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Trump dealt BRUTAL NEWS as Dems deploy secret weapon | Another Day
by Brian Tyler Cohen
Oct 13, 2025 Brian Tyler Cohen

Trump MEETS HIS MATCH with secret weapon | Another Day



Transcript

Republicans tried to rebrand next
weekend's No Kings rally as the Hate
America rally. Apparently, rebranding
Trump as a decent, lawful person just
got too exhausting. This is just another
day.
Next weekend is October 18th, and while
most know it as National No Beard Day,
don't worry Lindsey Graham, I'm talking
about this kind of beard. A different
occasion will also be taking place.
Thousands are expected to descend about
the nation's capital for a No Kings
rally. This is video from previous no
kings rallies across the country in
June. It is set to take place on October
18th right in front of the US capital.
The peaceful moment or movement seeks to
send a message to President Trump saying
America does not put up with wouldbe
kings.
Yeah. Look, I hate to pick on this
broadcast, but did you really have to
use footage from the least attended No
Kings rally in the nation? There were
literally 5 million people at rallies
across the country. There were tens of
thousands of people in Chicago, New
York, Minnesota. Did you have to use
footage from like Beaconsfield, Iowa?
We've got footage of a guy who might
have not even been protesting. He just
happened to stumble out of a Burger King
and thought, "Well, this seems pretty
fortuitous." But questionable footage
aside, on Saturday, another No Kings
rally will be taking place all across
our country. It's a chance for citizens
to rise up and voice their opposition to
the undemocratic actions of this
administration. An opportunity to show
that this current reign of fascism is
not what our nation was founded on. Or
to put it another way, this Hate America
rally that they have coming up for
October 18th, it is an outrageous
gathering for outrageous purposes. But
the Democrats in the Senate have shown
that they're afraid of that crowd. That
they don't want to bow. They want to bow
to them, bow the knee to them, and they
don't want to take incoming from them.
And so they're willing to hold the
American people hostage so that they
don't have to face an angry mob of
that's a big chunk of their base. Now,
if that's a rumor, they need to come out
and and clarify that it's not. But that
is what we are hearing is their actual
motivation, and it is outrageous. Oh,
apparently you're allowed to start
rumors now and then demand that people
come out and dispel them if they really
are untrue. So, seeing as that's the
case, I heard that Speaker Mike Johnson
has sex with cars. That's right. The
rumor is the speaker of the house likes
to get untoward with a Ford. He yearns
to get his peace on with a Nissan. Mike
Johnson has never seen a gas tank that
didn't want to make him empty his own
tank. Now, if that's a rumor, he should
just come out and clarify his stance.
But again, from everything that I'm
hearing, Mike Johnson is a big-time car
And Mike isn't just mad about
the rally itself. He is mad about the
merch being sold.
They they have a Hate America rally
that's scheduled for October 18th on the
National Mall. It's all the pro- Hamas
wing and the, you know, the the uh
Antifa people. They're all coming out.
Some of the House Democrats are selling
t-shirts for the event. And here I was
thinking that Donald Trump floating the
idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to
deploy troops on American soil was bad.
But that's nothing compared to selling
t-shirts. Yes, if there's one thing that
is a clear red line for this Republican
party, it's the sale of merch. That's
right. If nothing else, today's GOP
cares about protecting the sanctity of
their politics without looking like
grifting conmen. If someone even
mentions merch, you will not only lose
their attention, but also their respect.
Because for Trump and Republicans,
they're not here to make money. They're
here to help the American people, even
if they're bankrupted in the process.
And the speaker isn't the only
Republican doing his damnedest to
rebrand this rally.
This is about one thing and one thing
only, to score political points with the
terrorist wing of their party, which is
set to hold, as uh leader Scaliz just
commented on, a Hate America rally in DC
next week. Look, uh, maybe I'm not as
well-versed as majority whip Tom Emmer
on scoring political points with
terrorists, but I don't think holding
peaceful protests around the country
really puts the numbers up on the board
like he thinks it does. But at least
he's doing his part when it comes to
following Speaker Johnson's advice.
If we all adopt these practices together
and we turn down the rhetoric.
Exactly. Anyone else want to paint this
rally as something other than what it
is? And October 18th is when the uh the
protest gets here. This will be a Soros
paid for protest where his professional
protesters show up, the agitators show
up. Oh, that's a great reminder to the
millions of Soros employees who showed
up to the protest back in June. Do not
forget to fill out your time card.
You'll only have one person to blame if
your paychecks are late, and it won't be
George. Anyone else? If if in fact they
are waiting for this no kings protest,
you know, no kings means no paychecks.
Wow. I'm um I'm pretty thrown here
because I thought that no kings was
pretty on the nose in its description of
what it means. It doesn't mean no
paychecks because presumably that would
be the no paychecks parade, which is
famously at the end of April. But no
kings actually means that we don't want
to live under a monarchy. Hence the
whole no kings thing. But I could see
how he could get confused. what with
Trump's penis in his mouth blocking the
flow of oxygen to his brain. And look,
there is a reason that Trump and his
mouthpieces are so hellbent on vilifying
this peaceful protest. There's a reason
that they're trying to prevent millions
of people from taking to the streets for
what is expected to be one of, if not
the largest protest in American history.
The reality is that we're not only
heading toward an authoritarian takeover
of our government. We are in the midst
of one. But remember that all of us
still have agency. And just as someone
told Alpuccino about his libido, while
we've still got that, we should use it.
This administration has been incredibly
effective at getting moneyed interest to
capitulate to him over and over again.
Universities, law firms, media outlets,
all of these institutions have decided
that democracy was just too damn
expensive. And so they caved. But the
reason that they're seeking such
consistent attempts at rebranding this
no kings rally is because the one thing
that Republicans and Donald Trump can't
leverage is the general populace. These
guys are trying to scientifically
engineer a sense of despair and
hopelessness because they also know
about the 3 and 12% rule. Political
scientist Erica Chennowith compiled
research that shows it takes around 3.5%
of the population actively participating
in protest to ensure serious political
change which in America equates to 11
million people. And while that sounds
like a lot, the protest in June had 5
million or seven people depending on
which broadcast you watched. But
doubling our numbers is doable because
we have so much more to be angry about
now. Don't forget this summer's rally
was before Donald Trump took healthcare
away from millions of Americans. This
was before Trump instructed his DOJ to
seek retribution on his political
opponents. This was before Donald
Trump's tariff war destroyed the
businesses of farmers across America.
And this was before we had to witness
ICE agents doing horrific things like
this.
Y some crazy. Y'all got no heart. For
real. No heart.
No heart.
That is why we need to show up on
Saturday to send a message to this
administration that we are not okay with
their authoritarian tactics. Donald
Trump and his sickopantic Republicans
are desperately trying to rebrand this
rally, not because it's some dangerous
Antifa meeting, but expressly because
they are scared. Because a mass uprising
in this country whose participants can't
be extorted is extremely dangerous for
an administration that deres all of its
power from the optics of total control.
This gathering on October 18th is a
chance to stand up and show that
fighting for democracy is a virtuous
cause. Because when you've been
supporting an autocrat since he started
his second term, that is what I'd
consider a hate America rally.

Lockdowns and a Mysterious Meeting: A Quiet Texas Prison Adapts to Life With Ghislaine Maxwell
Unexpected arrival of Epstein associate upset camp’s routines; some inmates say she got favorable treatment
By Christopher Weaver, Meghan Bobrowsky and Brian Whitton
Oct. 11, 2025 9:00 pm ET
https://archive.ph/uf1iz

[x]

On a weekend in mid-August, hundreds of inmates at a minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas, were locked down during their usual time for strolling the grassy campus and visiting with family and friends.

All except one: Ghislaine Maxwell, the 63-year-old associate of Jeffrey Epstein convicted for her role in helping him sexually abuse underage teens.

While her fellow inmates were confined to their dormitories after breakfast, Maxwell met with several visitors in the federal prison camp’s chapel, according to people familiar with the matter.

Less than three weeks earlier, the Justice Department had moved Maxwell to Federal Prison Camp Bryan from a higher-security facility in Tallahassee, Fla. Under Federal Bureau of Prisons rules, prisoners with sex-crime convictions like Maxwell’s don’t ordinarily qualify to serve their time in such camps.

The transfer followed an interview with senior Justice Department official Todd Blanche during which Maxwell said she had never seen President Trump, during his long association with Epstein, doing anything inappropriate or illegal.

Maxwell’s unexpected arrival upset the camp’s usually relaxed atmosphere, leading to more frequent lockdowns, the addition of armed guards and other changes. Current and former inmates said in interviews that Maxwell appeared to receive unusually favorable treatment at times, sparking resentment from other inmates.

It couldn’t be determined whom Maxwell met with in the chapel that day. Some prisoners heard the lockdown was needed to accommodate important visitors. David Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, declined to comment.

[x]

One inmate recalled seeing Maxwell return to the Madison dormitory unit that day with a smile on her face. When that inmate asked Maxwell about the meeting, she said it went really well, but didn’t share any other information.

Less than a week later, the Justice Department released a transcript of Blanche’s July interview with Maxwell. A spokesman for the Justice Department, which oversees the Bureau of Prisons, declined to comment.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by Maxwell, leaving a presidential pardon as the only remaining legal option to avoid serving out her sentence. With credit for time served, good behavior and other things, she is projected to be released in 2037.

Asked after the Supreme Court ruling if he would consider pardoning Maxwell, Trump said, “I’d have to take a look at it.”

Some Trump supporters have continued to draw attention to the Epstein affair by spreading conspiracy theories about a potential coverup of a “client list” identifying wealthy and famous associates of the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in 2019.

-- Jeffrey Epstein's Little Black Book Redacted

-- Jeffrey Epstein's Little Black Book Unredacted

In July, The Wall Street Journal published an article about a lewd letter to Epstein bearing Trump’s signature that was included in a 2003 birthday album for Epstein. Trump denied writing the letter, which he called “nonexistent,” and sued the Journal’s publisher, the reporters and others. Epstein’s estate later released a copy of the letter bearing the signature to lawmakers.

[x]

Low-risk inmates

At Federal Prison Camp Bryan, located about 90 miles northwest of downtown Houston, guards usually don’t carry weapons. During the early morning shift at Bryan, as few as six guards oversee more than six hundred inmates, according to a 2021 report on staffing levels.

