Podcasts about TSA

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Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2026 6:09

Dave called Mark to inquire about the current timeline and likelihood of Iran attaining nuclear capabilities, specifically in relation to potential threats to the United States and the international community. Lorianne reached out to Mark to ask about the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, with a focus on how it might impact TSA operations and whether travelers should expect any disruptions or issues in the coming months.

Mark takes your calls!

Warning with Dr. Jonathan Hansen

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2026 6:09 Transcription Available

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Million Dollar Airport Escape: Untold Somalia Story

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2026 0:22

They tried to get 'em protected. They were walking out $1 million from the airport right through TSA to Somalia. You don't hear that stuff in the news, do you? You don't hear that the person that was shot, the woman, was a known trained agitator. She had no business in that.

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2026.02.23: Consolation Prides

Morning Somewhere

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 29:58

Burnie and Ashley discuss when the better team loses, Consolation prizes, high sticking, sports injuries, Clint Malarchuk, cartel battles in Mexico, airline compensation update, TSA non-shutdown, icy Americans, hot milk, and Puppuccinos.

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Handel on the News

Bill Handel on Demand

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 31:20 Transcription Available

(February 23 ,2026) Amy King and Neil Saavedra join Bill for Handel on the News. Mexican army killed leader of powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel during operation to capture him. US citizens urged to shelter in place amid unrest in Puerto Vallarta. Armed man who entered Mar-a-Lago perimeter fatally shot, Secret Service says. TSA says PreCheck still operational despite suspension announcement. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hour 2: Take Off Your Shoes, Sheeple! | 02-23-26

The Other Side of Midnight with Frank Morano

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 52:04

Dive into the "conspiratorium" with Lionel on The Other Side of Midnight. This episode exposes the "shadow government" pulling the world's strings and breaks down the massive, hidden energy and water costs of Sam Altman's AI empire. Lionel also explores whether extreme weather is actually a geoengineered weapon and takes a hilarious, frustrating walk down memory lane to recount the most absurd and humiliating TSA security theater stories since 9/11. Featuring colorful caller theories on everything from domestic sleeper cells to Mexican cartels, this episode is a wonderfully weird ride through the deep state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Bad Neighborhood of Talk Radio | 02-23-26

The Other Side of Midnight with Frank Morano

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 199:23

Step into the "conspiratorium" with The Other Side of Midnight, a late-night audio journey into the dark, weird, and unfiltered corners of true crime, the deep state, and pop culture absurdity. Hosted by the unapologetic Lionel, this show tackles the bizarre topics your daytime mind simply isn't ready for. From AI-generated Jeffrey Epstein sightings and MK Ultra theories to the massive hidden costs of Sam Altman's AI empire and geoengineered weather weapons, no rabbit hole is too deep. Along the way, you'll hear hilarious rants about humiliating TSA security theater, the impending doom of classic movie theaters, and modern kids who are absolutely terrified of cursive writing and analog clocks. Grab your smuggled movie snacks, step into the beautiful muck and mire of our besieged culture, and welcome to the bad neighborhood of late-night talk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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After SCOTUS Loss, Trump's Strategy May Be Destroying GOP Election Hopes 2/23/26

The Mark Thompson Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 116:41 Transcription Available

A major Supreme Court ruling reshapes the legal landscape around Trump's sweeping tariffs — but the real story may be what happens next. Instead of stepping back, Trump appears poised to double down, raising new questions about prices, trade strategy, and whether Republicans could face political blowback as affordability remains a top concern for voters. We break down what the ruling actually means, how Trump's response could redefine the economic fight heading into the midterms, and why some strategists warn the fallout may extend far beyond trade policy.Gary Dietrich, iHeart TV and radio political analyst, will stop by to talk Trump, tariffs and politics. Author and investigative journalist Sarah Kendzior will share her thoughts on trade and the latest Epstein File fallout. The Mark Thompson Show Patreon subscribers are the backbone of the show! If you'd like to help, here's our Patreon Link:https://www.patreon.com/themarkthompsonshowMaybe you're more into PayPal. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=PVBS3R7KJXV24And you'll find everything on our website: https://www.themarkthompsonshow.comThe Mark Thompson Show has an official new Facebook page. Please join! Here's the link: https://m.facebook.com/TheMarkThompsonShow/Show sponsors:coachellavalleycoffee.com - use code MarkT at check out to save 10%Zelmins.com - use code MarkT to save a 15% off your first orderSuite106bakery.com use code MarkT to save 15%

Fred's Biggest Stories of the Day: Thre Olympics, East Coast Blizzard, TSA, & iPods!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 7:26 Transcription Available

The Olympics are officially over, the United States won 33 medals. A massive blizzard is set to hit the east coast! The DHS has reversed the suspension of TSA pre-check. People are buying iPods again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Air Travel Confusion, Mexico Warning, Winter Olympics End

Today in San Diego

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 3:51

Confusion for travelers after TSA announced that it's PreCheck program would remain operational despite an earlier announcement that it was being suspended during the partial government shutdown. Americans in Mexico are being warned of danger as violence breaks out after the head of a cartel's death. The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics came to a close over the weekend. What You Need To Know To Start Your Monday.

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Hour 1 [02/23/2026]: Bomb Cyclone Threatens Marc's D.C. Trip, Government Shutdown Hypocrisy, and the Left's Censorship Spiral

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 31:43

Marc Cox opens the week navigating a tense travel day as a bomb cyclone threatens to derail his trip to Washington, D.C., ahead of the State of the Union. He riffs on FEMA's funding freeze, TSA chaos, and government shutdown absurdities before delivering a fiery Soapbox on hypocrisy and patriotism—praising Team USA's gold medal win and slamming woke double standards. Kim St. Onge's “Kim on a Whim” digs into a teacher's suspension for backing a TPUSA chapter, exposing campus bias and cancel culture, while the hour closes with AOC's foreign policy faceplant and Gavin Newsom's tone-deaf appeal to black voters. Hashtags: #StateOfTheUnion #MarcCoxShow #BombCyclone #GovernmentShutdown #TPUSA #CancelCulture #AOC #GavinNewsom #TeamUSA #Patriotism

The Marc Cox Morning Show 02/23/2026 (Full Show): Bomb Cyclone, USA Hockey Gold, Tariff Ruling, and DC Coverage

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Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 133:41

