Latest / The People's News / Texas Flips Bright Blue; Food Not Bombs Wins in Court; Trump is Putin's Puppet - TPN 11/8/26

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Texas Flips Bright Blue; Food Not Bombs Wins in Court; Trump is Putin's Puppet - TPN 11/8/26 · The People's News

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the week of November 8th, 2026, and this is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: what's on the People's News. Federal court rules for the
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  Speaker 1: city to stop ticketing food, not bonds. Democrats sweep into power,
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  Speaker 1: including in Texas, in a historic midterm election. Ukraine has
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  Speaker 1: hope for the new Congress, but still feels stabbed in
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  Speaker 1: the back by the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: President.
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  Speaker 1: Pollution in Texas is getting worse, with no help from
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  Speaker 1: the EPA. The FIFA World Cup 2026 Sustainability Report. All
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: that and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: This is the People's News, and the People's News starts now.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: In races up and down the ballot, from coast to coast,
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  Speaker 1: the midterm elections were a repudiation of Trump and a
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  Speaker 1: gigantic check to his corruption. It was a blue tsunami,
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  Speaker 1: and nowhere in the country did the tsunami hit harder
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  Speaker 1: than in Texas. With every race, from the top of
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  Speaker 1: the ticket to the bottom of the ticket, either moving
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  Speaker 1: left or outright being won by Democrats. The scope and
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  Speaker 1: size of this blue wave was surprising. We talked to Dr.
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  Speaker 1: Michael O.
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  Speaker 2: Adams.
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  Speaker 1: He's a professor of political science and public administration at
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  Speaker 1: Texas Southern University. the director of the Executive Master of
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  Speaker 1: Public Administration program and nationally recognized scholar in minority politics,
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  Speaker 1: voting rights, and public affairs. He is also a director
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  Speaker 1: and professor of the Barbara Jordan Mickey Leland School of
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  Speaker 1: Public Affairs at Texas Southern University. He spoke on what
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  Speaker 1: he refers to as the November surprise.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll frame that. I really was shocked.
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  Speaker 3: Not so much in terms of the race at the
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  Speaker 3: top of the ticket in terms of the marquee U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Senate race.
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  Speaker 3: We know that Tallarico had been consistently leading in all
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  Speaker 3: of the polls.
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  Speaker 2: Even some of the polling.
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  Speaker 3: That I had done and participated in, we had the
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  Speaker 3: race as a toss-up. We didn't expect what could be
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  Speaker 3: described in some quarters as a tsunami. And I think
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  Speaker 3: as a result of the unprecedented performance of Tallarico, and
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  Speaker 3: there are some things we can come back and revisit
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  Speaker 3: in the discussion this morning, I think there was a
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  Speaker 3: lot of, in political science, we have several theories that
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  Speaker 3: we could offer.
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  Speaker 2: One is group threat.
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  Speaker 3: I think that motivated a lot of Latino voters. And
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  Speaker 3: there's another one I used when I analyzed black political
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  Speaker 3: participation or black turnout or black mobilization. It's called linked
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  Speaker 3: faith is where black people, regardless of where you are
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  Speaker 3: in terms of socioeconomic conditions, you tend to link.
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  Speaker 2: Your conditions, your existence, with the group.
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  Speaker 3: And given those two dynamics from a theoretical point of view,
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  Speaker 3: I think that's one, I guess, the way we can
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  Speaker 3: explain or look at what happened on Tuesday. And not
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  Speaker 3: only if we were to look at the so-called helicopter perspectives,
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  Speaker 3: I think what happened nationally, and it's still unfolding in
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  Speaker 3: Mississippi and also in Alaska, they use ranked choice voting.
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  Speaker 2: And so with the pickups.
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  Speaker 3: That we saw in the United States Congress, we knew
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  Speaker 3: that going in the House of Representatives, the Democrats would
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  Speaker 3: possibly recapture or take control with Hakeem Jeffries more than
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  Speaker 3: likely being the next.
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  Speaker 2: Speaker of the House.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, and before we get to Texas in terms of as, as,
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  Speaker 3: as black people or colored people would like to say,
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  Speaker 3: we sort of liked well on first. And as we
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  Speaker 3: go around the country, there were a number of black
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  Speaker 3: governors elected, namely the first black woman governor in the history.
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  Speaker 2: Of the state of Georgia. We also saw a black
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  Speaker 2: governor elected in Florida.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, we saw the reelection of the black governor in
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  Speaker 3: the state of Maryland.
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  Speaker 2: They also chose a black governor in the state of Nevada. Unprecedented.
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  Speaker 3: And I was talking to one of my former colleagues
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  Speaker 3: who has retired now. We text all the time. We
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  Speaker 3: happen to be from Mississippi. And she said, Mike, can
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  Speaker 3: you believe it?
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  Speaker 2: I said, no.
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  Speaker 3: I said, as they used to say when I was
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  Speaker 3: growing up, Dixie woke up. And if you look at
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  Speaker 3: these states, when I talk about Dixie, I'm referring to
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  Speaker 3: those people, youngsters like yourself, that I always have to
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  Speaker 3: explain things. If we look at the Confederacy that we
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  Speaker 3: come to know and look at those states in terms
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  Speaker 3: of South Carolina, we saw Lindsey Graham's wife, the one,
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  Speaker 3: somebody that was handpicked and hand-selected to succeed him, knocked
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  Speaker 3: off in South Carolina.
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  Speaker 2: We saw a U.S. senator who happened to.
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  Speaker 3: Be a Democrat take North Carolina, the former governor of
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  Speaker 3: that state. So all throughout Dixie, you see Florida, you
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  Speaker 3: see these changes. And And stop me at any point, because,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I can continue to talk. But we have
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  Speaker 3: to talk about that before we come to Texas.
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  Speaker 4: Well, since you're talking about Mississippi, that still is a toss-up.
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  Speaker 4: It's still counting votes in Mississippi.
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  Speaker 2: I said a possibility, so I can add.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, they count that 54 Democrats would be in
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  Speaker 3: the Senate. So they have the majority in the Senate. Now,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: as you and I know.
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  Speaker 2: they can have what we call the filibuster.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: And it takes 60 votes to kill a filibuster or
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  Speaker 3: to stop it. That's nonstop talking for the purpose of
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  Speaker 3: killing a bill or stalling legislation in the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Senate. Now, there would not be 60 Democrats in the Senate.
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  Speaker 3: And if they pick up Mississippi, there are a lot
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  Speaker 3: of provisional ballots that are still out there. But last
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  Speaker 3: I checked, Cullen, the guy who's running, and I know
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  Speaker 3: his father very well– in the state of Mississippi, may
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  Speaker 3: win that election.
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  Speaker 2: All right? So that's another one. So you say 55.
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  Speaker 3: In Alaska, it looks up with all of the charges
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  Speaker 3: back and forth in terms of having two Sullivans on
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  Speaker 3: the ballot, and the Democrat may eat that one out.
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  Speaker 2: That's another one. So you're talking about 56. All right?
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  Speaker 3: So clearly you would have what we can come back
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  Speaker 3: to because the election is over. So now we have
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  Speaker 3: to pivot. You've been elected.
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  Speaker 2: Can you govern? And we have to talk about governance.
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  Speaker 2: And we can discuss some of the policy issues that
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  Speaker 2: we'll see.
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  Speaker 3: Coming out of the Texas State Legislature and also the
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  Speaker 3: United States Congress. Some of the issues would be there
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  Speaker 3: in terms of divided government. And so that's where we are.
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  Speaker 3: And I want to be specific when I'm talking to
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  Speaker 3: you because I know you have an audience that follows
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  Speaker 3: you that tends to be educated and loyal. And specifically
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  Speaker 3: what I'm saying, what we saw in the state of Texas,
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  Speaker 3: there was a statewide sweep.
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  Speaker 2: We saw the flips.
