Colz Media.
This is it could happen here at Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world, and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis to Dame, joined by James Stout, Mia Wong and Robert Evans. This episode, we are covering the week of April first to April eighth. The DHS shutdown has surpassed
fifty days. Last week, House Republicans tentatively agreed to the Senate deal to fund DHS without ICE and CBP, though this agreement is stalled while Congress is out of session till April fourteenth. Fox News has partnered with Calshi to incorporate its political betting data into news coverage. Fox joints CNN, CNBC, and The AP in entering into deals with the so
called prediction market Calshi. Calshe announced quote prediction markets at accountability by rewarding accurate See that's why the three leading networks have chosen Calshi.
No spin, no partisan lens, just incentives to.
Be right unquote.
It's just gambling.
It's so cool that the whole world, all media is now.
Just ESPN incentives to be right again, like people are. There's like one of the sub markets within CALSHI is people like bringing in lawyers to make threats over like tiny differences in grammar that invalidate them either losing money or mean that they should have won the art like
like none of this is about what actually happened. It's it's becoming as much about what you can game or like threaten the news into not reporting, as we talked about the week before last with that case in Israel and insider trading and insider trading.
Yeah, no, it's it's just turning politics into like a corrupt casino.
Yep, yeah, it's just mob sports betting.
It's worse than sports betting because sports betting is actually based on like real odds, right, These odds are completely created by users with their money. Like it's it's it's completely manufactured. There's no actual basis for a lot of these bets, right, Like like the betting on the papal conclave. There's no basis for an American pope getting elected, Right, there's no actual odds that were like mathematically certain. It's
just created through through money. Well, to be fair, the sports ods are also just kind of made up.
Yeah, guys too, but like yeah, you no real, it's like just a tidy fit vibes based like it's people looking at horses.
It's a lot of what's happening in sports, Betty.
Yah, Yes, making approving.
Yeah, I think I saw that something close to a billion dollars was bet on oil prices as we approached Trump's deadline.
We already had that just play. The oil futures market too complicated for people, I guess, God, damn.
It, No, it's really bad. According to a March poll from the Institute for a Middle East Understanding Policy Project sampling almost six hundred Texas Democratic primary voters, seventy six percent say Israel's committing sun Gazen, eighty percent support ending weapons funding to Israel. Forty four percent of Tallarika voters said his criticism of Israel was important to them and
swayed their vote over one in five voters. Twenty two percent said reducing support for Israel was one of their top three factors impacting their vote, while only two percent said the same about increasing or maintaining support for Israel, and eighty eight percent of voters said they agreed with the statement Tallerico made during a primary debate about cutting
off weapons to Israel. On Sunday night, thirteen gunshots were fired into the front door of Indianapolis City County councilor Ron Gibson, who just voted to approve a half a billion dollar data center. A note was left under the doormat that read no data centers, quote unquote. Gibson and his son were home at the time of the shooting.
Yeah, these data centers are really staggeringly unpopular. There's been a bunch of reporting on even the ones that are tempted to be built, something like fifty percent of them are just not able to do it because of massive public local backlash.
Because it makes life worse around them. Akey power bells go up, they're loud.
Yeah, it's like it's like old school. It's like old school environmental nimbiism, sort of like I don't want these assholes in my small town stuff. There's just like the anti sentiment in general. They're hideously unpopular and this kind of stuff is just going to continue as these data centers continue to be built.
Okay, time for me.
So.
Donald Trump has said that he will discuss the United States withdrawal from NATO for those who work in the New York Times as a North Atlantic Treaty organization with Mark Rutter, who is the NATO Secretary General, during their meeting which will happen today which is Wednesday, April eighth.
If question Mark this happens, it would be utterly apocal, like it would be one of the two things are going to point out as like the dawning of the new.
Era of yes, seismic shift, Yeah, like.
What geopolitics is, this is like the fundamental basis of this in this week or like ceasing to exist.
Yeah.
Shirley Kittelsen has been released by Katipo's buller after they made her read a video confession in which she confessed and to be very clear, this is very clearly extracted fashion. Yes, yeah, the thing in this is it's true. But in the video they made her confess to passing information to US consulate in Baghdad. In one point in the video she said she had been collecting information on leaders but forgotten their names, which is very credible and.
True most real toed fashion.
Yeah, it's ludicrous. Her release came after Iraq released several Katipa's BULLA members, so seems like a straight swap, which is what this was about in the first place. Right, it's not about her or her work per se. It's about her being a trading chip that they can trade. Finally, Republican Brandon gil has sharply critics so it's a dignityes like Dignity dald Act. Recently, and this has become like
something of an online discourse topic on the right. I'm not exactly sure why it's happening now.
Rep.
Salazar from Florida has tried to introduce this act several.
Times in the last few years.
We've actually covered it when it was introduced in twenty twenty five on this show. It's a bipartisan act to reform the immigration system.
That is bad.
It creates what's called a dignity status, which is essentially like an underclass of people who there is no pathway sitizenship. There is no pathway to voting, but it comes with the right to renew it and the right to residency right, so it creates like a sub citizen class. It's bad that it's not a progressive immigration reform.
But is Brandon Gill criticizing it from the right gil is.
Coming from another perspective, then, I am. They think it gives incentives for illegal immigration and it's an amnesty.
Okay, Yeah, so he's criticizing from the right.
It's interesting to see the split among Republicans on this, and that's why I wanted to bring it in right that we spoke last time about the Florida sheriffs breaking with Trump on mass deportations. There are a number of things which indicate that there is clearly a faction of the Republican Party which has realized massive deportation of people who have not been accused or convicted of any crime is not a popular stance, especially when you keep killing people.
On that note, actually, Ice have shot somebody else that this broke relatively late on Tuesday night. They shot someone in Patterson, California. The person has been identified as Carlos Iva Mendoso Hernandez. He's wanted in El Salvador for questioning a connection to a murder. It is another of those incidents in which they accused a person of weaponizing their vehicle. And there is a dash cam video which has been released which shows a person attempting to leave in a vehicle.
