It Could Happen Here Weekly 231

Also media.

Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let you know this is a compilation episode, So every episode of the week that just happened is here in one convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to listen to in a long stretch if you want. If you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, there's going to be nothing new here for you, but you can make your own decisions.

Hi, everyone, it's me James. I just wanted to do very quick introduction to the episode. We have split it into two parts because it went longer than we expected, so you hear the first part to date, and you will hear the second part tomorrow.

Welcome everyone to It's going to happen here. My name is Mick, and I'm here with the lovely James Stouts and the lovely Molly Conger. How are you guys doing.

I'm great, so excited. I just love violive France. I love all things French. I've had such great times in France. I just particularly lovely French identitarism. So I'm excited.

You love French, No, it's love it with like like French.

James out huge, I just love.

Like like the the idea like of the themong nations, like France has chosen one. It's just like, I'm not particularly anti French, but it is quite funny to me.

James travels to France every year to go to what do they still have generation identity?

Yeah?

Every and I uh and every year they say, oh, well, your accent is not correct. You've not used vo in the in the requisite time. Therefore you are no longer welcome here. I went to France once with some Quebec quir friends. This is a funny, like low key identity story. I've already derailed this.

Don't worry, don't worry.

I went with two Quebec quar friends and we like were doing something official and I did it, conducted my thing in French.

It was fine.

I speak French and this wasn't an issue for me. And then they went up at this woman just when you don't speak French, sir, and then begin and addressing them in English because she was unwilling to accept the coco quebecqua in France.

They're so mean.

Yeah, well, I for one am excited to hear about I don't know a lot about this guy.

No, he's a weird little guy, my favorite kind of guy. Yeah, exactly, notably, which is why I asked you. I'm also just recovering from like an English person here saying that they love France. But that must be like a historically first time that that happen.

Good place to race bikes, It's a good place to if you like to hang out in the mountains and race bikes. Pretty much France, Spain. Maybe Italy is where it's at.

I visited once and I didn't I don't know. People are always saying that you are so cruel to Americans. That wasn't my experience, but most people there long enough. Yeah it's and you know, I'll always treasure the week that I spent in Paris because it is the only reason I didn't get deported from Germany for visa violations.

Okay, that that is a story I actually want to hear. I've ever done recording. So but yeah, we're talking about French identitarianism, French Nazis. But before you start, James, I wanted to ask you a very important question. First, you have a podcasting honorary degree, a PhD. I've heard that's right.

Yeah, me and Joe Rogan both.

Yeah, exactly, And I just must ask, how do you deal with the recurring trauma of having to hear your own voice on recording?

I play it at one point five time speed, so it doesn't sound like me.

I was very curious about that. I've also had a fair shoff having to hear my own voice, and it just doesn't get any easier. No.

I thought I would struggle with it because I hate the sound of my own voice in casual context, but like listening to my own podcast.

I guess because I talk like this on my podcast and it sounds a little different, right, So it's.

Like, oh, you go into podcast mode.

Yeah, yeah, I have observe at Terry gross thing cooking.

Okay, okay, yeah, I'll try that.

I'll do my Molly voice next time. Well, see that this is the kind of information that I need to cope with.

Now you have to form an alter ego, oh.

Like a into your podcast self a podcast the Doctor Checkle and mister Hyde exactly. Yeah, podcasting is just the id of every man. Every every white guy in the world has a podcasting id.

This is uh. Freud would have loved this era.

He wouldn't you don't have to psychoanalyze anyone anymore because they just say shit.

Just say it. They'll just say it.

They put it on through social like it's not fun anymore. He'd be bored.

Well, that would be counteracted by like the higher quality cocaine that we have right now compared to his era. You would also be prosecuted for feeding his children cocaine. So you know, you win some of you lose some. You never know.

Jeffrey Epteen got away with a lot of shit, Like maybe maybe Freud could have joined the club.

That's a horrifying mix of worlds.

That's else about this French Nazis today.

Oh okay, okay, I'm just I'm starting with a bit of an introduction because this story actually happens in my hometown of Utrecht. Oh no, shit, Yeah. Somewhere midway through February, a message started to circulate in far right circles in the Netherlands. It originated from a group called Defend Netherlands, who made a public call to visit the AKU on the night of Thursday twenty sixth to remember Quentin killed in a cowardly manner by Antifa in Lyon. Earlier that

Oh, it's called defend it's not translated. It's it's not translated.

That's so interesting I find with European Nazi groups used primarily English.

It is because it is born American audience.

Yeah, they're trying to communicate something.

Because Americans only speaking yes, yeah, but.

Anyway, that was the message that was circulated on Instagram and telegram. The top of the in which that was shared showed a Celtic cross, a symbol with a Christian and Pagan origins but politically often used by white supremacists and neo fascist groups. At the bottom is an Italian slogan in orange letters at the national color of the Netherlands, reading pertucti camarati caluti presente. The slogan originates from the Italian fascist movements and means for our fallen comrades present,

You're asking the wrong crowd speaks French French.

I guess it's der hunk like what d e I A n k e.

U e.

Q Okay, I will I will butcher dispronunciation. It's okay if it's a Nazzi, yeah, exactly, it's okay.

If it's French that that Molly money's now going to get kicked out of Paris never again, a law of money.

Okay, I'll help you circumvent Dutch fees. Don't worry. But Dan Dan was a far right activist who died on February fourteenth after a violent altercation between the far right and the far left. I also want to make like a broad disclaimer, regardless of where anyone who listening to this stance politically, I'm still going to say this was tragic.

I think it's always a tragic thing for someone to get beaten to death in the street, or at least almost.

Always, almost almost always.

But you know, I'm not saying it's wrong to punch a Nazi in the face, but I think beating a young man to death is probably not necessary in this case, definitely.

And I don't want to make it come off like this is a celebration of some sorts, because it's not. It's a tragedy. And as much as the world will be a better place without his politics, I still think it's within my own moral lines to say, like, fuck, this shouldn't have happened.

Yeah, And I think that's important to acknowledge upfront, because I think me if I'm wrong, I don't know exactly where the conversation is going. But from what I have seen in you know, following a bunch of telegram chats from Nazis all over the world. And I haven't engaged really with this story. I don't know a lot about it, but I see his name a lot. So his death

As a political tool.

Right, It's like, it's not about the tragedy of his death for the people who would have been his friends.

No, and I think we could add some asterisks later on with friends.

Because he wasn't white, wasn't he he.

Was half I think his mother was.

Peruvian, half Peruvian exactly. Yeah, anyway, sorry, sorry to derail me.

No, that's fine.

His death is tragic, and I think that is a much more generous read of the situation than many of his comrades would actually have.

Yeah. And also it's like, if I'm going to celebrate it, then I'm no better than they would would be other than being on the night different political aisle. So but those two things can exist at the same time. But to get back who was Quentin. He was a student at Leon University. I've read contradictory reports on what it exactly was that he studied, but it was in the

Well, yeah, these are the things said by the people who loved him.

This was a friend of his who spoke to the media.

Yeah, I mean, you always hear this about I mean, I don't know anything about Quentin specifically, but just because someone close to him said he was he was a nice boy. He was never violent. You heard that about mass shooters. Yeah, yeah, great, ass.

All exactly and apparently he was so devout in his Catholicism that he managed to convince several family members to convert, which led to him becoming his own father's godfather. Oh wow, if you're.

An adult convert, anyone can be your sponsor any other baptized Catholic adult.

Every he can confirmed Catholic adult.

But it still feels weird to me. It's like, who's going to give who presents in in that dynamic?

Or yeah, what's the Christmas dynamic? Now does he do you get? Do you get too?

Oh?

Yeah, exactly.

Otherwise they've just shorted you right like someone else could it. Any any adult Catholic could have done that, and his dad will be cashing in now exactly.

And now now it's just an equal trait, uh sort of yeah, because they have to give each other presents. The image painted of Quentin in the early day of the coverage after his death overwhelmingly attempted to paint him as like this devout person, as a curious bystander who was either at the wrong place at the wrong time, or ominously targeted by left wing militants. This narrative seemed to dominate until his Twitter accounts were found. So you already know where this is going.

Yeah, I agreet.

One of the first posts he bait was about his support for the repeal of the Plevin and Guisa laws, which are French laws that prohibit the Holocaust denial, among other things. Subsequent posts throughout the following years were frequently antisemitic, racist, Islamophobic, fascist, and homophobic. There will be some quotes later on. What stood out to me most is that he seemed to

Yeah, I mean, the French really do excel at sort of academic anti semitism. So he's really I mean, that's he's getting back to his French identity.

Right, exactly, Yeah, exactly. Unlike most French academics, half of the things are completely impossible to understand. So another quote from Quentin here, a fascist is someone who supports fascism, someone who affirms the premacy of the state over the individual. He wants the state to be a regenerative force, of a moral order and to unite the nation. He opposes liberalism and Marxism.

So if he hadn't had it that last caveat, it could be describing like a Stalinist, right.

Like, yeah, I think that's why it was added. It just copy pasted it.

And also, by the way, those commies, yeah all right.

Yes, the anti Tanky brigade has arrived. So sometimes he would also correct others or less in formed right wing activists, and he said, fascists and anti fascists literally have two opposing visions of society. Political violence is not unique to fascists. It is intrinsic to politics when you have a bit of character, a.

Bit of character that's oh well, well, yeah, that's I mean ironic. I suppose, yeah, that's one or a rather because it's not ironic.

Yeah, there is a broken clock moment in there in that. Like, political violence is not unique to fascists. But then but they.

Tend to use it more.

I would like, you know, I was racking my brain thinking about you know, sort of street deaths of this nature that that I'm familiar with in my work about you know, white supremacist violence.

They're usually the ones doing the killing.

Sure there's political violence not unique to fascism, but they sure do love it.

If they have embraced it. Yeah, but when thinking about the state and the how the state itself is like a violence machine, absolutely sort of supports a status quo.

Oh yeah, so I can kind of guess where he was hanging out online.

Oh yeah, well, he's really in deep your Twitter should have been enough of the red flag for that to be honest. Yeah, it's true, it's probably you could get that whole world view just from eggs dot comly everything.

But if he's reposting like T and D type content like this is this is not a guy who is just reading Thomas Aquinas.

No, no, you get what I'm saying. But no one should read Thomas Aquinas to be honest. Neither Saint Augustine. I've read both some and nonstick. What I do find very interesting was a particular tweet in which he compared African migration to German occupation, where he expressed his preference for doughleco selethic blondes over blacks with large nostrils and disproportionate lips. Oh that's great, and that that's a very nice scrabble word for those of you that play. It's

Yes, I love a good caliper guy ology.

No, this was like a branching off of phrenology. Okay, I dove into this because it was like the is he saying, yeah, But essentially it was used to make different races, and of course the Aryan race was the best one. Dooley's coocephalic refers specifically to the Aryan white race. What he essentially said is that I prefer to be

Level of I mean, that's very French, very French.

Well it it's reminded me of like creators of yours, Molly Richard Spencer, who I think wants I'm not sure if I can.

Oh he does.

He does love to let you know that he's read philosophy. Yeah, yeah, he's not a common gutter racist. He's read papers, he's read anthropology.

Okay, well we can bleep the following word out because I'm not too into like American discourse to know if I can say this, But I think at some point he referred to like people of African ancestry as ork taroons. Oh yeah, that's an it's a.

Very obscure, like old racial slur. Like it's something like my great great grandparents would have.

Said, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's a fascinating Yeah, they love to flag so they have read a book.

The N word is for common racists, I know, old fashioned racials.

They genuinely do see themselves above in the hierarchy of people who say that though like that.

With well, James has half a PhD, right.

PH he had, he had to drop out of this PhD program to pursue a career in professional racism.

I see.

To be fair, many people in the PhD academia world could have done that.

Pursue a career in professional racism.

Yeah, yes, yeah, the thing I had observed in the academy, I believe that instantly. Yeah, you could argue in fact that in some disciplines having a PhD is pursuing a career in professional racism.

Now I'm very curious as to what those disciplines are.

In anthropology more than fifty years ago. Oh yes, oh, de definitely it would be the obvious one.

