Hello, everyone.
bulwark. Sarah happy Friday. Also happy Friday to people who are hearing this show for the first time.
If you are tuning in to get the bulwark pod, you you're getting this little secret thing while Tim is on vacation. Sarah's real treat for you. What a treat it is. Because Sarah and I tape it seven o'clock in the morning. And so you get this weird bedhead show. So this is a show that you may not be familiar with. Sarah and I do it every Friday. We do it in secret. It's just for members of bulwark plus. And this is the little preview of it. Maybe you'll
love it. Maybe you'll decide that just taking Tim for free isn't enough. And you want to become a
“bulwark plus member and get all of the stuff. Sarah, they should do that, right?”
They should look. We don't pay well very much. And listen to how my voice sounds. This is a this is an authentic morning. The first person I've spoken to is J.V. L. on this podcast and all of you. We do a punchy show. But I gotta tell you, the secret pod is one of the earliest podcasts that the bulwark has. It's one of the very few things. We put behind a paywall. J.V. L. L. and I talk about some news of the day. Our first drafts. We have secret pod rules guys. Part of secret
pod rules is that we're allowed to be wrong on this show because we're going to tell you we're not sure if we think a thing. It's a great show. People love it. It is the member staple for this show. And so if you are not yet a member and you want to know what happens on the other side with the commenters. And I'll just say this too. We only read comments from our community, the people who are
“rocking with us. You guys want to comment for free on YouTube and yell at us. I'm not going to read that.”
Maybe Tim does. I'll just be very honest. I don't. Like in terms of my time each day to engage with community. Like, you know, I try to give at least an hour and a half every single day to community engagement. And so I do have to prioritize it. And so I tend to prioritize it with the board plus members. And again, this isn't this isn't a value judgment. It's not saying I'll like you guys. Yeah. I spent a lot of time in the chat this past couple of weeks because I've written some
triads and how's that going? Did you read those? No, I didn't. I didn't just like control you. My favorite comment is somebody was like, Sarah finally figured out how to read the triad. She started to write the triad. Hey, okay. Yeah. So people go do we're going to jump into the show? Because do you know, I got something I want to say to you. I've been, we've not, you've been out, uh, missed you. Uh, Tim is out. I got it to. I've been
carrying this whole thing. Do you guys don't have that? Nobody's doing it. I've got the full work on your back and just carried the whole thing. Uh, I'm in the comments. Uh, but but I got into this thing with Bill. And you know how sometimes your best content ends up being like a throw away thing that you ended up going down this rabbit hole on, but I got into it with Bill about something that's just been on my mind. You and I've talked about sort of my broken man theory before, um, but I started to talk to
Bill about the inverse, which is one of the reasons I get sort of obsessed with how terrible the men
leading us all right now is that I've always really loved a good man. And, and I went on a bit of a
rant about this on the, the Monday show with Bill. And then I, but I've been thinking about ever since. There's got a big reaction. A lot of people emailed me about it. And I, uh, I was reflecting on what it is about, like why I feel this. And the thing is, I've been very lucky. I've been surrounded by good men. And sometimes people think lesbians, uh, I don't know if people watched chasing Amy, but there's this, you know, some of the stereotypes of lesbians there. They don't like men, you know,
they're, the, the, the, the feminist stuff gets mixed and hostile to men. Um, I, I don't think that's true. Um, I do think that straight men and lesbians are natural allies. Um, but also I have always like, from my dad, to my brothers, to the like totally, uh, idiot dudes that were my best friends from, you know, middle school on. They've all turned into these really great men. Um, and I
“I love a good man. And I think that it doesn't, like, and, you know, an album raising a couple”
of boys. And I, I say to them a lot, I'm like, hey, you're going to get big someday. I think about
this, I'm a small person when people meet me at the shows. They're always like, you are shorter than
I thought you're like, like a five to time. Yeah. And so then are these like big things to me, uh, and always height-mogging me. Uh, but I say to my boys, like, when you get big, like, your
Job is to help people.
stuff off shelves for me, obviously. But in life, like, you should look to be someone who helps
because you will have this sort of physical advantage over a lot of people. Um, and, and I try to really put that in there because I, I just, I've been surrounded by men like that and to watch us be governed by men who are the opposite of that has genuinely been, uh, drawing, but I did want
“to say you are such an example of a good man when I think of good men. Like, uh, and it's funny,”
people who don't know you, uh, some of the people people get the cranky version of you, uh, and you're cranky about this stuff. The only version I got. No, no, no, I mean, you are cranky about this, but, you know, sometimes more off camera than think you will get, I've heard you just go on these benders about like men who leave their families or the, like you, uh, but you're like a great dad, a great husband, um, and you think about how you care for people. Yeah. And I, that's the job.
