Executive Disorder: Virginia Redistricting, Renaming the Iran War, TPUSA Event Cancelled by ANTIFA

Summary

It Could Happen Here – Executive Disorder: Virginia Redistricting, Renaming the Iran War, TPUSA Event Cancelled by ANTIFA Episode Date: May 15, 2026 Hosts: Garrison Davis, James Stout, Tom Boke (with Robert Evans referenced)

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Episode Overview

This episode of "It Could Happen Here" delivers the latest news and analysis on domestic politics and international conflict, focusing on the week of May 6th–May 13th, 2026. The hosts dig into major stories including the cancellation of a Turning Point USA event in Seattle due to activist backlash, updates on the U.S.–Iran war (including a brewing nomenclature change and executive overreach), a controversial Virginia redistricting ruling, and smaller items on global unrest, misinformation, and influence operations. With their signature mix of grave wit and sharp commentary, Garrison, James, and Tom unpack the chaotic tapestry of current events and interrogate how political and social collapse manifests in real time.

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Key Segments and Discussion Points

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Quickfire News Roundup

[02:24 – 12:20]

• Tristan da Cunha Hantavirus Response – British paratroopers dropped medical personnel and supplies to the remote island after a resident brought back an infection from a cruise ship. The response required an unusual military parachute operation due to lack of airstrip and urgency.

  • James: "There was such a low supply of oxygen that there obviously wasn't time for a boat to get to Tristan da Cunha. So the UK conducted this fairly... I mean, extremely unusual [drop]." [03:15]

• Japanese Snack Company Calbee Switches to Black-and-White Packaging – Change is due to ink shortages from the ongoing Iran war.

  • Garrison: "This is a significant portion of my daily diet." [04:05]

• Nigerian Military Repeats Market Airstrikes – Over 100 killed; Amnesty International condemns, while military claims justification based on targeting "bandits."

• CNN Reports CIA Role in Sinaloa Car Bomb – Leak alleges U.S. clandestine involvement, unusual for open discussion while operations are ongoing.

  • Tom: "The fact that CNN has a source that is leaking Ground Branch operations, that is not usual for someone in the CIA to be talking to someone at CNN while these operations are ongoing." [06:03]

• Ex-NCTC Director Joe Kent Leaks on Iran – Kent claims U.S. intelligence knew Iran wasn’t pursuing nuclear weapons but expected retaliation if attacked.

• Abortion Pill Laws – The Supreme Court allows continued remote prescription and mail delivery for abortion pill mifepristone until May 14, pending a "shadow docket" ruling on Louisiana's ban.

• Trump Golden Statue – Unveiled in Miami and 'blessed' by Pastor Mike Burns, who explicitly claims “this is not a golden calf.”

  • Garrison: "My 'this is not a Golden Calf' shirt has a lot of people asking questions already answered by the shirt." [08:31]

• Widespread Public Distrust in Political Violence Events – NewsGuard/YouGov survey: Roughly half of Americans believe or question whether assassination attempts on Trump were staged.

  • James: "I find it liberating that we’re finally escaping, like, truth." [10:08]
  • Garrison: "This trend is something we’ve been talking about for years... Such a conspiratorial base can be more easily recruited into reactionary thought." [09:55]

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Turning Point USA Event Cancelled After Trans Student Murder

[13:06 – 23:36]

• Trans Student Murder in Seattle – A 19-year-old trans woman found dead days before a planned TPUSA anti-trans event at UW.

• TPUSA Event and Activist Pushback – Event was to feature detrans influencer Chloe Cole but was cancelled after students planned protests to “shut the event down.” Cole later cited “Antifa militia” threats (hosts debunk this claim, finding no such language or evidence in reporting).

  • Garrison: "Chloe Cole's language in the announcement might also be designed to coax Trump's feds into going after radical transgender and Antifa terrorists." [18:36]
  • James: "What I’m actually seeing on the ground is the same kind of prosecutions... flailing at everything vaguely lefty." [22:28]

• Broader Context: Counterterrorism Strategy Changes – Recent Trump administration counterterrorism memo names “violent left wing extremists” as a key threat. The hosts clarify the memo does not grant new powers but could chill protest/free speech and provide cover for investigations into leftist activism.

  • Garrison: "It mostly serves as a chilling effect for speech and for organizing... [and] might be enough for a local FBI field office to want to investigate." [21:22]

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U.S.–Iran War Update and Renaming

[26:13 – 38:08]

• Trump’s Public Criticism of Kurdish Groups – Trump blames Iraqi and Iranian Kurds for not delivering weapons to Iranian protesters; Kurdish leaders respond stressing autonomy and denying blanket accusations.

  • Quote from Kurdish official: "The Kurds are not mercenaries... Kurdish blood is not cheap and the lives of Kurdish youth are not for sale." [30:09]
  • James (mocking): "This is like the opposite of Iran Contra, where the President is saying, 'I definitely sent them guns, I am running guns,' and everyone else is like, 'We have no fucking clue what he’s talking about.'" [28:22]

• War Progress and Ceasefire Violations – Ceasefire described as "on massive life support," with both sides openly violating it; Iranian military warns of readiness to retaliate.

• Missile Strikes Called 'Love Tap' – Trump reportedly minimizes missile strikes with flippant language as civilian casualties, including bombing of a girls’ school, mount.

  • Tom: "They bombed a girls school. Like, this is serious and horrible and it’s really hard to bring the gravity that needs to be brought to this." [33:37]

• Pakistan and Iran’s Aircraft – Iran shelters military aircraft in Pakistan, some in Afghanistan.

• Submarine Deployment – U.S. announces Ohio-class nuclear sub to Gibraltar, an open show of force.

• War Powers End Run: ‘Operation Sledgehammer’ – Pentagon will rename Iran war to skirt the 1973 War Powers Act (claiming previous authorization no longer applies).

  • Senatorial exchange, Hegseth: "Our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article 2 to execute." [37:11]
  • Cost of war now approaches $30 billion; questions about legality, Congressional authorization sidestepped.

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Influence Operations: Arcadia, CA Mayor as Unregistered Chinese Agent

[38:08 – 45:22]

• Eileen Wa Pleads Guilty – Former Arcadia mayor admits to operating as an unregistered agent for China, disseminating PRC propaganda, especially denying genocide in Xinjiang.

  • James: "Spreading slop content on behalf of a foreign government is bad... but this is not like spying or sabotage in any meaningful way." [41:11]

• Right-Wing Spin and Containment – Right-wing media frame scandal as massive Chinese subversion plot, but hosts clarify it’s technically PR work without evidence of broader sabotage. Charges stem from failure to disclose foreign agent status, not espionage.

  • Tom: "People have lost their minds about this one." [43:54]

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Virginia Redistricting Overturned by State Supreme Court

[45:35 – 55:17]

• Timeline and Ruling Details – Virginia Supreme Court (4–3) invalidates a voter-approved redistricting amendment based on early voting technicality (the “intervening general election” rule). The court found early voting had started before the first General Assembly approval, violating the state constitution.

  • Garrison: "On the face sounds quite absurd… technically correct, but..." [47:22]
  • Tom: "You're kind of outside the spirit of what they were going for with that one." [47:17]

• Dissent: Federal Law vs. State Law – Dissent notes contradiction between state court’s expanded election definition and federal law’s single-day rule.

