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Behind every raid and detention center are decision makers who built the system to look this way. In this episode, Bella Goode exposes the architects of ICE’s enforcement machine: Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Kash Patel, and Ron DeSantis. From prisons turned into propaganda stages to tax data weaponized for surveillance, their designs fuse spectacle with control. What emerges is a deliberate blueprint of cruelty—calculated to spread fear, normalize repression, and erode the boundaries of law and democracy.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Kristi Noem as the “architect of spectacle,” turning raids and detention centers into staged propaganda
• Stephen Miller’s doctrine of scale: quotas, deputization of local police, and economic bans engineered to divide communities
• Kash Patel’s narrative machine, blending FBI power with propaganda reels, podcasts, and surveillance expansion
• Ron DeSantis as the state-level executor, rebranding prisons and piloting new forms of enforcement for national rollout
• How predictive policing, IRS data sharing, and continuous vetting make surveillance permanent and preemptive
• Why legal safeguards are breaking down, leaving power unchecked and communities destabilized

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Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

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For immigrant families, the sight of masked agents at the door no longer feels like policing—it feels like war. In this episode, we’ll reveal how ICE’s new masked raids, drones, and secret surveillance are tearing through neighborhoods, emptying courthouses, and leaving families too afraid to seek help. Bella Goode exposes how faceless enforcement erodes trust, fuels impersonations, and turns secrecy into a weapon against democracy itself.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Why ICE agents now deploy in masks, riot gear, and armored vehicles and what that signals to communities
• The rise of Special Response Teams, once rare, now used for citywide sweeps and workplace raids
• How spyware contracts, drones, and warrantless traffic stops blur the line between intelligence operations and policing
• The resistance: lawsuits, proposed “No Secret Police” legislation, and local bans demanding officers show identification
• What the “masked state” means for immigrant families, democratic norms, and the very idea of transparency in government

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• International Association of Chiefs of Police
• ACLU
• Knight First Amendment Institute
• New York City Bar Association
• Homeland Security (DHS)
• Paragon Solutions

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Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
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ICE isn’t just growing, it’s exploding into one of the largest enforcement machines in U.S. history. This episode exposes how billion-dollar budgets, recruitment ads, and slashed training standards are fueling mass deportations at a wartime pace. Bella Goode unpacks the overcrowded detention camps, profit-driven contracts, political quotas, and the human toll of a system where speed and numbers outweigh justice and rights.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• The unprecedented $76.5 billion ICE budget and the goal to double its deportation force in 2025
• How mass recruitment campaigns, bonuses, and cut-down training pipelines reshape the enforcement workforce
• The rise of “Alligator Alcatraz” and Fort Bliss tent complexes, and the failures of rushed detention projects
• Why ICE merchandise campaigns sparked outrage for trivializing human suffering
• The impact of daily arrest quotas on officers, oversight, and immigrant communities
• A case study: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation and re-detention as a symbol of systemic abuse

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• ICE
• Department of Homeland Security
• FOIA.gov
• American Civil Liberties Union

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Support the show

Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
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When ICE shows up, the damage ripples far beyond the person taken. From a quiet Colorado town to a Harlem ball field to the fire lines of Washington State, Bella Goode uncovers how sudden enforcement upends daily life. Families are torn apart, children are left afraid, and even firefighters risk detention while saving lives. These stories reveal the deeper truth: the human cost of immigration enforcement reaches far beyond the headlines.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Harlem Ball Field: Children confronted by armed ICE agents during baseball practice and the coach who put his body on the line to protect them
• Why Border Patrol agents arrested crew members on the fire line, canceling contracts while wildfires raged
• First-hand accounts of raids that tore parents and children apart in Oklahoma and beyond
• How raids devastate local businesses, labor markets, and healthcare access.
• Stories of neighbors, coaches, and organizers building rapid-response networks and refusing to surrender to fear

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Yampa Valley Bugle 
• ICE

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Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
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America is splitting in two directions—one where violence is excused and even celebrated, and one where democracy still depends on ballots, laws, and peaceful protest. In this third episode of our political violence series, Bella Goode unpacks the asymmetry of how left and right treat violence, Stephen Miller’s calls to weaponize the Justice Department against dissent, and the dangerous rise of “national divorce” rhetoric. Most importantly, she explores the kind of ethical leadership needed to resist authoritarian drift and keep democracy alive.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• The asymmetry of violence: How the right normalizes militias, threats, and revenge while the left rejects political violence
• Stephen Miller’s vow to prosecute dissent with RICO and insurrection charges
• Why “national divorce” talk fuels mistrust, deepens division, and lowers the bar for secessionist fantasies
• The cascading consequences of political violence: fractured identity, weakened institutions, authoritarian drift, and civic withdrawal
• Profiles of ethical leadership: Chris Murphy, Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro, Jamie Raskin and how they model resilience, empathy, and moral clarity
• Why rejecting violence, defending institutions, and confronting disinformation are the minimum standards for saving democracy

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Fox News
• The Bulwark

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Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
• Follow my blog on Substack bellagoodepodcast.substack.com
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Charlie Kirk wasn’t a president, senator, or governor—he was a conservative activist who built Turning Point USA into a cultural force. In life, he embodied America’s culture wars. In death, he became a flashpoint. In this second installment of our political violence series, Bella Goode examines Kirk’s assassination in Utah, the radicalization of his killer Tyler Robinson, and Donald Trump’s choice to weaponize the tragedy instead of healing the nation. What emerges is a case study in how violence becomes political theater and how narcissism at the top fuels escalation.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Why Charlie Kirk mattered to the MAGA movement and why his murder landed so hard
• How shooter Tyler Robinson came from a conservative family but was radicalized online in far-right spaces 
• The role of white nationalist figures like Nick Fuentes in turning Kirk into a foil for extremist anger
• Trump’s response: Blame Democrats, excuse extremism on the right, and sanctify Kirk as a martyr
• Why the fallout turned grief into propaganda, conspiracy, and calls for vengeance instead of unity

