WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 Welcome to Mediology Matters. Wow, you know, 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:04.299 you sent over some really heavy stuff this time. 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:07.280 These events you pointed out, they really make 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:11.060 you think about the foundations of American governance. 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:13.740 You know, so I think we got to get right into 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.019 it and unpack what's going on here. Yeah, definitely. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.559 I mean, there's been a ton of buzz, a lot of 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.399 discussion and debate swirling around. This day, 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:25.899 March 15th, 2025, Black Saturday, some are even 00:00:25.899 --> 00:00:27.739 calling it. It's pretty intense. They're saying 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:30.800 this is it. This is like the day American constitutional 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:33.579 democracy started to, well, maybe crumble. It 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:35.200 seems like the heart of it all, you know, what 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:37.479 everyone's really grappling with is this. The 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:40.240 president openly defying a federal court order. 00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:42.979 like straight up ignoring it. And then, and this 00:00:42.979 --> 00:00:45.939 is the crazy part, there were no immediate consequences. 00:00:46.619 --> 00:00:48.140 Like. Exactly. We're going to break it all down. 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:50.259 We'll get into the specifics of what went down, 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:51.820 you know, the defiance, the arguments people 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.939 are making about it and why some folks are convinced 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:57.740 this was like a seismic shift in power in the 00:00:57.740 --> 00:01:00.240 U .S. government. We'll also talk about how we 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:02.679 even got to this point and what this might mean 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:05.719 in the long run. OK, so ground zero. A federal 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:08.420 judge says jump and the White House says no. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:11.659 Walk me through what actually happened. All right 00:01:11.659 --> 00:01:14.439 So a federal judge issued a ruling right crystal 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:16.900 clear instructions to the White House and then 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:19.739 boom in a move that many are calling well unprecedented 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:23.420 the executive branch just Ignored it flat -out 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:25.560 decided not to follow the court's order. And 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:28.359 here's the kicker. No one stepped in, you know, 00:01:28.519 --> 00:01:31.659 no other branch No swift consequences. Nothing. 00:01:31.659 --> 00:01:35.200 It was like this huge power vacuum and from what 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:37.500 we've gathered, you know from reports and insider 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:40.659 accounts The White House's decision wasn't even 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:43.120 about whether the judge's order was legally sound. 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:46.739 It was purely about power. Like, could they get 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:48.599 away with it? Yeah, that's the word on the street. 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:51.439 It wasn't about legal arguments, precedent, nothing 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:53.379 like that. It was all about whether they could 00:01:53.379 --> 00:01:57.060 flex their muscles and face zero pushback. And, 00:01:57.060 --> 00:01:58.920 well, their actions speak louder than words, 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:01.459 right? OK, this is where it gets really interesting 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:03.719 and kind of scary, if you ask me. This wasn't 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:06.159 just a political spat. This wasn't two branches 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:09.000 of government disagreeing. This was the judiciary 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.900 basically being shown that it had no teeth. Right. 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:13.479 And that's the whole point critics are raising. 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:15.900 Look, courts, they have no armies, no police 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:18.219 force. They rely on the other branches to enforce 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.539 their rulings. You know, respect for the system. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:23.080 What happened here? It's being called a direct 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:25.599 assault on judicial authority. It's like saying 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:27.539 a court without enforcement power. It's just 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:30.319 a suggestion box. And a president who can just 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.319 ignore the course? Well, that's an untouchable 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:34.259 executive. So this wasn't just talk. This was 00:02:34.259 --> 00:02:36.639 action. The executive branch put on a clinic 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:39.159 in how to bypass the judiciary. Exactly. And 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:41.400 this is how, according to a lot of folks, democracies 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:43.639 start to fall apart. It's the normalization of 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:46.620 defiance, the idea that you can just ignore the 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:48.639 rules if you're powerful enough. OK, so let's 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:51.080 get specific. What was this court order all about? 