1/9/26: NEW ICE Shooting Video, 2 More SHOT in Portland, Trump TAKES L ON Venezuela Vote

27:57That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job. The idea that Tim Walz and a bunch of radicals in Minneapolis are going to go after and make this guy's life miserable because he was doing the job that he was asked to do is preposterous. Absolute immunity and noteworthy there. Originally, it had been announced, this would be a joint investigation between local officials and the FBI. Now local officials have been blocked out and the FBI has taken over. And you can guess how much confidence that literally anyone has in this FBI handling this in a straightforward and unbiased manner.

28:38Like it's just it's it's a cover up. I mean, there's just no other way to interpret the decision for them to block out the local officials. Yeah. And if I were the local officials, I'd collect as much evidence as I can. But I would wait until Trump is out of office to file my own charges. Because what they can do is they can remove it from a state level to a federal level and then pardon the guy. And then say, well, you can't prosecute him at the state level either because it's double jeopardy. But if they wait until he's out, even if he has a federal pardon, they can still prosecute him at the state level.

29:17I mean, I think it's like very important to have an investigation into this that everybody feels comfortable with and can trust. And it's not bad to continue to get more and more video and audio from the scenes. I think even things that she may have been saying to the police would be or to the police, to ICE, maybe a change to these things. I've gotten burned a million times by seeing videos quickly and jumping to conclusions. So I just think that's partially why it's good to have a full investigation that people feel confident in. And we're already not off to a great start when it comes to that.

29:51Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America was at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago.

30:36This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult?

31:13NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain. It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast.

31:58On a recent episode, I sat down with Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor, and global superstar. The thing I would say to my younger self is congratulations, you get to marry Priyanka Chopra Jonas. And also, you know, your daughter's incredible. That's beautiful, man. Yeah. Thank you. That's so beautiful. I can see that got you a little... Yeah, for sure. Our daughter, she came to the world under sort of very intense circumstances, which I had not really talked about ever. Growing up on Disney in front of a million, how did that shape your sense of self? I went blank. I hit a bad note, then I couldn't kind of recover.

32:38And I built up this idea that music and being a musician was my whole identity. I had to sort of relearn who I was if he took this thing away. Who am I? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So we'll leave it there. We also wanted to note that there has been another shooting in Portland that we'll be still getting more information about. We don't want to dwell too much on it right now. They shot at a moody vehicle again. But it was another vehicle-related incident that we're still picking up some pieces of. Ryan, I don't know if you want to do like a TLDR real quick thing on it.

33:15Yeah, real quickly, their first statement, so they pulled over a husband and wife, and then some chaos ensued. Without video, we can't take the Fed's word for anything. They initially said an officer fired one defensive shot, but even when they said that, we knew two people had been wounded. So that was a little bit suspicious. eyewitness later told Oregon Press that roughly five shots were fired. A man was shot twice in his arm. A woman was shot in her chest. Local reports are that they are husband and wife. They got away from the feds and then called 911 several miles away, went to the hospital.

33:56DHS is saying that they are illegally here from Venezuela and members of Trende Aragua. Again, we're going to need some, like, how do they know that? What are their names? But again, they fired at a moving vehicle, which is against training. And so now you're seeing protests, you know, breaking out around the country. Interesting and coincidental, Minneapolis and Portland are two of the places that the right has wanted revenge against for the most for 2020. And so it's, I guess, not surprising that these are the places we're seeing the biggest kind of violent crackdown. I would also say, Ryan, that it's also not a surprise that after the vice president of the United States comes out and justifies the killing of saying that the officer has absolute immunity, that others in the field hear that and take to heart what has already been abundantly clear that they don't laws, rules.

34:59Nothing applies to them. They are in it's it's not just the training. it's an intentional culture. Like this is meant to be happening because they want this level of terror. I mean, that is the goal of these operations is to create a level of terror. There's reporting that they're now looking at invoking the Insurrection Act in response to the protests that are emerging in response to the killings. Which is exactly what Stephen Miller has been excited for this entire time. All right, so - Well, let me just add one final point. The big picture from my perspective is that you also have Minneapolis sanctuary city.

35:36I think Portland's also a sanctuary city, which means statistically there are at least dozens of actual criminal migrants in those cities. And so that is the other, I mean, I think that is especially even just like on the politics of it, that is I think another important like thing. Right, but the federal government is acting like they've never heard of how to do law enforcement before. Like we have had criminals for thousands of years. We have evolved ways of enforcing laws. against criminal behavior. People in those cities are blocking. And don't involve wildly shooting into vehicles. Like, it is possible to do law enforcement without shooting into vehicles.

36:14Yeah. Completely agree. I completely agree with that. I think, like, even if you're somebody who is not supportive of anything, like any deportations or whatever, most people don't want criminal non-citizens in the neighborhood. And I think part of the problem is that that when you're tracking ICE every single place that it goes, that makes the legitimate effort, which most people support, like 90 percent of the country probably supports, of like getting at least 90 percent getting actual criminals out. And I'm not saying that ICE isn't making that job much more difficult itself, but that is also a thing that exists as a problem that doesn't need to be solved.

36:52If that is, in fact, their goal, which is not what Stephen Miller has stated his goal is when he berated ICE agents and told them that they needed to stop doing criminal investigations and start harassing day laborers at Home Depot and 7-Eleven. But if that is, in fact, their goal, they are failing miserably at it. Barack Obama was much more effective at deporting criminals and, you know, earned his reputation as the reporter in chief, which is not something that I support. But if you look at the increase and who is being held in immigration detention centers, It is all of that increase comes from non criminals.

37:30So they're there. You know, if that's the goal of getting the criminal illegals out, they are going about it in the worst possible and least effective way. And the largest budget anyone has ever had. And I just want to say I meant non. We got it. We got to move on, guys. Unless unless, Ryan, you got lost. One last thought. The last point, like, yes, I think polling is clear. they do want criminal, illegal, people here illegally who are criminals, they want them deported. Like that's the polling. And so then Stephen Miller wants to use that and say, well, then you should allow us to just go to Home Depot and run roughshod and like do, do everything that we're doing.

38:09It's like, no, no, no, that's not like the public does not support that. So now you're going up against the public is that's the, that's the, that's the point there. So Ryan mentioned earlier seeing violence around the world and how it reflects back home. Congress is deciding to actually have a say a little bit now in that violence that we enact around the world. Emily, can you talk to us about this war powers resolution that was just voted on? Yeah, this is huge news. And this is a place that will I think I'll agree. It's I'm reading from the ABC News report here, quote, in a rare rebuke to the Trump administration, the Senate on Thursday advanced a war powers resolution that would block the president's use of the U.S.

38:49armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress. A small group of Senate Republicans joined with all Democrats to narrowly advance the resolution by a vote of 52 to 47. It needed 51 votes to move forward. The Republicans who broke with Trump were Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Todd Young, Susan Collins and Josh Hawley. So Tim Kaine, who I literally just saw on my screen on CNN over on the TV, quote, pushed for the resolution to receive a vote immediately after Trump announced U.S. forces carried out that attack in Venezuela. I just want to pull up Josh Hawley's tweet here.

39:28I'm just going to read from it. He said in response to what was it directly in response to Trump? I mean, Trump predictably went off on these guys. Josh Hawley said, with regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution, and he is obviously who's the attorney general of the state of Missouri. He says, my read of the Constitution is that if the president feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it. That's why I voted yes on this morning's Senate resolution. Now, he's taking a lot of flack for that, obviously, because most of the people who voted against the president were more moderates, not like people from the MAGA wing.

40:03And Rand Paul obviously is a libertarian. So, Holly, I think, you know, there's an argument that's much more broad, even though what Holly is advancing, which is narrowly about boots on the ground. But that's that said, Ryan, you've covered Congress for years. This is if this Venezuela op is what because people are so angry about Trump. If that's what gets a serious momentum towards narrowing our insane war powers, that's incredible. Yeah, I'm skeptical that it will in the end, but it is quite something that it passed so far. The context here, I was quickly feeding the cat while you started, so you may have mentioned this.

40:45They had brought this War Powers resolution to the floor where they were about to bring. And the way that the White House defeated it was by flat out lying and saying, we are not intending to attack Venezuela. And in fact, we don't believe that we have a legal argument to do so if we did. So you don't need to put constraints around us. They had already built their, you know, Caracas, mini Caracas in Kentucky and were running drills on how to do the exact thing that they were telling Congress they had no intention of doing and no legal authority to do. So I think the combination of everything plus the plus the lying was a bit too much for Congress.

41:31And here's J.D. fans responding about the war powers. technicality than any disagreement in policy. If you look at the people who actually voted, every single one of them have supported the administration's plan. Second of all, as the president, I believe himself has already said, every president, Democrat or Republican, believes the War Powers Act is fundamentally a fake and unconstitutional law. It's not going to change anything about how we conduct foreign policy over the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months. And that'll continue to be how we approach it. So sorry to burst your bubble, Emily but it's fake oh shoot which he voted for the war power he voted for a Nigeria war powers resolution um and he voted for I don't remember the other one was it Syria maybe it was Yemen he voted for two war powers resolutions when he was in the United States Senate yeah yeah he was good on war powers um so why was he voting for fake war powers resolutions yeah it sucks I mean That sucks.

42:29It's boring to point out that J.D. Vance isn't consistent day to day or week to week or year to year. But worth throwing one more on the Vance pile there. Yeah. I mean, the spirit of the Constitution, Article 1 versus Article 2, is like pretty clear when it comes to war powers. Now, legally, you can be J.D. Vance and you could be a war power scholar and work at West Point or whatever. And you can make these arguments about, you know, just what the government can and can't do, especially post Vietnam, post Iraq. And it's just gotten extremely muddy. But those arguments, even if you can legally make them, they're wildly out of the spirit of the Constitution.