Most candidates for the medium-security prisons committed white-collar crimes, face short sentences or have served a large portion of a longer one and are considered a low flight risk. Bureau of Prisons policies prohibit sex offenders from serving time in minimum-security facilities without a special waiver. The bureau didn’t respond to an inquiry about how many such waivers have been granted.

Maxwell has the fourth-longest remaining sentence of the more than 600 inmates at Bryan, a Journal analysis of Bureau of Prisons records found. The records covered Bryan inmates during the period from Sept. 5 to Sept. 11.

Maxwell’s fellow inmates currently include Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood-testing company Theranos who was convicted of defrauding investors, and “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jennifer Shah, who is in prison for defrauding seniors through a telemarketing scheme.

In July, after Maxwell was interviewed about Epstein by the Justice Department’s Blanche, inmates in the Bryan prison camp’s Madison unit were told to do a deep cleaning of the whole dormitory. One inmate said they were told “someone important was coming to do a walk-through.”

Shortly thereafter, Maxwell was transferred into the unit. “She had said she didn’t know why they moved her,” one inmate recalled. “She said one night they just told her to get up and they brought her” to Bryan.

Markus, her lawyer, said in a post on X that her transfer to a “safer facility” came after she “faced serious danger in Tallahassee.”

Grassy campus

Like other minimum-security camps, Bryan offers job training and vocational opportunities, cleaner facilities and a higher level of freedom than other prison facilities, including the ability to come and go from housing units under normal circumstances, said former Bryan inmate Rhonda Fleming, who was convicted of Medicare fraud and was moved to another prison before Maxwell arrived.

Inmates said Maxwell was greeted with hostility from some prisoners, who called her a pedophile and a “chomo”—a prison slur for child molesters.

Bryan’s prison cells, which can house up to four inmates, don’t have doors, former inmates said. One inmate who had just been transferred from another facility walked into Maxwell’s room and told her she liked her hair. Maxwell politely asked her to leave the room, according to another inmate who witnessed the incident. The witness recalled the new inmate screaming at Maxwell that she didn’t belong here. The new arrival was removed by guards and reassigned to another dormitory.

The warden called a “town meeting” for inmates. She warned that if inmates made threats to Maxwell, put her in any sort of danger or talked to the press about her, they would be shipped to a harsher facility, people familiar with the matter said.

The Journal sent more than 100 letters through the prison mail system to reach potential witnesses to Maxwell’s stay in the facility. It conducted interviews with current and former Bryan inmates and people who are in touch with them, and consulted government records.

Christiane Irwin, a 46-year-old Texas accountant convicted of defrauding a law firm where she worked, said in a telephone interview she could discuss Maxwell only in general terms because of the prohibition.

One day after she spoke to a Journal reporter on a phone line monitored by prison officials, her prison email privileges were suspended. Within days, she had been moved to the higher-security Houston Federal Detention Center.

Her lawyer, Brandon Beck, said he learned of the move from the Journal and didn’t know the reason. “The BOP is a black box,” he said.

[x]

Inmates said another inmate was transferred after discussing Maxwell with someone outside the prison.
Maxwell largely kept to herself early on, other inmates said. There was a heavy media presence at the fence line, where photographers vied to get a shot of her.

Drones flew overhead, the inmates recalled. One inmate recalled Maxwell telling her she was afraid one of the drones might “take her out.”

Guards brought Maxwell her meals in her dormitory room. She was escorted to the recreation area for late-night workouts, and was allowed to shower after other inmates were confined to their bunks at 8 p.m.

After Maxwell arrived, prison officials stationed special operations response teams, called SORT—the BOP’s equivalent of SWAT teams—at the camp’s main entrance and rear gate, day and night. SORT members carry military style weapons.

[x]

Earlier this year, prison officials had taken down black tarps that had prevented inmates from seeing beyond the camp’s perimeter fencing. After the tarps went back up, blocking sightlines into the camp, Maxwell ventured out more, inmates said.

She got her hair done—a cut just above the shoulder, a dark mahogany dye job and a blow out—at the facility’s prisoner-run salon where inmates can earn credit toward cosmetology certificates.

She began visiting the cafeteria, where she received vegetarian meals, most of which she gave away to other inmates. She said she couldn’t eat the food, one inmate recalled.

Rising tension

In the early morning hours of Aug. 9, a week after her arrival, gunfire erupted just outside the facility’s perimeter. Two law-enforcement officers with rifles rushed into Maxwell’s room in the Madison dormitory, screaming at her to get up. They rushed her out to another location.

Guards ordered other inmates to lock down. About an hour later, inmates were told they could return to their bunks. Maxwell was back by morning.

A local police report reviewed by the Journal said officers responded to the shooting just after 1 a.m. On the street bordering the prison camp to the northeast, the report said, a shooter opened fire toward a house in the opposite direction of the prison. Another person returned fire before fleeing the scene.

Investigators collected 29 spent 9mm and .40 caliber cartridge casings and numerous bullet fragments from the scene, an evidence log shows. No one was injured, but several vehicles were damaged. A local man, an alleged getaway driver, was later arrested.

The police report said the shooting was gang-related—a finding that prison officials relayed to inmates.
But some inmates doubted the official account. Some prisoners feared for their own safety, worrying that an attempt on Maxwell’s life could claim theirs instead, other inmates said.

The following weekend is when Maxwell had her meeting in the chapel during another lockdown. Inmates were shuttled in and out of the cafeteria one housing unit at a time. That same weekend, people outside the camp’s gates were protesting Maxwell’s presence inside.

[x]

Trump administration officials haven’t commented on why Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison.

In August, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse requested all Bureau of Prisons documents related to the transfer, raising concerns about whether it complied with the agency’s policies. His spokeswoman, Meaghan McCabe, said the lawmaker hadn’t gotten a response.

Some sex offenders in other facilities questioned why Maxwell should get better treatment than they receive despite having been convicted of similar crimes.

Tammy Halling, a Montana woman who was convicted of sexual exploitation of children in 2006 and sentenced to 110 years in prison, said inmates at another Texas federal prison where she is currently serving time were outraged when they learned of Maxwell’s transfer to Bryan.

“It is mainly because of the fact that she’s a sex offender, and sex offenders don’t belong in camp,” she said. “She’s the first one I have ever heard of.” Halling’s sentence was reduced by a judge, and she is now expected to be released in 2039.

In August, she said, she applied to the Bureau of Prisons to be moved to a low-security camp.

Write to Christopher Weaver at [email protected], Meghan Bobrowsky at [email protected] and Brian Whitton at [email protected]

Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the October 13, 2025, print edition as 'Epstein Associate Maxwell Upends a Quiet Texas Prison'.

Max Blumenthal : How Soon Will IDF Attack Gaza?
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom
Streamed live on Oct 13, 2025

Max Blumenthal : How Soon Will IDF Attack Gaza?