The show kicks off with Hour 1 navigating Marc Cox's tense D.C. travel amid a bomb cyclone, highlighting government shutdown absurdities, TSA chaos, and a fiery Soapbox on hypocrisy and patriotism, while Kim St. Onge exposes campus bias in “Kim on a Whim,” and AOC and Gavin Newsom draw scrutiny for tone-deaf political moves. Hour 2 celebrates the USA men's hockey gold medal win and Jack Hughes' standout performance before delving into Supreme Court tariff rulings with Hans von Spakovsky, market reactions with Nicole Murray, and lighter stories in “In Other News,” previewing AI and Dan Buck segments. Hour 3, “The Buck Stops Here with Dan Buck,” covers the deadly El Mencho cartel developments, Mexico's security chaos, and potential U.S. responses, offering context and warnings for Americans abroad. Hour 4 dives into Monday morning commentary, State of the Union prep, Mar-a-Lago shooting aftermath, Gavin Newsom's gaffes, local snow shovel job quirks, and sports highlights with Tom Ackerman, tying together legal, political, and cultural coverage. Hashtags: #MarcCoxShow #StateOfTheUnion #BombCyclone #USAHockey #Tariffs #Markets #DanBuck #ElMencho #MexicoCartels #MarALago #GavinNewsom #TomAckerman #PoliticalCommentary #Sports

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The Future of Tariffs

Wake Up Call

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 39:10 Transcription Available

Amy King hosts your Monday morning Wake Up Call. KFI White House correspondent Jon Decker opens the show discussing the future of tariffs. ABC News national reporter Steven Portnoy speaks on DHS reversing precheck suspensions. Bloomberg Media’s Denise Pellegrini shares the latest in business and Wall Street. The show closes with Amy talking with the founder of Lady Freethinker about the rise of pet abandonment in Los Angeles. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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180,000 Reasons to Care: The Growing Need for Food Assistance

The Valley Today

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 25:51

Record Numbers Shatter Post-Pandemic Expectations Six years after the pandemic first disrupted American life, a troubling trend emerges across rural Virginia. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank now serves approximately 180,000 people every month—a staggering 39,000 more than the pandemic's peak. Les Sinclair, the organization's Communications and PR Manager, reveals this sobering reality during a recent conversation on The Valley Today with host Janet Michael. Initially, food bank officials believed the pandemic would represent the worst crisis they'd ever face. When government assistance programs temporarily lifted many families out of poverty, demand dropped slightly to around 141,000 monthly visits. However, this optimism proved short-lived. "We thought the numbers would never go up beyond the pandemic max," Les explains. "That just didn't pan out." Instead, inflation took hold with devastating consequences. While prices soared across every sector, wages failed to keep pace. Consequently, more working families find themselves unable to afford basic necessities, forcing them to seek food assistance for the first time in their lives. A Massive Rural Footprint The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank operates across an impressive territory that spans 25 counties and eight cities throughout Virginia. Stretching from Winchester and Frederick County in the north to beyond Lynchburg and Bedford County in the south, the organization covers approximately 12,000 square miles—roughly the size of Maryland or one-third of Virginia's total area. To manage this vast region effectively, the food bank maintains four strategic warehouse locations. Their headquarters sits in Verona, just outside Staunton, while additional distribution centers operate in Winchester, Charlottesville, and Lynchburg. Notably, the Winchester facility alone serves Frederick, Clarke, Fauquier, Warren, Shenandoah, Page, and Rappahannock Counties, including the densely populated Loudoun County. Moreover, the organization represents a groundbreaking experiment in food banking. When founded in 1981, most food banks concentrated on urban areas where dense populations made distribution easier. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, however, pioneered rural food distribution—a critical distinction since nine out of ten food-insecure Americans live in rural communities rather than urban centers. The Partnership Model That Makes It Work The food bank functions as a sophisticated logistics operation, partnering with Feeding America nationally and hundreds of local food pantries regionally. Les compares their role to a Walmart warehouse, buying food by the truckload and storing massive quantities. Meanwhile, local pantries like Winchester CCAP serve as the "customer-facing" locations, directly distributing food to families in need. This partnership proves essential for reaching scattered rural populations. "We couldn't do what we do without them," Les emphasizes. "They couldn't do what they do without us." Furthermore, the organization sources food from diverse channels. Retail grocers contribute 36% of donations through partner pickup programs, where pantries collect excess inventory directly from stores like Food Lion, Kroger, and Giant. Additionally, the USDA provides government-purchased food from American farmers, while large manufacturers donate products with misprinted labels or excess inventory. Local and regional farmers also contribute fresh produce to the network. The Grocery Store Challenge Recently, however, the retail partnership faced unexpected pressure. During October and November, and again during winter snowstorms, consumers cleared grocery store shelves completely. When stores have no excess inventory, they have nothing left to donate. Compounding this challenge, grocery chains have become remarkably efficient at predicting demand. Using AI technology, they now anticipate that shoppers will buy strawberry Pop-Tarts before storms and adjust inventory accordingly. While this efficiency benefits retailers and consumers, it reduces the surplus available for food banks. Simultaneously, USDA food supplies have dropped 30% year-over-year, forcing the food bank to purchase more food directly. Although they cannot fully replace the high-quality proteins and vegetables the government typically provides, they continue prioritizing nutritious options for their partner pantries. Shattering Misconceptions About Food Pantry Users Perhaps the most persistent myth surrounding food insecurity involves who actually needs assistance. Many people assume food pantry visitors are simply lazy and should "get a job." The reality, however, tells a dramatically different story. Most people seeking food assistance are working. They're trying to improve their lives but living on financial margins so thin that a single unexpected expense creates crisis. In fact, more than a quarter of the food bank's guests visit only once per year—they simply need help getting over a temporary hump. Les shares the story of a convenience store worker who injured her wrist on the job. Unable to work while waiting for workers' compensation, she has zero income and cares for a paralyzed son. She's not lazy—she's injured, uninsured temporarily, and desperately trying to survive until she can return to work. Even when workers' compensation arrives, it typically covers only 70% of regular wages and takes considerable time to process. For families living paycheck to paycheck, missing even one payment creates cascading financial disasters. The Government Shutdown Ripple Effect Currently, partial government shutdowns compound these challenges. Federal workers, particularly TSA agents, continue reporting to work without paychecks. They still pay for childcare, gas, and other necessities, but many receive payment only monthly—making it extraordinarily difficult to stretch resources from one paycheck to the next. Contrary to popular belief, landlords cannot always wait patiently for delayed rent payments. Many landlords depend on rental income to pay their own mortgages. When a tenant misses a $2,000 rent payment, the landlord must still cover their mortgage. Moreover, the economic impact extends far beyond government employees. When federal workers stop dining out, restaurants lose business. Wait staff lose tips. Restaurant owners order less food from suppliers like Sysco. Truck drivers haul fewer loads. The entire economic system suffers. Sarah Cohen of Route 11 Chips experienced this firsthand. During COVID and government shutdowns, her sales to DC cafes plummeted because federal workers weren't coming to the office for lunch. These ripple effects reach deep into Virginia's economy, affecting businesses and workers far from the capital. The Impossible Choice: Heat or Eat Winter brings particularly cruel dilemmas for struggling families. Les recently spoke with William, a roofer injured on the job who lives in a mobile home with his dog, Cocoa. Unable to afford heating, William and Cocoa "just sort of curl up" together while he waits for surgeries that will allow him to return to work. Another woman caring for three disabled grandchildren faces $400 monthly electric bills. With both she and her husband experiencing serious health issues and the children's parents out of the picture, they constantly struggle with the impossible choice between heating their home and feeding their family. These aren't isolated cases. Across the food bank's service area, families regularly face this devastating decision. When $600 heating bills arrive after cold snaps, many choose to keep the lights on and visit food pantries to feed their families. Food as Medicine: A Holistic Approach The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank takes a progressive stance on nutrition, viewing food as medicine rather than mere sustenance. They prioritize fresh produce, which comprised 30% of their distribution last year, because they understand that proper nutrition helps people thrive. Nutritious food keeps medical bills down across entire communities. Children pay better attention in school when properly nourished. People can manage chronic illnesses and diseases through better nutrition. Conversely, when families can only afford high-calorie processed foods, they face increased health risks despite consuming adequate calories—debunking the myth that overweight individuals cannot be food insecure. Additionally, access to food reduces stress, which itself functions as a health intervention. When people live on the edge of a financial cliff, they cannot make good long-term decisions. They're too focused on simply not falling. However, when food security removes one major stressor, families can step back from that precipice and begin making better choices for their futures. Quality Food for Everyone Another common misconception suggests that food bank offerings are somehow subpar. In reality, the food distributed through this network maintains high-quality standards. While well-meaning donors sometimes contribute items like ramen noodles during food drives, the bulk of distributed food comes from retail grocers, USDA programs, and direct purchases of nutritious items. The food bank specifically prioritizes produce because people crave fresh fruits and vegetables. Although produce represents one of the most expensive food categories—often making it a luxury for families on tight budgets—the organization believes everyone deserves access to healthy, nutritious food regardless of their economic circumstances. How Communities Can Help Fortunately, community members have multiple ways to support this critical mission. Volunteering provides valuable assistance, and notably, many food bank guests themselves volunteer, giving back to the community that supported them during difficult times. Financial donations prove particularly effective. Just $1 helps provide more than three meals, meaning $10 supplies a month of meals for someone in need, while $100 provides 300 meals. The food bank's purchasing power and logistics expertise amplify every dollar donated. Beyond time and money, advocacy matters tremendously. Currently, the Federation of Virginia Food Banks—representing all seven food banks across the state—works to promote "food as medicine" initiatives with the state legislature. Community members can support these efforts through the food bank's website at BRAFB.org/actnow or BRAFB.org/getinvolved. Finally, social media engagement amplifies the message. Following the food bank's social media accounts, resharing posts, and commenting helps spread awareness that hunger relief remains an urgent community need. Finding Help When You Need It For individuals and families currently struggling with food insecurity, Les offers an important message: "You're not alone, and we are here with you. We are here to walk with you through this challenge in your life." The food bank's website features an easy-to-use food finder tool. Visitors to BRAFB.org can click "Find Food," enter their address, and immediately see all nearby pantries with contact information, open hours, and everything needed to access food quickly. Alternatively, Virginians can call 211 for phone-based assistance connecting them with local resources. A Community Responsibility As this conversation reveals, food insecurity affects far more people than most realize—one in nine people across the food bank's service area. These aren't strangers or statistics; they're neighbors, coworkers, and community members facing temporary crises that could happen to anyone. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank stands ready to help, but they cannot do it alone. Through partnerships with local pantries, support from community donors and volunteers, and advocacy for systemic solutions, the organization continues fighting to ensure everyone has enough to eat. In Janet Michael's words, it's "a responsibility I do not take lightly"—and neither should any of us.

