-
Unknown A
Welcome everybody to Crystal Kyle and friends. Today we're going to be talking to Judd Legum of Muskwatch. He used to be of Popular Information.
-
Unknown B
I think he still does that too.
-
Unknown A
Oh, he does that as well. Okay. I thought they transferred over Popular Information to Musquatch, which would be totally legitimate on its own, but I guess, I guess he's doing both things now. Yeah, yeah. So he's gonna give us, I think he's gotten a bunch of scoops on what's going on with Musk and his little gaggle of 19 year old pilled up droiper sycophants who are committing crimes on a daily basis. So he's on top of that and he's going to give us all the tea. So really looking forward to that conversation. But before we get to that, man, the hits just keep rolling in. So we got news the other day that US aid, so the US aid freeze, which of course was this big issue. Now I had initially read that Elon Musk and Trump agreed with the courts, or at least they conceded to the courts that okay, we have to unfreeze some of this stuff.
-
Unknown A
That was what, what I initially read, but now since then I've read a number of things that they're just not complying vis a vis a lot of the court orders. There's 23 lawsuits against these guys right now. Not all of them are around the Doge stuff, but a lot of them are. And so you know, you have J.D. vance and Elon Musk sort of saying, well, who the hell are these judges? Screw them. Like we don't need to listen to them. Which is of course insane. Right? But we just got word like this is the real world impact of what happens with when you do something like willy nilly with no debate, no discussion and no planning, frees all the US aid funding. The US aid freeze has claimed its first victim as oxygen supplies are cut off. So a 71 year old woman died after being sent home from a USAID funded hospitals.
-
Unknown A
And the question now is like, how many people have already died as a result of these freezes? So with this case in particular, it's a 71 year old woman, her oxygen supply was cut off when they froze the funding. She's a refugee from Myanmar living in a displacement camp in Thailand and she was sent home and a few days later, boom, drop dead. So I mean it's a real legitimate question now, like with freezing all of this funding across the board, no caring about what the individual stuff is actually going for, how Many people have died. I know that they froze the HIV medication, and as a direct result of that, we have, like, hundreds of kids that already have HIV now because the medicine was cut. Like, this is what happens, bro. This is what happens. And frankly, I don't think they care.
-
Unknown B
They don't.
-
Unknown A
I don't think they care. Why? Well, I mean, not that they would care if it was an American who was dying, because they cut the funding, because that's gonna happen soon, too. But in this instance, you're dealing with a refugee from Myanmar. You think Trump gives two shits about that? You think Elon Musk gives two shits about that? But these are the real world implications.
-
Unknown B
Yeah, that's exactly right. And there have been already catastrophic consequences not only with that, but, I mean, the killing PEPFAR is a utter disaster.
-
Unknown A
That's the HIV thing, right?
-
Unknown B
That's the HIV thing. And in particular, I was reading how, you know, they really work with kids, babies who are infected with HIV already when they're born. And if you can, it's tricky getting them the proper dosage because they're babies, et cetera, but, you know, it can be really managed, and if it isn't managed, they can die, and they can die really quickly. Like, that's what we're talking about here. And for what? I mean, the amount of money that we spend over the whole budget of USAID is like 0.7%, right?
-
Unknown A
Less than 1% of the federal budget.
-
Unknown B
And listen, you know, they do all kinds of, like, you know, propping up this and that and meddling and democratic, you know, Cold War type bullshit. There's no doubt about that. But I think people who think that that's what they're going after by gutting usaid, like, you're being. You're being played, You're a fool, you're naive. Because what they say is they want to take the remaining functions and put them under the Marco Rubio State Department. And you think they're going to cut out the, like, regime change bullshit? Like, give me a break.
-
Unknown A
All they're going to do is the regime change bullshit.
-
Unknown B
Anything that was actually genuinely good that they were doing, that's gonna be killed. But the, you know, let's make a Cuban Twitter and let's mess around in this or that Latin American country. Like, that's gonna be if anything ramped up. So it's just, you know, I mean, it just, it really does expose a sort of sick ideology. And even if you don't give a shit about anyone who doesn't live in the United States of America, which I think is a disgusting view to have. But even if that's you, they also completely stranded Americans who work for USAID in a lot of dangerous parts of the world in conflict zones and like totally pulled their funding, left them to fend for themselves, stripped the like, you know, security resources that they had. And I was reading in one of the lawsuits an account of a woman who was trying to her and her family flee one of these conflict zones that they had been left in, abandoned in by the United States government.
