Episode Details

Welcome back to This Week in Tyranny. Yes I know it's Monday. There's been a lot going on. While you were watching Trump explain that voters are absolutely furious at Republicans but somehow not at him personally, ICE announced it’s putting a camera on every agent in America and reserving the right to decide whether you ever see the footage, internal Park Service records showed Trump drained the national parks to pay for his lawn, Todd Blanche got sworn in as attorney general and immediately got ordered into court over the Epstein files, and the National Guard hit its one year anniversary in Washington with orders now running through 2029. Plus 221 people killed in boat strikes that accomplished nothing, a salmonella recall, a measles record, an executive order splitting a shot that only comes in one bottle, and a child’s crayon drawing stamped “EVIDENCE.”

LET’S START WITH THE CAMERAS

Acting ICE Director David Venturella announced that every agent in the field will be wearing a body camera by the end of this month, and he’d like you to know this is about transparency. Then Ryan Foley at the Associated Press went and read the actual policy, which is always the rudest thing a reporter can do. When an ICE agent kills somebody or puts them in the hospital, the footage gets fast tracked for release only when ICE decides that releasing it is, quote, “in the best interests of the agency.” So it’s a highlight reel with a legal department. They’re going to film every single thing they do and then hand you the one where they help a lost dog.

Venturella’s response was to call the AP story “misleading and sensationalized” and accuse them of a “fundamental mischaracterization,” which is a lot of syllables to spend not denying the sentence. He never says the words aren’t in the policy. He can’t. They’re in the policy. David, my dude, the AP asked you about that exact line before they published, and you answered every question except that one, which is its own kind of answer.

Then in the same statement he says ICE is “committed to transparency and accountability.” Sir. You are, at this moment, defending your right to hide the video.

NOW, NATIONAL PARKS

Scott MacFarlane got internal Park Service records, and here are two numbers back to back. This year the administration made 323 million dollars available for projects on the White House grounds. Last year that number was seven and a half million. A five thousand percent increase. For a lawn.

Another hundred million went to the National Mall. Put those together and the White House and the Mall pulled down 423 million dollars, which is more than Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Golden Gate, the Statue of Liberty, Mammoth Cave, Zion and Joshua Tree received this year combined. Nine parks. All of them. Beaten by one guy’s yard.

Yellowstone got cut. Yosemite got cut. The Grand Canyon got cut. Meanwhile the delayed list includes tree care at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville. They are letting the trees die at a memorial to the people who died stopping a plane from hitting the Capitol, so the man currently working in that building can have a nicer patio. Also delayed, an emergency wastewater repair at Death Valley. The word “emergency” was already in the file name.

The Park Service has lost nearly two thousand employees in a year against a thirty billion dollar maintenance backlog. And the money is coming partly from rerouted recreation fees, which is the twenty bucks you handed a ranger at the gate at Zion. You paid for the helipad. Speaking of the helipad, that five million dollars is being covered by Lockheed Martin, which also owns the company that builds the helicopters. The helicopter company bought the President a place to park his helicopter. Nothing untoward. Just two friends and a landing zone.

Tim Whitehouse at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says Int