@Lou_Penrose_Radio - The US Strikes Gold in Milan as the Cartels Strike Tourists in Mexico

KFI Featured Segments

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 35:06 Transcription Available

The Winter Olympics in Milan wrapped up with a huge win for the US Men’s Hockey team, who took home gold against Canada in sudden-death overtime. Lou takes issue with how he thinks many Europeans do not sleep beneath the top sheet, meaning their bodies touch the top blanket. Meanwhile, travelers are advised to steer clear of Mexico tourist destination Puerto Vallarta as the cartels have taken over and turned it into a warzone. TSA announced that pre-check and global entry for travelers were set for suspension amid the partial government shutdown — but backtracked on that announcement the same day.  More than 3.4 million pounds of chicken fried rice is being recalled by Trader Joe’s after customers found pieces of glass in the frozen meals. #WinterOlympics #mensicehockey #Olympics #goldmedal #Olympicmedaltally #PuertoVallarta #Mexicocartels #TSA #TSAprecheck #governmentshutdown #governmententry #TraderJoes #chickenfriedricerecall #TraderJoesrecallSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Focus with Paul W. Smith ~ February 23, 2026 ~ Full Show

The Paul W. Smith Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 66:28

February 23, 2026 ~ What's next for Trump tariffs? TSA reverses decision to suspend PreCheck. US Men's Hockey brings home the gold. Matthew Maroun donated $1 million to pro-Trump pack a month before he threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge. US issues shelter in place order to Americans due to unrest in Mexico. Armed man killed by secret service at Mar-A-Lago and the day's biggest headlines. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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TSA Reverses Decision to Suspend PreCheck Due to Partial Shutdown

The Paul W. Smith Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 6:10

February 23, 2026 ~ Marie Osborne, WJR's Director of Community Affairs and News discusses the TSA reversing it's decision to suspend PreCheck. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Monday, February 23, 2026

CLT1st

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 9:08

Confusion at airports after government shutdown affects TSA; Uptown parking ticket data shows where most parking violations are ticketed in Uptown.

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From Microsoft to the Surveillance State

