2/27/26: Zohran Flawless Trump Victory, 1st AI Mass Layoff, Anthropic DEFIES Hegseth

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Trophies. So, big show today. Speaking of a commie takeover, there's been a commie takeover once again at the White House with one Mr. Momdani and Mr. Donald Trump. Crystal, what happened yesterday? Well, first, while I'm talking, you've got to pull up the picture of Trump and Zoran because it is art. I mean, this is no AI. AI could never create this image. It's so glorious. So what you have here is Trump seated at the Resolute desk. He's holding up two newspapers, one of which is real from the past, Ford to City, Drop Dead. And the other one, which Zoran mocked up and provided to him to stroke his ego, says, Trump to City, let's build. And Zoran is standing over him looking, you know, not really smiling, but looking sort of commanding in control. And Trump just the biggest, cheesiest grin on his face. like he ate this shit up. And lo and behold, you know, Zoran comes out and says, look, we had a very productive meeting. Trump, I guess, last time they met, which of course was, you know, started the bromance, had said, bring me some ideas for how you could build. Zoran's like, here you go. Here's what we want to do. We want to build these 12,000 units. We want, you know, federal grants to be able to do it. Trump is apparently open to this idea. I think it's like $21 billion that we need from the federal government to pull that off. And the other thing, very significant, is there was this Columbia University student who had been arrested by immigration authorities and under really, under false pretenses, they accessed her dorm at Columbia University by lying about looking for a missing child. They even mocked up fake like missing child posters, according to, you know, university officials. And that's how they got in and ultimately arrested her. And so the other thing Zoran asked for is for her to be released. And, you know, I think it was like within an hour she had been. He also put to Trump, I think, four others, you know, cases that we've frankly been following fairly closely that he wanted Trump to look into. I think he gave those to Susie Wiles. So those continue to be undetermined whether or not action will be taken there. But Just absolutely yet another incredible Zoran W that, you know, really goes beyond what anyone could have expected. Yeah, and it's this Sunnyside Yard, you know, which is this just massive, you know, wasteland of basically, you know, huge train yard. And they're saying build on top of it, right? If I'm understanding the idea. Yeah, that's the idea is to put like a thing over it that you could then build on. And a lot of the housing would be, you know, for people who are kind of in New York, they have a law that helps to support people who are making too much money to be in public housing, but can't afford market rates. And obviously there's a lot of people that fall into that category. And so a lot of this housing would go to those type of working and middle class folks. 21 billion in federal grants. And this is a big area out in Queens. Yeah, absolutely outrageous. What do you guys think? Is this a handshake deal that's going to go through? I mean, we'll see. It's like you got to start somewhere, right? That's right. I mean, Zoran is like played to Trump's. Yeah, I mean, Zoran played precisely into Trump's personality, right? The egotism, like he loves New York. Loves Queens. Loves having his face on a newspaper. Loves a young, handsome, charismatic star with Zoran. and, you know, and loves building stuff. So he's like, all right, you want to work together on building? Let's do this. Look at how the public would love you. You know, look at the way the newspapers would report this. And I saw there was a meme going around that was like, you know, Zoran, let's make a deal. You get one fake newspaper cover. I get 12,000 housing units and, you know, student release from ICE detention. Yeah, it's going to be great. And, you know, I can't imagine that the NIMBYs are going to want to stop this. It's like right now it's a rail yard. Like you want to maintain your beautiful view of the rail yard. Like I'm sure some people will have said I had a view that now is being blocked, but like, all right, this feels like doable. Yeah, totally. When I saw how much Trump enjoyed the newspapers, I thought that was something his team made. And then I was like, oh, it's so genius for the Zoran team to come in with props. And yeah, I just I thought that was amazing. We also do have an image of the Columbia student here that I just found. This is her. She was released after like one day. Any garments, Crystal? I mean, her being extremely beautiful certainly didn't hurt her case. And I mean, just based on how savvy Zoran's been, Trump clearly loves beautiful people, men and women, by the way. I mean, that's part of the bromance with Zoran is clearly he thinks like, look at this young, handsome guy. And I want to be associated with that. So I totally would can imagine Zoran being in there like, you know, this young, beautiful, brilliant girl, sir, sir. I'm sure this isn't what you would have wanted. Can you please look into her case? You know, putting it to him like this isn't you. This isn't what you would do. You don't say anything, I think, if you're Zoran, but you show a glam shot. Here she is. This is who we're trying to get out. And Trump, yeah, like, all right, you know what? Because Trump, like, does he even, like, care about any of this? No, not at all. That's what's crazy. Somebody calls him and is like, what? We're raiding Home Depots? We're raiding farms? We're raiding hotels? Stephen, stop it. It's like one of the things that's, like, sinking him in the polls, and he's, like, barely aware of it. But he is aware, like in that moment, that his polls are down. And so he's glomming on to someone he knows is hot, someone he knows who's got motion right now, which is Zoran. So it's really clear that Trump really enjoys these meetings and likes glomming on to people who are on the up, as opposed to him, who seems to be in a steady decline. It was such a funny moment in the State of the Union where, you know, they'd written in this line that was supposed to be like an attack against the communist mayor of New York City. And Trump can't help but deliver it without he's like the communist mayor, who's actually a nice guy. I actually really like him. We spent a lot of time together. Like he can't even get through the one negative line about him without being like, you know, he's actually a good guy. I actually like this guy. So I don't know. Zorn's got some kind of magical charm. I won't be the first to say it's a goddamn shame that the Constitution bars him for running for president. because the level of charm and skill that this man has demonstrated, both from, you know, just political acumen to delivering. I mean, when the rubber hit the road, he was like, okay, we are going to deliver on our promises. I'm going to be out in the streets. People are going to see me. They're going to notice