you know, they couldn't really fully execute their plans. But you know, they got to get them credit for trying to make a difference beyond their own little circles. Meanwhile, Egypt was in the midst of a deep political crisis.

The military was pissed because of the disastrous Egypt to European War. The upper ranks the civil service, the army, in the business world had become dominated by Europeans, who were paid much more than native Egyptians. The country's inability to service its debt from cost the infrastructure projects and lavish spending by maayel It's rue at the time led to European control over its treasury in eighteen seventy six

and other European treasure pressure. Ismayel was to pose in eighteen seventy nine replace their son Telfiek, who aimed to basically satisfy each his creditors by any means necessary. And so this tumultuous political climate provided both challenges and opportunities for the anarchists in Egypt. A revolt led by an Egyptian officer of the Egyptian Army, Ahmed Urabi, sort of deposed Telfik, establish a constitutional government and n British and

French influence over the country. Although he was characterized as anti foreign, Urrabi received support from some foreign elements, including the very same Italian workers in Alexandria and a lot of the anarchists in the area. Now, as we know, anarchists are not really advocates of nationalism, so they will fight for national liberation causes. So anarchists and nationalists foul themselves on the same side when it came to fighting

against European imperialism in Egypt. So when the British were causing trouble, anarchists like Malchester teamed up with nationalists led by Urabi to resist foreign domination. However, the the British and French governments, who were intent on protecting their investments and nationals, confronted Urabi, which resulted in British forces bombard in Alexandria and eventually occupying the country in eighteen eighty two. Throughout the early years of British occupation, the anarchist movement

in Egypt faced both internal divisions and factionalism. Both internal divisions and factionalism, similar to what was happening in other parts of the world. Anarchists and socialists had been uneasy comrades under the umbrella of the International during the eighteen seventies, but the defection of a particularly locally influential figure named Andrea Costa from libertarian socialism from libertarian Socialism in eighteen seventy nine caused a significant schism.

syndicalists on the role of collective association in achieving anarchist aims quote. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the former trend appears to have been in the ascendency, but the growth of the labor movement anarcho synicalists expanded their influence. Other disputes reflected the power of personalities. Ugo Parini, a key figure staunch anti organizationalist, was notorious for his uncompromising style and was a persistent obstacle to create a cooperation

among anarchists. Not until after his death in nineteen oh six was a national program of action agreed, which provided

a solid basis for collaboration within the Egyptian movement. Now, I didn't find any rightings by Ugoprini himself to speak his piece, but it sounds like he might have been a e alas and old ass himself, if you know, after the moment he died, they were able to finally come together and come to agreement on something that means pros like a significant obstacle to the organization of efforts. But you know, he fought with his principles and he

died by them, so you know some respect there. So until the end of nineteenth century, the anti organizationalists seem to have had the upper hand, but with the growth of the labor movement, anarchist syndicalists gained a lot more influence. Tut tut leftist disunity strikes again. The real downside of this history is that the anarchist movement was still quite European and quite male, and the rights and nationalist movements

were not exactly helping matters. However, while the majority of anarchists women, there was a women's section establishing Chiroage in the eighteen seventies, so there was some female participation happening as well. You know, it's the real, real barby moment.

There you know, real win for feminism. The ethnic diversity of the anarchist movement in Egypt did expand over time, though although Italians remained the dominant group until World War One, they were one attracted Greeks, Jews, Germans, and various Eastern

European nationalities arabifhone. Egyptians also began to play a lot more significant role, as seeing in the involvement in industrial actions, educational activities, and anarchist meetings during the early nineteen hundreds, and the occupational backgrounds of these anarchists were just as diverse as the ethnicities. Skilled artisans, including carpenters, masons, tailors,

and painters were among the majority. Some came from the petit bourgeoisie like cruisers and tabanawas, while others were involved in trade or word for merchant hoses, and the movement also include professionals like doctors, lawyers, and journalists. By the late nineteenth century, the anarchistic community started to shift its focus towards the new working class, such as cigarette workers, printers, and employees of large utilities like tramway companies. However, despite

this diversity, and despite all the calls for internationalism. Local nationalist associations still held a lot of power because they provided their communities with welfare services and social events and

all that. It's kind of like how immigrants in new countries even today will typically like group together in enclaves and communities to share their culture and to share their support economic and otherwise, when in a situation where everyone around you is perceived as foreign, and you can some measure of security and say, if you know, what's a cultural proscilation, that is a thing that immigrants tend to do, and these workers were immigrants to Egypt, and so they

kind of did the same thing. Unfortunately, many of these national associations were controlled by bourgeois interests in the Greek community. For example, the powers of the bourgeois o higarchy in funding and controlling community institutions really worked to keep workers in line with what the authorities wanted, because if you stepped out of line from what this oligarchy wanted, you know, you kind of like lose access to those essential community institutions.

And if you try, if you still have like a family to take care of, a family that you might have brought to Egypt or started in Egypt, or really just struggling against meat or you know, your fish out of water and you don't really know any other languages, you just know your own people. To be isolated like that is really hazard a situation to be in, and so that's how they kept people in line. But that's in terms of the European nowists. There's also some rise

in Egyptian nationalism. They also had some sway originally Egyptian nationalists called signs of militant labor as part of a European disease an alien Egyptian context, which, by the way, I've noticed a lot of.

potent it was for exercise and power. In nineteen oh nine, the Watani Party openly backed the formation of the Manual Trades Workers Union, which was a diverse body of Egyptian urban workers, because they recognized the party finally recognized both the need to constitute a broader national community and the

political potential of the workers in the struggle against British occupation. Now, before the different nationalists came around on this, the anarcho Synicolists had already begun trying to attract more Egyptian workers into their internationalists anarchist struggle. They knew how They knew that to make a real impact they had to connect with native Egyptian workers.