That's the job. Yeah, we can talk a little more about, you know, well, let's do some man talk at the end of the show. Okay. Um, we've got a lot of stuff we get to get to today. We're going to talk a little bit about streamer JBL. That's a new thing that's happening. Uh, the ice vehicle stops, they're back, Iran. We have all sorts of, it turns out that we have two wars in Iran, not just one. Um, that's really interesting. And we're going to talk about the Michigan primary, where you are
going to continue to educate me about the, uh, attractiveness of Haley Stevens as a political commodity. That's not what I'm going to do. It is something that is, again, this is probably a me problem,
not a judgment on her. We're going to get to all of that. Um, first of all, I did a streamer show
yesterday. Do you know what streamer shows are Sarah? Uh, unfortunately I do, but only because I got inadvertently dragged into the great streamer war of, you know, 2026. Uh, because of the, like, I didn't know who's, I saw a piker wasn't till somebody put me on a panel with him last year. Uh, and the thing was, he couldn't, he ended up being not in person. And they were like, trying to explain to me like, yeah, he can't be here in person because, because I was like,
I was like, I was like, I don't know who this guy is. Yeah, because they wouldn't, the venue wouldn't let him stream on camera for the event. And then I learned about how there's destiny, and then there's these other streamers, and they all fight with each other. Uh, and do they're on
“camera for like eight hours at a time? Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing that sort of blew my mind. So I believe”
the origins of streaming come from the gamer community. And so there's a message, a platform called Twitch that, uh, back in the day, like you'd be on Minecraft, or League of Legends, or some other game, and you just be streaming, and people, it turned out that people would just watch other people play video games. Like, that was a thing that people would do on the internet. This is like 10 years ago, maybe. Um, and, uh, some of that just sort of expanded to other things.
There, there are like baseball card streamers who will just literally open packs of cards on camera and talk about them as they're opening baseball cards. Um, there are political streamers, and like your friend, a son, Piker, and, uh, this guy destiny. And I went on destiny show because
“Barry is a big destiny fan, our friend Barry Ruben, and Barry was like, you should do destiny show.”
You would do that. I'll hook you up. And I was like, well, if you, I don't know who this guy is, but you, if you like him, Barry, I trust you. Oh, you trusted Barry. I mean, this is not a value of my life. Oh, okay. Is that a mistake? I mean, love me. Love me some bear bear and I've been together for 15 years, but if Barry gave me a suggestion about a streamer, I don't know what
that would take that as gospel. I went and did it, and it was fun. It was, um, but here's the thing.
Because so, I'm doing this over Zoom with him. And so, I'm not seeing the river of comments that happened on a stream. And so, for me, it was just like doing a podcast, right? But whereas he, I got the sense that he was maybe like playing video games, like in the background while talking to me, while also looking in his comments stream and like multitasking. Um, but this is very clearly an age divide medium because, and I think that this is, maybe I'm wrong. But this a lot of is just, like,
where you are in the season of life. Because once you pass a certain age, I don't think it's possible
To keep up with streamers because you just have too many other responsibiliti...
your job and your family and driving kids back and forth to soccer practice. And all like,
“you know what I mean? Like the people must age out of streaming consumption, I think.”
That's a good question. I certainly, I can't understand the appeal of sitting. Like, some of these guys, they're like, I'm going to go to sleep now. And the camera will just stay on here, like while I'm eating, um, I don't know exactly why this is thing except, I will say America has an enormous loneliness problem. And I do think that this is part of the manifestation of that right is this is how people form community. And I that typing that everybody's doing is best I can tell like,
there's just a hyper conversation that comes so people do feel sort of connected to it at all times. But anyway, okay, whatever. You went on the streaming show. I was streamed. That was it.
Basically, my takeaway is that according to many of the America's most popular streamers,
I am very based. And that's good. I think it's good. Were you like, I could see you going on one of these streamers shows and going full JVL, like just just the whole end of the video. It's all end. Yeah. I did do America's doom. Yes. When he went when Destiny, I'm, I don't know why I'm going. His name is Steven. I was just like, do I call you, Mr. Destiny? Can I just call you by your, your given name, Steven? He was like, yeah, people in my
real life call me Steven. That's a great. Thanks, Steven. Yeah, he was like, you know, but you're a little hopeful, right? No, not real. Great. JVL to America's chronically online youth. Give up now.
“Give up now. No, but that's what I said. I was like, here's the thing. You've got to,”
you've got to go down fighting. Okay. We're going to lose. But that doesn't mean you give up.
You keep fighting all the way down. Okay. So here's the thing that happened. You'll recall when
we did two weeks ago, the next level. I opened by saying we have some good news. The good news is that ice had like an hour before we taped. Ice had said we're going to stop doing these vehicle stops since our agents keep murdering people when they do vehicle stops. I got reversed real quick. Well, it did take almost nine days. Tom Holman says that we're doing vehicle stops. They're back on because he's concerned that people will, if they don't use vehicle stops, the people will
use their vehicles to hurt ice officers. Sarah, I would pay any amount of money, any amount of money for a responsible news reporter, the next one who is interviewing Tom Holman on news, nation, or whatever. Two, when this subject comes up, ask him, should the capital police have started
“shooting January six protesters when they did not follow commands to step back from the barricades?”