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  Speaker 3: In some of the House districts, congressional districts, and clearly
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  Speaker 3: in the Texas state legislature, and we saw in the
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  Speaker 3: Texas state Senate.
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  Speaker 2: So what does that map look like?
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  Speaker 3: And for your audience, we have a bicameral Texas state legislature.
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  Speaker 3: We have a Texas state House of Representatives. The total
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  Speaker 3: count of that body is 150. Right now, 76 Democrats
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  Speaker 3: and 61 Republicans. will take their positions in January. What
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  Speaker 3: does that pretend? What does it mean? State Representative Sophronia
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  Speaker 3: Thompson is going to announce her bid for Speaker of
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  Speaker 3: the Texas State House of Representatives. History made again. And
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  Speaker 3: so that's a lot of power when you can wheel
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  Speaker 3: the gavel. What it also means in terms of the
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  Speaker 3: operation within the Texas State House of Representatives and also
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  Speaker 3: the Texas State Senators. If you're in the majority, you control,
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  Speaker 3: you can pass legislation by majority vote.
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  Speaker 2: You can get it out of your chambers. So if
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  Speaker 2: you have.
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  Speaker 3: 61 Democrats versus 61 Republicans, there's nothing they.
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  Speaker 2: Can do to stop a bill from being passed.
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  Speaker 3: And then what makes it really easy, same organization and
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  Speaker 3: makeup for the U.S.
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  Speaker 5: Congress.
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  Speaker 3: If you're in control, your party will have all of
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  Speaker 3: the committee chairpersons. The chairs are going to be from
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  Speaker 3: your party. So the chair of some of the most
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  Speaker 3: important committees. If we look at the Budget Committee, Appropriations,
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  Speaker 3: the House of Representatives.
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  Speaker 2: These will be Democrats.
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  Speaker 3: A majority of the people on those committees are going
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  Speaker 3: to be from your party. So you should be able
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  Speaker 3: to get bills out of the committee and pass them
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  Speaker 3: over to the next chamber, and that's the Senate.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what we know. We have a back-camera legislature.
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  Speaker 3: If a bill was introduced in the House, it has
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  Speaker 3: to go over, and the same bill is It has
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  Speaker 3: to be passed in identical form. If it comes back,
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  Speaker 3: if they tweak the language and all of these things,
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  Speaker 3: then it goes to a conference committee where they have
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  Speaker 3: to iron out the differences in the bill because you
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  Speaker 3: can only have a bill that can produce one law,
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  Speaker 3: and it has to be the same. So having that
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  Speaker 3: in the Senate, you may get some stalls there. However,
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  Speaker 3: the lieutenant governor is the presiding officer, just like Dan
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  Speaker 3: Patrick was. So Goodwin is now a Democrat. So she's
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  Speaker 3: the presiding officer of the Texas State Senate starting January 1st.
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  Speaker 3: So you have to have 19 votes, or what we
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  Speaker 3: call three-fifths, to bring a bill to the floor.
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  Speaker 2: Now, that's the exact number that the Republicans will have.
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  Speaker 3: It'll be 19 to 12. So you'll get some stalling
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  Speaker 3: back and forth, and you may see some division in
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  Speaker 3: the two chambers in terms of that. But I think
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  Speaker 3: if they're smart, the 19 senators, if they want to
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  Speaker 3: be relevant, because every representative, every state senator, whether you're
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  Speaker 3: in Texas, and I think I taught you this not
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  Speaker 3: so long ago, an American government and Texas government, you
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  Speaker 3: have to be able to bring home the bacon for
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  Speaker 3: your constituency, all right?
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  Speaker 2: You don't want to go over there and get lost in.
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  Speaker 3: A committee and be placed on a committee or not
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  Speaker 3: be able to get your bills passed to help the
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  Speaker 3: people back home, all right? So that's what we call
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: horse trading, going along to get along. And I think
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: that's what Sam Rabin, the former U.S. Congressman, He coined
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: that phrase from the state of Texas. And Lyndon Johnson
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  Speaker 3: was known as the master of the Senate.
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  Speaker 2: He could cajole.
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  Speaker 3: He could make, in the United States Senate, he was
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: the majority leader. He could lean on people, say, what
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: do you want? He knew all of the bad things
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: about every member and said, if you don't do this,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: what if your constituency know that you're up here? Jumping
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: in the swimming pool at night with some young.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Tenderoni, for example, right? That wouldn't be nice. You may
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: not return. So politics is hardball. It's not a softball game.
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  Speaker 2: So what? And I'll come back again. I don't know
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: if you want to have a question about that. We'll
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: come back and talk specifically.
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  Speaker 3: About those races, and we can deal with the plural
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: executive in the state of Texas.
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  Speaker 2: And that was shocking to me. I would have bet.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: I'm not a betting person, but if I could have
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: gone out and really made some money on Kelsey or
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: something like that, well, I would.
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  Speaker 2: Have put my money on Tallarico.
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  Speaker 3: But on the others, and the reason why, because in
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  Speaker 3: our polling, they were unknown, most of the Democrats who
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  Speaker 3: were running against Patrick, for example, and some of the
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  Speaker 3: others in terms of on the Republican side. And they
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: were underfunded, underfunded. And then the state representative seats and
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  Speaker 3: one of our former students knocked off Lacey Hull. and
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you know Tyler, a really nice
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: young man. But Tyler was out here on the shoes thing.
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  Speaker 3: Some of these people had $ 1, 000.
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  Speaker 2: In their budget, and some of these people had hundreds
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  Speaker 2: of thousands. And so that was the effect of.
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  Speaker 3: This quote-unquote blue wave that the tide got so high
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  Speaker 3: it swept a lot of people in the office.
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  Speaker 2: And I think Tallarico had very long coattails.
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  Speaker 3: And we can talk about locally because there was– In effect,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: some reverse coattails going on because in the counties, in particular,
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  Speaker 3: Harris County and also Tarrant County, they elected, and.
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  Speaker 2: Even Fort Bend County, black county judges.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: And, you know, the county judges, I'm talking about the
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: ones who are the administrative officers who run county commissioners' court,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: and that's our governing body in our counties.
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  Speaker 2: We saw that in Tarrant County. The lady, her last
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: name is Simmons. She's black. It's been made fair.
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  Speaker 3: Also, Latisha Plummer, first black woman Muslim county judge here.
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  Speaker 2: And so what happened, I.
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  Speaker 3: Think it was a combination of Palo Rico.
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  Speaker 2: He stayed center.
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  Speaker 3: He did not get off script. His messaging was there.
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  Speaker 3: He could have gone either way. He had a kind
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: of ecumenical or religious grounding, and he spoke to the people,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: and he knew people. that he had to appeal in
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: order not to be a rerun of what we saw
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: in 2018 with Beto O'Rourke, where they came close within
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: less than three percentage points. He was able to bring
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: everybody up, and that's unprecedented, man. That goes back almost
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: 20 or 30 years. We've never seen that in the
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: state of Texas. And, of course, you know I'm much
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: younger than you, right?
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  Speaker 2: Right. Right. So that's the thing.
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  Speaker 3: That's the thing I see that, Richard, you haven't seen.
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  Speaker 2: So, you know, I can tell you about these things,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: but those are like, you know, you got into history class. Well,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: history was made on Tuesday.
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  Speaker 3: So to go back to the discussion, we saw Cal
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Rico defeat Paxton, the margin, I think, 55 and 43 percent.
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  Speaker 3: The first Democrat elected since Lord Benson held that office
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: in 1988. We saw Jenna Hinojosa defeat Greg Abbott, 53
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: to 46 percent. Now, we were saying that Abbott was
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: up like.
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  Speaker 2: Two or three.
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  Speaker 3: And you couldn't have predicted it from the voting files
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  Speaker 3: and the people we were reaching out to and the
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: way we were waiting out surveys.
