VA Cuts, Todd Blanche, and A Reality Check

This week on Chronically Informed, we’re talking about yet another cut to VA services, Aaron gives us an update on the situation in the Middle East, and we break down our concerns surrounding Todd Blanche now serving as Attorney General.

Then Brittany gets very passionate about where our country is headed, bringing in testimony and experiences from everyday Americans who are feeling the impact firsthand.

As always, we lead with the facts first. Our criticism, frustration, and opinions are grounded in what’s actually happening—not made-up narratives or outrage for the sake of outrage.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

New episodes every Sunday.

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Threads: @thechronicallyinformedpodcast, @brinnythomas, @_murica

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hey guys, welcome back to the Chronically Informed Podcast where we're trying to bring nuance back into the news. I'm Erin.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

And I'm Brittany.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

And this week we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to start with some personal intros because we realized that we kind of started this for family and friends, but some of you guys actually don't know us. And then after that, we're going to get into a letter that was sent by some Democratic lawmakers to the VA demanding to have the VA disclose the details of a shortage of mental health providers. After that, we're going to go into an interesting Middle East update. And then Brittany's got some cool stuff. What do you have this week?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

I'm just really mad about Todd Blanche.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

That's the big thing we're getting after is we hate Todd Blanche.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Todd Blanche, and I'm going to monologue a little bit about the president.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Okay. I I can't wait. I read your monologue beforehand and I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Thank you. It was fueled with anger and the words of the people, you know. I I put some feelers out. I asked some people what they're struggling with most under this administration, and not a whole bunch of them, but the people showed up. So we'll get into that later.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, but uh first, like I said, we're gonna get started with some intros.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

When we started this podcast, we knew it would probably be mostly our friends and family listening, and we're totally okay with that, obviously. Um, we've loved all the support from people who know us, but we wanted to take a second to actually introduce ourselves for anyone who's listening who's like, okay, but like who even are these people? Why am I listening to them? Why should I care? Um, I'm Brittany. Um, I've been fascinated by politics for basically as long as I can remember. It started when I went to DC in eighth grade, and don't ask me why. But 12-year-old me literally cried when we drove past the Pentagon. Uh-huh. Um, what did I know? I was just like so into it. I was like, oh my god, we're driving past the Pentagon.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You were already scared for the state of our country.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

I was the only person there that was excited to just drive by. I wouldn't even go to the Pentagon, we just drove by it on the freeway, and I was crying like a fucking loser. Um, when Obama was running for his first term, I wasn't old enough to vote, but I watched all of his speeches. I made my mom give me extra campaign stickers. I obviously had an Obama chia pet that was my prize possession, and my other prize possession for years was a gold JFK bust that I found it at an estate sale. Um, and I really wanted it back until my mom's ex-husband literally shot it with a gun after I moved out. Like, has JFK not been through enough? Um, so that was nice and very stable of him, and definitely, you know, proves why they're divorced. Uh typical right-wing fragility, honestly. Um, but despite despite, my goodness, but despite always being interested in politics, I never actually pursued any of it. I went straight into working at In N Out where I spent almost 10 years. I loved my job, but eventually quit when Aaron got stationed in another city. And honestly, that ended up being one of the best decisions I've ever made because being forced into something completely different pushed me to grow in ways I probably wouldn't have otherwise, to be honest. I eventually went back to school for political science, and that's when everything finally clicked. I was learning about something that I had always been fascinated by my entire life, and suddenly that passion I'd always had actually had somewhere to go. A huge part of what I care about now is misinformation and how people consume information. I cannot stand the idea that there is only one correct way to look at an issue, or that we have to completely dismiss nuance just because it complicates our argument. And more than anything, I genuinely believe that meaningful change requires compromise, and purity politics is ruining our chances for real change.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Well, thanks for that, babe. Um, I'm gonna go ahead and start mine. I'm Aaron, and my story is definitely a little bit different than Britney's is. I finished high school and thought that my path was gonna be to go to college, study criminal justice, and become a defense attorney. After a year of college, I realized that I fucking hated school. Uh, and even though I went to a university with like almost 47,000 people, I felt impossibly alone and lost. I ended up dropping out of school and working and just kind of like bouncing back and forth between different jobs. I worked after a few years at a Starbucks where I became a shift supervisor. I worked in a movie theater, I worked at a bookstore, uh, and then a few years after I dropped out of college, I ended up moving to Florida with my dad to essentially watch after his house and his dog while he was away on some business trips. Since I got to Florida, I worked at Domino's, Sunglass Hut, uh, Buckle, and Chipotle with absolutely no idea where my life was headed or what I wanted to ultimately do. Eventually I decided to join the Navy, um, and so I did. And I've worked as an intelligence analyst for almost nine years now. I've deployed three total times, uh, once in support of Special Operations Forces out in the Pacific, and then twice on the USS Nimitz. I've been everywhere from the Pacific to the Middle East and South America. Uh now I'm finally getting out of the Navy in a month, and I've never realized until now how much of my life that I've just kind of floated through the world. Um with no real opinions on much of anything except for my work. I sank myself into work and drinking and floated through eight and a half years of military service just waiting for the end. And now that I am at the end and we are in Donald Trump's second term as a president, uh, I feel like I've kind of woken up and I have more of a direction now. Brittany was actually the one that inspired me to get into politics. Since then, we've both been reading and learning together about politics and our country's history. I think we mentioned this in like the first episode, but uh, she's always been very interested in domestic issues and what's going on in America, and because of my experience and uh my job as an intelligence analyst, I have always been very focused on foreign policy, and maybe one day my ultimate goal will be realize where I get to write and influence foreign policy one day. But we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