• Electoral Consequences & Democratic Reactions – With the old 2021 map reinstated, Democrats lose an opportunity at four House seats, now eight seats down in the national redistricting battle.

  • Extreme remedies debated: Some Democrats toyed with lowering the judge retirement age to replace the entire state supreme court, but ultimately abandoned the plan due to time constraints and political impracticality.

• Federal Appeals and Deadlines – Dems file last-minute emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's unlikely to affect the imminent election.

  • Tom: "The nature of this midterm will be very important for the way you get to vote in America going forward." [53:32]

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Gas Tax Repeal Movement & Populist Policy Gimmicks

[55:34 – 63:12]

• Federal and State Gas Tax Repeal Push – Both parties propose cuts/suspensions; historically, gas taxes fund critical highway maintenance but are not pegged to inflation, leading to a chronic underfunded Highway Trust Fund.

  • James: "It's just always a bad idea... They’re going to start by repealing the gas tax, and then they’ll never get around to replacing it with anything." [57:00, 58:57]
  • Garrison: "It undermines the vital role of taxes to actually fund social services." [60:39]

• Sloppy Populism – Politicians pitch micro-tax cuts ("sloppy list" policies) for short-term optics over substantive fiscal reform. Hosts stress that what’s truly needed are progressive tax policies on corporations and billionaires, not band-aids.

  • James: "When roads are poorly maintained, it costs regular people huge amounts of money and the damage it does to their car. Far more than the gas tax costs them." [61:54]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On the collapse of consensus reality:
  • James: "I find it liberating that we’re finally escaping, like, truth." [10:08]
  • Garrison: "We are finally free from the shackles of truth. Everyone's wallowing like a filthy pig in shit." [10:17]
• On government competence in conspiracy theories:
  • Garrison: "It assumes that the government has power like a magical wizard that totally controls reality." [13:05]
• On Kurdish-American relations:
  • Tom Boke (paraphrasing Kurdish official): "A nation of tens of millions of people should not be collectively accused through vague and unverified statements." [30:09]
• On the Golden Trump Statue:
  • Garrison: "My 'this is not a Golden Calf' shirt has a lot of people asking questions already answered by the shirt." [08:31]
• On gas taxes and populist fixes:
  • James: "They’re going to start by repealing the gas tax, and then they’ll never get around to replacing it with anything. And then the roads will just be bad forever." [58:57]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:24] – News Grab Bag (Island outbreak, snack packaging, Nigeria, CIA leaks, abortion laws, Trump statue)
• [13:06] – Turning Point USA event cancelled after protest plans and trans student murder
• [18:36] – Federal counterterrorism strategy targeting left-wing activism
• [26:13] – Iran war update, Trump's blame-game with Kurds, ceasefire violations, war's new name
• [38:08] – Arcadia, CA mayor's unregistered agent guilty plea
• [45:35] – Virginia redistricting ruling and its consequences
• [55:34] – Gas tax debate and populist band-aids

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Conclusion

In this episode, "It Could Happen Here" delivers its trademark mix of seriousness, skepticism, and dark humor as the hosts chart America’s unresolved fissures and global entanglements. They connect granular local news to broader trends—rising conspiracism, the creeping chill over protest and dissent, bipartisan surface-level economic populism, and the unending consequences of foreign war. The conversation, always layered and candid, remains a resource for listeners seeking not just headlines, but context and caution about narratives shaping our turbulent future.

Transcript

[Tom Boke]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

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[Robert Smigel]

Sleep another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy not quite on Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier this week. My guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter.

[Tom Boke]

Where does your group perform?

[Garrison Davis]

We do some retirement homes.

[Robert Smigel]

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever your podcasts.

[Tom Boke]

American soccer is about to explode.

[Garrison Davis]

The World cup is coming.

[James Stout]

Ramos sending on Ernie Stewart the chip score.

[Garrison Davis]

I'm Tab Ramos.

[Tom Boke]

I'm Tom Boke. On our podcast Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines, the biggest decisions and the truth about the U.S. national team.

[Garrison Davis]

It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals.

[Tom Boke]

Listen to Inside American Soccer with Tom

[James Stout]

Boger and Tab ramos on the iHeartRadio

[Tom Boke]

app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Yes you can.

[Garrison Davis]

A five minute quick and easy calorie burning workout.

[Tom Boke]

Give it a try. Come join our sweatsesh on TikTok.

[James Stout]

Speaking of things that are on fire. Americ. All right, I did my job. Garrison, what are we doing? Who are we?

[Garrison Davis]

This is it could happen here. Executive Disorder. Our weekly newscast covering what's happening in the White House, their crumbling world and what this means for you. I'm Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by James Stout and Robert Evans.

[James Stout]

Yep.

[Garrison Davis]

This episode we're covering the week of May 6th through May 13th.

[James Stout]

Yep.

[Garrison Davis]

James, some small news items to open us up.

[Tom Boke]

My little grab bag of news stories. Yeah. The United Kingdom parachute drop supplies and medical personnel into Tristan da Cunha last weekend to respond to the Hunter virus outbreak. A man had got off the cruise ship where the outbreak began in April and returned to Tristan da Cunha where he resides. I think the cruise ship stopped Tristan da Cunha this Weekend, British paratroopers from the Pathfinder Platoon tandem jumped a doctor and a nurse onto the island along with supplies including oxygen, which was critically low on the island. The patient had reported symptoms two weeks after disembarking the cruise ship. And they'd spent that time on the island and therefore there's a fairly high chance that they've interacted with other people.

[James Stout]

Right.

[Tom Boke]

The island has no airstrip. There was such a low supply of oxygen that there obviously wasn't time for a boat to get to Tristan da Cunha. So the UK conducted this fairly. I mean, extremely unusual. This is the first time the UK has ever done it. The island has a population around 220 people and only two medical professionals who are obviously exhausted after delivering care to this person who's on oxygen for several weeks. Yeah. So they jumped a couple more in there. Yeah. Fairly audacious response to the Hantavirus. Secondly, and I think we can also agree of equal importance, Japanese snack food giant Calbee is switching to black and white packaging for its

[James Stout]

garrison is loading a gun right now.

[Garrison Davis]

This is a significant portion of my daily diet.

[Tom Boke]

Garrison won't be able to make it through this one. Garrison's going on hunger strike.

[James Stout]

They are wiring a crude detonator together.

[Garrison Davis]

It looks like I'm going to join Iran, put an end to this madness, that is.

[Tom Boke]

This is because ingredients used for the ink on its normal colorful packages are hard to come by, thanks to the war with Iran. And thanks and yeah, so if you want, if you got one of those little stickers that says I did that and you've got a packet of black and white crisps, now you can combine

[James Stout]

the two, put on your black and white lame ass chips.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, yeah. The one thing that gave us joy is gone. The Nigerian military has once again carried out an airstrike on a market, killing at least 100 civilians. According to Amnesty International, the airstrike on the Tunfa market is the second in a month to hit a market. The Nigerian military claims the area was a hideout for bandits, but it has yet to acknowledge the civilian death toll. Government in this area is more or less like only present through its ability to project force like this. And I've seen interviews with locals suggesting the town was under the control of non state groups previously. People remember, the Nigerian government has suggested that anyone doing business with the people it's targeting is also a legit ultimate target, which is how it has justified dropping bombs on crowded markets like this. CNN is claiming that the CIA facilitated a car bomb in Sinaloa the article seems to have sources in or very familiar with the operations of Ground Branch. It also alleges that the US government employees who were killed in the car crash last month were members of Ground Branch. More than the fact of this story, it doesn't shock me that the CIA is killing people in weird ways in different countries, that it's one of the things that they do.

