News Roundup: ICE, Antifa Roundtable, No Kings 2, Etc  ## Metadata - Author: [[I Don't Speak German]] - Full Title: News Roundup: ICE, Antifa Roundtable, No Kings 2, Etc - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/c9d8c197-7f63-43e0-93eb-2176a2894284 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Personal Update And Patreon Reality** - Daniel shares that he's recently divorced, moved to a cheap apartment, and is searching for steady work. - He thanks listeners and explains Patreon income can't yet sustain full-time podcasting. Transcript: Daniel Harper You know so you know we'll see we'll see um i did want to uh so this is going to be a news roundup and i did want to um uh just kind of share some personal news here at the beginning and we're not Going to get all sappy we're not going to do that but I did want to say and I think I've done this but as of right now I am recently divorced I have moved out of my old house I am now in the cheapest Little apartment I could find that was not an absolute rat hole and cannot really afford it let's just put it that way um i do have some money saved up but i've been looking for a full-time Job that will pay me you know a decent wage for a while and that's been very difficult and i don't think that this podcast had anything to do with it because nobody ever came to me and said Like asked about it but a certain stage in the interview process and then it just kind of nothing happens so um that's been frustrating but um i think what i wanted to say more than anything Was um thank you to all to everything first of all thank you to everybody for listening for kind of going through kind of the ebbs and flows i think the last couple of years have been have Been rough for for both jack and myself um but now that i'm uh out and now that i'm on my own i think um it's going to make me a lot more consistent in terms of what I can actually do I know I owe A lot of your responses to emails and blue sky DMs and that sort of thing and I'm hoping to get back to all that stuff if I didn't get back to you before, message me again and we'll see if I can't Help you out but really what I'm hoping is we're going to be a lot more consistent either doing news briefs or main episodes or bonus content try to do that on a much more regular basis hopefully Back to every week if not every two weeks but we'd like to go every week if possible um we're just definitely gonna miss weeks where we just can't um but um i thank you i thank you for all that And um yes if you if you do want to support if you just say, if you want to support me, I did the math on this. I'd have to get three times as much money on my Patreon to begin to really treat this as a full-time job. I put a lot of hours into it, but in terms of making the podcast and making the content a full-time thing, it has to be at least about three times what I'm making now. And I don't think that's realistic. There are other people that need that money more than I do. Let's put it that way. And so this is not me begging for dollars. It's just realistically, what I make on this podcast, I can make it a 15-hour week job washing dishes or something. And that would be much less soul crushing than what I do now. So, um, well I do, the money is helpful, but, um, you know, um, it's not, has been very, very helpful for the course of the time. But, um, ultimately what I'm saying is I thank you for your support, but unless that Patreon gets to a much higher level, this is still going to be like part-time gig for me. And that's fine. I'm very happy to do it. I don't do this for money. Um, but it helps anyway, that's all I have to say about that. ([Time 0:04:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/457a304f-bac0-424a-b289-60f0f91404ca)) - **Spectacle Masks Empty Leadership** - Trump and his circle weaponize theatrical speeches and spectacle to flatter him and mobilize supporters. - Jack Graham argues the performances mask intellectual emptiness while creating political presence. Transcript: Jack Graham Yeah so this is a News Roundup episode, and I think I'll be going to start with the Antifa roundtable at the White House. Is that where you want to start with that? I think I wanted to start just to kind of cover a little bit of the Charlie Kirk. Daniel Harper I mean, just for a couple of minutes. Oh, the Charlie Kirk thing, yeah. So, God, did you watch the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service slash religious revival slash WWE bout? Jack Graham Oh, God, it was, uh, I was going to say, uh, memorial, memorial service, memorial service. I'm not sure I saw that. I know I saw something. Uh, I don't know if I would actually call it a memorial service. It doesn't, it didn't look or sound anything like any memorial service that I've ever seen or been to, uh, uh, even imagined in my worst nightmares. But yeah, I did see some of it. I saw Stephen Miller delivering a speech more or less ripped off from Joseph Goebbels. I saw Erica Kirk being very strange on the stage. Daniel Harper I don't suppose we can really blame her for that given that i think i'm i'm gonna be a little less i'm gonna treat erica kirk you know we treat her she's a monster but we treat her she she is Mourning her husband still yeah exactly um i think the fairest way to describe her is she was giving she's a former beauty pageant contestant and she was giving very beauty pageant energy, Um, at that memorial service. It was very, um, you know, you could see the Southern bell, you know, like trying to win gold or whatever. Jack Graham It was a strange reversal seeing her being sort of physically invasive with Trump, you know, a woman invading Trump's personal space and Trump being visibly, physically uncomfortable With, with, with a woman sort of touching him and being near him and being affectionate on him. And then standing there and, you know, at this great big Christian speech where they're all virtue signaling their intense Christian virtue to the world. He just says, yeah, Charlie, I disagree with him about, I mean, you know, he's talking crap about Charlie Kirk, obviously, because Charlie Kirk was an intensely vindictive, cruel, Stochastic terrorist who spent his life endangering other