It would be awesome, but that's us.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Um we rock.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

We are fucking very cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Just by the way.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

It's just by the way. Uh but with that, let's go ahead and get into the first topic of this week, which is the VA mental health crisis. Back on August 7th, uh, 60 plus House Democrats sent a letter to the VA, uh, and this in this case is Veterans Affairs uh Secretary Doug Collins, who is a Trump appointee. The letter demanded that the VA disclose details about a shortage of mental health providers and actually cited a previous uh ProPublica report that detailed hundreds, hundreds of VA mental health staffers leaving under the second Trump administration and then never being replaced. A psychologist who used to work for the VA in the ProPublica report uh ended up saying that some of her one-on-one sessions were actually replaced with group sessions, which is fine. Uh, but sometimes those group sessions would get up to 35 people in one group.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

My God.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah, which is um, as most of you would probably guess, not super effective when it comes to dealing with especially complex issues such as uh PTSD, depression, and other uh complex mental health issues that veterans end up facing.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, imagine trying to get good care in a group of 35.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah, it's it's I would almost say near impossible. Um I mean, there is a certain amount of like unity with the group that definitely helps, but that is not the only thing that helps, and that by itself is not going to um help some of these more complex issues. I got it. Now, there are still one-on-one sessions, uh, according to this woman. Uh, however, the one-on-one sessions were sometimes limited to as short as 15-minute sessions.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Oh, that's gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yeah, my therapy sessions used to be an hour and a half, and now they're 45, and I still feel like I'm trying to cram everything into a 45-minute session.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yeah, what can you even get done in 15 minutes?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

I I yeah, you know, I'm not sure. Um, it just none of it seems good.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Um talk about the highest quality of care for our veterans.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, which is like, how is that even possible? One with fewer providers, but two, with like this being the direction that they're trying to make the VA's mental health care go.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

It isn't possible.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Exactly. Um, and Trump has repeatedly, uh, throughout his campaigns and even since he's been president, has repeatedly promised Vets the quote highest quality of care. Um, but since saying that the VA now has 500 fewer psychologists and psychiatrists than they did last year.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

This isn't even the first VA program to be cut under this administration.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

It is not. This is one of the many programs that were cut. Uh, additionally, for any veterans listening, you might remember that there was a bill, I guess, that tried to be that they tried to pass, uh, basically changing the way that disability works. Um, so they were basically trying to take away more disability benefits from veterans. Uh essentially what they were trying to do was cut down disability to where if you are being treated for said disability, that the level the disability presents itself after treatment is what you would get paid. So if you are severely depressed, if you have PTSD anxiety, whatever, uh following therapy and medication, however much that affects your life is how much disability you get, not what the actual depression PTSD anxiety is.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah, that's actually ridiculous. I can't believe that they're like, oh, you're actually not gonna get disability for all the trouble that you have faced while being in the military. We're just gonna fix it and then we'll we'll pay you based on that.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, so it the good news about this is that that uh measure ended up not passing. Uh Doug Collins ended up facing so much pressure that he rescinded the measure uh and then tried to come back with like a oh, we were just trying to he was basically trying to doge the VA, um, and we all saw how well that worked.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

No, not very well.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah, so the the good news is that it is back to what it normally is, which is um basically whatever the underlying issue is, so in the terms of depression, whatever it is and how much it affects you before the treatment and before the medication, therapy, whatever, is what you get paid.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Good. That's how it absolutely should be. Exactly. Mind-blowing to me that the president who always says and claims to care so much about service members and uses them and how much he loves them, we love our service members. If he cares so much about them, then why does he constantly and consistently gut programs that are built to help them?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yeah, and not only that, but like not even veterans, just like for active duty. Why would you start a needless war with Iran and then send people overseas for indiscriminate amount of times, like the Abraham Lincoln is on its longest deployment.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

