Ceretta Smith has been planning this run since 2015. That was the year she walked into her congressman's office in Washington, D.C., leading a union delegation on veterans' and federal worker issues, and got a polite thanks-for-coming and was shown the door. She looked at her delegation and said, "One day I'm coming for that seat." Eleven years later, she's on the ballot in Georgia's 12th Congressional District, and she brought everything with her.

Smith is an Army veteran, a former Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer who spent two decades working inside the military healthcare system, an elected official, and a member of the American Federation of Government Employees. She knows what the VA looks like from the inside, what it costs families when it fails, and what it means when 30,000 positions sit vacant by design.

In this episode, host Katie Chorbak and panelists Lisa Wohlrab, John Moses, and Bryan C. Winter sit down with Ceretta for a conversation that covers VA staffing, rural healthcare deserts, the balance of power, and what joyful politics actually looks like when you're an African-American woman running in a MAGA district — and winning.

Topics covered:

VA Healthcare and Rural Healthcare Gaps — Georgia's 12th has 24 counties. Most of them are rural. Two hospitals closed in the district. The nearest VA for some veterans is two and a half hours away. Ceretta breaks down what that means for amputees without transportation, women waiting months for mammograms, and veterans who can't access specialty care at all — and what she'd do about it.

Fully Funded, Fully Staffed — Over 30,000 VA vacancies. A brand-new mammogram department with no one to run it. Ceretta argues the understaffing isn't incompetence — it's strategy. Defund it, declare it broken, privatize it. She's not having it.

Take Back Congress and the Five Pillars — Ceretta is part of a coalition of over 100 everyday candidates running on a shared reform platform: term limits, overturning Citizens United, banning congressional stock trading, a five-year moratorium on the revolving door to lobbying, and a code of ethics for the Supreme Court. Katie pushes her on the constitutional path to term limits, and Ceretta holds her ground.

The Oath and the Balance of Power — Bryan Winter asks her what the oath means for a member of Congress right now, in this moment. Ceretta's answer: there is no compromise on that document, and anyone who thinks otherwise shouldn't be there.

Offensive Weapons Funding to Israel — Direct question, direct answer.

Stolen Valor and Her Own Opponent — Her opponent has claimed for nearly a decade to be a Gold Star widow. She is not. Ceretta was told not to say anything. She did the interview anyway, and she explains exactly why.

Joyful Politics in a MAGA District — She has won elected office in a majority-Republican district, twice, as a Black Democrat. She credits joyful politics — not as softness, but as strategy.

On the panel:

• Katie Chorbak — Host | President, 50501 Veterans | Army veteran
• Lisa Wohlrab — Vice President, 50501 Veterans | Army veteran
• John Moses — Mass 50501 Ambassador | Army
• Bryan C. Winter — Mass 50501 Writer | Army
  

Guest:

• Ceretta Smith — Congressional candidate, Georgia's 12th District | Army veteran | Former PEBLO | AFGE member | Elected official
  

Links:

• SorettaForGeorgia.com — campaign website and donation
• VetsAgainstFascism.org — July 4th action, Philadelphia

IN THIS EPISODE

The Saturday crew dives into a week that felt ripped straight from a dystopian screenplay. Katie, Carl, and Bryan cover the $250 Trump bill, the collapsing White House fair, the UFC fight on the people's lawn, Peter Thiel's move to Argentina, the billionaire class and its relationship to democracy, end-stage capitalism, worker co-ops as a structural alternative, and what it means when the people who were supposed to build a better future decide to burn it down instead.

TOPICS COVERED

The $250 Trump Bill The proposal to put a living president's face on currency is technically illegal — and also deeply on-brand. The panel connects the move to the authoritarian playbook of self-glorification, from buildings to airports to Mount Rushmore memes. A Florida judge struck Trump's name from the Kennedy Center this week, and his response was to threaten to give it back to Congress. The panel was not surprised.

