Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we've got
quite a stack of sources in front of me. I really
do. And they seem to show these three sort of
parallel conflicts that are just raging across
the US right now. We're going to go from the
literal lines being drawn on congressional maps
to this massive corporate fight over media ownership.
Right, a high stakes one. And then we're diving
into a, let's say, a deep look at accountability.
or maybe the lack of it at the very highest levels.
Yeah, and this is really a moment of synthesis
for you, the listener. We aren't just reading
headlines here. Not at all. We're trying to find
the operating system that connects all of them.
Our mission is to figure out how... The fight
for political power, so the maps, and the fight
for narrative control, the media deals. And the
huge gap between what people are feeling in their
wallets and the official economic story. Exactly.
How are all of those things pushing our institutions
to what feels like a breaking point? We're looking
for the patterns, the connections, and the ultimate
so -what of it all. OK, so let's start with the
political geography first. The fight for the
map. Let's do it. The sources. They initially
point to this small, maybe momentary cooling
off in the redistricting wars. Little bit of
a pause. Yeah. And this all comes from the news
that Indiana's vote to draw a new house map actually
failed. Right. Which means they're likely sticking
with their old map for now. And that was the
signal. Because Indiana hit pause, you had Democrats
in Illinois saying, OK, maybe we'll cool our
own plans. And Maryland, too. Maryland, too.
We saw the state Senate presidents in Indiana
and Maryland actually talking to each other,
which suggests Maryland might not redraw their
map either. For a second there, it looked like
a de -escalation. But is it really? I mean, doesn't
a temporary pause like that just give the other
side negotiating leverage? It doesn't sound like
a real truce. Well, that's the thing. When you
look at the rest of the country, the fight is
just intensifying. It's pushing the whole system
towards this dangerous winner -take -all model.
So a truce only really works if both sides want
to stop. And that is not happening here. The
fascinating part is just how aggressive the fight
is everywhere else. It's speeding up this move
to an all or nothing system, you know, kind of
like the electoral college works for the presidency.
OK, so let's run through the scorecard then.
Where's the action happening? This whole round
of aggressive redistricting really kicked off
in Texas, didn't it? It did. Texas started it
by passing a law that was designed to hand Republicans
five new seats. Five? Yeah, using a baseline
of R plus 10 in the new districts. But and this
is a big but. The data from recent special elections
is complicating that math. How so? Democrats
have been outperforming 2024 results by about
13 points on average in those contests, which
could mean the Republican Hall might be a bit
smaller than they planned. And that Texas move
immediately set off a reaction. A huge reaction.
The most direct one came from California. Right.
Where voters approved a new map, this is probably
going to flip about five Republican seats. Potentially
canceling out the Texas games. At least on paper,
it's a direct counter move. Meanwhile, Ohio was
forced to draw a new map. The old one was just
too partisan, according to their own state constitution.
And a new Ohio map. It's projected to give Republicans
another two or three seats. Have Virginia. Oh,
Virginia, the Democratic controlled legislature
there is, let's just say they are dead set on
grabbing Republican seats. They're aiming for
VA01 and VO2 pretty easily and maybe even VA06.
So even with a pause in one or two states, the
war just continues everywhere else. But the sources
say the entire political map, especially in the
South, really just hinges on one. one big thing.
It all comes down to the Supreme Court. Specifically,
they're ruling on the Louisiana redistricting
case. Okay. If that ruling gusts the Voting Rights
Act, you can expect Republicans in Alabama and
Louisiana to try and dismantle the two Democratic
-held racial gerrymandered districts in each
state. So that's four seats total. Two in Alabama,
two in Louisiana. Four seats that are absolutely
critical to the balance of power in Congress.
So nothing happens until that ruling comes down,
but everyone is ready to act the second it does.
So if you connect all these dots, what's the
big picture? The big picture is that... This
rapid shift to winner take all map drawing is
basically turning house elections into a mini
electoral college. Where whoever controls the
state legislature just gets all the seats. Exactly.
And that makes state level elections just incredibly
important for federal power, which is definitely
not what the founders had in mind. OK, so let's
pivot from the physical fight for districts to
the corporate fight for content. We're talking
about Warner Brothers Discovery or WBD. It's
for sale. And it's carrying a $35 billion debt
load. A massive debt load. Yeah. And this has
set up a battle between two enormous corporate
bidders. And believe me, this is way more than
just a business deal. So on one side, you have
WBD management. They seem to favor an $83 billion
bid from Netflix. Right. And it's pretty clear
what Netflix wants. They want that enormous film
and TV library. It gives them a content moat
nobody can cross. And the implication there?