00:02:51.180 --> 00:02:53.439 What were the details that led to this standoff? 00:02:53.659 --> 00:02:55.819 The court order focused on the deportation of 00:02:55.819 --> 00:02:58.180 Venezuelan migrants. The judge was concerned 00:02:58.180 --> 00:03:00.379 that they were being sent to El Salvador, to 00:03:00.379 --> 00:03:03.000 a mega prison without due process. This prison 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.419 has a really bad track record, known for human 00:03:05.419 --> 00:03:08.259 rights abuses. So the judge's order was pretty 00:03:08.259 --> 00:03:10.719 clear, stop the deportations, turn any planes 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:13.259 around that are already on route. And the administration 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:17.159 just disregarded all of that? Basically, yeah. 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:18.840 They didn't follow the order, didn't really answer 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:20.520 the judge's questions, and they even claimed 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:22.620 that the court didn't have jurisdiction because, 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.139 well, international airspace. This doesn't feel 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:26.960 like an isolated incident though, right? This 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:28.919 feels like part of a larger pattern with this 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:32.060 administration, like this constant pushing against 00:03:32.060 --> 00:03:33.939 accountability. Yeah, you're picking up on a 00:03:33.939 --> 00:03:35.900 key theme here. This Black Saturday thing, it's 00:03:35.900 --> 00:03:37.939 not being viewed as a one -off. It's being seen 00:03:37.939 --> 00:03:40.060 as the culmination, or maybe the next chapter, 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:43.000 in a long line of attempts to hold this president 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.360 accountable and those attempts failing. You're 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:47.759 talking about the impeachments. Twice and nothing 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.180 the criminal cases that are stuck in limbo. Even 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:52.319 the Supreme Court They decided not to touch the 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:55.120 dequalification question all of that and on top 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.599 of it Congress they seem Hesitant to really use 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.000 for power to check executive branch, you know 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:02.919 each time this happens It's like a signal to 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:05.039 the president and says hey you can push you can 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:07.280 test the boundaries and the system might just 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.280 flinch So the takeaway is laws are only as good 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:13.219 as the institutions willing to enforce them And 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:15.120 if those institutions back down? Then you're 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:17.800 left with, well, basically a power grab. The 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:20.519 rule of law becomes more like the rule of whoever 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:22.720 can wield the most power. OK, let's talk about 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:24.300 the judiciary. You mentioned the Supreme Court 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:26.959 and their role in all of this. How do their actions 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:28.939 or maybe inactions play into what we're seeing 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:31.160 now? Well, the argument is that the judiciary's 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:33.139 authority had already been weakened, like chipped 00:04:33.139 --> 00:04:36.199 away, even before Black Saturday. And a lot of 00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:38.680 fingers are pointed at a specific Supreme Court 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:41.560 ruling from 2024. The one that expanded presidential 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:43.720 immunity. How does that connect to Black Saturday? 00:04:44.139 --> 00:04:46.560 So that ruling, it basically said that the president 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.740 is, well, practically untouchable while in office. 00:04:50.449 --> 00:04:53.209 fundamentally above the law, some say. It opened 00:04:53.209 --> 00:04:56.189 the door for a president to theoretically commit 00:04:56.189 --> 00:04:58.470 crimes without facing immediate consequences. 00:04:58.850 --> 00:05:00.889 And then Black Saturday happened. And it was 00:05:00.889 --> 00:05:02.709 like, OK, now they're ignoring court orders, 00:05:02.829 --> 00:05:04.529 too. It's like a one -two punch to the system 00:05:04.529 --> 00:05:06.689 of checks and balances. So instead of separation 00:05:06.689 --> 00:05:09.490 of powers, it's more like absorption of power. 00:05:09.550 --> 00:05:11.230 Everything's flowing into the executive branch. 