Trent and Caitlin check in with journalist Steven Monacelli, a special investigative correspondent for the Texas Observer, about the evolution and current-day doings of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, the dangers they pose to citizens and noncitizens alike, and the experience of being a journalist observing resistance to authoritarian police actions.

Resources:

Steven’s Observer work: https://texasobserver.org/author/steven-monacelli/

Steven’s website: https://stevenmonacelli.com/

“Less lethal”: https://wired.com/story/what-tear-gas-does-to-the-human-body/

Australian reporter hit by rubber bullet: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fkdajl35J48

ICE prosecutor running white supremacist account: https://texasobserver.org/ice-prosecutor-dallas-white-supremacist-x-account/

ICE fact sheet: https://immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-ice/

Immigration enforcement costs: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/cost_of_immigration_enforcement_factsheet_2024.pdf

Trump wants immigrants tortured: https://vox.com/scotus/416163/trump-supreme-court-deport-immigration-convention-torture

AI license plate readers: https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/06/10/cities-halt-license-plate-readers/

Trump wanted a police state: https://rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-police-state-troop-deployment-los-angeles-1235360655/

ICE escalates on purpose: https://wsj.com/us-news/protests-los-angeles-immigrants-trump-f5089877

Voters don’t like it: https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3924

Caitlin and Trent reconnect with librarian and intellectual freedom advocate Katie Talhelm for an update about the legislative attacks on public and school libraries since we last spoke. She provides a window into the procedure libraries follow to decide which books to acquire.

UPDATE: Texas Governor Abbott announces special legislative session beginning June 21 https://texaspolitics.com/2025/06/23/gov-abbott-unveils-special-session-plans-reviews-legislative-wins/

Resources

Library collection development: https://ala.org/tools/atoz/Collection%20Development/collectiondevelopment

TX SB 12: https://kvue.com/article/news/politics/texas-legislature/texas-dei-ban-public-schools-final-approval-house-senate/269-eae4ff23-c1fe-46e1-bea0-73dc220fbe12

TX SB 13: https://texastribune.org/2025/05/26/texas-school-library-bill/

TX HB 3225: https://kltv.com/2025/05/29/tyler-reps-bill-ban-explicit-library-books-minors-falters/

TX SB 412: https://texastribune.org/2025/05/02/texas-legislature-teachers-parents-protections/

Rep. James Talarico on SB 13: https://instagram.com/reel/DKVRGhEJyCN/?igsh=c3huYzRydHF4M2hk

Rep. Anne Johnson on HB 3225: https://youtu.be/TCNioq57WIA?si=9tJU6MtqT9U_LptV

Photo of Moms for Liberty founder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_for_Liberty#/media/File%3ATina_Descovich_on_Reason_Magazine.jpg

Trent and Caitlin talk to their old friend Clay Jackson, a former litigator and current licensed attorney in Texas. They discuss his plans to embrace a life in his new home on the range, recent developments in immigration rights, and the death penalty in the US. They discuss the history and justifications for the practice, highlight the stories of some Texas men who are wrongfully convicted, and ask listeners to advocate for the people currently sentenced to death.

Support the Innocence Project: https://innocenceproject.org

Upcoming executions: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/upcoming-executions

Police abuses in LA: https://bbc.com/news/articles/cj93d3r0zz0o

Inhumane conditions in ICE facility: https://cbsnews.com/news/immigrants-at-ice-check-ins-detained-and-held-in-basement-of-federal-building-in-los-angeles/

Legislators denied entry to ICE facility: https://nytimes.com/2025/06/08/nyregion/ice-detention-federal-plaza-nyc.html

Stephen Milller & Kristi Noem pushing for more abuses: https://newrepublic.com/post/195787/stephen-miller-screams-ice-not-arresting-enough-people

Portland, OR: https://opb.org/article/2025/06/06/asylum-arrest-portland-yzlh/

JD Vance threatens Menswear Guy: https://axios.com/2025/06/09/vance-post-suggests-deporting-the-menswear-guy

Sources for the history of execution:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/history-of-the-death-penalty/#fn6

https://archive.org/web/20131129221302/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1023

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lawes-divine-morall-and-martiall/

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/yeardley-sir-george-bap-1588-1627/

Wilkerson v. Utah: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/99/130/

Furman v. Georgia: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/408/238/

Gregg v. Georgia: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/428/153/

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/criminal-defense/second-degree-murder/