If they own everything, they could just kill
the movie theater business by putting it all
on streaming immediately. That's the unspoken
threat, yes. But then there's a hostile bid,
which complicates things. A very hostile bid,
from David Ellison's Paramount, and he's backed
by some serious money. Larry Ellison, his father,
second richest person in the world. Jared Kushner,
a group of Arab sheiks, and they're offering
$108 billion in cash. Wow. They want the movies.
But they've been very clear. They have zero interest
in the news assets. And that right there is the
political angle. That they're the connection.
Because WBD owns CNN. Exactly. And financially,
you know, CNN is a microscopic spec in a deal
this size. But politically, it's immense. And
Larry Ellison is a huge political donor. The
source material gets pretty specific here. It
does. It alleges that he lobbied the former president
and even discussed a plan to fire specific CNN
anchors. He named names. Aaron Burnett and Brianna
Keelar first on the list. As a way to, you know,
grease the skids for the deal. The sources are
not subtle about this. They frame it as an alignment
of, well, oligarchs and authoritarian interests.
It looks that way. The Ellisons want the movies
for business reasons, but the other parties involved
seem to want control of a major media outlet
run by cronies. Which raises this huge question
about what our media environment is turning into.
I mean, we're seeing a pattern here. It's a clear
trend of oligarchs consolidating media. Larry
Ellison already owns CBS. He's being floated
as a likely buyer for TikTok. Elon Musk bought
Twitter, now X. It's a pattern where media success
is tied to being politically favorable to a specific
leader. Right. And that brings us to this little
quiz, the source post. I saw that. Which of these
is different? Pravda, Xinhua, CNN and CBS News.
And the answer, at least for now, is CNN. It's
the only one not widely considered to be state
-run media, but that could change very, very
quickly under a paramount ownership that's already
talking about targeting journalists. The stakes
here for, you know, the public conversation,
they couldn't be higher. They really couldn't.
The source basically says if paramount wins,
you risk state -run media and democracy gets
damaged, but... Hey, maybe movie theaters live.
And if Netflix wins, movie theaters die. But
democracy in this specific context is preserved.
It puts an enormous decision in the hands of
WBD stockholders. OK, let's shift gears now to
the economy. and the public mood. We keep hearing
official assurances that the economy is strong,
but a new APNRRC poll shows that voters are really
struggling. The numbers are pretty stark. The
former president's approval on the economy is
just 31 percent. That's his lowest ever. And
it's not just one party, 68 percent of all voters,
including 44 percent of Republicans. The economy
is in poor shape. Affordability is the real pain
point here. Half of Americans are cutting back
on non -essentials, even holiday gifts. And while
you hear administration officials blaming the
media or a Biden economy hangover, polls show
voters are actually blaming something else. The
terrorists. The terrorists from the prior administration.
They're connecting them directly to higher prices.
And all this economic pain is lighting a fire
under Washington. A legislative scramble, you
could call it. Republicans are trying to do something
about rising health care premiums before the
midterms, but their own hardliners are blocking
the extension of ACA subsidies. Those are the
subsidies that keep insurance affordable for
millions of people. Crucial subsidies. So to
counter that narrative of inaction, House Republicans
have put forward a bill, the Lower Health Care
Premiums for All Americans Act. And what does
it do? Well, It focuses on expanding health savings
accounts, HSAs, and it tries to lower drug costs
by going after middlemen, the pharmacy benefit
managers. But the key here is what the bill doesn't
do. Exactly. It's not likely to pass anyway,
but it deliberately leaves out an extension of
the ACA subsidies. So those aren't extended.
People who use the ACA exchanges will see their
monthly payments just spike dramatically. And
that's a huge political liability that Democrats
are already getting ready to use as a, quote,
cudgel. in the midterms. And this theme of a
lack of accountability, it seems to go from the
legislature right to the executive branch. Let's
pivot to this case of, well, outright defiance
of the judiciary. That's the pattern we need
to track. You have U .S. District Judge James
Boesberg confirmed unanimously, mind you. He
issues an order. He demands that officials turn
around planes carrying 130 immigrants who were
deported to Central America. amid claims the
destination was basically a place of torture.
