Thank you Steward Beckham, Chris Davis Proud, Lisa Dekker, Donna Everett, babyangel, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
Also if you hadn’t noticed by the sudden surge in post lately, my furnace is working again so I want to show my gratitude towards all those who wished me well. To be honest I wasn’t freezing over. There was a gas fireplace as well as portable electric heaters to at least keep the place 40-55 degrees its just that I cannot write much less think under those conditions. Again, thank you all for your patience and well wishes.
Transcript
00:00–00:01 | Going Live (Backstage)
Xplisset: Okay. We should be live on the Substack side. You see it?
(Check)
Xplisset: Yep. We’re live. We’re good to go.
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00:01–00:02 | Opening
Xplisset: Good morning. This is XVOA, Explicit Voice of America, and I am Explicit.
If you came here for noise, you’re in the wrong place.
If you came here for clarity, welcome. You’re home.
Hit that like button on Substack and YouTube. Share this stream.
And don’t hesitate to come and chat, especially if you’re on YouTube.
Today is plain. It’s simple.
We’re going to start with Don Lemon because it’s the story.
Then we’re going to do a fast scan of the morning headlines.
Then I’m going to bring in a special guest, Stuart Beckham. He has his own Substack. He is a journalist.
So we’re going to get a journalist read on current events and what’s going on.
Then if anybody’s up to it, we’re going to open the phones.
So you’re going to be able to call in and express your opinion, your thoughts.
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00:02–00:05 | Don Lemon Updates
Xplisset: First, we’re going to start off with some Don Lemon updates here.
Here is what’s being reported as of this morning.
Multiple outlets report Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles. You all are aware of that.
This is for a protest at a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, later this month.
Reporting also says he was charged under federal statutes including 18 U.S.C. 241 and the FACE Act, with Lemon and his attorney framing it as constitutionally protected journalism.
The The Guardian reports he was released after custody, and the case has already become a press freedom flashpoint with backlash from press advocates and political leaders.
Now, let me say this plain, clean.
You don’t have to like Don Lemon. You don’t have to agree with him. You don’t have to ever watch him on TV.
But you should care about the signal that this sends.
When a journalist’s work can be framed as criminal interference, that message travels.
It travels to every reporter.
It travels to every freelancer.
It travels to every person holding a camera who doesn’t have some kind of corporate legal team behind them.
And I’m going to be honest. In a normal country, this would not feel normal.
The feeling you’re experiencing is kind of like data.
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00:04–00:06 | Substack Essay (The Thesis)
Xplisset: Now, I just put out a Substack post this morning entitled A Coordinated Mind F-word in Plain Sight. They’re not hiding the truth, they’re drowning you in it.
So basically, the premise is that this is not a cover-up.
The problem is that there’s a modern move to overload the public until the nervous system collapses.
That’s when people stop asking what’s true and start asking what team am I on.
That’s the environment. That’s the water we’re swimming in.
And yes, somewhere around 2015, it seems like that water changed.
The smartphone stopped being a tool and it became the room.
And some of us have been emotionally living in that room ever since.
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00:06–00:10 | Quick Headline Scan
Xplisset: So let me do a quick headline scan. Let’s talk about what’s in the headlines. Then we’re going to go over to our guest.
Headline: Government funding
Associated Press is reporting this morning that the Senate passed a Trump-backed funding deal to keep most of the government funded through September, with Homeland Security carved out for a temporary extension while Congress debates restrictions tied to immigration raids.
So what does all that mean? The fight is not over, it’s just scheduled.
Headline: Protest temperature
The Guardian is reporting more than 300 anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests are planned across the country this weekend amid anger over deaths tied to federal immigration agents.
Reuters also reported thousands demonstrating and broader nationwide actions tied to the same wave of outrage.
Not just politics, y’all. This is about legitimacy.
Headline: The Fed, power, pressure
Reuters is out with a piece on Kevin Warsh, the individual who’s up for nomination as the Fed chief. This is sort of “regime change” around the U.S. central bank.
Look, the economy is not just numbers right now. It’s a battlefield for control. Trump wants control of the Fed. He wants his own personal money printing machine.
I’m not an economist, but you can imagine where that ends.
Headline: International escalation
The U.S. is stepping up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program with Trump warning and signaling military posture.
