WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 Hello. I girlbossed too close to the sun. But 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:08.900 stuff still happened. So what's up? Let's start 00:00:08.900 --> 00:00:12.119 with a fun fact. I want to have some fun before 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:15.039 the rest of the facts. It's a brutal one. So 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.399 let's have some fun. Just a little bit of poetry 00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:20.579 for ya. Telephones. Some people would say that 00:00:20.579 --> 00:00:22.579 telephones are useful. They let us talk to each 00:00:22.579 --> 00:00:25.460 other from a distance to be clear this is not 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:27.500 a telephone. This might be a telephone. If you're 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:29.500 watching on a phone, it is. That's how you can 00:00:29.500 --> 00:00:33.899 tell. But back in the day, in not on your phone, 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:36.719 how did we get voice from one place to another? 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:39.960 Didn't have broadband, didn't have cellular towers, 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:42.759 we used wires. But how did we get those wires 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:45.159 everywhere, and especially how did we connect 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:48.460 all of the rural households across this gargantuan 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:51.340 country? The answer is equal parts ingenious 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:55.469 and metal as hell. Barbed wire. In the late 1800s, 00:00:55.609 --> 00:00:58.490 a patent expired from Bell regarding the telephone 00:00:58.490 --> 00:01:00.250 system, and so a bunch of companies were able 00:01:00.250 --> 00:01:02.429 to come in and build out additional telephone 00:01:02.429 --> 00:01:05.549 networks. A popular thing at the time was to 00:01:05.549 --> 00:01:07.750 do a thing called a party line, where you basically 00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:10.290 have a bunch of households on a single telephone 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:12.709 line. Different ring patterns were meant for 00:01:12.709 --> 00:01:14.870 different households, so everyone's phone would 00:01:14.870 --> 00:01:16.969 ring, but if it wasn't your ring pattern, you 00:01:16.969 --> 00:01:19.450 weren't supposed to pick it up. You could, and 00:01:19.450 --> 00:01:22.560 anyone could listen to any conversation. No privacy, 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.620 but it was cheap. So that's that, but where does 00:01:24.620 --> 00:01:26.739 the barbed wire come in? Well, telephones needed 00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:29.000 telephone lines, and telephone lines required 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.120 infrastructure to put them down. Guess who already 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:35.439 had a lot of wire everywhere? Farmers. If you 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:37.060 had a bunch of pasture, if you had livestock, 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:39.140 if you had whatever you wanted to fence off your 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:41.739 land, you probably had barbed wire going all 00:01:41.739 --> 00:01:43.500 around your property, which meant that there 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:46.659 was already a network of connected wires across 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:49.980 rural America. At least, there was a lot of... 00:01:49.769 --> 00:01:52.370 wire already. They were able to reuse it. They 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:54.409 tapped into the barbed wire networks and used 00:01:54.409 --> 00:01:57.049 them as makeshift telephone lines. This was effective, 00:01:57.290 --> 00:02:00.870 cheap, and was in use all the way up to the 1970s. 00:02:01.090 --> 00:02:03.030 So that's cool, unless you had a particularly 00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:05.030 wily cow, in which case it might just like walk 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.329 through the barbed wire and fuck up your conversation. 00:02:07.810 --> 00:02:11.409 But, you know, stateside! It is day six of the 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:13.250 United States government shutdown, and there 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:15.469 does not appear to be an end in sight. As of 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:17.930 now, nearly two million federal workers are either 00:02:17.930 --> 00:02:20.569 working without pay or on unpaid leave. In a 00:02:20.569 --> 00:02:22.810 couple of weeks, we'll see the pay periods for 00:02:22.810 --> 00:02:25.310 military and federal workers come and go, and 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:27.569 that will increase the stakes of the shutdown 00:02:27.569 --> 00:02:30.069 significantly. All the while, no actual talks 00:02:30.069 --> 00:02:32.449 have been happening between the parties. Instead, 00:02:32.710 --> 00:02:35.870 our leadership is currently in a meme war, in 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:37.870 which the president is tweeting racist memes 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:40.189 