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  Speaker 2: I think it was natural. And I'm going to come back.
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  Speaker 2: You remember a guy, he was telling all the people,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: you know, throughout and all those southern states, I want
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you to turn out. Just pretend that I'm on the ballot. Well, sir.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: You were on the ballot. You were on the ballot.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Affordability was on the ballot, all right, regardless of whether
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: you were Democrat or Republican.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: And you went to that pump.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Now, it's come down in the recent days right before
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: the election, but it was hovering around $ 4 a gallon.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Here in Texas. And diesel still is $ 6 a gallon.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: So you were on the ballot.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: And we had an unpopular president in terms of that
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: normally happens in midterm elections. But this one was almost
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: 60% underwater, and that's almost unprecedented. We have to go
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: back to W, to George W. Bush, and that was
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: right after the Iraq War. And we get another war.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: And here's a guy who seems to be unfocused. I
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: don't want to say unhinged. It's not that kind of
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: new day. I'm still a government employee. I work at TSU, right?
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: We can talk about this, too.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: They haven't done away with the reasons yet.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: But some of that may be coming in terms of
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: the impact on higher education in terms of policy issues.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: So we'll come back. So I don't want to be
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: all over the place. The lieutenant governor, we saw Goodwin
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: over Patrick. And certainly we know that Greg Abbott was
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: trying to win a fourth term.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Patrick has been there forever.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: And surprisingly, she knocked him off 52 to 46.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: We didn't have it like that. It wasn't a spread
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: in our polls. And I'm going to be honest with you.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: You know, like polling, we like to think it's an
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: exact science.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: But the only poll that you can truly rely on
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: is the poll on Election Day.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: And we saw that on Tuesday. And these are the
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: numbers that I'm giving you now. Attorney General, a guy
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: by the name of Magna Mays-Milton running as a Republican.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: And the other thing is these Republicans, they had money.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: All right. They had money. And money came in. And
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: money was being pumped out. And Elon Musk spent almost
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: $ 150 million. All right. And so it was about. Even
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: more than that. Yeah. Probably more than that. $ 500 million
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: if we keep counting. Probably more than that. The money
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: came in. to try to bring the Republicans over the top,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and that failed. That failed, and that didn't work. So
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: let's talk briefly about the structure in Austin in terms
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: of what we'll see.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: What does it pretend to govern? You've got a Democratic governor,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: attorney general, and a comptroller. A lot of things are
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: happening there. In terms of the Democratic governor, we know that.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: She was out there. She said she's going to give
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: everybody $ 1, 500. Regina, I'm sitting here. I'm waiting. I'm an
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: old dude. I'm so secure. So I need my $ 1, 500, right?
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: And so we'll probably see some tweaking in terms of
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: what they call a savings account or vouchers that the
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Democrats will call them.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know whether they'll be able to do away
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: with them or whatever, because still, you've got a Senate there.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: But it's going to be a lot of discussions there.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Education reform. Now, she made the claim during the campaign,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: she being Jenna.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Hinojosa, That was Dr. Michael O.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Adams.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: He's a professor of political science and public administration at
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Texas Southern University. In 1984, as a brand new graduate
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: from the Colorado School of Mines with a shiny degree
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: in geophysical engineering, I drove from Colorado to Texas to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: begin my career supporting the oil and gas industry as
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a systems engineer at IBM. Democrat Mark White was governor then.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Democrat Mickey Leland was my congressman. And Democrats held 114
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: state house seats compared to Republicans, 36 seats. Texas was
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: considered a red state back then, however, voting red in
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: presidential elections consistently. President Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: to win Texas, and that was in 1976. So I
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: had arrived in Texas as it began a rightward shift.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Not due to demographic or policy changes, but due to
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: gerrymandering and other dirty tricks honed sharp by Karl Rove
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: and others like him. As a yellow dog Democrat, I
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: fought the good fight over the decades, winning some like
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Ann Richards, losing more like Wendy Davis, Beto O'Rourke, et cetera.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I never gave up quietly tabulating results and analyzing data,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: which showed a slow, powerful shift back to the left.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: In 2020, the data showed that Biden won the 35
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: most populous counties in Texas, representing just over 80% of
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the Texas electorate. You had to add another 40 counties,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: 10% of the electorate, before convict Trump pulled ahead. With
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: demographics shifting our way and Republican draconian policies and overreach,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Texas flipping blue was no longer a dream, but a reality.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: The only unknown variable was timing. Thanks to the Republicans
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: bowing down to an incompetent, incontinent, demented, and corrupt con man,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the move to the left was accelerated and amplified. They
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: threw gasoline on the fire and then chucked a few
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: bricks of C4 on for good measure. So, now my
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: dream of a blue Texas has come true after 42 years. Governor, Senator,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General, Railroad Commissioner, State House Majority,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: and the list goes on and on, all turning blue.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Now we Democrats have a lot to do. Repair, repeal,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and restore our state while holding the corrupt and cruel
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Texas GOP to account. We will use all the tools
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: in our bag, including investigations and impeachments, to hold Trump
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and his cronies accountable, end the war, end the vanity projects,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: end ICE, and bring economic relief to all of us.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: We have two years to make good on the promise.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: There is a lot to get done, but we can
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: do more than one thing at a time, and the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: reward is huge, 40 electoral votes for the next Democratic
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: President of the United States. I have realized my dream.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: We have returned to sanity. Now, on to the next,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: an enduring Blue Texas. After years of issuing tickets for
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: feeding the homeless downtown in front of Houston's Central Library
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and across the street from City Hall, a federal judge
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: ruled that the city of Houston violated Food Not Bomb's
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: First Amendment rights. For years, ever since Anise Parker was
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the mayor of Houston, FNB was prevented from operating downtown
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: giving food to the homeless. Houston Mayor Turner said, went
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: a step further, giving police the authority to issue citations
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to individuals with the organization giving food. Since then, some
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: 111 tickets have been issued out, totaling over $ 25, 000 in fines.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: The city had offered to move them to the old
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: police station, but they refused. In 2024, they sued the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: city for the right to give out food and not
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: be fined.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: U.S.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: District Judge Andrew S. Hansen issued the ruling. ordering that
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the parties involved have 30 days to come up with
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: a plan to work together. In the meantime, the cases
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: against the defendants are thrown out. Some of the members
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of the group gathered in front of the Houston Federal
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Building on Friday.
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: My name is Jay Hamburger.
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: I'm a vegan, and the homeless call me the Eggman,
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: because the most popular thing I serve on the streets
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: is eggs.
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: So I answer to any of those. I'm grateful.
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: I'm very grateful today to relinquish my outlaw status because
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: for the last 14 years, I've been an outlaw on.
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: The streets feeding people. I've been feeding people for.
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: More than 37 years, but particularly since the suspicious ordinance
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: has been in place, I will say that the police
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: have never bothered me. They've never asked me to move on.
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: They've never harassed me. And I've never been ticketed. So
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: I consider myself lucky for some reason.
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure why. But I know that I've been
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: subject to that.
• 22:11
  Speaker 7: The Dalai Lama, whom I follow as one of my mentors,
• 22:16
  Speaker 7: says that his religion is kindness.
• 22:19
  Speaker 6: And that's mine.
• 22:21
  Speaker 7: And I started feeding people every week and now multiple
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: times a week.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: 37 years ago.
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: Will be in about two weeks at Thanksgiving when I
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: started doing this.
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: And from a personal standpoint, the more I do, the
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: better I feel about myself, the better I feel about
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: my community. And now that this specious ordinance has been removed,
• 22:46
  Speaker 7: I feel even better about our community because the model
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: of everyone here is to commit kindness to people. And
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: I don't see any downside to it. But Nalene said,
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: I've never known anybody to get sick. Not from me,
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: not from anyone else. Because we're all diligent. We're as
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: diligent as any other purveyors of food. There's no reason
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: why our food should be or could.
