Executive Disorder: ICE in Minneapolis, Greenland, DAVOS, Iran & Syria

Summary

It Could Happen Here: Executive Disorder – ICE in Minneapolis, Greenland, DAVOS, Iran & Syria

Podcast: It Could Happen Here
Host: Cool Zone Media & iHeartPodcasts
Release Date: January 23, 2026

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Overview

This episode of It Could Happen Here delivers a whirlwind analysis of the week spanning January 14th–21st, 2026. Led by Garrison Davis with James Stout, Mia Wong, Robert Evans, and Margaret Killjoy, the team covers a cascade of escalating crises: ongoing ICE violence and mass protests in Minneapolis, tense troop movements and the bizarre U.S.-EU standoff over Greenland, and updates on international flashpoints including Syria and Iran. All of it is filtered through the show's darkly comic but deeply engaged lens—a chronicle of state brutality, grassroots resistance, and political absurdity at home and abroad.

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Key Topics and Segment Timestamps

1. ICE Raids and Community Response in Minneapolis (05:01–18:21)

• ICE Shooting Incident Breakdown (05:05–11:25)

  • ICE attempted a traffic stop that escalated into a car chase and foot pursuit. A bystander (Julio Caesar Sosa Sales) was shot by ICE agents under unclear circumstances.
  • Differing accounts: FBI affidavit vs. family’s live-stream and CNN report sharply conflict.

  “At this point my default assumption is that absent other information, they are not telling the truth.” — Mia Wong (09:51)

• Difficulties of Reporting and Lack of Accountability (08:41–10:55)

  • ICE officers largely unaccountable due to lack of bodycams and rapid incident escalation.
  • Recent pattern: “Last three shootings that we've gotten, like, the federal agents lied about what happened. And we got the videos later on and it showed that they were lying about it.” — Mia Wong (09:44)

• Community Mobilization and State Response (11:25–16:21)

  • Mass arrests, protests, National Guard mobilized. Both the mapping of public anger and the serious blurring of lines between Army and law enforcement.
  • 1,500 soldiers from Alaska’s 11th Airborne Division on standby, which sparked Greenland conspiracy speculation.
  • On-the-ground reflections: The entire city is united in resistance, with grassroots neighborhood watch and mutual support across demographic lines.

  “I have never seen a more united city in my life.” — Margaret Killjoy (14:19) “The actual story ... is this horizontal organizing and this, like, feeling of togetherness.” — Garrison Davis (15:46)

• Religious/Rights Angle and Protests at Churches (12:58–14:08)

  • A protest at a church whose pastor was identified as head of local ICE field office.
  • DOJ threatens charges under the FACE Act and the Klan Act—weaponizing civil rights law against protestors, notably including BLM and journalist Don Lemon.

2. Operation Metro Surge and ICE’s Political Justification (21:12–22:28)

• Surge in Minnesota justified as targeting supposed COVID relief fraud among Somali immigrants.

• Stark contrast noted: as ICE chases “fraudsters,” Trump simultaneously pardons high-level white collar criminals.

  “As ICE is currently hoping to get to the bottom of this fraud problem in Minnesota, just this past week, Trump has pardoned at least 11 white collar fraudsters.” — Garrison Davis (22:01)

3. Tensions Over Greenland: US, NATO, and the “Trade Bazooka” Crisis (25:31–49:11)

• Backdrop: European NATO forces send troops to Greenland as Arctic Endurance exercise, flexing readiness to hold Arctic territory without US oversight. Trump reacts with tariffs, escalating to a near trade war with the EU.

  “Basically... it's kind of unclear the details of this deal. He’s saying that it's a big permanent thing ... but it’s also Donald Trump, so we could be in a very different position tomorrow.” — Robert Evans (26:27)

• Diplomatic Farce and Released Texts (29:17–32:05)

  • Trump’s petulant and sometimes incoherent messages to European leaders (notably Norway and France) selectively released, showing both childish grievance (“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace...”) and open confusion among allies.

  “Imagine sending your situationship this text and then he just posts it on True Social. Yeah, it’s so violating.” — Garrison Davis (31:35)

• Strategic Importance of Greenland (32:43–36:26)

  • US interest dates to WWII, currently hosts a major Space Force base.
  • Changing climate increases Arctic’s strategic value—warming seas and new naval routes.

  “It’s really well located ... Now that that’s not going to be a problem because the world’s warming…Greenland has much more, a much higher, like, strategic value...” — Robert Evans (33:35)

• Trump’s Leverage Campaign: Threats, Tariffs, and the EU’s “Trade Bazooka” (38:25–45:52)

  • Trump oscillates between threats and retreat on tariffs. EU prepared to retaliate with both targeted and “nuclear option” trade measures designed to directly hit US exports and even threaten the dollar’s reserve currency status.
  • “Trade Bazooka”: sweeping anti-coercion tool with potential to shut down entire US-EU trade or legal protections—unprecedented, designed only for existential crises.

  “These measures, if they went into effect, would be more serious than Liberation Day tariffs...once they're targeted, it can kind of do whatever you want it to do...” — Mia Wong (44:02)

• The Dollar’s Reserve Status as a Weapon (47:09–48:38)

  • For the first time, serious mainstream talk about the EU dumping US treasuries and challenging the dollar’s supremacy, previously only discussed by fringe academics and radicals.

  “Up until yesterday...the only people I have ever seen actually say this...are, you know, I mean, economists who I like...But now you have Deutsche bank analysts saying it.” — Mia Wong (47:55)

4. Davos and the Fiction of the “Rules-Based International Order” (52:03–56:28)

• Canadian PM Mark Carney’s Davos Speech: (52:44–54:26)

  • A rare moment of candor from the center: Carney explicitly calls out the obvious hypocrisy of global governance, noting the US’s selective respect for “rules” and growing use of economic integration as a weapon.

  “We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient…This fiction was useful.” — Mark Carney (52:55)

  “It’s really remarkable to hear the political leader of Canada being like, it was always very clearly a lie.” — Robert Evans (54:28)

• Trump at Davos: Farce and Gaffes (56:34–59:23)

  • Trump repeatedly confuses Greenland and Iceland (“they called me Daddy”), prompting spin from press secretary (badly) and bemused derision from the panel.
  • Multiple instances of Trump referencing WWII and “if it weren’t for the US, you'd all be speaking German and maybe a little Japanese.”

  “He is really. He’s our funniest president, by a wide margin. Evil. But he’s so funny.” — Robert Evans (59:23)

5. War Updates: Iran and Syria (60:01–69:00)

• Iranian Protest Crackdown Intensifies (60:01–60:45)

  • Hundreds of casualties recently confirmed by leaked mortuary images.
  • Families forced to rifle through horrific photos of victims to identify missing loved ones.

• Syria: Rojava Under Threat (60:46–67:41)

  • Explosive violence: Turkish-backed forces and flip by former SDF tribal fighters lead to swift territorial losses, mass executions, and threats of ethnic cleansing.
  • Kurdish unity across political divides reminiscent of the 2014–15 defense of Kobani.
  • Fears grow that this is devolving from military struggle into interethnic war, massively exacerbated by misinformation, propaganda, and lack of international awareness or response.

  “I have not since Kobani have you seen more unity of Kurdish people regardless of politics.” — James Stout (65:04) “To see more killing and dying there is heartbreaking for me.” — James Stout (67:41)

• US Domestic Update (67:43–69:00)

  • ICE is now apparently entering homes with only administrative, not judicial, warrants—a significant and chilling expansion of removal powers.

