WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 Welcome back to the deep dive. We are looking 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.259 at a specific stack of reports today, all centered 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:08.320 around February 11th, 2026. Yes. And I have to 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.000 say, going through this material court filings, 00:00:11.339 --> 00:00:15.220 economic studies, even TV ratings, it felt less 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:18.739 like reading the news and more like like watching 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:20.739 a high speed collision in slow motion. That's 00:00:20.739 --> 00:00:23.620 a very fair assessment. It's messy. It is so 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:25.539 messy. It really feels like we're seeing this 00:00:25.539 --> 00:00:28.679 head -on crash between the official story coming 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:32.100 out of Washington and, you know, the actual reality 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:34.020 playing out on the ground. Whether it's in a 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:36.179 courtroom, a grocery store, or even a football 00:00:36.179 --> 00:00:38.799 stadium, there is this massive friction right 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:40.740 now. And that friction is exactly what we need 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:43.000 to analyze because, you know, in politics you 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.200 have spin. Everyone spins. That's normal. Sure. 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:47.859 But this stack of documents suggests something 00:00:47.859 --> 00:00:49.920 else entirely. It suggests we're moving past 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.159 spin into a phase where the administration is 00:00:52.109 --> 00:00:57.490 actively trying to legislate or litigate reality 00:00:57.490 --> 00:00:59.509 itself. And the interesting part is that reality 00:00:59.509 --> 00:01:01.789 is pushing back. It's pushing back hard. And 00:01:01.789 --> 00:01:04.310 that's our focus today. So we have three main 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:07.370 battlegrounds to cover to really get this. First, 00:01:07.489 --> 00:01:10.569 the legal system, a clash with military veterans, 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:14.209 and a huge move on immigration. Second, the economy. 00:01:14.510 --> 00:01:17.069 They've got tariffs cracking party lines in Congress. 00:01:17.310 --> 00:01:20.090 And third, the culture war, which has gone from, 00:01:20.090 --> 00:01:22.829 I don't know, arguments on Twitter to literally 00:01:22.829 --> 00:01:25.250 unbolting history from the walls of national 00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:27.890 parks. That's full spectrum coverage. And the 00:01:27.890 --> 00:01:30.189 common thread in all of them is this tension, 00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:32.450 this battle between the narrative and the evidence. 00:01:32.590 --> 00:01:34.689 OK, let's start with the legal side. This story 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:37.629 about the veterans and the grand jury. It just 00:01:37.629 --> 00:01:39.849 jumped out at me because it feels like such an 00:01:39.849 --> 00:01:42.590 unforced error. It really does. So walk us through 00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:45.549 the setup here. We have this group of high profile 00:01:45.549 --> 00:01:47.769 politicians who are also veterans. Right. So 00:01:47.769 --> 00:01:49.930 this involves a specific group of Democrats, 00:01:50.310 --> 00:01:52.670 all with significant military backgrounds. We're 00:01:52.670 --> 00:01:54.829 talking about Senators Mark Kelly and Alyssa 00:01:54.829 --> 00:01:57.349 Slotkin. OK. And then representatives like Jason 00:01:57.349 --> 00:02:00.150 Crowe, Maggie Goodlander, Chris D 'Alucio and 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:01.969 Chrissy Hulahan. These aren't just, you know, 00:02:02.189 --> 00:02:04.209 career politicians. Mark Kelly was an astronaut, 00:02:04.250 --> 00:02:07.200 a combat pilot. And Slotkin was CIA. These are 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:09.879 serious people. Heavy hitters. Exactly. And they 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.800 released a video, just a 90 second spot. But 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.620 the content is crucial here. What did it say? 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:18.759 Well, the administration's reaction makes it 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:20.560 sound like they called for an uprising. But if 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:22.479 you actually watch it, they were just reminding 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:26.199 active duty soldiers of their obligation under 00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:29.710 the UCMJ. the Uniform Code of Military Justice 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:32.590 to refuse illegal orders. Which, to be clear, 00:02:32.750 --> 00:02:34.430 is standard military training. I mean, that's 00:02:34.430 --> 00:02:36.430 day one stuff, right? It's the foundation of 00:02:36.430 --> 00:02:38.610 modern military law. You know, since Nuremberg, 00:02:38.629 --> 00:02:40.389 I was just following orders. It's not a defense. 