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: Be less than in the finest restaurant.
• 23:16
  Speaker 7: So I'm happy to be here. I hope I'll continue on.
• 23:22
  Speaker 7: My daughter helps me. My friends help me. an honor
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: to be part of this community that feeds people. We
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: all have our own ways of doing it. Food Not Bombs,
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: I have partnered with, I've elbow bumped along the way.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: I respect what they do. I am a movable feast.
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: I cook at home.
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: I put the food in my car and I drive
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: around where the homeless are.
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: I tend to feed the ones that are.
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: Often scraped off the sidewalk, the downtrodden and the downtrodden.
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: I just feel like that's the best use of my energy.
• 24:04
  Speaker 7: And I do go to the park and I go elsewhere.
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: But as long as there's a need, which I'm afraid
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: we're always going to have the need of hungry people,
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: And as long as I live.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I'll be there to serve.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: This is Philippe Picone, one of the volunteers who was ticketed.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: So I was going to ask you, so why does
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: it feel to see this all over?
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: It's kind of bittersweet.
• 24:30
  Speaker 9: Okay, so we're still at a point, the judge ruled
• 24:33
  Speaker 9: that it's unconstitutional to impede upon us feeding and sharing food.
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: But the city still has the.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Ordinance on the books.
• 24:41
  Speaker 9: So, you know, I'm waiting for them to make that
• 24:44
  Speaker 9: move Because the judge doesn't do that. That's for the
• 24:47
  Speaker 9: city to do. So we've got bombs in the clear.
• 24:51
  Speaker 9: We're not going to be getting any more tickets.
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: That's fantastic.
• 24:54
  Speaker 9: We can continue to do our job and express ourselves.
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: That way with our freedom of speech.
• 25:01
  Speaker 9: But I'm now waiting for this new current mayor to
• 25:05
  Speaker 9: just wake up and take this ordinance up.
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: He didn't put it on. His predecessor decided to give
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: the tickets out. We thank him.
• 25:12
  Speaker 9: Because he's the one who allowed us to file the lawsuit,
• 25:16
  Speaker 9: which allowed us to win, and why we're here today.
• 25:19
  Speaker 9: But I think it's incumbent now on Whitmire to do
• 25:23
  Speaker 9: the right thing, especially after this vote that we had
• 25:27
  Speaker 9: on Tuesday that just turned Texas and the whole country blue.
• 25:30
  Speaker 9: Kind of like, let's do the right thing, because now
• 25:32
  Speaker 9: we know where the people of this country stand on issues.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: So let's take this off the bench. Let's do the
• 25:39
  Speaker 8: right thing.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Civil rights attorney Randall Callinan who represents one of the members,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: said this is far from over.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: So where are we now? We got this off the books.
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: Not off the books, but we got these tickets dismissed, right?
• 25:55
  Speaker 10: Well, the tickets aren't officially dismissed yet. The city prosecutors
• 26:00
  Speaker 10: were saying that they were waiting for this ruling. And,
• 26:03
  Speaker 10: of course, this ruling is.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Negative as to those tickets.
• 26:10
  Speaker 10: So unless they plan on appealing or something, which I
• 26:13
  Speaker 10: don't think they will, but for the moment, the tickets
• 26:15
  Speaker 10: should be dismissed because you can bring this ruling right
• 26:19
  Speaker 10: into the municipal courts and say, well, it was unconstitutional.
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: This law is unconstitutional.
• 26:25
  Speaker 10: That's a valid argument whether you're talking about a traffic
• 26:28
  Speaker 10: ticket or whether you're talking about civil rights or elections
• 26:32
  Speaker 10: or whatever.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: If it's unconstitutional, you can't have a prosecution.
• 26:36
  Speaker 11: All right.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: So we were talking about the aspect of them trying
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: to give the whole idea of.
• 26:45
  Speaker 8: Feeding a homeless man an ordinance.
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: They're trying to.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Get rid of that.
• 26:49
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it is a ridiculous ordinance, and I hope the
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: city will give good thought to getting rid of the
• 26:53
  Speaker 10: entire thing and just taking it.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Off the books.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: City Attorney Arturo Michael signaled that, even though, in the agreement,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: they will stop ticketing Food Not Bombs, the city plans
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to fight to prevent the group from serving meals outside
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: the library. by providing comparable alternative feeding locations. Hi, this
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The People's News.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: If you have a story that needs to be told,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: come to us. We accept fully produced audio, written material,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: or just give us the idea and we will run
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: with it. Shiny new one-hour episodes of The People's News
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: drop each Sunday on The People's News podcast. Hosted by Spreaker.com,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: and linked to my website, gallington.com. The overwhelming blue tsunami
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: midterm elections in the U.S. will have a significant impact
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: on the war in Ukraine. It'll affect sanctions, military support,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and weapons delivered to the Ukrainians. Russian President Vladimir Putin
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: has strong compromise on the convicted felon, Donald Trump. And
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: for the next few months, the president still has unfettered
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: control of foreign policy and the U.S. 's support of Ukraine.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: The addled 80-year-old convict in the White House has dramatically
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: eased restrictions against Russia and has signed a deal to
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: receive some diesel from Russia. With bombings continuing on both sides,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Trump met with Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Thursday
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: but didn't extend an invitation to any Ukrainians to come
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: visit him. As Russian drones continue to kill civilians, former
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: KPFT programmer and reporter in Ukraine Chris Sampson talked to
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the People's News about being what he called stabbed in
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the back by the U.S.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Government.
• 28:41
  Speaker 11: I think the first thing is that the voices that
• 28:45
  Speaker 11: will be heard in the midterms towards Donald Trump's obvious
• 28:49
  Speaker 11: criminal behavior in trying to profit off of this suffering,
• 28:54
  Speaker 11: no matter how many angles you try to come at it,
• 28:58
  Speaker 11: then That will say something. If it's an overwhelming answer
• 29:02
  Speaker 11: that says we've had enough, Ukrainians will hear that. It
• 29:07
  Speaker 11: will be very bolstering to good feelings because Ukrainians really
• 29:12
  Speaker 11: like Americans. Ukrainians represent... a lot of the best values
• 29:18
  Speaker 11: that Americans verbalize, but don't necessarily actualize. It includes forms
• 29:24
  Speaker 11: of patriotism, and I mean like soft P, not the
• 29:28
  Speaker 11: big jingoistic style, but ways in which they put something
• 29:31
  Speaker 11: else about everyone else first to get to a safer tomorrow.
• 29:38
  Speaker 11: And that includes some really, really deep fissures in politics
• 29:42
  Speaker 11: that you can get people to talk if you live here,
• 29:46
  Speaker 11: but it's not sitting around glaring like you see in
• 29:48
  Speaker 11: America right now, where it's dominating everything and the needs
• 29:52
  Speaker 11: of the people are being ignored. So it would be
• 29:56
  Speaker 11: a good affirmation. Now, number two, the actual defense. You know,
• 30:02
  Speaker 11: I don't forget every time I think about our audience,
• 30:05
  Speaker 11: especially KPFT, of the values of Lou Hill and the
• 30:08
  Speaker 11: values of the Pacific Commission, which is to bring understanding
• 30:11
  Speaker 11: to the table in order to achieve peace. And right
• 30:14
  Speaker 11: now we are so far from that in the world
• 30:17
  Speaker 11: of Trump trying to make money off of this and this.
• 30:22
  Speaker 11: His associates doing the same thing. Elon Musk having the
• 30:26
  Speaker 11: ability to simply decide he understands that war he actually
• 30:29
  Speaker 11: does not understand and deciding yes and no, impulse or not,
• 30:33
  Speaker 11: to change someone's security. We sort of ruled against that
• 30:39
  Speaker 11: sort of monarchy 250 years ago, theoretically. And it's all
• 30:45
  Speaker 11: on the international stage in front of everybody. The brass
• 30:50
  Speaker 11: tacks part of reality is like right now we're in
• 30:53
  Speaker 11: blackout and in the background generators are running so that
• 30:56
  Speaker 11: people can have their businesses operate or their lives work.
