Murder He Wrote

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with Reisent Choice Media.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Love is a responsibility because you make a commitment. Love
is that I'm here for you are as our friend.
And we were talking about her earlier, Tony Morrison said,
you know, love is a bench, and a bench is
something that no matter what, when you're tired, when you're sad,
you can sit. It's going to be right there and

(00:34):
it's got your back. And that's what love is. Love's
got your back.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Oh, the beautiful words of the poet Nikki Giovanni, who
passed away sadly this week but lived a wonderful life,
and so we wanted to open the show with that.
Welcome home, y'all. This is episode fifty seven of Native
Land Pod. Those words love is a bench that's got
your back. I want you to know Angela, and you
to know Andrew, I love you and I got your back.

(01:01):
Any thoughts on the luminary Nikki Giovanni.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Just praise as you rest in peace. She died due
to complications with lung cancer and right now I think
always how I feel about cancer is Bugget, So I
hate to see her suffer at all, and I am
so grateful for the contributions, the great contributions of the
activist input.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
Nikki Giovanni, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:25):
Just echoed that. Just an amazing human, selfless in so
many ways, but also really protective of her space, her piece,
her privacy. But through her artistic work, her poems and books,
I think revealed the whole tremendous amount about herself through

(01:46):
her through her art, and so we'll miss her, but
for generations, her work will live on. So long as
Tiffany Angela, we can stop all this book banning across
the country where they're trying to extract her words out
of schools and our children's knowledge. So but thankful.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, my favorite clip of her is her responding to
Bill Cosby. So I just got a chance to watch
that this week. We don't have time to talk about
it today, but I encourage you all to google it
because the way that she rode for young revolutionaries was
something beautiful to see and something we should all I
think reflect on. A mimic. All right, let's get into it.
What do we talk about today?

Speaker 5 (02:26):
Well, we have a lot.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
I think what has been top of mind for so
many of us is what in the hell happened right
where we record our podcast in New York. Right outside
there was a CEO of course the United Healthcare that
was shot and killed by someone. There's a suspect in
custody right now, and I.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
Hope we're going to talk about that.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Why, why people have been callous in their response, why
the healthcare system is callous?

Speaker 5 (02:51):
And where do we go from here?

Speaker 6 (02:53):
Yeah? Yeah, well I'm interested not only in that, but
the IG report that recently came came out this week
talking about the first Trump administration where they, of course
his Department of Justice blue through the guardrails and uh
wire well got the phone records, subpoena phone records, text

(03:14):
messages of members of Congress of their own administration, and
what that may foretell for the second Trump administration.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
And just to be clear, Andrew, you're talking about the
Department of Justice IG, not Instagram for those of y'all
who might confuse.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
General.

Speaker 6 (03:31):
I'm so sorry you got to tell us.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Now that these phones is speaking of more phone true,
there is also a report out that is suggesting that
if you are in text communications between your Android friends,
the Green Bubbles and your iPhone friends, the Blue Bubbles,
Blue Bubbles for Life.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
You might have some hacks coming from China.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
I want to talk very briefly about what's happened in Syria.
Right before the show, Andrew and I were saying they
never put black people on air to talk about these things.
So we'll give a brief primber on that. And why
do we care what's happening in Syria. I'll get into
that when we get started to the show. So so
happy y'all are joining us today this holiday season when
I know you could be tuning out the news, but
we give it to you straight and no chaser, in

(04:16):
a way that is digestible and informative and hopefully a
little entertaining with the shenanigans that I get to have
every week with my co host.

Speaker 6 (04:23):
So welcome home, y'all, Oh, welcome home.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
All right, what y'all want to talk about first? I
want to get into the healthcare thing, the healthcare shooting first.
Is that good with you guys?

Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, So we don't have to get into the
backstory unless you've been living under a rock at this point.
You guys all know that Brian Thompson, the CEO of
United Healthcare, was gunned down on fifty fourth Street in
New York. This is midtown Manhattan. If you've been to
New York or No New York, you know this is
a very populated area, frequented by a lot of people.

(04:59):
So I thought it was really interesting and the way
that the whole thing went down. I don't think this
story is over. I don't think we know everything, even
though there's a suspect in custody. I think more details
about this story will be coming out in the months
to come. But I like what Angela, what you pointed
out about the the callous response to all this. There

(05:25):
have been a lot of people making jokes about the murder.
Some people have said, you know, sorry, my thoughts and
prayers were denied, just like my son's medication was, which listen,
I completely understand uh that way, because for some people,
if you ever had a claim denied, it can be
an inconvenience. You know, you got to stay on the
phone longer for other That's what I was just about

(05:48):
to say. For other people is a life and death consequence.
And there was a really great piece in the New
Yorker this week that kind of broke that down. But
if we can't, I was. I was telling these guys
some things that I find interesting about the CEO, other
than he was fifty years old at the time he
was gunned down. He was under investigation he and some
other people at United Health or United Health. I keep

(06:10):
saying United health Care, but it's United Health. It was
under investigation by the DJ for accusations of insider trading.
He had sold more than fifteen million dollars worth of
company stock in February, shortly before it became public that
the DJ was investigating the company for anti trust violations,
which caused the stock to drop significantly. He was also
living apart from his spouse at the time. This is

(06:33):
according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. He and
his spouse were separated. And so you know, I'm only
offering information. I'm not suggesting anything. I just think there's
more to the story. And a lot has certainly come
out about the shooter. So a lot of strong feelings
on this on both sides. We've all dealt with the

(06:54):
healthcare system and it can be, like I said, quite
frustrating and heartbreaking. Angela. I'm curious your thoughts on this
because I think you have a unique lens one just
as somebody who's navigated the healthcare system, but also someone
who's worked on policy health care policy issues on on
Capitol Hill, and just as a thinking, feeling human being.

(07:17):
How do you feel about it all?

Speaker 5 (07:18):
Yeah, I am.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
I actually didn't really touch health care policy as much,
but I will say the way that you know, Obamacare
was supposed to help us in understanding and navigating and
making health care access more equitable, we are still struggling
with that, well into this, into this, into this, into

(07:42):
a decade after, right, and we're still navigating this, And
I think that that is really really challenging. I think
right now, even as I go through the healthcare system
with my mom, I will just say, like I wish
that people were as thoughtful about everyone else's loved ones
as they would be with their own. I think this

(08:03):
is not that different than we were just talking about
last week with Joe Biden finding the compassion to pardon
his son and Reverend Jackson saying, hey, there are a
lot of other mothers and fathers out there who need
that same compassion exercise when you're considering their pardons. I
think it's no different with doctors and nurses and medical

(08:24):
team staff who are working on these cases. Someone could
be paralyzed if you make the wrong move. Someone could
lose their life if you make the wrong move, if
you deny this claim, And I think that we really
have to think about this in a much more compassionate way.
It's not a partisan issue. Healthcare is a right, and
we've treated it like a privilege for a select few.

(08:46):
I'm eager to understand what the motivations would be of Luigi.
I can't pronounce his last name, should he?

Speaker 5 (08:52):
Should it be j? Yeah? I don't know, I pronounce it.
But what was the motivation? Yeah? What was the motivation
with him? Want?

Speaker 4 (09:02):
Desiring? If he did kill? To kill the United Healthcare CEO?
And I guess yeah, I have more a lot more
questions than I have answers. I have compassion for those
who are interfacing with this system, but I can definitely
say the answer is.

