Systemic Error Podcast

What happened RawStory reports that Jonathan V. Last, an anti-Trump conservative editor at The Bulwark, warned that even a decisive Democratic midterm victory would not guarantee a Democratic presidential win in 2028. His “doomsday scenario” is that Republican candidates could blame a Democratic-controlled Congress for national problems, present themselves as insurgents and retain the White House....

What happened RawStory reports that conservative podcaster Ben Ferguson called former special counsel Jack Smith’s “No Kings” shirt “pretty rich,” falsely accusing Smith of trying to overturn an election. Smith wore the Bruce Springsteen tour shirt at the Power to the People Fest in Columbia, Maryland, on Saturday. Fox News host Harris Faulkner introduced the shirt after noting that Smith had test...

What happened RawStory reports that Sen. Thom Tillis defended his vote to confirm Attorney General Todd Blanche after “The View” co-host Ana Navarro challenged Blanche’s refusal to examine reported payments by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev toward Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas. When Tillis called Blanche qualified to give President Donald Trump honest advice, Navarro shoute...

What happened RawStory reports that two unnamed U.S. sources briefed Drop Site News on a classified CIA assessment warning that Israel could face civil war or “total collapse.” The August report, titled “Fracture From Within,” reportedly described several pressures converging ahead of Israel’s October 27 elections. Neither RawStory nor Drop Site News obtained the document itself, and the reporting...

What happened RawStory argues that Senate Republicans’ hostile questioning of former special counsel Jack Smith reflected loyalty to Donald Trump and an effort to divert attention from the Epstein files. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Republican senators Eric Schmitt and John Kennedy attacked Smith’s credibility, while ranking Democrat Dick Durbin welcomed him. Smith answered...

What happened RawStory columnist Jason Miciak argues that Donald Trump is pressing ahead with a federally supported AI and data-center expansion despite mounting opposition from voters, including Republicans. The column says local communities are objecting to electricity costs, water use, land consumption, and public subsidies, while GOP candidates are struggling to defend the policy. Citing Axios...

What happened RawStory reports that online critics compared the redesigned U.S. passport to an AI-generated layout because its cover uses a small all-caps “PASSPORT” above an oversized country name—a typographic device associated by commenters with Claude. The reporting provides no evidence that Claude or any other AI system designed the passport. Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled the “Fligh...

What happened RawStory reports that California Republican gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton released a campaign ad depicting one young woman helping another mark a mail ballot for him while they sit on a bed beneath a Pride flag. Hilton, a former Fox News host endorsed by Donald Trump in April, called the spot provocative and funny before releasing a video saying he regretted the pain it caused....

What happened AlterNet reports that Paul Waldman, writing for MS NOW, identified the “unmanly truth” as the Trump administration’s failure to deliver the economic security it promised young men and other voters who backed Donald Trump in 2024. Citing the latest federal jobs report, Waldman argued that prices remain burdensome, manufacturing employment is lower than when Trump took office, and the...

What happened AlterNet reports that, in a 75-minute interview with Time, President Donald Trump rejected unfavorable polling, blamed the press for public understanding of his statements, defended “annihilating” Iran as a means of creating peace, and declined to rule out invoking emergency powers around the approaching midterm elections. When asked whether ICE agents would be sent to polling places...

What happened Nine U.S. service members wounded in an Iranian drone strike said Pentagon medical care left them navigating serious injuries largely on their own. According to RawStory’s account of Associated Press reporting, the March 1 strike at Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, killed six troops and injured dozens on the second day of the war. The soldiers described delayed evacuation, inadequate transport,...

What happened According to RawStory, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Consumer Protection Division sent a small central Texas pediatric practice a 28-item demand in December seeking 10 years of vaccine records, internal policies, and details of every benefit received from vaccine manufacturers. The letter instructed the pediatrician, identified only as Rachel, not to disclose the request and sa...