Yeah, it's as an anthropologist. Yeah, very much, very much true. I could say it's it's less bad now nowadays that it was fifty or years ago, but still there definitely that there's still improvements to be made. And speaking of improvements, you are the products and services that support this spot, guests,

Oh that's a Nazi group.

Oh you don't say, my poor philosophy student. With those people, he had regular interactions with them, also with Odas Leon, who provided combat trainings in local park. Their slogans are nothing new or interesting. White people need to defend themselves

Very He's kind of a sprawny little guy.

Yeah, exactly.

He studied the way of the blade to blade.

Yeah, specifically. I have not found a bench Shapiro Ninja photo of him, but it would have been appropriate. At this point, I'm now quoting a little bit from media parts that also the ones who unearthed a lot of his tweets. In the spring of twenty twenty five, Quintin launched a small group in Bourgeois Jalieu. The ad sorry to the French speakers.

Sounded good to me.

Yeah. On May tenth in Paris, he was photographed wearing a partially covered by a neckwarmer and participated with a small group into a neo Nazi march that was organized annually in homage to a member of the Bitanist group, le'vre Francois, who died in nineteen ninety four. Aloes Bourgeois also paid tribute to Jean Marie la Perre one year after the death of the founder of the National Front.

Nazi and someone who is a member of several violent neo Nazi organizations.

Yeah, that tends to be like a very strict causation between hanging out with those groups and being one.

And I'd be very curious to know sort of what order these things happened in. Was his conversion to Catholicism part of his descent into these neo Nazi groups, because the sort of traditionalist Catholicism he was involved in, Because it looks like he was involved in Academia Christiania, which is not that's not normal, that's not church, that's a Nazi group.

Absolutely, in so far as I can tell, I think his conversion happened earlier, so.

Maybe a sincere conversion to Catholicism, but then he got involved in traditionalism, maybe as part of his entry into far right politics.

I know these things are very intertwined. Given the like this.

This Academia Christiana group was founded by one of the founders of Generation Identity these things are overlapped completely. He wasn't just going to Catholic Church. He was going to a very extreme right wing anti Semitic, identitarian traditionalist subgroup.

Yeah, to the Westboro Baptist Church. Pretty much.

French Catholicism.

French Catholicism. I don't know how many groups we've insulted with that comparison.

It's fine, we'll have to have Italian.

Oh, okay, then that's good. But with that bit of context about like Quentin's background behind him, we're going to go to the faithful day of February twelve when he was beaten. He was not fatally beaten, I have to say. But more on that a tiny bit later. On the day of February twelve, a French eupolemeritarian, a Palestinian woman named Rima Hassan, was giving a speech at the Leon Institute of Political Studies. Hassan is a member of the

Yeah, James, I see the look on your face. Girls can do fascism too.

Yeah, I'm sorry on the train chains.

Yeah, okay, women's rights and women's wrongs.

This is the only women's wrongs I will ever support.

I am curious what neo nazi feminism looks like, because they're not just like women's fascist group. Yeah, fascist feminist group. What do you think those words mean, babe? Yeah, I'm gonna find out more about that on my own time.

Yeah, yes, this is going to be Money's Evening gets logged in now.

Yeah, I can give you some pointers.

I'm familiar with women doing fascist organizing, but it's usually in sort of a convery, confined to a traditional female role.

So what are fascist feminists?

It was like the cession feminina of Francoist if if that's any indication, but maybe so.

Yeah, he was just being a gentleman providing security for these girl boss Nazis.

Pretty much. There is a very girl boss photo I found. I'll pull it up bit a bit, but yeah, they are identitarian air quotes. Feminists blame all sexual violence on people of color and Muslims. It is okay, great, Yeah, we knew this was coming.

I bet there are white boyfriends never never missing.

Never they respect to women no, depending on her race.

And her politics, of course.

And in the Beauty of the White Arian Woman, James Please.

A founder and frequent guest on various French writing platforms, Alice Cordier was the one who founded this collective. They seem to have like a few hundred people in the collective, but like a very small inner circle of like twelve people. And Alice Cordier was already at the center of a controversy. On March tenth this year, journalist Ricardo Pereira posted a photo on Twitter of Alice mimicking an ASS symbol with

Wow, it's all coming together.

Yeah exactly. So this is Alice doing an AS symbol her hands.

Oh yeah, okay, look at her Okay, yeah, yeah, wow. That looks very intentional.

This doesn't seem like a gesture you would make by accidents.

Hm hmmm.

Alice called a bas question, what does this sign mean?

Yeah exactly, And just because we were talking about the Girl Boss, can you see it?

Oh wow?

Yeah, oh wow, Okay, well wow they are Wow what a vibe.

Yeah, definite girl bosses m hm yeh. Pant suit fascism.

Business casual fascism for the woman in the workplace.

Wow.

Yeah, it's the other pantsuit nation, yeah.

An all white pantsuit nation.

Yea yeah, yeah, yeah.

Although two of those women don't actually look Anglo Saxon.

It's so interesting to me.

That's something for the French to figure out.

French identity and national identity is different.

It's more immigrants. Your grandparents were fine.

Yeah, ladder up exactly. Now now it's starting to punch down on the other people who've had We don't have the opportunities my parents had. Yeah, not a phenomenon that's unique to France.

Oh no, not at all.

I mean settle a colonial country of the United States.

French and colonialism, James, really no, they never would do that, not the French. All those places were parts of France.

They're not still doing that.

No. I think all cheers would like to have a word with you. Molly. That that was Alice from a like the Nemesis Collective.

Yeah, that's a collection of my nemesies.

Now, yeah, like that is the name I used when I was fourteen and I had to make up a character name when I was playing video games or something.

It's like, it's not original. Yeah, it is extremely teenage.

Like Angel of Darkness, levels of cringe, something like that. Yeah. But what I found most frightening about these people, though, is they seem to be incredibly media sevy and cunning as a group. And to give you an example, in June of twenty twenty four, several members of this group infiltrated an anti far right protest in Paris. They had brought slogans highlighting legal convictions or trials from several high

That one cool thing we did, we'll never do it again, never again.

Yeah, yeah, the best thing about France pulling the old ladder up behind them.

Again exactly, there's no return to tradition if that's the thing you're going to make illegal. And I thought these guys were traditionalists exactly like same with the Dutch. We can't do it anymore. But I think back in the seventeen hundreds we literally clubbed some high functionary to death and ate him and his brother.

We can't do it anymore, but we can't do it anywhere just because of woke, Because of woke exactly.

This is the one Dutch tradition I foolheartedly support. If you're upset with your elected official now well elected air quotes, because I don't think they were elected, then now you know, some casual cannibalism might just do the trick. Yeah, well, if you.

Guys bring back clubbing out of control elected officials, we could look the other way on some of your more questionable Christmas traditions.

Oh, I know, if we could. That's not a Christmas tradition, but I know what you mean.

I think I'm going to look the other way on that one. No, okay, the chimney sweep, guys, it's just the chimney sweep.

It's fine.

Yeah, that's uh, that's what's called an Easter egg for listeners. You can google that in your own don't google it. Yeah, you're going to see some racist ship.

Back to this guy getting beaten to death.

Not to death, just being beaten he did die. He did die, but apparently when everyone had flat he refused to go to the hospital despite several non activitist bystanders like emphasiagic, like, hey, you should go to the hospital, and he did not. He walked for at least one and a half kilometers like a little more than a mile for the Americans, thank you, and he he then collapsed and he was in a coma for two days in the hospital, and then on Valentine's Day he died.

A real bummer.

So yeah, and that's also why I'm going to say, like that he wasn't fatally beaten, because I don't know if well.

So, I mean, at least in American law, he did die of injuries inflicted from that beating, So you would say the people who inflicted that beating on him did cause his death.

Yeah, so I mean under American law.

Like, if you get shot today and you die from a disability from that shooting ten years from now, you were murdered.

Yeah. I hate that. I'm surprised by this.

Because you would not be dead but for those injuries. If he had not been hit in the head, yeah, he would not have died.

Indeed, you can in fact not be the person doing the shooting and still be chied for murder in US as someone.

That's a different problem. The felony murder problem is very serious here. But but no, I mean, he would not have died had he not been beaten.

So he was beaten to death.

It was just that it would It is perhaps possible that he could have survived.

Yeah, he had, he attempted to survive.

I don't know if he would have survived if he had called if hits, called an ambulance straight after.

That's the other thing.

That's the other thing is if he had that, if he had that much probably intracranial bleeding that he collapsed pretty soon afterwards.

He may have died regardless.

We'll never know, probably.

Right, but I would say he was fatally beaten because he would not have died if the beating, at least under American under American law, that would be the case.

I don't know about in France.

It's probably worth noting that, like the American phenomenon of not wanting to go in an ambulance to hospital because you.

Know that you will have life altering medical.

Bills like this is believe me, as someone who did not grow up in the United States and now lives here. Is a unique and quite disturbing character trait of people living in the United States, like because.

People are thinking like.

Yeah, like I personally have not gotten an ambulance when I should have done in the United States because I knew that I wouldn't be able to pay the bills.

Oh, if I'm conscious and able to walk on my own two feet, I'm not getting an animalance.

Yeah.

This is just just so people understand that this is not a thing that people tend to do as much, at least not for that reason in Europe.

He just don't want to be a pussy.

I guess, I don't know. I can also imagine that maybe, like after authorities were alerted, that maybe he would have been visited by police in the hospital due to the.

Fight, right, because he was involved in a conflict.

Yes, And I have some photos later on, like images taken by I think a journalist where you just see the black leads like fascists with like iron bars in their hands and everything. So I would say that the self defense motive is very indefensible. You know what, let's take an ad break, you know who who won't beat you to death with a bar, to death with a bar allegedly.

I'm pretty sure none of our advertisers have ever beaten someone to death with a pipe.

M Oh no, I can't guarantee that.

A mining company who can say.

They will not beat you the listener to death. Probably.

I was about to plug the Washington Highway state patrol, but I'm not sure if I can do that. They can get to be in the Netherlands some safe Yeah. That and we're back unbeaten with iron bars. So when we left off, we were supposed to talk about more about nemesis, so we'll continue there. Yeah, they were carrying slogans with like accusations and trials of like left prominent left wing politicians, but they had them covered up with

I'm feeling general hostility and I'm not even there now.

Now what you've seen the Girl Boss photo. Now, so you know why that's why you feel hostile. Maybe it's just the pantsuits. Those two minutes were enough though, because they had the content and the images that they were after. Also brought bodyguard to protect them, which again it's this this saviness and this this cunningness that I said earlier, like they know they're going to be provoked and possibly attacked, so they're already preemptively bringing bodyguards.

Well, they're not going to be provoked. They were going there too.

They went they went to someone else's rally to do a provocative stunt, and so they it makes sense, you'd if I was going to if I was going to cause problems on purpose, I'll bring your bodyguard.

Okay, Okay, I'll make sure to watch out for you if you ever bring a bodyguard and I see you. But yeah, those two minutes they proved enough. They had the content and the images they were after, which were quickly published by far right magazines. Social media accounts for members of the collective were later interviewed by c News, and Cordier herself was hosted on europe One. Both of these stations are owned by Vincente Bolour, who is sort

Play the victim cards, classic maneuver.

Yeah exactly, Yeah, and it's the.

Best way to get positive attention while not actually having enough numbers to hold your own rally that anyone would notice.

Exactly. But again we're coming back to this. This feels much more sevy and thought out than Oh.

Absolutely, it's a clever strategy, but it's like the media keeps falling for it, Like you don't have to interview the head of this little Nazi group just because they put on a nice outfit.

It's the Richard Spencer problem all over again.

Yeah, just because they dress nice doesn't mean just.

Because he owns a little suit jacket.

Now, this is why I don't own any suits, just to avoid being associated. In November twenty nineteen, they infiltrated a Paris March against sexual and gender based violence, and then they brandish science referring to foreign rapists.

I hate these women.

Yeah, you'd have to have a woman on so that we could so someone can say, are dumb bitches?

It's legal for me to say yes. In hindsight, I'm very glad that you're here to say those things of alli, because I won't talk about women's wrongs, but you can, which I mean.

It's just it's so cynical and so nasty to show up to an anti rape march to displace the blame for sexual violence onto immigrants, to just like, yeah, ooh, gross gross.

