Spokane is burning. Three wildfires have merged into the Spokane Complex, torching more than 8,000 acres, destroying over 700 structures with a final count that could top a thousand, and forcing 65,000 people under evacuation orders. The Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center sits inside the evacuation zone and has been shuttered, its veteran patients moved to partner hospitals. And in the middle of that inferno, an election. Four IVA-endorsed independent veterans were on the ballot — Nate Powell, Danny Tarkington, Erin Croft, and Ronald McCoy — three of them running to serve the county that is on fire right now. Paul Rieckhoff walks through what a real open primary looks like, what it means when veterans meet the moment, and why Washington state's top-two system is what right looks like.
From there the show swings to the other Washington, where the fires are political but no less dangerous. Todd Blanche is being teed up to weaponize the Justice Department. CENTCOM is literally crowdsourcing ideas to "pressure and punish Iran" while stockpiles of precision-strike missiles run dry. Pete Hegseth's Pentagon is splitting the wounded count into two ledgers to hide the true cost of the Iran war — the same muscle memory that lied about Vietnam and Afghanistan. And in Montana and South Dakota, spoiler Democrats with zero chance of winning are refusing to clear the lane for independent veterans Seth Bodnar and Brian Bengs. Plus a live endorsement alert: Marine Corps veteran Shane Eaton is on the ballot in Lawrence County, Tennessee — and he needs supporting fire this week.
In this episode
- The Spokane Complex fires: 8,000+ acres, 700+ structures gone, 65,000 evacuated, VA hospital shuttered inside the evacuation zone
- Four IVA-endorsed independent veterans on the Washington ballot in the middle of the wildfires — Powell, Tarkington, Croft, McCoy
- Why Washington's top-two open primary is "what right looks like" for an independent movement
- Todd Blanche advancing at DOJ and what a loyalist AG means for primaries and Trump's political enemies
- CENTCOM's leaked email crowdsourcing ideas to "pressure and punish Iran" — and Paul's answer: get the fuck out
- Reuters reporting the U.S. has burned through nearly all its precision-strike missiles and half its Tomahawks in the Iran war
- The Pentagon's new bookkeeping trick: splitting the wounded-in-action count to shrink the headline number
- Spoiler Democrats Alani Bankhead (Montana) and Julian Abedouin (South Dakota) refusing to step aside for independent vets
- Endorsement alert: Marine Corps veteran Shane Eaton running for Lawrence County Executive in Tennessee — vote August 6th
- Shaboozey's new album, football Friday coming back, and why hope is the oxygen of democracy