  “We will likely be seeing more violence here as well. Yay.” — James Stout (68:00)

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• On ICE and Truth:
  “At this point my default assumption is that absent other information, they are not telling the truth.” — Mia Wong (09:51)

• On Minneapolis’ Community Solidarity:
  “I have never seen a more united city in my life.” — Margaret Killjoy (14:19)

• On Trump’s reaction to the ICE killing:
  “It’s interesting that he seems to be capable of being legitimately upset at the thought of one of his fans not liking him anymore...even though his secret police murdered that guy’s daughter. That’s fascinating.” — Robert Evans (20:01)

• On the Fiction of “Rules-Based Order”:
  “We knew...the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically...This fiction was useful...This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” — Mark Carney, Canadian PM (52:55–54:26)

• On Davos Absurdity:
  “He is really. He’s our funniest president, by a wide margin. Evil. But he’s so funny.” — Robert Evans (59:23)

• On the Escalation in Syria:
  “What people have gone through in Syria already is too much and like, to see more killing and dying there is heartbreaking for me.” — James Stout (67:41)

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Closing Reflections

The tone throughout is a blend of pitch-black political humor and earnest solidarity. The hosts hammer the continuity between state power—in both its existential farce and anti-migrant brutality—and the resilience found in community. They end with fundraising links for aid to displaced people in Kurdistan and Minneapolis, and a reminder that behind every international chess game and sound bite are ordinary people fighting simply to stay alive.

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Further Listening / Links

• [Interview from inside Iran referenced at 60:46]
• [Kurdish mutual aid fund linked at 68:00]
• [Minneapolis protester fundraiser linked at 68:00]

Contact the show at CoolZoneTips on Protonmail for encrypted messaging.

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Transcript

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Media.

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What's getting assaulted by federal agents. We don't.

[B]

I love when we start episodes both Sleepy and I'm Wired.

[D]

I'm awake. I'm wide awake, baby. I'm a wide awake. Start, will you. We already started. We already started. We have. This is Executive Disorder.

[B]

This is. It could happen here. Executive Disorder, Our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, the crumbling world and what it means for you. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by James Stout, Mia Wong, Robert Evans, and Margaret Killjoy. This episode, we are covering the week of January 14th to January 21st.

[D]

You know, a lot of news organizations don't go woot woot.

[A]

Yeah, it's wild.

[C]

They're cowards.

[D]

Fucked up.

[A]

That's because they don't drink faygo.

[D]

I know. That's right. The official beverage of journalism.

[A]

This episode is presented by Four Loko. Actually, Margaret, you're. You're not allowed to.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Speaking of drinking, actually, we will start this episode with a big glass of whole milk. Everyone has one, right? Let's all go up at the same time.

[A]

We'll finish it as we leave for the toilet.

[B]

There we go. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Whole milk.

[D]

I drink a gallon every hour.

[B]

We are not sponsored by the dairy lobby. There's nothing fishy going on whatsoever. We're all drinking whole milk now.

[D]

Not at all. Not at all. Garrison Heifer Davis.

[A]

He even.

[D]

Even Margaret.

[A]

Yeah. Who's been a vegan for how many decades?

[D]

Look, you can be a vegan and still have a lot of money in the dairy industry, Sophie.

[B]

Well, all I'm saying is that if I increase my meat diet by 25%, it will stay the same.

[D]

Look, that's accurate, statistically.

[B]

We love that math humor. Yeah.

[D]

And also, thanks to some of the new changes in the way the Food and Drug Administration works, I can guarantee you that American whole milk has almost no dairy in it. It's mostly chalk and baby laxative. Just like our heroin.

[A]

I have a theory about this. Can I share my Vogue theory? I think the grand unifying principle about which we could bring American people together is that there are too many milks. Everyone agrees on this principle.

[D]

That's right.

[B]

This is what should take over from class. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Milks.

[B]

The great unifying milk principle. The milk reductionist.

[D]

You know what place loves milk? Minnesota.

[B]

Yeah. Let's turn to Minneapolis. The continuing ICE raids and the fallout from ICE killing Renee Goode. On Wednesday, January 14th, ICE agents attempted to pull over a vehicle whose tag was registered to someone illegally in the country. The driver was not the Owner of the vehicle and tried to evade arrest. After a 15 to 20 minute car chase, the driver crashed into a light pole but continued to run on foot. The man ran towards a nearby apartment building with agents now chasing on foot, catching up with him after the man tripped and fell. A federal affidavit claims that another man watching from a porch named Julio Caesar Sosa Sales used a broom to assault the agents while an unnamed individual hit the agents with a snow shovel. After the man they were chasing freed himself, one of the ICE agents fired his pistol hitting Sosa Sales, who was then hospitalized with a non life threatening injury. This information is from an FBI report which contradicts initial statements made by DHS which claim that ICE was conducting a targeted traffic stop for Julius Caesar Sosa Sales, a Venezuelan national.

[D]

Cool. I think it's worth noting that this is essentially ICE shooting the guy who saves the day at the end of Home Alone. Just as a. As a quick note, that's all I've got to say.

[C]

So we haven't gotten very much good information about the shooting that's not from the government. What we do have is there is a live stream Facebook video of some of the 911 call that the family members made. And I'm just going to quote from CNN here. In the video, the family tells a 911 dispatcher that Agent shot Sosacelles as he tried to enter his home. They were following my husband for about 30 minutes. They were trying to crash into him. He arrived at home and because we closed the door to them, they shot him. A woman can be heard telling the dispatcher it's not clear who is speaking or whether Sosacellus is the person referred to as being followed. So that's the only kind of independent thing that we have on this right now. Which also significantly contradicts the story that they got attacked by a guy with a snow shovel.

[B]

I mean, I don't think it necessarily contradicts that there was a shovel getting moved in the direction of an ICE agent at some point.

[A]

Right. Attacked as a. Yeah.

[D]

It may have just been a guy trying to create distance and space between himself and an armed man. Yeah.

[A]

Knocked it over as he ran past it. Right. And then they tripped over it.

[D]

Like there's a wide variety of things that police officers have framed as I was assaulted with this. And then if you look at the video, it does not look like someone assaulting a police officer.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

It might have just literally been a.

[B]

Snow shovel on the porch, honestly.

[D]

Or they might have assaulted a police officer. I don't care either way. I'm just saying we don't know what happened.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The main report, which is in federal court documents that were unsealed on Tuesday have this FBI agent giving his report based on his knowledge of the incident, which had ICE chasing someone. Then bystanders used a broom and a shovel to try to get the agents off. A man who was tackled on the ground. One ICE agent deflected a shovel blow and it created a small gash in his hand. The man that they were chasing was able to like free himself from being held. And as that man was running away, an agent fired a pistol. That is the FBI's most detailed report that we have at the moment.

[A]

Yeah, sure. And like we can't categorically say what happened.

[C]

Right.

[A]

You can't report on law enforcement testimony as your only source or you shouldn't.

[D]

Yeah, sure, shouldn't.

[A]

I guess I can say that like I'm in Minneapolis right now.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And so is Margaret. You're comfortable with me saying you're also in Minneapolis?

[B]

It's true.

[A]

I am in Minneapolis right now. Yeah. Co located, as they say. It is very hard to report on these things because essentially they happen extremely quickly.

[D]

Right.