Interplace

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 27:12

Hello Interactors,Watching all the transnational love at the Olympics has been inspiring. We're all forced to think about nationalities, borders, ethnicities, and all the flavors of behavioral geography it entails. After all, these athletes are all there representing their so-called “homeland.” And in the case of Alysa Liu, her father's escape from his. Between the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the fall of the Berlin wall, “homeland” took on new meaning for many immigrants. This all took me back to that time and the start of my own journey at Microsoft at the dawn of a new global reality.HOMELAND HATCHED HEREWith all the focus on Olympics and immigration recently, I've found myself reflecting on my days at Microsoft in the 90s. As the company was growing (really fast), teams were filling up with people recruited from around the world. There were new accents in meetings, new holidays to celebrate, and yummy new foods and funny new words being introduced. This thickening of transnational ties made Redmond feel as connected the rest of the world as the globalized software we were building. By 2000 users around the world could switch between over 60 languages in Windows and Office. In behavioral geography terms, working on the product and using the product made “here” feel more connected to “elsewhere.”This influx of new talent was all enabled by the Immigration Act of 1990. Signed by George H. W. Bush, it increased and stabilized legal pathways for highly skilled immigrants. This continued with Clinton era decisions to expand H-1B visa allocations that fed the tech hiring boom. I took full advantage of this allotment recruiting and hiring interaction designers and user researchers from around the world. In the same decade the federal government expanded access to the United States, it also tightened security. Terrorism threats, especially after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, spooked everyone. Despite this threat, there was more domestic initiated terrorism than outside foreign attacks. The decade saw deadly incidents like the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 by radicalized by white supremacist anti-government terrorists, which killed 168 and injured hundreds, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history before 9/11.A year later, the Atlanta Olympic bombing and related bombings by anti-government Christian extremists caused multiple deaths and injuries. Clinic bombings and shootings by anti-abortion extremists began in 1994 with the Brookline clinic shootings and continued through the 1998 Birmingham clinic bombing. These inspired more arsons, bombings, and shootings tied to white supremacist, anti-abortion, and other extreme ideologies.Still, haven been shocked by Islamist extremists in 1993 (and growing Islamic jihadist plots outside the U.S.) the federal government adopted new security language centered on protecting the “homeland” from outside incursions. In 1998, Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 62, titled “Protection Against Unconventional Threats to the Homeland and Americans Overseas,” a serious counterterrorism document whose title quietly normalized the term homeland inside executive governance.But there was at least one critical voice. Steven Simon, Clinton's senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, didn't think “Defense of the Homeland” belonged in a presidential directive.Simon's retrospective argument is that “homeland” did more than name a policy, it brought a territorial logic of legitimacy that the American constitution had historically resisted. He recalls the phrase “Defense of the Homeland” felt “faintly illiberal, even un-American.” The United States historically grounded constitutional legitimacy in civic and legal abstractions (people, union, republic, human rights) rather than blood rights or rights to soil. Membership was to be mediated by institutions, employment, and law rather than ancestry.“Homeland” serves as a powerful cue that suggests a mental model of ‘home' and expands it to encompass a nation. This model is accompanied by a set of spatial inferences that evoke familiarity, appeal, and even an intuitive sense. However, it also creates a sense of a confined interior that can be breached by someone from outside.This is rooted in place attachment that can be defined as an affective bond between people and places — an emotional tie that can anchor identity and responsibility. But attachment is not the same thing as ownership. Research on collective psychological ownership shows how groups can come to experience a territory as “ours.” This creates a sense of ownership that can be linked to a perceived determination right. Here, the ingroup is entitled to decide what happens in that place while sometimes feeding a desire to exclude outsiders. When the word “homeland” was placed at the center of statecraft it primed public reasoning from attachment of place through care, stewardship, and shared fate toward property ownership through control, gatekeeping, and exclusion. It turns belonging into something closer to a property claim.What makes the 1990s especially instructive from a geography perspective is that “access” itself was being administered through institutions that are intensely spatial: consulates, ports of entry, employer locations, housing markets, and the micro-geographies of office life. The H-1B expansions was not simply generosity, but a form of managed throughput in a system designed to meet labor demand. And it was paired with political assurances about enforcement and domestic worker protections.Mid-decade legal reforms strengthened enforcement by authorities in significant ways. Mechanisms for faster removals and stricter interior enforcement reinforced the idea that the state could act more decisively within the national space. The federal government found ways to expand legal channels that served economic objectives while also building a governance style increasingly comfortable with interior control. “Homeland” helped supply the conceptual bridge that made that socioeconomic coexistence feel coherent.It continues to encourage a politics of boundary maintenance that determines who counts as inside, what kinds of movement are legible as normal, and which bodies are perpetually “out of place.” If the defended object is a republic, the default language justification is legal and civic. If the defended object is a homeland, the language jurisdiction becomes territorial and affective. That shift changes what restrictions, surveillance practices, and membership tests become thinkable and tolerable over time. HOMELAND'S HOHFELDIAN HARNESSIf “homeland” structures a place of belonging, then “rights” are the legal grammar that tells us what may be done in that place. The trouble is that “rights” are often treated as moral abstract objects floating above context. Legally, they are structured relations among people, institutions, and things. But “rights” can take on a variety of meanings.Wesley Hohfeld, the Yale law professor who pioneered analytical jurisprudence in the early 20th century, argued that many legal disputes persist because the word “right” is used ambiguously.He distinguished four basic “incidents” for rights: claim, privilege (liberty), power, and immunity. Each is paired with a position correlating to another party: duty, no-claim (no-right), liability, and disability. When the police pull you over for speeding you hold a privilege to drive at or below the speed limit (say, 40 mph). The state has no-right to demand you stop for going exactly 40 mph. But if you're clocked at 50 mph, the officer enforces your no-right to exceed the limit which correlates to the state's claim-right. You have a duty to comply by pulling over. If the officer then has power to issue a ticket, you face a liability to have your driving privilege altered (e.g., fined). But you also enjoy an immunity from arbitrary arrest without probable cause.Let's apply that to “homeland” security.If a politician says we must “defend the homeland,” it can mean at least four different things legally:* Claim-Rights: Citizens can demand that the government protect them (e.g., from attacks). Officials have the duty to act — think TSA screening or border patrol.* Privileges: Federal Agents get freedoms to act without legal blocks, such as stopping and questioning people in so-called high-risk zones, while bystanders have no-right to interfere.* Powers: Federal Agencies hold authority to change your legal status. For example, they can label you a watchlist risk (e.g., you become a liability). This can then lead to loss of liberties like travel bans, detentions, or asset freezes.