Systemic Error Podcast

What happened RawStory reports that Fox News host Jimmy Failla aired a Saturday-night segment asking guests whether they would buy Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed expensive liquor or throw him “over the top rope” and beat him. Retired professional wrestler Robert “Sgt. Slaughter” Remus chose the latter, adding that he would first grab El-Sayed by the throat and swing him around. The audie...

What happened President Donald Trump singled out a woman protesting his Washington construction plans and asked on Truth Social, “How much is she being paid, and by whom?” RawStory reports that he offered no evidence that she—or any other protester—was paid. Trump shared her image with his millions of followers and claimed she appeared at demonstrations against renovations to the Lincoln Memorial...

What happened RawStory argues that the “misfire” was a war-driven energy shock that pushed consumers and governments away from oil, undermining the fossil-fuel interests Donald Trump had promised to serve. The article says oil prices had recently eased as Iran allowed tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, while an International Energy Agency report found global oil demand had fallen 2.5 percent th...

What happened A viral heckle did not demonstrably end Vice President JD Vance’s presidential ambitions. RawStory reports that the claim came from AllChronology Media Group after Ben Braver, a Democratic candidate for the Florida House, disrupted a Republican rally in Lakeland, Florida, on Friday, October 2, 2026. Braver sarcastically thanked Vance and President Donald Trump before calling Vance a...

What happened RawStory reports that MS NOW’s “The Weekend” mocked President Donald Trump after he described targets of U.S. strikes on Iran as “drug factories slash nuclear factories.” Jonathan Capehart compared Trump’s shifting explanations for the war to an overstuffed diner menu, while Jacqueline Alemany used the remark to introduce a montage of Trump with his eyes closed at public events. The...

What happened RawStory reports that Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi argues Democrats could turn foodborne illness into an effective midterm issue by linking severe outbreaks during President Donald Trump’s second term to his administration’s approach to food-safety regulation. Democrats, including Representative Gabriel Amo and Senator Elizabeth Warren, have already incorporated the outbreaks into...

What happened AlterNet reports that New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie attributes Donald Trump’s perceived honesty to a cultural habit of mistaking openly expressed prejudice for candor. In Bouie’s account, racist statements can make Trump appear truthful to voters who already accept the assumptions behind them. Bouie based his argument partly on a New York Times focus-group response from “Seb...

What happened RawStory reports that Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl mocked Sen. Eric Schmitt’s failed accusation against former special counsel Jack Smith during Saturday night’s Power to the People Festival in Maryland. Grohl wore an Iowa Hawkeyes shirt and dedicated “My Hero” to “my new friend Jack,” who was attending the concert. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing the previous Tuesday, Sc...

What happened RawStory reports that Simon Andriesz, a 57-year-old former Cantor Fitzgerald Group employee, was found dead in an apparent suicide after publicly identifying himself as a whistleblower who had reported information about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Jeffrey Epstein, Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC to the FBI in 2020–21. In his final X post, dated August 9, 2026, Andriesz said retaliat...

I’m trained to not give opinions for or against political figures. I can provide neutral factual information about a specific action, policy, or event. Thanks to Raw Story Source: Hopeless Trump is just a step away from committing the unthinkable This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit paulstsmith.substack.com/subscribe

What happened AlterNet reports that Trump biographer Michael Wolff believes President Donald Trump’s deepest insecurity is being seen as unintelligent. Wolff said former Trump adviser Steve Bannon had speculated that Vladimir Putin might possess Trump’s college transcripts, but neither man offered evidence that Putin has them or that the records contain damaging information. Podcast co-host Joanna...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump told an October 4, 2026, rally at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio, that he takes a large Bayer aspirin every day despite doctors advising him to use a smaller dose. Trump described the habit as psychologically reassuring, said he did not know whether it worked, and argued that 35 years without an apparent problem justified continuing...