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:42.610 They were just restating the law. But the White 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:45.949 House reaction was... Not that. It was explosive. 00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:47.949 We have a post here from President Trump's social 00:02:47.949 --> 00:02:50.990 media account where he labeled it seditious behavior 00:02:50.990 --> 00:02:53.629 at the highest level. Seditious? That is a heavy, 00:02:53.789 --> 00:02:55.990 heavy legal term. That's not just, I disagree 00:02:55.990 --> 00:02:59.189 with you. No, that's you are trying to overthrow 00:02:59.189 --> 00:03:01.750 the government. And he didn't just tweet about 00:03:01.750 --> 00:03:04.930 it. He called for arrests. He explicitly said 00:03:04.930 --> 00:03:08.569 an example must be set. And they tried to make 00:03:08.569 --> 00:03:12.180 good on that. The DOJ, under U .S. Attorney Jeanine 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:14.919 Pirro, actually sought an indictment. They did. 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:17.219 And this is where the story takes a fascinating 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:19.120 turn. You know that famous saying about grand 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.439 juries? A prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:24.620 Right. The idea being that a grand jury almost 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:27.280 always does what the prosecutor asks. It's usually 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:29.780 just a rubber stamp. And not this time. No. The 00:03:29.780 --> 00:03:31.840 ham sandwich walked free. Yeah. The grand jury 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:34.780 refused to indict. They looked at this video 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:37.810 of veterans reading military law. and just said 00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:40.930 no. That is a massive signal. It shows that, 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:43.909 despite the rhetoric, the actual citizens on 00:03:43.909 --> 00:03:46.990 that jury, they aren't buying it. They're not 00:03:46.990 --> 00:03:49.229 buying the narrative that this was treason. So 00:03:49.229 --> 00:03:52.810 here's the strategic question. Why do this? Why 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:54.770 pick a fight with Mark Kelly, of all people? 00:03:54.949 --> 00:03:57.030 That's the billion -dollar question. The reports 00:03:57.030 --> 00:03:59.069 we have mention that this might be creating a 00:03:59.069 --> 00:04:01.310 scray sand effect. Right, where you try to suppress 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:03.389 something and just end up making it a thousand 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:07.520 times more famous. Exactly. By targeting Mark 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:11.120 Kelly, an astronaut, a veteran, a moderate, and 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.039 calling him a traitor, the administration is 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:17.459 arguably doing his PR work for him. The source 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:19.360 material says he's looking more and more like 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:22.920 a viable 2028 contender because of this. They're 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:25.660 casting him as the hero in their own movie. Precisely. 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:27.920 You don't generally win over the middle of the 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.600 country by attacking people they see as patriots. 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:33.019 OK, so the administration hit a wall there, but 00:04:33.019 --> 00:04:35.139 they seem to be having more success, or at least 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:38.079 they're trying a more sophisticated move on immigration. 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:40.879 Yes. This Fifth Circuit court ruling, it felt 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:42.939 a lot more technical than the veterans story, 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:46.120 but the implications seem way bigger. This is 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:48.920 much quieter. But legally, it's an earthquake. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:50.779 And to understand it, we have to look at one 00:04:50.779 --> 00:04:53.779 specific legal term. applicant for admission. 00:04:53.939 --> 00:04:55.339 Break that down for us. What does that usually 00:04:55.339 --> 00:04:57.759 mean? Traditionally, you have a distinction between 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:00.180 the border and the interior. If you're stopped 00:05:00.180 --> 00:05:03.060 at an airport or a border crossing, you are an 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:05.439 applicant for admission. You have fewer rights. 