[A]

And like on almost every corner in most of the dense urban parts of town, there are people hanging out, just trying to keep their neighbors safe. And these things happen so fast that big crowds aren't even able to gather for the most part. If you combine that with the fact that these ICE agents generally aren't wearing body worn cameras, you're only going to get a couple of accounts and it's going to end up in a he said, she said.

[D]

Right, right.

[A]

And then they're going to go with the law enforcement testimony, which is what they want. Exactly.

[C]

Yep. And I think it is also worth noting that the last three shootings that we've gotten, like the federal agents lied about what happened.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And we got the videos later on and it showed that they were lying about it.

[D]

So at this point my default assumption is that absent other information, they are not telling the truth.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Also they're framing the agent's framing his decision to fire as related to being afraid of his life. And in the document, his, the, the, the fear would be based on the presence of a broom handle and a shrub based fear.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

So it is a, it is a broom based assault that he cites as the reason that he fired.

[A]

Yeah. It's someone running away. Right.

[C]

And the woman who says that her son was the one being pursued by ICE I'm just going to read the quote here because this is something that does directly contradict the testimony. But in an interview with cnn, Mabel Adjourna, the mother of Alfredo Alejandro Algerno disputed both of those claims on the basis of her connection with her son. Immediately after the shooting, Aljorna said her son told her he was the one being pursued on foot by ICE and that the other guy was already inside the building when the agent shot him. Not outside where I said the agent fired the shot.

[A]

Geez. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. So that's the testimony that we have that's not from the ICE people. And I think we'll. We'll figure out in the coming weeks, like, what happened.

[A]

Yeah. Maybe.

[B]

Maybe three people were arrested after this incident. The person they were chasing, who they have claimed is two different people at some point. The man that Mia just referenced, as well as the person who was shot. And there's also this third individual who is allegedly the shovel wielder.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which is not named in the FBI affidavit.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But all of these three people have been arrested.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

During a protest that same night, dozens of people broke into two parked FBI vehicles finding challenge coins and US Marshal documents. One person has been arrested for stealing a rifle from one of the vehicles.

[D]

Bad challenge coins. Much safer.

[A]

Much safer to take.

[B]

On Saturday, Governor Walls mobilized the Minnesota National Guard and placed them on standby to assist local law enforcement. If deployed, the Guard will be wearing yellow reflective vests to distinguish themselves from federal forces.

[D]

Yeah, that's. This is an interesting moment in and of itself. Just the acknowledgment from the. Both the military command and the governor that, like, yeah, you can't tell the difference between a soldier and a cop anymore. Like, we have to do this so that people don't think the army is the police.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Right.

[A]

And it's a very, like, Ouroboros moment, too, because you have just, like, the.

[B]

Cops are dressing up like the soldiers, so the soldiers are like, oh, well.

[A]

I guess we gotta change how we dress now.

[D]

Yeah. This could actually fuck up our ability to carry out our mission.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Further complicating matters, 1500 soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wayneworth in Alaska have been placed on standby, with Pentagon officials telling CBS News that they are preparing to deploy to Minneapolis due to the 11th Airborne Division's Arctic forte. There has also been public speculation that this activation may be related to rising tensions over Greenland. But that has no basis based on what officials are saying at the moment.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

A Sunday protest in St. Paul disrupted a church service because protesters believe that one of the pastors is also the head of the St. Paul Ice Field office, David Easterwood. Easterwood's profile on the church's website does appear to match the identity of the head of the local icefield office. Later that day, Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement, quote, attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law, unquote. The Department of Justice announced that it was launching an investigation into the protesters, including TV journalist Don Lemon, who was streaming inside the church for possible violations of the FACE act, which makes it a federal crime to interfere with people trying to access reproductive clinic services or exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of worship. Harmet Dillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, has also invoked the Klan act as a justification to bring conspiracy charges against protest attendees. Darkly ironic since this very protest was partially put on by Black Lives Matter Minnesota.

[A]

Yeah, that's also particularly wild given, like, we've been driving around today and seen multiple churches with like, ice go home kind of messaging. Obviously those people are not going to be protected in the same way. Right. If they choose to take care of migrants. Like, I don't think I've seen any churches with like, anything other than that messaging in our time. Cruising around today, I haven't seen any pro ICE messaging anywhere, any pro Trump messaging, period. I have never seen a more united city in my life. Yeah, it's genuinely remarkable, like, to see people whose I don't think they would, like, identify as having radical politics, but they are, like, out standing on street corners in the freezing cold just to try and keep their neighborhood safe.

[B]

Yeah, this is the warmer day of.

[A]

The week and I went and got.

[B]

All this, like, extra snow gear and.

[A]

I live in the mountains, right? That is like where I live.

[B]

And I'm standing there in most of my, like, extra snow gear and everyone's like, today's the warm day, everything's fine. And I'm like, I need to get inside soon.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[D]

I will die.

[C]

Welcome to Minnesota winter. It's time.

[B]

We're Talking to a 76 year old with no hat on.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

20 degrees.

[A]

Incredible. Incredible. Warmed by pure anger.

[C]

I mean, that is warm.

[A]

She was ready to take on the world. It was really, it was genuinely, really wonderful to see. Like, we went out, we talked to these people for a while while some folks stopped by and insisted on feeding everyone. It's really nice to see a community entirely in lockstep taking care of one another and I feel like, to me.

[B]

So far, the actual headline around Minneapolis is that obviously there's these instances of really horrific violence coming from the state.

[A]

Or coming from the federal government.

[B]

But the actual story that, so far.

[A]

The people we've talked to want to.

[B]

Get across is this. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Journalists come here and just want to cover all the bad stuff that's happened here. But this horizontal organizing and this, like, feeling of togetherness. And also, more than anything else, like, I think even when you talk about the bad thing that's happening, it's federal occupation.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And, like, people are very, very aware of the fact that this is an outside force occupying the city and it. And so even, like, anything that's happening.

[A]

Like, individual bad actions taken by the.

[B]

Federal police, I think it needs to be understood that, like, no one here is buying any other line besides. No, this outside force is here to steal our neighbors.

[D]

Right.

[B]

And us.

[A]

You'll go past, like, fancy coffee shops and random, like, businesses. Like, I've seen businesses before having signs that say, like, refugees welcome. We cherish our migrant neighbors. But the ones here also say, like, ice, get out of town. Ice, go home. We don't want you here. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like. Like, people are not having it to a degree, which, like, I don't think I've seen. You know, I wasn't in Chicago during the time that ICE were there. Was in Los Angeles. But, like, every neighborhood here feels like the neighborhood sort of most in lockstep in those cities. Every neighborhood we've been to. Right. Like, in heavily Latino neighborhoods where I live. Yeah. Everyone's watching out for each other. And in San Diego, that is. But, like, here in every single neighborhood, everyone is watching out for each other, from what we've seen. And, like, it is folks of every age and demographic standing on street corners in the freezing cold, just pulling a shift to keep an eye out. It's remarkable. Yeah. I was like, there's no way.

[B]

People are like, oh, every neighborhood has, like, a neighborhood watch. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know.

[A]

There's, like, two people per neighborhood wandering.

[B]

At any given time. Like, I was like, how can you watch a whole city? And, like, oh, the answer is everyone in the city does it.

[A]

Yeah. That's a story that I want people to take from this, is that, like, nobody here wants this. And they're not just, like, angry and going on the Internet. They're angry and getting to know their neighbors, going and organizing each other, taking care of one another and doing the Things that they can do to keep each other safe.

[B]

During Trump's 365 days in office press conference this past Tuesday, he discussed the killing of Renee Good and expressed hope that Good's parents would continue to support President Trump.