Speaker 5 (09:18):
Not blood for blood.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
You know, there are a lot of times that are
my old Testament Christian, but killing somebody ain't one of them.
I just ain't here for it, So I don't I
don't really understand the ways in which people are responding tip,
I know on the production car we were talking about
what the what the casing said, and I can't remember again,
deny is.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
The yeah, uh it said deny defend the pose And
this was the message that was found on the nine
millimeter ammunition found at the scene of the shooting that
mimics the phrase delayed, deny defend, which is commonly used
by lawyers and insurance industry critics to describe tactics used

(10:00):
to avoid paying down some of those claims. So but
I hear you, though, Angela, because the thing is, somebody
could just as passionately feel angry about people who wear fur.
You know, someone could be just as moved by woke politics.
Somebody could be just as moved by a climate change.
And you're driving an SUV. So this idea that you

(10:22):
can just go around killing people, I think is definitely
something that we should be wary about. Andrew, curious your
thoughts here with with with this whole thing.

Speaker 6 (10:32):
I think I first separate compassion for him from this
larger healthcare crisis, even though his position put him at
a you know, at a particular intersection of of of
the situation. He was also a father of two children
who now don't have a dad, and I don't know

(10:53):
the man personally. I was at one point on United
Health and so so I had thankfully it was during
my healthier years as a younger person. But I hear
really tragic and horrific stories again separting apart from this
tragic murder, but really horrific stories of people desiring or

(11:16):
needing rather being recommended by their physicians certain medications, certain treatments,
even certain procedures that are being recommended be done. And
the insurance industry, by and largest sort of tastes this
very skeptical umbudsmen like view of doctors, basically saying, oh,

(11:36):
they're just trying to overcharge, They're just trying to bill us,
They're just trying to take without giving any respect for
the fact that these folks have sworn an oath and
maybe they're keeping with their oath to save lives. And
so I really hate, I hate to see ourselves in
this place because I'll tell you, even locally, a county

(11:57):
commissioner in my city was being assized by a colleague
on the county commission because he posted something on his
social media that sympathized a little bit with the shooter,
and his colleague wrote a letter basically saying, this is
you know, inappropriate, you're a leader. This is back and forth,
but this is hitting every level of society. It's not

(12:20):
segregated to any one individual. And that's because that's how
big healthcare is. All of us have interface with it,
and so we're going through some emotions here. I do
want to talk about the alleged shooter for just a second,
which is everyone is like, you know, up in arms, like, oh,
he's such a promising young man. Someone is such a
bright future and could have been the change maker. And
I just wish journalists, and this is where I've largely

(12:42):
heard it would just take take an optimistic view of
everybody who finds themselves on the end of the accused,
take a more holistic look at the nature of their lives,
and stop either calling everybody mentally ill or that they
were a bad seed from the beginning. Show some compassion
that says, you know, everybody deserves to be looked at
in more complete ways, and not just for the worst

(13:05):
decision they made at the worst point in their lives.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
I'm so happy you said that, Andrew, because the way
that they extend themselves to certain people's humanity and completely
ignore others.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Something that strikes me about this, and I encourage people
if you can. I don't know if it's behind the
paywall or not, but the thin piece in the New
York are about this talked about things. So this is
not a dis to this piece. I actually really enjoyed
reading it. But they talked about structural violence and the
type of violence that is acceptable in this country versus

(13:40):
the type of violence who isn't that isn't. And one
of the examples they give is like, okay, well, if
you blow up a corporate jets, you know, to protest that,
you know, the one percent is responsible for all the
damage in the climate way out proportion to everybody else.

(14:00):
That's like, oh my gosh. But you can bypass all
the people who are directly impacted and even lose their
lives from climate change. Same with healthcare. You can look
at this act of violence and say, oh my god,
this man was gunned down and that is terrible, which
it absolutely is, but you can bypass the millions of
people over the years and millions, I mean to say,
millions who have lost their lives or had their lives

(14:24):
devastated because of a policy being denied or declined and
so right. And so when I was reading this, of
course I got it instantly, you know, I thought, yeah,
and I thought about it. Andrew from that perspective of
black folks get this all the time. We very well

(14:45):
understand structural violence because we have been on the receiving
end of it for so so long. And so it's
kind of like you, violence is abhorrent in an individual store,
but acceptable. It's more palatable in the data.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Right.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
So if you tell me ten thousand people in India
die today because of a flood, which is horrific, But
if you tell me one story of Sarah who lived
in India, who wanted to be a ballet dancer her
whole life, who loved cabbage patch dolls, and you know,
she dies, then it's all of a sudden right, right.
So the way that we process structural violence, I think

(15:26):
it's more of a philosophical discussion and evergreen discussion. So
I hope our listeners will have this.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
I also think it's a way of coping tiffity. I
think sometimes the massive nature of the you know, of
these larger instances or as you mentioned the statistics of it,
like what the data shows. You get to a point
where it is so inconceivable, it's so big, and in
order for your mind to cope, you almost have to

(15:54):
blanket it in this section. But the individual story you
can make room for you and I and I agree
with you. I think it's I think it's horrific. I
feel that very much so. The same way around gun violence,
I think, are you kidding me yet? Again?

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Well, that's another discuss ghost guns, you know, because he
was by a ghost gun. And how might the GOP
respond to this also precisely, and the uptick in request
for security by CEOs and other people in the C
suite who traffic in this. It's a lot of issues

(16:29):
that will arise. My brother was asking me, He's like,
you know, I wonder that this will lead to change
in healthcare, and I said, I don't believe change happens
that way. I think what it will lead to is
more security contracts UH in the private sector to better
protect again their CEOs. We got to go to a break.
But I you know, obviously, I just want to be
clear that our hearts and you know, our hearts go

(16:50):
out to his wife who survives them his children. Our
hearts equally go out to the millions of people who
have their lives devastated by a for profit healthcare system
that has not served people very well at all. So
on the other side of the break, we'll get into
why you should be very careful about who you're texting

(17:11):
and on what platform you're using to do that. So
don't go anywhere. But we right back.

Speaker 7 (17:30):
A Native landod.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
It's Genie.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
I'm in Orlando, Florida, and I just wanted to ask
a question you had mentioned on your podcast that you
posted the day before Thanksgiving, that you know y'all are
looking for what is our heritage foundation and what can
we do to grow an entity you know that can
affect change like they did, even though we don't want
to be like them. But you had said, oh, we

(17:55):
just need to get some white folks involved in I'm like,
here's I'm a white folk and I'm not going to
have any more money or any more of my time
or efforts into areas that I have done in the
past because they don't work and they're ineffective, and so
I am ready and willing to help if you know,

(18:15):
if y'all can educate me on you know what it
is that we can do. I love you guys. I
just listen all the time, and I learned something every
time I listen, and I appreciate everything that y'all do.
I know that this must be hard in this environment,
and I know that y'all are questioning whether you should
do it anymore. But it's just, oh my god, I

(18:38):
don't know what I would do without you guys. You know,
because you help, so I'm asking you to keep doing it.
And it's a huge ask, I know. So thanks so
much and for all that y'all do. I appreciate it.
Talk to you Sym.

Speaker 6 (18:53):
There are some great things out of Florida, by the way,
But you know, we always, yeah, at least Tiffany and
Leonard always want to remind us of the you know,
the Achilles that exist stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
I love her question.