Should they have, because that's his, Tom Holman thing is basically look look for a police officer tells you to do something and you don't do it immediately. Well, I mean, you're going to get killed. Right, that's his, if you don't want to die, just do what they tell you to do. When should the capital police have started firing and murdering January six insurrectionists?
Well, just your home in. You're missing a critical distinction, which is the people who attacked
the capital on January 6th were homegrown terrorists who supported Donald Trump. And so you got to understand that for them, that's very different than any, literally, anyone else, but especially people that they deem to be illegal immigrants. Although, part of what, part of the reason this did get pulled off, there's two reasons one is Susan Collins called Mark Wayne Mullin because turning her electoral chances there in Maine because one of these
shootings was in Maine. And the other reason is, is they keep getting the wrong person. Like, they are, they are, they are, the people they are killing are not even the intended person. They were trying to go get to deport. They're not trend to Agua members. They are not. And so we're running into this situation with ICE. ICE is now so wildly funded. They have so much of our money that they can go. And this is happening all over the place now where they are, they are trying
to meet quotas, right? 2000 a day. 2000 a day. So they've got quotas. So they're just trying to get anybody they can. And I think that unless it happens right in your backyard, this is one of those things
People don't really see or until it happens to one of the people who you're l...
this guy's been here for 20 years. He's part of the community. And then suddenly everyone goes,
well, I think this is going too far. But unless it's happening right in front of you,
“it's an easy thing, I think, for Americans to not see, which is why Minnesota was so important”
because the way that the community itself push back led to it being, you know, white Americans got shot, which I think changed the way, and it was caught on tape. I do keep thinking that this matters a great deal. Oh yeah. The fact that now it's predient when they good shootings will both caught on tape so that we could see that the government was lying, which is the other important thing about ice is that they're not telling us the truth about anything. No, right, it's huge problem,
isn't it? That's like, I mean, whatever. It's, uh, it's very, very bad. But can you explain to me why nobody, no, no straight media reporter would just ask home in the January 6th question, when he, when he says, I don't think people like like, well, you know, people will just have to to comply. I mean, okay. So, sir, could you critique the why, the jam where the capital police wrong to not open fire on, on the January 6th insurrectionist? They didn't comply with orders.
We have video tape of them not complying. Media, if you're listening, if Tom Holman is going to
“talk to you, you should ask him this question. You're interviewing Tom Holman, ask him when they”
should have started shooting. This is one of the reasons why I would never say abolish the police.
Well, I might say abolish ice. Ice is playing by very different rules. Like, I've heard this. A lot of people who are in law enforcement who have done sort of critiques of the way ice did the shooting is that their rule is to not, they are not supposed to just unload on anybody who's flinging. They're not supposed to walk purposely in front of the vehicle's either. That's right. They're supposed to get out of the way. You're supposed to not, you're supposed to say to the
side of a vehicle, not going front because you're going front, you are inviting yourself to believe that you can be in danger. I mean, I just sort of take it as a baseline fact that ice has to be
deleted, like completely deleted. And it isn't to say that you don't have those functions, right?
And as I actually, I think, being to our homeland security department should be disassembled and just, it didn't, the homeland security department didn't exist until 10 minutes ago. And it turns out to have been a mistake. And so it doesn't mean that all those functions go away, but you reapportion them to the other parts of the government where they had been before. And for the types of functions that ice is supposed to do, you just got to start over, stand up a new agency,
build it from a ground up, because this is a rogue agency. There is no, like, well, we'll just weed out the bad apples. It's all, it's all bad. There might be a couple good apples in there somewhere. I just think at this point, the amount of, like, they have been out there recruiting new people. Like, it is now filled with people who came into it for the purpose of, I would like to fill the hole in my soul with dragging, you know, people who've been here for 20 years.
And to be pushed out onto the streets without any training, right, or without adequate training. And so the idea that, like, well, in four years, you could reform that. You can't. Right. The entire culture is just broken. And so I've start over. Okay, so this is a moment. This segment, not what you just heard, what you just heard, was done by me and Sarah, because we want to talk about it. So Sarah, we've had some
developments in Iran. You may have noticed that on Wednesday, the Pentagon had a list of casualties from American service members in Iran. And they were 18 service members killed. And then on Thursday, there were only 14 service members killed. You will not forking believe what their explanation for this is. And we're going to talk all about that. Do you know where we're going to talk about that, Sarah? Other side of the paywall. The other side. Yeah. Yeah.
“Guys, come hang. It's good time. It's not a good time. It's the bad place. But you should come”
and hang at the bad place with us because that's like the only way to do it. Nothing worse than being in the bad place by yourself. Be there with your friends. Yeah, look, we give a lot of stuff away for free. There's not that much behind the paywall. This is one of the things. It's one of the the best things, come do it with us.