basic things like, you know, the snow is getting removed and in an extraordinary way. And I'm making good on my promises with regard to, you know, access to childcare and these other things. So, you know, we talked about the rent, freezing the rent. He's able to accomplish that now, too. So it truly is extraordinary. And, you know, there have been some political decisions that he's made that I'm like, I'm not sure about, like, backing Hakeem Jeffries or opposing his primary candidate. Now I'm like, listen, you know what you're doing. I default to your judgment much more than mine because of the demonstrated track record on the ground and the things he's been able to accomplish that are just already extraordinary. We were talking before we started about there's like this whole right wing critique of the snow shoveling program. And for those that don't know, Zoran put out some people he made of it, you know, one of his trademark videos and was like, look, we want emergency snow shovelers. It's going to be 35 bucks an hour. I think it originally started, what, at 20 and then he upped it to 35. And, you know, come on out, bring your ID. We'll get you signed up with the city government. You can come in and help out. And clearly this is a big part of why the snow removal operation was so incredibly effective that it was so effective that there were people sharing photos like, I don't even think it snowed. Like this is a lie or this can't be from this time because there's just there's no way that they were able to get this done. So the program is stunningly effective. You're hiring people. You're creating jobs that are actually beneficial to the community. And the first knock on it was, oh, they need ID to shovel snow, but you don't want them to have ID at the polls. It's like, OK, so they did that one. And now people are sharing videos of like, you know, it'll be like seven guys all working together on a corner. And they're like, you know, oh, this make work socialist program. How dare you? And I just hope, you know, I think this critique is really smart and savvy. I hope they continue talking about Zoran Mamdani creating jobs for Americans and like, you know, hiring them to do useful things in the city that benefit their communities. I think this is a bit like I'm devastated by this critique and I hope they continue it. Yeah. Libs of TikTok is on such a such a downslope. It's like they had talk about motion like a couple of years ago. They had some serious motion. They're at the White House. Like last night, they're like, oh, 16 guys on a corner shoveling snow. Like, yeah, you ever shovel snow? Like if it's one guy in the corner, like you're going to have to wait for the spring for it to melt. Like 16, shovel it faster. You can actually get it done. Like, oh, there's some guys standing around. Yeah, well, it's hard. Sometimes you take a break. Like, relax. Also, you ever go by a construction site? Sometimes people are like leaning on a shovel. Like it happens. This also comes during Snowballgate, which was a snowball fight happening in Washington Square Park where some cops were hit with snowballs, maybe some ice balls. Who knows? These could be hard snowballs. But the NYPD commissioner came out and gave an all hands on deck statement saying we're going to have to catch the people who did this. The right and the Zionists were like, New York City is falling apart. and I think what's so great about Zoran is A, he didn't take the bait on it and was like, no, I'm not going to ban snowball fights from New York City but then he also flooded the zone with like real news so he's like, not only am I not taking the bait but actually, we're actually doing like real stuff here and I think that's so great and you kind of need both to completely disqualify these stupid criticisms and while we were talking about aesthetics there's one more aesthetic that I had One other little ballet move that he had on it was when he finally did put a statement out about it, his last line was something like, if you're going to throw a snowball at anybody, throw it at me. Incredible. Which is just completely emasculating to the cops because he's telling them, look, they can't take this. Yeah. It's a subtle way of being like, you know, because he did the thing of like, look, guys, city workers, including cops, are out and we need to respect them. But if anyone's going to take a snowball, it should be me, which is a subtle way of being like, Come on, you guys are this soft. Like, you can't even take a snowball. I'll, fine, I'll take the snowball. Don't worry about it. Like what I've told my kids, like, if you're so angry, you really need to hit somebody, like, hit me. Hit me. Go ahead. Like, I'll take it. Because it doesn't hurt when they hit me. Have they done it? Yeah. Have they taken you up on that arm? Like, in the arm or something. It's like, fine. Like, if they're really angry, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. And then, like, they feel better then. And it's better than them hitting their sibling who can't take it. So that's kind of the same thing Mom Donnie did. It's like, if you're angry, hit me. New segment, Ryan's Parenting Tips. Yes. Pitch that to Miss Rachel. And, you know, while we're talking about... Not good parenting advice, but whatever. Well, you're talking about ballet moves and masculinity, and I had to flag this one last moment about another aesthetic choice that Zoran made, which was bringing this guy into the White House, his spokesperson, Joe Covello, who, of course, is like central casting perfect for Trump. Look at this double-breasted suit. The mayor of Matt, the president asked him to come back with some big ideas on how we can build things together here in New York City. And that's what he did today. The mayor took him up on this offer and went to D.C. today to pitch him about a possible project in New York City that could deliver one of the biggest federal investments in housing over the past 50 years. Boom. So, I don't know. Just everything about it is a master class. Like, bring a guy in that you know Trump is going to fall in love with. Incredible stuff. Yeah. Well, we know Joe. Joe's been on a lot of different campaigns and, you know, is I'm sure going to be a great spokesperson for Zoran as well. He left Graham Plattner's campaign to join Zoran, actually. I don't think that suit would have fit on an oyster boat. He's on his Fetterman redemption tour. Yeah. Well, I mean, in fairness, many did not see where that was going, myself included. So, yeah. A lot of us need to be on that redemption tour. I'd say Graham Plattner and Zoran Mamdani are a pretty good way to reclaim your cred there. Yeah. Hi, this is Jo Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius like are misunderstood A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms on different houses in different places but just an embracing of the isness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul, A place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life. Celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks. And