
Two topics are dominating the news this week - and neither of them are good. ICE detaining more Democratic elected officials and Mr. "No New Wars" Donald Trump flirts with going to war with Iran. Will MAGA stand with Trump or split with him if he goes to war? This is more on the latest episode of the Find Out Podcast.
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Tim Fullerton
Hello, everybody, and welcome back. Sorry, these guys were making fun of my intro before I started, so I'm going to start again. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Find out podcast. I'm Tim Fullerton, and I'm with four jokers who I don't. You know, we're gonna. We're gonna try to get through this one today. We're already falling apart. It's good that we're laughing now because we're gonna be talking about some very, very serious topics today. One will obviously be the pretending or pending cat in Iran and what that looks like in the MAGA world, because they're starting to split a little bit. But I think at first, we want to talk about some breaking news that happened here in New York City yesterday, where New York City comptroller and mayor mayoral candidate Brad Lander, who actually used to be my city council member as well, was detained by ice. You've probably all seen the video by now, as he was accompanying an immigrant to a hearing and asked for, basically, I think, some proof of why they were detaining this individual, and they decided to admit, detain him as well. So let's. Let's start with this. This. This sort of troubling trend of Democrats seeming to be arrested by the Trump administration. I think we're up to five elected officials at this point somewhere that have at least been detained, if not arrested and charged. What. What do we think, guys? Is this. Is this a good move on Democrats part? Is. Is. Is this performative? What do we think? Who wants to go first?
Chris
I think it's ready. I'm ready to just, you know, do the abolish ICE thing. Yeah, I'm not, like, I'm not prone to, like, a boycott everything and ban everything because, like, you just create a mess usually. But when I started thinking of it in the context of the attacks that all of these Trump administration and Trump departments didn't prevent over the past several months while they were chasing farm workers and construction workers and daycare workers and arresting judges in Wisconsin and dragging Senator Padilla to the ground in. In California. That's when it was like, okay, I. And I had to start unpacking. Like, why is ICE here? What is the Department of Homeland Security protecting us from if not masked armed white men with fucking assault rifles. Like, let's just be real about this. Like, this is the homeland, right? And it's not the people in the Home Depot, you know, Home Depot parking lot attacking me right now or threatening rallies, threatening protests. So I tend to be pretty moderate on These things, but, man, on this one, I've just got my hair on fire.
E
No, I'm with you. I mean, like, it's one of those things, too, where, like that. That's the last thing is a perspective.
Luke
That's it.
Tim Fullerton
That's my whole opinion.
Rich
Melt the ice.
E
I look at it as, like, when I zoom out and look at it, I go, okay, well, this is just Trump using the system wrong again. Like, ICE has its place in my mind, and it should be very specific of violent criminal, immigrant offenders. That's all they should be focused on. And if that was the sole purpose of the department, I think the entire country go, cool. Sounds great. But when you give them masks and say, hey, these are anonymous men who are just going to fucking disappear people, it kind of just. You're using the system wrong. Like, it's. You know, Tim and I were having a discussion a couple of weeks ago about this topic, and, like, you asked a question that I think is a really important question here, is like, what problem is this solving? Right? And if there was a clear answer, I'd be all about it. I'd be like, sure, ice. Go ahead and clear out the criminals. I think nobody's going to fight that, but outside of that, I don't know what the fuck you're doing. What's the purpose of what they're doing? And there's not a good answer for it in my mind.
Luke
So a friend of mine who I met over TikTok, she goes by Note Brigade. She is, I believe, a doctoral student who. Who is studying the far right. And the way that she approaches studying the far right is a little unconventional. Unconventional in what people typically think of as, like, sociology of the study of people. Because these people are inherently dangerous. Their ideas are objectively dangerous. It is not like studying a certain ethnicity or a certain minority group. It is studying people who may want to cause harm to or kill the researcher. And she posted a video that I found extremely compelling where she was crying, where she was talking about how disturbed that she was over ice arresting a mayoral candidate and the comptroller in New York. Because with her knowledge of the far right and specifically of these militia movements, what she saw was indistinguishable from what was the conspiracy to kidnap Gretchen Whitner. Like, people who are dressed in relatively plain clothes, who are not using badges, who have no name tapes, who just got that kind of, like, vet bro, tactical look and guns, and they're coming in and just saying, we're going to arrest you without a warrant, without Identifying ourselves and without a badge, that is profoundly dangerous. And I, I hope that ICE agents have it in their mind that some people are not going to respond favorably to that. I mean, I, I carry a, I have a license for a concealed carry permit. If a bunch of men jumped out of a, of a van, I will tell you that I would not respond very well to a bunch of masked men with guns trying to grab me. And, and it would not go well for anybody. I'm not saying that I would survive, but the costs would be tremendous. And that is going to happen.
Tim Fullerton
Right? Well, and this is why police departments around the country are for stronger gun laws. And they, they absolutely despise open carry in their states because generally what happens at a mass shooter event. And I worked at every town for gun safety. This is why I'm talking, like I've said this before, but they, they, they hate good guys with guns in, in these things because then they don't know who to target and it takes longer potentially friendly fire and it's bad. And it's the same thing with ice. And I'm sorry, I don't think there should be any law enforcement in the United States that is allowed to grab you without identifying themselves and showing proof that they are law enforcement. That seems like that should be a bare minimum. Now I, like I said, I know Brad Lander a little bit. He was my city council member before he ran for comptroller and now running for mayor. He is a good guy. I would, you know, I would actually say he is, he is probably a better guy than, than a, than a politician. And what he was doing yesterday was something he had done in the past. So this is not performative. He, he is an attorney and he was accompanying an immigrant and he asked a question. And the, just the sheer audacity of an elected, citywide elected official to ask an unmet or a masked, unnamed unidentified person what they were doing. It got him thrown to the ground. And I think that, you know, I, I give him a lot of credit for putting his, his body in harm's way. It's wild to say that about law enforcement in this country. And I'd say the same for Alex Padilla. And frankly, like, it is not ideal, but I think more Democratic politicians need to do this because I think this is how you get people to pay attention to what ICE is doing and caring. Because let's be honest, a lot of Americans do not care what ICE does to people who don't look like them. But if they start tackling people who look like them, they're going to have a serious problem with this.
Chris
I totally agree, and unsurprisingly, but even when I look at, like, there's accusations like, yes, politicians can be performative, liberals can be performative, everybody can be performative. But, yep, they are literally elected. This is their job. They are elected to represent people. So if you're going in and you've got a job and you're getting paid, what is it, $175,000 a year or something, and you live in D.C. and you're relatively protected, relatively insulated, not only is it your job to represent the people who voted you into office, who may have much more. They may be much more vulnerable. They may be. They may have much more emotion around it. They may have stronger feelings. You are also in a protected status. Like, Alex Padilla is not going to be deported to El Salvador. And if he is, there will be an actual movement that will. That will. I'm trying to be very careful here, but things would happen if an elected leader were deported. So not only are they protected, and not only are they doing their job, but, like, to some degree, they are feeling this personally. And so is it performative? Well, their job is to perform for their constituents. So let's just table that, because I just don't give a shit. Yeah, this is real. It's a real thing that's happening. And I 100% agree that it is their responsibility. The worst thing is holding those fucking paddles. I will. I will die with nightmare images in my mind of paddles that say, this is not normal, and Trump lies.