Speaker 6 (19:11):
I love one of them.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I thought that was a good question. Let me
make sure I understanding it correctly. You guys correct me
if I'm wrong. But she's asking, like, what is the
version of the Heritage Foundation on the left.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
I think it was in response to episode we played
on sort of Project twenty twenty five and we talked
about the conservative infrastructure and that we needed one to
match it, and we kind of went through the history
of it, and I think she got perked by the
idea that we could you know, build something or maybe
direct people toward you know, one or so particular places.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, because I mean, I think there is infrastructure that
exists and can be built. Maybe this can be a
mini pod.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
I know we might talk about like what's happening with
the DNC chair race, but like I would argue like
Center for American FRI Progress, Black Voters Matter, or Brendan
Center for Justice, like all these organizations. But I also
heard her ask like what can she be doing? And
I you know, people ask us that a lot, and
my answers are always the same, and I feel like

(20:15):
I need to maybe devote some time for deeper thinking
because I'm always saying, well, there's GLTV efforts. You can
contribute a candidates to align with your values, even if
it's at the state legislature level, like whatever, you know,
if you give ten knowledge, you can door knock, you
can phone bank, you know. And I don't know, I
think people want a more immediate, more immediate gratification on

(20:35):
their efforts. So, Andrew, you ran for office?

Speaker 6 (20:39):
Yeah no, you, Tiffany. I have a knee jerk reaction
similar to you, which is do something like there are
things that are out here and available. But you know,
what I haven't always appreciated is that everybody isn't the
doorknock person. Everyone isn't the get out front and lead
in that way. But there is something really for you,

(20:59):
depending upon what it is, you are most interested in,
what you feel most comfortable with. And I'll make this
recommendation and it's the un sexiest of all, but I
think probably the most impactful of all, and that is
to organize right where you are. Who are your group
of friends, your circle of influence, the people who know you,
love you, trust you. But in truth, when it comes

(21:21):
down to this politics thing and this public policy thing
and what it is we're going through, we're not always
having those conversations with our friends trying to open them up.
And if you know, Angela, you and I both think
sort of reflected on like what I hated most about
the outcome is the disconnect, like how can I don't
want to be blindsided by these things? And I think

(21:44):
we would be less blindsided if we were able to
have more conversations with people who are not necessarily in
our tribe, but are part of our fam And I
don't mean just by blood, but by also relationship, friends,
co workers, who you you know, talk about everything else with,
but you won't approach how do we make things better
for all of us? And I would just say I

(22:05):
love to see more people, just sort of starting with
four folks at the house and branching out including more
and more people, because right now there's a huge disconnect
in this country and we can't win elections that way.
We've got to figure out a way to bridge. And
if it ain't bringing for people to your house, maybe
you all can think on your sides, you know, as

(22:27):
you're listening, what I could do to start to breach
some of these divides that are keeping us from winning
and creating the kind of long lasting change that I
think we deserve. And then the only other thing I
would say, because I heard her mention, I won't give
to some of the other groups because they're ineffective, And
that may be true, honestly true in your case, but

(22:48):
I would also say it's really important on the left
that we also have donors who are not, sometimes donors
who are volunteers who are not, sometimes volunteers who are
people who are willing to get in there and stick
with us, whether we win those elections or lose them,
whether we win that fight on that issue or we
lose it. Too often, the reason why our parties aren't

(23:09):
doing well and our infrastructure sucks in so many places
is because we lose something, we get tired, we break it,
and we say we need to start another thing. And
we don't always need to start another thing. Sometimes we
need to stick with the thing that is already there
and just help it to fulfill its mission. That would
be my only two.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Pieces, Angela, you have thoughts on it.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
I'm not just stick stick beside him right now in person,
so I probably am the wrong one to ask.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, And you know what, I appreciate the honesty, and
I think a lot of people feel that way. So
even that much, I think you saying that much, people
will feel seen and heard.

Speaker 6 (23:46):
For sure, for sure, for sure. Yeah, And so other
folks are seen and heard. I think about lots of
the organizing groups who are not the parties, who right
now suffer because people won't make contributions because they loop
them all in the same boat.

Speaker 5 (24:02):
That's fair.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
Those organizations are actually doing good work and could do
much better work had they had folks who were not
sometime but who were all the timey with regard to
the support for them and allow them to do that work.
Latasha Brown is obviously one of them that come to mind.
And there are a number of groups I could list
throughout the state that are not party infrastructure, but are
on the ground, grass roots and are deserving of our

(24:26):
SUPPORTI no, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
It's so frustrating, Andrew to hear you say sometimey, because
when I think of sometimey, I think of people who
are able to split their demographic in half or more
sixty forty in a direction that votes against you know,

(24:53):
most of the country's interests as we see them. I
know that interests are of course in the eyes of
the holder and are entirely subjective. But when I think
about Black people, I don't think that we're some timy
at all, especially in our body politic, because our folks
have continuously laid it all on the line, and I
think this exhaustion is a real thing, Like you know,

(25:17):
from the spiritual political, economic, economic, and mental level, Like
it has really.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
Hit our folks on every side.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
So I just I just would say, like, I'm not
someone who is prone to give up easily, and I've
definitely been in organizing mode, but I'm organizing from a
point of rage.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
You know.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
For for Jamie Harrison recently to have said, like my
term ends in February, and when it ends, I'm naming names.
It's something that I think is heart wrenching because I
remember how he went into the DNC. Jamie went into
the DNC to see real change. I mean, just like

(26:04):
the people you're talking about, Latasha, Adrian Sharpshire, April Varia,
a Sciu, like all of these folks that have dedicated
their lives to ensuring that we wouldn't be left behind,
that people without a boat, that would not be drowned
in the rising tide, you know, Like, I just I
think that it is so much bigger than that. There's

(26:26):
a place for donors, and there's a place for doorknockers,
and there's a place for all of that, all of
our work, but there's very rarely a place for our needs.
And I think that also has to really shift, Like
there needs to be a place just for listening. Right now,
we should be in a posture of hearing what people
feel like they needed that was completely ignored and has

(26:47):
been for decades, you know. So I'm wrestling with that piece.

Speaker 6 (26:50):
And I think that's what I mean by the conversation,
yeah and yeah, the whole not being blindsided so that
you start to hear, listen, and react. And maybe the
reaction is just I hear you, I see you, and
I hate that that happened. But when I talk about
the stime, I think about some of the people who
tell me, Man, I vote for you, but I ain't
voted since I ain't. You know, we could win with you, this, this,

(27:12):
that and the third, and I think, well, that's not
how we're going to ultimately win. I kind of you know,
we please believe nobody's more hurt than me about the laws.
But I still have to get up each time and
participate in the process because we're in the pursuit of
the more, not like this is it. This is judgment,

(27:33):
and once it's over, you are the win. You've lost,
and now everybody you know goes home. That's not what
it is. It, This this change that we all seek
the structures institutions that exist that contribute to our subjugation,
to our oppression, weren't built overnight. They've been sustained over centuries,

(27:55):
over centuries, that's hundreds of years, and they won't be
dismantled overnight, and so it just requires something more of us.
I understand the exhaustion. I get it. I myself experienced
exhaustion and have in the past as well. But when
we think about half the country still didn't vote. Millions
of Democrats voted in twenty twenty decided that in twenty

(28:17):
twenty four wasn't worth it. That's what I mean. That's
the some time we have to get back and figure
out how we engage, listen, and then activate.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, over ninety million people. I think as we talk about,
like you know, people falling off and this is a
discussion for another time, we were asking people to believe
in the system in a way, you know, as people
believe in the country. I think people need something to
believe in, and right now there's not a lot to