Transcript

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano
here for Judging Freedom. Today is
Monday, October 13, 2025. My dear friend
Max Blumenthal joins us now. Max, thank
you very much. Max, what is your take on
the uh events in Tel Aviv today?
Well,
there there there's too much to say in
30 minutes,
but I'm actually
just after two years of continuous
genocide and what we witnessed. I'm
actually stunned that it may be coming
to an end, but I'm I've become cynical.
We witnessed several pauses over this
period and I think this may just be
another pause between wars. I think that
it's very fair to say though that this
and it's what I've been saying on your
show on our live streams at the Greyzone
for the past two years is that this
could have all been stopped with one
phone call. Finally, the phone call
arrived and the will from the Trump
administration came as Trump became
obsessed with his legacy and obsessed
with obtaining the Nobel Prize. And he
provided instructions to Steve Wickoff
and sent his son-in-law from seemingly
out of the wilderness who has a clear
stake in some real estate in the
neighborhood to make this deal happen.
And the US finally demonstrated some
flexibility in forcing both sides to get
to a yes without having all terms
immediately agreed upon. But the reality
is that Hamas had always been flexible.
And this isn't just me saying that. This
is a veteran Israeli peace processor
from the sort of liberal peace camp who
had emerged as a back channel in 2024
between the various factions Hamas, the
US, Israel. His name is Gershon Baskin.
I' I I've you know interacted with him
for years and I always considered him to
be sort of
you know hyping he someone who hyped
himself up as more important than he
was. But it turned out he actually had
real access to what was taking place.
And what Baskin has said, and he wrote
this in the Times of Israel recently, is
that in September 2024,
the same deal that was just made, but
tens of thousands of lives lost later
was on the table. M
and it was not only on the table. Every
side was ready to commit to it except
the Biden administration wasn't pushing
Netanyahu or Israel. Why? What else was
happening in September 2024? That's when
Israel began its campaign to maul
Hezbollah, to begin to assassinate all
of its leadership, to assassinate Hassan
Nasallah as he was negotiating a
ceasefire as he was working on
negotiating a sessation of conflict in
the south of Lebanon and they killed
him. and the Biden administration, the
people around Biden, especially Brett
McGherk, who today is working for the
Saudis through in a series of Saudi arms
industry linked tech firms. Brett
McGherk became so enthralled with the
idea of destroying Hezbollah along with
Amos Hawkstein, the Israelibborn
negotiator for Lebanon for Biden, that
Biden sat around and did nothing. This
is also corroborated by Kla Harris's own
memoir where she said that every time
she would bring up the concept of a
ceasefire, Biden would say, "Well, I'm a
Zionist and then he would proceed to
ship more 2,000 pound weapons to
Israel." So, this could have all been
done by Biden. Tony Blinken could have
had these uh Israeli PS and captives who
are now being released on the White
House lawn. Biden could have uh vied for
the Nobel Prize, but he chose not to.
Tens of thousands were murdered.
Hundreds are being pulled from the
rubble every day that we didn't even
know were dead. Gaza is 83% destroyed.
And so this is the actually the legacy
of Biden's this is Biden's failure. And
Donald Trump has gotten the quote
unquote win after several betrayals of
the peace negotiators of his own. So
again, my feeling today is anger,
bitterness, sorrow because this could
have all been ended a long time ago and
and many of the Israeli captives in Gaza
who were killed in mostly Israeli air
strikes would still be alive as well.
How soon before the IDF resumes bombing?
Well, right now what they're doing is uh
act they've activated their proxies in
Gaza.
Israel has armed and is protecting
behind the so-called 53% line of Israeli
control a series of ISIS linked gangs
and collaborator families specifically
Yasar Rabu Shabbab and his gang who
Yasarabu Shoubab who somehow got a Wall
Street Journal oped and a feature in
Barry Weiss's Free Press and is just a
local gangster whose main achievement
was looting all the aid that was coming
into Gaza and making sure that it was
sold pulled back at extremely high
prices to the starving population.
They're now in firefights blocktoblock
against Hamas and they have killed
notable people in just the last 48 hours
across Gaza as well as the Dagmash
family, a notorious gun family in Gaza
who has collaborated with Israel. Um,
and this is being used by the pro-Israel
press in the US to paint Hamas as some
kind of vicious band of killers because
they're actually trying to clean up
what's left of their own society. Donald
Trump on Air Force One was asked about
this and he said, "Actually, we've given
Hamas the leverage and the latitude to
start restoring stability in Gaza." He
actually let one slip. You're not
supposed to say that. And what's
happening now is that aid is actually
getting through. The trickle of aid
that's coming in is actually getting
through because the the bandits that
looted it throughout the last two years
are no longer present. Let's be clear,
these were Israelibbacked bandits and
their job was to prevent the aid from
getting in. And they were promoted by
all of the Israeli intelligence
collaborators in our own society. How
will it how soon will it begin? Well, I
I've seen instructions
that were uh you know that that came out
in Telegram channels in Hebrew uh for
Israeli soldiers who are guarding the
53% line and behind there closer to the
Gaza frontier with Israel. And they've
been told that uh if you see anyone
approaching from Gaza, shoot near them,
but don't shoot them. uh we need to wait
until the hostages come out. Once the
hostages are out, then we can fire at
will on anyone inside Gaza. So I think
once Hamas gives up its leverage, as it
has been forced to do, we will see more
Israeli violence directed against the
population in Gaza. We will see more
Israeli efforts to push Hamas into
confrontation. And I think that there's
another element here, which is
Netanyahu's own political future.
Here's uh the comment that you talked
about where Trump says uh I think this
is on Air Force One. Uh he approved
Hamas as a police force in Gaza. Chris,
cut number 10.
I'm sure you've seen reports of Hamas uh
rearming instituting themselves as a
Palestinian police force take, you know,
shooting shooting rivals. What does
they are standing because they do want
to stop the problems and they've been
open about it and we gave them approval
for a period of time. Uh you have to
understand they've lost probably 60,000
people. That's a lot of retribution.
uh they've lost 60,000 people and the
ones that are living right now were in
many cases very young when this all
started and we are having them watch
that there's not going to be big crime
or some of the problems that you have
when you have areas like this that have
been literally demolished. You know, you
have two million people and probably
it'll be less than that, but you have
close to two million people going back
to buildings that have been demolished
and a lot of bad things can happen. So,
we want it to be we want it to be safe.
I I think it's going to be fine.
Mr. President,
who knows for sure, Katie, but I think
it's going to be fine.
Mr. President,
does this mean that Hamas is going to be
performing official
governmental
functions in Gaza with the express
consent of the United States government?
Well, that first of all, they always
have been throughout the genocide doing
all they can to maintain municipal
functions and to police the streets and
to maintain order. That was the point of
the Israeli backed gangs was to show
that Hamas can't maintain order and that
they need to be replaced. It's also
important to mention that on October
7th, 2023, Hamas actually declared its
intention to give up governmental
governmental control of Gaza and to have
a technocratic government, replace it.
Their red line is their ability to
maintain self-defense capacity, to
maintain their weapons. They will not
give up their weapons. And so what they
wanted was perhaps a a a government of
unity with someone like Marwan Barguti
who's been languishing in Israeli
prisons for 20 years at the top with
people from Fata supporters of Hamas all
in a unity government playing a
technocratic role in just maintaining
the government with Hamas kind of in the
shadows making sure that Israel couldn't
reinvade or resettle the Gaza Strip but
because of the refusal of Israel and the
Trump administration to support a unity
government and Israel and the
Palestinian Authority of Mahmud Abbas
now refusing to release Marwan Barguti,
the only popular unifying figure outside
Hamas and Fata. Hamas is stuck with hold
basically left holding the bag of
maintaining the rubble of Gaza and
they're doing a very efficient job of
it. Having been in Gaza twice, I saw
them doing a pretty efficient job of
maintaining order in this walled off
ghetto. And they are also doing so amid
a policy of ambiguity about their arms,
which is a major major catastrophic
defeat for Benjamin Netanyahu, who had
promised his constituency total victory.
There is no total victory for Netanyahu.
You can see a sort of icy rapport
between him and Donald Trump at the
bizarre festivities today in Jerusalem.
Here's um
Trump uh going off text
if one war criminal
asking another war criminal to pardon a
third war criminal. Cut number 11.
He's got 60 billion in the bank. 60
million and she loves Hey, I have an
idea, Mr. President. Why don't you give
him a pardon?
By the way, there was not in the speech
as you probably know, but I happen to
like this gentleman right over here and
it just seems to make so much sense. You
know, whether we like it or not, this
has been one of the greatest wartime
presidents. This is what been one of the
greatest wartime presidents. And
cigars and champagne, who the hell cares
about?
Of course, he referred to Netanyahu as
the president, and we know he's the
prime minister. The cigars in champagne
were worth $139,000
uh dollars. I don't know. Does Hersog
have the ability to pardon Netanyahu?
It would be absurd. He would be
overriding the entire court system,
right?
But that what a revealing exchange there
on so many levels. First pointing to
Miriam Matt, who's Donald Trump's top
American donor, but she's in Israel
kind of engineering the entire ceremony.
He mentions that it was because of her
and her husband that the US moved the
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
which was a major provocation, which I
believe actually helped pave the way for
October 7th uh and put more pressure on
the Alaka compound. Remember uh October
7th operation from the Hamaside was
called Alaka flood. He then turns to
Miriam add asked her does she love
Israel more than the US or the US more
than Israel and she wouldn't answer. And
I think we all know what the answer is.
So she he calls her an Israel first.
Trump actually seems to understand the
absurdity of the entire moment. And then
he mocks the idea of $140,000 in gifts
to Netanyahu because look at what the
Trump administration is doing. I mean,
it's golden age is basically a Zionist
gilded age or we could say guilded age
for the technofudalist elite that are
basically paying him off. And you have
FBI agents walking in and handing bags
of cash to his henchmen like Tom Hman
and they're taking it for bribes. So for
Trump, this is just business as usual.
But the real takeaway here is that
Netanyahu does need a pardon because now
that the war is over, his political
future is threatened. His coalition
could come apart.
Recall that just two days ago during the
almost equally bizarre scene of two of
Trump's real estate associates, one of
whom was his son-in-law whose father was
a big, you know, investor and Trump
incorporated, Charles Kushner and Steve
Wickoff. When Wickoff mentioned
Netanyahu before a crowd, a more
grassroots crowd in Tel Aviv, there was
nothing but booze. They hate Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is unpopular. He commands the
largest constituency of any political
figure in Israel, but it's a small
constituency and he's hated. And the
hostage P families consider him to be
not just a hypocrite, but someone who
betrayed them and who refused to make a
deal again and again. So, he needs a
pardon so that he can actually
relinquish power at some point.
Otherwise, he's going to have to start
another crazy war. Netanyahu needs a
regional war right now in order to hold
together the coalition. And you could
see seated to his left was Idomar
Bengir.
I mean, this is a guy who has one seat
for his party,
maybe two seats. That's it. And he's
holding the whole thing. He He's been
holding the whole thing together.
Yeah. Um, I want to play a cut from
November 29th, 2023,
where a young man on this show predicted
much of what you just said? Now, can uh
the Biden administration
uh exert enough pressure on Netanyahu
to get him to stop the ethnic cleansing
once the ceasefire is over on Friday?
Well, the the Biden administration could
end the occupation of Palestine
tomorrow. They could have a Palestinian
state while we're doing this live
stream. All they have to do is say, "No
more spare parts for your F-16s, no more
F-35s, and it's over." Because Israel
depends in its occupation depends
entirely on its direct line to
Washington.
Uh imagine that Biden was actually worse
than Trump that Biden could have stopped
this then with the same deal on the
table that was uh accepted last week.
Yeah. I mean that just goes back to what
I said at the beginning of our
conversation sourcing Gersian Bask in
the back channels remarks. But this was
something any observer could have
clearly known. And I and you know I
identified the main reason why the Biden
administration didn't want to do this as
ideological. There were also careerist
reasons. Look at Matthew Miller, the
State Department spokesman, who day
after day, I mean, I was clashing with
him literally on October 8th. Day after
day, lying about the atrocities in Gaza,
telling the world that Israel has the
right to defend itself and that it's
always Hamas's fault whenever a
ceasefire is abregated or when a deal
can't be made. And as soon as he gets
out of government and starts going on
the podcast circuit, he admits that it
was Netanyahu every time that would move
the goalposts and break the deal. What
he can't say is that the Biden
administration didn't force Netanyahu
back to the table and was also refused
to destroy his government. I mean, the
the Netanyahu has been an enemy of the
Democrats for his entire career, and
they've always been afraid to shatter
his coalition. They could have broke up
his coalition if they wanted to, but
their concern was always for the
stability of Israeli politics and
society. And so, they kept him in power.
They empowered him. They armed him. And
they made sure that he could escalate
all the way to starting an unprovoked
war with Iran that dragged the US into
the conflict. So now you have Tony
Blinken. There's so much gaslighting
going on today and it's so disgusting.
It fills me with rage. You have Tony
Blinken on Twitter posing as though he
actually was never in government and
he's just happy to see a deal. And then
you have the Israelis and all of their
propagandists telling us that actually
uh the Israeli public wants peace. Jared
Kushner praised them for showing that
they would never stoop to the level of
their enemies. We we we we never saw
them stoop to the level of their
enemies. We saw them stoop to the level
of Satan for the last two years. 83% of
Gaza's destroyed. Hundreds of thousands
may be dead. We don't even know how many
are dead. I have lost track of how many
massacres Israel committed. Do we even
remember when they bombed the Nasser
hospital three weeks ago, slaughtering
journalists in a double tap strike?
Right.
They slaughtered so everyone virtually
everyone I know in Gaza was killed or
had their homes destroyed. Do we even
remember November 2023 the Mghazi camp
massacre. Who remembers that? Israel
dropped three 200,000 pound bombs in the
middle of a refugee camp. Slaughtered
over 250 people and it turned out there
was no target there. And Netanyahu
chalks it up to a tragic mishap. Do we
remember when they slaughtered 300
people in a market in the new Serat camp
to rescue four captives and wounded over
500 people? I mean, I could just It just
goes on and on and on, and we're
supposed to forget. And look at these
scenes of Israelis supposedly
celebrating a ceasefire just because
they're getting a few Jewish lives out
of Gaza, most of whom happened to have
been on October 7th, de facto
concentration camp guards, active duty
soldiers in the Israeli military who are
being treated so much better than the
tormented Palestinian prisoners that we
see come out. One of them, Nimrod Cohen,
he was a tank gunner who was pulled out
of his tank. He got Hamas let him call
his mom today on his way out. All right.
Now, take a look at what's happening to
the Palestinian prisoners who are being
marched out of their prisons uh Boule
style with their hands tied behind their
backs, pushed down, humiliated, then
thrown into buses and sweatuits. The
filming, by the way, is in complete
violation of the deal. So, it's just so
hard to ignore all the gaslighting and
to not be extremely angry about what's
happening now. You have this nation that
claims to embody the legacy of the
Holocaust telling us not only to to
forget, do forget, not never forget, but
that this must happen again.
Chris um play the uh Israeli hostage
uh reacting very uniquely in the
presence of his capttors at the moment
of his release. Year 49. Yes, we
continue with you. A total of 24
prisoners have been successfully handed
over and importantly they all remain
alive and well.
One prisoner remains bringing the total
to 25.
It is expected that the process of
handing over the bodies of four Israelis
will also be completed in the coming
days.
That was a young Israeli kissing his
capttors.
Do you know who this is and why that
happened? I don't, but I can assume why
it happened, which is that the um Hamas
or the Okasam brigades assigned each
captive with uh guards who wound up
functioning as their protectors
throughout the war to keep them alive.
And they did forge relationships with
them on some level. Some of them
actually became friendly, others, you
know, it was icy, but they wound up
protecting them from Israeli air
strikes. Um there was actually an
instance I mentioned the operation that
killed almost 300 Palestinians in the
new Serat camp. That was to rescue Noam
Argammani who herself had been rescued
by her Casam guards who threw mattresses
over her to protect her while their own
bodies were exposed during an Israeli
air strike. This fellow's name Chris
just sent to me is Omare. O shem sh to t
ov. I don't know if the name means
anything to you. Yeah. Well, we haven't
heard that much from him since he's been
out, but this was an embarrassing scene
for Israelis in general, and there have
been other scenes. Uh, one of the first
hostages released was an old woman from
a kibbutz. She was released in, I think,
early November 2023, and she shook hands
with her capttors and said, "Shalom."
And it was at that point that uh Israel
began to demonstrate real hostility
towards these kinds of uh exchanges.
So uh look at the contrast between who
is coming out of Israeli prisons and
who's coming out of Gaza and the
condition that they're in. And you can
tell very clearly
uh about the value that was placed on
these lives. The Palestinian prisoners
come out emaciated. Many of them have
not shaven in months or had their their
hair is matted. Uh they still have
wounds from handcuffs and beatings.
They've been subjected to torture
including anal rape which has been well
documented.
And we all we hear is propaganda still
about October 7th and mass rape. But it
was very clear Hamas had no reason to
want these captives harmed because that
was the only collateral they have. From
a political point of view, it's all the
leverage they have now. They're going to
give up the leverage and we will see
what will happen. But I think that that
becomes a really perilous moment where
Israel could restart the war. It does
matter by the way that Trump Trump
didn't get the Nobel Prize uh because he
still wants affirmation
and he may it's really up to Trump once
again to hold Israel's feet to the fire
and he hasn't done that in the past and
especially after thanking Miriam Add. I
fear the worst.
Max, thank you very much. Uh I have to
jump off and get on to another uh
interview, but I deeply appreciate your
time. All the best to you. We look
forward to seeing you next week.
Thanks a lot, Judge.
Thank you, Max, so much. Coming up right
now, if you're watching us live at
11:30, Larry Johnson at 1:00, Scott
Ritter at 3:30, Colonel Colonel Douglas
McGregor. At 4:15, Professor Jeffrey
Sachs, judge Napolitano for judging
freedom.
Heat. Heat.