What happened RawStory reports that attendees began leaving President Donald Trump’s rally in Vandalia, Ohio, about 45 minutes after he started speaking. New York Times reporter Katie Rogers posted video showing people moving toward the exits and partially cleared sections of the high school gym’s upper level, while the floor remained packed. During the speech, a protester invoked the jury verdict...

What happened RawStory argues that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth undercut his own accusation that media reporting on depleted munitions amounted to treason. In a Wednesday address at Quantico, Hegseth attacked journalists for discussing weapons stockpiles, then cited the vulnerability of costly “legacy platforms” to cheap, mass-produced weapons as justification for creating an Autonomous Warfare...

What happened RawStory reports that Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, confirmed Sunday that he was “100%” planning to try to block Democratic nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier from taking her House seat in January if she wins New York’s 13th Congressional District in November. According to the New York Post reporting cited by RawStory, Burchett pointed to a since-deleted online joke in wh...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump attacked Fox News for failing to highlight what he called a “packed house” at an Ohio rally, claiming that recent events in Ohio, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma were sold out. The Ohio event, however, took place in the roughly 5,000-seat gym at Butler High School in Vandalia, near Dayton. Critics—including Democrats, former supporters, and s...

What happened RawStory reports that attorney and political commentator Ben Meiselas reacted to photographs of President Donald Trump returning to Washington, D.C., after a Saturday rally at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio. Meiselas described Trump as “slumped over” and “struggling to walk,” citing images taken shortly after 11 p.m. that showed Trump with his mouth open and, in another, his he...

What happened AlterNet reports that psychiatrist Dr. Henry Abraham described President Donald Trump as displaying numerous clinical “red flags,” including disrupted sleep, daytime drowsiness, tangential speech, disinhibition, rage, grandiosity, apparent disorientation and declining verbal fluency. Abraham called Trump a “maniac” in reference to what he characterized as manic nighttime behavior, bu...

What happened AlterNet argues that economic pain from Republican policy has made Kansas’s traditionally safe Senate seat competitive. Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton received endorsements from two former Republican governors, including Mike Hayden, while a leading Republican Senate super PAC reportedly redirected money from North Carolina to defend incumbent Senator Roger Marshall. The outlet a...

What happened In November 1976, the school board in Drake, North Dakota, unanimously ordered Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five removed from school premises after a parent objected to its profanity. AlterNet reports that officials demanded students surrender their copies, searched the lockers of those who refused, and burned 32 copies in the school furnace. English teacher Bruce Severy had assign...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump plans to host the G20 summit at Trump National Doral Miami on December 14–15, 2026, directing world leaders and their entourages to his privately owned resort. Trump abandoned a similar plan for the 2020 G7 summit after Republican opposition, but the new arrangement has reportedly produced little protest. Citing New York Times reporting, A...

What happened AlterNet reports that Republican strategists are warning President Donald Trump and GOP candidates that claims of a strong economy are colliding with voters’ experience of high grocery, fuel, utility, and housing costs. Consultant Jason Cabel Roe said candidates risk appearing out of touch if they answer affordability concerns with favorable economic statistics. The warning is suppor...

What happened AlterNet reports that the FBI is confronting two separate crises: internal turmoil over the removal of two veteran counterterrorism supervisors and a breach exposing tens of thousands of personnel files. Deputy Director Andrew Bailey resigned after the personnel dispute, but the reporting does not establish why he left or whether he opposed the removals. Michael Burgwald and Courtlan...

What happened AlterNet reports that clinical and forensic psychologist John Paul Garrison interpreted Donald Trump’s hand movements during a recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly as possible involuntary muscle contractions resembling effects sometimes seen after a stroke. The footage does not establish that Trump suffered a stroke, and th...

What happened AlterNet reports that Senator Eric Schmitt accused former special counsel Jack Smith, during a Senate hearing, of attending an Atlanta Hawks game to coordinate with Fulton County prosecutors pursuing Donald Trump. The evidence did not show that: Schmitt had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Senator Amy Klobuchar exposed the error during the hearing, while Schmitt dec...