[James Stout]

That's like the CIA's job.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. The fact that CNN has a source that is leaking Ground Branch operations, that is not usual for someone in the CIA to be talking to someone at CNN while these operations are ongoing. Right. And like, yeah, operations in Mexico are exceptionally high risk for these kinds of folks. Like in 2012, some Mexican federal cops opened fire on US government employees, presumably not acting on behalf of the federal government.

[Garrison Davis]

Right.

[Tom Boke]

Obviously it puts this mission at risk, which isn't already a high risk thing. But the fact that somebody has felt the need to leak this to CNN is pretty remarkable.

[Garrison Davis]

Speaking of potential CIA leaks, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent claimed on X the Everything app that before the President launched the war in Iran, quote, the U.S. intelligent community, including CIA, was in agreement that Iran wasn't developing a nuclear weapon and that Iran would target US bases in the region and shut down the Strait of Hormuz if they were attacked by Israel and the US Unquote. The Supreme Court extended access to remote prescription and melt delivery of the abortion pill mifepristone until Thursday, May 14, which is the day this episode releases. The night this episode releases around Thursday, they're expected to make a shadow docket ruling on whether Louisiana's ban on mail order abortion pills can go into effect as the case continues through a lower court. A golden statue of President Trump was unveiled at a Trump resort in Miami last week. The statue was blessed by evangelical pastor Mike Burns, who said, quote, let me be clear, this is not a golden calf, unquote.

[James Stout]

God, it's so hard. I, like, you went through everything. You just like the little parade of horrors like you do every week, and then you just drop that, that there's, there's a priest blessing a golden statue.

[Garrison Davis]

Pastor.

[James Stout]

Pastor. Sorry, you're right, Pastor. And I, I know that, like, they, that he addressed in the moment, like the whole golden cast thing of it all, it's just funnier that, like, he knew I gotta say something like, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta make a comment on this.

[Tom Boke]

That's what got me, that he felt that he needed to address the golden calf in the room.

[James Stout]

Really genuinely funny.

[Garrison Davis]

My this is not a Golden Calf shirt has a lot of people asking questions already answered by the shirt. Yeah, it's great, but, yeah, grim stuff.

[James Stout]

Yep.

[Tom Boke]

So a national survey of 1,000Americans by News Guard and YouGov suggests that about half of people in the United States they surveyed think each of the attempts on Donald Trump's life was staged or they're not sure if it was real. For the White House Correspondent's Dinner attempt and the Butler, Pennsylvania attempt, 24% of those surveyed thought the attempts were staged, 32% were not sure in the White House Correspondent's dinner attempt, and 29% for the Butler, Pennsylvania event. It's more than half if you add them up enough, convinced it was real.

[James Stout]

Super funny.

[Tom Boke]

I'll quote from the report here. Of the 12% of Americans who said all three attempts were staged, 55% were Democrats, 38% were independents, and 7% were Republicans, according to the report.

[Garrison Davis]

Really interested in that. 7%.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

What are they getting out of that? I just, I don't.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Like, in what way do they think it was?

[Tom Boke]

It's just like, hell, yeah, we're owning the libs. We're staging. Look at us go.

[James Stout]

I think it may just be like, well, I voted for Trump because I wanted my taxes to be lower, but I know he faked that.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah. This is obviously worrying and this, this trend is something we've been talking about for years at this point. This is why I've been kind of such a, such a hard ass about the, about, like the liberal conspiracism that is growing.

[James Stout]

I don't even find it worrying anymore, Garrison. I find it liberating that we're finally escape, like, truth. Like, ah, look at that.

[Garrison Davis]

We're finally free from the shackles of truth. Yeah.

[James Stout]

Everyone's. Everyone's down on the muck together. Nobody's. Nobody's standing pretty anymore. Everybody's just wallowing like a filthy pig and shit.

[Tom Boke]

That is pretty much the status of the. Yeah. The US News market right now.

[James Stout]

Yeah, I'm fine with it.

[Tom Boke]

God, it's fucking bleak. It's so bleak. Like, I just, I don't want to address, like, the factual elements of each thing because there's no point.

[James Stout]

Right. No, we should all know that's useless by now, right?

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, just.

[James Stout]

Have we not gotten to a place free of that yet?

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, I know. I. I really don't know what to say about that.

[Garrison Davis]

I mean, there are, like, real issues here. A conspiratorial base can be more easily Recruited into reactionary thought. Right. This is the idea of the cultic milieu. And like, we can see a version of this happening with certain portions of the left might engage with people like Tucker Carlson or Marjorie Taylor Greene right now. But for me, kind of the biggest issue with this is that it's a refusal to understand or accept the particular moment that you find yourself with them. Like a resistance to the self realization that you are living through history and that people are active agents in history. It's a ahistorical rejection of the fact that some people may look at some of the actions that someone like Trump is doing, whether regarding ICE or the war with Iran, and then choose to act in response or in the case of the Butler shooting, the result of social disintegration or under regulation, manifesting as someone's violent, nihilistic expression, similar to the mindset of like a school shooter. My last issue relates kind of to the second issue, like the ahistorical element, how these false flag shooting conspiracy theories also prescribe Trump too much power by not just turning him into this like invincible God, but then also assuming that like the US Deep State is capable and competent enough to stage major world events like this, like brainwash and groom patsies into doing these shootings. And like this also obviously removes the agency and the clearly defined history of the people that do these own shootings. Right. It rejects this. Like I said, this relates to the second thing. It rejects or refuses to understand the moment that you're living in and that people actually are active agents of history. And like the people that do these shootings have their own family and their own friends, they have their own history that we can show and prove. And assuming that all this is like fake, that like the government has like manufactured this or somehow like turned someone who is a normie kind of liberal suddenly into like doing a shooting or has like faked this backstory. Right. It gives the government so much power. Right. It assumes that the government has power like a magical wizard that totally controls reality.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Anyway, for our first main story today, let's talk about Turning Point USA. But first, on Sunday night in Seattle, a 19 year old transgender girl was murdered. She was a student at University of Washington and was found with stab wounds in the laundry room of an off campus apartment that she lived in. No suspect has yet been identified. While horrific in and of itself, Turning Point USA was scheduled to hold an anti trans debate event just days later at the very campus this trans student attended. This event was going to be hosted by a far Right. Anti trans lobbyist and influencer named Chloe Cole, a teen transitioner who subsequently detransitioned a few years later following an acid trip and then conversion to Christianity.

[James Stout]

Many such cases.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. That's fascinating.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah. Most normal Christian detransitioner.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

She made an appearance at Trump's last State of the Union address when the President talked about restricting gender affirming care to minors. After the murder in Seattle, Cole and TPUSA continued plugging their anti trans event online, prompting students to plan a protest to, quote, unquote, shut the event down, calling to bring, quote, flags, drums or anything to make noise, unquote. Then on Tuesday, the National Turning Point USA organization decided to cancel the event. According to University of Washington spokesperson Victor Balta. Later that night, Tuesday night, Chloe Cole announced the event was postponed because, quote, Antifa has assembled a local militia in their own words, unquote.