people's lives because he hated them. And it was in his interest to do. But the party line was that Charlie Kirk is this great Christian and loved his enemies and forgave them etc um trump just said yeah i disagree with charlie on that i hate my enemies and I want them to die it was just as usual you know um there's there's a kind of sneaking admiration for the honesty there because of course none of these people really believe in forgiving Daniel Harper And all that stuff either they're they're they're they're actively pushing all the all the bullshit that trump pushes against their political enemies it's just, you know, it, uh, Yeah, it's, you know, it's sending you to the moment. Jack Graham Um, and, uh, yeah, no, uh, there's still a great big jamboree, that thing, you know, loads of people trooped down there and they had a great time. They had a day out, basically. They guzzled Cokes and, and Big Macs and left the litter lying around in the streets. Um, disgusting display just left their litter lying in the street for other people to clean up and they went to a big concert and uh and had this great big sort of orgiastic uh enjoyment Of this show where it was all everybody in the same room uh enjoying you know this great big sort of feeling of communal hatred it was it was a two minutes hate except that it wasn't merciful Daniel Harper Enough to to actually only last two minutes yeah it was more like two hours and i watched every minute yeah but uh yeah no and uh now everybody who's anybody in maga world is uh proud to say They were at that event i was i was at the memorial for charlie you know it's like it's now it's like it's their woodstock um so uh but yeah no they're they're still releasing of the charlie Kirk podcast it's just he's not on them anymore and so well his buddies his producer shows up and uh you know we'll do it or they'll uh they'll run old interviews with them they found an Interview he did when he was 18 years old where he was uh he called into some right-wing radio show and they aired like the q a that he had it was like a 12 minute like segment he did on the, On the West to call in her on this, on this right wing radio show. And at the time it was like low taxes and small governments. Jack Graham So, you know, it was all these guys, all these guys, they're all grownups that have been doing this exact same stick, except getting worse right wing and, and so on since they were teenagers, Stephen Miller and Ben Shapiro and Charlie, they're all sort of frozen in this edgy teenage right-winger phase that they never get out of because they luck into it being a lucrative Career at a young age. Daniel Harper You know, I used to be a kind of an edgy teenage libertarian type, never right-wing type, but I was a libertarian type. I think I've been honest about that. And then, you know what happened? I had to pay bills for myself and got a girlfriend in the same time period. And some of that kind of changes your perspective on certain things. Anyway, that's a long story, but anyway. So that's all that really I want to talk about Charlie Kirk. I could talk a lot more about all the nonsense of Charlie Kirk. If people want us to talk more about Charlie Kirk, please let me know. We will. We can definitely do. I could talk about Charlie Kirk for hours at this point. But I think more importantly. Jack Graham I want to just gesture at a couple of things, which is that Charlie Kirk has, to the extent that he ever actually made a dint in the national consciousness, even when he died that has just Immediately dissipated i saw a like a graph of you know google searches and it's obviously you get the massive spike when he gets killed and then you in the news stories come out and then You get another little spike for the the remembrance service um and then it's nothing just slopes away completely it's had you know they were they were clearly banking on making this Guy, their sainted martyr, their horse vessel combined with their, you know, new Christ. And, uh, they, it's just hasn't worked. It ([Time 0:09:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c01309cc-cee0-4c0e-a862-9daf3cc0e11b)) - **Roundtable as Political Theater** - The Antifa roundtable is framed as McCarthyite theatre that flatters Trump and feeds conspiratorial narratives. - Jack Graham says it functions more as self-reassuring performance than substantive policy. Transcript: Jack Graham I've seen bits of it. I mean, it's unhinged. It's just completely unhinged. It's unhinged sort of mccarthyism enemy within on steroid stuff and it's clearly um you know i mean partly it's as as so much that happens in the white house seems to be now it's clearly An attempt by the people around donald trump to just flatter him um and give him stuff to do that makes him look good and give themselves an opportunity to to surround him and and you know In verbal blowjobs um because you have uh what's it called pam bondy you know and she's coming out with absolutely unhinged sort of john birch and you know in a previous generation this Would be john birch society conspiracy theory pamphlet pamphlet shit she's coming out with about Antifa. You know, we're going to destroy the structure of the organization like we did with the cartels. Apparently, the Trump administration has destroyed the cartels. I didn't realize, but apparently they have. They're going to do the same to Antifa. You mean fishermen from Venezuela? Is that what you really mean? Yeah, they've murdered some fishermen in uh in in caribbean and venezuelan waters yeah that's what they've actually done that by the way that is an infuriating to to see centrists and People like that and mainstream people talking about this the narrative around it was just it's just infuriating to me this well there's no evidence these people if there was evidence That they were narco traffickers or whatever, that still wouldn't give you the right to just fucking murder them, to go into other people's war territorial waters and just commit, Unilaterally decide to commit murder. But yeah, I mean, it's, again, like so much of this administration, it's savage and it's brutal and it's a horrible precedent and it's a foot in the door for further expansion of violent