Half the Answer

Trent and Caitlin catch up with employment litigator Joshua Erlich about the difficulties of holding immigration and border patrol agents to account when they break the law. What happens when you can't be sure which individual attacked you? How can their actions be restricted, and what should Democrats do given their level of power in the government right now?

Resources

Joshua's bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/joshuaerlich.bsky.social

Legal help for federal employees in the DMV: https://mwela.org/

Legal help for federal employees nationally: https://NELA.org/

Joshua's office: https://www.erlichlawoffice.com/lawyers/joshua-erlich/

Federal forces keep shooting people: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/26/ice-minneapolis-shooting-alex-pretti

Dems coalescing around five restrictions on ICE: https://newrepublic.com/article/205723/dem-senator-harsh-new-takedown-trump-hits-home-breaking-point

Suozzi is sorry https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/us/democrats-ice-funding-vote-dhs.html

Caitlin and Trent talk with Aurelien Mondon about his recent political science paper outlining the limitations of considering all politics through the lens of "polarization." They discuss the pitfalls of the term and the ways "polarizing" events and speech can be drastically different and sometimes even positive.

Resources

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-025-00779-4

https://www.searchlightinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Searchlight-Memo-to-Interested-Parties_-Reform-and-Retrain-ICE-Dont-Abolish-It.pdf

https://prospect.org/2026/01/19/author-dont-say-abolish-ice-memo-corporate-consultant-westexec/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/04/ice-minneapolis-287g-tom-homan-sanctuary/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-ice-masks-dhs-shutdown_n_69839db8e4b053ac3e17298d?origin=top-ad-recirc

https://www.majorityleader.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5822

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/22/trump-millennial-supporters-washington-dc-218833/

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5608204/white-house-dismisses-release-of-epstein-documents-as-a-distraction-from-democrats

https://midutahradio.com/news/local-news/mike-johnson-calls-for-political-rhetoric-to-calm/

https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2012/02/10/146691773/euphemisms-concentration-camps-and-the-japanese-internment

Trent and Caitlin reconnect with journalist Walker Bragman to hash out the current state of the NIH and HHS, the ideologies that drive people to promote eugenics and science denial, and the childish nature of fascism.

Resources:

https://www.importantcontext.news/

https://www.accountabilityjournalism.org/

https://bsky.app/profile/walkerbragman.bsky.social

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/ivac/resources/us-measles-tracker

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-means-surgeon-general-congress-state-of-the-union-live-updates-rcna260120

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/bhattacharya-urges-measles-vaccination-us-activity-increases

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/audible-reckoning-how-top-political-podcasters-spread-unsubstantiated-and-false-claims/

Happy days are not here again, but at least Trent and Caitlin have Jeff Waldorf, the Logical Leftist, to hang out with while they process it all. The United States has dropped bombs on Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several of his top-ranking officials, civilians, and the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school, in which more than 160 little girls were killed. They talk through the conflicting, nonsensical, and sometimes straight-up Orwellian justifications provided by US politicians for initiating a war of aggression against another country in the Middle East.

Resources

https://www.youtube.com/@LogicallyLeftist

https://www.facebook.com/JeffWaldorfShow/

https://www.instagram.com/logicalleftist/

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hv7pcnm6u7s544ycmf7xjatc

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-tells-congress-no-sign-that-iran-was-going-attack-us-first-sources-say-2026-03-02/

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/28/nx-s1-5730203/iran-israel-trump-congress-strikes-reaction

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/nuclear-program-missiles-regime-change-trump-struggles-define-iran-war-rcna261309

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-03-26

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/02/g-s1-112151/iran-war-widens-threatens-to-engulf-lebanon

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/28/nx-s1-5730203/iran-israel-trump-congress-strikes-reaction

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-experts-deeply-disturbed-by-child-deaths-escalating-middle-east-conflict-2026-03-04/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/nyregion/merchant-iran-plot-assassination-trump.html

Trent and Caitlin check in with journalist Gillian Brockell after the release of her article on ICE air. They discuss the recent mass layoffs at the Washington Post, the abhorrent treatment of deportees, the justifications used to mistreat humans, and the importance of empathy and being a human.