43:12And a lot of it comes from like just being able to do war in different ways than we could when the Constitution was written, that it's allowed bad actors to just smudge things over the course of decades. And I think, again, if you go if you sit down and read Article one and Article two and then look at what's happening, you realize it's there. These things do not comport. Yeah. And Trump. Well, I was just going to say the other thing is that they already, you know, should have gone to Congress for what they've already done. Yeah. Like they don't care about following our little rules and laws and constitutions.

43:51And in fact, Trump in that interview with The New York Times was asked, like, what are the constraints on you? What could hold you back? And he said the only constraint is me and my head and my morality. So like, I mean, literally said that like that is a direct quote. Yes. I mean, I'm sure I didn't get the words exactly right, but I'm trying to quote him as precisely as I could. That is by definition like the mindset of a king. You know, I mean, you know, the no kings protest like very vindicated here because in his view, there is nothing to stop him. No Congress, no checks and balances, certainly no international law, no war powers resolution, no nothing.

44:33nothing to stop him, but what his own mind tells him is the line that he should draw. And, you know, I don't think any of us probably feel very comfortable with where Donald Trump is going to draw the line on these things. Crystal, your paraphrase was almost verbatim. So this is the New York Times asking him what limits exist on his powers. Trump says, quote, one thing, my own morality, my own mind, it's the only thing that can stop me. And you will remember him posting this quote attributed to Napoleon. over the summer where he said he who saves his country violates no law. This is a recurrent theme, obviously, of the second Trump administration.

45:12This is, again, tired and cliche to say, but imagine if Barack Obama. Oh, imagine if Barack Obama had said anything approaching this. Like we would still be hearing about it to this day. Right. I mean, it's just it's fundamentally it's un-American. It's authoritarian. I mean, I don't even have to tell you what it is. It's so obvious it's on its face. So I appreciate that you have some Republicans who join in and voting for this war powers resolution. I don't want to, you know, it's very sort of like dark and nihilistic to be like, well, it doesn't matter. But unfortunately, I don't think that it does.

45:46I mean, until we have genuine accountability for some of the people who have engaged in unlawful, unconstitutional and criminal acts as part of this administration, there are going to be effectively very little checks. The only check is actually the public. Like we have seen at times when there's been huge public pushback, there has been a bit of reining in of Trump, you know, pulling, pulling back. But there's not a lot of instances of that. And, you know, frankly, as he gets older and more unhinged and detached from reality, like he's less able to even discern what the public wants, which also came out in recent comments when he was talking to the GOP conference.

46:24And he was like, you have to explain to me what's going on in the mind of the public because our policies are perfect, but they don't like it. Yeah, he'd literally, again, another thing he actually said. He said that. Well, on that note, we have a guest in the lobby that I'd like to let in here. Let's see if she is here. We have, hello, we have New York Assemblywoman Claire Valdez. Welcome to Breaking Points. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Now, Claire, we know you are now running for the vacated seat of Nidia Velasquez in Brooklyn and Queens. Tell us a little bit more about why you're running.

47:08Yeah, absolutely. So I am an assembly member representing parts of Queens that are well within New York 7. But before that, I was a member of UAW Local 2110. I come out of the labor movement at a moment when support for unions in this country has never been higher. We need a federal government that will actually support new organizing, that will take on corporate greed and will fight for a real social democracy. And New York 7 is a deeply working class district. Many, many renters, many tenants, artists, families, immigrants. And they deserve a representative who's going to go to D.C. to fight for them.

47:44Right. And so today you rolled out endorsements from Mayor Mamdani and also from Sean Fain, the head of the head of the UAW, was elected to overthrow the old brass with your help. Can you talk a little bit about how you went from Texas to becoming part of the UAW? Like what was that journey? Yeah, so like many Americans, I worked low-wage customer service jobs in many different places. I've been an independent contractor, have worked unpaid overtime, nights, weekends, the familiar story of a lot of working class people. Which chains? I think people would probably love to know. Which different ones?

48:24I'd love to know. I worked at Trader Joe's. I worked at Pizza and Taco Bell. really, really grinding, bagging groceries, making food, working with customers. But you know, and you got to pay their rent. You got to do what you have to do to make sure that you're making rent. So I worked those jobs. I moved to New York City to work at a small museum in Long Island City called Sculpture Center. And after working there for a few years, went to work at Columbia University, which was organized under the clerical workers organized under UAW Local 2110 a couple of decades ago. So it's an older union, 500 workers, mostly women, people of color, working class folks doing things from administration to call center work, cashiers in the cafeteria.

49:09And that was my first introduction to organized labor. You know, as a worker, I spent so much of my time not knowing that I had the power to actually fight back against the boss and demand the wages and dignity that I deserved. But the union introduced me to that collective power. And you've joined the bargaining committee, is that right? How did you become kind of more political inside the union? Yeah, I remember my very first day on the job, being told by my boss that it was time for me to take a lunch break and having no idea what to do or where to go. And that was a gift, you know, and that time off, really simple thing that every worker deserves, was fought for by my union siblings.

49:51And so it took a couple of years for me to get more involved. In the meantime, I had joined New York City DSA. And when I joined the bargaining committee, it was because one of my co-workers asked me to. Very classic organizing tradition. You're asked to do a thing. You're not sure you can do it. You have the support of your co-workers and your colleagues. And you make that change. Claire, I wanted to get your reaction to some significant news with regard to Mayor Mom Mamdani's agenda, especially since you just earned his endorsement. So this report of the New York Times has big news from Governor Kathy Hochul on child care.

50:25She's going to announce today she's committing to fully fund the first two years of Zoran Mamdani's implementation of free preschool for two-year-olds. Some of the details are below. She says Governor Hochul stated the state investments will commit to delivering affordable child care for nearly 100 ,000 more kids, make pre-K truly universal statewide, partner with New York City to launch the new mayor's signature two-care program, finally realized the promise of universal 3K across access in New York City, support other counties in building out new child care pilots, expand child care subsidies to tens of thousands of additional families.

50:56And I think it's, you know, I'd love for your reflection on the significance of this win and what it means about, you know, how to do politics, because when Zoran first started running and even after, you know, he won wins the primary and even after he wins the general election, I heard a lot of, yeah, but he's not going to be able to get any of this done. This is all pie in the sky. And Kathy Hochul was opposed to significant parts of the agenda. And now she is playing ball and helping him deliver on one of the more complicated and transformative parts of the platform he ran on. No, it's momentous news.

51:33It's an incredible victory. It's really, really exciting. It's going to transform the lives of so many of our families in New York City and the ability just to be able to stay and grow a family here in one of the most expensive cities in the country. And this victory comes from organizing. Zoran ran a disciplined and thoughtful campaign. He talked to so many millions of New Yorkers. And by advancing a really economic populist agenda that actually touches working class people's lives, he was able to stitch together this really beautiful coalition. And so this victory is because of organizing. And it's something that Zoran's campaign showed us, that we can change the conversation around what working people deserve and advance a populist agenda that serves working people and makes our lives affordable.

52:20So I'm so thrilled about the announcement. There's more work to be done to win the rest of Zoran's agenda. And that's the energy I want to take into Congress as well. And what have you made of the CEO Weaver controversy this week? And where do you stand on the question of like rent control and how private property should be viewed when you're also trying to bring down the cost of rent? I'll also tack on to that just the sort of racialized language that has been really part of that controversy. Do you think that was a distraction? Do you think that's a good way to think about property in New York City?

52:55What have you as an as a New Yorker? What have you made of the conversation this week? Zia Weaver is an incredible tenant organizer, and I am incredibly proud that she is going to be part of this administration fighting for tenants. She has a long track record of fighting against bad landlords, corporate landlords, and making sure that people can stay in their homes. So I'm very excited to fight alongside her for those goals. Rent control and rent stabilization are the backbone of housing security in New York City. And we want to grow those protections and make sure that people can stay in their homes long term and build lives in the communities that they love.

53:36Claire, how as a local official, you know, we've been covering this morning the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, shooting of two more individuals. We don't have a lot of details out of Portland, Oregon. You know, obviously New York City has been a major target for ICE operations as well. How do you think local officials should respond? And, you know, if you're to make it to Congress, which I think they've got a pretty good chance at at doing, you know, what sort of action should be taken at the federal level to garner accountability and rein in the lawless behavior that we've all witnessed?

54:13Yeah, absolutely. And it's a tragedy what happened to this young mother who I think was doing something that a lot of us have done in the past months of this administration, standing by and witnessing her neighbors be kidnapped and displaced and disappeared from their homes and their communities. it's a tragedy and my heart goes out to her family and her community. Yesterday I was at a press conference with our state electeds to talk about state legislation that we've been fighting for since the Trump administration took office earlier last year, including spanning protections around sanctuary city protections across New York state, making sure that ICE agents aren't masked in New York State.

55:03But fundamentally, you know, we run into the problem that this is so much of this is federal jurisdiction. And so at the federal level, the first step would be to abolish ICE. This is an agency now that has been funded many, many, many billions of dollars. And that money should be going to make our lives whole. So we're making sure that we have health care and housing, that we have the protections that working people need to live dignified lives, not to militarize an agency that is now murdering citizens on U.S. streets in broad daylight and on camera. And of course, the ongoing tragedy of their kidnapping our neighbors, taking them to detention centers, sending them to prisons in countries that they've never even lived in.

