Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #40  ## Metadata - Author: [[It Could Happen Here]] - Full Title: Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #40 - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/15f0cfee-b0e8-4445-ac19-2e5e03297f67 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Local Policy As Anti-Authoritarian Strategy** - Mamdani directly challenged Donald Trump by promising to dismantle conditions that created him, targeting landlords, corruption, and oligarchy. - He framed local policy (rent freeze, labor protections) as national resistance to authoritarianism. Transcript: Garrison Davis But before he directly talked to Trump in this speech, Zoran laid out what types of people the city government will be focusing on protecting from Trump's division and hate. Speaker 5 In this new age we make for ourselves, we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another. In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love. Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries To go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too. Garrison Davis Specifically, I like this idea of in the dark political moment this United States is in New York and the Zoran administration and how that reflects New York in general, though, will Be a beacon for for the rest of the country. And naming like the trans community is like the second group mentioned there was heavily appreciated in the Bushwick trans watch party that I was at. Zoran went on to say that, quote, no more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election. This new age will be defined by a competence and a compassion that have too long been placed at odds with one another. We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent to redefine reality and to convince our neighbors that this new age is something that should frighten them. As has often occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour. They want the people to fight amongst ourselves so that we remain distracted from the work of remaking a long broken system. Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. Robert Evans I think this whole section is something very important. And this is this has been something that's been very consistent about Momdani's entire campaign, which is there's been on the left for a very, very long time, a just interminable, intractable Conflict between this idea of like purely focusing on class politics or talking about race. And but I think what Mombani is doing here has been very effective, right, is you can just do both. And in fact, as the left over the last you know sort of senses kind of the re-emergence of this kind of left in like 2015 2016 as it's gone on it's gotten less white it's gotten more diverse It's gotten more multicultural and it's been able to fuse these two things together and it's been able to fuse that with just you know like being very very openly pro-trans and like i There was you, there was also a pretty big response that I saw from people talking about the fact that he specifically mentioned that it was black women who were being fired by the Trump Administration, right? And you can just do all these things together and it works and it's worked the whole time. And refusing to pit these things against each other, like refusing to pit affordability against trans rights, refusing to pit, you know, like refusing to pit the politics of like defending. And this is something that like fucking Bernie is terrible at. Right. We're like Bernie, like has been like has a whole rant about how Trump has been right on. Like we have to reduce immigration. Right. And you don't have to do that. You can be pro immigrant. You can be pro trans. You can be pro black women. You can be, you know, you can also want everything that costs less. And you can be in favor of the fact that the U.S. Is a multicultural society and can only function as one. And it's a winning form of politics. Garrison Davis And I'm glad we're finally getting there. Yeah, and it will be great if this New York City as a beacon can actually shine and not get stifled out in these next four years because Zoran is unless things happen, Zoran will be the mayor For the remainder of the Trump term, right? Like this is, he will be mayor after second Trump administration is over, barring any unfortunate incidents. Robert Evans Zoran, make sure your private security is really good and loyal and reliable. James Stout Well, you have a NYPD detail. Robert Evans Get your own guys. James Stout Yeah, it'll be fun. But also, it means, like, from, I guess, a national perspective, it is likely that Mamdani will like the enemy number one of the trump administration where they probably knew some or Uh prishkar are now right like it's it is easier because of the obvious bigotry that underlies a lot of the republican party to go after a brown dude yes and that is what they are going to Do and they're going to use brown democratic socialist yeah who stands up for trans people and migrants and like you saw how acceptable islamophobia is in cuomo's campaign right like He'd just go on to every mainstream network and say shit that is fucking disgusting yeah uh and so we should prepare ourselves for four more years of that i guess and i think he does a very Good job of repudiating that. And obviously the electorate in New York did too. But that is going to be what we are going to see as a result of this. Garrison Davis Well, no. And like so much of the resistance to Zoran came from this idea that if he wins, that means that this is going to be what people point to as a future for politics, specifically democratic Politics. And a lot of people wanted to stop him because they knew that's going to happen. If he is in control of the biggest city in the country as the democratic mayor, that's going to be influential for what democratic politics will be after they got completely clobbered Last year. And he's showing that a different type of politics is possible, even within the Democratic Party. And that's true, like altering what the party is fundamentally. And I think it is a cool little side note that Zoran voted for himself on the Working Families Party line. And in fact, not the Democratic Party line, because of how the New York mayoral ballots