* Immunities: Federal Officials or programs shield themselves from lawsuits (via qualified immunity or classified data rules), effectively blocking citizens' ability to sue.Forget whether these are legitimate or illegitimate, Hohfeld's point is they are different forms of rights — and each has distinct costs. Once “homeland” is the object, the system tends to grow powers and privileges (capacity for overt or covert operations), and to seek immunities (resistance to challenge), often at the expense of others' claim-rights and liberties.Rights are not only relational, but they are also often spatially conditional. The same person can move through zones of legality experiencing different practical rights. Consider border checkpoints, airports, perimeters of government buildings, protest cites, or regions declared “emergency” zones. Government institutions operationalize these spaces as “behavioral geographies” which determines who gets stopped, where scrutiny concentrates, and which movements count as suspicious.The state looks past the abstract bearer of unalienable liberties and due process to see only a physical entity whose movements through space dissolve their Constitutional immunities into a series of observable, trackable traces. Those traces become inputs to enforcement. This is what makes surveillance so powerful. “Homeland” governance is especially trace-hungry because it imagines safety as a property of space that must be continuously maintained.But these traces are behavioral cues and human behavior is never neutral. They are interpreted through normalized cultural and institutional schemas about who “belongs” in which places. Place attachment and territorial belonging can become gatekeeping mechanisms. Empirical work on homeland/place attachment links it to identity processes and self-categorization. Related work suggests that collective psychological ownership — “this place is ours” — can predict exclusionary attitudes toward immigrants and outsiders. In legal terms, those social attitudes can translate into pressure to expand state powers and narrow outsiders' claim-rights.A vocabulary rooted in a ‘republic' tends to emphasize rights as universal claims against the state. This is where we get due process, equal protection, and rights to speech and assembly. A homeland vocabulary tends to emphasize rights as statused permissions tied to membership and territory. Here we find rights of citizens, rights at the border, rights in “emergencies”, and rights conditioned on “lawful presence.” The shift makes some restrictions feel like a kind of protecting of the home. Hence the unaffable phrase, “Get off my lawn.”HOMELAND HIERARCHIES HUMBLEDIf the “homeland” is framed as a place-of-belonging and rights are the grammar of that place, then the current crisis of American democracy boils down to a dispute over the nature of equality. This tension is best understood through the long-standing constitutional debate between anticlassification and antisubordination, which dates back to the Reconstruction era. Anticlassification, often called the “colorblind” or “status-blind” approach, holds that the state's duty is simply to avoid explicit categories in its laws. Antisubordination, by contrast, insists that the law must actively dismantle structured group hierarchies and the “caste-like” systems they produce. When the state embraces a “homeland” logic, it leans heavily on anticlassification to mask a deeper reality of spatial subordination.In what we might call the “Theater of Defense,” agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increasingly rely on anticlassification principles to justify aggressive interior crackdowns. They frame enforcement as a territorial necessity by protecting the sanctity of the soil itself. A workplace raid or roving patrol, in this view, does not target any specific group. Instead, it simply maintains the “integrity” of the homeland. This reflects what law professor Bradley Areheart and others have described as the “anticlassification turn,” where formal attempts to embody equality end up legitimizing structural inequality.Put differently, the state exercises a Hohfeldian Power to alter individuals' legal status based on their geographic location or “lawful presence.” At the same time, it shields itself from legal challenge by insisting that the law applies equally to everyone who is “out of place.” This claim of territorial neutrality is a dangerous legal fiction. As scholars Solon Barocas and Andrew Selbst have shown in their work on algorithmic systems, attempts at neutral criteria often replicate entrenched biases. Triggers like “proximity to a border” or “behavioral traces” in a transit hub do not produce blind justice. They enable targeted scrutiny and the erosion of immunity for those whose identities fail to match the “belonging” model of the “homeland.” The state circumvents its Hohfeldian Disability, avoiding the creation of second-class statuses, by pretending to manage space rather than discriminate against persons.This shift from a civic Republic to a territorial “homeland” is the primary driver of democratic backsliding. Political scientist Jacob Grumbach captured this dynamic in his 2022 paper, Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding. Analyzing 51 indicators of electoral democracy across U.S. states from 2000 to 2018, Grumbach developed the State Democracy Index. His findings reveal how American federalism has morphed from “laboratories of democracy” into sites of subnational authoritarianism. States with low scores on the index — often under unified Republican control — have pioneered police powers that insulate partisan dominance. We see this in the rise of state-level immigration enforcement units, the criminalization of movement for marginalized groups, and the expansion of a “right to exclude.”These states are not just enforcing the law. They are forging what Yale legal scholar Owen Fiss would recognize as a new caste system. By fixating on “defending” state soil against “infiltrators,” legislatures dismantle the public rights of the Reconstruction era — the right to participate in community life without indignity. Today's backsliding policies transform the nation's interior into a permanent enforcement zone. They reject the Enlightenment ideals of America, rooted in beliefs like liberty, equality, democracy, individual rights, and the rule of law. To fully understand Constitutional history, we best acknowledge that America's universalist creedal definition wasn't solely European. David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything shows how Enlightenment values of liberty and equality arose from intellectual exchanges with Indigenous North American thinkers. Kandiaronk, a Huron statesman, traveled to Europe in the late 17th century and debated French aristocrats. His critiques were published and circulated widely among European intellectuals, including Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. Graeber and Wengrow point out that before the widely popular publication of these dialogues in 1703, the concept of "Equality" as a primary political value was almost entirely absent from European philosophy. By the time Rousseau wrote his Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men in 1754, it was the central question of the age.Kandiaronk criticized European society's subservience to kings and obsession with property. He contrasted it with the consensual governance and individual agency of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy embodied in their Great Law of Peace — a political order prioritizing the public right to exist without state-sanctioned indignity.The writers of the U.S. Constitution codified a Republic of “unalienable rights,” synthesizing Indigenous/European-inspired liberty with Hohfeldian Disabilities that legally restrained the state from territorial monarchy. Backsliding erases this profound philosophical endeavor. Reclaiming the Republic means honoring the Indigenous critique that a nation's legitimacy rests on its people's freedom, not its fences.We seem to be moving from governance by the governed to protecting an ingroup. In Hohfeldian terms, the state expands its privileges while shrinking the claim-rights of the vulnerable to move and exist safely. This leads to “spatial subordination,” managed through adiaphorization — a concept from social theorist Zygmunt Bauman's 1989 Modernity and the Holocaust. Bauman, a Polish-Jewish survivor who escaped the Nazis' grip on his early life, drew “adiaphora” from the Greek for matters outside moral evaluation. Modern bureaucracies make horrific actions morally neutral by framing them as technical duties, enabling atrocities like the Holocaust without personal ethical torment.As territorial belonging takes precedence, non-belongers are excluded from moral and legal obligations. They become “non-spaces” or “human waste” in the eyes of ICE and DHS. This betrays antisubordination, the “core and conscience” of America's civil rights tradition, as Yale constitutional scholars Jack Balkin and Reva Siegel called it. A democracy can't endure if it permanently relegates any group to legal impossibility. In the “homeland”, immigrants may live, work, and raise families for decades, yet remain mere “traces” to expunge. Weaponized place attachment turns affective bonds into property claims. This empowers the state to “cleanse” those deemed to be “out of place.” Rights become statused permissions, not universal ideals. If immunity from search depends on territorial status, the Republic of laws has yielded to a Heimat — a term the Nazis' usurped for their blood-and-soil homeland…that they then bloodied and soiled.Reversing this demands confronting the linguistic and legal architecture that rendered it conceivable. It's time to rethink the “homeland” frame and its anticlassification crutch. A truer and fairer Republic would commit to antisubordination and the state would be disabled from wielding space for hierarchy. A person's immunity from arbitrary power should be closer to an inalienable right to be “secure in one's person” that holds firm beyond checkpoints or workplace doors…or your front door.Steven Simon was right to feel uneasy with Clinton's wording. “Homeland” planted a seed that sprouted into hedgerows of exceptional powers and curtailed liberties. Are we going to cling to a “homeland” secured by fear and exclusion, forever unstable, or finally become a Republic revered for securing universal law and rights? As long as our rights remain geographically conditional, we all dwell in liability. Reclaiming the Republic, and our freedoms within it, may require transforming the Constitution from a Hohfeldian map of perimeters into a boundless plane of human dignity it aspires to be. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