MAJOR BREAKING: Trump poised for unprecedented crackdown
Brian Tyler Cohen
Oct 15, 2025

Democracy Watch episode 295: Trump poised to target No Kings Day rallies

Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
Oct 15, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/15/headlines



Pressure Grows on Israel to Allow More Aid into Gaza
Oct 15, 2025

Pressure is growing on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza as the ceasefire continues to hold. On Tuesday, Israel told the United Nations it would allow only half of the 600 daily aid trucks called for under the deal. Israel had accused Hamas of moving too slowly to release the bodies of dead captives as part of the deal. On Tuesday night, Hamas handed over four more bodies. Israel said three of the bodies have been identified, but the fourth body did not match any of the known hostages.

Meanwhile, Israel has returned the remains of 45 deceased Palestinians. Health officials in Gaza say the bodies arrived with their hands and legs cuffed. In a statement, Nasser Hospital said, “Some are blindfolded, and there are signs of gunshot wounds in some cases, while others have been run over by tanks.”

This comes as negotiations have begun for the second phase of President Trump’s 20-point plan. On Tuesday, Trump threatened the United States would disarm Hamas if the group does not do so itself.

President Donald Trump: “But we have told them we want disarm, and they will disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. And it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently. But they will disarm.”

In other news from Gaza, the group Handicap International is warning that Palestinians face “enormous” risk from unexploded bombs and mines. The group estimates Israel dropped more than 70,000 tons of explosives on Gaza over the past two years.

Amazon Fires Software Engineer Who Criticized Cloud Computing Project with Israel
Oct 15, 2025

Amazon has fired a software engineer who had criticized the company’s work with Israel. Ahmed Shahrour had publicly opposed Project Nimbus, Amazon’s $1.2 billion cloud computing project that Israel has used to store surveillance information on Gaza’s population.

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Clash with Authorities During Soccer Match Between Israel and Italy
Oct 15, 2025

In Italy, more than 10,000 protesters marched for Palestinian rights Tuesday ahead of a World Cup qualifying soccer match between Italy and Israel. Police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Italy won the game 3-0.

ICE Agents Disperse Protesters with Tear Gas After High-Speed Chase in Chicago
Oct 15, 2025

In Chicago, ICE agents were involved in a high-speed chase to pursue an individual. The federal agents then arrested the person in a residential street when protesters gathered in the area. ICE agents used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called the treatment of the protesters “abominable,” saying they were simply “holding signs and expressing themselves.” Meanwhile, Facebook is suspending the popular ICE Sighting-Chicagoland group at the Trump administration’s request. The group has been used over the past month during “Operation Midway Blitz” to warn neighbors when ICE agents are near schools, grocery stores and other community locations. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, county officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over immigration raids.

Janice Hahn: “We will be urging our colleagues today to declare a state of emergency, because what’s happening across Los Angeles County is an emergency. It may not be a wildfire or an earthquake, but it is a man-made emergency created by our own federal government. ICE raids are spreading fear and confusion in every corner of our county.”

State Department Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals over Charlie Kirk Comments
Oct 15, 2025

The U.S. State Department says it’s revoking the visas of six foreign nationals over social media comments they made about the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. On X, the State Department posted, “The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.” The thread then went on to list examples of posts by the foreigners, identifying them as citizens of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa. It comes as President Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk during a White House Rose Garden ceremony on Tuesday.

“I Love Hitler”: Racist Messages by Young Republican Leaders Exposed in New Leak
Oct 15, 2025

Leaked Telegram messages published by Politico show leaders of Young Republican groups from New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont sharing racist, sexist, antisemitic, violent language and praise for Hitler in more than 28,000 messages over seven months. One message by Joe Maligno, the general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, read, “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic.” Another message by Peter Giunta, the chair of the New York State Young Republicans, who was responding to chat members watching an NBA playoff game, read, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” In response to the leaked messages, Vice President JD Vance posted on X, “I refuse to join the pearl clutching.”

Speaker Johnson Continues to Delay Swearing-In of Rep.-Elect Adelita Grijalva
Oct 15, 2025

Arizona’s attorney general is threatening legal action if House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to delay the swearing-in of Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva. In a statement, Attorney General Kris Mayes said, “We are keeping every option open to us, including litigation, to hold him accountable and make sure that Adelita is able to begin her work as Arizona’s newest member of Congress.” Grijalva would be the final 218th vote on a discharge petition to release the Epstein files. Last week, Speaker Johnson was asked whether he was delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in over the Epstein files, to which he replied, “It has nothing to do with that at all.”

Senate Fails to Pass Funding Bill as Federal Government Shutdown Enters Its 15th Day
Oct 15, 2025

The federal government shutdown has entered its 15th day. On Tuesday, the Senate failed again to pass a funding bill, as Republicans continue to refuse to agree to extend expiring healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
President Trump is threatening to cut more funding for projects in Democratic-led areas if the shutdown continues. According to The New York Times, the Trump administration has already frozen or canceled over $27 billion projects in Democratic-led areas.

In other news from Capitol Hill, congressional Democrats are pushing new legislation to fully fund the supplemental nutrition program WIC, the Women, Infants and Children program.

Trump Conditions $20 Billion Bailout to Argentina on Milei’s Party Winning Elections
Oct 15, 2025

Amid the government shutdown that has furloughed and fired tens of thousands of workers here in the U.S., President Trump has offered a $20 billion bailout for Argentina. Earlier this year, Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei attended the conservative CPAC conference in the U.S., where he gifted billionaire Elon Musk a chainsaw. On Tuesday, Trump hosted Milei at the White House and conditioned Argentina’s bailout funds on Milei’s party winning legislative elections this month.

President Donald Trump: “We’re going to work very much with the president. We think he’s going to win. He should win. And if he does win, we’re going to be very helpful. And if he doesn’t win, we’re not going to waste our time, because you have somebody whose philosophy has no chance of making Argentina great again.”