Yeah, that's that's like ninety percent of right wing politics the moment.

Right, But for the women themselves to be doing because you see men do it all the time, but these women know better, because I guarantee you at least half of those women have been sexually assaulted and it probably wasn't by an immigrant, like you know better, you know better.

Let's call it. Yeay says she she suffered from a sexual assault by immigrants, but there's no way to prove it because it was allegedly when she was thirteen or fourteen, So it's just this after defect justification that you can't prove or disproof either way. And even even if we were going to say, okay, you know what, we'll take that argumented face value.

I won't.

That is your prerogative.

No, I just you see, it reminds me, It mains me so much of this. This funny little you Nazi con artist that was she testified in the Oklahoma City trials.

She had this like her origin story was.

Like, oh, like I became a racist because I was listening to racist radio shows while I was recovering. Because I was attacked by a gang of black teenagers and I broke my legs. She broke her legs because she got drunk at the park and she jumped off a giant Crucidex set up for a passion place.

Okay, okay, so.

This whole like, oh, my origin story is like I was assaulted by a gang of people of color, Like I believe you anyway.

Completely valid. But what I meant to say is like, even if that were true, there's no argument to like generalize it to an entire population.

No, or just show up to the anti rape march to cause a scene.

Girl, go home, yeah, you'd think, Yeah, if you've been subject to sexual assault, you would want to be in solidarity with other people, maybe make sexual assaults stop happening, like period, not focus on a subset of human beings.

But James, what you're forgetting there is that sexual violence is okay if it's done by white people. Okay according to Nemesis.

And in a biblical way, you know, within the bounds of marriage.

Yeah, in the holy bounds of matrimony. So yeah, what this group essentially does is they tie feminism or their brand of it. Yeah, thank you for the air quotes. Yeah, they tie it to their nationalism. But they focus solely on sexual violence, and even then only the violence that is connected to like migrants.

So it's no feminism at all. It's just it's a lie.

You won't be surprised that they're awfully silent about equal pay or abortion rights.

Well, I imagine they're probably anti abortion.

How did you.

Guess that, boy, depends who's getting the abortion.

I would assume I will send them like an email to ask for a verification, to specify I need more coverage.

That's the way we should respond to this exactly.

And I want to know which abortions are okay and which are not, so I can accurately make you know a herrowing story of it. Anyway, This exploitation of women's issues by far right groups to proliferate their bullshits worldview and pull people in is called femo nationalism. It was coined by the British sociologist Sarah R. Feris in twenty seventeen, which might be a broader topic worth exploring in the future.

Yeah, I'm very interested you too.

People have been complaining that I never talk about we're little girls.

Well now you can, Ellis Cordier. For now. It is love to see this what they're doing as some sort of bucked up arranged marriage of feminism and ethnic nationalism that views gender issues explicitly through the lens of ethnicity. Yeah, and as I said before, they're notably very quiet on bodily autonomy, workplace equality, equal opportunity, abortion, and maternity care.

So like actual sort of safety and well being and equality for women, the things that I think of as feminism.

Yeah, yeah, Like the maternity care was like that sprung out to be because like in.

My feminism, I don't die in childbirth.

Because it's woke.

They want to return to tradition and have it's eighty percent of job as result in one or other party dying.

Ah, great stuff, it's beautiful. Yeah.

I guess if you were trying to invent feminism, but the only text you had is the fourteen words, this is what you would get.

You had a dictionary with the word feminism and the fourteen word, it's that's all he had to.

Go David Lane, famous feminist.

Yeah, I guarantee you that Alice Cordier has said the fourteen words on probably multiple occasions. It's a garbage group of people, and I hope they have to hiccups the rest of their life.

Oh that's hurtful. I like that.

Yeah, it's a pretty good one.

And with that, that is the end of part one.

If you'd like to find out more about Quentin and various other French fascists, please join us again tomorrow.

We're picking back up at the rally where Quentin was in the capacity of security for Nemesis. At some point a confrontation developed between anti fascists and brown shirts. Clearly the instigator depends on the political orientation of the media that reports on it.

But we've all seen scuffles like this. It's just they don't usually divorce to a point where someone dies, like I can I can imagine. I don't know, I can imagine the outbreak of this scuffle because we've all seen it.

Yeah, I'm not going to like litigate on who started or who not that I'll never know and it doesn't.

Matter because it doesn't matter.

Yeah. But I found an independent while left fleaning a medio website, contre Attique. They published several pieces on the events with claims that the fascists started to roll. I find that one personally also more credible because they have multiple videos of photos of the far right being there with weapons, including iron bars, crutches, motorcycle helmets, and at least one smoker hagge.

I mean, they showed up to someone else's event to disrupt it, to cause a problem. When they got in the middle of it, they brought weapons. It's hard to say who started the fight, but I can tell who wanted to exactly.

Like. I've seen security at events and protests, but I've never okay, unless they were cops, I've never seen them carrying weapons. Oh I have.

Well, that's more common in the idea states it's very common here. Oh wow, okay, oh is that a pipe in his hands? Yes, it is, so he's wearing a balaclava and carrying a pipe.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not a great look, kind of classic. You're a nuts, you fit skinny jeans.

The sneakers always the sneakers.

Always do one of those little unders.

Yeah, yeah, of course I got to pick a brand that. Yeah, since the beginning. Maybe some pumas in that.

Of course, this pumas in there. Here's another pictures like you can also see the motorcycle helmet in here in disguise hands. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, most.

Like a helmet's great because it's you put it on to protect your head, or you can hit somebody with it because he's holding it in his hand.

He is not wearing it. That's a weapon.

Yeah, but you have the plausible deniability of I rode my motorcycle here or this is for defense.

That's what I also find. They often use like things that you could really have with Like they also use belts or sticks and stuff that you could carry with shack poles, slack poles, like stuff that you could carry with you with you without it being as immediately recognized as a weapon, Like if you were carrying night.

After you use it as a weapon, it doesn't look like premeditation because I just had this, Yeah, the pipe. I don't know why you would just have a whole pipe. Now he was honest, way to do some plumbing Mario and Luigi.

Yeah, maybe he found maybe he found it.

I can imagine myself carrying a sledgehammer, be like, no, officer, this is my.

I was on my way to break big rocks into small rocks.

Yeah, exactly, I'm a fan. I don't think that would fly, to be honest, but those I wanted to share as well.

So he did show up with a pipe.

That wasn't him. I didn't think he wasn't pipe that.

Was that was one of his friends.

That was one of that was one of the far right activist that was present there. One media account sat he was wearing a blue hoodie Quentin and I haven't seen that in the pictures that I could find.

Well, it looks like the only confirmed photograph of him is that one that was provided by his family's lawyer to the media, So we don't know if any of those other photos even are him right now.

There's also not that much footage of it, to be honest.

Right, but I guess there is the footage of him like lying on the ground, but I mean like, yeah, like the only picture of his face is that one that was provided to the media by his family and.

So far as I found, Yes, Yeah, and then and one of the few of the articles, there's like one where he's like half ballacloth out up. But then that was at some Nazi rally in Lyon, So it still wasn't his first Nazi No, it was. It was not okay in any case, I think you would have a hard time defending that there was purely self defense on part of the security of that counter demonstration.

Again, no one is saying that he deserved to be beaten to death. We're just trying to figure out what happened here.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Concra Attik also published another article on February twentieth about acts of violence from fascist militants in just Lyon. There had been around one hundred and two acts of violence as of twenty ten. Yeah, that's one of the spots. From what I understand, there's lots of groups that formed in response to like the fascist threats that were there, and also a lot of the fascist violence is them just harassing brown people or like Muslim people,

So this was a much large It wasn't like ten on one. It was like a group versus a group.

It was a group versus a group.

Year it was a melee.

Yeah, Okay, I'm not sure which article exactly was, but said that the fighting went on for like five minutes.

Which is a long. It doesn't sound like along, but for a fight, that's like a long. It's a lot of minutes to be fighting.

Yeah, fighting is normally brief fast, especially fighting of this level of violence.

Especially if you're getting hit the head with a pie or.

A motorcycle helmet.

Yeah, there's a little video of it, Like I've seen a couple of very small videos of the actual confrontation. It's not like it gives the impression like because of the big repercussions. This was like a huge set piece, but it's not. It's like what three people maybe at most.

Yeah, And it was just like in some streets it looks like street corner. Yeah, it wasn't a battle of thermopili or something. Yeah, I'm sponsored by not being able to pronounce foreign words outside of English.

Well, you could just tell us that that's how it's said in Dutch and we would all have to believe you, because we're not going to find out.

I'm conf use that as a caveat the next time.

That's how we say it in the Netherlands, stupid Americans.

Yes, I'll be saved by the fact that like Denmark and the Netherlands, nobody speaks to Dutch, or that they confused Danish with Dutch, which is also very funny.

But also, yeah, I did see some kind of funny posts regarding Greenland with.

Ah, okay, then we're at and entering a whole other discussion. Yeah. But anyway, after the fighting, about half an hour and a half later, in the full Chiron district on the banks of the San Quentin was evacuated in serious condition by firefighters. To get there, he had to walk more than a kilometer and a half, cross two bridges, and traverse the Lyon Peninsula. His route between the attack and his arrival at the hospital is unknown.

Sound so sounds like he's just sort of staggered off disoriented? Is something like that because he was probably bleeding in his brain.

Yeah, he like he has a TVI, right, I would imagine.

So I just find it incredibly sad. To be honest, it.

Is sad, but also the like so like these bystanders are saying, hey, man, like, let's get you an ambulance to get to the hospital. Where were his friends that he walked off alone?

Yeah?

Where were the guys he came with? Were the guys that were fighting on his side? How did he manage to walk off alone? So these people want to make him a martyr, but like they're the ones, Yeah, let him die.

This is also why I'm like, I'm not going to say he was it's Lee Beatson, because like, who knows.

It sounds like a lot of people have some responsibility here. If you die, if you die after being hit in the head, the person who hit you in the head killed you, that's it works. But like, why did his friends let him walk away alone?

Yeah, knowing he was injured.

Right, No, even if you weren't injured, you never walk away from something like this alone because someone could follow you and keep beating you.

Yeah, if there are people who are trying to hurt you. The best time for them to do it is when you're on your own.

Like you never leave an action alone.

Yeah, the whole thing.

Like I guess I should just say, like, I don't know, when you fucking hit people in the head, this is one of the consequences that is on the list of possible consequences. Like, I fucking hate people who can hit people in the head come from a place in the world where like that kind of violence is more common because guns are less accessible to people, and like, yeah, people are going to fucking die sometimes when you do that, Like it's serious.

You don't have to inten to have killed them, Like you one get punch to the head in an otherwise very fair, normal fight, Yeah, someone could die.

Yeah, people have died from a single punch to the head that started to fight and ended their life at the same time. I think people sometimes, you know, you watch boxing or wrestling or whatever. Then you see people fighting very hard and not dying. But like you find someone with your bare knuckles to their bare head, and they could die, even if it's only once, if he didn't mean to you.

Yeah, it's just one one small vein in one vein that gets nicked that can cause off a whole lot of trouble in the head. Yeah, and even if it's not death, then there's still.

Like life altering consequences.

Be careful with your brain, kids.

Yeah, which is why you need to wear a helmet's on your head instead of in a hand.

It's just using it as a bludgeon.

Yeah, yeah, and only come back to light. I find it sad because it's a death that may may have been preventable with like proper medical intervention, also with like friends that should have backed him.

Yeah, it's pretty sad that this guy felt like he was part of something and those guys left him to die alone on the street like.

It's another Now they're trying to take his death and profit from it politically.

And then yeah, he's only useful to him when he's fucking dead.

I mean, you know, he's he's a little horse vessel.

Yeah, that's a nature of fascism.

But yeah, it's almost exactly like Charlie Kirk, where he was more useful as a martyr than when he was just a propagandist.

But then he turned out not to even be good at that.

I don't think we can fault him for being about martyr for all the things. Of all the things we can criticize Charlie Kirk for, that is not one of them.

Yeah, it's not on him.

Right, But I think in order to have a successful martyrdom you have to have someone to blame, and there was just not enough publicity around the guy who actually killed Charlie Kirk, you know what I mean, Like, you know, horse Vessel was killed by communists, so we're mad at communists, but like.