55:49It's an atrocious agency and it is long outlived its purpose and it has to be abolished. So Antonio Reynoso is the Brooklyn borough president, as you know, is and has, you know, kind of a WFP Democrat and progressive in general, is also running for the seat. Where would you say the biggest daylight is between you and Reynoso? Yeah, we're going to be cashing this out during the Democratic primary. I think this is a really good opportunity for us to shape the direction of the Democratic Party. This race is not going to be about it's a deep blue district. It's one of the most left districts in the country, if not the most left district in the country, voted for Zora Mamdani by 40 points.

56:41And so this race isn't going to be about whether we're flipping a seat. You know, this isn't where the majority is going to be fought for. This is where we're going to decide what that majority is going to fight for. I come into this race as a labor organizer with the experience of offending my colleagues and co-workers in arbitrations and fighting against the boss and demanding a seat at the table. That's the experience I bring along with my experience and the movement that just helped elect Soran Lambani to be our democratic socialist mayor of New York City. And so I'm looking forward to the campaign and talk to as many voters as possible.

57:15We've got a really exciting platform that we're putting together around unions for all, health care for all, and Medicare for all. And Reynoso doesn't seem to have been terribly outspoken when it comes to Gaza. Is that a place where you think there's daylight between the two of you? I'll say I'm very proud of my record on standing up against the genocide in Gaza. I was one of the first among the first electeds in New York City to to call for a ceasefire. You know, in the early days, we were marching, phone banking, rallying, doing jail support and naming it as a genocide. And so I have a consistent record on on this issue.

58:00And it's one that I hope to bring to voters. Um, Claire, where do you stand on whether if Democrats take control of the House, whether Hakeem Jeffries should be would have your vote as speaker? Yeah, I'm one campaign at a time. So what I'm really hoping for is that in the coming year, we are actually able to take back the House and be in a position to even elect the speaker. What I will say is that, you know, we just had this momentous election in New York City. We elected Zoran Mamdani by whose campaign centered working class people and an economic populist agenda. And he confounded expectations and really shook the Democratic Party establishment.

58:42And I think that's the energy that people are going to be hungry for in 2026. And hopefully we will take back the House and be in a position to have more conversations about who the leadership should be. What are some of your top priorities? Now, I used to live in Crown Heights. I'm currently in LA. But what are some of your current priorities to improve Brooklyn and Queens? Zoran was really articulate about having some really tangible things that you could probably just list off in your sleep now, fast and free buses and stuff like that. What do you want to do to impact specifically Brooklyn and Queens?

59:25Yeah, absolutely. So we talked a little bit about housing earlier, but 77 % of this district are renters. Overwhelming percentage of people have to pay for their housing every single month. A lot of them are NYCHA tenants, so they live in public housing. NYCHA has been underfunded and gutted for generations now. So fully funding NYCHA to make sure those residents have the dignified and beautiful homes they deserve, building more public housing so even more New York City residents can enjoy that benefit. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez carries a piece of legislation called the Homes Act around social housing.

1:00:04So building social housing that's decommodified, that's permanently affordable, and that as many people as possible can live in. That's one of the biggest issues we're going to be fighting for. But of course, Medicare for all is top of mind for so many of my neighbors. As long as private health insurance is able to dictate whether or not you're able to live a long and healthy life, there won't be real justice in any of our communities. And I think we all have a story about a medical emergency that could have meant us losing our homes. So making sure that everyone has health care, everyone has housing, and everyone has the opportunity to join a union.

1:00:43My union completely changed my life. So passing the PRO Act, talking about a federal jobs guarantee, we have a lot of labor legislation that we're working on and thinking about to make sure that everyone has a dignified life, but a seat at the table, too, because I really believe that so much power rests in working people, and that's the power that we have to foreground in these bites. That's less questions, just a quick yes or no. Do you support Senator Sanders' pause on data center construction as I think AI is going to be increasingly front and center, especially in terms of labor issues? Yes, absolutely.

1:01:21I think this technology is moving at breakneck speed. And I think a pause will help us figure out how to respond to the way that's being developed and find ways for the power that AI represents to be with workers and not with tech oligarchs. All right, Claire, we'll tell people where they can follow you, where they can support you. So yeah, absolutely. So go to my website, claireveldownsforcongress.com. We're rolling up a campaign now. There'll be lots of opportunities to volunteer. Of course, donations always welcome to and follow me at Claire for New York. Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time.

1:01:59It's wonderful to meet you and we wish you the best of luck. And the endorsements you're getting, I think are a huge deal for your campaign. So we're excited to see that. Thank you so much. I'm honored to have the endorsements and honored to speak with you all today. We'll be in touch. Sounds good. Thank you so much. Have a good one. Thanks for joining us, Claire. Thank you. Bye-bye. All right. Where do we go next, folks? Let's touch on the jobs numbers right quick because we now have a full year picture here. So jobs added, this is from December, was 50 ,000, which is less than expectations, pretty low number overall.

1:02:37all. It means that for the entirety of the year of 2025, it was the worst job creation that we've seen since the COVID since 2020. So the COVID recession, we also probably going to get a Supreme Court decision on tariffs today. So pretty significant day in terms of economics. And I saw one reporter, I think it was, I can't remember who it was that was tweeting this, but if it wasn't effectively for like health care and maybe one other service sector, maybe hospitality, you would have had net job loss on the year. So, you know, the stated goals of the Trump administration has been, oh, we're going to surge all these like blue collar, all these sort of like tough, masculine, manly man jobs for our man folk.

1:03:24And in fact, the economy has shifted even more. We're losing blue collar jobs. We're losing manufacturing jobs. And what we're gaining are in professions that are typically dominated by women. The other thing I wanted to highlight is a Washington Post report. It's not letting me share it on the screen right now. I'll send it to you, Griffin. But this is from yesterday about how more people are relying on part-time jobs or people who are relying on multiple jobs. So those two things. So part-time jobs up and people working multiple jobs up. And that's another part, I think, of the economy that will be politically for Republicans in 2026.

1:04:06That's just an indicator that there's dissatisfaction with the job picture overall. And I think that's obviously an important reflection of how happy people are with the opportunities available right now. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, the key thing there, just to underline it once again, is the lack of hiring. like we're in this weird situation where there aren't a lot of there are there are layoffs but the layoffs are not happening at the cataclysmic rate of like the great financial crisis the cataclysm is slowly unfolding in the sense that when somebody leaves a job they're not opening up what they call a new wreck like they're not they're doing everything they can and pushing all managers are being pushed to figure out how can we do this job how can we automate it and what what how can we just push more work onto the existing numbers of people which over the next couple of years because of the way that attrition works and and people revolve in and out of jobs that's going to be the that's going to be where millions of jobs end up being lost like anybody that's looking for a job can can vouch that it's very very hard to find one um even though you're not we're not in a place where people are getting laid off at like an epic scale um here's some and that showed up again in these numbers i was gonna say here's some spin this is uh ej and tony who i think was well he was briefly nominated to head up bls he says full-time jobs exploded in december with the hottest print of 25 rising 890 000 while part-time jobs fell 740 000 great to see people moving from part-time to full-time work in such large numbers, even though this positive shift doesn't appear in headlines job numbers.

1:05:49Well, one of the reasons it's not going to appear in headlines job numbers because the share of workers with multiple jobs, this is according to the post analysis, is at a 25-year high. A 25-year high. Part of that is obviously because of the gig economy, and some of that is actually good for certain people, but you're also looking at a rising share of people being pushed into part-time work, according to the post-analysis. And so when you have the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence, and you have like record numbers, record numbers of unemployment among college graduates in the spring, they're hoping that their tax cut bill picks up and it gets their traction.

1:06:30And there's lots of hiring that comes from that new manufacturing jobs that comes from that gamble when you're also having AI. start taking up, obviously, a lot of those entry-level jobs of particularly recent college graduates. Yeah, and I think it's worth just underscoring the points both of you guys are making. New York Times, I think, got their hands on these leaked memos from, well, yeah, they were able to get their hands on these internal memos from Amazon about the way that they were planning on shifting work from humans to robots. And Amazon has been sort of leading the charge at the bleeding edge of automation for years at this point.

1:07:11And yeah, the idea is not, oh, we're going to do this mass firing. It's they intentionally work their people in their warehouses, which is where the bulk of their workforce is. They work them to the bone until they just crash out. And they intentionally do not promote them. I mean, this is all reported out and documented in the past. And at a certain point, your body just can't take it. And so, yeah, the idea is we're just going to churn through these human beings and not replace them with other humans, but replace them with robots. And, you know, over a fairly short amount of time, they're planning on replacing something like half a million workers with automation.

1:07:51They've already have a pilot warehouse down somewhere in the South, I want to say Louisiana, where there's very minimal human involvement. So they already sort of have a prototype with this. And they're already they're already trying to figure out how to message to the public what is going to be happening here. Amazon, of course, being one of the largest employers in the entire economy and a real trendsetter, both in terms of certainly in terms of logistics distribution, warehouse work, but really in terms of the economy at large. So if that's the way they're thinking about it, you can guarantee that's the way that businesses across industries are thinking about how they're going to replace these human beings with much easier and lower maintenance robots as that technology comes to fruition.

1:08:43Yep. That silence means that we all approve and are happy with the state of affairs. So it means that Crystal is brilliant and we are all so speechless. We have nothing to add. Yeah, it's bad out here, guys, in L.A. because the entertainment industry is dying and the entertainment industry, if that's not going, well, that also feeds all the restaurants, all the other businesses in L.A. So everyone is hurting really bad out here in a way that I've really never, never seen before. Restaurants are closing down because no one's making enough TV shows or movies. So those crew people don't have money to go out.