about the leaders of the Democratic Party. Trump's 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:42.629 only attempts to negotiate have been to threaten, 00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:45.009 quote, irreversible cuts to federal spending 00:02:45.009 --> 00:02:48.030 and federal employees. He has also frozen $28 00:02:48.030 --> 00:02:50.370 billion in funding that was supposed to go to 00:02:50.370 --> 00:02:52.669 Democrat -run states for things like infrastructure 00:02:52.669 --> 00:02:54.650 and public transit. He says he's going to keep 00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:56.949 doing this until Democrats fold and vote for 00:02:56.949 --> 00:02:59.250 the Republican bill that has no Democrat concessions, 00:02:59.750 --> 00:03:01.949 which is not how anything is supposed to work. 00:03:02.150 --> 00:03:05.919 Very abuser -coded, but we knew that. Trump and 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.080 his allies are trying to push that the Democrats 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.020 have shut down the government because they want 00:03:10.020 --> 00:03:13.060 to, quote, give health care to illegal aliens. 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:15.800 And I want to be clear, that is nonsense. I'm 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:17.539 not out here trying to defend the Democrats. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:20.219 They've got their own problems, but they're not 00:03:20.219 --> 00:03:22.280 the ones who are unilaterally in power right 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.439 now. And to say that their goal is to give illegal 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.580 immigrants health care is whack. They don't even 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:31.310 want to give U .S. citizens health care. They're 00:03:31.310 --> 00:03:35.930 asking for not wildly increasing premiums on 00:03:35.930 --> 00:03:38.169 private health insurance that already exists. 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:39.969 And the argument that they're trying to give 00:03:39.969 --> 00:03:42.949 illegal immigrants healthcare is based on completely 00:03:42.949 --> 00:03:45.930 nothing. It is a lie. They point to legislation 00:03:45.930 --> 00:03:47.889 that they hope you won't read because that's 00:03:47.889 --> 00:03:50.719 not what it says. This course of action, the 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:53.379 threatening cuts, the freezing funding, the lying 00:03:53.379 --> 00:03:56.500 about what's going on, is so much that even some 00:03:56.500 --> 00:03:59.219 Republican officials are quietly expressing their 00:03:59.219 --> 00:04:02.780 concerns about the precedents being set. If only 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:05.060 they would be a bit more loud about their concerns 00:04:05.060 --> 00:04:07.819 instead of being cowards. As of now, it's a waiting 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:09.560 game. Both parties think that they are currently 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:11.419 coming out on top and it's just a matter of which 00:04:11.419 --> 00:04:13.680 party is going to buckle first. It could be a 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:15.969 while. Let's talk about if we are or are not 00:04:15.969 --> 00:04:18.509 at war. A couple episodes ago, I asked the question, 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:21.250 are we at war? And I'm very glad that I can finally 00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:23.430 give you an update to that answer. The answer 00:04:23.430 --> 00:04:26.009 to the question of are we at war has changed 00:04:26.009 --> 00:04:29.649 from sort of yes, but kind of no, to kind of 00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:32.339 no, but sort of yes. The White House has informed 00:04:32.339 --> 00:04:34.720 Congress that the United States is now engaged 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.160 in a, quote, non -international armed conflict 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.899 with drug cartels. This is what the White House 00:04:40.899 --> 00:04:43.560 is using as justification for the bombings on 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:46.480 civilian vessels in the Caribbean by the U .S. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:48.759 military. We've done that four times now. We've 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:51.240 killed at least 17 people. And the United States 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:54.480 has not produced a shred of evidence to support 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:57.300 their claims that these people were narco -terrorists. 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:00.040 And even if they were, that's supposed to fall 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:03.180 to the Coast Guard. Not the US military. But 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:05.300 that doesn't matter. If you are of the age that 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:07.699 you should schedule your prostate exam, you might 00:05:07.699 --> 00:05:11.439 recognize the term non -international armed conflict. 