There was an attempt to pin that on the trans community, right, like it didn't see the landing and it didn't work. Should say that guy is accused of in Karli Church as well?

Exactly I don't know, but that the right is constantly trying to create a horse Vessel and it just kind of never works.

Yeah.

Well, I mean that's how the Spanish Civil War started as well, right, like they it was probably easier in an age with less information and like party propaganda.

I mean, these days, these days, we would all be talking about like was horse vessel opinion?

It kind of seems like maybe he.

Would have had a Twitter account and we would.

Have and we would have said, what was he doing?

With all those girls, or we would have found his racist tweets. Oh well, that would have.

It seems like a local the head of his local strum up ti Long. Of course he had racist tweets, but being a pimp is not conducive to traditional Aryan values.

Please, okay, okay, okay, there goes my career change. I'm now going into the last section, which is about what happened here in your trekt. They attempted to martyr him and the fed Netherlands. It said, we're coming to the AKU to hold the vigil for him. The Netherlands is an umbrella terms not the perfect word. There's lots of local defense chapters, but they have like more where they organized.

Oh my god, yes.

I'm at the auto shop. I'm at the Anti PA center. In a combination auto show at Center.

I'm at the Four Seasons total landscape, that's.

What it is. Yeah. Ah, but it was a pretty big deal because for reasons that I still can't understand, Like the mayor didn't like instantly ban this very obvious intimidation at ten ten threats hold official in your backyard or something. It's like, there's absolutely no reason to travel to U Trek to hold that visual other than the being threatening and intimidating.

But I think that's part of why they love trying to make these martyrs is because.

It again, it's this like being the victim, like they killed one of us. How can this isn't a politicism political you can't ban our event, right, this isn't a Nazi rally, it's a vigil. Yeah, it's this victimhood thing and it does make you harder to suppress.

Yeah, I still find it unbelievable as the local authorities didn't do it.

It's tacky.

I was also there that evening because when I do activist stuff, I mostly do like if like first eight at events or protests.

Very noble, nobody's got to do it.

I'm not a confrontational person, so yeah, I'll give you a band aid later. That's that's that's where where I'm good. You're a non combatant exactly. And I actually came from the office that day, so I was also looking very inconspicuous, which was good because I ended up standing between my left all all the anti fascists that are my right, all the black lift fascists, and I was like and then two lines of.

Like riot, I'm just a band aid.

GI.

Yeah, so like get in a narrow alley. So I left, I'm enclosed. On my right, I'm enclosed. And then this girl boss cop comes up to me like, do you want to get out of here? I was like, yes, it seems like it could go wrong, and then she guided me through the fucking fascists.

Yeah, I like to I like to be a lot closer to an exit than nassively good are you?

So it's it's even worse because I was I was with someone who was also doing first aids, and we tried to get back to the location and we accidentally went into an lead it at a dead end, and when we turned around not ceased walking there. I was like, oh fuck, no, yeah, but I think they just thought that it was a way around and had just followed also because they thought it was a way through. They didn't actually like control us or anything.

That makes my tummy hurt maic. I don't like that.

It was one of the most scary moments. I'm going to admit that. Anyway. The fan Netherlands mostly carried the picture I sent you with, like the bad AI sketch of a photo of Quincon.

Okay, I'm sorry. If I ever get.

Murdered and you're holding a rally for my memory, use a real fucking picture.

Of Yeah, this is really okay they're.

Using they're using a fake picture of a more handsome guy.

Yeah, the other didn't flact that.

You said yes, Like I'm saying, like, use a good picture of me, you know, like a cute picture, but like they're using a fake.

Picture of a more handsome guy because this guy was weird looking.

Yeah, the person who is on the flag and the BBC I had to go, that's just straight up not him. It's not a it's not a guy who looks like him.

It's not a.

Rendering of him by AI.

That is like old school German propaganda of like an Aryan. Yeah, they're like an Aryan specimen, where like this was like a skinny little guy who's half.

A Hispanic Latino Latino.

Yeah, Like it's just disrespectful to his memory to whitewash him and make him more handsome.

You're not a good enough martyr.

We had to find a better looking guy to pretend was you so we can profit politically from your murder.

What pictures of you do we need to do you molly in the events?

Oh yeah, I should, I should, I should pre yeah.

Exactly, And then you can also select which which photo we're going to use, on which we're going to put on the banners.

But it's like they don't actually care about this man. Most people holding those banners don't know that's not him.

Yeah, it's a very empty performance.

I'm performing outrage over the like the theoretical death of a guy whose politics were similar to mine.

Yeah. But defense Netherlands, they also carried what we call the princess flag in the Netherlands.

Princess flag, yeah, the flag of the Prince, oh princess.

Yeah, and it's a it's a variational on the flag that we have right now, but it was co opted by the Dutch National Socialist Party prior and during World War Two, so it's now heavily associated with those groups, and that is the flag they choose to carry.

I'm just skeptical of all flags, Like, unless I'm one hundred percent sure what I'm looking at, I'm skeptical of a flag.

Because usually a guy that like, I don't know what you're doing? What does that mean?

It is always telling when people are like, oh, this nationalist flag is the flag of our nation. Is not nationalist enough? Let me let me find an obscure one from the past. It has only been revived by fascist Yeah.

Like anyone in South Africa carrying something other than the current official South African flags.

Yeah, because there's a lot of variations and they're all about.

Oh, well, well we're getting to those variations. Baly, because like the flag flag was not only used by collaborators, but they've also added because just a alluding to like the collaborationists, it's not enough. They added a voc logo from the Dutch East is in the company onto the.

What that honestly that came from fucking nowhere? God, just like these people fucking hated people who weren't white as well, Like just.

Sorry, that is incredible or evil. Yeah, it's amazing.

Yeah, I can't believe we've opened that kind of went, because there's gonna be that's gonna happen in Britain now. Unfortunately I've put it in the chat like something like that.

I mean it's just like comedically.

Fuck, it's a ship logo as well. It looks like a ranch brand. It looks like somebody didn't want their cows to go missing and they did that.

I would stamp that on a horse for sure.

It probably was probably also on people. You're going to say that unfortunate.

What the fuck though, Like, I can't believe they did that. Is that a thing on the Dutch right, like like make dutchy c India company great.

And nostalgic for the dusty dident. My loyalty lies with the Duchies.

Yeah, it's such a niche.

This is what you get from the European ultra nationalism is these incredibly niche racism.

I'm a monarchist for spice trading.

Yeah, yeah, it's this is something they actually do. I've seen it a multiple like far eyed rallies where they're just waving that shit and like that rocks. Yeah, it's like the poorest dog whistle that any normal human being can also hear. Like, okay, you you long back to the days of like killing hundreds of thousands of people for the spices that we don't use in our cuisine.

Yeah, wow, that is so.

Niche, it's so good. That's so I hope those guys get pressed into servius on a ship.

Yeah, you know, they might be shipped iran soon. Who knows.

Like enjoy sailing around the world. You love it so much, going.

To bangal by sale.

Yeah, you love fucking racism. Getting scurvy to own the lives.

You know, they will get scirvy because they won't be eating fruit.

Yeah, because they're exclusively eating uh what what the Americans call French fries because of the erasure.

Of Dutch cultural brilliant. That's true. They are more like fermented to meat or something, just exclusively Yeah. Because return But yeah, anyway, with the rally, in the end, nothing really happens. There were some chances going up, up and down. I think there were only two arrests for insulting police officers. I think one on either side.

But that's illegal there, Yes, oh I can never go.

You can also just avoid police that's that's the thing. Wow, they won't they won't immediately ch issue with a gun here. But I've never had any experience with American cops, so there's no comparison for me. I also hope that never happens, because I heard stories of what happens.

Yeah, American cops. No good.

Yeah, it's one of one of the founding principles this here podcast network.

Well we have that there is one cop in your tractor was allegedly a member of like an openly Dutch Nazi group, but I think he's just since left it.

That happens a lot here.

Yeah, that's not an uncommon occurrence.

No, what's a cops and clan go hand and haund.

Yeah, yeah, we say it for a reason.

Yeah, well we can ad cops in in company bracket Dutch East India that those.

Were not cops because it was a corporation. James. Yeah, that's an enforced urs.

You can't be a fascist for the Dutch East India company because it's something a little bit different.

That's true. That's true. They were not a state.

No, it's a non state entity. It's like an autonomous it's autonomous fascism of its.

Own kind of cooked for a fascist to be nostalgic for a company.

Yeah, but as long as it's a nationalist company then it's okay. This is great.

I'm going to revive him like like like eighteenth century pirate ship, you know, when like the British were like attacking the Dutch East India company ships. I'm going to bring that back. Okay now because fuck these people. You have my personal permission to attack Dutch sailing ships.

I have that authority.

But to get back Quentin.

Sorry, No, there was one other thing that happened because the day after the rally there was an unknown person who threw a smoke bomb inside the AKU. Shit. A person was never caught. I'm going to make a wild guest and say he was probably involved with Defend Netherlands or some other similar fascist groups. No one at AKU was hurt. It was mostly just an e convenients. And that is pretty much the story of how the depth of a French Nazi involved threats to a community center in the Netherlands.

Wow, yeah, I think you mentioned Ntem when called him Francis Charlie Kirk. Yeah, but it's wild how like this one has been so seized upon right by people who, like, as we said, they did not give a shit about this guy when he was alive. Now, I think our national rally would be the English or like National Assembly.

Yeah, I think national rally is how they do it in English.

Okay, Yeah, those guys held like also like on a political level, it was like a national thing that happened where they were memorizing it, and they were blaming a French unbout for whatever happened. Because one of the people who was arrested for the violence was an aide I think to someone from French unbouts.

That's not great.

Yeah, that's not great.

I imagine their boss would have preferred that they had not done that.

Probably probably, But it was a huge thing. And I mean, like.

From my end, Like I mean, obviously I don't read a lot of French news, but I subscribe to a lot of Nazi telegram channels and I see his name a lot, like the Active club sort of networks, Like it's not always directly the Active clubs, sort of these sort of ancillary telegram groups that spen up around them, but in that milieu they're talking about him a lot.

Yeah, I don't know if it will work long term. I've seen many such attempts that do not work long term. But it's been two months and they are still talking about, you know, hurting people in his name.

Also if my doubts on whether that will.

Work, because they try a lot, try a lot.

Yeah.

I particular a bunch of examples of attempted martyrs that led just like nobody remembers.

I can't think if anyone exactly exactly besides the one we already talked about whose wife is now running the foundation.

And for the most part it's I mean, at least in America, most of the right wing martyrs are people who died in prison or were killed by the police. We don't have a lot of sort of street deaths like this.

Yeah.

Yeah, although, like I do feel like the right wing martin is killed by the police, like if they like if the Weaver family were killed by the cops, to the members of the Weaver family who were killed by the FBI, Vicky Wheel yeah. Like if that happened today, I think half of the right would be like hell yeah, get them cops, like like the Bootleck attendance.

See, I mean like they tried to make LaVoi Finicum was killed during the Bundy standoff in twenty sixteen.

Did you remember LaVoi Finicum?

No? Yeah, no one.

I mean Ashley Babbitt. Ashley Babbitt should have been their martyr. They moved on.

Yeah, and they've been doing some acshally Babbitt stuff like I think they it didn't work.

Yeah, it still hasn't.

What they're trying to bury her, I believe, with the military honors now and get her Air Force pension or something, and then she can sue Capitol Police now that it hasn't worked. Like in terms of popular culture, no one cares.

Yeah, I mean the closest thing we have are when white women are killed by black men or immigrants.

That sometimes will Yeah, that flash in the pan lasts.

A little longer, but even still, like Kate Steinley, Molly Tibbet's like Arena Zarutska, like.

Well, they stuck the landing with they can Riley.

They had the Lake and Riley Act right, they managed to essentially create a system where immigrants are guilty until prement innocent, right now, Yeah, they have not spoken about her since, but like the legal version of the legal tendency on the right, right, the right Legislative movement kind of did with that.