1:09:23And it's a circular kind of death loop happening in Los Angeles right now. Oh, everyone. We need some data centers in L.A. There you go. Dozens. That's the only. Build it on top of Paramount. I have a little local anecdote just to add to that. But as you guys know, I just adopted another kitty. We have Sox has joined our family. I'll tell the whole story another time. But in any case, when I was at the shelter, the woman who was there, the volunteer who was there, she said, we've never had more surrendered animals in our history. And I said, I said, oh, why? And she said, they can't afford it.

1:10:00They can't afford it. And people can't afford to get their pets spayed or neutered, even though, you know, there are services you can figure out to get that done for free. But if you're just showing up at the vet, it's going to cost. So they're having more puppies and kittens and then they can't afford the ones that they have. And then they all end up at the shelter. And she said it's a higher number than she has ever seen. So, you know, again, just a little local indicator. But, you know, it's certainly certainly indicative of something real that's going. And that's that's a private equity story, too, because during the pandemic and afterwards, private equity took over a massive amount of the veterinary industry.

1:10:40I think it's almost like 80 percent now of vets and clinics are not run by, you know, the mom and pop places they used to. But private equity that now was ratcheting up the prices. And yeah, as someone who volunteers at shelters and stuff, the number one stories are either that apartments don't allow animals anymore, like they're cracking down on that, or just, yeah, cost. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated, and Black America is at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale.

1:11:21In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:12:06What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

1:12:42It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP. It's crazy cast of disciples and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. On a recent episode, I sat down with Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor, and global superstar. The thing I would say to my younger self is congratulations.

1:13:22You get to marry Priyanka Chopra Jonas. And also, you know, your daughter's incredible. That's beautiful, man. Yeah. Thank you. That's so beautiful. I can see that got you a little... Yeah, for sure. Our daughter, she came to the world under sort of very intense circumstances, which I had not really talked about ever. Growing up on Disney in front of a million, how did that shape your sense of self? I went blank. I hit a bad note, then I couldn't kind of recover. And I built up this idea that music and being a musician was my whole identity. I had to sort of relearn who I was if you took this thing away.

1:14:02Who am I? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ryan, I wanted to throw to you next, because we have some protests occurring in Iran. Now, I want to put these up on screen, and I wanted to get your sense of how meaningful this is, because I was slightly skeptical of some of this simply because Zionists have been mainly pushing this online and some of the worst kind of liars and fraudsters are very happy about it, which always gives me kind of a moment to like pause and maybe just try to be a little more skeptical. I'll put these up while you talk.

1:14:46Yeah. So Ayatollah Khomeini spoke today publicly, lashed out at Trump throughout through his speech. He said, you know, he brought he brought up the fact that Trump killed more than a thousand Iranians during the 12 day war. He quoted Trump saying, I gave the order I commanded during the war. And then he he contrasted that with Trump saying the nation of Iran. And in his in the Ayatollah is a kind of a character of people haven't followed his like public pronouncements. So he adds a handful of inexperienced, inattentive and unthinking people believe it, accept it and act according to his desires.

1:15:32So what what the Ayatollah is saying there is that he's blaming Trump for like instigating the protests. Now, there's been criticism of the coverage of these protests, or there's been criticism of the president distinguishing between, quote, rioters and protesters. It's and it's very interesting because it's coming from the like the it's like a mirror image of what we have in the United States, because the right or at least the kind of anti-Iran, anti-Iran government segment of the population here. loves to debate this idea of who's a rioter and who's a protester. But the difference between what's going on in Iran and what happens, you know, here in the United States when people were getting upset that the protests weren't being called riots, is that there was a lot of property damage done in, you know, 2020, for instance.

1:16:29In Iran, you've seen a significant number of cops and other security service people killed in these protests. There's a video circulating just today of a cop, I think in Isfahan, I'm not exactly sure where, just getting absolutely pummeled to death by demonstrators. And so you watch some of that stuff and you're like, wow, that's beyond mostly peaceful protesting. Now, the question of whether the Iran government is going to go down, I don't know. everybody, you know, every time this kicks off, people are like, oh, the regime's going to fall. It's like, what it's like, what would it be replaced by?

1:17:15Like, even Trump has said that the Shah's kid just is not up to the task. And so if he's not. I'm forming a team. It's Maria Karina Machado and. So the Iranian government is. Throw Shalabi in there. The Iranian government is a massive thing. Like it's it's not. It's not one tin pot dictator. Like you could kill the Ayatollah. You know, I met with a group of reporters, met with the Iranian president in New York when he was here for the UN. And he said at the time that after the 12-day war, they put in place a succession plan that went like 12 people deep. So like, can they kill him? Sure. Can they kill the next layer underneath him and the next layer under that?

1:18:06But how you go from there to like installing an American puppet in Iran, that I don't quite see. And then, Ryan, what do you make of this clip from Trump yesterday who says, and he's been saying this a bunch, that if Iran kills protesters, we're going to hit them very hard. Of that awful 47-year tyranny. Well, I don't want to say it, but I will tell you they're not doing well, as you know, probably better than anybody. They're doing very poorly. And I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots, they have lots of riots. If they do it, we're going to hit them very hard.

1:18:41And so, again, like the mirror image, like trying to think about what's going on there and through the lens of how we understand things going on here. Like here, if a cop is at the side of a vehicle and pumps bullets into a side window and kills a protest, not even a protester, but a woman in Minnesota, like that's okay. Iran, bomb away. protesters in Iran can kill significant numbers of police officers. So it's very hard for Trump to square, like, why shouldn't he be going after ICE? Like, why are American security forces allowed to kill protesters and non-protesters? But protesters in Iran are allowed to kill security forces.

1:19:33And if protesters are killed, then he's going to bomb Iran. So there's not a whole lot of consistency going on there. Shocking development. We're all really surprised by that. When I talk to – go ahead, Em. Well, I was just going to say it is always very hard to know when you're on the cusp of genuine – because we go through this constantly. Because when it happens, it happens like out of nowhere and quickly. Well, and the people who are saying – Griffin started by saying he was skeptical of people who are promoting this. But that's obviously a thing that happens. You have people who are either paid or working for nonprofits where their ideological goal is regime change.

1:20:11And for better or worse, that is what they want. And so they hype up the narrative to make it seem like Iran is on the cusp of falling. And that makes it more and more likely for intervention. So it is. And sometimes like these protests are genuine and that like they're real organic uprisings. But it's just always so, so hard to know what's real and what's propaganda. It's very hard to tell from afar to like, how big are they? You know, I mean, you know, just like how conservatives in America will convince you that every American city is like an absolute hellhole war zone by like picking out certain clips.

1:20:47It's just very hard to know if you're not there and you're not on the ground. When I talked to Dr. Parsi yesterday, he was making the point that you are, Emily, which is that regardless of whether the regime is actually on the brink of collapse, which he is highly, highly skeptical of, to say the least, this is very much helping make the case to Trump that it will be quick and easy for him to, you know, take consequential action. Make Iran great again, as Lindsey Graham said with his hat. Exactly. Exactly. And Trump signed that hat. So, you know, not only does Dr. Parsi think that Trump greenlit Israel bombing Iran, but he feels that this time, in contrast to last time around, that he thinks the U.S.

1:21:31will actually take the, you know, the initial step, will sort of lead the way versus how it was done last time where Israel started, you know, bombing them and then we came in afterwards. words. So I think, you know, between the fact that you still will always have Israel and their, you know, their allies in the government and Mira Maddelson and the whole Israel lobby pushing for more bombing of Iran and regime change in Iran, you always have that dynamic going on. Then you also have Trump feeling very, you know, very, I guess, confident in his military abilities, He feels like this was a mission accomplished moment in Venezuela.

1:22:11He feels great and like this was super easy and a big political win for him. So that pushes in the direction of, hey, let's do more military stuff. And then when you add to that the visuals of the protest and whatever the reality of the protests are, that also gives him more of a sense of like, oh, yeah, we could totally get in and do this and make something happen. Now, what that something is, given that he's ruled out the, you know, the Shah's fail son here, I think that is a bigger question for me. But, you know, a lot of things are pushing in the direction of more direct action in Iran, whether that's imminent, whether it's later on.

1:22:52I don't know. I think Greenland is also very much, you know, front of mind and on the table here for all of this. And if you're looking for something that's really just quick and easy, Greenland is the obvious target, because as was it Stephen Miller, who I think said on CNN, like, no one's going to fight us for that. It's true. Europeans aren't going to do shit about it. So if you just want another quick, you know, quick and dirty victory, like Greenland is the easy place to look for that. And they're now apparently offering, they're debating whether or not to offer the people of Greenland$100 ,000 each for the U.S.

1:23:29Sagar wanted to give them$2 million each. $2 million each? Genuinely, how do you think Americans are going to feel about it? Not great! Does that not occur to anyone? Like we're going to rebuild Venezuela's infrastructure, make Venezuela great again, give oil companies a bunch of guarantees. By the way, there's a whole long list of oil executives meeting with the administration and with Trump today. And we're going to pay. We're going to do a universal basic income for Greenland. Like what are we talking about here? And I mean, two years of salary for the average American. Right. Can I move to Greenland and get that and pick and pick up that bonus?

1:24:11I mean, yeah, there might be an arbitrage opportunity here. And so, like, you know, the other thing that's silly about Greenland is sort of like an echo of the Venezuela thing. Like, Maduro was totally willing to sell us oil and for us not to have to own Venezuela and run Venezuela. That was all on the table, like all the minerals, the resources, whatever they want for their data center, all that stuff that was on the table. Same thing with Greenland. Like if we want more military in Greenland, we can put more military in Greenland. We already have insane level of rights that we probably shouldn't have to do what we want in Greenland.