Authoritarian state power. But it's also just kind of these people talking to themselves and showing off to themselves. And that's really what the Antifa roundtable looked like to me. You have ([Time 0:18:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/dda099ee-9b18-4fce-ae2b-026f0a7d3303)) - **Videos Of Masked Arrests In Cities** - Jack and Daniel recount videos of masked, badge-less ICE-style officers arresting and kneeling on civilians. - They emphasize these actors often show no warrants, IDs, or accountability in street detentions. Transcript: Jack Graham Well, this is it. I think we're going to talk a little bit about this later, but you know, the ice is just off the chain. They're just on the rampage. They're, they're, they're the, the, did you see the video of them speeding down the street and crashing into the side of this this car and they stop and and to me i mean it's pretty clear What's happening it's like they can't just drive on because that's basically admitting that it's their fault that's making it into a hit and run they have to pretend they realize pretty Quickly they have to pretend that they've been uh rammed or assaulted because they're just they just lie you know it comes out time and time again they say this person attacked us this Person shot at us etc just lies lies lies lies lies so you can see on the video they but they come out that they come out of their car and they drag this girl this this i don't know if she's a Teenage girl or a young woman out of her car having just crashed into the side of her car and then kneeling on her neck and just outright assault, just outright. And the cynicism of it as well. The calculated cynicism. Yeah. I don't think I saw this one. I've seen a lot of this stuff, but I don't think I saw this particular one. Yeah. Daniel Harper But yeah, I mean, the thing is that this is just, I mean, I hate, it's just routine now. I mean, I do not live that far from Chicago. And if I had, you know, had a little bit more resources, I definitely would have taken the trade in and, and, you know, documented some of this myself. It's just, it's, it's horrifying. It's just absolutely despicable what's going on in both Portland and Chicago. I think those are the two epicenters of it. Jack Graham You know, it's just, you have these, these fucking cowardly masked Brown shirts, essentially on the streets, just on the rampage, beating people up, pepper spraying people for, for Daring to talk back to them. Daniel Harper Well, and I mean, I'm sorry, but like, first of all, I mean, again, you know, this would be horrifying if these were actually like gang members and such that they're, you know, there's No due process being done here, you know, all. Yeah. I mean, the whole point. Well, again, time time. The whole point. Jack Graham Video after video after video of people confronting them, you know, and saying that they're arresting somebody that they got their business arresting and somebody confronts them And says it's video after video of this saying, where's your warrant? Where's your authority? And they just, it's just these, these fucking guys in masks with no ID, no badge, no warrant. They just say, we don't need warrant. We don't need no authority. And, and, you know, if you, if you, if you keep at them, they said, do you want to be arrested? Under what authority, asshole? ([Time 0:23:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/263ce311-12ad-4305-a915-a54c301065af)) - **State Vigilantism And Its Purpose** - ICE and deputized street operatives act like unaccountable vigilantes, escalating state violence. - Hosts warn these tactics aim to terrorize communities and deter civic participation. Transcript: Jack Graham Yeah and how much how much you know um sexual assault is going on uh under the cover of all this as well you know no i mean this is it this is how this is how a uh you know a stormtrooper force Assembles this is how the brown shirts take over the streets this is how it happens yeah uh cops are cops cops are bad you know i agree but uh they have to they have to have their their badges On display they have to have their numbers on display they have to have their uh their body cams going these guys this is just some guy that saw some fucking uh far-right meme uh posted On twitter by the White House or the Department of Homeland Security and thought, oh, yeah, I'd like to do that. And he just goes in and he gets his flak jacket and his gun and his mask. And he's out there playing at being Ernst Rohn all of a sudden. Yeah, no, exactly. Daniel Harper And I mean, you know, and there's been some deputization, I think, of where ICE is kind of, but again, these are not trained officers. These are, you know, it's just, I mean, I look at this and it's just- Essentially, they are state vigilantes. Jack Graham That's what they are. Daniel Harper Yes, exactly. Exactly. And I mean, it's not that it would be good if they were more professional. Don't get me wrong on this. The point is, you know, but the cruelty is the point of this stuff. That's why they're doing it the the show of force the show of horror is the point of this the idea is to make people self-deported to make people so scared that they won't go to the doctor's Appointments they won't go to their they're just going to flee the country that's the point of it it's not the point is not to actually like find bad people or whatever and put them through A sequence of The point is to make people terrified. This is state terrorism. That's what it is. ([Time 0:27:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/405a4a0a-6a9b-4c8d-8570-1a75a240d9f1)) - **Antifa As Flexible Scapegoat** - 'Antifa' is used flexibly as both an undefined conspiracy and a catch-all label to justify prosecutions. - Daniel Harper and Jack Graham note that lack of evidence becomes proof in conspiratorial logic. Transcript: Jack Graham My favorite bit of that is when, because. Daniel Harper I think another bit, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. Jack Graham Sobiak is talking about, and he's, he's giving Trump a history lecture on Antifa and he says, well, you know, this organization has existed for a century in different forms and it goes Back to