But they are they're like constantly scrounging around for a martyr and trying to make one happen. Like in twenty twenty, like right after George Floyd Kenan Hinnant, that five year old boy that was killed by his neighbor. Oh yeah, like this is our George Floyd. You never heard about it again?

Yeah, they tried and try to try and stay at the union, right.

And then what was it two weeks ago he posted that video of a one being beaten to death. Yeah, it just it doesn't work, like so that the sauce isn't there for them to create martyrs, but they love to try.

Yeah, but in order to have a martyr, that that person needs to have had value in their eyes in the first place. And I think that's what missing.

Right, because they don't care.

Yeah, well they posthumously tried to kind of yeah stack it on old Quentin here, but.

Yeah, but I think that this person needs to have a reason.

They needed to have really died for an actual cause, that.

For an actual cause, but also someone who was like broadly known and looked up to.

Well, not necessarily, I mean, you don't have to be somebody before your death to be an important martyr. I mean em at Till was not as civil rights activist, he was a little boy.

Yeah. Fair.

I think it's worked historically more on the left because it is people who are It tends to be people who are victimized for just for being themselves bless Yeah, people who are just existing in the world.

Right, It's like if you got into a fight at a Nazi rally, Like I'm not going to blame the victim, but it's not a it's not a blameless death.

No, Like more like Renee Goot I think what's her name, where she was just yeah, you know, looking out for her or for her neighbors, but then it was murdered.

You've been a good person in the first place.

Yeah, maybe that's where the ride goes wrong.

That's where it really.

Goes right, that's the root cause yes, yeah, the.

Only ones I can think of that really stick are older and maybe that is like you're saying James because it was like a lower information environment. But like they still do Martyr's Day for Robert Matthews and that was forty years ago.

Yeah, like it was easier, right, like for them to do it back then.

And like Matthews got sort of enshrined into this this Martyr's pantheon.

Yeah, at a very important time in the movement.

I just don't know that his death would be that important if it happened today.

Yeah.

I think a lot about the Vickiy Weaver thing because we had a Bill Gore, who was a sheriff in San Diego, had been an FBI agent who was part of the operation at Ruby Ridge. It was very interesting in San Diego because initially when Gore became sheriff, you had all these people on the right Lake, specifically posting on the Sheriff's department lost a lawsuit for deleting comments on its Facebook page regarding this. They can't delete comments, rightly, they're a public agency.

Right.

Then twenty twenty happened and that same tendency, those same groups, not the individual who bought the suit, but like those folks were showing up with their Blue Lives Matter flags. But then like also struggling to line that up with like, oh, we should bring guns. Oh, but that would be illegal California. Oh, but we have a right under the Second Amendment. Well, who would be the person who enforced the law that

Just they're so stuck. They're so stuck.

Yeah, they just kind of backed themselves into a corner there where like they're in a way more ideologically consistent back in the day at least, like they're like loving the cops thing that they made part of their identity largely in the George Floyd moment, right, and the yutual leut riding has really fucked them when it comes to people who get killed by the cops.

So hopefully this one fades away like all their other martyrs.

Yeah yeah, I mean I don't like know where his family are at either, Like if family may not have been bigots.

Right, Like have they come out and tried to capitalize on this, Like does he have a crying mother on the news talking about evil Antifa?

They don't have a crying mother on the news, So I do know they have a lawyer, and I think there is some form of legal action being taken.

And that makes sense because like there were people arrested who were responsible for the.

Death, like somebody hit him in that be a legal.

Process to move forward.

But I mean, like, they's not like a member of his family out there doing propaganda against like anti fascists.

Not that I'm aware of, but they were very quiet and so far as I've could see, Yeah, like I've written this over the space of like two months, so may have missed something somewhere, sure, but they were pretty quiet on his activist activities. So I'm not sure how. I'm not sure if it's something they didn't know, or if it was something that.

Maybe they didn't know how bad it was, how.

Bad it could also have been kept quiet in order to like they're doing a lawsuit.

Yeah, right, they should say less if they're pursuiting litigation.

That makes perfect sense.

So it seems like most of the propaganda around his death is being produced by the groups he was in.

Right, you said he was in an active club.

I'm mostly seeing this from active clubs, so it makes sense that they would be doing that.

Yeah, it's just if they're not, like if it happens that, like at least someone in his family is, you said, like a migrant to France themselves. Like it would really fucking suck to know, first of all, to find out that this kid in your family had these reprehensible views, and then to see their face everywhere.

Well, luckily it's not his face.

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

You see someone else's face in his name.

It's just vague resemblance. Yeah. So yeah, before we close it out, though, I do want to plug something because I do know when the ACU they shut down, they had concerts and the entire venue was closed the day of the vigil, so they did miss a lot of income. And I also personally know a few people who spend quite some money on just barricading that or getting iron grades for the windows, or steal grades.

That's dark.

Yes, yeah, so there is a donate link for the ACU because it's also entirely volunteer run, like there's no paid employees there. Everyone's just doing that in their spare time. So if there are people who have some money to spare anything that's a worthy calls, then in the show notes you can find the donate link to support the local community center.

Yeah, it'd be nice if people did that.

That's beautiful.

Yeah, it was very hard wark to see. I think at the demonstration it self, I think that the Nazis were outnumbered like three to one, maybe more usually are usually are, but it's still very heartwarming to see such a a quick and rapid response with people just being like, hey, we don't want them here, go back to your backyard. All the vigil there and it was a thing that happens. But after we've spoken so much about weird Nazis, Molly, I've been told you do also something with weird little Nazis.

Oh, I love a weird little guy. I'm going to talk about them every week on my show We're Little Guys. You can find it anywhere you get your podcasts. Great, And now I'm I'm actually so curious about these weird little girls. I might have to check this out.

Okay, it's new fascination unlogged.

I'll share some of the links with you than you can have a starting point, although I think you're a much better researcher this than I am.

So unfortunately it's all going to be in French. That's what I'm married.

Just auto translate. That's true because I also don't speak French and also translate. Safety made a powerful enemy. Okay, the Francophone world.

They're so uptight about their silly little language.

I love to speak French. French speaking people, please don't as.

Next time I read French articles, James will send the link to you and ask you to translate them for me.

Yeah.

I'm really worried that I'm going to have to translate some heenous ship.

Here's like the French version of my comp Could you please translate it for me.

I do have some holocaust and dial texts.

Translation perfect.

Yeah, just make sure I'm not in France when I receive them. NBA crime, you.

Might have visa problems as well.

Yeah, I'm not going okay.

I'm no longer a EU citizen, so I now have to get visas for places too.

Bad and you have to be not to be declared for no grata. Yeah okay, then, yeah, I think we can wrap this up. Thank you guys for being here and making is a lovely time talking about Nazis.

Yes, thank you for introducing me to some terrible new concepts.

I'm very excited.

You're welcome.

Hello everyone, and this is it could happen here. My name is Daniel Kurd.

I'm a researcher and analyst of Arab and Palestinian politics.

Today I'm joined by.

Justin Salhani, who is a non resident fellow at the Titate Institute for Middle East Policy and a writer and journalist based in Beirut. He has worked with Al Jazira Digital and has contributed to a number of different outlets in the past, and has been reporting on the region since twenty eleven. Justin, thank you so much for coming

So right now, as we speak, we're in the midst of kind of a tenuous, fragile incomplete we can call it ceasefire in beitoot proper. There still is occasionally, you know, a drone overhead, this kind of infamous drone that buzzes incessantly and keeps everyone constantly on their toes. But there's been almost two weeks or a little maybe a little

I mean, it's wild how conscientious they are.

You know, they have to take every single minute to bomb their neighbors. So yeah, maybe tell us what the situation has been like for journalists in particular. I imagine different parts of the country are struggling with maybe different challenges.

Yeah, this exists on a sliding scale, obviously since twenty twenty three, the first week post October seven, there was a Lebanese journalist by the name of Isam Abdala who was killed. He was a Reuters photographer, and that was a strike that wounded other journalists, including journalists from AFP and Al Jazeera. So, I mean it's been over two and a half years now that there has been a danger and that first strike that killed Isam changed the

Of course, in Gaza was way worse.

There was a way higher threat level, and I think part of that is because there were no foreign journalists in Gaza during that period of Palestinians. Until now there has been at least a one foreign journalist who was wounded in that initial attack. Since then, most of the attacks have targeted Lebanese journalists, and particularly Lebanese journalists working with outlets who have some sort of we can call

Only things that they've backed up with data.

They're not bombastic spokespeople who have some sort of political lean you can say, these are people who really have to own organizations, that really have to be careful with the language that they pick and choose. So I thought that was like a really interesting framing. So what they had told me at the time, and I think this is inevitably still true if you subscribe to this idea, is that the goal was to prevent the information from getting out from the front lines, to stop people from

I might point out one other.

Incident where a journalist from RT was reporting on a bridge in South Lebanon. It was one of the last bridges to not yet have been bombed that would connect South Lebanon to the rest of the country. He was reporting when it was caught on video that a strike had happened. I think there are legitimate criticisms about this journalist's conduct in terms of placing himself.

He wasn't wearing a helmet at the time.

Those are legitimate criticisms for you know, kind of here's how you can do better sort of thing. That still does not excuse the fact that the attack happened while the journalist was there covering. And again, regardless of the outlets lean, regardless of what their agenda is, etc.

Etc.

These are still media professionals working. I believe that a warning had happened at that time, so again questions over maybe decisions that were made. Still that does not excuse the Israeli military action. And I've heard people say, you know that if you work through this logic, if we go back to the logic of what happened in Gaza, for example, with the first attack on a hospital, and I know, you know, this was in the first few

That have been killed by the Israelis.

So you see kind of a pattern that, Okay, we can get away with killing these journalists that are ostensibly working with outlets who have some sort of affiliation or lean towards the Hesbala narrative. That's also the case for Alahabart, with the newspaper that Ama Radil worked with. She was killed in a really horrific targeted strike just a few days ago.

Where her and a colleague were in the South.

An attack happened, they fled into a building, then the Israelis attacked that building. She was stuck under the rubble, and the Israelis prevented Red Cross medics and first responders from getting to her for a series of hours. I think it was around seven hours, the official reporting says, and she died. There's no way to frame this other than that Israel attacked her and then prevented her from receiving the treatment that she needed to be able to

People will take less risks.

Obviously, people who will see themselves who work as targets, maybe with outlets that the Israelis are openly in opposition to, might take different decisions, you know. So I think this is where we end up at basically after such killings and such actions.

Referring back to the killing of the Amatil, we're recording this April twenty seventh. As far as I'm aware, no other journalist has been killed since she was the last person who was killed. But we'll see what happens. But Amos was not only double tapped, they had been threatening her over text message.

Right, Yeah, So this is a phenomenon that has happened. Obviously it's not just journalists, but it's others as well that have gotten threatening messages. There have been cases reporting cases of people receiving text.

Saying we're going to attack you.

Now.

You can die by yourself or you can die with your family.

And I want to be clearly until now that's not a journalist that this has happened to. Ama did receive threatening text messages. Other reporters have followed up and messaged the number that messaged her. It's really hard to deduct if this is an actual campaign, if this is somebody within state capacity, or if these are individuals that found her phone number and did that. However, there is a

Going to leave our homes. And they end up dying in strikes. So there is absolutely a psychological effect.

And we have no way of knowing if these fake calls are coming from the Israeli military or officials or individuals or just other people playing pranks. All those things can be true to varying levels. A neighbor who lives above me got a call from ostensibly a Cuban number that was like an automated recording of sorts, and through her mind she started thinking, you know, what are the different possibilities of these calls? What sort of chances do

There's been huge in difference.

There is always kind of this you might call it not an indifference, but maybe kind of a hedging of sorts of like, yeah, of course we don't condone the attack of media workers, you know, but the affiliation with hesbela right because this thing exists on a sliding scale of sorts. International humanitarian law is not a super cut and dry thing all the time. So our nuances and exceptions and whatever have you under international humanitary laws, I

Again and Gaza.

It started with such media workers, it ended up with more recently seeing for example, a Palacitian journalists who worked with the Associated Press being killed on a live stream. So this is kind of the sliding scale that we're seeing happening now.

Like you said, it's widening. It's a testing of the limits.