The White House Fair Collapse Artists are backing out. Trump called them third-rate. The panel points out that he invited them. Bryan breaks down why authoritarians always try to co-opt art — and why all the actual artists are on the other side. Carl's theory: the artists left because they knew no one was going to show up.

The UFC Fight on the Lawn The Pentagon is hosting a UFC fight on the White House lawn — with a physical fitness standard required for free tickets. Carl notes that the president himself would not meet that standard. The panel also raises the logistical question of where Marine One lands now. Bryan predicts creative camera work. Carl has already seen Craigslist posts paying for attendees.

Peter Thiel, Argentina, and the Surveillance State Thiel is moving his family to Argentina — the same country where Nazis fled after World War II — while Palantir's surveillance infrastructure remains embedded in the U.S. government. Katie reflects on what it means as a gay woman to watch a gay billionaire help build a system designed to erase people like her. Bryan argues Thiel is missing his actual shot at a legacy. Carl doesn't excuse him, but traces how someone gets from idealism to this.

Billionaires, Capitalism, and Who Actually Builds Anything A wide-ranging debate on whether billionaires can exist ethically, what capitalism is actually supposed to do, why pensions disappeared and what that cost in worker loyalty, the rule of seven, Cabot Cheese as a working co-op model, private equity quietly buying up local trade businesses, trust-busting as the historical American response, and whether the problem is capitalism itself or the absence of oversight and competition.

The East Room and the Bunker Bryan mourns the destruction of the East Room for a ballroom that will never be built. Katie raises the underground construction at the White House and what it might mean that the people creating instability are also preparing for it.

CLOSING — THE SAFETY BRIEF

Katie closes the episode with a tribute to Wolf, a Tampa-based organizer and tireless community member who passed away this week. Wolf was known for showing up — for others, for the movement, for anyone who needed it. Her last Facebook post was sharing a fundraiser for someone else.

"Kindness radicalized me. And Wolf was one of the kinder people I have ever met."

The ask tonight: reach out to someone. Make the call. We are all we got.

COMING UP NEXT WEDNESDAY Lindsay Church of Minority Veterans of America joins the show. MVA is currently suing the VA over abortion care access. The panel is also working to bring one of the attorneys on the case.

The Smoke Pit is a live broadcast produced by 50501 Veterans and Crayon Eater Media. Full Episode available on YouTube.

What happens to veterans who get deported from the United States? On this episode of The Smoke Pit, host Katie Chorbak sits down with Dee James, an Army veteran and deported veterans advocate who served six and a half years as a legal permanent resident and nearly became a deported veteran herself, to answer that question directly.

The U.S. government does not track how many veterans it deports. No system exists at ICE, DHS, or USCIS to flag military service before a deportation order is carried out. A 2024 GAO report identified this as a documented gap. The widely cited figure of 96,000 deported veterans since Vietnam comes from a PBS article, not a verified federal dataset, and Dee James breaks down exactly why that matters and what the real scope of the crisis looks like from the ground.

The conversation covers the full arc of how this happens: recruiter promises of citizenship made to non-citizen enlistees, the broken naturalization pipeline inside the military, what due process looks like for a veteran facing deportation, and what the current ICE enforcement environment means for green card holders who served. The panel includes Sam Gibbons, Marine veteran and Congressional candidate in South Carolina's 2nd District, and Carl Able, retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant and 50501 Veterans Media Director, and a former recruiter who didn't know deported veterans was an issue until this administration.

On Memorial Day 2026, the Smoke Pit paused the news cycle to do something simpler: remember.

Our members shared the names of those they served with who never came home. Army veteran Katie Chorbak traced the history of Black Americans who fought in every American war while being denied the rights those wars were supposedly defending. Army veteran Max Stubbs asked what it actually means to honor a sacrifice, not just for a day, but in how we live. Army veteran Steph Money broke down the National Moment of Remembrance and why it exists. Navy veteran Chris Hooper spoke the names of service members he served alongside. Marine veteran Chris Koepp spoke the names of his brothers lost in Afghanistan.

