RIGGED BY DESIGN – The Quiet Shift: Iran, Social Security & Elections.

RIGGED BY DESIGN – The Quiet Shift: Iran, Social Security & Elections.

RIGGED BY DESIGN Episode 24 — Show Notes Aired: June 11, 2026 Episode 24 began with a question that emerged from a conversation earlier in the week: If voting alone is not enough to guarantee democracy, how can ordinary citizens challenge those in power? That question became the foundation for the entire episode. The introduction opened with the ongoing conflict involving Iran and the growing uncertainty surrounding military actions, funding, and official narratives. While headlines have largely moved on, questions remain about who is making decisions, where the money is coming from, and how much oversight the public actually has over actions taken in its name. Next, attention shifted to Social Security and the accelerating timeline for trust fund depletion. We discussed projections that now place insolvency at the end of 2032, the potential impact on retirees and disabled Americans, and the long history of borrowing from the trust fund through government-issued IOUs. Along the way, we examined payroll tax caps, demographic explanations for shortfalls, gig work, and the growing concern that Americans have little meaningful influence over a system they have spent decades funding. At its core, the question remained simple: who controls the system when citizens cannot effectively challenge decisions affecting their own retirement? Concerns about accountability then carried into a discussion about SpaceX’s planned IPO and the growing concentration of private economic power. We explored questions surrounding valuation, market influence, retirement investments, and whether ordinary Americans have any real ability to challenge decisions made by billionaires whose companies increasingly shape communications, technology, government contracts, and financial markets. What began as a conversation about SpaceX evolved into a broader examination of whether corporate power has become as difficult to challenge as government power. Attention later turned toward representation, race, and political power. Questions about challenging elected officials evolved into a broader conversation about lived experience, privilege, systemic discrimination, and the different barriers people face when trying to make their voices heard. Stories involving interracial families, racism, and unequal treatment illustrated that many communities have spent generations fighting for recognition, rights, and accountability from institutions that were never designed to serve everyone equally. These examples reinforced the episode’s central theme: the struggle to challenge power is not new, but some Americans have always faced steeper obstacles than others. Later in the episode, election transparency became the focus through the Election Truth Alliance analysis of the Kentucky Republican primary involving Thomas Massie. We discussed turnout patterns, enthusiasm gaps, district-level statistical analysis, and the importance of verification rather than simply accepting assurances that election systems functioned properly. Particular attention was given to questions surrounding unusually high turnout, mirrored voting patterns, and the distinction between trust and verification. Throughout that discussion, the underlying issue remained the same: how can ordinary citizens independently verify election outcomes? Broader concerns about election administration, voter rolls, hand counts, and public confidence in election systems followed. We examined President Trump’s suggestion that USPS ballot delivery could be tied to states turning over voter rolls and discussed what it means when access to election infrastructure becomes concentrated in fewer hands. At that point, the issue was not simply ballots or voter rolls, but power itself and who controls it. Closing segments of the episode focused on AI centralization and the possibility of increasingly interconnected government databases. We explored reports that benefit systems, identity systems, and administrative databases may be moving toward greater integration. While often presented as efficiency, much of the conversation centered on accountability. If centralized systems deny benefits, flag records, or make decisions affecting people’s lives, what mechanisms remain for citizens to challenge those decisions? Despite covering Social Security, SpaceX, race, election transparency, voter rolls, and AI centralization, the episode ultimately returned to the same question posed at the beginning. How do ordinary citizens challenge institutions once those institutions become powerful enough to stop listening? What connected each topic throughout the episode was not politics, technology, elections, or even Social Security itself, but the growing concentration of decision-making power inside systems that are increasingly difficult for ordinary citizens to challenge. Whether the discussion centered on Social Security, election administration, billionaire-owned infrastructure, or interconnected databases, the same concern emerged repeatedly: accountability becomes harder to achieve when the institutions making decisions are larger, more centralized, and more insulated from public pressure. Thank you Angel [https://substack.com/profile/2882096-angel], mary kostanski [https://substack.com/profile/13859411-mary-kostanski], Shannon Edrie [https://substack.com/profile/3964635-shannon-edrie], Kirby …heard what? [https://substack.com/profile/8705869-kirby-heard-what], Dina b Porter [https://substack.com/profile/43596409-dina-b-porter], and and everyone else for tuning into Rigged by Design with Jason [https://open.substack.com/users/14756640-jason?utm_source=mentions] and me. Join us for our next live video with our special guest T from This Will Hold [https://substack.com/profile/315023719-this-will-hold] on Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 10:05 am PST / 1:05 pm EST. [https://open.substack.com/live-stream/241669?utm_source=live-stream-scheduled-upsell] If this work matters to you, support it. Subscribe to Jason [https://substack.com/@jaystone4] and/or me as we continue documenting what others rush past or refuse to touch. This isn’t content for the sake of content. It’s ongoing, time-intensive work that requires digging, verifying, and staying on stories long after they fall out of the news cycle. If you’re able to support this work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. If a subscription isn’t feasible, you can still help support independent reporting with a one-time Buy Me a Coffee contribution. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe [https://zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Rigged by Design, Episode 23 — Permanent Emergency