[James Stout]

Oh, that's, that's alarming. A militia.

[Garrison Davis]

Now, I was not able to find an instance of Antifa claiming to have assembled a, quote, unquote militia.

[James Stout]

Really? No photos of the militia, no documentation

[Garrison Davis]

of the militia, nor was this language, this, this, this claim of a militia in their own words, nor was this language included in right wing reporting of the planned protest. I cannot find a source for this. I really looked like I went through Fox articles, Post Millennial articles. There was nothing about Antifa using the word militia. No one, no, no counter, no protester that I could find was using the word militia. Now, Chloe Cole also claimed that there were, quote, explicit threats on my life and that the protest caused a, quote, level of attention. Our security team and the local PD are frankly, unprepared for, unquote. She shared an article from the Canadian far right outlet, the Post Millennial, documenting threats against the TP USA event. Threats like one Twitter user in Canada saying that people should shut down the event. Like Milo Yiannopoulos's Berkeley campus event in 2017, writing, quote, make them hurt for scheduling this one other Twitter post with two likes. Read, quote, luckily the bricks in Red Square are easy to grab this time of year. Okay, that's the evidence that Andy no used to claim that, quote, far left extremists are urging their comrades to carry out deadly violence on posts. Just those two posts that that was. That was the post that, that Chloe Cole was sharing via this post Millennial article that that was the evidence for these deadly threats. Now, I do think it's worth reiterating that to these people. They also believe that just calling someone a fascist constitutes a threat of Violence. Right. This is something they've been repeating a lot since the death of Charlie Kerr. Yeah, that just calling someone a fascist constitutes a deadly threat.

[James Stout]

Right.

[Garrison Davis]

In Chloe Cole's video announcing that the TPUSA event was, in her words, postponed, she said that after Charlie's assassination, quote, speaking on a University campus in 2026 can come with deadly consequences. But towards the end of the video, she stressed that, quote, this is not a win for antifa because truth will always win. I am not afraid of Antifa. Two Twitter posts, ragtag group of wannabe revolutionaries on cross sex hormones won't scare her. The enemy is both strong and weak.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Yeah. Good for her.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's how these people work.

[Garrison Davis]

Now, while I was watching Chloe Cole's video, something sprang to mind. Last week, the White House released a new counterterrorism strategy that named three major threat groups the country is currently facing. Narco terrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist terrorists and violent left wing extremists, including anarchists and anti fascists. The document says that counterterrorism activities will, quote, prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti American, radically pro transgender and anarchist, unquote. I did a full episode about this with Robert earlier this week if you want to check that out.

[James Stout]

Yep.

[Garrison Davis]

But the. The left wing, transgender, anarchist, antifa stuff makes up just a handful of sentences in a 16 page document which is mostly focused on Islamic terrorism, cartels and complaining about the Biden administration for a tldr. There's nothing new in this counterterrorism document pertaining to the left that wasn't already in national security. Presidential memorandum number seven. It does not grant any new powers nor designate trans people as terrorists like NSMP7. It essentially states that being, quote, unquote, extremely pro transgender can be a motivating factor in carrying out terroristic violence or threats. Since last October, Joint terrorism task forces across the country have been directed to investigate antifa aligned groups and individuals, quote, engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation. This new document is just describing things that are already happening while building Trump's justification for military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Western Hemisphere, regime change in Venezuela and the ongoing war in the Middle East. But in the wake of this new strategy being released, Trump. I wonder if TP USA's canceling of the event and Chloe Cole's language in the announcement might also be designed to coax Trump's feds into going after radical transgender and TIFA terrorists, whether that may be individuals who possibly Sent threats online that I just couldn't see or just made semi questionable posts on twitter.com or who simply spread the protest flyer online or the protest organizers themselves. Yeah, I think that is something to keep in mind. This new counterterrorism strategy, it mostly serves as a chilling effect for speech and for organizing. Like I said, it doesn't actually grant new powers, but it, it can scare people into thinking that the Trump administration is designating a whole class of people as terrorists and stuff like this, you know, protests. Right. That is one thing that they can investigate, you know, threats online. That is something that they can investigate. Right. That is, that is what they are actually looking into. They're not just investigating random trans people as terrorists. They will be looking into, you know, threats or questionable posts made on social media. Right. Those are the things they actually can look into. And I think some of Chloe Cole's language about the quote, unquote, deadly threats she received, stuff like that could be used by the Trump administration as a pretext to investigate people.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Whether or not those threats even were real. Right. I did not see anything that I think constitutes a deadly threat based on the Post Millennials reporting. But her saying that might be enough for a local FBI field office to want to investigate, you know, student activists at this university.

[James Stout]

Right, right. Yeah, I think that makes sense.

[Garrison Davis]

So that's what I wanted to talk about here.

[James Stout]

This is by far the thing I'm seeing people freak out about the most right now is like, overall the idea that, like, they've just declared it, you know, a terrorism, a violent terrorism, to be trans or to be anarchist or to be, you know, any of the things like anti capitalist mentioned in that, in that document.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

And what I'm actually seeing on the ground so far is very much the same kind of prosecutions that they've been doing and the same kinds of like, messaging that, that they've been making. And I, I think that, like, you're right on the money. This is something to pay attention to. Like, does this get a response? Is there an actual, like, investigation? Do we wind up see some. Someone get indicted for a Twitter post or, you know, if someone made a threat that we're not privy to.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

Do they get indicted for that, like. Or do we see something that does look more like a witch hunt where they're going after, like a protest organizer? That'll tell us a lot about kind of what, what's coming in the immediate future. But right now I don't see anything different than what they've been doing. Which is kind of like incompetently and haphazardly flailing at everything sort of vaguely lefty.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah. And you know, I think including this in a document like the counterterrorism strategy, you know, also serves as a chilling effect. Right. This is, this is to scare people.

[James Stout]

They're trying to.

[Garrison Davis]

Into not doing anything. Right. That is a part of their strategy.

[James Stout]

Yep.

[Garrison Davis]

But you know, they have investigated people for making death threats for years. Right. The Biden administration and.

[James Stout]

And their FBI to make death threats. By the way, if they're actual death threats, that is illegal. Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

The FBI under Biden investigated Stop Cop City. The, the charges against the protesters at Prairieland started. That investigation started before NSMP7 was even, you know, released.

[James Stout]

Right.

[Garrison Davis]

This is not new, but it is something to, to keep an eye on.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

To see if they're.

[James Stout]

If.

[Garrison Davis]

If their scope is. Is actually changing.

[James Stout]

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[Tom Boke]

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[Garrison Davis]

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[Tom Boke]

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[Garrison Davis]

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[Tom Boke]

And we are back. And we are back to talking about the war in Iran. So I want to start off with President Trump's extremely vocal criticism of Kurdish groups. One can assume in Iran that that's. It doesn't necessarily seem that his criticism is limited to Kurdish groups in Iran. Let's play the clip.

[Guest Speaker / External Clip]

The level of ferocity for protests, you know, the people watching it, they want to go out on the streets. They have no weapons. They have no guns. We thought the Kurds were going to give us weapons, but the Kurds disappointed us. The Kurds, take, take, take. They have a great reputation in Congress. Congress says, oh, they fight so hard. They fight hard when they get paid. So I'm very disappointed in the Kurds. But they were given. I said it wasn't going to work, by the way. I just have to say it. I disappointed, disagreed with what they did. They gave it. I said they'll never get there. And I was right. I like to be right. In this case, too bad. But we sent some guns with ammunition and they were supposed to be delivered, but they kept it. I said they're going to keep it. But what, what do I know? I've only been doing this a short period of time. What do I know?