It's a little hard if the person who's attempting to weaponize their vehicle, but it doesn't look that way to me, say that person is trying to make an exit. We have seen a number of these right where federal immigration agents have shot people behind the wheel of their car. Yeah, I should add that his attorney claims that he is not wanted in connection with that murder and has provided a document from the government of El Salbador which seems
to confirm that. So we have once again the DHS said versus what we seem to be seeing proved out by documents.
Right before we get to Iran, which there's a lot to discuss, there is another news story a little bit closer to us that we think deserves some fair coverage. Statements made on a podcast last year by a top FEMA official resurfaced this last week. Greg Phillips, who is in charge of disaster response, claims that he wants teleported
to a waffle house in Rome, Georgia. Phillips also says he experienced a separate incident in which he teleported in front of a church, which the fact that this was a waffle house does lend a story a bit of credibility I have suspected for years there's some sort of paranormal field around waffle houses. Personally, I believe that when you walk into one, there was a small chance you
could walk out of another in a separate location. The craft store Michaels has a similar has a similar energy to it.
Look, anyone who's gone drunk to enough waffle houses knows that that's true.
Right.
So there is an aspect of the story which is very believable.
But there's some details that Phillips has included that makes me a bit more skeptical of his characterization of this incident. Let's listen to his claim on this podcast right now.
We had a temble report at incident, two of them, which transported me about forty miles from from where I was and near Albany, Georgia, to the ditch of a to the ditch of a of a chure chained up at a waffle house like fifty miles away from where I was.
So to the so, to defend these statements, Phillips has taken to truth social to share biblical accounts of teleportation as supporting evidence of teleportation. Great employees at the three waffle houses in Rome Georgia were interviewed by The New York Times, and they say they do not recall anyone being transported there by means of teleportation, nor did they
recognize pictures of Greg Phillips. But in a follow up statement by Phillips on truth Social, he said he was going through cancer treatment at the time of this alleged teleportation incident.
Quote.
I was healed of cancer and it was a miracle. The podcast at the center of this controversy was part of chronicling that journey, and during that journey things happened that I can't explain. I was in the opening days of intensive treatment, heavily medicated, not thinking about future headlines. That context was nowhere in the reporting.
Unquote. I think it is important here that he says he was heavily medicated during the time around Yeah.
I love how he uses copvoys like a teleportation incident.
Yeah. But however, I'm gonna point out that Garrison the next thing you're about to read, he was not heavily medicated when he said this.
So Phillips added to this truth quote, the word teleportation was not mine. It was used by someone else in the conversation. Reaching for a language describe something with no easy name, which is not true.
He said teleport. He said telephone.
I think what he means is he didn't wasn't his like initial term, then started using it.
Yes, he keeps using it, he continues.
Quote.
The more accurate biblical terms are translated or transported, not new ideas for people of faith. If you believe that God moves in ways we can not fully explain, as I do, then having faith is not a SoundBite.
It is the whole point.
I believe in miracles, all caps, God bless America. He has risen unquote. Now, one detail from the podcast that has not been mentioned as much, I think offers to help some idea of what's what's really going on here.
It was an incredibly frightening moment to experience yourself in your.
Car flying through the air.
It was possible, it was real.
He was telepointed in his car.
He was in his car, which for me changes this entire thing, because these headlines were kind of kind of imagine as if his body like dematerialized somewhere, remateialized in a waffle house.
Something that's you know, you know, certainly he just blacked out while driving, which is very different, which is.
Very different story.
Guy in a car when we were driving around Texas.
Yeah, I tell I hell impointed on xanax one yes, about thirty hours into the future.
So the fact that he owned doubt while driving and ended up at a waffle house much more, much more explainable because many many people in slightly and slightly all down right downright outside of waffle.
Houses in their car. This is a very common occurve.
This is probably about maybe ten to ten to thirty percent of the waffle house clientele shows up in this sort of environment where they are they are not operating on their full faculties, either through some sort of drugs, alcohol, medication, what have you.
I've seen UFOs at a waffle house before.
No, right, the waffle houses are you know, are or have some kind of pole that I think attracts people like a magnet who are in US in an altered state, towards them as like a beacon.
Yeah, that that poll is smothered and covered hash browns.
Yes.
So, and the fact that they're open at four am. Oh, and bathrooms you can do a harrow win in. Don't forget that says it on the sign.
I also want to make sure that we mentioned that. In the same week in which The New York Times the guy who was writing the headline didn't know what NATO stood for. They also titled the initial title of the article they wrote about this was and I quote FEMA official says he teleported to waffle house. Experts are dubious. This might be the worst experts disagree headline ever.
Rach, I think this is good.
I actually, out of the two polls of New York Times headlines this week, the data one is iffy. This one fully I fully agree with. I fully agree with their their choice to say that experts a due becaus about the teleportation.
This does make me sad because The New York Times is also the outlet that ran what is, in my opinion, the best headline ever written. It was about the fact that more good Okay. It was on the subject of a scientist fixed study which looked at moray eels and their ability to climb a ramp out of a pool to eat some food, which proved in theory that moray eels could hunt on land, and the headline was when an eel climbs a ramp to eat a squid from a clamp.
That's a more ray title from a better time.
Yeah yeah, what a different Yeah yeah, whoever wrote that. I hope you're doing well.
We will now teleport to an ad break and re materialize to discuss the back and forth ceasefire not ceasefire with Iran.
We're back, and depending on when you listen to this, we may either read back to war with Iran the straight up four moves could be closed or open. We're in like just this, this beautiful roadingers. No one knows where it's gonna go after this.
Yeah, if you don't open your phone then and you never know how many wars and cease fires have started since the last time you opened your phone.
That's right. They can't make you believe that a war is going on if you choose to not be informed. Yeah, other than by looking at gas prices. Yeah, yeah, that is a thing.
God.
All right, let's let's try and do this in chronological order, because this week has been bonkers.
So let's start with last Friday, when you last listen to ED.
