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Hello, and welcome DSR's daily. I'm David Rothkoff, one of your hosts joined by your other hosts, Riley Fessler, Minestime. Minestime is going to kick us off. Mark Wayne Mullin was confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in a 54-45 Senate vote taking over from Christy Nome during a shutdown that has left
thousands of employees working without pay. He steps into the role as Donald Trump pushes aggressive immigration enforcement policies, though Mullin has suggested a slightly more measure to approach, including openness to judicial warrants and engagement with critics. While some bipartisan support and cautious optimism exists, many lawmakers remain skeptical
that his leadership will resolve ongoing controversies over immigration tactics, agency management, and stalled funding negotiations.
“Huh, some people remain skeptical. That just lawmakers, by the way, I'm skeptical. I could even tell Mina by the way, you read that that you're skeptical or am I misleading you?”
I mean, it's just like cool that cautious optimism means like maybe he'll be open to warrants. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. I open to warrants, but like I'm optimistic that maybe he will need. Right, well, that was, you know, that was like Trump was offering up concessions in order to get things fired in one of the things he offered was, we will not do illegal searches. And it's like, oh, great. What a concession. I'm consciously optimistic that will happen. Right, exactly. If you thought Mark Wade Mullin was going to run the place, and that made you cautiously optimistic despite his absolute lack of any experience in this regard,
you're a gullible. But the reality is, of course, he's not running the place. The same people are running the place.
Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, and so it's going to run just the way it did. And, you know, Mullin takes over and their ice agents, you know, wandering around airports was nothing to do, as far as I can see from all the video I'm seeing. And, you know, could be a prelude of things to come. So it's a, it's a grim situation. It's not going to improve and all likelihood with Mark Wayne Mullin. And in fact, you know, I expect worse to come, not better. I mean, you may not have Corey Lewandowski sleeping with Mark Wayne Mullin and some bed on some plane, you know, or Mark Wayne Mullin may not actually shoot his dog.
But other than that, I expect they're going to abuse ice, abuse, citizens, abuse, legal immigrants, abuse, the law, abuse, trust, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
“So some people are cautiously optimistic. I am not so cautiously pessimistic, right?”
Israeli defense minister Israel Katz announced on Tuesday that the military intense to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Latani river, marking the first explicit confirmation of plans to seize nearly 10% of Lebanese territory with some Israeli officials calling for permanent annexation. This defensive buffer strategy mirrors recent tactics used in Gaza, involving the demolition of bridges and residential buildings that Israel claims a function as Hezbollah outposts. The offensive has already resulted in over 1,000 deaths and displaced more than a million people drawing sharp criticism from the United Nations regarding the legality of destroying civilian infrastructure.
I mean, sharp criticism, that's up there with, you know, other euphemisms, like cautious optimism, they invaded a country, they are taking over part of the country, they displaced a million people, more than a thousand people are dead. This is a war of aggression. On top of it, you remember back a while ago when Israel went in and blew up a lot of Lebanon and killed a lot of people and said, well, that's it for Hezbollah and Lebanon.
They have decapitated this proxy of Iran and, you know, big victory.
Because, rightly said, you know, they're at least one other Israeli cabinet minister, Smotric yesterday, said, we're going to keep it.
“These are allies. These are allies. These are allies. These are allies. These are allies.”
And I have to tell you, it's a very interesting thing, you know, I've been, I've happened to have seen a lot of sort of senior foreign policy experts, particularly in democratic side in the past couple of days. And it is remarkable a degree to which the regional buggy man, the least trusted actor, the most destabilizing force in the eyes of these people, who are many of them long time supporters of Israel, is now Israel. Because of Netanyahu, because of the Israeli right, it's not to say people don't support the idea of of of a democratic Israel. It's just that's not what's there, or a law abiding Israel.
That's just not what's there. People are dying in Gaza, people are dying in the West Bank, people are dying in Lebanon, people are dying in Iran.
“And this is all because of aggression and complete disregard for international law on the part of the Israelis.”
And analysis found that Donald Trump has approved far fewer disaster aid requests from democratic led states than Republican led ones during his current term, marking an unprecedented partisan gap in the history of FEMA. Only 23% of requests from democratic controlled states have been approved, compared to 89% for Republican led states, even in cases where FEMA determined the damage met federal thresholds for assistance. Critics argue the pattern suggests political influence over disaster relief, while the administration denies wrongdoing and says decisions reflect stricter review standards, rather than partisanship.
Critics. Critics argue that if democratic states are getting approved at one third the rate of Republican states that something may be fishy.
Critics argue that if the president has explicitly said that he is politicizing all of this, that something may be fishy.
“This is corrupt, it is not the way the government is supposed to work, it is a violation of the law, it is wrong, and remember who's being punished here.”
It's not, you know, some Democrat someplace, they're not like beaten up on Chuck Schumer, going back and saying, "Hey Joe Biden, we don't like you." These are people who are victims of disasters, who are being punished because more Democrats voted for the leaders in their states than Republicans. Okay? This is inhumane, it's sick. Critics argue. In this year, there will be over 10,000 electrophasery for Amazon liverns in whole Europe. For liverns like football, for young kickers.