Resources:

https://gillianbrockell.ghost.io/

https://bsky.app/profile/gbrockell.bsky.social

https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-richer-and-stingier-than-ever-forbes-400-list-2021-10

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/08/26/emmett-till-william-bradford-huie-carolyn-bryant-civil-rights/

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/07/nx-s1-5705413/washington-post-ceo-resigns-will-lewis

https://51st.news/

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/02/17/court-hearings-lawsuit-alleging-ice-agents-racially-profiled-us-citizens-minnesota

Ginsburg on Firing Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBpoZBhvBa4

https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-2008-News-discourse-and-ideology.pdf

http://brianb.freeshell.org/a/kddd.pdf

https://bookshop.org/p/books/wild-faith-how-the-christian-right-is-taking-over-america-talia-lavin/1cf72a0d0396cdce?ean=9780306829192&next=t

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-lovejoy-trap-fascism-masquerading-as-care/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/omni-ice-deportations-charter-flight-stonepeak-private-equity/

https://newrepublic.com/article/206058/transcript-trump-ice-threats-take-darker-turn-maga-calls-blood

https://www.baloproject.org/

Trent and Caitlin talk with author and journalist Andrea Pitzer about the modern concentration camp model, its history and public perception, and the concentration camps the United States government is operating and hopes to open in the near future.

Resources

https://andreapitzer.com/

Andrea's newsletter: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/

Andrea's book on camps: https://bookshop.org/p/books/one-long-night-a-global-history-of-concentration-camps-andrea-pitzer/ea53c06c993f6ad0?ean=9780316303569&next=t

Andrea's book on Nabokov: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-secret-history-of-vladimir-nabokov-andrea-pitzer/fe47f57e9a2b2a73?ean=9781639361182&next=t

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-buys-warehouses-immigration-detention/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/us/politics/ice-warehouses-trump-voters.html

https://bookshop.org/p/books/friendly-fascism-the-new-face-of-power-in-america-bertram-gross/414671ea6a34dd2c?ean=9781497689404&next=t

https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/news/black-lives-matter-movement-not-covid-19-encouraged-voters-toward-biden-2020-election

Trent and Caitlin chatted with Hunter CG of RoteRote Media and Democrats Abroad, looking at the GOP's latest assault on voting rights, the SAVE America Act. This act has passed the House of Representatives and will be addressed by the Senate in the next couple of days. They talk about all the different ways this piece of legislation disenfranchises voters in the US and abroad, and they exhort everyone to reach out to their senators and make it clear that its passing would be unacceptable.

Resources:

https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/9-things-to-know-about-the-proposed-save-america-act

https://www.tiktok.com/@roterotemedia

https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/save-act-lgbtq-voters

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/nation-world/senate-to-vote-on-save-america-act-as-voter-id-debate-intensifies-susan-collins-chuck-schumer-photo-id

Caitlin and Trent talk with journalist Amanda Moore about her work tracking the DHS "surges" all over the United States, her efforts to get close to former commander at large Gregory Bovino, and her experience trying to form conclusions about the broader patterns of immigration forces' violence over time.

Resources:https://substack.com/@noturtlesoup17https://www.instagram.com/noturtlesoup17/?hl=enhttps://bsky.app/profile/noturtlesoup17.bsky.social

Bovino's legacy of violence https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUbhHF7jCI8/

Trump's War on History https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/america-freedom-task-force-250-trump-anniversary-history-smithsonian-kennedy-center/

The Horns and Whistles Work https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/the-horns-and-whistles-work/

Trent and Caitlin boogie with friend-of-the-program, journalist Jonathan M. Katz of The Racket. They talk Super Bowl, Bad Bunny, the TPUSA halftime safe space show, and immigration detention.

Resources:

theracket.newshttps://bsky.app/profile/katz.theracket.news

https://www.tiktok.com/@katzonearth?lang=enSchools

Closed in Puerto Rico: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/12/magazine/puerto-rico-schools-hurricane-maria.html

Infrastructure in Puerto Rico: https://katz.substack.com/p/the-cluster-in-puerto-rico?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Gangsters of Capitalism: https://bookshop.org/p/books/gangsters-of-capitalism-smedley-butler-the-marines-and-the-making-and-breaking-of-america-s-empire-jonathan-m-katz/c1ca55fd36f1b6d4?ean=9781250135599&next=t

The Big Truck That Went By: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-big-truck-that-went-by-how-the-world-came-to-save-haiti-and-left-behind-a-disaster-jonathan-m-katz/b3ca7a131069f3ac?ean=9781137278975&next=t

Trent and Caitlin catch up with political science assistant professor Matt McManus. They discuss the narratives surrounding resistance in the twin cities, the loud and ugly voices on the right describing an ideology of cruelty and dehumanization, and the power of regular people to puncture false claims from the government.Resources: https://www.factcheck.org/2026/01/as-ice-arrests-increased-a-higher-portion-had-no-u-s-criminal-record/https://im1776.com/2022/07/01/christopher-rufo-interview/https://bookshop.org/p/books/what-is-post-modern-conservatism-essays-on-our-hugely-tremendous-times-matthew-mcmanus/270db00d6106d9a7?ean=9781789042450&next=thttps://bookshop.org/p/books/the-political-theory-of-liberal-socialism-matthew-mcmanus/f7f9b79be796b7ec?ean=9781032647234&next=t