They're running out of food, they had no soap for a while, they're eating literally garbage. Yep. You ate garbage on deployment too.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I did, and we had a fairly straightforward deployment. It was, I mean, yeah, it was long. We got extended, I think, four times, ended up being like a nine-plus-month deployment. Um, but yeah, I mean, we even got to the point where our logistics failed in such a spectacular way that we did not have soap. Uh for a while, we started running out of toilet paper on the boat. Um, we were essentially down to eating 90% like rice and chicken. Uh, anybody who's ever heard stories of the Navy or the military in general knows that the uh chicken is never cooked. Um, so we were just eating raw chicken and rice pretty much. It sucked, it sucked. Um but this, like what I experienced, was not nearly as bad as what is going on in the Lincoln. Like the Lincoln is the store has been wiped out. I mean, like the ship store that is, um, has been pretty much wiped out. They're not really getting many replenishments because they're obviously in what they consider to be an active combat zone. So it's really hard to get logistics there. Um, and for anybody that has like kind of studied the military before, or anybody who's even been in the military, you know that logistics are one of the major advantages that the American military, specifically the American Navy, has over other countries' militaries, and the fact that we can't even get that right in something that's not even supposed to be a war is pretty embarrassing.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah, it's super embarrassing. And they tried to do something great according to them, which was create the military spouse commission to get opinions from military spouses on how to better serve them and their service members and their families, and all they have on the commission is senior officers' wives.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

They have nobody that's actually dealing with like the hard shit. They have people that don't even deal with VA healthcare. They have people that are making a lot of money in powerful positions influencing how you get treated.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yep. Um, I'll say this. So the carrier, like the aircraft carriers, and even I think some destroyers, uh, we essentially have internet on those boats now, um, which is really awesome if you're somebody who's deploying. Um, however, the problem with that is that it can be very spotty, things like that. It is also doled out in a very strange way. I can say this with experience. Uh, when I was on board the USS Nimitz, there were many, many times where they would shut off the Wi-Fi for the enlisted uh and only allow the Wi-Fi to be used by officers. Um, the officers typically get Wi-Fi in their rooms. Um, they will obviously, I think I've said this before, maybe not on the podcast, but definitely on fronts. Um, I've said this before where they they get significantly better food, way better quality of life, all these different things. And they just they always seem to do this thing where it's like we have a great idea to improve the military, but we're only going to apply it for senior people.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, like not the people like doing the hard, gritty work.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Exactly. Like, I my job is hard. Um, it always has been and it will continue to be, especially in a world as complicated as the one that we live in. And the areas that we go to are also extremely complicated. However, my job is mentally hard, you know? I get off work, I go back to my rack, I take a nap, I go eat, whatever. I'm usually in a better headspace coming into the next shift. The rest of the jobs on the carriers and the destroyers and things like that are not like that. Like they are physically demanding jobs. You are getting your shit rocked every fucking day. And quite frankly, most of the officers just don't experience that ever. Even the more junior officers typically don't have to participate in those things uh because they are kind of held to a higher standard of we don't want you to get all dirty and grimy. Um, so like I was in an air wing and all these guys were working constantly on planes, and they would come back, and I mean, like, their shirts were filthy, they were sweaty because we would be, you know, in the the Middle East where it's like the hottest it's ever been, the water temperature is like in the hundreds, so we can't cool the water down. And it's just it's absolutely fucking miserable. And the fact that they have once again come back and said, let's try to create a solution to the issue, but now we're only gonna do like senior officers' spouses. What about the rest of us, dude? What about the E6? What about the E4? What about the E2, whose wife or husband or just significant other is struggling in a massive way, is getting no communication from the command. Because just so you guys know, there is such a thing called an ombudsman, which is supposed to communicate back to families. However, it rarely happens the way that it should. Um, but if you get into the officer ranks, they have spouses clubs and all these different things where before they go on deployment, they all come together and they nominate somebody to leave the spouse's club, and they have this incredible communication between their husbands and wives that are deployed and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

They're getting pictures on deployment. Yeah, I got some of those emails.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Yeah, and the enlisted, what do we get?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Nothing.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

We get uncooked chicken, uncooked rice, and are told to shut the fuck up and just keep going.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

I didn't hear from you for like four days once, and then I got an email like, here's our soldiers hard at work, a bunch of officers like sitting in air-conditioned rooms. I'm like, I don't care about these random people. Where's my husband who I haven't heard from in three days? Why do you guys have AC and Wi-Fi and this man's eating uncooked chicken?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

I I yeah, it's ridiculous. We kind of got off the point of the case.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, we yeah. So the original point being the VA care. I mean, really though, I I think that you do bring up a good point because this is very indicative of how uh there is such a massive disparity between what they say versus what they do.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Absolutely. What they say only applies to the highest officials, and what they do does not affect you exactly in a good way.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