• 31:01
  Speaker 11: And the rest of the people have to wait. Power banks,
• 31:06
  Speaker 11: you know, it's daytime and it's not frozen yet. So
• 31:09
  Speaker 11: it's just kind of nippy. So people are fine. But
• 31:11
  Speaker 11: in a few weeks, it won't be that way. And
• 31:14
  Speaker 11: then they destroyed our bridge yesterday. Not destroyed, destroyed like
• 31:18
  Speaker 11: completely 100%, just a big old rocket attack right in
• 31:21
  Speaker 11: the middle of the night at a time when civilians
• 31:25
  Speaker 11: were crossing the bridge no less. It's our south bridge.
• 31:28
  Speaker 11: It's 1.5 kilometers from me walking distance. And there's a
• 31:32
  Speaker 11: big gaping hole that they're patching through that destroyed our
• 31:35
  Speaker 11: tram as well, our metro system. Now, what this does
• 31:38
  Speaker 11: for working class people is it stops the ability to
• 31:42
  Speaker 11: go to work if you're on the West side or
• 31:44
  Speaker 11: what we call right bank or vice versa. And even
• 31:47
  Speaker 11: internally on the left bank, where we could still theoretically
• 31:50
  Speaker 11: have had rail system from the first station near the
• 31:53
  Speaker 11: river out to the further East side, none of that
• 31:56
  Speaker 11: was happening either. And just started thinking about what that
• 31:59
  Speaker 11: means for people just, you know, who don't make a
• 32:01
  Speaker 11: lot of money to begin with, who work every day
• 32:03
  Speaker 11: and they can't do anything.
• 32:05
  Speaker 12: I would, I would like to say that I will
• 32:08
  Speaker 12: ask the question of the politics in Ukraine, because we
• 32:12
  Speaker 12: heard that, is that Zelensky had fired some key members.
• 32:19
  Speaker 12: Is there fallout happening within the Ukrainian?
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: No.
• 32:26
  Speaker 11: So there's a few different versions of that that are important. One,
• 32:30
  Speaker 11: Andriy Yermak months ago was his kind of chief lieutenant,
• 32:35
  Speaker 11: if you will, like the guy who really, I think
• 32:38
  Speaker 11: his number one mission was always to protect Zelensky's back.
• 32:42
  Speaker 11: And objectively speaking, Zelensky is the most hunted man in
• 32:44
  Speaker 11: the world with the Russians. And, you know, it's not
• 32:49
  Speaker 11: an easy job. Objectively speaking, by the way, to be
• 32:52
  Speaker 11: honest with you. So he was removed because of perceptions
• 32:56
  Speaker 11: and realities around corruption.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: However.
• 33:00
  Speaker 11: Later, the one that did get controversial, far more controversial,
• 33:03
  Speaker 11: was when he removed the Minister of Defense in August,
• 33:07
  Speaker 11: Mikhail Fedorov. And Fedorov represents essentially a next generation thinking
• 33:12
  Speaker 11: about use of our brains and technology to try to
• 33:16
  Speaker 11: defend people, knowing that resources are limited. That includes drone
• 33:19
  Speaker 11: warfare in order to outmaneuver big, like kinetic warfare that's
• 33:23
  Speaker 11: possible from the Russians. And I think our kind of
• 33:27
  Speaker 11: progressive audience needs to think about the proportionality there you
• 33:30
  Speaker 11: have david goliath a fight going on and so young
• 33:34
  Speaker 11: people have a faith in a technology curve that benefits
• 33:39
  Speaker 11: them trying to just think their way through and um
• 33:43
  Speaker 11: it's a it's a cheap versus expensive uh rationale so
• 33:47
  Speaker 11: that's what he represented when zielinski removes him and everyone
• 33:50
  Speaker 11: went what's like are you so that created a lot
• 33:53
  Speaker 11: of fight in the street verbally. And here's what I
• 33:56
  Speaker 11: think is really important. I filmed it, and not one
• 33:59
  Speaker 11: baton came out from a police officer to crack anyone's head.
• 34:02
  Speaker 11: Wasn't like Yanukovych in 2014. Wasn't like we see on
• 34:05
  Speaker 11: TV in America or just about anything now. People stayed
• 34:10
  Speaker 11: in their positions for weeks to say, we want him back.
• 34:13
  Speaker 11: We want these changes. Some of the changes were happened,
• 34:16
  Speaker 11: including relieving the longtime commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Sersky,
• 34:22
  Speaker 11: Oleksandr Sersky, who had been in command from the beginning.
• 34:25
  Speaker 11: And so that was a, you know, putting quotes like
• 34:28
  Speaker 11: a victory for the audience wanting that. And then Fedorov
• 34:32
  Speaker 11: wasn't returned, but Fedorov has moved back into the area
• 34:35
  Speaker 11: he's most passionate for, which is building outside support where
• 34:39
  Speaker 11: like Donald Trump's failure won't matter or it won't hurt
• 34:43
  Speaker 11: as much, right? Sustenance that on a The way I
• 34:48
  Speaker 11: grew up in Houston, when we say good nationalism, as
• 34:50
  Speaker 11: they call it, when a local population keeps getting beholden
• 34:55
  Speaker 11: to someone else's whims, we all learn the hard way,
• 34:58
  Speaker 11: don't do that. Ukrainians are doing that, and he represents
• 35:02
  Speaker 11: that to the young generation. This includes IT. It's not
• 35:05
  Speaker 11: just about weapons. It's development of AI, development of IT
• 35:09
  Speaker 11: in Ukraine as an opportunity for low-income reality to match
• 35:13
  Speaker 11: some equality.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: In the world.
• 35:17
  Speaker 11: But the government is not falling apart or any of
• 35:21
  Speaker 11: that type of stuff. It's a dynamic....
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: I say it this way.
• 35:27
  Speaker 11: Democracy is messy and autocracy is neat. So when things
• 35:31
  Speaker 11: get messy here and people go, oh my god, it's messy.
• 35:33
  Speaker 11: That's kind of good, actually. Because if it was neat,
• 35:38
  Speaker 11: I couldn't go out and film a protest without someone saying,
• 35:41
  Speaker 11: everyone get in line and do it like this. I
• 35:42
  Speaker 11: know the society in front of me. It's not an autocracy.
• 35:46
  Speaker 11: It's policy paralysis by populism.
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: Two questions.
• 35:51
  Speaker 12: I'm saying Melania Trump, which is Trump's wife, had negotiated
• 35:59
  Speaker 12: a truce in the area. Also, Starlink, how much was
• 36:05
  Speaker 12: that in control of Elon Musk and how much was
• 36:09
  Speaker 12: it in control of the Trump administration.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: As far as.
• 36:15
  Speaker 12: not Starlink going down and not being able to be used.
• 36:19
  Speaker 11: Let me do the Starlink first. And I know, let
• 36:21
  Speaker 11: me do the Melania first.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 36:23
  Speaker 11: So Oleski, the town I'm referring to, um, as Houstonians,
• 36:27
  Speaker 11: let's think of your song, like Galveston, you know, um,
• 36:30
  Speaker 11: the Houston Galveston area, you know, Southern, the tropical, uh,
• 36:35
  Speaker 11: climate and everything.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: So right.
• 36:40
  Speaker 11: Right across the, um, River is a city called Oleshki
• 36:45
  Speaker 11: right across the Dnieper River. And I've actually been at
• 36:49
  Speaker 11: the last part of that, you know, free world and
• 36:53
  Speaker 11: occupied world at the park right here in Kyrgyzstan overseeing Oleshki.
• 36:58
  Speaker 11: It's a marshy swampy area before you get this little town.