00:05:11.740 --> 00:05:14.560 That is the same thing that George W. Bush used 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:17.240 to label al -Qaeda, without having to actually 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:19.339 formally declare war. The difference being that 00:05:19.339 --> 00:05:21.879 back then, Congress did give approval for use 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.160 of military force against designated targets 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:27.899 from that statement. In this case, both Democrats 00:05:27.899 --> 00:05:29.759 and Republicans have gone to the Pentagon being 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.290 like, hey, what? The fuck, actually, can we get 00:05:32.290 --> 00:05:35.470 like a legal reason for these strikes? To which 00:05:35.470 --> 00:05:38.230 the Pentagon said, suck it. Which is great for 00:05:38.230 --> 00:05:40.370 international relations. The United States president 00:05:40.370 --> 00:05:42.629 cannot unilaterally declare war per the U .S. 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:45.410 Constitution. That hasn't stopped this administration 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:47.550 yet. We shouldn't expect this administration 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:49.149 to follow the law. We should expect them to continue 00:05:49.149 --> 00:05:51.149 doing what they're doing, which is break the 00:05:51.149 --> 00:05:52.930 law as much as they can until they get a little 00:05:52.930 --> 00:05:55.230 bit of pushback and then break a different law 00:05:55.230 --> 00:05:57.189 while they deal with that one. And unfortunately, 00:05:57.730 --> 00:05:59.810 when they break the law, in some cases that results 00:05:59.810 --> 00:06:03.199 in murdering foreign civilians. The United States 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.779 government is currently trying very hard to manufacture 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:09.720 consent to get support to bomb any target that 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:13.560 someone in the administration deems dangerous. 00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:17.079 And being the state that arbitrarily bombs random 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:20.060 foreign vessels, claiming that they are evil, 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:23.000 is not a good state to be. We don't have the 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:27.000 option to unbomb those boats, but we sure as 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.000 hell can bomb them. But why target foreign nationals 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.819 when we've got so many nationals domestically? 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:35.079 In the early hours of the night on September 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:38.639 30th, 2025, the United States government unleashed 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:42.120 a federal agent raid on a residential apartment 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:44.920 building in Chicago. When I say raid, I mean 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:48.060 it. Masked federal agents rappelled from Black 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:50.639 Hawk helicopters onto the top of the apartment 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:52.860 building while others stormed in from the streets. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:55.600 They indiscriminately ripped people from their 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:58.180 homes, zip -tied them, dragged them out in the 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:00.439 middle of the night. They separated people from 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:02.759 their children, zip -tying children, in some 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:06.660 cases naked children taken from their beds, separated 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:08.699 from their parents, and zip -tied in the street. 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:12.439 Everyone. Citizen or not. Not that that's an 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:15.779 acceptable way to treat anyone of any status. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.720 The federal government claims that this apartment 00:07:17.720 --> 00:07:20.540 building had some illegal immigrants in it, which 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:23.189 was their justification for - doing that. They 00:07:23.189 --> 00:07:25.389 turned around and boasted by posting on social 00:07:25.389 --> 00:07:28.129 media a dramatic video about how successful this 00:07:28.129 --> 00:07:31.269 operation was, boasting that they got two people 00:07:31.269 --> 00:07:34.569 who are suspected gang members. I'm going to 00:07:34.569 --> 00:07:36.889 read you an excerpt from reporting from a local 00:07:36.889 --> 00:07:40.569 Chicago public radio station. This is from WBEZ. 00:07:41.329 --> 00:07:44.610 Roger Johnson, 67, is one of many residents who 00:07:44.610 --> 00:07:47.410 were detained by federal agents during the South 00:07:47.410 --> 00:07:51.019 Shore raid. A U .S. citizen, he said agents broke 00:07:51.019 --> 00:07:53.620 through his door and dragged him out in zip ties. 00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:56.199 Johnson said he was left tied up outside the 00:07:56.199 --> 00:07:58.620 building for nearly three hours before agents 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:02.120 finally let him go. Quote, I asked agents why 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:04.259 they were holding me if I was an American citizen 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:06.639 and they said I had to wait until they looked 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:09.779 me up. I asked if they had a warrant and I asked 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.680 for a lawyer. They never brought one. When residents 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:14.300 went back to their apartments, they found that 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:17.100 their property was strewn about, missing or destroyed. 