Rich
I'm gonna show up to your funeral with a paddle that says, this is not normal.
Chris
But hopefully it will be normal at that point, unless I'm in El Salvador. But you look at how far have we come? Like just a soft pivot, and then we can go back. But how far have we come since Al Green was, like, scorned for standing on the floor and being like, this is bullshit. And everyone's like, oh, decorum. And. And now we're at least embracing the people who are getting their face shoved into the floor. ICE agents.
E
Right?
Chris
And so good for us that we figured out which. Which reaction to this is the right reaction.
E
No, I. I think one of the things, too, that always sticks out for me as to why I sort of like a performance in this space is that I. I gotta zoom out for a second. Like, a lot of the things that we talk about here in this space are, are we kind of coming close to Like Nazism. Like, look at how Hitler came to power versus look at what Trump is doing. And it's like, all right, the one thing that we have in our favor in this case is the fact that we see everything. Social media lets you see every single thing that happens every single second. So in 1930, not really the case. You just read what you see on tv, you don't have any real actual understanding what's going on around yours and what's in the newspaper and what your friends and neighbors, they didn't have.
Chris
Mind space.
E
Exactly. So the critical difference is what do the American people see and how does it feel to have the American government behaving around you? Right. So if they're seeing a ton of things that do resemble what you heard about in history with Nazi Germany, that will make it much easier for us to not to fall into Nazi Germany. So I think this is one of those things where, like I said, I don't care if it's performative. People need to see it so they recognize the actual threat of the moment.
Tim Fullerton
I think. I think that's right. And I think that if. If you. If you see anything happening and you are, and you feel safe doing it, take out your phone and video it. I mean, I think we have to be. Are you?
Chris
Are you?
Luke
So I just remembered that on the topic of, like, us being able to get videos out there and people seeing what's happening, TikTok is scheduled to be banned.
Rich
Oh, that's right.
Luke
The day that this episode is going live.
Chris
No, no, no. They just extended it this time. 90 days. I think it was already five before.
Tim Fullerton
Oh, that's true.
Rich
Yeah. I think you're right.
E
Yeah.
Rich
God, it's stupid.
E
I know. It's so dumb. He just put a zero. It's 900 days. What's the difference?
Tim Fullerton
It's just nine million. Why not, like, you know, like, what are we even doing it? It was clearly a national security threat, by the way, that, like, they keep extending the data, but we could keep.
Rich
It all around forever.
Tim Fullerton
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rich
The thing about it being performative for me is, like, even if it is performative, half the country fell for the biggest performance of all time. So if what it takes is to see, like, these people do some out of an action movie and they think, oh, maybe the Democrats aren't all spineless, feckless people. I'm fine with it. I could give a. If they're doing it because they need to, like, you know, prop their little campaign up a little. It. I don't care because half the country won't know that.
E
Yep, that's true. And the right does it all the time. Like, why?
Rich
And the right does it all the time.
Chris
I was gonna say, you know what's. You know what's performative is these. These American mask skeletor face things, and they're all marching around and it's like, dude, just stop. Like, you're not that guy. You don't look cool. You. Nobody wants to be you.
Rich
Just last weekend, I went and volunteered. Right before the protest, I went and volunteered. There's like a go outdoors, Iowa thing where you teach, like, underprivileged kids how to do outdoorsy. So I went and taught people how to fish, but there was this fucking dude walking around open, carrying a handgun on his fucking belt, and he's got a. Like a gator mask pulled down, and he's like, yeah, if he pulls his mask up and points his gun at me, I can't tell if that's an ICE agent or not. And I had that thought, and I was like, that's fucking absurd.
Chris
Isn't how they fish. That's how they fish in Iowa, though, isn't it?
Rich
Dynamite, not guns, silly.
Tim Fullerton
Well, but I think Rich. Rich's point earlier about the. The that a politician is performative and that they are representatives. It is literally their job to ask questions. And that is what was happening. So if you want to call that a performance, sure, but. But it is also in the job description. They are representing people who are scared. And we're not even talking just about migrant communities or people of color. Like, everybody is now getting scared because now you don't know who's running around in your neighborhood if they're ICE agents. We. I. There were reports yesterday that there were ICE agents in Greenpoint, which is in Brooklyn, which is relatively close to where I record. And, you know, it's like, okay, now what are we. Are those active shooters? Are they agents? Like, it is a terrifying thing, and I think as it gets into people's neighborhoods, they're going to hate it.
Chris
Well, and I'm looking at the picture of the people who arrested Brad Lander or cuffed him, at least there's a dude who, like, he's in jeans and a black shirt with a. One of those, like, tactical watches that probably has, like, lasers and shit in it. You know, the super hardcore guys.
Rich
G Shock.
Tim Fullerton
He.
Chris
He. There it is. He looks like he. Like, he could have bought that shirt on Teemu.
Tim Fullerton
Yeah.
Chris
Another guy, windbreaker, backward mesh trucker hat with a. What looks like, it looks like one of those medical masks on that, that, like he could have picked that up off the street. Like, it's literally disposable medical mask.
Rich
You see that interview with that Walter Masterton put out where like, he, he was at some big Republican convention and there's a dickhead walking around in an ICE windbreaker. And Walter was like, are you actually an ICE student? He's like, no, the windbreaker was a. Was $24 on Amazon. Would recommend sizing down if you're my size, though, because it's a little loose for me. I should have bought a size small. And I was like, are you fucking kidding me? You're a garbage human.
Tim Fullerton
Well, that's also dangerous. I mean, first of all, the fact that you would be bragging about what these guys are doing is absurd, right? But also, like, you're putting yourself in potentially in harm's way as well by putting that on. It's just not. So.
Rich
Don't be surprised if somebody whips you a fucking brick at you. Like, I just walk around bragging about what they're doing.
E
Like, what are the rules of engagement with this? Because, like, I really don't know. I. Every time I see ICE agents, I'm like, how is this not illegal, what they're doing? Like, there must be some kind of law that forces them to do it. But I imagine because they're part of national security, that they can just do whatever the fuck they want.
Luke
But I can tell you what the rules of engagement.
Chris
Yeah, I want to hear Chris. I got a couple of questions for Chris on this, actually, but go ahead.
Luke
So if so, one of the most frustrating things for me as, as a former service member, as a veteran, as a former Boy Scout, was the way that the lessons that were taught during my concealed carry Permit, it was 18 hour class on how to get away with murder. It did. It did not. It did not teach people how to clean or care for weapons which are essential in actually using them. Like, care for your weapon, especially if you own it and you're wearing it for years, is essential.