(28:50):
believe in. So before we go ask people to do anything,
I think we have to have a conversation about what
do we believe in right now? And maybe that's the
really pot Maybe that's uh yeah, okay, well maybe we'll
do that on this one or when y'all are ready.
But I think that's a conversation happen.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I like, well, this is what I do believe in.
I do believe that the country of China we have
a very adversarial but necessary relationship with and so I
and I also deeply believe in the inappropriate text that
I have sent over the years that I would not

(29:29):
want anyone else reading. So Angelier, tell me what I
need to know and what I need to do, because
I don't want any of my text message.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Well, well, first and foremost iPhone user, if you want
to continue to send whatever inappropriate text you send it to,
I'm not there's no judgment here, But whatever text you
want to send, I hope that your booth thing or
potential booth things are also iPhone users, because otherwise you
asked out.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
Probably literally unintended. If it is a green bubble, I'm
here to burst Joe bubble. Basically, you have what.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
You've been told by the FBI is that if you
are texting from an iPhone to an android or an
Android to an iPhone, your messages are compromised, and they're
also warning this is new from last week. They're warning
that What's App, Signal and Facebook Messenger also need to
have some updates. Senator Ron Wyden is now pushing for

(30:30):
telecom companies to have some stricter standards to protect the
American people. Hopefully there will be some bipartisan agreement there.
But yeah, we are We're in a situation now where
we have our chats are on Signal. Some of them disappear,
some of them don't, some of them we keep perpetually,
and if chats are ever to get out, we.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Losing every job we have a had. So we just
just to be super clear.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
And there are people at home biting fingernails because you
also would be up a creek. So yeah, I think
that the most important thing here to know is that yes,
there it was called Salt Typhoon in China, and the
Chinese government has denied any involvement with Salt Typhoon, but
that is what they're saying has compromised these cross platform communications.

(31:18):
That it's not into D encrypted unless you are an
I message user. And even though Signal is there has
some updates that are needed. I'm saying signal because I would.
I have never used Facebook Messenger, I ain't never make
there and what happens on by meta as well. Mark
zucker Berg, I need to understand what you got going on, friend,
because you really messed us up in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
I ain't forgiven you yet.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
Does this harken back at all to the snapchat conversation?
Wasn't Was it the warning from the federal government at
the time when they talked about banning it was that.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
TikTok you talk about that they were talking about.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
I'm so sorry Andrew's in here. It's you know, spreading misinformation.

Speaker 6 (31:57):
No, there was never much about correct one platform from
the all.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
He's the same. The grandfather looked all of them the same.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
I think Snaptat's parents. Is that metal.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
Which one I want to talk about one?

Speaker 1 (32:11):
That y.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
That's to be clear.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
TikTok is owned by byte Dance, which is a company
based in China, and there was.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Believe to be is believed to wholly owned by the government.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yes, well it was.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
That's what the government is alleging that it is.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
But what they I haven't heard that.

Speaker 4 (32:34):
What they've alleged that it is a platform that is
used to spy on us by China.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yes, right, it was never owned by the Chinese government,
but when it initially came out that was the big
concern that they were pulling data from us. Now the
person who owns it. I believe the CEO is from
South Korea because there was an embarrassing back and forth
between him and one of the senators who kept saying
asking about China. He was like, Senator, I'm not Chinese.
I'm not from China, so I but anyway, Yes, the

(33:02):
point is because I don't want to start speaking about
something I'm not super clear on. The point is when
you're on your phones and sending text this is always
a good idea to remember that nothing is really private,
you know, and the text don't really disappear like they
will always be accessible. But it does make me fearful,
quite honestly about what and I'm you know, I was

(33:25):
being a bit facetious about the text message I've sent.
What is really more concerning is how they're using that information.

Speaker 5 (33:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
I've talked about some of the concerns on TikTok, which
could essentially be transcend to other platforms as well. If
an adversarial nation is watching what you're searching, watching what
you're sending, learning everything about you, because that's what espionage
is now. It's more digital, and you know, you might
not care, but if this person that you're watching works

(33:55):
for the NSA, or if this person that you're watching
works for Goldman Sachs or one of our global financial institutions,
and they can knock us off the grid or learn
some information that they shouldn't, or they can tell by
your hand movements and eye movements and what you're looking
at a lot about you and they can flip you,
or they can approach you, or they can threaten you.
Or you said something inappropriate and they can you know, uh,

(34:15):
threaten or blackmail you and they're doing something right, extort you.
Thank you. Yeah, So those things are definitely something to
be concerned about.

Speaker 6 (34:23):
But I would add, oh, go ahead, and I was
just gonna say, add to your list. That also the
intelligence that's being gained about whole communities. So say black
men are communicating in certain ways, and are you see
repeated themes coming up? This is how they get to
intrude in our elections and weed out, you know, weed

(34:43):
into the into the crevices of cipher issues. Yes, and
know exactly who to talk to about those things because
they have analyzed it enough. They know exactly what we're
talking about when we're just talking amongst each other. Yeah,
I like just weaponized.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
I would be on some of that just which.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
Is a quick uh correction before we go to break.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Snapchat is not owned by Meta and thank you by
snap ink.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Thank you, thank you. I do not want to be
spreading mis information. Thank you for that real time fact check.
We gotta do, Yes, we gotta go to break. But Andrew,
if you do have insight on how I can get
access to some of those black man group chats, hell,
I would like you know, no black men, but every
black man group chat that I've tried to look at

(35:32):
is as shot somewhere in every black man group chat
I've seen. Yes, they send as shots to each other
all the time, some other yeah girl Instagram thoughts, and
they all share the things my.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Friend stupid enough to like the actual posts on i G.
And speaking of i G, we're gonna talk about anyway.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
I do all have about them looking but I used
to ask my friend's husband all the time, like, what
are you all talking about in the group chat. Finally
like you want to see and I'm just scrolling through
ashot after that.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
It rageous though.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
No, She's like, girl, you don't want to see what
they got in that group chat. I promise And she
was right and the wife, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
I just want to say, we're going to break and
we just did one kind of ig report, but on
the other side of the break, we're going to do
an actual inspector general report the conversation, so we'll be
right back.

Speaker 8 (36:40):
Hey, Native Lyndpud.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
It's Robin from Portland.

Speaker 8 (36:43):
Hey, I'm wondering what you guys think about the request
for a recount Kamala Harris's campaign. Forensic experts all over
the country are saying that the election software was compromised
since the civil litigation in Georgia found that the Allies
illegally accessed election software in twenty twenty in a multi

(37:05):
state effort to compromise the election and swing states, and
the DOJ and the FBI failed to act. So now,
election security experts are raising concern that Elon Musk weaponized
information that he collected with his superpack America Pack to
tip the scale in swing states when they created bullet
votes with just Trump's name at the top of no

(37:26):
down ballot votes. So precisely why Trump was swaying at
the end of the campaign in his rallies and saying, you'll.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
Never have to vote again.

Speaker 8 (37:39):
There's been a lot of good information out there from
people high up in the political ecosystem requesting a recount.

Speaker 5 (37:49):
What do y'all think, Chow?

