Inside DHS Turmoil And A Wave Of Tragedies Among Young Creators

A wave of devastating headlines sets the tone: young creators with massive followings gone too soon, one a mental health advocate whose death deepens the ache and the questions. We step back from the scroll to look for patterns beneath the shock—what relentless visibility does to fragile minds, how algorithmic pressure turns identity into performance, and why even the most hopeful captions rarely tell the full story. Grief lives in the gap between what an audience sees and what a person can carry.

From private pain to public policy, we tackle a brewing power struggle inside DHS and a major ICE leadership shakeup that could redefine deportation priorities in multiple cities. Should enforcement focus on criminal offenders with final orders, or widen the net to anyone here illegally to boost numbers? We wrestle with trade-offs that affect community trust, civil liberties, and agency identity. These choices don’t just move statistics; they shift how people feel about government, safety, and fairness.

The thread continues with a sobering Disney resort suicide update and a courtroom ruling that allows civilian clothes while keeping restraints out of camera view. Image control, fairness to a future jury, and media limits collide in a story where optics count as much as evidence in the public square. Through it all, we keep circling one hard truth: visibility shapes outcomes—from the lives we watch online to the institutions meant to serve us.

We close with something small but grounding: a question about car-cleaning routines. It’s not filler; it’s a nudge toward habits that lower the noise and steady the mind. If these stories stirred you, share the episode, leave a review, and tell us: what simple routine helps you stay balanced when the news feels heavy?