Vymar. It's like, you're admitting more than you realize well jack posobiec knows exactly what he is he's jack posobiec knows exactly what he said he just thinks that nobody else in the room Daniel Harper Is going to call him out on it and they were he was right about that but i was down in the room don't worry jack posobiec i know what you are you know i know what you are why jack why did antifa Jack Graham Come into existence in weimar, Germany? What was happening in Weimar, Germany? Daniel Harper There's going to be a Pasoviac episode down the pipe, I promise you. He's so fucking obnoxious. He's so fucking obnoxious. Jack Graham He's such a little weasel, that guy. Daniel Harper Yes, he is. He just learned the lesson. It's okay if you're a Nazi so long you just praise Trump constantly. If you just praise Trump, you get to be a nazi that's it yeah it's the whole point but uh yeah i know um yeah remarkable remarkable stuff um my favorite the thing i thought you were going To mention i mean is that so posovic says oh the organization is about 100 years old it's got you know and and we know who the funders are we know like we there's a you know they kind of dance Around whether it's an organization or not they you know they they want to make it so that they can do like rico charges and so they can do like domestic terrorism and declare anti-fund Domestic terrorist group etc etc um and to do that they have to show that there are like financial ties that this bigger organization and god we could go through all the stuff i rewatched This video this afternoon before we started recording and it's just it's unhindered stuff. It's like the Democratic Socialists of America, the DSA, some of those members also work on anti-homelessness rallies. And some of the people in those anti-homelessness rallies also do blackbottic activities. That means that the DSA and everybody who ever gave to the DSA is part of this Antifa funding group. You know, that's the kind of legal theory they're trying to go around. Jack Graham Did you see that some of that information, apparently the, apparently Kash Patel's FBI went, they saw Glenn Beck giving one of his chalkboard lectures about Antifa on his show. And they sent agents around to get primed on Antifa's funding sources from Glenn fucking Beck. Daniel Harper There really is no daylight there i mean i think one of the things that this lasts like 10 months or so is is is really like taught us is that there is zero daylight between like the right-wing Online influencer crowd and the uh the actual trump administration like those are the lunatics are taken over the asylum in a way that you know they'll describe like MSNBC as MSDNC, Like it's just different credit talking points. And there's some truth to that. But there was never like a, it never got that close. I mean, they're literally like members of the Trump administration appear on Jack Posobiec's show to spread Trump agenda propaganda. That is, that's just how this works now. And, you know, Posobiec gives them the candle lines. He has to get them to get the right answers out and then he there's no pushback there's no follow-up there's no nothing it's just completely unless oh you're not going far enough that Would be the only criticism he ever gives and it's endemic it's across this stuff you know tucker crossing is a paragon of virtue in comparison the the sort of the theory of antifa on display Jack Graham Here is really it is you know schrodinger's antifa it's this big organization when they need it to be when they want to contemplate things like rico charges against this notional sort Of octopus of fun you know dark money and so on it's that when they need it to be and you have this ridiculous woman savannah hernandez saying it's akin to isis you know it works like isis And stuff but when they need it to just be when they need it to not be an organization it's also not an organization this is one of the great things about antifa for their from their point Of view because you know as a sort of as an aesthetic tool because they can pretend that it's this big conspiratorial organization of of course, once you're into conspiracy theories, The lack of evidence becomes evidence. You can say, well, there's no evidence of any ties here. That only goes to show how nefarious the connections are. Daniel Harper If you find the connections, it's a clear sign of open plotting. And if you don't find it, it's just because they were so good at hiding it. ([Time 0:29:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/38891b91-1294-41d9-bb36-8becc6262068)) - **Refusal To Denounce Extremist Rhetoric** - TPUSA and allied spokespeople refuse to denounce extremist private-chat rhetoric, signaling tolerance of violent rhetoric. - Hosts say refusal to condemn calls for rape, genocide, or praise of Hitler reveals mainstreaming of extremism. Transcript: Jack Graham Well, I mean, directly, because there was some sort of debate. I think it was a News Nation debate. And they had the TPUSA spokesman on there, you know, the new guy that's taken over. Oh, Andrew. Andrew something. Andrew S. Something, right? Andrew something. That's right. That's his name. Andrew something. And he's just sort of, he's challenged by some, like, liberal Democrat YouTuber or something who has, you know, very properly denounced people who are joking about Charlie Kirk. And he says, well, can you denounce these young Republicans in this chat who were saying, let's be clear, we love Hitler, let's rape our political enemies, calling black people watermelon People and monkeys and the n-words and saying that they want to put their enemies in gas chambers and this guy he will not he will not denounce it he ducks and he weaves and he will not he Spends minutes on that stage just refusing to denounce that and you see you know we're being told simultaneously that antifa are the real fascists i mean to be clear there's nothing Remotely surprising about the fact that a bunch of quote unquote young Republicans in their private Internet chats would be saying stuff like this. It is absolutely unsurprising, but it should be very easy to denounce. Daniel Harper So this man's name, I so he's his name is Andrew Colvent. I could not