Speaker 4 (37:52):
I think that I don't know what to think. I'm
telling you this right now. I go back and forth
every other day about if there was some type of interference.
I want to believe there must have been, because it
is so hard for me to fathom that Kamala Harris
lost every battleground state. And then I go back to

(38:14):
the experiences that these staffers had that has now been,
of course reported in the New York Times. By the way,
I did not leak that call. So pissed off that
that call was leaked. I'm so pissed off about it.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Can you get background on that that we were talking
about this in our group chat, and I if you,
I'm telling you, if you step away from our group
chat for five minutes, you come back and it's one
hundred messages. And I could never scroll up. But I
just saw Angela Lee call New York Times what happened.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
So I talked about this on the podcast briefly last time,
just in general terms, because I wanted to affirm their
stories and to let them know that I believed them
and their experiences. But we did a call with Kamala
Harris staffers from the campaign. People need jobs when they're leaving,
and so the call was supposed to be about how

(39:02):
like one for me somebody who I see as a
big sister, thank you for supporting her. How can I
make sure that y'all are all good? And I thought
it was gonna be a group of like ten, It
ended up being over fifty five plus staffers talking about
what they wanted to do next. And that call quickly
turned to some really big complaints, some really hurt feelings,
some rage about their experiences on the campaign, frustrated that

(39:26):
there was a lot kept away from the principal, some
really really bad experiences with the campaign manager, the deputy
or the campaign chair, the deputy campaign manager really really rough.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
And then some folks that.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
They put in place to oversee the states, particularly the
battleground states, with young, cocky white boys who weren't listening
to them, and not all of the states were. There
was a state director, for example, or LT who's a
friend in North Carolina. Some of this stuff wasn't getting
back to her. So there's a lot of really, really
bad reports. And I think what is worse than their

(40:01):
bad reports and their experiences is the fact that people
went out on a limb believing it was a safe
space and it was shared. So I was pissed off.
I said, this call should never see the light of day.
These people did not consent to be recorded. I certainly
did not consent to being recorded, and I would have
never shared what these folks were sharing without their express consent.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
So someone let the call to the New York Times.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Yeah, they recorded the zoom and shared it, and I
don't know where else they shared it. But I think
that that is one a way to quickly make enemies too,
a way to prevent us from figuring out how we
strategize together ensuring that something like this never happens again.
Which brings me back to the recount. I would like
to see a recount. I would like to understand if

(40:44):
there were any software failures, any machine failures, anything, because
I just cannot make sense of this. Something doesn't sit
right with me. I'll say out of our group group
chat tip and Andrew, you'll appreciate the person I'm gonna
say the biggest conspiracy and there are me and Latasha.

Speaker 6 (41:01):
Some feel right.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
We don't have no data on it yet, but something
don't feel right.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
So I you know I have I hope you and
Latasha are right because my rage comes from a place
that the elections ran smoothly, like we have not heard
stories of people having challenges with voting.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
There aren't.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Well tell me if I'm wrong. I was gonna say,
like there might be anecdotal stories, but by and LARSA
data does not say, you know, these seventy five thousand
votes didn't count. We did have that last time. We
had that or not last time, But in twenty sixteen
we had examples of massive votes that were missing or
not counted.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
We did.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
They've heard so many beforehand, they heard so many beforehand,
and there were a number of people who didn't get
their ballots in certain states.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
I think it was Georgia was one where they were.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Seeing they not enough though to this scale, you know, like, yes,
all those are.

Speaker 6 (41:58):
The real disenfranchisement those choosing big.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
That is the point I'm trying to make from the
people who from the eligible voters who dish open vote.
I hear what you're saying, Angela. I hear what you're saying, Andrew,
like it was the suppression that that led to death
from the years prior so that that this year right, right,
and this year, but there were not massive issues of

(42:24):
voter fraud on that scale that would have led to
the results that we saw in that in the election.
And so my rage comes from the fact that so
many people in this country saw who Donald Trump was
and decided, yes, I will vote for this man. So
I would rather Angela, you be right that there's some

(42:46):
big conspiracy that we all missed. I just don't think so.
I think to your point, Andrew, it was people who
stayed home. Again, we have to talk about what do
we believe in and give people a reasonab believer.

Speaker 6 (42:56):
Yeah, that's kind of where I hold my I don't
know of his anger, but their real disappointment is in
those of us who said this election wasn't worth showing
up for for all the whatever myriad of reasons. And
I want to know them, and I want to know
what about them can be addressed and solved. Two other observations. One,

(43:19):
the battleground states almost always all go the same way.
They almost all collapse in the same direction. It's it's
in in large part very much so, a very similar
voter across those those states. And I'm thinking Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

(43:40):
I'm missing one other that I wanted to name check. Uh,
it'll come to me in a minute. But but but
but essentially those four states almost always collapse the same way.
And what I would attribute to that is that late
deciding voters and those states that typically run just sort

(44:00):
of neck and neck with each other, lake deciding voters
also almost always break the same way. You don't usually
have late deciders all sort of sty splitting the baby.
They typically break the same way. The second observation around
the recount, which I'm not obviously opposed to. I like
to no longer delay the trauma. But if there is

(44:22):
something to be learned, we should learn it. But in
this country, the reason why it's very difficult to hack
elections is each state. In fact, each county has jurisdiction
over what equipment they use. In most states, and the
process for which days will be holiday you know, early

(44:43):
voting days, if they'll have them. States might have a
general sort of landscape of what has to happen, but counties,
the county level is where elections are run. So you
would you would there's not a database in which all
these things are going into one central hub and then
you hack that hub. You would have to literally go
into individual precincts at individual county levels for the kind

(45:06):
of scale of hacking that would be required in order
to turn you know, these kinds of national elections. That's
the frankly all that is the one that is the
one solved. That's the one thing I feel really good
about following the two thousand election coming out of Florida
was that the national trend wasn't to make everybody on

(45:27):
the same system, the same database, pouring into the same
location for a national elections to take place, because that,
to me, would have been tragic and would have I
think destroyed and completely undermined a lot of people's faith
in the election. So the decentralized nature of elections in
this country, I think is just one measure of security

(45:47):
that we can all if there is something we can
take you know some some relief in it could be
that now just want to transition really quickly, Angela, the
picking backup where you left off on these sort of
your information not being your information alone. Well, the same
DOJ that issue that morning is the same DOJ Department
of Justice who during the the Donald Trump first term

(46:11):
in office, who would not comply with its own procedures
when it saw journalist phones and email records and their
quote leak investigations, and who had the augacity to request
the record records the department to request the phone records,

(46:34):
text messages, and phone logs of forty three congressional staffers
and two Democratic House members, those House members being Adam
Shift of California Now senators shift.

Speaker 5 (46:45):
Swall sound like jam Trump shift?

Speaker 6 (46:48):
Yes, shift, that's I mean.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Shift C H H I F F T no T
no T shift.

Speaker 6 (47:00):
A ship Okay, my bad, y'all Adam Schiff, Senator Adam
Schiff uh.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
And Senator Yeah Eric.

Speaker 6 (47:10):
Kamala Harris yesterday two days ago.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Oh you know what, maybe that's right because the pastor,
Thelfonso Delfonso was temporary, so maybe she did.

Speaker 6 (47:21):
All I know is he was sworn in with the
New Jersey.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Fella two days ago, Adam Siff.