[D]

Let's watch. Amazing.

[A]

Yeah. Come on. I haven't seen it.

[B]

Well, you are unlucky enough to see it now.

[A]

No, let's do it live.

[D]

It's.

[B]

It's, it's gross. It's weird.

[A]

Garrison's booting up x.com the everything website, and, you know, they're going to make mistakes sometimes. Ice is going to be too rough.

[D]

With somebody, or, you know, they deal with rough people.

[A]

They're going to make a mistake.

[D]

Sometimes it can happen.

[A]

We feel terribly. I felt horribly when I was told that the young woman who was. Had the tragedy.

[D]

It's a tragedy.

[A]

It's a horrible thing.

[B]

Everybody would say Ice would say the same thing.

[D]

But when I learned, her parents, and.

[B]

Her father in particular is like, I.

[A]

Hope he still is, but I don't know. Was a tremendous Trump fan.

[D]

He was all for Trump, loved Trump. And, you know, it's terrible. I was told that by a lot of people.

[A]

They said, oh, he loves you.

[B]

He was.

[D]

I hope he still feels that way. I don't know. It's hard.

[B]

Hard situation. But her father was a tremendous. And parents were tremendous Trump fans.

[D]

It's so sad. It just happens.

[A]

It's terrible.

[D]

What is there even to say?

[A]

Yeah, what do you. How do you.

[B]

The fuck?

[D]

Yeah, it's interesting that he's. He seems to be capable of, like, legitimately being upset at the thought of one of his fans not liking him anymore.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Like, that's weird. The fact that he, like, he brings it up in a way that suggests, like, there's no artifice there. Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Like, that's, that's the. The genuineness of, like. Oh. He actually seems to be slightly disturbed at the thought of one of his fans no longer liking him, even though his secret police murdered that guy's daughter. That's fascinating. I. It doesn't change anything. Like, I don't know. There's nothing to do with that information, but it's a fascinating understanding. Donald Trump's mind. Data point.

[B]

Yeah. No, it is one of the weird things where you kind of see him be sincere and genuine briefly, but it's for such a fucking weird.

[D]

Such a weird thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Like, he understands that you're like, well, you know, maybe.

[B]

Maybe he doesn't like me anymore, but.

[A]

I hope he does. Yeah.

[D]

This would be a reason to change his opinion of me. But yeah, I murdered his child. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what else to say about that.

[A]

Yeah, I don't either.

[B]

So part of the whole reason why ICE is doing this operation in Minnesota, Operation Metro Surge, this was started in part due to allegations of COVID relief fraud among the Somali community in Minnesota. ICE director Todd Loynes went on Fox News earlier this month in the lead up to ICE's mass deployment to address this.

[A]

You know, one thing I, we're really.

[D]

Focused on is the fact that unfortunately.

[C]

With Minnesota's sanctuary laws and jurisdictions, it attracts these type of fraudsters.

[A]

It attracts people that do take money away from the hardworking Americans and the people of Minnesota. We, we want to help root out.

[C]

These people that are committing fraud. And you look at the billions of.

[D]

Dollars that potentially could have been stolen.

[A]

That could have gone to foreign terrorist.

[C]

Organizations that we're really focused on.

[D]

So we're hoping to get to the bottom of that.

[B]

So as ICE is currently hoping to get to the bottom of this fraud problem in Minnesota, just this past week, Trump has pardoned at least 11 white collar fraudsters.

[A]

I think we can all agree the biggest problem with that clip was the typo in ICE at the bottom where they Fox News didn't put the period after the E in ice, but they put the period after the I and the C. I think we can all agree.

[B]

Yeah, get on it, Todd. Actually, Fox News is hiring a, is hiring a graphic design position in New York right now. So if you want to apply to fix the GR fix.

[D]

See you later, losers.

[A]

Yeah, can you use Chad GPT? They probably did. Here's a job for you.

[B]

Yeah, let's go on break and then talk about, as Trump calls it, Iceland.

[A]

Jesus.

[B]

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And first off, if you need to tell the difference between Greenland and Iceland, just remember the words of wisdom from either the first or the second Mighty Ducks movie, right?

[A]

Quack, quack.

[D]

Greenland is icy and Iceland is nice. Is the way to remember the two.

[B]

Well, you can't spell nice without ice, Robert.

[A]

That's right. That's why they call it Niceland.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. That's how you tell the difference. That's a little tip for the President and everyone else.

[B]

I guess.

[D]

Trying to remember that's probably.

[B]

That's how I've known the difference my entire life. And it's almost certainly because of watching.

[A]

The Mighty Ducks movies.

[D]

The Mighty Ducks. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The Mighty Ducks films. Sorry.

[A]

Yeah. Shout out to my Iceland friends. I enjoyed Iceland very much.

[D]

Shout out to whoever made the Mighty Ducks. Yeah, I know. The knowledge of their creation has been lost in time.

[A]

It was actually the whole thing was actually a propaganda film by the Iceland, tourist industry, little known fact.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Big Iceland.

[D]

We are reporting this on the day that it looks like Donald Trump may have just blinked. He put up a truth, announcing that he had reached an arrangement with NATO and that tariffs would not be necessary against all of Western Europe. Basically, it's kind of unclear the details of this deal. He's saying that it's a big permanent thing. The US has sorted out its security needs. It doesn't seem like we're going to be invading Greenland, but, you know, it's also Donald Trump, so we could be in a very different position tomorrow. But that's kind of the big update right now.

[B]

Yeah, let's. Let's talk about kind of the lead up to this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Moment, I suppose.

[D]

Sure.

[B]

Multiple EU nations and Denmark have sent troops to Greenland the past two weeks for the Arctic Endurance military exercise aimed at countering Russian security threats and to demonstrate that European NATO countries have the capacity to defend Arctic territory without the U. S. Needing control over Greenland. Now, Trump took this military deployment as a personal slight and levied tariffs in retaliation. Posting on True Social quote, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland have journeyed to Greenland for purposes unknown. This is a very dangerous situation for the safety, security, and survival of our planet. Those countries who are playing this very dangerous game have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable. Therefore, it is imperative that in order to protect global peace and security, strong measures be taken so that this potentially perilous situation end quickly and without question, unquote. He then announced 10% tariffs against all of these nations, which would increase to 25% next month.

[D]

Yeah, I guess my gut feeling is, you know, tariff meno like it. But beyond that, this is kind of just what Trump does now, right? Is he threatens everyone with, like, whatever the nuclear option is short of the literal nuclear option, which in this case is nuking global trade, and then it kind of blows up in his face because the EU actually has the ability to collapse the dollar's status as a reserve currency. And the money wardens of the world are aware of that, which is why the DAO plunged 800 points yesterday and probably why Trump felt pressured to come to an accommodation with NATO. I don't know that he ever literally planned on invading, although at this point, I think you can't take that out of the equation. But, like, this is just what he does now, right? Like, none of this is it. Like, it's wild because he might have literally bombed a fucking NATO member. But I don't know what to say other than that.

[A]

Yeah. I can explain a little bit more about the unhinged series of messages that Donald Trump has been sending to various world leaders. God. We know about these because they have all been released.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Fantastic for planetary security.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Listing is Fred's text. What? Not just that. Right. The Norwegians released the text that was sent by him to the Norwegian Prime Minister.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Like the Norwegians, they're not normally like an impulsive nation.

[D]

That's not what people know the Norwegians for. No.