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Mark takes your calls!

south carolina stuart tsa nancy guthrie

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2026 6:20

Stuart, a police officer in South Carolina, called Mark to discuss possible leads regarding Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts and the circumstances of her disappearance. Blauvelt in Florida observed that the recent government shutdown did not impact TSA workers.

Mark takes your calls!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2026 6:21 Transcription Available

south carolina stuart tsa nancy guthrie mark simone

Hour 3 [02/20/2026]: Iran Tensions, UFO Disclosure, Capital Beat with Rep. Eric Burlison, and Trump's Glyphosate Controversy

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2026 34:09

Hour 3 opens with Marc Cox navigating technical glitches and setting up the day's headlines. Jim Carafano joins to discuss potential regime changes in Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, framing it as a major geopolitical shift with minimal U.S. intervention. Congressman Eric Burleson appears on Capital Beat, clarifying UFO disclosure updates, emphasizing accountability for Republican leadership, and critiquing Democrats' handling of ICE, TSA, and the Save America Act. The hour closes with Kim on a Whim analyzing Trump's executive order to expand domestic glyphosate production, highlighting RFK Jr.'s objections and the health vs. profit debate in U.S. agricultural policy. Hashtags: #IranTensions #UFOs #CapitalBeat #EricBurlison #KimOnAWhim #TrumpEO #Glyphosate #RFKJr #FoodSafety #USPolitics #Congress #Geopolitics

donald trump politics news iran ufos republicans capital ice democrats controversy venezuela cuba tsa robert f kennedy jr glyphosate ufo disclosure whim news commentary iran tensions jim carafano

Capital Beat with Rep. Eric Burlison on Alien Disclosure, UFO Files, and Republican Strategy

strategy politics news ufos republicans capital ice democrats files tsa news commentary alien disclosure

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2026 11:02

Congressman Eric Burlison discusses the reality of UFOs, clarifying what is publicly known and debunking Area 51 conspiracies. He details ongoing efforts for government transparency on alien files and critiques how classified information has been handled under past administrations. Burlison also shifts to political strategy, arguing that Republicans must act boldly before the midterms on healthcare, election integrity, and federal agency funding, including ICE and TSA, warning against a passive approach that risks ceding ground to Democrats. Hashtags: #EricBurlison #CapitalBeat #Aliens #UFOFiles #Area51 #RepublicanStrategy #Midterms #ElectionIntegrity #Healthcare #FederalFunding #USPolitics

THURS FULL SHOW: People do not believe Krystle's story, Duji had to see a shrink to deal with the pressures of ice skating, and an unhoused man peed on Rover's car

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Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 167:51

Duji declines another date. Rover believes hot people get life handed to them. Au pair affair update. People do not believe how Krystle lost her phone. Rover keeps getting served a sexy ad for an online game. Tyler Reddick comments on the video of Michael Jordan grabbing his son. A police officer's body cam footage shows him snapchatting while driving to the scene of a plane crash. Class action lawsuit has been filed against the TSA for taking people's money. Duji sleeps with an ice pack in her bed. There is a scientific explanation for what happened to the Quad God, Ilia Malinin, falling twice during the Olympics. Duji had to see a shrink to deal with the pressure of ice skating. An unhoused man was seen peeing on Rover's car. Is there a taste difference between Hershey's Kisses and the Hershey bar?

THURS PT 2: Rover keeps getting served a sexy ad

class sexy michael jordan served tsa rover tyler reddick

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 36:48

Rover keeps getting served a sexy ad for an online game. Tyler Reddick comments on the video of Michael Jordan grabbing his son. A police officer's body cam footage shows him snapchatting while driving to the scene of a plane crash. Class action lawsuit has been filed against the TSA for taking people's money.

THURS PT 2: Rover keeps getting served a sexy ad

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 42:31 Transcription Available

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THURS FULL SHOW: People do not believe Krystle's story, Duji had to see a shrink to deal with the pressures of ice skating, and an unhoused man peed on Rover's car

The Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 175:13 Transcription Available

olympic games class cleveland michael jordan tsa pressures hershey kisses shrink rover ice skating peed tyler reddick show people rmg wmms 100.7

Parsing Immigration Policy: What You Should Know about the DHS Shutdown

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 42:43

A partial government shutdown that began at midnight on February 14 has halted appropriated funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), affecting FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A new podcast episode provides an assessment of where negotiations […]

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Billy's News

Matty in the Morning

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 2:13 Transcription Available

This morning's episode covers a lot of ground, from the latest news in sports and weather to updates on local and national stories. We're keeping an eye on the weather, with a rain-snow mix expected tomorrow and the Olympics heating up with the US men's hockey team taking on Slovakia in the semifinals. We're also discussing the FBI's warning about violent online networks targeting kids, the search for Savannah Guthrie's mom, and the government shutdown's impact on TSA. Plus, we're excited to have New York Times bestseller Jody Picoult joining us at 8:15 to talk about her new book.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

olympic games new york times fbi tsa slovakia savannah guthrie

TSA launches new fee

Knewz

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2026 5:59 Transcription Available

TSA launches new feeAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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325 - Guest Co-Host Christina Cassotis. Guest: Sean Donohue, Fmr CEO, DFW Int. Airport

Airlines Confidential Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2026 87:09

Guest Co-Host Christina Cassotis. Guest: Sean Donohue, Fmr CEO, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Also: Party Balloons (not drones) over El Paso Airport; Government shutdown & potential disruption in TSA operations; Two Elliott Mgt-aligned Board Members step down at SWA; Spirit & Frontier reduce number of planes; Labor concerns continue at AA, Does American have an internal cultural problem? Should DFW and Love Field ownership be combined? A pilot listener's personal experiences with major airline shutdowns.

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Is a Deal with Iran Happening? Predicting the Primary Predictors (with Will Sattelberg)

