You're listening to the skeptics guide to the universe.

Your escape to reality.

Hello and welcome to the skeptics guide to the universe.

Today is Wednesday, June 11th, 2025, and this is your host, Stephen Novella.

Joining me this week, Bob Novella.

Hey, everybody.

Kara Santa Maria.

Howdy? Jay Novella. Hey, guys. And Evan Bernstein. Good evening, folks. Kara, how is L.A.? I hear it's on fire again.

Well, that's what people want you to think, I think. But it's not. Okay. Obviously, stuff is going on in

L.A. There are protests. There is a curfew downtown at night, but it's quiet at night, like the curfew is being heated. It's not affecting my day to day. And I know that most citizens in L.A. feel the same way.

L.A. is a large area.

L.A. is really, really, really big. And yes, there are protests in

pockets. The protests are largely peaceful. And if you ask not only our mayor, Karen Bass,

but also our governor, Gavin Newsom, we don't want the National Guard here. We don't want the Marines

here. Nobody asked them to come.

Actually, it's a violation of the Constitution for them to be asked to come here without,

without our permission. And they're not doing anything. They're not needed. They're mostly just

standing around, quote, guarding government buildings from what I'm not sure. Yeah, seems like a pretty

thin pretext

and something that Trump was spoiling to do just to do it. Yeah, I mean, it's say that he could do it.

It's the same game of make a problem and then publicize the problem, exaggerate the problem,

and then, quote, solve the problem. And then you get to be the hero. But in doing so, engage in a lot of government overreach, which is quite frightening. So, I mean, this all started with these ice raids. And some of these ice raids are scary. Some of them were really, obviously,

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