[A]

No. They don't make big swings on the international scale very, very much, but they have done this time. So I'm just going to quote right from his message to Norwegian Prime Minister, quote, considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars, plus plus is all in caps, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Then Trump released a text from Mark Rutter, the NATO Secretary General, that read, quote, Mr. President, dear Donald, what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. We will get onto that. Returning to the quote, I will use my media engagement to Davos to highlight your work there in Gaza and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can't wait to see you.

[B]

Do you have the French text as well? The French text, I do.

[A]

I don't have it in here, but yes, the Macron text message I'm more than happy to read because that one was pretty funny, actually. So we are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things in Iran. Interestingly, none of these sentences end with any punctuation.

[B]

No punctuation.

[A]

No punctuation. Macron.

[D]

Joicing it unnecessary, not helpful.

[A]

So I'll just read them in one continuous breath. I do not understand what you're doing on Greenland. Let us try to build great things. One, I can set up a G7G meeting after Davos in Paris on Thursday afternoon. I can invite the Ukrainians, the Danish, the Syrians and the Russians in the margins. Two, let us have a dinner together in Paris together on Thursday before you go back to the U.S. emmanuel. Lots of lowercase in there. Actually, none of the. None of the countries getting uppercase.

[B]

Imagine sending your situationship this text and then he just posts it on True Social. Yeah, it's so violating.

[D]

Well, that's. What's so weird to me is that this is almost word for word, the text I sent James last Week.

[A]

It's true. I've posted it on a new website.

[B]

Very odd. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenlit.

[A]

Yes. That sentence just floating on like, it's magnificent.

[D]

It's magnificent. And it's also like, yeah, that is fair enough. Basically, everyone feels like, man, I don't know what you're doing on Greenland. Like, what is actually happening here?

[A]

I mean, what do you do when.

[B]

Like, there's a petulant child who also.

[A]

Has a handgun or a nuke, you.

[B]

Know, and you're just like, shut up, kid.

[A]

Oh, wait, no, you could shoot me.

[B]

No, it's time for a nap.

[D]

Yeah. This is why I have like, you know how hotels have those like little sprinklers in the roof? I've got one of those just for CS gas. Yeah, yeah, Just to keep. Just to clear out the house in case, you know, you gotta calm everybody down. That's what we need for the country.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. We all need a little holiday. Let's talk about Greenland.

[D]

Right?

[A]

Greenland's a semi autonomous territory of Denmark. It was a colony and then over the 20th century, Greenlanders became Danish citizens. And now they have like this semi autonomous situation where they have a lot of home rule, but they are still part of Denmark. Denmark, of course, is part of the EU and of NATO. So therefore they are part of the EU and part of NATO.

[D]

Right.

[A]

As we said earlier, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK have all sent very small numbers of troops to the territory in the past couple of weeks. But the US is the one that has the most troops on Denmark. Right. Because the United States has a base. They've kept this base there since World War II. It was there in World War II because the Nazis occupied Denmark.

[D]

Right.

[A]

And then the United States garrison Greenland because it does have, like. They're not wrong in saying it has an important strategic position. Right where it is.

[D]

No, it's really well located. And the reality of, again, this is another mark in the column of, like, conservatives pretending climate change isn't real and acting based on the realities of climate change. Because of the warming oceans in that part of the world, it's going to become much more navigable. It used to not be as strategic because there was just less possibility of moving naval assets through the area. And now that that's not going to be a problem because the world's warming and there's going to be less ice there. Greenland has much more, a much higher, like, strategic value just in terms of, like, as a place to have, as a potential Naval choke point. Right.

[A]

Yeah. Are you saying that the people who.

[B]

Named it were actually being prescient? Ahead of the curve?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah, they were ahead of the curve. They weren't just trying to stop people from coming to Iceland.

[A]

They foresaw it in the runes.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

So the US it used to be called Tula Air Force Base. And essentially the US has the right, according to defense treaty with Greenland, to use Greenland to defend itself and to defend the Arctic.

[D]

Right.

[A]

So what they previously had there during. They kept the base during the Cold War because it was where they would be able to identify missile launches coming from the former Soviet Union or what was at the time the Soviet Union.

[D]

Right.

[A]

And then they could intercept from from there with their Air Force base. They now. It is now a Space Force base. Yeah.

[C]

Oh, my God.

[A]

It's now the Pitufix Space Force Base. Yeah. And the US can expand or garrison this base as it needs to.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Like, the majority of Greenland, it's all occupied.

[D]

Right.

[A]

But it is not like, I guess, urbanized or built upon. Right. The US could expand this base. It could add more assets to this base, but the United States has decided that it's not enough and that it needs total sovereignty over Greenland. So there are a few ways it could achieve that, and we should just be explicit about those. Right. The first is obviously by direct military action. That still seems relatively unlikely, but who knows these days?

[C]

Hopefully.

[A]

Yeah. There is an influence campaign that they're trying.

[D]

Right.

[A]

They're attempting to influence Greenlanders into wanting to become American. The polling data I've shown shows that Greenlanders do favor independence, but they do not favor joining the United States.

[D]

They wouldn't mind leaving Denmark also, overwhelmingly, when presented with a choice between the United States or Denmark, would prefer to remain part of Denmark.

[A]

Yeah. That situation right now, it's one that they don't want to go out the frying pan into the fire, so to speak. I guess. Yeah.

[D]

For reasons that make no sense to me as I text my friend about the doctor visit they can't afford.

[A]

Yeah. It's interesting seeing those interviews where they're like, why would we want that? We've seen what you people have for health care.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

This sucks.

[D]

What is the appeal of being American.

[A]

If Denmark has any spaces? California, you know, we'll join you. So.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

The other option would be to purchase it. Right. Which it's not on the cards. Like, Greenland is not for sale.

[D]

So. Yeah.

[A]

Mia, do you want to talk about this tariff campaign? They've been suggesting that they're going to leverage.

[D]

Wait a second. What's that? James? Did you say tariff?

[A]

Don't like it.

[D]

Rocking the chasm.

[A]

Rocking the chasm.

[D]

Rocky, Casper.

[A]

Rocky, Casper.

[C]

By God, it's Mia Wong's music.

[A]

Yeah, I bet you would have picked that. We asked Mia what she wanted. She wrote. It's amazing. She went into a room, she wrote down music notes on a piece of paper and she came out with something that turned out someone else had done it before.

[C]

Well, we couldn't license Barracuda, so this is what we got.

[D]

We actually were not trying to make a parody. This is one of the. Those things like the evolution of the bow and arrow. We just kind of independently recreated Rock the Kasbah, but based around tariffs from first principles.

[A]

It's the carcinization of songs.

[D]

That's right. Carcarlization of songs. All music becomes Rock the Kasbah. If you.

[A]

If you give it enough time, give it long enough. On the Galapagos Islands. That's why we sent Mia to write a song on. She was on the Galapagos Islands for a long time.

[D]

That's right.

[C]

Very nice there. So, speaking of things changing very, very quickly. So two days ago, as we are recording this, Trump was interviewed about these terrorists he was going to impose by. I think it was NBC, and he said, quote, I will 100%. It is now Wednesday and he has backed off of the tariffs tomorrow.

[D]

Truly, it's another day. Yeah. Who knows?

[C]

Who knows? I think it's kind of worth noting as of right now when we're recording this, everyone is kind of treating this as if this is over, but except for the German finance minister who said, quote, it's good. They are engaged in dialogue. We have to wait a bit and not get our hopes up so soon.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Which is significant.

