March 18: Iran Strikes Tel Aviv as Retaliation Escalates

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1:01That's code DSR26 at the DSR network.com slash buy. Thank you and enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to the DSR Daily. I'm David Rothka from joint by Riley Fessler in Minnestine. We're looking at what's going on in and around the world today. Minna. Iran launched missile strikes with cluster warheads on Tel Aviv, saying it was retaliation for Israel's killing of senior official Ali Laryjani as the conflict continues to escalate. The widening war between Iran, Israel, and the United States has caused thousands of deaths, disrupted global oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and driven sharp increases in energy prices. With both sides rejecting ceasefire efforts in regional attacks, spreading, officials

2:03mourn of growing risk of global risks to global stability, including economic shocks and potential nuclear dangers. That's obviously shaking you up quite a bit. We're three weeks into this thing, almost, and Trump seems each and every day to desperately be looking for an off ramp. But of course, he has discovered what everybody knew, that which everybody knew, and that is he doesn't get the only vote in this thing, and Iran will determine how it intends to play it. He also thought he was going in, doing an air war, and now there's challenges because Iran has decided to wage economic war in the Strait of Hormuz to strike all the countries in the region periodically, and so on.

3:04Trump in a sort of act of desperation throughout a truth social post this morning, which essentially said, well, what if I just left? And then all the countries that care about the Strait of Hormuz can clean up that. And of course, not in any way acknowledging that he and he alone started this war. But of course, that doesn't actually work because the way the global economy works is that disruptions in oil flows cause oil prices to rise no matter where you get your oil from. And they cause food prices to rise because everybody depends on fertilizer. And they cause markets to go down, and they cause recession. And of course, that doesn't have anything to do with what Iran chooses to do in terms

4:05of unconventional or even conventional forms of warfare, what other kinds of attacks there are. Do they go after embassies as they seem to be doing? Do they choose terrorism? Trump threw the on switch, feeling like it was pretty sure he could throw the off switch against the advice of a lot of the people around him. And now it's, you know, he's desperately, you know, it's like he's hitting the off button and it just won't work. Just why people don't do this kind of thing. And is it a fiasco? Yeah, it's a fiasco. Rather. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen is testifying before a congressional committee today as he seeks confirmation lead the Department of Homeland Security under President Trump. The former MMA fighter and veteran lawmaker was attached to replace Kristinaum following her removal. Only in only in only in America, do you get to describe somebody as the former MMA fighter

5:05and veteran lawmaker? And that's what makes the country so great. It does. You know, did he go to college? Did he do anything that has to do with this? Does him any experience? He doesn't have any fighter. Exactly. Well, he was an MMA fighter. This is only a security. If bad guys come here, folks, he could kick their butt. He's actually threatened to do that in mid congressional or Senate testimony, not too long ago. So what a guy and what an interesting hearing this should be. Sorry, Riley. Didn't mean to interrupt you. Mullen faces the immediate task of navigating a funding impasse that has caused airport security shortages while defending the administration's signature mass deportation policies. If the committee advances his nomination, a full Senate vote later this month will determine if he takes the helm of the sprawling agency. Yeah. Should anybody who cares about the future of, I don't know, the United States, first amendment

6:07freedoms, like the ability to demonstrate publicly, the rule of law, do process, are standing in the world. Should anyone of the people who care about those things vote for this do, of course not. Of course not. Interesting to see whether he gets a single Democrat vote. There are signs that he will. Why? Because he's in the Senate and senators, I don't know, it's a club and they all get sort of intoxicated with being collegial with one another. Even though this guy is, you know, a thug who has no business being in the Senate or getting this job. But we'll see. And of course, if he doesn't get confirmed, Trump will just put some acting person in charge of it for a year and, you know, that's impossibly far in the future in Trump's mind. And he'll just say, okay, I don't have to worry about that, on to the next thing. Bigger issue with regard to all of this, particularly if any of you are planning to fly anywhere, is

7:07when, you know, funding will be restored to this agency because the delays now, TSA delays and airports and things like that are huge and getting longer. There's an hours and hours of waiting in line for TSA, Democrats keep going up and saying, well, we'll fund that. We're just not going to fund ice until there are these changes. There is a crack in this, though, and word has been passed from the White House to a couple of key moderate Republican senators that the White House was willing to agree to certain sessions, like police officers or officers of these agencies will be identified. One of the concessions that they agreed to make was not to deport American citizens. That's a concession. What a great concession. Yeah, I mean, it's like, that's illegal.

8:08They don't have the right to deport American citizens, but that's one of the concessions, which gives you a sense of just how sincere this is, although the fact that they're offering a list like this suggests they would like to get out of the mess they've gotten themselves into because, hey, are you paying attention? Literally every single step this administration has taken since it took office, but all the steps that has taken in 2026 have blown up in their faces. They are on one of the biggest, longest losing streets, any administration or US history. I'm sure there's more to come, you know, well, our next story is going to back up what you just said. Prove you actually know what you're talking about. Thank you. A shutdown affecting transportation security. Many people, many people who knew who know me thought that was impossible. So let's go here to set the record straight, a shutdown affecting the transportation security administration has led to severe staffing shortages with officials warning that some

9:12US airports could be forced to close if unpaid workers continue to call out. The partial government shutdown tied to a political standoff over immigration policy has left TSA agents working without pay, causing resignations and absentee rates to surge. As disruptions worsen and long security lines grow, airlines and officials are urging Congress to reach a deal before air travel is significantly impacted. Even more so than it already is. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't, I mean, the idea of waiting in line for like four hours to get through TSA just on untenable, unappetizing, uneverything. But that's where we are and as I said, the impasse doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon because of course the areas where Democrats demand concessions given the