This episode doesn't have a policy angle. There's no action item at the end. It's just the Smoke Pit community doing what veterans do: showing up for each other and for the ones who aren't here anymore.

To every service member who never came home: we do not forget.

In this episode, we're not talking about maps. We're talking about power: who has it, who's being engineered out of it, and what veterans are doing about it.

From Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act to the Supreme Court's gutting of Section 2 in Louisiana v. Calais, the playbook for silencing Black and Brown voters has never gone away. It just got redrawn. We break down the full history with our guest Jamil Davis of Black Voters Matter — from Jim Crow literacy tests to the Powell Memorandum to today's mid-decade redistricting fights unfolding right now across the Southeast.

This is Jim Crow 2.0. And it's our duty as veterans to stand against it.

In This Episode

• The history of the Voting Rights Act from Selma to Shelby v. Holder to Louisiana v. Calais
• How Section 2 being gutted could hand one party up to 27 additional safe House seats
• The cotton belt: why these specific districts are being targeted
• The math on a constitutional convention and what a third presidential term would require
• The All Roads Lead to the South action in Montgomery, Alabama — May 16th

Guests & Panelists

• Jamil Davis — North Florida Regional Organizer, Black Voters Matter
• Sam Gibbons — Marine Veteran, 50501 SE State Liaison, SC-02 Republican Primary Candidate
• Hannah L. — Common Defense Organizer, NC; 50501 Veterans Civilian Board Member
• Rory — 50501 Veterans Communications Director
• Tom Sidle — Army Veteran, Fight Against Fascism
• Carl Able — CEO, Crayon Box Politics; 50501 Veterans Media Director

Take Action

• Going to Montgomery on May 16? Let us know — there is a specific ask being made of veterans on the ground.
• Can't make it? Organize a satellite protest in your area.
• Boost every protest flyer you see. All roads lead to the South.

Resources

• Black Voters Matter: blackvotersmatterfund.org
• Common Defense: commondefense.us
• 50501 Veterans: 50501vets.com

The White House just released a new counterterrorism strategy that labels left-wing extremism, including anti-fascist ideology, anarchism, and transgender ideology, alongside narco-terrorists and Islamist movements as major domestic terrorism threats. This week's panel breaks down what it means, why veterans should be paying attention, and who's really being targeted.

On the panel:

• Tom Sidle — Co-founder, Veterans Against Fascism | Iraq 2009 | 88M
• John Moses — Mass 50501 Ambassador | Hoover Veteran Fellow
• Brian Winter — Massachusetts 50501 | Writer and organizer
• Carl Able — Media Director, 50501 Vets | CEO, Crayon Box Politics | 20-year Marine Corps veteran (ret.)

In this episode:

The history the government doesn't want you to connect — from the First Red Scare and McCarthyism to post-9/11 surveillance expansion to today's counterterrorism strategy. The panel digs into the politicization of intelligence, what it means to criminalize an adjective, and why the GWOT generation isn't going quietly. Carl breaks down DOD Directive 5240.01 and what it could mean for domestic intelligence operations. Plus: who actually wrote this document, and why that matters.

Calls to Action

• Vets Against Fascism — First Sunday of every month. Find them on Instagram.
• National 50501 Day — June 27th. Details coming.
• Visibility Brigade D-Day Drop — June 6th. Watch for details.
• Alabama — May 16th — National Day of Action on Voting Rights. 9am at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. 1–5pm mass rally at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. Rent a car. Book nearby hotels now. Show up right — you're a guest. Listen to your marshals.

The Safety Brief — Don't beat your spouse, your pet, or your child. Eat a real meal. Drink water. Geese have tenure. Emotional support potatoes should be carried with dignity and pride. And if you need a ride home, message the page.

Got a question for the panel? Drop it in this form for a chance to get it answered during the next show: https://airtable.com/appK5c5e09A0lE4bt/paga7YKS6mRut2wja/form

Veterans are trained to follow lawful orders — but they're also taught that just following orders is never a complete moral defense. So where does obedience end and complicity begin?