we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Well, moving on, let's do some bad news now. So we've got Blockstock here, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is BlockAI, which is Jack from Twitter's company. Is that correct, Crystal? Yeah, Jack Dorsey. So Jack Dorsey cut 40% of his workforce over the last 24 hours, and the stock is now shooting through the roof. Crystal, what does this mean? Well, not only did he cut 40 percent of his workforce all at once, but he put out a statement that said effectively, like, look, we saw the writing on the wall. These jobs are going to go. And so because of AI. And so we had a choice. We could either do this sort of dribbling them out over a longer time frame or we could just do it all in one fell swoop. And he talks about, you know, we're going to give them 20 weeks plus one week per year of tenure of their salaries so they have time to adjust, blah, blah, blah. But basically, we just decided to do the one fell swoop approach and cut 40% of our labor force. And then, you know, predictably, but it's still noteworthy, the, you know, like the stock market loves when you lay off workers. So for other companies that are looking at, you know, how to approach the AI era, it sends a pretty strong signal that if you're doing mass layoffs, your stock price is going to be pretty significantly rewarded. Now, I will say I'm not an expert or analyst. I really know nothing about this company, OK, except what I was reading on Twitter yesterday. But I saw some people who were saying, like, yeah, well, what's really going on here is that he overhired during COVID. And now he's using AI as an excuse to get rid of, you know, the excess labor force that he really didn't mean. Now, he directly disputed that and said, no, that's not what's going on. Look at, you know, our productivity levels and how much bang we're getting for the buck of all of our workers, blah, blah, blah. But in a sense, I think it's kind of irrelevant because the point here is really the market signal. The story that is out now is when you do these mass layoffs, it will create a massive reward. And then the other piece of this is there is just simply no doubt. And I know there are still people that are in denial about this, but there is just simply no doubt that with the advent of Claude Code and Claude Cowork and where AI is today, there is going to be significant disruption. How quick, what fields, you know, what's the uptake in terms of it takes large organizations a while to figure out how they can do this. Do people do mass layoffs or do they just let people, you know, naturally move on to other jobs and they just don't rehire? That's still all kind of an open question, but that's why this particular move is really significant, because this puts some, you know, pushes some chips to the side of companies are just going to start doing mass layoffs. And this could accelerate really, really quickly. Yeah. Yeah. And this is not a small company, right? This is Square. And like, this is, this is not, these are not just like Jack Dorsey's like side hobbies. Like this is a major company. It was 10,000 employees. Yeah, it's huge. Especially for a tech company. So yeah, this is, I just, yeah, completely real with Crystal. And I think, yeah, the left in particular is going to need to come up with serious solutions to this crisis that are going to require going beyond. Like the baseline has to be some obvious things like Medicare for all. Like that's an easy one. Like it's even easier as you're heading into, you know, mass unemployment. Like everybody needs health care. Like, OK, so that that's an easy one. green jobs, easy one. So there's some left-wing ideas that easily kind of translate into this era. But then there's going to need to be a lot of creative thinking too about what can you do in a moment of possibilities that is opened up by a rupture of this degree. Like if you do have mass unemployment coupled with like mass fear about where things are headed coupled with rage at billionaires, like what can you offer to those people that isn't dystopian mass surveillance and like incarceration? And a police state. And a miseration. Because that's the other thing that'll be on offer. So the offer currently, as best I can tell from this administration, is the, you know, the mass surveillance and police state and, you know, the $1.5 trillion defense budget, like that's the we'll keep everybody in line using guns and surveillance. Right. And then the other thing is this sort of like lotto casino economy where we don't have the American dream is dead. Like no one believes anymore. We can just work hard and get ahead, especially not with AI. So instead, we're going to hold out to you, dangle in front of you the possibility that maybe as the example I've used before, maybe you'll get cast as the grass in Bad Bunny's halftime show and know who the singer is going to be and be able to cash in on Polly Market. Maybe your parlay is going to hit this time. Like maybe, maybe you just, you really know a lot about basketball and you're going to be able to work that out. And that's how you're going to be able to succeed. And so it's a coin you pick, like is going to blow up and you get out before the rug. That's right. You're, you're going to pick the right meme, you know, shit coin. And you're going to, you're going to be one of the lucky few that makes it big before the before the rug. So that's really the thing that is being offered. And of course, we all know that and most people, I think, intellectually know that those things overall are deeply they're extremely predatory, you know, and the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of people are going to be net losers in a big way with all of those things. But that's the new the new American dream that is being offered by this administration is like, you know, just a roll of the dice, right? A pull of the slot machine, some hope and a prayer and a wish and a dream and a fantasy that your crypto coin is going to hit, your parlay is going to hit, you're going to stumble upon some sort of insider information. Because, you know, there was a world, I guess, more in the Bannonite lane where you could imagine them creating some sort of social safety net that at least applies to like their quote unquote heritage Americans, but they're not even bothering to do that. So it's even I mean, it's you know, it's it's deeply dystopian what is on offer there. So it shouldn't be hard for the left to come up with a different deal like, OK, we're ripping up the social contract. Let's do it. But let's come up with something where people are going to actually benefit, where we have control, human control, like democratic, small d democratic control over this technology so that it's not deployed just for the benefit of a few capitalists, but it's going to be deployed for the benefit of, you know, of human beings, which is not the direction we're headed in right now. But it's going to require a lot, a lot of big thinking, you know, going back to this mass layoff. Maybe this is like, and kind of a horrible thing to