1:24:48Like you want their natural resources? Cool. I'm sure they would sell them to you. But there's also this element of some weird like Peter Thiel connection here where they want to set up one of their weird ass crypto cities or something and have looked at Greenland for that. So that may be part of what's going on here. In any case, that's kind of where things stand right now. One more point on Iran is just when Mossadegh was overthrown and the Shah was restored. That did not end well. That is why we are where we are right now. So these like it's actually applies to Venezuela as well, that you can feel like if you're a Lindsey Graham, you got this this win and then you will frame it as a long term win.

1:25:30When in fact, it's like a short term win that has under the surface caused all kinds of different problems that will be tensions that ramp up slowly over the course of years or even a decade plus. And it's cyclical. It's not solving like some larger problem of making Iran totally friendly to U.S. interests in the long term. In fact, in the long term, it can make that much, much more difficult because people care about their own sovereignty. And they remember, Iranians remember what happened in these regime change efforts more than Americans do. It weighs heavily on their minds. So these things that are pitched as long term solutions are often, even by the people who are pitching them, short term, by their terms, short term solutions that have counterproductive long term ramifications.

1:26:22Yeah, it's just interesting to see us in this odd transitionary time where we still are parroting the language of human rights and insisting that places like Iran follow international law and human rights while we're transitioning to a country that does not even like pretend to do that ourselves. And that it glorifies and like this, as Vance said, this officer should be celebrated, that should be thanked. for killing this woman. Yeah, I think it's worth putting those two pieces together, Ryan, because you have ICE now the largest law enforcement agency in history. It has a budget that is larger than all but I think 13 countries, militaries, including like military, like Canada, like significant size countries.

1:27:10And you have Trump asking for$1.5 trillion defense budget. So effectively, all of the taxpayer resources are being funneled into security and police apparatus. And I think that tells you everything about the direction they're taking things in, both domestically and abroad. And which is wild, because we're not that restless of a country. We're not that hard to control. We're just watching football on Sundays, going to church and putting our kids in schools. We don't have separatist movements and guerrilla movements. But I think they see... Time is not that high. I think they believe what they're saying about AI and how, I mean, if you throw, you know, in short period of time, a third of the country out of a job, then, you know, we may not be so, they're not sure we're going to continue to be so docile.

1:28:05And, you know, for good reason. I don't think the, you know, the Netflix and the Sunday football is going to placate people forever if you've got a... You know, college football Saturdays, NFL Sundays, NFL Thursday. Now you got NFL like Friday and Saturday. And you can bet on all of them. NBA pretty much any day of the week. You can bet on them for extra fun. You can bet on the length of the White House press conferences. Yes. An actual thing that happened this week. Well, there's certainly, if they're trying to, you know, keep the public placated and docile, they're making a big mistake by trying to crack down on drugs.

1:28:42So just put that out there. tactical misstep there. But but no, I mean, I just to be serious about it, like I think in my mind, like all of these tech oligarchs who are effectively running the administration and picked the vice president, they believe that they are they are trying to rip up the social contract. That is what they say. They believe they are going to be displacing, in their words, all of human labor. These are not stupid. In a certain sense, they are stupid people. But in, you know, technical IQ, intellectual sense. They are not stupid people. They have studied history. They know what that could mean.

1:29:22So, you know, yeah, I don't think it's an accident that that you end up with this massive federal government operated at the pleasure of the president, private Gestapo police force, which is what ICE is. I know it's supposed to be centered around immigration. I think we can all see that it goes far beyond that. Who enjoys, according to the vice president, absolute immunity. And we're going to kick up the military budget to 1.5 trillion, which also is not just about abroad. I mean, we have military deployed into American streets. We've had that regularly under the Trump administration. They're thinking of invoking the Insurrection Act.

1:29:59So put it together. And I think we can all see pretty clearly where they think that things are heading. Well, Elon Musk just posted a couple of weeks ago that we're all going to have universal high income. And it's like they know they're fundamentally reengineering the way society works, our relationship to labor, our relationship to each other. They don't know. I mean, this is the point about if they're smart or not. Like they don't know what's actually going to happen, but they know that in a macro sense, that's what they're doing. That's their goal. Yeah. Their goal is to rip up the social contract.

1:30:32That's what they want. again panel goes quiet after crystal drops stunned panel stunned into silence me and crystal recently read a book uh separately about uh by aaron bastani uh we didn't read it together uh but it was about aaron bastani called fully automated luxury communism which kind of argues that there might be a path forward where this is a good thing, that we turn into a post scarcity, post work era. And to a certain extent that this AI technology we're experiencing is akin to an industrial revolution and that the technology is going to be here and exist and shape it. And it's sort of up to us to decide on a policy level if that's going to lead to a more inequitable world or a barbaric fascist world.

1:31:28Yeah, this is, you know, our friend Yegor Kotkin, our Russian socialist friend. He's trying to get me there in my thinking of like, stop being a doomer and take them up on the offer to rewrite the social contract. And that may be the, you know, the best possible play on the table is like, OK, you guys want to rewrite the social contract? Cool. Here's our demands. That might be, you know, we're going to have the numbers. That's for sure. Yeah. So I have been trying to reorient my thinking in that direction because, well, you know, I think we can do some things to slow things down. I think that's essential while the democratic process catches up.

1:32:06You know, if like they they are not going to stop going. There are too many trillions of dollars on the line at this point. I think it would be very near impossible to actually stop the development of AI further in this direction. So in any case, yeah, those are so that the book is excellent, though. I mean, just to get people thinking bigger about what might be possible. And less do, Marie, I think, which might be important in this time to have an optimistic view of the future that inspires people. Which is what the left is supposed to be about. Yeah. Well, I was going to say a little political point.

1:32:40Ron DeSantis has been railing against AI and big tech recently, which is from the conservative perspective, sort of an obvious, obvious way to draw daylight between yourself and J.D. Vance or any kind of Trump administration candidate that would be running in 2028. So that has been fascinating to see. hmm um well uh we're gonna need someone to lead us into this brave new world and who better than cbs's new evening anchor tony de koupel yes uh ryan for the moment you've been on a war path ryan i want i want to start with you but first for the audience if you haven't been tracking uh or watching cbs nightly like i have there's been a little bit of a rocky start with some of Tony's clips here.

1:33:29They're really making him the face of the network. Now, there's been a few different moments here. This was on his opening night here where we had a little teleprompter flop. That base of power and influence could be out too. To other news, as you just heard from Jill, to other news now, to Governor Walls. No, we're going to do Mark Kelly. First day, first day, big problems here. Are we going to Kelly here or are we going to go to Jonah Kaplan.

1:34:02We're doing Mark Kelly, possibly demoted from his... All right. You know what? This is why we don't do a show live. You know, I feel like we're in a similar situation. There was a moment also where he went to his hometown of Miami and cried because he said it made him very emotional. That one's a little too long to play. But I think the... It's too embarrassing to play. It's too embarrassing to play. It's too uncomfortable. I think the quintessential clip here that kind of also shows Barry Weiss's influence and sort of what the new CBS is going to look like is this clip from Tony about Marco Rubio that I just have to play in full here.

1:34:44And only in America, the many lives and many jobs of Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a former Florida senator. He's now the face of U.S. foreign policy and President Trump's point man on Venezuela, all in addition to his roles as secretary of state, interim national security advisor and acting national archivist and USAID chief. Whatever you think of his politics, you got to admit it's an impressive resume. And now AI memes have added to that portfolio, casting Secretary Rubio as the new governor of Minnesota. He killed the meme. He killed it. Prime Minister of Greenland, the new manager of Manchester United, the head of Hilton Hotels and highest of high honors of all, the new Michelin Man.

1:35:26Now, back in real life, of course, these memes may not add up to much, but for Rubio's hometown fans, which are many around here in Miami, it is a sign of how Florida, once an American punchline, has become a leader on the world stage. Marco Rubio, we salute you. You're the ultimate Florida man. Marco Rubio we salute you what did you say what had become a punchline? America? Florida Florida had become a punchline but now it's not it's not anymore not according to Tony DeCobol that entire thing was a punchline what a self-refuting piece of propaganda I like that that's Ryan's problem with it is the logical inconsistency yeah it's like wait a second still a punchline yeah even even worse of a punchline even more embarrassing even less community to it i never found this meme amusing even before tony de coble killed it because i'm like you know they the picture of rubia makes it look like he's miserable to like be in charge of venezuela now but he fucking loves this shit like that's the part about i was like this doesn't it's not funny to me because it doesn't poke fun at reality it like invent some totally different dynamic that doesn't exist.

1:36:44Putting that aside, the obvious point here is that this is some of the most humiliating state propaganda. They have outdone Fox News now. I genuinely think that that is the case. And it has to be that like it can't be subtle because Trump does not appreciate subtlety. So it has to be the news equivalent of the cabinet meetings where all the secretaries Just take turns going, oh, my God, sir, you are the most incredible, better than Abe Lincoln, better than George Washington. It is an honor to be in your press. It has to be the news equivalent of that for them to get what they're after, which is like, you know, Trump's blessing for whatever deals the Ellisons want to do.

1:37:28CBS Newsmax. What's the Anderson Cooper piece? Like, she's also sitting on an Anderson Cooper piece. About South Africa. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah, so Anderson Cooper did a piece starting back in November, December, whatever, or it was screened in November, December, about the South African refugees from the white genocide unfolding there. And because it's going to be factual, it's going to be an embarrassing piece for the administration. And so the reporting is that Barry White, she tried to get Anderson Cooper to be the Tony Doku pill, but Anderson Cooper was like, no, that would be, an embarrassing move.