00:05:05.699 --> 00:05:07.600 Because you haven't technically entered the country 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.160 yet. Exactly. But if you're already living in, 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:13.259 say, Kansas or Ohio, even if you're undocumented, 00:05:13.740 --> 00:05:16.300 you have different due process rights. It's the 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:18.259 difference between standing on the front porch 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:20.990 asking to come in versus already being inside 00:05:20.990 --> 00:05:24.009 the house. That's a great analogy. But this ruling, 00:05:24.110 --> 00:05:27.649 it changes the map. The administration and now 00:05:27.649 --> 00:05:30.009 the Fifth Circuit has decided that if you are 00:05:30.009 --> 00:05:33.170 out of status, you are an applicant for admission 00:05:33.170 --> 00:05:36.430 no matter where you are. So legally speaking, 00:05:36.610 --> 00:05:39.209 the person already in the house is treated like 00:05:39.209 --> 00:05:41.629 they're still on the porch. Correct. And the 00:05:41.629 --> 00:05:44.949 consequence of that is mandatory, indefinite 00:05:44.949 --> 00:05:47.879 detention without bond. No hearing. You just 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:50.439 sit in jail. For years, potentially. It could 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:52.800 be years. There was a dissent in this case, though, 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:55.399 from Judge Dana Douglas. Yes, and her dissent 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:57.939 cut right to the core of it. She wrote that this 00:05:57.939 --> 00:06:00.399 interpretation means, and I'm quoting, the border 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:03.139 is now everywhere. The border is everywhere. 00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:05.819 That is a chilling phrase. It implies that the 00:06:05.819 --> 00:06:07.899 extraordinary powers the government has at the 00:06:07.899 --> 00:06:11.500 border now extend to every single zip code. And 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:13.459 there's another layer here the sources highlight 00:06:13.459 --> 00:06:16.240 called judge shopping. Well, the administration 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:19.279 knows this interpretation is radical. We're talking 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:22.959 360 other federal judges nationwide have ruled 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:25.680 against this policy. They lose almost everywhere 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:28.399 else. But what do they do? They physically move 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:31.199 the detainees. They are transferring people to 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:33.699 detention centers, specifically in Texas and 00:06:33.699 --> 00:06:36.379 Louisiana. Because those states fall under the 00:06:36.379 --> 00:06:38.860 Fifth Circuit. Exactly. They are manipulating 00:06:38.860 --> 00:06:41.579 the geography of the prisoner to manipulate the 00:06:41.579 --> 00:06:44.290 outcome of the law. It's moving the human pieces 00:06:44.290 --> 00:06:46.850 to the one square on the board where the rules 00:06:46.850 --> 00:06:49.310 favor them. It's creating a fragmented legal 00:06:49.310 --> 00:06:51.889 reality where the Constitution means one thing 00:06:51.889 --> 00:06:53.970 in Texas and something completely different everywhere 00:06:53.970 --> 00:06:56.850 else. And that instability is part of this whole 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:58.920 battle for reality we're talking about. Let's 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:01.399 pivot from the courts to the economy, because 00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:03.199 while lawyers are fighting over definitions, 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:05.879 regular people are looking at their bank accounts. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:09.639 And the story here is about tariffs, but it's 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:12.040 really about a rebellion in Congress. This is 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:14.699 fascinating. We're seeing cracks in party discipline 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:17.279 that just weren't there a year ago. We have to 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:19.360 talk about the gag rule. Explain that. This was 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:22.519 Speaker Mike Johnson's rule. Yes. Johnson knows 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:24.860 the president's tariffs are controversial, even 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:28.060 among Republicans. So, to protect his members 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.579 from taking a tough vote, he implemented a rule 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:33.019 that blocked any votes related to tariffs. It 00:07:33.019 --> 00:07:35.240 was a shield. Just, we're not even going to talk 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.899 about this. Right. But the rule expired. He needed 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:42.680 a vote to renew it. And yesterday, he lost. Three 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:45.899 Republicans, Bacon, Kiley, and Massey, voted 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:48.800 with the Democrats to let it die. Three people? 