say, but we're, we were talking, we've talked before about how you need some sort of a shocking event to wake people up and to get them to take this stuff seriously. And in a sense, I'm actually more afraid of the other scenario that Jack laid out of like, I could have done it slowly over time, but I kind of thought it was better to rip the bandaid off. Because if you have a displacement that is large, but still in the scale of things we've lived through historically, there is going to be a lot less political incentive to act. There's going to be a lot more storytelling about like, oh, well, you know, the professionals who were really skilled made it. So just work a little harder, just like college degree, a little harder, just get in your grind said and you'll be fine. Whereas if we have something that is truly unprecedented or approaching unprecedented or cataclysmic where the jobs are shedding and there can't be any story around why it's your fault you lost your job, that's when we're much more likely to get actual political action and some sort of coalition together. I mean, I really, like, I hope you guys know I hate talking that way, but I think that's the riskier situation is actually where you end up in the same place, but it's a slow drip. And so there's no one moment where people are really galvanized to come together and make, you know, a new social contract, which is what we need. Yeah, we're all accelerationist now, I guess. Well, sort of. It's a different kind of it. Because, yeah, the old accelerationism never stipulated that without it, you could have human extinction. Like, that's a significant difference. like the old accelerationism was like the contradictions embedded within the system are going to lead to some sort of revolution eventually so we might as well just accelerate it and do it now speed up the timeline the new one is saying if we don't do something we might like these AIs might nuke the planet and that's it so we need to stop so it's not accelerationism because you're not trying to bring the future forward You're trying to stave off a potential future. Deviationism in a different kind of deviationism. Pump the brakes-ism for sure. But it can't just be pump the brakes. You have to actually detour also. Like you're off the road that we're on. Yeah. But for now, I do think the most important work is just how can we slow things down? How can we resist the data center? How can we slow things down? because this administration is not going to do anything. I mean, we can, there's probably a good transition to the anthropic fight with the Pentagon, which we've been covering because I think it's so important and so significant. You have, the stakes here are anthropic, which Model Claude is used extensively by the Pentagon. They have a $200 million contract. And they believe, their belief is that it's really important to work with the U.S. government because it's much better for a democratic country to achieve AGI or super intelligence first. So they're all in on like the war, AI war against China. They're perfectly happy to like work with Palantir and get this Pentagon contract. Okay, so these are not like, you know, super hippy dippy, like whatever. But they had two red lines. One of them is we don't want our tech used for mass surveillance of Americans. And number two, we don't want it used for autonomous killer robots, like no autonomous death machines. And the Pentagon said, absolutely. not. And if you don't comply, we are going to either use the Defense Production Act to deem your technology essential and just take it, or we're going to deem it a supply chain risk. And as Dario has pointed out, like these two things are directly contradictory. But anyway, put that aside, a supply chain risk. We're going to cancel your contract and we're going to make it so all of our other contractors cannot use your product, which would be, you know, a massive economic hit Because, of course, every large company works with the Pentagon effectively. So today is the deadline. And yesterday, Dario put out a statement saying that, you know, no, we're not going to comply. Like this, they tried to, the Pentagon tried to say, well, we won't use it for any unlawful purposes. And Anthropic said, well, that's really not good enough. Because technically, like the law has not caught up to reflect the constitutional rights that Americans actually have. And on the Fourth Amendment, it's, you know, the Clare Scott where it's like, yeah, technically, it's not illegal for you to use and collect all of this information that exists and use AI to collate it. But it clearly is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. So you just saying that you're not technically going to violate the law with it is really not good enough. So, no, we refuse. And, you know, and that's kind of where we are. I just saw an update this morning from Sam Altman is saying we're going to see if there's a deal with the Department of War that allows our models to be deployed in classified environments that fits with our principles. So Altman trying to get in there, we'd ask for the contract to cover any use except those which are unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployment, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons. I don't know how they're thinking they're going to draw the line in a different place than Anthropic did. But Sam Altman trying to get in on this. Elon, of course, already was like, oh, I have no principles. Don't worry. I'll do whatever you want. Sign me up. But my understanding is that, you know, Claude has already been implemented in a lot of these in all these classified systems. And Claude is the most effective. Like it's it's the best product for what they want to accomplish. So it's not so simple to just like flip the switch from, you know, Claude to Grok or, you know, ChadGPT or whatever. so it will be messy for them to untangle. So that means Anthropic has a little bit of leverage here. But the quote that I saw from some senior military official quoted by Axios was like, yeah, it's going to be messy. And because of that, we are going to make them pay for doing this. And so the Hegseth had threatened the Defense Production Act, which Trump has shown a willingness to use. He just used the DPA, which is a law that allows the government to force a private company to produce something if it's in national security interests of the country. He just did it for Roundup, bizarrely. He told Monsanto, which is owned by Bayer, you need to make more Roundup. And we need more phosphorus. Phosphorus is an issue that the U.S. has. Roundup? Anyway. We need more cancer. That's what we need. We need more cancer. So they threatened that they would use the Defense Production Act to require Claude Claude to work with the Pentagon. That would lead to an interesting court case where you would then have to litigate whether the Pentagon's demand is legal. Like if and if and if their claim that this thing will kill people without due process and will surveil people in violation of the Fourth Amendment is true then it hard to