-
Unknown B
Like, what are we doing here? And it's all just such. It's all just such bullshit too. And we'll talk to Judd more about this as well. Like the idea that this is cutting waste and fraud.
-
Unknown A
It's just a lie. It's a lie.
-
Unknown B
Such a lie.
-
Unknown A
It's a lie.
-
Unknown B
Utterly preposterous.
-
Unknown A
Anybody in the media who writes that down who says, oh, Elon and Doge and Trump are going after waste, fraud and abuse. You are being played for a fool.
-
Unknown B
Yeah.
-
Unknown A
Because the reality is they call everything that they don't ideologically agree with waste, fraud and abuse. How is it getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse to dismantle the entire Department of Education. How is it getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse to. To dismantle the anti SCAM Police, the CFPB, which has returned so much money to America's $20 billion to Americans who are defrauded by big financial institutions. In fact, it's quite the opposite. You are on the side of the fraud if you're killing the anti scam police. Exactly right. So you're actually ramping up the fraud. So. And Crystal, this ideology comes for everybody, right? Everybody that's not a robber baron. That the 71 year old woman died because they cut off her oxygen. Republicans just released their budget they want ready for this, an $880 billion cut to Medicaid, which would basically destroy Medicaid.
-
Unknown A
Well, what is Medicaid? It's health care for low income people and disabled people. So they're bringing this here at the same time, by the way. And again, we'll talk to Jed about this. Judd. Jed. Judd, Jed. Fuck. Now I lost my. I know what I was gonna say. The $400 million that Elon just got as a subsidy to make an armored Tesla.
-
Unknown B
Armored cybertrucks.
-
Unknown A
Yeah. And by the way, like remember that thing that happened a few years back where he said this thing is bulletproof and then he swung a sledgehammer at the window and it broke. That's the guy you're giving a $400 million contract to? So the same day he's dismantling the Department of Education. Yeah, he's getting $400 million, the largest.
-
Unknown B
State Department contract for 2025 going into the pocket of Elon Musk. And apparently after Ryan and the crew over at drop site reported on that, they've now gone into the procurement spreadsheet that's public and said and taken out that it's specifically for Teslas. And said it's for armored EVs, armored electric vehicles. But it's too late. The cat's already out of the bag. And that's the thing. It's like not only that, but I mean, are we really supposed to believe the richest man on the planet who gets $15 billion from the federal government, who's being sued by countless number of agencies. This is the guy that's going to audit the federal government and root out the waste, fraud, abuse. Give me a break. It's obvious what's going on here. He is consolidating power. He is stripping the government of any capacity to check him or any other oligarchs ambitions and doing the things that they want to do.
-
Unknown B
We really, in these first couple of weeks have had a deregulatory speed run and it's not being done by you know, passing legislation, debating oh, would it be good if we roll back this or that regulation? No, it's being done by completely gutting and destroying the agencies that check these robber barons, cfpb, the National Labor Relations Board, also the securities and Exchange Commission, every single one of them is being destroyed so that they cannot enforce the laws that continue to be on the books and that the people who run them have no interest in enforcing the laws that are on the books. So you know, if you thought the end of Glass, Steagall and these various deregulatory moves that were made over decades were horrific, which they were, and led to a gigantic financial crash which they did. Like hold onto your butts because this is that on steroids.
-
Unknown A
And by the way, Ellen, if you're against big government and this thing is purely just ideological, you should first and foremost give back every penny you've ever taken from corporate welfare from the taxpayers. That means the tens of billions of dollars you've gotten from American taxpayers, not only should you return it, you, you should return it with interest, right? Like oh hey man, I'm in favor of small government, ideologically speaking, that's my view. Okay, give up all your subsidies first and foremost, right? And that's the last thing he would do. In fact, he's increasing the amount of subsidies he gets. Because this is how the game works. If you're a robber baron, what they want to do is loot the treasury, take all the tax money for themselves, let them and their buddies get rich off of it, but slash everything that helps regular people.