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Fascinating. His diacord asking him about this.

[Garrison Davis]

Mr. President. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Mr. President, yesterday you said you, you gave the Kurds arms, but they took it for themselves. A U. S. Military official says that the Kurds have not received any arms and the Kurdish political parties are denying receiving any armies.

[James Stout]

President Trump, regarding

[Garrison Davis]

the officials.

[Tom Boke]

The officials are wrong. Yes. Yeah, that's.

[James Stout]

Well, there's, the Kurds. Could be so many things. Like they just said that officials, I'm assuming the KDP and the PUK is who they're referring to. But that's just like the two big parties in Iraq, which isn't even all of the Kurdish parties in Iraq. Like. Yeah, not to mention all of the different armed groups in the. But I have no idea who he sent guns to, and I don't know that he does.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Or if he did.

[James Stout]

He seems pretty confident that he did.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Stout]

This is like the opposite of Iran Contra where the President saying like, I definitely sent them guns, I am running guns, I was running guns. And everyone else is like, we have no fucking clue what he's talking about.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. So I'm guessing this refers to his previous theory that they had supplied guns to Iranian Kurdish groups in January at the time when there were large scale protests in Iran that those Iranian Kurdish groups were expected to deliver to presumably Persian protesters, presumably in large cities such as Tehran. The Jerusalem Post has reported that Trump himself personally vetoed this exact plan in January after receiving pressure from Turkey to do so. There were some armed actions in January, but small arms, as we've said before, would not really have tipped the balance here. Iran's army police besiege the igc, as we've seen since February, can survive assault from the US and Israel. It's not going to be toppled by a bunch of people with AKs. They would have bombed whole cities. So they had to. We covered this at the time in our episode about it with God Ain, but most of the Kurdish groups I've spoken to don't have responses at this time. But the Pak, that's the Kurdistan Freedom Party, sent me this comment regarding the protests in January. From the end of December 2025 through approximately January 20, 2026, the Iranian regime committed an unprecedented massacre across Elam, Kommanchan and Lauristan. They mobilized Hashd Al Sha' Bi militias into Persian cities and deployed a massive military presence into our territories in order to defend our citizens. We targeted the outposts and military bases where these forces were stationed. We confirmed that, yes, we carried out these operations. So what they're confirming there is that they carried out operations not where the weapons came from. Right. But we saw those operations in January. Polit Yan, famous, I guess for being a founding member of the. Yep. Or an SDF commander. He's also an author and politician, did make a statement which I thought was interesting. I'm going to read it, at least a good amount of it, because I think it's worth it. Quote, the Kurds are not mercenaries. Kurdish blood is not cheap and the lives of Kurdish youth are not for sale. The Kurds are fighting for their freedom, dignity and political rights, not to serve the temporary agendas of regional or international powers without any clear outcome for the Kurdish people themselves. At the same time, the Kurds have repeatedly shown their willingness to cooperate in fighting terrorism, extremism and instability in the Middle East. Kurdish forces played a central role in the defeat of ISIS and contributed greatly to regional security. But cooperation must be based on mutual respect, clarity, and long term political understanding. I do not know the accuracy of the recent claims regarding weapons allegedly sent to protesters inside Iran. If such operations truly existed, then the American side should clearly explain which group, force or individuals receive those weapons. A nation of tens of millions of people should not be collectively accused through vague and unverified statements. Yeah, that's pretty good.

[Garrison Davis]

Sounds incredibly reasonable.

[James Stout]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like a really reasonable thing.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. It does seem that Trump has some personal animus against the Kurds.

[James Stout]

I wonder if what he's referring to is that like a year or so ago, the last time they sent over more weapons, if he sent some message more recently being like, hey, could you send some of those guns that we already gave you over to rebels in Iran? And they were like, no, no, no. What do you mean? And he's pissed. I wonder if that's what he's pissed about.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, it's so hard for me to say. It's hard for me to. Is he talking about the sdf? Is he talking about groups in southern Kurdistan that they armed and. Yeah, he asked them to like pass them along. I have never seen large numbers of American supplied weapons among the Rajelati groups.

[James Stout]

No. Although they do some of their AKs come from the US if you look at like what's sent over like a bunch of, in like body armor, a lot of like what the sdf, like, the armor they have came from Americans.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, yeah. And with like a higher speed SDF guys, you'll see like M4s, but. And even like night vision like yat, the anti terror forces and the SDF, you'll see but like on, on the Iranian side, I have not seen that. And it's, it's. He's repeated this several times over quite a long period of time. It seems to be something he genuinely believes, but I have seen no evidence aside from his claims to support. Doesn't matter. But it does matter in the sense that Trump clearly is personally mad at Kurdish groups and does not seem to be interested in supporting their aspirations for autonomy, which is disappointing. But I guess I don't know why. Maybe because he feels that he alone should take credit for the defeat of the Islamic State. I can't quite work out what's causes other than maybe he perceives them to have slighted him by not giving weapons that we don't know anything about.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Tom Boke]

Let's talk a little bit about the broader situation in Iran. I don't want to make this like true social review. We. I know. I've read Trump's truce in the past. I have reached a point where I can't do that anymore.

[James Stout]

That's fair.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Like I can't. People are dying.

[James Stout]

Right.

[Tom Boke]

They bombed a girls school. Like, this is serious and horrible and it's really hard to bring the gravity that needs to be brought to this. And also read out the absolutely bonkers stuff that gets posted. Trump described a missile strike on Iran as a love tap this past week. So I'm just not going to do that this week. I am going to say that both sides have repeatedly and openly violated the ceasefire, which Trump describes to reporters and Dr. Oz as being on, quote, massive life support. Meanwhile, Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammed Galibaf has said, quote, our armed forces are ready to deliver a well deserved response to any aggression. Mistaken strategy and mistaken decisions will always lead to mistaken results. The whole world has already figured this out. We are prepared for all options. They will be surprised. This comes as Trump calls Iran's peace demands a piece of garbage and quote, a stupid proposal. Iranian demands allegedly included an end to Israeli aggression in Lebanon and sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has also alleged that they walked back an agreement to surrender enriched Iranian. We've also found that Iran has retained a large number of their missiles and their launch capacity this week. It's also been reported by Jim Laporta, who is one of the few people still doing decent reporting at cbs, that Pakistan has provided safe haven for Iranian aircraft, shielding them from US Strikes. Allegedly some civilian aircraft were also sheltered in Afghanistan, but then had to be moved when Pakistan began bombing Afghanistan in March. Iran has friends everywhere, I guess. The United States sent a ballistic missile submarine to Gibraltar this week. These Ohio class submarines provide the survivable element of the nuclear triad, or the most survivable element of the nuclear triad.

[James Stout]

You can't strike a nuclear submarine before it gets a chance to strike. It's basically impossible.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. That's the reason that they exist. Yeah.

[James Stout]

Guarantees that you will get to do your thing.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. For mutually assured destruction reasons, it's not super normal to announce their presence in places I don't think. But the Navy did this week.