00:08:17.310 --> 00:08:19.230 There's reports that the building was in disrepair 00:08:19.230 --> 00:08:21.209 to begin with, but residents went back and found 00:08:21.209 --> 00:08:24.050 their personal belongings destroyed. This was 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:26.149 the federal government sending their goons in 00:08:26.149 --> 00:08:28.410 in the middle of the night to raid a residential 00:08:28.410 --> 00:08:31.209 building in a city that voted against the current 00:08:31.209 --> 00:08:34.870 administration. This is a gargantuan and indisputable 00:08:34.870 --> 00:08:38.029 violation of civil rights. And I hope that each 00:08:38.029 --> 00:08:40.090 and every one of these people get a multi -million 00:08:40.090 --> 00:08:42.309 dollar payout. This is not the last time this 00:08:42.309 --> 00:08:44.850 is going to happen, and it is a miracle that 00:08:44.850 --> 00:08:46.639 nobody was killed. I want to note that there 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:48.799 are also suspicious circumstances surrounding 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.440 a real estate dealing with this building and 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:53.899 an investigation from the Fed of this building 00:08:53.899 --> 00:08:56.600 just a few weeks before this raid. I am waiting 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:58.899 to get more information on this as this information 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:01.580 is coming out. I've linked to an early article 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:03.860 researching this in my newsletter. The last thing 00:09:03.860 --> 00:09:06.639 about ICE, they are also working real hard to 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:08.960 increase their digital surveillance nationwide. 00:09:09.230 --> 00:09:11.090 They're working with tech companies to find ways 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:13.049 to digitally track you everywhere, who you are, 00:09:13.269 --> 00:09:15.509 who you talk to, what you do. And Apple just 00:09:15.509 --> 00:09:17.570 pulled IceBlock, an app in the App Store that 00:09:17.570 --> 00:09:20.090 allowed people to say, hey, there's ice activity 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:22.370 in these different areas. A thing that we're 00:09:22.370 --> 00:09:25.289 allowed to do. But Apple, and specifically Tim 00:09:25.289 --> 00:09:27.730 Cook, are fucking cowards. Thank you so much 00:09:27.730 --> 00:09:29.590 for being here, dear listener. I'm humbled that 00:09:29.590 --> 00:09:31.289 you would spend this time with me. If you want 00:09:31.289 --> 00:09:33.509 to help me out, sharing my content is always 00:09:33.509 --> 00:09:35.950 extremely helpful. Liking, comment, subscribe, 00:09:36.250 --> 00:09:38.090 all that good stuff. It's great. You can also 00:09:38.090 --> 00:09:40.929 head to isupport .dev, where you'll find links 00:09:40.929 --> 00:09:44.330 to more ways to support me. Thank you. Let's 00:09:44.330 --> 00:09:47.309 move on. Elsewhere! I'm gonna start by talking 00:09:47.309 --> 00:09:49.289 about Cash Patel, who's a US person, but I promise 00:09:49.289 --> 00:09:52.090 this is elsewhere. Cash Patel has a new challenge 00:09:52.090 --> 00:09:54.360 coin, and it's awful. If you don't know what 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.240 a challenge coin is, it's like a commemorative 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:59.259 coin... thing. It's a thing in the US government, 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:01.379 and probably elsewhere. But Cash Patel made a 00:10:01.379 --> 00:10:03.460 challenge coin, and it looks like this, and it's 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:05.360 the worst. But that makes sense, because he's 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.019 the worst. Anyway, he went to New Zealand. I'm 00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:10.059 sorry, New Zealand. He went to New Zealand, and 00:10:10.059 --> 00:10:11.960 he presented his counterparts in New Zealand, 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.440 in their, like, intelligence agency, with a display 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:17.299 for his challenge coin. This display included 00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:20.330 multiple 3D -printed pistols, which were found 00:10:20.330 --> 00:10:23.149 to be possibly made operable with modifications. 