No, definitely not in a good way. It affects us in bad ways, more ways than one, but not in a good way. Not in any not in any way, shape, or form. Um, yeah, so you you also had uh this question written down to you about uh VA healthcare and how poor it is and how it affects current service members, like their view on getting out of the military and relying on the VA to care for them. Yeah. It's terrifying. It is absolutely terrifying. And we've had these conversations before in private where, you know, I'm I am scared to get out of the military. It's it's a scary thing, it's a big step in my life. Um, I'm going from what is essentially a um uh more robust version of welfare uh to being completely on my own, you know, things like that. Uh, and it is scary. And I really genuinely think that if I was not able to find a job so quickly with benefits that would help us, if we were not really set up very well to get back to where we want to live and live with friends, live with families to try to help get us on our feet for a little bit, all those different things that we might be having a different conversation. And the conversation might be I don't know if we can get out of the military right now.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah, if we didn't have all the things that we did lined up and we didn't have a good support system, we would be having a completely different conversation and a different life.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah. Right now, and I will tell you right now, with absolute certainty, that us, me and Brittany, we are the exception to the rule. Yeah, like we're fine. The the rule is very much like people come out of the military or they get kicked out of the military, or whatever happens to them, they get out of the military and they are just not prepared, and the VA continues to get gutted and like even in my separation classes, my tuition or not tuition, uh, my transition assistance program that I have to do as a requirement of getting out of the military, they talk about the VA is like the place. The VA, if you have any questions, you go to the VA, you talk to the VA, you do this with the VA, you do that with the VA. How can the VA support me? How can the VA help me if they don't have any people working there anymore? If all of their programs got cut, if there's nothing, there's no money going into the VA anymore. Like it's terrifying. And I really, really, truly feel for the people who are getting out that are maybe not in the same situation than me and you are.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Uh the last little bit of the story, um, this was actually originally reported on a couple weeks ago by ProRupublica. Uh, what we're reporting on now is the follow-up that they sent following the Democrats' letter. Uh, in that first report a couple weeks ago, the one of the VA spokespeople, uh, Peter Kasperowitz, I think I'm saying that right, um, was reached out to for comment and then accused ProPublica of quote, cherry-picking issues that are limited to a handful of sites and in many cases were worse under the Biden administration.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Way to deflect.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

So you were given the opportunity to say something meaningful about what's going on, maybe talk about like how, hey, we understand that this is something that's happening in a handful of places, etc., but this is how we're building on it. And instead, you did exactly what your your orange boss wants you to, which is you made it political. You made it about the Biden administration. I'm sure that if we were in Trump's first term, they would have blamed it on Obama somehow. Like it just this happens every fucking time where something that should not be political was politic politicized in order to uh one save face for the officials who were trying to suck Trump's little dick, uh, and two, to continue to keep us divided. Uh the last bit of this is that we have, I think, about five days. Yeah, so we're recording this on the 9th. So the VA actually has five more days to respond to the letter. The deadline set by the Democrats that submitted the original letter uh was set for August 14th. So as of right now, we have no idea what the response will be on either side. Um, if you ask me, I feel like the response from the VA is going to be more politicized bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Blaming things on the Biden administration, talking about how they're not as bad as they are, but they very clearly are. Um, but hopefully this continues to raise the issue into the public eye. Um, I really hope that ProPublica continues their reporting. For those of you who don't know, ProPublica is a free investigative journalism site. They put out some really hard-hitting stuff. Um, they are very involved in topics like this. And uh I want honestly, the only reason that I even know about any of this happening is because of ProPublica. So I'm hoping that they will then follow up after the whatever response we get and just continue to keep this relevant.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yeah, I do too.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

All right, moving on to the next topic. Um, over the last week, the Mecca Joint Defense Pact was signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, as well as Pakistan. Uh so this is coming from a lot of different sources, um, not just one source. Like the last thing we talked about was just ProPublica. This is being reported on by everybody, from Al Jazeera to the AP to Politico to everybody. Okay. Because this is a big deal. Um, so essentially, this past Friday, uh, all three of these countries signed the Mutual Defense Pact, which was then uh termed the Mecca Joint Defense Pact. Uh, this is a pretty historic move. Little is known about the pack so far. Um, we are kind of making a lot of guesses about it based on like pretty limited um publicly available press information. Okay. Uh, but it essentially seems to be a collective defense pack, um, very similar to something like NATO, um, in the terms of like an attack on one is an attack on all. Um, so like I said, very little is known about this so far, but that just kind of seems to be the guess going forward.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Oh, okay. So, I mean, why? Why, why now? Why why them? Like, why do they feel the need to do this?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

