Inside DHS Turmoil And A Wave Of Tragedies Among Young Creators

TALK TO ME, TEXT IT

A wave of devastating headlines sets the tone: young creators with massive followings gone too soon, one a mental health advocate whose death deepens the ache and the questions. We step back from the scroll to look for patterns beneath the shock—what relentless visibility does to fragile minds, how algorithmic pressure turns identity into performance, and why even the most hopeful captions rarely tell the full story. Grief lives in the gap between what an audience sees and what a person can carry.

From private pain to public policy, we tackle a brewing power struggle inside DHS and a major ICE leadership shakeup that could redefine deportation priorities in multiple cities. Should enforcement focus on criminal offenders with final orders, or widen the net to anyone here illegally to boost numbers? We wrestle with trade-offs that affect community trust, civil liberties, and agency identity. These choices don’t just move statistics; they shift how people feel about government, safety, and fairness.

The thread continues with a sobering Disney resort suicide update and a courtroom ruling that allows civilian clothes while keeping restraints out of camera view. Image control, fairness to a future jury, and media limits collide in a story where optics count as much as evidence in the public square. Through it all, we keep circling one hard truth: visibility shapes outcomes—from the lives we watch online to the institutions meant to serve us.

We close with something small but grounding: a question about car-cleaning routines. It’s not filler; it’s a nudge toward habits that lower the noise and steady the mind. If these stories stirred you, share the episode, leave a review, and tell us: what simple routine helps you stay balanced when the news feels heavy?

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Thanks for listening! 

Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to [e-mail] and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Support the show

Tip Jar for coffee $ - Thanks

Music by Alehandro Vodnik from Pixabay

Blog - AnAmericanist.com
X - @americanistblog

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello, good morning.
Welcome, one and all.
Let's see, what do we have onthe board today?
I started putting my storiesthat I'm going to talk about
back out on X.
So you guys can see it and readthe stories if you'd like.
If you continue, if you want tocontinue to read the story, you
can.
So a lot of these so-calledinfluencers on social media are

(00:26):
dying either by suicide, I thinkby suicide.
I know one of them for sure isby suicide.
The other one, right now,doesn't say, um kind of death it
was, but he was only 25 yearsold.
So just saying.

(00:54):
Bader, a Miami-based socialmedia star, who gave lifestyle
and financial advice to morethan 200,000 followers.
Why is a 25-year-old givingfinancial advice to people?
But maybe he's, you know, maybehe's smart at it.
TikTok and X died on October23rd.
His girlfriend Reem shared on aheartbreaking TikTok post.

(01:17):
The past few days have been thehardest few days of my entire
life, and I've never dealt withthis before.
Um, so Ben was the kindest, mostcaring, most generous person
I've ever met in my entire life.
So these people are dying, theseyoung people, and I I don't I

(01:37):
don't know what he died of.
It could have been a totalaccident, but it was suddenly.
I who knows?
I have an idea.
Only because of this other storyabout this other influencer who
died.
Uh, but hers was suicide at theage of 19.
19.
What is going on with theseyoung people on these social

(02:00):
media TikTok influencers killingthemselves?
What is that about?
I'm trying to open this articleto read.
There we go.
About this um other TikToker,19-year-old social media
sensation Iman Atianza wasdiscovered dead at her Los
Angeles home on Wednesday,according to deadline.

(02:20):
The daughter of Filipinotelevision host Kim Atin
Atianza, I can't pronounce thatname, and educator Felicia Hung
Sorry, I can't pronounce thename, had amassed a significant
following on TikTok andInstagram through her content
and advocacy on mental healthissues.
So she's out there advocating onmental health issues and then

(02:43):
she commits suicide.
According to the records fromthe Los Angeles County Medical
Examiner, the cause of death hasbeen listed as suicide by
ligature hanging.
So she hung herself.
This is so sad.
What is going on with the youngpeople like this committing
suicide?
These social media influencers.
Do they are they feelingpressure to like keep this up?