• 37:03
  Speaker 11: And the Pope had already been discussing this recently in
• 37:06
  Speaker 11: a phone call. because the outcry has been raising louder
• 37:10
  Speaker 11: and louder to free Oleschke, to bring humanitarian aid there.
• 37:15
  Speaker 11: And the Pope got involved, and then all of a
• 37:17
  Speaker 11: sudden there was a few days ago an announcement that
• 37:20
  Speaker 11: Melania had somehow brokered a peace deal to have a
• 37:26
  Speaker 11: ceasefire until November 1st. One good, I mean, any kind
• 37:32
  Speaker 11: of ceasefire, I don't care, that helps people get rescued.
• 37:35
  Speaker 11: But I think people should pay attention to what the
• 37:37
  Speaker 11: nuances were. Russia demanded that everyone in that village who
• 37:40
  Speaker 11: wanted to leave first has to go into Russia before
• 37:43
  Speaker 11: they're allowed to go into Ukraine somewhere.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:47
  Speaker 11: And that's messed up. You don't have freedom when the
• 37:50
  Speaker 11: dominating invading force says, but before you go anywhere, this
• 37:54
  Speaker 11: free thing that you think you are, you have to
• 37:56
  Speaker 11: go to this thing first. It's already illegitimate anyway, before
• 38:00
  Speaker 11: you can go where you really want to go. The
• 38:02
  Speaker 11: question should be on the spot to international third party.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Where would you like to go? Ukraine. Boom.
• 38:06
  Speaker 11: You're in the van. You're going to Ukraine. Not you
• 38:09
  Speaker 11: go into the captive area. That should be just a
• 38:12
  Speaker 11: reality thing. So people should pay attention. That was one
• 38:14
  Speaker 11: of the demands of Russia. And essentially, I don't know
• 38:18
  Speaker 11: how they're doing that process right now. Now, to Starlink.
• 38:21
  Speaker 11: So what they did was throttled the speed of the
• 38:24
  Speaker 11: data transmission. The Shahid drones are now exceeding 700 to
• 38:30
  Speaker 11: upwards to 900 kilometers per hour speed, which is really,
• 38:34
  Speaker 11: really freaking fast. I have a video clip from a
• 38:39
  Speaker 11: couple of nights ago on my mapping app. where it'll
• 38:42
  Speaker 11: lock in on a couple of them. And I know
• 38:45
  Speaker 11: my city distance pretty well, especially on foot and in car.
• 38:48
  Speaker 11: And I was stunned at how fast that thing was
• 38:50
  Speaker 11: moving around before I could spot it in my distance,
• 38:53
  Speaker 11: which confirmed that the map was pretty reliable. So an
• 38:57
  Speaker 11: interceptor has to achieve that speed also. Well, when you
• 39:01
  Speaker 11: say an interceptor or any kind of drone using Starlink
• 39:04
  Speaker 11: can't go above 160 kilometers per hour in data speed
• 39:08
  Speaker 11: before it just basically stops transmitting, then essentially all of
• 39:11
  Speaker 11: the gadgets that help to intercept those deadly weapons are useless.
• 39:18
  Speaker 11: Because a guy named Elon decided he doesn't like it.
• 39:21
  Speaker 11: He just decided, you know, no experience, no experience. He's
• 39:24
  Speaker 11: not in the chain of command, never been voted for,
• 39:26
  Speaker 11: never been authorized to make such a decision, lied about it, said, oh, no,
• 39:30
  Speaker 11: it wasn't me. It had to have been at the
• 39:31
  Speaker 11: White House. White House says, oh, it wasn't us. Then
• 39:34
  Speaker 11: he comes out. It was him. Meanwhile, he's smacking and
• 39:37
  Speaker 11: saying Zelensky's got to go. Why does Zelensky have to
• 39:39
  Speaker 11: go when it's Putin who launched the war? Why is
• 39:42
  Speaker 11: it Zelensky has to go when it's Putin who Trump
• 39:44
  Speaker 11: wants to make the diesel deal with, who wants to
• 39:46
  Speaker 11: extract the minerals from Ukraine? But it's Zelensky. Because Elon
• 39:51
  Speaker 11: Musk can't pay attention to the last thought that was
• 39:53
  Speaker 11: just put on his table. And yet he's going to
• 39:56
  Speaker 11: make a decision. And now the Pentagon and other entities
• 40:00
  Speaker 11: have said, I'm.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Sorry, what?
• 40:02
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 40:05
  Speaker 11: No, we're not really cool with that. Trump then is
• 40:10
  Speaker 11: reported to have asked permission for Musk to restore them
• 40:15
  Speaker 11: back to where they should be. That is insane. All
• 40:19
  Speaker 11: of it insane.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: And then when you.
• 40:21
  Speaker 11: The way I like to do it as a journalist
• 40:22
  Speaker 11: is I sort of do a testing on each of
• 40:24
  Speaker 11: the claims. I leave them there and I wait to
• 40:26
  Speaker 11: see which gravity drops hardest. And it's pretty obvious that
• 40:30
  Speaker 11: Elon Musk wanted to do this because he mentioned it
• 40:32
  Speaker 11: all throughout this last year. I wrote about it in
• 40:33
  Speaker 11: four different articles, how he keeps... wanting to tinker with
• 40:37
  Speaker 11: his magic ray gun is what I call it. So
• 40:40
  Speaker 11: just shift the metaphor. It's a satellite that says, no,
• 40:43
  Speaker 11: it's Trump's friend has a magic little ray gun until
• 40:47
  Speaker 11: he doesn't want to play ball. And then he decides
• 40:49
  Speaker 11: he does want to do it, doesn't want to do it.
• 40:51
  Speaker 11: And Trump has to ask him or the president has
• 40:53
  Speaker 11: to ask him, can you please help us with your
• 40:55
  Speaker 11: magic ray gun? Because the aliens are here to wipe
• 40:57
  Speaker 11: out our population.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: Maybe.
• 40:59
  Speaker 11: I don't know if you should fire back at the
• 41:01
  Speaker 11: aliens because what do the aliens do? That's very Elon Musk.
• 41:04
  Speaker 11: in an algorithmic form, to be honest with you. He
• 41:07
  Speaker 11: keeps making bizarre combinations about how things work that are
• 41:11
  Speaker 11: not how things work. And he can decide to slow
• 41:14
  Speaker 11: down data speed and then lie and say, well, terms
• 41:18
  Speaker 11: of service was violated. Excuse me? This is all insane.
• 41:23
  Speaker 11: It's actually not based in technical realities. Now, to the
• 41:28
  Speaker 11: general audience, the general audience may say, oh, I don't know.
• 41:30
  Speaker 11: It sounds bad. Maybe Ukraine hacked something and they shouldn't
• 41:33
  Speaker 11: be supposed to hack it. When you're defending, hack. I'm
• 41:37
  Speaker 11: going to just tell you that right out. Every human
• 41:39
  Speaker 11: being here listening, if you had the difference between not
• 41:42
  Speaker 11: hacking that system to save a thousand lives and hacking
• 41:45
  Speaker 11: that system to a thousand lives, hack that system and
• 41:47
  Speaker 11: save a thousand lives. That's the reality of war.
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm going to wrap it up.
• 41:53
  Speaker 12: Anything else you might want to convey to Americans that
• 41:58
  Speaker 12: might be listening?
• 41:58
  Speaker 6: Sure.
• 42:03
  Speaker 11: I still believe that there are great Americans who are
• 42:06
  Speaker 11: very common in the good sense of work every day
• 42:09
  Speaker 11: and have lives just trying to fulfill. Shouldn't have to
• 42:13
  Speaker 11: wake up and pull on a national identity on yourself.