00:10:23.450 --> 00:10:25.769 Pistols in New Zealand are heavily regulated, 00:10:25.970 --> 00:10:28.870 and if they can even be modified to be operational, 00:10:29.289 --> 00:10:31.009 they're illegal, without permits and such. And 00:10:31.009 --> 00:10:33.610 so they had to take the pistols and destroy them. 00:10:33.789 --> 00:10:37.090 So he brought an illegal gift to show off his 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:39.789 awful fucking challenge coin. But why was he 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:43.289 in New Zealand? It's because the United States 00:10:43.289 --> 00:10:46.090 has opened an FBI office in New Zealand that 00:10:46.090 --> 00:10:48.750 reports to Washington. and he was there for the 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:50.870 opening of that office. And it was a secret. 00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:53.289 Like, literally, it wasn't supposed to come out 00:10:53.289 --> 00:10:55.370 that he was in New Zealand until after he had 00:10:55.370 --> 00:10:58.350 returned. But yeah, there's been an FBI presence 00:10:58.350 --> 00:11:00.929 in New Zealand for a while, but it was sort of 00:11:00.929 --> 00:11:03.470 like an oversight thing that worked with Australia 00:11:03.470 --> 00:11:06.929 and reported to Five Eyes stuff. Largely, there's 00:11:06.929 --> 00:11:09.970 now a direct FBI office in New Zealand. Welcome 00:11:09.970 --> 00:11:13.409 to the fun, y 'all. In Gaza, there is just a 00:11:13.409 --> 00:11:15.580 shred of hope. So the United States has proposed 00:11:15.580 --> 00:11:19.539 a 20 point plan to end the assault on Gaza by 00:11:19.539 --> 00:11:23.899 Israel and help to alleviate the incredible levels 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:26.220 of human suffering that Israel has inflicted 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.340 on the people of Gaza. At time of recording, 00:11:28.659 --> 00:11:32.980 nearly 2 million of the 2 .2 million people living 00:11:32.980 --> 00:11:36.120 in Gaza have been displaced. And estimates say 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:39.659 that 2 .15 million of the 2 .2 million people 00:11:39.659 --> 00:11:43.220 in Gaza are facing a hunger crisis. None of this 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:45.990 had to happen. Just wanted to say that. So Trump 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:48.110 is tired of dealing with this and he's getting 00:11:48.110 --> 00:11:50.509 increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu. He has 00:11:50.509 --> 00:11:53.190 proposed a 20 point plan and Hamas has agreed 00:11:53.190 --> 00:11:56.629 to some of the plan. Arab nations have also been 00:11:56.629 --> 00:12:00.450 supportive of some of the plan. The plan is pretty 00:12:00.450 --> 00:12:03.450 shitty for Palestine in general. And so they're 00:12:03.450 --> 00:12:05.870 like, look, we're happy and we're looking forward 00:12:05.870 --> 00:12:08.629 to finding a path towards peace. But you can't 00:12:08.629 --> 00:12:11.289 you can't be just telling us that we can't exist. 00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:13.159 The United States proposal essentially is like, 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:15.860 yeah, it'll all end, but also Palestine needs 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:19.419 to be completely disarmed and under the purview 00:12:19.419 --> 00:12:22.159 of a neutral board and so on and so forth. And 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:25.039 Palestinians are like, hey, we deserve our country. 00:12:26.019 --> 00:12:28.879 That you took from us. So conversations are now 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.559 happening. Israel has still bombed Gaza even 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:34.000 after the ceasefire discussions began, because 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:35.879 of course. But I just want to note here that 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:38.460 the world has seen what's happened. Internationally, 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:41.220 there have been huge protests, millions of people 00:12:41.220 --> 00:12:44.340 taking to the streets, even just from the flotilla 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:47.580 getting intercepted by Israel. Polls are showing 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:49.700 that sentiment towards Israel among American 00:12:49.700 --> 00:12:52.960 citizens is rapidly changing. It used to be that 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:57.299 Israel had an iron grip on public sentiment in 00:12:57.299 --> 00:12:59.279 America. If you said anything bad about them, 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:01.470 the worst you would get would be people saying, 00:13:01.549 --> 00:13:03.230 oh, well, you know, it's just so complicated. 00:13:03.649 --> 00:13:05.169 I guess what I'm trying to say is it's gotten 00:13:05.169 --> 00:13:07.570 a lot less complicated for a lot more people. 00:13:07.970 --> 00:13:11.509 Anyway, Japan's woke. Liberals rejoice. This 00:13:11.509 --> 00:13:12.850 woman's probably going to be the next prime minister 00:13:12.850 --> 00:13:16.669 of Japan for the Liberal Democrat Party. She's 00:13:16.669 --> 00:13:19.029 super fucking conservative. So for international 00:13:19.029 --> 00:13:22.389 viewers in the US, the word liberal has been 00:13:22.389 --> 00:13:26.190 poisoned to mean, like, progressive slash leftist 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:28.440 somehow. The closest thing that we have to a 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:31.620 progressive party is the liberals, so the liberal 00:13:31.620 --> 00:13:33.620 democratic party being conservative is funny. 