(03:03):
I don't know.
I'm not an influencer, I don'tknow what that's like, and I'm
also not 19, 25 years old eitheranymore.
All right.
We've got some infighting at theDepartment of Homeland Security.
You know, Tom Holman's kind ofbeen missing in action, or he or
he's not been out in the medialike all these other people have

(03:24):
been recently.
And I have a question for TomHolman.
Where are the 300,000 missingchildren?
So ICE leadership shakeupexposes growing DHS friction
over deportation tactics andpriorities.
So the side that Tom Holman ison is fighting with the side

(03:44):
that Christy Gnome is on aboutthe leadership in these bigger
cities on how to deport thesepeople.
A mass shakeup of U.S.
immigration and customsenforcement leadership is
underway amid growing frictioninside the Department of
Homeland Security overdeportation tactics and
priorities.
The overhaul affects ICE fieldoffices in at least eight cities

(04:08):
and will replace many seniorleaders with Border Patrol
officials, marking anunprecedented power shift inside
DHS.
And so what is happening?
Are they saying that maybe Tom'snot doing his job good enough?
So Christy Nome is coming in totake over?
I don't know.

(04:28):
Uh so making an unprecedentedpower shift inside the DHS and
exposing sharp divisions overhow far to go in ramping up
deportations.
The change, the changes arebeing driven by competing camps
inside DHS.
On one side, our border czar TomHolman and ICE Director Todd
Lyons, who have advocatedfocusing on criminal aliens and

(04:52):
those with final deportationorders.
On the other side, uh DHSSecretary Christy Gnome, senior
advisor Corey Lewandowski.
Didn't she have a lured affairwith him not too long ago?
I did not know he was still withher, being her senior advisor.
These two, these two people arestill having sex together.

(05:13):
I don't know if they're stillmarried to other people.
I don't know their situation.
Uh, but obviously she likes himand he likes her.
So she likes him enough to keephim around as her senior
advisor.
So and Border Patrol CommanderGreg Bovino, who have pushed for
a broader and more aggressiveapproach, target targeting
anyone in the U.S.
illegally to boost deportationnumbers.

(05:36):
I think I'm gonna be on ChristyGnome's side on this.
If you're here illegally, gethim out.
But I think Tom Holman is righttoo.
You should start if you havepeople you know already with
criminal, if you know them andyou know, go get them first.
I mean, really, come on.
Two senior officials describedthe mood inside DHS as tense and

(05:57):
combative.
This is not good news, y'all.
And with some ICE leaderswarning the new approach could
erode public support and blurthe line between ICE and Border
Patrol oper operations.
I agree.
Uh this is not gonna be good.
ICE started off with the worstof the worst, knowing every

(06:17):
target they were hitting.
But since Border Patrol came toLA in June, we've lost our
focus.
Going too hard too fast andlimiting and limited
prioritization.
One senior deal.
Oh, this is not good.
So I think Christy's trying tostep it up, and Tom's like, hold
on, let's go get the criminal,the worst of the criminals
first.
I changed my mind.

(06:38):
I'm gonna go with Tom Holman onthis one.
What do y'all think?
What are your thoughts on that?
So, uh, speaking of deaths andstuff, we found out.
Remember yesterday's episode, Italked about there was a third
person that died at Disney.
We found out who it was.
And yes, it was suicide.
This is what is going on withpeople?

(07:00):
Third Dead Disney World GuestID'd as aspiring NFL referee who
had moved back in with hisparents.
Now I have not read this.
I just saw the headline and Ithought we need to talk, we need
to do a follow-up on thisbecause I talked about it
yesterday.
The third Disney World guest todie this month has been pictured
days after uh the aspiring haswait has been pictured days

(07:25):
after the aspiring footballreferee reportedly jumped from
the fourth floor of a hotel.
Good heavens.
I don't understand P.
I don't understand this.
I don't understand suicide atall.
I man, you gotta be in a bad,bad place, obviously.
Matthew Alec Cohn, 28, again, ayoung person, died by suicide on

(07:49):
Thursday at the ContemporaryResort Hotel at Orlando.
Pictures on his Instagram showedthe native of nearby Winter
Garden wearing his refereeuniform, captioned with the
hashtag path to NFL.
Uh big time players make bigplays, he wrote in the caption

(08:10):
under his last post, shared inSeptember 2024, so a year ago,
showing him blowing a whistle asa player steps in the end zone.
Yeah, okay, but let's go on.
Why, why?
Um Cone was living in LosAngeles for several years and
appeared to be trying to make itas a musician.
A SoundCloud account withmatching personal details has