work. I'm going to play one more clip from the speech of Zoran specifically addressing Trump. It's going to be a teeny bit longer. And I think we'll cut, we'll shorten some of the applause bits because some of the applause sections go on for quite long. But this will be the last clip. Speaker 5 After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it ([Time 0:25:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d59b83c7-ea8b-4faf-936a-c29fb6f16763)) - **Class And Inclusion Can Be Combined** - Mamdani demonstrated that class-first politics and race/gender inclusion are complementary, not competing. - That fusion mobilized young, diverse voters and undercut fear-based attacks. Transcript: Garrison Davis Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. Robert Evans I think this whole section is something very important. And this is this has been something that's been very consistent about Momdani's entire campaign, which is there's been on the left for a very, very long time, a just interminable, intractable Conflict between this idea of like purely focusing on class politics or talking about race. And but I think what Mombani is doing here has been very effective, right, is you can just do both. And in fact, as the left over the last you know sort of senses kind of the re-emergence of this kind of left in like 2015 2016 as it's gone on it's gotten less white it's gotten more diverse It's gotten more multicultural and it's been able to fuse these two things together and it's been able to fuse that with just you know like being very very openly pro-trans and like i There was you, there was also a pretty big response that I saw from people talking about the fact that he specifically mentioned that it was black women who were being fired by the Trump Administration, right? And you can just do all these things together and it works and it's worked the whole time. And refusing to pit these things against each other, like refusing to pit affordability against trans rights, refusing to pit, you know, like refusing to pit the politics of like defending. And this is something that like fucking Bernie is terrible at. Right. We're like Bernie, like has been like has a whole rant about how Trump has been right on. Like we have to reduce immigration. Right. And you don't have to do that. You can be pro immigrant. You can be pro trans. You can be pro black women. You can be, you know, you can also want everything that costs less. And you can be in favor of the fact that the U.S. Is a multicultural society and can only function as one. ([Time 0:28:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a96ce455-a97e-4dad-8cbd-8ff11efb390b)) - **Ballot Reforms Back Mamdani's Housing Agenda** - NYC ballot reforms passed alongside Mamdani, enabling faster affordable housing approvals and reducing council roadblocks. - These measures strengthen mayoral power to deliver on affordability promises. Transcript: Garrison Davis But this was not just a New York City mayoral election. There were other races, including other things in New York. There was a Prop 1 amendment to the state constitution to retroactively authorize the winter sports facilities Mount Ben-Huvenberg, which is protected forest land, and would require The state to add 2,500 acres of newly protected land elsewhere in the Adirondack, that's how I'm saying it, Adirondack Mountains. Adirondack. Yeah, Adirondack. Which was passed, and this allows them to continue to build and maintain the winter sports facility. Propositions two through six were New York City charter amendments. Two to four were housing reform proposals to fast track the approval process for affordable housing and simplify zoning reviews and establish an affordable housing appeals board. All of these passed. These will limit the ability of the city council to control and slow down housing development and empower the mayor specifically to build more affordable units faster. And Prop 5, which also passed, creates a new digital map of the city. ([Time 0:38:39](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1835bde3-7f40-4985-bc97-3d9a8ba83085)) - **California Redistricting Sparks Lawsuits** - California's Prop 50 redistricting will temporarily redraw districts until 2032 and aims to remove several Republican seats. - Expect legal challenges arguing the maps improperly considered race. Transcript: James Stout Yeah, so Prop 50 in California, California, it was like a one-issue ballot, right? You said the Prop 50. This would temporarily redistrict. I think people maybe have not been, like, often it gets missed, and this is temporarily redistricting in California until re-establishing the non-partisan committee that does districting In 2031 for the 2032. Those districts will come back or they will return to a non-partisan districting in 2032. This is one of the most expensive propositions in state history. 120 million was spent in favor, 44 million against. There was also outside money. Newsom already called on New York, Illinois, and other Democrat majority seats to do the same, right? It's going to likely remove about five Republican seats, or those Republicans are going to struggle, right? One of them would be San Diego's mountain empire and east county seat which is currently the 48th um that seat has been redistributed a few times right it's moved around it's currently Daryl ice's seat in response california republicans have already filed a lawsuit suit was filed by harmeet dylan's law firm yay yay so friend of the pod yeah dylan is in the trump administration Mia Wong Now but uh yeah dylan is in the trump administration and occasionally my inbox making threats fantastic uh great but it was dylan's law firm that filed the case right the case has claimed James Stout That california drew the new lines to, quote, specifically favor Hispanic voters, which is a similar claim to the Louisiana versus Calais. I think it's Calais is the way they say it here. Case, which is currently before the Supreme Court, which the Supreme Court seems to be suggesting it might be amenable to this argument, right? That the consideration of race in redistricting is discriminatory. Yesterday, Trump truced, quoting here, the unconstitutional redistricting vote in California is a giant scam that partisan block capitals. As is characteristic, the