transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] To stay up to date on all the news that you need to know, there's no better place than right here on The DSR Network. And there's no better way to enjoy The DSR Network than by becoming a member. Members enjoy an ad-free listening experience, access to our Discord community, exclusive content, early episode access, and more. Use code DSR26 for a 25% off discount on sign up at thedsrnetwork.com. That's code DSR26 at thedsrnetwork.com/buy. Thank you and enjoy the show.

Speaker 2:
[00:54] Hello, and welcome to The DSR Daily. I'm David Rothkopf. I'm joined by Riley Fessler and Minnestein. And today, just like every day, we're gonna take a look at some of the stories happening in the world, and try to make some sense of it. Although, you know, well, sooner or later, we'll make some sense of it. Sooner or later, it'll all make sense. Right, Riley? It'll make sense, right?

Speaker 1:
[01:15] I don't know. I mean, we'll try, but I don't want to promise that.

Speaker 2:
[01:20] Yeah, I just, I gotta tell you, I'll give you an overarching view. I'm watching Trump these days. I just think the dude is out of his depth. I just don't think he knows what to do.

Speaker 3:
[01:35] Let's get off to that.

Speaker 2:
[01:37] No, but I, what to do? Thanks a lot. But I'm just saying, it used to be that he could change the subject, or he had a plan, or they were always terrible plans. His instincts were always terrible. But there was always a way to sort of turn the page, move the story, stay ahead of the narrative in some way. He just is at a loss right now. Everything is going wrong. He has terrible advisors. Nobody's giving him good advice. And he's just, it's like this whole Iran thing. It's probably one of your stories from yesterday. But it's like, oh yeah, the ceasefire expires. And I did say we'd start bombing right after. But no, let's just keep the ceasefire going. Because I don't want to fight anymore. And, but I don't know what I'm going to do. And, you know, he just doesn't know what he's going to do. So the whole world is sitting here going, well, are we going to have oil? Are we not going to have oil? Is prices going to go up? Are they not going to go up? And the same is true in politics. The Republican Party must be going nuts. Because it looks like every single day he's doing stuff to undermine them. I mean, I couldn't happen to a nicer guy, but I literally think we're, you know, it's almost poignant, it's not poignant, but it's almost poignant. Because we're watching this 80-year-old guy lose his marbles. The problem is the consequences for all of us are grave. Really, really great. Oh, well. Well, that's our show for today. Okay, let's get to some news, do some news.

Speaker 1:
[03:22] Well, you spoiled my first story, David.

Speaker 2:
[03:25] Oh, well, sorry.

Speaker 1:
[03:28] Change it. Well, the ceasefire is continuing, but some restrictions may apply because the blockade is still ongoing and Iran has seized two container ships in the strait on Wednesday, asserting that the vessels lacked proper permits. This is just more of the same. Yeah. Because Trump chickened out again, which I'm glad for. I'm glad the ceasefire is continuing. But is it really a ceasefire if we're blockading them and they're seizing ships? It seems like a ceasefire in name only just to calm the markets.

Speaker 2:
[04:06] Yeah. I think it's a little bit like a soft surrender. You know, it's kind of like, well, we didn't, it didn't work out the way we wanted to. So we're going to kind of walk away from it. And hopefully people will just forget. Of course, they're not going to forget. And, you know, our big blockade, it's not really a blockade. It's more like a blockade-ish. Because the Iranians managed to get some ships through yesterday, Iranian ships. And the Iranians are stopping ships. You said too, I heard that there was also a third one this morning. And so, you know, none of the steps we're taking are working. Oil markets are uncertain. Global markets are uncertain. And it's having all sorts of knock-on effects. You read the newspaper this morning. Lufthansa says it's canceling, I don't know, thousands of flights this year. And here's one you probably didn't expect. But I was reading in the Financial Times this morning, because I had breakfast with our colleague and friend, Ed Luce. And so I thought, well, I better read Financial Times. And there's a story that one of the world's largest condom manufacturers, is a Malaysian company, and they're increasing the price of condoms 50 percent. And they may have to cut back on production, because what are condoms made out of? Some of it's petroleum products. And so here, what are we going to have? The Iran War baby boom? We're running out of condoms because of Donald Trump, because Bibi Netanyahu got allowed into the situation room, and Donald Trump took the advice? I don't even think we fully appreciate the economic consequences of this war. And the guy who started it was really the only one who can end it, or certainly has to be involved in the end. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know what to do. So day in and day out, he's trying to get out. The Iranians are trying to get more leverage. I think they feel the more they push, the better the deal they'll ultimately get. Will they have their assets released or whatever? And so it's just as big a mess as I've ever seen in my life. And usually these messes get wrapped up even in other administrations more quickly because they're experts getting together and they're talking and they say, well, this isn't working. But nobody will say that to Trump. Do you think Secretary Beergoggles over at the Defense Department is going to say, hey, Mr. President, this isn't working? Of course, he's not. Do you think Marco Rubio is attending UFC matches with him and saying no? And so Trump's just adrift, it's like a guy in a life raft in the middle of the ocean, but the ocean is like the bubbling porridge of his decaying cortex. How's that for some early morning imagery, Minna?

