• Mourners are paying their respects to Queen Elizabeth II as her remains make the journey to London ahead of her funeral, but protesters are also turning out to hold the royal family accountable for the misdeeds of its past.
• The Department of Justice filed papers on Monday signaling that it would accept one of the candidates that former President Donald Trump’s legal team recommended as a “special master” to review the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago last month.
• And in headlines: Ukraine’s military made more headway against Russia, a new rule in Montana bans birth certificate changes for trans people, and about 15,000 Minnesota nurses took to the picket lines.

Show Notes:

• Vote Save America: Fuck Bans Action Plan – https://votesaveamerica.com/roe/

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TRANSCRIPT

Josie Duffy Rice: It is Tuesday, September 13th. I’m Josie Duffy Rice. 

Tre’vell Anderson: And I’m Tre’vell Anderson. And this is What A Day reminding Alex Jones to spend quality time with his money before it gets taken away in yet another Sandy Hook trial. 

Josie Duffy Rice: He can always just pretend it was a false flag and he still has his money. But all of us will know the truth, it is gone. 

Tre’vell Anderson: You know, living in delusion, does no one any favors. 

Josie Duffy Rice: It doesn’t do anybody any favors, correct? [music break] On today’s show, Ukraine’s military continues to make gains against Russia. Plus, iPhone users can now send riskier texts due to a new edit function. 

Tre’vell Anderson: But first, a quick update on the ceremonial journey before Queen Elizabeth the second’s state funeral next week. After a stop in Scotland, the queen’s coffin is headed to London today. It’s expected to arrive at Buckingham Palace around 8 p.m. local time. And then on Wednesday it’ll be escorted by gun carriage and a silent procession to Westminster Hall. As her body has been making its last tour, many mourners have had the chance to pay their respects. In Scotland, some people waited upwards of 4 hours for the opportunity to do so in person. But there are also some folks using the occasion of the Queen’s death to hold her and the entire royal family accountable for its various misdeeds. Which feels like a too mild way of putting it, because, like the British monarchy literally built its wealth and power off the lives of countless cultures and communities that they pillaged. And the Queen was very much not a silent participant in much of that. 

Josie Duffy Rice: A number of anti royal protesters have been showing up to some of these memorials. Tre’vell, how have they been received? 

Tre’vell Anderson: Well, as you might imagine, not well. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Mm hmm. 

Tre’vell Anderson: A number of these anti-monarchy protesters, they’re known as Republicans across the pond. No relation, if you know what I mean. They actually have been arrested in Scotland. Police detained a 22 year old woman holding a sign that said, quote, “Fuck imperialism, abolish the monarchy”. She was outside St Giles’ Cathedral where the coffin was lying at rest until this morning. According to police, she was detained, quote, “in connection with a breach of peace”, whatever that means. There was also a 45 year old guy who was arrested after yelling out, quote, “who elected him” when Charles was proclaimed king in Oxford on Sunday. Shout out to that guy. Love that moment. It gives very mean girls. And then on Monday, a third incident happened outside the Palace of Westminster in London, where Charles was scheduled to deliver his first address to parliament as king. A protester stood outside the gates, holding up a sign that said, not my king on one side and abolish the monarchy on the other. According to reports, this person was just escorted away, though it’s unclear if they were also arrested. 

Josie Duffy Rice: If your goal is to prove that a democracy and a monarchy can like exist hand in hand, I don’t feel like arresting people for expressing their opinion is a good way to make that point. 

Tre’vell Anderson: That’s assuming that that is these folks’ goal. [laughing]

Josie Duffy Rice: No, that’s true. That’s true. And also, again, Barbara Streisand effect. Would never have known about these signs if they hadn’t gone and arrested the guy standing on the corner. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Right. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Nobody was paying much attention to anyway. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Right. Well, things are also getting a little violent in some places. Take a listen to this moment captured by a reporter for the Scottish news magazine, Holyrood. It happened during the procession of the queen’s coffin in Edinburgh, which included King Charles and Prince Andrew. According to reports, a protester yelled out to Andrew, quote, “Andrew, you’re a sick old man”. Reminder here that he was accused of sexually assaulting a minor that was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein. So not good business there. And in response, what you’ll hear in this clip is others chanting, quote, “God save the king” while the protester is thrown to the ground by a couple of men in the crowd, then escorted away by police. 

[clip of protestors and crowd yelling and murmuring at queen’s coffin procession]

Josie Duffy Rice: That’s unnerving. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah. 

Josie Duffy Rice: But look, these protesters are not alone. Broader anti-royal sentiment has been brewing for some time in other parts of the world, too, right? By some time, we mean like many centuries. [laughter]

Tre’vell Anderson: Absolutely. At her death Queen Elizabeth was the head of state in 15 countries and the ceremonial head of the much wider commonwealth. That’s the name for this loose collection of 56 member states that occasionally benefit from the crown. But before the push for independence across Asia and Africa in the 20th century, the Queen presided over 2.5 billion people. 