This week on The Smoke Pit, Katie brings together a panel of veterans and military family members to dig into one of the most uncomfortable tensions in American civic life: when is breaking the law not only justified, but necessary?

In this episode, the panel covers:

• Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and MLK — and the through-line of civil disobedience theory that connects them
• The Nuremberg trials and why "just following orders" was never enough
• Historical examples from the suffragette movement, civil rights era, LGBTQ movement, and labor movement
• How Rosa Parks was strategically chosen — and what three years of planning behind the Birmingham bus boycotts actually looked like
• Boycotts, economic pressure, and why you only need to move 10-15% of a customer base to do serious damage
• How veterans are uniquely positioned to lead and understand civil disobedience
• The difference between peaceful disruption and January 6th — and why that line matters
• Why America celebrates past dissent while condemning present dissent

Military sexual trauma (MST) affects hundreds of thousands of service members—yet it remains one of the most underreported, under-prosecuted, and systemically buried issues in the U.S. armed forces. In this episode, host Katie Chorbak, president of 5051 Vets and MST survivor, brings together a panel of advocates, attorneys, and veterans to pull back the curtain on decades of silence, institutional cover-up, and survivor retaliation.

Panelists:

• Diana Danis — Lead administrator, Service Women Who Serve; pioneer of the MST movement since the 1970s
• Lisa Wohlrab — Vice President, 5051 Vets
• Brian Lewis, Esq. — Military law attorney and VA claims advocate; male survivor advocate since 2010
• Lindsay Knapp, Esq. — Executive Director, Combat Sexual Assaults; Army veteran
• Steph Money — Former Brigade Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, U.S. Army Reserve
• Dee James — President, Repatriate Our Patriots; Army combat veteran; Vice Chair, National LULAC Military and Veterans Affairs Committee

Resources mentioned:

• Service Women Who Serve — Facebook community and advocacy page
• Combat Sexual Assaults — Legal advocacy for MST survivors
• One in Six — Support organization for male survivors of sexual assault
• The Invisible War (2012) — Documentary on military sexual trauma
• Justice Denied — Documentary focused on male MST survivors
• The Fort Bragg Cartel by Seth Harp — Book (now an HBO series) touching on Lindsay Knapp's experience exposing trafficking in Special Operations
• 5051 Vets — Veterans advocacy organization
• Common Defense — Veteran organizing; VA Is Not for Sale campaign
• About Face / Veterans for Peace / Sons of Liberty / Military Family Speaks Out — Additional veteran advocacy organizations

If you or someone you know needs help: The VA provides MST-related care regardless of disability rating or whether the assault was ever reported. Contact your local VA and ask for MST services. If you've experienced retaliation or need legal support, reach out to Combat Sexual Assaults or a military law attorney.

When does presidential behavior cross the line into incapacity?

In this episode of The Smoke Pit, we break down one of the most uncomfortable questions in American politics: how do you determine if a president is no longer fit to lead?

Using real-world examples, military leadership perspectives, and constitutional analysis, we examine:

• The difference between personality, poor judgment, and true incapacity
• How leadership failures are handled in high-stakes environments
• What the 25th Amendment actually says and how it works in practice
• Whether it’s realistically possible to remove a sitting president
• The risks, limitations, and political realities behind invoking it

This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about systems, accountability, and what happens when leadership breaks down at the highest level.

Money drives modern politics. But at what cost?

In this episode of The Smoke Pit, veterans from across the political spectrum sit down with Mayhem, co-founder of Money Out of Politics, to break down how campaign financing has reshaped American democracy.

From the historical roots of political funding to the post–Citizens United explosion of dark money and Super PACs, the panel explores a core question:

Is money in politics the disease… or just a symptom of something deeper?

This is not a scripted debate. It’s a raw, candid exchange on power, influence, voter responsibility, and what it will actually take to fix the system.