If you listen to Baby release him good Friday. And that is kind of important because a United States Air Force A fifteen eight strike Eagle belonging to the forty eighth Fighter Wing, crashed in southwestern Irun last Friday after being hit by a man pad. I bet the manpads is a shoulder fired surface to air missile. The plane carries a pilot and a WHIZZO WSOS an ancronym. It
means weapons systems officer or weapons systems operator. I'm just going to call them a weapons officer just to make it easier for everyone going forward, and both crew members safely self ejected from the plane. The United States very quickly launched a massive CISAR that's combat search and rescue operation involving helicopters, low flying aircraft, and close air support from both MQ nine Reaper drones and eight ten aircraft.
During this operation, in which the aircraft flew within small arms range of the ground in Kuzuzstan Province, several aircraft were damaged. One of the Jolly Green to Rescue helicopters was hit with small arms fire. An eight ten Thunderbolt crashed in the strait of Horn Moves and the pilot was recovered. Another was hit and the pilot ejected over Q eight, but this effort did result in the safe recovery of the F fifteens pilot, but not the weapon.
The following day.
That happened during the day, right in daylight hours, which is remarkable, like it is extremely rare to see this happening right like low flying helicopters over what is notion the enemy territory in the middle of the daytime. On Easter Sunday, the United States launched a huge operation which resulted in the recovery of the weapons officer. This was preceded by a disinformation campaign which hoped to make the Iranian state believe that they had extracted the weapons officer
by land, which they hadn't. The operation involved a ton of Special Operations Forces assets who flew to an agricultural airstrip outside Isfahan, YEP. This seems to have gone largely unremarked upon in the reporting. There is some crackpot theory that this was all cover for an operation that extracted enriched uranium from Isfahan, because there is a nuclear research
acidity of Isfahan. I have not seen any evidence to support that, but I think it is likely that they knew of this agricultural airstrip because of plans which were made for a potential raid on the Isfahan Nuclear Research Facility during the Operation MQ nine and RepA drones bombed quote military age males who were close to the m and I Ran had offered a reward of sixty thousand dollars for capturing this person before the United States got
to them. And it is common for people in this area who like, if you're like herding animals, right to carry a gun, like to protect their animals or to protect themselves. There were some kind of propaganday videos of like local people looking for the m and right they were carrying like Iranian flags and their like antiquated bolt
action rifles. But it's also very possible that some of these drone strikes may have occurred against people who were just going about their business in the region, right, Like if they didn't said military age males.
That it's a broad.
Remit anyone who with out there being a shepherd would be a military age.
Male, right, would be a military aged Yeah.
Yeah, this is like one of the most sickening terms US warfare is invented.
Yeah, military age mail is like anyone anytime people are using that like a doesn't pass the SNIF test.
No, it could be anyone from to like fourteen years old to like sixty nine exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You'll be surprised who looks like an adult when you're a scared man with a gun.
Yeah yeah, or looking from thousands of feet up on a drone camera.
Right. Yeah. It's a term invented for we are just going to start shooting at random people. We have no idea who they are. We're just going to kill thee Yeah, and it's hideous.
I was recently rereading this. I think it's called a Theory of the Drone. It's a philosophy book about drones and drone warfare, and there's a scene in the opening of that which I think is which you can probably get the free preview of the book if you have a kindle and read that scene. But it's very illustrative of how vague this term can be. The rescue operation saw the planes land at an airstrip. Then a little bird helicopter took off collected the airmen who had been evading,
capturing a mountainous area. He was then carried back by the helicopter to the airstrip where the two larger aircraft that had bought the helicopter and all the personnel had become stuck.
Incredible.
Yeah, I mean I guess normally they would do some kind of soil sampling, but I think there probably.
Just wasn't time.
Yeah, So the United States elected to destroy those aircraft in place and send three more aircraft to recover their personnel. And we can see that the Iran has published footage to that. Right, it seems that they also destroyed the Little Bird helicopters. I've seen some reporting that the Little Bird helicopters were just like on a one way flight, that they flew into Iran knowing that their range wasn't long enough for them to fly back, and that they
always planned to destroy them. I don't think that's the case. I think they got them out the back because he won thirties and assembled them quickly. That yeah, that is that is a thing they have the capacity to do, and that is what makes them most sense. So on that same day, Easter Sunday, kind of a big deal for the Christian folks, Donald Trump truth the following quote, Tuesday will be power plant Day and bridge Day all wrapped up in one.
In Iran.
There will be nothing like it. Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you will be living in hell. Just watch praise be to Allah.
I love the President.
Yeah, yeah, that is a that is a leader of the free world.
Yeah.
My extremely low stationed conspiracy is that this was not Trump, this was written by Trump's staff, because it's slightly off, it.
Could have been. It doesn't sound like him really, Yeah, he's not normally a swearer like you gets anger. Yeah, alat of stuff isn't really him. No, that's a weird thing for him to throw it.
I give very easily believe that this is the This is him like going nuts on something.
Yeah, like he could have done possible. I think there's a low chance that this was what. This was like a staff written thing.
It's just it's it's it's weird wording from him, Like it's a strange message, although the last couple from him have all seemed kind of strange.
Yeah, he is just out of it.
The one he put up after the ceasefire announcement where he's like where he puts in quotations that the Navy will be hanging round. Yeah, yeah, that's that's not doesn't sound like him much either, But also like who else would he let write that it's he's it's just but it is weird, right? That does not sound like any previous Trump post.
Hanging round to say fuck in a Trump in a presidential tweet like I didn't know why a Stappa would do that.
No, and I I agree with you, James.
These things are usually transcribed like usually he reads these out loud and someone writes them down and then he looks at them and and then and then and then they hit post like that. That's that's how all of his truths were structured in that documentary.
Yes, does he dictate the capitalization.
When he looks them over like he may?
Okay, because he has a fascinating and quite unique approach to capitalization.
Like specifically like there will be nothing like it is definitely like a Trump a Trump verbal text.
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's a super Trump line.
Yeah. But then like the next part, I is weird.
Yeah, but hanging around that's that's not really a Trump sounding line.
Okay, sorry, it's weird. We've all been distracted.
So let's talk about what he said on Tuesday, power Plant Day, Bridge Day. Yeah, he said, quote, A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.