Josie Duffy Rice: What. 

Tre’vell Anderson: From Canada to Australia, Jamaica to Ghana. And to put it quite simply, many folks in those communities are also questioning have been questioning for some time their historical ties to the monarchy. And King Charles isn’t exactly popular in many of those places either. So we’ll see how this all plays out during his reign. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Okay. And news about what’s going on stateside. On Monday, the DOJ filed papers signaling that it would accept one of the candidates that former President Donald Trump’s legal team recommended to review the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago last month. We talked about this so-called special master in our episode on August 30th. But just as a reminder, this is the person charged with independently reviewing those documents. Now, this comes after a federal judge last week granted Trump’s request for a special master, which the DOJ opposed. After that request was approved, both the DOJ and Trump’s team each submitted two nominees for who they think should serve in that role. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Okay, so both sides each had two suggestions that they provided for who should be in the role. Got you. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Right. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Which of the two people that Trump recommended? Did the DOJ signal they would support? 

Josie Duffy Rice: So, according to CNN, the DOJ said that Senior Judge Raymond Dearie would be, quote, “acceptable”. So Dearie was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York by Ronald Reagan back in 1986. He took senior status in 2011. Senior status is basically like semi-retirement for federal judges. They only have to keep a 25% caseload, but they still have a staff and a lot of the perks of being a judge. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Gotcha. So what else do we know about Judge Dearie? 

Josie Duffy Rice: Well, we don’t know everything yet. And certainly more will come out over the next few days. It’s worth noting that even some Trump critics have said he’s a pretty upstanding judge. But what we do know is that he signed off on the 2017 warrant against Carter Page. Remember that? 

Tre’vell Anderson: Okay, I don’t remember that name. Remind us who Carter Page is again. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Okay. So Carter Page was a former Trump adviser who was a main focus of the investigation of Trump’s campaign and its relationship with Russian officials. So he was a focus of the Steele dossier. Remember those days? 

Tre’vell Anderson: Mm hmm. 

Josie Duffy Rice: We can’t get into what that all was today because we would need a lot of time. But suffice it to say that Carter Page was a subject of the Mueller investigation way back when. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Gotcha. So he signed off on this warrant. What does that mean? 

Josie Duffy Rice: Well, it turns out that signing off on that warrant was a controversial move. In 2019 the DOJ actually determined that the warrant signed by Dearie, that approved surveillance of Page was invalid. Page later sued the DOJ for $75 million dollars for unlawful surveillance. And that suit was actually dismissed just a few weeks ago. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Gotcha. So who was the other Trump pick for Special Master? The one the DOJ did not accept. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Trump’s other nominee was Paul Huck Jr. He’s a former partner at Jones Day, the law firm that represented the Trump campaign in 2016. He’s part of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. 

Tre’vell Anderson: I just hear that. And I go, uh oh, red flag, red flag, danger, danger, danger. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Federalist Society should give you the red flag. Right. Reaction. [laugh]

Tre’vell Anderson: Okay, cool. So, Josie, the Justice Department seems to be okay with one of the Trump team’s picks. Have Trump’s lawyers said they would accept either of the DOJ’s nominees for Special Master? 

Josie Duffy Rice: No, actually, quite the opposite. So Trump’s team rejected DOJ’s nominees, both of whom are retired federal judges. One of them, Judge Thomas Griffith, was appointed by George W Bush in 2005. More recently, he coauthored a report, quote, “Debunking Trump’s lies about massive fraud in the 2020 election”. That’s according to CNN. So it’s not super surprising that Trump’s team was not into him. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Mm hmm. 

Josie Duffy Rice: The other Judge Barbara Jones, was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1995. She was appointed special master to examine the evidence seized in the FBI raid of Rudy Giuliani’s home and office back in 2021. So also not super surprising that Trump is not in to her. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Gotcha. So now what? Where do we go from here? 

Josie Duffy Rice: Well, now we wait and see if the court will approve Judge Dearie as special master. If the two parties agree. It seems reasonable to expect he’ll be approved. And then we wait to find out the timeline for the review. So the DOJ wants it to happen quickly. By October 17th, Trump’s team wants a longer review period of 90 days, which means it would end after the midterm elections. 

Tre’vell Anderson: I’m sure he does. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah. I would also not want this to come out before the elections are over if I were him. And that’s the latest for now. We’ll be back after some ads. 