So, I'll kind of start with the why them. So, why these three countries, and then we'll kind of go into the why now.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Um, the first thing about this is that between the three countries, they each bring something uh unique and beneficial to each other. So Saudi Arabia is kind of like the big money and regional influence uh in this picture. Like they bring a lot of like that backing financially, they bring a lot of like the credibility in the region because Saudi Arabia is uh pretty much a powerhouse in the Middle East, Northern Africa region. Uh Turkey A is actually a military powerhouse in this situation. Um, their military. Is very seasoned, very good at fighting, especially in things like small conflicts and stuff like that. They also have uh excellent drone technology and defense manufacturing base. Uh, so they bring a lot of that into the deal. And then Pakistan has a very large military who is also fairly capable. Um, but more importantly, I think than anything, is a nuclear power. Um, that is something that we'll kind of get into a little bit later about why it is so scary that there's another nuclear power involved in this.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah, you say the word nuclear power and it's like, oh, that raises a red flag.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah, exactly. We'll get into that a little bit later, but the big thing here is that those are the three, that's kind of what each of them brings to the fight, really. Uh so why now? The US's illegal Iranian war has plunged already fragile alliances in the Middle East into near total deficiency. All these Gulf states have previously maintained pretty uneasy footing with both each other and Iran uh as an attempt at normalcy and relationships across the region. However, since the beginning of this illegal war, Iran has obviously, you've seen in the news, been attacking these Gulf states since the war began. Uh, and the US is less and less appealing as a potential ally. Now, the Gulf states and other middle powers uh across the world are starting to turn to themselves to avoid an over-reliance on an unincredibly unstable United States of America. Uh, and I said middle powers, so let me go ahead and just kind of explain what that is. Uh, middle powers is something anybody who kind of like follows uh geopolitics in general is starting to hear about these middle powers more and more, uh especially since the war started. But these are basically countries that have significant global and regional influence, but do not have the overwhelming military and economic power of superpowers or global powers such as like Russia, China, and the US. So when you think of middle powers, think of like the EU, um, think of even Ukraine, especially at this point. Uh, some of those smaller countries that like have that influence, but not necessarily the economic and military backing.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Oh, okay. And I guess another question I have is who are they trying to deter? Like what threats are facing these three countries that they need to come together to create like a super alliance, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

A super alliance, yeah, the the hall of super best friends. Yeah. Um, so mostly what they're trying to deter is kind of like attacks and undermining um from other countries around the world, especially within the region. Um, I can kind of break it down by country here. So Pakistan likely wants protection against India, as well as militant groups attacking them from the Afghanistan border, which has been going on forever. Uh, Saudi Arabia is looking for assurances against some of the other Gulf states, specifically the UAE, who they have historically uh been at odds with, especially recently, uh, as well as the Houthis in Yemen, which we're starting to see that conflict heat up as well, as we talked about in last week's episode.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Uh Turkey is looking for protection uh when it comes to Syria, as they've always had like a really complicated history with Syria. Uh, but all of these countries collectively um are really looking to try and carve out a place between the major belligerents in the region, uh, which is Iran, Israel, and the US.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Ugh, that's it. It's just crazy to see the US on these lists of belligerent countries.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

I mean, it's not crazy, like I understand how we got there. Um, does this mean that Saudi Arabia is becoming less dependent on the US for security? Like, have we now gotten to the point where other countries don't trust us? I mean, living here, I understand why the perception of our country has gone way down, but is that what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 25:29

I would say absolutely. I mean, there's really very few doubts in my mind. It it's something that you see in the news every day. Um, and especially as somebody who was very focused on this for two of my three deployments, um, we've really started to see that relationship kind of take a downward turn.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Okay. And is this, I mean, is this like a major thing? Like, should we be worried? What does this mean for us?