That's a Trump line.
Yeah, I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have complete and total regime change, a different, smarter and less radicalized minds prevail. Maybe something, maybe some Yeah, I don't know, I'm not so sure. Maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.
Who knows.
We will find out tonight when the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world, forty seven years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran. Real journey that you go on, Yeah, from a civilization will die tonight to God bless the great people of Iran.
Nightmarish.
I don't know what to make of that, Like it seems like he's just they obviously striking civilian target. It is a war crime. It is a war crime Israel does all the time. We covered that last time we spoke a whole civilization will die tonight seems borderlined, like genocidal as a threat.
Yeah, and that's not borderline, I think that is.
I think that's a thread of genocide. Yeah, Like this is which, by the way, is also like if you say this and then kill one person, like you are guilty of the crime of genocide. Yeah yeah, like I heard the genocide like.
It's not good. It is not good.
Let's talk about what actually happened. Right since then, just before the deadline, a huge number of strikes hit run, including the Ministry of Intelligence building at Chiraz. There's some evidence that that may have had some tunnels underneath it, Aerospace Research Institute, bridges and aluminium factory. Brigadier General Majid Hadmi, who is the head of IRGC Intelligence was also killed in the targeted strike. And we hit carg Island again.
Good finally, yeah, yeah. Let a lot of people think that this might have been a precursor to some kind of US land operation however.
Or nuclear weapons a lot, right, yeah, right.
We've seen this a lot. Right Again, when the president's saying you're going to wipe out it doesn't it doesn't make me feel calm. You should you should assume that the president might actually try to wipe out a culture.
I mean, I like that is.
My strong stance on this, is that based on what he's saying, it is not unreasonable for people to flip out over the statement. It's absolutely not people should be outraged that a president said he they were pretty strong enough. It's really bad, but like it's very bad.
Yeah, Like he should be hauled up in front of a tribunal like Melosovic, Like I am not on team.
We should just move past this absolutely.
Not like it's easy because everything's so insane to be like another insane thing. Everything's this is a guy who has the trigger for all the nukes saying he's going to wipe out a civilization, Like I would love.
To be the nothing ever happens, nothing happened here. It's fine, Like don't don't yield the Trump derangement syndrome guy, because it's a lot easier. But like, this is not something anyone should move past. He should go on trial for like this alone, like outside of the other stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, each of these tweets would constitute a reason for a trial in any previous presidency.
Since then, Pakistan.
Offered to mediate a ceasefire and these are negotiates touirrel going as Donald Trump was true thing. Irun reportedly made a list of its own demands. This is a translation from Persian, so not a word for word quotation.
Right.
It listed these in its telegram channels as control passage through the Straight Offorn moos in coordination with Iran's armed forces, the necessity of ending the war against all components of the Axis of Resistance, that withdrawal of US combat forces from all bases and deployments in the region, establishing a secure transit protocol, and the straight ofform MOOS that guarantees Iranian control, full payment of damages to Iran, removal of
all primary and secondary sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets and property abroad, and the ratification of all these items in a binding UN Security Council resolution.
The parties then.
Agreed to a two week ceasefire. Trump again shared the news of this on true social kind of done reading. I'm going to skip that one. That was a hanging around one. Very shortly thereafter, Israel began a massive bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran need to launch missiles at the occupied territories. Karenin Levitt has said that Trump refused the Iranian plan.
The Iranians originally put forward a ten point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable, and completely discarded. It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team. Many outlets in this room have falsely reported on that plan as being acceptable to the United States, and that is false.
So she was pretty emphatic about that. Trump attacks CNN for publishing the plan this morning. Trump has said that the Israeli attacks on Lebanon were quote a separate skirmish. Israels strike Lebanon a hundred times in just over ten minutes today, they dropped whole tower blocks in Beirut. That that is not a skirmish.
Nah.
He said, they're not part of the deal because US Buller's not part of the deal. Of course, in it run state media pushing that they have somehow achieved all of their ten points, which I think were their sort of goals for negotiation or a basis for negotiation. Trump has said to one reporter that the tolls on the Straight could be a joint venture between the United States and Iran, which.
Suggest there are some parts of this of this deal that that that are true that he has kind of agreed.
On that are at least on the table, right like these are the bases, which was how they were initially reported by CNN and others that these had been accepted as a basis for negotiation. They had not been accepted whole cloth. Some people of some whom I think are acting in bad faith, have said. Since this morning, the Wall Street Journal has reported that the tolls will be paid in cryptocurrency or Chinese one. Yeah, and that Iran
is broadcasting VHF messages. It's very high frequency. It's radio frequency warning non paying ships crossing the straight ofform Moves that they will be targeted. Trump had providly said the straight ofform Moves is open. This doesn't seem like that.
The tolls about like two million, right.
Well, there have been various proposals. Some I said two million dollars. I've seen different dollar sums per barrel of oil transiting the strait. I guess it would depends if it's if it's it's a US Iranian partnership. You know how we're going to account for the exchange rate. Everyone has to get their peace right.
Yeah.
Yes, the two million dollars number was thrown around a lot.
Yeah, and it's worth noting that the strait is not open now. It is simply not the number.
Is there a lessons stopp launching strikes?
Well, even if they wanted to open it right now, they would have to remove the mines that they've put in it.
Right, we don't know how how many mines there are, if there are.
So there are still ships going through, there's not many of them, Like there's I think it was the number I saw for today was four.
Yeah.
Yeah, like so like it is technic, it is possible to go through, but the four is like one of the lowest numbers that has happened since the strait was first closed. So it has has simply not been reopened. Trump says this constantly.
It's down to one channel, would be my guests, right, Like, it's because and then that they're advising those ships. I'm guessing we're sending a pilot craft perhaps to go between the mines.
Yeah. I haven't seen any reporting on how they're getting them through.
Yeah, I haven't. The extent to which they've laid minds is really unclear. Yeah, Like all we know is that they have the capacity to do so, in that the US has been striking craft that are set to lay minds. But like, I haven't heard of any evidence of a ship getting hit with the mine yet.