[D]

That's. That's the smart play too.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

And this is significant because Germany, as we'll get to in a second Germany, has been one of the major EU countries that does not want to deploy what is being called, and I can't believe I'm saying this, the trade bazooka. So it's called the. Every single article today is called what is the trade bazooka.

[D]

It's okay. We're all asking ourselves that, aren't we?

[C]

Okay, so before we get to the trade bazooka, it's worth noting that in terms of the retaliation that has been being planned by the EU against the US for trying to do this, there's actually two different things on the table. One is a package of tariffs that we've actually talked about before on this show. That was the package of tariffs the EU developed as part of the trade negotiations. Well, basically, it was developed in response to Liberation Day tariffs. Last year, they'd been suspended as part of trade negotiations with the U.S. and the U.S. and the EU had finally reached an agreement. And then Trump said this, and the EU backed out. So who knows what the tariff status is going to be and if the EU and the US are going to continue to have come to this agreement that was supposed to stave these things. So these retaliatory tariffs were supposed to go into effect on February 7th. We had just negotiated it not coming in. These are a bunch of targeted tariffs on a bunch of US Goods that are specifically designed to hit red states. The most famous of these is, for example, there's. There's specific tariffs on, like, Kentucky bourbon and whiskey and stuff, but it also hits Boeing, a bunch of random consumer goods, which is like chewing gum. It's on roughly $100 billion of U.S. goods. I think the biggest pressure points here are Boeing in General Dynamics. There's tariffs on car companies. There's also very importantly, there was a 25% tariff in here on soybeans, which I think is a major leverage point because the US Continues to need a market to sell all the soybeans that China's not buying.

[D]

And, yeah, China ain't buying them right now. We just had another month where they bought none of our soybeans.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So these were the tariffs that the EU was going to put into effect on February 7th in response to the Greenland tariffs.

[C]

No. Okay, sorry. Let me. Let me back this up. This is a tariff measure that was originally designed back in May of last year in response to Trump's original right of tariffs.

[B]

A Liberation Day tariffs.

[C]

Yeah. So they've been suspended until now, and they were about to just not go into effect at all. However, the EU immediately has been like, okay, maybe we are going to impose these ones.

[B]

Ah, got it. Because of Trump's new. Because the Greenland leverage tariffs.

[C]

Yeah, I see. So this is. This is one of the two options. The EU has the other option, and this is. Okay. Getting those tariffs would be a little bit difficult, but that's significantly the more likely option. The other option, the thing you've been hearing about, which is the trade bazooka is.

[B]

Which was also my. My grinder screen name at the rnc, Trade bazooka. You either get it or you don't.

[C]

You can. This is great. This is great. Okay, so, all right, what is the trade Bazooka. We're just going to move past that.

[D]

That's what a lot of Republicans were asking themselves in 2024.

[A]

Oh, God. Google trending term in Minneapolis or wherever you go.

[C]

Okay, so the trade bazooka is an anti coercion instrument that was originally designed by the EU in the early 2000s as a response to some bullshit that China pulled with Lithuania over embassy stuff in Taiwan. It's a whole thing. I'm not going to explain it here, but these measures are, I think, maybe the most extraordinary measures that I've seen. These measures, if they went into effect, would be more serious than Liberation Day tariffs. They are very, very difficult to enact. They require 15 of the 27 EU members. There has to be an investigation process. There's a whole thing. And the negotiations have to actually break down. And this is where it's really difficult, because Germany in particular does not really seem to want to do this. However, Trump has played this very badly in the sense that two of his natural allies in the EU are the UK And Norway, who he just was threatening to leverage tariffs on.

[D]

Well, so the UK is not part of the EU anymore, but, yeah, well, forward.

[C]

Yeah, but those are his two European allies.

[D]

Right.

[C]

And the UK still has significant leverage inside of there. Now, what is interesting is that Macron has called for its deployment if. If Trump presses to, you know, move on Greenland. So the question sort of is, what does this thing do? And the short answer is everything. The long answer is incredibly long. And the medium answer is if you go read the document, I read it. I'm going to roughly base my description of what it can do on Will or Hale, which is a law firm's version of it. So there's 10 things they can do. They can put on tariffs. They can do import export restrictions on goods. They can impose trade restrictions in general. They can impose restrictions on government procurement and contracts and what goods are bought by governments. They can do services restrictions. They can do foreign direct investment restrictions. They can do restrictions on intellectual property. Right. Protections. They can do capital controls of financial services restrictions. They can do chemicals restrictions and, like, sanitary goods restrictions. So they can stop the U.S. from importing goods to the EU. They can prevent EU governments from giving contracts to U.S. companies or buying anything from the U.S. they can restrict American intellectual property rights, which I don't even know what that would do.

[B]

I think that means that they can all pirate whatever they want.

[D]

Right?

[A]

Yeah. Right.

[B]

Like, I don't know that rules.

[A]

Spain did this for a long time.

[C]

Yeah, it's like, we're firing the Trade Bazooka and now you can use every Disney character.

[B]

Like, Disney would rise up, Up.

[D]

Yeah, just flood the market with, with Mickey Mouse pornography. That. That is, that is part of the EU's response package.

[B]

I mean, that. No, that, that already falls under fair use. Robert.

[D]

Not the way I do it. Garrison. Not the way I do it.

[C]

These are technically two different Mickey Mouses. Technically.

[D]

No, no, no, I, I've been very clear about which Mickey Mouse is in my pornography. So.

[C]

So the reason this is being called like the Trade Bazooka or the nuclear option is that. But the actual. Once this is enacted, which is very difficult, the actual limits on what they can do are almost nonexistent. They can, once they've targeted it, it can kind of do whatever you want it to do to the extent that they could, in theory, basically shut down all trade with the us.

[B]

Why didn't they call it the Trade Death Star?

[A]

I honestly, the bazooka's not thinking big.

[B]

Enough like that takes out a tank.

[C]

Jenny.

[A]

Widely.

[C]

I think it's being called the Bazooka because the people reporting on this haven't actually read it and have not thought through the implications of what this thing does, which is that, like, Jesus Christ.

[B]

The trade. Mutually Assured Destruction Device.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it's.

[B]

Is it Mutually Assured Destruction? Is that what this whole thing is built around?

[D]

Kind of. I mean, like. Yeah, because the EU's economy will also plunge. But.

[C]

Yeah, so this was originally designed around China specifically, but it's designed effectively as a nuke. Right. You're not supposed to have to ever get to the point where you're invoking it. It's designed to be a set of trade things that is so damaging that no one in their right mind would possibly risk it happening. Unfortunately, our president is Donald Trump.

[D]

Here we are.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So that's, that's, that's the sort of nuclear option here. I want to mention one other thing which Robert briefly touched on earlier, which is there's been a lot of discussion of a quote from a report by the guy who was Deutsche Bank's head of foreign exchange research, and he's talking about how much treasury bonds is owned by the eu.

[D]

I mean, a lot. There are primary treasury bond holders, Right, like the four in terms of foreign treasury bond holders.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Between that and stocks, it's like $8 trillion. Yeah.

[D]

And treasury bonds, by the way, the fact that the EU is like our primary foreign treasury bond holder, like treasury bonds and foreign countries holding them, is why the dollar is the reserve currency. It's why if you are wanting to like ransom someone or buy illegal guns and drugs anywhere in the world, they're more likely to use dollars than Euros. That is changing, you know, in the, in the international crime game. But the dollar is still the default foreign currency. People around the world need a currency that's universally valued. The dollar is, is the best bet. And it's because of how treasury bonds work. Right. Like that's, I'm oversimplifying, but that's a big part of it. Yeah.