SPEAKER_01 25:51

So it is kind of hard to tell right now if it's going to be like a major thing, um, but it does definitely lend to the US's diminishing influence in both the Middle East and North Africa. Um and as for like, should we be worried? I don't really think so. Um, I think that other countries could probably join in the future. Uh, it would likely be more of the Gulf states or some of the other countries that have like a significant stake in the region.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Um, but I don't think that there's a need to be too concerned yet. However, I'm also like very much a globalist and have some bias here, so I very much agree with like international coalitions and alliances and things like that. So a little bit of bias, but from what I can see as of right now, it does not seem like there's any real cause for concern.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Okay. It's always just like a little scary whenever, you know, there's like a nuclear-armed ad to the equation, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, exactly. Um, it is interesting. So we'll talk about the nuclear piece a little bit and why that's a little scary. Um, Pakistan and India are both nuclearly nuclear armed countries. Uh, and I think I talked about it in maybe the first or second episode as well. But Israel and the region, I think that is still yet to be confirmed, but I think the world kind of knows that Israel is also a nuclear power in the region. Um, so Pakistan and India specifically have been uh in conflict for decades upon decades, a lot of border disputes along the mountainous regions on the border. Um, and even though that we have not gotten to any sort of a nuclear um point in that conflict, obviously, there is always going to be concern uh because the reality of quote pushing the big red button becomes a real possibility anytime a uh global or uh excuse me, a nuclear country joins some sort of a defense pack. Because what if something does trigger the defense pack? You know, like what if something eventually happens um and the defense pack is triggered and they expect to all retaliate? Well now you have a nuclear power involved and you could potentially um start to, you know, worry a little bit about like okay, what is this nuclear power gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Oh, okay. So, like if one of these countries actually does get attacked, what would the other two realistically be expected to do?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

So, in theory, the expectation would be retaliation. So, think of like what happened um after 9-11, what happened during World War II, kind of like that mutual agreement of like, hey, you attacked us, so now all of us are going to attack you back. Um, in practice, we don't really know because these packs are always like very up to interpretation from the members who signed. Plus, we haven't seen a whole lot of the actual text of the pact be released publicly yet.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

I was gonna say that too. I was like, well, we haven't even really seen what it is. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

So, and I think that one of the reasons they probably did that is so uh it starts to give them a little more wiggle room, really, um, because now they are uh able to kind of determine what the pact means and what means what and what triggers what, as opposed to having too much global opinion on, well, this happened and you guys have this mutual defense treaty, therefore you should retaliate. No, because it's our pact, so we're gonna determine the way that we want to react when we want to react.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Got it. Alright, now we're gonna get into Todd Blanche being confirmed as the attorney general.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 28:57

I know I have a lot to say about this. He got confirmed Saturday, this past Saturday, so yesterday, at 4 30 a.m., and it's very telling that all of the GOP's most shameful confirmations happened in the middle of the night. For those of you who do not know who he is, he is Trump's personal lawyer, turned attorney general. Um, he represented Trump in his criminal cases and is still loyal to him, as his record with the DOJ proves. Um, the attorney general represents the US government and not the president personally, so this is a major conflict of interest. I think it's also a major red flag because how are us, the American people, supposed to trust his judgment? How are we to trust the decisions he makes are for the betterment of the country and not the king? Like, is he truly gonna be acting as attorney general or just still as Trump's lawyer with a bigger title, more power, and more at stake?

SPEAKER_01 29:49

And just keep in mind, this was the same guy who during his confirmation hearing, when he was asked, uh, were was it like, were you are you Trump's personal lawyer? And he said, I am, and he goes, Well, I was now I'm attorney general.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Yeah, so I uh um we're gonna look at the Department of Justice under Todd Blanch. During his time there, 16,000 plus DOJ employees left.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Good for them.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Not including the ones that were fired. Um Todd Blanch told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference that his DOJ has fired more than 200 prosecutors and agents who worked on cases involving Trump. Why would he fire people for doing their job for any other reason than blind loyalty to Trump?

SPEAKER_01 30:35

I think you nailed it. Blind loyalty to Trump.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

I think the answer is in the question. Yeah. Um he also told NBC that Americans should be happy that President Trump is so deeply involved in DOJ matters. And he also said that if the president had nominated someone else to be attorney general, he would answer, thank you very much. I love you, sir. Oh, I love you, Daddy Twang. Literally, like, oh thank you, I love you, Papa.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

What the fuck kind of a state it is?

SPEAKER_00 31:02

I don't understand. Um in May 11th, in May 11th, learn English, girl. On May 11th of this year, news broke that President Trump's private complaints to Blanche about the illegal Iran war um leaks led to aggressive DOJ investigations into reporters and leakers.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

That's not good.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

No, it's it's really not good. Um the DOJ should just enforce the law regardless of who's president, and his record shows that this is not going to be the case while he's the attorney general.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

What's crazy about that leaker piece, the reporters and leakers and all that, um, is that there is something called the Whistleblower Protection Act.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

There is.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

And he is very blatantly like going against that. Like somebody is blowing the whistle and he's saying, I don't care what the law says, fuck you.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Yeah, I only care what what Papa says.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

Yeah. Um when he is aligned with Trump's personal interests, uh, he remains closely aligned with him to this day, even though he is not his personal lawyer anymore. He's the attorney general. Um it's really easy to ask where does loyalty to Trump end and loyalty to the institution itself begin. Um he now has a duty to the American people, but has a history of acting in Trump's best interest over America's. A senior advisor in his office, Jared Wise, encouraged rioters to kill officers during January 6th.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Yeah. And that same guy works on reviews of alleged weaponization, which will lead us into the anti-weaponization fund that is a another big issue.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Yay.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Yay. Um Blanche established a hear me out 1.776, of course.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