Speaker 6 (47:29):
In any regard though that that can this is alarming
to me for a couple of reasons. One, Donald Trump
and the Department of Justice. At the point that the
Department of Justice decided to subpoena the congressional staffers, these
were Republican and Democratic staffers, committee staffers, and two members

(47:49):
of Congress. That decision was made during Jeff Sessions term
as Attorney General, and Sessions had recused himself from this
and thatstigation involving Russia and the twenty sixteen Trump campaign
carter page and their ties to the state of Russia,

(48:12):
the government of Russia with regard to election interference. That
was the quote unquote investigation the Department of Justice was seeking.
Additional information was the leakage of classified information. And they
then went into the again the emails, this personal cell
phone records of these congressional staffers and the two Democratic

(48:32):
House members. What happened there was Jeff Sessions, the Attorney
General at the time, did not provide sign off because
he had recused himself from that investigation. The sign off
came from line prosecutors. So when you think about a
DOJ and you know and trusting, you know, really important
information there. These are decisions that are now being made

(48:54):
by line prosecutors who are going to be the same
you know folks under the Trump administration, with interference from
the top, who who may be given guidance y'all into
who they can tap, when they can tap what is
determined to be the nature of an investigation. And the
fact that it was done to a separate but coequal

(49:18):
branch of government is extremely alarming because this is the
same branch of government that can conduct inquiries over actions
of the executive branch. And if they now have to
look over their back to see that they can be
personally investigated by the DOJ while at the same time
investigating the executive branch, we can have a real problem

(49:41):
in this upcoming Trump administration. I think all of us
know that we don't expect everything to be on the
up and up at DJ, but we are skirting real
serious lines, not only as it relates to a separate
and co equal branch of government, but also the journalists
who whose records were taken were taken without their notice,

(50:05):
they were not informed at the time, and the private companies,
cell phone companies, the providers were forbidden from telling the
users their customers that they had given that data over
and the same is true for the congressional staffers. Those
companies could not share with their customers that their information

(50:26):
have been gathered. And y'all all just end here. This
is alarming to me because at one point these companies
had real stiff spines when it came to keeping your
information private, and now as the government continues its intrusion,
we all have to be worried about where this may lead.
And Angel, I know you have additional context for this,
giving your experience on the Hill.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
Yeah, it, well, it's not that it's just from reading
the report. I'll say that the eight reporters came from
the Washington Post, CNN, New York Times. And the one
thing that I think is also important here is, yes,
it was two Democratic members of Congress, but there were
twenty GOP staffers, twenty one Democrats and two nonpartisan staffers.

(51:07):
This matters to me for two reasons. One is, in
twenty fourteen, the Department of Justice stood up a process,
a news media policy that was to prevent something like
this from happening. And what they did between twenty seventeen
and twenty twenty when this happened, is basically overthrew that

(51:28):
entire policy. And so the Inspector General said that they
were troubled that these failures occurred just a few years
after they announced this news media policy. Additionally, they failed
to convene the News Media Review Committee to consider the
compulsory process authorization requests, which is of course what you're
talking about, where everyone has to turn over these records

(51:50):
and not notify the entities or the people whose privacy
was violated. They say in this report that it was
not politically motivated. It okay, I question that, just given
the way that Bill Barr runs and the and the
way that.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
Donald Trump runs. So this is fascinating.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
I'm eager to see what would happen under a tenure
with Patel at the Helm and others, who was.

Speaker 6 (52:18):
Also one of the people whose information was was compromised,
and he brought lawsuit against the Department of Justice and
it was thrown out by a federal judge. Well, he
does like the suit. But Angel, the reason why the
bipartisan that the non partisan district, I know you will.
I just want to just very quickly the reason why

(52:41):
it doesn't matter to me that this was supposedly non
partisan and not politically motivated, is because under the Trump administration,
it's going to be motivated by who his enemies are,
by who I think it is going to be without
regard to the to the political, and very much so
about who he and and and his folks who are
helmed there fine into the enemy and correct that that was.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
The point, right I'm I'm telling people. It wasn't just Democrats.
There are Republicans who were impected to They were just
on a staff level and to nonpartisan staff, which means
they're not political staff.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
On the hill. That's the point I'm listening to.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Well, we've already seen his vengeance happen. So cash me
tell if you guys listen to the podcast and and
you know, you know that he's with Trump's pick uh
nominee to lead the FBI, And just this week Chris
Ray has uh said he will step down from leading
the FBI. So you can see this is gonna be
quite the transition to go from someone like Chris Ray

(53:39):
to Cash Ptel, who has to first be confirmed of
course by the Senate before he can lead the FBI.
He has already shown how litigious and vengeful he can be.
His attorney has already threatened uh people. We know he
sent a letter to our good friend. A guest was

(54:00):
on Joy and Reid's show, and he sent a letter
threatening religious action to not only the guests, but to
joy Read herself. So this is the beginning, folks like,
this is what we have been talking about. And he
has already said that he will figure out ways to
go after the media criminally and civilly. So I don't

(54:23):
know what infrastructures are in place. I'd like to spend
some time actually looking at that. Outside of the constitution,
of course, but what infrastructures are in place to protect
the importance of journalism and protecting reporters of privacy, but
also outside of just people as individuals. And I think

(54:43):
more in a state of panic, we're so willing to
give up our rights. This is what happened after nine
to eleven with the Patriot Acts. You know, people were saying, Oh,
it doesn't matter, let's just give up our rights. And
I think as threats increase the United States, because they will,
and there are a lot of threats that we don't
hear about, but the threats will definitely increase with the
United States. I think that we have to be careful

(55:04):
on if should another domestic terrorist act happen, we have
to be thoughtful and careful. In the same sentiment, our sister,
Congresswoman Barbara Lee was being the sole person to vote
against just giving un limited access to declare war. She

(55:24):
stood alone. Sometimes the shee stands alone when you're on
the right side of history, and she continues to be
on the right side of history. So I'm concerned about
all this happening. I'm glad you brought it up, Angel because.

Speaker 6 (55:33):
If I just I want to say on the media piece,
the reason why I think we have to be more
alarmed there is because they are often referred to as
the fourth estate. But largely we don't know about a
lot of things that could happen without the media's ability
to get in there, get those four years, talk to
the people behind the scenes, and get stuff off the

(55:54):
record that helps to illuminate the situation. If these folks
can be chilled from being able to do their job,
this this is a direct fascist attack. You go for
the media first, so that you don't get to get
facts out into the into into the public. We don't
get to know what's going on behind the scenes. We
don't get to know the kind of encourageons the government
is increasingly taken on each and every one of our

(56:17):
individual liberties. So if they can chill the ability for
journalists to look into what they're doing, y'all, that's the
fast road to a certain place.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Well, you know, one of the things that concerns should
concern all of us, and that is terrorism, and and
you know what could happen should things land here domestically.
So we're going to go to break. On the other
side of this, I'm going to talk about what is
happening in Syria, and I'll tell you why it should matter,
and we should get to our CTAs. So don't go anywhere.