anarchists were there to gas them up. The anarchists who, of course trying to emphasize what the workers had in common, the lack of boundaries that labor has that doesn't care for things like nationality, or religion or race, that all workers had the same needs, the same struggles, and the

same aspirations for their well being. Of course, the nationalists had their own political visions, so while anarchists emphasized international solidarity and shared interests, nationalists will resort into nativist appeals and organizational tactics to splinter the labor movement and break

up at internationalist orientation. To give them some credit, though, the Returning Party did recognize the importance of allying with foreign workers and urged Egyptian workers during the Trams strike of nineteen eleven to unite and strengthen yourselves and increase your numbers through combination and through unity with the European workers, your comrades, and let me get to nineteen nineteen and

the quote unquote nineteen nineteen revolution. It's kind of a significant moment in Egyptian history, and anarchists were there, so let's talk about it. In nineteen nineteen, the British government imposed new taxes and restrictions on civil liberties, which further fewel the discontent and united Egyptians from various social, economic, and political backgrounds. The spark that ignited the revolution was a deportation of Egyptian nationalist leaders Sad Saglu and other

political figures by the British authorities for opposing their policies. Irresponse, massive protests erupted across the country, with strikes, demonstrations, and civil disobedience becoming widespread. Egyptians from all walks of life, including workers, students, intellectuals, and peasants, took part in the movement. They were influenced, in part by the strategies and tactics of the syndicalist presence in the region and abroad at

the time. The revolution gained momentum and the demands of the protesters became more explicit, calling for full independence, a constitution, and an end to British rule. The British authorities initially tried to suppress the protests with force, which of course led to violent clashes and bloodshed. However, the resilience and unity of the Egyptian people ultimately forced the British government to recognize the scale of the uprising and the strength

of the nationalist movement. In nineteen twenty two, the United Kingdom unilaterally declared Egypt's independence. Do the British continue to exude considerable influence over Egyptian affairs, One could argue that the specter of anarchism would raise its head again in Egypt's history, particularly during the Hour of Spring in twenty eleven, when anarchic tactics can be found across the Middle East

and North Africa. In the next part, I'll be talking more about what anarchists would doin in Egypt in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. But for now, I hope that today's anarchists in Egypt and elsewhere can keep the flame of freedom burning or power to all the people peace. Oh one, this has been Andrew. You can follow me on eat dot com, slash Andrewism and support the Patreon, a picature dot com slash Saturn. See y'all

next time. Welcome to take it up in here. I'm Andrew of the channel Andrewism, and I'm here.

on Egyptian history. In the years leading up to World War One, anarchos cynicalism, represented by the International Union, played a leading role in organizing and developing a militant labor movement, advocating for international solidarity among workers. They adapted well to Egypt's diverse society, embracing ethnic and religious pluralism and internationalism

while opposing capitalism. Anarchists, along with socialists and liberals, contributed to the advancement of secular thoughts and Egyptian intellectual life, leaven significant impact on their society. However, the anarchist movement faced challenges due to the state's coercion through surveillance, prosecution, and deportation. The authorities portrayed them as dissolute political adventurers

pushing an alien ideology. Despite their achievements in formulating and anti capitalist discourse and advocating for social emancipation, other forces like the Egyptian Communists and Egyptian National Movement would take on some of the ideas with a louder and more prominent voice. Do they just want to give more details on the movement and what exactly they were doing in

their heyday? Clearly, the anarchists went to Egypt was not confined to the local It was all about connected with anarchists from different countries, making international friendships and fighting for their shared ideals. The anarchists in Egypt got involved with the conference in Verva's and conferences in London and Italy and hung out with anarchists from Istanbul, Greece, Tunisia and more.

Egypt became the spot for anarchists in the eastern Mediterranean, and they'd made connections all the way to the United States and South America.

reading and distributing. The anarchists in Egypt didn't just read from newsletters all around the world though that was a part of it, but they also contributed.

and the British French colonization. It's really one of the major projects I suppose the European anarchists needed to communicate to the local population was that their ire did not lay with Europeans as a whole. It lay primarily with the European ruling class. And so when it came to critique and societal issues and has strongly attacked the evils of capitalism, and of course that had the best reception

among the Egyptian workers. Of course, this isn't to say that the European workers in Egypt were like completely in common with the Egyptian workers. Despite the fact that the ire of the Egyptian workers should really lie primarily with the European ruling class that was responsible for the imperialization of their country and the expectation of their people. The presence of the European workers did also contribute to the exploitation because those European workers were paid so much better

than Native worn workers were. It was experienced and privileges that the Native One workers did not.

was a crime. They still took on a hostile attitude towards Egyptian state, though condemn its course of actions, surveillance culture, and abusive power, but they didn't confront it head on. The program of action was far more focused on the goal of social transformation through the use of propaganda, education,

and workers associations. Because of the mixed conditions in Europe and in Egypt, the ideal people of different races, religions, and nationalities united in solidarity had some real potency to it. So the internationalist mission was a very central component in their messaging at public conferences and at labor meetings, but it really was more so about the speaking the propaganda of the word rather than the propaganda of the deed.

In fact, interestingly, for that time, the anarchists in Egypt didn't really engage in much propaganda of the deed at all, propaganda the deed being you know, political violence and assassination attempts. For those who know you know a bit about the anarchists of that time. Propaganda of the deed was what they were known for. They had some some big name assassinations in the bios. For example, Franz fudinan I believe was assassinated by an anarchist.

the ideas and sustaining their identity. They had local properly, they had local publications like that Tribuna Liberal, Lepero Looks and others, which save to spread anarchist thought and discuss ideas and issues of social emancipation. The weekly paper l'apero mostly promoted anarcho syndicalism, and then the paper Ill dom Dominie came up and decided to adopt a more tridently libertarian tone. And then you have Rise Again or Or, which is another people another weekly that promoted a very

strong anti clerical line. And then there was the people who Ergatis, which was or the Worker, and that was an organ for the emancipation of women and the worker, and it provided primarily for a Greek language readership are see a lot of these papers will tailor towards specific languages, so that Greek had Italian and you also.

At the same time, there were also journals like Al Muktataf and Al Hilal, which carried articles discussing the origins and development of anarchist thought and practice. It seems as though in eighteen ninety seven there was also a figure who engaged with socialized ideas, but that particular publication seems to have been closed down quite quickly by the authorities, particularly for feature in the work of Salama Musa and Shibli Schumayl, who were two Egyptian writers who were clearly

influenced by anarchist ideas. Something that just occurred to me is that what it could be influencing this is that the Italians, in the Greeks and the French and all these different people who are writing about these anarchist ideas in Egypt, It's possibly they had a bit more leeway and it came to the local authorities that locals themselves would not have. Their foreign status may have provided them

with slight immunity in comparison. And this is just me spitball in, but it's possible that araborphone writers and speakers would be taken on significantly more risk if they were to agitate in the same ways that these.

target audience. The first podcasters exactly exactly, the first podcasters for real, as the anarchist movement in Egypt was really commemorating important political events, celebrating the principles through posters, leaflets and flyers celebrating the animalu history of events like the Parist Commune in May Day really spread that message at international solidarity among the workers.