remember his last name, not because I'm not familiar with him, but because he's always just referred to as Andrew on the Charlie Kirk podcast. He has basically taken over the hosting duties. He used to occasionally co-host, I believe. But now he's certainly, I think more than anyone else, sort of the ideological leader of TPUSA. So that's where TPUSA is now. Just openly like, we won't denounce the people who you know wanted to put their enemies into gas chambers and said i'd love hitler you know this is you know this is children of 24 to 35 years Old just small little babes in the wood we just don't know any better you know yeah ([Time 0:38:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9b17faec-6799-445a-8bae-9862c293219f)) - **Financial Incentives Lock In Extremism** - Many right-wing influencers and operatives are financially incentivized to sustain extremist positions. - Graham cites Sinclair Lewis: salary can trap people into narratives that protect income over truth. Transcript: Jack Graham But even on Blue Skies, I saw people like, you know, oh my God, really? Daniel Harper We're going to get them this time. No, no, you're not. No. Jack Graham They just. Again, like it works both ways. You know, Charlie Kirk's already been forgotten about by most people outside that bubble. Daniel Harper This will will be forgotten it's already been forgotten about it's already three news cycles ago yeah exactly um you know and and and to me it's just like it's like it's just it's a non-story At this point i mean it's important to document it i mean honestly what i would prefer is if they could just come out and say the things that they believed publicly and then we could talk About those things instead of like all the bullshit like oh we're not racist you know we're not you know like god it's just it's so infuriating yeah it's so infuriating to know what you And i know and then to continually watch this shit be get debated back and forth as if like what charlie kirk was saying was not like deeply racist i mean it's just like why do we have to keep Debating this topic it's because the fucking centrist just will never ever ever except that racism is real that people can be real racist even in 25 oh my god it's so frustrating there's Jack Graham A good quite new uh thought slime video where they talk about this they talk about um why why do libs and and they actually have quite a thoughtful sort of digression in that about what What do we mean when we talk about libs and we're not just talking about liberals per se you know it's it's it's it's more it's more considered than it sounds but the subject of the video Why do liberals feel compelled to defend charlie kirk and it's a good you know it's a thoughts line themselves admits that it's not you know a stunningly original thesis that they're Putting forward but it's it's absolutely correct you know it's it's that the neoliberal consensus this sort of hollowed out idea of politics as as lacking content is so completely Ingrained in certain types of people and it you know it affects all of us because we all live in this world it affects all of us all of us from time to time but certain people you know ezra Klein are so it's so ingrained in that they literally cannot sort of they cannot grok they cannot comprehend extremism of any kind at all so that they're you know it's like um trying to Think uh in in the in the douglas adams novel uh life the universe and everything there's there are these spaceships that come with what's called the somebody else's problem field and What it means is that the spaceship can just land in front of you and your brain interprets it as somebody else's problem and it just sort of edits it out you don't see the spaceship you Just look around it and it's it's that that that kind of brain that kind of orthodox centrist neoliberal brain just kind of can't see fascism head on it just kind of insists upon trying To see around it you know so it can never really come to terms with the fact that it's actually there well i can't see that like this is not something you're going to reason people out of Daniel Harper That this is the the fascist conclusion is not reached by logical means and therefore you can't logic you can't logic somebody out of a problem they didn't logic themselves into um and You know some people do logic themselves into fascism and they tend to kind of come to their senses eventually i mean i've i've spoken to people personally who were ex-fascist to you Know who thought they fell into it for rational reasons and then once you know suddenly like whoops i was mistaken it does happen but like you're never going to get the politically motivated Actors. You're never going to get Jack Posobiec to not be a, be a bullshit around this. He's always going to be a fascist. You're never going to be able to get on Charlie Kirk. Um, not to say he should be murdered, but you know, you're just like, yeah, the option that you can't do, you cannot debate this. There's no debating this. Jack Graham Um, it's, it's certain people just get eternally trapped in that sort of, that man trap of arrested development, you know, and financial reward. You know, people like Posobiec are just, he's just for, you know, it's his career. It's his career to remain a fascist. So he's never going to be able to, I think, was it Sinclair Lewis who said, you know, you can't get people to understand things that their salary depends upon them. I believe that Sinclair Lewis. Yes, I believe. Yeah. ([Time 0:42:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d4c3fc43-b41f-4f41-91ce-bb7d0390b853)) - **ICE Raids Driven By Spectacle And Landlords** - Hosts describe ICE raids in Chicago where people, children included, were dragged from homes and streets, often for landlord disputes. - They call the raids public spectacles driven by cruelty and local financial motives. Transcript: Jack Graham We should um and it's did you see that this this one apartment building where they raided and oh my god it was it was just was just an orgy of sort of public performative sadism you know they Have this is in chicago helicopters yeah that's right and they're performing being uh tom cruise in mission impossible you know coming