(56:51):
We'll get to all of that on the other side
of this break. We'll see you on the other side.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
A man, Well, come, well, come, well, come, well, come,
well come, welcome.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
All right, welcome back, you guys. I know you've been
hearing a lot about what's happening in Syria, and I
want to quickly just give some context for that. So
the Syrian government this month fell with astounding speed, so
quickly that it caught us Intel completely off guard. I
remember when I saw the breaking news that Damascus had fallen,

(57:26):
being really surprised by it. So aside who this, the
whole fall of the government ended a nearly half century
rule from Asade. He took over for his father in
two thousand and he's he's a doctor trained in London.
And when his after his father, he took over and
the civil war against Asad. You guys will remember the

(57:48):
Arab Spring. This was during the Obama administration, and that's
when the civil war during a side began. This is
when countries throughout the Middle East were rising up against
these authoritative regimes. So when this is what's happening, Asd
responded by torturing children. This could be kids who were
spray painting graffiti on a wall, and he gassed his

(58:10):
own people. And so you may remember in twenty eleven
seeing the imagery of children on oxygen. It was awful
to see these kids have nerve damage and react to
being gassed. Now, how was he able to do that
with the military support and the direct financial backing of
the Iranian government and the Russian government. Now this is

(58:33):
where things get a little complicated. When the uprising was happening.
These rebel groups started forming their own armed militias, and
they eventually took Aleppo in Syria. Now, it took four
years to get that back, Asad got it back by
again gassing his own people. Why do we care Because
there are some urgent and pressing questions coming out of

(58:55):
the Middle East right now, especially when the United States
is going through our own regime change, and when Trump
comes back in office, he's looking at a very different
Middle East than he did four years ago, so we
really do have to be concerned about how he might
handle this. First, the question is how might this new
regime in Syria deal with Iran? Well, why do we

(59:15):
care about that? Well, because of the Iran nuclear Deal.
This is a deal that President Obama initiated with the Iranians.
President Trump undid the deal, and so now will the
new rebels evict Iran out of Syria, same for Russians?
Or out of pragmatism, will they seek some sort of

(59:38):
compromise or some sort of working relationship with the same
people who helped kill them, because remember Iran helped US
od gas people, So how might they deal with Iran?

Speaker 7 (59:46):
Now?

Speaker 1 (59:46):
How might they deal with Russian now Iran has already
proactively said they're not trying to kill Trump. You guys
may remember a few weeks ago there was some intel
out that they were trying to assassinate Donald Trump. They
proactively the government came out and said, hey, we're not
trying to do that. Jesse. You know, they were trying
to kill Trump, allegedly according to the US Intel for
ordering the twenty twenty drone strike that killed General Sulamani.

(01:00:11):
And I remember at the time thinking this was a
big deal. This is imagine if somebody came over here
and killed our secretary of Defense. You don't go okay,
even Stevens takes these back seats were all cool. Now
they have played a long game and they're still pissed
off about that. So what will happen there? Or will
aaron race for their effort to make another nuclear bomb?

(01:00:34):
And this is a weapon that some Iranians view as
their last line of defense in this new era of vulnerability. Now,
there was a member of Congress, congress Woman Tulsi Gabbard
from Hawaii, when all this was happening. Tolfi Gabbard was
defending Aside and casting doubt on what US Intel had confirmed,

(01:00:58):
and she started going to bat for a side, but
also having some private meetings with a side. Asade has
since fled Syria and guess where he went. I'll give
you two guesses, Joe, only one Russia. He is now
in Russia. And so now that she's expressed these doubts
from April twenty seventeen, it flew in the face of

(01:01:18):
US Intel. You have an own member of your government
basically saying what you're saying is not true. So Syria
is very unstable right now. We don't know what's going
to happen. The president has the then President Trump, Donald
Trump then said there can be no dispute in the
conclusion that the US Intel has already drawn. So now

(01:01:40):
you've tapped somebody to be d and I the director
of National Intel, who was saying the opposite of what
you were saying four years ago. I would imagine at
Tolci Gabbert's Senate confirmation hearing this is something that will
and should come up. The question I would have is,
would Gabbard like to see Syria go back in the
hands of Aside? What is her recommendation for all how

(01:02:02):
all of this happens? This is something U. It is
the Shia Crest, and it matters because of geographically, if
you look at the map, there is a route that
goes from Syria or well, Iran goes through Syria then
to the Gaza straight to the Gaza Strip, and so

(01:02:26):
they're known as like the third arm of the Shia Crest.
And so this is something that we all have to
care about. One, because the Iran nuclear deal mettals. Two,
should terrorism happen, We've made some enemies and we have
to be vigilant about terrorism coming to our to our
domestic land. And three, given that Iran has been weakened

(01:02:50):
by its proxies a lot of what has happened in
the Middle East, this is a big deal. Now, I
am no expert on Middle East politics. I definitely have
been reading a lot about Middle East politics my whole
career in more recent years the rise of the Global South.
When I wanted to talk about this, I was a
little concerned because I said, I'm not really sure of
the role of Israel here and how they might capitalize

(01:03:12):
on this. And leave it to my brother Andrew to say,
well are you going to talk about it? And y'aho,
and I was like, I wasn't really clear on that,
but you are, so tell me what I'm missing in
my assessment.

Speaker 6 (01:03:20):
It is well one, thank you you thoroughly. I think
covered really the high points on this. I would just
say Israel and just side note this. Benjamin Now, who
the Prime Minister of Visual right now, happens to be
on trial, a criminal trial in Israel. So it's spending

(01:03:41):
his day hours when he's not being pulled out of
the courtroom basically trying to save his hive in avoid
jail time. But what we also know is happening and
while he is being pulled out of court a couple
of times throughout the day these last several days, is
because right now Israel is launching Jerne strikes into Israel.

(01:04:08):
They say, to weaken any potential French group in threat
that might arise against the state of Israel. Now, the groups,
all of the separate groups that came together previously, they
hadn't fighting each other and therefore they could not get
Bush Heir out aside out of office because they had

(01:04:29):
so much sectarian and territorial strife amongst each other. Syria
is a country that frankly has many countries playing directly
in its yard. Israel has interest there, Turkey has a
significant involvement there, Iran as we've already heard, and then

(01:04:52):
you have other largely Muslim states surrounding this area who
also have interests. Can imagine here in the US if
we had a bunch of different countries who had actual
interests in our country and could basically, as through their proxies,
wage their interest on their behalf on our land. That's

(01:05:12):
what they have going on there. But I will say,
over the last couple of days, if you've paid attention,
there's a lot of excitement there on in Syria, as
women are being told that they will not have to
return to the old conservative days where their attire and
their ability to work and how they show up in

(01:05:33):
society would be harshly judged and quite frankly made illegal again.
They plan, their leader plans to have a country that
is also respectful of other faiths or other religious traditions.
That would be a marked change, a marked difference from
what is happening there. But in truth, the current leadership

(01:05:56):
is right now identified by the United States as a
terrorist group. We don't know what the future US relations
will be and the incoming President has already said. When
Aside was ejected, he said that this is something that
Russia and Iran can deal with, that the United States

(01:06:17):
is going to take a back seat. Well, that's extremely problematic.
We have nine hundred US American troops on the ground
in Syria. Is not a place where we can take
our eyes off. And then, finally, what I am hopeful
won't be a continuous overreach by Israel is this bombing
that could then lead to again another generational set of

(01:06:38):
enemies against the state of Israel. I think they really
ought to take a long look at. Yes, they're security
at this moment, but more importantly, how do we put
Israel on a path to nonviolence within the region where
they can be respected by the nations that surround them
and not become the ire of of of their worst

(01:07:01):
intentions by basically creating a whole nother generation of folks, communities,
other countries, neighboring countries who find them to be to
be enemies. But we certainly watch this. It does have
US implications, major US implications. We do have an interest
in the area, and I hope Trump that will we
consider what he has said. And then, very lastly, Tolci

(01:07:22):
Gabbert's interconnection here. She basically cheerleaded Bashar Alasade, and now
she is going to be the person, if confirmed, who
provides the daily briefing book of threats to the United
States to the president. The daily she will determine what
is in that threat assessment book and what stays out