Politics Politics Politics

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2026 67:54

The Iran situation remains murky. President Trump says he will be indirectly involved in renewed nuclear talks in Geneva, describing them as “very important,” while simultaneously ordering a significant military buildup in the Persian Gulf. A second aircraft carrier. Additional F-35s. Diplomacy and deterrence running in parallel.I am genuinely unsure what the endgame is here. Is this Venezuela-style pressure, where decapitation and economic realignment are the model? Or is this about crippling missile capacity and nuclear infrastructure? Iran is not Venezuela. It has ideological cohesion in ways Caracas did not. It has true believers.What confuses me most is timing. If there was a moment of peak internal pressure inside Iran, it may have passed. Now we are left with talks that may or may not be sincere, layered on top of military posturing that may or may not be a prelude to action. I would not be shocked by a strike. I would not be shocked by a deal. That is not analysis. That is honest uncertainty.Politics Politics Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The DHS Shutdown and Democratic LeverageMeanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security remains in shutdown limbo. Senate Democrats blocked a stopgap funding bill demanding tighter warrant requirements, unmasking of agents, expanded body camera usage, and changes to patrol tactics after controversial shootings. Republicans argue ICE funding continues under prior legislation and most DHS workers are deemed essential anyway.So far, public disruption has been limited. But if TSA agents and other DHS personnel miss paychecks long enough, pressure will build. My priors here are consistent: Democrats believe they are in a popular posture standing up to Trump. They are, at least rhetorically. But at some point, the government has to reopen fully. And any deal negotiated from the minority will disappoint the activists who demanded maximal reform.That is the trap of shutdown politics. You escalate to energize your base. Then you have to compromise to govern.Jesse Jackson and a Bygone EraFinally, Reverend Jesse Jackson died at 84. Whatever your partisan perspective, he was a towering figure in American political history, a bridge between the civil rights movement and modern Democratic presidential politics. He changed what was imaginable in national campaigns. His influence on leaders like Barack Obama is undeniable.The era he represented feels distant now. The fights are different. The coalitions are different. Even the tone is different. But history has long shadows, and Jackson cast one.Chapters00:00:00 - Intro00:04:35 - Uncle Luke Running For Congress00:07:51 - Polymarket Odds for Texas Senate Primaries00:26:04 - Update00:26:18 - Jesse Jackson00:28:52 - Iran00:32:44 - DHS Shutdown00:36:56 - Polymarket Odds for California, Maine, and Michigan01:02:03 - Wrap-up This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/subscribe

Ring and Flock

Let's Know Things

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2026 16:58

This week we talk about mass surveillance, smart doorbells, and the Patriot Stack.We also discuss Amazon, Alexa, and the Super Bowl.Recommended Book: Red Moon by Benjamin PercyTranscriptIn 2002, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the US government created a new agency—the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, operating under the auspices of the US Department of Homeland Security, which was also formed that year for the same general reason, to defend against 9/11-style attacks in the future.As with a whole lot of what was done in the years following the 9/11 attacks, a lot of what this agency, and its larger department did could be construed as a sort of overcompensation by a government and a people who were reeling from the first real, large-scale attack within their borders from a foreign entity in a very long time. It was a horrific event, everyone felt very vulnerable and scared, and consequently the US government could do a lot of things that typically would not have had the public's support, like rewiring how airports and flying works in the country, creating all sorts of new hurdles and imposing layers of what's often called security theater, to make people feel safe.While the TSA was meant to handle things on the front-lines of air transportation, though, X-raying and patting-down and creating a significant new friction for everyone wanting to get on a plane, ICE was meant to address another purported issue: that of people coming into the US from elsewhere, illegally, and then sticking around long enough to cause trouble. More specifically, ICE was meant to help improve public safety by strictly enforcing at times lax immigration laws, by tracking down and expelling illegal immigrants from the country; the theory being that some would-be terrorists may have snuck into the US and might be getting ready to kill US citizens from within our own borders.There's not a lot of evidence to support that assertion—the vast majority of terrorism that happens in the US is conducted by citizens, mostly those adhering to a far-right or other extremist ideologies. But that hasn't moved the needle on public perception of the issue, which still predominantly leans toward stricter border controls and more assiduous moderation of non-citizens within US borders—for all sorts of reasons, not just security ones.What I'd like to talk about today is an offshoot of the war on terror and this vigilance about immigrants in the US, and how during the second Trump administration, tech companies have been entangling themselves with immigration-enforcement agencies like ICE to create sophisticated surveillance networks.—In mid-July of 2025, the US Department of Defense signed one of its largest contracts in its history with a tech company called Palantir Technologies. Palantir was founded and is run by billionaire Peter Thiel, who among other things is generally considered to be the reason JD Vance was chosen to be Trump's second-term Vice President. He's also generally considered to be one of, if not the main figure behind the so-called Patriot Tech movement, which consists of companies like SpaceX, Anduril, and OpenAI, all of which are connected by a web of funding arms and people who have cross-pollinated between major US tech companies and US agencies, in many cases stepping into government positions that put them in charge of the regulatory bodies that set the rules for the industries in which they worked.As a consequence of this setup and this cross-pollination, the US government now has a bunch of contracts with these entities, which has been good for the companies' bottom lines and led to reduced government regulations, and in exchange the companies are increasingly cozy with the government and its many agencies, toeing the line more than they would have previously, and offering a lot more cooperation and collaboration with the government, as well.This is especially true when it comes to data collection and surveillance, and a great deal of that sort of information and media is funneled into entities like Palantir, which aggregate and crunch it for meaning, and then send predictions and assumptions, and make services like facial-recognition technologies predicated on their vast database, available to police and ICE agents, among others such entities.There has been increasingly stiff pushback against this melding of the tech world with the government—which has always been there to some degree, but which has become even more entwined than usual, of late—and that pushback is international, even long-time allies like Canada and the EU making moves to develop their own replacements for Amazon and Google and OpenAI due to these issues, and the heightened unpredictability and chaos of the US in recent years, but it's also evident within the US, due in part to Trump's moves while in office, but also the on-the-ground realities in places like Minneapolis, where ICE agents have been brutalizing and blackbagging people, sometimes illegal immigrants, sometimes US citizens, usually non-white US citizens, and the ICE agents are being rewarded, getting bonuses, for beating up and kidnapping and in some cases murdering people, whether or not any of these people are actually criminals—and it's illegal to do that kind of thing even if they are criminals, by the way.All of which sets the scene for what happened following the Super Bowl, this year.Ring is a home security and smart home device company that is best known for its line of smart doorbells, but which also makes all sorts of security cameras and other alarm system devices.Even though smart doorbells, complete with cameras and other sorts of functionality, existed before Ring, this company basically created the smart doorbell industry as it exists today back in 2014, when it received a round of equity investment and changed its named from Doorbot to Ring. It was bought by Amazon four years later, in 2018, for a billion dollars.One of Ring's premier features is related to its camera: you can use your phone or other smart home device to see who's at your door when they ring the bell, but it can also be set to record when it detects movement, which makes it easy to check and see who stole your Amazon package from your porch when you weren't at home, for instance, and resultingly Ring door camera footage has become fundamental to reporting, and on occasion pursuing, some types of crime.As a direct result of that utility, Ring introduced its Neighbors service in mid-2018, this service serving as a sort of social network that allows Ring device users to discuss local issues, especially those related to safety and security, anonymously, while also allowing them to share photos and videos taken by their devices. This service also created relationships with local law enforcement, and allowed police to jump onto the network and request footage from Ring customers, if they thought these doorbell cams might have photos or video of someone escaping with a stolen car, for instance, which might then help the police catch that crook.It's generally assumed that Amazon probably bought Ring, at least in part, to entrench itself as the lord of the internet of things world, as it launched its Amazon Sidewalk platform in 2020, which allowed all Amazon devices, including Ring devices, to share a wireless mesh network, all of them communicating with each other and all using Amazon's Alexa as an interface.In 2023, Ring was sued by the FTC for $5.8 million because it allowed its employees and contractors to access private videos by failing to have basic security and privacy features in place—so not only could any Ring employee view their customer's private video feeds, hackers could easily access all this media and data, as well. Just one example surfaced in that lawsuit shows that a Ring employee viewed thousands of video recordings of at least 81 different female users over the course of a few months in 2017.So Amazon was building a surveillance network that worked really well, in the sense that it was predicated on popular, at times quite useful devices that people seemed to love, but which was also quite leaky, giving all sorts of people access to these supposedly private feeds, and it was shared with law enforcement via that social network. It's also been alleged that Ring (and Amazon) have used users' footage without further permission for things like facial recognition and AI training. Their partnership with police agencies also allegedly created incentives for the police to encourage citizens to buy Ring cams and other security devices for their homes, creating perverse incentives. And again, these devices connect wirelessly to other internet of things devices, expanding their reach and the potential for abuse of collected user data.In late 2025, Ring announced a new partnership with Flock Safety, a company that's best known for its security offerings, including automated license plate readers and gunshot detector systems.These are mass surveillance tools used by some governments and law enforcement entities, and they use cameras and microphones to capture license plates, people's faces, and sounds that might be gunfire and aggregate that data to be used by police, neighborhood associations, and in some cases private property owners.This sort of technology is incredibly useful to companies like Palantir, which again, aggregates and crunches it, on scale, and then shares that information with police, ICE, and other such agencies.These tools can sometimes help flag areas where guns are being fired or where crimes are being committed, but they're also imperfect and at times biased against some groups of people and areas, and some data show that not only is crime not reduced by the presence of these systems, but there's a fair bit of evidence that this data often falls into the hands of hackers or is used by employees for nefarious, stalkery purposes, as was the case with Ring's cameras. So most civil liberties groups, like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are vehemently against them, but governments like the second Trump administration like them, because they create a surveillance mesh they can tap into and use for, for instance, figuring out where to deploy ICE agents, or, in theory at least, spying on your political enemies or ex-spouses for abuse or blackmail purposes.Ring's late-2025 announcement wasn't widely reported, but in early 2026 the company bought a Super Bowl ad to announce a new feature called Search Party, enabled by their partnership with Flock.The ad showed a neighborhood coming together to find a lost dog, using the web of doorbell cameras on all the homes in the area to track the dog and figure out where it went—all the cameras activated at once to create a surveillance mesh of live footage.This ad landed with a resounding thud,, as to many people it felt more menacing than heartwarming, the new feature overtly raising the potential that government agencies, including ICE, could tap into it to surveil and track their neighbors. The response was so negative that Ring quickly issued a statement saying that it was no longer moving forward with its Flock partnership, attempting to reassure its customers that “integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever send to Flock Safety.”This result is notable in part because it's a rare instance of a major tech company backtracking on a major feature decision due to public backlash, but also because it suggests backlash against ICE is reverberating through other aspects of life and interconnected industries.Ring device users mostly buy these things for their surveillance capabilities, but the increasing, and increasingly hostile and violent acts committed by members of ICE seem to have nudged the conversation so that folks are more worried about these agents than about the porch pirates and other criminals that these devices and this partnership could ostensibly help them identify.It's too early to say what this might mean for the burgeoning patriot stack of tech companies and government agencies, but it does suggest there are limits to what people will put up with, even when those in charge are adhering to a playbook that has typically worked well for them, in the past, and the devices and services they're using to build their surveillance network are otherwise beloved by those who use them.Show Noteshttps://restofworld.org/2026/big-tech-backlash-alternatives-upscrolled/https://europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/trumps-power-switchhttps://www.authoritarian-stack.info/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/realestate/smart-home-cameras-nest-ring-privacy.htmlhttps://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/platforms-bend-over-backward-to-help-dhs-censor-ice-critics-advocates-say/https://www.theverge.com/report/879320/ring-flock-partnership-breakup-does-not-fix-problemshttps://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceledhttps://www.404media.co/with-ring-american-consumers-built-a-surveillance-dragnet/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcementhttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/children-of-color-projected-to-be-majority-of-u-s-youth-this-yearhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(company)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safetyhttps://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/https://www.wired.com/story/social-security-administration-appointment-details-ice/https://www.wired.com/story/security-news-this-week-ring-kills-flock-safety-deal-after-super-bowl-ad-uproar/https://www.wired.com/story/ice-crashing-us-court-system-minnesota/https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-ceo-alex-karp-employee-questions-on-ice/https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-ice-forum-where-agents-complain-about-their-jobs/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Historic Voices and Modern Challenges: Jesse Jackson, Robert Duvall, Tax Battles, and Global Diplomacy | 02-17-26