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:50.980 That sounds tiny. Why does this matter so much? 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:53.639 Under normal Congress, it would be noise. But 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:56.269 in this one... The margins are razor thin. Three 00:07:56.269 --> 00:07:58.750 votes is a landslide. It broke the speaker's 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:00.730 control over the floor. There's a signal. It 00:08:00.730 --> 00:08:02.370 signals that the fear of the terrorists is starting 00:08:02.370 --> 00:08:04.529 to outweigh the fear of party leadership. So 00:08:04.529 --> 00:08:07.209 now the gag is off. What's next? The report mentions 00:08:07.209 --> 00:08:09.990 a discharge petition. Right. That's a maneuver 00:08:09.990 --> 00:08:13.250 to force a bill onto the floor for a vote, even 00:08:13.250 --> 00:08:15.509 if leadership hates it. Democrats are planning 00:08:15.509 --> 00:08:18.069 to use it to force a vote on the Canadian tariffs. 00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:19.949 Now, realistically, this isn't going to become 00:08:19.949 --> 00:08:22.069 law, right? The president would veto it. So isn't 00:08:22.069 --> 00:08:24.579 this just theater? It's not about making law. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:28.319 It's about making a record. The point is to force 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.860 every Republican to go on the record, yes or 00:08:30.860 --> 00:08:33.559 no, on these tariffs. Because the economic data 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:36.200 suggests that voting yes is getting politically 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:38.779 toxic. Very toxic. We have a study here from 00:08:38.779 --> 00:08:41.220 the Keele Institute. It breaks down who is actually 00:08:41.220 --> 00:08:43.480 paying for these trade wars. And it doesn't match 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:45.960 the talking points. Not at all. The administration 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:48.639 claims foreign countries pay the tariffs. The 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.299 Keel data shows that American consumers and businesses 00:08:51.299 --> 00:08:54.759 are paying 96 % of the cost. It's basically a 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:56.679 sales tax. And who is getting hit the hardest? 00:08:57.419 --> 00:09:00.289 Farmers. They're getting squeezed from both sides. 00:09:00.529 --> 00:09:03.070 Higher costs for equipment and retaliatory tariffs 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:05.289 cutting off their export markets. The report 00:09:05.289 --> 00:09:08.870 lists some specific states. Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.950 North Carolina, Ohio, Texas. Not random states. 00:09:12.409 --> 00:09:14.789 Those are the Senate battlegrounds for the 2026 00:09:14.789 --> 00:09:18.090 midterms. If farmers in Iowa and Ohio turn on 00:09:18.090 --> 00:09:20.830 the GOP over this, the Senate is in play. It's 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:23.470 history rhyming. The notes mention that old song 00:09:23.470 --> 00:09:26.669 from 1890, all on account of the tariff. Exactly. 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:29.669 In 1890, the Republicans were wiped out in the 00:09:29.669 --> 00:09:32.190 midterms because of a tariff. The song went, 00:09:32.590 --> 00:09:34.970 the Republicans this year have gone up the spout, 00:09:35.330 --> 00:09:37.350 all on account of the tariff. Democrats are betting 00:09:37.350 --> 00:09:40.309 2026 will be a repeat. And the voting data we 00:09:40.309 --> 00:09:42.990 have seems to back that bet up. The special election 00:09:42.990 --> 00:09:45.850 numbers look pretty grim for the GOP. They really 00:09:45.850 --> 00:09:48.029 do. Special elections are like the canary in 00:09:48.029 --> 00:09:50.269 the coal mine. And we're seeing it consistent. 00:09:51.050 --> 00:09:53.570 a double -digit shift toward Democrats compared 00:09:53.570 --> 00:09:56.009 to 2024. Not one or two percent. We're talking 00:09:56.009 --> 00:09:58.190 swings of 20 or 30 points in some districts. 00:09:58.309 --> 00:10:00.789 That's massive. And when you look at the demographics, 00:10:01.169 --> 00:10:03.409 something surprising is happening with non -college 00:10:03.409 --> 00:10:06.309 -educated voters. This is the key metric. We've 00:10:06.309 --> 00:10:08.409 known for years that college -educated voters 00:10:08.409 --> 00:10:10.470 have been moving away from the Manjé movement. 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:13.059 But the bedrock was always the non -college voter. 00:10:13.580 --> 00:10:15.960 Now disapproval in that group is breaking 50%. 