I don't know, 10,000 electrophasery and it will always be more, based on the plans to take our livern partner in the EU and Großbritannian until end of 2020.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority signaled a willingness to strike down laws in 29 states that allow mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by election day, but delivered shortly after. During oral arguments, conservative justices raised concerns about ballot security and public trust, while the liberal minority questioned why the court would interfere with moderate procedures that states have a long used to ensure every vote counts. Much of the tension focused on justice courses, skepticism regarding the reliability of mail carriers, despite Mississippi's assurances that their system does not actually allow voters to recall about it once a cent.
If these grace periods are dismantled, the ruling would most heavily impact a rural and military voters, particularly in states like Alaska, where geographic barriers and whether frequently delay mail delivery. Some mostly red areas and states, which is kind of weird weird on gold there. Yeah, and the last time Trump voted had it he but by mail. And you know, you refer to this as modern techniques. As pointed out during the hearing yesterday for this, while the Republicans were arguing, you know, who's going to trust an election where their ballots like this?
Justice Jackson pointed out that this has been happening for 100 years, 100 y...
This is what democracy is about, and you gotta ask yourself, when there is a party that is actively trying to suppress the vote, because they don't want people to vote, because they don't want the will of the people to be expressed.
“What are they afraid of? Well, they're afraid of the wisdom of the people. One other thing, and it's sort of getting under my skin and this podcast, so I'm going to bring it up here.”
You know, the language that we use, we've really gotta, we've really gotta be careful, not just us on this podcast, but all of us. Those are not conservatives on the Roberts Court.
They're extremists. They are trying to undermine democracy. They are trying to rewrite the constitution. They are not showing respect for the rule of law. There's nothing conservative about the way they are acting, and the cost is super high for American democracy, for all of us.
And so let's use the right language, otherwise it gives them a little bit more cover than they deserve.
Steve Bannon said the deployment of immigration and custody enforcement agents to assist at airports could serve as a "test run" for the potential role in the 2026 midterm elections, including polling places. In a podcast discussion, Bannon and conservative lawyer Mike Davis suggested ice officers could check IDs to prevent non-citizen voting, with Bannon adding, quote, "pick them out of line" starting today. Framing the airport presence as preparation for future election involvement. The remarks come as ICE agents are temporarily supporting TSA operations during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Though officials say their duties are limited and do not include security screenings.
Yeah, I don't know why we're listening to this sweaty, fat, corrupt, ex-con, you know, who just likes to stir up trouble all the time. But Trump does, and Bannon does express some of Trump's impulses, and no doubt Trump sees these people as, you know, his private police force. They even wear badges by the way or vests that say police on them, they're not police. They're immigration enforcement officers. They don't have police powers. Their powers are very limited. But Trump doesn't know what their powers are.
“You know, just to choose one example yesterday, he was talking about how these ICE officers in airports have the ability to go and, you know, stop people who are coming into this country illegally, right at the airport, isn't that convenient?”
Well, yeah, except, isn't that what Customs and Porter protection is for? I mean, there are already officers whose full-time job it is to keep people from coming into the country illegally, stationed in airports who work for DHS, they have the same bosses. This is completely redundant. It's, you know, we're in this kind of performative element of, you know, the authoritarian state that the president wants America to be. They just extended the stay of National Guard in Washington, DC. Why is there crime here? Is there reason for them to be here? No. Trump likes soldiers walking around town. It makes him feel like he's a big boss.
“It makes him feel like he can send a message to everybody. I will use force if I have got to use force. And that's why these remarks even from this deranged criminal, who wears foreshirts at a time. I don't know what that's about.”
Steve Bannon, you know, need to be heated, not because he's credible, but because he understands and is a manifestation of the psychosis of the next job in the White House. It's right in, right? It's right in the weeks over. We've got to go with it. Can I go away for a couple days now? Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah, okay, probably things.
And that includes all our other podcasts, Silicon consciousness, deep state radio, words, matter, great need to know coming later this week. Lots of interesting stuff. And then of course, there's the TNR daily. So join us for all those things. Subscribe on YouTube. Get your friends to subscribe. Have people send us money so that we can continue to do this because, you know, are you getting the truth from everybody? Is everybody talking about what's going on in the language that needs to be used to talk about what's going on?
“I don't think so, but that's what we're doing. And we have experts doing it. So you can rely on their perspectives. And for now, thank you. Thank you, Riley. Thank you, Mina. Thank you, everybody. Bye-bye.”
Have you ever been through the story? Do you have a hard time talking about what's going on in your head?
No, no, I don't. This story is like my safe space.
“Do you have anything to say about it? Yeah, exactly. This story is like the story of a man who just understands it.”
Do you have anything to say about what's going on in your head? Stop it, do you have anything to say about what's going on in your head?