And so the outrage expressed at the execution of Ferrero was not simply just a protest against state attorney, but also recognition of his status as an advocate for cycle education, which is an important vehicle for you know, social emancipation before Francisco Ferrever was executor, though anarchists in Egypt were already working on educational programs. In fact, they launched their most ambitious project, the Free Popular University or Universita Popularity

Liberal or UPL, in Alexandria in nineteen oh one. The UPL aimed to provide free evening education to the popular classes and received you great support across Alexandria and society. Courses included you know, the works of Tolstoy and Bakunin,

the arts, and pragmatic topics like worker negotiation strategies. However, the upl's radical nature also brought criticism, with the Italian authorities initiating legal proceedings against the UPR lecturer for some remarks he made about the assassination of the Italian king Umberto First, I of course leave you to speculate what those comments and remarks may have been. But despite some initial public support, its critics accused the UPL of being

based on depraved principles. Now I mentioned this school before in the episode did on Islam and Anarchism, and like I said in that episode, ouric speakers wouldn't quickly marginalized from the education, and the UPL gradually became more aimed

toward and controlled by upper class interests. In fact, within a year, reliably bourgeois elements had arrested control of the UPL from its anarchist phone and had ratid controlled the UPL from its anarchist founders and proceeded to transform it into a vocational college that, among other things, taught shorthand, accountancy, and languages. So, despite its very brief existence as a revolutionary project, the UPL marked an important movement for anarchism

in Egypt and inspired other movements seeking educational reform. The upl's impacts and vision influenced egypt Egyptian nationalists, who established the Higher Schools Club in nineteen oh five, which also emphasized educational means for political purposes. Anarchism in Egypt had a significant impact on the development of the labor movement.

As a new working class emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century, anarchois cynicalism emerged as a powerful force advocating for formal collective organization as the instrument of social revolution. Of course, each just's labor movement was entirely new, as killed have been part of the traditional Ottoman order, regulating

trade and providing mutual lead. But the modernization efforts of Muhammad Ali no Relation and Egypt's integration into the international capitalist system changed that landscape, affecting the role of guilds and shape in the working class. Foreign workers, like I just mentioned before, came into Egypt alongside native Egyptian labor, but despite the differences between them, evidence does show a strong cooperation and collaboration between the groups.

by anarchists and syndicalists. Anarchism first appeared in Egypt among Italian political refugees and workers during the eighteen sixties, Nurtured by a development international network of labor transporting communications expanded beyond Italian circles, attract members from across Egypt's diverse communities the heterogenos through the discourse of radical social emancipation and propaganda and public action declaring the universality of humankind and

the crime the evils of capitalism state power. On this dogma, the anarchist movement would come into force in Egypt's history. In the years after nineteen hundred, Anarchist cyndicalism played a central role in development of the labor movement, ar circulating the rights of workers in struggle against capital, against capital and promoting internationalists activism.

chance the thing you're actually talking about is anarchism. And you know, there's been a sort of systemic attempt by both liberal and sort of later communists like historians to sort of like wipe this historical record clean and make it look like everything was always sort of like the sort of on rush of Marxism, but that just wasn't true.

And they were very powerful anarchist movements on every continent, and they did a lot, They did a lot of really interesting things and yeah, yeah, that that really.

episode of That Could Happen Here Again. You can follow me Andrew on the YouTube channel Andrewism and support on patron dot com slash Saint Drew.

that are happening. But also sometimes we do we do the other part of the podcast, which is to put it back together part of the podcast, or in this one, I this is more of a bring to birth a

new world from the ashes of the old episode. And in order to talk about doing that, we're talking to Samantha Medina, who's an organizer for Donut Workers United and also the Coalition of Independent Unions and Shineyid who is an organizer for the CiU and also the IWW And yeah, both you two welcome to the show.

And finally, it's a way of it's a way of sort of us clarifying how we can start using workplace struggle as a means of turning the tide against the current genocide with this.

that they should be doing more. Even if what they're already doing is great, they could always do more, and especially in a time right now where trans people are facing the discriminations particular to us across this country right now, and as she mentioned, the world, but focusing on the United States, it's really important that the avenues that are there to protect us are aware of how to protect us. So I think this is our opportunity to kind of remind unions to step it up a little bit.

are effectively the vanguard of new union organizing. They are you know, enormously like quote unqule I guess, I guess overrepresentati or whatever that's the word you want to use in in you know, like among union organizers a lot of actually and then this I think is you know, another thing I'm excited about for this is that like you all are kind of like at the forefront I guess of like what the new sort of union organizing stuff is and how it's how it's sort of you know,

how how it's been working, and so like that the fact that this is like the one place where there's actually a lot of us and that you know, is a place where there's enough of us that it actually matters is important and that you know that that works in a lot of directions at the same At the same time.

to make it better. You know, Like all that's great and true and everything, but I think it's also really good to acknowledge that like LGBTQ people in general, whether they just be trands or otherwise, have been organizing and organizing their workplaces for decades now. So I think a lot of this like, yeah, we're seeing a lot more trans people involved, but we're also seeing a lot more recognition and visibility of trans people than ever.

to SIS people. You know, that's that's wild, right. The level of homelessness of discrimination of job, loss of hours being reduced, punishment of sexual harassment on the job is just you know, it's it's unconscionable and it always has been. Even in the good days. It was garbage and miserable and honestly took a lot of us out.

that's a huge thing. And yeah, the conferences, this is like, yeah, a lot of a lot more of us end up dead. And the way that we don't end up dead is by fight. Is by fighting in one of the places that you know, like one of the places we've gotten good at is fighting in the workplace.

that are are trends that are playing key rules. Which is given that we're what probably between two and four percent of the population at least, uh, you know, at least according to current testaments, probably gonna be higher, but you know that's shouldn't be possible.

of course this is also about life and death. But like, you know, I think another thing that trans people base a lot is like access to health care or really the lack thereof access to health care, and especially healthcare that will actually get us, you know, the medication that we need to be on or the surgeries that we need, because again, these are issues that help with dysphoria, and we all know the statistics on how dyspory affects people of all ages, and that is again a matter of

life and death. So like, I don't think that's wrong to not sugarcoat that stag.

is often strict of us. Right. Yes, it's about survival and it's about what we need to do in order to keep breathing, but it's also about we need to do to live, you know, to go beyond survival, to have joy, and to have enough money to make it through, and you know, maybe people to actually have something for ourselves, maybe be able to not have the constant anxiety but instead spend more time being happy about who we are.

Ceacy to overlook that. But again biased sample source, but almost all my fondest memories are from being side by side with my fellow workers.

city you live in or within your workplace. You know, like a lot of our success at being able to live the lives that we want to have, or be the people that we want to be and be respected for that really does come down to our family members, our co workers, our friends, and ultimately complete strangers who we need to rely on.