RIGGED BY DESIGN Episode 23 — Show Notes Aired: June 4, 2026 Episode 23 opened with a discussion about instability, both personal and political. After sharing the challenges of dealing with a family medical emergency involving cluster seizures, we shifted into the episode’s central theme: how instability that once would have dominated public attention now disappears almost immediately. The conversation began with the recent shooting near the White House during Memorial Day weekend and the broader question of why repeated incidents of political violence seem to vanish from public discussion within days. We explored how constant crisis cycles, media fragmentation, and public exhaustion create an environment where extraordinary events increasingly feel routine. From there, we moved into Congress’s attempt to reassert its constitutional authority over war powers. The House passed a War Powers Resolution regarding Iran by a vote of 215-208, following a similar effort in the Senate. Rather than focusing solely on the conflict itself, the discussion centered on what happens when Congress formally votes to limit military action while questions remain about whether those limits will ultimately be respected. We connected this to what has become a recurring theme on Rigged by Design: the “two-week cycle” of escalating rhetoric, delayed decisions, shifting timelines, and permanent uncertainty. Iran, Cuba speculation, military posturing, and repeated emergency narratives all pointed toward a larger concern that crisis itself is becoming a governing strategy rather than a temporary condition. The conversation then expanded into questions of wealth, power, and accountability. We discussed the growing divide between the wealthy and everyone else, the influence of billionaires over political systems, and the ways economic inequality increasingly shapes public policy. The discussion touched on healthcare, housing, homelessness, technological innovation, and how financial incentives often determine political priorities more than public need. Several examples were raised to illustrate how government spending decisions frequently reveal priorities that differ sharply from the daily concerns of ordinary Americans. We also examined recent reporting that National Park Service revenues are being redirected toward projects and events in Washington, D.C., including July Fourth celebrations, while maintenance backlogs continue to grow. The broader point was not the individual expenditure itself but what spending choices reveal about institutional priorities. Throughout the episode, we returned repeatedly to the idea that following the money often provides a clearer picture of power than following political rhetoric. The final portion of the episode focused on elections, voter confidence, and local civic engagement. Drawing from firsthand experience serving as a poll worker during San Francisco’s primary election, observations included strong voter interest in national politics, confusion about voting requirements, widespread use of ballot drop boxes rather than the postal system, and turnout levels that exceeded expectations for a local primary. The discussion also highlighted the availability of education ballots for eligible non-citizen parents in local school board races and the reality that no such voters appeared at the polling location observed. More broadly, we discussed public trust in elections, transparency, hand-counted paper ballots, precinct-level accountability, and the importance of state and local engagement in preserving democratic systems. Episode 23 ultimately returned to a simple question: what happens when crisis becomes permanent? White House violence, war powers disputes, economic inequality, election concerns, infrastructure spending, and international tensions may appear disconnected on the surface. Yet viewed together, they reveal a common pattern. Instability no longer feels like an interruption to normal life. Increasingly, it feels like the environment itself. Thank you Margaret Williams, MS, ACC [https://substack.com/profile/12044824-margaret-williams-ms-acc], Lizzy B [https://substack.com/profile/350838263-lizzy-b], KarenC-Book Collector📚⚖️🗽🗳️🧿♒️ [https://substack.com/profile/861075-karenc-book-collector], Dina b Porter [https://substack.com/profile/43596409-dina-b-porter], and everyone else who joined us despite our technical difficulties and second livestream launch. Join us next Thursday for another episode of Rigged by Design as we continue examining the stories, patterns, and systems operating beneath the headlines. Truth doesn’t come in neutral — Zorha. If this work matters to you, support it. Subscribe to Jason [https://substack.com/@jaystone4] and/or me as we continue documenting what others rush past or refuse to touch. This isn’t content for the sake of content. It’s ongoing, time-intensive work that requires digging, verifying, and staying on stories long after they fall out of the news cycle. If you’re able to support this work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. If a subscription isn’t feasible, you can still help support independent reporting with a one-time Buy Me a Coffee contribution. This episode along with others can be found on Apple Podcast. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe [https://zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