So fucking stupid.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Billion dollar anti-weaponization fund that would compensate, in loose quotes, victims of weaponization and lawfare following a settlement with President Trump, where Trump agreed to drop his lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns. Blanche refuses to rule out payouts to January 6th defendants who assaulted police.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Wait, wasn't this case originally dismissed? Um, but it was dismissed without prejudice, which was basically means that it could be litigated again at a future date.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yes, exactly. And now that he has been confirmed as Attorney General, I wouldn't be surprised if this continued on.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

He says now's the time to yeah. Okay, cool. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

The settlement involved Trump and his sons and the Trump organization over leaked tax information. So basically, um on June 2nd, when Blanche testified before Congress that the anti-weaponization fund will not move forward, he refuses to formalize it in writing. And he also affirms the addendum providing President Trump and his family and his company tax immunity so that they can't be investigated.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Yeah, it's super great and awesome. Um, and then there was a separate provision that restricted the IRS from those examinations from Trump's family and businesses.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

So here's what I think we do. I think we change our last name to Trump and then just stop paying our taxes.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

And then just start committing tax fraud. I know.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Ooh, committing tax fraud is actually the better way to go. Because we can make money on that one.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

It's just, and this goes back to where where do you draw the line when it comes to president and country? How does the DOJ get involved in protecting the president from IRS scrutiny?

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah, that's insane.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Yeah, like e even if it was legally structured and they did it in a legal way somehow, the optics are just insane as it is. Um, the weaponization fund was abandoned, but the IRS provision remains. And like I said a second ago, there is nothing stopping them from moving forward now that he is the attorney general.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

I I'm just at a loss for words here.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah, like I there's not a lot to say. I probably, if anybody's interested, you can just like reach out and I will send you the link to his DOJ record because there is a whole record online that shows all of the actions that he took, and majority of them were not in the favor of the country. They were in the favor to benefit Trump.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

So there's one thing, if you are his personal lawyer and you're doing things to benefit him, that makes sense. But when you are placed in these positions of power that have everything to do with the American people, why do you keep abandoning the American people for Trump? It's a very, very, very big conflict of interest, and why should people in power be able to influence and change the duties of institutions that are supposed to hold them accountable?

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Because they don't want to be held accountable. That's exactly why.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

They don't want to be held accountable, and it's just ridiculous. Um The next thing I kind of want to get into is more of a I wouldn't say a rant. I think it's a little more put together than that. Um it's basically why do we entertain Trump's behavior?

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Have we just become so complicit in his radical behavior that even once respected journalists won't even call out his blatant lies anymore? Like, would Republicans accept if a Democratic president did this? No. They prove that every day. He has completely corrupted people's brains with false messaging.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Literally the January 6th insurrection.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Yes, and while the insurrection is not something that is the point of what I'm going to say after this, it is, you know, important to bring up because there is something deeply disturbing about watching people rewite rewrite it in real time. We have an overwhelming record of what happened. Videos, photographs, first-hand testimony, injured officers, destroyed property, arrests, prosecution, hours of footage. And still, I have to this day seen some Trump loyalists and supporters insist that it was peaceful. Some have genuinely claimed the rioters were simply let in and shown around. That level of deliberate denial in the face of overwhelming evidence is not normal political disagreement. It is a conscious rejection of reality because the truth is inconvenient to a political identity, and that is the culture that he has emboldened. That is what this is about. He said in a recent interview, they aren't mad at me, they're mad at Republicans. No, sir, they are mad at you. They're mad at the standard that you created, they're mad at the culture you have spent years cultivating. They are mad because they're struggling to afford food for their families while watching the people in power live comfortably. They're mad because you continue to proudly defy the Constitution and threaten people for exercising rights you don't personally approve of. They are mad because your Doge project destroyed their jobs. They're mad because the cost of gas has climbed so high that some families are spending hundreds more every month just to get to work to live their lives. They are drowning in medical bills. They're struggling to pay their mortgages. They're watching the basic cost of existing become increasingly impossible to manage. Military spouses are angry because their partners are being sent into illegal wars with multiple deployment extensions, keeping them from their loved ones. Military members are angry because you claim to love and support them while cutting VA programs, extending deployments, and failing to provide even the most basic necessities for the people you supposedly hold in such high regard. And people are angry because they no longer recognize the country that they live in. They are angry that the damage you have helped create has emboldened some of the most hateful and despicable people among us to proudly declare their loyalty to you while openly expressing hatred towards their fellow Americans and the very people who make this beautiful melting pot of cultures we call home. That is the part that you don't seem to understand. This isn't just about Republicans, this isn't just about Democrats, it isn't just about Washington, it's about real people's lives. These are real people telling me what is hurting them: their rent, their groceries, their jobs, their families, their health care, their marriages, their careers, their sense of safety, their faith in their country. So, yes, Mr. President, they are mad at you. And you can blame Democrats, you can blame Republicans, you can blame the media, you can blame immigrants, you can blame anyone you want, but eventually you will have to reckon with the consequences of the world that you helped create. History will not be kind to you, and that false sense of adoration will eventually collide with reality. In 2028, the American people will have another opportunity to reject this, and when we do, we will still be here, still fighting, still organizing, still pushing for something better, because this country belongs to all of us, not one man, not one party, and certainly not one political movement. We will fight for change as long as it takes.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Period.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Preach, baby.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