And that's something I really wanted to stry to we got talking about specifically about unions and things like that, because also unions are an incredibly intersectional piece of politics and life that we need to appreciate. Because when we talked about these statistics affecting trans people, they affect disabled trans people and black and brown trans people at much much more much higrates then they affect white trans people.

And I think that unions being something and not just unions, I mean every aspect of organizing and community building really

needs to pay attention to this. But I think this is something that is so ingrained in unions that unions have been fighting for this sort of protections that are very intersectional, you know, like whether they're protecting women in the workplace, whether they're protecting black and brown people, whether they're protecting disabled people, or whether they're protecting trans people. That is a large part of why you unions were established.

You know, we talked about wages and working hours a lot, and that is all fine and dandy, and it's wonderful, and that's something that is a base core value of unions. But I don't think it's celebrated enough how much work unions did in equality in this country. And I think this is just a continuation of that tradition. And trans people just happen to be one of the largest topics right now, and we tend to have one of the largest targets on our back, more than we've ever had before.

And so yeah, I think that's why we discussed unions in relation to this, because for you know, working class folk, that's where a lot of our organizing begins.

is okay, I refuse to call it service sector. I'm gonna there's gonna be a whole episode that's been yelling about the sort of service sector that's coming to a recording thing near you, specifically like job jobs and fast food jobs that are very low wage, like high turnover things, and particularly fast Who's been a very interesting because that's a that's a sector that like a lot of trade unions just completely ignored, like they just gave up on

and you know, like they've been starting to organize like Starbucks in the past few years, right, but like you know, like if you want to look at the people who've actually been trying to organize fast food workers, it turns out it's a bunch of trans people because because because who works, because who actually does this stuff?

I appreciate them for that. But on the other hand, they really did turn their back on the service sector industry for the silliest reason possible, which is that high turnover is just too difficult and we want to talk about people, Yeah, it's just too difficult, you know, who wants to organize something difficult, right, like that might cost too much money or not make them enough money, and

which I find highly hypocritical of unions in general. I mean, like not of all unions, but like if that is a stance that unions will take to not organize the service industry, being a union seems to be exactly why you would target those industries, right, because those are where workers need it most. And if we want to talk about high turnover rates being the reason, who do we

think is affected the most by high turnover rates? You know, like it is hard to find a job as a trans person, let alone keep a job for any length of time. There's oftentimes no upward mobility for trans people in that job, and so you pace a variety of life issues when you're not making enough money, which inevitably leads to you losing your job and adding to the

high turnover rates in these companies. This is exactly why, And we can get into you know, what we've been up to and what we're doing later, but that's exactly why the CiU and the IWW and other organizations like us do what we do, is because we believe in helping the workers that need it most, who are underrepresented and not taken care of by the larger units.

we knew how. We can think back to how we were brought in, right, we can talk think back to our friends, our allies, and our especially our transfellow workers who were the ones who mentored us well before the tipping point in a lot of cases, right, because this is why we're here. And like thinking about who this affects, right, I mean, like, it affects trans people deeply, and it can cut off our access to the healthcare that many but not all of us very much need to keep going.

And the threats above us, you know, only increase as the like you know, the oppressions you face are are increasing. Right, if you're a transpression of color, if you're disabled, like you were saying, right, like shit gets worse, it gets harder, the sword over your head dangles a little closer, so we work to figure a way to get out from

under it. But it's also like why the Transitay of Solidarity, Like when we talk about it, it's it's an event that that is what it is because it's designed to not simply be us just speaking into the wind, but it's meant to be a practical thing. Right. The the whole event itself is is like a rally with you know, trans speakers from you know a number of different shops

and unions in town. But it's also then just quickly becomes just a flying picket, right, And this is a tradition that I think we do miss a little bit in this country. The flying picket's an old one and it's a it's a fucking goldie. It's where you get a big old mob of people and you just start going to places all over your town and throwing fucking pickets. It's everything you love about a breakaway march and also a picket. At the same time, it has direct economic

leverage to it. You can do you know, people, It's it took a minute. But and you know this is also coming from someone who's organized in premierly in Portland, so there's a certain bias here. Your locale may vary, but if you organize enough pickets in your city, people might cross them at first, they get a lot less likely to the more you do them over the years. So the more pickets to throw, the less likely people

are to cross them. And if they are not likely to cross them, that impact that you know, increases their impact. So you know we're gonna be given our speech, is sure, and we are going to speak to our experiences. That's critical. And then we're also going to ruin some people's day or you know, make their day if you're the.

and we're back. So one of one of the things that I also wanted to talk about is about I guess just talking a bit about what the Coalition of Independent Unions is and how it's sort of formed, and yeah, I don't know the sort of potentials they're in because it's it's a really interesting organization coalition.

in the wake of the Burgerville Workers Union. Burgerville Workers Union itself goes public in God, that was April of twenty sixteen, Because of course it's been that fucking long. It was in the works a while before that. God, all those meetings. The earliest antecedents are arguably the Portland General Biership branch of the IWW's Industrial Organizing Research Group, the Precarious Worker Subgroup, or maybe it was a little wage Workers subgroup August of thirteen, But that's Antasus, right,

this kind of goes public. This itself is built on, you know, the Jimmy Johns Workers Union, especially for on the Twin Cities, and earlier in the two thousands, and then of course before that, the Starbucks Workers Union that had multiple different campaign flourishings. I think the earliest in the late nineties early aughts in New York City on which honestly you'll see some articles mention this on which the foundations of the modern Starbucks Workers United now rests.

So what we've seen now in the wake of all of this shit, right, is you have an incredibly militant working class coming forward and they aren't popping off. They're not waiting for permission from any org to just start fucking organizing their workplace, sometimes filing for for union elections, sometimes not the ones that have been filing for contracts. There are, I have complicated feelings, but there are real gains.

You can make from contracts right that it is a lot easier to get certain victories than you can and others. Now there's also limitations, right, But the CiU comes from a number of different unions coming together, you know, don't work as united a few others to basically like actually preserve you know, democracy in their workplace, to pool resources around you know, trainings around contract bargaining and elections, as well as to rely on each other for direct for

direct action assistance and things like that. And you know, the the IWW has also got a thread in all of this. But yeah, it's it's essentially of like, you know, we're not trying to own everything, right. The CiU exists as a platform for all the different types of independent union activity that are occurring, right, and to create a base on which we can actually start talking to each other more, to cooperate and interact with each other. Right.