[James Stout]

Yeah. I mean, it can be. It depends on like the situation, depending

[Tom Boke]

on what's going on.

[James Stout]

This is a little weird. Yes.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Yeah. The Pentagon seems to be planning to rename the war in Iran Operation Sledgehammer this seems to be an attempt at an end run around the 1973 War Powers Revolution. They claimed already. Right. We spoke about this last week. They're claiming Epic Fury is over now and that this is a new and distinct operation. In a congressional hearing, Hegseth denied that they needed an authorized use of military force. Let's play the game, the clip.

[Sleep Number Advertiser]

It doesn't appear that hostilities have ended. And so the question to you is, is whether or not the administration has, has considered or had intended to seek an authorization of use of military force from the Congress.

[Tom Boke]

Senator, our view is that should the president make the decision to recommence that, we would have all the authorities necessary to do so.

[Sleep Number Advertiser]

Do you think that it would be helpful to the President if it was made clear that, in fact, the Congress did allow. Did provide an aumf?

[Tom Boke]

I think the President. Our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article 2 to execute.

[Sleep Number Advertiser]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Tom Boke]

That's more or less. Hes saying he didn't need Congress, which is great.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Tom Boke]

Hegseth faced pointy questioning from the House and Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittees. He repeatedly batted away questions about munitions depletion and suggested that, like, it wasn't appropriate to answer them in public on the record like this.

[Garrison Davis]

Oh, I'm sure.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. He also did not directly confront the cost of the war, which is now approaching 30 billion, instead saying, quote, what is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon? And the fact that this president has been willing to make a historic and courageous choice to confront that. It comes with cost. And we recognize that kind of an exercise in evasion on Hegseth's part there, apart from his pretty emphatic statement that he didn't think that they needed any permission from Congress to continue with this war. So we will be back next week to keep you updated on what might be Operation Sledgehammer.

[James Stout]

Great. Yeah, Great stuff. Very exciting. So on May 12, 2026, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, Eileen Wa, pled guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and is being sentenced in the near future for being an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

People have taken this news normally. The foreign government is China. I did a quick little bit of Googling before coming around here and found some some fun headlines. One of them in the Lion, California Mayor pleads guilty to Serving Communist China. And that that article was written by John Ransom, who's a senior contributor at the lion and also has written for the Epoch Times, which Itself is like the agent of a foreign power. Effectively.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

The WCBM had a headline. This Democrat mayor just came clean about working for Communist China.

[Tom Boke]

She could come clean.

[James Stout]

She didn't come clean. She pled guilty for.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

And for that, you know. And then from House Committee on China's website, Moulin are warns of CCP influence after California Mayor charged in foreign influence plot. These charges highlight the very real threat of the Chinese Communist Party's attempts to influence our free and open society. While it denies freedom and liberty for the Chinese people, the CCP is actively working to subvert our institutions and divide us against one another. In this case, an elected mayor acted at the direction of CCP handlers, coordinated with Chinese intelligence linked individuals and used a local news platform to spread CCP propaganda. And so let's talk about that. How much of this is true? Right, Yeah. I mean, technically, yeah, like that's, that's kind of what happened. Except for the part where they were like coordinating to drive Americans apart from each other and create unrest and whatnot. That's not what the purpose of this thing that Eileen got wrapped up in was. She and her former fiance, a fellow named sun, who got sentenced before she did, Mike sun are accused of basically having run like content farms at the behest of Chinese government officials.

[Garrison Davis]

Okay.

[James Stout]

Like they were putting out articles on like the alleged genocide in Xinjiang denying like the Chinese government had done anything wrong there, there was any genocide at all in the region. And so it's kind of like propaganda stuff like that. They were serving as like a fire hose of propaganda, per the Justice Department. In June of 2021, a PRC official contacted Wang and other individuals via the WeChat encrypted messaging application with pre written news articles, including a PRC official written essay in the Los Angeles Times that stated China's stance on the Xinjiang issue. There is no genocide in Xinjiang. There is no such thing as forced labor in any production activity, including cotton production. Spreading such rumors due to fame China destroys Xinjiang. Safety and stability weaken local economy and suppress China's development. Minutes later, Wang posted the article on her own website and responded to the PRC official with a link to the article on her website. The others in the group did the same. The PRC official responded so fast. Thank you everyone. And this is bad. Genocide, denial's bad. Spreading slop content on behalf of a foreign government is like bad. It is important to note that this is not like spying or sabotage in any meaningful way. She's not acting to like try to damage the United States. She's Acting as like an unregistered PR agent for the Chinese government. Or at least that's what she had done up to this point in her life. And like, everything that she was doing was legal if she had disclosed who she was working for, which I think is also an important thing to note, because shit like this happens all the time in. In the media. Like we all see there's tons of content that that is the result one way or the other of some government's influence operation. And for the majority, the majority of the time when it happens, nobody gets tripped up, you know, either because they have friends in power or because they don't quite cross a line. And Eileen and her friends were not very savvy about what they were doing, but they were also not operating on a very large level. Like, this is not a big operation. One of the notes in this charging document is that Eileen sent this Chinese government official a screenshot showing that the article had been viewed 15,128 times through her site. Which is like, not. We're not talking like big deal influence ops here. We're not talking like sweeping powers over, like, public opinion now. Perhaps that's what they hoped Eileen would kind of rise to over time. She didn't seem to be like a kind of rising star in local government in Southern California. She got endorsed by some prominent Democratic Party officials and she was still in touch with her Chinese government handlers at this time. This whole period in which she's like being charged for working as an agent of the Chinese government is like 2020 through at least 2022. So, yeah, this is like, you know, a bad thing. And it's good that this got found out and that she's not continuing to be the mayor of Arcadia.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

But also this is not like the scary thing that the right wing press is making it out to. She was not here to like subvert the US So that it could be invaded or destroyed. She was there to try to stop people on the Internet from being mean to the Chinese government. Like, that was the primary use that they had with her. It's just not that, like, actually scary a story or anything. It's just the kind of thing that happens. This lady happened to become mayor of a small town, basically, which is wild. It's crazy that that happened. But shit like this is going on all the time.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, I think I know. Yeah. People have lost their minds about this one in a way that, like, it's

[James Stout]

a perfect California city. Like, it's a Southern California town. And she's a Chinese government female spy. Like, of course, of course there was

[Garrison Davis]

a lot of stuff back when Eric Swalwell was still a relevant human being. There was some attacks on him for associating with a quote, unquote, Chinese female spy.

[James Stout]

Oh, man.

[Garrison Davis]

Ten years ago. That was like one of the lines of attack against him.

[James Stout]

Sure.

[Garrison Davis]

Because, like, someone, someone he had, like, relations with in, like 2014, what was alleged or found to be working as a spy for the Chinese government. It's interesting that they're doing this type of stuff at like the exact same time that Trump just got like, is like arriving in China.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Right now.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Stout]

It's really great timing.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Curious timing there.

[Tom Boke]

But I'm guessing she took the plea. This has been a period of some time. Right? Like her fiance.

[James Stout]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because first, first her former fiance got busted and then she was like, I didn't do anything wrong. And then it became clear that she very much had. Right. So there was this was like a thing that. Yeah. This has been going on for a little while. It just sort of. Once she pled guilty, then you could do the article like, California Mayor pleads guilty to working for the Chinese government.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Just funny timing.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Speaking of timing, here are some ads.