-
Unknown A
Everything. Cfpb, the Department of Education, you know, all these things that we're talking about here. Medicaid. Like, guys, the game is obvious. The game is clear. And what drove me crazy is him, you know, Elon standing in the Oval Office and doing his little press conference. And the way that these people, both Trump and Elon, the way that they could just shamelessly lie about everything they say, it really is astonishing. Oh, oh. If there was a conflict of interest, then people would know. This is what Elon said. Dude, there's 11 government agencies that are currently investigating you for violations, and you're dismantling them right in front of everybody. Like, what do you think, we're stupid?
-
Unknown B
Yeah. What do you think?
-
Unknown A
None of us have ever read anything on any of this.
-
Unknown B
If there was a conflict of interest, we would know. Yeah, we do know.
-
Unknown A
Right, Exactly. So get the fuck out of the way.
-
Unknown B
Get out of there. Some of them, yeah. I mean, it's. It's wild what's happening. And I think it's important to keep your eye on the big picture here, which is it is an illegal power grab. Like, this man needs to be out of government and in prison. That's the bottom line. Because even the damage that's already been done to these agencies, even that damage would be. Would take years of really concerted and intentional effort to rebuild. Because once you destroy government capacity, it's very hard to bring it back. You know, these civil servants who work in government are mostly taking much lower salaries than they would command in the private sector. And they do it for a variety of reasons. Many of them do it because they like the idea of serving the American taxpayer and think that that is a noble and fulfilling cause versus just selling out in the private sector.
-
Unknown B
Once those people are gone, the best and the brightest, they're not coming back. So even this pause and even the destruction that's already been done, we're going to feel the effects of for years and years to come.
-
Unknown A
People are going to realize now how important government actually is. Because once you get rid of those really apolitical technician types, the bureaucrats, the I dot the I's, I cross the T's, I make sure the treasury payments go out on time.
-
Unknown B
Yeah. Once you get rid of planes don't run into each other in the sky, for example.
-
Unknown A
Once you get rid of all those competent people and you replace them with MAGA sycophants and loyalists, all of a sudden those basic government functions that we all take for granted.
-
Unknown B
Well, and some of them.
-
Unknown A
And this country is a hell of a lot less safe, hell of a lot less secure. Everybody's a hell of a lot less happy. The things don't work as well. And we're going to find that out the hard way, because this is an illegal coup where they're doing exactly that well.
-
Unknown B
And some people won't even be replaced. They'll be an AI replacement for them. And that's the other thing that they're planning on doing, is using the federal government as a guinea pig to see how many human beings they can replace with AI bots. So here we go.
-
Unknown A
Unbelievable.
-
Unknown B
Yeah.
-
Unknown A
All right, so now let's also talk about this here. CBS News is reporting that the U.S. is sending nonviolent, low risk migrants to Guantanamo Bay, despite Trump saying we're sending the worst of the worst there. The worst of the worst. That apparently is not true. This is not really surprising to me, Crystal, because I remember in the first week of ICE raids, we read stories about a Puerto Rican family being detained, including a toddler. A US veteran in Newark, New Jersey, was detained wrongly. You have all these people who are innocent, who've never committed a crime, who are being detained. There's even some reports of some Trump supporting Latinos who've been detained. I know Venezuelan migrants are very pissed at Trump. Cuban migrants. Apparently he took away the protected status for a lot of Cubans. Yeah, right. This is a demographic that overwhelmingly voted for Republicans.
-
Unknown A
So, I mean, look, it's another example. If I told you so, I'll go as far as to say, even if it was the worst of the worst, even if it was the criminal, undocumented immigrants, people actually committed a violent crime. On top of that, this is still illegal and unconstitutional. This is an extrajudicial prison. There's no due process. There's no habeas corpus, there's no recourse. They could lock you up there and throw away the key and never think about you again. That's not the way a civilized country functions.
-
Unknown B
Yeah.
-
Unknown A
That you're supposed to have. There's a reason there is due process. Hey, did we get it right? Let's look at all the evidence. That's the whole point of it. If you say we're just going to lock you up and throw away the key, what you're saying is, I don't give a fuck if I got it right or not right. But now we know it's not even just the violent undocumented immigrants. It's, you know, people who are not violent at all. And here we go. I mean, look, I don't. Some people might get triggered. If you call this a concentration camp, Fuck off. It's a concentration camp. It's a place where you are concentrating people and indefinitely leaving them there. What do you want to call it? You want to call it fucking Disneyland? What do you want to call it? Seriously, what word do you want to use?