There is more of a contract focus in the CiU. So, you know, I'm a wob with experience in duel carding. You know, you have your contract union on the one hand, and you're fighting union on the other. And this allows folks to sort of approach union organizing and labor organizing from any level of experience and any number of backgrounds.

breaking into. And so far, so good. I mean, I think we have gosh, I think there's like at least trying to do the math right now in my head. I do lose count sometimes, but I think we got about six different shops involved in the CiU currently, six including my own exactly six week up shops including.

large amount of trans folks at all these jobs. And now some of that could be chalked up to the fact that we live in Portland and we kind of live in the trans mecca, so of course you're going to come across a lot of trans workers. But here's the deal that we kind of noticed is that trans workers regardless of living in Portland, Oregon or you know, the fact that we have so many trans people living here for a lot of reasons. I won't get into that.

We all know, which is why we moved here in the first place.

trans folks. So down here at the bottom working, you know, fast food jobs, working, sweaty donut jobs, working, you know, in I mean the restaurant industry as a whole, I think is a lot of we assist as well as you know, potentially some grocery store workers and other people like that. We don't have a whole lot of representation

in our workplaces that we make up, you know. I mean, we can look at some of the larger industries in town that do provide unionization for workers, and there's many, but you know, I think it's easy to look at like a lot of the auto industry or the warehouse industries and things like that, and of course they have trans workers, but it's an overwhelming amount working within the service industry, and so as we started organizing more and

more service industry shops, we started realizing that we are representing a lot of trans people. And what's really important to us is that if we're going to be representing trans people in the workplace, then we should give them a platform and a voice to be able to speak about their concerns and their issues that they haven't otherwise had.

And that's why the CiU decided to put on this action, you know, and we chose it when we chose it for a very particular reason, and to be honest, we thought about doing it over Pride weekend, and I think that would have been lovely. But on the other hand, you know, Pride is about a celebration of existence, and there's a lot of visibility during Pride already, so we

kind of step back. We reflected on that for a little bit, and we decided that Labor Day is not exactly a time of year where you hear about people talking about LGBTP rights and trans rights. I mean, of course there's a little bit of that going on, I'm not sure and to say that there's none, but it seems like a really great opportunity for us to host this event over Labor Day week and give trans workers, the working class an actual platform and a voice to

express their concerns issues and give their thanks. At the same time to the unions who represent them and like I said before, it could represent them even better. So this is our way for reminding them and also at the same time to follow up picket reminding Portland that if you don't take care of your community and specifically in this case, or trans working class community, then we will make ourselves heard and you will listen to us

one way or another. And if we have to take to the streets in order to have our voice heard, we are more than happy to do that.

like what the Trans Day of Solidarity is. We're going to be having a speaker and rally at four pm at Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, September second. This is a huge, huge weekend for food service or

entertainment and yeah, for retail. And while we're having trans speakers from a number of different campaigns and you can speak from four to you know, wrapping up at around five, We're then going to start moving on a mobile picket line, a flying picket all over downtown Portland because we need to bring joy to a lot of workers and we're ruin a lot of bosses' days. This is leverage and we'll use it. We'll just cost them as many, you know, as much money as we possibly can. We'll be hitting

a number of different stores. It looks like we'll be hitting well you'll see it the march, but we'll be going all over the city. We have everything covered in terms of needs and amenities, there's going to be chants and leaflets, there'll be medics a plenty, they'll be all sorts of safety concerns will be addressed by or organizers on the ground. So please come, one, come all. We actually should have a marching band that'll be pretty fun

that I didn't expect to land up. It'll be a Union marching band, no less.

your sign, it's lovely. I will give you a hint as to one of the locations that we will be picketing. And I think it's okay for me to mention this, but you know, well, we'll make sure to picket the world's worst tourist trap also one of the absolute one of the absolute most difficult.

an Instagram. You can find us on just just type in Coalition of Independent Unions or CiU.

but also trying to reach Malta for example. So what we are trying to do is actually really rescuing bar with ships. So currently we have two ships. One is prepared at the moment for its first operation and the second one had just had rescue on the weekend and

is now currently blocked initially. And on the other side we also have monitoring airplanes surveying the area and trying to monitor the human rights situation over the Mediterranean and trying to monitor firstly state violence but also secondly trying to give information when the airplanes are finding boats under stress then for people being rescued.

to actually hinder and also block migration. So in the beginning of the year, for example, there was a decree put in place that really makes it so much harder for us to operate. And at the moment after our rescue on the weekend, we are blocked for twenty days, meaning that we cannot go out and do our usual work in the Mediterranean, but our ship has to stay import because Italian authorities are claiming that we violated the decree, which is actually going against international law.

And what this place or this external border actually constitute constitutes is a crime scene, a crime scene again for crimes against humanity because state states are like purposefully really intentionally letting people drown.

And obviously that's that's not all of it. So can you explain a little bit about the conditions of the crossing.

is very dire. Is it's very racist. There's like racist violent campaign started by the Tunisian president in the beginning of the year especially, so we see a lot of institutional racism, We see a lot of racism and also a lot of islands on the streets. So people are really trying to flee from the country and people are using all means possible of pause because they have to.

There's no easy way to come to Europe. Then people fleeing cannot just take a train or an airplane actually, and then like trying to reach shores of the European Union, of a boat is they only means, so they're really forced to do that. And boats that are used are for example, inflatable boats, but also metal boats. And these metal boats especially are very very dangerous because they are only like constructed really not in good conditions, so they're really easy to sink.

course two authorities. So on the weekend, our Aurora actually first supported another civil search and rescue ship from Open Arms with their rescue and then was led to this particular distress case also with the help of our monitoring flights operations which are called airborne, and the people were

then rescued on Friday, as said, seventy two people. And then normally what you have to do is of course informed like the competent authorities in the area, so state authorities, and according to international law, then state authorities have to coordinate the rescue, so we of course communicated, communicated with authorities, and authorities only after a while actually assigned us to

the port of Trapani. So Trapani is in Sicily, on the island of Sicily, and it was much farther way than the nearest port, which was on the island of Lump So you have to imagine, of course, distreads and the rescue cases are very dangerous situations and people of course need immediate support and need immediate transfer to the land where medical help can like intensely happen, et cetera. Because people might be on sea for several days, they might be in psychological but as well in physical pain

and stress. They might have burns from actually a fuel and seawater mixed, for example, and of course dehydration is a very very big danger and risk for people in distress at sea. So after we rescued and after we got assigned the port of Trapany, we made very clear to the authorities that Trapani is way too far and that according to international law we need to go to a Lump producer because it's the most suitable nearest port.