see how you can compel the government can then legally compel anybody to you know break the Constitution Well, it is, I do want to underscore what I was saying before, the contradiction between these two different paths that they've laid out, either the Defense Production Act or deeming it a supply chain risk. So it looks like they're going in the direction of supply chain risk, I think probably precisely for the reasons that you lay out, Ryan, that it would be legally tenuous and they'd have a pretty good case at getting that locked. And, you know, the courts are very even up to the Supreme Court, as we saw with tariffs, like they're very pro-business. So I think I think Anthropic could have a pretty good shot at winning that case. But if you do the Defense Production Act, what you're arguing is that they're essential to national security. If you do the supply chain risk, you're arguing they're a detriment, they're a risk to national security. So the fact that those are the two paths that they're choosing from, it's like it's either essential or it's terrible. And it looks like they're going to go in the direction of saying that this is terrible for national security. But I mean, we'll see. They may taco, right? They may, especially as we're on the cusp of war with Iran, as it appears, you're going to be changing out the system that you really rely on at this point and are comfortable with, etc. There's a lot going on militarily. Is that really something you want to deal with right now? You really want to bring XAI and their total lack of scruples in to fill the void there? So we'll see how this all plays out. But I think it's a fairly credible threat that they'll, you know, that they will decide to wage a kind of like both government and ideological rhetorical war against Anthropic and say this is like the woke liberal AI and we should none of us should have anything to do with it. And it's the woke mind virus and it's going to destroy civilization, et cetera, et cetera. How much do you think this is like brand preservation by Anthropic that like Anthropic sees the Trump administration, sees people like Pete Hegseth and is like, oh, like I don't want like the Anthropic like brand slapped over a drone swarm that attacks Springfield, Ohio or something like that. Like, do you think that there's some of that where they're like, well, let Grok be the ones that do like the first bad AI incident that kills a bunch of people? Like, because you look at this administration, how lawless they are and how they kind of have gone a million different directions. And it's like, oh, yeah, we easily see how like in the next year we could have the anthropic terminator, you know, I don't know, blowing up all the boats in the Caribbean or what have you. I don't know. I think it's pretty. Go ahead, Ryan. No, just that ethics and safety are central to Anthropics' brand. They also just recently dropped their safety, you know, one of their key safety lines that they've been walking around with for a very long time. So, yeah, I think in some ways it could be too much to do that and then follow it up with, okay, fine, we'll do these autonomous drone swarms and mass surveillance for the Pentagon. But I think some of it is, I don't know, real. Like if you read Dario's writing, he's a complicated guy, obviously, and you got to read everything with a grain of salt. But like, he's been consistent on these questions. Yeah. So you have to credit that consistency with something. I think it's pretty hard to make a case that this decision, bianthropic, is just purely like a capitalist maximizing play. Because the timelines we're talking about now with achieving, I mean, many people, myself included, I'm persuaded that we've already achieved artificial general intelligence. And people keep like moving the goalposts and not really admit that. But I think we're already there. And the next milestone is super intelligence, which will be equally kind of like difficult to draw a line of like we've made it. But, you know, these timelines for when these things are being achieved are extremely quick. You know, we're talking about like I'm hoping that we don't get there before the next presidential election because we need time, as we were discussing before, to develop a policy framework from the left and be able to really meet the moment. And that's not going to be that's going to be a very significant task. So, you know, you're looking at three more years of this administration, and this is a critical moment. And if you're having a fight with the U.S. federal government and have your contracts stripped and, you know, who knows what other ways they're going to screw with you and not approve whatever you need approved and block this or that merger that you're trying to do, etc. cetera, it's going to make the task of Anthropic coming out on top in that AI race more difficult. And that's ultimately all of their, you know, that's all of their goals. And Anthropic, their view is like, we need to be there first because we are the only ones that have any, you know, any principles whatsoever. And frankly, at this point, I think that's actually kind of fair that they are correct about that. And so, you know, so I have no doubt that if the Pentagon follows through on their threats, and I believe that they could, that this will be damaging to Anthropic in terms of winning that ultimate AI race. And like I said, because of the time frame, you know, it's, they all see it as very zero sum, like whoever makes it is going to be the model. And, you know, if you were just interested in my model is going to be the one to proliferate, you wouldn't care about any of the safety concerns, even the like really dire ones you lay out, Griffin, of like the drone swarm attacking some American town or whatever. Being the one that gets there first is all that matters in terms of ending up on top as the dominant model. Well, that's optimistic. I like it. Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius are misunderstood. A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places, but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must-listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore, loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. we don't need to spend a lot of time on this story but i think just a tag for this conversation that is i think thematic uh u.s military uses laser to take down border protection drone lawmakers say and faa closes airspace near el paso texas it's happening again these lasers in el paso so yeah more of that in the future it's a reverse this time last time it was dhs just goofing around with their toys. This time it may have been DHS goofing around with some drone toys and not telling the military that they were doing it. And so the military seems to have very little patience for DHS and I think considers them to be amateurs and hacks. Really? Like where would they get that? I don't know where they would get that. Yeah. They've always said G. Oh my God. the idea that we gave the border patrol these freaking like laser weapons and whatever else