Ep. 92: Trump Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Hey FRs,
This week, the show covered the 300,000 Haitians who are about to lose legal status, Russia losing 30,000 soldiers a month, and JD Vance's efforts to rehabilitate Nixon. So, yeah, normal week.
Is Russia actually losing the war in Ukraine right now?
On paper, yes. The Center for Strategic and International Studies puts Russian battlefield casualties at 1.4 million since February 2022, including roughly 450,000 presumed dead, which is approximately the population of Miami. In terms of momentum, Russia is losing 30,000 to 34,000 soldiers a month while recruiting only 27,000, which means Putin is running a negative balance sheet in human beings. How gross is that to read?🤮
Meanwhile, Ukraine flew a drone 2,500 kilometers into Siberia and struck the Omsk refinery, the last of Russia's 11 largest gasoline producers, which is responsible for 10% of national refining capacity.
But, if Trump Rae Jepsen keeps having hour-plus-long phone calls with Putin, the reality on the ground may not matter.
Why did the Supreme Court just make 300,000 Haitians deportable within weeks?
Aside from the obvious, you mean?
The court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration can end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants without meeting the statutory criteria Congress established when it created the program in 1990 under George H.W. Bush. TPS exists precisely for situations like Haiti, which has been functionally ungovernable since 2010, is currently 90% controlled by armed gangs, and carries a State Department Level 4 travel warning so severe that some aircraft cannot descend below 10,000 feet without coming under fire.
Springfield, Ohio alone has 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants who have lived there for decades, holding jobs, running businesses, raising children. You know, people stuff.
The same court ruled in a separate decision that their American-born children are citizens who can remain. The parents just have to leave.
What did Hamas actually dissolve, and does it change anything on the ground in Gaza?
Hamas dissolved its administrative government in Gaza, which was one of the conditions in the phased peace framework, to allow a technocratic authority aligned with the Palestinian Authority to take control.
Hamas says this demonstrates their seriousness about the transition process. Israel, unsurprisingly, says it's a stunt to avoid disarmament. Israel also killed five people in strikes on Gaza over the weekend, so it seems a fair question how interested they are in peace anyway.
What did JD Vance accidentally admit when he said Watergate would be a 12-hour story?
This story is hilarious. Speaking at what appears to be a Nixon-adjacent conference(!?), Vance said it was "crazy" that Watergate took down a presidency, and that the "deep state" took down Nixon the same way it tried to take down Trump. The first claim is a confession: the only way Watergate becomes a 12-hour story is if an administration is committing so many Watergates simultaneously that none of them register individually. The second claim is a Roger Stone theory with no evidentiary support. What actually ended Nixon's presidency, aside from his own paranoia and, you know, criminal activities, was Republican senators telling him he didn't have the votes to survive impeachment. He resigned to avoid it. The deep state did not do that. Barry Goldwater did.
But, hey, if JD wants to be Nixon, more power to him. 🙃
Missed the full episode? Listen now!