RIGGED BY DESIGN – Who Controls the Code Controls the Midterms

RIGGED BY DESIGN Episode 22 — Show Notes Aired: May 21, 2026 Episode 22 opened with the idea that power has shifted underneath government into infrastructure: AI systems, data systems, communications platforms, predictive analytics, surveillance, and privately controlled technology. We began with the Ashley St. Clair TikTok video and the broader conversation surrounding Musk, AmericaPAC, satellites, and “real-time election data.” While the claims remain allegations rather than forensic proof, we discussed why references to stored evidence, predictive systems, and election-related technology deserve scrutiny instead of immediate dismissal. The conversation centered on the distinction between “voter fraud” and potential election/data/system fraud, which often gets blurred or intentionally collapsed in mainstream discussion. From there, we moved into the Kentucky Massie/Gallrein primary as a live example of why opaque election infrastructure continues triggering distrust. We discussed the unusual turnout surge in a midterm primary, the timing of absentee/mail-in ballots, Trump’s still-underwater approval rating even in Kentucky, the low visible enthusiasm for the Trump-backed challenger, and the role predictive systems and betting markets like Polymarket may play in shaping public perception before results are finalized. The larger point was not that this proves fraud, but that anomalies tied to privately controlled systems deserve verification, especially when billionaire-backed political infrastructure, AI systems, proprietary tabulators, and behavioral analytics increasingly overlap inside modern elections. The episode closed by returning to privatization and normalization. We connected AI-generated propaganda, algorithmic rage-bait, proprietary voting systems, private election vendors, media amplification pipelines, and surveillance-style infrastructure to a broader question: how can public trust survive when the systems shaping, transmitting, counting, and narrating elections are increasingly hidden from view? The focus remained on local and state-level action: pressuring attorneys general and election officials, demanding paper ballots, hand counts, transparency, open-source systems, and real public verification. Because once the infrastructure itself becomes opaque, every anomaly becomes magnified. Humans built systems too complicated for the public to meaningfully audit, then act shocked when trust collapses. Thank you MisterFuzzyGuy [https://substack.com/profile/318685228-misterfuzzyguy], Jeannie Flavin [https://substack.com/profile/141504447-jeannie-flavin], Dina b Porter [https://substack.com/profile/43596409-dina-b-porter], and many others for tuning into Rigged by Design with Jason [https://open.substack.com/users/14756640-jason?utm_source=mentions] and me. Join us for our next live video in the app on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 10:05 a.m. PST / 1:05 p.m. EST. [https://open.substack.com/live-stream/215758?r=34v1yl&utm_medium=ios] Truth doesn’t come in neutral — Zorha. If this work matters to you, support it. Subscribe to Jason [https://substack.com/@jaystone4] and/or me as we continue documenting what others rush past or refuse to touch. This isn’t content for the sake of content. It’s ongoing, time-intensive work that requires digging, verifying, and staying on stories long after they fall out of the news cycle. If you’re able to support this work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. If a subscription isn’t feasible, you can still help support independent reporting with a one-time Buy Me a Coffee contribution. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe [https://zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Rigged by Design — Episode 20: Everything Is Fucked