down on on uh on ladders and and crap like this And they're dragging the people out and they've got reportedly they're dragging children out of bed and pulling them into the streets naked or half naked and zip tying them together Just absolutely just despicable public sadism and it turns out not only that not only is this sort of public state fascist racist um you know media spectacle sadism the whole thing turned Out to have been fundamentally motivated by the landlords being up to their necks in violations and unpaid unpaid fines and fees they want the people out so they call in ice basically To be their uh their um what's the word bailiffs for them yeah to to just eject these people yeah you see stuff like that and you think what it's no one knows what am i i so like you know i mean Daniel Harper What am i doing here this is what fascism is it's just you know it's just it's just the ruling class using the uh using the financial tools at their disposal to uh to crush the weak you know And scapegoat the weak it's just i mean it's it's you know yeah it's remarkable it's so if this was in a novel you wouldn't believe it it's just too on the fucking nose it's just you know Jack Graham Oh what what's that you say the man you want me to victimize my here my fellow human beings only the ones that are poorer and more desperate and more than me um what you'll let me live out My call of duty fantasies okay okay, sir. Okay, master. I'll do that. Oh, God. Yeah. No, it's... It hurts. It does. It hurts to see this. Daniel Harper And some of those videos have just been, I mean... Harrowing. The one that sticks with me, I mean, there are a lot of them. I mean, look, there are a lot that stick with me. Look, might sound to the insensitive kind of if... It does change your perspective a bit when you've been learning spanish and suddenly you can actually you know um yeah obviously you don't need to know a lot of spanish to know what a yuda Means uh means help me just you know um and somebody yells a yuda may yuda may yuda may you know a bunch you know you kind of get the gist but like suddenly like understanding it um it does Uh those videos get harder and harder to watch is all i'm gonna say for me yeah yeah i think the one that uh i mean the hopeful one is when uh streets of chicago they're they have this guy we Have no idea what this guy supposedly did but they got this guy they're um trying to put him in in the uh in the bracelets trying to pick him up it's these two fat ass lard you know sorry we're Not supposed to body shame people but you know it's these two renner thugs you know and they're just in the middle of the street and just guys sitting there accosting them just yelling At them not touching them just yelling at them let him go let him go let him go you know yeah two languages et cetera you know and just the guy's fighting back and he gets away and they just Jack Graham They just they let him go oh that's you know yeah it gives you hope he gives you that is that's one of the videos that that has actually sort of left me feeling something other than despair Because it's just you have this crowd of people surrounding these two fucking masked brown shirt guys trying to arrest this poor guy um and the people around them are just interfering And they're being, you know, they have to be so careful because they know they could be, they could be arrested themselves, you know, but they're just, they're just, most of these people, They're just staying on the, on the right side of what they think they can get away with doing. And it's just this sort of continual barrage of little interference that they keep making. I mean, admittedly, part of it is just the two ice thugs are completely incompetent, flailing idiots. And also the guy himself is, you know, heroically resisting and protesting the entire time. And they give up and they drive away and the guy gets away and it's great which means how big of a priority was this guy in the first place yeah well yeah exactly they just stopped on a whim They just racially profiled this guy walking past yeah they felt a guy speaking spanish standing near a home depot and that was enough yeah let's victimize him for kicks and at a certain Point because of his resistance and their own incompetence and the interference of the people around them it becomes more trouble than it's worth but that's a victory yeah no it is and Daniel Harper This is how this thing gets won it's by those small victories that's that's that's the reality of it you know yeah um yeah i think the other one that really affected me in the more negative Sense is the uh there was a man of god a priest or a um who was you know giving a benediction just you know do not harm these people these are these are human beings or you know children of god Etc etc etc ice guy just pepper balls him in the face yeah it's it's right there right there on video just points the gun at him and shoots him and and they're up on a roof as well they're miles Jack Graham Away we'll find we'll find the clips. You can watch these. Yeah, yeah. You can hear them laughing about it once the guy's doubled over in paint. Yeah. And they're spraying pepper spray all over the place, as many people have pointed out. You know, pepper spray is vicious stuff, and it lingers. So these poor neighborhoods, they're streets. The streets where children have to walk to school in the morning are doused in this stinging. Daniel Harper And people don't always know what pepper spray is it's not it's not like black pepper it's uh it's capsaicin it's actually like the chemical that makes things spicy um i mean it's it i Mean that's it'll burn you i mean it literally burns you know um yeah it's i mean um i think back to katie davis court talking about you know i got a black eye because an you know, face. ([Time 0:48:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cfdcfb30-3355-4c5f-b430-3775f8c48791)) - **Priest Pepper-Balled During Benediction** - A priest giving a benediction in Spanish was pepper-balled by ICE during a protest; officers laughed afterward. - Hosts highlight the cruelty of state agents targeting clergy and neighborhoods with lingering chemical sprays. Transcript: Jack Graham Away we'll