rest is sporadically capitalized. I'm going back to the quote now. In the entire process, in particular, the voting itself is rigged. All, quote, mail-in ballots where the Republicans in that state are shut out. It's under very serious legal and criminal review. Stay tuned. Yeah, you know, fairly predictable. We talked about it last week. It's not entirely possible for me to pass out that second sentence, but I think we can see what direction is pushing in, right? This was predictable, but this was going to happen and we'll keep you updated on it. ([Time 0:43:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6e6defbb-81cd-4eea-a4f3-e43384ae61b8)) - **Enforcement Expands As Detention Conditions Worsen** - Immigration enforcement changes include Texas adopting the 287(g) program statewide, expanding local authority to detain migrants. - Lawsuit reporting reveals inhumane conditions in detention centers pressuring detainees to sign deportation paperwork. Transcript: James Stout A little bit of immigration news this week, as always. According to reporting, this was actually last week, but we didn't have time for it last week. According to reporting by CNN, Trump claimed he was, quote, very much opposed to his own administration's immigration raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia, which obviously this is what He's saying to try and get that foreign direct investment back in Georgia, right? Because it looks very much like Georgia is going to pay pretty heavily for that raid. Unfortunately, another man lost his life when fleeing ICE officers. Last week, he seems to have left a car that he was in and attempted to cross a freeway where he was fatally struck by another car. Yeah, that's the second time this has happened this year. Texas has signed an agreement with the federal government to allow local DPS officers to operate as ICE officers or technically to operate under the authority of ICE officers under The 287G program. So it's not the first law enforcement agency in Texas to do this. Lots of local agencies had, but the DPS is statewide, right? So this would include officers of the Texas Highway Patrol. It has 5,000 employees. It will make Texas a markedly more hostile place for migrants. The authority allows warrantless detention under loosely limited, loosely phrased supervision by an ICE officer, right It allows Texas cops to detain or question people who they Suspect of being in the United States without documentation. Here in San Diego, San Diego's border patrol sector released a video with, I think it was like, I'll have to check what song it was, like some cringe kind of pop-punk soundtrack of the Dynamiting of land west of the Hukumba wilderness. This is likely the construction that saw many environmental and cultural protections waived by DHS Secretary Noem earlier this year, right? So we're seeing the beginning of what that looks like. And what that looks like here is this very unique landscape. I know some people who listen came out to Hukumba a couple of years ago to help out. It's an extremely unique, high desert landscape, and it's currently being dynamited. These are the areas where there were little gaps in the border wall, because construction there is very hard. And the way that they're going ahead with construction is blowing stuff up. Finally, on the immigration beat, a case regarding conditions in the Broadview facility, which is in Chicago until earlier this year. It was only for very short stays, like not for 24-hour stays, has revealed some of the horrific conditions inside the facility. It confirms something I've heard from multiple migrants who have been detained all over the US, which is ISIS using the threat of longer stays in poor conditions to get people to sign Deportation paperwork. Often it's literally in the overcrowded rooms where they're sleeping and staying, right? Like at any point, you can just walk up to it and sign your name and you will presumably be removed from those conditions and placed into deportation flight as soon as possible. Reading directly from the lawsuit here, quote, people are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water. They cannot shower. They are denied soap, hygiene items, and menstrual products, and they have no way to clean themselves. They are often denied a change of clothes. Continuing my quote here, the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable. Most nights are freezing cold, yet only some receive a thin foil blanket, sweater, or sweatpants to try to retain warmth. The lights are typically on all night. People have also reported being denied water by agents, there being no running water in the places where they are held, and very little food. We've reported on these conditions before. Some of this is standard, right? Lights on all night, freezing cold, you only get a very thin blanket. That has been the case. It was the case throughout the Biden administration, right? They call these places the icebox, both in English and in Spanish. This has always been the conditions people have been held in in these facilities have always been inhumane but some of this is particularly bad people in broad view reported being so Crowded they could not extend their legs uh jesus christ yeah so they had to sit like sort of fetal position they couldn't sit down and extend their legs right let alone sleep disgustingly Unclean conditions they have lots of people have reported paperwork not being able in the language that they read and write bathrooms there are not private and the lawsuit alleges That people of other genders could see each other using the bathroom which which is pretty disgusting i've linked to the uh the lawsuit You can read it if you want to. ([Time 0:49:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b20a96d1-44f3-4caa-ad16-72eb4fc71cf7)) - **Tariffs Meet Legal Backlash** - The Trump administration's tariffs face a Supreme Court challenge backed by major libertarian and business groups. - Early arguments suggest the administration may be on weaker ground legally. Transcript: Robert Evans Tariff Park transition, go! Speaker 5 Rockin' you, Caspar Tyrese don't like it Ah, music to my ears. Mia Wong Oh boy. Robert Evans Okay, a rough shift in tone. So we got a little bit more details on the sort of