Behind the Bastards

It Could Happen Here Weekly 203

October 11, 2025

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  • Federal agents in Chicago are employing extreme, violent, and chaotic tactics, including the use of riot munitions against journalists and the mass detention of residents (including naked children) in a South Shore apartment raid, suggesting a level of unaccountability far exceeding typical local policing. 
  • The surge in federal immigration enforcement in Chicago, involving ICE and deployed Border Patrol units, is characterized by dispersed, rapid strikes and a deliberate media blackout, leading to a climate of fear where residents feel they are in hiding. 
  • Prominent comedians participating in the Riyadh Comedy Festival, such as Bill Burr and Pete Davidson, are actively whitewashing the Saudi regime's human rights abuses, including torture prisons named after the event's organizer, despite past criticisms of similar actions by other celebrities. 
  • Celebrities performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival are criticized for hypocrisy, taking money from the Saudi regime despite its human rights abuses, which is seen as a form of sportswashing/artswashing. 
  • The coverage surrounding recent mass shootings, such as the Mormon church shooting, demonstrates a political weaponization where the administration and media selectively focus on or ignore motives based on partisan utility. 
  • Former President Trump's public statements regarding vaccines and Hepatitis B are medically unfounded, particularly his suggestion to split the MMR vaccine and his mischaracterization of Hepatitis B transmission, which poses a risk to public health uptake. 
  • The arrest of influencer Nick Sorter in Portland triggered an aggressive right-wing and federal response, including DHS Secretary Christy Noam threatening military deployment to crush 'left-wing violence,' which was subsequently blocked by a federal judge. 
  • ICE operations in Chicago escalated with a second shooting incident involving an ICE agent firing on a woman, Maramar Martinez, during a rapid response action, amidst conflicting accounts regarding self-defense claims. 
  • The Trump administration is aggressively pursuing the deployment of out-of-state National Guard troops to cities like Portland and Chicago to enforce immigration actions, leading to legal challenges and accusations of preparing for a 'rematch of the civil war.' 
  • Proposed tariffs, such as a 25% tariff on heavy trucks and a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, are currently uncertain as they lack executive orders or have future implementation dates, unlike existing lumber tariffs. 
  • The Trump administration intends to continue imposing tariffs using alternative legal authorities even if the Supreme Court rules against the constitutionality of existing tariffs. 
  • The episode concludes with a call to action to support Bhuket Tan, an Alevi Kurdish woman seeking asylum in Southern California, by donating to her legal fees via GoFundMe. 

Segments

Journalist Shot Covering ICE Protest
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(00:02:43)
  • Key Takeaway: A journalist for Unraveled was shot in the face with a pepper ball round while covering an anti-ICE protest in Broadview, Chicago.
  • Summary: The journalist sustained injuries from a pepper ball round, noting these munitions have metal cores and have caused horrific injuries during recent protests. The federal agents involved appeared to target the reporter deliberately, staring down the lens before firing. This incident occurred during escalating protests against ICE raids in the predominantly Black suburb of Broadview.
ICE Agent Killing at Traffic Stop
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(00:06:07)
  • Key Takeaway: Two ICE agents killed a man during a traffic stop in a Latino suburb, with video evidence contradicting the initial federal narrative that the man drove over them.
  • Summary: The killing occurred weeks prior, and due to federal involvement, there is no timeline for information release regarding the agents’ investigation. The victim was reportedly shot after slowly reversing his car away from the agents, not after hitting them as initially claimed by DHS press releases. This incident highlights the lack of accountability when federal agencies conduct investigations into their own use of lethal force.
Federal Deployment and Tactics in Chicago
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(00:09:36)
  • Key Takeaway: Federal Border Patrol units, including those deployed from other states under Bovino, are conducting highly visible propaganda operations alongside terrifying raids in Chicago.
  • Summary: The federal presence is characterized by chaotic, less organized behavior compared to local police, resembling ‘Proud Boys’ or poorly trained street fighters. Operations include rapid, dispersed strikes, leaving abandoned cars, and a complete lack of accountability for agents’ actions. Protesters are facing unprecedented levels of violence, including heavy use of chemical weapons like tear gas, which is historically rare for Chicago policing.
