Sane(ish) with Jo Carducci

Since Donald Trump launched the United States into an illegal war with Iran, MAGA has found itself in an impossible position, having to contort themselves into a pretzel in order to perform a 180 degree flip from anti-war isolationists to Bush/Cheney 2.0.

On this episode of The Siren Podcast, I spoke with former U.S. representative Denver Riggleman about the latest updates to the Iran War.

MAGA mouthpiece and right-wing propagandist Karoline Leavitt recently said Trump had a “feeling” that Iran was going to strike the US. Imagine, for a second, the Republican reaction to a Democratic president saying they went to war because of a “feeling.”

It would be non-stop 24/7 news. It would be plastered all over Fox News incessantly. Your MAGA uncle and Trump sympathetic neighbors would tell you about it. But for Donald Trump, it’s just another Wednesday.

This comes after Pete Hegseth stated the Iran War could potentially last up to 8 weeks or more, saying the U.S. and Israel would unleash “death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
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On Monday, I caught up with former Transportation Secretary, mayor, and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg while on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, on this episode of The Siren Podcast.

Secretary Buttigieg spoke openly about Trump’s new war in Iran, and the dangers that American troops in the region now face. Buttigieg himself served in the U.S. military and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, where he worked in a secure unit in Kabul, conducting over 90 “outside the wire” convoy trips.

As Buttigieg told me, “The president hasn’t even tried to explain to the American people, or to the troops, or to the Congress, real reasons why [the Iran war] couldn’t be avoided.”

Buttigieg continued: “Six families and counting have gotten that knock on the door. If you can ask families to go through that and service members to put their lives on the line, the very minimum the Congress should be ready to do is to sit in Washington to take a vote and put their names against an up or down vote on whether they’re gonna allow this.”

As we have observed, Donald Trump and his allies have released a series of garbled, awkward statements combining just about every justification under the sun as to their reasoning for beginning the war. One of the more concerning things thus far, is Donald Trump’s avoidance to deliver a presidential address to the nation explaining why the country is involved in yet another Middle Eastern conflict, demonstrating a sincere disinterest in governing for the American people.

Coming from the “most transparent administration in history,” there is a huge lack of transparency, whether we’re discussing the Iran War or the Epstein files.

Thank you all so much for watching today’s episode. It’s because of your support that I’m able to have these incredible conversations. I love you guys!!

💙 Jo
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On this episode of The Siren Podcast, Jo is joined by former Washington Governor Jay Inslee to discuss his recent piece titled, “Don’t Let ICE Freeze Voting,” where he urges Congress to ban ICE agents from the polls and protect democracy.

Donald Trump has doubled down on saying that Republicans should “nationalize” elections and take control of voting centers. At the same time, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been making the rounds saying ICE agents will surround polling stations this November.

It is certainly not difficult to imagine a scenario in which the president directs ICE to do just that, as Trump has spent his entire second term relitigating the outcome of the 2020 election, directing the FBI to raid the Fulton County elections center, and has never actually conceded the 2020 election after launching a two month-long attempt at couping the United States.

Governor Inslee offers strategies and methods at containing Trump and ICE on this episode, including inserting “absolute binding limitation” within appropriations bills, a power that Democrats actually have, while providing some much needed hope:

“We have agency here. We are not powerless. We have shown the ability to beat him in court and on the streets in peaceful resistance. Let me point out that we had 60 judges that stood up when Donald Trump lost the election in 2020 and he was unable to succeed in his coup attempt. And we’ve now had multiple wins where we have had judicial decrees against him that by and large actually have been enforced.”

Make sure to tune into this important information-filled episode, right here on The Siren Network.
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Before January 6th, Harry thought his entire adult life would go down a fairly regular route, spent as public servant in the role of a police officer, and one day retiring. But everything changed that fateful day on January 6th, 2021, when Harry came face to face with the worst of the worst white supremacists and insurrectionists, waving MAGA and Confederate flags in the halls of the Capitol building. These rioters hurled racial slurs at Harry as he fought to keep them away from members of Congress.

In an interview with the New York Times, Harry said, “A lot of us Black officers fought a different battle than everybody else fought. I said to my buddy, ‘I got called [slur] a couple dozen times today.’ I’m looking at him. He’s got blood on him. I’ve got bloody knuckles. We’re hurting. That’s when I said, ‘Is this America?’ and I started crying. Tears are coming down my face. ‘Is this America?’”

As Harry describes, his experience on January 6th showed him a “new path.” He knew he had to join the fight in defending democracy against Trump full-time. According to Harry, this fight has “evolved from just what happened that day to what’s happening now across the whole country.”

Harry said it best: “This authoritarian regime is hammering people. And this isn’t politics as usual.” We can’t agree more. Visit Harry’s campaign website to learn how you can support him.

This is an episode you definitely don’t want to miss.

💙 Jo
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(This episode was recorded before the tragic murder of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis yesterday).

On this episode of The Siren Podcast, Jo is joined by Siren contributor Kaivan Shroff to discuss his latest piece for MS NOW, titled: “Cell phone videos are protecting Americans — and eroding our privacy.”

There is no doubt that the thousands of videos from citizens documenting ICE are protecting Americans, and in some cases, have even saved lives. In the face of a brutal regime that lies to its citizens with every breath they take, the videos are playing a crucial role in spreading rapid-response information and organizing strategies to on the ground ICE protestors. The videos are also shining a light on the atrocities ICE is committing everyday for Americans who either once supported Trump, or never took the time to deeply examine the immigration issue.

In other words, the video documentation is rapidly turning Americans against Trump, and radicalizing them against ICE and the regime. A reported 73% of Americans saw the video of Renee Good’s murder by ICE, and 45% say they support abolishing ICE. That number will only grow with yesterday’s execution-style killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

But as Kaivan tells us, this firmly accelerates our march towards a surveillance state. He writes in his piece: “Every viral video, live-streamed arrest or crowdsourced map expands the mass-surveillance landscape in the United States. Our phones become both a shield and a monitor. Protection merges with data production, and resistance begins to resemble a corollary tech-driven surveillance infrastructure: crafted by humans, often with good intentions, but also accessible to courts, law enforcement and the Big Tech oligarchy to boot.”

Make sure to follow Kaivan Shroff on Substack, and check out his new podcast here.
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