RIGGED BY DESIGN Episode 20 — Show Notes Aired: May 7, 2026 Twenty episodes into Rigged by Design, the pattern is no longer just difficult to explain away. The instability itself has become the environment people are expected to function inside. Every week brings another crisis, another escalation timeline, another distraction cycle, and another expansion of power quietly moving underneath it all. This episode centered on the growing disconnect between the scale of what is happening and the complete lack of coherent public explanation surrounding it. The administration’s messaging around Iran continued shifting in real time — from warnings against escalation, to vague military timelines, to peace negotiations, to officials openly suggesting a return to essentially the same geopolitical position that existed before military action began. Meanwhile, billions continue being spent with no clearly defined endpoint, objective, or public understanding of what success is even supposed to look like. At the same time, the domestic machinery of surveillance and enforcement continues expanding with remarkably little public attention. Congress quietly extended Section 702 surveillance powers again, first through a short-term extension and then through a longer 45-day extension that now stretches into mid-June. Temporary emergency powers continue functioning as semi-permanent infrastructure, normalized through repetition and public exhaustion rather than meaningful public debate. The discussion also returned to how surveillance powers introduced after 9/11 continue operating under the language of “national security” more than two decades later, while increasingly overlapping with political speech, online activity, and growing public fears around retaliation and selective enforcement. The episode also examined the growing instability surrounding election structures themselves. Louisiana’s congressional maps and election processes were thrown into uncertainty following recent court rulings tied to redistricting and Voting Rights Act protections. As maps shift, elections pause, and district battles intensify ahead of 2026, the larger question becomes unavoidable: what does it mean when election structures themselves remain in flux while the public is simultaneously told to simply “wait for the next election”? The conversation also explored broader concerns surrounding aggressive gerrymandering, election administration, and continued attacks on mail-in voting systems. The discussion repeatedly returned to how systemic pressure increasingly falls on ordinary people while political and corporate systems continue protecting themselves. Personal examples involving caregiving, IHSS work, Social Security limitations, rising costs of living, and economic instability highlighted the widening disconnect between how policy decisions are made and how people are actually expected to survive underneath them. As grocery prices continue rising and corporate profits remain protected, the burden increasingly shifts onto families already operating in survival mode. Throughout the episode, another recurring pattern continued surfacing — major scandals disappearing through exhaustion cycles rather than resolution. Epstein faded once again from mainstream attention, not because questions were answered or accountability was achieved, but because the public cycle moved on. The same dynamic applies broadly across political corruption, retaliation, surveillance expansion, selective enforcement, and institutional failures. The discussion also examined growing concerns surrounding DOJ retaliation, political intimidation, attacks on critics and journalists, and the broader normalization of authoritarian-style governance. ICE expansion also came up in the closing section, when an audience member asked for the location of California’s newest detention facility. The facility is the Central Valley Annex in McFarland, Kern County, a 700-bed ICE detention center operated by GEO Group. Its location matters. This is not happening in a highly visible civic space where the public can easily monitor conditions or organize around what is taking place. It is being placed in what was described on-air as “out of nowhere land,” raising the concern that detention infrastructure pushed away from public visibility becomes easier to normalize while privatized profiteering and abuse continue with limited scrutiny. The conversation ultimately returned to the larger framework that has increasingly defined Rigged by Design itself: different headlines, same pattern. Crisis fragments public attention. Fragmented attention weakens scrutiny. And while the public struggles to keep pace with shifting narratives, systems of surveillance, enforcement, detention, privatization, and political power continue expanding underneath the confusion. At some point, instability stops feeling temporary and starts functioning as governance itself. Thank you M Hope [https://substack.com/profile/392818336-m-hope], Lizzy B [https://substack.com/profile/350838263-lizzy-b], and many others for tuning into Rigged by Design with Jason [https://substack.com/profile/14756640-jason] and me. Join us for our next live video in the app on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. PST / 1:00 p.m. EST. [https://open.substack.com/live-stream/198644?] Truth doesn’t come in neutral — Zorha. If this work matters to you, support it. Subscribe to Jason [https://substack.com/@jaystone4] or me as we continue documenting what others rush past or refuse to touch. This isn’t content for the sake of content. It’s ongoing, time-intensive work that requires digging, verifying, and staying on stories long after they fall out of the news cycle. If you’re able to support this work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. If a subscription isn’t feasible, you can still help support independent reporting with a one-time Buy Me a Coffee contribution. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe [https://zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Rigged by Design: Episode 19 – The Only Branch Left: We the People

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe [https://zorhasbsfreezone.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]