Rich
You want it to work, you better take care of it.
Luke
Yeah, so. So we did not learn anything about that. In order to pass the class, you just needed to hit a paper target that's 7ft away, that is 1 foot wide and 2, 2ft tall, which is the size of a torso. You have to hit it from seven feet away. I think something like three out of five times or five out of seven times. You don't have to load the magazine. You don't have to rack the round, nothing. You just pick up a firearm and it may or may not have a safety on it. You shoot it. You may never touch a firearm that looks like that again. So, so that, that is what we learned in terms of like actually touching this firearm during this concealed carry permit. The rest of it was off duty police officers or an off duty sheriff's deputy, in my case, teaching a class on how to get away with firing your weapon. And it all boils down to this, is, would it be justifiable in the eyes of a neutral observer for you to have feared for your life in that moment and would you be able to retreat? If the answer is yes, you are afraid and no, you cannot retreat, that means that you must, if you're pulling it out, you must shoot to kill. You cannot pull out a firearm and aim it at someone and say, don't come near me, I've got a firearm. Because now you've brandished a weapon, right? And now you're going to jail for a very long time in New York. So if you pull your weapon, you must kill the other person. According to the state of New York, that, that is literally the way that this off duty sheriff taught the class. And it's consistent with the nr. It was an NRA certified course. It is not just, you know, some random gun shop coming with its own curriculum. That is what is taught. So going back to the, you know, example that we started in, like a bunch of plain clothed people wearing masks jumped out of an unmarked van and they were running towards me, I would have the legal right to just open up on them and to end all of them. And that is not, not the way that that ICE ought to be operating, because this is going to happen sooner or later. Since the Bruin decision, which made it much, much easier to get a concealed carry permit in New York, Massachusetts and other states where it was historically difficult, there have been tens of thousands, if, if not more concealed carry permits issued. There are tons of people in New York carrying firearms, concealed carry legally today that we had never had anything like this in New York. And ICE agents are going to run into a business owner, you know, who has a legitimate reason to have a firearm, who is brown and who they assume is undocumented because he's driving a certain kind of truck and they are going to lose officers.
Chris
Well, even if you have a person who they think is undocumented, this is what we're seeing with everybody who's getting attacked and arrested and detained and cuffed and Slammed into the wall and floors. They're not the people that ICE is even going after.
Rich
Yeah.
Chris
It's anyone who's in the vicinity who says, are you real? Are you an actual government official or are you masquerading? Are you a militia member who, like, out of solidarity, like out of racist solidarity, wants to be part of this movement? Is this person actually a criminal? Do you know that they are undocumented? Or are you suspecting that they're undocumented because you're racially profiling them? And then if all of these things are true, do you actually have a warrant to come into this building or come into this space and take this human being? Because they're detaining them, they're putting them on. On planes, and they're trying to get them out of the country same day so that they can avoid any kind of due process and just not have anybody know about it. Like, we. We know that that's what they're trying to do. So it really is on all of us to legally but clearly use our rights to protect every single human being who's at risk of having their constitutional rights violated.
Luke
Yeah, and this is what I talk about all the time. Like, people who look like me, people with a veteran background, like white straight males with a beard and tattoos, you know, who look like a vet. Like, we need to weaponize our privilege in every legal way possible to. To slow down the confidence that these ICE agents have in their use of their inappropriate use of force against citizens and non citizens.
Chris
And the question I had for you, Chris, because it feels like this is one of those calls coming from inside of the house situations you've told us in the past. Like, you signed up. I remember. I remember vividly post 9 11. Everyone in the country, I believe I didn't, but everyone in the country got like, just a little bit racist for a while there. And there was just a sort of general either fear, like a. Like a passive fear, or an active rage toward anyone who might have been, you know, part of the Middle East. And you mentioned that back in those days when you were Republican, you joined the military. Like, you got in there to go and hurt people who hurt us, you know, and let's not be like that is. That is a huge motivating factor for a lot of young men. We were all young men at some point. Luke, throw me under the bus. You used to be marginally younger, but we know how that felt. Like you watch the action movies and you kind of. You just have this like, crazed fearlessness where you're like, oh man, I could do that, I could go and I'm Rambo. You know, what percent just not scientific, but like what percent of these individuals who are putting on these masks and getting locked and loaded are just actually just excited to go and try to herd Hispanic people? I mean it's not, it's not zero percent like some percent of these people wanted, they just want to go hurt brown people. Right?
Luke
I think this month was the 10 year anniversary of, of Donald Trump coming down that golden escalator, the fake golden escalator. And yep, it's two days ago talking about how, you know, Mexicans are all rapists. So for 10 years young people have, have had this kind of rhetoric, normalized it. And Rich, I think you put this in the, the accurate context. So I grew up watching, you know, whether it was, you know, any kind of like daytime action movie after the Cold War ended, the the enemy was no longer Russian, they were Middle Eastern.
E
Terrorists 100% still that way.
Luke
So leading up to 911 there was a lot of, you know, entertainment racist propaganda, you know, depending on your lens that, that put these people, put an entire class or multiple classes of people, multiple ethnicities, religions, etc, in the crosshairs of the average American young man who idolized the heroes, the American heroes in these, these characters in these movies. The people who are joining ICE today are doing it after 10 years of racist propaganda being normalized. And I, I think that the average person who's joining ICE today has a desire to enforce Donald Trump's policies like the ICE was notorious before this. This current administration like ICE has been gaining reputation for, you know, enacting racist policies for DEP people. And I, I think that the average ICE agent is, is probably, you know, pretty maga Though with that said, it is a federal job. It does come with, at least for now, you know, certain benefits like you know, union membership and, and the types of things that are difficult to find in the private sector nowadays. So I'm not saying every ICE agent is, is racist, but they are people who are at the very least tolerant of being part of that machine.
Tim Fullerton
Well, and ICE was created what, in 2003, right? It was when the Department of Homeland Security was created. When you know, how many, like 80, you know, 80% of the plane hijackers who were Saudi nationals brought the towers down and then we decided to invade Afghanistan, which you know, and then were led lied into a war into Iraq, which was Iraq was, which was why I'm doing a bit of a pivot Here Iraq was actually a big stabilizing force against Iran. And then when we toppled Saddam and his regime, it basically made Iraq incredibly weak and basically partitioned into several different provinces. Iran began enriching uranium and starting to become a real power in the Middle East a lot due to George W. Bush's policies. Great job, guys. Great job, hawks. And Dick Cheney and all those guys, you know, when we were going to be greeted as liberators. But they put us in the position that we're in today, which Donald Trump is weighing whether or not the United States will join Israel in an aerial assault on a ramp. There are conflicting reports about who he's listening to. And of course, he's doing what every great leader does, which is tweet out, nobody knows what I'm gonna do, which is a great way to give. Give some calm to people.
Rich
But.