It comes as critics point out that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s friends who lead major financial firms, including BlackRock, Fidelity and PIMCO, are heavily invested in Argentina and would benefit financially.

Reuters: China Buying Argentine Soybeans Amid U.S. Tariffs
Oct 15, 2025

Reuters is reporting that China is buying at least 10 cargoes of Argentine soybeans after Argentina removed grain export taxes. The move further shuts out U.S. soybean farmers from the Chinese market as the U.S. threatens 100% tariffs on China. Caleb Ragland, a farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, told Reuters, “Every time China turns to South America instead of the U.S., soybean farmers and our farm families here at home lose out. Without a trade deal that removes retaliatory tariffs, farmers like me are left watching key opportunities slip away.”

U.S. Strikes Another Boat Off Coast of Venezuela, Killing 6 People
Oct 15, 2025

President Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. has attacked another boat allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela, killing six people. It’s the fifth deadly strike on boats in the Caribbean since September. It comes weeks after an internal Trump administration memo classified drug cartels as “non-state armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.” NBC News is reporting that congressional lawmakers from both parties are growing frustrated about the lack of information about the strikes. One source told NBC, “The Republicans were mad that the briefers were unable to answer questions about the legal basis for the operations.”

Five Major Broadcast Outlets Refuse to Sign Pentagon’s New Press Policy
Oct 15, 2025

Five major broadcast news outlets have refused to sign the Pentagon’s new press policy by yesterday’s deadline. The policy states that media outlets and reporters cannot obtain any information that the Pentagon does not explicitly authorize. Fox News, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s former employer, stated that they will not sign on to the new press policy. In a joint statement, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, CNN and Fox News all said, “We join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues.”

Elite Military Unit Seizes Power After Ouster of Madagascar President
Oct 15, 2025

In Madagascar, an elite military unit says it has seized power after weeks of Gen Z-led protests led to the ouster of President Andry Rajoelina. Reuters reports the president left Madagascar on Sunday aboard a French military aircraft. A crackdown on dissent by military forces killed at least 22 people, according to the United Nations. The army colonel reportedly announced a committee led by the military would rule the country for up to two years, instituting a transitional government, before calling new elections. On Tuesday, protesters celebrated the military’s takeover.

Faniry Ramanantoanina: “The military’s stance is something we have been waiting for for a very long time. First, there was the gendarmerie and all that, fighting alongside the government. Meanwhile, we saw that the people were at the end of their tether. It was truly wonderful that the army took part in the people’s demands.”

Reuters: Assad Regime Moved Mass Graves to Cover Up Killings
Oct 15, 2025

A new investigation by Reuters has concluded the former Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad secretly moved tens of thousands of bodies to hide evidence of mass killings. Between 2019 and 2021, the Syrian government removed bodies from a mass grave in al-Qutayfah and then reburied them in a secret site in the desert east of Damascus. The project was done as Assad attempted to regain his international standing.

Tens of Thousands of Kaiser Permanente Frontline Medical Staff Go on Strike
Oct 15, 2025

Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses, pharmacists, midwives, rehab therapists and other frontline medical staff are going on strike. Organizers say the five-day strike across 500 medical centers and offices in California, Hawaii and Oregon could be the largest in the history of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. They’re asking for a 25% increase in salaries over four years, claiming that wages have not kept up with inflation. Here’s pharmacist Jackie Hua.

Jackie Hua: “During COVID, we were called heroes with capes on. But now that COVID is over, you know, we’re being thrown under the bus. We’re being told, 'No, we don't want to negotiate anymore. We don’t want to come to the table and negotiate anymore and give you guys a contract.’”

Transgender Activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Dies at 78
Oct 15, 2025

The pioneering transgender activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has died at the age of 78. In 1969, she took part in the Stonewall uprising that launched the modern LGBT rights movement. For more than five decades, she was a tireless advocate for the Black trans community and trans people behind bars. Kierra Johnson, president of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said, “She was a revolutionary, a visionary, a legend — a foundational mother of our movement and an inspiration to those fighting for liberation.”

*******************************

Anti-Fascism Scholar Flees U.S. Fearing for His Family’s Safety Amid Trump’s “Antifa” Fearmongering
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 15, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/15 ... transcript



"Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook"

We speak with Rutgers University professor Mark Bray, who fled from the U.S. to Spain with his family after receiving death threats over his scholarship. He is the author of the 2017 book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, which explores the history and tactics of anti-fascist movements in Europe, the United States and beyond. Turning Point USA, the conservative campus group founded by Charlie Kirk, had called for Bray’s firing and branded him “Dr. Antifa.” This comes as the Trump administration has dramatically escalated its war on dissent following Kirk’s assassination, using his death as pretext to launch an assault on activists, organizations and speech it disagrees with.

“What we’re seeing today in the U.S. is increasingly fascist. MAGA, I believe — and I study fascism, I don’t say this lightly — is a fascist movement,” says Bray, referring to Trump’s political movement.

President Trump signed an executive order designating antifa as a terrorist organization, but Bray stresses there is no such organization; anti-fascism is a loose political movement or ideology akin to feminism, but Trump is using the label to “demonize resistance” to his policies.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with the war on antifa that the Trump administration has ratcheted up in the aftermath of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk being assassinated last month. Yesterday, President Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

Trump recently signed an executive order purporting to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, even though it’s not really an organization. Antifa is actually a shortening of the term “anti-fascist” and is a term that arose in Europe for the movement against the Nazis, both before and after World War II. The decentralized movement in the U.S. today draws on this history.

Several high-level Republicans have accused this Saturday’s “No Kings Day” protests of being organized by antifa. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said last week the administration will take the, quote, “same approach” to antifa as it has to drug cartels it’s bombed in the Caribbean. This is Bondi on Fox News last night.

ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI: That’s one of the things about antifa. You’ve heard President Trump say multiple times they are organized, they are a criminal organization. And they’re very organized. You’re seeing people out there with thousands of signs that all match, pre-bought, pre-put together. They’re organized, and someone is funding it.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as Los Angeles County officials voted Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids they say have, quote, “caused widespread fear,” unquote.

Violent attacks by federal agents at protests against immigrant raids have also been documented in Chicago and Portland. On Tuesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson [was asked] if he would call for more oversight of federal agents. He responded by complaining about a naked bike ride protest against ICE in Portland, Oregon, which Trump has called a war zone.

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: To demand oversight on federal law enforcement? I’ve not seen them cross the line yet, and that we have committees of jurisdiction who have that responsibility, but it’s not risen to that level. What I’ve seen is the abuse of law enforcement by radical leftist activists. You know, most recently, the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet was the naked bicyclers in Portland who were protesting ICE down there. I mean, it’s getting really ugly.

AMY GOODMAN: Experts are increasingly raising concerns the Trump administration’s attacks on antifa are ungrounded in fact and law, and violate free speech rights.

For more, we’re joined by someone who knows a lot about all of this. Mark Bray is a Rutgers University history professor, author of the 2017 book, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Last week, he was forced to leave his home in New Jersey and move to Spain with his family after receiving death threats following Trump’s push to categorize the anti-fascist movement as a domestic terrorist organization. Charlie Kirk’s group, Turning Point USA, had also circulated a petition labeling him “Dr. Antifa” and calling for him to be fired.

In a remarkable development, Bray was at first blocked from flying out of the United States last week. He wrote on Bluesky, “Someone canceled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second. We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation 'disappeared.'” They later took another flight, and professor Mark Bray joins us now from Spain.

Thanks so much for being with us. I’m sorry you’ve gone through all this, Professor Bray. If you can start off by talking about why you left the country and what happened, as we try to follow what was happening to you at the airport?

MARK BRAY: Right. So, I published this book, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, in 2017. I’m actually researching different historical topics now. But after Trump’s executive order, a series of far-right trolls, online influencers started attacking me. I received a number of death threats. Someone published my home address on X. So I started to fear for the safety of my family staying in our home. More and more death threats came in, and I knew I needed to get away. Getting to another country, getting across the ocean would make us feel much more comfortable.

As you said, our first flight was mysteriously canceled at the last moment. My two small children were sobbing. We had to regroup. The next day, as you said —

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask: When you —

MARK BRAY: — I told — yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: I just want to ask: When say your flight was canceled, you went to — what was it? Newark Airport? Or Kennedy?

MARK BRAY: Yes, Newark.

AMY GOODMAN: And you got — and you got your boarding passes, and you went through security. So you were all set. And you got —

MARK BRAY: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — to the gate. And what did they tell you?

MARK BRAY: Right. Well, there was an error. They had us step to the side to talk to the United worker at the desk. There were a series of phone calls and mumbling. And they basically said, at the last moment, someone had canceled our reservation — not the whole flight, just for the four of us, for me, my wife and our two small children. And this is around the same time that Andy Ngo and Jack Posobiec, two of the far-right provocateurs who had been harassing me online, were meeting in the White House with President Trump to discuss antifa. I just can’t believe it’s a coincidence.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, you were able to rebook the next day, and you made it through security, and you actually made it onto the flight?

MARK BRAY: Well, this time, I was stopped, searched and interrogated by federal agents for an hour. And at one point, they took me into a side room, and my two kids saw what looked like very bad men taking me in another room, and they started sobbing. So, it was quite an ordeal even the next day. But I made it out. And frankly, I’m very fearful about the potential of returning, but hopefully, by next year, things will improve.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this is astounding. You weren’t trying to come into the United States. You were trying to leave. And you are an American citizen — not that that should have mattered.

MARK BRAY: And I’m not being charged with any crimes. If anything, I’m the victim of crimes. I wrote a book eight years ago. I consider myself politically an anti-fascist — I detest fascism — but I’m not a member of any antifa group. I’m a professor. I’m a dad. I’m just trying to live my life here. But, of course, because the far right is trying to create a bogeyman term in “antifa” to equate protests with terrorism, I got caught up in the middle of this.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you are the author, Professor Bray, of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. If you can explain what antifa is and what it means for President Trump to have issued this executive order calling it a terrorist — domestic terrorist organization? Is it even an organization? Talk about antifa now and through history.