(01:07:43):
of that threat assessment book. And it worries me to
no end who she may be doing the bidding for.
I can tell you this right now. I do not
believe that her bidding ultimately at this stage is ultimately
and singularly for the United States. And if you're the
director of Intelligence here and giving permission for what gets

(01:08:05):
for the president, you better have the USA on your
mind twenty four to seven, and it better be at
the lead of your interest and not that of another nation.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
It's frightening, Angine, just really quickly to put it in
context on how you know they're looking at the new
leadership in Syria as a terrorist regime could be. I
haven't dug deep enough to see who this group is,
but just for context, they do not consider net Yahoo
and the IDF a terrorist regime. And I think we've
all seen things that happened coming out of net and

(01:08:34):
Yahoo's government, and including looking at it, the International Court
has already determined that what he is doing is morally
and legally wrong, and including the killing of children. We
always say women and children, as if men's lives don't matter.
But I want to point out how many children this

(01:08:55):
man under in his regime has murdered and they are
not designated a terrorist organization anyway. Let's get the calls
to action on that note. Yes, yes, I don't really
what you got Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
Sure, Well on Native lampid, you all know that we
value you all's voices. We value every video you send
with questions and your comments. It's so important us that
this always feels like a town hall or sometimes a
dinner at the kitchen table, and so we have opened
up the table even more with our website native lampod

(01:09:31):
dot com, where you can now submit your commentary there
anything that's going on, something you want us to pay
attention to, news reports that are happening locally for you.
Of course, we have our good friends sometimes who are
an elected office, sharing bills they're working on or proposals
they're working on. But we are opening that up to
the NLP fam as well, and we want to make

(01:09:52):
sure that we hear from you. So welcome home and
welcome home now on Native lamppod dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:09:56):
Well we're not on air.

Speaker 6 (01:09:59):
I love it. Welcome home everybody, And I just I
think my uh called action is going to be tangential
to what you just said, Angela, and that is we
had a questioner a week last week who submitted their
question using what do you call that? Yeah, the emoji image,

(01:10:21):
which you know is cool, and we got some feedback
from you all, some of it to our reactions to it,
basically saying, hey, look y'all, everybody isn't comfortable being on video.
I hope y'all don't you know, disqualify this as a
as a as a as a potential entry. And I
think you heard our various perspectives. I want to reiterate

(01:10:41):
that certainly not from my standpoint, is there a prohibition
on those. I get that everybody is incomfortable, and in
some people's instances it might be that for your job
and your well being, you can't be on camera. And
so I think we want to be open to the
myriad of ways in which you ask questions. But mostly.
I think all of our intention is is to try

(01:11:04):
to build a really safe community, and I think part
of that for us in looking at you is being
able to see you. But but but but whether you
choose to go on camera or whether you choose an emoji,
we want you to keep that that feedback questions comments,

(01:11:24):
Uh uh what do you call them?

Speaker 7 (01:11:28):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:11:28):
Yeah, I don't knowshment strategyishment, yea, all of it you said,
cuss out. I tried to use it ord like admonishments coming.
Whatever that is, keep it coming in all of its forms.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
And we heard, we've read those comments on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
I every week I say I'm gonna shout out some
of the people on YouTube, and I keep forgetting. So
I do want you all to know that we appreciate
all your feedback on YouTube, on Instagram, everywhere you leave
a comment, We consume it, we read it, we hear you,
because this is a platform for you too.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
I don't really have a political call to action, but
it is a very important and necessary one for me.
And that is I know it's the holiday season and
people are giving gifts. Okay, I just want to say
dogs are not Christmas gifts. Okay, it's like giving somebody
a two month old or two year old who's never
going to grow up. I don't care about you shaking

(01:12:19):
your head, Andrew, it's like giving somebody I know, but
I already know how you feel about pets. I do
not believe that you should give somebody a two year
old and say here's a responsibility for the next fifteen years.
You can't be telling these kids like, Okay, is your
dog and you're responsible, Like no, this is a living, breathing,
sacent being, you know, and you have to care for

(01:12:41):
this animal who loves you so much. If you're gonna
get a dog and leave them tied up outside, you
don't deserve a dog. If you're gonna get a dog
and leave them at home. And if you are getting
a dog for someone and you're prepared for that responsibility,
please go to shelters. Don't go to these breeders and
spend money. Dogs are euthanized every year. But I hate
when I see these puppies and and it's like Merry Christmas,
and it's like they end up at shelters and people

(01:13:02):
don't know how to take care of them. So if
you're gonna bring a dog in your life. It's not
a Christmas gift.

Speaker 6 (01:13:07):
If we had common cause. By the way, on this
my sister came and visited a couple of weeks ago
and bought my children a fish and a fish take
and they have been doing the feeding. But this thing
requires serious upkeep. I gotta check the water every week.
I gotta take the third of the water out put all.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
I just want to tell you guys, as we get
up on the Christmas holiday, that not only are dogs
gifts for some people, but you human beings are gifts
to me as well.

Speaker 5 (01:13:35):
So thank you guys for being the gifts you are.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
And even though Tip is manage all for sending the
puppies back to the shelter, I'm not gonna send Andrew
and Tip back to any shelter.

Speaker 6 (01:13:46):
To kick them.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
Whether they come with a bow or not, I'm going
to keep them. Whether we screaming on here or not,
we're keeping each other. We stuck together. Okay, there it
is well.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
As always, we do want to remind everyone please leave
a comment and review and subscribe to Native Lamb Pod.
We're available on all platforms and YouTube. Like I said,
we read your YouTube comments, so keep those coming new
episodes drop every Thursday. Please keep in mind we have
mini pods that drop on Monday. Not as many of
y'all watch those, so tell your friends. I don't think
more people know about them, So tell your sure mini pods.

(01:14:23):
They're short, they're quick, so please tell your friends to
be sure to tune into those. I think because we
don't clip them for social media and people. We need
to do that, but they're like quick, twenty twenty five
minute conversations on on on things on the mini pod
every Monday. Also, don't forget to follow us on social media.
We're on Instagram, all the platforms. But you know where
we're not where we need to be, you guys, Blue

(01:14:44):
Sky people can there? I don't know because I haven't.
I've been asking people. Have y'all listened to the lay
and people will say anything I post on there. People
start talking about Native Wan, and I will start tagging.

Speaker 5 (01:14:59):
Maybe on there a head Native LAMPI we are dot
bsky dot.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Social Okay, we are on Native Land. I will start
following Native Land.

Speaker 6 (01:15:08):
Yo. I need to join this thing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
Yeah, Blue Sky is where we are and we're all
to fix that. Yeah, yeah, well we will be we
will upkeep but Angelson here, I'm on there and I
post a lot on there so you guys can follow
us there anyway. Welcome home, y'all. There are six hundred
and ninety one days until mid term elections.

Speaker 5 (01:15:33):
Welcome home.

Speaker 9 (01:15:35):
Thank you for joining the Natives. Attention to what the
info and all of the latest rock gulum and cross
connected to the statements that you leave on our socials.
Thank you sincerely for the pass reason for your choice
is clear. So grateful it took the to execute roles
for serve, defend, and protect the truth even in pall.
Welcome home to all of the Natives wait, thank you,

(01:15:57):
Welcome y'all.

Speaker 6 (01:15:59):
Welcome.

Speaker 1 (01:16:09):
Native Land Pod is the production of iHeartRadio and in partnership
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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Tiffany Cross

Andrew Gillum

Angela Rye

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