-
Unknown B
Well, we're also learning the New York Times reported today that they're being held by military guards. So it's not even, you know, it's not ice, it's not domestic law enforcement agents, it's soldiers. It's the military. I mean, that's exactly who you would expect basically to be Guantanamo. And that's who's there. And you're 100% right that while the public wouldn't have much sympathy for if it was, you know, violent cartel criminals who were being deported and sent there, I don't think it would be particularly sympathetic to the public. It would still be illegal, it would still be unconstitutional because even every individual is guaranteed due process, including those who are here as illegal immigrants. So the fact that we now learn, of course, that it's not just the, quote, worst of the worst. And this also comes back to, you know, they portray every immigrant as a criminal.
-
Unknown A
Of course. Yeah.
-
Unknown B
And that's what they would say is like, well, by, by crossing the border, by even being here illegally, they're a quote, unquote criminal. And that's how they justify it. And they also, of course, use that definition to try to portray to everyone, to try to like make them feel like, oh, well, all of these immigrants are actually violent criminals or the disproportionate number of etc. Etc. Of course we know that's not true. Of course we know that undocumented immigrants are more law abiding than American citizens. And so that's part of what they're running into here, is there just aren't as a percentage of the undocumented population, there just isn't that large a percentage of violent criminals that they can ship off anywhere. One thing I wanted to note because I think it's important to understand, Guantanamo Bay has been used in the past as a migrant holding center.
-
Unknown B
And it's always been a horrible thing that, you know, Democratic and Republican presidents have engaged in in the past. But this is different in this particular way. It has never in American history been the case that we have removed deported migrants from our inside our country to Guantanamo Bay. Previously, when it was used, it was interdicting, let's say, Haitians or Cubans who were trying to Flee to the U.S. they're caught before they make it there. They're held at Guantanamo. Again, from a moral perspective, still not good.
-
Unknown A
So they're taken on international waters. That's where they're.
-
Unknown B
International water.
-
Unknown A
And also it's temporary.
-
Unknown B
But it is a very different legal question because there have been court rulings that indicate, you know, in that circumstance, the due process rules are different because they're not on American soil. So, so here we do have a truly unprecedented use of Guantanamo Bay. They're talking about ramping it up to 30,000 people who would be held there. And, you know, I saw someone on Twitter say, Just 10 cities are coming. Just ask yourself the question, why here and why not? Let's say 10 cities in Florida or Texas or wherever. It's exactly because they think they can get away with anything there. They want it all to be hidden. They want it to be behind a wall of secrecy. And so that's why I think Your characterization here is apt.
-
Unknown A
And in the past it was processing asylum claims. Now it's just indefinite attention. So there literally is no comparison whatsoever in my mind. And by the way, there was a poll asking the American people, do you support Trump's plan to send American citizens who are convicted of a crime to a prison in El Salvador? Cuz that's something they floated as well. And the President of El Salvador came out and said, yes, we love that idea. For a small fee, we'll take American citizens and put them in our notoriously horrific prison. The American people were against that. And I was actually surprised by that, because on certain questions, Americans can be conservative, whether it's the death penalty or some other criminal justice issues. And usually when you say, like, what do you think about this criminal thing? Usually Americans shut their brain off and go, fuck the criminal.
-
Unknown A
I don't care. Right? But on this question of should American criminals be sent to a prison in El Salvador? The overwhelming majority of Americans said, because that's a little too fashy for them. You know, people look at that like, Jesus Christ. Hey, guys, Today we talk to Judd Legum of Musk Watch. You definitely want to check out this interview. So it's him and his team that uncovered that. The 19 year old working for Elon Musk. His name is Edward Korestein. He goes by the name Big Balls. I'm not kidding about that. This guy was previously fired for disclosing secrets when he worked at a company. And now he has access to our top secret and classified information. And it was Muskwatch that uncovered that this guy ran a website where you could share illegal material, including Fredophilia and many other things. I won't get into it now, but check out the full interview.
-
Unknown A
Crystal and I talking to Judd Legum of Musquash. You can sign up below on Substack. You don't want to miss this. We'll see you there.