Bernie and Sid

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2026 161:36

On this Tuesday edition of Sid & Friends in the Morning, Sid details the death of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson at 84 after a rare neurological disorder, recounting his civil rights work, political campaigns, and later activism; Gov. Kathy Hochul finding $1.5 billion in state aid for New York City as Mayor Zohran Mamdani prepares his first budget amid debate over taxing the rich and a reported $5.5 billion budget gap; critiques of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gov. Gavin Newsom at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend; the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security entering a third day with essential workers like TSA and the Coast Guard working without pay amid an immigration-enforcement policy dispute; US-Iran nuclear negotiations are set to continue in Geneva-area talks mediated by Oman as both sides keep militaries on standby, dispute uranium enrichment and Iran's missile program, citing a report that President Trump told Israel he would support strikes on Iran's missile program if talks fail; and the death of Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall at 95, highlighting his career including The Godfather films and Apocalypse Now. Bo Dietl, Chazz Palminteri, Lara Trump, Mike Lawler, Miranda Devine & Shabbos Kestenbaum join Sid on this Tuesday installment of Sid & Friends in the Morning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2/17 TUES HOUR 2: Tips to mindfully get through TSA, a passenger on the wrong plane, and BOOB TUBE: "Reality Check: America's Next Top Model"

Jason & Alexis

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2026 38:20

Tips to mindfully get through TSA, a passenger on the wrong plane, and BOOB TUBE: "Reality Check: America's Next Top Model"See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Fred's Biggest Stories of the Day: Civil Rights Activists Jesse Jackson Passes Away, Nancy Guthrie Disappearance, Olympics, & TSA!

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2026 19:10 Transcription Available

Civil rights activist reverend Jesse Jackson passes away at 84. The police has dismissed any possibility of family members being involved of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie So far, the US has won 19 medals in the Olympics. TSA has named the most annoying type of travelers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

olympic games civil disappearances tsa jesse jackson biggest stories nancy guthrie civil rights activists

HIGHLIGHTS: 02/17/2026

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2026 32:54 Transcription Available

Fred and the crew vent about the TSA line at airports! Plus, Amy and her boyfriend just moved in together and everything is going great... Except her boyfriend wants her to get rid of every furniture piece she had with her ex-boyfriend. Fred and the crew weigh in!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

tsa

FULL 6 AM: The Weekend Lover & TSA!