Tim Fullerton
But what we're seeing, interesting, the reason we're talking about Iran is obviously it's in the news that there might be a war, but there's also an internal war going on between MAGA that kind of exploded yesterday between the anti war faction, of which Don, he's anti war, and he said no new wars, and the hawks who have always been. We were in the first administration and are still in this administration pushing him to hit. So I'm curious, and I have obviously some thoughts on this too. Like, are we starting to see the first cracks in the MAGA movement first.
Chris
Before we talk about Iran, Tim, do you even know how many people live in Iran? 90 million.
Tim Fullerton
I know more than a United States senator.
Chris
Look at us. We're also. We're all better qualified.
Rich
Tucker Carlson has done so many things I hate him for, but I think the number one is making me agree with him. Like, I was cheering for him in that interview.
Tim Fullerton
So what they're referring to is, and why it blew up yesterday is that Tucker Carlson interviewed the most hated senator of all time, Ted Cruz, from Canada. And Tucker is very anti war. And. And Cruz has gone all the way to just like, doing whatever Donald Trump asks him, including making phone calls in. In favor of his campaign at the end of 2016, which was hilarious. But he didn't know any basic questions about Iran, but he was all about bombing them. And it was interesting to watch these two who agree probably on 90, 95 of issues like fighting, like, act like it was like, it was almost like one was.
Rich
Like one was Republican losing his on him.
E
Yeah, yeah, they were. Yeah.
Tim Fullerton
I mean, I don't think.
Rich
Can they both lose, is my question.
E
Well, I, I think like, we're going.
Luke
To find a way.
E
The Republican Party, and I hesitate to call it MAGA because it's sort of like maga and then like the old school Republicans that vote along with them, they're like a toxic family. They're going to go like, they're going to fight about this shit, but it's not going to like, make people, like some people here and there, like little people, scatter off. This is not going to do anything in terms of like, destabilizing the strength of Donald Trump's coalition. Like, they're going to. Most MAGA folks will just agree with whatever the fuck Trump says and they'll just, and he'll spin a narrative to make what he did make sense and twist the truth and fix that. You know, all the PR shit that he pulls. I don't think it's going to do anything, I think, like. But at the same time, Trump is in a position right now. In my perspective, he has two loser options. Whether he decides to join Israel or not, he's going to be looked at like the loser in the situation. If he doesn't go with him, he kind of looks like a guy who can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag because he just couldn't get it right. And then if he goes with them, he's a guy that is essentially breaking all of his promises and getting us into another potentially forever war, which most average, like the average American doesn't want this war. Like, they don't want to relive Iraq. It's just not, it's not popular. So he has two very unpopular choices to make. So I, I don't, I think the reason he's stalling is like, I don't know which way to go. They're both shitty, you know, So I.
Luke
I disagree about MAGA being unsplittable. I think that this is the one exception.
E
Yeah.
Luke
The reason being is that Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon still play a tremendous role in shaping the worldview of, of MAGA and of the Republican Party. They are, you know, Steve Bannon lost to, to Elon Musk. Like, Steve Bannon did not want Elon Musk in, in the party, but Elon Musk came with the billions of dollars and all the gravitas. Right. Bannon lost that battle. There's, there's not a way that Steve Bannon is going to lose the battle to the anti interventionist narrative that he has been pushing for as long as he's been, you know, since he was editor For Breitbart, the way that Tucker Carlson embarrassed Ted Cruz, that that emasculation really, really, really resonates like we're, we all enjoyed it because we hate Ted Cruz.
Rich
Fucking right I did.
Luke
But that emasculation of Ted Cruz emasculated the pro war movement, pro war idea. So I, I do not think that, that Donald Trump will, will engage in Iran. I mean, you know, he's, as he says, no one knows what he's going to do.
E
Right.
Luke
But I think that Donald Trump is, is aware that Hispanic top propagandists would not be with him. On this. Now what, what I think is, is most concerning to me is that I know that Hegseth and those around him in the Department of Defense absolutely do want to go to Iran. And I, I Suspect, I mean, J.D. vance has this kind of like neo reactionary, which is kind of anti intervention. So I don't know exactly how J.D. vance would go on this, but Pete Hegseth pushed out all of the anti Iran war voices that he was closest to. People, people that I know and have been fighting against for years. One of them is Dan Caldwell, this guy who used to work for Concerned Veterans for America. We were polar opposite on issues related to veterans, but he has always been, and he was the only one, a guy who I respected, who always taught me and my, he, he interacted with me and my colleagues very respectfully and continues to more than 10 years later. He and his colleagues getting kicked out was the most concerning thing that I've seen related to the Pentagon so far. This is the most profoundly dangerous for our national security and for global stability.
Tim Fullerton
Well, and the other thing that came out this morning in Politico, I don't know if folks saw it, is that Trump has basically pushed Tulsi Gabbard, who is the Director of National Intelligence, off to the edges.
Rich
What a surprise.
Tim Fullerton
She put out some video.
Chris
So qualified though, I guess.
Rich
I guess the half life on his cabinet's a little longer this time around.
E
Yeah.
Tim Fullerton
But I think the point with her is that she is anti war and she's also very proud Vladimir Putin, who is very pro Iran. So it is concerning to me that he has pushed her off to the side. The other thing, I think what we're witnessing, which is where I've got to agree with both of you, if it's possible, is that I think some of what Tucker and Bannon are doing is also looking past Donald Trump because he's done. Yeah. And they are looking to have their candidates in 2020. Six and in 2028, lead the demo. The, excuse me, the Republican Party. And so I think it's not quite necessarily like they're gonna go after Trump for whatever. I think it's the leverage and trying to continue to build their movement, post him.
E
I think there's also like the potential for like Trump to thread the needle on this. Right? Because I think that the issue that a lot of the folks that on MAGA that are pissed off about potentially going to war here, they don't want a nation build, they don't want to get involved in like that horrible shit that we tried to do and like restructuring governments, killing lead. I mean, you saw it a couple days where like Trump told Israel, do not kill their Supreme Leader, like, don't do that because that's not the place he wants to go. If Trump comes out and goes, look, I'll use the US Military infrastructure to specifically bunker bust nuclear sites and that's it. I won't do any nation building. I won't put boots on the ground. I think he threads the needle on this one and I think it makes him look good. I think, I don't think he'll back off. I really don't. I do think he's actually going to press and realize like, I can thread this needle. I can look like I'm not a warhawk, I'm just attacking a dangerous nuclear infrastructure, but I'm not going to go any further than that. And I think he threads the needle on it. But it's a risky move for him though.
Chris
I think that Democrats politically just need to be careful with how we, we walk this one because the whole, like he's going to start World War iii. Like, don't, don't make that our position. Because he, all he has to do is nothing. And then he wins because he lets Netanyahu do whatever he wants. He says, look, I'm the President of peace. I didn't get us involved in this. And he also successfully distracts us from all of the actual bad things that are happening domestically that were going very, very, very poorly for him. Just like we saw with the musk blow up and then getting into the protests in the National Guard, everything was going poorly with this past weekend. His birthday party was a flop. Nobody even showed up. The cake was shitty. And, and lo and behold, three days later, he's, you know, being coy and sort of adorable about where the Supreme Leader might be hiding and he's posting it on social media. It's like, so we, I think, you know, Politically, I can't believe you just.