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.759 That's the firewall cracking. It is. If you lose 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:20.779 the suburbs and you start losing your working 00:10:20.779 --> 00:10:23.120 class base, the math just becomes impossible. 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:25.580 So facing all this, how is the White House responding? 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.480 You'd expect a pivot, right? Instead, we got 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:31.000 a paper titled, Don't Be a Panikin, We're Winning. 00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:33.960 Don't be a panikin. Seriously. I wish I was making 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.879 it up. And the source material makes this brilliant 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:40.309 comparison to... Joe DiMaggio. The baseball player. 00:10:40.529 --> 00:10:43.470 Yes. When he retired, he insisted his contract 00:10:43.470 --> 00:10:45.929 require him to be introduced as the greatest 00:10:45.929 --> 00:10:49.330 living ballplayer. And the point is, you know, 00:10:49.529 --> 00:10:51.570 Babe Ruth didn't need a clause like that. Right. 00:10:51.730 --> 00:10:54.470 If you have to demand that people say, you are 00:10:54.470 --> 00:10:57.789 winning, you probably aren't winning. It's the 00:10:57.789 --> 00:11:00.899 any man who must say, I am the king. is no true 00:11:00.899 --> 00:11:03.940 king rule. It just reeks of insecurity. It does. 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:06.759 Which brings us to the final and maybe most bizarre 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:08.960 battlefield, the culture war. We've talked laws 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:11.340 and money, but now we have to talk about the 00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:13.220 Super Bowl. This is where the battle for reality 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:16.500 gets petty, but also really revealing. The administration 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:18.759 made a huge deal out of the ratings, claiming 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:20.700 a drop in viewership was because of the woke 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:23.139 agenda. Right. They put out a graphic comparing 00:11:23.139 --> 00:11:27.830 2024 non -woke to 2025 woke. And Nielsen did 00:11:27.830 --> 00:11:30.750 report 124 .9 million viewers, which is down 00:11:30.750 --> 00:11:32.809 a bit. So on the surface they have a data point. 00:11:33.070 --> 00:11:35.610 But if you actually zoom in on the numbers, the 00:11:35.610 --> 00:11:38.649 narrative... completely collapses. It just dissolves. 00:11:38.950 --> 00:11:41.450 The peak viewership of the entire broadcast was 00:11:41.450 --> 00:11:45.269 137 .8 million people. And when did that peak 00:11:45.269 --> 00:11:47.190 happen? During the halftime show? During the 00:11:47.190 --> 00:11:49.509 halftime show starring Bad Bunny. The very thing 00:11:49.509 --> 00:11:52.129 they labeled woke and claimed was driving people 00:11:52.129 --> 00:11:54.149 away was actually the moment the most people 00:11:54.149 --> 00:11:56.529 were watching. So the ratings dropped because 00:11:56.529 --> 00:11:59.090 the game was a blowout, not because of the culture 00:11:59.090 --> 00:12:01.509 war. Exactly. But the political narrative required 00:12:01.509 --> 00:12:04.200 the drop to be ideological. You even had Republican 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:06.559 Congressman Andy Ogles calling the halftime show 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:10.240 porn. Wow. It just suggests that the silent majority 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:11.679 might actually just want to watch football and 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:13.759 listen to pop music. But while the Super Bowl 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:16.039 stuff is arguably funny, what's happening in 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:18.659 the national parks is it's really disturbing. 00:12:18.779 --> 00:12:21.039 This isn't just spinning ratings. This is physical 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.419 erasure. This is the part of the deep dive that 00:12:23.419 --> 00:12:26.679 actually worried me the most. We are seeing a 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:29.820 concerted effort to use the National Park Service 00:12:29.820 --> 00:12:35.409 to curate history. The example in Philadelphia 00:12:35.409 --> 00:12:37.590 at Independence National Historical Park. What 00:12:37.590 --> 00:12:40.210 happened there? There were exhibits discussing 00:12:40.210 --> 00:12:43.190 the role of enslaved people in constructing those 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:45.549 historic buildings. It's a factual part of the 00:12:45.549 --> 00:12:48.169 site's history. The administration ordered them 00:12:48.169 --> 00:12:49.990 removed. And they didn't replace them with something 00:12:49.990 --> 00:12:53.990 else. No. The report describes empty bolt holes 00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:56.850 and darkened spots on the wall where the plaques 00:12:56.850 --> 00:13:01.070 used to be. That image of empty bolt holes, that's 00:13:01.070 --> 00:13:03.289 powerful. It's not just that the information 00:13:03.289 --> 00:13:05.950 is gone. The scar of the removal is left behind. 