1:38:08Take the red pill or the doka pill? He went to CBS Newsmax and then red pill or doka pill. He's on fire. Yeah. And so now Barry Weiss, the reporting is, is heavily intervening in his, and edits to his piece on these refugees from the South African genocide. And there's no, there's no indication that it actually will ever air, that she made an anomalous amount of suggestions. I'd love to see her notes. I actually would, because to be honest, I'm all for marking up Anderson Cooper scripts. And I'd love to see the notes. You can make them worse, though. What are we missing about the South African story that Barry Weiss thinks is important to get in?

1:38:55Can I play one more piece from Tony DeCobble? This is just from yesterday. So this is the latest hotness of him. His deep reflections on the killing of Renee Good and what it all means. And people are pointing out on Twitter that this sounds like some word salad bullshit that like Kamala Harris would put together. And so go ahead and let's take a listen to this one. There is so much to say about the last 24 hours, but sometimes what matters most is what is yet to be said at all. We all still need to hear. By now, we've all seen the videos. Renee Good is alive in those videos behind the wheel of her SUV, her three children expecting mom home again soon.

1:39:36And we've seen the freeze frames too. We've heard the political warfare, the clashing declarations about what happened. And unfortunately, we know the ending for Renee Good. Nothing is going to change that. Yet what we have not yet heard is one another. I spoke to people today who haven't slept since it happened, who want ICE out now, who don't like masked men on their streets, don't want their neighbors arrested, don't want families ripped apart. I've heard too, not on the streets protesting, but in passionate notes in my inbox from people who want to see our immigration laws enforced legally and peacefully and with safety for all, including the officers who in many cases are also parents themselves.

1:40:16These are both deeply American sentiments, but our job now is maybe the most American thing of all. It's to find a way to live with people who are genuinely different from us, to try to be fair to them, and in doing so, to make things better and keep things decent. Because in America, no one else is going to do it for us. It's not my job to tell you what to think about what happened here yesterday, but I can tell you we owe our children a nation that is better than the one we live in today. And I can say that because we all know it's true. deep thoughts with Tony. Literally, what the fuck is that?

1:40:55That's... Yeah. The problem he's going to have is that that won't satisfy the right. So, his interview with Tom Holman is instructive of the same phenomenon, which he got Tom Holman to say that the investigation should play out. And he pointed out to Tom Holman, well, that's not what the DHS secretary is saying. That's not what the president is saying. The president, they're saying she was a domestic terrorist and he is a hero. Like they're not waiting for the investigation to play out. And Tom Homan's like, well, I'm not going to, like, I think the investigation should play out. You can ask them about their views.

1:41:33Like, so he got Tom Homan to be the voice of reason, which is like, that's a good for him, remarkable feat of journalism. But that is going to be, that is going to infuriate the Trump administration. So you can do, you know, 99 out of 100 pieces of propaganda and then it's going to be the one or the two where you do real journalism that undermines it all. And then you've got to ratchet up the propaganda and get into 11 or he's going to threaten your merger again. So that's why that's why he's in such a difficult bind because you can't deviate. I just disagree that their goal is to please the administration.

1:42:10I think their goal is to please their billionaire class. And that there is a distinction. But the billionaire class wants to murder the administration. Yeah. But this is like we see like when there's daylight between the administration and the billionaire class is where there there will be daylight between like these CBS centrist like mushy middle types. And then the administration, some of the billionaires that back the administration, like that's where it's it's such a stupid, stupid strategy to try and revitalize monocultural mass media, but to do it from the sentiment of elites. First of all, technologically, there's no such thing as mass media.

1:42:55There's no such thing as monoculture anymore. It is absolutely dead. It makes no sense to try to revive it in tone, in content. It's not possible. Secondly, to think that these people, because they're anti-woke, like that Barry Weiss can come in, someone who agrees with the average American more on like the question of, quote, wokeness, is the person who is going to run the whole news network in a way that makes sense and resonates. I mean, it's just a disaster. It's just a dumb, it's a strategy so stupid only billionaires can come up with it. Mm hmm. Yeah. Um, Kirstie, got anything to say left?

1:43:36I was just looking for the, did you guys see his January? Yeah, there was one, there's one other one. That's the January 6th coverage. I didn't, I didn't have such an issue with the J6 one, but the one where he's crying about Miami. Oh my God. Did you see that one? Oh God, it was so bad. I mean, it's just like, nobody cares. That one, no, nobody cares. Number one. Number two, like, I don't know. It's so like, it's so, um, It's so narcissistic. I mean, it really feels like part of this sort of neoliberal ideology where it's like everyone is just a tool for your own self-aggrandizement and development.

1:44:18So like the fact that I got this job is like deeply meaningful in some way that you should care about. Right. And I'm like, like, no, we don't care. Like we think you suck. We don't. Except that we know who you are. We don't like you. It also shows how deeply in his soul he believes that he won that position through merit. Yes. Rather than the guy who Barry Weiss was pleased to see attack Ta-Nehisi Coates. Ta-Nehisi Coates. Right. Yeah. And basically like accuse him of being low-key a terrorist. You got the job for calling TNC a terrorist and because Anderson Cooper and the other people who are more qualified understood the assignment and rejected it.

1:45:01Like that's why you got the job. so you and you just completely misunderstand that clearly like you think you got it because you earned it okay i think i think that's wrong well before christmas i'm just rebutting ryan's point it's actually because he wrote an article called my adult circumcision how i made the cut for my new religion by april 10 i mean well it's 2014 um i'm not sure it's a hot it looks like a churro I'm not sure. I don't know. Churro hot dog. I hope that's a bad. Did you guys know he's married to Katie Turr? He's married to Katie Turr. Who is a fish head, so we will broke no criticism of Katie Turr.

1:45:45All right. I found the Jan 6 clip. I found the Jan 6 clip. Let me just play this. Emily and I can fight about it. Go ahead. Also tonight, five years after the January 6th attack, a group of pardoned defendants marched through Washington. President Trump today accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol, while House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the president of, quote, whitewashing it. That's it. That's the whole thing. So Trump says this completely factually bullshit thing, while Democrats say this accurate thing about the pardoned defendants. Like, come on. And but to Ryan's point, you're right.

1:46:25But this isn't enough. Like what what Trump would want them to do is be like they were wrongfully convicted. These innocent, peaceful tourists who also to the extent that any of them did anything bad, they were Antifa and they were righteous patriots because the election was stolen. Like that's what he wants to hear. He doesn't want both sides is not enough. I mean, yeah, I definitely agree. Both sides is not going to be enough for the administration. Yeah. But like it's he called it an attack, which already in and of itself would be a problem for for Trump. And then it is like that that is an accurate representation of what Republicans accused Democrats of doing is not having provided ample security.

1:47:06I actually think there's some evidence. I actually I think part of that is legitimate, that there were opportunities for Pelosi to send in more reinforcements. Now, nobody was anticipating what actually happened at the Capitol. And that was an intelligence community mistake, even though they had informants fucking everywhere. They had social media surveillance and still somehow. Anyway, your job is not to say to repeat the press releases of partisan actors. Your job is to provide factual information. the factual information that i thought the 15 second snippet was providing was here's how both parties like marked the fifth anniversary of january 6th very i think i think it was both sides uh you know it definitely was i think both sides stuff is lame well to ryan's point you know when people just look at tony they feel like there's a level of he didn't get there by his own merit.

1:48:04A lot of people just get this feeling of why am I watching this guy? Why do I care what this guy has to say? Which is how what people feel about me on this show. So I salute you, Tony. Not true, Griffin. You are a trailblazer. Fan favorite. We salute you. And I'm so proud of you representing people like me. I feel seen and keep doing the work that you're doing, Tone. representation representation matters uh crystal we have another incredible interview with another incredible candidate in colorado would you like to tee it up for us before we throw to it yeah of course so i interviewed earlier this week milat kiros who is a fantastic candidate against a democratic incumbent in call in denver colorado and um you know she i mentioned before, she was fired from her law firm for actually standing up for other lawyers and young associates who were coming in and were getting fired for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.

1:49:04So in any case, you know, she's taken this as an opportunity to, you know, become more engaged in the political process and have the kind of representation that she wants to see. The district she's running to represent, she's, by the way, she's backed by Justice Democrats. They think, and they're very careful with their resources. they think she has a good shot to win this Democratic primary. And part of why is because this is one of the most bluest districts in the country. We obviously interviewed another aspirant for a different, very deep blue district in the country. It's also one of the youngest districts in the country.

1:49:37And obviously, in terms of the politics of Palestine, that makes a big difference. So enjoyed my conversation with her. And I think you guys will as well. Very excited to speak today with Maylok Kuros, who is a Democrat challenging a Democratic incumbent in a Colorado district. She is backed by the Justice Democrats. Let's take a look at a little bit of her campaign launch. Hey, over here. Come here. These are Congresswoman Begett's financial disclosures. Take a look at this. Big pharma, fossil fuels, defense contractors, And yes, even a notorious member of Epstein's inner circle. I'm Melot Kiros.

1:50:19This is Denver. And I'm running for Congress because it's time for a change. Members of Congress, even Democrats who say they vote the right way, are beholden to the same billionaires who keep our prices high, burn our planet, and profit from a genocide. The good news is that we can change that. And it starts by changing who we send to Congress. We can't afford another 30 years of complacency. We need to fight. When I spoke out against the genocide in Gaza, powerful lawyers told me to stay silent or it would cost me my job. I didn't back down. I'm gonna do the same in Congress. You'll always know where I stand.