Right. And the Department of Homeland Security
just defied the order. So Judge Boasberg schedules
a hearing to find out who specifically violated
his order, and the DOJ steps in. The DOJ asks
the D .C. Court of Appeals to block that hearing.
A divided three -judge panel with two Trump appointees
paused it. But the judge is pushing back. He
is. He's insisting this isn't, in his words,
some academic exercise, given the very serious
allegations of abuse. It's a stunning example
of the executive just openly ignoring a direct
judicial command. This disrespect for the judiciary
is happening at the same time as what our sources
are calling the greatest griffs. Monetizing the
presidency on a scale that just dwarfs historical
scandals. You look at Teapot Dome, the huge scandal
of the 1920s. In today's money, that was about
$7 million. A drop in the bucket compared to
today. The scale is just incomparable. A primary
example is the former first family's involvement
with World Liberty Financial. They sell cryptocurrencies.
Including a mean coin, dollar sign Trump. and
a stablecoin called USD1. And it basically operates
as a system for selling influence and access.
The examples are staggering. Let's hear them.
A UAE state -backed firm bought $2 billion worth
of that USD1 stablecoin. This happened to coincide
perfectly with the end of a major SEC investigation
into the crypto exchange Binance. That timing
is interesting. And then there's Justin Sun,
a crypto entrepreneur. He bought 95 million in
Trump crypto. And what happened next? He gets
an invite to dinner with the former president
and suddenly his own SEC fraud case gets delayed.
The source says this is basically making the
price of a get out of jail card public. It's
not just crypto either. You have the foreign
emoluments. The so -called Golden Airplane, a
$400 million $747 allegedly gifted by Qatar.
Rumored to be filled with so much gold, it might
not even be airworthy. And the 23 Trump -branded
real estate projects around the globe in places
like Oman and Saudi Arabia. And you can't forget
the White House ballroom. The $300 million ballroom
that the National Trust for Historic Preservation
is suing over. Which 56 % of Americans oppose.
And the money was collected from corporations,
14 of which were facing federal enforcement actions
at the same time. And to top it all off, we have
new material related to Jeffrey Epstein. His
estate just released 95 ,000 photos to the House
Oversight Committee. And the polling on this
is pretty clear. 70 % of people think the government
is hiding information and 60 % believe the former
president knew about Epstein's crimes. The sources
say these photos give, quote, lie to any attempt
by him to claim they were just business friends.
Our final thread today is a literal public health
emergency. The comeback of measles. The U .S.
was declared measles free back in 2000. A major
public health achievement. But we're set to lose
that status on January 20th, 2026, because we've
had 12 straight months of transmission. And we
need to be clear. Measles is serious. This isn't
just a childhood rash. For every thousand people
who get it, 200 end up in the hospital. With
severe complications like pneumonia or brain
swelling. And three will die. This year alone,
we've seen 47 outbreaks, over 1 ,900 cases, and
at least one child has died. And this is happening
because vaccination rates have dropped? Dropped
significantly. And it's linked directly to high
-profile anti -vaccine rhetoric that has just
eroded public trust in basic medical science.
You can see the results on the ground. Absolutely.
In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, for example,
the vaccination rate is below the 95 % threshold
needed for herd immunity. Which means the virus
can spread easily. And it has. It led to quarantines
for 354 people in South Carolina alone. It's
causing widespread panic among parents of unvaccinated
kids. And what's so wild about this is the contrast.
We have a safe, effective, cheap vaccine that's
been around for 60 years. This isn't like when
COVID first hit and we had nothing. This is purely
a failure of collective action, not a failure
of science. So after all that, what does this
whole stack of sources mean for you, the listener?
I mean, in short, what we've tracked today is
an incredible consolidation of power. Political
power through gerrymandering. Corporate media
power through the WBD sale. And it's just a...
brazen disregard for constitutional process,
both with the judicial defiance and the staggering
monetization of the presidency. And all of this
is happening while most Americans are struggling
with real economic pain. And we're seeing the
literal return of preventable diseases because
we can't act together anymore. It points to a
deep instability across all our major institutions.
It really does. Yeah. We talked about that minimum
95 percent vaccination rate needed to stop measles.
I want to leave you with this thought to mull
over. What are the minimum thresholds in civility
and accountability and just adhering to basic
norms that are protecting our political system
right now? And which of those fundamental minimums
are showing signs of a dangerous, maybe even
an accelerated collapse? Something to think about
until our next deep dive.