Right, Yeah, neither of I.
So perhaps they haven't laid any or we don't know what they've done. They may have decided that that was more of than they needed to do at this point. Yeah.
Yeah, And so far, all of the attacks on ships have been with other more conmitional weapons.
Yeah, either sea drones or missiles of various kinds.
Yeah, shooting them with guns in a couple of cases.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Garrison, let's start with this clip of JDV talking about the inclusion of Lebanon in this ceasefire.
First of all, I actually think and there's a lot of bad faith negotiation and a lot of bad faith, you know, propaganda going on. I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't. We never made that promise, We never indicated that was going to be
the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran, and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Golf are of states.
So yeah, let's talk about Israel, right, a country which famously loves it to respect a ceasefire, Israel has continued to strike inside it ran it has not stopped since the announcement of this ceasefire, right, it has shown no indication of wanting to stop. It is also continued, as
I said, it's massive bombing campaign inside Lebanon. It seems to be the case, whatever was negotiated, the Israelis do not perceive the ceasefire as applying to them, or at least the IDF does not, I should say, rather than the ralis right, and therefore Iran does not perceive it as being obliged to no longer strike Israel.
Yeah.
I mean, the whole situation right now is very unclear and is literally changing by the hour.
Yeah, Like by the time we're done recording this, right.
Yeah, So we're recording this Wednesday afternoon.
By the time this comes out Thursday night slash Friday morning, there could be a whole different situation.
Yeah. Yeah, I'll try and record a pickup if we have to.
But yeahs, as of Wednesday afternoon, this is what the sort of ambiguity around around the deal looks like, and the level of compliance regarding Israel and the United States.
Yeah, there are two more things I want to talk about that have been reported on the last Obviously, this has been reported and widely because it is a threat to all of our lives if we're going to start a nuclear war. The pak is head down. Freedom Party says it's leader's headquarters. This was interally reported as home. They did send me a text to use the word home WhatsApp, but I think, judging by what I have heard from other reports in the region, it's better described
as headquarters. Were struck with several Iranian missiles. This came after, according to Fox News, the President claimed that the United States sent weapons to protesters in Iran in January, but that quote the Kurds kept them.
Now, a video of Trump.
Addressing the issue does not explicitly name the Curds, it does imply that they don't have guns.
You know, we send some guns, but the group that was supposed to give which I said.
What happened to my people?
I said it.
I called it exactly.
We sent guns, a lot of guns. They were supposed to go to the people said they could fight back against these ducks. You know what happened The people that they sent them to kept them because they said, what a beautiful gun.
I think I'll keep it.
So I'm very upset with this. Certain group of people and they're gonna pay a big price for that. But the Iranian people will fight back as soon as they know they're not going to be shot and as soon as they can get weapon.
This is one of the most things I've seen.
It's up there with him threatening to Easter Bunny.
I hesitate to use the word Lynchian because that work gets misapplied a lot and and asks him and this is not a perfect invocation of Lynchian either, but it's getting closer with this with the sort of one of.
The more Lynchian things to happen in real life.
It's incredible stuff with like the Eastern jazz in the back, crash of vibes. Yeah, as there's like flowers over the archway, Yeah, I think no. This there's sort of the sort of juxtaposition, right, which I think is the is the key part of lynch is like is the surreal with the mundane, And you have parts of this here where you have this sort of a tensity of the stuff Truck's talking about with the Eastern jazz and his like purple tie and
the Easter decorations in the background. This is this is a stunning piece of media.
Stunning piece of history.
God yeah, I saw this yesterday and I thought I need to expose my colleagues to this, like one of the most incredible thirty seconds of video. To come back to topic at hand, various Rogulati groups have denied this, and it would be an extreme logistical challenge to provide weapons to Kurdish arm groups, most of whom have most of their personnel in Iraq, and for them to transit those weapons to Tehran. I don't believe that that would have been something that any US administration would entertain.
What guns would they give them that they don't because if these groups tend to be pretty well supplied with small personal arms we're talking about like your battle rifles and you know, long range precision rifles and the like, what they lack is man portable anti aircraft and man portable anti armor. Those are kind of some of the most precious pieces of gear to them, and I doubt Trump was offering to send that into Iran, among other things.
We probably don't want to be sending a bunch of man portable anti aircraft into Iran.
Right now, Like that's spamfire.
But that's the only shit I can see These different groups wanting to take for themselves.
Yeah, it's especially strange because, like I watched a lot of videos of armed attacks on uh like Iranian police in January of this year, and they were using very basic weapons, to include quite a few of the pak using pump action shotguns.
Yeah.
I don't think the US sent them pump action shotguns.
No, that would be a weird We don't. The US military doesn't have a lot of pump action shot is just laying around. Yeah, that's not like the first gun they'd have a bunch of to hand over to somebody.
They've probably got more.
Ak's than that.
Yeah, and like there were ak's used as well, but like these are very basic episodes, as you say, like this doesn't seem like anything that would come from the US. Also, in Kurdistan and Iranian drones struck Zagazawi village, killing Musa anwar Rasul age thirty nine, and his wife Musta Asad Hassan. Their children both survived. This is really heartbreaking, and like there are really horrible videos of their children like confronting
the fact that they are now orphans. Right and because of stories like this one, which I do not see any basis for in fact, Kurdistan is being absolutely hammered
by Iranian bonds, right. Little children are losing their parents, and like, I'm really disturbed, as I say every week, by the campus tendency to ignore this or to say that it has to happen because the Kurds don't have a state, or even the sort of blue wave tendency to sort of handwave this and say, well, Donald Trump started the war, so Iran gets to murder Curtis Villians Like I just.
Find it so heartbreaking.
And Robert and I have both spent time in Kurdistan, and the fondness for the people there but makes me mad.
It's all pretty bleak and disappointing. Well, you know what else disappointing every week we have to do this. It's an ad break.
All right, we're back.
We still have three or four important stories that we're gonna do here before we close, James, want to start.
With your section on the threat to press freedom.