Reuters also reported a deadly explosion at Iran’s port.
Keep one eye on overseas volatility because it always has a way of ricocheting back into domestic politics.
Headline: Tech money and bravado
Reuters is reporting Nvidia’s CEO talking about planned investment and denying friction with OpenAI.
My translation: the AI economy keeps spinning while the public is still trying to learn how to walk inside of it.
All right, enough of that. Just a quick scan.
We’re gonna bring in a journalist so we can talk mechanics and not just vibes.
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00:10–00:12 | Bringing on the Guest
Xplisset: Stewart Beckham. How’s it going?
I appreciate you being here. I apologize for being late. I got a lot of buttons here. Setup is reversed from yesterday because of the mirror effect thing. The first video came out kind of weird.
I wrote an essay this morning. Didn’t have time to work on this script, so I’m juggling a lot at once.
And you know when you’re a writer, you take time to find your words. Improvisation is new to me.
For folks who don’t know you, go ahead and give a quick intro.
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00:12–00:13 | Guest Intro
Stewart Beckham: My name is Steward Beckham . I write the Substack Stew On This.
It uncovers different current events through the lens of historical and cultural analysis.
I talk about a current event, then connect it to a larger historical through line so we don’t look at shocking events as completely new or out of bounds of what’s happened before.
Sometimes that gives us a key for understanding how we can solve or at least understand what’s happening by looking at history.
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00:13–00:18 | Steward’s Take on Don Lemon
Xplisset: How are you reading what happened to Don Lemon yesterday? Give me your take.
Stewart Beckham: Don Lemon was arrested via U.S. Department of Justice action connected to a grand jury indictment. The premise is that he was involved in an organized attempt to obstruct the civil rights of a religious organization in Minnesota.
The protests in Minneapolis have been around the surge of ICE officers and the killings of Renee Goode and Alex Preddy. Don Lemon went to cover and tape the protest and interviewed a church member, reportedly a pastor who is also tied to ICE leadership.
This opens space for narrative manipulation. There’s debate because the federal appeals court did not compel the local court to comply with a warrant to arrest Lemon, and when DOJ couldn’t work through the court system, they used a grand jury indictment as another mechanism to obtain an arrest warrant.
Some argue: if the appellate courts wouldn’t move it before, the case isn’t compelling enough and sets a chilling precedent.
Others argue: it’s private property and Lemon and protesters were trespassing, which is true, but it can obscure the larger legal argument.
DOJ is arguing the protesters infringed on civil rights of church parishioners under the FACE Act, with historical connections to the Ku Klux Klan Act from Reconstruction, meant to limit conspiratorial attempts to violate civil rights.
People sympathetic to Lemon say he’s a journalist, press freedom applies, speech applies, and assembly applies. There’s also the point that a church leader is connected to ICE, raising a “melding of state and religious power” concern.
And as your piece pointed out, in algorithm-driven news, we get a trailer instead of the movie. We get the most action-packed narrative pieces, not the full mechanics.
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00:18–00:23 | Reconstruction Echoes + Legal Gray Areas
Xplisset: I’m hearing echoes of Reconstruction and the civil rights era where DOJ had to circumvent local authorities obstructing enforcement.
Stewart Beckham: Yes. These civil rights arguments were built out of that struggle after the Civil War. Over time, civil rights arguments expanded to religious minorities, sexual minorities, marginalized gender groups, and more.
So there’s an argument that you cannot infringe on the rights of a religious group trying to worship.
But we have to follow how far the federal government can argue that Lemon and others infringed on civil rights in a conspiratorial premeditated manner.
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00:23–00:26 | Framing Tricks in Coverage
Xplisset: Are you sensing framing tricks in the coverage?
Stewart Beckham: Yes. The framing has been diluted into pro-Trump and anti-Trump.
Pro-administration framing says DOJ is protecting civil rights and freedom to worship.
Anti-administration framing says DOJ bypassed the judiciary system, got a grand jury indictment, and is sending a chilling message to journalists, from Substackers to legacy media, that they’re at risk of costly legal experiences if coverage is deemed unfair.
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00:26–00:32 | “Is This New?” Historical Through Line
Xplisset: Is this new? People are acting like it’s the first time journalists were threatened. I think of McCarthy, Nixon, Watergate, Ellsberg.