Rich
Were to use the word, sort of adorable.
Chris
It was, you know, I mean the fact that the guy is like, I have to go there because the fact that the dude is posting on social media that he knows where the enemy is. I'm like, you know this, that, you know that they have the Internet. Every time I hear the words, every.
Rich
Time I hear the words Donald Trump truth this I want to lose my mind. I think every. I have come to the conclusion that any candidate going forward, it would be a pro in my book if they said, yeah, I don't use any social media. Like, I won't. Will not communicate to you that way.
Chris
They just have a flip phone or not even a flip phone. One of those bricks, the Nokia. What is that?
Rich
I want to see TV giving actual speech speeches. Other than that, I don't want to hear you.
Tim Fullerton
I mean, I, I think there's a lane for a sane person to use digital tools correctly to reach audiences. He is not one of those people. I am going to push back a little bit on him being able to thread the needle because of something he actually truth. So maybe I'm backing up, but Luke says a little bit.
Luke
Can you just call it Tweet? Just, just call a tweet. I want you to dead name Twitter every opportunity.
Tim Fullerton
I don't call. I'm not calling it X. They. All that shitty right wing stuff is.
Chris
Just gonna be the truth is just. Is just Maga, Twitter. So yeah, it's all.
Tim Fullerton
But he actually tweeted that he was requiring the Ayatollah to have a like unconditional surrender. So if he's out there saying unconditional surrender and then he drops a bomb on one place, like, that's not really a victory if he's telling. If he's like saying, I mean, I know, look, he's slippery and he gets.
E
He says a thousand things. That's his thing.
Tim Fullerton
I just don't know if Americans are going to be happy with the idea. We haven't like bombed Iran ever.
E
Like, ever.
Tim Fullerton
And so like, it just. People are just so tired of war, right? We had 20 years. We didn't take care of the veterans that came back. It was just. We didn't solve anything. No one has any appetite for this shit.
E
It's a little different though, because it is like, it's not like Iraq where it was a guess and there were no weapons of mass destruction. Like they're openly, you know, enriching uranium for the goal of having a nuclear weapon. And Like, I think zooming out away from the fact that, that Donald Trump is president, whatever, this is a consequential decision for him. That's a bad thing. Like, undeniably, Iran having a nuclear weapon is a terrible thing. They are unquestionably the. The most likely to use a nuclear weapon outside of maybe North Korea in, like, I mean, and obviously they would use it on Israel, which is why Israel is doing what they're doing right now. I don't necessarily agree with the structure in which they're doing all this shit, but if you just erase all the politics from this, Iran having a nuke is a very bad thing.
Rich
So if only there was some kind of a deal that would have stopped this.
E
Right? So that. But that's the thing. It's like if you, you know, like on our last episode, I made the whole. You can go all the way back to Trump, you know, ruining that situation, but Trump bunker busting the shit out of that program is essentially him doing the negotiating, you know, away from the table. And that's, I think, the direction negotiating.
Rich
That he wasn't capable of doing.
E
Correct? Yeah, he's. He's covered for himself with bombs.
Tim Fullerton
He's bombing his way out of it. But to be clear, bombing that one facility does not end the Iranian nuclear.
E
No, it just sets it back.
Rich
If anything, it sets it back.
Tim Fullerton
It does set it back.
Rich
Adds fuel to the fire. Like, they're more inclined to do it.
E
He's trying to down the table. I think that's really. I really believe that, like, Trump's perspective in the end is going to be. I think that I can push them around and I'm going to, I'm going.
Tim Fullerton
To show them, if any. I'm not an Iranian expert. I do follow some folks online that are. You are not going to bomb them into.
E
I'm not saying it's going to work. I'm saying that's what I think Trump thinks.
Rich
Oh, he absolutely thinks he got it. It's the same thing he thinks in everything, you know, they just let you do it. They just let you do it.
E
Exactly.
Chris
I want to go back to, like, can this be a win or a loss for, you know, politically for maga, like, it's a win for us that they are having to have this battle because. And I don't mean in the short term. I'm not, you know, Iran and Israel, frankly, the Middle east has been doing what the Middle east does for the last, like, 3,000 years, and we got sucked in for 20 years. I would prefer we not spend another $8 trillion believing that the strongest military and the blah, blah, blah, like, this is a new world. And you look at what Ukraine is doing to the Soviet Union, sorry, to Russia, but really to the former KGB officer Vladimir Putin. Regular Americans want none of this.
E
Yeah.
Chris
Whether he can corral that base, 25, 30% of people around to support. Like, yes, they'll do whatever he says because they always do whatever he says. They loved him after January 6th. But regular Americans, independent swing voters, they are running away from a war in the Middle east faster than they can, than they've ever run from anything before. And so, and this is something that I've done a lot of videos about, we've talked about a little bit. But like all of the classical pillars of the Republican Party are completely obliterated now. You've got the hawkish military people, you've got the Bible thumpers and you've got the fiscal conservatives. Trump has blown up all three of those in different ways. And so, and those, and they've all, for now, paused their care about their values because they believe in the Trump brand. But the Trump brand is over. They just haven't fully grasped that yet. And here in about six to eight months, we're going to be talking about midterm campaigns and everybody's going to be running without Trump's name on the ballot. And they're all going to be doing the commercials. Like, I didn't always agree with Donald Trump. And they'll just be like Homer Simpsoning into the political bushes. And everybody knows this is about to happen. And so Trump, I mean, obviously he's going to keep doing what he tries to do to be relevant. But regardless, Vance, he's a protectionist. Like, he wants white people to have white babies in America and he wants to put up the walls and have the tech CEOs build, you know, AI domes or whatever over the country so that nobody can ever touch white people in America. That's the Vance. And you've got Hegseth, who's still sort of like this like old fashioned guy who just wants to bomb everybody. Like, these are not a cup of whiskey in tanned.
Tim Fullerton
Right.
Chris
These. Right, right. He's literally the guy holding the whiskey like he's the bad guy in every espionage movie, you know, sitting behind the desk like drunk and just like committing crimes. So these are not compatible factions without the Trump brand gluing them all together and winning. And so as soon as they are forced to win on their own merit again, they're going to be Looking at the wreckage, the policies, the personalities, it's all in disarray. And Trump will be out. And Trump doesn't give a. He's not going to, he's not going to taint his brand after he's out of. He's not going to pitch his legacy to J.D. vance. He's already made that clear. So this macro level, this is a huge win. We just need to like, hold accountability where it belongs and minimize damage in the process.
Luke
I, I'm going to disagree with you on that. I do agree that the three factions are losing that, that you've described. But you, and you mentioned them, but you didn't mention them as a faction. The, the techno fascists, like the techno fascists are winning. Winning it. If, if we go to war, the techno fascists win like that. That if, if we don't go to war, they're still winning and they can still use all of their.