Yeah, so I think this is important. President Trump has said that his doj will seek to prosecute the person who quote leaked the information that the F fifteen's weapon safety officer was missing an evading caption Iran quote, We're going to go to the media company that released it, and we're going to say national security.
Give it up or go to jail. Trump said, quote.
The entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life. It wasn't pilots, It was a weapons officer, but airmen.
Right.
I can't quite find who broke the story, because it's not really a story that broke. It didn't require anyone to leak anything to know that someone was missing because the wreckage, and without seeing the wreckage, people weren't really willing to publish the story, right, They had no confirmation
and around says wild shit all the time. Yeah, the wreckage was photographed and published by presumably Iranian sources, and it very clearly showed the livery of a US Air Force F fifteen based out of Lake and Heath, which is near Cambridge in the United Kingdom. There were some very early reports before we fore photos that the plane should shut down was an F thirty five and that would have been a single seater, right, But as soon as the images came out, everyone knew that wasn't the case.
It was an F fifth Strike Eagle.
Yeah, and there are single seat to F fifteen variants, but I don't believe any of them are active duty US Air Force Strike Eagles will always.
Have two people.
It's not a single seater, right, So nobody had to leak that information for it to be obvious that if they had collected one person, then there was still one person. This does represent quite a serious attack on the First Amendment. People are killing and dying over IRUN, and our tax dollars are supporting that have a right to know. Journalism has played a role in the way Americans perceive conflict for a very long time.
Right.
We can think about the Napalm Girl photo. Understand that photo now has disputed authorship. We can think about well to cronkite Vietnam War.
We can think about Abba.
Gray hib There is no federal press shield law though, and journalists have been held in contempt for refusing to reveal sources on that security issues before. This is a serious threat and it's one that I think everyone should take very seriously.
Yeah.
Well, and it's a very important part of the last little section of the Newsroom TV show. There's a whole plot line about death and it shows.
Yes, yes, yes, Gareth, there sure is.
So I just thought that's worth mentioning.
You guys have told me not to what size. It'll make me angry, and I've respected that.
You should not, James Will, you will lose your mind. It's not good for you.
There's a lot of stuff spaking me angry right now. So I'm gonna give that one.
Too much Sorkin at the moment is very quickly becomes toxic.
Too much Sorkin has really fucked up a lot of people in this country.
Yeah, speaking of things that will really fuck you up, our beautiful tariff music jaz rocky jazz rock, jazz rocky jazz. Ah. So glad that we're back to talking about tariffs.
So okay, if we have a couple of wrong related tariff things, Garrett, are we playing the nightmare clip? We have to play the nightmare clip. We're playing the nightmare clip. Okay, this is okay. When when inevitably, in the course of humanity they have to make a museum to explain to people what capitalism was, this is what they are going to show.
This is a clip from the quote unquote news agency c NBC.
Deadline that President Trump has set a PM has threatened to destroy a civilization. How do how does how does an investor process that is it is it a bigger upside risk or downside risk?
Big upside risk are downside risk to genocide? How do we do? She kind of looks up and then just goes right in.
Like when when they have to like explain to people, right like how how eight billion people were like consumed into these like roles that they were forced to inhabit by the machination of capital. This is gonna be the one. Oh god.
It turns out the markets responded very positively to Trump's threats to destroy a civilization.
It's I you know, what if we didn't have market, what if there wasn't a line? I oh god. Okay, so speaking of bad things, I guess so. On Wednesday, Trump posted on truth Social quote a country capital CE country supplying capital M military weapons to Iran will be immediately triffed on any and all goods sold to the United States of America fifty effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions.
So can he do this?
Yes? Key nined Listeners may remember that the legal authority he was claiming to have to do this. The Supreme Court made go away, so can you do this? Look okay, the way he's describing this right sounds like he's using trade authority. It may be that buried somewhere deep in the annals of like sanction policy or some shit. Maybe there's something. I went through all of the trade authority that I know of to try to find any legal
authority for this. The short version is there isn't. The long version is okay, So I guess in theory, maybe if you squint right, you could use Session three oh one of the nineteen seventy four Trade Act. But that's supposed to be a national security risk from unfair trade practices, so it could technically work. But the thing is you also have to that specific one. We've talked about this on the show before. You have to like set up
a commission and do a trade study. And there's like all this stuff, so it can't work immediately.
No, And Trump doesn't seem like a big set up a commission guy.
I mean, well, thing is that they actually have done
this for China already. But I don't know if you squint like really hard, like like if you like really really squint at like section two thirty two, like maybe in theory, like but like no, like, if you're really willing to believe that, like the president has the ability to be like this is what the law says, then maybe the only way I can see this working is if he invokes section three thirty eight, which is the this is like the remaining part of the Smoot Holly tariffs.
Now fantasy goods.
Yeah, so like, Okay, there is a small chance that, like you the listeners may have heard of the Smoot Holly tariffs, and that's because it's the one that made the Great Depression worse yep, and no one's ever used them, since it's not even clear if they're on the books anymore, because like this is a legitimate thing of academic discussions, like whether these are even still in a fact, because they haven't been used, they're technically still there, but also
no one has like ever used them. And also there's been like subsequent laws regulating trade. So I don't know, there's no way he can do this legally that wouldn't immediately fall apart, It wouldn't fall apart eventually to a court challenge, except maybe the Smooth Holly like nuclear bomb desperation thing. I don't know. It's very unclear to me whether any of this is ever even going to be attempted to be implemented. He shouldn't be able to do this. It's just Calvin ball bullshit.
But who knows it would be China era pajamas what he's going for there, right, Like China's so weapons to Ryan.
Yeah, and like there's also a lot of speculation, like I think Reuters reported this that this might be a thing because there's going to be a trade summit with Beijing. But if you're a trade person in Beijing, you also know that he can't do this, So it's not real leverage. I don't know, nightmare. Let's talk about some relatively fun I guess news back at home.
Interesting certainly.