00:05:11.269 --> 00:05:13.389 That's the fear. The courts, they're supposed 00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:15.550 to be the last line of defense against executive 00:05:15.550 --> 00:05:18.529 overreach. But now they're issuing rulings that 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:20.629 the executive can just ignore. It's like, what's 00:05:20.629 --> 00:05:22.569 the point anymore? OK, so let's talk about the 00:05:22.569 --> 00:05:25.069 administration's justification. They must have 00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:27.189 given some reason for ignoring the court order, 00:05:27.230 --> 00:05:29.350 right? They did. They pulled out this old law, 00:05:29.529 --> 00:05:31.870 the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. They basically 00:05:31.870 --> 00:05:34.269 said, hey, this is about national security, foreign 00:05:34.269 --> 00:05:36.769 relations, the president's in charge. Problem 00:05:36.769 --> 00:05:39.110 is, most experts are like, whoa, hold on, that 00:05:39.110 --> 00:05:41.750 law was meant for wartime, foreign governments, 00:05:41.829 --> 00:05:44.649 not this. It's a major stretch, to say the least. 00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:46.949 And what did the administration officials actually 00:05:46.949 --> 00:05:48.949 say? What were their specific arguments? Well, 00:05:48.970 --> 00:05:50.750 the White House press secretary, she came out 00:05:50.750 --> 00:05:53.529 and said, flat out, judges can't tell the president 00:05:53.529 --> 00:05:56.410 how to handle foreign policy. The attorney general, 00:05:56.410 --> 00:05:59.089 he doubled down, accused the judge of meddling, 00:05:59.329 --> 00:06:01.170 trying to control the country's foreign affairs 00:06:01.170 --> 00:06:03.610 from the bench. He basically said, we're going 00:06:03.610 --> 00:06:06.120 to keep deporting people, and that's that. The 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.220 president himself weighed in too, right? He's 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:10.220 never been shy about sharing his opinions. Oh 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:12.759 yeah, he went on a whole rant, called the judge 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:14.699 a, well let's just say he didn't mince words. 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:16.939 He called for the judge to be impeached, said 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:19.600 the judge was a radical, not elected by the people, 00:06:20.139 --> 00:06:22.600 and that he, the president, is the one who knows 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.040 what's best for the country. So, bottom line, 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:27.519 the administration's message seems to be, judges? 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:29.980 We don't care what you think. Pretty much. I 00:06:29.980 --> 00:06:31.620 mean, they even said the court order was patently 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.560 unlawful, which is strong language. And there's 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:36.720 also talk about their strategy. It's all about 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:38.899 moving fast, doing things before the courts can 00:06:38.899 --> 00:06:41.639 even react. Interesting. There were also reports 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:43.759 about this internal distinction the administration 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:45.860 is making, like they say they're not defying 00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:48.379 the courts, they're ignoring them. Is there a 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:50.879 real difference? Yeah. You know, it's all semantics 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:53.800 in the end. But the idea is ignoring sounds less 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:55.439 confrontational, right? Like, oh, we just didn't 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:57.339 get around to reading that court order. But defining 00:06:57.339 --> 00:07:00.279 sounds like a direct challenge. In reality, though, 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:02.379 the outcome is the same. The court's order means 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:04.459 nothing. And the president holds the Trump card 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:07.660 here, right? Literally. Because he controls the 00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:09.459 enforcement mechanism, something the judiciary 00:07:09.459 --> 00:07:12.100 doesn't have. Bingo. It all comes down to who 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:14.319 can actually make things happen. The executive 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:16.459 branch, they have the agencies, the resources 00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:18.779 to enforce laws. The courts, they have to rely 00:07:18.779 --> 00:07:20.759 on the executive branch to play ball. When that 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.360 doesn't happen, it exposes a huge weakness in 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:25.500 the system. Okay, so this Black Saturday thing, 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.060 it's being compared to other times in history 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.139 when presidents stood up to the Supreme Court. 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:33.500 Andrew Jackson in 1832 comes to mind. What are 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:35.560 the parallels here, and maybe more importantly, 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:37.540 what are the key differences? Yeah, the Jackson 00:07:37.540 --> 00:07:40.439 comparison is a popular one. But context is everything. 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:42.540 Right back then, America was still figuring things 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:45.000 out. Democracy was young. The Supreme Court's 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.620 power wasn't as settled as it is today. Now the 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:50.000 concern is we're seeing the erosion of a well 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.019 -established democracy. It's different. So we're 00:07:52.019 --> 00:07:53.720 not just talking about history repeating itself. 