MARK BRAY: Right. So, as you said, it’s a term that is short for “anti-fascist” or “anti-fascism.” It’s originally German from the era of opposition to Hitler. After World War II, anti-fascism continued throughout the world, and the specific European tradition of what they called antifa spread to other countries around the world. For example, in the U.S., you had Anti-Racist Action in the ’80s and ’90s, which was a network of decentralized groups across the continent organizing against the far right.

The term “antifa” really kind of made its appearance in the U.S. in the late 2000s, but it’s not an organization. It’s more of a politics or a movement. I liken it to feminism. Sometimes there are feminist groups, but feminism itself is not a group. There are antifa groups, but antifa itself is not a group. It’s just sort of like more of a verb. It’s a thing you do to organize against the far right in decentralized groups.

Trump, of course, doesn’t care about any of that. It’s a useful bogeyman term to demonize protest, demonize resistance, equate it with terrorism. And it’s really, you know, an obvious page out of the textbooks about fascist and authoritarian leaders. It’s so — it’s such an obvious imitation of, you know, the kind of the Red Scare talk about communism, but applied to today.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s very interesting you’ve moved to Spain. I mean, for years we’ve covered the Abraham Lincoln Brigadistas, Brigade, those Americans who went to Spain, where you are now, to fight against the fascist Franco. Many of them died. Many of them came back. And this was just before World War II. They were the most experienced, presumably, in fighting. But when a number of them signed up to fight in World War II, to fight Hitler, they were labeled “premature anti-fascists.” Can you talk about that? And they were not allowed to fight in World War II.

MARK BRAY: Right. So, there were a lot of activists and leftists in the U.S. and around the world who realized the threat of Hitler well before mainstream society. And a number of them journeyed over to Spain to fight in the international brigades. A significant number of them lost their lives. Some of them returned. They were blacklisted in the U.S.

And it is also worth pointing out that a number of Spanish Civil War veterans from other countries who ended up going to France after the Spanish Civil War played important roles in the French underground. And there was a tank battalion of Spanish anarchists that were among the first to liberate Paris in 1945. It’s a fascinating history. It’s the one that I — I teach a course on the Spanish Civil War.

So, it is strange to sort of have these things twisted around. And I ended up going to Spain because I’m a historian of Spain. But I’ve received a lot of solidarity and support from the social movements here. And actually, there’s a general strike today in Spain for Palestine, as well — just to throw into your news report.

AMY GOODMAN: We had you on last in 2017 to discuss your book, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, when it first came out. In the introduction, you wrote you hoped your work would promote organizing against fascism and white supremacy. Can you elaborate?

MARK BRAY: Right. So, anti-fascism has a broad history. In the U.S., certainly, there’s the European-inspired antifa tradition. There’s also a really good book called The Black Antifascist Tradition that talks about the role of anti-fascism in Black liberation struggles, Black Panthers and so forth, which I suggest people check out. So, it takes many different forms.

What it has in common is actually this impulse towards unity and putting aside the differences that often divide the left, in the interest of promoting the common struggle against fascism, against white supremacy. And what we’re seeing today in the U.S. is increasingly fascist. MAGA, I believe — and I study fascism, I don’t say this lightly — is a fascist movement. And if we don’t organize, if we don’t take action in the streets, we’re going to end up somewhere really bad.

And for me personally, I felt like my situation was such that I had to get my family out of harm’s way. But this story about me is about me, but it’s not really about me. It’s about attacks on academic freedom, free speech, the right to protest. We’re in a really dangerous situation. And so, everyone, in their own way, needs to take action to try and organize against this.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it’s interesting. You remind me of Timothy Snyder, as well as Jason Stanley, the two Yale professors, who also left the country. They’ve gone to Canada to teach, both having written books against fascism and tyranny. I wanted to ask you about U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments, saying the administration will take the, quote, “same approach” to antifa as it has to drug cartels it’s bombed in the Caribbean. The latest bombing, I think, took place yesterday, killing a number of people. Even Republican politicians, behind closed doors, are saying, “Where is the evidence?” for who these people are, who have been killed by the U.S. bombs. Mark Bray, your response to Pam Bondi?

MARK BRAY: Right. Well, the paradox of fascism is that while it’s trying to gain power, it talks about the need for law and order, and to the degree that it gains power, it tramples all over the law. It does not care about the law or legality, due process, civil liberties. And so, this kind of call to murder people in this country, without, of course, even having gone through any due process — not that I’m in favor of capital punishment anyway, but that’s another story — it is this kind of example of calling for the strongman, in Trump, to use deadly force, without any evidence, against people accused of made-up crimes that are being equated with — you know, at times, some of the Trump administration people have compared it to — ISIS to antifa, right? So, to me, it’s really this kind of fascist attack on civil liberties.

And if they’re equating protesters with antifa, and they’re saying that they’re going to use the methods used for the people in the boats in the Caribbean on antifa, the implication is they are ready to kill American protesters. And, you know, we know the history of Kent State — right? — where students were gunned down in the '60s. It could happen again if we're not careful. So we really need to be very vigilant about this.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think progressive groups, groups that care about democracy, free speech, across the political spectrum, are pushing back enough around the attack on anti-fascists?

MARK BRAY: Well, you know, I think there’s always room for more action. And I think that my main takeaway for viewers today is that whether or not you consider yourself an anti-fascist, anyone who has any critiques of Trump is potentially in the crosshairs here, because there’s a concerted project from the top to equate protest with terrorism and to say anyone who’s not a Trump supporter is basically the equivalent of ISIS. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s absolutely ridiculous. They don’t care at all about grounding in fact or information. It’s something that plays to their base and justifies attempts to step beyond due process to use, apparently, lethal force against dissidents. This is terrifying. And so, everyone really needs to do what they can to sound the alarm.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, I wanted to ask you about the Rutgers students calling for the university to support you, wanting Rutgers President William Tate to issue a statement, a, quote, “Resolution in Support of Professor Mark Bray’s Academic Freedom and Free Expression.” This apparently is slated for consideration and vote Friday by the Rutgers University Senate. Your response, Professor Bray?

MARK BRAY: Well, I’ve received a tremendous amount of support from the Rutgers faculty, from the student body and from the administration. I support that call. I hope it passes. I would very much appreciate a statement of direct support from President Tate. But, you know, to his credit, he did issue a statement in support of the free speech and academic freedom of all Rutgers faculty, which did not mention me directly, but I think, implicitly, supported my right to do my scholarship in accord with my job. But, you know, again, the Rutgers community has been fantastic, and especially given attacks on higher education across the country, the way that some subjects have been, basically, straight-up banned in states like Florida, I’m happy to be a professor at Rutgers.

AMY GOODMAN: Mark Bray, Rutgers University history professor, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. He’s just moved his family to Spain after receiving death threats following President Trump’s push to categorize the anti-fascist movement as a domestic terrorist organization.

Who has kissed Trump’s ass the most this week!?
#TheGoldenGroveler #Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Mar 19, 2025

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xTmRY5L7 ... ture=share



Transcript

Donald Trump's one thing, but it is
absolutely astonishing to see these
ridiculous Republicans desperately
fawning over him, trying to get his
attention and win his love. There are a
lot of them. There are hundreds, maybe
even thousands, but only five of them
honored his majesty so parasitically
this week. They earned a nomination for
the coveted title of Golden
Graaler. And the nominees are Laura
Trump. When history looks back on this
time in America, I do believe that it
will be Donald Trump and Elon Musk who
were reflected as two of the saviors of
this country and really of the entire
world. Secretary of Commerce Howard
Lutnik. You know, you can't tackle
Donald Trump. He is the most important,
the smartest, the most capable leader in
the world, and he's not going to let
someone push him around. Attorney
General Pam Bondi. We all work for the
greatest president in the history of our
country. We are so proud to work at the
directive of Donald Trump. It is um
Representative Lauren Boowbert. Every
day is wake like waking up to Christmas
and uh we just get so many blessings
under President Trump and his
administration, his amazing cabinet
picks. Uh this is an a fantastic time to
be alive. and Deputy Chief of Staff
Steven Miller. Well, President Trump, as
has now been well established, is the
greatest negotiator, the greatest deal
maker, the greatest diplomat, and the
greatest peacemaker that we have ever
seen in this country.
Well, it was a very tough decision. And
all the nominees delivered extraordinary
tongue work this week, but only one can
win. And the golden gravel goes
[Music]
to Laura
Trump. Congratulations, Laura. You are
the bootlicking, brownnose, suckup,
sickopan, apple polishing, donut
guzzling ass kisser of the week. And the
rest of you haters just need to try
harder. That's all.

COLLAPSING Trump Unable To SPEAK As Handlers RUSH To SAVE Him!
Jack Cocchiarella
Oct 15, 2025 Jack Cocchiarella Show

Political commentator Jack Cocchiarella reacts to Donald Trump's oval office disaster.