Horrific South Shore Apartment Raid
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(00:21:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Hundreds of federal agents (ICE, FBI, ATF) conducted a predawn raid on a South Shore apartment building, detaining residents, including Black citizens and immigrants, often dragging naked children from their beds into U-Haul vans.
  • Summary: The raid targeted an apartment building housing many newly arrived migrants in poor conditions due to slumlord practices. Witnesses reported seeing naked children separated from their mothers and loaded into vans, with one federal agent allegedly saying, ‘fuck them kids.’ The official DHS line attempts to justify the mass detention by claiming the building was a ‘Trende Agua hideout,’ mirroring propaganda used to justify attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Foundational Violence and Civil War Feeling
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(00:28:45)
  • Key Takeaway: The current federal actions in Chicago—tearing mothers from children and targeting marginalized populations—are seen as a direct replication of the United States’ founding violence: genocide and slavery.
  • Summary: The speaker suggests the nation’s democratic structure may not survive this moment, as the state’s violent core is being exposed and replicated nightly. This escalating tempo of atrocities makes it difficult for media and the public to keep up, creating a sense of being ‘in a civil war’ without official recognition. Resistance efforts are adapting to the federal use of chemical weapons, which local activists historically viewed as a precursor to deadly force.
Comedians’ Complicity in Saudi Regime
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(00:53:22)
  • Key Takeaway: High-profile comedians accepted massive payments (up to $1.6 million) from the Saudi government’s entertainment authority, run by Turkey Al-Sheikh, who oversees a torture prison wing named after his nickname, ‘Tutu.’
  • Summary: The festival is a deliberate effort by MBS to ‘whitewash’ the regime’s human rights record without modernizing laws, exemplified by the fact that Jim Jeffries was dropped for mentioning the execution of a reporter. Bill Burr previously criticized Beyoncé for taking money from Gaddafi’s son, highlighting his current hypocrisy, while Tim Dylan defended taking the money by arguing slavery in Saudi Arabia was not a reason to refuse $375,000.
Celebrity Hypocrisy in Saudi Arabia
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(01:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Celebrities accept large payments to perform for dictatorships, prioritizing wealth over stated principles of empowerment.
  • Summary: A celebrity accepted one million dollars to perform for Muammar Gaddafi’s son, highlighting a pattern where performers compromise their ethics for significant financial gain. Comedians performing in Saudi Arabia justified their participation by citing the audience’s desire for stand-up, despite the regime’s restrictions against mocking royals and religion. Bill Burr’s defense focused on the positive experience and the audience’s desire for comedy, contrasting with the reality of the restrictive environment.
Saudi Sportswashing PR Strategy
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(01:07:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Saudi Arabia utilizes sports and entertainment events as a successful PR blitz to normalize the regime and deflect attention from severe human rights abuses like deploying Sudanese child soldiers in Yemen.
  • Summary: The Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund is actively investing in global entertainment and sports, including helping fund Jared Kushner’s acquisition of EA, as part of a sportswashing strategy. The genius of this strategy is that backlash is often covered by journalists unfamiliar with Saudi Arabia’s deeper atrocities, such as the use of Sudanese child soldiers linked to the Darfur genocide in the Yemen war. Focusing coverage on domestic issues or the killing of Jamal Khashoggi distracts from ongoing mass killings, like airstrikes on schools and funerals, in Yemen.
Weaponization of Mass Shootings
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(01:13:32)
  • Key Takeaway: Political actors rapidly attempt to frame mass shootings as partisan violence, often misidentifying the shooter’s ideology or ignoring facts that contradict their narrative.
  • Summary: Following the Michigan church shooting, the right immediately labeled it a targeted attack on Christians, but the shooter was a Christian Trump supporter targeting Mormons, whom he believed were the Antichrist. Right-wing media outlets engaged in disinformation, such as falsely claiming a photo of the shooter in a Trump shirt was photoshopped to remove the graphic. This incident exemplifies the political game of picking and choosing which shootings to care about based on whether the shooter’s motive can be weaponized against political enemies.