10:15behavior of ICE, the administration seems unlikely to provide. The Molen testimony will obviously focus on that and Molen will testify as Trump appointees tend to performing for one guy and one guy only and that's Trump. He then say inflammatory things saying, well, this is on the Democrats and this shutdown is on you and, you know, we need you're making this country more at risk in a time of war. Yeah, he'll say all that. Will that make the situation worse? Probably. Probably. We'll see. We'll see if I know what I'm talking about. But my guess is this, this, this, this, the tension will rise following his testimony. U.S. District court judge has ordered the reinstatement of over 1,000 voice of America

11:17employees declaring a Trump official carry lakes attempts to dismantle the agency arbitrary and capricious. The ruling found that Lake lacked the legal authority to effectively shut down the network and had ignored clear congressional intent to fund and maintain its global broadcasting operations. During her tenure, Lake significantly reduced a VOA's language services and sought to realign its editorial voice, citing a 2025 executive order focused on minimizing the agency's footprint. While the decision restores full-time staff and leadership, hundreds of contractors remain in limbo as their cases must be resolved through separate administrative labor courts. Yeah, I mean, again, you know, what we're seeing now a year later is a lot of the impact of the crazy decisions of Doge and the administration early on. And their whole approach was clear. We're going to fire people. We're going to shut things down. Of course, I'm doing this later on. We will have disrupted things a lot. And, you know, of course, had they gone to the Congress, which seems to be willing to

12:19do whatever they want, and, you know, had a debate and ended the funding for these things the way it's supposed to be done. We wouldn't be going through this. Where does this all lead? It leads to dysfunctional agencies and, of course, a lot of hardship in the life of people who are serving the US. But as we have also seen in the case of USAID, it damages not only our standing in the world, but leads to millions of deaths and all like we put around the world. In the case of this agency, this is one of the principal tools we have to deal with countervailing narratives of authoritarian regimes. It plays an extremely important role in US diplomacy. It has always been highly valued. And, of course, it was just shut down. And that's a story that we've seen throughout the government. I do think it's worth everybody remembering.

13:21Just how draconian and crazy and stupid and damaging Elon Musk and Doge and the cuts that were made in this administration's first days really were. Because now, you know, Elon's off doing his own thing and we're like, oh yeah, I don't really remember all that. It was really, really bad. A real case of, you know, malfeasance in governance by the president and those closest to it. Daniel Biss won the Democratic primary in Illinois's ninth congressional district despite facing scrutiny over past controversies, including acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a former student and earlier academic criticisms. His victory highlighted a broader split between progressives and moderate Democrats as candidates like Donna Miller and Melissa Bean also won with support from heavily funded more pro-Israel

14:26aligned groups. The races were shaped by major outside spending and sharp divisions over Israel policy, underscoring ongoing ideological tensions within the Democratic Party. Yeah, I mean, his victory was a defeat for APAC, the victory of Melissa Bean, a comeback was funded by APAC money. APAC is seen as toxic to an increasing number of Democratic voters and for good reason. Because they are supporting policies that are not in the U.S. national interest, they're supporting policies that have led to genocide and war throughout the Middle East. They are a malignant force in U.S. politics in my view. And I was good to see kind of split decision on this, but it also reveals just how dysfunctional

15:30our political system is, that entities with very narrow agendas can come in and spend millions and millions of dollars to try to influence outcomes and to effectively influence those outcomes. Another group that was trying to do this in these Illinois primaries were crypto groups that have been very active in trying to get legislators who would allow their activity. They did very poorly as well. In fact, one analysis I saw said that of $14 million or something that was put into these races by APAC and the crypto groups, only about $2 million or $3 million paid off and the rest of the money didn't work. That's goodness. It's good news that special interests are not at least fully able to pick or influence

16:33who's in the United States Congress at this point, but they still have too much influence and campaign finance reform is an absolutely essential structural form in the United States if we are ever to get back to anything like being a functioning democracy. Is that it? Is that all you've got? For today at least. Well, keep an eye on the congressional hearings, keep an eye on the war in Iran, keep an eye on how it spreads around the world, keep an eye on Trump who, you know, we pick headlines because they're specific stories, but I don't know if you guys watched his press conference yesterday with the leader of Ireland. This Trump is, court Trump is broken, you know, it's often said, but if he was your grandpa, you would be having him seen by a neurologist.

17:33You'd put him in his slippers in his PJs, be able to watch the TV. He was watching the TV last night because he clearly watched the baseball game between the United States and Venice, well, which in an interesting geopolitical twist, the Venezuela beat the heavily favored U.S. team. How did Trump respond to that? Did either of you see it? I did not see. Don't say Nazi like that in this context, but Trump, thanks for laughing at that. That's good. Thanks. Trump said he put out a, you know, like a two word tweet, the one word with exclamation points was statehood. That was his response. Implying Venezuela should now be made a state because we've taken it over and since they

18:34won this, maybe they should be a U.S. state. Watch what what he may have in mind, right, great Cuba, folks, since he fears the Democrats coming in and trying to make DC and Puerto Rico a state. This may not be a big joke. Anyway, there's all this stuff to keep an eye on. We'll keep an eye on it. We've got our flagship deep state radio podcast later today, so go and tune into that. Words matter tomorrow, the daily show from the TNR that we do. We've got lots of stuff coming your way, so stand by and we'll keep you up to speed. Thanks for now, Riley, minute, bye-bye.