find we'll find the clips. You can watch these. Yeah, yeah. You can hear them laughing about it once the guy's doubled over in paint. Yeah. And they're spraying pepper spray all over the place, as many people have pointed out. You know, pepper spray is vicious stuff, and it lingers. So these poor neighborhoods, they're streets. The streets where children have to walk to school in the morning are doused in this stinging. Daniel Harper And people don't always know what pepper spray is it's not it's not like black pepper it's uh it's capsaicin it's actually like the chemical that makes things spicy um i mean it's it i Mean that's it'll burn you i mean it literally burns you know um yeah it's i mean um i think back to katie davis court talking about you know i got a black eye because an you know, face. Jack Graham You got in the way of somebody who was waving a flag. You got in the way. Daniel Harper But I mean, Linda Toronto was a journalist on, I think in Minneapolis in 2020 and a government thug literally shot her in the face with a rubber bullet. She lost an eye. She lost an eye. That's right. I mean, she's having, she's has health, it's health responses for that. She may die of that injury and that's an agent of the state. So yeah, you know, if some punk kid breaks a Starbucks glass or like hits Katie Davis court in the face lightly with a, I I'm not concerned with that. You know, this is, we're talking about state violence. We're talking about like formalized, organized state violence against innocent people. And even if they're not innocent, you still got to prove that they aren't. ([Time 0:53:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6f72c214-b51b-4825-91a4-17d105706a57)) - **No Kings Day And Frog-Suit Protests** - No Kings Day protests occurred nationwide with participants using frog suits and other memes to mock power. - Hosts note these stunts can protect protesters and puncture the authority fantasies of enforcement thugs. Transcript: Daniel Harper Um, and, uh, there was a, so i'm not doxing myself but there was a no king's day in my uh in my said i live um that's not doxing there were there were no king's days like almost everywhere around The country um sometimes with just a few people this one was pretty big from what i understand i was not able to attend i probably wouldn't have attended anyway but um i had to work that Day so I wasn't able to during that time period that it was active. So I was not able to, but I was nearby and I saw, I saw the traffic, believe me, this was a big event. I very heartened that people care enough to go out and protest, do the symbolic protest, but we do have to keep in mind that it's just a symbolic protest. Yeah. And i saw some commentary about the like the frog suits you know like people kind of using i think the meme like the online meme is cool but it has to come from a place of action it has to come From a place of like the the guys who are wearing the frog suits who are out there who are getting hit in the face with pepper balls they're doing this to indicate just how silly all this Is and they're actually putting their like literally their lives on the line to to do this um yeah if you're dancing in a frog suit in downtown main street usa i mean i'm if if it makes you Jack Graham Feel better i'm good but you know it's it's not it's not the same thing no no no at its best it is you know it's on the front lines and it's puncturing the as i say the sort of Call of Duty fantasies Of these brown shirts. These brown shirt coward masked thugs that are out there playing with themselves, essentially playing soldiers. It's hard for them to feel like they're in Commando or Predator or whatever if they're faced with a guy who's dancing around in an inflatable day glow green Tyrannosaurus Rex costume. You know, I appreciate that. But it does, it has to be on, it has to be as well as loads of other stuff. I think that's the thread you're talking about, was talking about how, yeah, that's lovely, but we also need like networks of mutual aid and all this stuff. Yeah, no, exactly. Daniel Harper Well, and the frog suits actually had utility, it turned out because they actually protected you against the pepper spray well yeah there was a guy i mean there was a video of like you Know several of these ice ages just pummeling that pummeling this guy with pepper balls and he's just standing there because he's in this inflatable suit it doesn't affect him bring It on motherfucker bring it on yeah like the the mighty force of the of the of immigration of la migra is uh defeated by by a simple frog costume i love it i ([Time 0:56:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/79b86ed6-c03e-4ee0-9e1d-6a133e085680)) - **Authoritarian Appeal Explained** - Millions accept Trump's king imagery because they seek authoritarian protection and retribution. - Graham argues these supporters want a 'king' who will crush perceived enemies rather than engage in democracy. Transcript: Jack Graham Off cuomo's butt cheeks and just put them in. He'd wrapped them up in a nice package and just handed them straight to him. Didn't he? Daniel Harper I mean, he just steamrolled right over everybody. And he had it with a smile on his face. It's like, my God, it almost gives you hope. It almost gives you hope. Jack Graham But there is another thing that actually you said you wanted to open with this. And I just, which was Trump's, to the No Kings Day. Yes, we should definitely talk about that. He's not upset at all. He's not angry. Daniel Harper In fact, he thinks it's funny. He thinks it's hilarious. He's laughing about it. Imagine if Barack Obama like any imagine if Barack Obama had been you know protested on it and he posts I mean AI video didn't exist at that time but you know did something similar right Released video of him strafing around in a crown and pouring shit all over a crowd of Trump supporters or publicans or you know tea party at that time. Can you imagine? Fucking imagine. Like Barack Obama said, cling to your guns in a speech in like 2007, I think. And they're still holding onto their angries about that. Basket of deplorables. They're still, still. I think about that. Jack Graham 10 years later. Barack Obama