Transcript

What we're seeing from Trump right now
is both a cognitive and physical
collapse. And he is well aware of it at
this point, complaining that we can see
his turkey neck or that his hair has
somehow gotten worse or freaking out
about the fact that it's very obvious
that there is pudding pouring out of his
brain. Donald Trump can't complete a
real sentence. He's constantly slurring
and his rants and rambles make less
sense than ever, if that was even
possible. And it's what we saw in the
Oval Office today and why Donald Trump's
handlers had to jump in and try to save
him as he was unable to speak sentences
that actually meant anything. And we're
going to get into it all. But before we
do, if I could quickly ask you to leave
a like on this video and if you haven't
already and you enjoy our channel to hit
that subscribe button because it goes a
long way in supporting our work. Now,
before we get into why Donald Trump's
handlers had to step in, had to try to
save him, had to try to boost his ego, I
want to start with the nonsensical lie
that he started this press briefing
with. And it was about black women in
MAGA hats in Chicago. And the people of
Chicago are walking around with MAGA
hats. You have women, beautiful black
women, walking around with MAGA hats.
Please let the president in. And we
don't care how he does it. They're not
interested in National Guard or Army,
Navy, bring them in. Marines, bring in
the Marines. They just want the crime to
stop. And more so because of the success
that we had in DC. I think if we didn't
have that success, nobody would even
believe it. I don't think Donald Trump
has ever said anything that so didn't
happen more than that. "They love me." You
notice how all the stories are always
like the people came up and they they
quietly said it, but they're coming up
to us in secret behind closed doors and
they think I'm fantastic. It reminds me
when Don Jr. was like really really
podcasting and every episode would open
up with like people in the airport
coming up to him or on the street and
saying how wonderful he was. You hear
this line a lot from MAGA. Nancy Mace
does it as well. She's like, "I was in
this private setting, which you've never
heard of at a place that doesn't exist,
but but don't fact check me on this, and
people came up and said that they just
loved me so much cuz I'm so fantastic."
But what's not so fantastic is the cuts
that Donald Trump was bragging about.
I'm sure he'll say we all love those,
but this one in particular has some
extra sort of horrible meaning behind
it.
They don't talk about this. You know,
we're getting rid of programs that we
didn't like, but that were negotiated
in, but we didn't like. We're
terminating those programs, and they're
going to be terminated on a permanent
basis. And it's thousands of people, and
it's it's, you know, billions of
dollars. We're getting rid of a lot of
things that we never wanted because of
the fact that they made this stupid
move. And then,
so this is nothing new, but it's
different this time with recent news out
of Alaska. Donald Trump is saying that
he's cutting the Democrat employees, the
woke programs. But one of those supposed
DEI programs was $20 million in Alaska.
A grant to stop flooding. Flooding that
happened in the Berry Town where Donald
Trump cut the funding for. Houses are
destroyed now. The community is
struggling to rebuild. Why? Because
Donald Trump thought that that $20
million grant to prevent the very
disaster that happened was woke and for
DEI. And while Donald Trump is sending
not just 20 but $40 billion dollars to
Argentina and countless wasted billions
to Israel, uh the America first policy
is hurting real Americans. But Donald
Trump doesn't care. Donald Trump just
wants to do what Donald Trump wants. And
right now that's attack his opponents.

After Don in particular, he I'll never
forget Adam Shifty Schiff, a total
crooked guy lying in Congress making up
a phone conversation that I have with
you. Totally made up. Then when he heard
it was taped, he wanted to disappear.
And Nancy Pelosi went crazy because they
wanted to impeach me based on the
conversation that was made up. When they
heard the tape, everybody, you know, I
won it unanimously in the Republican
party. I got every single vote,
something that never happens. And I beat
it. But think of it, they want to put my
son in jail for something that they made
up. So they know they made it up and
they say he will serve the rest of his
life in prison. These are sick bad
people. And don't tell me about us going
after them. If anything where we've been
very very soft. I wouldn't be that soft.
I'll tell you that. Thank you very much
everybody.
Thanks guys. Thank you guys.
Thank you very much.
Thanks guys. Let's go.

So Trump clearly has spun himself up
into a tizzy in this press conference.
He's losing his mind. He's angry. He's
lashing out. He's justifying every
attack that he's ever launched by saying
it was their fault and I'm right and I'm
fantastic. Which is the same attitude
that he brings to talking about the
supposed wars that he's solved. Well,
one of them clearly Donald Trump doesn't
understand because he couldn't speak
properly about Pakistan and India
because he thought a different country
was involved. As an example,
uh if you look at Pakistan and Iran, I
told them I was in the midst of
negotiating a trade deal with actually
with Iran and Pakistan was going to be
in line and because of tariffs, they all
want to negotiate much differently. We
were making a good deal and then I heard
that they're shooting at each other. And
I said during one of my conversations,
are you guys going to go to war? Two
nuclear powers we are thinking about. I
said, here's the deal. you go to war,
I'm going to put a 200% tariff. I'm
going to stop you from doing any
business in the United States. I said it
to both of them. Within 24 hours, the
war ended. That would have been a
nuclear war. And again, the prime
minister of Pakistan, who is here, this
is a complete collapse of Donald Trump's
brain before our very eyes. What
conflict in the past couple of months
between Pakistan and Iran is he talking
about? Trump can't speak about the wars
he's solved, yet he wants a Nobel Peace
Prize. We saw this the other day when
the Middle East peace summit went to
Egypt and Donald Trump decided that he
was going to invite BB Netanyahu, which
then led countless military and world
leaders to say that they wouldn't go if
his presence was there. Obviously,
Netanyahu, much like Trump, is a war
criminal and a disgusting figure. But
Trump, who hasn't actually brokered
peace in the Middle East because Israel
has already violated this ceasefire,
clearly doesn't understand the
relationship between these world
leaders. He doesn't understand the
conflicts themselves. He doesn't
understand the difference between India
and Iran. And you're telling me this is
a foreign policy genius? No, it's just
not the case. But of course, to soothe
his ego as Trump was [ __ ] up, Cash
Patel had to jump in trying to save the
dear leader and said this.
And Mr. President, just one last thank
you from the men and women at the FBI.
You found a way to get these individuals
paid during a government shutdown. Our
1811 agents on behalf of the FBI, it's a
great debt that we owe you, sir. They're
now allowed to pay for their families.
So, thank you.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Trump.
Thank you, dear Leader. You've shut down
the government and people are receiving
their paychecks as usual at the FBI.
We should throw you a parade and cost us
$50 million again. Why is Donald Trump,
the guy who shut down the government,
getting credit for paying people during
a government shutdown that shouldn't
have happened and people would have been
paid if it wasn't for Trump? This is the
circle of the let's praise Trump and
find random reasons to say he's the
greatest. First, Donald Trump causes the
problem. Then, Donald Trump blames the
problem on Democrats. Then, Donald Trump
offers up some fake solution which
doesn't really do anything. And we end
with MAGA Republicans praising him as
the greatest person who has ever lived.
This is just not the case. Donald Trump
has broken our government. Donald Trump
wants to break our government and Donald
Trump is going to continue to lie. The
hypocrisy is always baked in. And some
of the worst examples that we've seen
recently as Donald Trump pretends that
he cares about speech while he attacks
the No Kings protest came with a
Politico article yesterday. Now, I want
to diverge a little bit from this press
conference, but what I'm about to say is
really important. And the person that
I'm going to call out, the [ __ ] piece
of [ __ ] that is our vice president,
you're going to want to stick around
for. But JD Vance, after this political
article came out of some of the highest
level young young Republican leaders in
the country, who work in congressional
offices, who get awards for member of
Congress, there an article that leaked
from Politico. You might have saw this
about their I love Hitler group chat,
the disgusting slurs and racial epithets
that they shared. And JD Vance responded
to this group chat being leaked,
responded from the calls from Republican
leaders and Democratic leaders alike to
have some some [ __ ] consequences for
these kids. And what did JD Vance have
to say?
But the reality is that kids do stupid
things, especially young boys. They tell
edgy, offensive jokes. Like that's what
kids do. And I really don't want us to
grow up in a country where a kid telling
a stupid joke, telling a very offensive
stupid joke is caused to ruin their
lives. And at some point, we're all all
going to have to say enough of this BS.
So these kids, full context, were
talking about how much they loved Hitler
in a group chat in which they were
sharing racial epithets and being
disgusting. And Vance's response is,
"Oh, they're just kids. Stop it. Don't
be mean. Oh, we want free speech. We're
the free speech party. JD, you're such a
[ __ ] gross chud. That big fat ugly
face of yours. I saw a comment the other
day. I was like, "Jack, you might be
getting into like personal attacks too
much." I I want to limit the personal
attacks from my commentary, but also
guys, look at these disgusting freaks.
Are we seriously not going to call out
how horrible they are inside and out?
But I want to get to the substance.
Also, JD Vance, you're disgusting
looking. That one more. We get one more
attack on JD Vance. Personally, JD Vance
went to Munich in February. Munich's a
security conference and he lectured
European leaders wagging his little
finger saying, "Oh, you you go after
free speech. People can't share their
ideas in Europe."
A complete lie. And then has come back
to the US and aided Donald Trump in the
greatest crackdown on free speech and
free oppress free expression that we
have seen in the history of the United
States. We are macing guys in blow up
frog costumes. We are disappearing
college students for calling a genocide
a genocide and saying, "Hey guys, do you
know what would be cool? You know those
billions that you send to Israel to blow
up kids in Gaza? Instead of my tax
dollars funding you buying BB Netanyahu,
the war criminal, another tank while
Israel has free healthcare and and free
college tuition. Maybe we could invest
in the youth of America instead of
killing the children of Gaza. That would
be cool. And if you say that, JD Vance
puts you in jail, right? That's what JD
Vance does. Mhm. And when there were
kids in the White House talking about
how much they hated Indians and they
were doing it before it was cool, JD
said, "Let's give them a second chance."
Right? That's how JD Vance feels. When
you're a bigot, it's speech. But when
you are standing up for the basic
humanity of people, uh, you're a
criminal to Donald Trump. Shouldn't that
really explain it all, JD, you piece of
[ __ ] And that's what's happening right
now. And I want to talk about this, the
No Kings protest, which I've been
talking about a lot and I've been
talking about it in what I hope is like
an aspirational and exciting frame
because I want us to feel good every
once in a while because damn it, we need
it. But there is something more
important happening with the no kings
protest right now that I want you to be
wary of and I don't want it to
discourage your participation because it
shouldn't. Donald Trump, Mike Johnson,
all these Republicans, a very
coordinated effort to say that this is a
hate fest. These are paid protesters.
This is Antifa. These people are the
devil. They're violent. What they want
to do is jin up a response from their
little ICE armies, their little small
militias of Proud Boys and Oathkeepers,
and they want to try to intimidate us.
That's what Donald Trump wants. The guys
who have bitched at us non-stop saying
that me calling the Nazis who profess to
be Nazis, by the way, I think guys who
say that they love Hitler probably
Nazis. And they're saying me pointing
that out, making that clear makes me a a
bigot. It makes me dangerous. I I don't
even know what it makes me. But then
they want to say that if you go out and
say, "Hey, the founding ideal of this
nation, the founding ideal is that we
don't have kings, we don't have
authoritarians, this is a democracy."
What do they do? They call you the devil
and they want to intimidate you. We will
not be intimidated. We will not face
their intimidation. We are going to call
it out. We will show up. And I am so
excited to see y'all there. And if you
haven't found a no kings protest close
to you, I got a link below. I did a
community post today. I want you to
check out where you can go out and
protest and I will see you all out
there. I might get a frog costume. I'm
fired up today. We should be fired up. I
hope you're fired up. I hope we're all
fighting. This video might have ran a
little long. I feel like some of them
have rung run long lately. But again, I
keep saying like if I'm just going to
yell at JD Vance for eight minutes, you
got to cut me some slack. But we're
going to keep on giving them hell. We're
going to keep on fighting back. If you
want to support that on this show, as
always, you can hit that subscribe
button. Leave a like on this video. If
you stuck around to the end, drop a blue
heart in the comments. Keep on fighting.
Don't let them silence you.