• 42:16
  Speaker 11: But unfortunately, it is on your shoulders. And I say
• 42:19
  Speaker 11: this to people who are always trying to pass the
• 42:21
  Speaker 11: buck on to someone else. You know, you have a
• 42:24
  Speaker 11: person in Congress that sometimes gets called a representative. And
• 42:27
  Speaker 11: the reason is because they're supposed to basically be there
• 42:30
  Speaker 11: in your proxy and proxy for your interest. If they're not,
• 42:35
  Speaker 11: make them do that thing that you know that they
• 42:37
  Speaker 11: should do because it's on you. You're the one who's
• 42:39
  Speaker 11: supposed to help make sure your district comes together, your state,
• 42:41
  Speaker 11: your community comes together. And don't expect anyone else to
• 42:45
  Speaker 11: be doing it. Don't wait for the magic news hour
• 42:47
  Speaker 11: to read the magic news that says Trump's going to prison. Like,
• 42:50
  Speaker 11: do your part to put him in prison.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Whatever that is.
• 42:54
  Speaker 11: And, you know, I like creative people, so I won't
• 42:56
  Speaker 11: demand a list. But I think that that shift in
• 42:58
  Speaker 11: mentality is important. It's called mobilization here. And even here
• 43:02
  Speaker 11: in Ukraine, people struggle with it. They have to find
• 43:04
  Speaker 11: some way to validate their purpose in surviving. And it's
• 43:09
  Speaker 11: really bad in America what's happening. I watch the news
• 43:11
  Speaker 11: every day. So I'm with you guys in– God bless
• 43:14
  Speaker 11: our wonderful city of Houston.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: That was Chris Sampson reporting live in Ukraine. The air
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: quality in Houston has gotten worse over the years, with
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: fires at chemical plants up and down the coast. These
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: chemical plants have gotten a free pass from Republican Texas
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Governor Greg Abbott and his supporters in the Texas House,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: citing job protection and regulation hurts businesses. People living in
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: coastal communities like Pasadena, LaPorte, and anywhere around the ship channel,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: will face even more problems breathing in the future. At
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: a public event in Lubbock on this past Tuesday night,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: the convicted felon in the White House, Donald Trump, announced
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to weaken safeguards
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: against methane and other harmful pollutants from oil and gas operations.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: The proposal would eliminate emission standards for low-producing wells, eliminate
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the methane super-emitter program for identifying and responding to major releases,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: and weakened restrictions on routine flaring, that is, the burning
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: of excess gas. When the EPA finalized the existing standards
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: in 2023, it projected that the rules would prevent 58
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: million tons of methane emissions and 590,000 tons of toxic
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: air pollutants between 2024 and 2038. delivering approximately $ 97 billion
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: in net climate and ozone-related health benefits. The removal of
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: these standards will bring even more health problems to communities.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: We talked to John Goldstein, Associate Vice President of Energy
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Transition at the Environmental Defense Fund.
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a big problem. So the Trump administration has
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: proposed a major rollback to common sense protections that were
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: put in place in 2024. to limit methane pollution and
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: waste from oil and gas development. And Texas is the
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: largest producer of both oil and gas in the United States.
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: So it is very much going to impact Texas for sure.
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: And it's a pollution problem. Methane is a very powerful
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: greenhouse gas, 80 times more powerful in the short term
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: at driving climate change than carbon dioxide. It's a problem
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: for public health. The pollution that comes up along with
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: the methane from these oil and gas wells is also
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: going to increase if this proposal is finalized. And what's
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: interesting is it's also a problem as far as energy security.
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: Methane is natural gas. And so the gas that we
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: use to cook dinner, to heat our homes, is largely
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: made up of methane. And so when we're wasting it,
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: when we're allowing it to leak out from a well site,
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: when we're flaring it, like they're doing way too much
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: of in the Permian, we're wasting energy. And that has
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: already rung up to the tune of $ 7 billion worth
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: of wasted natural gas since the Trump administration delayed these
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: rules about 18 months ago. And that's only going to
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: get worse if this proposal is finalized.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: We already see people within the Gulf region, especially dealing
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: with Corpus Christi all the way up until you get to.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: Beaumont, actually.
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: And all these communities have been suffering from environmental waste
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: as far as pollution coming from the petrochemical plants. How
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: is this going to affect them?
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: These rules are definitely going to impact more the areas
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: in Texas where there's oil and gas drilling versus the
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: processing of those, you know, those things. Although there are
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: other proposals from the Trump administration that are certainly going
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: to have negative impacts on places like Beaumont and Corpus Christi.
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: But this rule in particular, you're going to see the
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: impacts more in places like the Permian out in West Texas,
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: in the Eagleford down in sort of South Texas, areas
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: around Dallas and Fort Worth where there's been drilling for
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: natural gas, parts of Texas like that.
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: We're already seeing where the government of Texas, especially the
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: Texas governor, has lessened rules and environmental rules in Texas
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: and also gave tax breaks to these companies in Texas.
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: Does that make living in Texas even harder as far
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: as taking their children?
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: So what's interesting is that, you know, these rules at
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: the federal level, these methane rules, have been supported by
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: forward-leaning oil and gas companies. So it's not like everybody
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: in industry has been clamoring for them to be rescinded.
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: Some in the industry have seen that they want a
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: level playing field. They want to be able to show
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: that they are trying to limit pollution and waste from
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: their industry. Others, unfortunately, have been asking for these to
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: be rolled back. And those, you know, less helpful voices
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: are the ones that have the ear of the Trump
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: administration currently, unfortunately. And Texas legislators. Oh, yeah. And Governor Perry.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: Sorry, Governor Abbott. So, yeah, so it's an issue. And
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: it's really, I think, important for those leaders in industry,
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: the folks that see the benefit of having stable regulatory
• 48:51
  Speaker 5: policies in place. It's time for them to step up.
• 48:54
  Speaker 5: There's a comment period open now on these proposals from
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: the Trump administration, and I would really call on them
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: to make sure their voices are heard in terms of
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: wanting to keep a stable environment.
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: How do you get involved? You say the comment period
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: is going on right now.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: How do you stop this?
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: Is it too late to stop this from happening, or.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: Is it a done deal.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: Because the Trump administration can make an administrative decision, correct?
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not a done deal at all. So they
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: have a comment period open. It's open through the middle
• 49:27
  Speaker 5: of December, and folks can go to regulations.gov and file
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: comments directly with EPA. EPA is legally required to consider those.
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: um in what it in what it finalizes and then
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: um you know there are you know what once a
• 49:43
  Speaker 5: rule gets finalized then there are you know legal uh
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: actions that can be taken um to to try and
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: stop that if if it has been done unlawfully or
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: without fully considering you know what the public has been saying.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Are you hoping for are you hoping for the the
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: a new congress or senate to u.s congress and u.s
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: senate to come in place so that may stop this
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: from happening.
• 50:06
  Speaker 5: You know, I think there's definitely, you know, that seems
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: to be in the wind, right? You know, what's interesting
• 50:14
  Speaker 5: in that regard is we actually just did some polling
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: to look at, you know, support for things like these
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: methane rules. And we found that 72% of voters across
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: five oil and gas producing states actually want these rules.
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: And the highest state in terms of that support for
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: these rules was Texas, was 74%. And I think that
• 50:35
  Speaker 5: that shows, you know, why there seems to be a
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: change brewing in terms of, you know, what's going to
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: happen next week with the midterms. And, yeah, I think
• 50:45
  Speaker 5: that that's certainly going to be a good thing if
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: it restores some balance in terms of, you know, checks
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: on things like this rule, this rule rollback, that is
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: obviously not what the voters and the people want.
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: Speaking of climate change, there was a report that just
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: came out saying.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: That even though.
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: That countries around the world, especially the United States, have
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: done nothing as far as stopping the climate from warming,
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: and we should expect more as far as hotter weather
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: and different changes in weather.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Did you want to say anything about that?
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: It's certainly concerning. Absolutely, the methane problem is sort of
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: the lowest hanging fruit when you're wanting to address climate change.