[James Stout]

Great.

[Tom Boke]

Yay,

[Guest Speaker / External Clip]

Foreign.

[Garrison Davis]

Okay, we are back for one of our last main stories. Let's talk about Virginia and the redistricting efforts. Last week. In a 4, 3 ruling, the Virginia Supreme Court blocked the voter approved redistricting map that passed in April with almost 52% of the vote. The court found the process used to advance the referendum violated the state constitution. According to Virginia's constitution, the legislature has to vote twice to pass any proposed constitutional amendment before it gets put on the ballot for Virginia voters. But these two General assembly votes must be separated by a state general election. The first General assembly vote for this redistricting amendment passed in October 2025 before the November general election. And the second vote to approve the referendum happened next January. So a few months ago, the Republican challengers to the new voting map argued that because early voting had already begun, the General Assembly's first vote in October did not actually occur before a general election. And that was the grounds the state Supreme Court used to block the voter approved amendment. The four judge majority ruled the intervening election requirement was violated because the general election, quote, began on September 19, 2025, and just ended on election day, November 4th.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, I feel like you're kind of outside the spirit of what they were going for with that one but no,

[Garrison Davis]

this on the face sounds quite absurd.

[Tom Boke]

It's one of those things that's technically correct, but at the same time, well,

[Garrison Davis]

and there's some complicating factors because of Trump's own attempts to restrict early voting or deem early voting, like, not constitutionally like, appropriate or like, like, it defies the federal government's definition of the word election. And so now you have some groups in Virginia who are trying to pass this amendment, Democrat groups who are using kind of similar rhetoric as Trump. We'll get to that in a sec. So Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote the majority opinion saying, quote, this violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void. Early Virginia voters unknowingly forfeited their constitutionally protected opportunity to vote for or against delegates who favor or disfavor amending the Constitution by not anticipating a legislative vote on a constitutional amendment four days before the last day of voting, unquote. So the, the Court said that the reason why they have this, this two vote requirement across two different general assemblies is to give voters enough time to not just support or not support a constitutional amendment on the ballot, but then also vote for state lawmakers who will either approve or not approve the constitutional amendment in the legislature itself. Right. So that's what they're saying. It's like this, this, this, this process of having these two votes is to ensure that voters have a say both in who they put into office as well as on the ballot. And they're saying that this process was violated because the early voting had already commenced by the time that the legislature actually voted on this proposed amendment. Chief Justice Cleo Powell wrote in the dissent that the majority, quote, broadened the meaning of the word election as used in the Virginia Constitution to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and, and federal law define an election. By extending elections in the Commonwealth of Virginia beyond a single day, the majority's formulation would directly conflict with the federal mandate that elections for federal officials be held on a single day, unquote. So under the Supreme Court of Virginia's new ruling, the district map drawn in 2021 must be used for the upcoming election this November, the midterms. The new map would have won Democrats four more House seats. But considering this ruling by the state Supreme Court, Dems are now eight seats down in the national redistricting battle, which the latest gutting of the Voting Rights act will only make worse.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Over this past weekend, Virginia Democrats Hakeem Jeffries and Governor Abigail Spanberger held discussions on what to do about this ruling. The New York Times reported that Virginia Democrats expressed determination to win two or three of the Republican held seats even with the current map, but also discussed a few long shot options to change the ruling or push forward the map anyway. One of the more extreme measures debated was the possibility of replacing the entire Virginia Supreme Court by lowering the mandatory retirement age from 75 to 54 and then having a new court rehear the case.

[James Stout]

Sounds great.

[Tom Boke]

Let's do it in between now and November.

[Garrison Davis]

So it seems the Democrats decided against this path ultimately in part because the state Department of Elections deadline for congressional maps is May 12, which is a day before we are recording. Recording. They kind of ran out of time on this. It's also unclear if they really would have had the. The bravery to pull such a. An extreme maneuver. Right. Something that may be the correct thing to do and maybe something they should just do anyway. If they have the power to fully replace their Supreme Court, why not? Because the Democrats are currently in a majority of control of the state legislature right now. Why not? Why not do this anyway? To a certain extent also, Abigail Spanberger can only can only serve one term. So you know you're not going to lose much political capital by pulling a kind of insane move like this. But it's not going to happen, at least right now.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

Nope.

[Garrison Davis]

Virginia's State Senate Majority Leader Scott Sorvel told the New Republic, quote, as a practical matter, the move would not be capable of being implemented given the time frame. No. Despite that May 12 deadline, on Monday, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones and Democratic state lawmakers filed an emergency appeal asking the US Supreme Court to put the state Supreme Court order on hold for the upcoming midterm election, arguing that the state court based their ruling on misreading the federal definition of election. And by adopting its own definition, the state Supreme Court infringed on the state legislature's power to regulate federal elections, quote. By forcing the commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different from those adopted by the General assembly pursuant to a constitutional amendment the people just ratified, the Supreme Court of Virginia has deprived voters, candidates and the Commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts, unquote. This case will be initially decided by Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles the emergency appeals from states covered by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. But the U.S. supreme Court may argue that they don't have the authority to intervene because the Virginia Supreme Court ruling cites state law, not federal law. The New Republic also reported that state Senate Majority leader Scott Sorrel confirmed that even if the Supreme Court gives them a good ruling, that ruling could be unlikely to impact this upcoming election cycle due to this May 12th deadline.

[Tom Boke]

I guess it's just worth saying that like, the, the nature of this midterm will be very important for the way you get to vote in America going forward.

[James Stout]

Yeah. I mean they're, they're pulling out all the stops. Like they're throwing any kind of plausible deniability in the trash because this is the, the get it or lose it moment for, for the right. You know, like that's very much how they're looking at this.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. This is a lock it in forever.

[James Stout]

We'll see.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

A few years ago, Ohio pushed through unconstitutional maps, maps that were deemed unconstitutional by, by state courts. One federal court did authorize them to use these maps in like an interim period and they're still using them. And in a piece by the Nation, they mentioned this, this option, but said that they would need to have the backing of the state board of electors and Virginia might not have that. There's lots of people on the Democratic side that are much more rule followy than a lot of the Republicans as, as we have seen.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

Now, Virginia may be able to still pass this redistricting map in the future by spreading out the process over a bigger period of time to not create this confusion about the early voting period. But the map would not be able to go into effect before the midterms, but it still may be able to go into effect in the future. I do think it's also worth noting that the same day that Virginia filed this appeal with the Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court also paved the way for Alabama to eliminate one of two majority black districts before the midterm elections by overturning a lower court order that blocked the use of a Republican backed map from 2023. So the Supreme Court is currently weighing in on not exactly the same, but you know, similar, similar things in other states.

[Tom Boke]

That was because it was basically pointing to its Louisiana ruling and saying like, we've ruled on this.

[Garrison Davis]

Yes, this is right.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

This was following the Louisiana ruling. Yeah.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. You know, great for the old democratic process Voting Rights Act.

[James Stout]

Ooh. So there's an increasing movement in the United States both at the state and the federal level to repeal gas taxes. So in the United States, there's federal gas taxes that, that everybody pays. The current federal gas tax rate is about 18.3 cents per gallon for gasoline and gasohol. Which is the actual official name of fuel mixed with unleaded gas. That's like unleaded and ethanol together. It's actually just called gasahol.

[Tom Boke]

Okay. Never knew that. What a.