Some outlets will get no outrage, but then they widen the scope of it. The entire landscape and dynamic that you're describing it can only be described as terrorizing. And we've seen this in the past of course, like in Gaza, they drop leaflets to terrorize people and they send those text messages to Gazan's I mean, I don't encourage anybody to look for these, but there have been videos of people fleeing their cars because they're about to be droned after receiving a threat saying leave.

Or your family will get droned with you. Like it's unbelievable.

And of course, as you said, we're talk about journals now, but we've seen a targeting of like medical professionals, Like we've seen quadruple taps at this point of medical professionals to prevent people from helping those under the rubble, to prevent helping those who have now then been targeted for being in an ambulance. I mean, it's a really outrageous state of affairs. Has there been an exodus a foreign journalist? What's the situation like for those who are in Lebanon.

No, there's not been an exodus.

You know.

I think that many foreign journalists still feel that they're protected. It's an interesting dynamic, you know, because I think, as you'll know very well, right like whenever there are active hostilities or things like this, we have this flock of journalists who come in and then once it kind of calms down, they leave. And I always find that bizarre because I feel like so much of the work to be done happens when ces fires go into effect, because

It seems to me from your answer that like they still expect that the current effect of their foreignness.

Essentially, yeah, I think so they still carry that, and I think they have an awareness of that.

You know, I wouldn't want to speak on their behalf.

And there's always layers, right, There's the ones who parachute in who may be a good basis in the region. There are those who are based here and have been here a long time. There are those who speak the language and understand the culture. There are those who don't. And I mean, like this is not to single out

Attacking and when they're attacking aids.

You know, we've seen things, for example, like you know, compared to the killing of people, this might be a minor example, but we saw this thing that got a lot of international attention of an Israeli soldier destroying a statue of Jesus in a Catholic town in the south

Ended up killing a local.

Christian official, and that was according to Israeli, is not the target of who they wanted to kill. But the point being is that they have this technology that they can attack precisely certain areas they can attack to the apartment they can blow out the walls of one apartment and leave the one a floor below or two floors below intact.

And they've done this.

They did this at a hotel just five minutes away. Some ostensible Iranian officials were staying in a hotel.

They destroyed that room.

It doesn't mean that at times there aren't other people nearby that are hurt. But if you're able to attack, and you know the figures that you are going after, and it is this precise, then what is the need to take down entire buildings or what is your excuse when you're going after media workers? Now they say it in a sense of, you know, like they did with this Minar correspondent that he was a member of the broad one forces, but again they've provided no information to

Yeah, statues are off limits.

But people are okay, yeah.

Yeah, a fair game. So there's a cease fire.

Now, what are people expecting for baut and what does that ceasar look like.

As you said, the attacks are.

Still going on in the south, but what are people expecting for these different parts of Lebanon.

Yeah, the South is still very active and yesterday was a particularly brutal day with attacks across the area. There was a forced evacuation orders for areas above the Leetani River, which for anyone following, you know, there's been this whole kind of dynamic about disarming Hazabella below the lee Tani River, which runs across South Lebanon. The Israelis have previously issued evacuation orders for above the Laitani as well, reaching up

Many of them cannot.

These are obviously people at the South, or you cannot if you've had your home destroyed in the South or in the Southern suburbs or parts of the eastern Bacau Valley. You know, I've got a school by my house which is hosting displaced people, and it's still filled with the displaced, either because they cannot go home or because, as many

In Bedut.

You know, it's calm in a sense for this moment. Like I mentioned, there's still a drone overhead. At times, there have been reports of warplanes flying over different parts of the country. So you know, there's still this doubt if this ceasefire, this truce will hold. So we're kind of expecting or waiting any moment. But I should say that this was also true of the twenty twenty four Seas fire to an extent. Now, in twenty twenty four, immediately the next day, people went home.

They drove home, they drove south, they went ahead with it.

Of course, the attacks from the Israelis did not stop in the south, in Beirut and the southern suburbs predominantly. There were a few attacks in the southern suburbs, but not regular attacks. You know, a kind of normalcy returned a bit. However, there was still kind of this attitude of waiting and seeing what would happen, because very few people trust the Israelis to stop the attacks. Very few people trust that the Israelis want to stop the war.

You know, waiting to do that again.

Maybe initially there was something of an exhale kind of okay, we know that we're going to be okay for or we hope will be okay for at least a few days. But as the days go on, and as there's been no conclusion to this issue, and of course know that these are connected to the Iran US discussions, which are in a whole other place themselves, I think everyone's just kind of waiting to see what develops, and there is the sort of bated breath.

And of course the reality I mean, even if the ceasefire holds for a bit, like, the reality is that the situation on the ground has changed. Whether it's how much land they've taken there's like a new yellow line and Lebanon in the same way that they've constricted Gaza, and also the damage that's been left behind, not just of the infrastructure, but of the herbicides that they're spraying and the environmental destruction. So there's just so much to

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Donner.

Welcome, take it up and here podcast about things falling apart and although not today putting them back together again. Today we are going to be talking about some of the ways in which the world is falling apart and the ways that they've been invisibilized. Now there are obviously a wide and broad variety of ways in which the world is coming to pieces, but one of them is the impact of the continued dual blockade now of the

Now it hasn't.

The wars continuing apace, and it seems to have no signs of slowing down, but the markets are behaving as if they know that it's going to happen, and this has created a kind of paradox where on the one hand there is us living in this world, and on the other hand there are the markets living in a world where everything is going to be fine, and in the world that we live in, things are not good, but they are breaking, I think more slowly than people

Even in the US, you can.

Talk to people who try to do Uber deliveries, and it's becoming effectively impossible even to do that simply because gas prices are so high. But they are simply nowhere near as bad here as they are in places like

Right.

What the New York Times is saying here is that buyers aren't buying the massive amount of rice that has already been planted, right. But on the other hand, there's also now we're running into fertilizer shortages because of a bunch of elements for fertilizers that is used in a lot. I mean, this is also affecting the United States too, but it's significantly worse in places like the Philippines and

Want to buy it.

But that means also on the other hand, food is still getting more expensive on your end, because even though the people making the food can't get enough money for the food they are selling because again the buyers won't buy it because it's too expensive, you're now also paying like people in the region are now paying increased rice

Right.

But then you know, you also have sort of in some sense, you have the reverse of this in other places where if you look at what's happening in India we talked about this on an executive disorder a few weeks back. You know, like a bunch of the ceramics industry it's just like shut down, Like four hundred thousand people are out of work from this, and this is causing those people to, Okay, like what do you do when you can't get work in sort of urban industrial centers.

Right.

Part of the other thing that's been making rice like harder to farm is that their irrigation system is powered by like diesel engines, it's punctures and diesel stuff, and so because of that, you know, there's sort of like broad scale shortages in Vietnam, and you have to choose whether you're you know, using the limited amount of diesel that you have in cities or in rural areas. And so these things are just kind of rapidly becoming a nightmare. Now you know what isn't a nightmare, it's it's the

Right.

There are a shit tot of different oil producers, and in theory, you're supposed to be able to pivot around between different oil wells in a way that's different from, for example, the way that coal worked.

Right. With coal, and a lot of this.

I'm sourcing from Timothy Mitchell's book Carbon Democracy, which is very very good. You know, with coal, right, you're usually not moving it by ship, which is this is like another thing that we're going to get to in a second, but with it's very easy. The way that coal is mined and the way that you have to move it, right, It goes from one place to another to another to

I enjoyed the new Devil War's Brata movie. It was weirdly relevant. I did not expect Meryl Streep to deliver like a monologue about how AI is destroying independent internet writers or comedy writers or whatnot, any kind of independent internet writer. But I guess that's what we got.

So that's good and thinly veiled Jeff Bezos villain.

Then the veiled Jeff Bezos villain.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well this isn't our movie review podcast, because we don't have one of those, because I would be bad at it. This is Electile Disorder.

Function Executive Disorder, our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House. Now it's fine, the crumbling world and what it means for you. Embarrassed Davis today, joined by Robert Evans, James stout me along and maybe Sophie Lichterman. This episode, we are covering the week of April thirtieth to May sixth. I want to roll things back to just before we recorded, because Sophie brought up the California gubernatorial debate that happened Tuesday.

Night, Ubernatorial Garrison, you gotta make it sound so please.

Which I tried watching as that kind of is my job, only to discover it was not streaming anywhere online and only available feel the CNN channel on television like you know, like actual TV channels, which prompted Sophie to ask the good question who is this for?

Why?

Why? Why does this even exist?

Then?

If only people watching cable can watch it? And then I realized the real reason this exists is to generate short video clips for social media. And that's I guess how most people are actually engaging with this debate in contextless fifty second that's generous chunks of time in which Stier came off the best, did not come off great,

I don't Porter, I hardly know her.

I don't have a mic, so I'll be really quick.

That was pretty good.

Porter kind of overcoppensati snarky remarks. But she's only pulling like eight or ten percent, where Sultan and Styr are both pulling closer to twenty. Also, Steve Hilton ew.

Yeah, short video content has not been kind to Katie Porter in the in the last couple of years.

It was interesting earlier that morning, Katie Porter released an ad that ended with a joke about her abuse of her staff. Ended with like a reference to a line that she said that was in those articles and like she had all these background extras laugh at the joke referencing the abuse allegations against her to her staff. Interesting choice, crazy move. Who is that for? Who is that for?

I mean, you know what it is. Actually it's her trying to be like Trump, like One of the lessons that Trump has taught the political class is that if people come at you for like being corrupt or fucked up or evil or irresponsible, you just kind of barrel right through that. You don't acknowledge it, you don't like acknowledging any validity in it, and like you, you kind of make fun of it. You try to like make

I think that's she's like tough, no nonsense.

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, the amount of money being spent on anti Staya attack ads is judging by the amount of them that get beamed into my home every night.

Now, it's pretty significant.

As the resident Californian, I didn't watch the debate because the choices we have make me very angry and upset, and I didn't want to think about that.

That's politics. Yeah, James, do you want to start with a few of yours I see are at the top of the dock here.

Yeah, Well, let's begin with the biggest news of the week, which is that the White House Twitter account has shared.

The new crest for nice.

I gotta see this.

Oh yeah, click on that. Oh good, thank god she had that screen.

Garrison garaging you can't have a treat and must share with everybody.

I've get I've got it. I'm good, I've got to get there.

We go.

Okay, So, yeah, that looks like shit. It looks like lazily AI generated garbage.

Yeah, if you asked, AI is generated crest for a US law enforcement see.

The most basic that could possibly be?

Yeah, yeah, sure, Oh well.

National Immigration and Customs Enforcement nice.

Always good. When you throw national in front of any any acronym, that's never it's never turned out bad.

As many people have shared with me, several television shows had already come up with the idea for rebranding ICE as nice. I don't think this is going to stop them moving on. The DOJ said that it is suing

Yeah, this has been an interesting thing for a while, is that even as the Republican the right has had control of the Supreme Court for years now, they have shown a distinct unwillingness to visit the matter of like assault weapons and like magazine capacity bands. Yeah, as well as because there's definitely been some some folks this is less popular, but some some folks on the pro gun side who want them to look at like state level restrictions on like you have to like waiting periods and stuff.

Yeah, it's interesting that this has gone after it's a civil rights to it's through the Civil rights Division, right, I guess they're using the Hella precedent, right, which was the last time and it was Hell, it wasn't the last time.

The previous one was.

Bruin yeah, yeah, sir, Yeah, yeah, bruin the Brewant decision, which was the last time that the Supreme Court really made it made to change to national firearms rules. Right, It's interesting they're going off to Denver and not like, for instance, California.

Well, Denver has a specific there's specifically banned VAR fifteen as opposed to California doesn't ban any specific guns. They banned features on firearms. So I suspect that would be why is that Denver is going Colorado's going after this specific firearm that and the argument that's going to be made is that the Air fifteen is the common most

You know, Denver's assault weapons ban is not the same as California's, but nor does it ban.

AAR fifteen's by name.

I'm just reading from the Denver Municipal Code, Section thirty eight one thirty the categories or the way it defines an assault weapon is a semi automatic centerfire rifle with a detachable magazine capacity at for twenty one rounds or higher. That's subsequent legislation arter that which further limits magazine capacity in Colorado all semi automatic shotguns that can take more than six cartridges and or have a folding stock, or a weapon which can be converted into one of those things.