Speaker 3:
[07:44] I've got a palate cleanser.

Speaker 2:
[07:46] Okay, good.

Speaker 3:
[07:47] Because I think we need it.

Speaker 2:
[07:49] Okay.

Speaker 3:
[07:49] Voters in Virginia approved a referendum to redraw congressional districts, potentially giving Democrats up to four additional US. House seats. How exciting is that?

Speaker 2:
[08:02] Well, it is exciting. The reality is, we wouldn't have to be doing this if the Republicans didn't start this. Gerrymandering sucks. We shouldn't be running our country this way. But Donald Trump went to Greg Abbott in Texas and said, let's get some extra house seats. They thought that Democrats would go, okay, go ahead, guys, have some more house seats. And the Democrats, bless them, actually didn't this time. And instead, in California, in Virginia, and elsewhere, they said, no, we're going to pick up some seats of our own. And it's important because I think Trump will keep trying to cheat. If it's a really big win, the Dems have a lot of margin, the Republicans won't be able to cheat their way out of it. That's what happened in Hungary. Anyway, okay, well, that was good. That was uplifting. That was positive. Everybody's happy now, Riley.

Speaker 3:
[09:02] My family lives in Virginia, so they all voted yes on this. And we were like all texting, following the vote really closely last night. It was stressful. And I never thought I would be that stressed out in this way about gerrymandering. Like my whole life, I thought I'd be stressed out for the opposite reason, but this was like, oh my gosh, I hope we get to redraw the maps.

Speaker 2:
[09:22] Yeah, it was a good, solid victory too. I mean, there were times where it looked a little close as the votes were coming in. But at the end of the day, redistricting one in Virginia by a bigger margin than Trump actually won in Virginia the last. Okay Riley, spoil our fun.

Speaker 1:
[09:39] Yeah, I have only bad stories today. So sorry for that in advance. The Southern Poverty Law Center has been indicted on federal fraud money laundering charges.

Speaker 2:
[09:50] This is a terrible story. Go on.

Speaker 1:
[09:53] For allegedly using donor funds to secretly pay over $3 million to leaders of extremist organizations, including the KKK and neo-Nazi groups. And this story is significant because Republicans have had it out for the Southern Poverty Law Center for years. And have been looking for a way to shut them down. And they seem to have at least think they've found it with this. But of course, the SPLC is going to fight back these charges. And they maintain that this was an informant program and that it was vital for any life-saving intelligence tool used to monitor threats, which I mean, sounds reasonable to me. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[10:35] But this is a vital organization that has done great work on civil rights. And basically, the administration is attacking organizations that do good because they don't want to do good. There is some hypocrisy in the center of it because it's about allegedly having some ties to these extremist groups. But obviously, this organization opposed those groups, was trying to undermine those groups. And this administration loves those groups. And what this really is, is an effort to go after, quote, you know, Antifa, the fake left wing, and to give the president a little bit of what he's been seeking, which is attacks on what he sees as his opponents. But it really, you know, there's certain points where some things are political. And then they get and they start eating into muscle and bone. You know, and, you know, when Doge started cutting back on cancer research, it has a consequence. When EPA started being in favor of fossil fuels and against the environment has a consequence. And when DOJ starts attacking the organizations that are out there to protect us, it has a consequence. And that's this disgusting story. The good news, case is weak, the case will lose, it will get thrown out of court, as all of their efforts to go after their opponents have thus far. But it really is indicative of what a corrupt bed of narrative wells the Department of Justice has become.

Speaker 4:
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Speaker 3:
[12:55] Well, you know me, if there's a story from Florida, I'm gonna cover it. And this week's Florida news is Sheila Sherphillis McCormick resigned from Congress just before a House Ethics Committee hearing on potential sanctions for multiple violations. She had been found guilty of ethics breaches and faced criminal charges over alleged misuse of funds, though she denied wrongdoing and called the investigation a witch hunt. Her resignation ends the committee's jurisdiction and avoids a possible expulsion vote.