[James Stout]

Yes.

[Tom Boke]

What a lovely word.

[James Stout]

Yeah. They couldn't think of anything better. And then 24.3 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. Right. And then some states have their, their own. Like Oregon has its own, like, gas taxes.

[Tom Boke]

California certainly does at both levels.

[James Stout]

Like, the federal gas tax is there, in short, because it helps to pay for the roads. Right. Like, that's, that's why we need a federal gas tax is because it's funds, what's called the Highway Trust Fund or the htf, which is a big part of, like, what keeps our interstate infrastructure functional. And then state level gas taxes are often also, like, supporting, like, state and local roads. Right. And so Trump has talked about temporarily repealing the gas tax for, like, a couple of months. There have been Democratic proposals that are very similar. Graham Platner, who's about to be a

[Tom Boke]

congressman from Maine, a Democratic nominee for.

[James Stout]

Yeah. Who's currently the nominee, but is almost certainly going to win.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. The presumptive nominee, I think, has expressed

[James Stout]

support for ending the gas tax outright. And his basic plan was something like, you have wealthy corporations pay the money that the gas tax is currently going to, and you put that burden onto, you know, corporations instead of people. And it's not uncommon, by the way, for the gas tax to be temporarily repealed during the early months of the most recent, like, escalation of the Russian invasion into Ukraine in the Biden administration. Back in 2022, Biden temporarily paused the gas. The federal gas tax. Right. So this is a thing that happens. It's just always a bad idea because it's the reason why you, you see people on the left and right make suggestions like this repeal state or federal gas taxes is because it's really easy. It's an easy way to say, like, I'm looking out for you. I'm trying to take care of people. Gas is too darn expensive already. We've got to do everything we can to make your life easier. The problem is the Highway Trust Fund, which is absolutely critical for our roads being functional, is already always running at a deficit. In 2024, it was a deficit of about $13 billion. The main reason for this is that, like, transportation infrastructure is aging every single year and falling behind. And at the same time, that gas tax is not, like, pegged to inflation or anything. So it has not been keeping pace with the actual needs of the trust fund. So anyway, we're already in a really bad situation with the htf. Every time we pause these taxes, it gets much worse. And I'm worried right now that as reasonable as it may sound to say something like, well, we should just have the rich pay for that. You're never going to have any kind of like, move that does both of those things at once. They're going to start by repealing the gas tax, and then they'll never get around to replacing it with anything. And then the roads will just be bad forever. I think this is a bad idea. And I think you should be a little wary of politicians doing this because it's an easy way to get a win. But that said, damn near everybody is. So how wary can you actually be? It's just a really irresponsible bad idea that has a lot of bipartisan support.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah, really. Ever since the no tax on tips thing, there's, there's been this wave of, of, you know, people have called this, like, sloppy list policies or like things that are, that are.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

That are, you know, populist in framing but have certain, like, economic problems or, or get dispersed in weird ways. You know, me as Mia's talked about some specifics around the no tax on tips policy.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

But there's been like a wave of these, you know, small targeted tax cuts on, on, on, on various little things to kind of lift. Lift the financial burden that Americans are facing. You know, the, the better ones, you know, ones like, like, like Platinum strategy, which has a part of his plan increasing taxes on, on billionaires and oil corporations. Yeah, but these sorts of taxes are just like little band aid solutions and that are almost like consolation prizes for not be able to just raise the corporate tax rate or income tax brackets. Right. And it's, it's like we're adopting these consolation taxes for this presumed impossibility, Just actually raising taxes to the level of, you know, if you look at the United States in like the 1950s, super, super high, super high level of taxes that actually funded social services. And you know, one, one thing that can be frustrating about these, these sorts of, more like sloppy list tax angles, you know, it undermines the vital role of taxes to actually fund social services.

[James Stout]

Yep.

[Garrison Davis]

Now, should more of those taxes be funded by corporations and billionaires? Yeah, absolutely.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[Garrison Davis]

But I think that should be the focus rather than these little itty bitty kind of, you know, cutting away at the corners of like, small, small targeted taxes that are, that are again, like, used. Used as like, you know, consolation prizes rather than actually addressing the pretty significant, you know, tax reforms that need to happen in this country.

[James Stout]

And it's just dangerous in part because it acts as if what the gas tax is there to fund, is optional, is not like, necessary. Like, well, we, we don't really need this. So we'll pause this whenever, like, things get bad because we don't need them, but we do. Like, our society is reliant upon the maintenance of that fund and we shouldn't act like it's. Yeah, I, this all is very frustrating to me.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. You can see why the gas tax in particular is appealing right now.

[Garrison Davis]

Right now?

[Tom Boke]

Yeah, people are struggling. Like, it is literally $7 a gallon in parts of California.

[James Stout]

Oh, it's fucking nuts.

[Tom Boke]

Like, people who, like a lot of people who struggle to make it are really struggling to make it.

[James Stout]

Now.

[Tom Boke]

Where our society is set up means that it's very hard for people to exist without a car. So you, like, the populist appeal is obvious.

[James Stout]

And as is always the case with this sort of thing, the fact that it has an appeal is based on ignorance. Because when roads are poorly maintained, it costs regular people huge amounts of money and the damage it does to their car far more than the gas tax costs them. This has been established. This is not like a thing we have to wonder about. There have been studies into this. Like, you pay more money when the roads are bad because your car gets fucked up.

[Garrison Davis]

Yeah.

[Tom Boke]

And it's reasonable for people to say, well, our country has enough money. Can't we unfuck the roads and not charge me a lot of money. Unfortunately, we just spent 30 billion fucking invading Iran, so no, we can't.

[James Stout]

Yeah. You have to not do some of the other things that we're doing.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah. That is not up for grabs in the current political atmosphere. Right. Like, and even your, like, mainstream Democrats aren't going to ride for that.

[Garrison Davis]

No. I mean, it requires pressure against mainstream Democrats and obviously the Republican establishment as well. Right. Like, you know, but part of, part of Platner's plan is a 50% per barrel windfall tax on like big oil profits, which would be significant. But there will be a lot of pushback against this, including among the Democratic establishment. And that might require getting rid of a whole bunch of these Democratic establishment figures who are currently occupying seats of power.

[James Stout]

Yeah.

[Tom Boke]

Yeah.

[James Stout]

Well, everyone think about that on that

[Tom Boke]

hopeful note, on that optimistic figure out

[Garrison Davis]

how to do it note. Oh, where can, where can people send us news related tips, James?

[Tom Boke]

They can do that by emailing coolzonetipsoton me. If you want to keep it a little bit more encrypted, you can do it from a Proton email address. That doesn't bother you? Let's go ahead and send it. If you have a marketing email, you can not send it. Try not to be so rude to the marketing people.

[Garrison Davis]

No, I think part of. Part of those anarchist left wing extremist threats might be against the marketing corporations. If James keeps threatening them at the end of this episode,

[Tom Boke]

I'll just block. I'm not advocating violence. I'm just going to block your email. Okay, well, I will make sure that we never hear from you again. It won't just be me blocking it. It'll be all of us here at Cool Zone Media.

[Garrison Davis]

We reported the news.

[James Stout]

You reported the news.

[Tom Boke]

We reported the news.

[James Stout]

It could happen. Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolson media media.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources where it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.

[Garrison Davis]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Tom Boke]

Guaranteed Human.