they have in their arsenal is utterly terrifying utterly tear i mean look at these guys like i don't know yeah i don't know guys i don't know how any of us are going to make it through this regime because these people are evil and buffoons like the combination i didn't you know it's not the movie combination you get and griffin you could probably speak to this usually like the evil types are like masterminds, you know, they're geniuses. I've had to really, you know, struggle to anticipate and understand the evil idiot, not the evil genius mind, the like evil idiot mind. What does that one look like? What is that one going to bring us? Much more Coen Brothers DHS than anything else. Yes. Yeah, it's Fargo, USA here. Well, on that note, what do you got? Real quick, Pakistan and Afghanistan are at war. People can read more about that in our newsletter or elsewhere and go find the details. But yeah, border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan led to Pakistan then launching bombing raids on Kabul and Kandahar. Against the Taliban, right? Against the Taliban amidst some false claims that the Supreme Leader, There seemed to be false claims that the Supreme Leader in Afghanistan had been killed. There's videos going around of the Taliban kind of sacking some Pakistani bases. Because I think on the ground, the Pakistani military is not much of a match for the Taliban. But Taliban has no air force because I don't think we left the keys behind in those planes. Haven't figured out how to hotwire those bad boys. No, they need Tom Cruise. They've had a year or two. No, Tom Cruise in Top Gun 2, he just finds an old jet and just hops in it and takes off. So they need somebody like that who can figure out how to fly those. Without that, the Pakistan Air Force has been striking Afghanistan. I saw some conspiracy theories that this was like, that the U.S. instructed them to do this, to weaken the Taliban so that when Iran regime change happens, that things will be calmer on the Iran-Afghanistan border. I don't see any reason to credit any of that. I feel like this has its own logic going on to it. But anyway, just letting people know that. Maybe we didn't exactly discourage it. Maybe it's one of those, right? Well, Trump, this could be his, what, 15th war that he could stop? Yeah. If he hurries up and stops it. Well, I lost count after a certain point. Yeah, you do. You do. There's so much peace. well you can check out that story at drop site news this morning i'm guessing it'll be in our newsletter yeah yeah awesome well we've got probably one more story to fit in the first half here what do we want to do do we want to do paramount do we want to do ryan that story you've been working on let's do cat also you want to do this one real quick yeah let's do cat what's going on with cat so we uh reporting so cat is running for congress in illinois correct right Chicago area. Chicago area. She just had a debate. Kat Abu Ghazala, Palestinian-American, running as kind of the most left-wing candidate against Daniel Biss, who was the mayor of Evanston. And kind of like an Elizabeth Warren-type liberal. Yeah, yeah. Progressive for sure, but not exactly like Bernie Wayne. Right. And then Laura Fine, who is getting all of the APEC support. So it's kind of like a three-way race between them. The latest poll I saw had Biss up by like six, seven points with Kat in second, which was, and then both of them beating Laura Fine, which is remarkable because Fine was kind of, you know, Fine had the poll position here. But it seems like the APAC money is actually dragging her down. It's a very, it's this Evanston area. It's a very well-educated district. And so once it got out that she was secretly backed by APAC, it seems like all of that money is as much of a handicap as it is helping her. But so Kat may actually win this race now. And so we went to her campaign. We went to her for comment about what we're going to talk about now. I haven't heard back, told her she's welcome to come on the show to talk about this as well. She has a, and let me put this up on the screen. It turns out her national security advisor is quite the hawk. And so his name is Ben Murmelt. And he is a, so he's the guy that does her foreign policy and national security. So there's an email going around in activist circles that has gotten to me in which one of the kind of Washington-based organizations reaches out and says, hey, Kat's doing well. Like, can we get some clarification on what we've seen on her website, which seems to be some unusually hawkish positions? We see on there that she seems kind of more hawkish than Trump on Taiwan, more hawkish than Trump on Ukraine, but she's great on Palestine. So what's going on here? And so they got back, and I agreed to conceal the person's name so that not this person, but that somebody would leak the email to me. Because it's getting a lot of attention kind of in the background, but it's something that the public should know about too. um so here so i'll roll through these these you don't even need the questions but you can pause this and read them if you want because the answers are are fulsome and uh they they they kind of incorporate the question uh one he talks about his role um here so number four so this is about china and taiwan you weren't supposed to scroll that far down ryan you're supposed to get tired of reading by that point. So he asked about China because they said it look on the website. It looks like kind of concerning language on the website. Are you sure? Is this really what Kat believes when it comes to Taiwan? And so the quote here, if elected, Kat would strongly push for amending the Taiwan Relations Act to include language, dropping our strategic ambiguity towards defending the island from a Chinese invasion. Strategic ambiguity is actually precisely kind of what AOC was mocked for presenting when she was kind of babbling and kind of immune searching for an answer like that is literally the current American strategy towards Taiwan is to just babble and not answer so that China doesn know like what we will actually do And so what Kat is saying here through her advisor is that that doesn't work anymore, that we need to say that we're going to hit them. So as of now, China knows that Trump won't send the Seventh Fleet or any other Indo-Paccom assets to defend Taiwan in the event of an all-out assault We owe it to Taiwan and democracy to demonstrate that America will do everything possible to counter wars of aggression with force. Extremely hawkish position from Kat there. On Palestine, strong statement. The genocide in Gaza is a disgusting failure. You've heard her talk a lot about the genocide in Gaza, and so nothing here would surprise you. But then he adds, on her behalf, that does not mean that our historical impulse to use military force first is correct. It hardly ever is and often causes untold damage. There are a wide range of options available to both the executive and Congress precluding kinetic force from sanctions to NGO support, all of which are likely to produce results when applied correctly. correctly, Kat