But then we got noticed that we are not allowed to go to Lum Producer actually, and that meant that we were in total forced to stay on CEA for thirty seven hours, and also for those people in distress and rescued, they were forced to stay more than twenty four hours additionally on sea, like having to really endure those really difficult this really difficult situation. The next day, Saturday, we were still on see the sun like really burned

relentlessly by that point, and people were facing dehydration. One person actually fainted, and it became really increasingly dangerous the situation on board, which is why we community communicated more and more with authorities and they were then forced after a while to let us enter to Lump Producer because the situation was really dire and people needed to disembark this embark on land.

rights by the so called Libyan Coast Guard. Because what is happening is that the European States, the European Union is actually supporting the socoed Libyan Coast Guard to intercept people at sea, so to really block people from getting to the European Union.

talks between Italy and Libya. Libya is also now a former colony of Italy, so there's very close ties and ties and a lot of influence. And just a couple of days ago there was the transfer of two ships from Italy to do so called Libyan Coast Guards. So they're really also, yeah, supporting this very violent, very dangerous actor with technical.

for the Aurora actually to be de blocked again. But also Italian authorities of course trying to criminalize person like persons. For example, in the case of Carula Rocket, who was a captain with us in twenty nineteen and who who had to enter also the port of Lamproducer because of the very very difficult situation on board, because the ship was forced to stay several days really on the Mediterranean Sea and the situation became very dire. So there was

also proceedings against her in person. So really people that are trying to show solidarity and support people on the move to claim their human right to claim asylum are criminalized on the basis of the accusations that are just completely not true. For example, was also like all the charges against her were dismissed, there was no legal.

see this in Italy. We also see this a lot in Greece, for example, a country which is also really trying to criminalize humanitarian and politically or like humanitarian workers that are standing in solidarity with people on the wove.

a lot of hindering of migration. We see very special cases with Malta where Malta Maltese authorities are actually, for example, communicating to merchant vessels who are finding or who are in vicinity of distress cases that they should just hand out fuel to the boats or hand out water. So those distress cases, those boats are actually making their way to Italy on their own, so they are out of Maltese responsibility.

are really sustaining themselves and are financed by donations. So we are solely financed by donations, and we are really like trying to keep the work up as much as much as possible, and we have lots of different opportunities as well to support not only by working with us, but also in spreading our message on social media. So that's maybe the easiest for everyone who has social media accounts.

Just like search Seawatching, you'll probably find our accounts on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook, but also on TikTok for example, like inform yourself, educate yourself and share the message, talk to your families while having dinner, talk to your friends, and also support really self organized groups of people on the move. So for example, you can inform yourself by finding refugees in Libya the group or refugees in Tunisia on Twitter and they are actually talking about their situation

in the country. But also like like on on miggression groups.

group in Africa. And I wonder this isn't to say that people I don't want to be construed to saying that people shouldn't have solidarity with people fleeing con conflict in Ukraine, because they should and those people have every right to a.

in their politics or you know, in the sort of direct action people, but they were great and everyone helped and answer result, no one died. One young woman died in Texas in CBP custody. And like I always think if people could see it then, like you were saying, they can see your videos, people, there's a very human response to never want that to happen to another human being. It's just hard when there's there's so much going on.

like wrote down those human rights because of a certain situation. So I mean, especially in Europe, we really have like we're just considering our history is just considering the history

of Germany. We just like it's it's platant ignorance and also completely against any historical evidence, against any historical work we've done, what the situation now is and what we're actually doing at the external borders like committing human rights crimes and like ignoring the situation actually like increasing the dangers for people on the move on daily basis. And I think, I mean it's not only I mean you

also mentioned this before. Now, like it's also situation you're facing in the US, and we really have to like build strong transnational movements and strong transnational ties to like work against state violence order violence in general.

seem to have forgotten. One thing that you mentioned that I wanted to talk about before we finish was climate change, because you said, you know, we obviously like the it's very hard for someone living in Europe or North America this year to pretend that climate change isn't happening, like

with soaring temperatures, hurricane in California, wildfires everywhere. Can you explain a little bit, because I think one thing that people fail to connect is and maybe that's largely due to not bad reporting perhaps, but like it doesn't get mentioned in reporting when we talk about migration, we don't talk about climate change, and we talk about climate change

and talk about migration. But the two go hand in hand, right, Like the people, certainly many of the people that I see our certain border coming from areas most affected by climate change. Is that something that see what sees too like as parts of the world that are more marginal for people to live in get even harder to live in, those people coming being forced to leave.

like to support people actually on the move. And I mean as seawatch, we don't make any difference as of why people are fleeing, people are in the stress, said see, people are being rescued. That's it. That's the only responsible like, that's the only perspective we have supporting people that are in distressed at SEE, because if you are calling an ambulance, they also don't ask, oh, hey, why are you actually calling the ambulance like the jew and why are you

in this situation? The ambulance just coming. And this is this should also be always the case in the Mediterranean.

of anti fascism. And would you say it was fair it would be fair to cast what see what she is doing within the broader spectrum of opposing fascism or opposing I guess of nationalist state violence, right wing state violence.

looking for in volunteers. Obviously, anyone can donate and they should if they have money, But what are you as are certain qualifications you desperately need or so.

at the website and reach out. We have a specific form as well where you can just also sign in for interest basically, and then our crewing department takes care and sees like who and like when it's actually fitting.

Europeans on the other side. What we criticize is of course that FONTECS does so called border protection and does not actually support people on the movement, people in distress. So this double mandate does not work at all. We see a lot of non coordination, a lot of a lot of non information and also a lot of violence

of context. So for example, FANTECS or there was a report from Human Rights Watch for example, and that fontext is complicit in pullbacks by the so called Libyan Coast Guard because there is actually communication between FONTECS and the so called Libyan Coast Guard, and the so called Libyan cost guard. Cost Guard can then detect boats in the stress their location with this information but provided by FONTICS and bring people or force people back to Libya for example.

So FANTAICS is really an actor that we criticize hugely and that we actually working towards their abolishment because how the organization or the institution is working right now does not have anything to do with the legal.

mutual aid, but this is like one of the I guess, like foundational examples of it. So like, can you explain what a better system? And obviously I'm not asking you to like solve all the world's problems, but like, would

what would it? We can make relatively few changes, I guess, and make this so much more humane and not have someone's little children around in the Mediterranean so that I don't know, people don't have to live next to someone who speaks a different language from them, or whatever people's fears are of migrants, can you explain what that would look like?

