Systemic Error Podcast

What happened RawStory reports that Sen. Susan Collins, during a Tuesday debate in Maine against Democratic challenger Troy Jackson, answered a question about President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada by touting her success in getting road salt removed from the tariff list. Jackson replied, “What about everything else? We can’t eat road salt.” Jackson also linked household affordability to what h...

What happened RawStory, citing The Washington Post, reports that Republican groups entered the final midterm stretch with a large financial advantage but could not identify a race in which that advantage had fundamentally changed the contest. Donald Trump had said his super PACs would spend $400 million to $500 million supporting Republican candidates, yet by the Wednesday covered in the report th...

What happened RawStory reports that Marc Beckman, Melania Trump’s senior adviser and a producer of her documentary, celebrated its per-theater opening performance by claiming it beat Tom Cruise’s Digger by about 67 percent. His comparison relied on a narrow metric: Digger opened in 1,543 more theaters. The broader figures undercut the boast. According to reports cited by RawStory, Melania opened t...

What happened Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the official under fire. AlterNet, citing Wall Street Journal reporting, says CodePink activists confronted him over U.S. sanctions at Reveler’s Hour in Washington in December 2025. Bessent allegedly called them “ignorant,” berated the restaurant owner for not removing them and, according to the owner, spat into his own food before leaving. The res...

What happened AlterNet reported that Donald Trump planned to attend the Georgia-Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa as Tropical Storm Isaias approached the Gulf Coast. The SEC said it was monitoring the storm and could move the game; meteorologist James Spann said a hurricane moving through Mobile Bay could bring dangerous wind, torrential rain, and isolated tornadoes to Tuscaloosa. The report sai...

What happened RawStory reports that veteran Illinois steelworker Doug May dismissed President Donald Trump’s announcement of a proposed $15 billion steel plant in Lee County, Iowa, as “political pandering.” Trump said construction had already begun, but KWQC-TV found no disclosed site, major property purchases, permits before county supervisors, or plans shared with county officials. Production wa...

What happened AlterNet reports that Texas Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton joked Wednesday that President Donald Trump might rename the Pacific Ocean. The remark followed Trump’s reported attempts to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario with “America” branding. Paxton then cast the Texas election as a struggle between a “constitutional republic” and “communism,”...

What happened RawStory reports that Paramount completed a $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, placing CBS, CNN and numerous studios and networks under Skydance, controlled by billionaire David Ellison, whom the outlet describes as a strong ally of President Donald Trump. That same day, Ellison named former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick to Skydance’s board. Critics...

What happened Republican senators are distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation policy because, they told The Hill, its widening reach has become politically damaging and morally difficult to defend. Mike Rounds, John Cornyn, and Thom Tillis criticized enforcement that targets longtime residents or ensnares citizens and green-card holders, though all had supported toughe...

What happened RawStory, citing The Washington Post, reports that lawyers for Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club are seeking to convert part of the county-owned course into a permanent presidential retreat modeled on Camp David. The proposal would transfer a parcel to the federal government; Trump would fund presidential facilities, while his family company would continue operating the surrou...

What happened RawStory, citing Politico, reports that Senate Republican leaders were preparing to move quickly if a Supreme Court seat opened while they still controlled the chamber. Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans would proceed rapidly; Judiciary Committee member Thom Tillis said he would “absolutely” support filling even a late-year vacancy. No vacancy appeared imminent at the time o...

What happened RawStory reports that the U.S. Postal Service deployed nearly 1,000 armed officers supplied by private security company Prosegur at facilities in at least 55 locations before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Postal officials said the guards were part of a broader security plan, not an election-specific operation, and were intended to deter threats to employees and the mailstream. Curren...

What happened AlterNet reports that wealthy executives, corporate leaders, and senior officials aligned themselves with Donald Trump’s second administration while seeking tax cuts, deregulation, federal contracts, and favorable antitrust treatment. The promised “reckoning,” however, has not happened: the article describes reputational risk, market resistance, and possible congressional investigati...

What happened AlterNet reports that a third leaked recording from a September fundraiser captured Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton blaming his political difficulties against Democrat James Talarico on the Iran war, fuel prices and campaign decisions made in Washington. Paxton said affordability was Republicans’ largest problem and that he had little control over the forces shaping the race....

What happened AlterNet columnist D. Earl Stephens reported that Donald Trump, speaking at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, said Iran should be allowed to “take out Los Angeles” and San Diego because it would be “a very small price to pay.” Stephens described the remarks as disqualifying and said Trump had “lost whatever was left of his mind.” The column says the speech occurred on a Mon...

What happened Donald Trump’s niece, psychologist Mary L. Trump, said Republican candidates were “diving out of windows” to avoid appearing with him—her metaphor for distancing themselves from an increasingly unpopular president. AlterNet reported that she pointed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s absence from a San Antonio event and to a Reuters review finding that candidates in 41 of 62 competitive con...

What happened RawStory reports that Madrid police removed 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal from her longtime apartment on September 23 after her landlord sought a tenant change to raise the rent. Images of Abascal, a wheelchair user, being carried out on a stretcher triggered protests; the landlord later reversed course and allowed her to return home. The article connects her eviction to Spain...

What happened AlterNet published Robert Reich’s speculation that Donald Trump could leave office before completing his term. Reich offered four possibilities: Trump remains president for two more years, resigns within a year in favor of Vice President JD Vance, is impeached and convicted, or is declared unable to perform his duties under the 25th Amendment. The article attributes these scenarios t...

What happened AlterNet reports that Nevada’s reliably Republican Second Congressional District has become unusually competitive after retiring Republican Rep. Mark Amodei blamed GOP nominee David Flippo’s campaign and its scandals. Donald Trump won the district by 14 points two years earlier, but Republicans reportedly reserved more than $1 million in television and digital advertising, while Demo...

What happened Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who led the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush, told AlterNet that Donald Trump’s family making money during his presidency is “obscene.” She argued that constitutional limits on presidential enrichment are being disregarded and agreed with interviewer Matthew Rozsa’s characterization of Trump as focused on transactions...

What happened AlterNet reports that Donald Trump told a Nebraska campaign rally that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego while defending high prices linked to the ongoing war with Iran. The crowd applauded. California officials condemned the remark, while White House communications director Stephen Cheung said Trump was describing cities that would have been threatened had Iran acquired...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump used a San Antonio campaign rally for Senate candidate Ken Paxton and House candidate Carlos De La Cruz to portray Democrats, immigrants and climate policy as existential dangers to Texas. He called Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and his party “dirty,” predicted crime, poverty and social collapse if Democrats gained power, and...

What happened Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor says President Donald Trump is “playing roulette with our lives” by dismantling the DHS Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction. AlterNet reports that Taylor linked the office’s loss of staff and capacity to America’s vulnerability to biological attacks and other mass-casualty threats. Taylor wrote that hundr...

What happened The White House launched an online “arcade” whose games package administration messages as entertainment. AlterNet highlights “Rio Run,” a Snake-style game in which a border guard accumulates a growing trail of arrested migrants, alongside games promoting healthy school lunches and a “Trump savings account.” Scott DeJong, a Concordia University communication-studies researcher and ga...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump said at a Wednesday press conference that he had wanted Social Security “fully invested in the stock market” during the first month of his first term in 2016, but abandoned the idea after criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. The article does not identify a new policy proposal, timetable, or explicit pledge to pursue privatization...