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:36.179 So who is it? Let's talk about Sanae Takeiichi. 00:13:36.419 --> 00:13:39.559 Takeiichi is a woman in a very male -dominated 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:43.019 party that is indisputable. Japan has a very 00:13:43.019 --> 00:13:45.700 different set of gender norms than even the US 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:48.340 and UK. The gaps are even more significant. And 00:13:48.340 --> 00:13:49.639 so while it's significant that she's a woman 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:51.000 that's gonna be leading this party for the first 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:53.409 time, she's still deeply conservative. She's 00:13:53.409 --> 00:13:55.250 strongly anti -queer and not particularly good 00:13:55.250 --> 00:13:57.730 for women's rights. She's loudly against giving 00:13:57.730 --> 00:14:00.049 women the right to keep their maiden name after 00:14:00.049 --> 00:14:03.149 marriage. But largely, she's a conservative populist. 00:14:03.529 --> 00:14:06.230 That's her platform, is conservative populism. 00:14:06.710 --> 00:14:08.429 And it shouldn't be surprising at this point. 00:14:08.490 --> 00:14:10.570 This is kind of happening everywhere. Young people 00:14:10.570 --> 00:14:12.429 in Japan are becoming disillusioned with the 00:14:12.429 --> 00:14:14.610 status quo, and smooth -talking populists on 00:14:14.610 --> 00:14:17.009 the internet are convincing them to shift right. 00:14:17.129 --> 00:14:19.409 It is the same thing that's happening in Brazil 00:14:19.409 --> 00:14:23.450 and the US and the UK and France and Germany 00:14:23.450 --> 00:14:27.429 in a lot of places. So the Liberal Democrat Party 00:14:27.429 --> 00:14:30.049 in Japan has recently lost their stranglehold 00:14:30.049 --> 00:14:32.769 on the politics there. They had a majority and 00:14:32.769 --> 00:14:34.730 they lost it recently. So now they have to actually 00:14:34.730 --> 00:14:36.570 form a coalition before they can just choose 00:14:36.570 --> 00:14:38.649 the prime minister. And presumably they are running 00:14:38.649 --> 00:14:41.230 Takeichi because they want to take away from 00:14:41.230 --> 00:14:44.129 the growing far -right populism, like the very, 00:14:44.429 --> 00:14:46.490 very far -right. A new party has sprung up recently 00:14:46.490 --> 00:14:48.690 and is getting traction because of, again, the 00:14:48.690 --> 00:14:51.450 online conservatism, and I think they're trying 00:14:51.450 --> 00:14:55.110 to undercut that, essentially. But still, Japan's 00:14:55.110 --> 00:14:56.909 looking towards a new prime minister that's going 00:14:56.909 --> 00:15:01.450 to be very right -wing. The woman idolizes Margaret 00:15:01.450 --> 00:15:03.870 Thatcher. We'll leave it at that. Technology! 00:15:04.269 --> 00:15:07.450 The time has finally come. It's here. Everything 00:15:07.450 --> 00:15:09.110 that you've done, all of the work that you've 00:15:09.110 --> 00:15:12.580 been putting in, human existence. every thought, 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:16.860 every moment has built to this point. PayPal 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:19.700 and Venmo can now send money to each other. Yep, 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.519 it took for fucking ever, but PayPal and Venmo 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:24.960 can now actually send money back and forth to 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:27.139 each other. Venmo is owned by PayPal. It's kind 00:15:27.139 --> 00:15:29.000 of shocking it took this long. Now again for 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:30.399 international viewers, if you're watching this 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.179 and you're like, why is that important? What? 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:35.129 Or if you're wondering why the US has like a 00:15:35.129 --> 00:15:37.210 trillion different payment apps, or why we're 00:15:37.210 --> 00:15:39.370 just weird about money in general, it's because 00:15:39.370 --> 00:15:42.230 there's money to be made in moving money. We 00:15:42.230 --> 00:15:45.330 only have a viable consumer -grade money -moving 00:15:45.330 --> 00:15:47.730 system provided by our government that operates 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:51.059 for free, like most of the world does. Instead, 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.720 we have a bunch of private companies that sell 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:56.360 the service of moving money for a cost. That 00:15:56.360 --> 00:15:58.600 cost may be paid by the sender or the receiver, 00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:01.360 or is eaten by a bank and then turned into bank 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:03.600 fees or something, but there's always a cost 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.620 they just try to hide it from you. So yeah, if 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:07.820 you use Venmo slash PayPal, you'll be able to 00:16:07.820 --> 00:16:10.759 Venmo slash PayPal people cross, cross thing. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.519 Worldwide, that's kind of neat. Moving on. Do 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:20.100 you have eggs? No? Give me your skin. For science. 