Political Alienation and Violence
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(01:27:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Many mass shooters are driven by suicidal ideation and social alienation, resulting in acts that may appear political but lack coherent, mainstream ideological grounding.
  • Summary: Public acts of violence often involve a suicidal component where the perpetrator seeks final meaning by being recorded in history through a violent act, which can stem from political alienation rather than clear partisan philosophy. The Dallas ICE office shooter, who killed three detained immigrants, was described as a libertarian-leaning 4chan edgelord whose anti-ICE inscriptions might have been an attempt to rile people up. The current political rhetoric surrounding violence serves to justify authoritarian crackdowns against political opposition rather than accurately analyzing the complex, often personal, motivations behind these tragedies.
Trump’s Medical Misinformation
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(01:34:09)
  • Key Takeaway: Former President Trump is actively undermining public health by promoting medically unfounded advice, such as splitting the MMR vaccine and questioning the necessity of the Hepatitis B vaccine schedule.
  • Summary: Trump suggested splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate shots, a claim echoing debunked Wakefield studies, which increases the risk of missed doses and subsequent outbreaks of contagious diseases like measles. He also incorrectly stated that the Hepatitis B vaccine is only necessary at age 12 because it is sexually transmitted, ignoring transmission via birth from mother to infant, a major risk factor. This misinformation is dangerous because it contributes to the anti-vaccine industrial complex and erodes trust in established medical protocols, despite the success of vaccines like the one for Hepatitis B.
Portland Sorter Arrest Fallout
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(02:08:34)
  • Key Takeaway: The arrest of Nick Sorter for disorderly conduct during an ICE protest led to immediate federal investigation and threats by DHS Secretary Christy Noam to deploy the military to Portland and Chicago.
  • Summary: Influencer Nick Sorter was arrested in Portland following a confrontation outside an ICE building, sparking immediate right-wing outrage and calls for federal intervention. DHS Secretary Christy Noam announced a ‘full investigation’ and threatened to surge ICE resources and deploy the Department of War to Portland and Chicago within 24 hours. A Trump-appointed federal judge later issued a temporary restraining order blocking the federalization of the Oregon National Guard, citing insufficient justification for military deployment.
Federal Overreach Blocked
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(02:13:38)
  • Key Takeaway: A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to federalize the Oregon National Guard, ruling the administration’s claims of ‘rebellion’ were untethered from facts and violated the Tenth Amendment.
  • Summary: The federal judge denied the administration’s request to deploy the Oregon National Guard, concluding that existing law enforcement was sufficient and that violence elsewhere did not justify troop deployment. The ruling defined ‘rebellion’ as requiring organized, armed, and open opposition to the government as a whole, which the Portland protests did not meet. Following this, Secretary of War Pete Hagseth ordered California National Guard troops to Oregon, which the same judge subsequently blocked.
Trump Threatens Insurrection Act
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(02:20:39)
  • Key Takeaway: President Trump explicitly stated he would invoke the Insurrection Act if governors, mayors, or courts prevented ICE from completing immigration actions, signaling a pretext for military intervention.
  • Summary: President Trump confirmed he would use the Insurrection Act if necessary to ensure city safety, specifically mentioning situations where local officials or courts impede ICE operations. Stephen Miller framed the Portland events as an ‘insurrection’ to establish a legal pretext for using this authority. This follows the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois and Oregon, which Governor Pritzker labeled ‘Trump’s invasion.’
ICE Shooting and Misinformation
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(02:33:08)
  • Key Takeaway: An ICE agent shot a woman, Maramar Martinez, in Chicago during a rapid response action, with DHS immediately issuing a false statement claiming she was armed with a ‘semi-automatic weapon’ and ambushed officers.
  • Summary: ICE began detaining unhoused people in Chicago, and a second shooting by an ICE agent occurred where Maramar Martinez was shot while allegedly following ICE vehicles. DHS claimed Martinez ambushed agents with a semi-automatic weapon, but her attorney presented bodycam evidence suggesting the agent initiated the confrontation by turning into her vehicle before shooting her multiple times. The hosts stressed the need for extreme caution when reporting on ICE actions, especially regarding claims about hospital detentions, to avoid discouraging people from seeking life-saving care.
