The Skeptics Guide #1040 - Jun 14 2025
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.
Hello and welcome to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. Today is Wednesday, June 11th, 2025, and this is your host, Stephen Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella. Hey, everybody. Cara Santa Maria. Howdy. Jay Novella. Hey, guys. And Evan Bernstein. Good evening, folks. Cara, how is L.A.? I hear it's on fire again.
Well, that's what people want you to think, I think, but it's not. Okay, obviously stuff is going on in L.A. There are protests.
What are the protests in L.A. and why are troops being deployed?
There is a curfew downtown at night, but it's quiet at night, like the curfew is being heated. It's not affecting my day-to-day, and I know that most citizens in L.A. feel the same way.
L.A. is a large area.
L.A. is really, really, really big. And yes, there are protests in pockets. The protests are largely peaceful. And if you ask not only our mayor, Karen Bass, but also our governor, Gavin Newsom, we don't want the National Guard here. We don't want the Marines here. Nobody asked them to come. Actually, it's a violation of the Constitution for them to be asked to come here without our permission. And they're not doing anything here. They're not needed. They're mostly just standing around, quote, guarding government buildings from what I'm not sure.
Yeah. Seems like a pretty thin pretext and something that Trump was spoiling to do just to do it.
Yeah.
I mean, it's say that he could do it.
It's this same game of make a problem and then publicize the problem, exaggerate the problem, and then, quote, solve the problem. And then you get to be the hero. But in doing so, engage in a lot of government overreach, which is quite frightening. So, I mean, this all started with these ice raids, right? And some of these ICE raids are scary. Some of them were really obviously we've seen the news all over the country of these like intensive maneuvers by immigration enforcement that like entering schools, you know, elementary schools attempting to enter without parental consent. But so that's what the protests are about, right? So for anybody who like has not been watching the news this week, I mean, this is global news, but for anybody who's not been watching the news this week, that's what the protests have been about.
They've been about ICE, like these militarized forces going in with, you know, rubber bullets and flashbangs and fatigues and body armor into neighborhoods, into peaceful neighborhoods and pulling people from their homes, trying to enter schools to pull children from the classrooms. And so people are protesting and they're saying, no, you're not going to enter our community. We're not OK with this. And those protests, again, have been marches, largely peaceful marches. And there has been some LAPD kind of retaliatory violence. But for the most part, there haven't even been that many arrests yet. And then, of course, Trump called in the National Guard and a few days later called in the Marines, which I don't think has ever happened.
Has that ever happened? The Guard hasn't happened since desegregation.
It happened in 92 with the Los Angeles.
It happened during World War II and the Civil War.
No, but that's different. In 92, it was called in with permission. Oh, I see what you're saying. Los Angeles asked for the Guard to come.
I see what you're saying.
Yeah, I don't think the Guard has been called into a state without that state's requesting.
I couldn't tell you when that happened.
I don't think since desegregation. Yeah, since desegregation.
Yeah, since the 60s.
And so this is a massive overreach. But then have our troops, which are meant to protect our citizens from foreign threats, ever been called in against our own citizens? No.
The most recent time that a president invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy military troops domestically was in 1992. President George Bush did that to quell the Rodney King riots in L.A., again in L.A. That didn't go well and they pulled the troops out after a few days because they fired on civilians because of miscommunication between officers and soldiers.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:37
2
What are the protests in L.A. and why are troops being deployed?
0:37–23:33
3
Why is ‘fine water’ being called the dumbest thing of the week?
23:33–45:43
4
How would proposed NASA budget cuts affect science and climate missions?
45:43–1:24:12
5
Why did HHS fire the CDC vaccine advisory committee and who did RFK Jr. appoint?
1:24:12–1:41:32