[C]

So, okay, I'm going to read the actual quote here. In an environment where the geo. Economic stability of the Western alliance is being disrupted existentially, it is not clear why Europeans would be willing to play this part. To translate this from like banking into what is he actually saying? What he is arguing here is that there is the potential for these countries to stop buying U.S. treasury bonds and effectively pull out of American assets. It's not quite that easy. But this, this, this would be the, what he's talking about is like, is the, is the end of the US Dollar as reserve currency. And he's also, very specifically, this is about the fact that the dollar status as reserve currency is a thing that is allowing the US Military to carry out these kind of operations.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Up until yesterday when he said this, the only people I have ever seen actually say this are, you know, I mean, economists who I like is people like David Hudson, David Graeber talks about this. But like this is a thing that you could only say if you were like a Marxist or an anarchist. And now you have Deutsche bank analysts saying it. And this is something that was impossible like two days ago that, that there would actually be serious discussion of, you know, using as a geopolitical tool like getting out of US treasury bonds, which means ending the US Dollar as a reserve currency. And this was a big enough deal that, that the US Secretary of the treasury is claiming that Deutsche bank called him to disavow the analysis.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

It's unclear if that's true or not. But this I think is one of the things that really panicked them in terms of why Trump backed off was there are multiple nuclear options that are being put on the table for the first time ever. And I think that that and the DAO route was enough to just panic them for at least one day and we'll see what tomorrow holds. But this is a really significant shift in what is able to be discussed in terms of reactions to what the US Is doing.

[D]

Well, you know what else is the United States.

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And we're back. All right. What what else we got to talk to? Anything else happen in the entire world?

[A]

I don't think so.

[B]

Yes, there actually, there is two more Davos things very briefly that I think we should to get to before we kind of end with some other updates on ongoing stories and situations that we've been covering on the pod for a while. But when Mia was talking about how this, this sort of analysis was only used by, you know, like Marxist or certain types of anarchists before that is now getting kind of paid lip service on a national stage, that reminded me a little bit of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Davos speech yesterday, which addressed some similar things on the fiction of the quote, rules based international order.

[A]

Christ.

[D]

Holy. I mean, I agree with that description of the rules based international order.

[A]

Mark, Connie's been reading my book.

[B]

Yeah, let's, let's, let's take a lesson.

[A]

We knew the story of the international rules based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or the victim. This fiction was useful. And American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes. So we placed the sign in the window, we participated in the rituals and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality. This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within the lie of mutual mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

[C]

Jesus Christ.

[D]

Yeah, it's really remarkable to hear the political leader of Canada being like, it was always very clearly a lie. The rules based international order where the United States exempted itself because it had power. But we pretended that this wasn't happening, acknowledging that we ignored them breaking the rules and because it was convenient for Canada.

[A]

Yeah, it totally worked out well for us until now.

[B]

It doesn't work out well for us anymore.

[C]

Like it was us invading a rock, it was fine. But now like, yeah, they might invade us one day.

[D]

So.

[B]

Oh, it's really interesting just totally pulling back the curtain on this type of neoliberalism here.

[D]

Yeah, I, I love too, every time you get someone who would never ever give, like anarchists or anarchist political theory the light of day, like independently come to a conclusion very late that is like, that anarchists have been yelling about for like, yes, it's a fiction. The rules based international order is a fiction. All the, like, everyone's playing lip service to these ideas, knowing the US has exempted itself because hiding behind the Big guy is convenient. But that's a bad idea. The thing that people who knew anything were saying when we invaded Iraq, which was, if you let them get away with this, no one will ever be safe life. That's the way. And all those people got pushed aside as like, no, you're just being hysteric. Like, you're just being like that. You don't have like a real understanding of, of politics and how it works. And the. There will never be any kind of reckoning of people being like, oh yeah, all of like the. All of the people who were like inconveniently critical were right 20 something years ago. They'll never say that, but it's fun to see them admit it, like, you know, kind of obliquely.

[A]

Yeah, it sounds like he's been reading Charles Tilly. It's kind of, kind of remarkable.

[B]

Carney did write this speech himself as something that he has come out and said that this was not like some speechwriter who's pulling from like whatever. Like, you know, neoliberal bookshelf is popular right now. Like, he specifically wrote this himself.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, he just cribbed from.

[B]

That book I read as a kid.

[A]

The emperor has no clothes like, or new clothes.

[B]

So before the announcement of this ambiguous Greenland deal, which neither the European authorities nor Trump has really given any details of yet. But before this, Trump did speak at Davos on Wednesday where he confused Greenland for Iceland and said that they called him, quote, unquote, Daddy.

[C]

God damn it.

[B]

Play the clip.

[A]

I'm helping Europe, I'm helping NATO.

[D]

And I've until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me.

[A]

They called me Daddy.

[B]

Right.

[D]

Last time.

[A]

Oh, God, very smart man. Said, he's our daddy. He's running it. I was like, running it. I went from running it to being a terrible human being.

[B]

Very cool, Mr. President.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Based on the reporting acknowledging that he multiple times, not just in this clip, said Iceland when he meant Greenland, Carolyn Levitt, the press secretary, responded by saying no. His written remarks referred to Greenland as a, quote, unquote, piece of ice, because that's what it is, unquote. So saying that he was Literally calling Greenland like an ice land. Anyway, the emperor's totally wearing clothes. I don't know what you're talking about.

[C]

What's that Mon Mothma quote about? They don't even bother to lie badly anymore.

[D]

Yeah. It's the final indignity. Yeah.

[B]

That's the worst excuse I've ever heard. It's incredible. Iceland.

[A]

I mean, you gotta. It's gotta be a remarkable thing to be in her position, right? And just be like, what the fuck am I gonna come up with? Like, how do I. What are we gonna spin here? Ice.

[D]

Pause.

[A]

Land.

[B]

Space. Land. Yeah, Land.

[D]

One word.

[B]

It's incredible.

[D]

Wait, you go, girl. Go off.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Later, at the CEO reception dinner, Trump said this.

[A]

Oh, God.

[B]

We got good reviews in that speech.

[D]

Usually they say he's a horrible dictator type person.

[A]

I'm a dictator, but sometimes you need a dictator.

[D]

But they didn't say that in this case. Sure, my guy, sure. Oh, man. Of course they didn't. I wonder why.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Multiple times during this speech, he was like, if it weren't for the United States, you'd all be speaking German and maybe a little Japanese. It's like, incredible.

[D]

Yeah. How did he think, like. Yeah, how did he think that, like, control was going to break down between.

[A]

Those two countries globally, giving Japan. Right. Well, on Sundays it's Japan and the rest of the time it's German.

[B]

Incredible.

[D]

Yeah. Japan pulling up like your deadbeat dad to be like, look, this weekend you're mine. If he wasn't a horrific monster.

[B]

Be really funny.

[D]

We're eating sushi.

[A]

He's so funny.

[D]

He is really. He's our funniest president, by a wide margin.

[A]

Evil.

[D]

But he's so funny.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

The way he pronounced dictator, where there.

[A]

Was like a slight pause, like, he.

[D]

Legitimately has good timing as a presenter.

[A]

It's actually two words, Sophie. He was saying dick and then tater. Like the contraction of potato.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, it sounded like he was giving a recipe.

[D]

I was like, what are we doing here?