Yeah, we'll keep because there's a couple of big gun things going in front of the Supreme Court this year.

Yeah, yeah, it's yeah. I think we'll certainly see some movement here. Bortal Wool construction crews have destroyed an intaglio sacred to the Autumn people. The son Old Last playas Intagli sacred site is irreparably damaged, despite the ing gray world recorded and having been identified to construction crews by cultural monitors. Ton Oudam chairman Verlin Jose said, quote, this

These are packages, right, Like, these are kits that you take so you have like a bomb of a various sizes because they can range, and you like basically apply this kit to them and it makes it into a guided munition. Right. So it's a you can have whatever kind of explosive package you want and you can convert it into a guided munition that you then you know, drop or throw or whatever via you know, whichever.

Platform you have it to be using. Yeah, these are like aircraft fired right.

Yes, yes, And in these case they're extended range tail kits. It's not the bomb itself, but the thing that allows the bomb to be delivered to a target.

Right.

Again, this is a package. You have a bomb that's a dumb explosive and this is the thing that you put onto it that allows it to be like a smart munition that's targeted. Like it's it's an air to surface munition. Generally they're like one thousand two thousand pound warheads I think for the most part.

Yeah, I guess in this case it would depend on whatever the warhead is, right.

But like there's there's five hundred pound ones, Like there's a variety of sizes.

Obviously, the Ukrainians have used many of their long range assets right to attack Russia inside Russia. Previously, this has been something the United States had kind of drawn a line at.

That seems to no longer be the case. This will obviously also be a massive contract right there.

The principal contractor he's going to be Boeing, who are located in Saint Louis, and the estimated total cost is about a third of a billion dollars, so three hundred and seventy.

Three million to be exact.

There's been like a big push in a couple of different states to increase munition production, and it has been very uneven in terms of how it's worked so far. They've encountered a lot of issues scaling up production to the level they need. I'm not convinced in our ability to actually like meet this at the time frame being proposed, but we'll see. That's what we I've caught. I've been

A close to State Department says there will be no adverse impact on US defense readiness as a result of this for post sale.

I don't see why there would.

Yeah, that's what they're going to say.

These are standoff munitions. The US military is not show on them for our purposes. But like the shit that we're getting cleaned out on primarily is not Like this is not the main thing. I mean, we're definitely being stretched, but this is not the main thing. It's it's sidewinders. It's like our cruise missiles and it's our our interceptor missiles are like the big things that we're st right now speaking of.

On May one, Resident Trump quote unquote joked that's some most people are referring to this joke that we will be sure quote unquote taking over Cuba almost immediately great after finishing.

With Iran sounds real.

He has made previous comments to this effect the past few months.

Yeah, his joke was that Abraham Lincoln would stop on the way back from Iran right and park off one hundred yards off the coast of Cuba and they would immediately surrender.

Just kind of knock that out.

Yeah, I mean, we're going to get onto this, but this is not the only thing pointing towards Cuba right now.

I have trouble knowing how this is going to go because obviously, like Venezuela was the best case scenario for them, Like Maduro was not personally popular, and he had us, he had like the apparatus below him, was more than happy to just kind of like everyone move up a step and be nicer to the US on paper, like, whereas Iran, that's certainly not how anything has worked out, because you had this whole state has been built for the last sixty years to endure casualties without like losing

I have no idea. And the other thing is that military.

It's more when it's why it's he's at than where around he's at, Right they get out, sure, and the funded.

It was the Cuban military that we were fighting in Venezuela to an extent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

That said like, it's also at the point at which those carrier groups are trying to do that in Cuba, they'll have been on almost twice as long as they're normally supposed to be out, and who knows, Like what is done in Iran? Look like what's that going to mean?

Yeah, like there that war is not ending anytime soon. So like I mean, maybe he just tries to do it at the same time, but like it's yeah, I don't know. We're stuck in the mutual blockade right now, so impossible to know what he's gonna do or what will what will happen as a result of it, other than I don't expect any of it's going to go very well. Nope, it's gonna be a nightmare.

In some sad news, on Sunday, America's mayor Rudy Giuliani was sent to the hospital in critical condition. Giuliani is obviously a friend of the POD. We had him on a few years ago to discuss sending weapons to Ukraine. We would love to have him back to discuss this this recent sale, but unfortunately, Giuliani developed pneumonia after coming back from a trip to Paris and was put on

Yeah, you know, Garret, I saved a little vial of the spittle that that flew off of his mouth when when he and I were discussing UH weapons sales to Ukraine back at the r n C, and I keep it on me every day, and I'm i'm holding it now, and I'm I'm just thinking to you, Rudy. I'm just I'm just pulling for you, man, I'm pulling for you.

We'll probably go on and had a break now, Okay, we are back. Robert has just failed to execute a Simpson's themed audio bit.

I know I wanted to play you crusty the clowns saying the hantavirus, because we're talking about the haunt virus.

Well, that's good enough.

There, you're your impression. I think services does that? Does that work? It's beautiful.

I'm still saying eight people I suspected, at least people are. They're suspected to be infected with a haunt of virus restrain that I've confirmed capable of human to human transmission. This is stemming from an outbreak on a cruise ship. We got to do something about the cruise ships.

Yeah, yeah, Now they're disease factories. First off, like everyone knows, this happens in cruise ships, which is why we shouldn't have them. We don't know exactly how this went down. We know there at least five people are confirmed who have gotten the haunt of virus like they've done, and another three are suspect from testing. Three people are dead, yes, and I think another couple are in serious conditions.

Still.

Yes, it's not known how they got it. It's possible that some of them were human to human transmission.

Argentine officials believe that a Dutch couple contracted the virus about bird watching at a landfill where they may have been exposed to rat poop before boarding the cruise ship. What a series auntavirus has been has been a problem in Argentina for the past year. This has been a known problem. Oh yeah, some human to human cases. There's

To be clear, it's not because because this is what I'd read, it's a strain that can be transmitted human to human. Ok they don't know how everyone who got it got it, Like, they don't know that everyone who got it was human to human or that they were didn't all just get exposed to the same droppings. But it's the Andean strain that can transfer humanity. Okay, it's a problem, but probably it'll be fine, right, Garrison Well, the World.

Health Organization's top epidemic expert Maria van Kirkhov, has cautioned, quote, this is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease. Most people will never be exposed to this unquote, and Reuters included a statement from the World Health Organization and they're reporting. They say that the risk to the public remains low and that the variant detected among passengers can be spread between humans only through close

Yeah, and I think we can also say definitively that if you want to avoid the haunt of virus, like the number one step you can take is not getting on a plague ship.

Yeah, and.

Land landfill to cruise ships. It's a series.

Yeah, we can. We have the technology to avoid this.

Speaking of rat poop, on Wednesday, ms NOW my favorite outlet reported that the FBI is investigating leaks to the Atlantic Journalists to publish that story about Cash Betel's drinking habits and absences from his job, a story that the FBI is previously called false but now is launching a criminal leak investigation into. These investigations typically focus on leaking classhid information, which does not appear to be a factor

Full of rate. It's reserve. It's what it is. It's a bottle.

Yeah, he's got his own bottle of Woodford reserve. Yeah he's getting he's getting what Costco has.

Yeah, he's getting like a thoroughly mediocre, like middling bourbon with his name on it, which is definitely something an alcoholic doesn't have. Definitely a normal non alcoholic thing to do is to have like a thirty dollars bottle of bourbon with your name on it that you hand out to strangers at work.

Alcoholics still do. Yeah, it's not great. This is not a great revelation.

This, this investigation, if real, very very dangerous, right, It's a really really bad shit to happen. To have this clearly like personally motivated weaponization of the FBI against a journalist going through social media records, data bases, digital records, very worrying. But also cash Ptel funny.

Yeah, but yeah, Cashptel is this fascinating? Like, well, this is should certainly a legal, incredibly dangerous thing to have the FBI director doing, And like what a ridiculous man? What It's just a fundamentally ridiculous guy.

I don't know what else to say.

Meanwhile, in the broad world of things falling apart, Spirit Airlines has fallen. It is effectively no.

More all right, p pouring one out, specifically, a personalized bottle of Woodford Reserve is what I'm pulling out for Spirit Airlines.

So Spirit Airlines, I mean, has been in financial trouble for a bit, but it has now filed for bankruptcy. It has grounded all of its planes and fired everyone. So it is gone, and it is gone very very suddenly. This is not something that was you know, like the there had been long gooing negotiation, not long going, but there have been negotiations with the Trump administration to try

Not ideal. Yeah, and this is a.

Real catastrophe for a lot of people because there are a bunch of routes that Spirit was doing that there just isn't really coverage of for anything else. And it's also one of the few of these bunch of airlines are getting just hammered by the increase in fuel prices

To just go out completely.

There are reports that Trump personally really wanted to save Spirit Airlines for kind of weird personal reasons.

Yeah. I can see that, Yeah, but I mean it's Spirit.

Also.

A part of like why it has fallen apart is that it's been a victim of its own success. Like Spirit introduced to the airline industry, the idea of like, no, everyone should be paying for a bag and for a drink for every single thing. We should financialize every single aspect of the of the airline, of the flying process that we can. And as a result, like they stopped being particularly cheap and they stopped working any different from

Yeah, And because like we've known that they've been in trouble the Trump administration negotiations, apparently the stumbling block was that the US plan was to give them like five hundred million dollars, but it would involve buying most of their stock, and the rest of the airline industry was like absolutely not, We're not We're not doing a bailout for just one company if like, instead of an industry

That's funny because it is a time when the US is flying a lot of stuff around the world, like the airlift to Iran has been bonkers.

Yeah, it would have been fun to see Spirit.

The one kind of final that I want to talk about is that there's been a lot of blaming of

Yeah.

I think the thing about competition, right is that sometimes you go out of business. And I know this is something that like business people absolutely despise, and like pro minocally people absolutely despise. But like in theory, if you are a supporter of the free market, that means sometimes the firms go under. Yeah, and they're all very mad about this.

We especially airlines. Lots of airlines die out. That's why mad men, you know, like you look at all the dead airlines and madmen, like it's not an unheard of thing. It's a difficult business.

Yeah yeah.

And it's like and that's like why you've gotten the degree of monopoly you already have in the airline industries, that these companies sort of bought up the carcasses and like you know, did all of these very monopolistic mergers. So there now you just have this thing where like, yeah, flying absolutely sucks because it's all just these like oh god, there's some economics term for it. That I'm forgetting right now.

Yeah.

I guess technically bilaterally because God BB decided to Israelis, but like you know, the President United like the the the US is mad dictator, decided to fight a war. And that's why this airline is gone. Yeah, that's that's that's the main thing. That's why it's gone. Like now in this way.

Yeah, somebody needs to photoshop like Spirit Airlines in heaven with uh the ayatola hameni uh.

Just like.

Holding hands together. Two beautiful souls lost too.

He's getting on one final final flight.

Yeah, see later, space Cowboy.

God.

In other wonderful news, we're pivoting from spirits to ghosts, and we are pivoting to a very a very interesting piece of reporting from CNN, who has obtained polling data that suggests that the President's new Ballroom, which has expanded significant political capital from an assassination attempt to attempt to get built, is in terms of quote, Americans who support or believe in new White House Ballroom is pulling at twenty eight percent, which is lower than the percentage of

Americans love believing in ghosts, h we.

Do, we do love to believe in ghosts. Well, ghosts thing at thirty nine percent.

I was I was expecting to let usually it's higher than that.

I I it could also be support ghosts, right like.

Unted, Yeah, I'm gonna take believe in the ballroom, like do they believe it exists? Like like this is an odd.

I have a lot of questions of the methodology.

I'm a White House denia.

Part of the frustration here is, I think because this this presentation is coming from noted enemy of the podcast Harry Eaton CNN's discount version of Steve Kornacki, who is a is a noted noted Calshi supporter. Yeah, I do not like this man, and I think he manipulates data for entertainment. Yeah, no, he is, He's not good.

It is also also worth noting so that like the opposition to the ballroom, Oh he is also like yeah, it's about twenty eight percent, like everyone hates it. It's it's somehow it's lower than his approval reading, which the stars reading is like getting lower through the thirties and threatening to go below thirty percent, and somehow the ballroom beating is worse, which just astonishing.