00:07:53.959 --> 00:07:56.079 Exactly. Back then, presidential power was still 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:58.759 being defined. Now the argument is this president 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:01.040 is actively erasing the limits, the lines that 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:03.240 were already drawn, plus Since Jackson had to 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.160 deal with serious opposition, this president, 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:07.439 he basically controls his party completely. It's 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.899 a different playing field. They were more of 00:08:10.899 --> 00:08:12.839 a force to be reckoned with, right? Compared 00:08:12.839 --> 00:08:14.620 to now, where some say they just rubber stamp 00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:16.620 whatever the president wants. Right. Back then, 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.040 Congress was more willing to stand up to the 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.060 president, act as a real check on his power. 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:24.579 Now, not so much. It's a different dynamic, and 00:08:24.579 --> 00:08:26.899 that has serious implications for how power plays 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:29.680 out. So taking all of this into account, the 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.500 argument is that this isn't just a blip, a political 00:08:32.500 --> 00:08:35.340 squabble. This is a signal that something fundamental 00:08:35.340 --> 00:08:38.309 has shifted, maybe even broken. in the American 00:08:38.309 --> 00:08:40.129 system. Yeah, and this is where it gets really 00:08:40.129 --> 00:08:42.590 heavy. Some are saying that America has passed 00:08:42.590 --> 00:08:45.029 a point of no return, that we've crossed an event 00:08:45.029 --> 00:08:48.029 horizon, so to speak. The system's ability to 00:08:48.029 --> 00:08:50.350 self -correct, to bounce back from shocks, it's 00:08:50.350 --> 00:08:53.029 gone. And events that happened before, like January 00:08:53.029 --> 00:08:55.669 6th, the rollback of retroductive rights, they're 00:08:55.669 --> 00:08:59.230 now being seen as... Precursors, warning signs 00:08:59.230 --> 00:09:01.389 of this bigger shift. Absolutely. They're being 00:09:01.389 --> 00:09:03.970 reframed as early symptoms, you know, canaries 00:09:03.970 --> 00:09:06.110 in the coal mine. And what's scary is people 00:09:06.110 --> 00:09:08.210 are just getting used to it, this normalization. 00:09:08.289 --> 00:09:10.629 That's the real danger. The real concern here 00:09:10.629 --> 00:09:13.269 seems to be the demise of the courts as a check 00:09:13.269 --> 00:09:15.570 on power. Yeah, that's the heart of it. If the 00:09:15.570 --> 00:09:17.889 executive branch can ignore the courts without 00:09:17.889 --> 00:09:20.230 consequence, then the whole system of checks 00:09:20.230 --> 00:09:23.149 and balances is basically... Useless and that's 00:09:23.149 --> 00:09:24.889 what a lot of people are afraid of the concentration 00:09:24.889 --> 00:09:27.429 of power in the hands of one person Without any 00:09:27.429 --> 00:09:29.450 real constraints and going back to how things 00:09:29.450 --> 00:09:32.250 were with a less powerful president in courts 00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:35.190 that had the final say That's just not in the 00:09:35.190 --> 00:09:36.990 cards anymore. That's the bleak assessment, yeah. 00:09:37.169 --> 00:09:39.830 The America of, say, the 1990s, where the president 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:42.070 was more constrained, the courts were more respected, 00:09:42.169 --> 00:09:44.549 that's gone, according to this view. And it's 00:09:44.549 --> 00:09:46.789 not coming back, not without some major upheaval. 00:09:46.870 --> 00:09:48.070 It's hard to wrap your head around. You know, 00:09:48.169 --> 00:09:50.490 it's all happening bit by bit, no single event 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:54.690 that screams crisis. It's just this slow creep 00:09:54.690 --> 00:09:57.019 towards something different. That's the insidious 00:09:57.019 --> 00:09:58.840 part, the fraud in boiling water, right? It's 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:00.600 happening so gradually that people don't even 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:02.679 realize how much the water's heated up until 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:04.940 it's too late. And that's what's so dangerous 00:10:04.940 --> 00:10:07.620 about this normalization of defiance of executive 00:10:07.620 --> 00:10:09.679 power. So the bottom line is we're witnessing 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.399 a transition from a system based on constitutional 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.679 rules to a system where raw power dictates everything. 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:17.940 That's the argument. And that court order, the 00:10:17.940 --> 00:10:20.039 one that was ignored, that was the breaking point. 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:22.580 It was the moment when the illusion of checks 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:25.080 and balances was shattered. And, historically 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:27.779 speaking, when democracies get to this point... 00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:29.539 They don't usually just bounce back, do they? 00:10:29.620 --> 00:10:32.440 No, not without major structural changes. And 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:33.960 that's the question everyone's grappling with 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.419 now. What comes next? Can the American system, 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:39.779 as we know it, even survive this kind of fundamental 00:10:39.779 --> 00:10:42.139 shift? We also have some updates on reactions 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:44.240 to all of this and some other related developments. 