• 51:34
  Speaker 5: Since it is a product that the oil and gas
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: industry sells, since it is so powerful at driving climate
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: change in the short term, it's really what we need
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: to be addressing ASAP. And, you know, that's why we
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: need to make sure to keep these rules in place
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: so that we can limit that pollution and waste.
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: How can people find out about you and your organization?
• 51:55
  Speaker 5: Go to edf.org and, you know, I'd love to have
• 52:00
  Speaker 5: folks reach out if they have questions.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: That was John Goldstein, Associate Vice President for Energy Transition
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: at the Environmental Defense Fund. The FIFA World Cup 2026
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: Houston Host Committee and Sports Authority Foundation released their Sustainability
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: and Human Rights Report, a comprehensive data-driven measurement of the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: tournament's impact on the environment, human rights, and youth soccer legacy.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Even before Houston was chosen to host the world, we
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: made responsible event hosting and meaningful impact a priority, said
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Chris Canetti, president of FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee.
• 52:42
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I think there's a lot to learn.
• 52:43
  Speaker 13: Anytime you host an event of this magnitude, you can
• 52:45
  Speaker 13: always have the best laid plans and things, you know,
• 52:48
  Speaker 13: go the way they go. And look, this was the
• 52:50
  Speaker 13: largest sporting event in the history of the world. And
• 52:52
  Speaker 13: nobody had ever really pulled off something on this magnitude.
• 52:56
  Speaker 13: 16 cities across three countries. 104 matches, 48 teams competing. So,
• 53:01
  Speaker 13: you know, everybody kind of went into this without a
• 53:04
  Speaker 13: master playbook and plan. And, you know, I think to
• 53:07
  Speaker 13: our credit as a host committee here in Houston, as
• 53:09
  Speaker 13: a city as a whole, the planning went to perfection.
• 53:14
  Speaker 13: We really had no hiccups along the way. But again,
• 53:17
  Speaker 13: that said, you always learn things. You take from your learnings,
• 53:20
  Speaker 13: you get better. And I think that's one of the
• 53:22
  Speaker 13: things we're proud of is we've established a playbook coming
• 53:25
  Speaker 13: out of the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a host
• 53:27
  Speaker 13: committee here in Houston. And that playbook is going to
• 53:30
  Speaker 13: be something that other events here in Houston and around
• 53:32
  Speaker 13: the world can. utilize going forward for best practices on
• 53:36
  Speaker 13: how to put on events.
• 53:37
  Speaker 14: I didn't mean to diminish the successes you guys had.
• 53:39
  Speaker 14: What I specifically meant is you had the employment stuff,
• 53:42
  Speaker 14: and so you had to get mobile real quick. You
• 53:45
  Speaker 14: had some challenges, and you had to pivot. So as
• 53:49
  Speaker 14: a result of a lot of those challenges that you
• 53:51
  Speaker 14: guys have faced, what do you think was the big
• 53:53
  Speaker 14: takeaway change or the big takeaway advice you have for
• 53:55
  Speaker 14: future sites?
• 53:56
  Speaker 13: Yeah, I think, look, again, it's a little bit of
• 53:59
  Speaker 13: a challenging question to answer, but here's the way it's
• 54:01
  Speaker 13: kind of coming to my head. um, nobody had ever
• 54:04
  Speaker 13: done a fan festival in Edo before, right? Where a
• 54:06
  Speaker 13: million people had come into the neighborhood. So again, we
• 54:08
  Speaker 13: put together a plan. Um, and you know, from day one,
• 54:12
  Speaker 13: you realize that, you know, these things are going to
• 54:14
  Speaker 13: come up, these things are going to happen that you
• 54:15
  Speaker 13: couldn't have anticipated. And I also, so I think that's
• 54:18
  Speaker 13: a credit to our team is, um, you know, to
• 54:20
  Speaker 13: have built up this, uh, this venue at it from
• 54:24
  Speaker 13: scratch and have been parking lots and green spaces and
• 54:26
  Speaker 13: streets and to, uh, have it go so flawlessly was
• 54:29
  Speaker 13: a testament to our team. But again, Every single day
• 54:32
  Speaker 13: there was something new that you learned, something better that
• 54:34
  Speaker 13: came up that you can address and fix and make
• 54:38
  Speaker 13: it a better, safer experience for everybody.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Our goal was to turn a once-in-a-generation event into lasting
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: change for Houston through collaboration and a shared culture of sustainability,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: said Elizabeth Carlson, chair of the Sustainability Committee for the
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee.
• 54:56
  Speaker 15: Today we're launching the Sustainability and Human Rights Report. a
• 55:00
  Speaker 15: sort of detailed accounting of the different environmental and social
• 55:04
  Speaker 15: impacts associated with the World Cup and specifically the Fan
• 55:07
  Speaker 15: Festival and legacy results. It's aligned with international standards, so
• 55:11
  Speaker 15: there's various international kind of guidelines on how you do
• 55:15
  Speaker 15: sustainability reporting, and we wanted to make sure that we
• 55:17
  Speaker 15: followed those. So it covers things like energy and waste
• 55:20
  Speaker 15: and other types of air quality impacts, definitely the human
• 55:26
  Speaker 15: rights side. There's a lot of different aspects on worker welfare,
• 55:29
  Speaker 15: And so, yeah, just very kind of comprehensive.
• 55:31
  Speaker 12: Yeah, if you talk about the human rights aspect of things,
• 55:33
  Speaker 12: because we talk about that all the time.
• 55:35
  Speaker 15: I would say talk to Aminul on the human rights side,
• 55:36
  Speaker 15: because she's the expert on that piece. On the environmental side,
• 55:40
  Speaker 15: I can say things like, you know, for waste, we
• 55:42
  Speaker 15: put a lot of attention into how we divert waste
• 55:44
  Speaker 15: from the landfill and how we reduce waste up front
• 55:47
  Speaker 15: by using more sustainable materials. So having recyclable packaging, reusable packaging. packaging,
• 55:52
  Speaker 15: you know, trying to reuse things as much as possible.
• 55:54
  Speaker 15: So things like turf was donated to animal shelters and
• 55:57
  Speaker 15: other uses so that it doesn't have to go to
• 56:00
  Speaker 15: landfill or food, excess food that was able to be
• 56:03
  Speaker 15: re-served or replated through second servings with local nonprofits.
• 56:06
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 56:07
  Speaker 15: Had over 4,000 kilograms of food donated to the community
• 56:10
  Speaker 15: and over 12,000 kilograms of organic material. So compostable packaging
• 56:17
  Speaker 15: or food that couldn't be eaten was composted.
• 56:20
  Speaker 11: So it turned into.
• 56:21
  Speaker 15: Compost rather than going to the landfill. So that was
• 56:23
  Speaker 15: a big part of our focus.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: And was there a fear when going in on the
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: east side because you have the petrochemical plants right in
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: the strip tunnel right down the street?
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: Was that happening? Was that something?
• 56:33
  Speaker 15: Yeah, I mean, we wanted to make sure that we
• 56:34
  Speaker 15: monitored air quality, so we did have an air quality
• 56:36
  Speaker 15: monitoring network with Airlines Houston, and so the results of
• 56:39
  Speaker 15: that are in here on match days. The air quality
• 56:42
  Speaker 15: index was actually better than the pre-tournament, so that's not
• 56:45
  Speaker 15: really comparable because you never know. There could be weather.
• 56:47
  Speaker 15: There could be a lot of things that drive air quality.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 56:49
  Speaker 15: But at least we know we didn't make it worse,
• 56:51
  Speaker 15: which was a positive. And I think a lot of
• 56:52
  Speaker 15: that was because of the encouragement of using public transit
• 56:55
  Speaker 15: and trying to use renewable energy and electricity on the
• 56:59
  Speaker 15: fan fossil rather than using generators and other types of
• 57:02
  Speaker 15: more polluting sources.
• 57:06
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