1:50:58Medicare for all, housing first, an arms embargo. The era of any Democrat will do is over. It's time for a fighter. Today we're announcing our campaign is endorsed by Justice Democrats. They're joining the thousands of grassroots supporters fueling our fight. We already have more donors than to get, and I'm not taking a dime from AIPAC or any corporate PACs. Anne Maylott joins us now. Welcome. Great to meet you. Thank you so much for having me. Great to be here. Yeah, of course. So you lay on quite a bit there in your campaign launch video about why you're running. But what was the final push that led you to jump into this race?

1:51:34Ultimately, it was Donald Trump winning the election again and witnessing the failure of Democrats to actually acknowledge and understand why working class people were upset with the lack of deliverance by the federal government and not actually understanding that the affordability crisis was massive for them and to actually address that problem and really gaslight the American people into believing that everything was fine. And that's how we ended up with another Trump administration. And we need Democrats that actually acknowledge the problems and offer the solutions that are going to make a meaningful difference.

1:52:06So you referenced this in that video, but you've been outspoken against the genocide in Gaza. You lost your job for it. Just tell people what you said, what you did and what the personal consequence has been. Ultimately, I was talking about law students that were losing their job offers because they were protesting the genocide that was happening in Gaza. I spoke out against their firing. I spoke in favor of freedom of speech and also that there was a genocide happening in Gaza. And to use this geopolitical situation, these human rights crimes to silence dissents against this genocide was absolutely ridiculous.

1:52:47And so that's what I said. And I got fired after I refused to take it down. And immediately after, I was getting messages from other attorneys who wished they could have spoken out saying the same things against the genocide, but they couldn't risk losing their health insurance. They couldn't risk losing their job because their partner just lost their job. And I realized very quickly that this is a coercive market. It's not a free market. And when our employers can use our jobs and our health insurance to crush dissent against the government and its actions for using our tax dollars to fund a genocide, something was deeply wrong with our system.

1:53:24And the only way to really address it was to get to the root cause of this, which I believe is the money in politics issue. I mean, is that legal to fire you for exercising your First Amendment rights? At will employment at the end of the day. It's not a decision that I agreed with, of course. But when we are talking about a genocide that is being waged by Democrats who are taking money from the very folks that want this to continue to happen, it makes it incredibly difficult for employees to challenge these decisions in the workplace. And so whether it was at will employment at the end of the day, and so it's something I disagreed with, but ultimately it put me back on the path of actually fighting for everyday working people and getting back to public service and fighting for the kind of policies that would make a meaningful difference for folks.

1:54:14So you're running to represent a Denver district. So it's relatively blue district. All the action is going to be in the Democratic primary. You're going against a Democratic incumbent, Diana DeGette. Tell us a little bit about her and how you contrast with her. Diana DeGette has been in office since 1997. She's been in office longer than I've been alive. And while I have a great deal of respect for the work she might have done in the past for the last 10 or so years, there's been nothing. It has been nothing but lukewarm leadership. And we are literally staring down multiple crises with our economy, with our democracy, with the climate.

1:54:52We cannot afford another 30 years of just complacency. In all that time she's been in office, she's only passed two bills. And she's taken millions of dollars from corporate PACs, including big pharma, big energy, defense contractors. So it's no wonder that we are continuing to see Democrats enable this kind of behavior in the federal government, whether or not it's a Democrat or a Republican in charge, because it is these corporations that are truly influencing these parties. And it has to change by ensuring that we no longer vote in corporate shills into government and are actually making sure it's the people that are holding the politicians accountable.

1:55:30I see you've taken very strong and admirable stance against Trump's illegal actions in Venezuela. You posted this. You said Trump just invaded a foreign country, kidnapped their leader, put all their oil up for sale at the direction of his billionaire backers. And all establishment Democrats have to say is he didn't ask for permission first. Distracting from the Epstein files is just his bonus. I'd love for you to elaborate on that. But also has Diana DeGette, has she said anything? What has been her position on Venezuela? The exact same response that a lot of establishment Democrats have had, which is that they didn't ask for Congress's permission first.

1:56:04And ultimately, that is ignoring the very real reality for a lot of Americans that have witnessed this already happen again. They know that this is not about drugs. We know that this is about oil and money and power. And for the Venezuelans who are rejoicing the removal of Maduro, I can understand where they're coming from. But ultimately, there has never been a case, the United States government invading a foreign country and overthrowing that government and leaving the country better off than when we first arrived. Because it's never about bettering that country. It's about extracting all the resources to feed the insatiable greed of corporations and billionaires here while everyday working Americans are just left out to dry.

1:56:47And that continues because they're establishment Democrats like Diana DeGette, who take money from the defense contractors and the big energy companies that are going to be benefiting from deals like this to allow it to continue while they feign outrage by basically just saying that they didn't ask for permission first. The American people do not want to go to war with Venezuela. They know that this is just the regime war change. This is not about drugs. And we deserve better from Democrats to actually fight forcefully against this war. I saw your governor, Jared Polis, put out an absolutely horrific statement saying that now is the time to celebrate the ouster of Maduro.

1:57:24And, you know, I mean, I don't even feel like doing the throat clearing at this point ever. I think the American people see very clearly the way that these regime change actions go. And to your point that it doesn't end up benefiting the people who are harmed the most are the people that they're pretending to help at this point. What did you make of his statement? And where where does this come from? I mean, ultimately, we are talking about a governor that is himself extremely wealthy, is largely in the same kind of conversations with the same oil executive. And it's not surprising in the least bit.

1:57:55Right. And ultimately, this is coming from a place where Trump had closed door meetings with these oil executives, asked for their support in the campaign, the millions of dollars that they donated. And this is just Trump, you know, meeting his end of the bargain. And so when we're talking about Democrats who are participating in this style of politics, which is ultimately just bribery by these corporations and these billionaires, this is what ends up happening. It's working class people that get left behind while they just feed their insatiable greed. Would you vote for Hakeem Jeffries to be Speaker of the House if you win and if Democrats can take control of Congress, which is fairly expected at this point?

1:58:34I refuse to vote for anyone to be Speaker of the House that is continuing to take AIPAC money and to continuing to aid and abet the genocide that is happening in Gaza. If there's a change of heart by that time, then I might reconsider. But ultimately, this has to be about standing on principle and choosing the American people first and choosing human rights first. And right now, Hukim Jeffries is not meeting that moment. Maylad, are there any specific sort of Denver or Colorado issues just to give people, you know, a sense of anything that may be unique to your race and to the constituents you're looking to serve?

1:59:07Yeah. You know, the first district in Denver is one of the youngest, if not the youngest district in the entire country. It's one of the bluest districts in the country. This is an incredibly progressive city. We have things like universal pre-K. We have term limits. We even have the small donor matching program that helped propel Zohran Mamdani to a win in New York City. And so we are talking about a city that deserves to have a representative that actually reflects those values. And Congress, we have very strong anti-corruption values here. And to have a representative who has taken millions of dollars from the very corporations that are responsible for the affordability crisis that are pushing out young people from this city, it's absolutely absurd.

1:59:48and to have been in office for 30 years, to have been at the helm of power while the affordability crisis has unfolded, and to claim that you are the only one who can help get us out of this mess is absolutely ridiculous. And it insults the intelligence of Denverites who are seeing the affordability crisis, who are trying to not just get by and make ends meet, but to actually thrive and to build some kind of generational wealth, which is impossible under these circumstances. And when you have been in office for that long, you have lost touch with what the needs are of the people in this district and to be in office for 30 years.

2:00:26And it's just absolutely ridiculous. And so Denverites are very excited about the prospect of there being a real challenge in this race and to see that there's someone who's actually talking about the affordability crisis and offering solutions that would make a meaningful difference. So Medicare for all, housing first, universal child care and arms embargo. Right. We are talking about having an elected official that actually listens to the 80 percent of Democratic voters that wants an arms embargo in Israel. It's absurd that we even have to talk about it that way. But that's where we're at when it's money and corporations and billionaires that are actually directing and influencing our government.

2:01:02The only way to get rid of that kind of system is to vote all the corporate shills out. Well, Maylat, I think there are going to be a lot of very interesting things that happen in politics this year. I think there are going to be a lot of Democratic incumbents who are caught a bit unawares. If people want to support your campaign, where can they do that? You can join us at Kiros4Co.com. That's K-I-R-O-S-F-O-R-C-O.com. You can sign up to volunteer. You can donate. A small-dollar donation on a recurring basis is massively helpful to candidates like myself who do not take corporate PAC money, who do not take lobbying money.

2:01:35I don't take a dime from APAC. This is a people-powered campaign. And I'm really, really proud to share that we have 2 ,000 more individual donors than the incumbent does. This is a campaign that the people are excited about. And I hope that you will join us, whether it's virtually on the ground here in Denver. We're going to start knocking on doors and canvassing all over the city very soon. So I hope to have folks join us. Amazing. Well, thank you for taking the time with us. I know you're super busy. And also, thank you so much for running. I really appreciate it. As someone who ran for Congress unsuccessfully myself, hopefully you do a little bit better than I ended up doing.

2:02:06But I know what a personal cost is. I know what it requires of you. So I really appreciate you stepping up for this. Thank you, Crystal. That really means a lot. Ultimately, we are talking about our generation facing down the barrel of a future where we own nothing, rent everything, and work until we die. We have no choice but to step up and fight for the kind of future that we really believe in. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. My pleasure. All right. That was Malat Kuros in Colorado. now folks we are releasing this entire Friday show episode publicly for free near the start of the year showing you guys what we do here in the second half of the show we want to just end here with some rapid fire quick AMA questions because this episode has run a little bit longer than normal that's amazing by the way because I thought we were behind the paywall for like the last hour so a little sorry sorry to warn you alright so So this person, Mr.