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:22.679 Scientists got weird with it. They have worked 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:26.120 on a new fertility treatment that uses skin cells 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:28.799 to produce human eggs. Let's say that you are 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:30.379 struggling with fertility. Let's say you've got 00:16:30.379 --> 00:16:34.820 eggs and they're not cracking, so to speak. I 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:36.320 don't know if that made any sense. You got eggs 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:38.440 and they ain't working. Here's the idea. Scientists 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:41.600 take egg and they yank the nucleus out of the 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.720 cell. We're talking about biology. Then they 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:45.679 take your skin cell and they take the nucleus 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:48.909 out of a skin cell and Put it in the egg cell. 00:16:49.230 --> 00:16:51.269 It's like threading a needle, except for instead 00:16:51.269 --> 00:16:54.389 of thread, it's minuscule soft tissue. And instead 00:16:54.389 --> 00:16:57.450 of a needle, it's also minuscule soft tissue. 00:16:57.710 --> 00:17:00.250 The idea here is to empower people who otherwise 00:17:00.250 --> 00:17:02.950 can't produce genetic offspring to produce genetic 00:17:02.950 --> 00:17:06.609 offspring. That's pretty fucking cool. This is 00:17:06.609 --> 00:17:10.809 also hyper experimental. So for one, it's kind 00:17:10.809 --> 00:17:13.250 of dubious. It brushes up against cloning technology. 00:17:13.329 --> 00:17:15.890 So we're going to set all of that aside and just 00:17:15.890 --> 00:17:18.740 talk about what it could possibly do, because 00:17:18.740 --> 00:17:21.380 it could be a potential future treatment for 00:17:21.380 --> 00:17:25.059 infertility. It also could be a future way for 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:27.440 people who do not have the ability to produce 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:30.480 offspring themselves to have genetically related 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:33.160 children. So like if you are a same -sex couple, 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:36.579 for example. Now, that is nowhere near reality. 00:17:36.859 --> 00:17:38.980 I want to be super clear. According to the people 00:17:38.980 --> 00:17:40.779 involved in this kind of research, they're saying 00:17:40.779 --> 00:17:44.029 this is like... minimum 10 years off and that 00:17:44.029 --> 00:17:46.650 does not even include legality and discussions 00:17:46.650 --> 00:17:49.069 and approval and stuff like that. The embryos 00:17:49.069 --> 00:17:51.930 that they were able to cultivate existed, but 00:17:51.930 --> 00:17:54.289 none of them were like viable and none of them 00:17:54.289 --> 00:17:57.170 were kept growing past like six days. But like 00:17:57.170 --> 00:18:00.829 the proof is there. The concept is there. And 00:18:00.829 --> 00:18:02.569 fertility treatment is just one of those things 00:18:02.569 --> 00:18:04.970 that I think is really fucking cool because it's 00:18:04.970 --> 00:18:07.049 a thing that ruins so many people's lives. Like 00:18:07.049 --> 00:18:09.069 I don't have kids and don't want kids, but I 00:18:09.069 --> 00:18:11.640 know that there are people who really do. And 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:16.740 I want them to have that. So that's cool. Anyway, 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:19.339 give me your skin. Lightning round! A New York 00:18:19.339 --> 00:18:21.420 City apartment building partially collapsed as 00:18:21.420 --> 00:18:24.039 a chimney just crumbled to the ground, leaving 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:26.279 a huge pile of rubble in the street. Leaders 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:29.539 of a church in Florida who had a mansion had 00:18:29.539 --> 00:18:31.480 their mansion raided in which federal agents 00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:35.700 found 57, quote, forced laborers who were working 00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:38.450 the mansion. Some would call that slaves. A blizzard 00:18:38.450 --> 00:18:40.789 at Mount Everest has trapped hundreds of hikers 00:18:40.789 --> 00:18:43.029 on the mountain. And finally for today, the head 00:18:43.029 --> 00:18:46.190 of a major U .S. beef producer has warned that 00:18:46.190 --> 00:18:49.309 U .S. beef is not producing enough beef for the 00:18:49.309 --> 00:18:51.410 U .S. Apparently we're too hungry for protein, 00:18:51.690 --> 00:18:54.029 and with the tariffs and everything, there's 00:18:54.029 --> 00:18:55.890 just not enough beef, which is why it's expensive. 00:18:56.250 --> 00:18:57.849 I guess the point I'm trying to make here is, 00:18:57.910 --> 00:18:59.630 where's the beef? Thank you so much for listening 00:18:59.630 --> 00:19:01.509 to today's episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. 00:19:01.710 --> 00:19:04.650 Head to SKH .News for sources, bonus content, 00:19:04.869 --> 00:19:08.640 and a map with a location. of the beef. My name 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:10.400 is Endeavorance. We'll talk again soon. Take 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:11.900 care and be well.