NEW EPISODE · NOVEMBER 13, 2026 · EP 676
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Vol. V · No. 676Saturday Edition
Righteous MediaSince 1776. Est. 2019

Episode 546

Summer of violence? NYC, Cuba, and Trump’s all-gas-no-brakes playbook

New York City is sitting on a powder keg — NBA Finals crowds, angry young men with no jobs and no purpose, a president openly hunting for a reason to invoke the Insurrection Act, and Pete Hegseth doing pull-ups at Guantanamo while telegraphing that Cuba is next. Paul Rieckhoff delivers a solo briefing on why this summer could turn violent fast, and what the angry middle has to do to stop handing Trump the excuse he’s waiting for.

The Brief

→ Four things from today’s episode
01

Why the GOP’s internal data completely missed the scale of t. Why the GOP’s internal data completely missed the scale of the 2026 midterm wipeout — nine Senate seats, House flipped, Trump +18 districts turned blue

02

“The silent independent voice”. Shermichael’s framing of the voters who decided to be jury and judge this cycle

03

The case for economic populism inside a right-of-center party. and why Singleton thinks it’s the only way to save capitalism itself

04

Pete Hegseth’s Arlington selfies and Paul’s call that Hegset. Pete Hegseth’s Arlington selfies and Paul’s call that Hegseth is positioning to inherit what’s left of MAGA

It’s a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Wednesday and Paul is sounding the alarm. Game four of the NBA Finals tips off tonight at Madison Square Garden, but the real story is bigger than basketball. A Spurs fan got jumped in New York. Young men across America are jobless, hopeless, and furious. Trump has already named New York and Chicago as cities he wants to send troops into. Steve Bannon is calling ICE airport operations a dress rehearsal for the fall elections. And Pete Hegseth just flew to Gitmo with conspiracy-pusher Laura Loomer in tow — not the Washington Post, not even Fox — because Cuba is next and they aren’t even hiding it.

Paul connects the dots between a potentially violent summer at home, CENTCOM’s ongoing strikes inside Iran, the rigged primary system that just disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of independents in California and Maine, and the open primaries fight quietly unfolding in Lower Manhattan under Mamdani’s new charter commission. This is a no-BS warning to the angry middle: stay out of the fistfights, stay out of the extremist groups, look out for the young men in your life, and refuse to give Trump the excuse he’s desperate for. Righteous anger, channeled into real impact. Stay vigilant.

In this episode

  • Why a Spurs fan getting jumped in NYC could be the harbinger of a violent summer across America
  • The angry young men problem: jobless, purposeless, scared of AI and the draft — and a powder keg if Trump lights the match
  • Don’t give Trump a reason: the Insurrection Act, ICE in NYC and Chicago, and the Minneapolis playbook
  • Hegseth at Guantanamo with Laura Loomer riding shotgun — and why Cuba is the next unauthorized war
  • CENTCOM still striking inside Iran while Congress runs War Powers votes after the fact
  • Steve Bannon openly saying ICE airport ops are a rehearsal for election day
  • California’s open primary delivers a Trump-endorsed Republican vs. a Democrat — exactly how democracy should work
  • Graham Platner wins in Maine, Mamdani 2.0 brewing in NYC — far left and far right keep winning rigged closed primaries
  • The quiet fight over open primaries at Mamdani’s COGE hearing, and why Brad Lander killed it last time
  • Jimi Hendrix Way gets co-named on West 8th Street — a reminder of why we’re all along the watchtower