partial agreement that Trump and the Chinese government have sort of come to that has staved off some of the most disastrous of the new Trade war elements. Sides seem to have gotten rid of the fees from ships both docking at their ports and also on the sort of complicated shipbuilding stuff we talked about last year. The U.S. Has paused the thing we talked about last week where they were using the foreign entity list to do anything that was like controlled, that was like 40% or more controlled by a thing on The foreign entity list, couldn't be traded with. The U.S. Is backing off on that for a year. China's agreed to buy more soybeans. There's also some discussion of China buying more energy products. But this is one of these things that we just we have no idea what that is. It's possible by the time you're listening to this, there will be information. All we have is buy more energy and the last thing that trump said that didn't seem to be part of the negotiations between him and the chinese government per se but were definitely part Of negotiations that have been going on between between trump and his cabinet was that there's going to be restrictions on ai chip exports although exactly what is not known all trump Said was, quote, the most advanced. We will not let anybody have them other than the United States. What this seems to be, and again, everyone is kind of murkily cobbling together whatever information they have. What it seems to be is Trump stopped NVIDIA from selling its most advanced AI-grade chips called Blackwell to China, which NVIDIA has been massively lobbying for because they need To expand their market to continue the giant bubble that they've accumulated. Trump has stopped them. It's unclear whether this is going to be made into formal policy or if Trump is just going to personally intervene every time a CEO asks him to do this. But yeah, we also have, so today, recording November 5th, is the start of the Supreme Court case against the tariffs. I think it's worth noting that this court case against the tariffs, it's framed as like a lot of small businesses brought this lawsuit, and they did. But also the reason it's gotten to the Supreme Court is because they're being backed by a huge player in the conservative legal machine. Almost the entire thing is being funded and paid for by the Liberty Justice Center, which is it's a kind of libertarian right wing legal thing backed by like the Walton family and the Koch network. And this is, I think, one of the most direct and interesting actual oppositional moves we've seen from from this wing of the libertarian business wing of the party, which is very, very Pissed off at the tariffs. We've seen a whole bunch of amicus curiae briefs from the American Antioch Uprise Institute and the Cato Institute and a whole bunch of other right wing think tanks who are extremely Angry about this. We don't know exactly how it's going to go, but the initial arguments do not seem to be going well for the Trump administration. So that'll that'll be unfolding and we'll report on it more as as we know more. ([Time 0:54:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d81e0bec-78ef-4bd0-81cd-ec1a826048ff)) - **Texas Amendments Favor Wealth Over Public Revenue** - Texas passed 17 constitutional amendments that cut revenue and prohibit new taxes on capital gains and inheritances to attract wealthy individuals and exchanges. - These changes likely deepen budget shortfalls and reduce funding for public services like schools. Transcript: Mia Wong There were 17 ballot measures passed by the Texas legislature earlier this year by a two-thirds majority. And the way Texas law works is that once the legislature votes for a ballot measure to two-thirds majority, it becomes a constitutional amendment after a simple majority of voters On a ballot support it. And there were 17 measures on the ballot in Texas, which is wild. Very few states add constitutional amendments at the rate Texas does. And all of them passed, which is nuts. And some of them are like, fine. There was like one to create like a $3 billion fund for dementia research with like, which is like, whatever. Nobody's got a problem with that, really. Some questions about implementation, maybe. But there's some absolutely bug fuck nuts stuff in here. Proposition 13 raised the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. It was passed by about 80% of voters. This lowers the taxable value of a home, which reduces overall tax bills on your primary residence. Per an article in the Houston Chronicle, the amendments will be especially felt by elderly or disabled Texans who are poised to receive a separate tax, a separate break that brings Their total property tax exemptions to 200,000. As a result, roughly half of seniors and people with disabilities living in Harris and Bexar counties will no longer pay any school property taxes. Jesus. I should have to say how bad that is for Texas schools. And in general, this a lot of these ballot measures were about making heavy cuts and making it impossible to raise new revenue. The cuts that are just in these ballot measures are going to cost the state about four billion dollars over the next two years. Right. But that's not all that was done. Several of the bills that were passed banned the potential to create new taxes, right? So it is now illegal in Texas to create taxes on capital gains or taxes on the growth of assets like property and stocks or taxes on inheritance and estate taxes. Taxes on the operations of stock exchanges are now banned because several have announced plans to open in Texas, right? So you are looking at, I think the estimate here that I'm seeing in the Chronicles article is that the state's going to spend about $51 billion over the coming biennium to pay for the new Cuts and maintain existing ones. Texas is a state that has had for quite a while a budget And they are basically lighting a lot of that on fire to appeal to rich people and business owners and stock exchanges to take their Assets to Texas. You won't have to help society if you come to Texas. We don't have a society in Texas, right? And that agenda did very well in Texas. Jeez. Anyway, good stuff. ([Time 1:00:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/44587737-c907-495a-a0b6-40719c74cf4f))