Public opinion on death penalty: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/research/analysis/reports/year-end-reports/the-death-penalty-in-2024/public-opinion

“Eye for an eye” dominates reasons for support https://news.gallup.com/poll/1606/Death-Penalty.aspx

No evidence for deterrent effect: https://scientificamerican.com/article/evidence-does-not-support-the-use-of-the-death-penalty/

Financial costs: https://cato.org/blog/financial-implications-death-penalty

Bryan Stevenson’s Book: https://justmercy.eji.org/

Our hero Gretchen Sween: https://gsweenlaw.com/uploads/1/3/1/1/131145032/light_got_in.pdf

Robert Roberson: https://themarshallproject.org/2023/09/15/texas-shaken-baby-syndrome-baby-death-robert-roberson

Charles Flores: https://freecharlesflores.com/

Pablo Torres Finds Out: https://youtu.be/JUm2YgmBG1o?si=z4FCTmrrblxpAwIZ

Caitlin and Trent talk with Maureen Kosse, a linguist from Colorado who researches the semiotics of alt-right and far-right discourse. We talk about how everything is cuck—the right-wing cannot get over their insecurities about masculinity, sexual control of women, and people of color, and their visceral horror of people who are different from themselves—and how we’re all paying for it now in the form of a government whose members are involved with and fans of the figureheads of those very online, very gross movements.

Resources:

Maureen’s paper: https://utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.1558/genl.21079

Katie & Stephen Miller/Elon Musk: https://yahoo.com/news/breaking-down-claims-stephen-millers-130000331.html

Ye Cuck: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuck_(album)

Birth control: https://breitbart.com/tech/2015/12/08/milo-birth-control-makes-people-less-attractive/

Limbaugh: https://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/07/22/trump_was_supposed_to_be_gone_by_now/

Lewis on ‘cuck’: https://dailycaller.com/2015/07/23/whats-behind-the-cuckservative-slur-nsfw/

Yiannopoulos on ‘cuck’: https://breitbart.com/politics/2015/07/28/cuckservative-is-a-gloriously-effective-insult-that-should-not-be-slurred-demonised-or-ridiculed/

10 Signs You Might Be A Cuck: https://web.archive.org/web/20151220181840/http://www.returnofkings.com/68170/10-signs-you-might-be-a-cuckservative

“Racially conscious whites” https://thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/the-american-cuckservative/

Kevin DeAnna: https://splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/emails-reveal-identity-longtime-white-nationalist-propagandist-onetime-conservative-insider/

DeAnna & Thiel: https://buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/peter-thiel-donald-trump-white-nationalist-support

Don’t Be A Cuck, Zuck: https://breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/05/17/dont-be-cuck-zuckerberg/

Bannon vs. Kushner: https://thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-calls-jared-kushner-a-cuck-and-globalist-behind-his-back/

Cuck Lite Beer ad: https://youtu.be/yHtQtk20aUg?si=Zn3K5u1K2Fo7M6zU

Yarvin on electioncucks: https://graymirror.substack.com/p/vae-victis

Musk: “Zuck is a cuck” https://forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/07/10/musk-hits-below-the-belt-with-latest-zuckerberg-attacks-zuck-is-a-cuck/

Nick Fuentes booted from TPUSA conference: https://msn.com/en-us/news/world/white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-booted-from-tpusa-conference-israel-controls-this-event/ar-BB1ofsDM

Trent and Caitlin talk to Layla al-Sheikh, who provides the history and context of the establishment of the Israeli state on Palestinian land, the many displacements and violent ethnic cleansings of the last century in that region, and the evolving relationships of the surrounding nations with the United States.

Resources:

Theodore Herzl https://britannica.com/biography/Theodor-Herzl

Nakba https://un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/

The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile https://monthlyreview.org/product/disinherited/

Dear Palestine https://sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/dear-palestine

Said on the Oslo Accords https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Edward-Said-%C2%B7-The-Morning-After-%C2%B7-LRB-21-October-1993.pdf

US as “Israel’s Lawyer” https://aljazeera.com/news/2011/1/24/israels-lawyer-revisited

America and Iran https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/59417/america-and-iran-by-john-ghazvinian/

Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East https://beacon.org/Brokers-of-Deceit-P1029.aspx

Image of Dead Sea: https://openverse.org/image/collection?source=flickr&creator=trialsanderrors

Trent and Caitlin talk to…each other??? Caitlin presents the reasoning behind her recent Liberal Currents essay on the rhetorical strategies used by pundits and politicians when they don’t want to appear unsympathetic to trans people but won’t commit to supporting the full range of human and civil rights for this group. They discuss other current political issues and whether they have any of these rhetorical strategies in common.