2:03:06Christopher asks, what did Ryan mean when he said something like borders are immoral? That just the right to move about from one place to another is just fundamental to human nature. Like. And I think Americans have a hard time conceiving of that because they have that right. like if you were born in pennsylvania and could never leave pennsylvania i think you would quite easily agree with the sentiment when you drive from pennsylvania to maryland and just drive across the border that feels natural um you could still have nationalities citizenship and such um you can have you can enforce laws that's what i mean that like not being able to move is inconsistent with like human dignity and flourishing like i'm i remember when i was down in bolivia touring a military base there in the chapari region this uh guard who was with us waiting with christian parenti actually um we're like waiting to interview a colonel or something.

2:04:18And he's like, he asked us, he's like, how come you guys get to wander around a Bolivian military base and I can't even go as a tourist to the United States? and uh christian said it's called imperialismo um but it's if there's no like moral way to answer that question And so that's what I mean by that. All right. We'll move on. We'll keep them fast without opening up any debates among the hosts here. This next one from Amberlynn FNP. Have any of you guys ever voted for a member of the opposite party? If so, why? Yeah. I mean, I don't consider myself like a Republican, certainly, but I've definitely voted Democrat in D.C.

2:05:04elections. Less are two evils. Okay. I voted for Wayne Gilchrist, a Republican for Congress, I think as many times as I could. He represented the Eastern Shore. He was a high school teacher at Kent County High School. He is an awesome guy. I know his kids. Anti-war, for the most part. Environmentalist. He would definitely be a liberal Democrat at this point. And then he was, he was, he was ousted by Andy Harris, right wing lunatic Republican in a Tea Party challenge.

2:05:50So, so yes, I also voted for a Republican like state house member because the, you know, Eastern Shore is very conservative and had one of these blue dog Democrat vibes going into the 90s or whatever. And there was this one Democrat who was this far right wing Democrat who was very powerful in blocking everything. So my logic was. Be better to have a powerless Republican in that seat than a powerful bad Democrat. Interesting. So that actually helped me get the marijuana. of Joe Manchin. That helped me get the marijuana policy job because in the interview, they asked me if I would be willing to support either, you know, candidates in both parties as long as they're good on weed.

2:06:36And I told that story and they were like, oh my God, we like actually opposed him because he was bottling up our pot bills in Annapolis. You're dead right. Like that guy sucked and getting him out was great. I was like, yeah, who cares? And it's not about party. It's about getting things done for people. Crystal, have you ever voted for a Republican? Never voted for a Republican. Hard to imagine at this point that I ever would unless the party completely and dramatically changes. Or I was in a district like if I lived in Thomas Massey's district and it's going to be a Republican, like I would make sure to vote in the I would probably vote affirmatively for Thomas Massey because I do think it's important to have this, you know, iconoclastic Republican voice in Congress.

2:07:22And that would be more beneficial than having like, you know, a random like sort of shitty Democrat, which would be the only thing that would have, you know, that would be likely to emerge in that district in Kentucky. Are you in Tom Perriello's district is the one that where he's running? No, I'm not. I'm in the district. What's the name of the guy? They were very involved in the whole Ukraine situation. Oh, Vindman. Vindman, yes. That's the district I'm in. Yeah. Although they may be redrawing the lines because I'm kind of right between that and one of the still Republican districts that's represented by the guy that I lost to back in 2010, Rob Whitman, who sucks.

2:08:01Sort of like run of the mill Republican sucks. He was like a Hill staffer, right? Like he was now he was an environmental scientist, actually, which part of what's disgusting is like he completely abandoned any, you know, of his previous principles with regard to conservation and environmentalism and just votes a party line and like is completely unremarkable in every way, which is just pathetic.

2:08:25um uh last question from patrick mulligan here he says nick shirley is a disgusting propagandist and i'm glad to see bp take apart his lies did you see his ukraine quote-unquote coverage also why has bp not talked about hassan's propaganda pieces and lies now i love this comic it's like oh we got a guy who's mad at everyone hassan's china streams were fucking wild oh yeah Emily, what do you think? OK, what do you think about Hassan's China streams? Go off. Well, I mean, it's different than Nick Shirley. Like Nick Shirley will go to like Seacott and not act like he's, you know, a simp. Whereas Hassan was in China and was like, yeah, I simp for China.

2:09:05China's awesome. Which I thought was like completely insane and like self-evidently insane as it was happening. And they were like. Nick Shirley simps for Seacott. Nick Shirley simps for Seacott. No, but I'm saying he's not honest about it. No, no, no. I'm saying he's not. That's what I'm saying. Like he's not. He's not. out there being like yeah i sent for china like china rocks and nick shirley's out there like i'm telling you the facts from seacott here's what's happening like i am i am the rick steves of uh fascist tourism yeah um okay so i guess we feel that there's propaganda on both sides is that is that what was that what we're saying well i mean i think with hassan you're allowed to offer your opinion of what you think of China.

2:09:49You know, like, I don't know. It's different than going to and like demanding to see these kids in a daycare and fabricating some whole fictional storyline that's just totally bullshit. And I mean, there is fraud. Nick Shirley did not find said fraud. So in any case, I would put them as two distinct things. I would not dump them in the same bucket. Right. And it's just interesting that this is happening as Trump is pardoning all of these fraudsters who have like defrauded. And who is whose administration is committing like freaking Caroline Levitt ended her press briefing apparently to like pay off some poly market bet is what it looks like.

2:10:26Allegedly. It's what it looks like. And there was certainly an insider trader on the what was it we just owe on the Venezuela kidnapping. White House did not respond to my request for comment. The Ponzi scheme guy that he pardoned defrauded like thousands of people. like this is not a these are not small uh crimes and these are crimes with real victims rather than like the taxpayer getting built which is not good but like these guys are stealing like cops and firefighters who had their whole retirement robbed from them and now we'll never see a penny of it because the president of the united states is cool with fraudsters as long as they like donate to him or suck up to him yeah nick you have your next target i'm i'm i'm launching release the shirley uh yeah shirley also is getting rewarded and he's like now now i'm going to every daycare around the country um and so look forward to i guess like every daycare has to submit their children to him or you're just gonna get like a just an influx of kick and rumble streamers like knocking on your door every day after.

2:11:40And I think that's going to happen with bathrooms, too, with like trans people in bathrooms. I think like the next thing is going to be just going inside bathrooms with a camera is going to be the next socially right wing content creation thing that's going to be allowed now. That's so. Did you see Nick Shirley like wandering around a medical plaza? Like, why are all these health care places in the same place? There's not even there's not a footlocker to be seen. This is so weird. Your buddy Hannah Nia had a really funny post I had missed that he walked into, like Shirley walked into a healthcare provider's office, sees a bunch of patients in the waiting room, walks up to the receptionist and asks her what the healthcare rates are.

2:12:26I have never seen someone in more need of medical care than Nick Shirley. is he like an i mean is he an alien like do you not live here like he's a mormon he's a virgin okay it's funny you said mormon because i was just gonna say it feels like something mit romney would have done in his campaign remember how you're doing it's like hot dog is my favorite around the america yeah it's like he was on safari in his own country that's what that feels like to me so there is a mormon connection there i guess on tuesdays we have a two for one on casts excuse me good sir could you please tell me what your health care rates are and then he walks out he's like obvious fraud they will not engage

2:13:12it's so good and then the call country's like yep fraud send send in the feds that's right yeah that's right that's where we live that's cool uh well on that note folks that is where we live this week. We'll see where we live next week. Who's a better journalist? DeCopal or Nick Shirley? Oh, it's DeCopal all day. Well, it's tough because they kind of it's like the you know, Nick Shirley's the hammer. He's on the streets, you know, and DeCopal's the brain, the mind. I mean, if you want a serious answer, you have to go with DeCopal because at least he did get that answer out of Tom Homan. You know, like that was a real thing he produced as opposed to like a bunch of fabricated um, slopaganda bullshit from Nick Shirley.

2:13:57The chance that Shirley is, uh, in talks with 60 minutes right now, probably pretty high. Pretty high. Imagine Shirley on a teleprompter. That would just be unbelievable. That'd be like something you play at Guantanamo. Um, all right. So Friday show ending now. Uh, thank you to the candidates that joined us this morning and anything else before we leave y 'all? I don't think so. Appreciate you guys. If anything crazy happens over the weekend, we'll try to cover it otherwise. Actually, Ryan, isn't it you and me on Monday? That's right. We're going to have a special guest studio. That's right. Super psyched about that.

2:14:43We'll have to brainstorm questions for him. So if you guys have thoughts, send them our way. We'll take a look at that as well. But definitely want to talk to him about Venezuela for sure, potential shutdown, ICE, many things to get into with him. Yes, indeed. All right, we'll see y 'all then. Bye-bye. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget.

2:15:22I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Black history lives in our stories, our culture, and the conversations we still have in today. This Black History Month, the podcast I Didn't Know, Maybe You Didn't Either digs into the moments, perspectives, and experiences that don't always make the textbook. Let me tell you about Garrett Morgan. Bruh had to pretend he didn't even exist just to sell his own invention. Listen to I Didn't Know. Maybe you didn't either. From the Black Effect Podcast Network, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or simply wherever you get your podcasts.

2:16:04I didn't know. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

2:16:47This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.