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Today’s Stories
• 0:49 Young Influencers And Sudden Deaths
• 3:24 Mental Health Advocate’s Suicide Details
• 6:54 DHS Infighting And ICE Shakeup
• 12:54 Changing Sides On Deportation Strategy
• 14:14 Disney World Suicide Follow-Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Hello, good morning. Welcome, one and all. Let's see, what do we have on the board today? I started putting my stories that I'm going to talk about back out on X. So you guys can see it and read the stories if you'd like. If you continue, if you want to continue to read the story, you can. So a lot of these so-called influencers on social media are dying either by suicide, I think by suicide. I know one of them for sure is by suicide. The other one, right now, doesn't say, um kind of death it was, but he was only 25 years old. So just saying. Bader, a Miami-based social media star, who gave lifestyle and financial advice to more than 200,000 followers. Why is a 25-year-old giving financial advice to people? But maybe he's, you know, maybe he's smart at it. TikTok and X died on October 23rd. His girlfriend Reem shared on a heartbreaking TikTok post. The past few days have been the hardest few days of my entire life, and I've never dealt with this before. Um, so Ben was the kindest, most caring, most generous person I've ever met in my entire life. So these people are dying, these young people, and I I don't I don't know what he died of. It could have been a total accident, but it was suddenly. I who knows? I have an idea. Only because of this other story about this other influencer who died. Uh, but hers was suicide at the age of 19. 19. What is going on with these young people on these social media TikTok influencers killing themselves? What is that about? I'm trying to open this article to read. There we go. About this um other TikToker, 19-year-old social media sensation Iman Atianza was discovered dead at her Los Angeles home on Wednesday, according to deadline. The daughter of Filipino television host Kim Atin Atianza, I can't pronounce that name, and educator Felicia Hung Sorry, I can't pronounce the name, had amassed a significant following on TikTok and Instagram through her content and advocacy on mental health issues. So she's out there advocating on mental health issues and then she commits suicide. According to the records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, the cause of death has been listed as suicide by ligature hanging. So she hung herself. This is so sad. What is going on with the young people like this committing suicide? These social media influencers. Do they are they feeling pressure to like keep this up? I don't know. I'm not an influencer, I don't know what that's like, and I'm also not 19, 25 years old either anymore. All right. We've got some infighting at the Department of Homeland Security. You know, Tom Holman's kind of been missing in action, or he or he's not been out in the media like all these other people have been recently. And I have a question for Tom Holman. Where are the 300,000 missing children? So ICE leadership shakeup exposes growing DHS friction over deportation tactics and priorities. So the side that Tom Holman is on is fighting with the side that Christy Gnome is on about the leadership in these bigger cities on how to deport these people. A mass shakeup of U.S. immigration and customs enforcement leadership is underway amid growing friction inside the Department of Homeland Security over deportation tactics and priorities. The overhaul affects ICE field offices in at least eight cities and will replace many senior leaders with Border Patrol officials, marking an unprecedented power shift inside DHS. And so what is happening? Are they saying that maybe Tom's not doing his job good enough? So Christy Nome is coming in to take over? I don't know. Uh so making an unprecedented power shift inside the DHS and exposing sharp divisions over how far to go in ramping up deportations. The change, the changes are being driven by competing camps inside DHS. On one side, our border czar Tom Holman and ICE Director Todd Lyons, who have advocated focusing on criminal aliens and those with final deportation orders. On the other side, uh DHS Secretary Christy Gnome, senior advisor Corey Lewandowski. Didn't she have a lured affair with him not too long ago? I did not know he was still with her, being her senior advisor. These two, these two people are still having sex together. I don't know if they're still married to other people. I don't know their situation. Uh, but obviously she likes him and he likes her. So she likes him enough to keep him around as her senior advisor. So and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who have pushed for a broader and more aggressive approach, target targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers. I think I'm gonna be on Christy Gnome's side on this. If you're here illegally, get him out. But I think Tom Holman is right too. You should start if you have people you know already with criminal, if you know them and you know, go get them first. I mean, really, come on. Two senior officials described the mood inside DHS as tense and combative. This is not good news, y'all. And with some ICE leaders warning the new approach could erode public support and blur the line between ICE and Border Patrol oper operations. I agree. Uh this is not gonna be good. ICE started off with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they were hitting. But since Border Patrol came to LA in June, we've lost our focus. Going too hard too fast and limiting and limited prioritization. One senior deal. Oh, this is not good. So I think Christy's trying to step it up, and Tom's like, hold on, let's go get the criminal, the worst of the criminals first. I changed my mind. I'm gonna go with Tom Holman on this one. What do y'all think? What are your thoughts on that? So, uh, speaking of deaths and stuff, we found out. Remember yesterday's episode, I talked about there was a third person that died at Disney. We found out who it was. And yes, it was suicide. This is what is going on with people? Third Dead Disney World Guest ID'd as aspiring NFL referee who had moved back in with his parents. Now I have not read this. I just saw the headline and I thought we need to talk, we need to do a follow-up on this because I talked about it yesterday. The third Disney World guest to die this month has been pictured days after uh the aspiring has wait has been pictured days after the aspiring football referee reportedly jumped from the fourth floor of a hotel. Good heavens. I don't understand P. I don't understand this. I don't understand suicide at all. I man, you gotta be in a bad, bad place, obviously. Matthew Alec Cohn, 28, again, a young person, died by suicide on Thursday at the Contemporary Resort Hotel at Orlando. Pictures on his Instagram showed the native of nearby Winter Garden wearing his referee uniform, captioned with the hashtag path to NFL. Uh big time players make big plays, he wrote in the caption under his last post, shared in September 2024, so a year ago, showing him blowing a whistle as a player steps in the end zone. Yeah, okay, but let's go on. Why, why? Um Cone was living in Los Angeles for several years and appeared to be trying to make it as a musician. A SoundCloud account with matching personal details has links to a number of tracks. Moving on. He also uh features an Instagram post for a self-styled alternative Christian band called New Shepherds. A second Instagram account for Cone based out of Los Angeles remains open. After leaving LA, he briefly lived in Nashville before records show he moved back in with his parents in the suburbs of Orlando last year. He hadn't posted on social media for over a year before his death. Oh, bless his heart. Last Wednesday night he checked into the contemporary resort hotel and paid for a room with cash before jumping from the 12th. Good heavens, this just breaks my heart. Cone, who is also a high school lacrosse athlete, died of multiple traumatic injuries. God bless. The death was ruled a suicide. Yes, of course, but whoa, bless his heart. I don't get it. Golly, I don't get it. Mm-mm. That's all it says. It goes on to talk about the other person, the other two people that died there. Oh, that's so sad. I don't understand what is happening at all. So the New York Post put out a uh article that I think you might find interesting uh about um why many New York City Democrats will never vote for Zoran Mom Donnie in their own words. I have not read it. It seems like a long article. If you would like to go read it, it is on my X-File. But let's and hope and pray there are a lot more people like them. You know, people keep saying Zorani, Zoran is just uh, you know, he's gonna be the mayor, he's gonna be the mayor, he's gonna be the mayor. Well, maybe, maybe not. We haven't. Let's let the voting result. Hopefully, people in New York City have not lost their minds, but you never know. Uh he, I mean, you got Andrew Cuomo for the Democrats, or because the Democrats are certainly not gonna vote for Curtis Curtis Sleewa, that's for sure. Oh, also on my ex account, the judge makes several surprising decisions regarding Charlie Kirk's suspected murderer ahead of trial. This is from Red State, so he's gonna get to wear regular street clothes, but he's still gonna be shackled and chained. Instead of wearing an orange jumpsuit, they're gonna allow him to wear street clothes whenever he's coming into court, but he's still gonna be shackled and chained. But if there are cameras in there, you cannot, you are not gonna be allowed to see the chains and shackles. All right, and we and the judge has not decided yet if they're gonna allow cameras in the courtroom when the trial starts. All right. A Utah judge has made a few surprising decisions following several requests from Charlie Kirk's suspected murderer, Tyler Robinson, ahead of his upcoming trial during a hearing on Monday in Provo Courthouse, uh, granted the defense attorney's request to allow Robinson permission to wear civilian clothes in court rather than a jail jumpsuit. However, the court ruled that the suspected killer will remain shackled for the duration of his court appearances. The judge then imposed some restrictions on the media covering the case. The standing decorum order will be amended to prohibit any visual recording or photography of the defendant's restraints or of the defendant entering or exiting the courtroom. And that's I guess to keep um any future jury pool unbiased? Is that the right term? I don't know, but I don't think he's I don't know what's gonna happen with that. We don't know when the trial is happening yet or anything. So those are the things today, and we need to move on to the question of the day. Okay, question of the day. How often do you clean out your car and wash it? Is it once a week? Is it once a month? Is it whenever it needs it? Or is this something a set routine that you do? Some people have that, some people don't. I'm one of those people that don't. I clean it whenever I see notice. Oh, I need to clean it. Um so, but I don't keep my car junky either. I, you know, I try to take all the trash out. If I have trash, you know, like if I go by Starbucks and I have a straw wrapper in the side thing of my door, I'll try, you know, I'll take it. I won't I won't keep a lot of trash in my car if that you've that and I don't really eat fast food in my car. I'll eat my lunch in my car, but there's no trash to that. Um, so I don't really keep a lot of trash in my car, thankfully. Um, but I you know probably need to vacuum it out more than I do, and probably need to wash the outside more than I do. So, and do you do it yourself or do you take it somewhere and let somebody do it? No, I know that's a lot of questions. Alright, gotta go. I usually do it myself. Alright, gotta go. Thanks for listening.