Rich
Data.
Luke
They've stolen all of the social media that they own, all of the data that they're taking out of the federal government. They Palantir and, and all these other, you know, techno fascists are now getting lieutenant colonels.
Rich
I know that people appreciate the Lord of the Rings shit. I've got the fact that they stole the, like they use the palantir, which in Lord of the Rings is a orb that allows you to see all the terrible that people are doing and people are still cheering for it as in the real world, they're using it to see all the. That you're doing. It boggles my mind. JRR Tolkien would. Is rolling over in his grave right now.
Luke
So as, as of either this week or last week there, it was announced that Palantir and a bunch of other techno fascist types are getting direct commissions not to Lieute, but to lieutenant Colonel. So they're going to be commanding brigades or battalions. So anyway, so the techno fascists are, are basically they're going to win no matter what. It doesn't matter how much the Bible thumpers or the fiscal conservatives or anybody else is, is fighting because the techno fascists are going to just keep giving them the, the red meat that they crave online, in their phones, in their media. And that beyond Trump is going to continue unifying them.
Chris
I think they'll win in the Republican Party. But I mean, look at Elon Musk's approval rating. People don't like big tech leaders. And if you put people like Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel or Marc Andreessen, you put these guys in front of the average American like, they see Jeff Bezos, they see Mark Zuckerberg, they just see a billionaire weird weirdo. Like they're just, they're very, they tend to be very weird people. Like, these are not the leaders that Trump is. And there's a reason why Trump is not a tech CEO. Like, the guy can't open a flip.
Rich
Phone, so his phone doesn't have a flash on the back.
Tim Fullerton
I would do.
Rich
I was looking into the specs on his Trump phone. It doesn't have a flash. The RAM is listed twice as both RAM and storage. And it doesn't tell you what processor it is. It's ripped directly off AliExpress and then just painted gold, all for 490. And also, also, if you pre order it right now, if you pre order right now, now it bills you the wrong amount, like in excess of the, whatever the down, $100 down payment is. And you can't start your service.
E
Sweet.
Chris
Other than that sounds like a Trump.
Rich
The biggest grift ever.
Chris
Hang on. Just, just, just to wrap up the point. So like Chris, I totally. They have money. They have an ungodly amount of money. They're all behind Heritage foundation and Project 2025. Absolutely nothing to diminish the authority they have within that movement and the power that they have within that movement.
Rich
And.
Chris
But as public facing leaders, if we continue to do what we did with Musk, which was hang our public leaders around the necks of these billionaire creepos behind the desk or behind the curtain, it's work and it's going to take a lot of effort, but we can continue to keep them tied together. And I don't know if Reddit is going to be stoked about those people.
Luke
But until we get Democrats coming up with the serious plan to make it so that Elon Musk doesn't own critical infrastructure, which he does right now, like he could literally say shut it off. And our entire military is more or less like essential parts of our military are completely.
E
Yeah.
Luke
So until we get Democrats talking about, I don't know, we could. I'll take it as far as nationalizing his companies like they are essential, essential defense infrastructure. We need to nationalize it. That, that'd be my argument.
Rich
You don't get it anymore.
Chris
Yeah, we need, I don't need Democrats.
Luke
To go that far, but until we have Democrats talking about seriously making it so that these individual men, like Palantir has, has huge contracts right now that have. Are, are helping ice, like, yeah, we need Democrats to be talking about ending these contracts, these relationships, or just Fucking nationalizing anything that's become too essential.
Chris
We just need to win. If we win, then we get to do what we. What needs to be done.
E
Well, I want to make a point to that because the winning element we have to take a look at. Why? Because Chris is right, the technocrats are winning and the billionaires are definitely in a position of power. Why? They're in a position of power because they uniformly represent one thing and that's progress. Democrats no longer own that space because we don't present anything that represents his progress. Billionaires are coming to the table going, look at this AI thing I've got. Look at the SpaceX shit, look at the whatever the fuck it is, they're bringing something to the table where go, wow, look at the cool thing they're bringing to me. Wow, look at the value they bring to me. Look at the immediacy of that value. That is why these people are up in front and winning. Regardless of being weird and unlikable people, they're actually providing something to the people at the end of it. So it's not just as simple as like, hey, we gotta win and these people go away. They're still gonna wield huge amounts of power because what they're bringing to the table is progress in spaces. People are interested in making their lives easier, making their lives more exciting. We need to recognize that and be and be only we'd be able to actually fight back appropriately because we just don't give the same value. Like we come to the table with nothing at the moment and we need to have a contrast and we don't want to.
Chris
That's how they're winning in the business.
E
World and in political world too, because they're aligned with the people, with these people, and they're part of government now.
Chris
But Trump's actual brand is. Let's go back to the 50s of America where we all just like work in the manufacturing plant socially, but not in business.
E
It is for the average person, but the average person isn't looking at like that.
Chris
If you look at tariffs and manufacturing jobs, he's talking about a world that was 70 years ago. And I agree with you, the nostalgia of his movement is not around the future of technology. Like that's how they gained power and that's how they gained money and they're making it work right now. But there's a innate conflict here. Like a 60 year old white guy in Pennsylvania is not going to vote for Peter Thiel to be the next president because he's inventing amazing things. We have become incredibly dependent and I think in that sense, both parties have become far too dependent on big tech and government and contractors to do everything for. So like, I'm looking at it differently progress there.
E
I'm looking at it from the other end of the age spectrum, which is the reason why we lost like Gen Z men aggressively. Because that is the generation of people who look at this and go, ooh, I like these.
Rich
Elon Musk, he can make a car that can drive by itself.
E
And that's, that's the problem.
Rich
Zach is right. Zach is right.
E
Yeah, that is the problem. And we don't have a compelling argument by comparison. And unfortunately, Trump has done an exceptional job at embedding those people into him as a personality in his administration.
Tim Fullerton
Well, I think, I think that's right, but I think that the Democratic vision needs to be a version of capitalism with guardrails and we do not have guardrails right now. I would love to see that the all Democrats come out in favor of basically requiring social media companies to have a algorithm free chronological feed because I don't think that tech companies should decide what information you're looking at that because they are right.
Rich
They are chuckle. Musk is fighting it in New York about that hate speech thing where they, they, because the, the cases that they have to disclose how they fight against hate speech. And Musk is like, well, I don't want to do that. I don't want to show how I'm fighting hate speech because he's, because he's not right. But I amplifying.
Tim Fullerton
But I think there's, I think there is a lane though to, to be all for innovation and progress, but also making sure that, that you know, there are guardrails in place that like businesses don't get your proprietary, you know, data without consent and that they can't manipulate you as easily as they can now. Because honestly, like if I go on Twitter right now, I mean he's, he, Elon has made that algorithm so that all you're getting on your for you page is extreme right wing content. And I just. And that's the default. Right? So that's what you're seeing when you go onto these sites for the first time and like Facebook. Right. Like you don't you see like the same five people and it's usually the people who are all yelling and screaming at each other. And I, I just, people on my.