Yeah. So one of the things that happened this week was there was a series of elections and the result of those elections was the Republicans got absolutely hammered, like all up and down the ballot in Wisconsin. They did they performed terribly in Georgia. So the big Democratic win was in Wisconsin. So polls had Chris Taylor, who was the Democratic candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court up by about seven or eight percent. Chris Taylor won this election
by twenty oh wow. Yeah, there was also a full sweep of the whole like mombs for liberty school board slates in a bunch of elections in very conservative Wakeisha County. The specific one where every single one of them lost and they fully cleared out all of the monster liberty people was a very petifical one that was famous for doing a whole bunch of these right wing book bands
and stuff like that, and they're they're all gone. And this is this is you know, a continuation of a trend that we've seen over the past couple of years. Really were like year year and a half where all of these weird monster liberty widers just get clobbered. Now, also in that same county in the actual like mayoral election of Wakisha, like the city of Wakeisha, the Democrats won that election, which they haven't done in ages.
Yeah, this is like one of their biggest Republican like the stronghold victories, and like they will always win this seat.
Yeah, you know, and this is something that like everyone from wiscons has been talking about, which is if they
can't win here, they can't win Wisconsin at all. Yeah, there's there's no way, right, And again, like you know, I'm gonna get into this more in a second, but like the Democrats were projected to win this seat and this is obviously a by election, and this this is this the Supreme Court seat that they won is like them getting to five Q. So it wasn't like the majority seat in the way that the last one of these elections were. But they were projected to win by like seven and they won by twenty.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's that's big wow, which is astonishing.
Part of again you mentioned the a bunch of these, like school board elections in Wisconsin. It's not just Wisconsin, I mean in a lot of the most conservative tarot to the most conservative counties in Texas. Over the last year, basically every school district that was taken by the Moms for Liberty types has been completely like they have been completely thrown out. And that has been happening around the country.
There's a lot that people are focusing on when looking at like why are numbers so fucking dogshit for Republicans white night right now? Why are they getting beaten by such wide margins? And it's certainly way more than one
thing is responsible. But I think something that has not gotten enough attention that has been dooming them Republicans electorally is that they got what they wanted in the branch of the chunk of our government that is hardest to ignore for the average American, which is like, what's happening to their kids in schools? And a bunch of regular people who were not all that political saw that, like, my kid can't like check books out any the fuck is raw happening here?
And they went crazy.
They not crazy, they got really pissed off, rightfully, so, and I think this is going My hope is that this turns out to be one of their worst strategic missteps in this period of time is their belief that we can just go fucking ape shit on schools and no one will care.
Yeah. Well, and this brings me back to something I've been talking about for a while, which is that so, like one of the other results that we're sort of looking at here is so there was an election in Georgia in this like as a Stou's special election for the seat that was Mergory Taylor Green's old district. This is like one of the most unhinge Republican districts in the entire country. Trump won it by forty and the Republican Clay Fuller, did win, but he only he won
by twelve points in a county that Trump carried by four. Yeah. Yeah, that's like it's like it's like a twenty eight point ship. Yeah right, it's it's unbelievable. Now, obviously they didn't win here, but there's been a lot of stuff about how, Okay, well, this is just because democrats. Democrats do better among high information voters. Those are the people who vote in these off cycle elections that aren't during the normal election cycle. Blah blah blah. There's a lot of this kind of stuff.
That's a kind of stuff that puts you ahead, as as the polls were showing in Wisconsin that puts you ahead by like seven that that does not explain a thirteen percent over performance. Yeah, yeah, right. And I think what is happening here is something I've said consistently, and this is something that I think Robert is sort of explaining why this is happening, is that polars are still using's they're still using as as their basis for what they assume the electure is going to be. They're using
the data from the electorate from the twenty twenty four election. Yeah, because that's that's the standard practice, right, you use as a sample, you know, and you make some like adjustments because it's a by election and stuff like that. But like they're using as as a sample base of voters the people from twenty twenty four and that electorate does not exist anymore because it's been completely destroyed. Yeah, right,
all of these people have suddenly been mobilized. Like the whole city of Minneapolis has been like turned into this like weird I don't know, I mean, guess on negative. It's like there's like Minneapolis has had a level of mobilization that is like possibly has never been seen before
in US history. All of these like people who had been you know, just like not political at all are And this is the other thing with like these school board election is that these are mostly people who were not political people at all, who just swept in because they're like their school's got fucked with. The entire electorate has changed. It shows there's like a deep fluidity here. Right.
There's a lot of people who supported Trump because of economic conditions which were blamed on the Democrats and they moved for Trump, and there was a lot of these same people are not like Trump or Republican loyalists. They're they're reacting to the economic conditions and the messaging from each party. And this is reflected in the you know, the number of Trump's zorn voters, even the number of people who vote Trump and AOC in New York.
Right.
Yeah, they're not like mega loyalists, right, But but it's showing how there is a big fluidity among the types of people that do decide elections.
Yeah, but then there's all there's also and this is I think the the other side of this too, right, is that there's once people who haven't voted, I just didn't give a shit at all, and those people are suddenly being mobilized, and this is turning into like the Democrats are like winning a whole bunch of like rural
counties in these elections. Right yeah. Yeah, And now the last thing I want to talk about in sort of this kind of section of everybody hates the Republicans is that the Issues in Insights CPP survey for April shows Trump with a thirty nine percent approval rating. This poll,
which has done a bunch of times. Every year they give they give like a bunch of topics where they give a through F rankings from like immigration to the economy to like the wars in Iran Ukraine, and like a plurality of the votes were an F on every single one. Even immigration immigrants was the one that was kind of close between that and like A. Every single
other one was down double digits. Okay, if you look at like c DF versus like AB or if you like ignore C right, it's so much more in the category of like d's and.
F's on the negative side in general.
Yeah, yeah, like this is for every single issue.
I'm guessing it was kind of a binary distribution, right, like a lot of a's or a lot of f's and not much.
There's actually a surprising number of b's, but that's interesting. Yeah, and like a decent number of d's, but yeah, it was like mostly f's and then everything else is kind of spread up between the other ones. I mean, all of this is before the like I'm a civilization will die tonight stuff.