MAGA SCOTUS Accidentally REVEALS Their NEXT MOVE
Legal AF
Oct 15, 2025 The Intersection with Michael Popok



Transcript

Well, as I feared, it looks like the
MAGA 6 on the United States Supreme
Court are going to rip the Voting Rights
Act, Section Two up, throw it in our
face, and allow primarily white
legislatures in the South to redistrict
their congressional maps, effectively
eliminating black and brown
representation. I can't put it more existential than that.
They are going to neuter the section two
of the voting rights act.

We'll get the
decision sometime between, you know,
March and June. It may or may not impact
the midterm elections. Depends on how
fast they generate that order. If they
really want to screw the Democrats and
favor Donald Trump, we'll see the order
very quickly. If they don't care as
much, we'll see the order in due course
by June or July.
And the closer it gets to the election
next November, the more likely the new
maps or the old maps will not be used,
at least for now. But from the oral
argument and from the statements that
were made by Amy Coney Barrett, by
Justice Kavanaaugh, by the Chief Justice
Roberts, primarily leading the charge
and being fought tooth and nail by
Katanji Brown Jackson and Stoayor,
there's never going to be another Voting
Rights Act section two case. Voting
Rights Act section two was passed by
Congress in the uh Great Society days of
Lynden Johnson supported by the great
Martin Luther King Jr. and in it it says
that there can be in support of the 14th
and the 15th amendment of the
Constitution
that there can be no law that abridges
or denies the right to vote. And so the
Voting Rights Act helped promulgate, put
into practice the 14th and 15th
amendment.
What was up for grabs today was if this
if the MAGA 6 were going to declare that
the Voting Rights Act section 2 was
unconstitutional. I don't think they're
going to do it that way. They're much
sneakier than that. They're much more
underhanded than that. They're focused
on two things. one that Kavanaaugh
raised in 2022 and 2023 and another case
where he at the time upheld the new map
to create a new black district in
Alabama. But now he's going to say that
has a timer that the Voting Rights Act
can't exist forever except there's no
timer in Congress's law. But to
Kavanaaugh it can't go on at infinitum.
In fact, I have a clip of Kavanaaugh.
Let's play it. The issue, as you know,
is that this court's cases in a variety
of contexts have said that race-based
remedies are permissible for a period of
time, sometimes for a long period of
time, decades, uh, in some cases, but
that they should not be uh, indefinite
and should, uh, have a end point. and
what exactly do you think the end point
should be or how would we know for the
intentional use of race to create
districts?
Now, others fought back
during the hearing. Um, and the way
they're going to try to do this is
they're going to argue that it was
um there needs to be a sundown effect of
of voting rights act section two can't
go on forever ever. And the second one
is going to be to argue in some way that
in all cases politics and partisanship
must overcome race when the decision to
make a new district is made. See the
maps in Louisiana when they were first
drawn by the lily white legislature in
Louisiana, Mike Johnson's home state, it
only created one district out of seven
in a state that's one-third black.
That's like 16 or 14% black. So there
was a challenge and a lawsuit that had
violated the Voting Rights Act and it
violated the 15th amendment. They went
back to the drawing board literally.
They came back with two districts, five
white, two uh uh black or what we call
uh minority minority majority. So
that's the map that's been challenged is
two too many. Okay. And the argument
that Louisiana is now making even though
they supported the map originally is
well we did it for race reasons because
we were told we we got to like create a
new map for blacks and that's a race
determination and you've said Supreme
Court recently in the Harvard case that
we can't do it based on race. So, you
know, so now the argument is going to be
and how the MAGA six are going to try to
sleep at night is they're going to say,
"Well, we're not against the black vote
or disenfranchising blacks, but
partisanship always has to overcome
race." And if you do that, if you allow
the the map just to be drawn red and
Republican, who gets screwed is black
and brown. That's the equation. Let me
play you a clip now from Justice
Sotoayora, what she's worried about.
Let's play the clip.
With respect, the last time the SG was
here before us on behalf of your state,
they said that race did not predominate
just with your creation of district 6
because what you were trying to do and
why it's oddly shaped was to protect
incumbents. Are you walking that back?
Your
honor, our position in our supplemental
briefing on racial predominance is as
follows. If race is a non-negotiable in
the drawing of a new district, we think
that should satisfy this court's
predominance analysis. And the argument
you
But but that's just it, which is was it
what really was non-negotiable for you
was nonpartisanship.
That's
and you could have picked you could have
picked one of the other maps, the
illustrative map. You didn't have to,
but you drew this because of your
partisan needs more than because of
race. We drew it for partisan reasons.
Justice, my point, and the point we make
at the end of our opening supplemental
brief is to say when this court's racial
predominance questions ask about
non-negotiability, it shouldn't matter
if race is the one non-negotiable factor
or it's one of 10 non-negotiable
factors. No, but we do we we we always
talk about what predominates and what
predominated here was politics. That's
what you said the last time.
And the uh arguments that have
effectively been done that have been
raised here are have real life
implications. The NAACP
uh and their advocate Janai Nelson uh
struggled to be heard because you could
tell the MAG 6 had already come into the
oral argument today with basically their
minds made up. Oh, we're going to get
them with we need to sundown and start
putting the Voting Rights Act section
two out to pasture and we always have to
have partisanship over over race. There
goes the second black district in not
only in Louisiana but throughout the
country. Let's play now Janai Nelson's
argument.
I think the results would be pretty
catastrophic. If we take Louisiana as
one example, every congressional member
who is black was elected from a VRA
opportunity district. We only have the
diversity that we see across the south,
for example, because of litigation that
forced the creation of opportunity
districts under the voting rights act.
Now, what does it mean on the ground?
What it mean? It's not good. There are
24 Democratic seats in red states. 24
dots in seas of red.
They'll be eliminated.
Many of them are black and brown people.
Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina,
Louisiana,
Tennessee, likely North Carolina, and
Florida. Say goodbye to your maps.
Donald Trump's pushing hard for them to
redistrict, especially after this
decision. try to do it fast enough so
there's enough time to use the map
before the November election because
there's something called the Purcell
doctrine that the Supreme Court often
uses in which they say, "Well, we'd like
to make a change here, but it's too
close to the election. So, we're going
to let the map stand." I don't think
that's going to happen here. I think
these MAGA 6 are going to expedite this
decision and we're going to get it like
in March, April. You know, there's
there's work that has to be done off of
an oral argument. They got to caucus and
see, you know, if there's five votes for
a decision, which I think there's six
against, you know, the question was
Roberts and Kavanaaugh in as in 2022
2023 voted in favor of a second district
and and kept alive the Voting Rights
Act. Uh, in Alabama, Roberts is a, how
do I put this? He's a Trojan horse. He's
a closet racist. He doesn't care. He's
hated the Voting Rights Act almost as
much as Clarence Thomas and he's been
trying to kill it. He already on his
watch killed Voting Rights Act section
one. Now he's going to kill section two.
That's who John Roberts is and that's
his legacy. And everybody thinks, "Oh,
he's the he's the boy scout that said
he'd be an umpire during his
confirmation hearing." Forget that. None
of that's true. The Roberts Court will
go down in history as the worst court
for civil liberties and civil rights and
for our balance of power and for our
co-equal branches of government and for
the immunity of a president ever.
Remember, it's his court that took away
a woman's right to choose after 50 years
of being a constitutional right. So many
bad things have happened on Roberts's
watch. It's his court and he's
responsible for it. So now I think he
he's going to flip. He's going to be the
fifth vote. We need Kavanaaugh and
Roberts to go over with Katanji Brown
Jackson. Soayor and Kagan to form a
block of five. Not going to happen. I
think this is going to be a a a six to3
maybe five to four but I doubt it. Amy
Coney Barrett totally over with the MAGA
on this issue. Roberts Alto Kavanaaugh
Gorsuch who is relatively quiet. Uh Alto
and Thomas that's it. It's over. And if
they issue it early, which I think
they're going to, plenty of time not to
violate the Purcell doctrine and it
could be used as Donald Trump wants for
the midterm elections. Say goodbye to up
to 19 to 20 seats right away by
redistricting going to happen. And uh we
have to get control of state houses. We
have to redistrict based on this
information. Just just we just have to
gerrymander Republicans out. We have to
carve up and make new blue states, blue
seats,
and try to balance the 19 we're about to
lose. We just saw it in Texas. Texas
tries to gain five seats. California has
a referendum in November to to gain five
seats for the de the Democrats, but now
we got up to 20 seats. that that's a lot
of seats, you know, and so this but but
the takeaway from this
case is that there'll never be a Voting
Rights Act section 2 lawsuit ever again.
You'll never be able to challenge a map
cuz they'll always say, "We didn't do it
because there's black people. We did it
because there's Republicans that we want
to strengthen that district. We want to
make it all Republican and we don't care
about the Democrats.
You know, we know that's not true. We
know that's going to screw black people
and brown people and disenfranchise
them. You think the Congress is lily
white now? Wait till you see what's
going to happen after this decision
comes out. Now, if I'm wrong and the
decision comes out closer to June or
July when the final big decisions come
out for the court, they usually like to
do it while they get out for their
summer vacations. That's pretty that's a
little too close, I think, to the
November election. And I don't think it
would be used then, but it would be used
plenty of time for the 2028 general
election and the presidential election
and for and forever more. What can
Congress do? If we get control of
Congress
in the midterms, we can start writing
and passing new legislation to restore
things that the Supreme Court have taken
away, right? to to act again like we
like the Congress did in the 80s to
implement a new voting rights act. There
was one that was being proposed
um you know in Congress. It sort of died
after the Democrats lost. If they get
control of Congress again, that is the
key. We have to fight it in the halls of
Congress and create a new v Voting
Rights Act for the modern age. I'll
continue to follow it all. Hit the free
subscribe button here on Legal AF. come
over to Legal AF Substack and do the
exact same thing. So until my next
report, I'm Michael Popak.