Rich
Personal account, I go absolutely ape on people.
E
I.
Tim Fullerton
That's what makes you so great, Luke. That's why you've Got get is your, your T at your trademark. So anyways, I, yeah, I just think that like we don't have to be against business. I think we just need to be like for a smarter capitalist success society.
E
A hard sell though. Well, like I agree with everything you're saying, but it's such a hard sell to like hey guys, let's put guard rails on that. Never been a success.
Chris
Let's not forget though that this is like, like tech leaders seven minutes ago were considered the evil socialist left. Like Elon Musk has helped to normalize that, that whole thing. But if you, if you know people who work in California who work in tech, it is 95% liberal leftist liberals and, and they're going more left. They're getting. Because AI is in a lot of parts of the world, a lot of industries being careful here, a lot of career lines. AI poses an absolutely horrific, dreadful existential threat. And I think regular people see that too because blue collar workers have watched their jobs get made obsolete like we talked about with John Harwood by technology for 50 years. And so I think there is a unifying thread here where no, we are not anti innovation. I freaking love technology. I want to talk about all of this stuff. I want to have a world in the future where innovation and AI does so much work for us that it creates so much wealth by default that we can actually talk about like the, what was the Andrew Yang like the universal basic income. If we use all of the wealth we generate to provide a better quality of life for people like FDR did, like labor unions protected. If we just get back to that argument of we produce amazing things, we do amazing work, we are the best, smartest go America and that wealth should stay in our pockets because we are the ones doing the work. That is a progressive argument. It's a winning argument that if we can harness that in this new era of AI and technology, we can absolutely reclaim that whole world. But somebody has to do it. We need a goddamn leader who understands it, which is why we're talking to people like Deja Fox. We need people who live in this and understand it, understand the consequen and the, and the benefits so that we can make it part of our thing and not just have it be like the evil technocrat billionaires like I want, I want the benevolent technocrat.
Rich
I'm just waiting for the Democrats to roll out their AI chatbot tool on their website that helps you donate. I'm waiting for that. I know that coming.
E
It's true.
Chris
I looked at your IRS records, you can afford to double your donation. You're like, God damn it.
Luke
So I agree with you, Rich, and I think that's compelling. But the reality that we live in is if you can't break, if you can't take that and condense it to a tweet.
Rich
Yeah. If it doesn't fit in one sentence.
Luke
Like that, that was a great speech.
Chris
Yep.
Luke
But it's not a great tweet. And until we figure out a way to.
Chris
I can turn that into a 90 second TikTok.
Luke
That's why I'm, that's why I'm talking about, like, I mean, what I really mean is like, you know, break up monopolies. But that's why I'm saying, fuck it, nationalize all these companies. Right. Because, because we need to have clear messages that are just fucking ridiculously strong that people can gravitate towards.
E
That's, that's kind of my, my focus here. And like, what I was going to say next is that what we can do here is use marketing to our advantage. Because nobody really, like, I mean, not nobody, but the majority of people in this country have no idea what AI does, how it works, what it could do. If Democrats could come out and go, look, what we want to do with AI over the next 10 years to revolutionize your life is this, this and this. That's a fucking tweet.
Rich
And that's what takes your fucking job.
E
Exactly. Exactly. If you can sell the benefit, then you can get the guardrails in the back door. But if I think if you lead with like, well, we're trying to be responsible, to be like, shut the fuck up. Get out of the way. You're getting in the way of progress. We got to sell the progress first and then backdoor all the guardrails.
Chris
I just hide the mess. Hide the mess.
Rich
Toss in some fear.
Tim Fullerton
Yes.
Luke
I mean, what, what Democrats really need to do, and I'll tell you the, the winning message, the singular winning message, that, that like, like straight up radicalizes people. So you have to be careful with it, is reduce it to protect the children. Like if, if, if. Whether it's AI or it's talking about anything in the future, if you just reduce it to protect the kids, that is a winning slogan. And you just got to be able to tie good ideas to it instead of conspiracy theories.
E
And education, too. I mean, I have a four year old and I always wonder, like, what is AI's role going to be in her education? Because it's not going to be zero. I'LL tell you that it's, that's a.
Rich
Shitload of their people and brought AI to do it instead. Like it won't be long before actual schools do that.
E
Exactly.
Tim Fullerton
Well, guys, we covered a lot of ground today. I think this is a good time to wrap it up. We, I think, in conclusion, ICE is bad. Don't, don't bomb around Iran and Democrats. We just came up with your messaging around AI. So we're all good here. DNC taking a couple of weeks off and deal with other infighting that's happening right now.
Chris
Now.
Tim Fullerton
But anyways, as always, thank you guys. Thank you everyone for listening. We really appreciate the last episode. We got a lot of really great feedback and it was just really great to see that. So that's why we're doing a second episode with, with our guests. But I think we might have a guest next week, which I will just mention it here because this is going to go live on Thursday. I think we're gonna have Brad Lander on. He just emailed. They just emailed us back about coming on the show. So he's going to tell us all about what it's like to get arrested by ICE or detained.
Chris
Is he, is he back from El Salvador?
Tim Fullerton
You know, like, I didn't, it was just an email, so I didn't see the. There was no area code on the text.
Rich
Trace the ip.
E
Trace the ip. Exactly.
Tim Fullerton
Yeah, I'll have to. I'll get on that because I definitely know how to do that. But anyways, so we'll probably be doing that early next week. And also, don't forget, we have merchandise for you to show your support.
Chris
Where can I find out one of those T shirts? That's a sick shirt. Where can I buy that?
Tim Fullerton
Oh, hell, you can buy that at Findout podcast. And on top of that, all of our merchandise is made in the USA and union made where available.
Chris
So by AI Bots.
Tim Fullerton
Yeah.
Chris
Union. Well paid AI Bots.
Tim Fullerton
Yeah. I don't, I don't know if they, if they'd be super into that. Also find us on substack. Find out podcast.subsack.com you can become a member there where you get some extra benefits if you kick us a few bucks. And it also just helps support building what we are building all together. So with that, thank you very much everybody. Hope you stay safe out there and we'll talk to you soon.
The Find Out Podcast: "ICE and Iran: Make America go to War Again?" – Summary
Release Date: June 19, 2025
Hosts: Tim Fullerton, Chris, Rich, Luke, and E
[00:00] Tim Fullerton:
Tim opens the episode with a lighthearted remark about the group's dynamics, acknowledging the team's tendency to fall apart but emphasizing the importance of humor as they delve into serious topics. He introduces the primary subjects: the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in detaining Democratic officials and the looming threat of a potential war with Iran.