We need a system that, in accordance to the needs and the wants of people, people are actually also redistributed over the European Union and can join their family members for example, or their friends, their support systems while trying to flee violence, while trying to flee from places where they cannot live in the end, So this is really like what we are focusing on in the end to have people coming to Europe through safe passages. So and

this is really what needs to be established. And of course in this current situation, as a first step, we need a European coordinated search and rescue program with the only mandate to rescue votes in distress, to rescue people in distress, to actually make sure that the situation, the death trap that the Mediterranean seas actually constituting at the moment, stops, Like this situation has.

shit into a higher gear. So, you know, I think the thing that kind of stuck out to both of us most and the thing that's been one of the primary kind of takeaways that one of the main things people have talked about after the debate, uh was, was Vivek's performance. Vivek Ramaswami, who is prior to I even made a little comment prior to it that I didn't I didn't know much about him or think he was much of an entity in this because, uh, you know,

in in part because that's true. He was somebody who is just kind of coming onto the scene in politics. I wanted to talk a little bit about how he started that because there was some stuff I was unaware of here prior to him announcing his candidacy. He's one of these guys who kind of started because he comes

out of biotech. He's a quote unquote entrepreneur, and specifically he's the kind of shitty entrepreneur who like has managed to get rich largely without actually contributing anything, like primarily buying up patents for drugs in development that he profits on but then later are found not to work. Is a big part of how where his fortune comes from. And he started kind of about really about a year ago, I think, trying to brand himself as a kind of

political influencer, specifically through like social media. And he had been getting a lot of attention, like as a result of the success of his because he's one of these

guys he's good at using social media. He gets up to you know, he's had a couple one hundred thousand followers when he announces his candidacy, and prior to announcing his candidacy, he had done well enough at kind of building a brand for himself that in twenty two or twenty twenty two, early twenty twenty two, he and the Daily Wire start putting together a contract and they want to bring him on, presumably for like a frightening, like a deeply upsetting amount of money, to do something that

they haven't really done before, which is just kind of launch a like a show based around him that's like a news and politics show, which was a little bit different kind of than a lot of the deals that like they've had before, where it's more like, you know, here's Matt Walsh's podcast where he's going to, you know, try to get people killed. Here's Been Shapiro's podcast where

he's going to get angry at the Barbie movie. This was like, we're launching a news and culture like a news and politics podcast, and Vivek's going to be like the face of it, right, yeah, with.

been doing. Like so, I think there's a little bit of bad blood there actually between them. But he bounces from this deal with the Daily Wire to announce his twenty twenty four campaign run. And this seems to have kind of started in early part, like earlier on in this year, start of twenty twenty three, when he has this meeting with a small group of who were described in this ABC News article as conservative operatives, to discuss his exciting plans. I'm going to read a quote from

that article. I'm going to run for president. Ramaswami sat on the call. Ramaswami pitched himself as a candidate who could make serious waves in the Republican primary at the meeting. When met with some skepticism, Ramaswami argued that his candidacy could also dissuade Florida Governor Ron De Santis from entering the race. According to a source who was on the call.

In the lead up to his announcement, Ramaswami would tell several other conservative activists that he believed that if he ran, it could stop DeSantis from running or impact his viability as a candidate if he did enter the race. Sources said his campaign has turbocharged Ramaswami's social media presence, with his number of followers on Twitter known as x nearly quadrupling, ballooning from a little over two hundred and thirty six thousand prior to announcing his candidate to see to now

nearly a million followers just six months later. And so, you know, there's a couple of things that's interesting to me about that. One that he's sort of he pitched himself as I can stop DeSantis from running. And it's a little unclear to me if these are guys that specifically like hate Dysantis, or if it's more they don't want him running against Trump, they don't want like a fight between those two guys.

in the aftermath of the debate. We'll talk more about Poles later and we'll talk about other candidates, but it looks like he's kind of either plateaued or lost a bit of support, even though a significant number of Republicans, most in some polls think that he won the debate, which is interesting to me. Now, when you and I watched this, kind of the thing that that concerned us was that we both saw him as sort of messaging

to the Nick Fuintes crowd. And what I mean by that is young conservative activists who are at least willing to dance with explicitly white nationalist ideas and who have some sympathies with the insurgent right, including with acts of violence committed by the insurgent right. You know, And obviously Vivek is not he's not Nick Fuintes, he's not a Nazi,

he's not going to make jokes about the Holocaust. But he does talk about certain things in a similar way, particularly this idea of like the fact that immigration is altering our national character. He talks national which is something you hear a lot sometimes in more explicit terms from these like basically these Nazis right, So it's it's kind of a he's taking this term and he's washing it a little bit.

like half raised hands. Yeah, we both noticed that Dysantis, before raising his hand on a certain question, looked both ways across the stage to see who else was raising their hand before he raised his. But every single time Vivik was the first guy to like jolt his hand up. He was very it was very very intentionally positioning positioning himself as the most extreme option on the on the

table there. And it wasn't just I think the content of what he was saying that that made kind of parallels between him and people like Nick Fuentez are just kind of younger, younger conservative of like content creators and influencers. It was also like the way he talked, like his his his speech pattern, how fast he was.

The other thing is that, you know he has so Nick and a lot of these guys on the fascist youth right, they're huge into removing people from being able to vote. You know, Nick himself is basically a monarchist, right, like he wants a Catholic monarchist.

taking the right to vote away from women. Vivek is not going to say that, but he did say this. Young people don't value a country that they just inherit. That's why I've said every high school senior, I believe she'd have to pass the same civics test that an immigrant in this country has to pass in order to become a voting citizen of the country. If that eighteen year old wants all the privileges of citizenship as well.

This is deeply con learning for a number of reasons, including the fact that any barrier you're put to voting is going to reduce the number of people, specifically people who are likely to vote for Democrats who do it.

But number two, like who gets to determine those tests? Well, we're already seeing the way in which the state positions, and like states like Florida on education are fundamentally changing the amount of information kids are allowed to get, they also theoretically would have the ability to fundamentally change the nature of this test, you know, so that you know, you have to express certain opinions and be inculcated in certain opinions in order to be able to vote.

and stuff. So we're gonna we're gonna start watching this Zoomer National News clip because there's a couple of points that he makes in the first couple of first few minutes of it that I think are are unfortunately worth listening to and then discussing and then being unhappy.

with a viral social media campaign. I think people just like what he says, at least that's what it appears to be. And he's been controversial. I think a lot of people like him. I think even people that don't like him have commended him on his campaign, which has been successful. He's competitive with DeSantis. DeSantis had a bigger war chest than Trump. He had a bigger war chester than any governor in the United States has ever had.