had the, you know, and I'm not defending Barack Obama, but he had the temerity to shed a single tear about, was it Trayvon Martin? Yeah, I think it was Trayvon Martin. It was a school shooting, wasn't it? It was Sandy Hook. Sandy Hook, yes, yes. And the Trayvon Martin thing was when he says, oh, you know, if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon. You know, the country was just splattered with gray matter and blood because of thousands of Republicans who just exploded. Exactly. Daniel Harper I mean, just the idea. I mean, I think that Trayvon Martin quote where he's like, you know, well, I think, you know, if I'd had a son, I would look like Trayvon Martin, which is true. But the fact that he reminded you he's black was suddenly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Off the deep end, off the fucking deep end. Jack Graham It's bad enough that he be black while also being the president, but he also has the temerity to talk about it. You know, he should just. Okay. I suppose I suppose if we have to do this, but can we at least agree to just pretend it's not happening? Yeah. Daniel Harper Oh, my God. All right. I just I saw that video it's one of those things i woke up this morning and i like open up blue sky because that's what you do now you just open up your social media of choice and just see what's Going wrong in the world that's just your your daily and as you're doing it you think i shouldn't be doing this why are you doing this stop but you do it anyway i was i literally i knew we were Going to record today and i woke up this morning and i'm like i can do my spanish now or i can up up blue sky and i knew which one was better for me but i also knew which one i was going to do so you Know and i just it was a little like people were going like okay what is this with trumpet diarrhea like you know so before i saw the video i knew oh god don't let's and you see it and it's just I mean he's literally like no Kings day. Well, I'm a King and I'm going to shit all over you. Like that's, I mean, that's, I mean, that's, it's, it's, there's no subtext there. It's just, he believes he's a King and in his little world, they all want him to be the King. And that's absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Jack Graham Jack, we, we hear, we hear a lot about how Americans live in sort of different universes or different realities. I mean, I think, yeah, to an extent, but there's also an extent to which you all live in the same reality. It's just that you see it in different ways. Millions of Americans looked at that video, which is an open admission that Trump is, he's shitting himself in fury about the protests. A. B, he's just admitting that he thinks he's a king, that he feels entitled to attack American citizens if they disagree with him in the most degrading way possible. And it's all presented to you as good. And millions of Americans see that and just, yeah, I'm on board. Yes, sign me up. Because that's what they want. They want a king. That's what this has always been about. They want a big, strong, authoritarian daddy who will crush the people that they hate. And they know what's real. They just feel differently about it to you. And those are the people who, you know, they cannot be, they cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be negotiated with, they cannot be appeased. ([Time 1:00:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e80ad9db-e453-442d-a271-4475997dc498)) - **Support Local Mutual Aid Networks** - Support mutual aid, shelters, and local networks instead of relying only on party politics. - Volunteer, donate, and build community resilience to counter state violence and voter intimidation. Transcript: Daniel Harper And one of the ways you do that by giving us money, not, not at all. Yes, but yes, please. But you know, no, that's not, um, of the ways you do it is to support mutual aid you know what's going on in your town you know what's going on in your city um you know the kinds of people who Need help and you know the kinds of people who might be doing things that can help that and that does not mean going to down to uh register voters for the democratic party um that is that May be something to do when you've done all the other stuff but there's a lot more stuff to do um and you know what's going on in your town. Homeless shelters, groups, et cetera. Any and all that stuff. They always need volunteers. They always need helpers. Not bombs. Anything like that. Become your local anti-fascist. And that does not mean dressing up in blot necessarily and breaking windows. But anti-fascism is a philosophy and it's a, and as a practice. And, um, that's all I got to say. Jack Graham Yeah. And, you know, I joked about it and I could be better on this, but don't, don't doom scroll. Don't cling to 24 hour news. Don't stay constantly on social media. You know, folk don't do that to yourself. Focus on, on something constructive. Yeah. And I, I speak as somebody who's coming out of weeks of depression. Uh, that's how you do it. Daniel Harper You focus on something that you can achieve and you, and you do it. Taking care of your health is also an important part of this. Um, one thing that you learn when I've done this for a while, you know, it is a marathon, not a sprint. ([Time 1:04:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b0eae239-3cac-4e96-bf8e-50aa43f70631)) - **Limit Doomscrolling And Prioritize Self-Care** - Avoid nonstop doomscrolling and social-media immersion that amplifies despair. - Focus on achievable tasks, self-care, and small wins to sustain long-term activism. Transcript: Jack Graham Yeah. And, you know, I joked about it and I could be better on this, but don't, don't doom scroll. Don't cling to 24 hour news. Don't stay constantly on social media. You know, folk don't do that to yourself. Focus on, on something constructive. Yeah. And I, I speak as somebody who's coming out of weeks of depression. Uh, that's how you do it. Daniel Harper You focus on something that you can achieve and you, and you do it. Taking care of your health is also an important part of this. ([Time 1:05:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6fba96a7-90cc-426e-8521-dca770e3f0fc))