[00:00 – 01:32] Tim Fullerton:
Tim brings urgent attention to a significant incident in New York City where Brad Lander, the City Comptroller and mayoral candidate, was detained by ICE while accompanying an immigrant to a hearing. He highlights a disturbing trend of multiple elected Democrats being arrested or detained by the Trump administration's ICE, questioning whether these actions are performative or substantive moves against Democrats.
[01:32 – 03:44] Chris:
Chris voices strong support for abolishing ICE, framing it as essential in the context of the Trump administration's aggressive actions against various workers and officials. He criticizes ICE's role, questioning what Homeland Security is protecting Americans from if not actual threats.
[02:41 – 03:44] E:
E concurs, emphasizing that ICE should focus solely on violent criminal immigrant offenders. He challenges Tim's earlier question about ICE's purpose, asserting that without a clear, justified role, ICE's actions are misuse of power.
[03:44 – 06:02] Luke:
Luke introduces a poignant perspective from his friend, Note Brigade—a doctoral student studying the far right. He recounts a distressing account of ICE's clandestine operations resembling militia actions, such as detaining officials without proper identification or warrants. Luke emphasizes the dangerous implications of such tactics, highlighting the potential for violent confrontations when ICE agents operate covertly in communities.
[06:02 – 07:59] Tim Fullerton:
Tim expands on the dangers of ICE's methods, drawing parallels to mass shooter scenarios where law enforcement cannot be easily identified. He condemns the lack of transparency, advocating that law enforcement should minimally identify themselves to prevent chaos and fear within communities.
[07:59 – 14:47] Chris, Rich, Luke, E:
The conversation shifts to the internal dynamics of the MAGA movement. Chris argues that elected officials like Alex Padilla are performing their roles authentically, representing constituents under threat from ICE's actions. He dismisses accusations of performative politics, emphasizing the real dangers faced by these officials.
Luke discusses the polarization within MAGA, citing Tucker Carlson's interview with Ted Cruz as an example of internal conflict between anti-war and hawkish factions. He predicts that these divisions may lead to instability within the MAGA coalition.
Rich adds that while performative actions by Democrats are important for visibility, the broader population might not discern the authenticity, thereby limiting the impact of these actions.
[26:35 – 39:01] Tim Fullerton, Rich, E, Luke:
The hosts delve into the geopolitical tensions surrounding Iran. Tim outlines the historical context of ICE’s creation post-9/11 and its role in current international conflicts, specifically Trump's considerations about joining Israel in military actions against Iran.
Rich and Luke discuss the internal MAGA split over interventionist policies, with some advocating for war and others opposing it. Luke suggests that Trump might attempt to "thread the needle" by targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure without full-scale invasion, presenting a precarious balance between appearing strong and avoiding prolonged conflict.
E emphasizes the existential threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran, arguing that despite the flawed methods, addressing Iran's nuclear ambitions is critical for global stability.
[41:33 – 46:10] Chris, Rich, Luke, E:
The discussion shifts to the rising influence of technocrats and big tech leaders in politics. Luke highlights how companies like Palantir are integrating deeply into government operations, raising concerns about data control and surveillance. Chris criticizes the portrayal of tech CEOs as leaders, noting their detachment from the average American's realities.
Rich and Luke express apprehension about the concentration of power in big tech, suggesting that without democratic intervention, these entities will continue to dominate technological and political landscapes. They call for measures like nationalizing critical infrastructure and regulating big tech to prevent misuse of data and ensure democratic accountability.
[48:03 – 55:35] Chris, Rich, E, Tim Fullerton:
The hosts explore the Democratic Party's struggle to craft compelling messages around emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). Chris advocates for a progressive approach that embraces technological advancements while safeguarding workers and ensuring equitable wealth distribution, such as implementing Universal Basic Income (UBI).
E and Rich emphasize the need for Democrats to lead with positive narratives about AI's benefits, rather than merely cautioning against its dangers. They argue that protecting children and education from AI's potential disruptions can serve as a unifying and relatable message for voters.
Tim suggests that Democrats should advocate for smarter capitalism with regulatory guardrails to prevent monopolistic practices and data manipulation by tech companies. The hosts agree that effective communication and clear policy proposals are essential for countering the appeal of technocratic leaders.
[55:35 – 57:25] Tim Fullerton, Chris, Rich, Luke, E:
As the episode wraps up, Tim summarizes the key points: condemning ICE's overreach, opposing unrestrained military actions against Iran, and emphasizing the need for strategic Democratic messaging on AI and technology. He announces an upcoming episode featuring Brad Lander, who will discuss his experience being detained by ICE.
The hosts encourage listeners to support the podcast through merchandise and Substack memberships, highlighting their commitment to providing "real talk" without echo chambers or bullshit.
Notable Quotes:
Chris [01:32]:
"I'm ready to just, you know, do the abolish ICE thing. Yeah, I'm not, like, I'm not prone to, like, a boycott everything and ban everything because, like, you just create a mess usually."
Luke [02:49]:
"It's just like studying people who may want to cause harm to or kill the researcher. And she posted a video that I found extremely compelling where she was crying, talking about how disturbed she was over ICE arresting a mayoral candidate."
Tim Fullerton [06:02]:
"I don't think there should be any law enforcement in the United States that is allowed to grab you without identifying themselves and showing proof that they are law enforcement. That seems like that should be a bare minimum."
E [10:09]:
"Social media lets you see everything. The critical difference is what do the American people see and how does it feel to have the American government behaving around you."
Luke [18:55]:
"The techno fascists are going to win no matter what. It doesn't matter how much the Bible thumpers or the fiscal conservatives or anybody else is fighting."
Chris [22:46]:
"Regular Americans want none of this. The Republican pillars are completely obliterated now."
Rich [37:03]:
"He's bombing his way out of it. But to be clear, bombing that one facility does not end the Iranian nuclear."
Key Takeaways:
ICE Overreach: The detention of Democratic officials by ICE underlines a concerning misuse of power, raising questions about ICE's true purpose and the Democratic Party's response.
Internal MAGA Divisions: The MAGA movement is experiencing internal conflicts between its anti-war and hawkish factions, potentially weakening its unified stance.
Technocratic Influence: Big tech leaders and technocrats are increasingly influencing political landscapes, necessitating Democratic responses to maintain democratic integrity.
AI and Democratic Messaging: The Democratic Party needs to develop clear, positive narratives around emerging technologies like AI to resonate with voters and counterbalance technocratic influences.
Potential Iran Conflict: Trump's ambiguous stance on Iran poses significant risks, balancing between avoiding full-scale war and addressing nuclear threats, while reflecting broader national fatigue with military engagements.
Looking Ahead:
In the next episode, the Find Out Podcast plans to host Brad Lander, who will provide firsthand insights into his experience of being detained by ICE. Listeners can look forward to an in-depth discussion on the personal and political ramifications of such actions.
Support the Podcast:
Listeners are encouraged to purchase merchandise made in the USA and union-made where available. Additionally, subscribing to their Substack at FindoutPodcast.substack.com offers extra benefits and supports the podcast's mission to deliver honest, irreverent, and impactful discussions.