Yeah, I do want to talk to the people who still like him, but the ballroom.

They really the people that support the people that support the war on Iran, but draw the line at the ballroom is a really disturbing character today.

Yeah, it's like, well, no, it's it's it's the converted never Trump Republican.

Yeah, maybe.

If I agree with that, but yeah, speaking of that ballroom, the Senate GOP has released a seventy two billion reconciliation package to fund ice and border patrol after their funding was removed from the long fought after DHS funding package, which finally passed last week.

Yay.

The Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee each released proposed bills, and this package can pass the sent out with a simple majority rather than sixty votes. There's also a small provision here for the ballroom, which I'll get to you. But let's start with talking about the other funding.

Yeah, they've been on that one for a while.

I'm guessing it will be their continued facial recognition or pattern recognition stuff.

That's listed also in addition to this AI drug detection inspection tool. Because they also have this three point five billion going towards quote, upgrades and procurement of border surveillance technologies and the deployment of technology relating to the biometric entry and exit system.

Quote.

Thirty eight billion dollars is appropriated for ICE for quote hiring, paying, training, and equipping personnel including officers, agents, investigators, attorneys, and support staff to carry out immigration enforcement activities. Quote. This funding also covers transportation costs, information technology, facility and fleet maintenance

Garrison, my dear friend, you are thinking way too small in terms of what the president just tried to use. Just try to use Defense Production Act buy an airline so he could like run it right, Like they're gonna be like, yeah, I had to I had to like put this this gold lace on, Like this column is actually bullet reflecting.

It's gonna be like that kind of shit. That's just like the.

Way this entire administration has operated.

A lot of the construction could have security elements.

Yeah, well, this is already something that's been discussed at length in the National Trust for Historical Preservation lawsuit against the construction right. And essentially, the Trump administration has argued that the project in and of itself is an indivisible thing. That, let the project is a security project, and you can't break out the security from the ball have a yes, And the judge has so found not agreed to that.

Right.

But the Trump administration has argued that like the below ground hospital room, security infrastructure, bomb shelter, et cetera, and the above ground party having room are like all one big security project.

It should be one secured zone.

Yeah, And and that like you cannot be because the in this case, the discussion is about the injunction, right, which paused construction. Yeah, so they're saying we can't do the security construction only, we have to do all the construction because it's a contiguous whole.

So like that seems like it's relevant to this. Yeah.

We will keep keep keep checking in on these reconciliation bills as they as they move through Congress. But first we will go on this ad break and then discuss Ran and some of the Tuesday elections.

We are back back in the Strait of hor Moves, a place where we spend a lot of time these last few weeks.

Yep.

So's I guess just trying to take this in kind of chronological order, because it's probably the.

Best way to explain it.

Iran has launched cruise, missiles and drones at United States ships in the Strait of horn Moves. For a while there, Iranian news sources were claiming that they had it hit or turned around US vessels.

This does not appear to be true.

Saint Con certainly denied it, although some news networks did run with this, apparently based on what the Iranian government aligned.

Media were claiming.

It seems that two United States the stories did transit the straight and they did receive various types of incoming fire from small boats, from missiles, and from drones. Following that, a mask vessel sailed through the strait. The Alliance Fairfax is United States flagged vessel, and it received assistance from the US military, and then the motor Tanka Anthem of Crowley Maritime also sailed through. Trump has called this assistance quote Project Freedom truthing for the good of Iran, the

This, and we're going to do it as a favor to the world.

Understand this, This is a favor to the world because it's their ships that are stranded, it's their fuel supplies that are stranded. By the way, it's their humanitarian there's humanitarian aid destined for different countries in the world that stranded in the Persian Gulf right now. It's the fertilizer that they need for their food and crops that stranded in the person not our fertilizer.

Their fertilizer.

So we want to be helpful, and that's why the presidents stepped forward because we're the only ones that can. Frankly, we're the only ones that can.

So the United States there wanting to be helpful help the world with their humanitarian aid. On Tuesday, the President then truth based on the request of Pakistan and other countries. It's a tremendous military success that we have had during the campaign against the country of the run, and additionally the fact that great progress has been made toward a

President Jerald J. Trump.

The parties, according to Axios, not an outlet known for its accurate reporting, appear to be closing in on a fourteen point deal. The reporting suggests that Iran has committed to a moratorium of fifteen to twenty years on uranium enrichment. The United States would then lift sanctions and release frozen Iranian funds, which is a massive concession, and both sides

So it is chaos in.

The strait of horror moves right like we have at once Trump saying the us WL eschortship through and then pausing the escorting of ship through, and then the Iranians shooting at a commercial ship, and then the United States shooting at an Iranian ship. The Iranians asking for money this time not in cryptocurrency and the United States saying

Here's the question being asked.

Can you kind of clarify these reports of kamakazi dolphins that we've heard about.

I haven't heard the kamakazi dolphins thing. It's like sharks with laser beams. And then if you could play heg sass response as well, and.

I can't confirm or deny whether we have kamakazi dolphins, but I can confirm they don't.

Ultimately, well, it's good, we're ultimate on that.

Yeah, so heccess pretty definity of Ryan having kamakazi dolphins. It did seem kind of where the people reporting on this one ware the United States has had a marine mammal. Yeah yeah, yeah, like you can see them in San Diego. Yeah, they are not, to my knowledge, like used in a kamikazi capacity, mainly.

Because it's just chea but to do that with drones.

The US military did briefly experiment with bats, which turned out to be a terrible idea because the bats which just fly back to you the boomerang man, this this, this nearly wiped out a huge portion of you as such a command in that. Yeah, great stuff.

Yeah it doesn't.

I mean, I'm pretty sure that Ryan doesn't have suicide dolphins either. People are asking that again, it is just.

Cheaper, unliving dolphins, Dolph.

Yeah, sure, one way. Dolphins how we refer to them if they were munitions, But it just doesn't.

Isn't a suicide dolphin if you're pressing the buttons though, Like, are you just blowing up a dolphin?

No, it's not. It's a murdered dolphin.

It's really it's really unfair to the dolphins.

It's not a dolphin. It hasn't made that commitment. It's just a dolphin.

It's a homicide dolphin.

I can't believe that those reporters would mess up such a basic fact.

Yeah, well yeah, yeah. The people on the suicide dolphin really need to get back to journalism. One O one shut, all right, we're talking about the Ocean. Marco Rubio has visited South coom and Post for a photo with General Francis Eldonovan in front of what is very obviously a large map of Cuba.

Hell yeah, I think what you meant to say is d J Mark Rubio. But continue, Yeah, I said. The map is titled Cuba Reference Map. That's not good.

Yeah, in terms of like a subtle signaling, that's not good. Ribo also claimed to a press conference the Operation Epic Fury was over.

The Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieve the objectives of that operation. I'm not going to you know, we're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What the President would prefer is a deal. He would prefer to sit down, work out a memorandum of understanding for future negotiations that touches on all the key topics that have to be addressed. A full opening of the straits so the world can

That's the route he prefers. That is so far not the route that Iron has chosen.

And so the result has been that the United States has to do something about the fact that we're the only nation on earth that can do anything to open up a lane within the Straits of Hormuz to get product and to rescue these people that are trapped in there. And that's what we're undergoing now.

So let's see the end of operation of Epic Fury and the beginning of the United Dates doing something to open up a lane in the straight up hoole moods.

Great operation unclear.

The goals of which are unclear the but apparently the first one succeeded.

So congrats to all the Epic Fury people listening.

Operation is going great. Things are really good. Uh, and we're we're just minutes away from figuring out what we're doing next.

Really thrilled for winby invade Cuba. And it's like aporation bacon awesome sauce.

Yeah, yeah, right, like epic bacon. Yeah.

Before we close, there's a few a few shorter things that we should mention. That's first by turning to as Ramaswami has said, not the best state in the nation, Ohio.

Which.

Not the best state in the nation.

Which for some reason but is the GOP and late for governor. I has some juice. He has the.

Connections to Ohio where he's lived for how long Garrison, sure, just long enough to be on the ballot, like a few days we could two.

Yeah, it's a good state. I can't say it's the best state. Incredible stuff, high praise, high accurate praise. We will be following this because if Vivek loses to the Democrat, that would be an interesting indicator not just of support for Trump and Mega, but also how annoying the vechro Oswami is. But Robert, there's someone that you would like to briefly mention as well.

Yes.

So, in addition to Vivek doing so well last night, another candidate who did pretty well is Brian Poindexter. Brian is running for Well was running and won the Democratic primary for the Ohio seventh district seat, and he will be running against the Republican incumbent and that district, a guy named Max Miller, who initially ran for and won his way into Congress in twenty twenty two. He was a former aid of President Trump and a bit of a sleeve back. If I'm going to be honest with

And that's why I'm running to be the Republican representation.

You are asked, okay, what's your elevator pitch? Why should you be in office? That's an amazingly incoherent bit of Babbel. So he was asked like, what do you think you're the right guy? And he was like, well, I've been in North Korea, I've been in Iraq bouncing between a La Sad and Arabil. I was in Fghanistan negotiating with foreign delegations on behalf of the president, and I've been

Like that was he was like a coffee boy.

Yeah and no cooker again, walking around with the president not making any decisions. He was like a diet coke boy more than anything. Negotiations, yes, negotiation. This interview firing gets them to pin down and like what is the issue you most want to deal with? He's like, my top issue, hands down is inflation in the economy, and like he talks about how like there's seventy or sixty seven billion dollars worth a credit card debt that Americans are and that's his top issue. So what does he

So not a great guy.

So anyway, while when I'm while I'm going through this interview, there's a moment here where the interviewer's like, hey, so your girlfriend recently made some allegations against you.

Do we see that one colling? So here's what.

Here's what, Taylor Poplars, that's the journalist. Here says your ex girlfriend, Stephanie Grisham, who also worked in the Trump White House with you, she has a legen some pretty serious things related to you, that you've slapped her, pushed her, threw a dog toy at her, cheated on her. And I know you've denied all that.

You fought a lossuit at one point.

Do you still deny all that? His response was, to be clear, we're handling this in litigation. In her motion to dismiss was denied, so the case will be heard now. We're so, we've already won our first battle in that hurdle. And to be clear, she herself has never articulated the allegations. It was all hearsayd by second and third sources. Anyway, that's not the only scandalous guy has on his record.

Yeah, last big story. As part of the ongoing lawsuit Louisiana v. FDA, on May one, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary ban on the remote prescription and mailed delivery of the abortion pill mith pristone. Last October, Louisiana brought this case against the FDA for a Biden era regulation allowing telehealth prescription and mail order access to the drug, which Louisiana claimed was unsafe and facilitated illegal

Oh boy, oh good.

New Marxism just dract.

On Monday, the Secret Service shot a forty five year old man from Texas named Michael Marx spelt the same way, who was allegedly concealed carrying a sig p P sixty five.

P three sixty five, Okay, P three sixty.

Five well between the White House and Washington Monument. Secret Service say they tried to approach the man after noticing the imprint of a gun. The man then fled and allegedly fired towards the agents, who were turned fire, wounding mister Marx. While in the ambulance, he allegedly said, quote, fuck the White House and kill me, kill me, kill

Don't actually know what happened here. Was this just some weirdo concealed carrying us presumably.

Illegally right illegally? Yes?

Yeah, yeah, just because he's just does that? Or was he did he have something? Was he trying to commit? Doesn't it? That doesn't make much sense right now?

Yeah, No, it's it's unclear what his intention was at this point. But then after being shot, by Secret Service. That's when he expressed, fuck the White House, kill me, kill me, kill me. But there's no indication he was targeting any elected official. Sure, but did allegedly shoot at Secret Service as they tried to approach and chase him.

Interesting.

Yeah, yeah, anyway, cool, I mean it's bad, but you know, yeah that that's it for us here and it could happen here. Yeah, we reported the news.

Great, put a transcrol on your couch.

If you want to send us an email specifically pretending to tits about news, you can do so.

Cool Zone tips at proton on me. We reported the news.

Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week from now until the heat death of the universe.

It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

You listen to podcasts.

You can now find sources for it could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.