Which which did cause negative reactions from people in the in the conservative base. Yeah, and the people voting in Georgia and and Wisconsin. I want to play this clip here. This was a clip from from from Georgia of a Georgia voter who is interviewed on election day.
It's giving war crime. You can't do that. We don't just annihilate people because we can and you know, make a grab for the money and the old. And that's what we've done in Venezuela, and that's what we're doing in Orion.
It's giving war crime.
It's giving war crime.
I need to take it. This is this is it's beautiful positive. Yes, that's the message. And the Democrats to come up with on this.
This is this is like a well then her thirties or forties, yeah, holding holding a kid at nine. This broadcast was at nine thirty three am in Rome, Georgia, on election day.
Yep, it is it's giving war crime.
Yeah. And you know, if if you look at that like the Yugo of Economist poll, which is from like April first, but like even at April first, he had just an atrocious thirty five percent approval rating, which is that's like that's like end of the Bush administration shit.
All of this. The important part of this is that like the Democrats are still really historically unpopular right now because everyone's piss at them for not doing anything, but the actual mass of people in this country fucking hate all of this. They're pissed off everything that is happening. Everything you ask about that Trump is doing, they are
fucking angry about. And you know, this is this is this is the kind of anger and the kind of just generalized rays that I think there's no really good way to measure outside of the tools that we've developed for elections or in terms of just like you know, sometimes you get street mobilizations like this anger like is the defining thing of the United States right now, So that everybody's pissed the fuck off about this, and yeah, and every opportunity they get to express that this shit
fucking sucks, they do. This is what American politics is, even as everything is unbelievably hideously bleak from all of the shit that people are doing.
Speaking of people who are pissed off, there's one final story that I'll go through pretty quick before we close this episode. Last Wednesday, to celebrate April Fool's Day, Trump fired Pam Bondi as Attorney General. Trump told Bondi about his plan to fire her while in the car together to watch the Supreme Court oral arguments on birthright citizenship.
Jesus, there's video of it.
There's video of it. It's amazing, like credit to Fox, but they got a shot of them in the limo and Trump is clearly telling her, and it's when we know he was telling her. It's an amazing little artifact. All you can make out is their faces kind of and their body language. But it rips. It's so funny.
Bondi tried to convince Trump to let her stay on till at least summer, but to no avail. Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as acting Attorney General until the President nominates a full replacement. On Tuesday, Blanche said quote, nobody has an the idea why Bondi
was fired, except for President Trump. Those sources close to the White House have told multiple outlets that Trump had a growing frustration with Bondi for a while, especially related to her failure to successfully prosecute certain political enemies and
the fallout from her handling of the Epstein files. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zelden has been floated as a prospective replacement for Attorney General at the EPA, Zelden has led efforts to roll back environmental regulations and climate protections related to endangered species, wetlands, and emissions before working in the second Trump administration. Zelden lost the race for New York governor to Kathy Hochel by seven percentage points, a
relatively close race for New York. Zelden is a Trump loyalist, fought against the presidents to impeachments while in Congress and refused to certify the twenty twenty election results. Zelden's a retired U. S. Army lieutenant colonel who served four years in active duty as a military intelligent officer, federal prosecutor, and military magistrate, and two thousand and six was deployed with the eighty second Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Wait, so, if he's a troop cop, military magisty, a troop judge, he served he served in a few roles. Yeah, that's troop cop shit.
He started as a prosecutor and a judge, the.
Hated and reviled Ye troop cop.
He looks like maybe he at some point went to law school there.
Right, he went to law school in New York, either during that time or beforehand. It all kind of takes place around because I think he got out of law schol around thousand and four. At at the time he was the youngest person to finish law school in New York.
Oh wow, he was in his early twenties. After he got out of the military or out of active duty, he briefly served as an attorney for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and also private practice for a little bit before he went into the State Senate and then eventually US Congress. Now before Bondie's firing, Hambondi was scheduled to testify in front of the House
Oversight Committee about the EPSO files on April fourteenth. Now, Democrats on the committee still want her to testify, as she holds relevant knowledge, but on Wednesday morning, the Justice Department released a statement saying Bondi would not appear at the hearing on the fourteenth quote since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General unquote. This is a little bit untrue. She
was not subpoenaed by her title as Attorney General. She was subpoenaed by name as Pam Bondi now Oversite Commitee. Democrats have responded by saying, if Bonnie does not comply with the bipartisan subpoena addressed to her by name, they will quote begin contempt charges unquote. Republican Nancy Mace has said, quote Pam Bondi cannot escape accountability simply because she no
longer holds the office of Attorney General. Our motion to subpoena Panbondy, which was passed by the Oversset Committee, was for a Bondi by name, not by title. She will still have to appear before the Oversight Committee for a sworn deposition. The American people deserve answers, and we expect her to appear as soon as a new date is set unquote. So it appears they will try to reschedule
her for a new date. Bondie's firing is interesting in the context of Christy nomes firing, as for the first year or so of Trump's second term, he really resisted making changes to his cabinet. Right These these sorts of frequent changes were a hallmark of his first of his first term, yeah, and for the start of his second he seemed to not want to do that and instead got like his ranks of loyalists that he was going
to work with. But since Christi nomes firing, that has clearly changed, and this is prompted speculation about who could be next, from people like Tulci Gabbard to Cash Betel or Pete haig Seth.
I think Gabbard.
Is certainly certainly one of one of the people. If I was one of these three would I would be most nervous if I was Gabbard. Tell's an odd is an odd character. I'm really am not sure what's in the future for him a podcast, and I think that what happens eventually in Iran will determine what goes on with haig Seth.
I've been rumored that some of the reason that heg Seth has been sort of purging high command in the military is that he has concerned that those people would be his replacements, like alternates for him sec death. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Ptel was under more heat. I feel like during I've been following the shooting of Charlie kirk Great the assassination, and that their failure to find the assassin for some time.
Yeah, and his and his uh plane tickets and his trips with his girlfriends.
Yeah, the failure with Savannah Guthrie too.
Yeah, Trump Trump did not like that clip of him in the hockey locker room.
H Yeah, yeah, there have been quite a few. Now you mentioned them.
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