(08:33):
links to a number of tracks.
Moving on.
He also uh features an Instagrampost for a self-styled
alternative Christian bandcalled New Shepherds.
A second Instagram account forCone based out of Los Angeles
remains open.
After leaving LA, he brieflylived in Nashville before
records show he moved back inwith his parents in the suburbs

(08:57):
of Orlando last year.
He hadn't posted on social mediafor over a year before his
death.
Oh, bless his heart.
Last Wednesday night he checkedinto the contemporary resort
hotel and paid for a room withcash before jumping from the
12th.
Good heavens, this just breaksmy heart.
Cone, who is also a high schoollacrosse athlete, died of

(09:20):
multiple traumatic injuries.
God bless.
The death was ruled a suicide.
Yes, of course, but whoa, blesshis heart.
I don't get it.
Golly, I don't get it.
Mm-mm.
That's all it says.
It goes on to talk about theother person, the other two

(09:41):
people that died there.
Oh, that's so sad.
I don't understand what ishappening at all.
So the New York Post put out auh article that I think you
might find interesting uh aboutum why many New York City

(10:02):
Democrats will never vote forZoran Mom Donnie in their own
words.
I have not read it.
It seems like a long article.
If you would like to go read it,it is on my X-File.
But let's and hope and praythere are a lot more people like
them.
You know, people keep sayingZorani, Zoran is just uh, you
know, he's gonna be the mayor,he's gonna be the mayor, he's

(10:24):
gonna be the mayor.
Well, maybe, maybe not.
We haven't.
Let's let the voting result.
Hopefully, people in New YorkCity have not lost their minds,
but you never know.
Uh he, I mean, you got AndrewCuomo for the Democrats, or
because the Democrats arecertainly not gonna vote for
Curtis Curtis Sleewa, that's forsure.

(10:46):
Oh, also on my ex account, thejudge makes several surprising
decisions regarding CharlieKirk's suspected murderer ahead
of trial.
This is from Red State, so he'sgonna get to wear regular street
clothes, but he's still gonna beshackled and chained.
Instead of wearing an orangejumpsuit, they're gonna allow

(11:09):
him to wear street clotheswhenever he's coming into court,
but he's still gonna be shackledand chained.
But if there are cameras inthere, you cannot, you are not
gonna be allowed to see thechains and shackles.
All right, and we and the judgehas not decided yet if they're
gonna allow cameras in thecourtroom when the trial starts.

(11:32):
All right.
A Utah judge has made a fewsurprising decisions following
several requests from CharlieKirk's suspected murderer, Tyler
Robinson, ahead of his upcomingtrial during a hearing on Monday
in Provo Courthouse, uh, grantedthe defense attorney's request
to allow Robinson permission towear civilian clothes in court

(11:54):
rather than a jail jumpsuit.
However, the court ruled thatthe suspected killer will remain
shackled for the duration of hiscourt appearances.
The judge then imposed somerestrictions on the media
covering the case.
The standing decorum order willbe amended to prohibit any
visual recording or photographyof the defendant's restraints or

(12:18):
of the defendant entering orexiting the courtroom.
And that's I guess to keep umany future jury pool unbiased?
Is that the right term?
I don't know, but I don't thinkhe's I don't know what's gonna
happen with that.
We don't know when the trial ishappening yet or anything.
So those are the things today,and we need to move on to the

(12:41):
question of the day.
Okay, question of the day.
How often do you clean out yourcar and wash it?
Is it once a week?
Is it once a month?
Is it whenever it needs it?
Or is this something a setroutine that you do?
Some people have that, somepeople don't.
I'm one of those people thatdon't.
I clean it whenever I seenotice.

(13:01):
Oh, I need to clean it.
Um so, but I don't keep my carjunky either.
I, you know, I try to take allthe trash out.
If I have trash, you know, likeif I go by Starbucks and I have
a straw wrapper in the sidething of my door, I'll try, you
know, I'll take it.
I won't I won't keep a lot oftrash in my car if that you've
that and I don't really eat fastfood in my car.

(13:23):
I'll eat my lunch in my car, butthere's no trash to that.
Um, so I don't really keep a lotof trash in my car, thankfully.
Um, but I you know probably needto vacuum it out more than I do,
and probably need to wash theoutside more than I do.
So, and do you do it yourself ordo you take it somewhere and let
somebody do it?
No, I know that's a lot ofquestions.
Alright, gotta go.

(13:44):
I usually do it myself.
Alright, gotta go.
Thanks for listening.