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Turning Point USA
• Fox & Friends

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Support the show

Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
• Follow my blog on Substack bellagoodepodcast.substack.com
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• Contact me at [email protected]
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Political violence in America is no longer rare—it’s part of our daily reality. In this first episode of a three-part series, Bella Goode unpacks how threats have escalated into murders, bombings, and mob attacks since January 6. What was once shocking is now normalized, fueled by rhetoric, selective outrage, and hypocrisy. The cost is staggering: families destroyed, institutions weakened, and democracy itself pushed to the brink.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Political violence: What it is, how it’s defined, and why definitions matter
• Why far-right extremists account for the majority of deadly incidents since 2016
• How language—traitor, invasion, war—lays the groundwork for real-world attacks
• The rising tolerance of violence: January 6 as spark, not endpoint
• Case studies: El Paso, Buffalo, Paul Pelosi, Melissa Hortman, Josh Shapiro, and Charlie Kirk
• The fallout: personal trauma, institutional strain, and democratic erosion

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• NPR
• The Washington Post
• The New York Times

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Support the show

Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
• Follow my blog on Substack bellagoodepodcast.substack.com
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When catastrophic floods hit Texas in July 2025, FEMA should have been the nation’s lifeline. Instead, survivors were met with unanswered calls, delayed rescues, and a gutted response system. In this episode, Bella Goode uncovers how Trump’s FEMA failed during one of the deadliest floods in state history and why the crisis revealed something far bigger: a federal disaster system being hollowed out, politicized, and possibly dismantled altogether. What happens when the agency Americans depend on is no longer built to function?

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• The 2025 Texas Hill Country flood: over 100 dead, thousands stranded, and FEMA missing in action
• Why FEMA’s call center collapsed—40,000 survivor calls went unanswered due to DHS red tape
• How Trump’s FEMA slashed staffing by 30% and reassigned disaster workers to ICE
• Dismantling of resilience programs like BRIC and Risk MAP—and what that means for communities
• Evidence of aid politicization: which states get help fast, and which are left waiting
• Trump’s stated plan to “wean off FEMA” and revert disaster response to the states
• Why a fractured, state-by-state disaster system leaves millions of Americans more vulnerable

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• FEMA
• ICE 
• Homeland Security
• NPR
• WFLA
• USGS.gov 

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Support the show

Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
• Follow my blog on Substack bellagoodepodcast.substack.com
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Send us a text

FEMA was once America’s safety net. Under Trump, it’s being hollowed out. In this episode, Bella Goode reveals how leadership purges, political interference, and slashed resilience programs are dismantling the nation’s disaster response system—right as climate chaos hits harder than ever. What happens when help no longer comes?

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• How Trump’s second term triggered a full-scale leadership purge at FEMA
• The creation of the FEMA Review Council and its agenda to shrink or dismantle the agency
• Why morale has collapsed as 2,000+ staff and potentially a third of the workforce exit the agency
• The suspension of Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities cutting off pre-disaster funding
• New restrictions and political strings tied to federal disaster grants and declarations

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
• ICE | U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Homeland Security

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Support the show

Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
• Follow my blog on Substack bellagoodepodcast.substack.com
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How did FEMA become the backbone of disaster response and when did it start to break? In this episode, Bella Goode lays the foundation for understanding FEMA’s original mission, its evolution after 9/11 and Katrina, and what made it a model for emergency management. From hurricane shelters to high-speed logistics, FEMA once set the standard. But under Trump’s first term, cracks began to form. This episode unpacks how the system worked, where it failed, and what it tells us about the bigger storm ahead.

Key Takeaways To Listen For

• The origin of FEMA and how it unified scattered disaster response programs into one coordinated system
• FEMA’s four pillars: response, mitigation, preparedness, and grants and how they work together
• How the agency modernized logistics, predictive analytics, and communication tools to save lives faster
• Real-world success stories like Hurricane Sandy and Babcock Ranch’s shelter design during Hurricane Ian
• FEMA’s biggest failure: the humanitarian crisis during Hurricane Katrina and what it revealed about federal breakdowns
• How the COVID-19 pandemic exposed FEMA’s logistical weaknesses and political vulnerability under Trump

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Ready.gov 
• FEMA | Google Play 
• Stafford Act
• Homeland Security Grant Program
• Hazard Mitigation Grant Program
• Homeland Security
• GSA 
• DLA
• HHS.gov 
• CDC

Join the Community

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Support the show

Host: Bella Goode

Bella is a former Republican turned democracy advocate raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania with a masters of business administration from Wharton and a Masters Degree in Positive Psychology.

Career wise, Bella spent 20 years with American Express in New York and 20 years as an entrepreneur. She started and sold a fitness business that grew to 180 locations worldwide.

Community :

• Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts – Your feedback helps us reach more people. Click to review.
• Follow on YouTube - subscribe here:
• Follow my blog on Substack bellagoodepodcast.substack.com
• Join the conversation on Bluesky – Find me at @survivingtrump.bsky.social
• Share this episode – If you found this podcast valuable, send it to a friend and tag us on social media.
• Contact me at [email protected]
• Support the Show