I think he had raised two hundred million dollars in the last cycle, and he had the support of the Jews in Israel, and oh his mine to governor and back maybe the next best known politician in the race next to Trump and governor of a major state. And so in other words, he's got all these advantages, and this other guy who really started from scratch is now

competitive with him. And I'll say too, it is unfortunate his look because you know, I know that probably a lot of Republicans are not totally on board with like Hindu Indian and I'm not making any kind of comment on that. I think that's just how things are, just like with Bobby Jindal or some of these other guys

that ran. When I see an Indian guy running with a name like vivek Ramaswami, let's not pretend I think that's that's also a disadvantage for him, probably because the Republican voter base is all white.

a bit there, I don't think. But but and that becomes a little bit clear a bit later on, because he he talks about you know, he's talking about there kind of both how impressive, you know, objectively, the success of avex campaign has been, and how it points to the fact that he has done some stuff right, even while he's saying I don't think he can win with the Republican voter base the way that it is, which I think is you know, partly shown by kind of

some of these polls that that come out showing him losing support. But he he comes in a little bit later, a couple of minutes later, and he talks about why he likes Vivik, what he finds intriguing about him, and I think that this is kind of valuable to hear.

they also all went through the steps. They're one state wide elections, you know, they're all governors or senators, Chris Christy, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Bergham, DeSantis, they're all governors. Tim Scott's a senator, and they have that canned full of

shit polish political thing. Both Yang and Vivek not only are they not white, they're Asian and children of immigrants, but there's also something that characterizes them that they're kind of like a new type of campaign where it's super smart. When you listen to Vivek, it sounds a lot more

like a podcast. It sounds a lot more like a polemical commentator like me, or like Tucker or like whoever, like Alex Jones for that matter, although that's a specific sort of thing, but maybe you understand what I mean. They're they're almost talking like they're talking to American people who have a higher IQ.

his polling isn't better in the wake of the debate. Yeah, but his personal brand has never been better, and that he's everywhere every big network's been having him on to talk about shit like this has increased his visibility not just on social media but as a political commenter and kind of the things that he's saying, because they are so much more extreme than stuff you know, even a guy like Pince was willing to say, I think that's

a real problem. I think it's a problem that's going to be with us for a while because he's very young.

And that's the big thing that is like causing me concern because, Yeah, it's the type of thing I've been thinking about more and more the past year as we've had our first wave of like zoomer candidates and also you know millennial candidates that are they starting to fill up Philip offices.

more boomers, Uh die off, Sorry, no offense. Some of these are the people that are some of these are the people that are gonna, you know, start filling in filling in the voting gaps.

right wing rag. They analyzed five poles taken just before and after the debate. Trump saw a decrease in two of those poles and no change in the other three. This decrease, it's not insignificant that the two poles show him both bush him down something like six points, which is not nothing, right, Yeah, but that he's still up by around forty So it's also not like a seed change.

You know, it does suggest a couple of things. One of the things that suggests is that there is value to him, especially since it looks like he has lost some of his ability to message and some of his ability to rile people up because of the way social media has changed. He doesn't really use Twitter anymore. You know, he made a post recently, but.

a thing you could It's probably a mistake. I'm not saying a mistake from a point of view being good for the country, but a mistake in terms of like his campaign that he wasn't up there, which is kind of worth acknowledging and probably worth continuing to study, and it may be it may have the effect of pushing him to take part in some of the other debates. DeSantis has said he thinks Trump will be at the third debate.

everyone else was saying on stage. It was very weird.

for vice president. And Trump recently commented like, yeah, you know, I'm not against the idea necessarily.

very consistently moving forward. So that is interesting. That does suggest some things about how the situation has changed. And yeah, it's also interesting you know, Poles kind of show that voters did. And maybe one of the reasons why Vivik's performance didn't boost his campaign overall is that he entered into it with the highest expectations of any of the debaters among like Republican voters. Probably this is because you know,

in the speeches and stuff he's been given before. He's a debate guy, like that's obvious about him anytime you hear him talk. So I think people weren't expecting him to do well, and so maybe it didn't. You know, if people are expecting you to perform well and then you win, it's not as impressive as a you know, if you kind of come come out or left field there. So maybe that's part of why he's not seeing stuff.

One of the things that's interesting to me is the stuff that was talked about at the debate compared to what actually Republican voters care about. The thing that came up first in the debate is the thing that is number one, getting inflation or costs under control. Obvious that that's going to be top of the list for a lot of voters. Forty four percent of Republicans consider controlling immigration to be a primary concern, which did come up

a bit. One of the things that pissed off a lot of the Daily Wire crew is the fact that there wasn't really a lot of talk about wokeness or trans people during the debate, because that kind of shit is not like fighting liberalism and wokeness and President Biden like it all gets kind of like lumped together about a third, you know, of the electorate. That's their their big concern among Republicans.

you put front and center in the debate. One thing that's interesting to me is that both election security and limiting abortion, which are huge issues and we're big parts of the debate, are very much minor side show issues for voters. About ten percent of voters consider of Republican voters consider election integrity their primary concern. About six percent considerate a limiting abortion a top priority, which is teeny right, Like it's not a popular thing. They just have to

because of that hardcore of the base. They have to signal for it.

is deeply concerning to me. But uh yeah, that's uh, that's you know, the Republican debate and and Vivek Ramaswami that's kind of uh are our thinking on him? As he embraces Nick Fuintes, thought, boy, I don't love saying that.

that's very worrying. I mean, we saw a little bit of that with DeSantis' campaign staff sharing videos, videos that were approved by like a lot of people in his staff. It wasn't it wasn't just one guy. We we have we have since found out that those videos were like approved like in a in a in like a specific like propaganda like chat that these people had I think I think on signal. Yeah, So like it is, it is. It is part of like this this this wave that

we're just starting to see glimpses of here. And it's not great, no, I you know it it it It remains to be seen like if these things will actually like pan out in elections, though, I mean, like it doesn't seem like the vac is gonna do very well as an actual presidential candidate during this race. Previously, when when when when Republicans have kind of ran on these very kind of online topics, like back in the twenty twenty two midterms, it it failed to give them kind

of yeah, the return on investment. So it's we'll still kind of see how how kind of viable this strategy is. But I mean, we're only going to have more and more zoomers and millennials running for office. Like It's yeah, as we saw today, Mitch McConnell's literally disintegrated before our very eyes. Yes, and more and more of these kind of old guard of neocons or Trump guys are going to age out in the next ten years, twenty years,

and you know it's it's gonna we are. We are really going to see this new wave of politicians come in. It is interesting how much of jen X just has not been a has not been a generation that occupies office.

top of having those Civics tests. But yeah, I mean I I think it's possible, but it's it's a little too far out to say for sure.