App Removal and Doxing Claims
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(02:40:17)
  • Key Takeaway: Immigration enforcement advocates are losing digital tools as Padlet removed the ‘People Over Papers’ app following complaints that videotaping ICE agents constitutes doxing and violence.
  • Summary: The Padlet service removed the ‘People Over Papers’ app after a public complaint alleged violations like harassment and stalking. This follows the removal of the ‘Ice Block’ app, suggesting a coordinated effort against tools used for monitoring ICE. DHS officials have claimed that videotaping ICE agents is doxing, and Christy Noam has claimed doxing is an act of violence, effectively equating filming law enforcement with violence.
Roadless Rule Rescission Threat
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(02:53:08)
  • Key Takeaway: The Trump administration proposed rescinding the Roadless Rule, which protects 58.8 million acres of national forest land from logging and road building, despite 99% of public comments opposing the move.
  • Summary: The comment period closed on the proposal to rescind the Roadless Rule, a measure that protects vast tracts of national forest land from industrial activity. Research suggests that cutting roads into forests increases fire risk by allowing more human activity and changing foliage to more flammable underbrush. The administration claims rescinding the rule will decrease wildfire risk, but the Forest Service is currently understaffed and unlikely to finance extensive new road construction.
Tariff Announcements and WIC Funding
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(02:59:14)
  • Key Takeaway: New tariffs were announced on Canadian lumber, furniture, and cabinets, while the administration suggested funding the WIC program during the government shutdown using revenue generated from these tariffs.
  • Summary: New tariffs include 10% on softwood lumber and 25% on upholstered furniture and kitchen cabinets, scheduled to increase further next year, potentially collapsing the Canadian lumber industry. The administration is reportedly planning to fund the WIC program, which serves millions of children, using tariff revenue, an action deemed highly unconstitutional as it bypasses Congressional appropriation authority. Separately, threats of 100% tariffs on foreign films remain, and pharmaceutical tariffs were temporarily averted by deals promising U.S. manufacturing investments.
Floating Tariff Uncertainty
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(03:06:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Tariffs proposed without executive orders, like the 25% heavy truck tariff, cannot be treated as real as those with existing executive orders, such as lumber tariffs.
  • Summary: A proposed 25% tariff on heavy trucks, slated for November 1st, remains uncertain without an executive order. Tariffs are categorized based on whether an executive order exists and if the effective date has passed. The 100% tariff on foreign-made films is highlighted as the most concerning, though its structure is completely unknown.
Supreme Court Tariff Challenge
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(03:07:09)
  • Key Takeaway: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear cases against existing Trump tariffs on November 5th, but the administration plans to re-impose them using different legal authorities regardless of the ruling.
  • Summary: The Supreme Court will begin hearing cases challenging several Trump tariffs on November 5th. The Trump administration has explicitly stated its intent to continue applying tariffs using other laws, even if these specific tariffs are deemed unconstitutional by the court. This suggests a continuous cycle of re-imposing tariffs under different legal authorities.
Fundraiser for Asylum Case
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(03:07:44)
  • Key Takeaway: Listeners are asked to support Bhuket Tan, an Alevi Kurdish woman in Southern California, by donating to her GoFundMe to cover legal costs for her asylum case.
  • Summary: A fundraiser is underway for Bhuket Tan, who fled Turkey due to persecution based on her Alevi Kurdish beliefs and ethnicity. She is currently in Southern California and requires financial assistance for her asylum lawyer. Donations can be made via the provided GoFundMe link or through the show notes.
Contact and Show Outro
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(03:08:10)
  • Key Takeaway: News tips can be securely submitted to Coolzone Media via an encrypted Proton email address.
  • Summary: News tips can be sent to coolzone tips at proton.me, which ensures end-to-end encryption if the sender also uses a Proton email address. The podcast, It Could Happen Here Weekly 203 from Behind the Bastards, is a production of Coolzone Media and new episodes are promised every Monday.