is firmly an interventionist. The world is better off when America takes a leading role in it, but that role must be ethical and lawful, and it must place human rights first. So, that, you know, so we don't want to necessarily do war, but we do want sanctions, we do want to fund NGOs that do these, like, protests and, you know, support our favored folks inside these different countries and, quote, firmly an interventionist. So, So I don't think that's what people would necessarily have expected from how people understand her when it comes to Palestine. And then on Russia, Ukraine, if elected— Let's get to the good stuff. If elected, Kat will hold the line. Russia cannot be allowed to eke out a win in Ukraine, and Kat stands firmly against any attempt by the Trump administration to sell out our European allies to Putin's imperialism. Kat fully supports funding the Ukrainian war effort to the hilt until the Russian forces are degraded to the point where a mere restoration of pre-war borders is possible or any other outcome preferable to the Ukrainian government. She strongly supports the forward deployment of air, naval and ground assets to the NATO front line, as well as the positioning of dual-use missile and drone interception systems. systems. So ground assets, are we talking about American ground assets? Well, hopefully we can get some clarity from her on that. We must additionally surge MIM-104 patient. And this sounds like Ben Mermel here is kind of like a bit of a military geek. So he goes deep into the weapon systems that he wants to see placed on the border. The Chinese are closely watching our actions in Ukraine and the outcome of this conflict will determine the nature of their attempt to seize Taiwan, possibly preventing it altogether. If Ukraine can pull off a diplomatic win, we owe it to those that gave their lives of aggression throughout our history and people seeking freedom everywhere to not cower in fear. Kat will be that voice on the Hill and she won't stop until Russia is made to pay for its crimes. Um, so I don't know what, like, what do you, Is that what you would have expected from? No, not at all. Not firmly an interventionist. It's like, whoa. And so, I mean, I guess my question is, you know, it's like I have a lot of. I guess sort of charity towards new congressional candidates, having myself been a congressional kid in the past and knowing where I was coming from is just being like, you know, kind of regular person who just wanted to serve the country. I mean, granted, Kat has been in political space for a long time. Right. But foreign policy outside of she's, you know, placed planted her flag very effectively in Palestine. It's not like that's what she's known for. Right. So, you know, I would be open to the idea that like she kind of just she kind of outsourced this to Ben and hasn't really fully thought it through, in which case there's a lot of opportunity to say, you know, this is not this is how we end up in the Iraq war. Right. Like, this is how we end up bombing Libya. This is how we end up with failed states and doing all these, like, color revolutions. And this is effectively the type of foreign policy we've had for decades going back into the Cold War. And, you know, if you want to do something different, this is not what it looks like. So I am, you know, I am anxious to hear from her directly on this because this is very, very surprising to me that this is the type of language that is being used here. There's also one other weird element here. uh, this guy, Ben, um, according to a, this, uh, G, this GW article, he was at this, he's quoted at a pro Israel rally, um, uh, where he's, and I can, I can maybe put this on Twitter, but let me, let me find this. What is, what is, what's his quote here? Like, it's like, what are you doing at the pro Israel? So Ben Murmel, here it is. Uh, actually I'll just, here, let me put it up. Ben Mermel, a graduate student in the School of Public Affairs, attended the pro-Israel rally alongside Harris Mowbray, who graduated from the School of International Service in 2002. Referring to the nearby encampment, there's a lot of points that they're making over there that I also agree with. I think they've done a bad job policing the anti-Semitism that sometimes rears its head within that movement, and I think that's turned quite a lot of people off. This comment aside, like, during the genocide in Gaza, There was an encampment at GW, and Ben went to her advisor, went to the pro-Israel rally that protested the encampment. So that's why, maybe more to your point, that she may have just outsourced this to this guy. And he's like— Well, and that's very— It's getting up on the website, and it's getting out to groups as official kind of campaign stuff. Right, of course. So she's responsible for it, but— Right. If you don't have a really formed foreign policy view, the people you surround yourself with become really important. You know, if you like have a fully formed view and maybe you want someone who has a different ideological orientation to kind of push you and, you know, be the person in the room and says, well, have you thought about this? That's kind of a different deal. But if you're coming in somewhat unformed and you're bringing in this person who is very hawkish and, you know, just a couple of years ago was going to pro-Israel protests, then you're, you know, that's obviously what's going to be reflected in your campaign. That's going to really help shape and mold your own thinking, you know, as you're kind of coming into this fresh. Yeah, I mean, people have talked about like with AOC, Matt Duss is advising her. And you can see that right in her language and her approach and the things she was saying at the Munich conference as well. And I think foreign policy has always been an area from I remember when, you know, AOC first got elected and she got that question about Israel-Palestine. And she was very like she knew there were things, landmines here, but she didn't know exactly where they were. And she kind of had just like a general instinct of like, I want peace and Palestinians should have rights, but I don't know exactly what to say about this. That's kind of where she was. And I think she's always been much more comfortable on domestic policy than she has been on foreign policy. And so it reminds me a bit of that with Kat. Although, again, I mean, Kat has been a political, you know, she's been a political actor, not a candidate, but a political actor for a long time. So anyway, those are some of my sort of like thoughts and reflections of just, you know, reacting to this in real time. But there's, I am definitely surprised to see what is in this, you know, campaign communication that purports to speak for her and her views. I think also like the offer stands like we reached out to Kat and welcome to come on we'll hear her perspective at length on this I also think that there is a definite lack of like okay for the Taiwan one it's kind of hashtag random like for what we're doing there but for the Ukraine one I think there is actually like a vacuum