Nothing Left Unsaid on primaries, Surveillance Chic, and beating the AZ heat

This week, we’re diving deep into the current political moment and how culture is responding. We discuss Trump’s Reflection Pool fail (and following tantrum), everything you need to know before the July 21st AZ primary, and so much more. From Kylie Jenner Meta Glasses, to the Zohran progressive sweep–you don’t want to miss this.

Transcript

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Hey, this is your host Abigail. I'm so excited to be back for another episode of Nothing Left Unsaid. Today we're going to be talking about Trump's Reflecting Pool, the proposed concentration camp in Surprise, Arizona, and primaries happening across the country. It is hot outside. But here's a reminder that half of Arizonans qualify for Katie Hobbs utility assistance program. This is a huge deal. That means if you are a couple making under just about $6,100 a month, or if you're a family of four making under just about $9,000 a month, you could qualify for relief on your utility bills from the state. This is exactly the kind of work that we need to see from leaders as it continues to get hotter outside. Also, it is summer. Do not forget your sunscreen. And we are finally getting a new and improved sunscreen in the United States as the FDA has approved a chemical that uh other countries have been putting in their sunscreen for years. So more skin protection is always a good thing. One product that I'm less excited about is the Kylie Jenner Meta AI glasses. This is so dystopian. If you wear these, you are a cop just by default. Um, it's crazy that they're literally selling us the tools that they are going to use to surveil us. Surveillance state, but make it cute. The internet has been collectively laughing at Trump and his reflecting pool. This is the latest installment in his giant vanity ego project of remaking Washington, DC in his ugly ass image. So immediately after they repainted the pool, American flag blue, the resurfacing began peeling and algae blooms began forming, and now the pool is not American flag blue, but it is green. Uh, and of course, he's blaming it on vandals. This is the perfect metaphor for his administration. It's a giant vanity project. It's peeling after a few days, and somehow the algae are, I guess, the deep state. Now he's doing this in order to celebrate himself and America's 250-year anniversary coming up this 4th of July, which is pretty fucking embarrassing. For one, I don't know what Trump has to celebrate about himself. Maybe it's him being an amazing negotiator with Iran. But in all honesty, with the 4th of July coming coming up, I just have to say, I think anybody celebrating that holiday, that is so embarrassing. Like this, we are 250 years into this failed colonial product project in which we are locking people up at concentration camps, we are bombing kids in other countries, we're supplying Israel with the the weapons to complete a genocide. There's nothing to celebrate about this country. Send the fireworks back. Speaking of things that we should not be proud of, um out of Texas, we just heard about these charges being these charges against some protesters that engaged in a noise protest um at an ICE facility. These are the first charges coming out of Trump's attempts to label Antifa as terrorists. Um it's important to note this is straight out of the government's playbook historically. Antifa is not an organized group. It is the ideology of being against fascism. I'm not sure who wouldn't be against that. Um, but it's out of their playbook to create a group and label them as dangerous, as terrorists, whatever, in this iteration, and then to put people in that category so that so that people do not support um or look too closely at the fact that people are being arrested for being at a protest, in one case for moving zines, not even being at the protest. This is extremely dangerous. It is chilling. Um, we can't let them control our definitions and our understanding and our support for community members like this. Um, here in Arizona, we've got the FBI um trying to talk to people here in Phoenix and Tucson and just need to emphasize like, do not talk to cops, do not answer their questions. Um, they're not here to help us. Last night I went to an anti-state repression training held by uh Borderlands initi the Borderlands Initiative, and that was really fantastic. If you can attend a training put on by them, I highly recommend it. They're doing amazing work. There's been a series of really devastating earthquakes happening in Venezuela. I just want to say that my thoughts are with the people of Venezuela. Things are really bad, especially with the fact that the US has majorly rolled back humanitarian aid since Donald Trump has been back in office. Um, Elon Musk under Doge basically completely disbanded USAID, which was one of the major organizations providing aid across the world. Um, and now that man's a trillionaire. So that's pretty disgusting. Um, for context of how the difference between a billion and a trillion dollars is, uh, one billion seconds equals 32 years. One trillion seconds equals 37, sorry, 31,710 years. That is literally light years difference between a billionaire and a trillionaire. Um and Elon Musk is the guy who has repeatedly blown off, like he's promised, oh, give me a plan for how I can make a difference on world hunger or how I can make a difference on world uh homelessness. He says he'll sell off his stocks and then he ghosts everybody after saying that, after they give him a plan of this is actually how, like when the World Food Bank said this is actually how a couple, a few billion of your dollars could make a huge difference in dealing with those that are most immediately at risk of starvation. He's not doing any of it. And also, just a public service announcement: you do not have to be a bootlicker in comments explaining how Elon Musk's wealth is not mostly liquid. We we understand how that works. Oh yeah. Just so you know, Elon Musk is actually poor. Shut the fuck up. Meanwhile, in Arizona, we are the state that has been most affected by Trump's devastating cuts to SNAP benefits. Um, in Arizona, enrollment has fallen by half. That's 457,000 Arizonians kicked off of food benefits and 196,000 kids. Luckily, we had some wins in the Arizona budget that would try to make up for this through various programs to make sure that we are keeping kids fed. Um, but it is really insane that your Arizona Republican legislators, this legislative session after Trump did all these cuts, pushed legislation to further harm SNAP access in our state. That is absolutely outrageous. And it doesn't have to be this way. It's not what the people of Arizona want. It's not what the people of this country want. And for evidence of that, you know, we've got primaries coming up. One, I think, really notable like wave that is happening, a huge shakeup in democratic politics is that the candidates backed by Zoleron Mamdani in New York all won big against establishment candidates backed by the party. This further proves the point that working people want and demand a positive vision, a vision that addresses affordability, addresses their day-to-day concerns. We want something that is more than not Trump. That's not good enough. That's what got us to where we are now. Here in Arizona, local residents in surprise are still pushing back on the proposed concentration camp that ICE is trying to build there. The city council is not listening to residents. And now these people are actually trying to dissolve the city's incorporation altogether to remove the power from the city council and put it over to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which they will believe which they believe will be more receptive to public pressure. So big shout out to these organizers for continuing to push back and not giving back and not giving up. And shame on the Surprise City Council and the mayor for refusing to push back as they tried to build this warehouse to hold human beings. Here in Arizona, our primary is coming up soon. It is on July 21st. At this point, ballots are in mailboxes. If you have not gotten a ballot but you would like to vote early, you'll need to request a ballot at azvoterregistration.com. In Arizona, we also have partisan primaries. So if you are not registered with a political party, you will not automatically get a ballot, but you can request one if you are registered as an independent. So again, go to azvoterregistration.com. You'll need to do that before July 10th. Here in Arizona, we've got some really exciting candidates running for the state legislature. If you need a little help filling out your ballot, you can visit our ballot guide at az.vote. Some really exciting candidates to hopefully join our already progressive fighters in the legislature, like Senator Annalise Ortiz. It's so important that we have a say and use our voices in the primary elections and make sure that we have an impact on who will appear on our November ballots. We've got the chance to get rid of some legislators who have abandoned their constituents and are only there to serve corporate interests. So make sure you get your ballot, make sure you get it back in the mail, make sure you request one if you need one. And once again, visit our ballot guide at az.vote