[AD BREAK]

Josie Duffy Rice: Let’s get to some headlines. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Tre’vell Anderson: A big January 6th update yesterday. Over the past week, officials from the Justice Department have seized two phones belonging to top Trump advisers and sent out about 40 subpoenas to the former president’s aides. That’s all according to reports first published in The New York Times. Some of the subpoenas seek information related to a new target for investigators. Trump’s fundraising vehicle, which is called Save America. Not to be confused with Vote Save America. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Mm mm. Don’t confuse those. Ukraine made more headway against Russia as its new offensive strategy continued yesterday. The Ukrainian military announced it freed another 20 settlements in 24 hours. The advancements are happening on multiple fronts, including Kherson in the south and in the east near Kharkiv. A U.S. military official said Russian troops are dealing with low morale and logistical issues, though they retaliated with more airstrikes in Kharkiv yesterday. A Kremlin spokesperson said, quote, “The special military operation continues and will continue until the initial goals are achieved”. Moscow came out with similar statements earlier in the conflict, including when Russian forces abandoned their push to take Kiev in April. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Montana health officials adopted a new rule over the weekend that permanently bans transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates to match their gender identity. Before this, Montanans could change their sex at birth if they’ve had gender affirming surgery, surgery that is often expensive and inaccessible to trans folks as it is. But this new rule has made that virtually impossible. The only way residents can change the sex on their birth certificate now is by proving that their sex was listed incorrectly with medical testing. The ACLU of Montana already filed a lawsuit asking a state judge to block the rule. And the judge will hear arguments on the issue this Thursday. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Just fucking awful. About 15,000 Minnesota nurses took to the picket lines yesterday, likely making it the largest private sector nurses strike in the country. This comes after five months of contract negotiations between their union, the Minnesota Nurses Association and hospital executives. The union represents nurses from 16 hospitals throughout the state, and like other medical workers throughout the pandemic, they’re demanding safer working conditions, help with staffing shortages and better pay. The current strike is set to last for three days. It’s not clear when both sides will return to the negotiating table. And meanwhile, the medical facilities affected by the strike promise to stay open and continue treating patients during the work stoppage. 

Tre’vell Anderson: A new level of mind games was just unlocked in iMessage because Apple released a software update yesterday that allows users to edit and unsend messages after they’ve sent them. The feature is available in iOS 16, but it does have some limitations. For example, you can only delete or edit a message within 15 minutes of sending it and the other person will be notified if you’ve done either of those things. Plus, if you edit a message, people still have the option to see your original unedited message. Meaning Apple does not have your back if you have a wild heart that makes you say crazy things. If you feel like you’re ready for this new great power and the great responsibility that comes with it. The update is available to download now. I’ll just note I don’t know why we’re doing this if they can still see the unedited message. It defeats the purpose of editing it. 

Josie Duffy Rice: It does. The point is that you should delete it and resend it. 

Tre’vell Anderson: There you go. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Because they can see you deleted it, but they can’t see what you deleted. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Mm. 

Josie Duffy Rice: That’s for all my reactive friends [laughter] out there who tend to say things they regret. A new kind of free return for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Yesterday, a rocket launched by his company Blue Origin went up in flames a minute after launch. Free returning, carrying an uncrewed capsule filled with experiments which actually landed safely after parachuting out. Filled with experiments? [laughter] The troubling part is that this rocket used the same design as the one that shuttled celebrities and people with money for a ticket close to space in the past. This is Blue Origin’s first failed launch, and the FAA has started an investigation to figure out what happened. In the meantime, Bezos’s rockets will be grounded until their findings are complete. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Someone finally managed to abolish the police and specifically the ones in a new video game called Multiverses. The free to play game pulls in characters from the Warner Brothers Discovery universe for an experience like Super Smash Brothers. And until last week, players who chose Velma from Scooby Doo could defeat their opponents by summoning a police car to whisk them away. That didn’t sit well with some gamers who just wanted to kick Bugs Bunny’s ass without exposing him to our broken criminal justice system. There was even a Change.org petition to that effect, though it didn’t mention kicking Bugs Bunny’s ass specifically. Thankfully, an update removed Velma’s special care and attack by swapping the police car out with a mystery squad car. And it is in this moment that I am realizing that perhaps Velma, the most fashionable of the Scooby Doo gang, perhaps I would say. 

Josie Duffy Rice: True. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Was always a Karen. 

Josie Duffy Rice: She was. 

Tre’vell Anderson: That’s very sad to me. [laughing]

Josie Duffy Rice: We always kind of knew it. This is why we need media literacy in schools. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Absolutely. 

Josie Duffy Rice: We need people to know what’s going on really in Scooby Doo. And those are the headlines. [music break] That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Release Bugs Bunny and tell your friends to listen. 

Tre’vell Anderson: And if you’re into reading and not just raw, unedited text messages like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Tre’vell Anderson. 

Josie Duffy Rice: I’m Josie Duffy Rice. 

[spoken together] And just be cool Velma.

Tre’vell Anderson: You ain’t got to call the police on nobody. 

Josie Duffy Rice: Relax. Stay out of it. 

Tre’vell Anderson: Just turn the other cheek. That’s what the Bible say. [music break] What A Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Bill Lancz. Jazzi Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is Jon Millstein and our executive producer is Lita Martínez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.