Speaker 2:
[13:29] Yeah, bye bye. She's a Democrat, sorry. She seems to be pretty corrupt. The investigations from the House Ethics Committee, which never really comes hard at people, it's usually slap on the wrist and try to protect people. It was pretty cut and dry. Five million dollars of campaign money went into, or five million dollars of federally allocated funds went into her campaign. Getting rid of people like her in the Congress is something we ought to do. Three down so far, there is still another Republican who is guilty of sexual abuse and some other things that appear, who ought to be kicked out, and Nancy Mace and some others are hot on his trail. But, you know, let's clean up the Congress. I think corruption is going to be a big theme in this election and in the 2028 election, just like it was a big central theme in the Hungarian elections. Trump's corruption, the corruption of officials near Trump, but also corruption elsewhere in the government. And one of the things we could do to clean that up is to get rid of opportunities for corruption in the House. For example, should anybody in the House of Representatives be allowed or the Senate be allowed to trade stocks based on what they know? No, of course not. Of course not. There's all sorts of effective insider trading going on on the Hill. They shouldn't do it. They should take all their holdings and put them into trust so long as they have a job on the Hill. And that's not what happens. People go, they go make a fairly minimal salary up on the Hill, and they emerge millionaires time and time again for a whole bunch of reasons, all of which are part of Washington's deeply ingrained culture of corruption. Okay, Riley, we had our up, now we're spiraling again.

Speaker 1:
[15:44] Yeah, and this isn't going to help, unfortunately. Unless you hate the separation of church and state, because the Fifth US. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Texas law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments, ruling that the mandate does not unconstitutionally coerce students into religious beliefs. So I am looking forward to the law displaying the Koran and Torah in classrooms, because that has to be coming soon, right?

Speaker 2:
[16:17] Yeah, that's right, you sweet little innocent. No, that's not what's going to happen. We're on our way, we're on a march towards theocracy. Of course, it won't be, I don't know, Catholic because we don't like the Pope, and it won't be Muslim because we don't like Muslims, and it won't be Jewish because Trump thinks everybody who is Jewish who doesn't vote for him is stupid. It'll be kind of evangelical. And this week, we even have the President of the United States doing a video recorded Bible reading, which probably would make the founders of this country really cringe, because each one of these things is a step towards state-sponsored religion, which is, of course, explicitly prohibited by the Constitution of the United States. But there's another subtext of this, and I don't want to lose sight of it. And that is, one of the reasons that we attacked and one of the ways that we have historically criticized the government of Iran is for being a theocracy. And what do we have going here? Pete Hegseth saying this war is a crusade. You know, constantly invoking Jesus, having his pastor there, at his side at all times, JD Vance lecturing the Pope on religion, Trump participating and all of these various things, and all of them promoting the kind of active integration of religion into other aspects of our lives, like Texas is doing now with, you know, the Ten Commandments. It's absolutely un-American and is despicable. If I may, I'd like to throw in one other story there, just because I thought of it as we were going here. And that is, you know, Pete Hegseth, in another blow for freedom, has eliminated the mandate that members of the military get a flu shot. It's mind-boggling for a couple of reasons. We just lived through COVID. That should be one of them. Almost as many American soldiers died during World War I from the flu as died on the battlefield, tens of millions. So we've had the experience. We should know better. But I'm going to give you a quiz question because I'd like one of you guys to tell me who was the first person to actually require that US troops get vaccinated and therefore is the person that Pete Hegseth thinks he's smarter than. Who is that person?

Speaker 1:
[19:30] I know.

Speaker 2:
[19:31] Okay. Riley in the back row. Yes, Riley.

Speaker 1:
[19:35] Would that be George Washington?

Speaker 2:
[19:37] That is correct, Riley. Gold star for you. George Washington instituted vaccines in the US military. But Pete Hegseth knows better than George Washington. And I've always said that. Yeah, he's a better leader than George Washington. And seems to think that he knows more than scientists and doctors, and not a few years of medical history. But this year, over 250 years of military medical history. So let's hear one for the idiots. Anyway, those of you who are listening, you're not idiots. You're smart, smart people. Only smart people allowed here, and only smart people show up. We are grateful. We've got more of our usual roster coming up. Of course, there's the TNR Daily, The Daily Blast, which you should be listening to. I noted the other day that it is, and that was in the top political podcasts the other day. And of course, we have our venerable classic, Deep State Radio, which is often among the top political podcasts as well. And this week, we will be talking about, I don't know, what should we talk about?

Speaker 3:
[21:03] There's nothing to talk about, so it'll be hard to talk about something.

Speaker 2:
[21:09] Okay, we'll talk about the Iran War and all of its implications. And then we have Words Matter, we've got Siliconsciousness, we've got everything, everything you've paid for. Actually, many of you don't pay. If you want to pay, go to thedsrnetwork.com, click on membership, become a subscriber and help support what we're doing. We're all for that. But there are many ways to watch and listen without paying anything, including going to YouTube and becoming a subscriber in the DSR Network, which more and more of you are doing. And the reason is because we don't pull our punches. We've got great experts talking about these things. And we don't think we're smarter than George Washington on this anyway. I don't think we should own slaves. And I don't know. I saw some of his dental prosthetics and I'm not so keen on those either. But in terms of the issues of running the military, he was a great leader and we respect that. Anyway, that's what we got for you here today. Thank you, Mina. Thank you, Riley. Thank you, everybody. And there'll be more from us real soon.