What happened RawStory reports that former Republican operative and anti-Trump activist Steve Schmidt argued on his podcast that voters could “break MAGA” as a nationally viable coalition by defeating Trump-aligned candidates in the November midterm elections. He predicted a sweeping repudiation but offered no polling, electoral analysis, or other evidence in the article to establish that outcome....

What happened AlterNet reports that a Nebraska family nearly lost childcare because the state took unusually long to renew its subsidy. Parent Josh Wigginton said repeated calls failed, an email to his caseworker bounced back, and the uncertainty threatened a routine that allows both parents to work. Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged temporarily longer processing time...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump’s 51-day bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthis ended in a hastily accepted truce that failed to eliminate the group and gave it time to rebuild. Trump launched Operation Rough Rider on March 15, 2025, promising complete annihilation; by May, after more than 1,000 strikes and an estimated cost exceeding $1 billion, he declared victory an...

What happened AlterNet reports that Fox Business host Stuart Varney and UBS managing director Jason Katz presented a Treasury-bond sell-off as a “generational opportunity” for investors wealthy enough to endure the economic strain. Katz acknowledged that the price was painful but said conditions were “not as bad” for high earners who could buy bonds and wait. The segment also described corporate g...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump pledged to preemptively pardon anyone who had come “within 200 feet” of the Oval Office before leaving office. The remark covered no precisely identified group, and the reporting does not establish that any pardons had been issued. Democrats were considering whether administration officials’ alleged misuse of authority, including Justice D...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump demanded the arrest of The New York Times and other media outlets after the newspaper described empty seats in the upper sections of his Ohio rally. Trump disputed that account, claimed the arena was full and said thousands of supporters were turned away. Trump posted the accusation twice on Truth Social and shared a 27-second video of a l...

What happened According to AlterNet, anti-Trump conservative Rick Wilson said Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio and campaign adviser Chris LaCavita were the Trump allies supposedly desperate for “the mess” to end. Wilson offered no direct statements from either man; he attributed the claim to unnamed Republicans and used the “sweet meteor of death” line as his own characterization. On Molly Jong-F...

What happened AlterNet reports that the FBI acknowledged possessing nine training videos, totaling about 75 minutes, used to instruct more than 1,000 agents reviewing Jeffrey Epstein investigative files. According to a sworn FBI declaration described by legal analyst Allison Gill, two videos taught agents to flag documents containing specified names—including Donald Trump’s—for supervisory review....

What happened AlterNet reports that Robert Jeffress, a prominent evangelical pastor and longtime Donald Trump ally, said he would not ostracize congregants who vote for Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico over Republican nominee Ken Paxton in Texas. Jeffress told New York Times columnist David French that he would explain his objections to Talarico but ultimately tell such a congregant to fol...

What happened AlterNet reports that U.S. District Judge Gary Brown found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wrongfully arrested two people—including a U.S. citizen—and then falsified official records to support claims of mistaken identity. Brown, a Trump appointee in New York, reached that conclusion after examining explanations ICE had repeatedly offered for detentions arising from c...

What happened The Trump administration confirmed that all U.S. bombers deployed to RAF Fairford had returned to their home stations in the United States after British authorities investigated a suspected terror plot near the base. RawStory, citing NBC News, characterized the redeployment as rushed and suggested it may have ended a military partnership dating to 1950. The reporting does not establi...

What happened RawStory reports that attorney and Democratic strategist Dmitri Mehlhorn outlined a possible route for Donald Trump to return to the presidency in 2028 despite the Constitution’s presidential term limit. His scenario begins with the Republican Party nominating Trump and election officials struggling to remove or disqualify him. Mehlhorn argued on The David Pakman Show that litigation...

What happened RawStory reports that Brazil’s Federal Police opened an investigation into possible U.S. interference in Brazil’s presidential election and executed two search-and-seizure warrants in São Paulo on the Friday before the first-round vote. Authorities seized computer equipment and communications while examining a reported Trump administration plan to direct U.S. taxpayer money toward gr...