Resources:

Caitlin’s essay: https://liberalcurrents.com/showing-their-buts-the-false-compassion-of-the-concerned/

The Rhetoric of Reaction: https://hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674768680

Creating Scientific Controversies: https://cambridge.org/core/books/creating-scientific-controversies/6A9153090CC4274FEF0D7DF7C7F10B9D

Manufactured scientific controversies: https://jstor.org/stable/41940538

Chait’s article: https://theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/transgender-rights-election-public-opinon/680813/

Young’s article: https://persuasion.community/p/how-to-navigate-transgender-issues

Yglesias’s post: https://slowboring.com/p/men-and-women-are-different

Newsom/Kirk interview: https://youtu.be/9XJ6rQDRKGA?si=TOonDH1H5XqvvbnL

Newsom/Savage interview: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GACk33zWQtQ

Welfare use by immigrants: https://cis.org/Report/Welfare-Use-Immigrants-and-USBorn

Economics of immigration: https://udallcenter.arizona.edu/immigration/publications/impactofimmigrants08.pdf

Caitlin and Trent join Associate Professor Victor Ray to talk about DEI. What is meant by DEI depends on who is using it and what they’re trying to get done. Victor explains the history of DEI as a set of legal standards that insulated companies from accusations of discrimination, designed from the start to avoid upsetting the exact people who are now trying to purge the upper levels of every institution of anybody who isn’t white, straight, cisgender, conservative, male, middle class. They chat about some of the themes of anti-DEI opinion pieces and legislation, and they discuss how antipathy toward DEI exposes a sense of entitlement not to have to consider the perspectives and experiences of other people.

Resources:

Victor’s article: https://theemancipator.org/2025/01/28/topics/u-s-politics/eliminating-dei-isnt-just-racist-its-segregationist/

Victor’s book: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708739/on-critical-race-theory-by-victor-ray/

Mary Bucholtz: The Public Life of White Affects: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/josl.12392

Jennifer Mueller’s work on white ignorance: https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/64/2/219/3058571?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Why DEI Has No Place at Stanford: https://stanforddaily.com/2025/04/15/from-the-community-why-dei-has-no-place-at-stanford/

What DEI Threatens isn’t Merit, It’s Monopoly: https://stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/what-dei-threatens-isnt-merit-its-monopoly/

Policies to assist financially were racially unequal https://wwnorton.com/books/When-Affirmative-Action-Was-White/

Trump EOs: https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/, https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy/, https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reforming-accreditation-to-strengthen-higher-education/

DEI laudable but goes too far: https://nytimes.com/2025/01/28/opinion/dei-military-social-justice.html

NY Times on Trump’s First 100 Days: https://nytimes.com/2025/05/01/opinion/trump-100-days-opposition.html

Steven Pinker on Hallucinating Bigotry: https://x.com/sapinker/status/1861284167289577930

Steven Pinker on DEI as Unaccountable Bureaucracy: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/03/27/steven-pinker-what-went-wrong-at-harvard/

Company Towns: https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/organizations/labor/company-towns-1890s-to-1935/

Presidio Park Freedom City: https://city-journal.org/article/building-freedom-cities

Jamelle Bouie: DEI repeals in practice are purges https://nytimes.com/2025/02/12/opinion/trump-dei-meritocracy-civil-right.html

Trent and Caitlin talk to Liberal Currents author Vikas Valiveti about the current state of scientific consensus on how trans girls and women compete in sports. What are the correct ways to measure athleticism? When does it actually matter? How should we think about fairness and the right to participate? And what’s the incorrect framing that leads people astray when they are thinking about this question?

Resources:

Vikas’ article: https://www.liberalcurrents.com/do-trans-women-belong-in-sports/

IOC policies: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780323916196000075

FINA policies: https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/06/19/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a-716dac5f77c7/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf

Lia Thomas rule change: https://www.espn.com/olympics/swimming/story/_/id/40334702/cas-rejects-lia-thomas-challenge-rules-trans-swimmers

Trump comments on sports: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-womens-sports-will-die-if-trans-athletes-are-allowed-2021-2

Tiny proportion of athletes are trans: https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/5046662-ncaa-president-transgender-athletes-college-sports/