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:47.100 Jack Schlossberg, President Kennedy's grandson, 00:10:47.659 --> 00:10:49.259 he had some pretty strong words. What was his 00:10:49.259 --> 00:10:51.740 take on things? Yeah, Schlossberg was not happy. 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:54.000 He spoke out against the president's decision 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.779 to declassify his grandfather's assassination 00:10:56.779 --> 00:10:59.500 records. He basically said this isn't about transparency, 00:10:59.500 --> 00:11:01.940 it's about political manipulation. He called 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:04.019 out the hypocrisy of the current administration, 00:11:04.039 --> 00:11:07.019 you know, comparing them to JFK, who championed 00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:09.500 civil rights, stood up to Russia, pushed for 00:11:09.500 --> 00:11:11.139 science, things like that. And then there's the 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:13.039 whole issue of the federal workforce reductions, 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.179 even with those court rulings saying some employees 00:11:15.179 --> 00:11:17.240 should be reinstated. What's the latest there? 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:19.419 Well, the administration is full steam ahead 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:21.710 with their downsizing plans. Court orders, they're 00:11:21.710 --> 00:11:23.970 brushing them aside, calling it judicial activism 00:11:23.970 --> 00:11:26.870 and painting this picture of liberal judges running 00:11:26.870 --> 00:11:28.649 amok. So they're going to appeal the rulings 00:11:28.649 --> 00:11:30.490 and keep cutting jobs no matter what. That's 00:11:30.490 --> 00:11:32.490 the plan. They say they're committed to shrinking 00:11:32.490 --> 00:11:34.149 the government and these court orders aren't 00:11:34.149 --> 00:11:36.370 going to stop them. And you know, the Department 00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:38.490 of Government Efficiency, the Office of Personnel 00:11:38.490 --> 00:11:40.470 Management, they're the ones driving this whole 00:11:40.470 --> 00:11:43.149 thing. We even have specifics on potential job 00:11:43.149 --> 00:11:46.860 losses, right? Like actual numbers. Yeah, a national 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:49.820 oceanic atmosphere administration, they're bracing 00:11:49.820 --> 00:11:53.100 for big cuts, like at least 1 ,000 jobs, maybe 00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:55.580 even a 10 % reduction overall. That's a lot of 00:11:55.580 --> 00:11:58.980 people and a lot of expertise lost. And the process 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:01.759 of reinstating those fired employees, you know, 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:03.480 the ones the court said should get their jobs 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.460 back. That's been a mess, right? Yeah, haphazard 00:12:06.460 --> 00:12:08.580 is putting it mildly. Some agencies, they're 00:12:08.580 --> 00:12:10.320 calling people back, but it's all over the place. 00:12:10.419 --> 00:12:12.379 Some are waiting for instructions from the White 00:12:12.379 --> 00:12:15.059 House and even the people who got rehired. Some 00:12:15.059 --> 00:12:17.539 are being put on administrative leave with back 00:12:17.539 --> 00:12:19.399 pay, but with the expectation that they'll be 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:22.139 fired again later. It's a really confusing and 00:12:22.139 --> 00:12:24.360 unsettling situation for a lot of people. So 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:26.419 all in all, it's a pretty. Yeah, a pretty concerning 00:12:26.419 --> 00:12:28.159 pick up of where things stand right now. Definitely. 00:12:28.299 --> 00:12:30.200 It's a pivotal moment and it's forcing everyone 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:32.320 to confront some tough questions about the future 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.860 of American governance. The very idea that the 00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:37.080 symptom of checks and balances, the core of our 00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:40.139 democracy, could be so fragile. It's a wake up 00:12:40.139 --> 00:12:42.210 call. And the fact that people are interpreting 00:12:42.210 --> 00:12:44.429 these events in such different ways, it just 00:12:44.429 --> 00:12:47.230 shows how complex and how crucial this moment 00:12:47.230 --> 00:12:49.129 is. No doubt about it. We need to keep our eyes 00:12:49.129 --> 00:12:51.070 wide open and really pay attention to what's 00:12:51.070 --> 00:12:53.169 happening because the stakes are incredibly high. 00:12:53.409 --> 00:12:55.570 Absolutely. And to our listeners, we urge you 00:12:55.570 --> 00:12:58.029 keep digging into this. Don't just take our word 00:12:58.029 --> 00:12:59.990 for it. Look at the different viewpoints. Follow 00:12:59.990 --> 00:13:02.090 the developments. What does all of this mean 00:13:02.090 --> 00:13:03.769 for the future of our nation? It's a question 00:13:03.769 --> 00:13:06.529 we all need to be asking. And for more in -depth 00:13:06.529 --> 00:13:08.429 discussions on this or other critical topics, 00:13:08.889 --> 00:13:11.559 make sure to follow Meteorol. Rob Jones on Instagram 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:14.919 Meteorologist, on TikTok TV Meteorologist, and 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:17.340 on YouTube, follow Rob Jones Hurricane, where 00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:19.580 you can also find the Meteorology Matters podcast 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:22.159 playlist. Thanks for joining us for this, well, 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:24.360 for this crucial conversation. Absolutely. Thanks 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:25.059 for listening, everyone.