God, it's just uh and going off of that, Republicans are even saying that the administration's messaging is tone deaf at this point. Their messaging is everything is going great. Really? Voters are still feeling high prices and struggling. His approval rating continues to drop, whether you like it or not. The facts are that it has dropped to the 30% range and has stayed there or is lowering. Presidential historians consistently have rated Trump among among among the top ten worst presidents we've had, being quoted as saying he is much more corrupt and dangerous to the Constitution than all of the others on these lists combined.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

He's he's a fucking monster, and he's lost his voters, he's lost his party, and when I say party, I don't mean MAGA, although he has lost some of the MAGA people too. But he's lost the Republican Party. And I've never really much enjoyed Republicans, um, but I don't blame them for the MAGA movement. I do not know it's really different. There are some Republicans that are still fighting to keep that sense of middle ground and moderacy and things like that. There are some even like more conservative Republicans that are still like looking at MAGA and going, what the fuck is happening?

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Yeah, because you can hold normal people can hold their conservative beliefs and not make it a big show against everybody who disagrees with them. I know some normal Republicans. I know Republicans and conservative people that are really upset with what's going on right now. People that, as Trump likes to say, have common sense. You can hold your beliefs and keep them true to you, but the second you start ripping up our constitution to make your beliefs everybody else's rule is the second that our country starts to fall apart. It's the I mean, ridiculous. I I have so much to say, but also I'm constantly left with a lack of words because people vote based on how their lives feel, not just what politicians tell them is happening. And right now, like I said, even House Republicans are saying, what are we even running on? They're running on Trump, immigration, and the culture war that they have created. The cost of living is on everyone's mind. The GOP thinks that their own messaging is tone-deaf, and our country has turned into Americans versus MAGA.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Yep. It's um it's really sad to see, and I'm really looking forward to these midterms to kind of get a sense of how we're gonna take things back. And it's not just a Democrats thing, it's how are we going to start tamping down the MAGA movement and understanding that one, the Republican Party is not MAGA. MAGA are extremists that were born out of a Tea Party and then continue to rise into the public eye. It's it's not about that, it's about taking the country back, it's about bringing back a sense of civility, one among politics, but two among each other. Uh, because it's not just in politics, it's among each other. It's about getting the military out of our fucking cities. It's about getting ICE back to where it was realistically under the Obama administrations and before, because ICE was not always like this. Immigration and customs enforcement was not always roaming the streets, killing American citizens. This is because of Trump. This is because of Trump. This is because of his administration, this is because of Christy Gnome and Stephen Miller and Donald Trump and JD Vance. And they let this happen, they like that it's happening. They have nothing to do but benefit from a division of America.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

All we want to do is survive. All I want to do is be able to walk down the street and not fear interacting with somebody because I don't want them to start spewing hate at me.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

That's honestly gonna be it. We're gonna wrap it up. I hope you enjoyed our rants and I hope you learned something about the Middle East today. I hope I don't know. I just hope you listen. If you listen, what's up, guys?

SPEAKER_01 43:42

What's up, guys? I'm so glad you're here. And thank you so much for listening. Um, as we said at the beginning, we are really overwhelmed by the amount of support that we're getting from people who aren't our family and friends. It's actually kind of cool because who are you people? Um, and we're gonna try to like going forward um add a little something, something to either beginning or the end of each podcast, just to kind of um get out of just the cycle of doing nothing but news all the time and uh just being horrendously fucking depressed.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

Super depressing. We are sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

But thank you again for listening. Um please remember if if you'd like to you know share this with your friends and your family, anybody who you think might enjoy this, subscribe. We're on Spotify, we're on YouTube, and we are on just like the social media social. On TikTok now, we're on the thread, we're on Instagram. So make sure to follow, make sure to share this with people. Um thank you guys so much again for listening, and we will see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Thank you so much. Register to vote.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Register to fucking vote midterm for coming.