[C]

Oh, my God.

[D]

Oh, my gosh. Gary, do we have anything else from Davos?

[B]

No, I think that's all for Davos. One of the funnier Davos is in recent memory.

[C]

I agree.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now we just have some sad news that James is probably going to say.

[A]

Yeah. So I guess if we start with Iran.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Protests are continuing. The BBC had a piece today where they were leaked to photos of hundreds of the people who have been killed. Jesus. That 326 victims, including 18 women. The reason that they were able to get these images is it seems that people went to the mortuary and had to look through a slideshow of the faces of people who have been killed, many of whom are so disfigured that they're unrecognizable.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And they have to flick through hundreds of images of these brutalized human remains in order to try and identify their loved ones.

[D]

Right.

[A]

It is unimaginable, the scale of state violence. Gorain had an interview on his Twitter or his ex.com, right. With someone inside Iran, which I'd encourage people to read and which we'll link in the show notes. But people continue to be in the streets there and the state continues to meet them with absolutely horrific violence. And talking of horrific violence, I want to move now to Syria. Right. Specifically to Syria and Kurdistan and the, I guess, majority Arab parts of Syria that had previously been part of the autonomous administration of north and East Syria.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Last week we talked about fighting in Aleppo and then we spoke about like fighting moving towards Euphrates. Right. Fighting has now moved past where it was last week and it's moving dangerously close to Kamishlo and Hesika, which are the two biggest Kurdish cities. Hesika is not just a city where Kurdish people live. Right. Arab people. I mean, neither of these are.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Arab people. Assyrian people, Armenian people.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Yazidis. The AANES was a multi ethnic project. Like that's what distinguish the SDF from the. From the YPG and the ypj.

[D]

Right.

[A]

That they were multi ethnic. They weren't just Kurdish. Yeah. The way that this has occurred is that the Syrian Transitional Government has been able to flip multiple tribal groups who are mostly Arab who had previously fought alongside the SDF as part of the sdf. Right. But have now flipped to the side of the Syrian Transitional Government. So this leaves the SDF with previously units that have been there suddenly flipping and they have lost huge amounts of territory to include Raqqa, you know, famously.

[D]

Former capital of the Islamic State. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

The former capital where thousands died both as a result of is violence and in the fighting for the city. And a result, as a result of co. Like civilians died as a result of coalition bombing during the fighting for the city. Right. There have been absolutely horrific images of the brutalization of the remains of captured YPG and YPGA fighters. Right. Men and women. We have seen executions. This is not just that executions are happening. It is that people who are fighting, not necessarily in the Syrian Arab army, but in at least alliance with the Syrian Transitional Government, have been so comfortable carrying out summary executions if they have decided to film and share them. So on. On Monday, Masloom Abdi.

[D]

Right.

[A]

The. The general of the Syrian Democratic Forces traveled to Damascus to attempt to negotiate a peace and was not able to do that. It seems that he was offered some kind of position, but he didn't want the position. There was not also some kind of autonomy backstops for the remaining areas of the aanes. Right. And so as a result there was a general mobilization in the aanes. People from Bakur. So people from northern Kurdistan have crossed the border. There's a border wall, fence wall, depending on where you're at, in between Turkish Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan. Right. And at one point people have broken that down and young people have entered into Syrian Kurdistan to fight to defend the cities that are still part of the aanes. The counterterrorism group of the PUK has entered Syrian Kurdistan. That's quite surprising.

[D]

Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Which is the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Which is an Iraqi Kurdish political party.

[C]

Effectively that is not aligned.

[A]

Oh yeah. They're not lefty. Right.

[B]

Or they're not democratic and federalist.

[D]

No.

[A]

They were at some point like they.

[D]

Are now today, basically like an arm of the Kurdish quote unquote state in northern Iraq. Right. They were originally more of an actual political party and did have some socialist elements. That's not really super relevant to what's going on.

[A]

Yeah. The ideology is not the same as the ideology that you have seen in Roshava. Right?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

But like I have not since Kobani have you seen more unity of Kurdish people regardless of politics. Right. Like I saw a statement from, like you'll see stuff from Barzani, from Talibani. So these are the two major political figures in Iraqi Kurdistan. I've seen Kurdish religious leaders making statements. Right. Because people are afraid of an ethnic cleansing. Because they have seen the ethnic cleansings of the Druze and the Alawites that have already happened under the stg.

[D]

Right.

[A]

It's worth noting I guess at this point, like for whatever reason they have not chosen to remove the name Arab from the country's name, like the Syrian Arab Republic. And I think like that Syria is a multi ethnic and very diverse country and if it is to succeed under any form of administration, it needs to acknowledge that. Right. And it's really worrying to see this horrific inter ethnic violence and it is being massively accelerated by people in the media.

[D]

Right.

[A]

To include a lot of people who might be referred to as experts. I don't think that's a reasonable appellation. Like, their expertise is pretty limited, but nonetheless, people who like to include journalists, telegram influencers, and then think tankers in the west, people are sharing things that are either not true or that have not happened in this time. Like telegram videos are actually not taken in Syria this week. Right. That are taken different places and times. And we are careening towards this not becoming a fight between two different administrative projects, but becoming an inter ethnic conflict. Right. And I think we're pretty much there at this point and nobody seems to be looking for an off ramp.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is tragic. Like, I was in HESseq two years ago and I was conducting interviews there, and I remember there was a little kid whose father had died fighting isis. And like, it was dark outside, you know, this was during a time when Turkey was bombing the region quite heavily. And the little kid, I think, had been struggling to sleep because he was sleeping in the middle of the day. And then when he woke up, we were just hanging out with his mother. And I gave a little kid some toys to play with that I bought with me. And like, I can't help but thinking how scared that poor little guy is now. You know, and he. His dad's not there, right. Because like 12,000 members of the STF, he died fighting the Islamic State.

[D]

Right.

[A]

And now another state is coming to put his family, his kid, in danger. Like, that's horrific. What people have gone through in Syria already is too much and like, to see more killing and dying there is heartbreaking for me.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Just very briefly, on the immigration update, it appears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement are now under the impression, or that they believe that they can enter homes without the consent of the homeowner, so they can use force to enter in order to remove someone with a final removal order, so long as they have an administrative warrant. That is a different thing from a judicial warrant. Right. This is often what people talk about when they talk about, does ICE have a warrant? They're looking for a judicial warrant as opposed to a warrant that they have issued themselves an administrative warrant. And so this will obviously broaden the amount of places that they can enter and times when they end up entering people's homes by force. Right. So we will likely be seeing more violence here as well. Yay. I'm going to put a link to a Haversour fundraiser at the bottom of this. If you'd like to help people in Kurdistan, there are people who have been displaced four times now in the last few years. Right. Since 2018. So if you'd like to help, you can do that. We'll also include a fundraising link for Minneapolis if you'd like to spend some money closer to home. If you'd like to email us, you can do so by emailing coolzonetipson Me. If you want the email to be encrypted, you should send it from a Proton address.

[D]

Well, we look forward to hearing more from Margaret and James in Minneapolis. And I don't know, I guess that's it.

[B]

We reported the news.

[A]

Did we?

[B]

We reported the news.

[A]

Yep. All of it. Fuck yeah.

[B]

Yeah, that's kind of how it feels.

[A]

We reported the news.

[C]

It Could Happen.

[D]

Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzone media.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple.

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Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcast.

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You can now find sources for It.

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Could Happen here listed directly in Episode Descriptions.

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Thanks for listening.

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