00:13:06.049 --> 00:13:08.250 It's a very literal whitewashing. And it's happening 00:13:08.250 --> 00:13:10.389 at Stonewall, too, where they ordered the removal 00:13:10.389 --> 00:13:13.809 of rainbow flags. And then President Trump announced 00:13:13.809 --> 00:13:16.350 he's installing a statue of Christopher Columbus 00:13:16.350 --> 00:13:18.889 at the White House. And not just any Columbus 00:13:18.889 --> 00:13:22.389 statue. No, he's dredging up the specific statue 00:13:22.389 --> 00:13:24.509 that was thrown into the Baltimore harbor by 00:13:24.509 --> 00:13:27.289 protesters back in 2020. He's giving it a place 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:29.570 of honor. It's a signal. It's not just domestic 00:13:29.570 --> 00:13:31.870 history either. There's this incident with Vice 00:13:31.870 --> 00:13:34.870 President J .D. Vance in Armenia. Right. Vance 00:13:34.870 --> 00:13:37.370 visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial, did the 00:13:37.370 --> 00:13:39.909 standard thing, tweeted about honoring the victims 00:13:39.909 --> 00:13:43.509 of the 1915 genocide. A historical fact recognized 00:13:43.509 --> 00:13:47.379 by the U .S. government. But he deleted it. Presumably 00:13:47.379 --> 00:13:50.620 to avoid offending Turkey. So you have empty 00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:53.159 bolt holes where slavery history was, missing 00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:56.220 flags where gay rights history was, and deleted 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:58.799 tweets where genocide history was. It feels like 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:01.639 if a fact is inconvenient, you just hit delete 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:04.600 on a computer or on a wall. But this brings us 00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:07.000 back to the Streisand effect. The sources argue 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:09.419 those empty bolt holes in Philadelphia might 00:14:09.419 --> 00:14:11.539 end up speaking louder than the exhibits ever 00:14:11.539 --> 00:14:14.419 did. When you blatantly remove something, you 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:17.080 invite people to ask, what was there and why 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:19.059 didn't you want me to see it? The silence becomes 00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:21.980 the noise. Exactly. And that's the thread connecting 00:14:21.980 --> 00:14:24.000 all these stories, whether it's the grand jury 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:26.820 refusing to indict, the judge dissenting on detention, 00:14:27.019 --> 00:14:30.179 or the vote. swinging away, reality is stubborn. 00:14:30.539 --> 00:14:31.940 The administration can say they're winning, they 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:34.440 can say the Super Bowl failed, but the data and 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:36.440 the people seem to be saying, no, we can see 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:38.659 with our own eyes. That is the friction. You 00:14:38.659 --> 00:14:41.980 can litigate reality, you can spin it, but eventually 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:44.440 the actual cost of tariffs hits your wallet, 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:47.019 the actual votes get counted, and the actual 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:49.860 history remains. So for you listening, why does 00:14:49.860 --> 00:14:52.659 this matter? Why care about a grand jury in D 00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:56.299 .C. or a statue in Baltimore? It matters because 00:14:56.299 --> 00:14:59.190 we're in a moment where your own perception is 00:14:59.190 --> 00:15:02.490 under siege. The gap between the official version 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:04.789 and the observed version of America is getting 00:15:04.789 --> 00:15:07.570 wider. You have to verify what you're seeing. 00:15:08.190 --> 00:15:09.409 And there's a final question I want to leave 00:15:09.409 --> 00:15:12.169 you with. We've seen them try to edit the past, 00:15:12.509 --> 00:15:15.029 the slavery exhibits, the genocide recognition. 00:15:15.649 --> 00:15:18.129 If they are willing to alter the physical evidence 00:15:18.129 --> 00:15:20.509 of history that has already happened, what are 00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:22.679 they doing to the present? That's the scary part. 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:25.500 If history is being rewritten in real time, what 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:27.399 current events are being edited before they even 00:15:27.399 --> 00:15:29.419 make it into the record books? Something to think 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:31.779 about. We'll keep watching the bolt holes. Thanks 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:33.200 for diving in with us. See you next time.