of leftist perspective on the Ukraine war Like, I don't think that there's like a lot of strong national figures on the left that are talking about how many people are dying every month there, that are talking about the average age of the Ukrainian soldier, that are talking about how the front lines haven't moved in years, or that we would have to actually deploy ground troops in the start of World War III to win back this landmine-strewn land. um so because there has not been even on shows that i like that are pretty leftist you know i don't i don't think the majority report talks a lot about that stuff that's probably one of the biggest leftist shows probably a show that cat watches so i think there has been like that vacuum on the on the ukraine thing um but this is still pretty unacceptable you have to like find like good people to to surround you but i you know i do like that she's been good on ice she's been good on palestine and she's been good on tv which is important um you know she goes on these cnn panels and she's awesome. She's like a great fighter. She's like clearly someone we need. So I'm willing to like say maybe she picked the wrong guy. But if these are her views, this is kind of a classic example of like progressivism being too broad a term and like being like, oh, you can fit all sorts of stuff. You can be, you know, you can be a we need to sack Vladimir Putin progressive or you can be a non-interventionist progressive. And it's such a broad term, that it becomes kind of useless. And I think people that are on the more hardcore left should probably depart from the term. But yeah, so Kat, please come on the show. I think the Ukraine point is an interesting one to dig into a little bit more. You know, early on in the Ukraine war, I remember there was a group of progressives who tried to put out some letter. I don't remember. It was like, Ryan, you probably remember better. It was like calling for a ceasefire or negotiations or diplomacy or something. It was I remember it being very tame. Right. It was very like peace is good. You know, like that was basically the vibe. And they faced so much backlash for penning this letter. And it worked like after that, everyone just kept their mouth shut. And I guess we're just going to do this war forever and kind of like slowly feed in weapons and, you know, create some sort of like miserable, deadly, destructive status quo. And here we are. And, you know, I mean, I understand why Ukraine is a difficult position for progressives, because there are competing principles at stake here, right? Russia was the aggressor. It is an illegal war. You know, Ukraine is like, are the underdogs. Like, it's not right what has been done. I would say what are, you know, screwing around with Ukraine and using this as a proxy war is also not right. And then, of course, the competing principle there is that people are dying. This war has no end in sight. And even though any resolution right now, it's not going to be a just resolution. There's just no doubt about that. It's going to be a very ugly and difficult pill to swallow. But meanwhile, people are dying. And the more time goes on, the worse the solution is likely to get for Ukraine. So I understand why that is a difficult issue for progressives to just kind of like take a hard stand on. And because you do have these competing principles at play. But, you know, by and large, at this point with both parties and with the Trump administration, I mean, he barely mentioned Ukraine at all in a state of the union. It's just become another one of these intractable conflicts where it is easy for every political actor to just pretend like it's not happening and allow a horrifying, grinding, deadly status quo and dangerous, by the way, status quo to persist. You know, I mean, it reminds in a sense of Afghanistan, where it was like, everyone knows this a mess. We don't even know why we're there anymore. Like, what are we even doing? And yet it just it creates a logic of its own because politically it's easier just to put it on the back burner and push it out of the news than to actually bring it to what ended up being a rather ugly conclusion from which Joe Biden himself. Like, that's when his approval rating falls off and he never recovers. So that's kind of where we are with the Ukraine war, which is really an across the board, you know, Republican, Democrat, progressive, moderate everybody issue at this point where it's like no one really wants to focus on it or talk about it because it's easier not to. Yeah. And history nerds can fact check me, but this has lasted longer than World War I now. Like four years. This is, and with, frankly, no end in sight, other than the complete demographic collapse of Ukraine, coupled with a genuine demographic hit to Russia that will resonate and ring out for generations. It's insane. Yeah. All right. Sorry, did I cut you off, Ryan? No. No. Okay. Just buttering with rage. All right. Kat, we'd love to talk to you about that. We'd love to keep talking more about the Ukraine war because I do think it's a topic that fell by the wayside. And it's tough because I think, yeah, everyone kind of has just shrugged it off as never-ending. But yeah, that's going to do it for this first half. We got a lot of topics in the second half. We wanted to talk about some horrible ICE video that's been unearthed by a reporter of a blind gentleman that then passed away after being left out in the cold. We've got some stuff on the SAVE Act that we wanted to get to with Trump. And then now some China election interference claims about the 2020 election. And of course, our friends over at Paramount have won the day. And it looks like they will be the ones to purchase Warner Brothers. So we're going to get all that some more. We'll see if we have time. If we do have time, this plumber from the Green Party, Hannah the Plumber just won this massive election that could be like a dagger in the heart of the Labor Party that might make Keir Starmer literally the last Labor Prime Minister in world history, like ever again in the UK. Wow, okay. Let's find time for that. I want to know more. No, we're doing that first, Ryan. All right, let's get to the Plumber right now. See you all there at BreakingPoints.com. On the adventures of curiosity Cove podcast. When peanut butter disappears from school, Ella, Scout, and Layla launch a full detective mission. Their search leads them back in time to meet a brilliant inventor whose curiosity changed the world. And this Black History Month adventure, asking questions, thinking creatively, can lead to amazing discoveries. Listen to Adventures of Curiosity Cove every Monday from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, aka Neuro Linguistic Programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. celebrities thinkers everyday people some have answers most are still figuring it out and if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story this show is for you listen to if you can hear me on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts this is an iheart podcast guaranteed human