Stewart Beckham: Sadly no, it’s a common thread. Nixon’s DOJ intimidation, Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, intimidation apparatuses. Even earlier, after the Fugitive Slave Act, administrations intimidated abolitionists and reporting about free Black people being taken south.
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00:32–00:44 | ICE, Abolition, and the “Aftermath Problem”
Xplisset: Since you brought up ICE, I think we need to consider abolishing the agency.
I’m law enforcement, 20 years. Our training was intensive. It took over a year to get hired. Close supervision for nine months.
It baffles me to see people with that kind of power get 47 days of training and get cut loose.
But here’s the “but.” If you abolish the agency, what do you do with tens of thousands of men proficient with weapons? Do they disappear into the sunset?
It reminds me of after Appomattox. Confederates went home, then became insurgents in white militias.
Much like Iraq when fighters were disarmed and told to go home, they became the insurgency.
Stuart Beckham: That’s a fair line of questioning. It connects to the algorithmic stew you’ve been describing.
ICE is a relatively new organization formed after 9/11 under the Patriot Act and DHS creation, built to be politically manipulated by an executive willing to exploit its powers.
There’s a credible argument ICE isn’t professionalized like other law enforcement institutions.
But the difficult proposition is whether the agency is too embedded, too armed, too resourced to dismantle cleanly without creating instability.
You’re faced with two options: restructure and hope it’s possible, or dismantle and risk a sustained insurgency dynamic.
And we also have to remember extremism precedents and the broader militia movement history in the U.S.
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00:44–00:50 | Personal Reflection: Police, Polarization, and “Who Backs You Up”
Xplisset: There were January 6 United States Capitol attack people who were police officers off duty participating. I know this personally.
One reason I retired early was thinking, you never know who might be coming to back you up.
After COVID, people started expressing political opinions more openly. Losing friends on Facebook over comments. A sea change. Conservatives became even more conservative.
Stewart Beckham: Digital media accelerates escalation and entrenchment. Social media heats up the larger stew. There’s an ongoing doom loop that can cloud critical thinking.
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00:48–00:51 | Where to Find Stewart
Xplisset: Where can people find you?
Stewart Beckham: StuOnThis.com. I’m also on Bluesky and YouTube. Substack is the easiest platform: StuOnThis.com.
Xplisset: Appreciate you. People go check out his Substack. Well written, brief, concise. I envy that.
Thank you for showing up.
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00:50–01:02 | Post-Interview: Comment Reading + Real-Time Notes
Xplisset: We’re not done yet.
Plan was to take incoming calls, but I don’t think I’ve tested that system out enough yet.
Yes, I do have an 800 number. I do have a way for you to call in and interact, but technically I don’t think we’re ready for that yet.
So instead we’re going to read some of the comments here to my latest article on Substack, entitled A Coordinated Mind F-word in Plain Sight.
Xplisset reads and responds to comments, including:
• Dawn Kiilani Hoffmann : “This should make everyone’s hair stand on end… real journalism is dangerous… thank you for writing… I hope you have heat now.”
• . Kelso : compliment on the first livestream and conversation quality. @
• Sara Mandelbaum : praise for the essay, volatile parent analogy, wrestling with the 24-hour challenge. @
• Diane Love (St Petersburg FL) : describes disabling notifications, instituting news hours, reclaiming sanity, forwarding to her Republican nephew, “dry January,” maybe “unplugged February.”
• Dr. Sally A. Kimpson, PhD : asks about DOJ spending, transparency, and whether Senate Judiciary might investigate.
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01:02–01:04 | Closing (On-Air)
Xplisset: If you got any value out of this, I’m going to ask you for two small things.
First, share this stream. Restack this post tied to it. Restacks tell the algorithm this is worth distributing. It helps it travel past my followers into people who need it.
Second, if you’ve been on the fence about paid, you’re a free subscriber, and you’ve got the resources, step in.
Your support keeps XVOA independent. It helps me do this work consistently and helps keep parts of this site open for people on fixed incomes and or people who already have commitments to other deserving writers such as Stuart Beckham.
I work for you. Not for billionaire media. Not for party handlers. For you.
If you’re watching this on YouTube, subscribe, like, leave a comment.
That’s it. I’ll see you on the next live. Over and out.
